Curtain Fall: Second Edition, Disaster, Preparedness, Survival, Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 1) by Kenneth Cary

blocking his path.
    Then there’s celestial impacts. John recalled “Lucifer’s Hammer,” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. They speculated on disaster survival following the effects of a large meteor impact. As hard as it is to accept celestial impacts as a threat, they are real and they do exist. John recalled reading an article in the newspaper a few years ago about a large chunk of rock, one the size of a school bus. The meteor passed within the moon’s orbit of the earth, and it received surprisingly little press. Apparently people aren’t interested in hearing how space, that vast empty expanse that surrounds us, poses a very real threat to human existence.
    Then there’s war, the most devastating of all disasters known to man. Few people realize that we’ve lost more people to war than to any other disaster, or combination of disasters, across time. John felt American’s tended to forget how lucky they were to not have war within their borders. Not since the Civil War has warfare plagued America. But as bloody as that war was, it still didn’t result in total chaos. Average American citizens weren’t looting and killing each other in the city streets, or fighting for their daily survival.
    Given the size of America, and the freedoms afforded by the Second Amendment, a foreign invasion was unlikely. But a nuclear attack wasalways possible. There was a number of foreign countries that would love nothing more than to see America brought to its knees through the use of nukes, but as long as the ability to retaliate remained viable, it probably wouldn’t come to that.
    John wondered how many nukes it would take to bring America to its knees without also destroying its vast and vital resources. Or worse yet, how many nukes would it take to destroy America altogether. Nuclear explosions meant radioactive fallout, and the more fallout, the more it would spread around the world. There was a point of diminishing returns when it came to nuclear exchange. A man-made pandemic was more likely. But even then, only a madman would consider any option that could return the favor.
    John didn’t think one nuclear detonation would stand America on its head, but he thought ten or twelve of them might do the trick. It wasn’t a comforting thought, knowing the potential destruction of nuclear devices like he did, but John reasoned it was low on his overall threat list. “Then again, so were super volcanoes until this morning,” thought John.
    John rose from his chair and walked to the window. He looked out across the city and took in the hustle and bustle of city life as it moved along on the streets below. The problem with natural disasters, he knew, at least to our current, modern mode of thinking, was that none before have ever communicated a national level threat.
    No hurricane, earthquake, volcano, flood, or severe weather pattern, has ever impacted America enough to stand it on its head. No disaster has ever resulted in large scale social chaos, that being a sure sign of the absence of law and order. America has faced disruptions in food, water, fuel and electricity, but those events were, at most, regional in nature. There had always been someone, somewhere, to come to the rescue of those in need in other parts of the country.
    John’s cell phone rang with Jenna’s telltale ring-tone. He walked over to his desk and picked it up. “Yes dear?”
    “You busy?”
    “Not at the moment. Why? What’s up?”
    “I’m on my way to Dallas for the JDRF fundraising meeting. Just thought I’d check in on you.”
    “I’m actually glad you called. What do you think of me staying home tomorrow? I’ve asked for some time off . . . the next couple of days to be exact.”
    “Really?” Jenna sounded suspicious but thrilled. She knew John never took time off outside of yearly scheduled family vacations, at least not without a good reason. “Is everything okay? You didn’t get in a fight with your boss did you?”
    “Ha ha.