The Bug Out - A short story

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ditto on the close to the highway thing.

I'm about one mile away from I-95 here in Florida. On the road that intersects mine here is a bridge going over the Interstate, so I'm sure some of the mobs of folks coming up from south Florida will take a 'shopping detour'

While I have 2.5 acres fenced in with a lot of trees hiding the property, I worry that I am still too close to the evacuation route.

Personally, I'd probably bug-in for a few days, post guards at the bridge amongst my neighbors (if they will band together!) and then relocate to a more remote area if my fears of invading masses come true.

I'm about 45 miles from downtown Orlando as the crow flies, so I guess I'm out of the blast area if it were a dirty nuke situation, but on a peninsula like Florida, the direction of the wind really depends on the time of day.
 
"...the last thing he heard was his daughter screaming."

She was screaming at the four pickup trucks full of their friends who had been following them from the start. One burly friend ran up to them and snatched her away in his huge arms, while the rest of the 27 Bubbas unloaded 150 rounds of 00-buck 12ga into the slimy bad guys. Joe's chest pain began to subside as he inhaled more and more cool air. He was sure glad he had been a little prepared, and this incident would never be repeated in his lifetime. Or, write your own ending. The only thing missing is the tin-foil. Say, D-Day, "....passing through Indy and Dayton on a usual route....." will take you directly through the fallout cloud from Chicago and the lake-effect. Use lots of duct-tape.
 
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I would most likely be at work when "it" happens which would suck. I am in the military and would most likely be "locked down" away from my wife since we reside off base. I would be safe but I would not know about my family and I would just have to "press on" and do my job.
 
all I can say is WOW!! I loved this story, and the ending really makes one think. I really think you should try to get this published. the beginning kinda reminded me of "panic in the year zero". awesome story.
 
Considering that I was expecting a happy ending and didn't get one, it's a story that will definitely stick in my mind. Although I do think the teenagers dialogue could have used a bit more work. That doesn't affect the moral of the story, however. Nicely done. Your otherwise realistic writing style succeeded in keeping me up past my bedtime. :p
 
thats why my bronco has a 4000lbs come-along in the back with a tow strap and a winch is going to be ordered when i get the cash (this college thing is drainign the funds)


im going to the gun store in the moring and to get a new set of mud tires lol

i dint like the ending i could deal with the mother and son but i wish the father had turned around and picked off the other attackers with the rifle..... so in other words i wish the story hadnt ended i want to read more
 
Im glad I don't live near any major metro areas. Im also glad i dont have a wife and kids.

This story pissed me off that I wasted 30 minutes and a cup of coffee on it.

It did remind me of the paranoia of 9/11. i remember here in south Kentucky everyone ran for a gas station because there was a rumor that the arabs would support the terrorism and there wouldnt be any more oil to produce gasoline. Myself and my brothers concealed carried, under 21 and obviously without license everywhere we went the next few days.

my house is my bug out location.
 
Good story, I loved the ending.

And to all the people bashing the ending, get real. What did you want, the guy to pack up all his canned good from wal mart, head out on the road, stop some bandits with his CCW and live happily ever after on MRE's and canned food?

Would seem pretty corny to me. If that was the ending then they should have just called it "another typical zombie thread"
 
my impression... be prepared for anything, guns, supplies, a plan.... and be in SHAPE... otherwise, you may just have a heart attack in a really inopportune moment...

good read..
 
this just hit me, why is it the bad guy ALWAYS have AK's!?! ALWAYS!!!
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Good point, and it seems the good guy usually has a 1911....Well, at least in this case the AK proves its worth and got the job done. I'm sick of the bad guys always losing....
 
it was good meeting ya this past weekend 1/2fast. learned a bit and opened up the brain.

the thing that i took away was the 'angels pissing' metaphor...being truely prepared is different. mindset, tactics, skill, gear

it was frustrating to read the sequence of failures and to see the end coming long before it did. we can all play the what if game..but it is just that game that will make a difference.

the P.A.C.E. analogy applied across several of the situations.

thanks again and i have 'lights out' on the bedstand.
 
I remember reading this in 2005...made quite an impression on me at the time, I was 18 or 19. The unhappy ending is very important. If SHTF, only the fittest will survive. Guns and ammo aren't even half the battle.

Buy Cheap, Stack Deep!
 
The best post I saw in regard to this story. Thought I would mention it again.

