by A. American
“Well, I’ve heard lots of news. And from what I can gather, this wasn’t an accident”—he paused for a minute—“and may not be an outside event.”
“Huh, what do you mean?” I was perplexed. How could this be an inside job?
“Well, first, there hasn’t been the first hint of information coming out of the government, nothing. And when one side isn’t talking, they’re acting. They’re up to something. I’ve been in their employ long enough to know that.” He folded his arms.
“Well, then, what do you think happened?” The wheels were turning in my head, but they weren’t really grabbing any traction.
“I have a theory, but I’m gonna keep that to myself for a while. You get some sleep tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He got up and walked out. I turned out the lamp and tried to go to sleep, without much success.
The next day, I was approved for limited duty, according to the first sergeant. On the dresser across the room was a change off my clothes, freshly laundered and folded. I got up and got dressed. I felt a little stiff, and it hurt to turn my head. Thankfully my shirt was a Columbia PFG button-up fishing shirt, another part of my “uniform,” as Mel called it. My Merrell shoes were there, so I slipped into them; they seemed so light after wearing the boots for so long. I walked out of the room and down a small hallway that led into the living room. The entire length of the hall was lined with framed documents denoting various achievements during Sarge’s long military career. There were also several other documents. I wasn’t sure what they were. They were all different; some had what looked like old nose art from the World War II aircraft. All of them had what I assume was a call sign in bold print, along with a time and date designation.
Coming out into the living room, it was empty. Wonder where everyone is? I walked through into the kitchen; no one there. Off the kitchen was a door. There was the sound of people talking, some of whom were obviously over the radios. I also heard Thad’s husky voice coming through the door. I rapped my knuckles on the door and opened it. I could not believe what I saw.
This was Sarge’s “Comm Cave” as he called it. The walls were covered in more of the same documents I saw in the hallway, as well as more military documents in frames. There were also a number of framed photos that had been taken all around the world, from the look of the people in them. Common to all these photos was what had to be a younger First Sergeant Mitchell. In all of them, he was with a small band of various warriors, and also common to all of them was a radio antenna jutting up over his right shoulder.
“Watch your step,” Sarge called out over his shoulder before I entered the room. I looked down, and the room had a raised floor.
“What’s this?” I asked as I kicked the edge of the floor.
“Protective measures. You don’t think this stuff survived through sheer luck, do you?” He was removing his headphones as he spun in the office chair he was seated in.
“No, I figured you had some sort of faraday cage,” I answered in reply.
“I do; step into my faraday cage.” He cracked a smile.
“You mean the whole room?” My eyes were wide as I looked around.
“Yep, the whole damn thing; instead of trying to protect some of my gear, I decided to protect all of it. Inside the walls is a copper mesh. It’s also under this raised floor and in the ceiling. It ties into a 4/0 bare copper ground grid that circles the entire house. There are ground rods that I had driven thirty feet into the ground. That really confused the electrical contractor; he stopped asking me questions when I told him it stopped the radio waves from getting into my head.” He crossed his arms and rocked back in the chair, awaiting the forthcoming admiration.
“Damn!” I replied in a long exhale. “That’s impressive. I wish I had this setup.”
“You and everyone else right now. See, I left the army ’cause I didn’t like the smell coming from upstairs. As soon as I got out, I built this house and took, ah, how shall we say, the necessary precautions.” He stood up. “Let me show you around. This is the radio bank. This here is a Yaesu Ft-817ND. It’s little five-watt AM radio. This one is an FT-857D. It puts out a solid hundred watts. This is the one I use for DX, or long range.” He was pointing out the radios.
The radios were sitting on a table that had a shelf mounted to the wall over it. All sorts of power and signal strength gauges were mounted on it, as well as power supplies and other gadgets.
“How in the hell do you power all this, especially that hundred-watt monster?” I was pointing to the larger, only slightly, of the two radios.
