Apparently, one of the critters had wandered in a little too close to our camp this morning.
Wolfe never goes out hunting on his own, hunting is a pack activity, but he will bend the rules a little if something gets too close to our spot.
If you would know all the various surprises I have woken up to, then you would probably agree with me when I said the dead prairie dog was a pleasant surprise.
You should try waking up by having an eight foot long timber rattler dropped on top of you.
That morning I thought I was going to die, until I noticed that its head had been bitten off and the large gray furry creature that was standing next to me.
I have since taught Wolfe to put morning snake surprises on the ground next to me, then wake me up by putting his paws on my shoulder.
I grabbed the prairie dog by the hind legs and lifted it off my chest with my right hand and patted Wolfe on the head with my left hand, then I slowly sat up.
The prairie dog would make a decent breakfast this morning, so it was a pleasant surprise in more than one way.
I got up and built a small fire then skinned the prairie dog and hung it over the fire.
I used the final bit of gas in my Bic lighter and tossed the empty lighter into the weeds.
I know, you probably were thinking that I had become a real outdoors man who was making all these fires by rubbing two sticks together.
Sorry to disappoint you but rubbing two sticks together to make a fire falls a few levels below my mind reading skills.
I found a box of one hundred Bic lighters the first month after I started going west. I knew fire was going to be important, so I picked up the box of lighters and a backpack as my first supplies to start my journey.
The day I run out of lighters is the day Wolfe and I will have to learn to eat our rabbits raw.
Honestly, I don’t know which of us will have the hardest time making that adjustment.
I am just hoping it never comes down to that.
Besides, I don’t know how I would be able to explain to Wolfe why he can’t have his food cooked medium rare anymore.
I’ve been practicing different approaches to starting a fire by rubbing two sticks together, but so far I haven’t had much luck.
As the prairie dog roasted, I walked over to my backpack and reached inside to find another lighter.
I knew I was running low on lighters, but a sense of panic started through me when after running my hands through the backpack I didn’t feel any lighters.
I dumped out the contents of the pack on my blanket and began rummaging through the scattered contents.
I felt a sense of relief when I found one last red plastic lighter. I clicked the button on the lighter and saw the flame shoot out of the top, then quickly turned it off and put it in my pocket.
Now I had something new to add to my daily to do list, besides finding food and staying alive, I had to find more arrows as I was down to three arrows and now I would have to find more lighters too.
In my old life, finding a new lighter would rank right up there in difficulty with checking for monsters under the girl’s beds.
I could tell the girls that I had checked for monsters under their beds without really looking, because there were no monsters to hide under their bed.
Finding a new lighter was almost as easy, except I had to actually go to the store to get one. Every store sold them, so I didn’t have to make any special plans to find one.
Now, finding something like a Bic lighter took some planning and preparation.
Just like now I always look for monsters behind every tree and rock. If I ever have a real bed again, I will also check under the bed every night before going to sleep, because I’ve found that monsters really do exist.
To find a lighter I would have to find a store, and finding a store meant I had to go somewhere where there had been a town or city.
Towns are where I run into most of the undead.
The undead are everywhere, but towns are where they seem to hang around in large gangs for some reason.
Like I said before, I think the undead walk around in circles, so maybe they are trying to leave the towns but always end back up where they started.
The ones that get confused or lost end up out here like the six Wolfe and I had to deal with yesterday.
But you find the undead everywhere, so I always have to stay alert.
I try to avoid towns at all costs if I can, but since I never know where I am, I have wandered into a few by accident.
But there have been times when I’ve had to go into a town to get something I needed.
I doubt there are any large cities left from what I’ve seen. The cities I have gotten close enough to see anything have been reduced to large burnt piles of rubble that I swear still glow in the dark from the nuclear radiation.
I also find that if I get too close to one of the cities I begin to feel strange and start to throw up after an hour or so.
Since I found Wolfe I haven’t been that close to any more cities, he seems to sense the radiation and guides me around them safely.
The smaller cities or larger towns that weren’t bombed aren’t much better off than the large cities.
In a way I guess you could say the big cities were the place to be when this all started, because you died fast. It was over in a flash and in most cases the people never knew what had happened.
But the smaller towns and cities died a slow and horrible death.
The towns that weren’t killed by the radiation soon destroyed themselves as the people began to panic. First people began to panic when the power and communications went out because of the missiles and explosions.
Next people began to panic when then they realized that everything they had known was gone, then it became a free for all over food, shelter and anything and everything else you can imagine. It didn’t take society or what we called civilization long to breakdown into total chaos.
Then the undead showed up and finished off those that hadn’t been killed by the bombs or hadn’t yet managed to kill themselves.
