Worst-Case Scenario

Over thirty years ago when we lived in Illinois, we had a prowler. My daughter and her friend saw him first, looking in the window at them as they watched TV. We would hear him outside and call the police, and they would arrive sirens blaring and lights flashing, warning him to get out of the neighborhood. But one time the police were in our house and the neighbor called and said she saw him out back. Still they did not get him. There would be footprints outside our windows in the morning after rainy nights.

One night we heard tapping on the windows and then watched as the front doorknob turned. I yelled at him and dashed for the phone to call the police.

One time in the middle of the night I heard noises. Our four older children were in bedrooms upstairs and our bedroom as well as our two little girls' were downstairs. I got up and saw a figure in the window of the little girls' room. I thought it was my daughter, called her name, and with that the figure disappeared and I heard him running alongside the house.

It was frightening. Our world was invaded.

We left and moved to Wisconsin.

Carol

Dear Alice,
The thing about creeps is that they give you the heebee-geebees. You know, I have waited my whole life to use the term heebee-geebees I am not sure that anyone younger than 40 knows what a creep might be.

I think they are now known and drweebs, dworks, swnorks, and other non discriptive words. At least every one knows that a creep...well, creeps through life on a lower level thant high faluting brows that know a crweep from a dwreeb or a dreweeb. I am one, (creep) you know. It does not matter where the w comes in. Proud I am.
Alice! You are the Greatest!

Love,
Betty

Creeps, drweebs, dworks, swnorks and all those
types are going to organized into gangs and mobs in our scenario,
Betty. One I can handle alone - maybe two.

Load that 22, Alice, and be prepared to use it.

There's been some really good replies here and I appreciate it. E. Don
and I are going to collaborate on this one. Still in the
thinking/planning stage, but it's gonna be a doozy!

Sure could use some input from Ahad...

I was 19, still living at home, and one night I'd been out playing music till well after midnight. I came home, didn't want to wake anyone, and began to undress for bed in the dark. I'd just gotten my shirt off when I heard someone at the front door. I eased over to the living room door, peeked in at the front screen (this was before many houses had storm doors) and saw a man standing there, trying to get the hook undone.

I reached into the corner, picked up the .410 shotgun, and leaped into the living room. He saw me, ran off the porch and up the road by the house. I jumped into the road and popped off a shot as his legs, loaded and fired again.

I never knew if I hit him or not, but he never came back to the house.

I still have a weapon close at hand when I sleep, and I do not take kindly on a person who tries to break into my house. If someone is going to get hurt, believe me when I say I'd rather it be them than anyone in my family.

If there were a disaster such as the one we've talked about here, one weapon will not be much of a help, but it will be better than none. We won't be able to stop what will eventually happen, but perhaps we can make a few of the invaders understand that taking what they want can sometimes be painful.

Brew, did you check your email?

Dear Carol,
You remind me of when I lived with my foster parents in Casa Grande. I was 15 going on 16. I felt so un beautiful in those days.
The Anderson's had those new kind of cloudy bathroom windows where light came in but no one could see in and no curtains were needed.

One night, I saw a face pressed against this bathroom window while taking a bath. It freighten me. I wrapped my self up, and went to tell George. He got up out of bed in his boxers, got his shot gun and went into the alley by my window. He shot off a couple of shots.

The next day at school, Don Skelly (it was he and his friend who had tried to see me naked) were bragging about it as if they had.

I cannot tell you how hurtfull that was to me. I was hiding in my heart the rapes of my childhood, and this boy seemed to tell the whole school of my secret shame and proclaim that I was not innocent like every one else.

The things we take to our hearts are often lies. The things that make us feel the worst are often lies.

It is a psycological wonder that it takes close to 70 years for a person to sort out all of their experiences and put them into the proper perspective. I wonder if there could be a brain washing clinic that one could go to and relieve their mind of all the rubbish that has cluttered it up.

But, then, perhaps that is what makes us viable as humans. We do have a conglomerate of memory and qualifications of memories and shading, and hopings, and dire expectations.

It would be nice if at least one of us humans could use our brain without the clouds.

Where is Spock, anyway.

Love,
Betty

Over my front door is a loaded 12 gauge pump. (just in case someone says, "Stick `em up!")

In my desk drawer where I am now sitting is a 38 Special

Beside my bed are a 357 Magnum and a snub-nosed 32 S&W

In a gun rack in that same bedroom are a semi-auto 22, a
double-barreled sawed-off 12 gauge, a high powere pellet rifle, a 16
guage shotgun and a 50 cal Hawken muzzleloader.

