Winter Kill - War With China Has Already Begun

by Gene Skellig

  “No problem, I had the Basic Winter Survival course in Edmonton, but we didn’t demo the Quinzhees.

  “I wonder, Granny-G, would you mind if we collected some of your fruit?” Nora changed the topic back to the fruit.

  “I’d be delighted. I’ve already exchanged my twenty acres for a 1% share in the HOTH, and twenty new grandchildren to keep me busy. So the orchard is ours to do whatever we want with. It certainly would give our nutrition a boost. Let’s get all we can before the freeze sucks all the juice out! And while we’re at it, there’re a few personal things I’d like to have.”

  “Justin has shown us the way. We'll tunnel down to a tree and make one of those Quinzhees around it,” said JJ.

  “But that’s a lot of snow to move, JJ,” said Amy.

  “Actually, there may be a better way,” continued Danny.

  After Danny laid out his idea Amy joined in and made a few suggestions on how to get started. The two went on to develop a way to quickly gather the fruit from Granny-G’s orchard.

  After experimenting a bit, they determined that by making a Quinzhee at the base of a tree they could gather some of the fruit that had fallen off the tree. Then by placing eight or ten large candles in the Quinzhee the heat would expand the cavern to a much larger snow-cave without any additional labor. The fifteen foot snow-base made for excellent insulation and the glazed ice walls quickly hardened when the number of candles was reduced, leaving the fruit tree liberated from snow and ready for the bounty of fruit to be harvested.

  Over the next two weeks they harvested over six thousand pounds of fruit. They stored some of it in the DFR, but most of it was just piled up on plastic sheets in the garage. It was soon processed in the canning and jam-making assembly-line that the two Grandmas and Tanya managed in the kitchen.

  They also brought the Ring Families into the operation, inviting them to harvest fruit from the Granny-G orchard. However, the Ring Families were required to set aside 20% of what they collected, which the HOTH crews used for trading at the Errington market and donated to the food-aid center that Marty and Katy ran at the Qualicum Community Center.

  They traded the fruit to those in need in exchange for things which the other traders could find by scavenging in abandoned homes. Danny and the Callaghan boys spent hours sorting nuts & bolts and other bits of hardware into jars. They stored the jars on shelves as they became available in the bunker. Other items, such as electronics and consumer goods, were squirreled away in other storage spaces around the HOTH.

  The HOTH people, as they were now known, used these trading opportunities to help other survivors build their own systems for indoor food production. When trading fruit and other supplies at Errington Market, they gave out newsletters and advice on indoor food production.

  Amy came up with a few designs for simple wind-power systems which could be made out of commonly available components including the guts of skill-saws, bench grinders, bicycles, and auto parts like batteries and starter-generators. The helical wind paddle assemblies to drive these improvised generators could be put together from furnace ducts, various construction materials, and lots of metal-bashing. Amy’s design worked well.

  The sequence of events, starting with Justin’s initiative and culminating in Amy’s designs for improvised power-plants, made Casey proud of his son and confident that the HOTH was working out as he had envisaged.

  33

  BEEP

  02 August: 15 Months After NEW

  Casey awoke to the sound of Tanya drying her hair. The room was filled with bright sunlight, which was very hard on his eyes as he read 10:00 AM on the clock. Casey got up to close the window blinds. Suddenly, he realized: it’s sunny outside.

  He went up to the penthouse and walked out into a glorious sunny day with just a few puffy clouds in the sky. He heard the sound of his children playing, and walked over to the railing to look down. He saw his five children playing with a Frisbee while the family dogs, Abby and Limbo, chased after it. The enormous lawn was a vivid green. It was a perfect summer day.

  Casey saw the cherry trees in the small orchard were in full springtime blossom. Looking to the horizon, Casey saw a cruise-ship plying the waters of Georgia Strait. Then he realized that it had all been a dream, there had been no war. He and his family could enjoy normal life in their beautiful home, and the end of the world had not come.

