Free Range Protocol- Tales of the Tschaaa Infestation

by Marshall Miller

  After a short private discussion, Sharon and Susanne set up a little demonstration they usually did for drunk college kids. After the volleyball net went up, and they had changed into their bikinis (with a last minute beer company t-shirt to cover up some of their skin after they saw the number of children present), then they set up some plastic drink cups up on one side of the net at various distances from the net. They began to pass and hit the ball back and forth. Once they had a small audience, they went into the routine.

  They alternated their activities. First Susanne would set the ball up, and Sharon spiked it at a cup at on the other side of the net. Then, Sharon would set it up and Susanne would spike it. That was what made them so dangerous as opponents. Both were equal in defense, offense, serving and spiking. Someone called them the “nasty clones” once, claiming they had been manufactured, not raised as normal children. They had just laughed.

  Soon the majority of the children were racing each other to recover the spiked balls and reset the target cups up in new locations, with laughter and yells.

  Susanne smiled at Sharon. “I wonder how many of these kids would usually be playing video games?”

  “Well, they’re having a fun time now. And their parents seemed to be appreciating our show also.”

  Quite a few of the parents began to watch and applaud the young women’s skill. The partners never missed their targets.

  Someone whistled loudly, and then a yell of “Come and get it!” The two ball players did not have to be told twice. They had built up an appetite with their ball play. As they walked over to the picnic table and grill area, a woman with two young, red-headed twin girls walked up to them.

  “Excuse me, Ladies, but my girls really love to watch you play. How did you get so good? Oh, by the way, Karen Andersen. And these two eight year old redheads are Ruth and Belinda.” She shook hands with the two tall athletes.

  “Were you always this good?” one of the twins asked.

  “This is Ruth,” Karen interjected.

  “Well, Ruth, we had to practice a lot,” Sharon said. “We started out about your age.”

  “Are you sisters too?” Now it was Belinda’s turn for a question.

  “No, young lady,” Susanne said. “We just look a lot alike. Though we feel like sisters, don’t we Sharon?”

  Her volleyball partner smiled and squeezed her hand. “We’ve been together since about age eight so yeah—we’re family.”

  “Mind if we sit with you? I like my daughters to see women who work hard, and are successful in what they chose to do.”

  “Of course,” answered Susanne. “If you don’t mind me stuffing my face while we talk. I’m hungry.”

  Within a few minutes the two long term time friends were sitting and talking with their new friends at a picnic table. Someone had access to a bunch of hot dogs and hamburgers, as there seemed to be plenty for everyone. Sharon counted over a hundred men, women and children in the rest area, as well as a few dogs and one cat. For once, a group of strangers met and got along despite the problematic situation swirling around them outside the rest area.

  There was some beer and other alcohol, but everyone seemed to police their own. The absence of any uniformed official responders was a subject of occasional worried conversation. One young man who had apparently started partying early had started to stumbled up to the young ladies on the beer tour, but was intercepted by Dave. The man’s sober friend came and collected him before his mouth wrote a check his butt could not cash.

  Susanne looked around, did not see a man hanging around Karen and her daughters.

  “Don’t want to pry, Ma’am, but is there a Mr. Andersen?”

  “You’re not prying, and call me Karen. Ma’am makes me feel like my mother. I’m not that much older than you two.”

  Sharon and Susanne smiled. “Okay, Karen. Deal.”

  “But to answer your question, we are meeting my husband, their father in Key West. We’re a Navy family, and he was just transferred there. He’s a Naval aviator, going to be assigned to the Sundowners, a Squadron that acts as enemy aircraft for air to air training.”

  “You sound very proud of him, Karen,” Sharon said.

  “I am. He’s a good Naval pilot and a great dad. Just ask the girls.”

  “Daddy’s the best!” the twins answered in perfect unison. The three adults began to laugh.

  Then Karen’s face looked serious. “This, whatever is happening, has me concerned. If Larry was were here, he’d be able to find out more through his contacts. I feel blind and stupid right now.”

  “You’re definitely not stupid, Karen,” said Susanne. “Tell you what. When Dave, our driver and chaperone, gets ready to leave, I’ll tell him you’re going to follow us. Safety in numbers. Dave is one tough dude, former vet and semi-pro boxer. You can at least stick with us until Jacksonville.”

  Karen patted Susanne’s hand. “Thank you. That would make me feel better. But you two look like you can handle yourselves.”

  “Yeah. But a big, older guy like him makes people think twice,” Sharon said. “Especially young drunk males. We’ve seen quite a few on this tour.” Then she told Karen about the tour, their college plans, and the Olympics.

  “After I and the kids make it to Key West, I’d like to stay in touch with you two. I know Larry would like to try and recruit you into the Navy.

  The two volleyball players laughed. “Let us get to the Olympics first,” Susanne said. “Then we can see about a military career.”

  The women and girls visited a bit more, then Karen took their leave.

  “Time to get these two cleaned up a bit. I made a bed in the minivan for us tonight, as I think we’ll be stuck here until tomorrow.” She hugged Sharon and Susanne. “Thanks for being nice to me and my daughters. It helped keep me from running around screaming.”

