The New Season

            After my initial disclosure to grandma and mom and receiving that warm grandma hug I gained even more confidence to expand my circle. I took mom and grandma downstairs and showed them everything I had stockpiled.  Grandma was impressed.  Mom was a little worried at the cost but grandma just waved her hand at her.

            “You’ve been busy,” grandma said.

            I smiled.  “You have no idea.”  I took a deep breath because I knew the time had come to show someone my shed in the back.  I almost didn’t want to because it had been my private place for so long.  But I knew I needed to do this to truly expand my circle. 

            I led them back up the stairs.  Even though it was technically winter we just needed light jackets outside which we were still getting used to.  They followed me through the backyard.  We walked the little pathway to the back of the garage.  I showed them how to get through my wall of dry weeds I had set up as a barrier and then we stepped into the little clearing with the shed.  Of course, they knew about the shed but it had been a while since either of them were back there.  Mom took note of the hole I had dug for fuel storage and raised her eyebrows. 

“Storage,” is all I said and shrugged my shoulders. 

Grandma’s face broke into a delighted smile and she clapped her hands together when she saw my garden of onions and carrots.  They walked around a little bit inspecting my work.  I had spent so much time working in the area that the whole ground around the shed was clear of weeds and obviously a place often visited.

            They looked at each other as I opened the padlock on the shed door and opened it. I didn’t tell them what was inside but gestured for them to step in.  They slowly did and to say they were surprised is a bit of an understatement.

            Both of their heads darted around looking at the food supply and then the well back to the food supply then back to the well.

            “Is that a…” grandma asked.

            “It’s a well,” I said and I couldn’t help the pride seeping into my voice.

            “A well?” mom asked.  “You mean, with water?”

            I nodded and drew some water out.  I handed them each a paper cup.  “It’s not the best tasting water but it is water.”

            They took the cups and looked at each other hesitant to drink.

            “It’s safe,” I reassured.

            Grandma took a little sip and when nothing happened to her mom followed suit.

            “I mostly use it to water the garden,” I said. 

            We walked back out to the garden and looked at it.  “I’m pretty good at growing onions and carrots,” I said.  “Hopefully you like those.”

            Grandma started walking around.  “You built all this?”

            I shrugged.  “Well, the shed was already here.  I just wanted a place to hide the well so that I wouldn’t get laughed at.” I looked down remembering how I thought they would react.

            “Smart girl,” grandma said looking at me.  I remembered Stuart had said those same words.

            Turns out, enlarging my circle to my family was not only a good idea but a needed one.  No one laughed at me now but all fell into place doing what needed to be done.

            To think, I had spent all that time worrying about how my family was going to react when they found out what I had been working on.  Although, if I had told them any earlier, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have received the reaction I got then.  It really all hinged on grandma being ready to hear it.  Once she was onboard, the rest of the family followed her example.  I had everyone’s support.  Their full support.  Although my brother and cousin weren’t as quick to jump on board they came around after a few private words with grandma. 

            It was decided – mostly by grandma – that we should all move to her house.  I was already there.  My brother moved back I think with the idea of needing to protect all his “women folk.”  Uncle Smitty moved back because he wouldn’t have to pay rent anymore.  The last holdout was my cousin.  We eventually convinced her we were safer in numbers than pure isolation.  It really was fortuitous for us that she moved in because she brought her tech skills and let us remain connected to outside the community and the rest of the world.  She also gave us the idea for installing solar panels.

            From what she told us, the rest of the world wasn’t faring much better than our community.  The whole world seemed to be in commotion with droughts and famines.  Which made people on edge.  Tense and panicked people tend to respond with riots, crime, and utter chaos.  And from what we could find out, that’s exactly what was happening.

            The instinct for survival led us to what we needed to do.  Each of us had strengths that we leaned into. Mom took over organizing our food supply.  She shook her head and probably bit her tongue to keep from saying anything about the expired food.  We moved the good food to the basement and left the outdated food in the shed. 

            We took the sliding doors off my raised garden and loaded the soil into a wheelbarrow.  Under grandma’s direction, we built three more gardens closer to the house where we could keep a better eye on them.  Instead of making them raised, we placed the boxes in holes so that the gardens were ground level.  Then we put the sliding doors back on them the same as before.  This way, we could camouflage and hide them better.  Under grandma’s green thumb they produced much better crops. Our gardens gave us enough to make a variety of delicious salads.  Although I was a little sad to see my little onion and carrot garden dismantled.

            Under my direction but with the help of my brother and cousin we dug three more wells.  All much closer to the house.  There was no shed to cover any of them but we did put ground covers on them to keep them hidden. 

            We also built a fence that was even with the back of the garage essentially cutting off the back area where the shed was.  It was still inside the original outer fence boundary but we built the second fence as part of our fortification.  Turns out, having a paranoid Uncle had some benefits in fortifying the premise.

