Legacy

This story is set to paper so that my people  will understand their origins and can pass on  to the next few generations a history that will help them understand why they must not leave this land for at least two hundred years or until population expansion forces the issue.

I’m known to my people as General Garvin Williams.  I’ve never been an actual military General, and my people became my people because fate thrust me into a Sheppard like leadership position that I’d never sought. Fate has a nasty habit of doing such things, and one accepts such knowing to do otherwise would allow for panic and life loss.

Let me explain the General bit.  I retired ten years ago and fooled around with many hobbies.  I’d bought five Gold Iron on Stars; about two inches across and high to gussy up a display of one of my antique pistols.  I’d mounted it in a frame with a green felt background  and put four of the five stars under it in an effort to give it a Civil War flavor.  It came out nice.

That left one star to do something with.  So for a lark I ironed it on to the front side of a camouflaged pattern ball cap.  I though it looked cool and I liked it.  No one should have ever mistaken it for the cap of a retired General because, one it was gold and real ones are silver.  Two, there was a small red tag on the back of the cap that said Gander Mountain.  I enjoyed wearing it.

That was the cap I was wearing on that fateful day.  My wife and I had been vacationing in Eastern Missouri and were touring a huge cave along with one hundred and forty eight other individuals, both, men and women, singles and couples.  Most of which were forty years of age or younger.  The tour guide had told us many interesting facts, like the cave system and all of its many branches actually covered some one hundred and fifty miles underground.  Most of it had been echo charted but not actually explored.  Also the federal government had used part of the cave system for storage of materials and commodities, like in salted blocks of cheese and canned goods.

We had noticed doors of various widths in the hill side as we drove to the cave public entrance.  Those probably were doors to the government storage.

Anyway, there we were in the middle of the tour when the guides two way radio went off, he answered it listened for a minute or so, then turned to us all white as a sheet (not a good sign), and said  “I’ve got horrifying news.  An Asteroid passed dangerously close to the earth partially slicing through the upper atmosphere.  It caused a reaction in the Van Allen Belt that protects the earth from cosmic rays.

The explosion was beyond belief, but fortunately so big the vacuum from it prevented the Van Allen Belt from igniting which would have destroyed all life on earth. That’s the good news, the bad news  is the heat flash from the  explosion was so immense and focused that roughly every where from Eastern edge of Kansas to the East Coast and partially up into Canada has been wiped out, scorched earth, just ashes now.  Most likely there are very few survivors if any.

Even though, because of being in the cave when it hit, we had been protected.  Myself and my wife, the guide and one hundred and forty seven other souls were alive.  There were quite a few minutes of wailing and crying, including by my wife and I.  For most of the people there knew their loved ones were probably gone.  We had children and Grandchildren in Illinois, the odds of their survival was next to nothing.  We also had a son in Oregon, the odds of seeing him again quite slim, even though Oregon was untouched by the disaster.

After awhile the crying slowed to soft sobbing and looks of absolute hopelessness.  The young guide trying to find away to get some order back to things approached me and said loud enough that everyone heard it, “what should we do General?” Now most of us have on one or more occasions in our working life discovered an extra definitely unwanted job had been plopped in our laps.

This was another such occasion for me; I sensed immediately I was stuck with assuming the leadership role even though I’d much rather have had someone to follow instead of a small herd to lead.  So I stepped to the front and said, everyone listen up.  We have all been suddenly shocked to pieces and suddenly made aware of the fact our loved ones in many cases are gone.  Indeed life has so to speak dealt us one big lemon, so what do you say? Shall we make some lemonade?

That was well received, I then proceeded to draft a couple of men who struck me as being smart and able (I hoped) for assistants.  The emergency generators had kicked on and the guide said there was enough fuel for them to provide  light’s for about three days.

I then told everyone to stay put for the moment and that I and my two assistants would work our way back to the cave entrance to reconnoiter the situation.  We made our way back to the entrance passing the in cave souvenir stand and snack bar which seemed undamaged.  We got to the entrance and noticed only a small amount of scorching a few feet in.

We carefully stepped outside the cave.  What greeted us was a horribly depressing sight.  Mostly ashe; all vegetation pretty well gone.  A few tree stumps still smoldering and putting off wisps of smoke.  All the vehicles in the parking lot were semi melted heaps of trash now. Useless.

We went back and reported our findings.  Not happy news.  I and my two assistants went over to the side to discuss the next move we should make.  Then I thought about what that guide had said and I called him over.  I asked him to tell us more about the government storage areas and what was in them.  He said, “well as he had been led to understand their were large caches of food stuffs appropriately preserved for the long haul, pharmaceutical supplies, assorted tools, and a fleet of jeeps and gasoline stored in five gallon jerry cans.”

He went  on to explain that it was primarily two large caves, sectioned off by concrete walls to prevent cross contamination if any,  from one area to the next.  I said sounds good, how do we get in?  He said “all those doors you passed on the way to the touring entrance are the doors to the various sectioned off parts of the two large caves.”  Come to find out in further conversation that while the doors are wooden, so as not to rust shut, they are also locked and very thick.

