Fictional Scenarios act 3

[NorthernRaider]

The Bug Out Vehicle
When the street and traffic lights went out as she was driving to her next appointment city analyst Lucy Jones was not to worried, "There's a Road Chef café just a few hundred yards away I’ll get a bite to eat and phone the client to tell him I’m running late. I can do a bit of re-scheduling, by that time I’m sure the power will be back and things will pick up". Lucy accelerated her Turbo Diesel GTI along the road noting her fuel level was under a ¼ of a tank, I’ll fill up on the motorway later she thought, it’s cheaper than this place.
“Oh Heck“ Lucy said as she approached the Road Chef, the car park was full and she could see that there was a big queue waiting to be served inside the building.
At that point her world started to unravel, she decided to push on to the motorway services many miles down the road, she estimated she had enough fuel for at least 50 miles so off she went.
Lucy immediately notice how heavy the traffic was as she joined the motorway, she hoped it would not slow her down or delay her further, she was meeting the girls that evening to go for a meal and a show in the Capital.
As Lucy drove on it began to rain and the traffic began to slow, Just to her left she passed a crash involving three vehicles and a mile further on was another crash. Strangely as she watched a policeman taking notes from one of the drivers, she could see over his shoulder the lights of a town in the far distance simply go out. Lucy shuddered and this made her feel cold so she turned up the cars air con to full as she crawled along the motorway in heavy traffic at no more than 15 miles an hour.
Slightly later Lucy estimated she was at least 20 miles short of the service station when the traffic came to a complete halt.
“Grrr” she thought I’ll have to phone both the customers and the girls and tell them I’m stuck in traffic. But when she tried to call them her cell phone could not connect to the network and that worried her even more. Lucy being Lucy often found that when she got stressed she found she needed to use the toilet, and now her tummy was beginning to tell her she needed to go. “I hope this traffic moves soon she thought, I need a wee and I need fuel soon. She noted the fuel gauge was nudging empty and to compound it the rain outside was turning to sleet.
After an hour or more Lucy began to take notice of the vehicles around her, most had turned off their lights and engines to save fuel. She did not switch off her engine because she only had on her business suit and it was getting pretty damn cold outside. Fifteen minutes later the decision was taken away from her when the engine cut out as the remaining fuel was used up. “Oh knickers now what?” she said to herself. She tried her mobile again but it was still out, so she hopped out of the car and tottered off in her high heels the 500 meters to the roadside emergency phone. As she was walking along she could see that there was lots of vehicles blocking the hard shoulder as well as all the lanes, she thought to herself “That’s going to make it very hard for the police or garage to reach me when I use the roadside phone” When Lucy arrived at the phone another woman was already trying to make it work. “This is the third phone I have walked to and they are all out, my mobile phone wont work either” she complained.
Lucy turned round and started to head back to her car as she did she noticed more and more people abandoning their cars and trucks and walking off down the road.
She had only walked about a kilometer in her high heels and already her feet were hurting like hell, plus she was wet and freezing cold from the sleet. She gladly climbed back into the security of her car if just to get out of the wind and sleet, and turned on the radio.
She was horrified by the news coming over the airwaves, riots, looting, crashes, people stranded and the emergency services completely overwhelmed by the amount of incoming calls for help. The radio station she was listening to was fairly distant but it shocked her to hear that many other radio and TV stations were off air because they did not have backup generators or fuel.
She was now cold, wet, hungry and getting afraid, and her bladder was bursting, she had no food nor fuel nor warm clothing, or contact with the outside world. It was dark and very lonely and Lucy at a complete loss what to do.
Suddenly there was a tap on the glass of her car door she nearly wet herself with shock (She was only a few minutes away from having to squat at the side of the road and that would complete her misery and humiliation) Peering through the window was a woman, about 35 years old wearing a parka. Lucy wound down the window about half way. “Are you OK" asked the woman, "Do you need a cup of tea or a bite to eat?” she asked the astounded Lucy.
“I need to pee more than anything” spouted Lucy surprised at herself for her sudden frankness in front of a stranger.
