Chapter 1

Day 1 Friday April 13 2007 3 days to impact

I was reading on the computer like I usually do to pass the time of day and night when I noticed that it was about time for Red Eye to come on Fox. For us on the east coast it comes on at 2 a.m. So I turned off the monitor and headed to bed to watch the show and to get some sleep. I turned on the TV and had been in bed for about 15 minutes when the alert came on the screen for an important announcement. I lay there and waited for them to get around to breaking the news to me I figured someone semi important must have died or a plane or something might have gone down I didn't expect what I heard.

Mygen Kelly came on the screen she didn't look calm and businesslike like she usually was she looked nervous and upset. I heard her take a deep breath to calm herself and she started to talk.

"Fox News just received word from an unnamed high ranking source in the government that a 20 kilometer wide asteroid is due to impact somewhere in North America four days from now. This information has been confirmed by several sources we have at NASA."

"The source went on to tell Fox News that the government does have a plan in the works to try to deal with the asteroid. The problem is with little time to prepare for the asteroid and limited equipment available the plan can not be put into action until almost the last minute. One or our sources at NASA said that "We would like to see the asteroid dealt with as far away from the earth as possible giving us the best chance at deflecting the asteroid. But with no rockets readily available that could launch a warhead or multiple warheads into orbit we will have to strip down ICBM's of all but one warhead giving them a slim chance at making it into earths orbit and hitting the asteroid."

"The source at NASA also stated "That they have never planned for a rogue asteroid like this, all the plans that they have deal with asteroids that would have been spotted one or two years away. An asteroid not being spotted until it is 3 weeks away from impacting the earth leaves very little time to prepare a plan to deal with it."

I sat there stunned. They started to bring all sorts of "experts" on to tell us regular people what to expect from a 20 kilometer rock hitting the earth would do. I already knew that if nothing was done that we were dead. We just didn't know it yet. So I had to make a decision. Should I sit here and wait for the end of the world to come to me or start preparing and pray that my government would do something to help the situation. What the hell, I decided. What would it hurt if I made some preparations and hoped beyond hope to live through it.

I needed a plan of action. First I should get in touch with friends and family and get them to come up here and be part of the plan. I had some really talented friends and they will come in handy for what is going to happen. Second we need weapons, lots of weapons, and preferably military grade. A hunting rifle is good on a hunt but not in a fire fight. Third we need food and supplies to last at least two years maybe more, it will take at least that long for the weather to get back to normal where we can start growing our own food again. Fourth we had to get items that we will use in the rebuilding process.

I got out of bed and headed for the phone and my phone book. It was time to wake some people up: My best friend Tim in Florida, my sister Cathy in Gloucester Virginia, my mother who was away on vacation, my father in Warrenton Virginia Al, Archie, Kate, Mark, Tim in Newport News, Tim in New York, Betsy in Staunton Virginia.

First call was to my adopted father figure and best friend Tim in Tampa Florida.

"Tim it's John."

"What's the matter? Why are you calling so late?" he asked curtly.

Trying to be calm "I need you to go turn on the news and see the special report that is on. Then we will talk."

"Can't we just do this in the morning?"

"No, you need to go and do it right now," I said sternly.

"All right I'm going. What the hell is this all about?"

"I would tell you but you probably would not believe me. It's better if the news people tell you about it."

Tim got quiet as he watched the new reports. After a minute of so I heard him call for his wife, Anita. They both where quiet as they watched the news and got the information.

"John, this is quite wake up call," Tim said when he came back on the phone.

"I know it is and I am sorry. We don't have much time to get prepared for the impact, and we need to get the ball rolling."

"What do you mean, 'get the ball rolling'?""

"I mean we need to get people and supplies up here to the mountain so when we live through the impact of the asteroid we have a chance of living through the aftermath."

"So you think we will live through the impact?"

