During the fall, the sun set early; it was a cool late afternoon, with long shadows casting on the trees and buildings. In the middle of the town of Hays, Kansas, Taylor Archer Quinn was at work. He generally went by Quinn, a product of his Army days. He worked at the local university as an IT Support Specialist for the past ten years. The atmosphere had a hint of hope with a dash of fear all looming over next week's choosing of their future President.
The evening was darker than most nights. The clouds had rolled in from the north to usher in some much-anticipated, cooler weather, as summer had been another dry, hot scorcher with little rain for the surrounding farming communities. As the sun peeked out over the horizon, blocked out during most of the day by the clouds above, it showed a brighter side: that there was still light in this dark world. Now it was setting, and the start of another evening was looming ahead.
The nation was at a crossroads with the upcoming election, with one candidate promising hope for a better future and prosperity for those who wanted to join her in ushering in the next four years. The other candidate was preaching retribution to those who blocked his every move and to those who charged him with various crimes and misappropriations.
The first candidate, Reese Collins, had campaigned on a platform of growth for the middle class, helping bring those out of poverty, and equality for all, including groups that felt they had been marginalized in the past. Victor Emerson Hawthorne, her opponent and an old acquaintance of Quinn’s from high school, had a more bullying type of campaign, dividing the people by race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender.
There was hope for the prosperity of the one candidate, Collins, but this was overshadowed by the relentless bombardment from Hawthorne’s half-truths and falsehoods mixed in with the supposed solutions to the nation’s problems. He blamed issues on the foreign invasion of migrants. Again, the nation had a decision, and the future depended on the path presented next week. Which choice was the country going to make?
Friday, on the route home from the university, Quinn stopped by the local pizza shop and picked up an order for his family. The kids would be there when he arrived home and would be staying the weekend. It was planned to have some local pizza from Lamantito’s to celebrate their arrival. The kids opted for a larger university out east, bigger than this small town could offer, and would be off back to it on Sunday. For now, pizza and some movies on Friday night would lighten the mood of a very tough week.
The evening started out with the meal and conversations of catching up, but the movie idea was postponed to another night or perhaps the next visit. The twins, Finley and Wren, wanted to discuss their fears that were being thrown out in front of them this past week.
Everyone sat in the main room of the house. With some eighties music playing in the background on Spotify, Quinn commanded to no one in particular, “Alexa, lower volume by fifty percent.”
Changing position to address the family, “Tell me, both of you look a little stressed. Let me in on what is going on,” Quinn started.
Finley responded with uncomfortable softness, “You all know that I have professed myself as non-binary and go by they-them. Well, with the possibility of a new administration, not kind to that way, I fear that people in my group will be marginalized and perhaps even attacked.
“Why just today, a student at school, brandishing his anti-inclusion hat and flags on his pickup truck, stopped me in the parking lot and told me that the country can put me in my place if his candidate were to win,” their voice cracked in fear.
Wren added, “Being a female, it feels that with all that has built up to this election and now coming to a head next week, our rights are slowly being stripped away.”
Cameron, she more often went by Camille, or those close to her called her Cami, Quinn’s wife hugged them both and reassured them, continuing, “Nothing will change in this house, and you both would be welcomed back at any time. This is an open invitation.”
Cami worked at a local private school as a teacher and their music director. She even had some published poetry books that had been exposed on the national level to various children’s and parent magazines.
When she was nursing the newborn twins, this poem won her first place in a national poetry contest. An up-and-coming popular recording artist signed a contract to use it as lyrics for one of their most popular kids’ songs.
Little squirrel shines like gold in the sun,
Darting through the trees with a hop and a run.
Oh, he knows the woods like his very own tail,
Teaching little hearts, they are strong and can’t fail.
Kids with shaking hands, scared of the night,
The gold squirrel appears, with his effortless light.
He whispers to them, under stars up above,
“Fear is no match, when your heart’s full of love”.
Run little feet, run fast like me,
Across every branch, through every tree.
Fear may try, but it won’t hold on,
You're braver than the dark, till it’s gone.
The kids start to smile, as their fears take flight,
The squirrel’s golden glow, fades into the night.
They hold his words, in their heart so sweet,
They dance in the moonlight, on brave little feet.
Run little feet, run fast like me,
Across every branch, through every tree.
Fear may try, but it won’t hold on,
You're braver than the dark, till it’s gone.
Quinn agreed with the open invitation and put his arms around both kids. Cami joined him for a family hug and continued, “If there is anything we can do, you know we are there for both of you.”
Wren inquired, “What are your thoughts on us transferring universities to a more friendly university?”
Quinn asked, “Well, if transferring out of Kansas and to another university, which states would you be more comfortable living in? For that matter, which university would you want to attend?”
Both Finley and Wren replied at the same time, “A friendlier one in Minnesota or Washington.”
Finley acknowledged that “The choice for those locations was based on the proximity to the border, we could have a quick escape to Canada, if the government sanctioned vigilante attacks. Also, there could be the creation of legislation against the LGBTQ+ community, which I could then quickly cross the border.”
Wren added, “With some states changing the laws for women’s reproductive rights, I want to be in a friendlier state that won’t force anyone to carry a pregnancy due to rape, incest, an unviable infant, or health risk to the mother.”
“Well, if moving to Canada is your plan, you might want to consider what types of laws, jobs, and communities are on the other side of the border of those states,” Quinn responded.
Wren quickly interjected. “The goal is not Canada; the goal would be more to get out of the US and then move to a friendly country in Europe. But good idea, if Canada is to be used as a staging area, for the eventual move to Europe.”
Again, Cami reminded everyone. “At this point, we might be overreacting, but having a plan is always a good idea.”