“Ah, that’s the best part.” He walked over to a small door and opened it; he pulled the cord on a keyless fixture in the ceiling, and the fluorescent lamp in it started to warm up and fill the closet with the pale bluish light.
“This is a 5,000-watt pure sine wave inverter.” He was pointing to a big black box mounted to a shelf about eye level. “These are eight-volt, 820-amp hour batteries wired series parallel.” He was kicking at six huge red batteries on the floor. “This is the charge controller that charges them from the panels outside. I have more panels than I need, but I want plenty of capacity. This system runs parts of the house, basically everything except the AC,” Sarge answered in obvious delight.
“What about your hot water heater?” I asked out of reflex. I have hooked up many standby systems for generators and knew this was one of the real killers for those systems.
“Don’t have one. I use the tankless type. This system carries it just fine. I don’t shower every day, though, to conserve power,” he replied.
“You mean we can take a shower?” I couldn’t believe this.
“You mean you haven’t yet? Everyone else has.” He almost looked surprised, at least for him.
“No, some old grumpy fucker has kept me in bed for the last couple of days, making me piss in a damn jar.” I thought that would get his dander up.
“Who in the hell are you callin’ grumpy?” He had his fists balled up at his waist.
“If the shoe fits,” I started to laugh; Thad and Jess joined in. I really liked this guy; he was my type of person. One of those that if they weren’t insulting you, or you them, then they weren’t happy. It was definitely a military thing.
“You ungrateful little shit! Get you stinkin’ ass into the shower right now! And don’t make me do a hygiene inspection! And that’s an order.” He was pumping his fists up and down as he bellowed. I could only imagine what it would be like to be on the receiving end of an ass chewing from him.
“You better get going, Morgan. He already made us take one.” Thad was sitting in the office chair in front of the radios.
Just to really get him fired up, I responded, “Sir, yes, sir!” and snapped into a salute.
“Dammit, I work for a living. You don’t salute me! Get out of my sight!” I thought his eyes would pop out of his head. He reminded me for all the world of Gunny Ermey. I performed an about-face and started out the door.
In a much softer voice, he said, “Take your time, and wash the wounds on your head real good too. Towels are in the closet in the hall.”
I looked back over my shoulder, and he was smiling at me. “You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you enjoyed that,” he added.
“As much as you do,” I replied. He smiled at me, and I walked out to find a bathroom with hot water. Hot water!
I took my time, just soaking up the heat from the hot water. A week is a long time to go without a hot shower, or any shower, as far as that goes. I also shaved in the shower, using bar soap in lieu of shaving cream. It is amazing how much better a hot shower can make you feel. After drying off and redressing, I went back to the room where I had been staying and fished around my pack for my contacts. I had been wearing my glasses since the second day; but since I was here, I thought I would go ahead and wear the lenses again. My glasses, where are they? I thou
ght. Looking in the mirror, I was horrified at what I saw. I hadn’t looked into one since taking a round to the grape. The hair on the right side of my head was seriously fucked up. My ear had what looked like a black stain on it that wouldn’t come off. Powder burn, I thought. I was in serious need of a haircut.
After putting my eyeballs in, I went back out and found everyone in the kitchen. They were discussing dinner options when I walked in. Sarge was the first to speak up. “Feel better?”
“Yes, I do! That was almost as good as sex,” I replied. “Hey, Sarge, you got a pair of clippers? I need a haircut.”
“You betcha; I do my own.” He removed his hat to show me a neat set of whitewalls with a flat top.
I pointed at his head and said, “I’ll take that.”
“Grab one of those chairs and take it out on the back deck. I’ll get the clippers.” He pointed to the kitchen chairs and left the room.
“Oh, I gotta see this,” Thad said as I walked out of the kitchen.
“Me too!” Jess piped up.