By the back door stands my crossbow and close by is a 32 automatic.

Escept for the crossbow, all are loaded.

Am I paranoid? Not really.

Am I capable of using them? In an instant.

Do I aim to wound only? What, and leave a witness?

When I was still in high school and spending time in Seattle with my grandmother, there was one night when there was a 'peeper'. She came in and woke me. Thinking fast, I did not know where a baseball bat was, but I did know there was an inoperable rifle in the corner. It did not have a firing pin or ammo. I picked it up and threw the bolt, as if it were usable. I was loud about it, and we heard him crash into some garbage cans down the alley trying to get away!! He never came back to our knowledge.

Here, we both have guns. Small and large. In fact, I have a concealed carry permit, and keep a 9mm in the vehicle. (Always locked, by the way). I would no more not have protection than I would walk the streets of a city alone at night!

This is a very safe community, everyone has guns and knows how to use them. I doubt if there is even one household that does not have a hunter or survivalist in residence.

(But, in any case, I would still head for the hills in the scenario you guys are suggesting.)

Scary stories--I will make sure my door is locked tightly and the safety chain in place.

Alice, if someone wants in badly enough, locked doors and chains will not stop them!

My house is similar to Brew's in firepower.

Phil Whitley wrote:

BTW, in my scenario what has happened is either a high altitude nuclear
explosion, creating an EMP (Electromagnetic pulse), or a direct hit
from an X level solar flare. Either one will destroy electronic
circuitry.

Great topic, Brew. Sounds like the theme for a sci-fi classic you have in the making. Solar flares generally oscillate with a periodicity of about 11 years, in line with the sunspot cycle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspot_cycle#Effects_on_Earth

And then there are the more erratic geomagnetic storms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_storm

So if you were to time the power outtages in your story with those, you can set your novel at the time of a future solar maxima. i.e. that is when the Sun is most active in ejecting harmful flares and damaging radiation toward the Earth.

As for nuclear holocausts hampering electrical power, well they can happen at a time of heightened political tensions and atrocities between superpowers (e.g. China vs America?). Then again, why not add an extraterrestrial dimension to the story? A UFO can be powerful enough to cause similar havoc...just a thought.

Dear Brew,

I hope you never have to use any of those weapons.

I do not see your spirit as an agressive one.

I am not a fearful person. I know there is danger, but I do not expect it at every turn.


Men, I think, envision themselves as the protector, and that is what has worked in history and in our lifetime. They see themselves taking on the world, with guns, fist, devious methods and magic. War.

It is the way they are raised
( men) to be the saviour of the world. Even children playing games, video or otherwise, see themselves as the defender of the family, the earth and even the universe.

I have yet to see a girl of the age of 10 or less or more, playing the game-boy games, or standing in an arcade or playing the pinball games of old. No, the new games are all about killing and death. My grand son of five was trying to explain to me his super hero. The one he wore the costume of for halloween, the one he has the hand held video game of, and he said," He kills people."


I said, "Why."

He said, "that is what he does."

I said, "Are they bad people."

He said, "Yes."

I said, "What bad do they do?"

He said, "They kill people,"


Love,
Betty

Zada,

The doors are tghtly locked--don't scare me. One day I was unloading the car--I had been grocery shopping and was trying to get tons of food into the house.

All of a sudden a hand reached into my back jeans pocket --I screamed bloody murder and jumped a mile --it was Dave, he thought I saw him come home early, but I had been too focused on the groceries.

Another time we were going to church--we walked. He said, " I am going now."

I went in the shower and came out and was drying my hair--had nothing on. All of a sudden I heard a deep voice speak to me.

I screamed and screamed and screamed--he had come back.

I grew up in a city. There were no guns in the house. The only guns my husband ever had were those in the Marines, and those on airplanes.

I have fired a gun but never owned one. We always felt it was more dangerous to have a gun than not, that we didn't want a child to find it and get hurt, even with precautions taken. We moved to an area where most people were hunters and some of our kids have gone hunting. Our son-in-law is an avid hunter and my daughter is also.

We have a security system at our cabin, mostly in case there is a flood or some other disaster, and the police have arrived a couple of times, but they were all false alarms. My mental health clinic had no guns and there were instances when police were called and once a couple of us went out the back door and to the hospital next door for safety. Another time guns were going to be used for suicide rather than protection, and I requested help in this not happening. One time another person had a shotgun at his head as the police and I arrived.

