Against the Wind By Gilford Patton Book One Against The Wind Copyright 2018 © By Gilford Mark Patton All Rights Reserved Against the Wind In a devastated world that needed action…one man…who lived by his own code…would step forward…and inspired the world…to pull itself up by its bootstraps. About the Author Gilford Patton was born in Glendale California in the late fifties. His family moved to Martinez California in 1960. There he was raised with a sister and two brothers on an acre and a quarter plot of land near the Viano Vineyards. They had chickens, pigs, cows and horses. Later his family moved back to southern California and were living there when the 1971 Sylmar earthquake hit. As a fourteen year old scout, he helped his mother write a pamphlet on earthquake preparedness for the Relief Society organization. This began his relationship with emergency preparedness. Over the years He has written more than a hundred handouts, papers, articles, class lessons, PowerPoints, Tactical Response Plans, and books on emergency preparedness and wilderness survival. The events of 9-11 led to his working for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and for ten years he held the position of Emergency Management Coordinator for the Oakland California AOR, which consists of twenty one counties. His tenure in this position has lasted under four Federal Security Directors. Until his recent retirement at the end of September. (2018) Gilford has also been involved with the Boy Scouts of America as adult trainer, National Youth Leadership Training Assistant Course Director, instructor for the Ham Radio program and currently as Assistant Scout Master for Troop 1351. Gilford is also now the CEO of The ASSET Center; The American Survival School & Emergency Training Center. Table of Contents Prolog - The Making of a Man Chapter 1 – A New Calling Chapter 2 – Diversions Chapter 3 – Twists and Turns Chapter 4 – Family Ties Chapter 5 – The Leak Chapter 6 – Hunker Down Chapter 7 – The Approach Chapter 8 – The Arrival Chapter 9 – The Passing Chapter 10 – The Passing Continues Chapter 11 – Assessing Book 2 – Preview The Cast Places Against the Wind Prolog The Making of a Man The rider on the horse straightened his legs as he stretched against the stiffness in his lower back. He looked into the setting sun and sighed. He sat back down in the saddle with a soft groan of resignation and drooped his head towards his chest, the brim of the off white Stetson hat casting a shadow across his face. Dewey Johnson had been following the rider in one of the ranch’s jeeps for the last three hours as he rode across the hundred and fifty thousand plus acre ranch that the rider had just inherited. “Mister Rogers.” Dewey called out, “It’s almost sunset sir, and you need to sign the documents before the sun sets if you are to receive everything your uncle left you.” The rider wheeled the horse around smoothly and guide him up to the jeep, “Let me have it.” He said as he leaned down from the horse’s back and took the documents that were bound in the blue binding, that legal papers always seemed to be in. The exasperation heavy in his voice as the last of his resistance slipped away to do what he did not care for…accepting that his uncle Dan is gone forever, He was now in charge of the business, all of the responsibilities that uncle had were now his. Taking the stainless steel ballpoint pen from his pocket with his right hand, the rider placed documents, which were in his left hand, upon his left thigh and brought the pen to the line where he was supposed to sign. He paused and sighed deeply again then signed his name to the document which gave him ownership of all these lands, ‘Walt Rogers’, and shoved the papers back at Dewey Johnson the attorney for his uncle’s estate. He slipped the pen back into his shirt pocket and wheeled the horse back towards the setting sun and guided it back to where they were before, under the overhanging branches of the large oak tree. Dewey folded up the document and placed it in the briefcase on the seat next to him and looked up at the rider and said, “You know Mr. Rogers, when I was little boy I used to visit my grandfather and he and I would watch old Westerns together and looking at you now Sir, reminds me of one of his favorites.” “Which one?” Walt Rogers asked as he slowly shook his head pretty sure that he knew the answer. Dewey smiled, “It was one starring John Wayne, called Chisum.” “Yeah, my uncle liked that one too.” Walt sat up straighter in the saddle, “You better head back now before it gets too dark, it’s easy to get lost out here if you don’t know your way around.” “It’s probably a stupid question,” Dewey said. “But are you going to be okay out here by yourself?” “Oh yeah,” Walt answered with the first hint of warmth in his voice that Dewey had heard all day. “I know these hills better than anyone else alive.” He sighed again, “After all this is where I grew up.” Dewey nodded silently, started the jeep and backed it up to turn around to it around and head back to the ranch house, and as he drove off into the darkening twilight its headlights casting faint balls of bouncing light across the landscape. *** September Walt stood at the door of his Uncle Dan’s study looking out into the Grand Hall of the ranch house and all of his relatives gathered there. The clock was striking eight o’clock and there was a small fire in the massive double-sided fireplace that captivated the children while adults were gathered in small groups throughout the room. His uncle had left everyone something, for some it was less than what they had expected, for others it was much more, including himself. His uncle did not have any children of his own and Walt had spent most of his childhood here on his uncle’s ranch. While Walt’s dad, Mark, in one way was the opposite of Dan, Dan being a rancher and Mark a big time lawyer, still they were close enough to each other and so much of like minds politically and philosophically, that Mark trusted Dan so much so that he let Walt spend every summer with Dan since he was seven. And then when he was fourteen, Walt was allowed to moved full time to the ranch for all of his high school years. Mark and Dan although close, always had a hard time carrying on a casual conversation about just about everything except for three things, emergency preparedness, the decline of the social fabric of the nation and Walt. So it was that Walt grew up as the only relative that spent a lot of time on the ranch. Added to that was the declaration, according in the will, that his uncle Dan thought more of Walt than anyone had presumed, and Walt felt the pressure of envy and resentment from some of his more distant relatives that were here. Walt, at only twenty years old, had received everything other than the few items and monetary amounts listed in the will for his relatives. His uncle left his father the black Lincoln Continental stretch limo, a custom-built Plan B S.A.R. RV and two hundred thousand dollars that was to be used for prepping. When Dan referred to the S.A.R. RV, he did so not as a RV but as a Survival And Rescue vehicle or simply SAR because it was so very much more that a customized showroom vehicle. It was a custom designed, from the ground up, as an off-road survival RV that was built on an Osh Kosh HEMMIT eight wheel drive low-bed tank hauler. Walt had smile when the attorney read that portion of the will because he knew that his dad was going to have to get a class “A” driver’s license now just to drive it. Walt’s aunt, who had never really liked being at the ranch, ever being a society diva, was more at home on Rodeo Drive then her own home, was bequeathed only seventy thousand dollars, which had her pouting because she felt that she deserved much more being his only sister. Walt’s younger brother, David who had just turned 18, got twenty thousand dollars, his sister Sally who is 22 got fifty thousand dollars, and his older brother, Michael who was 24, got forty thousand dollars. He surmised that the different amounts were based on the time they each had spent out at the ranch. They each also received a scholarship to whatever university or college they wanted to attend, and for as long as they wanted to attend. His uncle’s three cousins each got ten thousand dollars and each of their kids got five thousand dollars each. His Grandparents, Stan and Martha who had already been taken care of with a substantial trust fund for their retirement, got it doubled. The big shocker to most of the family was the fact that his uncle had a girlfriend twelve years his junior. Her name was Anna Reagan and before the will was read, a lot of the family who didn’t know her, assumed that the she was just a gold digger after Dan’s money or property.