While the Ross family crisis was playing out in the street Skyler and her grandfather were in the kitchen finishing up packing provisions and last minute items they might need into their Delta Team issued rucksacks.
“Got everything, angel?”
Skyler took a long last look around the kitchen. This kitchen held so many memories for her — she could vividly recall her mom, Jeannie, standing at that stove, making dinner for her, Bryce and Grampa. The old school radio and the chrome and Formica table it sat on had both been a part of her mealtime routine for as long as she could remember.
She glanced up at the wall of photos, awards and achievement certificates that was directly across from the kitchen table. The wall told the story of her family. There were photos of Grampa shaking hands with political and military dignitaries; a framed display case with his various medals and ribbons from his years in the service with a set of dog tags hanging on a hook alongside of it. There were some photos of Skyler in her cheer leading days, all pompons and saddle shoes all the time. Be Aggressive. B-E Aggressive! And of course there were more than a few framed newspaper articles about Bryce and his exemplary service record.
Nestled amidst these family treasures was an old picture of Jeannie, Grampa, Bryce and Skyler stuck in the corner of another framed photo. These were happier times. Jeannie hadn’t yet told her children how sick she was when this photo was taken. The kids were all smiles.
Skyler walked over to the wall and gently pulled the photo out from the frame. She looked toward her grandfather who nodded approvingly.
“Good catch, darlin’.”
Skyler placed the photo in the front pocket of her rucksack and reached back for her grandfather's dog tags. She lifted them from their hook and dropped them into the rucksack with the photo. She then zipped both safely inside.
“That’s everything for me. Should we grab the radio, Grampa?”
Everett shook his head and grinned at his granddaughter. “Nah, we have another one just like it in the bunker.”
She looked at her grandfather and laughed. "Of course we do."
Skyler had never been in the bunker before. She had only recently learned that it existed. When Everett finally did tell her about it she really wasn’t that surprised. Sure, she was a bit taken aback that it existed in the back yard of the home she’d grown up in, but not surprised about it’s existence — that her grandfather had been so well prepared was something she took for granted. He was a force of nature — her protector, her mentor, her shoulder to cry on. As far as she was concerned, "hero" was an inadequate word to use to describe Everett Campbell.
“Then I guess we’re all set, darlin'."
He headed out the back door and Skyler followed. As soon as the door opened, the din of the neighborhood in chaos engulfed them. Car horns, children crying, adults screaming, tires screeching — a symphony of panic and confusion.
She took a good look around the yard she had played in as a child. Memories of family picnics with her mom, tossing a baseball around with her grandfather, playing extreme dodge ball with Bryce — all of these things happened right here. And in just a while, she thought, “right here” may be gone forever.
“Where to?” She asked her grandfather, her voiced raised so he could hear her over all the noise.
He nodded toward the 12X12 garden shed in the back corner of the yard. “There.”
“Really?” She shook her head, incredulously. “I can’t –“ Skyler was interrupted by the sound of
GUNSHOTS. Without hesitation Skyler and Everett ran toward the street.
Dick Ross had not gotten as far as he’d wanted driving up and over people’s lawns. This was made quite clear by the crumpled front end of his mini van. The culprit was a mailbox on a cement pole that didn’t budge when he tried to run it over. Dick was beyond infuriated. Despite the counting and his breathing exercises he was knee deep in one of his episodes. Some may have called it meltdown. Whatever you wanted to call it, it was bad. Karen and Alissa stood huddled together alongside the vehicle, both in shock.
All of the previous neighborhood chaos had ceased. Everyone on the block was frozen in fear, their attention squarely on Dick, who was in the process of trying to car jack the Garcia family at gunpoint.
Father Donnelly, bless his heart, was doing his best to talk Dick down.
“Son, please, put the gun down. These are trying times and we can’t — “
“Shut the hell up padre!” Dick sneered and turned his attention back to the Garcias. “Garcia, get your asses out of the vehicle, now.”
Mr. Garcia, his wife and two children were absolutely petrified. Through his slightly opened driver side window he tried to reason with Dick.
“Look, my friend, we all want to get out of here safely with our families. Just calm down, maybe we can — “
Mr. Garcia didn’t get the opportunity to finish his sentence. Dick used the barrel of the gun to shatter the driver's side window of the Garcia’s car and then quickly relocated its tip to Mr. Garcia’s temple.
“I’m not your God damned friend.” He cocked the gun and his finger gripped the trigger. Dick had no qualms about shooting his neighbor.
A fierce and low growl grabbed his attention. Buddy had made his way to the scene and was approaching Dick with his ears back and his teeth bared.
“Stupid dog.” Dick leveled the gun at Buddy and without hesitation pulled the trigger.
Dick had seen neither Skyler nor her grandfather making their way towards him, weaving in and out of cars, staying low, trying to keep out of his peripheral vision. Because of this, Skyler Campbell’s flying tackle seemingly came out of nowhere. She attacked his center of gravity and took Dick down just as he shot the gun. Buddy was spared as the bullet ricocheted off the roadway and into one of the mini van’s tires with a loud POP.