CAS700850 said:
I re-read the story last night, and two points struck me, outside of the general "ill prepared for the situation" theme of the entire work.

1. Commo gear. Two vehicles, yet no communications equipment between them. Bad move. Even a pair of FRS radios would have made a big difference. Could have co-ordinated the move of the two vehicles to the exit, which would have saved time, which may have gotten them to the bridge before the truck crash...

2. Bad decisions. Our hero seemed to be making a steady stream of bad decisions. What do I see as bad decisions.

- he didn't dress to survive. What do I mean? He put on clothes. Period. He needed to strap on the pistol, spare ammo, and some other basics so that he was prepared to address problems with what he had on his person, not having to rely on what was in the truck. Even at the gas station, he had to go to the truck for his Kimber. Good thing the guy with the tire iron wasn't really intending to do harm.

-he panicked under pressure. When the bridge was "closed," he panicked and made bad choices based upon his need to get to the farm. The long way around may have taken more gasoline, but it would have been safer that trying to forge a stream in an overloaded truck.

- he lost his common sense. The guys who ended up taking out the family were predators. They were predatros long before the first bomb went off. Our hero lost his judgment in his desire to get the truck freed, and it cost he and his family everything.

Thanks for making us think abut these things. Thinking ahead will help us make it through should it happenm for real.
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Here is how I would hae handled it int his situation.....

Get the family, let friends know. Jump in the truck with said family and leave town. Do not stop, do no pass go. If you have to hit the gas station and head north. I don't need a chainsaw, not even a lot of food or water. I just need to get to Montana.

In Montana, we have everything we need. These people overthought what they needed to take. I would bet that their in laws had some cheerios and a stick or two of beef jerky.

I think the best thing to do in that a situation where you have some pre-warning that others dont have is to get out of Dodge, get to where it is safer and then work out the parts

I could be out of my house in less than 10 minutes with enough stuff to get me to Montana.
 
I always thought BugOut ment **** before SHTF. This guy wasted valuable time rounding up clothes, even went to Wal-Mart. I live at least 100 miles from the nearest metro area, and my home is the BOL for 2 college friends that still live in that urban area. Get gass and hammer down.

Doomsday, nation is in panic, no law enforcement. possible anarchy for following weeks untill continuity can be reestablished. Fortify the BOL and always shoot first.
 
you are pre-warned

that time puts you past the roads that 2 hours later are gridlocked.

ua dont go shopping. for all that the story is well written, the story line went south at wall-mart.

or is being prepared the moral?
 
ua dont go shopping. for all that the story is well written, the story line went south at wall-mart.

or is being prepared the moral?
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Definitely "be prepared." The main character started out with a peachy-perfect situation. He knew S was HTF HOURS before anyone else. Then from then on he screwed himself by not only being ready but bad decisions along the way. He may have been able to mitigate the unreadiness by putting himself in a more secure position.
 
Good read.

Seems like the hero didn't fully develop his op plan, before the SHTF. Nor did the "team" train regularly as preparation.

Something to think about.
 
Great article. Anothe book besides Lights Out that I highly reccomend is Patriots. You can get Patriots on Fred's (M1A stocks guy) in a package with Boston's Gun Bible (worth owning).

This has got me thinking of how prepared am I. I live in earth quake country and have a backpack loaded with a 3 day of vital stuff including clothers just in case. Car has 3 day supply of food & water. A good chunk of my emergency supplies are in those plastic containers. I usually fill the car at half a tank. I've got firearms I could take. What I truely wonder is how much ammo could I take as it gets heavy fast. I keep it in those plastic ammo cans you get from Cabellas. The bigger question is where would I go and how would I get there. I've got some ideas but I really need to sit down and plan it out. Hunkering down at home has usually been my general plan and I really need to give more thought to if I ever have to leave.
 
I was going through the same debate as Dravue post (above) to how much time to spend on getting food, etc. A big lesson I got out of this would be for me to have storage in the garage locked (but easily pried into shoudl I not be home) in a cabinet so that I can better ensure family doesn't dig into it. Having a wimpy lock on it just keeps family from digging into it.

Something I read in a book once that I wanted to pass along that didn't occure to me. People often think of chickens as a good way to get eggs, etc. Another good animal stock would be rabbits. They breed, well, like rabbits and they are quiet animals so if you are rual it is less likely to draw attention of people heading for the hills.
 
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