WALL The George Collins Experience

WALL

The George Collins

Experience

Thomas G. Baker

WALL

The George Collins Experience

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or localities is entirely coincidental.

WALL The George Collins Experience

Copyright © 2012 by Thomas G. Baker

ISBN-13:  978-1466189669

Smashwords Edition

License Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.

Table of Contents

Chapter I The Collapse

Chapter II Exile and Cannibal

Chapter III Silver Glen Springs

Chapter IV The Hammer

Chapter V The Colonists

Chapter VI Mayport and the Pirates

Chapter VII Outward Bound

Chapter VIII Voyage into the Unknown

Chapter IX Visions of Empire

Chapter X Three Hour Tour

Chapter XI Homeward Bound

Appendix A

Appendix B

Dedication

This book is dedicated to those few among us who diligently strive in the quest to unlock and understand the human experience, to unearth man's past and chart his course into future. Too many times they are the voices in the wilderness, the canaries in the coal mine their cries drown out by the herd of humanity as it thunders along headed toward the wall, the ultimate wall.

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Preface

The Wall series novels are primarily written with the hope they will entertain yet they are also written to be a warning for I fear we are being seduced into complacency by our technology and those who value power and the almighty dollar far more than they value human freedom and dignity.

As a child I grew up in a country where the telephone had a crank and hung on the wall, the only means of communication with the outside world was by mail or telegram, and there was no television only the local radio station that operated for just a few hours each day. Life was much more primitive back then, yet we managed not only to function, but felt prosperous, happy, and safe.

Since then I’ve watched the world go through monumental changes many good, some not so good. We have made extraordinary strides in technology and have managed to triple the human population yet the goal of creating a better world for all is further from our grasp then it was over a half century ago.

I love and respect nature, and absolutely feel it should be protected, yet feel the current brand of environmentalism is for the most part a ploy, designed to keep us sipping the cool-aid until we are left with no other choices but to eat beetle flour, drink recycled urine, and live in an impoverished world where Big Brother and giant corporations control every aspect of our diminished existence. What we should be asking ourselves is one simple question; just why in the hell is it so necessary to continue increasing population in order to prop up the bottom line when we have no hope of adequately caring of those already here?

Like it or not we are firmly on course for a collision with destiny and if we have learned anything from our past mistakes it is that nothing ever gets fixed before it breaks and this will certainly hold true with the human bubble as well. Can something like Wall really happen? You bet it can, as almost always common sense takes a back seat when it conflicts with human economic enterprise. We need to remain cognizant of the fact that the same folks who precipitated the financial disaster are also influencing the decisions that affect every aspect of our lives and future.

Exactly how or when it will happen is pure conjecture all I can do is present the reader with one possible scenario, unfortunately there are many others far worse. Let me finish by saying that I have been wrong about many things over my lifetime and I certainly hope I am wrong about this as well. ****

Introduction

We live in the age of information and a global economy. We have within the last two centuries advanced the development of mankind farther and faster than it has traveled in all of previous human existence. We have used our technology to populate the planet with more humans alive today than have existed throughout the entire history of the species.

We must stop and ask ourselves if we using this technology wisely or simply squandering it for profit and short-term gain? So far, we seem to be bent on overcoming and circumventing the walls which have kept all of nature’s creatures in balance and harmony.

The walls we are currently breaching may appear beneficial to some short-term, yet the long-term consequences could far outstrip those perceived gains and leave succeeding generations struggling for their very survival. It is maybe time for us as Gods chosen species to shed our innate drives and replace them with the precious gift bestowed on us by Nature: reason and cognizance.

After a lifetime of studying failed civilizations archeologist George Collins is one of the few with the foresight to see the impending collapse. He is under no illusions as to what may occur and so begins to turn his plans of retirement into ones of survival.

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Chapter I The Collapse

The sun's lower limb disappeared behind the old cypress its diminished rays casting a white sheen across the quiet water. I sat in the cockpit of Surreal, cradling a mug of coffee, and watching a blue heron on the far bank stalking its evening meal. Settling back against the cushions I reflected on my situation and as I had done on so many such evenings wished once again I had been better prepared. Hell, I wished everyone had been better prepared. I wished our species had been smart enough to have avoided the whole damn thing in the first place but it was a moot point, as I doubted there were many left to do any wishing.

As I sat in the fading twilight I couldn't help wondering how many had survived. I had done my best to postulate all the possible scenarios, yet even my fertile imagination hadn't prepared me for the reality of the nightmare in which I found myself. Yeah, looking back hindsight’s twenty-twenty and I sure wished I had been better prepared. Yet in all honesty how can anyone adequately prepare for the total collapse of civilization?

