by Td Barnes
She opened the gate and proudly pointed out the expectant mom.
"She has bagged up well,” Stacey said, looking towards the goat's full udder. "She is having twins. The kids acted quite active until about an hour ago. She is talking to her stomach, and you can see that she is sunken in the flanks. This means the kids have moved into position in the birth canal.”
They watched the expectant mother go through the proper activity of standing up, lying down, standing up, walking around, lying down, standing up, digging the floor, lying down, and standing up. The heaving followed and then the delivery of two beautiful baby goats.
Both Stacey and Dr. Higgins observed Dr. Raemy during the birthing process and saw him turn from a dull mood to one where he suddenly wanted to help with the birthing. Dr. Higgins cleaned the sack and fluid from around the first kid's nose, and Dr. Raemy did the second one. He trimmed the umbilical cord on both kids, smiling with a twinkle in his eyes by the time he finished.
Dr. Ramey realized now why Stacey insisted he assist her in the kidding pen. Tears filled his eyes while he hugged her. “Thank you, Mrs. Bradley,” he said. “I needed this. I needed this reminder of the value of life.”
****
Chapter 5 - Siege of the Mountain
T plus 97 days - Nellis Air Force Base.
Word quickly spread that Sergeant Taylor was livid and screaming at his men — all because his recon team failed to make it back to Las Vegas. This, of course, angered him greatly because he needed to know the layout of the mountain.
However, their failure to return did not surprise him. Attrition due to the radiation sickness combined with their inexperience against the desperate armies now roaming over the Las Vegas Valley had reduced his army to a dangerously low level.
Commanders like him had given up on maintaining an exclusive territory after realizing that food and booty came where you found it.
These days they took from other armies rather than homes and families long gone or no longer worth raiding.
He could not recall the last time the sun managed to peek through the gray haze. Everything smelled and tasted of smoke and decomposing bodies.
Law and order no longer existed in the Las Vegas Valley. Gang armies ruled the cities, killing anyone who opposed their taking whatever they desired. Many of the members patrolled the streets purely out of desperation. They killed for joy and plunder.
The military bases at Nellis and Creech fared only slightly better than the cities. With no food or supply deliveries, the base commanders soon ran out of supplies to maintain the bases.
The organizers at the base had expected this occurrence when the military shipped much of its food reserved to the mountain. Using his knowledge of the Nellis Air Force state of affairs, Sergeant Taylor’s army specialized in seizing the military weapons and any Humvees spared the effects of the EMP bombs.
The base commander could not order his service men and women out in the deadly radiation to scrounge for supplies like Taylor, so when Taylor’s army moved in, he unofficially ceded an area of the base to Taylor for lack of resources and ability to combat his army.
This included the base fabrication facility where Taylor now modified military vehicles into troop carriers with a limited amount of protection from the radiation and with their access to the small arms ammo storage area. While this did not give him access to bombs and missiles, it nonetheless provided him with some very potent ordnance.
Tonight, his men would feast and have their way with the girls. Tomorrow they would go to war against the mountain at Jackass Flats.
The high morale of Taylor’s army the next morning showed while they laughed and joked about their cruel exploitation of their female prisoners and the amount of wine Sergeant Taylor had made available to them. They showed pride in their new radiation-proof vehicles and the dosimeters around their necks that Sergeant Taylor said would keep the radiation away. He had also promised each of them their pick of the women at Jackass Flats once they captured the mountain. Taylor stated that they have many young virgins from which to pick. He added to his hype the claim of hearing that the sun would return sometime next week.
Each carried his weapon of choice while eagerly waiting to go to war with Sergeant Taylor indisputably equipping his army with the best military-grade equipment in the world thanks to the supply rooms of Nellis Air Force Base and the National Guard armories.
The latest recruits in his army had managed to survive this long because of their protection from exposure to the fallout while serving in the military. He had successfully recruited these well-trained, terrified young men following the latest military downsizing of the Nellis Air Force Base to base caretaker status, leaving them without a means of survival until he offered them a job. Them being stranded a long way from home made them more vulnerable to exploitation.
He walked among his troops slapping them on the back and exchanging high-fives to enhance the already boisterous atmosphere while they prepared to depart for war on the mountain. He fed them well — allowing them to remain in the warehouse during the last two weeks while the earlier members conducted raids that provided them with drink and women to preserve their strength for the real battle. Thus, he had prevented their early exposure to the radiation, though they wore dosimeters where the earlier raiders did not. He called them his elite army protected from the radiation by the dosimeters worn around their necks.
Taylor chose to stay behind in North Las Vegas even if this meant his gambling control of his army to former Master Sergeant Berry Hathcock, an intelligent, well trained, and seasoned soldier chosen by Taylor to lead the invasion. He intended to expose himself to the harsh environment only after his people took the mountain, not knowing that MSGT Hathcock, the man he chose to lead the invasion possessed other plans.
Taylor finally gave the command for the departure of his army. The soldiers loaded with much ado into the radiation-proof vans fabricated at the sheet metal shop.
