American Exit Strategy: Book 1 (16 page)

"I saw a documentary on the Holocaust last week." Ron said. "So many of the photos show the Jews being herded into the cattle cars and only two or three armed Nazis with guns. If they had only known what they were in for, they could have easily overpowered the guards."

"The Nazis spent years conditioning the Jews to accept every increasing encroachment upon their liberty. Each step was just a minor inconvenience more than what they had been conditioned to tolerate from the time before. It was the proverbial 'frog in the boiling water' approach." Pastor John replied.

"Sounds familiar." Ron returned.

Pastor John continued, "No one with the mind of a free man will walk willingly into a gas chamber, even if you tell him it is a shower. It’s a long drawn out process of training a group to think like slaves that takes from them the will to fight and the will to live. Once you have taken that, extermination is simple. That is why we must draw our line in the sand. If we are to die anyway, let us die with dignity and honor. Any man that does not respect your God given right to defend yourself, does not respect your God given right to live."

Inspired, Ron said, "If we must die, let us die free."

"You're a true patriot Ron." the Pastor said. He smiled as they walked together.

Pastor John parted ways with Ron and grabbed two of the single men who were on the church grounds crew. They picked up a box truck from the church motor pool. "You guys packing?" the pastor asked.

They both shook their heads "No". 

One of the men, Will Pender said "I have my 1911 in the truck. I just don't carry it when we are working, because we get so dirty."

"OK" Pastor John said. "We'll swing by your truck and grab it. I have a Glock 26 that James can use. We are hauling the widow’s mite today gentlemen." They loaded the truck with several bags of cash and headed out to purchase the bullion in Kalispell, Montana. It was going to be a long day.

"I appreciate you men coming on the journey today." the pastor said. He had already told them they would be gone ‘til the next day. He continued to fill them in on all the details. He was trying to keep everything as hush-hush as possible. Now that they were en route, there would be less temptation to tell their friends what they were doing. "Once we purchase the bullion, we are heading to Coeur d'Alene. It’s about another five hours from Kalispell. One of the folks at Castle Arms used to go to Liberty Chapel. We will be staying at his ranch near Coeur d’Alene."

The men stopped in Missoula, just past the Montana boarder to eat dinner. They ate at The Old Post. James and Will snickered a bit when they got inside. It looked more like a bar than a restaurant. They both took pictures with their phones. No one would believe Pastor John was in a bar without evidence. They all had the BBQ pork chops and coffee before they left. There was still more than 100 miles to Kalispell; this was no time to get sleepy.

They finally made it to the private mint where they picked up boxes filled with silver and gold bullion. Four hours later, they were in Coeur d'Alene. James McIntosh was surprised by the amount of "Don't Tread on Me" flags that flew under the American Flag. It seemed every car and truck bumper had a sticker with a silhouette of a Minuteman or the Roman numeral III. The Roman numeral III represented the patriots who were willing to fight. Only three percent of the population had initially supported the original American Revolution of 1776.

There were several "Appeal to Heaven" flags flying. James remembered these from his history book; they had flown in the American Revolution. The flag had been inspired by John Locke who had spoken about appealing to heaven when earthly powers deny men of their God given rights.

The people that were still out in the street on this briskly cool night were all happy. They did not look like they had a chip on their shoulders. They did not strike him as people who were readying themselves for war. Nonetheless, there was no mistaking; this community had drawn their line in the sand.

CHAPTER 23

“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight
in you, he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

Matt had a fitful night. He woke several times wondering if they would be able to sell the house in a hurry. Each time he woke up, he prayed that God would send them a buyer. He got up early and did his morning routine. He got $3,000 from the safe, tucked his Glock in the back of his pants and headed to Davie to check out the trailer. The man who came out of the house where the trailer was located fit the profile Matt had expected. He wore boots and a straw cowboy hat, Lee jeans and a checkered shirt. People from Davie looked more like Texans than Floridians. It was nice. It was too bad they had not had more influence on the rest of the county which had voted for Al Mohammad by a 2 to 1 ratio in the previous election.

"Howdy" the man said as he walked off the porch towards the trailer. "Are you haulin' horses?" the man inquired.

"No, personal belongings." Matt replied.

"Are you taking Randall's advice?" the man asked.

"Yea, we’re heading to Kentucky to be near family."

"I don't blame you." the man said. "Folks around here are digging in. We mostly all grew up here. If Howe wants the guns from Davie, Florida, he'll have to take them bullets first."

Matt smiled as he looked the trailer over. It had a bit of rust, but it was in good shape. The inside had been kept very clean. He knew he would be in trouble if he brought home something that smelled like horse manure." Can you take $2,500 for it?" Matt asked.

"You can have it for $2000 if you want to pay me in silver or gold, but if you're paying with federal funny money, I have to have $3,000." the man answered.

Matt looked up as he did some quick math in his head and thought about how he could convert the cash back into gold if he went back home to get gold to pay the man. He decided the risk of getting stuck with the paper wasn't worth it so he just paid the man with the cash. The man gave Matt a hand with getting the trailer hitched to his truck.

"Thanks fella, y'all have a safe trip to Kentucky. I got to go spend this while it'll still buy something." the man said with a smile as he walked towards his own truck.