In my book, Flow On Sweet Missouri, my first words are:

“Blimey, don’t come one bloody step further or I’ll stop you with this shotgun in my hands!” shouted Elizabeth as she stepped outside the small shack by the coalmine to watch a lone figure coming up the bluff beside the Missouri River.

I just don't think the answer will be found in guns. Ammunition will run out. I can see people using guns to shoot animals for food. I just cannot imagine the hordes of people threatening everyone.

But this is your book, and you are both good writers. It just might be surprising how the writing progresses.

Good ideas, Ahad. There is the possibility also of earthquakes and volcanoes erupting in Yellowstone which is supposed to disrupt the whole continent.

Carol

Each does what they must do. Dave amd I have guns--ammo in the garage-- guns upstairs.

Jonah, our grandson, looked at Dave and asked, " Are those real guns?"

"Yes," replied Dave.

"Will you load them for me?" asked Jonah.

"No." said Dave.

Abdul (may I call you that?). We were looking for an event that not
only disrupts power and communications, but also cause great losses of
human life. I now find that even an X-type solar flare will produce a
heavy dose of radiation (non-ionizing) and highly charged protons which
will cause biochemical damage to a human - but not instant death. Is
that correct?

Maybe we should have an upper atmosphere meteorite explosion (Tunguska)
- with accompanying micro-meteorites doing the damage. Some say that
this has happened before and caused extinctions.

The Yellowstone super volcano has come to mind, but I was trying to avoid the "nuclear winter" thing...

A global crustal displacement would do it... LOL

I don't mean to sound aggressive, but we are fully prepared to defend our home, ourselves and our animals. I have in the past, found my mouth to be a very good defense against rudeness and attacks other than physical aggression. I can even be soft and persuasive when called for.

Also, we have no children in our home.

Zada,

We have always had children in our home, our own or grands.

I think that makes a big difference. And like the two cases I mentioned, there have been those where people's guns have almost killed them.

I spent a great deal of time alone with my children. I think being a mental health worker I was alerted to what to do in case of an emergency. I had a business partner very proficient in the use of guns, and he was very much into all of us being safe, and believe me protecting our staff and clients was of utmost importance, but we never even thought of having a gun there.

Now you might think he might have had one stashed in his desk. But since I and another woman cleaned out his room and desk after he died, I can vouch that there was none there.

Carol

Another thought. After 9/11 pilots were allowed to have guns in the cock-pit. My son chose not to, and my husband said he would have never chosen to carry a gun either.

Carol

The government has tried many times to take away our guns. Now that
that seems unlikely, the next step (and it is being looked into
closely) is to make ammo difficult or impossible to obtain.

The time is NOW to stock up. Prices are already climbing and there is already a run on it with people anticipating this.

When all else runs out, I still have 5 pounds of black powder and
a ten pound bag of 50 cal minie balls for the musketloader...

Every time I take it out to shoot it I am amazed at the number of steps
involved in the loading process - and in the War Against Northern
Agression, they did it on the run - while being shot at! Amazing...

My brother and his family lived, for a time, in a Georgia community where is was illegal not to have a gun and live ammunition in their home. They had a neighbor whose gun was a water pistol. It's live "ammo" were their goldfish.



Ann

Phil, a muzzle loader is one gun we do not have. I've considered it though! We also have crossbows, as you mentioned before.

Ann, that is great, and so is the new picture!

Zada, I have always wanted one, and a couple of years ago I found one
for a great price. It is super fun to shoot! I've always been
fascinated by the Civil War and the men who fought and died in it. My g
g grandfather joined the 42nd Alabama at the age of 40, leaving a wife
and 7 kids at home. He was a "minister of the Gospel" and refused to
carry a weapon - so they made him a litter bearer.

He was wounded in the Battle of Atlanta, was a POW for a while, but survived and had a few more kids before he died.

Brew, my roots are alll over the place--I had relatives on both sides. One from Ga. died in Fort Harrison Virginia in 1864. His widow moved to Ark. and then on to Texas where my gr gr grandmother (his daughter) married an Ala. man!

I have a hunting knife and an axe.
Ammunition is energy. As long as my arms hold up, I am dangerous. When my arms no longer hold up, it really doesn't matter.