Dark Days (Book 1): The Collapse

by Davis, James

  "I know a spot, follow me," Jeff said, jogging back toward the woods, Clay and Sarge on his heels. Another half mile through the woods and at the top of a large hill, the pair approached a group of large oak trees.

  "Can you climb a tree?" Jeff asked.

  "Probably not." Clay said between gasps for air.

  "I believe in you!" Jeff called, already halfway up one of the trees. Clay dropped his pack to the ground.

  "Stay!" he commanded Sarge, who immediately sat down, awaiting his next orders. Clay jumped and grabbed the highest branch he could reach, pulling himself up onto the branch and moved to his feet. He repeated this process a few times, finally reaching as high as he cared to go. He grabbed a water bottle from his back pocket and took a long swig before grabbing the binoculars dangling from his neck and having a look inside the fence. What he saw was similar to a small town. Soldiers walked the streets, shops seemed to be operating, lack of power didn't seem to keep these soldiers from business as usual.

  "Five or six hundred my ass! There's enough soldiers stationed here to fill the Nissan Stadium!" Clay exclaimed looking over at Jeff who was also scanning the camp.

  "Stop it, there’s a thousand maybe, twelve hundred at best," Jeff replied, not bothering to take his eyes from the binoculars.

  "Wait. Look there!" Jeff exclaimed, pointing toward the far side of the camp. A large personnel truck had stopped and a group of civilians were being ushered out of the back.

  "You see our people in there?" Clay asked.

  "Nah, no one we know. You?" Clay shook his head.

  "Nope, but they must already be in there." They watched as the group was separated, men in one line and women in the other. The women were led into a large building toward the back and the men into a different building right next to the entrance.

  "Let's watch for a bit, we'll head back and discuss our next move," Clay said, taking another sip from his water.

  "Affirmative." Jeff replied, "I'm hungry anyway." They sat and had lunch while observing Camp Davridge for most of the afternoon. They hadn’t seen much in the way of intel besides how they separated the men and women. They were about to call it a day, when Clay noticed two women ducked down running up the fence line. Clay quickly grabbed his binoculars and peered through them at the women.

  “Do you see that? Clay asked, pointing his finger toward the two women. Jeff raised his own set of binoculars,

  “That's Karen and Ashley!” Jeff said excitedly.

  “Where the hell are they sneaking off to? They aren’t trying to escape from the looks of it.” Jeff said quietly. He turned to see Clay shoving his stuff back into his pack.

  “We have to go help them.” Clay said in a very serious tone.

  “Look I know you want to go in guns bla…” A loud siren cut Jeff off mid-sentence. Clay took off running as fast as he could toward Ashley and Karen. He started to yell out for them but realized that Ashley and Karen didn’t have Emma and Toby. Clay stopped in his tracks allowing Jeff to catch up. Ten armed soldiers came from around a house, surrounding Ashley and Karen. The soldiers knocked them both to the ground and roughly grabbed each of their arms and cuffed them behind their backs.

  When Clay saw all of this he lost his mind, and started to take off after the soldiers but Jeff grabbed him and took him down to the ground, holding him there before he did something stupid.

  “You have got to calm the fuck down!” Jeff said as he tried to keep Clay from getting back to his feet.

  “What did you think was going to happen if you stormed over there? They would have shot your ass that's what!” Clay stopped trying to fight Jeff after he said that.

  “We have to help them!” Clay said as he watched the soldiers manhandle his wife.

  “Don’t even watch, you’ll just get pissed off again,” Jeff replied.

  “They had to have been trying to get to the kids. They were going for that building right there.” Clay said, pointing at some kind of business building.

  “Let’s wait till they turn off that damn siren and calm down a bit, then we can go take a look.” Jeff said. Clay and Jeff stayed down looking at every nook and cranny they could see around that one building. It looked like they didn’t keep a very good guard on it.

  “I’m going in there to see if my kids are there. If you don’t want to come you don’t have to, but if you grab me again I’m going to whip your goddamn ass!” Clay hissed. The sun was starting to set on the horizon, turning the sky a mixture of beautiful red, orange, purple, and blue.