In the end, the kids made no final decisions, but agreed that a plan needed to be formulated in case things ended up going south from their point of view.
Saturday morning had Quinn thinking about the conversation from yesterday and what he would have to do in the event of needing to get out and to get out quickly. He knew a few radical preppers and had conversations with them about ‘bugging out’. He recalled making a list of items he would need quickly to survive on the road. He located that list and printed copies of it for the family.
The list included:
1. Blankets
2. Carabiner clips on a keychain
3. Compass
4. Crank flashlight
5. Crank radio
6. Duffel bag
7. Faraday bag
8. Fishing hooks
9. Fishing line
10. Flint
11. Foraging guide
12. Glock with ammunition
13. Lantern
14. Manual can opener
15. Medical kit
16. Multi tool
17. Poncho
18. Paracord
19. Pens and Pencils
20. Portable charger
21. Rechargeable batteries
22. Road maps (Paper)
23. Safety pins
24. Saw
25. Scissors
26. Shovel
27. Sleeping bag
28. Tactical gloves
29. Two-way radio/walkie-talkies
30. Waterproof notepad
He set aside the list and would continue yesterday’s conversation with the family, and have it at the ready to distribute.
He went on to make his morning coffee and realized, well, shit, that was not on my bug-out list. “Any good prepper knows to have coffee,” he joked out loud to himself.
Sitting down to read the news on his media sites, Quinn was troubled by what he was reading. There was a notation on how Hawthorne was planning to create a system and process to rid the illegals who were deep in the country. Quinn did agree that we needed to stem the flow of illegals entering the country; however, he was uneasy about the process being discussed. He also noted his dislike for the word illegals and preferred to call the group undocumented individuals.
From what he was reading, it reminded him of issues in high school when Hawthorne picked on the kids of migrant workers, and of stories Quinn’s grandparents would tell him. The stories were about how people would be rounded up in their home countries in the 1930s. Yes, Quinn was disgusted to think he went to high school with that bigot. He recalled how Hawthorne would have his Confederate flag behind his truck and always had a racial slur ready for the African American students at the school.
Quinn posted his grievances on his social media accounts with links to the proposed process and compared them to how the Germans handled the Jews and political dissidents of their time.
Thank goodness we are only talking about undocumented individuals and not political dissidents like back then, he thought.
Not wanting to be consumed on this day with this topic, he opted to hang out with family. He was hearing the stirring of others, foraging for that morning’s breakfast, so he made his way out to the kitchen.
The morning with the family started with everyone pitching in to make a wonderful breakfast of eggs, homemade fried diced potatoes, bacon, and fresh tortillas. Nothing starts a day better than with a few breakfast tacos.
Sitting around the table, Quinn passed out the plates, which were old china from days past. Their white coloring had faded to a shade of yellow, but the red flowers on the plates were bright as ever. He handed out his bug-out list for everyone to read and stow away for future use. This brought on discussions about other items.
Finley started, “I have been looking at a winter coat that has a built-in heater with ways to operate on replaceable or rechargeable batteries.
“That probably would mean a lot of batteries or at least the need for a way to charge them. Let’s hope we do not lose electricity if, and when, it becomes apparent time to bug out.” They finished.
Cami tried to steer the topic away from the pending doom of this conversation, asking, “What shall we do today? Let’s do something fun, like a walk in the park.”
With the morning breakfast behind them, they all helped clean up the dishes. Then everyone went outside to face the crystal blue morning skies of the day. The fall-like weather was ahead of them now, but today had a slight tinge of cold in the air. That would mean jackets would be required for the walk. Everyone piled into the Suburban, including their dog Scout, a young black lab.
On the drive to the park, Cami took a detour to the local sporting goods store and said, “I want to get everyone something today for this walk, and it will start our journey together in creating our bug-out supplies.”
As luck would have it, the store had just received a new shipment of what Cami had in mind, so the stock was plentiful. She thought, How fortunate we are to have great jobs where we could just purchase an item like this without wondering if this would break the bank.
They each picked out their size of jacket they wanted, and without even thinking about it or even trying to do this, they all chose matching jackets, even for Scout. These were no ordinary jackets. They had the heating elements discussed earlier. However, not only were they powered by rechargeable batteries, but the material on the outside of the coat had a solar sheen outer layer, which was enough to keep the jacket’s heater running for hours. The battery usage part was only required for those wintery cloudy days.
With the new purchases completed, it was off to the park for some exercise, family time, and tossing the ball for Scout. Upon arrival at home from the park, everyone went their separate ways to enjoy some quiet time. This allowed Quinn to hop on the computer to catch up on emails.
While he was on the computer, he viewed a documentary about the Uyghur people and how they were being systematically rounded up in China for various trumped-up charges. This agitated him slightly. He added to his previous post from the night before about the rounding up of undocumented migrants and brought in the topic of the Uyghur people in China. He noted that the rounding up of undocumented migrants here in the states reminded him even more of the plight of the Jewish people in Europe during the early 20th century.
He even added that once the infrastructure was set for the government round-ups of undocumented migrants, the political party in power today could choose to add political opponents and dissidents to the roundup list, like Hitler did in the 1930s. This added to his conspiracy that it could happen here.
The rest of the weekend spent together was uneventful, and fun was had by all. The evening before Finley and Wren had to return to campus, the family prepared a good meal of burgers that Quinn had grilled, potato salad, and beans that Cami had prepared for the occasion. With the dinner complete, everyone enjoyed an early retirement to bed for the evening, and the kids prepared for their return trip back to campus.
The kids liked to leave way before sunrise to avoid any of the daytime traffic. Interstate 70 was always packed with freight traffic at certain times, and there were certain spots of construction that caused things to bog down. So they left to go back to campus early in the morning.
For the entire book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FP9QLW39