Unearthly Snowbound

by Waggoner, Robert C.

  The colonel saluted the general and left in a hurry. His aid was outside the door and he told him to follow him to another office where he would give the orders following the direction of the general.

  Tex looked at his watch and it read four thirty in the morning. Only an hour and half had gone by since the meeting with the president. He smiled to himself and stood a little taller knowing that now the military was in command and he was at the top of the ladder. It was times like this that his grandfather told him to take advantage of every opportunity that might come around. He was only fifty six and maybe when this crisis was over, a military dictatorship would be best for the country. Of course he was sworn to follow his commander and chief, but when all was said and done, he would sit at the top and give the orders to maintain control of the people and put into place a system whereby goods and service was under his control.

  In the Oval Office, Hilary was talking to her chief of staff and CIA director Melvin. Hilary was asking what Melvin was doing or going to do to put his department on a footing of gathering information from around the world.

  Melvin said, with downcast eyes and without conviction, “Robert and I had a meeting and we decided to combine our two groups and we would both share the responsibility from the White House. We had a bit of luck as Robert’s son is involved in a four wheel club and his club has been waiting outside the White House most of the night waiting for his father to come out and talk to them. The four wheel drive clubs are proud of their search and rescue efforts of the past and is ready to commit themselves to any cause necessary to be of service to their country. They use a low band frequency C-B radios. As we speak they are strung out from here to upper New York with other four wheel drive clubs alerting them to be ready for any instructions from the FBI.”

  The president’s eyes opened wide and she smiled at him while leaning back in her high back chair. “Wonderful and May god bless those fine folks, she said with confidence returning to her. “Now, maybe we can set up a communication line between the large cities and proceed to try and take care of our citizens the best we can. In the past we have used schools to house disaster victims and of course hospitals have generators, but most likely are running short of fuel. I think we best contact Tex and fill him in on this new development.”

  “Madam President, we already have and Tex is in full motion to establish that very plan you just suggested. Furthermore, Tex is on his way up here now to speak with you. He should be here any moment now”, as a knock was heard at the door.

  Her secretary announced Tex and he walked into the room with authority in his step. The president motioned him to sit down and fill her in on recent developments. Tex told her about the snowmobile factory operation and of course the rescue of thousands being moved to shelters all over the city. The addition of the four wheel drive clubs has greatly increased the likely hood of survival for many of the old and young. He went on to tell her that maybe she should consider moving her location to Colorado. She told him thank you and that she would take it under advisement.

  In the meantime she went on to say, “We must do everything in our power to save as many people as possible. Now is the very time when our people look towards the government for support and I for one intend to give it to them. Americans are survivors and this is only one event we must conquer and return life to live with what nature has given us. If we as a people are ready to be humbled in the face of reality, we must as a group and culture, live alongside others in peace and harmony.”

  About then a knock on the president’s door and her secretary announced that the FBI director wanted to see her. She nodded her head and in walked director Robert with a worried look on his face. He sat down heavily into a chair next to Melvin and the president asked him what was the present situation with him and why he was here. Robert took a deep breath and said, “We have a problem on the docks. Large groups of people are there breaking into the warehouses and stealing what they can to survive. I came to tell Tex that maybe he should send some troops to the area and maintain some order. It would seem our four wheel clubs thought it prudent to check on the dock area and they reported back what I just told you.”

  Tex said, “I’m on it and if you will excuse me Madam President, I will take care of this problem right away.”

  Tex left and Robert squirmed in his chair and the president was very aware that something was on the director’s mind. She asked him, “Robert, what else would you like to tell me?”

  He said with deep concern and through gritted teeth, “I have information that maybe a dirty bomb is somewhere in New York or on its way. One of our people reported that he was standing around a barrel fire near New York City University and overheard an Arab looking guy saying something like New York would get its do regardless of the weather soon. The quote was this: “If you think it's dirty now, wait until tomorrow when real dirt is felt.” My agent stole a motorcycle and headed to Washington to report his findings. As a matter of fact Madam President, he matches the description of the bail jumper we are tracking now.”

  Hilary sat back and rocked in her chair. She was thinking about what a dirty bomb would do in New York in this kind of weather. Her conclusion was that no matter the weather, a bomb of that nature would kill many thousands of people. Where to start looking was on her mind and with the present situation, it would seem impossible to conduct a search and where would a search begin and end? She leaned forward and said to Robert, “Robert, what do you propose to do in these circumstances?”

  Robert moved forward in his chair and said, “As you know Madam President, we have our two bounty hunters on a train as we speak following an Arab who came across the border into Chicago from Canada. Our best estimate, if the train even arrives in New York City, would be sometime later today, if at all. The train has to cross the Catskills from Pennsylvania then down to New York. We do know the train left Chicago, but nothing is known of its progress at this time. What few agents I have on the job are on the way to Grand Central Station to check it out. We are using the four wheel drive clubs for transportation and communication. I’m trying to maintain patience, but it is frustrating to say the least to sit and wait for sketchy information. In addition, my agent reported the guy at the university said he was on his way to see the end of New York and disappeared into the night. My agent tried to follow but the guy got on a motorcycle and my agent lost him.”

