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Author
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Topic: Lance's great adventure
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted May 27, 2015 02:14 PM
I posted news of a new venture over on Facebook last night and thought I would share with you guys as well. Many of you have followed my writing "career" over the past decade-plus and I'm taking things to the next level by tackling the proverbial beast. I'm writing a book.
I've spent the last year-year and a half researching and developing a story line for a dystopian thriller, otherwise known as when the shit hits the fan. Most books on the market generally have a main character/ protagonist with extensive experience in the military. I don't have that skill set. Instead, I've spent a lifetime hunting, trapping, and living outdoors and have wondered just how much what I know could be applied to a survival situation. So, I decided to find out.
I'm fourteen chapters in at this point and have received a personal offer of assistance from one of the leaders in the genre, Angery American, author of the Survivalist series, for when it's time to put it on Kindle or get it in print. Although this is a completely different form of writing than that for which I am known, I am really enjoying the process. Some days, I'm eager to get to my lap top to get the next twist or turn into print. I'm releasing the first chapter to my friends and followers so that you guys will keep me on task and help me hold my feet to the fire. My working title at this point is "New Normal", and chapter one introduces the first of two main characters, Dan Edmond.
Hope you enjoy.
NEW NORMAL, CH. 1
He looked old. Felt old, too. Much older than his thirty-seven years should have been. Looking in the mirror, the face peering back at him was that of a tortured survivor. Someone who had, for lack of a better term, been there, done that. More times than he cared to recall.
The dark patches beneath his sunken eyes, gaunt cheek bones, and flecks of dead, dried flesh precariously clinging between bloody cracks in the skin of his wind-battered lips made him appear several decades his senior, and he wondered to himself if he would ever live to see those years yet to come. In truth, he wondered if he even wanted to.
When it happened, his was a different world. Some called it “the Collapse”. Others, “the Event”. A few even called it “the Attack”, but neither God or any of his neighbors knows who’d attacked whom. He just called it “the End” because, for him, that’s exactly what it was. The end of a life that he’d spent every waking moment building and nurturing to suit who he was and what he wanted and needed in his life. He never imagined that it could all be turned upside down in the literal blink of an eye, and that if it ever did, he would certainly see it coming in time to get out of its way. But, he didn’t.
He certainly did not.
And, from where he stood, somewhere between NoWhere, Kansas, and the edge of the earth, the world had died with more of a whimper than a roar.
Not a day went by that he wasn’t reminded of his old life - a life that revolved around the things that should be important to a man. A wife, two kids, a nice home in the country, and of course, the requisite dog, or three.
When “it” happened, and all that he’d held dear was taken from him in the weeks to follow, he had come to hate God. Religion had always been a part of his life. Sunday school as a child under orders of mom, and the occasional appearance on Christmas and Easter, but not as often as they could have in the final years before “it”. He’d been too busy living to worry about being dead.
He saw church and religion as the means by which his parents were equipping him with the necessary tools for dealing with mortality, starting with theirs. But, they were gone long before the world went to hell. Both had died before Dan had turned thirty, just about the time he’d met Em, short for Emily, who would eventually become his bride. Within the first year, their daughter had come along. They’d named her Rebecca Marie, Becky for short, after Em’s maternal grandmother.
Without so much as a break to catch their breaths, the love they shared for one another continued to grow stronger with each and every day, eventually manifesting itself again in the form of a bouncing baby boy, appropriately named Daniel Jacob Edmond, Jr.. Life for their growing family was good, until the day that the doctors told them that young Daniel – or DJ, as he’d been nicknamed from the start - had inherited diabetes from his mother and that, like she, he would be tethered to insulin shots and finger sticks for the rest of his life.
For most parents, such news was a disaster. To Em, and to Dan, diabetes was a fact of life with which they were already intimately familiar. Everything they would be required to do for DJ was already being done for her. To them, managing her, and now their diabetes was a matter of routine and lifestyle, and not at all new to them. Without forethought as to what lie on their horizon, they naively never gave it another worry.
And, then “it” happened.
Afterwards, as far as Dan was concerned, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and God could both go straight to hell. There were only two stages of grief in Dan Edmond’s life. Denial and anger, and he’d been stuck on anger from the start. During that time, he’d allowed the anger to dig deeper and deeper into his soul where it festered and boiled until it had poisoned every facet of his life, all the while forming an impenetrable cocoon around itself through which Dan never intended another living soul to pass.