            My brother was in charge of our transportation.  The hole I had dug to store fuel in was abandoned when we moved everything closer.  Another hole was dug near the fence but in the corner away from the house.  He found a couple of side-by-sides in vacated garages that we claimed.  We used those for local traveling.   We kept a truck in the garage for trips to the city for supplies.

            We worked on our fortifications in secret but everyone else in town did the same thing.  Stuart’s tragic death taught us all to keep our mouths shut but to keep working. And prepare. The grocery store couldn’t keep up with the demand.  The shelves were typically empty the day after a truck made it in to stock it.

            After Stuart’s death, our local town government tried to hang on.  But voting for local officials became a farce.  No decent person was willing to run against the mob mentality which became our law.  Sure, we continued to have so called mayors and councils for a while but they really just had their own agenda which looked nothing like any form of our government. Locally we were controlled by coercion and violence and any person not willing to submit to violence for survival was either chased out or learned how to avoid the mob.  Make no mistake, if anyone came to our property to claim it, we did what was needed to chase them out.  Our group never started the fight but we surely learned how to defend ourselves when needed.

The city hall became the headquarters for the mob during the time of the mobs.  The jail was filled with people that dared to cross the mob and get caught.

With so many leaving town, squatters had their choice of where to settle.  Stuart’s house changed hands by force several times and was ravaged completely before it was left vacant.  Same with the Hudson mansion.  During mob rule, the leader would live there until an untimely end came to his or her reign by some other member of the group. 

At first, the traditional mindset was in play and people looted what was typically valuable from the properties.  Anything that was worth some money was cleaned out pretty quick.  But when the new reality settled in and it became clear fancy things wouldn’t get you anywhere the traditional treasures lost their value.  After that, all the practical stuff was taken.  Supplies for survival became the most valuable treasures. Offer me some gold and I’ll scoff.  Offer me a water pump and now we can do some business. 

You’ll only condemn me if you have never been in this position but my brother and I also ended up scavenging vacated homes including Stuart’s and Rocky’s.  When we went through Stuart’s property I couldn’t believe it was the same place that I had visited once before.  The windows and doors were gone.  The walls were vandalized with offensive graffiti and any furniture that was left was broken in pieces.  Which was handy because that was what we were looking for – wood. I also went to the back yard to see if there was anything left of his two extra wells but they were both dry.  I did find a few pieces to use for ours. After the mob finally moved on and Rocky’s mansion was vacated we found another shower door to use for one of our greenhouses.  But that was about all we could find that was useful in that big house.  Changing hands so many times by people who didn’t really want to work on it the house was nearly totally destroyed.

Thankfully, soon after my cousin moved in with us she had the good sense to tell us about solar panels.  My brother and I scoured several vacated homes before we found some that we could uninstall at the homes and reinstall at grandma’s.  Other good finds included a generator.  Those proved beneficial when our power became unreliable. 

 When the winds started, the mob members moved away from inside of town.  During this season it became apparent that anyone who stayed would need to do a lot of work for survival.  Mob members were never willing to work and they learned that by this time the rest of us were willing to protect our homes at any cost.  This meant we were not easy targets.  So, for the most part, the mob members left town.  Although they would come back from time to time to wreak a little havoc. 

A group of townspeople moved to the lake outside of town.  I guess they figured if they used the water before it entered the pipes they wouldn’t have to share with the other state.  A community created the semblance of an unofficial town along the banks until the lake ran so low it couldn’t accommodate all of them.  Most of them moved on when the winds came.

Part of the mob moved to the highways and became road bandits.  It’s always been a fact that any supplies we had here in town needed to be trucked in or brought in by trains.  The  bandits started hijacking and robbing the trucks and trains coming through so our deliveries stopped.  No company offered deliveries to town including the post office.  To get our supplies, we had to travel to the one of the bigger cities outside our state and pick up our own goods.  Which was always dangerous.  The townspeople caravaned for protection but sometimes my brother and I made our own trip.  When we did, we never traveled on established roads.  One drove while the other kept an eye out for ambushes or other tricks.  What used to only take a day now took a couple of days because we avoided the major highways.  We never traveled the same way home that we traveled there.

This is also when the military had to start protecting the energy company and cell tower maintenance crews.  But that grew tedious so the government took over all energy and communication companies.  When that happened, maintaining the spurs to our little towns took a backseat.  The focus was on keeping the big cities connected and open to communication.  If a small town happened to lie in the path between two cities that town was fortunate to receive uninterrupted service for the most part.  But if, like our town, it happened to lie outside a major route the maintenance was not considered a priority.  More often than not, we were on our own when it came to providing power.  Fortunately for us, by this time we had our solar panels installed and the generator for back up.

            Before the seasons changed that first spring, the population of the town was estimated at 25,000 at the last census.  By winter it was estimated to be closer to 5,000.  At the end of winter, I heard it was close to 1,000.  But who can say for certain?  Things like census takers is a relic from the past.  No one is going door to door now.  Buildings are vacated and after the mob rule most are nearly destroyed including the store I used to work at.

