Apocalypse Coming

by William Dunaway

  Most importantly, it was imperative that I made sure that morale stayed as high as possible, no matter what the circumstances were. Morale is the key to any survival situation. We couldn’t let our worries and fear overwhelm us.

  Wit and Red finished eating while we all listened to the radio and found a news report on the shortwave, from what sounded like a British news station. They were reporting that they had unconfirmed reports that the United States was under attack and that no communications were coming out of America or Canada. They stated that they had received communications out of Mexico City but only that the northern half of Mexico was without power of any kind.

  They had made contact with state officials of both Hawaii and Alaska, which confirmed that no communications were coming from the mainland. They continued with speculation on what had happened.

  “I knew it was an EMP,” I stated.

  “That’s the name of it! I suspected that’s what it was, but I couldn’t remember what it was called.” Wit shouted out.

  “Well, what kind of attack are they talking about? Are we being invaded or what?” Mo asked with frustration.

  “Well, we know that one nuke was involved. Whoever did it obviously used a nuke as the EMP, but like Mike said, if it was a full out nuclear attack, they would have hit Whiteman by now trying to knock out the bombers. We would have seen it from here.”

  Angela immediately started crying again, and Mo went over to her to try and comfort her.

  We all sat there stunned with the realization that what we suspected was true.

  We then all started talking about our families and friends and how worried everyone was. Angela was the most upset, worrying about her brother and mother. Angela’s mom lived in a bayou in southern Louisiana. She was a country woman and knew more about living off the land than many. Mo did his best to convince her that she would be able to survive better than most and reminded her that she didn’t live anywhere near a large city.

  Angela didn’t have a clue where her brother presently was. He was someplace involved with the Urban Warriors.

  Red had married an Australian woman. While he was attending the planned reunion, his wife and children used the opportunity to visit her family in Australia. They had been down there for a week before everything started happening.

  Wit had married, but she couldn’t handle the military life, and they divorced seven years later. They didn’t have children, and he never did remarry.

  Tag had been married, but his wife died of cancer two years earlier.

  MO’s mother and father had been dead for five years, and his younger brother and family lived in Japan, working for a technology company.

  For me, my parents died several years back, but I worried about my two sisters and their families. One sister lives in Neosho, Missouri and I had no idea where my other sister lived as we hadn’t got along for years. Then there was Paul, what would happen to him?

  “Guys, before we go to bed, I need your help. Since apparently, we aren’t going to have running water, we do have the old well system set up as a backup. The only problem is our pump is set up for 220 volts. Until I can figure out how to connect my generator to the 220, we’ll have to bring water up from the well that’s out in the field. I do have 30 gallons of water with our emergency food storage. I could use some help bringing it in.”

  After we had brought in the water, I grabbed a propane lantern from the storage and took Wit and Red out to the trailer that we borrowed from Blake.

  Mo picked up Lulu, and the three of them went out to their bus.

  Mike, being used to working nights, said he’d stay up and listen for any news on the shortwave. Tag decided to stay up and listen with him.

  Kim and I climbed into bed, and Kim commented, “I’m worried about mom, my brothers and sisters, and Phil and Anna and what about Mia and Carmen?”

  “I know. I’m worried about Paul. But right now, we can’t do anything. Your mom has your brothers and sister to help her out. Where they live, no one is going to bother them for a long while. Sharon has their daughter’s farm to go to.”

  “I know but how are they going to get there? I mean, what are they going to do, walk?”

  “Your brother Bruce will figure out a way. He has the skills to come up with transportation.

  Phil and Anna are only fifty miles from here. We may be able to go look for them. We’ll just have to see what happens,” I said trying to reassure her.

  After a pause, Kim asked, “Now, what about Mia and Carmen?”

  “I don’t know. I wish I knew if they took off. Not knowing anything is driving me crazy. But Mia’s plane is a 1964, and it has no modern electronics, so it should keep on flying. If I’m right, even if they haven’t taken off, if they got the fuel, they should be able to. I just don’t know.”

  I could hear that she was starting to cry. I pulled her into my arms, “Remember what you said? We just need to have faith.”

  “I know, I know. But so much has happened in just a few days. I guess the reality of it all is just starting to hit me. It’s one thing to know what’s going on and another thing to actually live it.”

  “Come on. It has been a long time since we’ve said a prayer together.”

  We got down on our knees, holding hands and prayed.

  I’m sure before we all of us went to sleep, we had our own private conversations, trying to understand the hell that was coming upon us.

  Moscow, Russia

  When Victor Pulinav became the President of Russia, he swore that he would reunite the old Soviet Union, even if he had to use military force.

  At the time, President Stone was the American President and Pulinav knew that Stone would not allow that to happen.

  He also knew that Russia could not win a war against the United States. He knew he didn’t have to worry about Europe, as Russia was their primary source of oil supply. Yes, they would bark, but he knew they wouldn’t do anything that would jeopardize their oil supply.

