by Ricky Sides
“Navigation Specialist, Tim Wilison, front and center!” Jim said then.
Tim made his way to the front of the ranks to stand beside his wife who looked nervous.
“Communications specialist, for services rendered in the cause of the peacekeepers, which has served us well, you are hereby awarded the rank of lieutenant in the peacekeepers.” Opening the box, he pinned the rank insignia bars on her collars and congratulated her.
Stepping in front of his brother he said, “Navigation specialist, for services rendered in the cause of the peacekeepers, which has served us well, you are hereby awarded the rank of lieutenant in the peacekeepers.” Opening the box, he pinned the rank insignia bars on his collars and congratulated him.
Taking a step back, he instructed, “Lieutenants, turn and face the crew.” When both had done so, he began to applaud behind them and the peacekeepers joined in. A moment later, he shouted, “About face!” as he continued to applaud. Now the people of the farm community joined in and Patricia blushed prettily.
***
Aboard the Peacekeeper, as they flew back toward the base, Jim said, “Lieutenant, please open a channel for an announcement.”
“Done, Captain,” she said efficiently.
“Attention crewmembers. I’d like to take a moment to congratulate you formally on the superb performance of your mission tasks. Thanks to you and your dedication, all of the people of Arley have a good chance of making it through the hard times ahead. I am proud of you all and proud to be the captain of this ship,” he said in conclusion and gestured for the channel to be closed.
Later, when the time came to cross the river again, Jim called Evan to the control room so that he could observe from there as they crossed. The boy was just as excited by the trip across the river the second time as he had been the first. Evan thanked him for calling him forward to see the crossing and then headed back to the cargo bay where one of the men was teaching him card tricks.
Evan’s life onboard the ship wasn’t all fun and games. Lacey was working with him daily on a home schooling course and the crewmembers were teaching him things constantly. Just yesterday, the boy had been visiting the infirmary where he liked to stare at the posters of skeletons with the human bones all named and another of the human circulatory system. Noting his interest in the posters Maggie had given him smaller eight by ten copies of both and encouraged him to learn the names of the bones so that one day if he decided to become a medic he’d have a head start. This set the boy to dreaming of the day that he would grow up to become a medic and he threw himself into the learning process.
Pete was constantly teaching Evan many different things about surviving. Jim had wondered just how well the boy was absorbing what Pete was teaching until he’d overheard Evan describing in detail how to set up a water-still utilizing three different techniques. “Oh he was absorbing plenty,” Jim admitted to himself with a smile.
Later that night as they enjoyed the luxury of their king sized bed in their farmhouse, Lacey raised her head from its position on Jim’s chest to look at him, and she said, “You know, I feel like we’re making a difference.”
“So do I, sweetheart,” Jim replied, thinking of the people, who wouldn’t have been alive that night, if they hadn’t gone to the aid of the people of Arley.
Chapter 9
Nine-year-old Rachel Brackeen awoke and lay in her bed listening intently. A sound had woken her in the middle of the night. Her young heart hammered in fear as a dozen different scary images fluttered through her mind. As she lay listening, she heard the creak of a floorboard as something moved down the hall. “Perhaps it’s just mom or dad going to the bathroom,” she told herself.
Getting out of bed as quietly as possible, she made her way to her bedroom door and opened it just a crack. The door obligingly opened without a sound. In the hallway, she saw a strange man carrying a baseball bat. He was standing outside the open door to her parent’s room. Slowly the man crossed the threshold and entered their room. Rachel screamed in fear and snatched open the door as the man disappeared inside her parent’s room. Darting down the hallway, she heard her mother’s voice shout “Rachel!” and then she heard a thudding sound.
Reaching the door to her parent’s room, she darted inside and froze in fear. The stranger was standing beside the bed alternately hitting her father and mother with the baseball bat. The stark white sheets and comforter on her parent’s bed, which were normally so clean, now bore several splotches of dark stains that could be seen easily by the light of the moon.
