THE END - Book I - Of THE EVENT SERIES

by Marshall Huffman

  “I could not be more proud of any group than I am of this one. We have overcome some extremely difficult obstacles and we will face many more but by God, I am proud to have you with me. That’s all I have to say, except, God speed and be safe.”

  The men and women cheered as the six teams climbed into the Hummers and started their engines. The Colonel watched as they slowly headed down the tunnel and out into the unknown.

  ****

  Three of Hummers would head to the airport where two DC-3s had been totally renovated. The third aircraft was a Beech 45. Both aircraft were rugged, easy to maintain and had good range. Best of all, they could carry passengers. The DC-3 could fly farther and was larger but the Beech 45 had the advantage of needing less takeoff and landing space. Both could land on fairly rugged terrain if necessary.

  The other four Hummers would head out in pairs. Two going south from Colorado Springs and two heading east to the Mississippi River. Each had specific target areas but they were to explore other areas of opportunity as they came up. Their mission was to locate survivors and try to convince them to come back to Colorado Springs. They had all been instructed to enlighten but not force any survivors they came across to join them.

  Each Hummer had at least one qualified medical person so that anyone needing treatment could be handled in the field. While they were armed, they were instructed to only engage if attacked. It had been made clear that they were on a mission to assist and not coerce anyone they came across.

  The two vintage DC-3s took off from Patterson Field and headed east. Because of their greater range, they would start their search on the other side of the Mississippi, taking up where the Hummers left off. The Beech 45 would fly west. Its main mission was to stop at other military bases and locate anyone that may have survived.

  The secondary mission was the same as for all the others. Locate anyone that was still alive and try to get them back to Colorado Springs.

  All three planes were flying VFR since no electronic aids were possible. This meant that for the most part they would have to fly well below their 30,000 foot ceiling limit and use the major interstate highways as reference points.

  Once the two planes crossed the Mississippi, one was to head to the Lost World Caverns near Lewisburg, West Virginia.

  Colonel Webber had given them the location of where they had discovered the West Virginia survivors on their way to Washington DC. He had suggested that they leave the cavern and set up in town until he could send someone back for them.

  Just past the Mississippi, the other DC-3 broke off and headed south. Its first stop was going to be Mammoth Cave. They followed I-65 for most of the way and eventually located KY-70 and continued on until they found the Mammoth Cave National Park. They found a suitable landing field just outside of Park City on the outskirts of the National Park.

  Captain Jeff Fielding eased the plane down and taxied as close to the road bordering the field as possible. The five men inside climbed out and started toward the entrance to the park.

  ****

  Mammoth Cave comes by its name honestly. It is the largest cave known on the planet. Even after all this time only three hundred and fifty miles have been explored. Another six miles is still believed to have yet to be explored and surveyed. It is incredible in size. It is not simply one giant cavern but a series of interlinked caves, each dotted with its own unique landmarks such as Fat Man’s Misery, Grant’s Coffin and Mummy Ledge. Captain Fielding led his men to the visitor’s center.

  “Someone is here or has been here,” one of the men said, stating the obvious. Food wrappers, empty cans of soda and water were all over the floor.

  “Grab some maps and let’s see if anyone is inside the main entrance,” the Captain said. A few minutes later they were standing inside of the historic entrance.

  “Anyone here?” Fielding yelled out but only the sound of his voice echoing off the walls came back.

  “Anyone?” he yelled again after the reverberations died down.

  “I don’t think anyone’s home,” one of the men said.

  “Captain, there is a hotel just on the other side of the Visitors Center,” a soldier told him, pointing at the map.

  “Maybe they all moved over there.”

  “It’s worth a shot. I doubt they are huddled back in the cave but you never know. Let’s check out the hotel first and then we can go from there,” Fielding replied.

  They headed back toward the Visitor's Center and as they rounded the building they came face to face with three children tossing a ball. The children stopped dead in their tracks, the ball landed on the ground with a thud and rolled off.

  “Hi,” the Captain said, not advancing toward them for fear of scaring them. The three kids just looked at them, their eyes wide, confused, and scared.

  “We won’t hurt you. We are from the military. Where are your parents?” he asked softly.

  None of them answered him. They stood frozen by the sudden appearance of the men.

  “It’s okay. Honest,” he said, taking a small step toward them.

  One screamed and they all took off running toward the hotel.

  “Boy, you sure have a way with kids,” one of his men quipped.

  “Yeah, maybe that’s why my wife divorced me,” he said.

  “I would say they know we are coming,” another added.

  A few seconds later the doors of the hotel opened and a large group of people started to emerge.

  “Make sure your weapons are lowered,” Fielding said over his shoulder.

  The people coming out of the hotel stopped several feet away and just stood there looking at the five men.