  “A few more minutes after the sun drops a little more I’m going.” Clay stated. Once darkness started to set in for the night Clay and Jeff ran down and around the fence line where Ashley and Karen looked to be going earlier. They both stopped and looked around, making sure no one was coming. Clay pulled a small pair of bolt cutter’s out of his pack and started cutting the links on the fence. He only cut enough where they could get through it without making any noise. They both checked their weapons and stepped through the fence, expecting that siren to go off at any minute, but it never did.

  They each went to a corner to check to see if the place was totally unguarded or not. This was strange. If they were holding children in here there would be someone here. Clay pulled out one of Emma's dirty shirts and let Sarge smell it. The dog immediately started pawing the side of the building. Clay’s heart began to race. His daughter was definitely inside this building and he wasn’t about to go back for help before he got her and Toby out of this shithole.

  They crept along the side of the building until they reached the front corner. Clay quickly poked his head out and saw no one. He turned to Jeff whispering.

  "Let's get in there quick, keep your eyes open." He turned the corner and ran to the door in the center of the building, throwing it open and stepping inside, followed closely by Jeff. The two men raised weapons ready for a fight. Inside they found an elderly woman, her black hair lined with streaks of grey and thick glasses perched at the very tip of her nose. She was seated in a white wooden rocking chair surrounded by a group of about fifteen small children, it was clear this woman was no soldier. Startled by the intrusion she looked up from the book she was reading aloud

  "Hey! Who are you? Help!” she screamed. Clay lunged forward, covering her mouth with his gloved hand.

  "We just want our kids. This one and this one." he said, pointing out Emma and Toby.

  "They're leaving with us and you can finish your story. No one has to get hurt."

  "Get them and let's go, someone's coming." Jeff whispered frantically, peering through the cracked door. Clay turned and scooped up the toddlers and started toward the door.

  "Help! In here!" The woman screamed as soon as Clay's hand left her mouth. Jeff quickly cracked the woman in the side of the head with the butt of his rifle, knocking her out cold but it was already too late. Her screams had been heard already.

  "Son of a bitch!" Jeff exclaimed, throwing open the door and firing toward the four soldiers who were now sprinting toward the building. One soldier dropped, his momentum causing him to slide across the ground, as several of the bullets tore through his torso. The remaining two soldiers jumped for cover. Clay carried the two children out of the door and quickly disappeared around the corner. Sirens began blaring throughout the area as Jeff fired on the soldiers again.

  Once Clay was safely out of sight he fired one more burst and followed. Jeff took cover at the back corner of the building as Clay helped Emma and then Toby through the hole in the gate, and then climbed through himself. Two soldiers rounded the corner and Jeff fired, exploding the head of one soldier and striking the other in the shoulder. He screamed in pain and dove back into cover. Jeff quickly jumped through the hole in the fence, scooped up Toby in his arms and the two men took off across the clearing carrying the children.

  Clay let out a quick whistle as he reached the woods. They ran the entire way back to the Jeep. Sarge had joined them at some point along the way, but they hadn't noti
ced. Jeff passed Toby to Clay and jumped into the driver’s seat, put the key into the ignition and started the engine. Clay waited for Sarge to jump in and then hopped into the back seat holding both children. The Jeep lurched forward as Jeff slammed the gas to the floor and made a U-turn.

  "Hold onto them kids, I ain't slowing down till we get home!" Jeff said, as he took a corner at full speed. A few minutes had passed and Clay turned to look out the back of the Jeep fully expecting to see a humvee or something closing in on them, but he saw nothing.

  “They sure gave up pretty easy.” Clay said, making eye contact with Jeff in the rearview mirror.

  “I wouldn’t bet on that. Taking the kids may have been a huge mistake for a couple of different reasons. For one, they will figure out whose kids were taken and they will probably take it out on Ashley and Karen. And two, once they do figure that out they'll realize they didn't get everyone at the house and come back. We don't have the numbers to hold that many people off unless this Jim guy shows up before they do." Jeff said pragmatically.

