How it Will Go Down
The most frightening story you need to hear
The following story is based on real events that have played out in dozens of countries over the past 100 years. If you think this can’t happen where you live, you’re wrong. It’s already happening.
But as terrifying as this story is, know that all of it could have been easily prevented. It doesn’t have to go this way if you do a little preparation. In part two of the story I will go through the entire scenario again and show how the family could have survived and prevented each disaster that befell them.
Lets say you are the perfect family living the American Dream,
Dad is an electrical engineer with a 6 figure salary, mom is a nursing assistant, and they have three kids, two girls. 15 and 12, and a boy 7. They have a cat named Fluffy and a dog named Betsy. They live in a nice home in a nice neighborhood and the value of their home is well above the mortgage they have on it. They have health insurance and two pension funds they contribute to. They also own a BMW, a minivan, a motorcycle and a small powerboat in the garage.
Week One
Then one day Mom drives to the local mall to pick up some groceries. The first thing she notices is that a quarter of the stores in the mall have shut down. When she starts shopping at the grocery store she is shocked to see the price of a loaf of bread has gone from two dollars to five dollars. Milk went from three dollars a quart to $7.50 a quart, and ground hamburger went from $3.00 a pound to $9.00 dollars. All in all her weekly grocery bill has more than doubled from last week.
At diner that night the Mom tells Dad about the rising cost of food, but Dad has some worrying news too. The company he works for is planning to lay off 20% of the workforce. But not to worry, Dad has seniority and he won’t be one the employees that will lose their job. They turn on the TV and the nightly news tell them that the stock market is booming but due to trade tariffs the cost of living may go up by 3%.
They next day Dad gets the utility bill. And his jaw drops when he see the monthly electrical bill has gone from $300 per month to $1,200. On the way to work he stops at the gas station to fill up and is again shocked to see the cost of a gallon of gas has gone from 5 per gallon to 15 dollars. It cost $400 dollars just to fill up the tank.
That night Dad does a budget and realizes that their monthly expenses now exceed their income. They need to tighten the belt and so the first thing to go is the eldest daughters music lessons. Then middle daughters dance lessons, and also juniors Karate lessons. Dad cancels his membership at the tennis club, and Mom cancels her membership at the Pilates studio. Also no eating lunch at the café, and no more coffees from Starbucks. To save on the electric and gas bill, they need to keep most of the lights turned off, and the heat turned down. Everyone will need to wear a sweater in the house. Also Mom and Dad will have to carpool to save on gas. Dad will drop Mom off at work and pick her up after he gets off work.
The next day Dad learns that the company plans to lay off another 30% of the work force. Everyone at the office is tense and nervous. Dad still has seniority, but just to be on the safe side, he starts to send out his resume. What Dad doesn’t know is that over 50,000 other electrical engineers are also sending out their resumes and most would work for a lot less money than Dad is currently earning.
Week Two
The next week Mom goes to buy the weeks groceries but discovers that the mall is closed. She drives through town looking for a grocery store that’s still in business passing storefront after storefront that have been closed down with plywood over the windows and ‘For Lease’ signs everywhere.
She finally finds a store still open and goes inside. Half the shelves are empty and bread now goes for $25 per loaf and milk at $50 a quart. Mom can barely afford a quarter pound of ground hamburger and a half dozen packs of instant noodles. Mom also buys a couple of cans of cat food figuring if she mixes it in with the noodles no one will notice. At least it will be enough to feed the family for a few days.
When she exits the store she is confronted by dozens of women and children begging for food. Mom rushes past the beggars with her small supply of groceries and notices groups of men lurking in the parking lot. Mom ducks down between the cars and carefully makes her way back to her car, gets in and speeds away with the men running down the road after her.
That night there is a banging on the front door. It’s their neighbor Bob from three doors down. He’s begging for food. He tells them he’s been laid off and his family hasn’t eaten in three days. He’s wild eyed and desperate. Mom scoops a bowlful of noodles and cat food into a baggie and gives it to him, “That’s all we can spare, I’m sorry” she says.
Later that night they hear a gunshot. Bob has committed suicide.
Dad decides they need to sell the motorcycle, the boat and the extra car. But everyone is selling, and no one has money to buy. He sells the $15,000 motorcycle for $200 dollars, the car fetches $150. And no one wants the boat. Not enough money to even buy a weeks worth of food. They only thing that still has some value is gold and silver. They go through Mom’s jewelry case to find anything with gold or silver in it. Mom hands Dad her engagement and wedding rings.
Dad decides they also need to cash in their retirement plans, the jewelry and retirement funds should last them two months.
