“My fellow Americans,” he began in a solemn tone. “I know we are all reeling from last night’s tragedy along the Gulf of Mexico. It was a terrible, senseless attack in which hundreds of innocent people lost their lives, and I assure you we are doing everything in our power to identify the culprits so they can be brought to justice.”
Trev couldn’t help but wonder if, despicable as the attacks had been, hunting the perpetrators down was the best use of the nation’s resources at the moment. Luckily the President’s next words addressed that.
“However, terrible as this attack was locally for all the states along the Gulf, I must now address the ramifications for the nation at large.” He reached down and picked up the single sheet of paper resting on the huge desk, glancing down at it. “As of our current best estimates, 73% of the nation’s refining capabilities and 42% of the nation’s fuel reserves were destroyed in the attack. But severe as the loss of our reserves were I must stress the dire situation of our loss of the refineries themselves.”
He paused to stare directly at the camera. “I won’t beat around the bush, citizens. Following the Middle East Crisis last year this administration elected to dip heavily into the nation’s fuel reserves in order to keep the economy running smoothly until we could set up our own fracking and drilling operations and make a deal with Canada for the plentiful shale oil they’ve begun producing. We’d been making good progress on that front, but a year of consuming more than we produce has dropped our reserves down to critical levels.
“To put it bluntly, the nation has run out of gas. We were entirely dependent on what was produced from our refineries just to keep up day to day operations.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in. “Now let me stress that we are maximizing production in our remaining refineries, and massive construction projects have already begun to get more refineries up and running as quickly as possible. We estimate that in three months’ time we’ll be back up to 45% production.”
He said that like it was good news. Trev had his doubts whether that timeline was accurate, but whether it was or not in three months winter would have set in and half the population could be dead from cold and hunger. And that was just assuming that further attacks or even riots didn’t impede the efforts. By the time fuel production got up to speed the infrastructure that relied on it might not be around anymore.
Or for that matter the government might not be around anymore as the nation descended into chaos.
The President continued firmly. “We’ve got a lean winter ahead of us, my fellow Americans, but we will pull through. To aid with that I’m issuing an official crisis alert with the following mandates: First, all local and state governments and Federal agencies are authorized to purchase or requisition all remaining fuel from any private sources that may hold it, to be used for emergency and national defense purposes. I want to see it in public hands where it can do the most good.
“Furthermore, it’s time for us all to become more responsible about energy consumption. The nation’s consumption barely decreased following the Middle East Crisis in spite of our reduced fuel production, forcing us to deplete our reserves. That option is no longer available to us so we have no choice but to tighten our belts. With the suggestion of my advisors and feedback from state governors we’ve decided to hold off on imposing martial law or calling this a state of emergency, but I am still calling for all citizens to reduce consumption to the bare minimum needed for survival.
“That includes only using water for drinking or washing, only using electricity for lighting at night, reducing heating and air conditioning to the bare minimum and learning to live with more extreme temperatures, and being more prudent when it comes to waste and unnecessary usage of any goods or services. Beyond that, those with necessities to spare are strongly encouraged to donate to their local communities.”
The President stood, planting his fists on his desk and fixing the camera with a piercing stare. “I do not say this lightly, citizens of this great nation. We will be facing harder times than we as a nation have ever faced before, but if we pull together we will pull through until the situation can be stabilized. Until then we must all swim together to stay afloat.”
Trev shook his head at that. He was all for encouraging words, but the President’s sentiment sounded like a bad one. If half the people couldn’t swim then all they’d manage is to drag those who could swim down with them. Thanks to Lewis and his forward thinking Trev had done quite a bit of preparing, and he didn’t like the idea of being rewarded for that by giving away all the food he’d prepared, enough to last him for over two years if necessary, in order to feed hundreds of people for a few days.
He’d made sure he was ready for something like this. It wasn’t selfish to live when the alternative would barely help the unprepared and would just guarantee he’d starve to death too.
The President had a few more words to say, mostly specific comments to local and state leaders about procedure moving forward, and then he closed with “May God protect and provide for us in these dark times,” and sat back down. A moment later the screen winked back to the Seal of the United States.
There was a long silence as the people in the classroom digested the reality of a situation that was worse than they’d thought, and then the professor abruptly stood. “Class dismissed. See you tomorrow.”
Not likely, Trev thought. He’d wasted enough time saying goodbye to just one person and it was time to go.
Matt followed him as he headed for the door. “Well I’m sure that set your mind at ease. It sure made me feel a lot better about the situation.”
“Why?” Trev asked with a shake of his head. “The only thing the President could’ve said that would’ve really gotten us out of this mess is that he’d somehow convinced the Gold Bloc to give us aid. Since he didn’t mention a word of that everything else is just false optimism and reassuring words to a terminal patient. You do realize that when someone says “tighten our belts” they could mean anything from missing a meal or two to spending a winter eating rats and boiling leather boots and jackets to keep from starving to death, right? From the way he described the situation it’s sounding more like the latter.”
His friend nodded doubtfully. “If you say so. I’m going to wait a few weeks before I pass judgment, give the nation a chance to pull itself back onto its feet.”
“Why wait? You could come down to Aspen Hill with me right now and get a head start on preparing for what’s to come.”
“How, by sitting around my house fretting about things I can’t change while I burn my bridges at the university by skipping out partway through a semester?” Matt laughed. “I’ll stay, although I suppose if things don’t get back to normal I’ll see you down in Aspen Hill in a month or so.”
“I have a feeling I’ll be seeing you sooner than that,” Trev replied. He shook Matt’s hand one last time before making his way back to his dorm as quickly as he could.
Chapter Two
With a Whimper
Before Trev headed for his car he ducked into his dorm room just long enough put on the underarm holster for his 1911 and slip on a light jacket to cover it. Bringing the reliable .45 might have been bordering on paranoia just for going shopping, but he had no idea how quickly chaos might descend and preferred paranoid to dead. Besides, with his concealed carry permit he was perfectly within his rights to wear the pistol, even though it would be the first time he’d taken it anywhere outside his room since coming to college, aside from to the car on breaks when he went down to Aspen Hill to practice with it at the range.