Stepping out onto the deck, I was met with a beautiful view of the Suwannee River. Linus’s house sat on a bluff overlooking the river. A boardwalk that cut through it led down to the river proper. It was a stunning view; standing there in the afternoon sun, you could forget about everything for a minute. Sarge walked out with a set of clippers in one hand and an actual barber’s cape draped over the other.
“Take a seat,” he ordered and then plugged the clippers into a receptacle beside the door into the house. I set the chair close enough for him to work and plopped my ass into it. He swung the cape around my shoulders and secured it behind my neck, taking care not to hit the wounds.
“Just take a little off the top, clean up the sides, and then a nice shampoo and blow-dry, please.” I just couldn’t leave well enough alone. Thad and Jess both laughed. I thought at me, but I would find out later they were laughing at him and the expression on his face.
“Oh, no problem. Would you like a massage and a facial too?” Sarge had bent over at the waist with his face right in mine; he had this huge, freakin’ scary-ass smile on his face. That smile just wasn’t right.
“Uh, I’ll pass on the facial. I don’t think I want you doing anything to my face.” Anything to make that smile go away.
“Smart choice, cupcake!” He flipped the clippers on as he shouted that. I felt the clippers bump into the top of my head. “Oops!” he called out. Thad and Jess started cracking up again. I just sat there, wondering why in the hell I asked this madman to cut my hair.
The clippers finally clicked off, and he stepped back and looked at me. “There you go. I did the best I could, but I ain’t never sheared a basketball before. Your head is fuckin’ huge.”
“Thanks so much. Let me go see the damage.” I walked into the house and to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, I was surprised to see a perfectly executed military regulation haircut. I walked back out to the deck. Jess was sweeping the hair off. “Looks like someone sheared a Sasquatch out here,” she said.
“Go ahead, yuk it up. How ’bout you, Thad, what do you got to say?” I looked over at him, expecting him to have some sort of wisecrack.
“I ain’t got no room to talk.” He pulled the ever-present watch cap off his head to reveal a polished dome. “See?”
“Well, you got me there,” I replied.
“Holy shit, can I touch it?” Jess cried out. Thad leaned over, and Jess rubbed her hands over his big head.
Looking at Sarge, I said, “You said I had a big head. Look at the size of that freakin’ punkin’!” Everyone except Thad broke out into laughter.
“Yeah, yeah, ain’t nuthin’ I haven’t heard before.” We were interrupted by a sound from the river. Rounding a bend was a small skiff with an outboard on it, heading upriver. On board were two men and what appeared to be a woman. We were all looking down at the little boat. Sarge raised a hand to wave to the crew. They didn’t respond.
“Friendly folks around here, huh?” I said.
“I don’t know. I’ve seen a couple of boats the last couple of days. I figured folks would start to get around soon. We’ll see.” Sarge watched the boat disappear down the river.
We went back into the house and started making preparations for dinner. Linus had some serious preps. He had a large pantry full of canned and freeze-dried foods as well as a rather large chest freezer I was shocked to learn was 24vdc, much more efficient than trying to run on 110vac on the setup he had. I’d seen a little bit of the place so far, but I was already impressed. Sarge decided to treat everyone to steaks that he had pulled from the freezer earlier in the day, accompanied by stewed okra and tomatoes, along with a pot of rice. Thad and Jess took over the side dishes, as Thad said he had a thing for okra in any form. Sarge and I went out on the deck and fired up the gas grill for the steaks.
Sarge dropped the steaks on the grill with a hiss and dusted them with salt and pepper and looked over at me.
“You know anything about ham?”
“Not really; it was always something I wanted to get into, but with everything else I was doing, I never had the money.” I was watching the fat bubble on the rib eyes.
“I don’t understand how anyone who considers themselves a prepper doesn’t have one. It is truly the only form of uncontrolled communication left to us.” He jabbed a big fork into a steak and turned it, then the others.
