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TEOTWAWKI: The Long Walk Home, ch. 1 “Election Day”

Posted on July 21, 2009. Filed under: Fiction, The Christian Survivalist |

The lights went out at precisely 1205 hrs,  Tuesday, November 6th, 2012; Election Day. I was at work and the employees were going and coming to and from lunch as usual. It had been a fairly busy day with a lot of the contractors coming in for the various maintenance projects at the Data Center- it was another full employment kind of a day. The weather had turned cold even earlier than it had the past 3 years as the global warming myth had been busted and now the cry from the loony left was, “The Ice Age is Coming!”. For Dallas/Ft. Worth to have already had its first snow in late October, and its first ice storm of the year in the first week of November was definitely strange, but today was crystal clear and cool with the high to be in the low 40’s. Temps were expected to begin dropping and more snow was in the forecast, but it was a  great day to go to the polls and vote.

Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin had a double digit lead over Pres. Obama and Hillary Clinton. The Second Great Depression that the country had been in for the past 4 years had pretty much sealed the fate of the Demoncrat ticket. With the collapse of the Dollar a few months ago and the rampant inflation that followed, Amerika was facing hard times.The banks had been closed off and on for a couple of months and then finally nationalized along with many other industries like the auto makers, health care, coal and oil.

The string of terror attacks in several Amerikan cities also persuaded the Amerikan public that it was time to give the Republicrats another chance at running the country. From lone muslim gunmen shooting up shopping malls, schools,  and even small town churches, to the Plague attack that killed over 100,000 people across the country and sickened over 2 million more, terror had come home to Amerika and the Obama administration seemed powerless to stop it. It was particularly ironic that a couple of the Gitmo terrorists released early in his presidency had been re-arrested after shooting up a grade school in Chicago, killing over 100 children.

The last straw was the series of ongoing foreign disasters that included Pakistan falling to the Taliban, an American retreat from Afghanistan, Iraq descending into civil war and chaos after the American Troop withdrawals, Iran successfully testing and deploying nuclear weapons and North Korea finally launching a satellite and proving they had a real, nuclear armed ICBM with the range to hit any American city. The second Russian war with Georgia resulting in the occupation of Georgia in 2011 added insult to injury, but the Russian war with the Ukraine that started this past year was an even bigger problem.

The military cutbacks by the Obama administration, even while growing the federal bureaucracy and budget, had led to a much smaller Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. The Army had not shrunk but just did not have the money to acquire the new weapon systems they needed nor to conduct the training necessary for readiness. The missile defense program had been scaled way back and seemed destined for the scrap heap even though more rogue nations had ICBMs now than when Obama came into power. NASA was dependent upon the Russians to get our astronauts to the International Space Station since the Space Shuttles had all been retired in 2011 and the replacement was on hold. But we had not been cooperating with the Russians since  the takeover of Georgia; therefore, the American Space program was in a virtual standstill. Meanwhile, the Chinese landed on the moon last month- yet another blow to the Obama regime.

With the severe winter weather that had been arriving earlier and earlier in the year, and lingering longer and longer through the spring, the price of food had skyrocketed. Wheat farmers in Canada and the Great Plains were going bankrupt as were the orchards in Florida and most of the South. Soup kitchens were open year round in almost every American town and city. The ice storm of the previous week had left thousands without power in DFW, but the power had been finally restored just yesterday. The data center had been running on generator power for 4 days but now was back online.

The mood of the country was dark and getting darker; pessimism abounded. Obama’s approval ratings were below those of his predecessor, George W. Bush. There was a general feeling that America was going to hell on a freight train…and they were right. The Press, however, was still cheerleading for Obama non-stop.

The North Koreans had announced that they were going to launch another “satellite” this week; they had a habit of launching missiles on our national holidays or during important political trips for the President. Everyone thought it would be launched the day before the election just to insult Obama one more time. Even though the North Koreans had launched their test ICBMs in the past so that they would fall close to Hawaii, Alaska, and even between Hawaii and California, the Obama administration had never shot down one of the missiles for fear of starting a war. Instead, Obama continually urged the UN to issue sanction after sanction against North Korea and the six-party talks had resumed and then been terminated this past summer. All of this had not deterred Korea in the least. They had a real spy satellite in orbit now and had tested four real nuclear devices.

While the eyes of the world were focused on North Korea, the Iranians had also successfully launched their first satellite and tested their first couple of nuclear warheads. Obama had successfully interfered with Israel’s attempt to attack Iran three years ago and had forced their planes to turn back after several Israeli and American fighters were shot down. War was narrowly averted, but at what cost? Israel was now totally isolated by the world and had  broken diplomatic relations with the US over the incident.

Venezuela was now openly allied with Russia and had received a lot of military aid from Putin, the North Koreans and Iran. Venezuela had missiles with enough range to reach the southern United States and there were some Russian bombers permanently stationed there. They had purchased some modern warships and submarines and now had the largest navy in the Caribbean. Rumors were flying that the Russians had equipped Cuba with some short range missiles that could reach most of the South. Honduras had gone communist after the Obama administration had aided the deposed President Manuel Zelaya in his bid to return to power and overthrow the democratically elected legislature.

