Countdown to Armageddon

by Darrell Maloney

  “It’s still in safe mode. You’ll have to cock it if you think you might need to use it.”

  Linda understood and asked no questions. Scott had made sure they were both well trained in the use of both weapons. He was surprised to find they were both pretty good shots.

  Joyce said, “I’ll take my turn at the window now, if you want.”

  She was getting a little bit antsy. She wouldn’t be quite comfortable until the whole brood was together.

  The three made small talk for another twenty minutes when Joyce noticed two people trudging up the long hill toward the house.

  They weren’t far away, maybe a hundred yards or so, but with only the moonlight to aid her, it was hard to make out any details.

  “Linda, come look. The one on the left. Is that Jordan?”

  She moved aside to share the window with Linda, who stood beside her and lifted another blind.

  “Darn sure walks like him. I think it is.”

  Linda keyed the microphone on her radio.

  “Jordan, this is Mom. Is that you approaching the house?”

  Nothing but static.

  “Jordan, is that you, honey?”

  Still nothing.

  The pair continued to watch until the mysterious couple crossed the street, headed straight for the house. Linda went downstairs to open the door, and Zach took her place at the window.

  Once he was close enough, Joyce could make out Jordan’s facial features in the moonlight.

  “It’s Jordan, all right. But who in the world is with him?”

  Zachary knew, and rolled his eyes.

  “That’s Sara, his girlfriend.”

  -40-

  Linda opened the front door and hugged her oldest son. Then she ushered the pair in and relocked the door.

  “Mom, this is my girlfriend Sara. I know what you’re going to say. But her parents are stranded in St. Louis, and I just couldn’t leave her there all alone to fend for herself. I just couldn’t.”

  “Hush, baby. It’s okay. You did the right thing.”

  Linda hugged Sara and said, “Welcome, Sara. This whole thing isn’t going to be easy on any of us. But you’ll be safe.”

  She looked at Jordan again.

  “You guys must be starved. Joyce made some sandwiches. They’re in the fridge. Get something to eat, and then sit down and rest. I’ll call your dad and let him know you’re here. How come you didn’t answer your radio?”

  Jordan gave her a sheepish look.

  “I dropped it. It slipped out of my hand and onto the pavement. I guess I broke it. I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it, sweetheart. It happens. We have extras.”

  She keyed her radio mike.

  “Scott, this is Linda. Can you hear me?”

  “Much better than last time. Any word from Jordan?”

  “Yes, he’s here now. Everybody is safe. Just waiting for you.”

  Scott, who had stopped just long enough to refuel his Gator, was relieved.

  “Great news! I’ll call you when I’m close, so you can open up that section in the back fence and let me in. Do you remember how to do that?”

  “Yes. We’ll be waiting for your call. Be safe.”

  She turned to Jordan and said, “We’ll tell him about Sara when he gets here.”

  “You don’t think he’ll be mad, do you?”

  “No, of course not. He’d have done exactly the same thing in your position. But we’ll have to modify our plans a bit.”

  Sara suddenly felt guilty, like she was intruding where she didn’t belong.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t want to be a burden…”

  Linda went to her and wrapped her arms around her.

  “Oh, you hush, dear. You’re not a burden. You’re one of us now.”

  Linda suddenly remembered watching an airplane fall from the sky just after the power went out, and became concerned. She sat down at the table with them, and tried not to show it.

  “So, your folks are in St. Louis? When did you expect them to come back?”

  “They were supposed to fly back next Tuesday. Now I guess that’s not possible.”

  Linda breathed a silent sigh of relief.

  “No, I’m afraid not. Do you have other family up there?”

  “Yes, that’s where most of my aunts and uncles live. That’s why they’re up there, to attend my great aunt’s funeral.”

  “Well, as long as they have other family members up there, they can band together for safety. And you’re safe with us. What about your other brothers and sisters? Are they in St. Louis with your parents?”

  “I have no siblings. I’m an only child.”

  “So everyone is safe. And you don’t have to worry about them. So the only problem is that they’ll be worried about you. Did they give you any instructions on where to go in an emergency?”

  “Yes, my mom told me to go to the Bennett house if anything happened to them. That I’d be safe there.”

  “Okay, good. So they will assume you’re safely with the Bennetts and that they won’t have to worry so much.”

  Jordan interjected.

  “She wrote her parents a note and left it on the counter, in case they find a way to come back for her.”

  Linda smiled and said, “Good. That was a very smart move. Now we know that everyone is safe, and there’s no reason to worry. Now all we have to focus on is getting ourselves up the mountain to the compound.”

  Duke started barking in the back yard again.

  Linda went to Scott’s office at the back of the house, closed the door behind her, and blew out the candle lighting the room.

  Then she eased back the drapes and peeped through the window blind.

  The neighbor’s cat was back.

  Duke’s barking was a good thing, she decided. It would scare away any prowlers that might be out there, looking at the darkened house and wondering if there was anything worth stealing inside.

  After all, there were plenty of other darkened houses on this and other surrounding streets. Why take the chance on a dog bite, when they could choose another house?

