The Slow Road

by Jerry D. Young

  They decided they were as prepared as financially possible. The only thing they worried about was if the Chinese used chemical or biological weapons. They had no preps for such an event, except the shelter could be sealed, though there was no way to filter anything but fallout out of the air drawn into the shelter.

  But their tension was relieved when FEMA equipped the county field workers with bio/chem suits and respirators. The workers were able to get the items for their families at greatly reduced cost and Jasper jumped on the chance to equip the family. The children were still too small to use masks, but the discount was good for the child protection packages the company that supplied the adult materials had available.

  One of the rationing surprises was the restriction of diesel use to critical uses such as agricultural and trucking operations. The use of diesel in private vehicles was prohibited. There was a huge outcry, for even the farmers were not allowed to use their private vehicles if they ran on diesel.

  Only necessary agricultural, commercial, governmental, and industrial vehicles were allowed to obtain diesel. Only for trucking was the usage not also rationed. However, any truck found idling for more than ten minutes in temperatures higher than 32º F. the driver was fined for a first offense and had his or her license pulled for a second offense.

  Even bio-diesel was controlled. All producers, even private ones, were required to turn in all the fuel they produced, for government use, and were paid what was actually an attractive rate, even though it was under regular diesel prices. It was used almost exclusively by the local regulating agency in their diesel vehicles.

  Jasper said a little prayer of thanks. He’d considered putting diesel engines in the pickup and the Suburban, but had opted for gasoline engines because of the initial expense. Plus he was a good jack-leg gasoline engine mechanic. He didn’t have any diesel experience at all at the time.

  Millie and Jasper talked things over, several times, for long times, about Jasper trying to enlist in one of the military services. He felt the draw to help defend the country.

  Millie was supportive, to a degree, but she was worried about being able to take care of everything on her own. Even if Jasper used his service pay to hire help for Millie, they would be significantly worse off than if Jasper stayed home.

  It turned out to be a moot point. In talking casually to one of the local recruiters, just to get some information, Jasper found out that he wouldn’t be able to pass any of the service medical exams, due to the extent of his injuries. Though he was able to work the somewhat physically demanding county job, at his age, the recruiter told him, none of the services would take him. Many county jobs were considered part of the strategic structure of the US. Road maintenance was one of those. It was the reason Jasper had been able to get the bio/chem. protective clothing. To Millie’s lasting relief Jasper gave up on the idea of military service.

  Jasper Junior and Millicent turned nine, but were already at the fifth grade schooling level due to Millie and Jasper’s diligent home schooling regimen. Even Darla, a year younger, was comfortable at the fifth grade level classes, having been exposed to most of the schooling her brother and sister had, even while getting her own, lower grade education.

  Going into the sixth grade level, Darla did as well as Junior and little Millie, so Millie just kept them at the same grade level from then on. Unfortunately the local school system did not allow homeschoolers to participate in school extracurricular activities, but Millie and Jasper’s church had many social programs going on in the community and the three children’s social skills educations were not shorted. They also participated in city and county non-school affiliated sports programs.

  With the shortages that began to occur, and the high prices, thievery started to become more common. Greg took a second job as a security guard at one of the local grocery stores. When Jasper asked him about it, a little amazed that he’d been able to pass the drug alcohol screen, Greg admitted he’d quit drinking right after Jasper got hurt, to be able to help out if Jasper or Millie needed him.

  He’d become a regular sight at their church and often stopped at the homestead and rode the rest of the way out to church with Jasper and his family on Sundays.

  Jasper’s north side neighbor died that year of cancer and the house became available. The family wanted to rent out the house to someone that would take care of it. When Jasper told Greg about it he talked to the lady’s family and made a deal to move in for very reasonable rent for the area now.

  Greg still did his regular job at the factory, the part time guard job, and drilling shallow irrigation wells. The call for the wells had really gone up as utility rates had. With food rationing, more and more people were putting in the newly revised Victory Gardens and were willing to pay the modest cost of one of Greg’s wells. He was at least able to continue to get the supplies he needed.

  Jasper began to go with him to help on the wells whenever he could and had a decent side business himself of refurbishing small pumps to sell to Greg’s clients. Millie and Jasper both felt a bit better about having someone they could trust living right next door to help them keep an eye on the place.

  Greg had never been much of a hunter, but after going with Jasper and Alvin a couple of times he started to hunt on his own. He did field dress the game, but always brought it to Millie and Jasper to process for him, giving them half of everything he produced, since he couldn’t use it all. They reciprocated with enough produce from their gardens and orchards for Greg to eat better than he ever had in his life.

  Jasper and Millie officially invited him to use the shelter any time the need might arise. He took them up on the offer a couple of times when tornadoes threatened that year, for the first time in a few years.

  Greg had a tendency to spoil the kids and Millie and Jasper asked him not to be quite as extravagant with them as he was wont to be. He tried, but one would have thought they were his kids if one saw them with him, without Melissa and Jasper around.

