The Macro Event. Andrew Adams

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СКАЧАТЬ at the pharmacy on the corner. Security was trying to usher out the crowd to lock the doors. It was not going well. Two Las Vegas police officers were heading toward the pharmacy.

      Lee started up the stairs to the second floor of the garage. Now it was really dark. The garage emergency lighting was either minimal or not working. Car lights shined from a few locations, helping Lee to navigate the dark interior of the garage. Lee saw people in some cars lit up by interior lights. He heard a couple of cars “cranking” over but heard none starting or running. Hoods were up on several cars, and people were discussing and trying to discover the problem. Lee kept moving.

      Please start, Lee thought. But he honestly did not have much hope. Older cars were theoretically more EMP proof than newer ones. He had already seen several cars much older than his that were not starting. Lee’s nearly new Ford Explorer had all the bells and whistles with all kinds of modern electronics including engine controls. “Good luck,” he said quietly under his breath.

      Lee got close to his car. He decided to forgo trying the remote door locks. His remote key Fob had a real key attached to it. Hoping to stay out of sight and the minds of others, he moved slowly and carefully to his car. He used the real key to unlock the driver’s side door and slide in, throwing the duffel in the passenger seat. The car smelled of burned electronics, which Lee considered a bad sign. He pulled the Ruger from his pocket, placing it one of the cup holders. He put the key in the lock of the steering column and, looking around to ensure no one was close, turned it to the first position. Nothing happened. The normal array of various indicator and warning lamps on the dash panel did not light up. Neither did the GPS entertainment screen. He then turned the key to the crank position. Nothing. Obviously, the electronics in this model even controlled the starter motor. “Well, that answers that. Looks like I am walking,” Lee mumbled as he sat there in the dark, worthless pile of metal that used to be a car.

      Just to be sure, like everyone else, Lee did get out and open the hood and used his flashlight to look around. Nothing was obvious. Battery was still there. He could smell the same burned odor as the inside. Otherwise, it looked normal. Lee’s high technology automobile would probably not be running anytime soon, if ever. The country had perhaps become a massive wrecking yard, with thousands or millions of cars sitting useless. “Five thousand pounds of scrap,” Lee said to no one.

      Lee climbed back into the car and by hand unlocked the rear door and climbed into the backseat to prepare his gear. Keeping out of sight would minimize the number of people that may see him while getting ready. Lee folded down the right rear seat, slid the Bug Out Bag forward, and opened it up. He pulled out a pair of tan-colored cargo pants and a vacuum-sealed bag containing a tan military undershirt. Lee packed many items, including some of the clothing, in vacuum bags. The vacuum bags shrank bulking clothing down, saving room and keeping everything clean and dry even if the backpack got wet. Quickly he changed into the clothing. He reached over the rear seat for a pair of combat boots he stored loosely in the back. He pulled out two pairs of heavy thick socks, which were kept in the boots. One pair he pulled on and the other pair he stuffed into his BOB with items from his duffel bag. Lee stuffed as much clothing as possible into the main bag. He was expecting a long walk. The BOB had a main bag but also a smaller detachable “chest” pouch. The smaller pouch would strap on over his chest after placing the main bag over his shoulders. Inside were various items, of which Lee looked through, placing some in the pockets of his cargo pants, including a couple of gas lighters, a multi-tool, a small roll of paracord, a compass, and an extra flashlight.

      Also, loose in the back of the car, Lee had a waterproof plastic EMP proof electronic case. Inside were two five-watt Ham-Band radios, extra batteries, a dipole antenna, a Garman Etrex GPS, and a Samsung Tab3. Lee turned on each of the electronic items to ensure they were working. He did not wait to see if the GPS satellites were working, knowing the garage could slow down that process. The Garman Etrex would be worthless without GPS satellites. The Samsung tablet contained a program which displayed high-resolution Google Earth images, which he had painstakingly downloaded onto micro SD cards. This would provide him close up detailed maps of the entire region from Las Vegas to home in Agua Dulce. The photo images could be of utmost importance for getting home in one piece. As a backup, he had a California map book, which contained detailed maps of the entire state. His maps overlapped from California to Las Vegas. He also had a Vegas city map. Out of the atlas, Lee took the relevant maps and the Vegas city map and folded them with the immediate area on top. He put them into a plastic map case from the chest rig bag.

      Lee gathered the electronics, slid them into a special Mylar antistatic bag, then placed the bag into the BOB. He discarded the heavy plastic box. The Mylar would provide protection in case another EMP occurred. Lee dug into the bottom of the BOB and found the fifty-round box of 9 mm cartridges and then pulling out ten rounds and reloading the empty mag. He put the mags into the chest rig. The last loose items were a fanny pack, a heavy jacket, and a “Boonie” hat and a cardboard box. Inside the cardboard box was two plastic half-gallon jugs of water and four square-shaped Fiji bottled waters. Lee always kept the square Fiji bottles as they compacted better into tighter spaces in the bag. The bag had a unique expandable bottom section. He opened it up to full expansion and stuffed in the four small water bottles. Opening one of the large bottles, Lee started to chug down the water as fast as he could. Lee drank the water as if he were preparing for a colonoscopy, sucking down the fluid in large gulps. The second bottle Lee would tie onto his bag. With a possible 250-mile hike home from Vegas to home, water was his most valuable commodity. He knew many tricks to scavenge water, but the more he had to start, the better he would feel.

      Lee performed a mental check of the contents of his bag. The bag included about every suggested item the survival prepper community could dream up. There was a variety of food items, including military-style MREs, or “Meals Ready to Eat,” high-protein power bars, and emergency survival bars. Spread in various compartments and separate bags were hygiene items, tools, defense, first aid, water treatment, a lock pick, and all kinds of utility stuff from rope to clothespins. Lee did not pack a sleeping bag but instead he preferred the “stay dressed” with a blanket and jacket method. He did carry a hammock so he could rest suspended off the ground and away from bugs and snakes. His preference would be to take inventory and sort out the contents, but he did not want to spend the time. He tied his heavy jacket on top of the bag with the extra bottle of water.

      Lee looked around the car for other things worth taking. He had leftover snacks from the ride up. He removed the phone charger and placed it into an outside pouch on his bag. He removed an extra flashlight from the glove compartment and added that to his pack also. He also found a half bottle of Gatorade, which he downed even though it was warm.

      When he finished packing, Lee scanned over the car and remaining items once more. He had remorse about just walking away from his car. Bummer! he thought. He had extra keys and, for some reason, decided to leave them under the seat. “Never know,” he said aloud. He looked at the new Toshiba laptop and sadly stuck it back into the empty duffel bag that he shoved down behind the second and rear seats. The weight of a worthless laptop computer was not something he wanted to add to his load.

      Lee pulled the map case out of his chest rig and studied his way out of Dodge. A part of good prepping was to plan routes out of places you may find yourself. Lee had done so for the best route out of downtown Vegas. This was another prepper pastime. Using a sharpie, Lee marked his planned route, memorized as much as he could, and returned the map back into the chest pouch. While in the pouch he retrieved a strap-on headlamp and put it around his forehead but left the light off. The headlamp, as well as all his flashlights, were dual-lamp type, with white and red light. The red lamps were usable in the dark without losing night vision, and they were not nearly as noticeable from a distance. Lee made sure he was familiar with the red lamp button versus the white lamp button.

      It was time to get moving. Lee looked around, and not seeing anyone, he slowly slid out of the rear seat and started putting on the various bags. He did so while trying to remain hidden. First, the fanny pack went on and around his waist, hanging in the СКАЧАТЬ