"Well feel free to use the loo in my van" said the smiling woman who introduced herself as Clare “Come with me it’s only to that VW van two cars behind yours” said Clare as she walked back towards her vehicle.
Lucy thought “Well what choice do I have” and quickly abandoned her car and headed after Clare. Upon reaching Clares vehicle Lucy noted it was a VW like hers but a van not a car, not only that it was the same silver metallic and had the same wheels. “Nice looking van” said Lucy as she caught up with Clare, "thanks" she replied “but I think you will like the inside better” As she opened the sliding door on the side and stepped in with Lucy right behind her.
She was amazed she looked around to see a fully fitted micro kitchen along the side of the van, a full length sofa and what looked like two full length wardrobes at the rear. Clare opened one of the smaller cupboard doors at floor level and pulled out a Porta Potti 165 telling Lucy to help herself while she waited outside.
When Clare came back in she found a wet, cold and bedraggled Lucy with a great look of relief on her face, “My God I was desperate for that, thanks so very much” said Lucy. “No problem” said Clare as she made a pot of tea and knocked up some sausage sandwiches which they both devoured.
Later on after Clare had given Lucy some warm dry clothes to wear she described the contents of the van.
It’s my Bug Out Vehicle and every day transport rolled into one said Clare. It does all the things your GTI does and more, It’s got air con, plus diesel cab heating, a 174 HP diesel engine, a micro kitchen unit containing two gas rings and a grill, mini fridge, water tanks, and cutlery and crockery storage, and a gas bottle locker, the kitchen is only 18 inches wide four ft long and 30 inches high. The sofa you are sitting on has storage underneath and it converts into a double bed if I get stranded overnight, there’s a toilet compartment and a wardrobe. I have 12 volt and 240 volt lighting circuits and a propane / diesel heater for the living area, there a mini TV DVD and radio unit in the roof lining and long range fuel tanks underneath. I use it to visit my clients and to go camping with my kids it’s so much more useful than a simple car or 4x4. My van overall is only 4 inches longer than your car and a few inches wider.
“Please feel free to rest here and watch a DVD with me until the roads are cleared or until my family contacts us via the CB radio system on where we are to meet them. They will come cross country if necessary to rescue us if the road does not re-open”.
Two days later an army patrol that was bulldozing stranded vehicles aside to clear the road came across Clare and Lucy who by now were the best of friends.
After they had been freed to go about their journeys Lucy decided the first thing she wanted to do was to have a long hot bath, and the second was to find out how quick she could part exchange her car for a van. When Clare dropped her off at home she gave her a list of useful items she should buy and keep with her at all times. IE fleece jacket, waterproofs, walking shoes, flashlight, food, water, spare fuel can, light sticks, maps, survival guide etc etc. A suggested EDC kit (Every day Carry Kit) and a suggested BOB (Bug out Bag) list. Lucy swore to herself to get a van as soon as possible if the opportunity arose. Lucy decided that if any sort of normality returned she was to find out much more about prepping and survivalism. Clare had started the process off by giving her a photocopied version of "The Basic Preppers Guide for Families" by the prepper and author known as Northern Raider.
The farsightedness of Clare had saved at least one extra life, Lucy's.
The Cache
John Smith’s wife Wendy a specialist nurse was just finishing off the last of her patients notes before she closed down the clinic for the night when the lights went out, She sat patiently for about 10 minutes under the dim light from the low powered emergency escape lighting system. “Damn it” she thought “John was right I should keep a torch of some sort in my uniform pocket, rather than on the table in the clinic with my other examination equipment”.
Using the dim emergency lighting she retrieved the flashlight from her desk and headed for the locker room. Opening her locker she first grabbed her cell phone to call John but it was not connecting to any cell. Slightly worried about this she turned on the portable radio that sat on the coffee table by the sink. She soon became alarmed at the news about the rolling blackout affecting most of the region.
She headed back to her locker and pulled out a small rucksack that John insisted she kept at work. In it she found her spare well-worn but exceedingly quiet and comfortable walking shoes, a fleece vest and a waterproof cagoule. She changed quickly as the heating in her work place had suffered the same fate as her husband’s office and it was cooling off quickly. She decided to wait an hour to see if john called before she decided to make a move.