As I said, maybe the big cities were the lucky ones.
The smaller towns and cities are nothing more now than overgrown ghost towns inhabited by the undead.
When I feel that it is necessary to go into one of these towns, Wolfe and I spend a day or two watching before we go in.
You can never know what you will get yourself into, but I try to be as prepared as I can.
I heard Wolfe whine, which distracted me from my thinking about needing to find more lighters.
The only time he has ever whined was when he felt that whatever I was cooking was done enough to eat.
I guess I had never really heard him whine until after the one time I had drifted off in thought like I always seem to do and burnt the pheasant I had roasting over the fire.
Since that time he keeps an eye on the food when I am cooking.
He is better than an over thermometer and a kitchen timer rolled into one.
He has never failed to let me know when our dinner has reached the optimum condition – medium rare.
Chapter 5
My dream continued, but now I was starting to feel uneasy and wanted to stop it, but it continued regardless of what I wanted.
Day four arrived.
After days of agony and the dreaded feeling that we were all going to die a slow and painful death, I opened my eyes.
There was now light coming in through the basement windows and I somehow seemed to feel better.
As I sat up, I looked over at Jamie and was surprised to see her look back at me and she gave me her usual big smile.
She held up her arm and showed me her elbow.
“It’s better now,” she grinned. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
I looked at her arm and was surprised to see that the blisters on her arm had gone down and no longer looked red and sore.
I hugged Kelly and the girls as a glimmer of hope filled me.
I told them to stay here and that I was going to go upstairs to have a look.
I told them that I had a feeling that today might just be our lucky day.
I felt surprising lighter today as the girls gave me a big smile and started to munch on the box of Captain Crunch I had stuffed in the bag of supplies I had gathered before coming down to the basement.
Jamie reached in the box and pulled out a handful of cereal and held her hand up to me.
I took the cereal, smiled and tossed the dry cereal into my mouth.
It tasted good and was the first thing any of us had been able to eat in the last two days.
I smiled then got up and started up the basement stairs.
I hesitated a moment before opening the door, not wanting to have the first hopeful feeling I’ve had in three days dashed by what I would find when I opened the door.
But I had to open the door and hope that the worst was over.
As I pushed the door open, the first thing I noticed was that the large windows in the living room were broken, large pieces of glass and debris covered the floor and furniture.
A slight cool breeze blew through the house.
I slowly walked into the living room and stared outside.
The sky was still dark with thick black and red clouds, but rays of sunshine broke through in places sending long bright rays of light stretching down to the ground.
The sight of the sun brightened my spirits.
I could see my neighborhood now for the first time, it looked like it had been hit by a tornado.
Sheds and awnings sat out in the middle of the yards along with various colored shingles that had been torn from the roof tops.
The trees no longer had any leaves on them and the dark branches reached into the reddish black skies like something you would see on a Halloween card.
I didn’t know what I was expecting to see, maybe my fears about us all dying a slow horrible death had something to do with it, but I somehow felt relieved by what I saw.
Then I noticed that some of my neighbors were gathered out on the street talking.
I walked out the kitchen door and through the backyard.
As I walked out on the street, the four men that had been talking walked over to meet me.
“Is everyone OK?” I asked.
Tom Johnson lowered his head.
“Tom lost his wife,” John said.
“What happened?” I asked.
“That’s what we would like to know,” Jim Carter said.
“Tom and his wife were sleeping when their windows imploded into their bedroom,” Bill Carsen said. “She was hit by the glass. I was in bed when I heard the storm blow in. What the hell was it? I’ve never seen a tornado or a storm last this long and what is all this black shit raining down on us?”
“I believe we are at war,” I said.
“War?” Jim asked.
“Yeah, war,” I replied. “I was up at six o’clock in the morning four days ago. I saw our missiles being launched. Then I saw the incoming missiles. I don’t think they hit anywhere close to us, but my guess is they hit Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Kansas City and Billings. I think they hit all the major cities around us, what we got was just the after shock of the blasts.”
“Holy shit!” Jim replied, then asked. “Do you know who hit us? Was it the Russians or the Chinese?”
“I have no idea,” I replied.
“That explains why the power and the radios are out,” Bill added. “Even my CB isn’t working. I opened the back of the radio and all the circuits were fried.”
“It’s the EMP effect,” I said. “It knocks out all the electrical circuits for hundreds of miles around the blast area.”
“Is your family OK?” John asked.
“I think so,” I replied. “We were sick as hell for a few days but we’re all feeling a little better today.”
“Same here,” Bill said. “This is the first day I haven’t been worried about puking my guts out and have been able to even think about coming outside.”