Rachel screamed again and the man turned in her direction. Rachel tried to turn and run, but her body refused to obey her will. She stood paralyzed in shock and fear. In an instant, the intruder was beside her. He’d dropped the bat and clamped his hand over her mouth. With his other hand, he shook the girl violently, as he whispered for her to shut up if she wanted to live.
When Rachel stopped screaming, he slowly removed his hand from her mouth and said, “One more sound out of you, girl, and I’ll kill you. Do you understand me?” The man was thinking that he knew some people who’d gladly trade him a month supply of food for the girl, no questions asked.
Rachel opened her mouth to respond but the man said, “Don’t talk. Just nod your head if you understand.”
Rachel nodded her understanding. She was still frozen in fear. Her heart was racing as the man shoved her through the doorway out into the hall. They made their way through the house to the kitchen. Inside the kitchen, the man forced her to sit down at the kitchen table. He then took a burlap bag he’d brought with him and began to fill it with the food from her mother’s kitchen cabinets. It didn’t take long to empty the kitchen of their available food supply. The sack was only about one third full when the man picked it up and grabbed Rachel by the arm. He forced her out the back door and down the steps toward the curb. Beside the curb sat a dark colored car. The night was so dark that Rachel couldn’t identify the color. The man opened the driver’s side door and tossed his sack on the back seat. Turning to face the girl he said, “Get in, girl. You’re my ticket to safe passage out of this town.”
Rachel opened her mouth to reply and the man cuffed her hard. The girl fell to the ground. Almost immediately, she felt something grab her hair and pull hard. The man used the girl’s hair to drag her back to her feet. “I warned you not to speak didn’t I, girl?” he asked.
The girl mutely nodded and the man slapped her again. This time the blow landed with just enough force to inflict pain but not enough to knock her off her feet. “The next time you forget, I’ll just kill you and be done with it, so mind you don’t try to speak again, girl.” Pausing the man leaned in close and she could see his eyes glaring into hers as he asked, “Do you understand me, child?”
Again, the girl nodded that she understood.
Across the road, a neighbor who was suffering a bout of insomnia saw the stranger with the girl. He saw the man hit the girl hard and knock her off her feet. He also saw the man drag the girl back to her feet by the hair of her head. The seventy-year-old man said, “Why if I was just twenty years younger, I’d teach that guy some manners.” He knew that he couldn’t hope to fight the younger man, but he could use his radio and call the peacekeepers who had a base just outside the city. Muttering to himself, the man activated his radio. There would be no need to locate the frequency needed. Like many residents, he kept his radio tuned to the correct frequency, and often spent hours listening to the sporadic radio traffic. With no normal radio or television broadcasting anymore, there wasn’t much else to do, and the radio traffic kept a man informed about what was going on in the area. He grabbed the mike as he continued observe the man pushing the girl in the car.
***
Jim heard an insistent pounding on the door to his cabin in the Peacekeeper. He awoke instantly alert and said, “Yes?”
“Sir, there is an emergency in progress. We have a report about the kidnapping of a young girl. The man who took her just lef
t the scene in a dark colored, late model sedan. A peacekeeper patrol car is in pursuit but can’t close with the man. Every time they try, he puts a pistol to the girl’s head,” the duty guard replied.
“I’ll be there in a moment, wake the rest of the crew,” Jim ordered.
“Yes, sir,” the duty guard responded through the closed door.
Five minutes later, Jim stood in the control room as the rest of the control room crew reported for duty. Sergeant Wilcox also came forward. Without preamble, Jim said, “Communications, get me a course for the pilot. Sergeant Wilcox, prepare your team. They will be deployed. We’ll use the ship to block the road. I want the snipers to try to take the man out, if it comes to a need to kill. Make sure they understand that the man has a young girl hostage. Under no circumstances are your men to fire on the suspect unless you are certain you can take the man out without endangering the hostage.”
Patricia gave Tim the current location of the man with the hostage and then she turned toward Jim and said, “Sir, we have an update on the home of the hostage female. The girl’s parents were beaten to death with a baseball bat.”