In her rucksack she had a flashlight and batteries, small lock knife, compass, two bottles of Lucasade, three low fat nutrition bars and two tinned energy booster fortified milk shakes. A small radio, two light sticks, a first aid kit and a Leatherman juice multi tool were among the other items she kept in her bag.
After listening to the radio once again and drinking one of the fortified shakes Wendy decided it was time to head home, so of she went to the station at the end of the road,
The station was closed and locked and the lights were out, “Bugger” thought Wendy it’s the bus for me so she walked briskly to the bus stop. When she got there she found dozens of people waiting but no bus. One lady said she had been there since 5.30PM and it was now getting on for 7.45PM. At that point she spotted a guy in a railway workers uniform cycling slowly up the road. She asked him if he knew what was happening as he rode alongside the bus queue.
“It’s absolute bloody mayhem pet, no buses or trains are running, traffic jams from here to the coast they say, and those buggers in the city have started rioting and looting, last I heard was there would be no more trains for at least 48 hours and I was told I could go home, So I’m off to find my missus and hopefully get home before midnight” He then cycled off into the darkness.
OK so now what? Thought Wendy, that husband of mine is going to be so smug and unbearable for weeks, his staunch beliefs able how fragile the social infrastructure had become was so right “she thought to herself which in turn made her chuckle“
John Smith you were right and I love you for it” said Wendy quietly to herself and she set off at a brisk walk using her flashlight to light her way as she headed towards the edge of town and the U – Store depot that was sited along the way.
About 50 minutes lady a warm and glowing Wendy Smith arrived at the U-Store depot and went straight to the mini unit John had on long term rent. The security officers were still on duty and were not unduly concerned about the power outage because power failures were so common of late. The space John had leased was not much bigger than her locker at work but in it was cached a folding mountain bike, another rucksack with maps and compass, food, camp cooker , water bottle with puri straw, clean clothes, medical kit, £50 in cash, first aid supplies, more chemical light sticks and a few other bits n bobs.
Wendy assembled the bike and loaded into her rucksack the supplies she decided she needed from the cache, and set off into the night, The route she chose was the old railway which was now part of the national cycleway route system, it was unlit but the moon was out so she chose not to use her bicycle lights in case it attracted unwanted attention. It was getting cold and starting to rain ever so lightly, and the evening was wearing on. She decided that the chances of her meeting anyone along the cycleway at this time were so slight that she could travel fairly safely, besides looking back into town it sounded even from that distance all the loonies were running riot back there.
She mounted the bike and set off home, it took her just over 2 hours to reach the safety of her semi-rural home, on arrival after getting her breath back and gathering her wits Wendy set up a string of Cyalume sticks to give her light until daylight returned and John came home, She then started about cooking all the food in the freezer on her Butane powered three ring camp cooker.
Because Wendy prepped she escaped the urban disaster befalling the city.

The Retreat
Is it me or is it getting cold in here thought Steve to himself as he realised he was suddenly shivering, Why has the damn greenhouse heating not kicked in? He wandered through the nursery shed to the heater control panel, flicked at the light switch to brighten up this normally dark corner but the light did not come on.
Pulling out his EDC flashlight he peered at the heating controls and realised they were not working, in fact they were not even illuminated. At that he headed for the door. Strolling across the yard he realised that the house lights were not on, “Bugger” he said to no one in particular,“not a power cut I hope”.
Before he reached the kitchen door he heard the familiar sound of his own diesel Land Rover coming up the track and clattering across the bridge over the stream that crossed between the farmhouse and the main road. He could not see the vehicle as the access track and main road was deliberately screened by trees and shrubs so the house could not been seen from the road by passing traffic. A mix of coniferous trees, Ivy, Rhododendrons and other plants of a thorny nature like Firethorn was deliberately planted years earlier when Steve first bought the place.
Soon as the 4x4 came round the corner Steve could see his partners face and it was looking distinctly worried, the vehicle rolled to a halt right where he stood and his partner hopped out.