  Casey felt elated that the world had not gone insane. He began to hear the “Beep, Beep, Beep…” of a truck backing up. He walked over to the other side of the roof-top deck and looked down to see the Dairyland milk truck backing up into the parking spot in front of the main entrance. The driver got out and carried a plastic milk-crate with a few milk cartons in it, heading towards the door.

  The “Beep Beep” sound continued. “That’s odd,” Casey said aloud to himself as he watched the milk-man put down the new crate and pick up the old one from the front porch. There should be no backing-up sound, the truck has stopped.

  Casey opens his eyes. He was back in the king-sized bed, and saw that it was exactly 10:00 AM. He shut his eyes against the brightness of the lights in the room. He rolled over and started to get up to close the window blinds, to cut off the bright sunlight. But by the time he reached the window he realized that something was wrong.

  It was dark outside. The landscape was covered by a gloomy grey blanket of snow, dimly lit under a permanently overcast sky. He finally registered the “Beep Beep Beep” coming from the alarm clock, which had been set for 10:00 AM. Then he realized that there was no Dairyland truck. It is not sunny outside. The war really did happen and he and his family would not awaken from a bad dream.

  In fact, he admitted to himself, things were probably going to get a lot worse.

  34

  ATTACK

  20 December: 31 Months After NEW

  Manfred found the camera. It was still attached to the branch that had broken off in the last storm.

  “I found it, and the leads appear to be intact.”

  “Yea, Manfred, we’re getting a clear picture now, but you’ve got it sideways,” said Amy, over the XPR.

  “I’m gonna disconnect it now to add more length.”

  “Make sure to mount it much higher this time,” Amy said.

  Manfred extended his ladder its full twenty feet and leaned it against a nearby tree while Peter slipped a wide plank under the ladder’s feet, making a secure base on the deep snow. After climbing up to re-attach the surveillance camera under a thick branch, Manfred climbed back down and picked up the XPR.

  “Are you getting a good picture now?”

  “Yes, but who are those people? DANGER CLOSE! They’re armed and moving tactically! Get out of there!” Amy said urgently.

  “Hostile force! Run!” said Manfred, pushing Pete ahead.

  Pete didn’t have to be told twice. Ever since Pal’s murder, Pete understood how fast an attack could take place.

  Pete had been staying with Pal after Pete’s family were killed in a home invasion a few months after NEW. The Walker gang had gone after Pete’s boss, Mr. Palomar. Pal was killed before he even got to his gun cache in the basement. He had simply stuck his head out a second floor window so see who was banging at the door, when he was shot through the throat. With his hands trying to stop the blood pouring out of his throat, Pal told Pete to run. Pete got away that time by moving fast, diving out another window and running for his life.

  This time, with Manfred a few paces behind, Pete wanted to fight back. He headed for the Gate House where he expected to find Duncan, the other man on gate duty. But when he rounded the corner of the brick structure he saw several men pointing guns at him from a few meters to his right, where the Gate House parking lot met the serpentine driveway onto the property.

  He continued running, right past the Gate House, hoping to get around the next corner and make for the deeply-trodden trench-like path from the Gate House to the HOTH. Bullets whizzed by, making snappy puffs in the packed snow sides of
the trench. Pete ducked low as he ran along the zig-zagging path, feeling like a First World War soldier in the trenches.

  Seconds later Manfred rounded the first corner of the Gate House and saw Pete disappear around the next corner. When he saw the half-dozen men shooting at Pete from the right, he made for the Gate House door, yanked it open and ran inside.

  The five hostiles inside the room were stunned to see Manfred, who had interrupted their torturing of Duncan.

  Without missing a beat Manfred ran right past them for the rear storage room. Once inside, he slammed the steel door shut and threw a two-by-four into the steel clips bolted to the door-frame, securely barring the door. Manfred then went to the shelving unit at the far end of the room to uncover the hidden door into the panic room behind the storage shelf. Inside, he pressed the button to activate the emergency lighting inside and grabbed the 9mm from a shelf on the wall.