  “Keep barking, Duke. Bark the night away.”

  She reclosed the draperies and pulled a lighter out of her pocket to relight the candle.

  Then she rejoined Jordan and Sara at the dining room table.

  “You guys put on miner’s lights, but don’t turn them on unless you need them. We’ve got a few spare batteries, but would be wise to try not to use them up.”

  Sara asked, “What’s a miner’s light?”

  Linda handed her one.

  “It’s like a little flashlight that sits on the middle of your forehead. Put the strap around your head and pull it tight. The light will shine in the direction your head is facing.

  “I’m going upstairs to relieve Joyce on guard duty. After you guys are well rested and fed, you can come up and relieve me if you want.”

  Linda went up the stairs and explained to Joyce that Sara came along because she had nowhere else to go.

  “I suspected as much,” Joyce said. “I know Jordan is a good kid, and that he’ll always do the right thing. I’m glad he brought her along.”

  Zachary pouted just a bit.

  “I don’t know why he can bring a girlfriend, and I couldn’t.”

  Linda looked at her youngest son.

  “Since when do you have a girlfriend, young man?”

  “Aw, Mom. I’ve always had a girlfriend. She just never knew it. Until today.”

  Linda smiled. “But she knows now?”

  “Yes. I told her I loved her. And then I kissed her. In front of the whole class.”

  He smiled broadly, obviously proud of himself.

  Then his smile turned to a frown.

  “Do you think she’ll be okay?”

  “Yes, sweetheart. Her family will go for her, and they’ll take good care of her.”

  “Do you think I’ll ever see her again?”

  Joyce had to tur
n away.

  Linda fought hard to hold back the tears.

  “I’m sorry, Zach. I could lie to you, but the truth is you’ll probably never see her again except in your dreams and your memories.”

  “Well, at least she knows that I love her. I guess that’s something.”

  -41-

  At just before 10 p.m., the radios once again crackled to life.

  “Joyce, Linda, this is Scott.”

  “Go ahead, Scott. This is Joyce.”

  “How’s everything going there?”

  “Good. Everyone is here now and we’re just waiting for you. Are you getting close?”

  “Yes. I’m a couple of miles away. Do you remember how to open the access in the back fence?”

  “Yes. We’ll be standing by. Let us know when you’re within sight of it.”

  “10-4. Should be twenty minutes or so.”

  Joyce looked across the dining room table at Jordan and Sara.

  “You guys want to help?”

  Jordan spoke for both of them.

  “Sure. Count us in.”

  The three went into the backyard and walked over to the back fence. It was a typical six foot privacy fence, with three horizontal two by fours stretching between fence posts, and wooden slats hammered onto the two by fours.

  The fence looked like every other one in the neighborhood.

  But looks can sometimes be deceiving. Scott had made some modifications to this particular fence several months before. It had a secret gate.

  On the back part of the fence, which separated the yard from the woods behind the housing development, Scott had taken a hand saw and cut free a section of the fence.

  Then he put the section back, held into place by six sliding bolts, similar to those securing front doors all over the world.

  To remove the section of fence, one merely had to lift up each bolt lock and slide it over. It took about twenty seconds or so.

  Then it was just a matter of moving the piece of fencing aside, leaving a hole just wide enough to drive a quad runner through. In this case, the Gator that Scott was feverishly driving down the mountain.

  Scott had taken Joyce and Linda into the back yard after the modifications were done and showed them how to remove the section.

  “Well, that’s simple enough,” Linda had said. “But what are the wire cutters for?”

  She was referring to a new pair of wire cutters that Scott had wrapped in a zip lock bag, then placed inside a second ziplock bag, which was hammered to an adjacent fence post.

  He could have just told them what the cutters were for, but he opted to show them instead.

  He unlocked all six of the sliding bolts and moved the fence section to one side. On the other side of the fence, the girls saw three strands of barbed wire. The land behind the house had once been a cattle ranch, and the rusty wire once kept cattle from straying too far. Now it was just another obstacle in their way. But the wire cutters would take care of that problem.

  Joyce had asked, “Why not just cut the wire now and be done with it?”

  Scott said, “Well, I thought about that. But I figured if anyone ever got nosy and looked to see why the wire was cut, they might notice the cuts I made to the fence pieces. Also, the land belongs to the power company now, and they probably want to leave it up to keep people and vehicles out. So if I did cut it, they might just come around and repair it again.”

  Joyce was relating the story to Sara when Scott came over the radio again.

  “Joyce, this is Scott. I’m about a minute away.”

  “10-4. We’ll be ready.”

  Joyce and Jordan unlocked the fence panel and moved it to the side. Then Jordan took the wire cutters, snipped the barbed wire, and kicked the three strands out of the way.

  They heard Scott’s Gator approaching and stepped out of the way of the void that they’d created. He was running without lights, so they couldn’t actually see him until he was twenty feet away.

  When he neared the others, he slowed to a crawl, and then crept through the hole in the fence. He drove into the center of the yard, killed the engine, and removed his night vision goggles.