I had spent my career as an archeologist digging up lost civilizations and searching for the cause of their demise. It had left me with a somewhat pessimistic view of humanity as repeatedly civilizations reached their zenith then subsequently collapsed. Many through conquest yet even the majority of these had in certain respects been weakened by some act of nature. It was a trend that appeared to reoccur throughout human existence civilizations rose then perished. Many such as the Mayans, Egyptians, and even the Romans had fallen victim to their own relative success.

The forces responsible for bringing down these former civilizations were still present today. It was only through the liberal use of technology that enabled to us to keep them at bay. As the years passed I began to notice cracks developing in this defense that only served to reinforce my negative views. I became concerned for with our growing interdependence on the global economy any catastrophic event would with certainty affect all of civilization.

Humans are reactionary creatures by nature, myself included, and though the signs of a distressed planet were everywhere about me I chose to dismiss them. Like the rest was content to leave any problems to the next generation. Besides, I was getting long in the tooth, and figured by the time conditions went to hell I'd be pushing daisies. I projected if the wheels did indeed come off the wagon it wouldn't happen before 2030 giving me a comfortable margin.

Then came several events that overnight, changed the equation and the rapidity at which these unfolded was truly alarming. I was under no illusion as to what the worst-case scenario might be. I won't say panic overtook me just that with all creatures the innate sense of self-preservation kicked in.

There seemed to be two choices open to me, that of going with the flow, or bucking the tide. I had ample experience with both and decided, after weighing my options to go with the latter. It wasn't an easy decision but I saw it as the only viable alternative to what could ultimately result in a horrible way to die. I also knew once I reached my decision there would be no turning back.

Although I had never considered myself a survivalist I retained enough of my redneck upbringing that I could easily buy into the rifle, dog, and four-wheel philosophy, even though at present I possessed none of the necessary items. However, what I did have in abundance, were my childhood memories of roaming the Kentucky woods and emulating the skills of my pioneer forebearers. I also included the many years of experience spent camping in out-of-the-way places for months on end living in primitive conditions at archeological digs.

Over my lifetime, I had watched and listened to enough newspeak to have acquired the knack of sifting through all the rubbish for the few gems it contained. These gems, when strung together, began to paint a bleak picture. In short, civilization was beginning to show the stress cracks wherein lay the seeds of its destruction. They were simple, primarily food, and fuel, lumped together with a little known fact I had come across in my research that stated, "Planet Earth could only support approximately ten million humans living as pure hunter-gatherers."

I began to theorize, if there was such an enormous gap between ten million and seven plus billion, given the right set of circumstances we could find ourselves caught up for the first time in global famine. If so, just the weight of a starving human population could conceivably cause a chain reaction, not unlike the World Trade Center collapse where the weight of the floors set up a cascading effect.

World Famine would act in a similar fashion as billions of starving humans ate their way down the food chain, causing the collapse of humanity and the extinction of almost all major food species as well. It was likely to happen abruptly so once it begun there would be nothing that could slow or arrest it. It was hard to contemplate yet as an archeologist I had come across it many times on a much smaller scale.

Overpopulation had been a much-debated subject and even gained international prominence in the sixties. I guess it became too much of a political and financial liability for it was suddenly dropped, and even its mention was taboo. I found out just how much of a liability when a trusted graduate student of mine came across a couple of drafts I had written in moments of frustration and put them on the web. I was ridiculed, berated, and told I should stick to digging up pots and bones. Students began referring to me as Dr. Doom and finally under growing pressure I relinquished my tenure and went into retirement at fifty-eight.

Retirement had put me in a quandary, sorta too old to work, and too young to die. Sitting on the porch rocking away my life didn't present an appealing option and so I began to search for something a bit more challenging.

I had always owned powerboats and enjoyed being on the water. I thought, maybe it would be interesting to sail through the Caribbean, visiting each island, then for an encore the places where I had worked in Central America. With a plan in place, I sold my house and 32-foot express cruiser then purchased an old 30-foot Hunter sloop small enough to single hand.

I envisioned the perfect picture of retirement pursuing a life of debauchery as I cruised through the Caribbean, lying around drunk, and chasing bare bosomed maidens. Maybe I’d even publish a few papers from all the research I had accumulated over the years. I even toyed with doing a little chartering or delivery so went ahead and obtained a hundred-ton masters license.

I happened to be in the tiny town of Astor, Florida on the St. Johns River outfitting Surreal for my coming adventure when world events suddenly took a turn for the worse. Overnight, my plans changed, and like a ship in distress I franticly began searching for a safe harbor in which to ride out the coming storm.