At first, when he still maintained some hope that things would go back to normal, he was focused on just keeping the ones he loved fed, sheltered, and healthy. He was a country boy and lived a country life. His ancestors had farmed these same fields and faced times just as hard as the ones before him now. If they could do it then, he could do it now, or so he believed. But, it didn’t take long for his confidence to be eroded by the fear and realization that his grandparents – simple people who had no knowledge of computers, GPS systems, herbicides and all of the advanced farming methods that had become part of his everyday life – did, in fact, live in a different world where they had grown up, learning survival skills that, by now, had been lost to the vagaries of time. After a few short weeks, finding food became increasingly difficult. Plummeting temperatures redefined what was meant by “shelter”. And, being healthy fell to the wayside, replaced by struggling to merely survive.
At least, that was the case for other people - the kind of people who went through their day to day lives completely unaware of how tenuous our good fortune was. They were the kind of people who didn’t know where their flashlight was, let alone if it worked. Food came from the grocery store, and root cellars had become all but unheard of.
Why store food when it could be purchased so easily? Convenience was the hallmark of the American lifestyle, and nothing would ever change that, until it did. And, for those who planned ahead – the kind of people who actually listened to the news, did their own research, and read the stitches on the fast ball - what eventually happened came as no surprise. Dan is, or was, one of those people. But, even he could only plan for so much, and it was the things he couldn’t stop that caught up to him in what would be the beginning of the end.
Looking in the mirror, he ran his calloused hands over the greying stubble of a poorly maintained beard that hadn’t seen a razor in weeks. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t have the means of tailoring his appearance. What mattered was that he just didn’t care. It isn’t like there was anyone around for him to impress, nor did he want anyone around. More mouths to feed, more energy wasted concerning himself with their safety (or the threat they posed to him), and more time spent worrying about someone else when worrying and hoping had only brought him guilt and deep pain.
There were days when Dan’s life was okay, or as okay as could be hoped for. He wasn’t always in such a dark place. But, the good times simply didn’t last. Something, somewhere would remind him of the pain he’d worn like a heavy, wet wool overcoat ever since losing his family and the life he’d known, and like a stream of dark, black oil being poured slowly over his head, a foreboding sense of darkness would wash over him, stealing away any semblance of joy and peace he’d found. Like a light switch being flicked, his eyes would suddenly grow sullen and the frown lines etched deeply into his face by tough times and overwhelming grief would ease closer to the surface until they all but consumed his visage.
This was Dan Edmond’s new normal.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted May 27, 2015 03:51 PM
You going to serialize this?
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted May 27, 2015 05:57 PM
Depends upon how things go. This genre lends itself to that quite well, but I'd just have to see. I will say that I have an end point for this book that would indicate something to follow.
Frankly, I have no long term plan or idea where it will go. I just like to go a different direction once in a while and see if I can accomplish something new. Been reading the hell out of these stories this past year and basically saw a concept that just doesn't get much attention, so I thought, "What the hell. I can do that." I guess we'll see.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Kelly Jackson
SECOND PLACE/GARTH BROOKS LOOK-A-LIKE CONTEST
Member # 977
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posted May 28, 2015 12:38 PM
Make him go cannibal before the end Lance.
Posts: 997 | From: Comanche OK | Registered: Oct 2006
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Rifleshooter
Knows what it's all about
Member # 3983
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posted May 28, 2015 02:25 PM
When the SHTF I'm going to get even.
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The pen is mighter than the sword, but is no match for a Colt.
Posts: 29 | From: CA-AZ-MT | Registered: Nov 2011
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted May 28, 2015 03:58 PM
Both ideas are truly unique. LOL
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted May 29, 2015 05:34 AM
quote:
Make him go cannibal before the end Lance.
& When the SHTF I'm going to get even.
Like I always said; I will get my limit, one way or the other.
I started a book, once. The manuscript was left in the glove box of a car I sold to Ernest Hemingway. What a dick!
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted May 29, 2015 08:46 AM
Good one, LB. LOL
In all seriousness, and connecting two threads here, the purpose of this project for me is to create an enjoyable read that informs and educates, and most important, makes the reader think about what is possible, what is probable, and what they should be doing now in anticipation.
In Oklahoma and Texas now, people are living under disaster conditions. In any disaster, it is very dangerous to think that safe water exists, and we cannot live without water beyond about three days. How many people down there have a water filtration system in place to filter out coliforms, other bacteria and viruses from the water they're drinking? Imagine being without power, or having your property inundated with flood waters. Then, imagine that those same waters have overwhelmed and flooded local sewer systems so everything you flush is now going straight into the water in which you are standing, and that you are considering drinking, washing and cooking with. Now, that one simple factor - water - has compromised your ability to hydrate as we all your ability to maintain hygiene and a proper diet. If the bacteria and viruses in the water aren't enough to get you today, they soon will be once your body begins to succumb to the stresses of not being able to eat enough, or good food or the fact that your physical body is being assaulted, inside and out, by a stew of dangerous pathogens.
Everything is flooded. Everything is saturated. Do you have the means to heat water? Cook food? How long will those 20# BBQ cylinders last? What do you do when they run out?