A sizeable rubber-tired loader started up with a loud, husky roar to lead the convoy out of town, removing abandoned vehicles clogging the streets leading to Highway 95, which the loader quickly pushed out of the way to make room for the troop carriers. The stench of decaying bodies became nearly unbearable even inside the enclosed vehicles.
****
Dr. Jack Kipper, MD welcomed Doctor De Reamy into his small office located in the adjacent alcove to his medical module at the mountain.
Describing any of the medical facilities required a stretch of the imagination. Describing them as state-of-the-art was an understatement.
The medical alcoves contained futuristic medical module prototypes built and equipped by Starquest Aerospace for future deployment to a lunar colony. The futuristic medical display contrasted to the rock walls with cable trays along the side and air circulation ducts hanging from the ceiling.
The modules were quite a bit larger than most examination rooms of doctors. They appeared strange, and one might say extraterrestrial in contrast to the walls of the solid rock alcove. Nonetheless, the modules provided everything needed for general health care. Each was equipped for surgery to include a laboratory. One came equipped for dentistry, and one at the south portal for veterinary care of the livestock.
“Doctor Reamy,” he said in a friendly professional tone. “The Old Man asked me to speak with you. Are you feeling okay?”
The doctors, of course, knew each other but did not socialize because of theirs’s being in such distinctly different medical fields.
“I must confess, doctor, that the hostilities the other day did upset me, but I believe I have control of it now. I never dreamed that I would see so much suffering and feel so helpless to do anything about it,” he said. “Mrs. Bradley spoke to me, and she certainly did not pull any punches. I realize that they did not write for times like this in the books we cracked in medical school. It might take a bit of time for me to shed a few medical doctrines, but I realize now that it is my job to view an individua
l being merely a component of the body of people here at the mountain and prescribe treatment for the benefit of the body.”
“Well, we are both professionals in the medical field. If you do feel you need to talk about anything, we are only one wall rock apart.”
Both chuckled at the description of their medical facilities. “I’ll take you up on that, Doctor. Please tell the colonel that I went through a rough time and am over it. I would like to drop by the nursery that nurse Martin and you are preparing for our first new addition to the mountain.” The two doctors visited professionally for a few minutes before going their separate ways.
Seldom in Dr. Reamy’s line of medicine did someone seek an appointment, which spoke highly of the selection of the people at the mountain and the high morale existing.
He, like most of the men of the cloth, did also, wandered among the residents to be available for anyone having a question or needing to talk. Up to now, not many of the residents had felt inclined to speak of their homes and loved ones left behind, but he knew the time would come when they would and ensured they knew to go to him when needed.
Doctor Kipper located Bradley and the XO in the Command Center afterward. “Good morning, Colonel Bradley - Colonel Barlow." He paused briefly to await an indication from Bradley for him to continue.
“Colonel,” he said to Bradley. “I just left from having a visit with Doctor Reamy. I am happy to report that he probably experienced only a minor nervous breakdown. I will keep an eye on him. Your wife has him involved with the animal farm to assist in delivering the babies that are on the way. That will, in my medical opinion, take his mind off things and he will be okay.”
Bradley thanked him for the report. “How is business other than the good doctor?” He asked.
Doctor Kipper scratched his chin while saying, “In my other life I would have said it is terrible, but I must report that it is great under our circumstances. The sick call has been light and nothing major. We treat a blister ever now and then now that you have everyone running and trimming down. We have a healthy little family here overall.”
Both looked towards the door when the shift officer stuck his head in. “Colonel, your eleven o’clock appointments are here.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant. Send them in. Doctor, if you will excuse me, I have a meeting with our clergy. Thanks for the report.”
“Sir, if you can spare me another moment. . .”
“Sure, Doc. We have nothing but time. I am confident our men of the cloth are not very eager to hear what I must say anyway. What’s on your mind?”
“Our people are not being exposed to sunlight here at the mountain and are not getting the vitamin D that they need to remain healthy. We risk our children coming down with the bone disease, rickets. Lack of vitamin D can affect our immunity to a whole host of illness and bone growth and remodeling issues. We have an excellent supply of vitamin D supplements. I believe we should make the supplement a part of our food diet until we can set up a lab for individual tests. This will head off deficiencies that could cause anything from heart problems to autoimmune diseases.”
“Say no more, Doctor. Make it happen and keep me posted on this and any other medical concerns.”
Bradley welcomed the three members of the clergy in and offered them a seat. Barlow walked in while the clergy took their seats. She saw that Bradley was busy and started to leave. He nodded for her to stay.
Bradley carried only one message for his visitors, but out of respect, he and Barlow engaged them in light banter about the good they were doing on the mountain, their desires, and their needs.
Barlow addressed the clergy with no one singled out to answer. “I am not deeply religious, but being a humanitarian, I can’t imagine the grief our people must be suffering from their having to leave their families behind. The same applies to the families who stayed behind to see their youth convoy here to the mountain and knowing they will not see them again. I am sure that they knew at Beatty and the Amargosa farming community, but they did not let on. How could the families handle the grief of knowing that they would not see their children again? They must be asking themselves what the world is coming to.”
