Some stores went so far as to demand silver or gold to pay for their firearms. They weren’t surprised when the coins flowed into their safes. The few semi-auto rifles the store owners had stashed away when the ban went into effect were taken to their homes along with thousands of rounds of ammo. The three government gun buybacks all had failed. In two of them, people offered people more money than the government was offering to buy their guns without any paperwork.
Local police and DHS agents closed all roads entering the northern cities and began to direct people south. Only one lane of the interstates traveling north allowed traffic. Every other lane was used to direct people towards the south, away from the potential glaciers. People were told to bring only two suitcases per person and their personal valuables. They were told they might not be allowed back, and, in months, their homes might not even exist because they may be covered by snow and ice. Many didn’t believe the government, so they decided they’d stay and ride out the storm.
FEMA told those who wanted to remain in their homes they should leave while they could, or they’d risk being stuck in their homes when the ice age started. Talk radio discussed the coming ice age and said it was a government made up story. They urged their listeners to stay home and continue their normal affairs.
Riots broke out in the inner cities. The first responders focused on saving those who they could so they didn’t lift a finger to put out the fires or stop the rioting. FEMA told people if they didn’t leave the cities when they were told to, the government wouldn’t guarantee their safety. FEMA troops came under fire from the inner-city inhabitants who refused to listen to FEMA or DHS.
Many in the south and southwest didn’t like the sudden influx of new people moving into their cities and outlying areas. FEMA had built massive tent cities to hold the sudden influx of people while actual new cities were being built. New gangs preyed on the newcomers. They struck at night, burning the tents, stealing whatever they could carry away, and burning crosses in front of the entrance to the tent cities. The gangs also raped women they were able to capture.
Some of the refugees were so depressed by their new homes and the lack of any normal life they decided to move back north to their homes, but they usually returned to discover their homes had been looted. In some cases, even their furniture was stolen, windows broken, appliances gone, and the floors were covered with trash and garbage. Fires had ravaged thousands of homes, fires which were allowed to burn the down to their foundations. First responders were told since the glaciers were most likely going to cover the city, there wasn’t any reason to waste the effort to put the fires out. Entire city blocks disappeared from the fires.
FEMA and DHS stripped museums. Their contents placed in a massive unused salt mines to preserve them for future generations. FEMA marked items and factory equipment they thought might be of value in the future. Special teams uprooted the marked equipment and either stored it or assembled it in the new cities. Companies took apart entire factories and moved them south.
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By the time the President announced the rock wasn’t going to be stopped, Americans owned over 700 million guns and over a trillion rounds of ammo. Even long-time anti-gunners lined up with the others to buy handguns and shotguns, anything they could get their hands on. When it became clear the rock was going to cause massive damage, everyone wanted a weapon. There were no anti-gunners when they knew they might need one to protect their families. Millions packed go-bags in case they had to leave their homes. Those who lived along America’s coasts woke to signs saying, “EMERGENCY ROUTE, ONE WAY TRAFFIC, USE ALL LANES.” They wondered when they were supposed to leave. Many didn’t wait for the word to leave; they had left in the middle of the night or at first light. There was bumper to bumper traffic leaving the coastal areas. Store owners nailed boards over their windows and doors. Thousands of sandbags were piled up around many of the stores. No one had officially told them that if the rock landed in the ocean, the tidal wave could be over two hundred feet high. Some even whispered it could be as high as 500 feet.
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FEMA and DHS leased every cruise ship they could get their hands on. They were packed full of people from the areas north of the freeze line. Some ships carried 3,000 people and the largest carried over 10,000. They brought the people to ports in the south, as soon as the people disembarked the ships turned around and repeated the trip. They continued to bring thousands of people away from the Northeast and Northwest. Those in the central region were packed onto trains and buses.
Every bus FEMA and DHS could take was packed with people and driven south. Many didn’t want to leave their homes thinking they could either ride out the coming storm or they had enough time to allow the others to leave and, when the traffic died down, they could more easily travel south. No matter how many people were packed into ships, trains, or buses FEMA informed President Lanoha they couldn’t relocate everyone north of the projected freeze line before the weather closed the roads. The President shook his head. “Isn’t