Week Three
That Monday, Mom finds out she has been let go. The hospital where she worked can no longer afford to keep such a large staff on hand. Mom waits in the hospital cafeteria, that no longer serves food, all day for her husband to come and pick her up.
The next day Dad arrives at work to find his co-workers gathered outside the front doors that had been locked up with a sign in the window that simply said “Out of Business” No one was even allowed in to clean out their desks. There will be no severance pay and no pension.
That night, Dad calls all his friends, business associates, college alumni and even high school friends he hasn’t seen in 20 years asking for help finding work. Dad never received even one response from the 300 resumes he sent out. But the story is always the same, everyone is being a laid off, and no one is hiring, but one person told Dad if he goes to the closed down mall and waits in the parking lot, there’s a chance he’ll be hired as a day labourer doing construction or yard work. Dad left the house at 4 am to walk the 6 miles to the mall where he milled about with 80 other men until 10 at night. He did that everyday for a week, but no one came around to offer any work and Dad didn’t go back.
That night, there was the sound of breaking glass and yelling coming from down the street. The sky in the distance lit up from the fires started in some of the abandoned houses. There were no longer any emergency sirens. The police, ambulance, and fire departments were not responding to 911 calls.
The next morning Dad gets some tools and lumber from the garage and boards up all the ground floor windows. He goes in the attic and retrieves great grandpa’s 1911 colt 45 he had brought back from the war. There were 5 bullets in the box and Dad loaded them in the magazine.
Mail was no longer being delivered to homes and Mom had to bicycle 5 miles to the post office once a week to pick up the mail. There was a letter from the township announcing that property taxes had been quadrupled and made retroactive and that they now owed 9,000 dollars in back taxes. The electric bill had doubled again. Instead of having 2 months’ worth of money to pay expensed, they were now six months behind.
There was nothing left to do but sell the house. Dad called a real estate agent he met at a Lions Club meeting but the number was out of service. He called another ten brokers listed in the yellow pages until he found one that answered the phone. She told Dad that they would no longer represent sellers. Everyone was selling, and no one was buying. She entered his address into the computer and told him the average selling price for homes in his area. It was less than half their modest mortgage. Even if they could find a buyer, they would still owe money. The real estate agent confided that Dad’s best option was to stop paying all bills and live in the home and save as much money as they can until they are evicted.
Week Four
The next day the power was cut, so were the gas, and the phones. It was fortunate they had a fireplace in the den and so they brought down their mattresses and blankets and everyone slept in the den. Dad would stay up late to feed the fire so they wouldn’t all wake up freezing at 4 in the morning.
There was no money to buy pet food for Fluffy and Betsy and both were looking thin. Although an indoor cat, Mom let Fluffy out in the hopes that her instincts would return and she could hunt for herself. Dad would take give a couple of spoonful’s of his food to Betsy, but it wouldn’t be enough.
Fluffy never came back.
One night the middle daughter developed an chronic cough. Mom checked and she had a high fever. Mom’s nursing experience told her she was suffering from respiratory bacterial infection. She needed antibiotics but they would need to visit a clinic first. Thank god they still had health insurance.
Dad siphoned the gas from the boat’s tank and hoped it would be enough to drive their daughter to the nearest hospital. The hospital was packed. They had to park a mile away and when they arrived at emergency there were 200 people there yelling and screaming at the doze n heavily armed security guards that surrounded the admissions desk.. They waited 14 hour to reach reception. They were then told that their health insurance company had increased the deductible to $10,000 and that a doctor’s consultation would cost $6,000 cash in advance. No amount of begging and pleading would get their daughter admitted without the up front payment.
When they got home, Mom bundled middle daughter up in blankets and lit the fire to keep her warm since she was running a fever now. Mom used every home remedy she could think of to treat her daughter, but while the symptoms eased a little, she wasn’t getting better either.
The next day, eldest daughter announced she was leaving to work at the seedy strip club outside of town. A girlfriend told her that she could earn $2000 a week, and if she were to take on a few clients even more. Because the roads were so dangerous, she would stay in one of the rooms at the club and be back in 3 weeks with the money to get little sister the medical help she needs. Dad said absolutely not, he would not sell his 15 year old daughter into prostitution. But after much arguing and tears Mom and daughter convinced Dad that there was really no other way. That eldest daughter was doing it to save her sister’s life and save the family, that everyone must sacrifice in order to survive.
Week Five
A week after eldest daughter left, Dad walked down the street going door to door to see if any of his neighbors still had phone service. The once tidy and quaint neighborhood looked like a war zone. More than half the homes had been abandoned, each with a large pile of garbage and discarded furniture in the front yard. Several had been burnt down. When he knocked on the doors of those houses that didn’t look abandoned , no one answered. Several times he heard movement inside, but no one answered the door. Finally he found a home that answered the door, shotgun in hand. It was Jeff, one of the fathers he would see at his daughters dance recitals where Jeff’s daughter also went. Jeff still had a functional landline that he allowed Dad to use.