  The president thanked him for the report and excused him to return to post for further updates as they came in. After he left, she turned to Rhonda and said, “What do you make of this situation Rhonda?”

  Rhonda mulled the question over and replied with lack of confidence in her voice, “We must take this seriously or we are not doing the job we were hired for.”

  The president laughed and said, “Well put Rhonda and very non committal I must say.”

  Rhonda laughed and hung her head as she knew she’d given a very vague reply. Rhonda said with a concerned look, “I think we should take this seriously and alert Tex to the situation and put him in the loop regarding the assassination attempt and the subsequent flight of the perp.”

  “Now you’re talking. We must put him in the loop and have the train station in New York manned by experts in bombs if at all possible.”

  Rhonda shook her head yes and go up to relay the message to Tex as the phones didn’t work some of the time and from her mouth would be the best line of communication from the president.

  Back in the train, Adell told Greg she had no feeling in her feet. She had been leaning against Greg and her feet were alongside her facing the side of the train. Greg asked to turn so her feet were in his lap and checked them out. They were ice cold and he removed her socks and looked at them. Adel, being a nurse, saw right away how blue they were and that they were frost bitten. She realized gangrene would be coming and she would lose some toes at the very least. Greg tried to massage some blood into her feet but it only caused her pain as tears ran down her face. “Greg, what am I going t
o do? I have to work and if I lose my toes or feet, what will become of me,” she said through sobs of tears and finally hiccups.

  Greg felt pity for Adell as she was so much like his wife and about the same age. He wrapped her feet with some extra clothing and rubbed her calves to keep the blood moving. Greg looked up as Bubba came down the aisle and gave him the high sign to talk privately.

  Chapter 7

  Greg followed Bubba to the back of the train to the conductor’s car. They found the conductor and his staff very quiet and the actor fast asleep. Bubba turned and said to Greg, “I saw something strange and thought you ought to know about it. The Arab guy across the aisle from Chuck and it's somewhat strange that I saw him pull something out of his pocket and it flashed red and then he stuck it back into his pocket. He didn’t see me watching and his seat-mate was asleep. I told huck about it and he agreed with me to inform you. What do you make of it Greg?”

  Greg thought about it and replied with deep concern on his face, “Bubba I think we have a problem and it would behoove us to not say anything to anyone at this time. We might have a terrorist on board and if so, we need to figure a way to search him and see what is in his pocket.”

  Bubba nodded in agreement and said, “I will change places with Chuck and when the guy gets up, I will jump him when his hand is out of his pocket. Chuck said he was going to make his way to the engine and check out the situation. I told him it would be dangerous trying to reach the engine, but he said he knew how to do it without a lot of danger. You know the old guy is really sharp and I would feel better if he were the engineer and not the guys we have up there now.”

  Greg told him he knew what he was saying but as long as they were still moving forward, that indeed was a good sign. “Let’s go back and pretend we were checking out the progress with the conductor and take our seats again like nothing was amiss.”

  Entering their car, walking back to his seat, one of the bounty hunters looked at him with one eye as he passed by. He noticed a very different kind of look in her eye and something struck him as she was not what she portrayed. His mind was churning as he sat down smiling at Adell. She asked him if everything was all right and told her they went to see how the conductor was doing and if there were any problems that might come up with the accent of the train into the mountains. Adell accepted his statement and leaned again on his shoulder and fell back asleep. Greg tried to close his eyes, but sleep would not come. His vision was on a train headed up into the mountains with little chance of coming back down the other side. Greg guessed at the rate of speed they were going, another two hours would be about right to top the pass. He looked at his watch and it was four thirty am.

  Bubba leaned over and whispered into Chucks’ ear and told him he and Greg’s plan to jump the guy when he got up to take a leak or something like that. Chuck said he would leave now and head to the engine and to see what the pass was like from upfront. Chuck left and Bubba took the aisle seat.

  Chuck left the front car and climbed onto the engine. The newer engines had a safety rail around the sides leading to the engineer's cabin. The old pro that he was, Chuck made the trip in no time despite the howling wind and darkness. By the time he reached the door, he was out of breath from the cold air. He had his hands in front of his face, but the air was so cold he was having trouble breathing. He felt his chest tighten up and thought he might have a heart attack. He banged on the door and tried to open it but it was stuck. The engineer heard the banging and came to the door and pushed it open for Chuck. Once inside Chuck gave a gasping sound and his nose thawed out from the warm interior of the cabin. The engineer pounded him on the back and kept asking him if he was ok. Chuck couldn’t talk yet and wished the guy would stop hitting him on the back. Finally Chuck stood up straight and moved away a little from the engineers pounding.