The Peacekeeper was lifting into the air as Jim said, “Sergeant, report to your men. I think we’ll be in position in ten to fifteen minutes. And, Sergeant, you are authorized to terminate the man.”
“Yes, Captain,” the sergeant responded and rushed back to the cargo bay shouting orders as he ran.
“Good call on the deployment, Jim, and the kill order,” Pete said as he took his seat at the weapons console. “I could take the guy out with the laser but might also hurt or kill the hostage.”
Jim nodded and said, “The ultra modern weapons aboard this vessel have enormous potential in dealing with bands of outlaws, but in this scenario we need extreme accuracy.”
A few minutes later, Tim said, “I see the patrol car pacing the hostage vehicle, Jim.”
Jim stood and approached the window. He gazed out at the scene ahead of them. They were traveling east on highway seventy-two. “Hang back until we can sweep wide around them. There is no sense in letting him see us.”
“Will do, Captain,” Tim responded. He added, “I know this area well. Soon we’ll come to a spot where there is a cotton field on the right. I think I can time it so that we dart wide around the car and reemerge over the highway sufficiently ahead of the man that he couldn’t possibly see us.”
“Do it,” Jim ordered tersely. “Then get the ship a few miles ahead so that we can land and deploy the strike team, and then move the ship a hundred yards down the road.”
“Yes, sir,” Tim responded.
“Pete please go to the cargo bay and tell the men this may be close so they need to get out and in position ASAP,” Jim requested.
“Actually, I think I’ll join them since I can’t use the ship’s weapons,” Pete said rising to his feet.
Jim nodded and motioned for Bill to assume the gunner’s seat.
***
Rachel saw the ship blocking the road ahead of them a moment before her kidnapper noticed the vessel. When he did notice the ship, he slammed on the brakes and brought his car to a stop a hundred feet from the vessel. The man glared at Rachel and warned menacingly, “You be still, and don’t say a word, or I’ll kill you!”
Rachel just nodded her understanding and the man stuck his head out the window to shout an ultimatum to the peacekeepers. A single rifle shot echoed through the night. Soon dark shapes materialized beside the car and Rachel began to scream in fear as many men crowded around the vehicle. She was still screaming when Maggie took the child in her arms and soothed her, as her mother would have done had she been there.
***
“That was one fine shot, Sergeant,” Pete said.
“Thank you, sir,” Sergeant Wilcox replied. “I had the angle and was so close I’d have had to try to miss. Any first month recruit could’ve made that shot.”
“I doubt that’s true, but all of the snipers were way out of position and that includes me. The guy must have been half blind to have waited so late to try to stop,” Pete replied they boarded the ship.
In the control room, Patricia reported that the girl had an aunt in Athens who was desperately trying to learn what had happened to the girl. Jim instructed her to inform the woman that they had recovered the child and the doctor is treating her.
Patricia relayed that information and then reported that the aunt was saying she was the child’s only living next of kin and was prepared to assume responsibility for her niece. Jim had Patricia to arrange for the woman to meet them at the Athens Limestone Hospital parking lot.
Maggie had the young patient in the infirmary where she was working with her. When the ship reached Athens, Jim went aft to the infirmary to check on the girl’s condition. Maggie walked outside and closed the door to meet with Jim in the hall. “The girl will be all right physically, but there may be emotional issues. She refuses to speak. Hasn’t said a word since we brought her aboard,” Maggie reported.
“Her aunt is going to meet us at the city hospital parking lot,” Jim informed the doctor. Then he asked, “Is she well enough to release to her aunt?”
“Physically, yes she is. Mentally, I don’t really know, Captain,” Maggie responded. She added, “If the girl seems willing to go, then I’d say yes. But if she isn’t, then that placement may make things much worse.”
“We’ll know soon. We’ll be there any second,” Jim replied.
When the aunt came aboard to get the child Jim was observing the meeting closely as was Maggie. The girl ran to her aunt sobbing. The woman picked her niece up and hugged her tightly. “Oh Rachel, I thought I’d lost you too!” The woman cried softly as the girl clung to her desperately.