I sighed "I don't know but if we do we better be prepared and be someplace that we can survive the aftermath of the impact. I want to get everyone we know, equipment, food and other supplies up to the mountains where I live. Where you are in Florida is nothing but a deathtrap. If the government does manage to do something to the asteroid and a piece hit's the Atlantic. Florida is going to be covered by a giant tidal wave. You need to get going as soon as you can and get your butt up here where I am."

"Where you're at, is it a good spot to survive the aftermath?"

"I think it is. There are a couple hundred acres of land to work with. We have five mountain ranges between us and the Atlantic. The place is a couple of miles back in a valley and best of all it is located in the boonies, with not that many people around."

"So what do we do?"

"Get you and Anita headed north. Bring whoever you want along with you, and pick up as much equipment and supplies as you can along the way. Just keep in mind you have 4 days till impact and the government is most likely going to try to nuke the asteroid so you have to take into account a EMP pulse that is going to happen early in the day on Monday. So if you are not up here by then you better be in vehicles that aren't affected by the EMP pulse."

"What are you doing while we are traveling?"

"I am going to call everyone I know and try to get them to come up here. After that I am going to get weapons, food and supplies to survive the aftermath and to rebuild after things start to get back to normal."

I heard a muffled conversation over the phone. Then Tim came on the line and said," Consider us on the way. We will get in touch with Chris and Travis, and we will be up there as soon as we can."

"I can't wait to see you. Just be careful on your way up here. There are going to be some crazy people out so watch your back."

"Will do. See you in a couple of days."

The rest of the conversations I had where about the same. I told them to turn on the news. When they got the gist, I told them that I was preparing to live through this asteroid and the aftermath. I told them to bring up who they wanted to but to remember to leave soon because in a couple of hours all hell was going to break loose. I also told them to bring weapons and all the ammo they could get there hands on.

I was able to get in touch with just about everyone on my list, except for Tim and his family in Hampton and Tim living in New York. I also had trouble getting in touch with Archie, but I left a message on his machine, I just hoped he would listen to it. Then there was Betsy, I thought long and hard whether to call her or not, but when it came right down to it I still loved the girl no matter what she had done to me in the past.

The last person I called was my friend Lisa and her husband Mike. They bought in too, and I told them to meet me in an hour at the gun shop in Franklin, West Virginia.

I was thankful that I had decided to get that exercise bike two months ago and my knees where doing better than they had been. I got dressed, grabbed my .45 from beside the bed and grabbed the holster and web belt. I used it as a shoulder holster because, being so fat, I didn't have a waist. I also grabbed my gun bag that held extra ammo, my military Mossberg, and headed for the truck.

My truck is a 1989 GMC Suburban, with a 6.2 liter diesel engine, which will probably come in real handy after the government gets done with the asteroid. I worried about an EMP pulse if the government tried to take the asteroid out with a nuke, which was likely. Any vehicle with an electronic ignition would be rendered useless. The thing about my truck is it does not have that. You keep it fed with diesel and it will run till something in the engine breaks.

I headed out for Franklin but when I got to Tony's house I decided to pull in. He is a mechanic and can just about fix anything so I figured he would be a great person to have.

I banged on the door. Tony came out and he was pissed.

"WHO IS IT!" Tony shouted.

"Tony, its John Williams. I need to talk to you it's an emergency." I shouted through the door.

Tony opened the door "What do you want?"

"Go to the TV and turn the news on."

He did, and once I got him back to reality, I dropped my plan onto him.

"Tony, I want to go get food and whatever we can think of to get us through this asteroid alive."

"But the news just said that if the asteroid hits, no one would survive," Tony said.

"That is true, especially for us here in the United States where it is supposed to impact. But I am hoping that the government will come through in destroying the asteroid or diverting it to hit somewhere else. I want to be prepared to live until the earth can support us again, which will be about 2 to 3 years after the impact. Then we will need people like you with your mechanical skills and know-how," I said.

He had a far off look when I finished talking, like I just turned his world upside down.

"So are you in?" I said hoping I had persuaded Tony to join the cause.

"I don't know I will have to discuss it with my family and will let you know," Tony said weakly.

"That's fine, but I have to go get started. Let me know what you decide," I said.