Dad first called the Strip-O-Rama and asked to speak to his daughter. The woman who answered told Dad the she no longer worked there. That she left with her boyfriend and no one knows where they went. That’s all Dad could find out, but he knew eldest daughter would never leave and abandon the family. A sickening realization sunk in that she was probably trafficked into the sex slave trade. There would be no way to find her.
Dad next called his uncle who had a big house outside of town and whom he hoped would allow him and his family to move in with him. But there was no answer.
Finally Dad called a government information help line where a recorded message informed callers that until further notice, all government service were suspended, that a homeless area has been designated underneath the highway overpass, and that emergency food supplies will be distributed every Thursday.
That night, middle daughter passed away from her illness. The next morning Dad walked back to the neighbor to again use the phone to call an ambulance but there was only a recording stating that emergency services have been suspended. Dad called hospitals, and funeral homes but there was no answer.
When he arrived home there was an eviction notice on the front door. Mom was found rocking back and forth with their remaining child held in her arms. She was silent, her face frozen in despair.
Dad buried middle daughter in the backyard. Then he loaded the minivan with clothes, blankets, sleeping bags, some camping supplies and what little food they had left. Dad picked up mom and carried her to the van with the little boy following behind. Dad told Mom that they had to be strong and survive, They still had a young son to care for and that eldest daughter will be okay and find her way back to them soon. But Mom said nothing, and continued to stare out the window. Dad stapled a sign on the front door in case his eldest daughter came home saying “We have gone to the overpass homeless camp. Look for our van.”
Before they left Dad found Betsy the dog dead curled up on her favorite blanket in the kitchen near her empty food bowl. He buried her next to his daughter.
They drove to the designated homeless area where there were hundreds of cars, campers, trucks and tents under the overpass. They slowly drove along the overpass looking for a spot to park passing dozens of open fires surrounded by people huddling for warmth. Dad cooked some instant noodles on the propane stove and put on a brave face for Mom and his son and told them so long as they stick together as a family everything will be alright. Mom didn’t reply and continued to stare into the distance. Dad was also worried for his son since he had become increasingly afraid and had developed a tremor and often burst into tears and would cry for hours and Dad’s efforts to comfort him were in vain.
Week Six
Three days later the emergency food truck arrived and Dad was disappointed to discover that his ration pack consisted of 3 instant noodle packs and 3 hot dogs. As he walked back to the van he could smell barbecued meat coming from several of the campfires. When he went to find out where the meat came from he was told it was the family cat, or dog, or a pigeon someone had caught.
Dad cooked up the noodles and put all three hot dogs in the pot since they hadn’t eaten in 2 days. Then he took his Colt .45 and headed into the nearby ravine determined to shoot a raccoon, or a squirrel, or maybe a goose. Dad walked through the ravine until dusk without even seeing an animal of any kind. Dad was determined to go out again the next day and find something to kill. When he returned to the van he discovered that men had come while he was gone and stole his camping equipment and sleeping bags. His son was curled up in a fetal position hiding under the van. Mom was sitting in the front seat staring out the window.
That night they put on all the clothes they had and huddled together for warmth in the van. Mom and Dad could not sleep because of the fear, anxiety and hunger they felt. In the early morning, a gang of armed men came to rob the homeless camp of anything of value. Some of the homeless had firearms and fired shots to defend themselves, but the gang was heavily armed and sprayed the camp indiscriminately with gunfire killing dozens of people. A stray bullet pierced the side of the van and went through the young boy and Mom killing both instantly.
Clutching the bodies of his wife and son close to him, Dad watched the sun come up and then went to bury his family in the ravine. After he was done, he put the barrel of his Colt .45 to his temple, and his last words, before pulling the trigger was. “ I am so sorry”.
I am sorry too to have to write such a depressing story, but it’s my last effort to wake people up and warn them about what is coming. I promise part two will be hopeful and encouraging. In the meantime, we need to get ready because once the collapse begins, if you aren’t ready, you won’t be able to escape.
Please support my work by buying a copy of my book The Art of Urban Survival, it contains most of the information you need to survive this scenario.
Also my one year survival calendar, if you can follow the month by month instructions for only six months you’ll be well prepared to deal with the collapse.
\And finally if you can spare it, donate a couple of bucks to help me finish my next book that will fill in the crucial key to survival, how to form a community for mutual aid and support.
Thank you