I had a gut feeling what was coming would be far worse than anything predicted as the fabric holding civilization together had been severely weakened over the past generations.

To best explain these concerns, I used the analogy of railroads. For most of human existence each country, region, or tribe could be considered as a self-sufficient railroad. Over the course of history, there had been many derailments and breakdowns yet they hadn’t necessarily affected the other railroads that also being self-sufficient just kept chugging blissfully along.

Globalization had radically changed this paradigm and in order to maximize profit and supply a burgeoning human population these individual rail systems had been dismantled or incorporated into one gargantuan global system. The majority of the world’s population had been coaxed, cajoled or coerced into climbing on board and entrusting those in charge with their wellbeing and safety.

Those in charge, let’s call them the board of directors, consisted of multinational corporations and financial institutions whose primary goal was the making of money. These giants had grown so powerful they routinely exerted more influence over a government than could its citizens. Corporations and financial institutions have never been known for their altruism and morality yet they currently held sway over the vast majority of the world’s population.

Any type of derailment could prove disastrous to the passengers, yet in order to facilitate profits much of the redundancy along with safeguards had been stripped from the system. I had come to feel it wasn’t a matter of if there would be a train wreck, but only a matter of when.

I had no illusions, it was coming and I needed to prepare for the worst-case scenario yet there was no certainty of just how fast or when circumstances would overtake me. I began to feel like the unfortunate folks who believed in the rapture as I sold off those worldly possessions I felt would no longer be of need. I traded one car for a twenty-one foot center console Wellcraft with a Honda four-stroke and begun my search of the St. Johns River intent on finding a safe refuge.

I believed in this crisis there would be no safety in numbers because as resources dwindled and infrastructure crumbled there was a real danger of widespread starvation. If I intended to survive, it would necessitate my separating from the general population. I would have preferred sailing off to some deserted South Seas island but knew such places no longer existed. The best I could hope for was to find someplace along the St Johns to call home.

I explored the river south of Astor, as it was mostly impenetrable swamp and offered the best hope of finding some place well off the beaten track. It had taken about a week before I came to settle on Alexander Creek as I could worm the Hunter with her four-foot draft in about a quarter of a mile from the river.

I then set my sights on exploring further up the creek in the canoe as it was going to be essential to find a source of clean drinking water. I made several excursions before coming upon a small spring that fit the bill. The spring was close enough so that by taking a drum in the canoe and using a small battery operated pump I could keep the sail boats seventy gallon water tank topped off.

With the basic scouting out-of-the-way it was time to begin shopping. Shopping needed to be done with some urgency and I spared no expense for I believed money would become worthless in the not to distant future. Also it was necessary to procure supplies while the stores were still relatively full and prices were just beginning to rise.

Food was an essential item on my list as outside of fish and game anything I didn't take along I would have to do without.

I spent much time in an attempt to work out what would be needed to sustain me for a period of a year or better. It was no easy task to project menus and needs months in advance but eventually I worked out a list I hoped would suffice.

I began buying cases of all manner of canned goods as they were likely to keep. Such things as corn, green beans, spinach, beets, spaghetti sauce, soup… when I had satisfied the list down to rolled anchovies with capers, I started on the other goods. Such things as flour which was already becoming scarce, spaghetti, macaroni, salt, sugar, powdered milk and lots and lots of coffee. Collecting enough cigarettes for a lifetime wasn't an option, I was going to have to quit cold turkey, but I damn sure wasn't going to do without coffee. I procured what I considered better than a two-year supply. I tried to purchase MREs and survival foods but the demand was such as to make them unattainable.

To store everything I rounded up a dozen blue plastic 55-gallon open head drums, these I filled with a selection of canned goods and staples then sealed the lids. The contents of each drum I conservatively estimated contained enough provisions to last well over a month. I carefully planned so the loss of any individual drum wouldn't necessarily affect things overall. I was hoping to supplement the food in the drums with whatever fish and game I would be able to come by.

I filled one drum with diesel fuel even though it was already more than ten dollars a gallon. There would be great difficulty in manhandling a full drum by myself, this was circumvented by taking the empty to the creek and over time filling it from five-gallon jugs, and then it was also hidden.

So far I had been lucky as only a couple of fishermen ventured into the creek. None had caught me red-handed in the act of hiding my booty and I had always been in a position to grab a pole and pretend I was catching supper. These days everyone fished, so it had raised no one's suspicions.

With my precious food stores carefully hidden, it was time to gather hardware and dry goods. First on the list came fishing tackle, as it would be necessary to catch as much fish as possible, hooks of all sizes, and line all the way up to two hundred pound test suitable for alligators. Then materials to make trot lines along with gill nets and wire to fashion fish and crab traps.