With Dick on the ground stunned, Skyler expertly disarmed him and tossed his gun to her grandfather. She then flipped him over on his stomach, grabbed his wrist and bent it back, the pain so great he dared not move.
Skyler looked toward her grandfather, smiling. “How’d I do?”
“Ten out of ten, darlin’.”
“Yes!” she exclaimed proudly and pumped her fist. “All that training has finally paid off.”
Dick was not amused by the exchange. “Who in the hell are you people? What’s wrong with you? I demand you let me go. I’m just trying to get out of here with my family.”
Skyler bent Dick’s wrist back a little more, which elicited a high pitched scream from her prisoner.
“I think they’re going to have to go on ahead without you,” she hissed in his ear.
Skyler looked toward her grandfather and nodded toward her rucksack. Everett rifled through the bag and came out with two large plastic utility ties. He approached them and used one tie around Dick’s ankles and one tie around his wrists. Once he was secured Skyler stood up next to Everett, her foot firmly on his back.
“Someone help me!” Dick begged the neighbors in the street. No one dared move or speak, however. The scene unfolding in front of them had them all riveted. With no rescuers in sight Dick moved his attention to Alissa, who was still standing near the mini van, frozen in fear. “Alissa honey, come help Daddy. Don’t you love me?”
“Shut up.” Skyler was not interested in hearing his pleas. She shoved him in the back with her boot, hard.
“Bitch who do you think you are?” Dick screamed. “Untie me immediately! This is kidnapping! Someone make a citizen's arrest!”
Skyler looked down at Dick and tilted her head slightly. “Hmmm. Duct tape.”
“What?!” Now Dick was confused.
Everett once again rooted around in Skyler’s rucksack, this time producing a roll of duct tape.
“No, no, no, no, no! You can’t do this to me.”
Everett tossed duct tape to his granddaughter. Skyler extended a long piece from the roll and ripped it with her teeth. She then leaned down to Dick and affixed the tape
across his mouth.
“Much better,” she said, satisfied.
Everett and Skyler both turned their attention to Karen and Alissa. Buddy the pit bull had re-positioned himself next to the child, putting himself between her and Dick.
Everett addressed the still motionless crowd on the street. “Anyone have room in their vehicle for this woman and her daughter?”
Most of the neighborhood had already packed their cars to the gills with their personal effects. There was a lot of head shaking around the scene. Further down the road a young man stepped out of his old beat up AMC Pacer and shouted, “I have room in my back seat, sir. But only for the mom and the little girl. I can’t fit the dog. Sorry.”
“What’s your name, son?” Everett shouted back.
“Jack,” he answered.
“Well, Jack, that’s mighty nice of you. Can you tell me where you’re headed?”
“New York City, figured I’d ride this out in the subway tunnels.”
Everett shook his head. “You’ll never make it that far.”
Upon hearing Everett's proclamation the crowd in the street started murmuring. Clearly a lot of the neighborhood had a similar plan.
“I want you to head to the airport, get to the underground parking levels. Close the storm gates tight and stay there for two weeks. You understand me, Jack?” Everett Campbell was not a man to be second-guessed.
“Yes, sir.”
Everett turned toward Karen and Alissa and swept his arm in the direction of Jack and his Pacer. “Ladies.”
Karen nodded and turned back to Buddy. “You stay here Buddy.”
“Don’t worry,” Skyler assured her. “We’ll take good care of him for you.”
Alissa walked up to Skyler, tugged on her pant leg and said, “He likes to get his belly rubbed.”
“Who doesn’t?” she smiled down at the little girl and winked.
As a thank you, Alissa offered her lollipop to Skyler. She was never a huge fan of children — you can thank babysitting the Chu's kids for that — but she was genuinely touched by the little girl's gesture and reached her hand out to accept the "gift." Before she could grab it by the stick, however, Alissa put the wet gooey end into the palm of Skyler's hand. Everett stifled a laugh while she tried to dislodge the sticky candy from her palm. She was not amused.
Alissa and Karen made their way toward Jack and his Pacer while the rest of the neighborhood watched on. Once they were all in the car and settled, Jack made a K turn in the street, and drove out of the neighborhood and toward the airport. Many other neighbors decided to heed Everett’s advice and followed.
After they were out of sight Skyler gestured toward Dick and asked Everett, “What do we do with him?”
“Leave him, angel. He’ll be alright. Cockroaches always find a way to survive.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Skyler and Everett picked up their rucksacks and headed toward their back yard. After a few steps Skyler stopped and turned toward the pit bull who was still sitting near the mini-van, unsure of his fate.
“Come on Buddy, here boy.”
Buddy's ears and tail perked up as he trotted happily toward Skyler and her grandfather. As he passed Dick — who was still on the ground, furious and humiliated — he slowed and then came to a complete stop. The dog's demeanor changed and he began to growl as he approached his former owner. From Dick's perspective the large pit bull seemed even bigger than ever. He started to panic and struggle, certain that the dog was about to attack him.
Instead of attacking him, Buddy walked up to Dick, lifted his leg and relieved himself all over Dick's head. He then ran and caught up with Skyler and her grandfather. Ears and tail perked up once again.