“Any idea what we are to do now? Tom asked. “Is there an emergency center or something we should be going to?”
“I plan on staying inside until the sky and air clears up a little more,” I replied. “I don’t think we were exposed to too much radiation as far as I can tell. Hopefully we are far enough north to escape most of the fallout. If the military command structure survived, maybe we’ll see them start coming around to offer help in a few days.”
As we talked, we began to hear a buzzing sound.
We all began to nervously look around for the source of the sound.
“Over there,” Tom said. “I see something in the sky.
“It’s not another damn missile is it?” Bill asked.
I don’t think so,” I replied as I spotted a slow moving object moving across the sky. “It’s moving too slow to be a missile. It looks more like a crop duster or a drone.”
“Who the hell would be out dusting their crops today?” Jim asked.
“Doesn’t the military use drones?” Bill asked. “Maybe they sent up drones to try and assess the damage and locate survivors.”
“I didn’t think about that,” I replied as I scanned the sky.
We all stood and watched as what appeared to be basketball sized spheres being dropped from the aircraft.
When the spheres fell to about two hundred feet above the ground, they exploded into large green clouds that dispersed and slowly descended over the land below as a fine green mist.
“I don’t know what that is, but I suggest we all go back inside until it is over,” I said.
“Maybe it’s the Airforce releasing some kind of antiradiation medication into the air to protect us from the fallout,” Bill said.
I didn’t want to discourage them, but I had never heard of such a thing as antiradiation medication that could be administered in this manner, but again there were a lot of things that I’ve never heard of.
Besides, I’m sure whatever was left of the Airforce would be out counter attacking whoever had just nuked us.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I think we should err on the side of caution and get inside.”
“Tom?” I asked, concerned for the old man that had just lost his wife of fifty years. “Are you going to be OK? You can come stay at my place for a few days if you want.”
“No, thanks Charlie,” Tom replied. “If all of this means the end is near, I want to be in my own house. We’ve lived in that house most of our lives, that’s where I want to be.”
“OK Tom,” I said. “If I can do anything for you just come on over.”
Tom nodded and walked away.
I watched as the green mist drifted closer, the air over the main part of Bismarck was becoming dark green in color, then I turned and ran for my house.
When I came back out the next morning, Bill informed me that Tom was dead. He found him this morning next to his wife. Apparently he had shot himself during the night.
I didn’t judge what Tom had done, I knew how I would have felt if Kelly and the girls had died, I knew there was a possibility that I could have been tempted to do the same thing. I didn’t even want to think about that.
I told Bill that I had instructed the girls to stay inside until I returned. I planned on going into town to see if I could find anyone that might have had contact with the outside.
I also was hoping to pick up some supplies, I didn’t know long we would be waiting to see what happened, but I knew it would probably be a long time.
However long it would be, I knew we would need more food and water than we had.
I also wanted to pick up a few other things to help us get by, like batteries, candles and lighters.
Deep down, I felt the chances were that this was going to be it, we would be living like people did in the middle ages and I needed to start preparing for the worst.
Because if I was right, there would not be any help coming.
; Before I left, I went back in to tell Kelly about Tom.
We had known the old couple for years and I thought she would want to know.
After we spoke, before I was able to leave, Kelly looked at me with a serious expression on her face.
“Charlie,” Kelly said. “I want you to promise me something.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“I realize that we still don’t know what is going to happen. We can’t imagine all the side effects that are yet to come from the nuclear bombs that were dropped,” Kelly said. “I guess what I’m saying is there is still a good chance that one or all of us isn’t going to live through this. If for any reason I’m the one that dies and you survive, I want you to promise me that you won’t do what Tom did. You’re a good man Charlie, and no matter how bad things get, I want you to live and move on. I just know that somewhere out there something good will be waiting for you and I want you to find it. You deserve it.”
“Kelly, I’m not sure this is the time to be talking about this sort of thing,” I replied.
“It seems to me that this is the perfect time to discuss it,” Kelly said. “If we wait much longer, it could be too late and before something happens, I want you to know how I feel.”
I looked at Kelly. The last few days I had considered the idea that we were going to die, but that it would all be together at the same time.
But Tom’s actions had started me thinking and now it also had Kelly thinking.
I could honestly say that if I had been in Tom’s shoes, I’m really don’t know what I would have done. I never considered suicide as a possibility that I would ever consider, but after what had happened I could see how a man’s mind could be driven to such despair that he might no longer want to continue living.
In a time like that, I could see where insanity could take over your mind causing you to act and do things you would have never done.
Apocalypse- the Plan Page 27