You won’t believe this” said Beverley there’s a huge great rolling power cut spreading from all the main cities of the south east, outwards and across the whole damn country. The lights are going out across Britain and the rest of the world is as well according to the BBC on the radio.
Steve paused for thought for a moment or two then said “Right we will play safe, I want you to go and get the kids from the school and bring them home, I will switch over to the diesel genny until the power comes back on, after I have done that I will try and find out more.” and with that Steve dismissed his partner from his mind knowing she was fully capable of assessing the risk herself.
As he strode towards the generator shed he noticed Bev heading back to the truck after collecting her favourite pump action 410 shot gun and her own farm issue PMR radio which she knew had the range to reach back to the farm from the village school.
Steve checked the oil and coolant on the generator then pressed the starter , within seconds the diesel / bio diesel generator hummed into life and settled down to a steady 1800 RPM. From there he checked the immediate use diesel tank and noted it was totally full. His young son Tom clearly took his duty seriously in ensuring the retreats back up genny was kept topped up from the hidden twin 500 gallon tanks out the back of the shed.
Five minutes later Steve was running up the extension aerial for the Eton world band radio and listening for news, what he heard left him very worried. Spreading blackouts across the world and little or no useable news from government was all he could ascertain. Just local news from radio stations that had their own backup generators and what they had to say did not inspire him.
From what he could make out that the lights went out at about 3.30 pm just as the winter sun slipped away, reports of looting rapidly followed as frustrated commuters and opportunist thieves became ever more aggressive in the growing darkness.
It was reported people were trying to flee the city by any means possible after only a few hours of darkness. According to Radio Five-Live there were no street lights, shop lights or homes illuminated except for candles. Traffic signals were out as was the power for the London underground. They reported that because of some minor crashes and acts of street robbery all buses were being withdrawn.
The Metropolitian Police reported that all patrolling officers had been withdrawn to be deployed on “Special Duties” but no one knew what those duties were; only it was pitch black outside and there were no cops on the streets and no public transport.
30 minutes later Bev returned with Tom and Jordan and she had news “Steve from the bypass I could see down towards the town, it was ablaze and in more than one place, Oh and you could see the headlights of the cars on the motorway were not moving either. A delivery van was coming through the village and the driver asked if I knew of a back road into the town, because all the main roads were blocked”.
Suddenly Steve’s cell phone chirped once to announce a message awaited him. He was surprised the system was still working; he knew it could not last long if the cell systems back up power supplies failed.
Checking his phones inbox he noticed that in fact he had two text messages, both had the same brief two word messages , they simply said “AB” and on reading them Steve’s blood ran cold. “Bev the messages are from Dave and Nick in the Mutual Support Group they both say AB”.
The mutual support group was set up by Steve and six other preppers about 5 years previously; they all cooperated in survivalist planning and preparations. On an average of one weekend a quarter the group would gather to plan, practise, train and prepare to survive local, regional, national or global disasters, be they man made or natural.
They did not normally use codes of secret phrases as it was all too easy to forget or mix them up. In most cases normal English was fine for most communications, except for one scenario IE a Global social collapse (cause irrelevant) for that situation they adopted the code word used by the fictitious characters in the famous survivalist novel Alas Babylon by Pat Frank. When they sent out the signal AB it meant they feared for their family’s safety and were declaring their intentions to Bug out ASAP. This meant Dave, Nick and their families were gathering their Bug Out kits, Extra food, fuel supplies and kit and heading as agreed to Steve’s farm.
Steve said to Bev “You have better get the hot water on and make up the beds in the guest rooms we have friends coming and they may be hurt or traumatised when they get here to”……….. Before he could finish Steve heard another engine grinding his way up the track and by the sound of it, it was struggling with the incline.
“Tom… Crossbow NOW…. front bedroom Jordan go with him. Bev grab your 410 out of the truck and get over by the kennels, stay out of sight until I call you or you hear shooting.”