  CHAPTER FOUR

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  What had become considered inevitable finally happened. China declared war on the United States with surprise attacks on the ports of Long Beach and Seattle. The ports were taken almost without a shot being fired.

  The Chinese hadn’t used their own massive shipping capability, as long had been predicted. All the troops came from their quarters in container ships registered in just about every country except China. That included a couple of US flagged ships.

  But the second wave was all Chinese shipping. All turning toward one of the two ports from their recorded routes in the Pacific. They were very spread out initially, making it much more difficult than anticipated to sink them.

  The ships had seemingly unlimited supplies of light and medium surface to air missiles in the top layers of the container stacks. Losses of US attack aircraft were heavy. The few US Coast Guard ships stationed on the Pacific that had the capability to destroy ships were quickly taken out by submarine launched torpedoes. Much of the US fleet on the west coast were bottled up in port by lack of fuel were kept there or destroyed by the same subs.

  The same anti-aircraft missile system that was taking out ship attack US aircraft was wreaking havoc on the anti-submarine aircraft the US had on the west coast.

  With the prearranged cooperation of Aztlán separatists, California from San Francisco south was quickly brought under tight control of the Chinese as the US forces were crippled from behind by the activities of the Separatists.

  Chinese troops that had been secretly moved into Northern México over several months poured northward, with active assistance by Méxican Federal Forces. Only the actual military bases in the Southwest US were not over run. They were circled and contained with nearly continuous air and artillery bombardment Chinese air force and artillery units pre-positioned in México that moved northward at high speed on fleets of Méxican semi-trucks.

  Las Vegas was taken over, and the areas of the Southwest south of I-40 to the Texas state li
ne was under Chinese control a month into the battle. Incursions into Texas had been attempted but were viciously repelled by US military and Texas National Guard forces with the enthusiastic assistance of volunteer civilian forces armed with personal weapons, led by officers of the Texas Rangers.

  It never became clear if the attack on the Seattle port was a diversionary attack or the Russians had failed to move in China’s behalf when Seattle was taken. Either way, the Chinese were driven out of the Seattle area with nearly total loss of life to the invaders.

  China called for a ceasefire. They said they had what they wanted and all hostilities would cease if the US gave up the territory already lost. It was implied heavily that the war would go nuclear if the US didn’t agree.

  It amazed literally millions of US citizens and in fact people around the world, that there was anyone at all in China that thought the United States would agree to the demands. China ceased to exist as a nation the following day when the President released the nuclear arsenal to his Generals and Admirals.

  The Chinese managed to get off all their ready mode DF-5A silo based missiles as soon as the launches of American weapons became known, a couple of minutes after the US launched. The rest of the Chinese missile force went from standby to fueling mode. They were launched as each one was ready, an hour or so later. At least those that hadn’t been caught on the ground while fueling. China had done an excellent job of decoying and many of the US weapons hit the decoys, while many of the real sites got their missiles off.

  Perhaps it was what Russia had planned all along. Perhaps they just decided to try to take advantage of the situation. They launched on America as well as on Europe, and threatened the Republics with the same fate if they didn’t come back into the Russian sphere of influence.

  Jasper, Greg, and Alvin were all working when the announcement of the attacks was made. Millie was at home, teaching the children how to bake the bread they ate.

  Power and communications systems went down a few seconds after the announcement. Millie hurried the children into the shelter, just as they had practiced, and got all three of the weapons out of the locked metal case Jasper had made for them in the shelter. And waited.

  Greg nearly had the well finished he was putting in for one of the people in the same community development that he and Jasper lived in. Knowing the importance of water perhaps more than most, he calmly, but quickly finished the job, taking the time needed to work the well the way he always did, before he loaded up and left. He doubted he’d ever get paid for the well, as the home owner was at work and Greg planned to collect that weekend. But there was one more well of water available for the community to use.

  After going home and parking the truck, Greg looked to the northwest. It was much too far to see if Whiteman Airbase and the empty missile silos were getting hit. But it was the area that worried Greg the most. Jasper had told him that they would almost certainly get fallout from the base if it was hit.

  He quickly put on his security guard uniform, just because, strapped on the gun belt and removed his pistol from the lockbox in the bedroom night stand. The pistol went into the holster. Greg gathered up all the food in the house in a couple of garbage bags and went over to Jasper and Millie’s. He tried the house first, but when there was no answer he went around to the shelter.

  Greg knew enough not to rush in the shelter. He stopped and called out. “Millie! Kids! Anybody home?”

  Millie showed up in the doorway with the Ruger 10/22 held in one hand, a look of relief on her face. “Greg! Yes, we’re here.” She looked past him. “Have you… Have you seen Jasper?”

  Greg shook his head. “I wanted to drop off my food and then I was going to go look for him for you.”

  “No, Greg. You need to stay here. Jasper can look after himself. There is too much of a chance you won’t be able to get back.”

  “But Jasper…”

  “Please, Greg. I know Jasper would prefer you to stay. If he wasn’t to make it… Well, you’re family to us. I’d rather have family here than out there,” Millie said with a small head motion toward the outside of the shelter.