  By the time he got back into the main storage room, someone was smashing the fire-door with something heavy, starting to bend the bottom corner inwards. The two-by-four held. Manfred fired a few shots through the bent corner, hoping to make them back-off a bit. His shots only infuriated the attackers. They smashed the fire-door even harder, at both top and bottom.

  They stopped for a moment to deal with some trouble in the main room. The commotion ended when one of the attackers put a bullet into Duncan’s brain, ending his valiant attempt to break free from those torturing him. Manfred heard the struggle and understood the finality of the single gun-shot.

  With just a few clips of ammo for the 9mm he got from the panic room, and with no exit other than through the main guardroom, Manfred knew that he couldn’t hold out for long.

  Meanwhile, up in the HOTH, all available adults were arming themselves from the weapons vault in the lower level. As the men and women stuffed magazines and pistols into their pockets and slung rifles over their shoulders, Nora and Francis gave updates over the Public Address system. Watching the video feeds, they could see where almost every one of the attackers was.

  With over thirty men, the attackers had come in force. Hope Callaghan thought one of them was a trucker who had turned down their offer for shelter and had chosen to take his chances in Port Alberni. He was one of the men in the Gate House, trying to break through to the storage room where it looked like Manfred was barricaded. They could also see Duncan’s body on the floor.

  There were other attackers in the forest near the Gate House and several were taking up firing positions along the snow-covered berm near the Gate House. The natural features had been created by Casey and Marc years ago; the OPs and cameras had been installed overlooking these “safe” places. The attackers would soon find how unsafe they really were.

  The adults of the HOTH were divided into four groups. One was to remain in the HOTH with the children and elderly as a last line of defense, and to prepare the infirmary for casualties. The five people making up a second group had already left to take their position in the East OP. The cameras in this area hadn’t picked up any movement, but if the attackers tried the HOTH’s right flank they would find out the hard way that the East OP dominated the gully they found themselves funneled into.

  The third group, with eight fighters led by JJ, was heading out the garage door for the North OP, close to the battle. Among them, Amy had a Super-Magnum sniper rifle, while Danny and JJ each had M-16s. The others had rifles, shotguns, and handguns.

  The fourth group, a dozen men and women, had taken rifles and lots of ammunition to prepared firing-points on the rooftops of the HOTH and Barn, and began sniping. Casey was already in the Birds Nest setting up the Amalite while Jack was setting out the large 50-caliber rounds. Looking down from his firing table, Casey saw Pete running head-down along the trench, but he couldn’t see any targets. The attackers had their heads down now, surprised by the intensity of the firing from the HOTH.

  GT was firing at something in the tree-line, making satisfied noises that he had hit something. Meanwhile Jack, assigned as Casey’s spotter and helper, carefully put a head-set on Casey and received a smile and thumbs up for his efforts. He then took a pair of binoculars, and scanned for targets.

  “Zero this is Actual. What do you see in the Gate House?”

  “Actual, Zero. There are eight hostiles inside. Looks like Duncan’s dead, on the floor by the west wall. We have comms with Manfred now, he’s prone in the panic room, firing at the store-room door. He’s almost out of rounds.”

  “Roger. Listen, there are thirty bricks from west to east along the south wall of the Gate House, and fourteen from floor to ceiling. The first seven bricks from my right account for the panic room, so they are a no-fire zone. It looks like the snow has buried the back wall to the five foot mark, or about eight bricks high.”

  “I’m with you, Casey. We’ll tell you which vector will take out the most targets, reference Left and height, Roger?”

  “Roger. Ready.”

  Using the live-feed from the two hidden cameras that every person in the HOTH knew were inside the main room of the Gate House, Francis worked out the best vectors for Casey.

  “Eight bricks from left, standing.”