Steve stepped across the kitchen threshold and reached above the door where his own crossbow was hung, bolt in place but un-cocked. As he pulled the sheepsfoot cocking lever back and readied the cross bow a big silver VW van burst into the yard, Steve was kneeling and aiming before it stopped.
The passenger door of the van cracked open and in a flash out shot a totally demented Jack Russell Terrier closely followed by a flustered woman.
Steve instantly recognised Mary the wife of Nick who had texted him the AB message. “Mary you stupid bloody cow” shouted Steve “You know you or Nick is supposed to radio in or phone from the bottom of the hill.
Mary just looked at Steve and growled “The phones are out and YOU don’t have your damned radio turned on, and Nick is in the van he’s hurt.” At that she headed towards the driver’s door where Nick was trying to climb out of the cab.
Ten minutes later Nick, Mary and dog were in the Kitchen, Bev treating a quite badly beaten Nick and making tea for everyone. Nick explained he was driving home after a trip to Windsor when the lights started to go out and local radio stations along the way reported that the power failures appeared to be total, affecting every system.
By the time he was passing close by Ripon he realised that something big and bad was happening, he could not phone Mary but texted her and gave her the AB message. By the time he reached home 40 minutes later Mary had all the BOBs, boxes and bits n pieces Nick kept ready to be loaded into the van. After a quick check and topping up his fuel tank from his spare stocks kept in the garage he was ready for leaving. That’s when the problems started.
Nicks neighbour had often talked with him about survivalism and preparations, he had expressed a willingness to become part of the community but like so many other people he had never actually gotten round to doing anything practical until now.
The Neighbour saw Nick loading up and quickly realised what was going on. He came over to where Nick was and asked Nick if he could spare some diesel and food as he did not have even enough in his car to leave the town. Nick told him “No, sorry what I have is what I need to get Mary and I to the place we have set aside”.
Immediately the neighbour had suddenly head butted Nick then kicked him violently to the floor before trying to snatch the van keys from him. He probably would have succeeded but for Mary who was just making Nick a quick hot drink before they left.
As soon as she saw the attack happen she grabbed the kettle of boiling hot water, ran out and threw it into the face of the neighbour. That stopped the attack dead, the neighbour staggered off screaming and she helped Nick up into the van. She only paused to lock the door, go to the utility cupboard and turn off the gas and electricity, before grabbing the dog and following Nick into the van.
After a late night of fixing Nicks bumps and scrapes, talking about the crisis and over reacting two or three times to noises outside the motley crew of survivors finally slept.
Just after 8AM the next day the other families began to arrive, by car, on foot, and on cycles, with two on a quad bike and trailer who rode cross country for over 55 miles along the Pennines, the last two were filthy and exhausted but reported that from Sheffield to Barnsley it was total chaos, violence and anarchy.
By noon everyone was settled in kit cleaned, vehicle checked and stored and supplies offloaded. Dave’s collection of eight large portable solar panels were most welcome as they could be used to recharge lots of batteries, power radios and even run a couple of 12 volt lights, energy much needed in the coming weeks.
During the afternoon the women and kids cooked all the meats that were in the freezer, all the open eggs and flour and mixed fruits were converted into cakes and sealed away in wax paper.
The men folk reeled out a few hundred yards of barbed wire and trip flare wires in the hedgerows by the main road before setting to work on the little wood and metal bridge that crossed the stream on the only access road. With a few chipped nails, a bit of sweat and swearing after 40 minutes the timber decking was lifted from the bridge and the steel supports totally wrapped up in barbed wired.
With the preplaced supplies of flour, wheat, pasta, long grain rice, cooking oils, tinned fruit and vegetables , added to this was the rabbits, chickens, goats and miniature pigs, in theory they would be self-sufficient for at least a year. And with the stream and land they had enough soil and water to grow crops in the spring. Mary had brought with her a fair sized collection of seeds that she hoped would provide food next year. Steve only wished he had finished making a carp pond, but it was too late for now.
By day four the solar panels had been set up on the south facing roof, more radio aerials set up. A wide band scanner was constantly monitored in the kitchen by the girls for any and all news. They cut even more wood for the Aga which could be easily converted from coal when it runs out to wood burning.
