JT Sawyer and the End Times

Welcome back, JT. You've been busy, both with your survival courses and your writing. We readers benefit from both. I have your newest novel queued up on my Kindle, and I'm so looking forward to reading it as soon as I emerge from my writing cave. I asked you over to ThrillWriting to answer some reader questions. Ready?

JT:
Shoot! (figuratively, please) -

Question:
What should I do to prepare for a potential EMP attack.

Fiona:
An EMP attack, I'm assuming is an electromagnetic pulse attack? Why is this person worried about that?

JT:
Yes, it is. It has been in the news a lot lately with the concerns over North K. and their potential for intercontinental ballistic missiles though it can also be caused by solar flare emissions.

To answer the reader's question - While you are more likely to be adversely affected by a weather-related disaster, EMP attacks are on people’s minds today due to the press coverage and the sensationalistic movies about their potential impact. I would start by reading the book, One Second After and then do some internet research amongst the scientific community. Lastly, I would watch the film Escape from L.A. with Kurt Russell and learn how his character Snake Pliskin copes with such a crisis with great flare while supplying you with plenty of gritty quotes and manly scowls.

Question: Will my iPod still work if there’s an EMP?

JT:
Really dude, get a life. This question is related to a phenomenon I call TMFT or Too Much Free Time.

Question:
Is it better to reunite with my family members in one location in my (disaster-torn) city and then bug-out or should we assume we will all be separated before the disaster and plan to hook up with them at another location later?

JT:
Think of what it’s like organizing a family barbecue or birthday party under normal conditions before considering trying to scoop up all of your family members spread across the city while escaping in under 30 minutes. Have plans for reuniting in all four directions with other family members worked out in advance so you can avoid the impending gridlock. This will help enable you to make a swift evacuation. I am not saying to abandon family members but rather to stay focused on your immediate family and then concentrate on 1-2 others in your immediate vicinity while having other family similarly responsible for other members in their reach.

Question: 

Is there really going to be a zombie apocalypse or is this some primal fear of faceless hordes that stems from deep in the limbic part of our ancient reptilian brain?

JT:
Leave zombies alone! They are cool and make for great escapist movies where guys get to run like a wolf pack through a burned-out city and shoot fully automatic weapons with their buddies. Filmmaker George Romero was the DaVinci of our times and malls throughout America owe him a debt of gratitude for his visionary flick, Dawn of the Dead.


Question: 

Will the pumps at gas stations work if the grid is down for an extended period and how do I extract some fuel without getting busted?

JT:
No, modern fuel pumps will not work when the grid is down as most of these are electronically controlled. In regions with older pumps, then maybe. One sweet, elderly lady in a class of mine, who was a veteran of many hurricanes in the Southeastern U.S., jibed in during a discussion on alternative energy that “there will be many abandoned vehicles to siphon from and the bottoms of gas tanks puncture easy.” When someone asked her if she was suggesting to steal, she replied with a wry smile: “File the info away, that’s all I’m gonna say on the topic.”

Question:
I live in Detroit and there are lots of pigeons and sewer rats around. Should I trap and eat these if the grocery shelves empty during a disaster?

JT:
Consider fasting—you will live longer. And get your home pantry in order so you have grub to outlast the disaster recovery phase. Rats in the wilderness taste pretty good but eating rats in the city presupposes you’ve been vaccinated for plague/rabies/MRSA/plague/kuru/ebola, did I mention plague! You’d be better off crushing gravel and mixing it with Tabasco to form a survival gruel.

Fiona: 

Uhm, no. Going on line to find a bucket of beans to put in my closet.


Question: 

I own a Hummer, a Jeep, a BMW motorcycle, a Cessna, and a Land Rover and can’t decide which one to use in my escape plan. Any suggestions?

JT:
You are suffering from TMFT and the Expendable Cash Syndrome that all too many companies in the survival gear industry cater to. Focus on your developing your skill-sets more and expanding your knowledge base and hold off any getting any more toys.

Question: 

Me and two of my (very wealthy) friends have amassed a ton of food, ammo, firearms, and survival supplies at our cabin retreat in the mountains of Colorado. The only problem is we all live and work in Arizona. We are pilots, have our own small planes, and should be able to get to our retreat if we get out in time but we aren’t entirely sure how to use all of our survival gear. What should we do?

Answer: 

See previous answer.

Question: 

What do you think will happen if there is ever a global pandemic?

Answer: 

Good question! Since no modern-day humans have lived through such a pandemic, I can only relay the information and modeling that has been done by epidemiologists and historians based off the 1918-19 Influenza that killed 50+ million people worldwide. You can find that material by looking up the book The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John Barry or by keeping tabs on the work done by the staff at University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP research facility—www.cidrap. umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/panflu/. Based upon the above information, I think it’s a good idea to have the six key areas of home self-reliance in place (food, water, medical, sanitation, defense, & alternative energy), a network of like-minded folks in your community, and a whole lot of books in your home library to pass the time as life and commerce will come to a standstill throughout the world for many, many moons.

Question: 

(A former Marine in an urban survival class once asked me this while I was lecturing on water purification methods) “I just wanna ask….how many of you could kill a man with your bare hands?”

Answer: 

You mean before or after you’ve rehydrated? My response was: Let’s all take a five minute break and clear our heads. Funny thing was that out of a class of 35 people, about 12 hands shot straight up in positive response to the question and those were from the female participants.

Fiona - 

From those questions I not only got some plotting ideas, I alsogot a little insight on the kind of person who is thinking through the possibilities of dire straits. To be honest, the health crisis and possibly of a weather related catastrophe seem most likely. 

I have read most of JTs books. I know he writes them for their entertainment value, but they're also grounded in real-world survival skills from a master survival teacher, which to me makes them very fun. I hope you'll give JT's books a read, too.

His newest novel out now is called Emergence Infection.

An epic struggle for survival between humans and a twisted mutation of undead begins in Emergence--the first book in a pulse-pounding post-apocalyptic series by author JT Sawyer. When a CIA bioweapons ship goes dark, operative Will Reisner and his team are sent to the South China Sea to investigate. As their mission unfolds, a deadly parasitic virus takes hold in cities around the globe, turning its victims into worm-riddled creatures bent on infecting others to increase their numbers, linked by a mysterious mental connection. After barely making it out alive, Reisner reluctantly joins forces with epidemiologist Selene Munroe, who has been trying to discover the origins of the virus to prevent humanity from being completely consumed by the horrific fiend that has been unleashed upon the world. Emergence is a bold reinvention of the well-worn zombie theme that will have you gripping the edge of your seat.   READ IT NOW!