WORLDS END

by Marshall Huffman

  “Big talk with a rifle and pistol,” Barry muttered.

  “Oh, please, don’t let that stop you. I would be more than happy to hand them over to Linda or Alice.”

  “Stop it you two,” Alice shouted, “We have enough problems without this macho shit. James you need to realize they are scared even if they won’t admit it. You are one of those take charge guys that can’t relate to those who can’t cope as well. Barry, you need to keep your comments to yourself. Like James said, you can always go off on your own if you think this is crazy. Now we all need to calm down and focus on what needs to be done and that is finding food, water, and permanent shelter. We can’t keep living in crumbling buildings every night. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

  No one said a word for a few seconds. Finally Linda patted her on the back. Joe just looked over at Bea and raised his eyebrows.

  “You’re right. Fighting among ourselves is stupid. James seems to have a plan and I’m willing to follow it. I realize there are no guarantees. Hell, we don’t even know if those things will suddenly appear again. The one thing I do know is that you are right about food, water, and shelter and about pulling together rather than fighting about it,” Linda

  Neither man said anything for a second then Barry said, “I can live with that.”

  James just nodded his head and started off. The rest fell in behind.

  When they settled down for the night it was in the lee of a single standing wall. It was cold, uncomfortable and they were all hungry. The best thing Barry did was keep his mouth shut and not complain.

  James was the last to fall asleep. He kept trying to picture the area he had grown up in. If they could find the facility, it would at least give them shelter. It stood to reason that they would have some food and water as well. Now if he could only find it. He just hoped his father hadn’t been spinning a tale to amuse him when he was a kid.

  **

  “I’m not trying to cause trouble,” Barry said, “But do you have a guess of how much further?”

  “Maybe a mile or two. I recognize some of this area. Things have changed and of course all the landmarks are gone but it seems right,” James told him.

  “Thanks.”

  “If I’m right, it should be up this road about a mile or so. I know Bear Wallow is the cross road. I think we turn left and then it should be about a half mile further on.”

  “Then lead on.”

  “Ladies? Joe?”

  “We are as ready as we will ever be,” Linda replied.

  They trudged along in silence until James stopped.

  “This looks something like the place my dad pointed out. I think it was in what used to be that building,” he said pointing.

  They had to cross an open field until they came to the ruins. Not much was still standing. Rubble littered the floor and steel beams had crashed down.

  “Is this it?” Alice asked.

  “I think so. It’s really hard to tell. My dad said they had a big vault that opened with hydraulics. We need to see if we can find the entrance.”

  “How would we open it if we found it?” Linda asked.

  “Let’s just take it one step at a time. We need to find it first. Heck, this might not even be the right building,” James said.

  Barry started to say something then stopped. He decided the best thing to do was help look around.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  JD and Fingers carefully made their way to largest standing building in Manhattan.

  “What do you think?” Fingers asked.

  “Don’t know. I thought I saw a man. I think he had on a military uniform,” JD whispered.

  “Military? You think we found a way to stop them?”

  “Hell if I know.”

  “But how did he get here? How did he survive?”

  “Maybe the same as we did.”

  “Standing still?’

  “No, I meant like you did, underground.”

  “Ah. You think the urban legend about underground facilities in NY City are true.”

  “No, I’m just saying I saw something. It looked like one of our military people. How he got here, I don’t have a clue.”

  “Maybe we should just go find out?”

  “I’m thinking they may be a tad trigger happy if we just suddenly yelled out or stood up.”

  “Got a plan?” Fingers asked.

  “Send Ben and Vivian in first.”

  “What?”

  “Just kidding.”

  “Big yuck,” Ben said.

  “Really. I was kidding.”

  “So, do we have a plan or not?” Ben asked.

  “No. I sure the hell don’t want to get shot after all of this.”

  “We have to do something,” Vivian replied.

  “I have a gray tee shirt on. I guess I could wave it and hope for the best,” JD told them.

  “Sounds good to me,” Fingers said grinning.

  “How bout I give it to you to wave?”

  “Oh no. If I got blood on it you would be mad at me. I think you should do it.”

  “I won’t get mad, I promise,” JD tried to assure him.

  “No thanks.”

  “Okay. You guys stay down. I’ll yell at them first to get their attention. If it seems okay, I stand up and wave my shirt. You should probably stay out of sight until you see how they react.”

  “No problem,” Fingers said.

  “Be careful,” Vivian added.

  “Good luck,” Ben replied.

  “Here it goes,” he said moving over to another pile of rubble.

  “Hey, I’m a survivor. Is anyone out there?” he yelled and stayed bent down.

  He thought he could hear a faint shuffling, like someone walking on the piles of rubble.

  “Anyone there? I’m in need of food and water. Please. Is anyone out there?”

  Still nothing.

  “Come on. I’m an American. I survived. I need help. Please,” he said.

  “Who are you,” a voice drifted to where he was crouched down.

  “My name is Jerome Daniels. People call me JD for short. Who are you?”

  “Armed Forces,” came back the reply.

