299 Days: The Collapse Read Online Free PDF

out?”
    “Hell, yes,” Grant said. This was more like it. Grant would be happy to help those who would help themselves.
    “Tom and Ben are getting guns, too,” Brian said. “Can we all go to the gun store? Like, soon?”
    “Hell, yes,” Grant repeated. Nice. These guys were taking some action.
    An hour later, Grant took them to Capitol City and helped each one pick out a handgun. Chip managed to find some in stock for friends of Grant.
    Ben pointed to a fifty-round box of ammunition and asked, “Should we get one?”
    Fifty rounds won’t get them through what’s coming, Grant thought. He pointed to a thousand-round case of ammunition and said, “Actually, get one of those and split it.”
    They all got 9mm Sig Sauers, which was all that was left. They were fantastic guns, but more expensive than most, so they weren’t sold out. At least Tom, Brian, and Ben could use each other’s’ magazines interchangeably.
    Grant pulled Chip aside so the other customers wouldn’t hear him, “Hey, Chip, could my friends get a case of 9mm?”
    Chip smiled. “Yes. And, you’re welcome.” Grant knew how hard a case of 9mm was to come by. “But, since they’re not you, they pay full price—$495. It’ll be $650 tomorrow.” Wow. Ammo prices were going crazy.
    “Thank you, Chip,” Grant said. He told the guys how lucky they were to have any ammo.
    Grant took them out shooting right after buying their guns. He showed them how to take apart their guns and clean them. They were OK shots.
    “We’ll clean these now since we’re all here,” Grant said. “But if you need to use these, don’t bother trying to clean them. They run just fine without cleaning them. I’d hate for you to lose a part and not be able to put them back together.” Grant said. They were soaking it all in.
    It was yet another amazing moment during a time that seemed to have several amazing moments every hour. There was Grant teaching Tom, Ben, and Brian how to shoot and clean pistols. This wasn’t for fun. It was for real. Everyone sensed how much things had changed.

 
    Chapter 47
    Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste
    (May 5)
     
    Things continued to get worse. Congress had been passing laws like Washington State; authorizing checkpoints, more draconian civil forfeiture laws, and authorizing more warrantless searches. This was on top of a previous law, the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act that allowed the military to detain or kill anyone—without a trial—who committed a “belligerent act” against the U.S. It was up to the President to decide what a “belligerent act” was. No charges, no jury, no civilian judges, no appeal, no due process. At first, Grant thought the NDAA was a made up internet rumor. Then he read the law. It was real.
    Even though things like the NDAA were on the books, America still wasn’t yet under “martial law.” It was not because the people running the government were such lovers of liberty that they wouldn’t impose martial law; it was that they didn’t have the ability to pull it off.
    Thank God, literally, for the Oath Keepers. They had announced that Oath Keepers members would not carry out these new laws. That was the only thing preventing the government from taking over. The only thing. The politicians wanted martial law and most of the sheeple did, too. It was the “middlemen”—the Oath Keeper soldiers and cops—who got in between the politicians and the sheeple and prevented it from happening.
    This was getting serious. Grant knew the Collapse was coming, and soon. The only question was when. The thing Grant was trying to figure out was when to bug out without overreacting, which meant bringing up the topic when conditions were clearly bad enough that Lisa would agree to go, but doing it soon enough that the roads would be safe enough to get out to the cabin.
    One good thing out of Washington, D.C. was that they quit spending money. Finally. When it was too late. Now that they could not