[I didn’t realize that it required registration to read my story. Here it is!]
http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1341855#post1341855
The Mad Chemist – A TEOTWAWKI Skill (What’s yours?)
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The Mad Chemist by reinkefj
A TEOTWAWKI Skill (What’s yours?)
It was a year after the SHTF, (does it really matter what the specific S was that hit the F?), the fat old fellow who had done some minimal prep was rolling in luxury. Or what passed for it in those days.
He had sheltered in place for the duration. He was extremely busy while everyone was lounging in their shelters. There were lines to activate. There were batches to brew. There were tests to run. He wasn’t a pioneer type. He wasn’t athletic by any means. He wasn’t the great white hunter, Rambo, medicine man, or priest. He was a dumb old injineer with a plan.
He was now living in his old house with a staff. The county hospital was opened in the next house down. As was the sheriff, a food coop, butcher, and what passed for the county library all nearby. It was grid down. But his house was lit up. Fuel trucks making deliveries were a regular. As were pig drop offs. Bicyclists, pickup trucks, and even an occasional helicopter were seen going in and out of the property. There was even a small security detail. Especially when the armored cars rolled in and out.
The bad guys were your run of the mill looters. Not too bright, they had been lucky. The jail they were in held them safe during the S that hit the F. As petty criminals, the guards let them out. (Note not all were so lucky. Some forward thinking guards either left their charges locked up to die of thirst, or did the humane thing and shot these human parasites in their cells.) They lived off the leftovers. When easy living dried up, they went back to stealing. When stealing got tougher, (victims were shooting back with greater accuracy), they moved up to full fledged raiding.
They heard about this hub of activity. And went down to look it over. There were now six of them. They were getting hungry and it looked like an easy target. The smell of pork was in the air. It would be a good strike. Maybe something that would keep them in the chips for the rest of their life. They reconned and spotted the fat old guy walking around outside with a two man protective detail. He would be their target since he was the “rich guy”. Their imaginations ran wild. Maybe he’s a Gates, Buffet, or like “howard hughes”. It would be easy since he was fat and old. The fat part got their juices really flowing since no one was fat these days.
The details of the operation are really not important. Sufficed to say four of them made it to the house and the security detail didn’t. They broke into the house and rounded up all the staff. They didn’t think much, so it wasn’t registering that a staff of 20 people was unusual. The ring leader found the fat old guy in the basement. Not cowering in fear as he expected. Not facing him with weapons. Not trying to make a deal.
The ring leader’s proposition was a variation of “your money or your life”. The old man’s response was amusing. “Please take my life. My loved ones are gone. The work is endless. And, the money is over rated.” The ring leader was confused. And then the gas hit.
The ring leader woke up in a room. He knew the Sheriff on a professional level from previous arrests. It was obvious he was in deep doo doo. “What was your plan?”. “We was going to take over and take it easy.” “Take over what? The only working drug lab making insulin, cowpox vaccine, and antibiotics in the State? I just want to meet the idiot that tried to rob a drug plant. I thought there was more to this. Take out the trash.” The leader was roughly manhandled out to the yard, past the pigs that were being harvested for their Islets of Langerhans, past the sign proclaiming the area as an “Essential State Resource”, and to the pit. The leader was shot with a small 22 to the head and his body joined his buddies being fed to the pigs.
The Sheriff was astonished that these fools didn’t know that this facility was keeping alive all the post TEO diabetics who made it, all those who had infections, and was protecting all the potential small pox victims. He just shook his head and wondered how the fat old man was coming along with his attempt to make nitroglycerin for heart patients. Maybe he’d get to Viagra soon. The fat old man did have niche skill in the new world.
-30-
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Reinke Faces Life 