Being only 8 miles from the sea and the area being abundant in surface coal as well as wildlife the preppers at the retreat had the means, teamwork and will to wait out the fall of society and hopefully to slowly reach out to other survivalist communities and rebuild a life for themselves.
As the world grew dark man’s inhumanity to man flared up as forecast, the cities became necropolis’s with the lost and desperate fleeing any way they could leaving only the feral gangs to fight among themselves for few remaining supplies.
In Europe ethnic and nationalist tensions rose up again as the various cultures and races fought not only for survival, but also to settle old scores. In Asia just about everyone turned on everyone else with the exception of the subsistence farmers and fishermen who carried on as before, as if nothing has happened.
It took only a few weeks for Africa to go silent, no one knows what happened in the Dark Continent that had in the last ten years seen a resurgence in tribal warfare, droughts, civil war, epidemics etc.
In Britain the followers of socialism waited in vain for salvation from the government. The supporters of diversity, multi-culturalism and appeasement of religious extremists died at the hands of those they tried to help.
In America as forecast the Americans went out with a huge bang. As soon as the lights went out the gangs like the Bloods and Crips kicked off with street warfare, the Hells Angels attacked the Satan’s Slaves. The white rednecks tried to dominate the blacks but it just spiralled into total chaos. Blacks, Hispanics, Asiatics and Whites all took full advantage of their right to bear arms the carnage was terrible. The gun obsessed paranoia that had fuelled American fears for years finally broke though. Some boarded themselves up in their homes and businesses shooting at anyone who came by while others headed out of town heading for their vacation homes.
Hundreds of thousands had the same idea of grabbing a gun, and sleeping bag and heading off into the boondocks to live off the land. Sadly the country boys, survivalists, farmers and native Americans etc did not want the AR15 carrying urbanites roaming the backwoods and wiped out most of the refugees who could not survive in the new world.
Up in Canada where more moderate attitudes prevailed the disaster stuck home but not as quickly as south of the border but eventually they too descended into chaos and anarchy.
As America destroyed itself thousands of Americans tried to force themselves onto the Canadians in vane of course, the Canadians could not contain or absorb the fleeing masses from the south so they took the only option available to them they retreated north leaving a scorched earth policy behind them.
The American arrivals found only destruction and desolation in Canada and died in their thousands from the advancing winter weather. Come spring the hardy Canadians came back and started rebuilding.
No record is known of the fate of the thousands who tried to flee south across the Rio Grande into Mexico and its neighbouring states, but it’s believed that many old scores were settled and many Americans perished.
One day at a time became the mantra of those who survived those initial long nights, but preparedness not paranoia would be the foundation of all future cultures.
The Rifle
Dammit, Dammit, Dammit, he muttered under his breath as he searched by flashlight through the dark recesses of the sporting goods shop, there’s almost nothing I can use he said to himself.
"What good is a rifle or a shotgun without ammunition this is something I should have paid more attention to years ago" he thought to himself.
The problem was the old one of what is the best choice in times of plenty is not necessarily the right choice in times of strife. His .338 Sako was a great hunting rifle for stalking red deer but it is not much use for fending off gangs of displaced refugees especially as he could not source any more ammunition.” I should have invested in a reloading machine” he grumbled to himself. The problem was compounded by the fact that the only other gun he had was a pump action 20 Gauge shotgun also in desperate need of ammunition as well. He decided to move on and try and source other needed items of kit.
After raiding a chemists shop and a Machine Mart for an assortment of tools including a hand cranked fuel lifting pump he headed back to his vehicle and set off the find a gas station that still had some diesel he could salvage for his vehicle.
After much map studying and endless driving around blocked roads littered with abandoned vehicles he found an agricultural supplies depot that had a huge tank of red agricultural diesel that had not been pilfered. He quickly snipped off the padlock securing the filler cap with a pair of bolt cutters and set about refilling his vehicle.