“True, but you know, when you’re worried about food, water, sanitation, power, hygiene, and all the other stuff, it can be seen as less important than those things. I wish now I had one. I wish my wife had one. There is an old guy in the neighborhood that is into it pretty big,” I replied.
“That’s true, but relying on the mass media is a huge mistake. Now there is no other way to get any news. With those rigs, you can talk around the world depending on the antenna, atmosphere, and a couple of things. Where’s home?” Sarge asked.
“Altoona, down near Eustis in Lake County,” I answered.
“Oh yeah, I know it, just outside the Ocala Forest,” Sarge replied, kind of looking off into space.
“Yep, that’s it,” I quipped.
“So what’s the plan? Thad’s headed to Tampa. Jess lives outside of Gainesville. You’re south of her. What are you guys going to do?” Sarge moved the steaks off the flame to a cooler part of the grill.
“There really wasn’t a plan. Jess asked for help to get home. We came across Thad on the road, and we all agreed to walk together for mutual support. I guess I need to help Jess get home. Thad is going to have to finish his trip without me, though. I’m not detouring to Tampa, no way in hell,” I said.
“I agree with you. I damn sure wouldn’t want to go anywhere near there. He’s got a hell of a trip ahead of him. I cleaned your pistol up for you. You don’t have a long gun?” Sarge said. I think Sarge was leading up to something.
“No. I mean I do, just not with me. Carrying a weapon in my car to the places I work is touchy enough; a rifle is out of the question,” I replied.
“How do you like your steak?” He was poking at the steaks with the fork. The smell was almost too much.
“Medium.”
“Good man,” he replied with a smile. Sarge took the steaks off, piled them on a plate, and we went back inside. Jess and Thad were setting the other groceries on the table when we came in—perfect timing. We sat and ate dinner with light conversation, nothing too deep. It was another nice meal with good friends. I knew I for one was thinking about the incredible circumstances that brought us all together. I wondered how much longer this sort of thing was going to be possible, to sit around like things were normal.
The conversation died down as dinner was finished. Thad stood up. “Jess an’ me’ll clean up. I’m sure Morgan would like to see more of the radios. Hey, Sarge, what do I do with the scraps?”
“Throw the bones into th
e river. Put the other stuff in the compost pile out there.” He pointed out to the rear of the house. “Come on, Morgan. I’ll show you a couple of things.”
Back in the cave, I was looking at all the documents on the wall. “What are these?” I asked, pointing to one of them.
“Those are QSL cards. Hams exchange these after we make contact with one another.” He walked over to one of the more colorful ones pinned to the wall. “See, this here is his call sign, the date, time, and frequency we communicated on. The time is always in Zulu.”
“Looks like you have a bunch of them.” I was looking all around the room. On the opposite side of the room from the radio bench he showed me earlier sat another, much larger radio. Sarge sat down in front of it, tuning some dials and going through the frequencies. I walked up and looked over his shoulder; he was slowly moving through them like he was looking for something.
“So what’s happened since this all went down?” I asked.
“The balloon went up all over the world. The rag heads in the Middle East took the chance to go at the Israelis. They naturally unleashed nukes on ’em all; then Iran tossed one back, but, of course, they don’t have any. Then China went after Taiwan. It sounds like the Russians are trying to consolidate their base again and bring some lost sheep back into the fold. They was backing Iran when they got nuked. Russia turned some birds loose too.” He sat back in the chair and put his hands behind his head. “But you know what the funniest thing to all this is?”
“No, what?”
“We haven’t been hit with anything. That means we didn’t use our arsenal on anyone either. Remember I said I had a theory about this?” He was rocking back and forth in the chair.
“Yeah, so you think we gave someone the green light?” I gathered.
“We obviously gave someone some assurances that the US would not interfere, and then this happened to us here. So that’s why I said I don’t think this was an accident. Add to that the fact that there has been zero info out of our own government since this all started, and it stinks like three-day-old fish.” He swiveled back around in his chair and turned up the volume on the big radio.