  “You don’t look like the screaming type, Karen,” Susanne said. “Come on over to our bus if you want anything. Deal?”

  “Deal. Talk to you later.”

  Susanne and Sharon went and found Dave, who was enjoying a large plate of potato salad.

  “Enjoying yourself, Dave?” asked Sharon.

  “Learned in the Army. Eat when you get a chance, especially with good food. It may be awhile before you get another good meal.”

  “Heard anything, Dave?”

  He took a drink of his beer, then frowned. “News on the radio is that we, the Earth, were hit by a meteor shower that the government and scientists seemed to have missed completely. Lots of casualties, as well as reports of some dirt bags taking advantage of the situation, stealing and trashing. So, I definitely want to stay here. Safety in numbers.”

  “We were just thinking the same thing,” said Sharon. The two friends then explained to Dave about Karen and her daughters.

  “Sounds good to me. Question is, which roads are going to be open?”

  As Susanne and Sharon collected their sports equipment, leaving the net up with a ball for kids to play with, Dave went to round up the other four women. As all six of the tour participants moved back to the bus, Adriana was heard making comments about the “fucking showoffs” as she looked in Sharon and Susanne’s direction. Sharon started to turn around but Susanne gently grabbed her arm. “Ignore the ignorant whore.”

  Sharon’s mouth dropped open a bit. “Whore? Hey. I’m the one with the potty mouth, not you.”

  “Sometimes a word like that just seems to fit someone. So, it’s not obscene, it’s just being truthful.” At that explanation, Sharon began to laugh, and Susanne joined in. They made their way to the bus, staked out a couple of bench seats.

  Dave herded the other four females to the bus, despite some grumbles about having to leave a couple of young studs behind. “Let’s get this sorted out, ladies. Then you can try to pick up all the man meat you want.” Without Mrs. Norwood, there was no one to complain about his bluntness.

  Tired, with full stomachs, Sharon and Susanne made themselves beds on the bench seats
they had claimed and went to sleep, the other women complaining about the horrible cell phone service in the area.

  The two friends woke up as the sun was setting. They roused themselves and made their way to the communal rest area restrooms. Susanne picked up an empty sports drink bottle and took it to the restrooms to wash out and fill it with water. For once, the bathrooms were vacant, so the two volleyballers had their choice of stalls.

  After relieving herself, Susanne went to one of the sinks. She washed out the bottle and began to refill it with fresh water. As she topped it off, the flow of water began to sputter.

  “Uh oh.”

  “What’s up, Susanne?” Sharon came out of her stall and asked.

  “I think the water system is beginning to have problems. I wonder if the pipe system has been damaged.”

  “Let’s let tell Dave know. He might have some ideas.”

  They found Dave talking with two of the good ole boys with their guns. All three men had concerned looks on their faces as Sharon and Susanne approached. They smiled at the approaching young ladies, one even touching the bill of his ball cap.

  “Ma’am,” the young man with a scraggly beard said with a thick Alabama accent. The two men then turned and walked towards the far side of the rest area.

  “What’s going on, Dave?” Sharon asked.

  Dave paused for moment, then shrugged. “Hell, might as well tell you that everything from Atlanta south is a complete mess. Atlanta proper was hit by small chunks of space debris or rocks, which started some big fires downtown. A couple of blocks were completely burned out, tall office buildings and all. This lead to the city being evacuated, all non-emergency workers told to hit the road.” Dave paused again, then continued. “Then a big one hit on the outskirts, took out Interstate 85 by Union City. There’s a big crater there, from what we can gather.”

  “This all came from the radio stations?” Susanne asked.

  “Mostly from CB traffic. A lot of the radio stations have dropped off the air. Power lines have been knocked out. There are reports of pieces of scum taking advantage of this mess and are running around looting and raising all kinds of problems.” He shook his head. “Here we have all of us at this rest area cooperating, helping each other out, as it should be. But then others just have to act like the nasty apes we seem to be descended from, start fighting and fussing. Humans are our own worst enemy.”

  A small smile formed on Sharon’s lips. ”Getting philosophical, Dave?”

  “Don’t need a lot of college degrees to figure things out, pretty ladies. Now, let’s get back to the bus.”

  As they walked, Dave gave some more details. “We have quite a few people on guard tonight. In the morning, we’ll see what which roads are open. We may head back to Panama City. We’re about an hour’s drive from Jacksonville. But from what I have heard, a couple of chunks of space junk come came down on Interstate 10, including the fireball we saw. There is a large bunch of cars still smoldering up ahead, blocking all traffic lanes of traffic, including some more near the intersection of Interstate 75 and 10.”

  “Think we can find a side road around the problem?”

  “We can try in daylight. Right now, get yourselves settled for the night. We leave at sunrise.”

  The three walked back to the tour bus and saw Adriana flirting with some young stud, who was standing and talking with her through an open bus window. The stud smiled and said goodbye when he saw Dave approaching, the word having gotten around that he did not cotton to people hitting on his female charges right now with all that was going on.

  After getting on the bus, Dave made an announcement to the assembled young women.

