Read When the Power Is Gone: A Powerless World - Book 1 for Free Online

shoulder. Smoked meat lasted longer, too.
    Russ looked at his son with a sad smile. “Rusty, have you heard of the rule of threes?” Rusty shook his head. Russ continued. “The rule of threes is this: you can last three minutes without air; three days without water; three weeks without food. In three days, people will likely be out of food and water. Most people don’t have enough food in their house to last a week. The grocery store only has enough food on the shelves for about 72 hours’ worth to feed the immediate surrounding community. And there won’t be any trucks bringing any more. In three days, people will start leaving their homes, looking for food sources. They will have figured out the government is not coming to rescue them, or at least that it’s going to take longer than they first thought. They will start to get desperate to find food and water for themselves and their families. We don’t have a lot of neighbors out here, but that doesn’t make us safe. The scent of food cooking carries a long way when there are no other smells, like exhaust, filling the air. People will follow their noses, especially if they are already hungry. We don’t want to lead them here. Understand?” Rusty looked at his dad and nodded.
    “What do we do if they come here anyway, Dad? What if they try to take our food and water?” There was a slight quiver to his voice, though he was trying hard to hide it.
    Russ looked him in the eye and said, “We stop them, Son. We have to stop them. This is our food and water, our supplies. We bought them, we stored them, we planned for something like this. It is not our fault if they didn’t, and it is not our responsibility to take care of them now. The people in this house, and Monroe and Millie, are the only ones we are taking care of now. If that sounds harsh, or greedy, or inhumane, it is what it is. I’m not sorry for feeling this way. This is it. Everything you have known in life is changing, right now, in ways you can’t imagine yet. We have to be willing to do whatever is necessary to survive.” With that said, Russ fired up the smoker and put the meat on to cure.
     
    ****
     
    Russ looked around, smiled and tried to lighten the mood. “Gang, it looks like we are pretty much on the way to completing stage one, which was setting up for round one. Does anybody have any questions?” We all looked at each other, shook our heads, and let a little bit of the tension seep out of our bodies. It was after noon, and I realized we had missed breakfast and lunch. Great wife and mother I was – the first day of the apocalypse, and I was already forgetting to feed the family.
    Just as I was heading back into the kitchen to figure out what to fix, I smelled the delicious aroma of chicken. Janet had snuck inside and put on a pot of chicken soup. She was standing at the stove, stirring and tasting, like any cook worth her salt. She looked at me with a big grin and said, “I found this chicken in the freezer, along with some veggies and noodles. You said pull it and cook it, so lunch is ready!”
    I called the guys in, and they all headed for the table. Like a traffic cop, I stood in the way, one hand on my hip, the other held up in a “stop right there” motion. “Ok, gentlemen, let’s get one thing straight right now. NOBODY eats without washing his hands. For that matter, let me give you a quick rundown of the new sanitation rules. Wash your hands EVERY TIME you go to the bathroom. I don’t care why you went, wash. At the very least, if you only peed, use the anti-bacterial gel. The other, wash your hands, with soap. No exceptions. If you touch anything outside the house, wash before you come in. There is not going to be any minor emergency clinics, or doctor’s offices, or hospitals we can count on, so we have to be diligent in keeping things as clean as we can. In emergency situations, as many people die from disease as anything else. We’re going to set up a wash tub on