  "Well, it's too late for what if's now. We'll just deal with that when the time comes. For now, just focus on driving. I want to get these babies home and back around their family." Clay replied. The two kids didn't make a peep during the shootout or the ride home. The world had gotten so screwed up that small children were used to gunfire and reckless driving. Jeff pulled into the driveway and cut off the headlights. Dub and Hank were sitting on the front porch, rifles aimed right at the Jeep.

  "Put those damn guns down you crazy old coots!" Dub and Randy visibly relaxed when they heard Jeff's voice.

  “Hank get over here,” Clay said as he picked up a sleeping Emma. Hank was there seconds later with a confused look on his face. He grabbed Toby from the back of the Jeep and began hugging and kissing the boy, waking him up. Toby began to laugh the way only a toddler can as his dad showered him with hugs and kisses. The laughter woke Emma, and Clay started to give her the same treatment, which got her to giggling too. The laughter was contagious. They were all smiles and laughs at this point. Even Dub’s grumpy old ass was giving out hugs to the two kids and smiling. Once the reunion died down Hank turned to look at Clay.

  “How did you get the kids back but not the women?” Clay and Jeff spent the next few minutes explaining what all had happened. When they were finished, Clay asked Dub.

  “What time are you supposed to talk to Jim Andrews tomorrow? We need him to bring a substantial number of troops and weapons with him so we can move in on Camp Davridge and get our people back before they get killed in there.”

  “We agreed on the same time as we talked today, so I’d say somewhere around nine or ten in the morning.”

  “Ok, well let us know when you're going down to the radio room. I’d like to talk to him as well.”

  “Will do.” Dub replied. Clay shifted Emma to his other arm and followed everyone inside.

  “I think we’re gonna hit the sack. She’s already back asleep and I’m pretty tired myself.” Clay said as he turned to head up to his room.

  “I’ll take watch for tonight. You boys take care of those babies and get some rest.”

  “I won’t argue with that!” Clay said with a chuckle, as he climbed the stairs. Clay was out cold as soon as his head hit the pillow.

  Chapter 22

  Dub was in the kitchen making coffee for everyone when Clay and Hank came down the stairs the next morning.

  “Morning fellers. Come get some coffee and have a seat, there are a couple of things we need to discuss before we talk to Jim.” The two men accepted the coffee and took a seat at the table.

  “So what's on your mind?” Clay asked, as he took a long deep drink of the hot coffee.

  “Well, first of all, with all the fighting and shit showing up on our doorstep now, I think we should start staying down in the bunker full time after we get our people back home. There are too many people showing up here wanting to hurt us, or just kidnap our people. Second, we probably need to do something with Steve. He seems to be thinking about all kinds of nonsense instead of how to help and protect our group. We had a little chat last night, he's havin’ some trouble comin’ to terms with recent events. I don't think he's fully behind our cause."

  “Where is he now?" Hank asked.

  "I think he went back to the school. He only came by last night to grab some of his clothes. He probably won't be spending very much time here because of Tanya." Dub replied sadly. He didn't have to elaborate any further.

  "So what do you suggest we do about him?" Clay said. Hank took a long sip of his coffee and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

  "He's just having a hard time with what we had to do, and his lady just died for Christ’s sake, cut him some slack." he said. Clay slammed his cup down causing a bit of the coffee to slosh over the rim onto the table.

  "Come on man, we've all lost someone! He's buried out in the yard, remember?" Hank nodded solemnly.

  "I remember, so obviously if anyone can understand where his head’s at, it's us. Just give him some time, that's all I'm saying."

  “Whatever." Clay muttered.

  "Don't you whatever me?" Hank said, clearly attempting to agitate his brother.

  "I hate to interrupt you girls but we need to keep an eye on him." Dub said.

  "Agreed." Clay replied. Dub nodded, glancing at his watch

  "If y’all are ready, I believe we have a date.”

  "The kids are still sleeping, I'll stay above ground for this one." Hank offered, taking another sip of his coffee.

  "You sure?" Clay asked. Hank nodded.

  "You can fill me in after."