No heat or electricity? No pumps to remove water? Roads closed blocking any means of accessing a gas station to keep fuel in your vehicle?
More important,... roads flooded and trucks cannot get into your community to resupply grocers and pharmacies. Under "Just In Time" inventory management systems, your town only has enough of ANYTHING to last 3 days, at best.
Now, if you are a prepper - and I don't mean the guys that run around in combat fatigues with AR15's preaching about how the world is going to end and how we're all going to be sent back to the 1800's - you've read those stitches on the fast ball. You know that it's possible, if not probable, that the day may come when your area is hit by a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake, flood, or whatever, and that you may be forced to rely upon yourself and only yourself to survive until the system is put back on line.
For me, it was an ice storm. 2007. The entire state of Kansas and parts of surrounding states were covered with 3/4-inch of ice that brought down all the power lines and left many of us without heat and electricity. On day two, I left the wife and kids at home to go buy a generator. Six stops later, when we finally caught up to a shipment of new units at a Home Depot, we were almost in Missouri. On that day, prior to leaving on "the hunt", I took the wife and kids out to a shelter for coffee and hot chocolate that had been established by local emergency preparedness officials where I was advised by my brother that the city only had 19 hours of water left in the towers, unless the military came through with a generator big enough to power the city's well pumps. An hour later, a house fire occurred and much of that water reserve evaporated into steam.
As a career firefighter and EMS person, it shook me a LOT to be signing ourselves into an aid shelter like refugees. I was one of those guys running toward the chaos, not surrendering to it. And, I vowed it would never happen again.
Now, you can be one of those people who figure that they don't need all that survival stuff if they know which of their neighbors has it, and that might very well work. For a while. But, eventually, you'll encounter someone like me who not only has prepared to feed and shelter my family, but also to do what is necessary to protect those preparations from raiders, thieves, and anyone who would think for one moment that we are vulnerable like everyone else.
I don't do vulnerable.
Therefore, this book is intended to be a writing exercise for myself, and a means by which I can run an exercise to see how my characters react and survive under a fictional crisis situation.
I have two sets of characters, both facing the same crisis. Both are prepared but in different ways. Like my family, I will present the two ways of surviving a disaster - Bug Out, and Shelter In Place. I will not address those who choose not to prepare except for documenting their deaths as sideline characters of no importance because to portray them as anything but ignorant would do a disservice to those who are better than them. Besides, "The lights went out. We got hungry. We died.", is not a good read.
[ May 29, 2015, 08:57 AM: Message edited by: Cdog911 ]
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted May 29, 2015 09:21 AM
You remember those unfortunates in the Superdome? Help came to those that needed it, nobody died. Well, only a few, I think?
We are headed toward minority status, and preparedness is so retro, these days. Climb up on the roof and scream: "HEP ME, HEP ME !" That's my plan.
Good hunting. El Bee
But, if you wear your best camo, you will feel a lot better about your unsolvable predicament.
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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DAA
Utah/Promoted WESTERN REGIONAL Hunt Director
Member # 11
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posted May 29, 2015 09:32 AM
Prepping is the newest buzzword for what the Outfit has been practicing and preaching since inception in Utah.
I'd be surprised if there is even a single house on my street with less than 3 months of food stored, half a dozen means of water purification, barter material horded, etc.
They have their neighborhood emergency plans in place too. From knowing where the old and feeble sleep to knowing where they are going to take them.
Might be "something", other places? It's just what everyone has always done, around here?
Like I always say, I don't believe any supernatural bullshit any religion preaches. But the Outfit does an awful lot of things right, and always have.
- DAA
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"Oh yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em." -- George Hanson, Easy Rider, 1969.
Rocky Mountain Varmint Hunter
Posts: 2676 | From: Salt Lake City, UT | Registered: Jan 2003
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booger
TOO BIG TO FAIL
Member # 3602
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posted May 29, 2015 10:24 AM
Excellent, Lance! Looking forward to the rest of the book!
Remember the '07 ice storm as well...don't want to go through that again. I grew up with self sufficient parents, but I have grown soft.
Speaking of the water filtration issue, have you hear of Hydration Technologies? I met one of the guys that worked for them during a International Hunter Ed Convention in Vegas in '05.
They are supposed to have an osmotic filter system that will take out even the smallest bacteria or such.
They are still in business...here is a link to their website...cool technology.
http://www.htiwater.com/default.html
[ May 29, 2015, 10:30 AM: Message edited by: booger ]
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If we ever forget we are one Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under--Ronald Reagan
Posts: 911 | From: Bob Dole Country | Registered: Apr 2010
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Dave Allen
Hi, I'm SUPER DAVE, IN CHARGE OF Q STUFF (and Goat Leader) "I'm really not trying to be a dick".