  To the ten attackers inside the Gate House, arguing about how to assault the well-defended prize, it seemed as if the entire wall exploded. The powerful 50-caliber round Casey fired into the designated brick made just a two-centimeter hole through the outside of the non-reinforced brick wall. The diameter on the inner side, however, was twenty centimeters. The shock wave and particles of brick formed an explosive projectile stream. Shards of brick and smaller particles fanned out, filling the room with white smoke. The high-velocity round hit the nearest man in his chest and tore a fist-sized hole through his body. As the bone, muscle and flesh blew out the other side, the internal shock-wave tore the man to pieces, throwing his head and torso to the left while his shoulder and right arm flew to the right. Francis had chosen the first vector well, as the bullet destroyed the pelvis of a second man, and carried on to destroy the ankle of a third man, standing behind.

  The process was repeated three more times, killing another five men before the attackers realized that the defenders were firing right through the brick wall with a powerful weapon. Their leader got outside to call for a retreat and was about to shout out orders when his throat was sliced open by a shard of metal blown off the doorframe. Casey’s fifth shot had missed but the power of the projectile striking the door-frame put so many metal splinters into the air that a clean hit wasn’t necessary. The man fell to the ground spraying blood.

  As he lay there dying, he saw his force being mowed down from a few tiny dark holes in a pile of logs and trees about a hundred yards to their right flank. Lined up like sardines in a tin along that little berm they had been sheltered behind, his men were killed right before his eyes. They hadn’t even had time to figure out where the shooting was coming from.

  The remaining attackers that had held back in the forest soon began to run for their lives. Many of them were taken out by the snipers firing from the rooftops. The rest were killed as they tried to cross Wainscott Crescent. It was unclear whether they were hit by fire from Group Two on the right, or Group Three on the left, as both parties had advanced to the edge of the forest in pursuit of the fleeing targets.

  After the attackers were all dead, Danny led a recce to back-track. He soon discovered that the attackers had overcome the Gorton family. When Danny and his men got within site of the Gorton Farm, they reported what they saw. A large number of people had occupied the Gorton residence located close to the Port Alberni Highway. The Gortons were a small family of three who kept to themselves, and all had the same bright red hair. They were a Ring Family, but were barely hanging on.

  Danny reported seeing someone throw a garbage bag out from the main entrance. Despite the SOPs, Danny just had to know. After sneaking in for a closer look, he reported that the bag contained fresh table-scraps of human bones and bright red hair. It was clear that the attacker
s had degraded into cannibalism.

  It had happened time after time all around the world, Casey and the others had learned through the radio net. There was something particularly offensive in the idea that people were hunting people for food. The malnourished victims didn’t offer their predators much nutrition anyhow, as the vitamin-containing fat was long gone. With human protein being difficult for humans to digest, and with the diseases and other deleterious effects, cannibalism is not only repugnant to civilized people, but it’s also an ineffective survival strategy.

  So is leaving cannibals free to kill. They will continue to hunt humans and therefore must be stopped. Any report of cannibalism in the Oceanside area resulted in armed parties heading out to exterminate them. The remaining members of the cannibalist gang realized that they were surrounded and that their attack on the HOTH had failed. They knew what was in store for them; they would fight to the death.

  And death came swiftly for them, in the form of a two-liter pop-bottle filled with gasoline, dropped down the chimney. The explosion and subsequent fire was so intense that the thick snow around the farm melted all the way to the ground. The few people who made it out of the blaze were mercilessly mowed-down in a hail of gunfire. By burning the cannibals out rather than fighting their way inside, none of the members of nearby Ring Families, nor those from the HOTH, would have to suffer any grisly images of the horrors that must have gone on inside that farmhouse.

  35

  OOBLECK

  17 May: 6 Years After NEW

  Everybody was excited about the New-Year’s celebration, just three days away, when seven year old Janie-Lee Arnott first saw the Oobleck. The survivors marked the NEW anniversary each year by spending the afternoon and evening of 20 May in candle-lit remembrance of the five billion people who had perished so far since the NEW. May 21st would be the first day of the next year ANEW, a time when people renewed their efforts to pull together to face the months and years of difficulty that still lay ahead. It was also a time to remind each other of why life was worth living and show their affection through gift-giving. In preparation, Amy and others were busy decorating the great room for the new year's eve banquet.