I knew then we would have to break in and it would probably be near impossible, very difficult at best.  I found myself about six more stout lads along with my two assistants, and we headed out to see what we could do.  Meanwhile we told everyone else to head for the snack bar and refresh themselves, and to start piling up everything eatable, drinkable, or usable; even souvenir scarves and caps.

Well we left the cave entrance and went around the corner and back down the road about a quarter of a mile to the first door. Surprise! And praise God! For wooden doors, they were still smoldering and were very fragile and a little crispier now. One good kick and it caved right in. Same way right down the line.  The garage door size one however took several kicks from several of us, but it to gave in.

We located light switches and were happier than a kid with a new toy to discover those emergency generators powered these areas also.  We made quite a haul so to speak.

Altogether we rounded up thirty six jeeps and twelve small open trailers to pull behind them.  We fueled up all the jeeps and loaded the rest of the full five gallon Jerry cans onto ten of the twelve trailers.  That would be enough fuel to almost reach the West Coast, a desirable destination if reachable.

Also as a precaution and on my insisting, we also loaded on the remaining two trailers quite a few hand tools, shovels, axes, hammers, a few barrels of nails and other usable tool items.  And last but not least, about two bushels of assorted pharmaceuticals, heavy on antibiotics, also, about one thousand packets of assorted vegetable seeds.  I guess I was having premonitions and wanted to hedge the bet.

Then in the way of food supplies, we found much K-ration items and freeze dried camping fare. That stuff we stuffed under the seats of all the Jeeps as much as possible. Also took a few rifles and an ammo supply, in case we had to hunt for game.

Spirits were lifting a bit, but still much sorrow, as we headed west to put our lives back together best as possible.  Our resources limited to what we had gotten out of the storage caves, the clothes on our back, and what money was in our pockets.  All other had been lost. Bank accounts, homes, all assets gone.  We were like the pioneers starting out with very little and lots of hope.  We had to zig zag a bit because some of the highways which were asphalt  overlaid didn’t fare to well from that tremendous heat.

Things were going well, we passed through much desolation, it was a sight we wished to get behind us.  We had not gotten to far into Kansas when we noticed there was still some greenery here and there, a good sign.  As we approached Topeka things were getting a lot greener; and then an unexpected confrontation.

About three miles out the road was barricaded and manned with a couple of armed guards.  A big sign read, “We are sorry, but we will not admit anyone, supplies to sustain us are dwindling and arrival of more from the West very limited.”

I got the picture pretty quick.  Even though they hadn’t been in the heat blast, they also were heavily affected from it. My first assistant was very unhappy with that turn of events and suggested that two armed guards couldn’t begin to stop us.  I had to tell him straight and plain, that we were not about to start fighting with or killing fellow Americans who were just trying to protect their group as we wanted to protect ours.

My first assistant grumbled a bit, but condescended that I was right.  We then went South a ways and detoured around Topeka.  The barricades and being shoed away happened several more times.  It was getting very disheartening.  We though if we could even get to a  well vegetated open area like a National Park or Forest we might be able to carve a place for ourselves out of the land.  Least ways it seemed we wouldn’t be welcomed anywhere else.

Well we kept being herded by circumstance and seemed to be going more or less southwest.  Pretty arid country to start with, mostly anyways.  We hadn’t gotten to far into Arizona when we noticed another convoy, much smaller than ours, only had seven cars in it, no trucks or trailers.  We were going to converge with them where two roads came together.  As we slowed and they did also, no fender benders needed by anyone, I looked into their lead vehicle; my eyes about popped out.

It was my son and his wife and my four Grandkids.  I wept and I wept with near disbelief and much joy.  As mutual recognition occurred they did likewise. My wife fainted but came to with a huge smile on her face.

I explained quickly how we had survived and gotten to this point.  My son told us that he’d survived along with his family only because they had been in Chicago on a shopping trip and had just gotten back to their car on the second level down of underground parking when the big explosion of heat hit.  Needless to say it was a huge surprise to them also.

Only the bottom parts of concrete or masonry buildings survived, all wooden frame structures were ashes, along with most of the people.  His car radio told the story and then even it quit.  He had also concluded that heading west was the only sensible choice.  Here and there he met up with a very few other survivors, and thus their convoy was formed.

I told my son that his convoy should join ours.  He thought that was a good idea.  My first assistant was as difficult as usual in being overly practical when it came to self interest.  He didn’t think much of the two convoys being blended.  I took him aside and told him flat out that it was my son heading that other convoy and the two would be blended or he could take over the lead for this one and I’d go with the other one.  That took quick care of that as he liked to sharp shoot decisions more than he’d like to lead.

He mellowed a bit when I told him, that by the way, my son is a Doctor, could come in mighty handy.  That bit of information put a smile on old grumbles face.

With that issue settled we proceeded.  We got turned away from Tucson also.  Now we were on back roads some what going through desert areas with only scrub brush here and there along with an odd cactus or so. But still heading west as much as possible.

We were driving along the edge of what I believe was the huge phenomenal  mesa many, many miles wide that I’d read about in National Geographic.  It was solid stone and had the fissures or cracks so to speak that ranged anywhere from two or three feet to fifty feet wide, and on the average a hundred and fifty feet deep. A great and wondrous place to explore unless rain was coming, in which case a hazardous place to be because of swift flash flooding.