  “Okay,” Greg said after a moment’s hesitation. “Just tell me where to put this stuff and what you want me to do.”

  Millie helped Greg put away the groceries and then said, “About all we can do is wait.”

  Greg found it hard to wait and Millie steered him over to where the children were playing a learning game. He joined right in. Millie was free to worry in peace.

  Jasper and his crew were just finishing up some pothole repairs when county dispatch called and told them about the attack announcement. Jasper had a hard time keeping the members of his crew from panicking. All he knew to tell them was to head for city hall after they stopped at the county maintenance shed.

  He barely had the county pickup stopped when the dump truck with the cold patch and tools in it, and the bumper truck both came to sliding halts. The men jumped out and headed to their respective vehicles. The old diesel vehicles the county had, had started right up. The same could not be said for the much newer vehicles the crew members each owned.

  Not a one of them started up and the panic was beginning again. “Get in the back,” Jasper said, never doubting that his truck would start. It violated safety rules for anyone to ride the back of an open vehicle like that, but Jasper decided it was worth getting written up for.

  He dropped each person off in turn, and headed for his own home. He tried several times to contact county dispatch on his handheld radio to tell them what he was doing, but the radio wasn’t working. “EMP probably,” he said aloud. He did see a couple of old model vehicles on the road, but there were far more stopped in the middle of the street, already abandoned.

  Twice Jasper picked up people with children and took them to their homes, or city hall, if they decided to go there, after he mentioned the shelter in the building. Groups of men, or lone men, Jasper carefully avoided on his way home.

  He made it there more than an hour after the announcement. Millie fell into his arms and sobbed a couple of times, but quickly regained her composure. Greg shook Jasper’s hand solemnly. “Thanks, man. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t allowed me to come here.”

  “You would have been fine,” Jasper said. “You could have gone to the city hall shelter.”

  “I’m not sure they would let me in. It’s probably going to be women and children only there. And definitely no guns. I don’t like that.”

  “Well, Greg, since you are here, would you mind helping me outside with a few things before fallout arrives, if it does?”

  “Sure, Jasper you just tell me what you want me to do.”

  The first thing Jasper did was point to the stack of rescued tarps in the garden shed. “I want as much of the garden covered as possible, the raised beds first.”

  “That’ll kill the plants, won’t it?” Greg asked.

  “Nothing to harvest at the moment and if we get fallout I want the ground protected for future planting. It’s worth losing what we might harvest if we don’t get any fallout.”

  Working together efficiently, they threw the old tarps over the raised beds, weighting them down with anything heavy they could find, and then began doing the same thing with the regular garden. Reluctantly they tromped down what they needed to, to get the tarps to lay as flat as possible. When they ran out of tarps, Jasper broke out a partial roll of thin plastic sheet goods and they finished the garden with it, constantly looking skyward for any sign of fallout.

  Millie called them in to a quick lunch made mostly from the items Greg had brought over. Jasper and Greg had just gone back outside to see about finding some way to try to protect the animals. Jasper looked toward the street and saw Alvin pull up and stop. He had his whole family with him in his crew cab truck. The back of the truck was piled high with boxes, and Jasper guessed that the trailer was, as well.

  Alvin had a panicked look on his face as he ran up to Jasper. “Plea
se, Jasper! My family! I don’t know what to do! Just the shelter, please? For my family… I brought food. We have food.”

  “It’s okay, Alvin,” Jasper said. “You and your family are welcome. You… You didn’t bring the horses or dogs, did you?” He looked to see if there was another vehicle pulling a horse trailer but didn’t see one.

  “No. Just us. I knew there wasn’t anything I could do for the animals. I turned them all loose to fend for themselves.”

  “Okay. Well, get your family and bring them to the shelter. I’ll tell Millie.”

  Greg went with Alvin to help usher them past the house and to the shelter while Jasper filled Millie in. Millie never hesitated. She made Alvin’s family as welcome as she had Greg as they came in.

  Alvin was talking intently to Lance, his problem child, at the entrance to the shelter. Jasper wasn’t sure what he was telling the young man, but he hoped whatever it was would keep what Jasper still considered a boy in line. It apparently didn’t help enough to get Lance to help Alvin, Greg, and Jasper unload the pickup bed and trailer. They took everything into the house, the fine ash and dust of initial fallout beginning to arrive on the last trip.

  They ran into the house, dropped the boxes they were carrying, and went to the shelter, pausing just outside the door to dust off thoroughly before they entered the shelter proper. Jasper opened the rabbit hutches and the chicken coop to let the animals out to fend for themselves. They couldn’t take them into the shelter with them. The task done and Greg and Alvin cleaned up, Jasper cleaned himself off.

  Alvin began apologizing to Millie for showing up the way they had. Millie quickly put his mind at ease that it wasn’t a problem and then began working with Alice and the girls, to try to bring them out of their near catatonic state. Alvin began to help and Greg went to Junior, Millie, and Darla and helped keep them occupied so they wouldn’t get scared because of the way the adults were acting.