  Chuck, now back to almost normal asked, “What is our progress and what does it look like up ahead for us?”

  The engineer replied with a scared look on his face, “I have no idea what is up ahead, we are just following the snow engine at this point.”

  Chuck nodded his head and looked out the side window at white out conditions. He could see nothing but flying snow and a dark shape in front of him which was the snow engine. His breath immediately froze the side window up and he used his sleeve of his down coat to wipe it off. Never in his life had he seen such conditions. You could see nothing but snow reflecting off the lights of the train in the darkness. He asked the engineer if he had any idea how long before they reached the summit.

  The engineer said, “Well, I would say at this rate we could be at the summit in about two hours.”

  Chuck figured that almost fifteen hours had passed since they left Chicago. At the present rate it would take another fifteen hours to New York if all stayed the same.

  In Greg’s house his wife Becky was doing everything she knew of to keep herself and the children warm. Lucky for her they had a fireplace and she had driven to the store in her SUV and bought ten sacks of barbeque briquettes. After that she went into the garage and from Greg’s stored pieces of lumber and plywood, she built an enclosure of sorts in front of the fireplace. She closed the damper only enough to let the smoke out and with sleeping bags and blankets they lived next to the warmth of the fire. She cursed the electricity as her whole house ran on it. She wished for natural gas in the worst way. Well, she said to her daughter, “I will just have to make the best of it. This weather can’t last forever.”

  They had enough can goods and dry cereal to last them for weeks if necessary. Water was thawed from the snow in front of the fireplace. She thought that most of her neighbors and maybe across the east people were doing much the same thing to survive. Also she knew Greg would come to them when he could. She had no doubt about him returning to his family.

  Meanwhile Greg was just waking up from a short sleep as Adell was almost on top of him. He moved a little and she woke up and pulled away saying she was sorry to have bothered him. He said, “Adell, we are in this together and don’t apologize for trying to stay warm. Let me look at your feet and rub some circulation in your legs.”

  She placed her feet in his lap and groaned with pain when he pulled off the three pair of socks she had on. The toes had turned black now and Adell realized she would lose her toes to frostbite. Now they had to make sure it didn’t go any further. Greg rubbed her legs and worked his way down to her feet. He then opened his coat and shirts and placed her feet next to his belly. The shock of her frozen feet sent a wave of cold up and down his body. Greg knew most of the other passengers were probably having the same problems and especially the older folks. He felt frustrated because there was nothing he could do for them. His feet were cold too, but he was up walking more than the rest so it kept the circulation moving. He looked at his watch and saw it was almost six am. It was still dark out and the train was still moving ahead slowly.

  Greg looked up towards the front to see what Bubba was doing and saw that he had his head laid back and appeared to be sleeping. He saw that the Arab guy was still in the same place next to the side of the train and it didn’t look he had moved since Greg fell asleep. Greg stood up after he took Adell's feet out and wrapped them back up to keep them as warm as possible. He walked up the aisle to see if Bubba was awake and sure enough Bubba opened his eyes when Greg approached. Greg thought that Bubba had a keen sense of hearing and awareness. Greg was glad he was part of the team and knew he could count on him in a pinch. Greg said loud enough to be heard,

  “Bubba walk with me back to the end car and let’s check with the conductor about how things are going.”

  Bubba stood up and they walked back to the last car on the train. Greg was looking at the people in each car as they walked back and felt pity and anger looking at the kids and old people barely alive it would seem.

  Entering the conductor’s car, Greg noticed that Chuck was talking to the conductor about his trip to the front of the train. Greg listened to his report and ask
ed Chuck, “Could you give me a brief repeat of your trip please?”

  Chuck went on the repeat what he heard and saw while on his trip. He told Greg and Bubba that the engineer was scared as hell and had no idea where they were in relationship to the mountain pass. The best he could figure was that maybe they were, as he looked at his watch, maybe somewhere close to the summit about now. Slides were mostly just blowing snow up against something in the path, but were of no problem with the progress of the train.

  Just then the train came to a halt. It moved back a few feet and then stopped dead. Greg and the others were thrown around a little but quickly regained their balance as no one said a word only looked at each other. The actor, who was listening to the conversation, started asking a question that no one had answers to. Greg told him to shut up and be quiet. Chuck was the first one to say something. He said, “Well it looks like we are in some sort of trouble here and we best go up front and have a look-see.”

  Chuck started for the door and Greg, Bubba and the conductor followed him to the front of the train. Passing through the cars, people who just before looked like frozen Eskimos, now were talking a mile a minute firing questions at them as they passed through the cars. Greg felt sorry for them, but he didn’t have any answers either.

  Chuck and Greg, with Bubba following made their way to the engine cabin. The engineer let them in and told them the generator had stopped because they were out of fuel. All except the engineer stood there with their mouths open in disbelief. Greg was the first to comment: “Why would we run out of fuel. We have only been traveling for; let’s see, about twenty plus hours.”