The Protestant preacher answered. “What is this world coming to? How many times have we heard that after hearing of some demented soul entering a school, church, or the workplace and killing many people, including children? And, that is only in the United States. Look at what has occurred around the world to place us in this mountain. What we are experiencing is bad, but it is not original. Thousands of years before the birth of Christ, Pharaoh gave the command casting all male Hebrew babies into the Nile for fear of the Hebrew nation becoming too powerful. Thousands if not tens of thousands of children died. Can you imagine the grief and pain of those families? God saved Moses out of the grip of Pharaoh. Around the birth of Christ, Herod killed thousands of babies in search of a King who threatened his throne. Out of the tyranny of Herod, Jesus escaped to Egypt. So, what is the answer to that haunting question, "What is this world coming to?" I do think the Apostle Paul gives a clear answer in Romans 1 where he identifies that it is not what this world is coming to but what this world truly is and has been since the time of the fall, Pharaoh, Herod, and today. What is this world coming to? My prayer is that it is coming to Jesus and we should remind ourselves that He uses us to proclaim that hope.”
“Amen,” was the only thing heard when he finished.
Neither Bradley nor Barlow was overly religious, and their discomfort of hearing the pastor express his opinion of religious history became evident from how they looked at each other while determining something to say. Similar brief glances at the pastor by the rest of the clergy hinted that they too felt uncomfortable with his account of religion per his faith.
“Thank you pastor, and thank the rest you for coming. I will keep it brief. I have sat in on each of your services, and something concerns me. I know you each have your different beliefs that are inherent to your faith. I am asking you to tone down the competitiveness a bit and focus on the fact that each of you believes in the same God. You are not in competition with one another for church attendance here. We are on this mountain because of religious radicals. We cannot allow or tolerate friction amongst us because of a difference in religious beliefs. It is not the American way, and I do not believe it is God’s way. You are the messengers of God, and I want you also to be my messengers.”
Bradley saw the Catholic priest's smile at his comments and realized how he worded his request.
“And, father. I will kick your holy ass the first time I hear someone calling me God,” he said jokingly. “I meant that I wanted you to share my concerns with your congregation. Please preach that we are a band of brothers, regardless of our faith.”
“Crap! I flubbed that one,” Bradley said to his XO after the clergy left. “At least, they left laughing.”
She laughed. “Well, Colonel, I thought you made an excellent point and a great recovery. I cannot buy into us being here at God’s will. However, the rest went well. You came across rather Godly.”
“Screw you, Barlow. How would you like to be a major again?” They both laughed. “What’s next on our agenda this morning? I would say it is time for donuts and coffee.”
“We have donuts? If you accomplished that — the Godly description sticks. Let’s go — your next appointment is at 1300 hours.” They both glanced at the exterior monitor out of habit while walking out of the Command Center. A few snow flurries showed on the screen. The radiation level remained the same.
Bradley’s afternoon appointments included the veterinarian. Stacey participated in the meeting at Bradley’s request since she worked with the doctor a great deal at the animal kingdom.
“Doctor Lindsay,” Bradley said after the greetings and the parties had settled in for a talk. “I am pleased with what Stacey has told me about your accomplishments with the livestock and other animals. I understand you are training some of the youngsters, which is a gr
eat relief to me and I am sure for the rest of the colony.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I want to share my thoughts on a breeding program. Our priority is maintaining a level of breeding stock commensurate with our needs. We have no present need for additional livestock for food or milk. We must keep the level low to conserve our feed supply; however, we will want to build up our herds quickly once we leave the mountain. I want you and those who succeed you to maintain the best breed lines possible until then. Be sure we always have a male with the best qualities possible and a productive female line to sustain our needs.”
“I understand, sir.”
“How are your skills in the lab? We have some canisters of animal sperm, and I suggest you become an expert in developing test tube reproduction for when the time comes that we want to improve our livestock supply in large quantities.”
“I am sure our library can provide adequate procedures. I will converse with our medical doctors on the subject.”
“Fine. My next concern is the family pets. I repeat — you must control their numbers and like I said previously, maintain a breed line for each species. You need to keep records to avoid inbreeding much like those required to track our human descendants. We must preserve bloodlines. You might want to experiment to get the procedure down pat if the sperm bank includes domestic pets. You must pass your process onto your replacement when the need arises in coming years.”
“Understood, sir.” Doctor Lindsay frowned while digesting the implications of what Bradley said about prevention of inbreeding. “Man, I can see some issues in the future after about the first cousin level.”
Bradley nodded his head affirmatively. “That you do, Doctor. We are seeing a period where our generations to come will have two fathers when the choice of a mate becomes a relative. We will see families made up of a birth father and a biological father sucked out of the sperm bank. How will we wrap our heads around the concept of our forbidding the male gender to produce children? How may we enforce this short of neutering our males? I am joking of course about the neutering, but I am sure that thought will arise. How do we separate incest out of the mating when there are no alternatives for the forming of an ordinary family? Other than doing the chores, the male becomes irrelevant — raising the children of a stranger. What happens to a child born of first cousins? I don’t want even to think about this.”