A neat find this vehicle was. It was a forestry service IVECO van converted to all wheel drive by Ferguson, and because it spent so much of its time in remote woodland it had also been fitted with twin 90 litre fuel tanks. With both tanks filled to the brim it gave him a range in excess of over 800 miles. But he needed even more fuel capacity as much of his time was spent exploring out of the way rural locations looking for somewhere to set up as his new home and looking for other survivalists to join him. So inside of the van his improvised camp bed sat on top of a row of 12 x 5 gallon Jerry cans plus another four cans chained to the wide rear step at the back of the vehicle. This gave him a good range and safety margin for his expedition.
Every time he rested his head he thought to himself “There’s no way on earth I would do this if I was carrying cans of petrol instead of diesel, one misplaced spark and the explosion would be heard in the next county.”
By early evening he was back on the road looking for someplace to laager up for the night, he liked to be parked up before dark in case his running lights gave away his position to people with evil intentions. He also liked to be in place and settled down so he could look for lights from houses and buildings after dark in order to spot where other survivors could be living.
As dusk fell he had found a somewhat slightly overgrown lay-by on the side of a road about 150 feet up the side of a hill, it was an ideal spot to back the van into as it was almost completely obscured by vegetation from the main road. 40 minutes later and after a bite to eat he decided on a quick walk around his rest place for the night to not only ensure it was safe, but in order to relieve himself of the 4 cans of Pepsi he had consumed earlier in the day (he no longer trusted tap water and had yet to find a good water filter).
Walking carefully along the lay-by until it re-joined the road he could see quite clearly that no smoke or fires could be seen nearby, but something was not quite right about the layout of the geography in front of him, something seemed not quite natural. Walking along the road edge he realised that the foliage in one spot was different to the rest of the hedgerow, it was not as high and looked as if something had knocked it down at some point in the not too distant past.
Peering through the hedgerow perched about 40 feet down the slope was a power transmission pole, an 11 KV pole to be precise and rammed up against it in quite a bad way was a police car. He clambered through the hedge and work his way down to the vehicle which clearly had been going very fast when it left the road. Were it not for bad luck the car would have probably careered down the slope for another 100 yards and got stuck in the hedge at the bottom. But unfortunately for the car and its occupants it had hit the power pole going from 70 to 0 mph in one second, airbags were no use in that crash.
When he reached the vehicle which was once a pristine POLICE 4x4 BMW X5 Estate car he could instantly see the two occupants were long dead, probably been there since the collapse that brought society down. He clambered over and around the vehicle out of curiosity and was just about to give up and go back to his vehicle when he noticed that one of the dead officers was wearing a tactical leg holster, empty but still a leg holster. This meant the vehicle was a Fire Arms Response Vehicle and this offered our survivor the chance of possibly some useful pickings.
Reaching through the side window he pulled the tailgate release then went to see what the trunk contained, he found a large metal locked box bolted to the floor of the vehicle along with other items such as flashlights, traffic cones, radios and assorted tactical kit. Using a flashlight he soon found the keys for the box as they were on the same ring as the cars keys thus still in the ignition.
On opening the box he found to his delight two 9 mm pistols and two 9 mm carbines, the pistols from SIG and the carbines from H&K. He also found 4 magazines for each weapon and 400 rounds of 9 mm ammunition plus cleaning kits. This was the security concern he had for his safety well and truly covered. He transported the weapons to his vehicle along with the tactical flashlights and spare batteries and spent the night getting use to handling his new found tools. He knew he would soon need to find how to strip, clean and maintain these weapons so at some point he would have to seek out the operators handbooks, but that could wait for now.
After a night’s sleep he woke thinking that actually the 9 mm pistols were ideal for his close quarters protection but the carbines were actually of limited use (but still a 100% better than throwing rocks) but the finding of the guns got him to thinking. Cops have 9 MM weapons, Soldiers on the other hand have 5.56 and 7.62 calibre weapons, and those would be ideal for long range security and hunting. What he needed to do was to find a TA centre or military base that was fitted with armouries, but NOT main large scales bases, and also some place that hopefully other survivors had not already raided. Thus with that thought our erstwhile survivor set off again in search of a safe haven to try and rebuild a life for himself.