American Exit Strategy: Book 1 (11 page)

Los Angeles and Atlanta were the other two hold outs. Police were still putting up a good fight in those cities, only because the riots would calm in the daylight hours. This gave the police an opportunity to regroup and reorganize for the following night.

CHAPTER 16

"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

-John Adams

Sonny Foster came to Paul Randall's Texas farm house. His BMW looked a bit out of place sitting out front with all the trucks and SUV's. He came in and exchanged pleasantries with Mrs. Randall. She was always kind to Sonny when he stopped by the house. Kimberly Randall typically would insist that he sit down and eat something. Sonny always looked a bit frail. They had a maid that came two times a week, but Kimberly insisted on doing most of her own housekeeping. She loved to cook. On occasion, when they would entertain, she would hire an assistant and servers, but she handled the menu and most of the preparations herself. Kimberly had been the former Miss Texas. She had aged very well and still looked stunning.

"Sonny, are you stealing him away already, he just got home from DC." Kimberly said with a playful smile. She was being nice about it, but she really did have to fight resenting Sonny for the time he spent with her husband. She knew it was not his fault, but who could she blame for all the lonely times since the campaign had started.

"I’m afraid so Mrs. Randall." Sonny replied, "But your country appreciates your sacrifice."

"I hope so." She replied. Normally she would have laughed off such a comment, but she was really starting to feel the pain of being separated from Paul so much in the past months.

Paul Randall walked into the huge kitchen where they were.

"Sir, you are continuing to gain favor in the polls." Sonny told Paul.

Paul was growing weary of polls and the tiresome labor of politicking. He was also feeling guilty for the amount of time he was spending away from home.

"That's good Sonny." Paul replied. "It will all be over soon. By the way, the House passed the 'liberty' bill."

“That’s the bill to use the military to enforce martial law, or something to that effect." Sonny said. "Didn't General Jefferson say he expected that bill to cause chaos if it were to be signed into law?" Sonny asked with concern.

"He did say that." Paul said. "Al Mohammad signed it this morning, but the majority of the riots are dying down."

"So why did he sign it if they don't need it." Kimberly jumped into the conversation.

Paul loved her because she had not been totally corrupted by politics. She still had a certain pure, childlike quality to her.

Paul explained, "Once they get a new dose of power, they don't give it up. Even if it’s not advantageous to use it now, they can keep it in their back pocket and use it at a more opportune time."

"What about the gun sales moratorium?" Sonny asked.

Paul replied "Even the neo-cons know what side their bread is buttered on. The House Republicans did shoot that down. Of course, if it had not been for the pressure of the NRA, Juan Marcos would have talked them into passing that as well. Let’s hear what you have to tell me about those polls."

"You are now only trailing Howe by three points. That is a huge increase. You were 17 points behind before the riots." Sonny said.

"What about Juan Marcos? Did he get a 'riot bump'?" Paul asked.

"Yes, but not as much as you. He is still five points behind you. He was three points behind you before the riots." Sonny explained.

"So it’s still any man’s race." Paul said as he looked out at the cattle in the field.

"Yes sir, it is any man’s race. Sonny replied.

CHAPTER 17

"Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread."

-Thomas Jefferson

Karen found the best way to occupy herself while she was home from work was to get into the garden. She began to meticulously weed the garden and even the shrubs in the front yard. She soon ran out of weeds and began starting some new seedlings of tomatoes and bell peppers. They both took a while to get started and would likely be able to take over when the current plants petered out. She also started another several rows of green beans and mixed salad greens. These grew so well at this time of the year in Florida.

Even though things had settled down, the schools had not yet reopened. Most of the schools had severe damage ranging from broken windows and stolen computers to burned out classrooms and missing air conditioning compressors.

Matt was glad the schools were closed. This meant he did not have to have a heated conversation about Karen not going in. She would always go along with his recommendation on weightier subjects like this, but not without a serious discussion.

Many of the grocery stores that had been looted were still closed as well. The National Guard was bringing in some MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), but they were far less than what was needed and the lines were horrendous.

Matt and Karen were very well set for food. The fridge was still packed. The only thing they ran out of was milk, but they had some condensed milk and powdered milk which was just fine for cereal.

Fortunately, no one lost power throughout the riots except for Detroit. The fires had taken out several electrical reducing facilities and large swathes of the grid had to be shut down to keep the lines from being charged where the poles had actually burned down and left exposed power lines laying in the molten insulation.

The nightly gunfire and sirens died down gradually over the next few nights, so the neighborhood watches cut their hours from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am. This allowed the block watch guys to run with one shift per night, and to alternate nights off.

Matt was making a large pot of rice and a large pot of beans. He knew everyone on the block was not as well set as Karen and he was, so he was going to take some around to those who were getting a little tight on food.

Karen came in from the garden with a nice size bowl of peppers, tomatoes and lettuce. "This will make a nice salad." she said. "Are you making those pans up for the neighbors?" she asked.

"Yes." Matt replied. "Blaine went over to St. Marks and stood in line for five hours this morning to get four MRE's from the National Guard. He must be getting pretty low on food to do that."

"I thought Blaine said they were pretty well set on food." Karen said, a bit surprised.