“I really like this dog,” Skyler informed Everett.
Once their backs were turned away from the scene on the street, Father Donnelly warily approached Dick.
THREE
As they headed once more for the back yard Skyler thought out loud.
“I guess we could have let that lady and her kid come with us.”
“Well darlin’,” Everett answered. “If we let them come with us, they’d all want to come with us and we don’t have that kind of room. Picking and choosing whose life you save is difficult business.”
“Like The Shelter.” Skyler mused.
“Hmm?” Everett was not sure what his granddaughter was trying to say.
“That old Twilight Zone episode with the bunker. It doesn’t end very well,” she explained.
Everett recognized the reference and shook his head. “No, it doesn’t.”
They walked on in silence for a minute and then Everett tried to lighten the mood a bit.
“Plus I just can’t see you holed up with a little kid for any amount of time.”
Skyler laughed and looked down at her hand, searching for any last lollipop remnants. She glanced behind her at Buddy who was happily following them into the back yard. “I do get along much better with dogs.”
From a distance their shed looked like every other ordinary garden shed. It sat in the back corner of the yard surrounded by pine trees and bushes. Skyler had grown up with that precise shed in that precise location her entire life. Occasionally she’d gone in there to get something for her mother, a hose or a watering can, but she’d never paid it much attention. Almost everyone on the block had one just like it in their back yard. In her opinion it was unremarkable in every way and had not given her any reason to question its purpose. Until now.
As she approached it with her grandfather, for what would most likely be the last time, she gave the shed another look, with fresh eyes.
The first thing she noticed was the roof. What she had always assumed was a metal roof was, in fact, solar panels. Nestled behind some taller trees and shrubs she could now see cement poles. Her gaze followed one of the poles up at least 20 feet. It had various miniature satellite dishes and antennae attached to it. Another pole had surveillance cameras encased in what looked to be bullet proof glass. Another large reinforced steel tube jutted out of the ground.
“What’s that?” Skyler asked, pointing to the tube.
“Fresh air intake for the bunker.”
“Has that always been there? Has all of this always been there?” She could not believe that she had never noticed any of the things around the shed before.
“Not all of it. I've added more things here and there, as the technology became available. The thick brush and evergreens go a long way in hiding this stuff, though. When you were little you just got used to seeing the shed and never noticed any thing else. When you got older you were busy with friends, boys, school, training — it’s been a while since you’ve spent any time back here, angel.”
Her grandfather was right, of course. Skyler actually could not remember when she had last spent time playing in the back yard. Was it possible the family photo she took down and placed in her rucksack was the last time she’d actually played? After all, it wasn’t long after that photo was taken, that they learned of her mother’s cancer. Things changed quite a bit that summer.
“Can you grab the flashlights while I unlock the door?” Everett set down his rucksack and reached above the door for the key to the padlocked entry while Skyler rummaged the bags for their Maglites.
After a short struggle with the old padlock, Everett pushed the shed door open with a creak. Skyler looked through the doorway hoping to see something she’d missed as a child, but there were just the every day gardening supplies and tools you would fully expect to find hanging on the walls.
On the floor, however, was a ratty old indoor/outdoor rug that she had never paid much attention to. It was so dirty in fact, she’d never even considered touching it, much less lifting it up to see if it concealed any secret passage ways to cold war era bunkers.
“That rug —” Skyler observed as she handed her grandfather a flashlight.
“It’s been there for years. Come on in so I can shut the door.”
Sk
yler crossed through the doorway and Everett shut it and padlocked it from the inside. With flashlight in hand he pulled aside the rug, revealing a hatch door she never knew existed.
Everett reached down and grabbed the recessed ring pull to open the hatch door. In the darkness of the sealed garden shed the open hatch revealed little. Skyler shined her flashlight into its entrance, the beam exposed cinder block walls on either side of a metal staircase.
“Ladies first,” he said, indicating she should head down the steps.
Skyler looked back at the dog who was waiting anxiously for their next move. “Come on Buddy, let’s go.” They both headed down the steps, she more cautiously than he.
Everett took one last look around the small shed. It had been here longer than he had, built by his CO once the bunker had been nearly finished. He knew there was no chance it would survive whatever 'XF11 would bring. Not much will, I suppose, he thought to himself and headed down the stairwell, shutting the hatch and replacing the rug on his way down.
A few minutes later and they were still making their way down set after set of stairs. She was surprised at how many steps there were.
“How far down are we actually going?” she asked.
“About a hundred feet.”
Skyler whistled. “Wow, I can’t believe I had no idea this was here. Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“I guess I was hopin’ we’d never need to use it,” Everett answered. “Didn’t want to scare you with the possibilities.”
She nodded in the dark. “Do you think we’ll survive in here?”
“Darlin’, this old bunker was designed and built during the Cold War. If anyone has a chance of surviving this thing, it’s us.”
“And what about after? What do we do then?”
“After? After we’ll head west to Austin and meet up with Bryce.”
"And then?" she pressed.
"And then we'll set about doin' whatever it is that's needed to get this country up and running again."
Plagued (Book 1): The Girl Who Chased The Shadows Page 2