  So, if he could figure out a way to cripple the U.S., where we couldn’t confront Russia, then he could fulfill his dream.

  Within six months, he ordered Russia’s top scientists to come up with a way to do that. They finally came up with the ultimate weapon; a super-EMP that would disable the American’s power grid.

  Still, that wasn’t enough. He was sure that America had protected their nuclear arsenal against such an attack.

  They also had to find a way to eliminate the retaliation from the American military as well. That’s when they finally came up with an ELV that could deliver their super EMP and a SRBM or short-range ballistic missile which has a range of 1000 kilometers or 620 miles or less.

  Just launching such a weapon conventionally would be detected, which would cause a possible nuclear response. In no way would he take such a risk.

  Pulinav was a master chess player, and that’s how he played the game of politics. He needed time to make his moves. Then 9-11 happened. America had been attacked. He considered it a godsend, as now the Americans would be distracted. He could now start making his moves. Deployment of his new weapon was shelved.

  Seven years later, the United States had elected Ronald Prescott. Another godsend.

  As President, the first significant trip Prescott made was to travel overseas to several countries apologizing for American interference in world affairs during its history. He also declared that he was going to transform America into just another peaceful nation in the world’s family of nations.

  Pulinav laughed at how gullible the American people were. They elected a President with no real experience, just because he had a slogan of, “We’ll overcome.”

  Pulinav wrote in his journal, “The American people are so naïve and ignorant. After seven years in office, Prescott has stripped the United States of their military might. He has crippled the American economy, and he has betrayed their allies and emboldened their enemies.

  Now, he has given us a wide-open door to complete my destin
y of reforming my beloved Soviet Union.”

  When Prescott folded to the Iranians and gave Iran everything they demanded just so he could claim he made a nuclear treaty with them, he gave Pulinav the perfect opportunity to eliminate any threat from America.

  He would use the Iranians for the delivery of his new weapon, and it would be with the blessings of the current administration of the U.S.

  They had provided the Iranians with the weapon and even launch it for them. But it would be Iran that would be deploying and detonating the weapon. The perfect cover.

  Prescott had stripped the American space program of their funds. America had turned much of the satellite surveillance over to the United Nations, so they may not even see it coming.

  September was a month of sorrow for Pulinav. Much of his beloved Soviet Union took its final steps towards total collapse during the month of September, 24 years earlier. His goal was to have his biggest adversary almost defenseless within the next 30 days, so when September arrived, it would be a month of celebration for the Russian people.

  On July 28th, with the help of Russian advisors, Iran deployed a Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) into orbit 298 miles above the United States. It was carrying a payload of two weapons. A five-megaton nuclear missile which would be launched upon command.

  The other was a 20-megaton nuclear warhead attached to the FOBS. It wasn’t built to be launched but to detonate in orbit.

  When General Baraz gave the command, the five-megaton nuclear missile was launched. The target was Washington, D.C. At 3500 feet above ground level, the warhead exploded directly between the White House, the Pentagon and the Capitol Building engulfing the entire area. Everyone inside the structures was killed, and many evaporated. All three branches of our federal government were gone. Being launched from orbit directly above Washington, D.C., there was no advanced warning or time to react.

  Minutes later, the 20-megaton warhead exploded 298 miles above the heart of Kansas, causing an EMP effect that burned out all unprotected electronic circuitry across the mainland of the United States, three-quarters of Canada and two-thirds of Mexico. With the Super-EMP effect, there was no more electrical grid, no phones and water wasn’t being pumped. Those that had a supply of insulin at home would soon die because without refrigeration; the insulin would go bad quickly. Most vehicles and machinery that was built from about 1980 on, no longer worked. Most of the commercial farms that supplied food to us and many parts of the world would not be able to operate and didn’t have a way to transport the crops they had in storage.

  Within a matter of seconds, most of North America was sent back to the 1800’s.

  This also meant that wildfires out west couldn’t be fought. Firefighters couldn’t put out house fires. Cities that were already burning due to the riots would continue to burn and spread to residential areas.

  In the large cities, grocery stores had already been looted and shut down. Now, even in the country stores, food would no longer arrive.

  It was Jerome Jackson, The Urban Warriors, and Socialists United that turned our major cities into burning war zones. Due to extreme drought and ill-placed environmental rules, California is burning with wildfires. Due to the basic collapse of the economy, there were massive layoffs, shortage of fuel, and empty grocery stores.

  Now everyone is on their own, trying to survive without any modern conveniences or a federal government to assist them. Many without food and a clean water source. The state governments were still in place. But without power, without transportation and the assets available, most would be of little help.

  Most people didn’t prepare. Only a few had stored up food for an emergency. Our currency became worthless and is now just paper to use to start fires.

  The rich and poor, for the most part, are all the same. No electricity, no running water, no transportation, or phones.

  There is no more police protection. No firefighters or EMS workers that will arrive at your door. Patients in hospitals and care centers that were hooked up to life support immediately started dying.

  People who needed daily medication could no longer run to their pharmacy to buy it. Hospitals soon ran out of supplies. Soon the smell of the dead was in the air in all the major cities.