"They eat out all the time, under normal circumstances. They have no idea how long a can of SpaghettiOs will last them. In their mind, two plastic bags of groceries from Publix will last a month. In reality, it will last about two or three days for two people, depending on what’s in there.

Let's play a guessing game." Matt said.

"OK." Karen said.

"You know the five gallon bucket filled with bags of dried beans and rice that I just opened? How long would that last you and me if that was all we had to eat?" Matt quizzed.

"Can I look in the bucket?" Karen wanted to get as much information as possible to make her guess. She loved guessing games. It was a bit of a sport to her.

"OK." Matt agreed.

"We have four bags of black beans, three bags of red beans, two bags of chickpeas and two bags of black eyed peas." She counted out the contents as she rifled through the bucket. "And we have one 20 pound bag of white rice. I guess all of that would last the two of us about two to three weeks." she guessed.

"Ten days" Matt replied, "but that was pretty close. You could stretch it to two weeks if we really reduced our calorie intake. The point is, it looks like a lot more than it is. Most people eyeball their food stockpile. I used relatively loose estimations, but I actually calculated the amount of calories that we needed to come up with how long we could last on what we had stored."

"So what are you making for the neighbors?" Karen inquired.

"I'm going to open a couple cans of that chicken we bought and mix it in with the rice and black beans. I put a bit of blackened seasoning in it. It’s not gourmet, but it will be better than an MRE. I’m also going to take the opportunity to talk about storing food. I don't want to just 'give a man a fish', I would like to give them some pointers on getting more prepared when things get back to normal." Matt said.

"So you do think things will get back to normal?" Karen asked.

"Well, 'normal' may a bit of a stretch. It doesn't look like these food riots are going to trigger the end of the civilized world. I think we will have grocery stores back up and running. I think I'll be able to start selling used furniture on Craigslist again. I couldn't say if we will be able to go back to our regular jobs. The schools weren't safe before the riots and the stock market is probably not coming back, at least for a while. Wall Street opened for the first time since the riots this morning for two hours. The Dow actually opened up 50 points. A hour and a half later, it plunged 890 points. The SEC closed the markets to stop the free fall. ZeroHedge.com says they don't expect them to reopen the markets till after the election.

I expect that this was the first crack in the veneer, and I would guess that the veneer is pretty thin. I don't know how long it will be, but we’ll probably see more events similar to this one and I think they will grow in intensity."

Matt and Karen sat down to eat their salad and a small plate of the 'blackened' canned chicken with some of the beans and rice he had prepared. After they finished, Matt grabbed one of the aluminum pans containing the chicken dinner and headed over to Jack and Tina's. He didn't spend much time there as he had several more stops to make. He was able to make a dish to take to all of the folks involved in the block watch. Everyone was very appreciative of the food and they all vowed to get on a food storage plan as recommended by Matt when the stores reopened.

CHAPTER 18

"The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all."

Ecclesiastes 9:11

Election Day

It had been one week since the riots and things were much quieter than they had been around Matt and Karen Bair's neighborhood. The block watch had been terminated Sunday night. Sirens and gunshots had faded to normal levels and people were starting to get back into the routine of things.

About half of the grocery stores in their immediate area had reopened. The shelves were very sparsely stocked. The stores had most food items, but the selection of different sizes and brands were much less. The store shelves did not look like an American grocery store. Several of the top shelves were completely bare as well as the lowest shelves. Grocers stocked all the goods at the center shelves to give the appearance of a full store. Many items were stocked only two or three deep to fill up empty space. The meat coolers held very low stocks. When a truck would make a delivery of meat, it would sell out fast. The cheaper cuts of meat went first and the more expensive cuts lingered less than four or five hours from the time it arrived in the store.  Chicken also was a prized commodity and did not stay stocked long. Cheese and milk lasted a bit longer than the meats, but they were always out of stock by the end of the evening as well.

Then there were the lines. The stores were short staffed. Many people had not yet returned to work after the riots. A "Now Hiring" sign was in the front window. Matt had grabbed an application while Karen waited in the line. They did not have to be at the store, but they did want to pick up some fresh milk, eggs and cheese. They had gone early in the morning and had not had a problem obtaining the things on their list.

"You're not going to work at Publix are you?" Karen asked.

"I think I should probably take what I can find. I can probably get deals on things they’re going to throw out like day old bread. It will also give me an opportunity to watch for signs of shortages. We don't need the money now, but if things don't return to normal, our savings will get depleted fast. If I’m right, things are really going to get bad and we will be thankful for every dime we have." Matt answered.

They took their groceries home and headed for the polls. They each cast their ballot for Paul Randall. Now, there was nothing left to do but wait. They had been trying to explain the need for Randall's plan to the neighbors and had actually gotten Jack and Tina to vote for Randall as well. Blaine voted for Anthony Howe. He was a dyed-in- the-wool liberal. Even though he believed in having guns, he towed the party line on all other subjects.

Matt and Karen invited Jack and Tina to come over to watch the poll results come in, but they declined. They voted, but they still weren't that into politics. It would have been torture for Jack and Tina to watch the election coverage.