Turning to the peacekeepers nearby, she said, “Oh thank you. Thank you so much for saving my niece! If I’d lost her, I don’t know what I would’ve done.”
Maggie nodded her head in approval to Jim and he smiled in relief. “She hasn’t said a word since we recovered her,” Maggie explained. “Sometimes that’s caused by shock and in a day or so the patient comes around. Sometimes it is a deeper emotional wound that takes longer to heal. Are you prepared to deal with that issue?”
“Doctor, she’s alive. If it takes years, I’ll get her back to normal. The main thing is, she’s alive and well,” the aunt said.
“That’s a good answer,” Maggie said grinning. She handed the woman a small bottle of pills. “These are light sedatives to help her sleep. Only give her one per night. There’s a two-week supply in the bottle, but after three days, I want you to try to let her sleep without the medicine. If she has trouble sleeping then continue for a few days. However, I don’t like medicating patients with sedatives beyond a couple of weeks after such a trauma. They can become habit forming.”
“Yes, Doctor. I understand,” the woman responded and gratefully accepted the medication. “How can I ever thank you people. God bless you all.”
“That’s a pretty nice way to thank us,” Maggie said in response and then she turned to leave.
Chapter 10
During the next few months, work progressed at a rapid pace on the home base of the Peacekeepers. Most of the base the survivors built for themselves was underground, just as Pete had said it would be. They had expedited this by finding the owner of a business in a neighboring city and purchasing his entire stock of prefabricated storm shelters in an assortment of sizes. The man had been more than happy to sell his stock. He’d heard that out in California a new government was taking hold and the cities were back to normal. He wanted to liquidate his assets here and travel to California to start over there. Both Pete and Jim encouraged the man to reconsider because they felt it highly unlikely that the rumor was true, but the man was adamant. Since he had lost all his family during the disasters, he was eager to leave. Neither Pete nor Jim believed the poor man would make it to California, but he laughed and asked what difference it made to them.
In the end, they’d bought
the man out for a large sum of cash that the survivalists had accumulated. They then located three backhoes and the excavations commenced. They would dig a hole large enough to accommodate the entire shelter, and then lower into place one of the large prefab storm shelters. If the place was to be for a small family, then one of the large shelters would serve as their common room and the smaller shelters served as bedrooms. Skilled technicians, who’d done similar work in Illinois, linked and sealed the shelter rooms together. Once this family dwelling was completed, they would cover the entire thing with several feet of dirt and then sow grass seed. Only the entrance to these homes was at ground level. That entrance was a small box-like room with a flight of stairs leading down into the home.
They could accommodate larger families by utilizing two of the larger shelters and as many smaller sleeping shelters as required. This work went on twenty-four hours a day for weeks as teams worked in shifts racing to get the shelters installed before the onset of winter. When they ran out of the prefabricated buildings, they located another source in another city further to the south. Transporting these shelters took a lot of time and effort and there were almost constantly problems to overcome, but the work continued.
The command bunker was a different issue. In the event of an attack on the base, that bunker would serve as the last retreat for the entire group; therefore, its construction was of concrete. They accomplished this through sheer hard work and an attitude that they would see the job done no matter how hard the task became. As the weeks turned into months, a winter chill began to accompany the northern breezes but the work continued. By the first frost, they had completed the last of the private homes. Now all hands turned to the work on the command bunker and the work progressed at a faster rate. Soon the last of the concrete had been poured and the construction teams were able to stop their labor at last. Now came the time for the electricians, plumbers and other skilled craftsmen to do their part on the main bunker. Electricians had been laying an underground cable to the complex during the construction phase. As the homes were constructed from the prefabricated shelters, they were added to a grid created by the electricians to service the Peacekeeper base. They also added the command bunker to the grid when it was completed. In addition, they piped water in from the water system and created an elaborate septic tank and a drainage system for the entire complex.