Member # 3102
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posted May 29, 2015 10:44 AM
You're right Dave. There's stuff I don't agree with in regards to as my Grandpa called 'em the (crickets)
They do a lot of things the right way though. I'll give them that.
Ok, off to La Grande Oregon for cheer tryouts, wish us luck !!
Posts: 1986 | From: Jordan Valley Oregon | Registered: Aug 2008
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Rifleshooter
Knows what it's all about
Member # 3983
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posted May 29, 2015 11:29 AM
In a national disaster the have nots will put out their hands for help. When they decide to help themselves to your goods, that's your chance to get even for all the riots and looting of the past.
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The pen is mighter than the sword, but is no match for a Colt.
Posts: 29 | From: CA-AZ-MT | Registered: Nov 2011
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted May 31, 2015 08:58 AM
LOL, Dave. Along that same vein, my grandpa used to have the same opinions about Catholics and blacks. I guess I turned over a new leaf when I discovered myself to be 100% (okay, 99.3%) Libertarian. I've found my life to be a whole lot less rocky by just following the belief that as long as you don't hit me or take my money, do what you want.
Tim, those look like good filtration products. My concern is that they don't post a price. The gold standard in the SR (self reliance) community is the Berkey line of products. Can't afford those. Personally, my BOB's (Bug Out Bags) contain Sawyer straws, good for 100,000 gallons of water, whereas the HTI stuff is much, much less than that. Won't be any suppliers around to replace that spent filter if the SHTF. A concern for folks around these parts would be, along with viruses, bacteria and the like, chemical contamination from field runoff in the form of pesticides and herbicides. The HTI might lower that. I didn't find it though.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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DAA
Utah/Promoted WESTERN REGIONAL Hunt Director
Member # 11
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posted May 31, 2015 09:39 AM
It would take 100,000 days to get 100,000 gallons through the Sawyer straw, though.
We tried them for our canyon backpacks. Even with reasonably abundant water available, it's a struggle just to keep yourself hydrated using one. Just not enough flow. And you need to backflush them constantly just to keep them going at all, if the water supply isn't quite clear. Better than nothing, but, having field tested one, it's not a very good solution, in my opinion.
My canyon backpacking filter of choice for the past few years has been the Sawyer squeeze model. Can easily keep three people hydrated, with minimal effort and time.
I know some prefer the mini.
A very real issue with all these Sawyer filters, for a SHTF situation and longer term use, is that you can't let them freeze. Capillaries break. Then it's letting the woo through.
In clear water areas, like high country backpacking, I like the Steripen UV method. Wouldn't want to count on it for long term, real survival, but it's the only way to fly when backpacking where you can get relatively clear water to treat.
What I keep in my vehicles and also as backup in my backpack, fanny pack etc. is just Aquamira. Weighs nothing, takes up no space, very, very effective. Only real negative is the time it takes to work.
I know some guys just keep a small vial of plain old bleach handy, but for me that's just an ugly spill looking for a place to happen.
- DAA
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"Oh yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em." -- George Hanson, Easy Rider, 1969.
Rocky Mountain Varmint Hunter
Posts: 2676 | From: Salt Lake City, UT | Registered: Jan 2003
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted May 31, 2015 12:44 PM
DAA, thanks for the real world review of the Sawyers. Good information. All told, because I believe that one is none and anything worth having is worth having a backup, my water plan is multi-tiered.
For bugging in (shelter in place), we have a water pod large enough to hold sixty gallons of water in our bathtub. Ideally, I hope to find some sort of easily storable/ easy to set up portable tub type thing that can hold the water tube, allowing us to fill both the pod AND the bathtub in an emergency, thus doubling our water capacity. The hot tub is kept full year-round, as are five rain barrels, for use as non-potable or grey water. Those three areas - pod/tub + spa + barrels = ~670 gallons of water for us to use. Also have several containers of water purification tablets (iodine variety) for portable use. Also, used to store liquid bleach but it's only good for about a year before you have to start titrating more bleach to water to achieve the same results, so this year I went to powdered pool shock. I have enough to finish out 50,000 more gallons right there and the shock is easier to carry and has a much longer shelf life. You just have to blend a starter solution to get what is effectively Clorox, then use at least 8 and no more than 16 drops per gallon of water from which you have filtered all sediments and particulate matter.
I prepare for my region, where water really isn't hard to come by. The issue is quality, rather than quantity.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted June 01, 2015 07:23 AM
Strictly here say, but I understand that Mormons in this area are very big on water storage. I "think" they get 55 gallon heavy plastic drums and fill with municipal water supply to which they add a small amount of bleach and then date and seal the container.
What do you call this, Lance? Preps? I guess it gives them something to do and keeps them out of the honky tonks. Mostly.
Just kidding.
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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