by Td Barnes
Stacey said nothing, now staring at the rock ceiling the same as her husband.
Bradley shifted gears to tell her why the colony must remain strong militarily. In doing so, he strengthened his resolve about a military-oriented civilian settlement.
“Stace, a good example for answering your question is a recent six-year study of a New World spider where archaeologists found that although colonies comprised of docile individuals fared better in the short term, their passive behavior ultimately did them in. The survey involved the social spider Anclosimus studious, a native of North and South America. This species consolidates their webs into one huge colony web. This spider species have varying dispositions. When two spiders shared a container overnight, docile animals remained beside one another the whole time, whereas aggressive ones attacked one another and moved to opposite corners. The ecologists arranged the spiders into antagonistic pairs, a docile pair, and pairs of one of each class. The studious spider's personalities are heritable, so the docile pair provided almost exclusively docile offspring. The mixed couples produced combinations of docile and aggressive babies. The aggressive spiders produced fewer offspring. That was because of the continuous conflict. In contrast, the predominantly docile colonies ignored intruders and continued to reproduce. The docile colonies grew large, but then the aggressive one begins killing them off to steal their nests and such. At the end of the experiment, only the aggressive spiders survived.
Stacey did not reply. He thought he was protecting her, but she knew her husband well enough to see through his lugubrious story. She also knew that he was right.
“I am glad for this little talk,” Bradley said. He could not bear telling her that neither of them would live long enough to see the colony emerge out of the Stone Age. The best they could do amounted to their preparing the others so they could survive for whatever the future held, not knowing that they would once again be at war with not only Mother Nature but also a new enemy for their survival.
******** Continued in Book 2 of EMP Series ********
The world has for the past two years suffered from a nuclear winter of global magnitude following an EMP attack that lay waste the electric power grids and electronics of much of the world. Ninety percent of the world's population has perished, those surviving being from the underdeveloped countries not targeted by a nuclear exchange that followed.
At the unused Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, a group of survivors briefly venture out of their underground refuge only to face a battle with hostile foreign survivors seeking to take their refuge. An attack from within causes much death and ignites military action.
They find themselves under surveillance by Islamic activists who survived in Central America and are moving into Nevada to take control of the Hoover Dam, which gives the Brotherhood control of the Colorado River and the electricity it generates for the western United States.
Both the activists and the survivors in the mountain realize the jet stream is returning the fallout of the nuclear winter back to the region. Both seek to replenish food and supplies needed to carry them through another siege by the nuclear fallout. The survivors in the mountain repel attacks on the mountain and enter the next phase of nuclear winter prepared to battle the Islamic State and drive them from the region.
Book Three realistically depicts life post World War III. After four years, the EMP and nuclear winter survivors finally emerge from their underground shelter with expectations of resuming a life free of the restrictions imposed by martial law. They continue their battle with Islamic Jihadists commenced shortly before the return of nuclear winter. The main body of survivors relocates to Nellis AFB to begin rebuilding society. The hardships continue with the survivors again driven into shelters from El Nino winds carrying radiation carried aloft by the firestorms raging on the West Coast. The nuclear winter returns early, but not before the outpost at the mountain and base camp at Nellis AFB establishes visual communication. A fast-moving storm carrying lethal radiation levels takes a heavy toll on the mountain survivors.
About the Author
Thornton D. “TD” Barnes, author, and entrepreneur, grew up on a ranch at Dalhart, Texas. He graduated from Mountain View High School in Oklahoma and embarked on a ten-year military career. He served as an Army intelligence specialist in Korea and then continued his education while in the US Army, attending two and a half years of missile and radar electronics by day and college courses at night. Barnes deployed with the first combat Hawk missile battalion during the Soviet Iron Curtain threat before attending the Artillery Officer Candidate School, where an injury ended his military career.
Barnes’s career includes serving as a field engineer at the NASA High Range in Nevada for the X-15, XB-70, lifting bodies and lunar landing vehicles; working on the NERVA project at Jackass Flats, Nevada; and serving in Special Projects at Area 51. Barnes later formed a family oil and gas exploration company, drilling, and producing oil and gas and mining uranium and gold.
Barnes currently serves as the CEO of Startel, Inc., a landowner, and is actively mining landscape rock and gold in Nevada. He serves as the president of Roadrunners Internationale, an association of Area 51 veterans, and is the executive director of the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame.
Two National Geographic Channel documentaries feature Barnes: Area 51 Declassified and CIA—Secrets of Area 51. Numerous documentaries on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel, and others also feature him. The Annie Jacobsen book Area 51 Declassified documents his career.
Barnes lives in Henderson, Nevada.
Connect with the Author Online
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ThorntondBarnes
Blog: td-barnes.com/blog
Website: td-barnes. com
LinkedIn: www. LinkedIn.com/profile/edit?trk=tab_pro
Twitter: twitter.com/ThorntonDBarnes
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Other Books by Author:
Fiction
EMP - Book 1 - Nuclear Winter
EMP - Book 2 - Nuclear Spring
EMP - Book 3 - Nuclear Summer
The Wildcatter
The Senator
The White Hats
Non-fiction
Soaring with the Eagles
The Secret Genesis of Area 51
THE AREA 51 CHRONICLES (The CIA AT AREA 51 1955–1979)
Book 1 - The Angels
Book 2 - The Archangels
Book 3 - The Company Business
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