The Most Important Decision Of Your Life When Shit Hits The Fan

So, you wake up one day and things are a bit different in the world. Perhaps you've been one of the sleeping masses all your life and today is your wake-up call; perhaps you've been awake for a while, but just didn't think today was coming so soon. Either way, today is the day that shit just got real - today's the day shit hit the fan, and you weren't ready. How could you be? Nobody's truly ready for the day you have to make the most important decision of your life, and your family's life: Do you try to stay in your home and stick it out, or do you pack up and take off?

The grid's down - electricity, cell phones, running hot water, all non-functional - and on top of that, you realize almost immediately that everyone...and I mean EVERYONE...will be flooding into every grocery store buying up everything they can get their hands on, and you need to get there, too. You need to get there yesterday.

Panic sets in; what if you're already too late and the shelves are bare? What if you get mugged on the way? What if the grid doesn't come back online...ever? Fear can be your worst enemy at this moment, but it can also motivate you to take action. So what do you do? How long will this last? The television's not working - just static. Chances are you don't have a radio inside your home, not many do these days, so you've got to get to the car to turn on the radio and see just how bad things are, and if this is just temporary or long-lasting. Good thing is, you need to get to the car anyway to make a run to the store just in the off chance there's anything left.

On the way to the store, listening to the radio broadcasting news about the fact that this madness isn't going to end anytime soon, you have to make a decision; when you get back home, do you stay or do you go? Most of us will have more than just ourselves to consider with this decision - this life or death decision - and we need to carefully weigh things out.

I'm not going to bother making a list of things to stock up on, there are literally thousands of those lists already out there that are probably better than anything I could write up. I'm going to stick to the decision of staying in your home and sticking it out there, or bugging out and going into the open to try and survive.

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STAYING HOME AND STICKING IT OUT

When SHTF and you stay home, your house had better
look like this within a day or two...

The easiest thing to do right now, especially if you have a house with a basement or storm cellar nearby, is to stay at home and stick it out. You don't have to pack up anything that way, and you have all your possessions at your disposal whenever you need them. This is what most will do in a modern-day urban survival situation when SHTF. There are pros and cons involved here, so let's take a look at staying home in this situation.

PROS

• You have shelter already and don't need to create on the fly.
• All of your possessions are there already, and there's no packing involved.
• If things get really bad, you have a sturdy shelter to barricade into.
• You know the people around you, or should already. The "community" feeling will stick for a while.
• If you have a basement/storm cellar you have a seriously good place to bunker down if intruders come around.

CONS

• Heating a larger area if the weather's cold at the time is more difficult than a smaller shelter.
• Houses are the first places desperate people check for supplies when things get bad.
• Looting will go off the charts once chaos begins, and houses are targets for intruders.

Basically, the good things are also why the bad things exist for staying in your home and trying to stick it out. If you've got a generator for when the electric goes out, it's going to make noise which will attract very unwanted attention. If you're also the only house on the block with lights on, people will be knocking down your door to get in eventually, and no amount of barricading will stop them from getting in if they really want to. Generators will also only work so long as there's gasoline to put into them, and that's something that simply won't be available like it used to - either not available at all, or available but at a cost that's even more astronomical than normal.

You'd better have a rifle and plenty of ammo already in the house before this day comes, because finding one afterwards will either cost you a fortune or force you to take a life to get your hands on one. With the massive assault on the 2nd amendment to the Constitution currently underway, it should be clear to any rational thinking person that they should cling to their weaponry instead of giving them up. You don't want to be the only person in town who doesn't have a weapon to defend him or herself with if this day comes, because there's no question that those who have guns after the SHTF date will have a much easier time of things - both defending themselves, their family, and property and also securing supplies with force if necessary. Make no mistake about it - there will come a time soon after this begins where you'll have to secure materials and supplies by force or simply intimidation by running off other would-be gatherers. Doing so without a firearm will literally be impossible.

Right at this moment, if you don't have a garden in your back yard which is at least not obvious to anyone passing by - in other words hidden from view - food is going to be a serious problem, especially in urban areas which is where the vast majority of humans are. If you're more rural, or completely rural, you're going to have an easier time of things, but after a while you'll still have the wandering band of nomadic desperate people showing up every now and then which you'll most likely have to run off at gunpoint and hope they don't do math. In just a few days' time, the first deaths of starvation will occur, and those that are in the process will literally do anything to get food. Don't think for an instant that you're off the menu, either; there are many many cases of people being trapped somewhere remote for a time, and they resorted to cannibalism just to survive. Obviously, not all of them made it out alive.

