Curtain Fall: Second Edition, Disaster, Preparedness, Survival, Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 1) by Kenneth Cary Read Free Book Online Page B

and then released. With nothing more to say, John grabbed his briefcase and left her office.
    When he reached the door, Rebecca asked, “John, could you please close the door on your way out? I’ve got a few calls to make.”
    John turned with a nod and pulled the door closed behind him. Once in the hall, he took several deep breaths to lower his heart rate, and headed for the stairs. He didn’t know what it was about being in Rebecca’s office that raised his blood pressure, but it always did.
    Relieved for the first time since hearing the news, John glided down the stairs to his office floor. In fact, he was so relieved that he smiled and subdued an impulse to run to his office and call Jenna. He owed her a call, but not from the hallway, and not until he could come up with a reason to justify the time off. Jenna would hear the truth, but for her it was all about timing.
    John reached his office and shut the door. He needed time to organize his thoughts, so he leaned back in his fine leather chair and looked up at the ceiling as a million thoughts raced through his head. The first thought he settled on, or at least the one he let his mind settle on, was about his current level of preparedness. Was he ready for a disaster on the scale of a Yellowstone Caldera eruption?
    John knew that a disaster that killed a lot of people, but left resources relatively untouched, was better than a disaster that destroyed all the resources, but left a lot of people alive. It was a hard and cruel fact, but survival hinged on the availability of resources – basic resources, like food and water. Disaster survival boiled down to a simple matter of resource availability and consumption.
    The more people that survived a disaster, the more resources they would need to stay alive. He considered the effects of a pandemic, or any type of biological outbreak that introduced a high mortality rate. Such a disaster would be a good example of taking many lives, but leave resources pretty much intact. John recalled the story, “The Earth Abides” by George R. Stewart. Even “The Stand,” by Stephen King, speculated on a high mortality rate with a high rate of resource availability.
    Numerous authors have speculated on survival following an economic collapse, but any disaster that doesn’t claim human lives, that doesn’t “thin the herd,” would make survival very challenging. Restricted, or severely diminished food and water supplies, will result in a devastating loss of human life under any circumstances, but especially after a disaster.
    John considered a disaster that would leave both population and resources relatively untouched, and he settled on the ever popular Electro-Magnetic Pulse, or EMP scenario. In John’s opinion, the most entertaining book ever written on the subject was that by William Forstchen, titled “One Second After.”
    Though Forstchen’s idea was entertaining, John thought it was a bit unrealistic in places. Sure, people have become entirely dependent on electricity, but a complete and total collapse of the power grid, be it froman EMP or a CME, was fantasy for John. He was prepared to live without electricity.
    He was also bothered with how Forstchen handled the needs of the main character’s diabetic daughter. Abby, John’s only daughter, was also a T1D, but he would never stand around and watch as she died without insulin. Sure, it was only a story, but the truth of it in John’s life hit home. He would give his life for his daughter, and do everything in his power to guarantee hers.
    John’s only fear about an EMP or CME event that killed the power, is that he could be far from home with nothing but his suit and tie as survival gear. It’s one of the reasons he carried a gun, and kept a go-to bag in both cars. His Suburban wasn’t equipped with electronic fuel injection, but he wasn’t willing to bet his life on the assumption that he would be able to drive it home when every car on the street was