  "Okay then." Clay said, standing up from the table.

  "Lead the way old m-" before he could finish his sentence Dub's open hand connected with the back of his head.

  "You'll learn one of these days." Dub said already walking out of the kitchen. Clay rubbed his head and peered around as if he didn't already know where the assault came from.

  "Never gets old!" Hank said laughing.

  "See how you like it!" Clay said as he reached out and slapped Hank upside the head before bolting out of the room, leaving Hank rubbing his own head.

  “You better run, you bitch!” Hank could hear Clay giggling like a schoolgirl all the way out the door and down the steps.

  “What a dumbass.” Hank said shaking his head.

  Clay and Dub walked into the radio room and each grabbed a chair. With only two people in the room it was a lot more spacious. Dub bellied up to the table and reached over to turn on his radio. It was a decent set-up with a Stryker SR-655HPC transceiver. He turned the power on and the familiar neon green light shone from the face of the radio putting a smile on Dub’s face. He tinkered with the knobs for a couple of minutes then picked up his mic and called for Jim. He answered almost immediately.

  “Andrews here, go for Stanton.”

  “Well, it’s about damn time! You ought to know better than to keep me waiting!” Dub said with a chuckle.

  “Oh hell, keep your panties on Nancy. I wouldn’t have answered you if I had known you were going to be whining like a little Girl Scout.” Jim said. Dub and Clay both laughed as Dub held the mic up to respond.

  “I’ll let that one go for now since we have more pressing matters to discuss.” Dub said.

  “So what did you boys come up?” Jim asked.

  “Well, that’s a problem we are currently dealing with.” Dub replied.

  “What problem?” Jim said, with an anxious tone. Dub and Clay each took turns going over everything that had happened in the past 24 hours. When they were finished, Jim stayed silent for a long minute.

  “He sure is taking his sweet ass time to reply.” Clay stated just before Jim’s voice came back over the speakers, startling both Clay and Dub.

  “Ok, so I can get the supplies to you no problem but there are only so many of my guys that I can get there at the same time I come. The rest will have to drive down in a big ass co
nvoy. It shouldn’t take them more than an afternoon to drive down there from here.”

  “Not a problem. Once you get here we can hash out a plan to attack Camp Davridge and get our people back. Until then, I’ll have someone go out and find a place for you and your boys to set up camp. I have an airport in mind that has plenty of room for troop quarters and any aircraft you bring.” Dub said, looking over at Clay, who was damn near asleep in his seat.

  “Alright good. I’ll be ready to head out within the hour. My boys and I will be in a squadron of Blackhawks. I’ll have the supplies you asked for as well. We can drop it right in your front yard if you so desire?” Jim stated.

  “No, not out front. Too many eyes on us out there if you catch my drift.” Dub replied.

  “We can set her down any… Dub, what in the hell is that god awful racket I’m hearing on your end?” Dub actually laughed out loud when he heard this and saw Clay. Clay was leaned back in his chair fast asleep, snoring like a damn grizzly bear. A long stringy line of drool hung down from the corner of his mouth. Dub just shook his head and reached over to smack Clay on the leg. Startled, Clay shot up out of the chair and looked around the room with hazy eyes, ready to fight.

  “Calm down Nancy, you’re not being attacked. Sit down and relax before you hurt yourself.” Dub said before turning back to the radio and keying the mic again.

  “Sorry about that. Clay fell asleep and was snoring up a damn storm in here.” Dub said over the mic.

  “No big deal. We’re about to take off anyway. We’ll be seeing you folks in a couple of hours.” Jim replied. Dub keyed his mic once more to give Jim the lat and long to the farm then they both signed off. Dub shut down the radio and they both headed for the exit.

  “Why’d you let me fall asleep?” Clay asked as they climbed up the stairs.

  “Boy, I ain’t your damn mommy. Now shut up and go find the other guys and have them go check that airport out. We don’t want any surprises when Jim gets here.” Dub said. Clay went inside to get another cup of coffee and spotted Jeff and Randy at the table eating breakfast with Hank and the kids.