  By the time Scott walked over to the fence to help replace the panel, it was already back in place.

  He gave Sara a puzzled look. She was the last person he expected to see.

  “Well, hello there. Sara, right?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Joyce took Scott’s hand.

  “Jordan brought her here because her family is out of the state. She was all alone. He did what you would have done under the same circumstances.”

  If they expected Scott to be angry about Sara’s presence, they had him pegged wrong.

  He merely smiled and said, “Well, then. Welcome to the family.”

  Then he looked at his son and said, “You understand that your mother and Joyce and I will be ganging up on you and watching you two like a hawk, right?”

  Jordan corrected his father.

  “Shouldn’t that be like hawks?”

  “Whatever. Just be sure you behave yourself.”

  “We will. I promise.”

  -42-

  Scott got settled and the group gathered in his bedroom. Jordan stood watch at the window and the others sat on the bed or stood.

  Linda asked him, “What’s the game plan?”

  “Well, we need to move under cover of darkness. But it’ll take some time to prepare, and it’s too late to move out tonight. We’ll stay the night here and rest up. Tomorrow we’ll get everything ready, and at sundown tomorrow night we’ll set out.”

  “How long will it take to get up there?”

  “We could make it in five hours if we hauled ass. But we’d have to run the engines all out, and anybody within a hundred yards would hear us coming in time to try to stop us. So we’re going to creep up there instead.”

  Zachary asked, “What do you mean, ‘creep?’ You mean like my brother?”

  Jordan punched him in the arm.

  “No, smartass. The nice thing about the Gators is they are almost silent when you take your foot off the gas and just let them creep along on their own. On open ground, the sound of the twigs breaking under the tires actually makes more noise than the engine itself. And we’ll be driving on a gravel road, which will make even less noise.

  “I want to get up there as stealthily as possible. Like ninjas. We’ll go in the darkness, using night vision goggles to see. We’ll use hand signals to communicate, or will whisper if we absolutely have to. And we’ll creep so that the vehicles make little or no noise.

  “We have to remember that there will be people out and about. Hunters will be out looking for game, and there may be outlaws out looking to steal whatever they can. Vehicles that actually work will be better than gold to them. That’s why we have to be so careful.”

  “How long will it take to get there by creeping? Can we make it in one night?”

  “I wish I could tell you yes, but I’m afraid I can’t. Going at that speed, it’ll likely take two full nights to get up there. I’ve got a great place scouted out to spend the day when the sun comes up. It’s right at the halfway point. Very well hidden. We can drive the Gators off the road and into the woods and camp there while we wait for the night to return. In fact, the camping gear is already there. I dropped it off on the way down, so we’d have more room in the Gators going back.”

  “What about Duke?”

  “Duke will follow us, and when he gets tired he can ride in the back. If he senses that someone is out there, he can alert us to their presence.”

  “But what if the outlaws hear him barking?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I always watch the weather forecast to see what the moon’s going to do. At least I used to, before the power went out. I checked the ten day forecast the night before last. The next two nights will be partly to mostly cloudy with no moon. Very little light. So the bad guys may hear Duke barking, but they won’t be able to see him. They’ll likely
think he’s just a stray dog out looking for something to eat. In fact, in all likelihood they’ll make an effort to steer clear of him.”

  “What about tonight?”

  “We’ll need to break into shifts to watch the front of the house. Duke will guard the back for us. Whoever stays up tonight can sleep during the day tomorrow while we do all the preparations.”

  Joyce said, “I’ll take the first watch. My adrenaline’s still pumping too much to let me sleep anyway. Anybody want to keep me company?”

  Linda said, “I will. It’ll give us a chance to catch up on our girl talk. We can keep each other from falling asleep.”

  Scott was okay with that arrangement. After the all day jarring trip down the mountain, he was exhausted and needed some rest.

  Linda turned to Sara.

  “Come with me, sweetie. I’ll get you settled in the guest room.”

  Then she turned to Jordan.

  “And after you tell Sara good night tonight, the guest room is off limits to you. Do you understand, young man?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Scott and the boys let the ladies have the honor of using what was left of the hot water still in the hot water heater. Once it was gone, they washed up with chilly water in the bathroom sink.

  An hour later Linda and Joyce moved from Scott’s room to an adjacent bedroom at the front of the house so that Scott could get some rest. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

  -43-

  Scott woke up the next morning to the smell of bacon frying. He stumbled to the kitchen.

  Linda had retrieved a propane camping stove from the garage and was cooking what she could from the refrigerator.

  To keep the fumes from becoming a problem, she slid open the patio door and placed the stove in front of it. On the other side of the screen door, Duke was lying forlornly, watching the bacon and licking his chops.

  “Don’t worry, boy. You’ll get some too, I promise.”

  He wagged his tail, as though he understood every word.

  She turned to Scott.

  “I’m going to make all of the eggs we have left. There were three pounds of bacon in the chest freezer. I’m going to fry all of it and pack it into zip lock bags. We can snack on it on the trip up the mountain.