So much for the world and national scene. We lived in dark days with darker clouds on the horizon and the people who noticed and cared were crying the alarm as loud as they could, but the media and the people as a whole did not, could not, and would not listen. Three, maybe four  generations of Amerikans had been taught by the public schools to not think, to not use evidence, reason, logic and history but to trust their feelings. We had become soft and hedonistic, preferring to watch TV and play computer games. We allowed politicians to become despots, ruling instead of governing. We got the leaders we deserved. The Constitution had become meaningless as our liberties were slowly exchanged for security. But the security was a chimera, it was raw naivety and blind faith with false hopes. Spiritually, Amerika was a cesspool. We had long ago abandoned the God of our fathers and now it seemed He had abandoned us to our sin, heresy and idolatry.

The company I worked for for the past several years was a typical, nation-wide security company. They were better than some companies but the general trend in security was to have low pay, low standards, no discipline and high turnover. Despite the increase in terrorism in the country, the demand for highly professional, armed security was still low. The ongoing Depression limited funds for most people and companies so security was still considered a luxury. Many professional security officers had died in the line of duty in the past three years as terrorism increased.

I was contracted to a nationwide company and worked at a Data Center with 7 other officers. As the site-supervisor I had some limited impact on hiring and firing. All in all, for what the post paid, I had a pretty good crew. The client was a good client that was fairly laid back  yet serious about the key issues.

Data centers are weird places. It was a huge building holding thousands upon thousands of computer servers. This was one of those places that made the worldwideweb happen. The biggest problem with data centers was electrical power- no power and the web goes down. Of course we had generator back up power but you can’t do that forever. With all that electricity running through the building there had to be massive amounts of air-conditioning to keep it cool; and, with megawatts going through it, the building had a danger of fire. For security however, the biggest problems were access control and crime prevention.

The odd thing about this particular data center was that it was on the flight path for jets making their final approach, wheels down, into DFW Airport. Literally dozens of planes flew directly over our building everyday at about 1400 feet. I was sure that someday, some jet was going to have a serious problem and we would catch it right in the lobby. The jets were so low that as they passed overhead, about a minute later, the whirling air from the engines would whip through our trees and parking lot making an eery turbine sound.Thankfully, the building was in a business park somewhat off the beaten path, close to a couple of highways, but far enough off on a side road to be hard to find on purpose let alone by accident, so crime was fairly low.

The biggest problem for me about the location of the data center was that it was about 27-32 miles from my house, depending on the route I took. Although I made good use of the 35 minutes it took for the drive in the morning and the 45-50 minutes in the afternoon by listening to CDs from the Teaching Company or listening to WBAP talk radio (I would always catch Sean Hannity on the way home), the Bible on CD or some music (classical, jazz, oldies) it was still a long trip. With the price of gas going up due to the lack of a realistic energy policy by any president in the past 45 years (what was the purpose of the Dept. of Energy again…?) the cost to make the 60 mile round trip 5 days a week was putting a serious crunch in my budget. The mileage tax levied by the Demoncrats in Congress was also hurting me. Beyond the cost, I began to worry  about what would happen if somebody started launching nukes and I got stranded at work, 27 miles from home, due to the EMP effects of nukes. But then again, if we went into a general nuclear war I might not want to head home as I lived less than 1 mile from the Naval Air Station, Fort Worth, Joint Reserve Base.  With the Lockheed plant and Navy base, Fort Worth could be a target; I doubt it, but it was possible.

Several years ago my brother got stranded in a traffic jam on a highway out of Houston trying to evacuate for Hurricane Rita. 21 hours on the road and he made 17 miles before turning around and going back home to ride out the storm. That affected me. I had long been on the borders of the survivalist crowd, but had not taken the measures to seriously prepare other than with guns and ammo. You can’t eat guns and ammo. My brother’s harrowing experience convinced me to take action. So, a couple of years later, I decided to start carrying a good sized survival kit with me in the car since I worked so far from home. When Texas made it legal to carry a firearm in your car, I began to carry a pistol. Finally, during election week of 2008, I up-gunned in my car, beginning to carry a rifle besides my pistol. I thought initially that if McCain won the election there would be rioting in the streets, but after Obama won, I continued to carry the rifle because I thought any day now the evidence would come out that Obama was really not a US citizen and that he would be summarily kicked out of office by the Supreme Court. That would likely cause a few minor civil disturbances here or there. Nobody had the courage to press the birth certificate issue, however. I kept carrying the long gun though, and when I read William Fortschen’s “One Second After” I swore I would get even more ready and be more prepared.

My plan for the day included leaving work at 2pm and getting to the local polling place at city hall in my suburb, voting, then taking a nap around 4pm. It was going to be a late night of watching Fox News as the election results came in from around the country.

All of my plans, the election, the WORLD changed at 1205 pm.

mark12ministries.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/teotwawki-the-long-walk-home-ch-2-the-sky-is-falling/

Equality 7-2521

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