The first task would be to take stock of all the animals and make sure they were fed and that their pens and any equipment associated with them was in good shape. “I’ll get Mark and Jacob to take care of that, and Josie can stay with me here in the house.” Dianne muttered to herself as she jotted down notes on a three by five card.
“Once we get a list of things that need fixing and take stock of everything here we’ll go check on the neighbors. I hope Tina and Sarah’s families are okay.” The two closest neighbors to the Waters were a pair of older families that Rick and Dianne had met shortly after moving in. With as much emphasis as Dianne kept on the kids pursuing their education and Rick’s work at his company they hadn’t had time to make too many friends elsewhere except for the children and parents that Dianne, Mark, Jacob and Josie saw each week at the after-school programs.
“I sure hope they weren’t traveling.” Dianne shook her head, remembering how Tina and her husband liked to spontaneously go on trips cross-country. “Sarah and Jason should be hom
e, though. We’ll check on them first and see if they need anything.” Sarah and Jason Statler were in their sixties and Dianne had helped them take care of their house and property two years prior when Jason nearly died from a heart attack.
“Once we check on them we need to get back here and start working on getting the solar panels switched on. Hm.” Dianne tapped at her teeth with the pen and tried to remember how far Rick had gotten into the project. Both she and Rick had taken an online course in basic and intermediate electronic maintenance targeted towards owners of complex solar panel setups, but it had been a while since she read anything on the subject. “Gotta find my notes. It should come back to me. I hope.”
Once the solar panels were hooked up they would need to ensure that only the more critical appliances were running off of the power since there was a somewhat limited battery supply in the basement.
Rick’s work at his company afforded him the luxury to test some of their prototype products including advanced batteries designed for in-home usage for long-term storage of power generated from solar or other power sources. The “whole house” batteries wouldn’t be able to power the entire house, but as long as she was able to get enough solar panels hooked up and working, she figured they could easily run the refrigerator, deep freezer and a few other devices like a window air conditioner, a few lights and even a space heater if required.
“Won’t need the A/C for a while.” Dianne crossed the item off her list and wrote in a note about splitting firewood in below it. The winter was forecast to be mild but she wasn’t about to take chances when it came to the preparation.
Rick had purchased a bulk load of feed for the animals a month prior that would easily last for two years and Dianne felt confident that they were set in that department. As far as food for her and the children she knew from the prior day’s quick stocktaking that they would be fine for around six months—maybe eight if she stretched it—which was good, but not good enough considering that they were at the end of the growing season.
A small cornfield, a patch of green beans, plenty of squash and other assorted odds and ends would add another month or two to the stockpile, but Dianne got the feeling that she needed to be thinking long term when it came to planning. With it already being mid-September, she didn’t expect that they could grow anything else in the fields, but she started thinking about a project she and Rick had talked about a few years back.
Rick had always been a proponent of hydroponic gardening ever since he set up his first in their basement using a rubber tote container, an air pump, some grow lights and a few plastic nets and artificial dirt. The idea behind hydroponic gardening is that plants don’t need soil to grow—they only need light, food and water. By allowing their roots to grow in water that’s infused with nutrients and giving them plenty of light it’s possible to grow a lot of plants in a very small amount of space pretty much anywhere.
Dianne remembered Rick talking about commercial vegetable growing operations in places like warehouses in Manhattan and how he wanted to try and replicate something similar in their house or out in the barns so that they could give the soil a year or two off. He had purchased all of the necessary equipment and supplies but had never pursued it beyond that due to a lack of time.
“If he’s still got all the nutrients and everything out there I bet we can run the lights off the solar panels during the day and get a sizeable grow setup going in the basement.” Dianne furiously wrote down as much as she could remember about what Rick had described and set the idea aside for later perusal.
By the time she got done planning a few more things to do for the day, the three children came stumbling down the stairs and into the kitchen. Mark, the oldest, was still half-asleep though Josie was bouncing off of the walls while Jacob tried not to be annoyed by how much energy she had. “Mom, when is she going to stop waking up so early?”
“NEVER!” Josie yelled at Jacob as she raced around the table and collided into Dianne who was wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
“Sorry, Jacob. She’s got a couple more years before she turns into the sleepy-headed monsters that are you and your brother.”
“Ugh.” Jacob’s response was echoed by Mark though they soon perked up once they started eating. Halfway through their meal Dianne laid out the day’s plans for them, adding on a few extra reminders at the end.
“Kids, I don’t want you to worry or panic about what’s going on. We’re going to be just fine and your dad’s going to be fine too, okay? I want you to remember, though, that there will be a lot of people who are really scared right now. They’re scared, they don’t know what to do and when they’re like that they can do things that aren’t so nice. We need to be extra careful and stick close to each other and watch out for each other. That means if we go out, we stick together and you guys do exactly what I tell you. And if we’re at home and you see anyone around the house I want you to come running to find me even if you know the person, okay? Mark, I’ll have more to talk about with you later, but for now you and Jacob need to get going and take care of your first assignments.”
The two boys nodded and ran out the back door of the house down towards the animals, already fighting over which assignments they were going to take for themselves. Josie was still munching on her food when Dianne raised her eyebrows and spoke to her. “As for you, I want you sticking to my side like glue. Got it?”
Josie nodded and grinned. “Like glue on your butt, mom!”
Dianne rolled her eyes and snorted. “Gee, I wonder who taught you that one. Come on, kiddo; let’s get the dishes done and then get the truck ready to go.”
As Josie got changed and ready to go, Dianne went upstairs and unlocked the gun vault in the master bedroom and pulled out a pair of rifles and several magazines of ammunition. She looked at the smaller of the two rifles hesitantly, not wanting to do what she was planning, but knowing that given the circumstances she would need to, despite the dangers involved.
Chapter 3
Las Vegas, NV
Rick Waters had never been to Las Vegas before, but he had read a few articles about it over the years that detailed the changes it had undergone. As the economy in the city shifted and the casinos began to see less and less business the famous strip had shrunk down to less than half of its size. The casinos and other companies that went out of business were demolished and turned into public parks as the city government tried to attract different types of tourists than those just looking to gamble their money away.
The lush green parks around the strip did their job though the increase in tourists never reached the levels it had been when the casinos were at their peak. The result was that, within ten years, the strip and the nearby University of Nevada were the only two places in the city that had any cash flowing to them. Most of the rest of the city devolved into low income areas dominated by gang activity and drug manufacturing, the latter of which helped to partially fuel the influx of tourists due to the state’s lax new drug enforcement laws.
The end result of the changes was that the city became more like something out of a movie about a dystopian wasteland than an actual American city. Driving through the city—unless you were coming directly from the airport or going directly back—was heavily discouraged and would easily result in an armed holdup or worse.
As the train of six school buses passed through the city, Rick’s nose was glued to the window as he watched the scenery pass by outside. If he hadn’t known a bit about the city he would have thought that he had gone to sleep and awakened a month later due to how bad the place looked. It’s like the end of the world’s already come for these people. Holy hell, how do they live like this? It looks like a favela in South America or something.
A pair of Humvees drove ahead of the buses and a single Humvee brought up the rear. All three had fifty caliber machine guns mounted on top and gunners swiveled the weapons in all directions, looking for any potential incoming threats. The rear Humvee was directly behind the bus that Rick was in and every time the guns pointed in his direction he flinched, wondering if they would misfire and send a hailstorm of lead through the back of the bus.
With only a handful of people in the bus, Rick left his two bags near the back and walked up to the front. He clung to one of the railings near the front of the bus and spoke to the driver who was a young man dressed in a military uniform.