Matt stopped at the Home Depot to buy some more five gallon gas jugs. There were only two left on the shelf. He also found five more plastic jugs for gas, but they only held two gallons each. The last thing he wanted to do was to get stuck halfway between Florida and Kentucky with no gas. Besides, it would be good to have gas stored in Kentucky as back up fuel or a barter item. Gas had jumped from $7.25 the day before Paul’s speech to $8.20 today. People were starting to hoard it as they anticipated the price to spike higher. He stopped at the Race Trac gas station to fill up the truck and the gas cans. He found four more one gallon cans inside the Race Trac. The truck held 26 gallons, he had 15 gallons in the shed, plus the new plastic cans, the total was 65 gallons. He figured he would only get about 13 miles to the gallon with the trailer full. He still needed another 15 gallons to be safe.  He stopped by an Auto Zone on the way home and found exactly three more five gallon cans. Once those were filled, he headed home.

Karen came out as he was backing the trailer into the driveway. She had a look of curiosity on her face. "That’s the trailer?" she asked.

"That's it" Matt replied.

"It’s for horses." Karen stated.

"It will hold furniture too." Matt said. "This was $3000 and everything else was $10,000 or more. U-Haul has nothing and won't have anything for weeks."

"We don't even know if we can sell the house." Karen said.

"We still have to leave, even if we don't sell the house." Matt said. They had a quiet lunch and then Matt asked Karen to go to Publix to get some boxes.

"Are we packing already? Shouldn't we at least wait until we get an offer on the house?" Karen didn't do well with fast changes. She needed time to digest things unlike Matt.

"It would nearly tap us out, but we could still buy the farm with our silver and gold, even if we don't sell the house. I don't want to waste two trips to go look at it and then come back and move everything. I don't know if we have that much time. People are hoarding gas also. It may trigger a gas shortage. It could be weeks or months before it is resolved. If the farm doesn't work out, we will just have to stay with Adam and his family for a while."

"Why didn't you tell me that before?" Karen said.

"We’re kinda doing things on the fly here Karen. I’m making up the plan as I go along." Matt said. He caught his voice raising. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, then went to hug Karen. The stress of the situation was getting to both of them. "Everything is going to be just fine baby, I just need you to support my decisions right now. We have to move fast or things are going to get away from us."

Karen didn't say anything, but she gently stroked Matt's earlobe with her finger as he held her. He knew that meant "OK."

Karen went to get the boxes and Matt started mapping out what would go where in the trailer. He measured out the dimensions and drew it out on a piece of paper. There was a knock at the door and Matt did what he had been doing over the past weeks. He drew his gun and went out the side door to see who it was. It was Jack Mason from next door.

"I guess you guys are heading out?" Jack asked.

"How did you guess?" Matt responded with a snicker.

"Let's see, was it the ‘For Sale’ sign on the lawn or the trailer? Oh, it was both." Jack laughed. "You think it’s going to get that bad, huh?"

"Mad Max bad, brother." Matt said.

"Well, we will head up to our place in North Carolina if it gets too bad." Jack said.

"Is it stocked up?" Matt asked.

"No, I think we will have a chance to stock up if we see things starting to go downhill." Jack said.

"Just like you had a chance last time?" Matt replied in a slightly sarcastic tone.

"You have a point." Jack said.

"Don't wait till your house is on fire to start shopping for fire insurance Jack." Matt said. He had learned long ago that people would avoid looking at reality as long as possible. Normalcy bias causes people to believe nothing bad will happen to them because it hasn't happened to them before.

"I'll let you get back to what you were doing. Give me a call if you need any help packing. We will all miss you here." Jack said.

"We will miss you guys too." Matt replied.

Karen returned and Matt started loading dishes and kitchen items into the boxes she had retrieved from Publix. After that, he started loading all of the dry storage food items from the extended pantry he had built several years back to accommodate the great deals Karen regularly brought home on her couponing hauls. The day was finished and they went to sleep. Matt slept much better since he had burned off much of the nervous energy in the tasks he completed that day.

The next morning, Matt's phone rang. It was the realtor. "Matt, a representative from Blackstone contacted me about the house. He is offering $55,000. I know this is a lot less than you wanted, but he can close in three days. If you want out fast, this is probably your only opportunity. They have been buying foreclosures for several years now. It’s just their business model." she said.

"Doesn't he want to see it?" Matt asked curiously.

"They will send an inspector the day after they get a contract. The buyers aren't even in Florida. They just look at the appraisal and the inspection report. The fund made a ton of cash in the last housing market dip. They plan to do the same thing again. I’m sure you will get the $69,900 if you want to hold out for a few months. I expect things will turn back around just like they did last time." the realtor said.

"Good luck with that." Matt said. "I’m going to talk it over with my wife and call you back in an hour."

Karen wasn't happy about the offer at all. She wasn't happy about listing at $69,900 and she certainly wasn't happy that they would have to sell at $55,000. After a 45 minute presentation from Matt on how  the apocalypse was on their doorstep, she consented to the offer. Matt called the realtor back and she e-mailed the contract to him. Once the paperwork was done, Matt and Karen started loading a few of the furniture pieces they had chosen to keep. Because of the limited size of the trailer, they had to be very selective on what they could take. Miss Mae, the cat, stayed hidden under the bed. She did not like the commotion of moving any more than Karen did.

CHAPTER 24

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

-Thomas Paine

Sonny arrived at the cabin with the supplies Paul Randall had asked him to get. It took Paul's mind a moment to register that it was Sonny. He had never seen Sonny in anything other than a formal suit or dress slacks with a button down shirt. Sonny was wearing a ball cap, jeans and a grey t-shirt. "Who did you borrow those clothes from Sunny?" Paul said with a laugh.