  “I’m Captain Fielding. We just flew in from Colorado Springs. We are here to render help and to brief you on what we know so far.”

  His voice was met with silence. No one spoke.

  “I know you’re all scared but we are here to help,” he tried to assure them.

  “Captain of what military?” someone finally shouted.

  “I’m not sure what you mean. We’re with the Air Force.”

  “US Air Force?” came the reply.

  “Of course,” Fielding replied. A murmur went through the crowd.

  “You got proof of that?” the man finally asked.

  “Look, I understand your skepticism, but we are from NORAD near Colorado Springs. We are survivors just like you. We left the mountain to try to find other survivors. We assume being underground had something to do with it. Our mission is to find survivors and to tell them as much as we know,” he replied.

  He could see that they were more relaxed now. They were starting to inch their way closer.

  “Who is in charge?” he asked.

  “In charge? We are on our own. No one is in charge,” came the reply.

  “All right. That’s fine. Does anyone speak for the group in general?”

  “Speak to whom? You’re the first people we have seen since the attack.”

  “Good point. Is this all of you?” the Captain asked.

  “For the most part. A few left to go over and live in Cave City, but most of us have stayed here, either in the hotel or in the cabins.”

  “Thank you. I’ll send a couple of my men to get them so we can give you as much information as we can. It would be easier to do it once than try to explain it over and over.” Fielding told them.

  “When?”

  “Just as soon as they can locate them and get them over here. Say an hour from now. Does the hotel have a conference room big enough to hold everyone?” the Captain asked.

  “The lobby is the best place. It has a stairs you can talk from,” another man added.

  “Great. One hour in the lobby,” Fielding replied. People slowly started heading back to the hotel.

  “Barker, Allen, and West, you guys head to Cave City and see what you can find. Get anyone you find back here if at all possible. Don’t force them but try to reason with them.”

  “You got it Captain,” Corporal A
llen replied.

  While the other three went to search the town, Fielding and Corporal Staley went inside the hotel. The people had been talking but as soon as they walked in, they fell silent. It was so quiet they could hear their own footsteps as walked in. It wasn’t a large building. Only two stories tall but it was well kept and clean compared to the condition of the visitor’s center. Fielding looked around and realized that there was no way they could all crowd in at one time. They were already packed in like sardines.

  “Look, this is going to be too crowded. Why don’t you all go back outside and we will talk to you from one of the balconies on the second floor.”

  It took a few minutes to finally decide which room and where everyone should meet but by the time that was decided the other soldiers had returned with only six people. They had found several others but they refused to join them, Corporal Allen explained.

  “Fine. Maybe the word will get out once we finish addressing the others.”

  He took a deep breath and stepped out on the balcony. It was warm and the sky was a vivid blue. Everyone had on hats and long sleeve shirts. They had learned the hard way about the intensity of the sun’s rays.

  “For those that don’t know what this is all about, I am Captain Fielding from the NORAD complex at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. The US Air Force,” he added and a few chuckled.

  “I know this has been hard on all of you. You don’t know what happened, who is left alive or what your country is doing about this,” he said and a murmur ran through the crowd looking up.

  “I will be perfectly honest with you. We have no real idea about what happened any more than you do. We are fairly certain that it was not caused by another country or any terrorist activities. This does not appear to have been a manmade event,” he said. Everyone was perfectly still. Many looked at each other but said nothing.

  “What we do know is that it seems the only people to have survived were someplace deep enough underground that whatever it was didn’t have an effect on them. One of our groups found other survivors in another cavern in West Virginia. It seems that those of us fortunate enough to have been underground survived and those that were not…well, they perished. I’m sure you know by now that most vehicles were rendered useless as with most other electrical items that are controlled by computer chips. We came here on a 1943 DC-3 that our men managed to repair.”

  “What about the government?” someone yelled out.

  “Hang on. I’ll get to that in a second,” he said.

  “What we are doing now is trying to locate as many others as we can and try to get them to come with us back to Colorado Springs. We are setting up a compound that will provide shelter, medical facilities and food. We have all of our people working on this as I speak. No one will force you to join us but you have to believe me, this is the best thing for all of us. I’m going to tell you straight out, as far as we can tell, there is no government left.”

  A loud eruption of voices drowned him out. He waited until they started to die down.

  “We sent some men to Washington DC and discovered that those who ran the government did not have time to respond to the threat and perished like everyone else above ground.”

  “You mean the President is dead too?”

  “It appears that way. We think we found his remains, or what was left of him, in the Oval Office.”

  “Who’s running the country then?”

  “Wait. Listen to me. NORAD is currently going under the assumption that America, and probably the rest of the world, is going to have to rebuild one step at a time. That means we need to consolidate all the survivors in one location so we can start to put this country back together. It isn’t going to be easy but what other options do we really have? No one is going to come to our aid. We are all in this together and our only means of survival long term is by working together,” Fielding told them.