  “American?”

  “What?"

  “American?”

  “Of course. Who the hell else would it be?”

  “Look around you. It could be anyone from the looks of things,” JD shouted back.

  “I want you to stand up and put your hands where I can see them.”

  “Okay. You won’t shoot will you?’

  “Just comply and you will have no problems.”

  “I’m standing up,” JD said, leaving his rifle and pistol where he was hiding.

  He slowly stood up with his tee shirt in his hand.

  “Drop the flag.”

  “It’s my tee shirt. I didn’t have anything white,” he explained.

  “Just drop it.”

  He let it fall from his hand, keeping them held high. He didn’t want to give them a reason to shoot first and ask questions later.

  “Walk this way. Slowly. Do you have any weapons?”

  “I did but I left them back there.”

  “Then come this way. Do it slowly.”

  “No problem,” JD replied.

  When he got to within ten feet of the man holding a machine gun on him he was told to stop, turn around and put his hands behind his head.

  “Guys, I’m...”

  “Shut up and do it,” the soldier snapped.

  JD did as he was told. What the hell did they think? He was an alien masquerading as an American? What a bunch of jerks.

  He felt his hands taken off his head one at a time and handcuffed behind his back.

  “Okay, you can turn around.”

  “You said your name was Jason?”

  JD recognized the Lieutenant’s bars.

  “No, I said it was Jerome. I go by JD because I don’t like the name Jerome. Would you?’

  “Where did you com
e from Jerome,” he said ignoring JD’s remarks.

  “Well, I came from about twenty miles east of here.”

  “How did you survive?”

  “You will never believe me,” JD said.

  “Just tell me,” the Lieutenant said, taking a step closer.

  “I was working in the 191 street subway tunnel on a malfunctioning switch. I felt the earth shake and thought at first a subway was coming down the closed track. Then I realized it was something more than that. I headed down the tunnel, which is quite a hike, by the way, and then the station wall came crashing down. It knocked me down and when I got up I realized I was trapped. It took me a while to dig my way out and when I finally got up on top I saw what had happened. It was pretty mindboggling I’ll tell you that. Everything was just...gone or on fire. I thought a bomb had gone off but that didn’t make sense. The damage extended as far as I could see.”

  “So how did you get here?”

  “That's a rather long story. Mostly I was just looking for food and water. I didn’t have any real destination. Look, I’m starved and thirsty. I’m an American citizen. Shit, you give prisoners food and water at least,” JD said.

  “You’re not a prisoner,” the Lieutenant replied.

  “Damn sure feels like it standing here with my hands cuffed and getting grilled.”

  The Lieutenant looked at him for a second before replying.

  “We are going to take you to our base. Sorry but you will need to be blindfolded. Once inside, we will take the cuffs off and the blindfold. Then you can eat and we will get you a place to sleep.”

  “But we are essentially prisoners. We can’t come and go as we please.”

  “We?”

  “Yeah. I have three more with me. We all survived in various ways. I was the sacrificial goat in case you just up and shot me.”

  “You should have told us that up front,” the Lieutenant said, starting to look around.

  “Would you have?”

  “I guess not. Are they armed?”

  “One of them is. Maybe more if they picked up my rifle and pistol.”

  “Shit.”

  “They aren’t looking for trouble. They just want to be treated like citizens who survived, not animals shoved in a cage. If that is you plan, you can forget that right now and just go ahead and shoot me. I’m not a prisoner Lieutenant.”

  “You’re thinking of running?”

  “Sir, I was a sniper in Vietnam. We used to have a saying. Never try to out run a sniper, all you will do is die tired. What you will have to do is shoot me as I stand or drag me kicking and screaming.

  The Lieutenant thought for a second then said, “Okay. No cuffs, no blindfold. Yes you can leave if you don’t want to stay. The only restriction is if you go, you go for good. Agreed?”

  “You bet,” JD said as the Lieutenant took off the cuffs.

  **

  “Do you trust them?” Ben asked.

  “Hell I don’t know.”

  “Did they seem like they were telling you the truth?” he pressed.

  “Ben, I no longer know what the truth is. I know what I believe but is it the truth? I really don’t know any longer. I guess he could have shot me on the spot but he didn’t so what can I say? I’m going.”

  “Me too,” Fingers said.

  “I’m in,” Vivian told him.

  “Let’s go,” was all Ben said.

  The Lieutenant was waiting for them. He had his weapon on his shoulder by the strap.

  “This all of them?”

  “Yep. Just us,” JD said.

  “Watch your step and follow me,” the Lieutenant said starting down the pile of rubble.

  They walked in silence for almost a quarter of a mile when he told them to stop.

  “Hang on a second. I need to let them know it's okay.”

  “Who?” Ben asked.

  “Good. You didn’t notice them. They are doing their job then,” was all the Lieutenant said.

  He walked out further in the field and raised his gun above his head and pumped it in the air three times. Then he pushed it to the left then the right.

  “We can go now,” he told them.”

  “What was that all about?” Ben asked.

