A bug-out bag is just that, a resource for bugging out. It’s a parachute for when you’re leaping out of your flaming plane and don’t care where you land, so long as you’re still alive. However, breaking out your 72-hour kit every time something inopportune happens might be a little over-reactive. Sometimes society and order don’t break down, they just fracture a bit.
That’s why I have my Dodge bag. In it, I have a modest amount of cash, a credit card, passport, Glock 17 9mm, back-up cell battery, AmTrak card, and a spare car key. It is supremely suited to be grabbed the moment I realize I have to get the hell out of Dodge, and fast.
I had the experience of being in a mass exodus once—bumper to bumper traffic for hours, people pooping in ditches, waving guns to make their plans to merge clear; the whole nine yards. Three million people evacuating a city is quite a sight, and quite a mess.
As a very wise and very well-traveled National Geographic employee once told me, “If you have a credit card and a passport. You can get anywhere in the world.” A bug-out bag might be ideal for when society caves in and you’re purifying water in a pup tent, but sometimes it’s better to just skip town for a few days until everything cools down.
Nathan Evans / HEX Writer