  “Okay, at sunrise, we get up and I try to find us a way out of here. We may have to turn back to Panama City, based on reports of serious road damage and fires ahead. Either way, we find a town or city to hold up in until this all gets sorted out.”

  Adriana sniffed loudly. “Well, if I could get my father on my cell phone, he’d figure something out. He’s a State Representative, you know.”

  “Well, young lady, unless he has access to some airlift resources, I don’t see him doing much more that than what we can do on our own.

  “What about all the others, Dave? What are they going to do?” asked Susanne.

  “I’m concerned with you young ladies. No, don’t argue. I told you I am driving this bus. If you really don’t like this, then find another ride.” He paused, and sighed. “Look, you think I am being a complete hardass here. But if you need a reason, I’ll give you three.”

  He continued. “First, we are exposed here. We need to find a secure location. I have not seen a single State Trooper, soldier, whatever—in hours. We cannot wait for them to come to us, we need to find them.

  “Two, we don’t know the extent of this disaster. So far, it is parts of the East Coast. So we have to get some accurate information.”

  “Third and last, we will soon need food and water. We cannot live on air and good intentions.”

  The six young ladies were silent. Except for Marjorie.

  “How am I going to get back to Colorado Springs?” she asked.

  “One step at a time. We’ll work on that later. Alright. Lights out, get some rest. I’ll monitor the CB radio for a while.”

  Sharon and Susanne re-staked their claim on their two bench seats, got a few things from their suitcases in the bus luggage compartment. Susanne noticed Sharon had grabbed two small packs they had and was stuffing various items in them.

  “Are we going for a little hike in the morning?” she asked.

  Sharon looked at her friend with a worried expression on her face. “I have this feeling I just can’t shake. That we need to be ready to bug out.”

  “That the influence of your survivalist uncle?”

  “Hey, he may seem paranoid at times, but he has shown me how to be ready if the crap hits the rotating blade. He told me that sometimes your gut and intuition puts together things that your mind hasn’t figured out yet. So, when I feel like this, I plan for the unexpected.”

  Susanne sat on the seat next to Sharon and hugged her.

  “We have always made a good team, haven’t we?”

  Sharon hugged her back. “Yes, we were always there for each other. Even when we got in trouble and got had our butts paddled.”

  “Remember that time we t.p.’d Old Lady Brown’s house on Halloween?”

  “Well, if she hadn’t been calling and complaining about us kids all the time we never…”

  “Sharon, Susanne.”

  “Yes Dave.”

  “You are not getting ready for sleep.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Five minutes later, the pair were finally settled on their bench seats.

  “Good night, Ellen.”

  “Good night, John Boy.”

  “You two…,” Dave began, then chuckled. Never a dull moment.

  It was 9:30 PM.

  Sharon and Susanne had just begun to drift to sleep, when loud screams over the CB jerked them wide awake. Then they heard a faraway rumbling. The two women jumped up and stood by Dave in the front as he tried to talk to someone on the CB.

  “Say again. What happened?”

  “It’s fucking huge!” the voice said, then stopped. Dave kept trying to raise anyone on the various CB channels, but kept getting yells and screams as people all tried to talk at once.

  Sharon opened the bus door and jumped out.

  “Oh my God.”

  “What?” Susanne joined her and looked east, where Sharon was staring.

  It looked like a huge light show some two miles or so away in the darkness, as rumblings similar to large aircraft engines shook the bus windows. The lights were accentuated as all the street, roadway and rest area lights were now out.

  “Ladies, get back in here. Now!” Dave commanded. He grabbed the bus intercom microphone.

  “Everyone, up, get clothes, shoes on. We may be moving any minute.”

  “Wher
e?” a voice called out.

  “Anywhere but here,” Dave replied.

  The rumblings stopped, but there were still some fairly bright lights emanating from the original location of the noise and light show.

  “Stay here,” ordered Dave, then he opened the bus door and was out.

  Sharon and Susanne heard him talking loudly to a couple of men, probably from the volunteer guard detail. Then they heard a worried sounded woman’s voice, then a mixture of some others. The parents and others where trying to figure out what was happening, what they should do next. Sharon and Susanne could only pick up bits and pieces of the conversation, but after some ten minutes, it seemed everyone was returning to their respective vehicles.

  A loud gunshot resounded through the darkness. Then another. Then another. Then screams.

  Dave burst back onto the tour bus, a large crowbar in his grasp.

  “Down. Everybody down!” Dave yelled as he tried to start the bus.

  There was an extremely bright light off to the left, followed by screams.

  Adriana screamed from the rear of the bus.

  The bus engine roared into life and Dave yelled, “Hang on!”

  Then something slammed into the front of the bus—and the engine died.

  Dave grabbed the crowbar as more shots rang out. Something latched onto and yanked the front bus door open. Adriana released a scream an opera critic would have liked on opening night.

  Something else tried to yank open the rear emergency door, setting off the buzzer.

  A long cable or snake-like shape grabbed at Dave through the front bus door and he smacked at it with the crowbar. The sound of metal on metal resonated, as Dave knocked away whatever was grabbing at him. He let out a war bellow. “Not tonight, you fu…”