If you're surviving, and not one of the desperate, starving masses, you want to be as inconspicuous as possible. Let's face it, a lot of people simply aren't going to survive the first few months of a SHTF situation, and if you want to be one of the survivors, you've got to keep one thing in mind: it's you, and your family, vs the world. Period. Your best friend will eventually turn on you if their stomach tells them to enough times. Your family and children are the only friends you've got on the planet, and you're just going to have to deal with that fact if you want to live. Taking in "strays" (as in other people asking for help) is not an option. It will tear at your heart strings, and rip you apart inside, but it's just the way it must be. After things settle down, and the remaining people that survived, if even barely, the first few months of the crises are what's left, NOW you can seek out small groups of people and try to set up some kind of community or tribe of sorts and work together to continue surviving from then on out.

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BUGGING OUT AND LEAVING HOME

This is my actual personal Bug Out set. You should
seriously consider making your own, now!

There are some cases where simply packing up your gear and taking off is the best option. If you don't have a home with a basement or some kind of durable shelter of some kind, or if you simply realize that your house is the last place you want to be when people turn into crazed maniacs as they desperately cling to life looking for food and supplies anywhere and everywhere, it might be time to bug out. In densely populated areas, like an inner-city, or just a major metropolitan area, this is most likely the best option just because of the sheer number of people you're going to have to deal with on a daily basis on top of trying to keep yourself alive as well. There are some good and bad things with this as well.

PROS

• You can easily relocate with a stockpile of essentials and move from place to place avoiding other people who could see you as a walking restock facility.
• With the very basics of outdoor living or a bit of camping experience you can eek out an existence until things normalize.
• There are less worries of others seeking you out if you're less visible, such as in a house that's lit up with a generator.
• Disappearing for a while, or going "off the grid" as the expression goes, can be the best thing in a SHTF situation to give yourself the best chance for survival.

CONS

• If you have a large immediate family, organizing a massive "pack up and go" with only the essentials can be nearly an impossibility.
• Small children simply won't understand what's happening, and will resist leaving what they attach to as their secure home where it's always safe and secure.
• Leaving a home with a group is more difficult than alone, as there are frankly more mouths to feed and less to go around.
• If you're alone or with a family out and about, there's literally nothing between your family and would-be desperate raiders other than your firearm.

The worst part about bugging out when SHTF is that every bad thing about staying in a house to try and survive is exaggerated 100 fold when out in the open, but sometimes it's still the best option. The biggest drawback is having a family to care for while bugging out, which quite frankly most of us have. There's strength in numbers when it comes to fending off the desperate masses who would sooner kill you for your stuff than join forces with you, but at the same time with more mouths to feed and less supplies to go around things get really tricky really quickly. In the situation where a family must evacuate their home in order to survive, it's imperative that EVERY member of the family know how to handle a firearm - using common sense of course; don't give your 5 year old a rifle.

Don't forget the weapons: Rifles, handguns, shotguns, even a slingshot can come in handy. There's no substitute when it's do or die time than your firearm. Don't bring a knife to a gunfight they say, and it's unfortunately going to be all too true here, with nothing between you and other people who're desperate to get your stuff at the expense of your and your family's lives than your weapon. You can pack all the food and gear you want, but if someone comes along with a rifle and demands you give it to them or die, without a means to defend yourself, your family, and your sustenance, it doesn't matter what you packed because it's now gone.

The biggest thing here is already having your gear ready to go when the SHTF day comes, because quite frankly you won't be able to secure anything on or after that day from any store on the planet. The only time you'll have the chance to restock or get new supplies is if you happen across an abandoned house or stockpile somewhere; leaving your life, or the lives of your family, in the hands of pure chance and hope isn't very smart. Get ready beforehand, even if you think it's a long shot that anything bad will ever happen. If something DOES happen and you don't have anything prepared, you might as well turn the rifle on yourself, because you're not gonna make it, plain and simple. Reality is a harsh mistress sometimes, but the truth must be understood.

Take a few sets of communication devices with you that are battery, or crank preferably, operated which do not require the grid to be active to use such as walkie talkies. If you've got the funds, go all out when you buy some, and get the ones with the longest active range in the store, and get as many sets as you think might be necessary for your entire family to have one on them at all times. Foraging is going to be extremely important while you try and survive in the open, because those canned beans and other foodstuffs won't last forever. Communicating with your walkies will be extremely important at all times. Whenever possible, you should keep the canned foods in your pack and forage anything edible around you instead, to save the canned goods for when there's simply nothing else around you can find for sustenance. 

Know that the only people you can trust are those who share your blood - your family. Anyone else must be viewed as a potential threat and kept away from at all cost. Remember; desperate times call for desperate measures, and you're not the only one out there who's desperate. Everyone you encounter will, without a doubt, be viewing you as an exploitable recourse to keep themselves alive longer at the expense of your own life if necessary. Trust no-one other than who you bring with you, and make sure you only bring your family.

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GOOD LUCK OUT THERE

Good luck, my friends, when that fateful day comes. I wish you the best, as always, in everything you do and especially this. I wish everyone would be able to survive that situation but sadly, many will perish within just a few weeks of it happening. With the well-wishes comes my statement to you, however, that I will not stop to help you if we cross paths out there trying to survive, and don't expect you to help me, either. Much love, and stay safe in the world out there.