            Another cycle of seasons came and went.  We could only mark them by the calendar though because all we had was wind.  No snow. No rain.  Just wind.  No breezes either.  This was gale force winds that caused us to fasten anything down we kept outside.  It felt like forever ago when I talked to Carpenter in the break room and she told me the earth was going to reset.  During the wind period, that seemed highly unlikely.  Instead, it felt like we were just going to dry out.  The winds were never going to end and this caused another spike in tensions.  Up until this time, the group of people that continued to make this town a home had worked under a spirit of mutual cooperation.  During the wind season, even that broke down. We broke into separate tribes and would only communicate on a need-to basis like when road bandits strolled in looking for trouble.  Then we would band together to chase them out.  But for the most part, we stayed in our own little clans.  We no longer considered ourselves a town.

This was also the time we lost grandma.  She had some ailments brought on by her age that we couldn’t get medication for and she died in her sleep. We buried her in the cemetery next to grandpa.  I often wonder if she is better off and if it wouldn’t be better to just join her.  But my instinct is to keep fighting for survival so here I am.

            I sometimes think of what happened to Carpenter and her folks.  She quit her job at the store shortly after our talk in the breakroom.  Last I heard, her family were among the first to leave town. Where they went and how they fared I will probably never know.  But I hope she is among the survivors. 

            We had adapted to the wind.  We didn’t like it but we were used to it.  There was nothing we could do about it so we just accepted the fact that the wind was part of our daily lives.  Then one day, the wind stopped blowing.  We were inside eating dinner when it happened.  It just became quiet and still. Once we realized it we stepped outside to look around.  No tree branches were moving.  It was eerily quiet which made us nervous.  We had become so accustomed to the wind that we forgot how still it could be when the wind was not blowing. The calmness felt unsettling.

            We went back inside without saying a word.  Although we all probably shared the same thought: what now?! Then the sky grew dark.  So dark that I couldn’t see my brother or cousin sitting next to me at the table.  The power was out which was nothing new.  That happened quite a bit.  After a couple days of darkness, the energy from our solar panels ran out so we turned on the generator.  That also ran out.  It was completely dark.  We tried to light candles but the air was too thick.  We could not light anything.  For three days we basically sat and stumbled around in complete darkness.  In the distance we could hear people wailing and moaning and assumed everyone was in the same plight. 

            There was also a low moaning and rumbling coming from the ground.  Earth itself seemed to be in pain.  At this time, I think I actually started praying for death.  Absolutely no light was to be found.  I had adapted to the wind but I didn’t think I could get used to the thick darkness.

            Then the sun rose again.  It rose like it had never been gone, like it had never missed a sunrise.  We had sat in utter darkness for three days after our generator ran out.  That means it had been dark for one week straight.  Now the sun was in the sky again and we were outside enjoying the sunshine.  The wind hadn’t returned so we thought maybe we were finally returning to normal if there was such a thing as normal still.  But by the end of the day, the sky became cloudy. 

            And then it rained and ushered in the rainy season. 

            First, the rain came hard and fast which caused flooding.  The hard dry ground couldn’t absorb it fast enough.  Luckily, grandma’s house was on a hill so our house didn’t flood.  Even after the hard rain it still drizzled. 

The lake flooded and cleared out those that were still living near it.  Most of the people that were left moved back into the town’s boundaries into vacated homes.

            The rains didn’t stop.  

            We grew used to the rain and adapted yet again.  Because that’s what we do, isn’t it?  History is full of people that had to adapt to survive.  Does anyone know their names? Not most of them.  Would we be here without them?  No.  All those no-named people learned and adapted and changed course and now we’re here.  It’s always been that way and it always will.  If you want to survive you have to learn to adapt.  This is our story of how we made it.  How we made it possible so that anyone reading this will know it is because of us.  It’s because we survived.

            We also needed each other.  I wouldn’t have made it if I had not expanded my circle.  My little shed wouldn’t have provided everything that I needed.  I needed my circle to survive.  We came together and by sharing our strengths made each of us strong enough to survive.

            After several seasons of rain, one day I went back to my shed because it had been a while since I had been there.  I was curious how that first well of mine was doing and if I could still draw water out of it. While there, I saw a small tree growing where my garden used to be.  But not any tree that I was used to seeing in the high mountain desert.  I took a picture of it and we looked it up online. According to Google, that little tree looked a lot like a palm tree.

            The reset had begun and taken us with it. We had survived this journey the earth took us on by adapting and working together.   Now it looks like we will need to adapt again.  Those of us that are left and still here are entering the new seasons. And I have to say, I feel like there is more to come.  Something even bigger is coming but I’m not sure what it is.  Just a feeling. 

Chapter 4: Winter

Start again with Chapter 1: Spring