I shook his hand and headed for the door. I was running late to meet Lisa and Mike in Franklin.

It took me an hour to get there. It is not a good thing to speed on route 220 at night. The last thing I needed was a deer to jump out and damage the front end of the truck. I pulled into the parking lot at 5 a.m. and saw Lisa and Mike, waiting for me. I backed up to the door of the gun store.

"Hope I didn't keep you guy's waiting long, but I stopped off to talk to Tony about joining our little band," I said.

"That is a good idea Tony is a great guy and a great mechanic," Lisa said.

"Yeah, he would be a good addition to our group, but he said he had to talk it over with Traci and KC and that he would let us know if they will join us," I said.

"Yeah, it is not a decision to make without talking to your wife and kid," Lisa said.

"I agree with you there. I guess it's time to see if we can get into the store," I said looking towards the store.

"That shouldn't be a problem because Joe, the owner of the store, is in there loading stuff out the back," Mike said.

I went over to the door and knocked and Joe came over with a gun in hand "What do you want?" Joe said while giving me a stern look.

"I want the same thing you are getting for yourself. I need more guns and ammo if we are going to make it through the asteroid hitting the earth," I said smiling.

He looked at me closely for a minute and then opened the door. "I am getting the things I need for my collection at home, but you are welcome to the rest. Besides, in a couple of days we may not be around for them to make a difference," Joe said.

"Well I hope you are wrong about that, but I thank you very much for the guns and ammo," I said.

That guy is a class act. Time to go to work. I opened the back doors of the Suburban and we went into the shop to see what was left. It didn't look like he had taken all that much. There where a few empty spaces but most of the stuff was still there, and he was nice enough to leave everything open and unlocked. I went into the back room and almost fainted. The man definitely had the survivalist mentality. He had stuff stacked everywhere. I started looking for what I might need if I did live through the impact of the asteroid, but then I decided to just take it all.

With all the rich people coming from the DC area too buy up land for a weekend getaways. I heard some stories about what you can buy at the shop if you had the money. So I expected to find some nice stuff inside the store, like the big .50 caliber Barrett rifle, the AK47's and the M16's. What I did not expect to find was the 20 mm rifle there. Talk about a big rifle the bloody thing weighs almost 70 pounds. He even had extra barrels for it including the one that also allowed it to fire the 14.5 mm Russian ammo. Talk about someone looking for overkill.

The first thing I grabbed was an MP5 and extra clips for it. I didn't want to get caught with my pants down if there was a fire fight. Then we just started grabbing stuff and loading it into the Suburban. Once we had all the guns loaded, we started on the ammo, and there was lots of it. I had a feeling I was going to run out of room so I got everything I could into the Suburban and headed over to the U-haul place. I hooked up to a big 6x12 foot trailer and hauled it back over to the store.

I made sure we got all the ammo and all the reloading equipment. By the time we where done, the sun was coming up and the store had been just about stripped of everything. We would still need more stuff for the long run, but this was a great start. At least I didn't feel like we would be outgunned in a fire fight now. I got in the truck and we headed back to the house.

I was glad to be getting out of there when I did because people were starting to come into the parking lot. The parking lot was shared with the IGA grocery store and I guess people were thinking about food and supplies for after the impact. I was thinking about that also, but I thought that instead of going to the store, we would go to the supply depot. On the way home, I stopped to top off all the tanks in the truck. There are three in the Suburban, the main tank with 65 gallons and two 20 gallon saddle tanks. Lucky for me I had not been doing much driving so it did not cost much to top them off. What I did have to do was wait my turn because, even at 7 in the morning, it was busy there at the pumps.

By the time we made it home I was beat. My whole body hurt. So much for the workouts I started. My knees where killing me but I knew I still had work to do, and I would have time to rest while I was headed for Staunton to get supplies. I was glad to get home and I got the truck and trailer into my stepfathers shop. It was a tight fit but I hoped it would keep the truck and what was in it semi-safe while I made other trips into town to get supplies.