  Those that depended on the federal government most, suffered the most.

  Back in the 1800’s, most people stayed prepared and knew how to live off the land. Very few of today’s society have those skills.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The next morning, I woke up early as usual. When I first woke up, it was like the apparent EMP was just a dream, as the fan was on and the alarm clock was lit. I had left the generator on during the night. As I came out of my daze of sleepiness, the sound of the generator reminded me that it wasn’t a dream.

  It then hit me that this would be the last night that we’d be sleeping with the fan on. We could no longer leave the generator running every night.

  Kim and I were both “fan sleepers.” Even in the dead of winter, we slept with a fan running.

  We were so addicted to it, we’d even take a small fan with us when we went on vacations, or we just wouldn’t sleep that well.

  As usual, I walked into the kitchen, hit the coffee pot switch, grabbed my banana, and walked right back to the bedroom to take my morning pain pills.

  “Damn, I’m really going to have to ration these.”

  I had stored up enough in the safe to run me for about three months as I never did take as many as were prescribed for me. After a while, I was able to build up a bit of a reserve.

  When I walked into the living room, Mike was still up listening to the radio and Tag was asleep on the sofa.

  “Any news?”

  “Well, it sounds like the Capitol got nuked. They knew by some monitoring system that picks up any nuclear explosions worldwide. Britain apparently sent a satellite over already and the heart of Washington, D.C. is leveled. The White House, the Capitol Building and even the Pentagon.”

  “Son of a bitch! …. Did you hear anything about an advanced warning?”

  “No word on that. They did say it didn’t look like any other part of the country was nuked. They mention how the wildfires out west and the fires in the cities, which were caused by the riots, stood out due to the darkness of the entire country. Apparently, it affected the biggest part of Mexico and Canada as well.

  They did confirm that Hawaii and Alaska were not affected.

  They interviewed some kind of so-called expert, and he said it had to be an EMP as well.”

  I just shook my head in disbelief, “Well, to affect an area that big, it had to be a very large nuke at a very high altitude.”

  “Yeah, that’s what he said. He explained how an EMP works but most of it was over my head.”

  “Did Tag hear all this?”

  “Yeah, he just fell asleep about 30 minutes ago.”

  “Well, I’m up now. Do you want to wait for breakfast or just go to sleep?”

  “Sleep! I’ve been snacking all night. Wake me up if anything bigger comes up.” He threw up his hand with a wave and walked like Frankenstein’s monster to his bedroom.

  I grabbed my coffee, walked out the back door and looked at the eastern sky which was twilight. The sun would be breaking the horizon soon.

  Cash and Duke, Mike’s dogs, came running around the corner making me jump. Cash was huge and if he ever hit you with full force, you’d go down. He was a Labrador retriever that had gotten very heavy living with Mike in his house. Duke was smaller, but he was part Rottweiler, and German Shepherd and his stance looked intimidating.

  Both were going to make outstanding guard dogs. Duke was intimidating just looking at him, and if someone saw Cash running at them at night, they’d run for the hills if they had any brains.

  We had the backyard and the west side of the house fenced in, which is kind of unusual for a farm. I built it when I got Kim one of her Christmas presents, a Jack Russell terrier that we saved from a dog she
lter. All he was good for was companionship, but Kim loved him, and that’s all that mattered. Unfortunately, a month earlier when he got outside the fence, he was hit by a car.

  I petted Cash and Duke thinking, “If only we could be more like them. They have no worries. It’s just another day to them.”

  I looked up at the stars and the sky was crystal clear. I’ve never seen so many stars before; it’s amazing how many you see when there are no lights.

  There was no wind, so the strangest part was no sound except for an owl off in the distance. It’s so quiet without the distant highway noise or planes flying overhead.

  Then I looked to the northwest towards Kansas City. There was a strange orange glow, obviously from the fires that had to have spread with no firefighters to put them out.

  I finished my coffee and went to the generator, shutting it down just long enough to fill it back up with gas.

  As I was walking back towards the house, I saw a light come on in MO’s bus. Then I noticed Kim turning on a light in the kitchen.

  “Why are you up so early?”

  “I just woke up. You know I don’t sleep well when you aren’t in bed with me.”

  “Yeah, right. I’ve seen you fall asleep while playing one of your video games.”

  She chuckled, “Well, it’s different in bed.”

  “If you don’t mind, we need to fix a big breakfast for everyone. I want the day to start out positive. We have a lot of work to do today. We need to start organizing now.”

  Just about that time, Mo knocked on the door. I waved him in. “Mo, you don’t have to knock. Just come on in. It looks like this is going to be your home too for a while.”

  “Well, I didn’t know. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Any news? Or do I want to hear it?”

  “Yes, there is news. But why don’t we agree, at least for this morning, that we don’t talk about anything like that until after breakfast? I’d like to have kind of a meeting anyway.”

  “Sounds good to me. It’s too early to think anyway.”