  He waited as they talked among themselves for several seconds.

  “What is it exactly that you want us to do?” finally someone asked.

  “Simple. We want you to go to Colorado Springs. They are expecting people that we contact to show up. They will have everything ready for you when you get there. We can take some of you back with us if you can’t or don’t want to drive that far. The plane can hold around twenty at a time. For those willing to drive, we can fix enough cars to get you there. My men will show you how to siphon gas so you can refill along the way. We will spend the night here and you are more than welcome to come and talk to us if you like. We will meet again in the morning and get started on the process of getting those that want to go to Colorado ready. We will take as many as we can fit in the plane."

  “What if we don’t want to go?”

  It was the same reoccurring question that had been asked over and over. Each time they wanted to know if they were being forced or offered a choice. Until that was made clear, little they said made much difference. It was almost always the key to what followed.

  “Then you stay here and take your chances. We won’t be back to this area for some time. It may be months or it may be years. Right now, there is simply no way of knowing when or if we will return,” Fielding told him.

  “So you’re trying to scare us into going?”

  “Scare you? Hell, we have guns. If we wanted to scare you we would round you all up and put a gun to your head and tell you what you were going to do. That’s a really dumb thing to say,” Fielding said disgustedly.

  He looked at them for a minute and then turned and walked back into the building.

  “Scare them. What an asshole,” he said out loud.

  “We are always going to find someone with a mouth bigger than his brain. I think we had better get used to the skepticism,” Staley replied.

  ****

  Like always, people came and went during the night. Some were seeking assurances others just wanting to know if they knew how many were alive and how far spread the damage was. Others wanted to know about the chances their loved ones were still alive.

  They did their best to reassure them but not sugar coat it either, that all that could be done was being done at the present. They stressed the need for centralization of the country if was going to get back on its feet again. Many nodded their heads in agreement but others were still skeptical of anything the military had to say. Some went as far as to accuse them of doing all of this and trying to cover it up. Fielding remained calm and cool through the accusations but it was a strain. Here they were, trying to help these people out and still they were being looked at as the culprits.

  They were mildly surprised when over a hundred people showed up and were willing to follow their advice. Fielding had bet ten dollars on as few as twenty accepting the offer. He handed the money over to West who had projected that at least eighty would want to come with them. Of course the money was of little value. What was he going to buy?

  They spent the entire day getting cars ready and people assigned to ride in specific cars. By nightfall they were just about finished. Several more joined during the day as they saw the others prepare to leave. Fielding briefed them on what to expect on the highways and how to find food and places to rest. They drew maps and gave directions on how to find Colorado Springs.

  “We will take twenty of you with us and head back immediately. We will keep a lookout for you along the way back and try to find a place to land and meet up with you. We can then load another twenty and keep shuttling you back. We may have more planes ready by the time we get the first group back,” he told them.

  They decided to take families with children back first. It would make the trip easier on the parents. Early the next morning they loaded the cars and started the long progression toward the west. Fielding got the families on board the DC–3 and within a few minutes they were airborne. The process of locating survivors and getting them consolidated had begun at last.

  Much the same thing had happened in Lewisburg, West Virginia. The difference being that they were wait
ing for the military to come and help them get to Colorado. They had all moved from the Lost World Cavern into town. Colonel Webber’s directions led them to the town with no problem.

  The only real problem they had was on landing. They had to manually crank the landing gear down because of a leak in one of the struts. It wasn’t a big deal but they had no way of fixing it until they got back.

  Everyone had decided to come with them and they were slightly over loaded but the tough old DC–3 pulled its weight and then some, like it had done so many times before, in so many countries around the world. The old saying of the only replacement for a DC–3 is another DC-3 proved to be true once again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Pennsylvania

  Almost as fast as the clouds had burned off and the weather warmed, it changed again. Each day the temperature dropped further. From what Randy could determine it was August 13th or 14th. He looked at the thermometer. It was hovering around forty-three degrees. That was five degrees colder than just yesterday. He wondered if the trees and bushes would ever have a chance to recover. More importantly would the fields that needed to be planted for crops be ready? At some point they were going to have to start raising food.

  Each day as the colony grew, the demands on the system became greater. They had formed a committee of ten people to deal with the demands on the expanding community. More electricity was going to be needed soon and the trucks that scavenged food had to travel further and further. Having enough work for the people wasn’t the problem but even that at some point would start to break down and then what?

  “Maybe we will have to find an additional location. Something close by that we can build up like we have here,” Bonny Jacobson suggested.

  “Start over like we did here?”

  “Not exactly. I mean we know a hell of a lot more now about how to rebuild than we did just a few weeks ago. I’m just suggesting that we may have to start another colony and continue to expand. That’s how they did it in the beginning isn’t it?”