I purchased online a couple dozen leg-hold traps, PETA be damned. I had run trap lines as a kid and sold the fur. Later I came to see them as cruel but these would be used strictly for food gathering and if things got as bad as suspected I would gladly eat about anything that stepped in one.

Though I had never used one I purchased a compound bow along with a goodly number of arrows, I figured arrows would be quiet and I'd have plenty of time to practice with hunger providing an added incentive. I also bought a buck saw for cutting wood along with a couple of good machetes. Starting fires was another matter, as matches would become damp and useless. I bought a couple of cartons of plastic lighters and for backup three kits with the nifty magnesium blocks. Then there were things such as spare bulbs, candles, flashlights, and batteries. I bought all rechargeable as I could charge them from the boats electrical system or solar panels. I also purchased four cases of stove alcohol along with charcoal for the grill, although I planned to cook mostly with wood.

I already had one canoe I used for exploring but decided to acquire a spare. This canoe I took and carefully hid in the swamp as it would be insurance providing me with a means of escape in the event I was overrun or suffered some major emergency.

Solar panels were going to be essential and I needed enough to manufacture electricity for charging the boats batteries. These I had trouble obtaining but in the end managed to find enough with sufficient capacity to charge both large, AGM (absorbed glass mat), house batteries. If my calculations were correct, they would allow for the running of everything electric in the boat while the sun shined.

Armament was high on the list, in truth, I would have liked to have mounted a fifty cal. machine gun on the Hunter but settled for a 22 pistol and a semiautomatic rifle with plenty of ammo, from long rifles to shorts, the shorts would be effective at close range, and the sound wouldn't carry. I looked for a varmint gun such as a 222 Swift or 22-250 Remington but gave up and settled for a 12 gauge automatic shotgun and a dozen boxes of double-00 buck along with a couple of boxes of deer slugs. I also purchased a used M-15 only to find the trigger mechanism broken.

As I toiled away, the news continued to grow grimmer. It was as if a curtain was slowly being raised to reveal mankind at his rankest. I grew more resolute and packed the remaining drums with those things I had earlier neglected to think of. Now it was down to living day-to-day racking my brain for anything essential I had overlooked.

I sold the center console for peanuts as it had served its purpose, and soon there would no longer be gasoline to run it. There were already acute shortages and rationing was just day’s away.

Like everyone, I grumbled and griped about the deteriorating situation. Most blamed the government for its inaction and though Washington and Tallahassee tried nothing they could do had a favorable impact on the problems facing us.

Unemployment passed thirty percent. Those who still had jobs found themselves without transportation as gas was rationed and if found averaged well over fifteen dollars a gallon. Things continued on a steady decline, the news services were hard pressed to keep up, and there were constant interruptions to programming for special reports. The major networks curtailed much of their regular programming and went to all news broadcasts in the evening.

What had been fluff and human interest gave way to hard news and the anchors now wore tight-lipped expressions, as they too grew alarmed. The government was as usual behind the curve with both parties deadlocked, reduced to playing the blame game with endless rounds of argument, each pointing fingers at the other. Panels and commissions sprang up everywhere searching for solutions and assigning blame. This only added to the frustration as Americans slowly came to the realization their government was no longer in a position to arrest the decline.

Hunger is a primal force that drives all species; man is no exception. Famine had always created a need for food aid somewhere in the world. I had never known a period in my life when someplace there wasn't a disaster along with pictures of starving children with bloated bellies covered in flies. Once or twice in my travels I had come face to face with these unfortunate victims of famine, yet had gone back to my comfortable camp or hotel leaving them to their plight.

This time there was a significant difference, what had started as the usual droughts and in other cases floods, had grown to encompass many of the major food-producing regions of the world. The effects were being felt by those nations who historically had the ability not only to feed their own populations, but to export excesses.

Overnight, grain futures skyrocketed forcing closure of the markets. The United States suffering the worst drought in history tried for a bit but couldn't fill the gap. To exacerbate an already bad situation there emerged a new strain of airborne wheat rust that when combined with the drought reduced some yields by eighty percent. The US suddenly found itself down to less than a three-month supply of grain. Alarmed to find she would be hard pressed to meet domestic demands, the US quickly moved to cut off all exports, even for humanitarian purposes.

Prices and shortages became critical. Governments in the worst affected countries could no longer cope and began to fail. Chaos replaced what little civility had existed within these fragile societies and food riots broke out as starving populations desperately sought anything to fill empty bellies.