Mine was the lead vehicle so I was the first to get an eyeful of the huge high boiling red mass heading our way.  It was a sand or dust or both, storm of mega proportion’s  that looked like it would be upon us in twenty minutes at best.  Most of our vehicles were open topped Jeeps leaving no shelter for people.  On top of that, if that stuff got into the air intakes and other sensitive motor and brake places, the vehicles would be rendered useless.  We would be in effect doomed.

Needed to find shelter quickly, the only possibility was a wide cleft in the rock face of that mesa.  It was about seven minutes away over open ground that was rocky but negotiable to drive over.  I waved for everyone to follow me, they did.  Praise the Lord it was a miraculous fit.  My lead vehicle went in first as far as it could when I was confronted by a narrowing of the cleft, down to three feet, no vehicle could pass.  When I say miraculous fit I’m not kidding, the last vehicle was in and with twenty feet to spare behind it.  We were in only about eight minutes when that mess started to go by.  It didn’t come in. Wow! Grateful for that we were.

My memory of reading about the dustbowl days of the 1920’s was that sometimes those storms would last for days.  I figured this might be a similar case.  Since we would probably be there a while I and a few others decided to see what was on down the line through the narrower opening.  We’d only gone about a quarter of a mile when we came out of the cleft and had a visage of unbelievable splendor.

It was a green paradise.  I don’t know whether it would be called a valley or not, or a huge hole in the ground.  I say that because a valley usually has sloping sides, this had almost perpendicular sides very high.  In any case, hole or valley, it was at a glance about four miles across in any direction.  It had almost in its center a pristine lake that would be at quick estimate fairly circular and encompassing about forty or fifty acres.

It was fed by seven medium size water falls at various points around the perimeter.  Strangely enough they weren’t flowing over the top edges, but out of apparent holes in the rock twenty or twenty five feet below the top.  Didn’t seem quite natural, but I figured why knock it.

Then I noticed that there were an equal number of small streams flowing out from the lake into more clefts in the rock.  That was like a pressure valve that obviously kept the lake at a constant level and prevented flooding at the same time.

More inspection of the area disclosed nice stands of timber here and there, plenty of tillable meadows, and a nice assortment of wildlife.  The big surprise was a fairly good size herd of sheep of the domestic type that hadn’t seen a man since who knows when.  Good source of wool, a renewable source for making clothing, even if it’s a bit on the itchy side.

As we got past one stand of trees about a mile in, we were confronted by another unexplainable sight.  Two buildings about five stories high and a hundred feet wide squared.  The corker is that there were apparently carved out of solid stone.  Even today’s technologies couldn’t replicate that.  The sheep made me think that at one point native Americans might have inhabited the area.

We thought it safe to say however they didn’t build those structure’s, and that this was probably the first time anyone of European descent had ever laid eyes on this place.

I at that point announced that I think we have found our new home.  Indeed it’s primitive, and like the original pioneers we will have to carve ourselves a place out of nothing, except for making good use of those two stone buildings.  We have hand tools, we  can make  rudimentary plows out of wood.  And we certainly have an abundance of seed to get started with.  Personally I think this place could support a population of nearly a thousand people, so it could be a viable home for several generations.

We went back and explained it all to the others; there was much discussion and question asking that went on for hours.  One of the questions that came up in one form or the other several times was, wouldn’t it be easier to still find civilization.  The answer was, we have found it multiple times and been barred. At least here, we will control.  That was an acceptable answer.  Then the next question was.  You talk like it will be several generations here.  In effect we will finish our lives here, our children will be born and finish theirs here also.  Is that correct?  I said yes it is.

The next question was why?  Won’t we ever rejoin the rest of the world?  No, we won’t, but our great grand children probably will.  Let me explain the scenario to you.  In some of the desolated areas there may be survivors that somehow continue to do so.  It will be a feudal warlord kind of system in the East for sure and maybe to a degree in the West based on what we have seen and experienced.  I don’t want me or my children to be caught up in that mess.

Then given a few years when the  Eastern half of the United States starts to green up again, there will be no doubt a heavy influx of immigrants from Europe looking for land for the taking, just like we took it from the Indians.  That will not be a pleasant time for original surviving Americans either.  Even so, given time rational civilization with laws and flaws will flourish again in the Eastern United States.  Maybe it will even have a different name.

That’s when a few generations from now, emergence might be practical and even a necessity as the population of this little bit of Paradise increases.  Well finally everyone was in agreement; it would be our new home for better or worse, at least for now.

After the evening meal around the campfire my son said to me, Dad just how did you get to be a General, we both know that’s not a Generals Cap.  I said, son, it is now.  The mistaken identity of it along with my more mature age thrust me into a leadership position whether I liked it or not.  No point in bursting anyone’s bubble at this time or ever, that is the prudent way to look at it.

My son said point well taken Dad.  I said to him I’m glad you feel that way, because if I live another fifteen years that will have been an accident of good luck.  In the mean time I intend to groom you to take my place.  Don’t worry about that, the cap size is adjustable.