  “I have men stationed in those piles over there. If I just did the overhead it would have meant I was coming in under duress. Just to the left meant it was just a few, to the right means it is more than we can handle and to fade away,” the Lieutenant told him.

  “Pretty cool,” Fingers said.

  They cleared a huge pile of rubble and the Lieutenant said, “Any idea what this was?”

  “No clue,” Ben replied.

  “JD?”

  “Just a guess but maybe the Empire State Building?”

  “Exactly.”

  “No way,” Fingers replied looking at the pile.

  “We have a camp set up in what was once the basement. It wasn’t easy but we managed to get down the stairs and down to the lower level. It's a good 40 or 50 feet underground,” he told them.

  “Excuse me. I would like to put a name with Lieutenant if you don’t mind,” JD said.

  “Oh, yeah. Neil Carlson. I’m not big on my name either but NC just doesn’t have the same ring as JD,” he said and smiled for the first time.

  When they got over to the other side, five men in fatigues were waiting for them. The Lieutenant went over and talked to the men. JD could see the men look at them every once in a while. Finally the Lieutenant came back.

  “We have all agreed. We will take you in and share what we have. You will have to leave your weapons with us but you can have them back if you decide to take off again. The same rule still stands, if you do decide to go, no coming back. Agreed?” he asked.

  “They all said ‘yes’.”

  “Just so you know. I was the only one with a weapon. It was an old .45 I found in the rubble and a 30-06. I don’t think it worked. The other stuff was just a bluff. They have no weapons that I know of,” JD told him.

  “None,” Fingers assured him.

  “Neither of us do,” Vivian replied.

  Ben shook his head ‘no’.

  “Alright then. You will have to be very careful on the first level. Some of the stairs got damaged. We have fixed it the best we could under the circumstances. Single file and leave a few feet between each of you,” Lieutenant Carlson told them.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The President was still upset about what he had just been told. He had sent for Tony Spears, his Secretary of Defense, Ron Sheffer, Chief of Staff, and Bobby Houser, the Attorney General. They were all sitting on a large leather couch while he sat at a much smaller version of the one in the Oval Office.

  “Gentlemen, I will bring in General Preston in a minute but before I do I want to know what this Rockford Committee is all about,” he said, watching them intently.

  He could see right away that Ron and Bobby had no idea what he was talking about. The Secretary of Defense was a totally different matter. He could almost see his jaw drop when he mentioned the name.

  “Tony, why don’t we start with you,” Coaler said.

  “Me?”

  “You’re the only Tony in here I believe.”

  “Mr. President. I don’t know anything about any of that.”

  “Really?”

  “No sir.”

  The President sat and waited. He just sat there. A whole minute went by and then another.

  “Sir, I really don’t know about the Rockford Committee.”

  “Tony, I’ve known you for almost ten years. I know when you are hiding something. I’m trying to be polite by putting it that way. I want to know what the hell and who the hell they are,” Coaler said slamming his hand down on the desk hard enough to make his pen fall off the desk.

  “Sir. I don’t know everything. I mean I know some of it but I don’t think anyone knows everything except those on the Committee.”

  “Tell me what you do know.”

  “The R
ockford Committee is a group that determines world politics. They control not only the stock markets around the world but everything from the price of gold to the cost of gasoline. They put people in office that will benefit them. From their perspective, the US, China, Russia, and to some extent the Middle East, are the major business centers. Japan was in that elite group at one time but has not been considered important enough with China taking over Hong Kong.”

  “When you say they control all of this, how?”

  “I honestly don’t know. That is way above me. I do know that they determine most of our government officials. The people vote but it really doesn’t matter. The ballots are a joke. It gives the people the illusion that they elected the leaders. Who is going to win is determined long before the ballots are ever cast.”

  “General Preston indicated that I wasn’t supposed to be here.”

  “That is correct. The media had already determined the winner based on what the Committee wanted. Sir. I don’t want to argue but look at what is going on around you. Have you noticed how America has changed over the past fifty years? It has been a slow process but it is getting done. Everyone knows you can’t just come in and take over America. It has to be done from within. Divide and conquer is the only way and that is what they have been doing. Abortions, gays, gun control, imminent domain, are but a few of the issues. Every country that has been taken over from the inside did it the exact same way. Remove the guns first. With that done, freedom of speech becomes a thing of the past. Then they cannot congregate except by permit, then no small groups until no one is allowed to congregate. Trials by jury? Out the window. The Constitution becomes nothing more than a hollow shell.”

  “That can’t be done in America,” Coaler insisted.

  “Sir, it’s already being done. It’s well underway right now. If you think it can’t be done, ask any German that survived Hitler’s Nazi Germany or Stalin’s Russia. The list goes on and on. It is happening here.”

  “Someone would put a stop to that,” the President insisted.

  “They could try but they would have a ‘sudden heart attack’ or a mysterious car wreck. Hell they would blow up an entire plane with passengers and crew if that’s what it took. You do not cross these people and live to tell about it.”

  “Right here in America?” Coaler said leaning back in his chair.