Africa was the first and hardest hit, Somalia, Southern Sudan, and Kenya found they were cut off from international aid. West Africa already weakened by a new Ebola outbreak and religious strife began to collapse. People in their search for food began to migrate pouring over the borders of their neighbors causing famine and the pernicious spread of Ebola across Sub-Saharan Africa, slowly at first then like wildfire.

Governments, overwhelmed by the famished and diseased masses, disintegrated before the onslaught leaving Africans split along religious and tribal allegiances. Soon, one faction began battling another for survival engulfing the whole of the continent in a frenzy of ethnic cleansing driven on by fear and starvation.

This in turn put enormous pressure on the North African states along the Mediterranean leading to the largest exodus in history as all manner of Africans attempted to flee into Europe. So overwhelming was this tide of starving and diseased humanity that the European Union was forced to take the unprecedented step of issuing orders to sink refugee boats at sea in an attempt to stem the pandemic from spreading. The hungry still came and thousands died at sea, yet enough got through so that Ebola began spreading across Europe creating chaos. The incidents inflamed the Muslim world, and passions flared on all sides of the Mediterranean. It was the beginning of a domino effect as ill will, food shortages, and disease began stalking the planet. People everywhere began bowing under rising food prices, shortages, and fear of infection.

Nations met to deal with the growing crisis. They grappled with the intractable problems facing humanity yet as they did, over the horizon like a dark cloud brewed events that would lead to the ultimate wall, the blow which would forever change the course of humankind.

Iran suffering under sanctions and also facing famine saw advantage in manipulating the ill will and the weakened condition of Europe. She found in it an opportunity to allay the unrest of her own people, destabilize the Sunni caliphate, and at the same time broaden her sphere of influence. The Supreme Leader issued a fatwa announcing the time had arrived for worldwide Jihad. All Muslims should rise up and rid the world of all unbelievers for they were deemed to be responsible for the crisis.

An attack was promptly launched by Arab nations on Israel. Hungry bellies and religious fervor prevailed as war erupted in the Middle East. In an instant, Israel found herself battling for her very existence as her Muslim neighbors flung themselves upon her in mass. This vicious attack from all sides without hope of outside intervention placed her back to the sea with the certainty of annihilation.

She did what would have been unthinkable in normal times and launched unrestricted attacks against Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, then even Saudi Arabia, and especially her arch nemesis Iran. Conventional warfare quickly gave way to weapons of mass destruction and the ayatollahs were granted their wish to acquire nuclear weapons. They received an ample supply delivered to them personally by the Israeli air force and navy. Overnight Tehran along with most of the major oil ports on the Gulf were literally wiped from the map. The Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf became a radioactive inferno bringing an immediate halt to all petroleum production and shipments from that region.

Once the nuclear genie had been unleashed it combined with religious fervor and all constraint evaporated. Pakistan quickly joined in the fray declaring war on India who responded, in kind, throwing all her might against her troublesome Muslim neighbor. This quickly escalated into another nuclear a conflagration killing hundreds of millions and throwing the whole of the Muslim world into war from the Philippines and Indonesia to Morocco.

Religious wars have a tendency to open long healed wounds leaving moderates little choice, but to choose sides. It became a live or die struggle of Muslim against all non-Muslims. The developed nations worldwide found themselves caught up in the turmoil as their citizens turned on the Muslims communities among them.

Europe, the United States, Great Britain, Russia, and China were all rendered impotent and could do little but go on the defensive. The Balkan states were once again torn asunder by ethnic conflict. Fighting erupted along the southern borders of Russia and though she tried to remain neutral was soon embroiled in the struggle.

With all going on, tiny North Korea was shoved into the background, forgotten, and cut off from all aid including that of China. The North feeling isolated, with a starving population, was left with no alternative but to join in the chaos consuming the globe. Thus, she unleashed her famished armies in a massive attack on the South overrunning Soul and much of the country.

America and the UN could only manage a token response. The North countered with nuclear strikes on Japan. Within the space of a month, the globe saw its fragile infrastructure torn to shreds.

Hamstrung by the worsening food shortages and now the lack of oil the superpowers met searching in a vain attempt to salvage what they could of the human race. They too found themselves helpless to arrest the downward spiral and could only agree not to widen the conflict and to use their nuclear arsenals only for defense.

Financial markets and global commerce was thrown into disarray by war. Shortages of food and oil coupled with the outbreaks of Ebola and a mysterious computer virus created critical shortages of essential parts, then of almost everything. Energy rationing went into effect, Americans and Europeans found themselves out of work as the crisis deepened, and the imports of oil dwindled to a trickle. Due to the oil shortages and fear of a pandemic, transportation