Paul shook hands with all three of them.
“Are you guys hungry? Samantha got a desperate look on her face.
Amos again said, “No, we definitely can’t take your food.”
“Nonsense! I have a full case of MRE’s in here.” He handed one to each. Paul could tell they didn’t know how to eat them, so Paul opened one and showed them what everything was. The mother started ripping open the entree.
“There is a heater in each bag. Just add water and follow the instructions.”
They all made comments that they could eat it as is. Amos and Samantha especially went a little wild. In between bites, Amos looked at Samantha and smiled, “Oh God, this is so good.”
After devouring half the MRE, Amos, realizing that they probably looked like a bunch of pigs running into the food trough. He laughed, “I apologize for our behavior. Even before the power went out, things haven’t been good. The gas stations have been out of gas around here, and even before they ran out, gas prices were outrageous. I lost my job a couple of weeks ago, as they shut down the plant I worked at.”
Samantha spoke up, “For the last several days, what little food we had left, we gave to Bobby and Joe.”
Joe looking surprised said, “What? I didn’t know that.”
Then it hit Paul, being in prison, he had been isolated from what was going on. He saw a lot on the news, but it’s so much different seeing how it affects real people. Just watching it on the news filters the true suffering and the emotion.
He then thought, “How close was the prison to running out of food?” It was a reminder how the prisoners would have been just locked down and probably would’ve starved to death.
He looked at Bobby’s leg and noticed they had it wrapped with a towel and some duct tape.
“How big of a cut is it?”
“It’s about a 6-inch gash. He was walking down the stairs when the power went off, and he fell and landed on a glass top table. He hit it just right, and the glass broke, and it just cut his leg open. After using two towels, we finally got the bleeding to slow down quite a bit, so I used duct tape to tape the wound closed and then put a folded hand towel over the wound and taped this towel over it. Then I carried him out to our car, but it wouldn’t start. Joe ran down to the neighbors, and neither one of their vehicles would start either. The phones wouldn’t work so we sat it out for a while, hoping the power would come back on at least. I guess the power outage was so vast, that it even affected the phones.
After a couple of hours, his leg really started hurting him, so we decided that we’d walk all the way if we had to.” Amos replied.
“Well, it does look like you got the bleeding to stop. I don’t think we ought to take this off to try to change the bandage as it could start bleeding again.”
“Can you take us to the hospital?” Samantha begged.
“Where is the hospital? I don’t know this area as I’m just driving through.”
“Just about 7 miles from here, on the south side of Oswego. You just keep taking this highway, and you’ll see the signs before you even get to downtown.” Amos said.
Paul didn’t hesitate, “Well, let’s get going.” He grabbed the rucksack and equipment and set it in the bed of the truck. He grabbed four more bottles of water and handed a bottle to each of them. Samantha walked up to Paul and gave him a hug, “Thank you so much.” Paul didn’t know how to react as it had been so long since anyone had hugged him but felt so good to be helping people like this. He just said, “You’re welcome.”
She looked at Amos, “Joe and I will ride back here with Bobby.” They climbed in, and Samantha sat and put Bobby’s head on her lap.
Amos got in the cab of the truck, and Paul told them all, “Be prepared, the muffler on this thing is pretty well gone. It’s loud.”
Paul jumped in the driver’s seat, and they took off.
“I can’t thank you enough for this Paul.” Paul waved him off, with the meaning that it was nothing. Amos continued, “Where were you when the power went out?”
“Oklahoma. I’m on my way to outside Kansas City.” Paul responded, hoping he wouldn’t ask too many details.
“Kansas City? Man, be careful. By what I saw on television before everything went black, it seemed to be a madhouse up there,”
Paul asked him for the details. Amos told him all the details that he knew. It worried Paul a little, but he said, “Well actually, I’m going to my father’s farm southeast of Kansas City, so I don’t go anywhere near the city itself.”
“What do you think caused all of this?”
Paul gave him his theory that it was an EMP. Amos didn’t know what that was, so Paul told what little he remembered.
“That sounds like science fiction. Don’t you think it’s more likely that the power plants just went down somehow?”
Paul brought up the planes falling out of the sky and reminded him that his own vehicle didn’t work.
Amos sat there with the realization that maybe Paul was right. He was stunned.
They both sat there thinking in silence, when the silence was broken by Paul saying, “We must be coming into Oswego.”
Amos kind of shook his head as though he was coming out of a trance and he looked down the road, “Yeah, you’re right. The hospital is just about a ½ mile up.”
As Paul drove, he noticed that almost all the homes were completely dark. He didn't see the signs of lanterns and candle lights that he’d seen earlier. He then looked to the east, and he could see that the eastern sky was starting to lighten a bit. He had no idea what time it was or even the day.
“Do you happen to know what time it is?”
“It’s 5:05 a.m.”
Paul was a little surprised. Where did the night go? “I know this sounds odd but what day is it?”
Amos chuckled a bit, “It’s Friday, the 29th.”
Paul thought about how in prison, you didn’t really care about the day. Weekends were a little different but not much. Just different guards and fewer activities.
“July 29th. My gosh. The year was just slipping away.” He thought to himself.
Paul looked ahead and saw the street sign for the hospital turn off. He turned left, and he could see the hospital. Apparently, they had a generator as he could see some lights, but most of the hospital was still dark.
Paul spotted the sign that directed them to the emergency room. He followed the street around, and he could see that a lot of the light was coming from there. As his headlights hit the area, he could see several people lying around on the ground outside the doors. It looked as though they were sleeping there, and many were leaning against the building. Others were in a large group out on the grass. They could also see movement through the doors.
Paul still had to play dodgeball with all the stalled vehicles. He had almost got used to maneuvering around vehicles throughout the trip. As he drove by several of them, he could see that many of the vehicles had people sleeping in them.
People were waking up, as they could hear the roar of the pickup.
Paul pulled up in front of the emergency room doors and Amos jumped out of the truck.
Paul seeing several people staring at the truck leaned over and locked the passenger door and then grabbed the key out of the truck and locked the driver’s door as he was getting out. Paul and Amos picked up Bobby and carried him to the doors. The doors didn’t open when they walked up to them, so Joe had to push the doors to get them to open. These doors were the type that would normally open automatically, but apparently, the generator wasn’t connected to them.
When they walked through the doors, the waiting room was packed with people. All the chairs were full, and many were sitting on the floor.
One man yelled out, “Hey, why is your truck running?”
Paul acted like he didn’t hear him, and they carried Bobby up to the counter where a nurse or receptionist is usually sitting, but no one was there. Amos yelled out, “Hello.”
Someone said, “
She got called back to somewhere.”
Paul stood around with them but kept glancing out to the truck. Amos saw this and said, “Paul, you don’t need to wait around for us to get in. We’ll be fine; we held you up long enough.”
“It’s not that, just the people outside seem to be working their way over towards the truck.”
Amos looked outside, “You’re right. Why don’t you get going?” He stuck out his hand to Paul, “You’re a lifesaver. We would’ve been walking a long time pushing that wheelbarrow.” He then lowered his voice, “Thank you so much for the MRE’s and water.”
Samantha came up and gave him a hug saying, “Thank you again.”
Paul reached over and shook Joe’s hand and then leaned down to Bobby and grabbed his hand, “You get well soon.”
Bobby smiled, “The truck was sure better than that ole wheelbarrow. Thank you.”
Paul went out to the truck. He saw the original pack in the bed and grabbed it, reached in, and grabbed four more MRE’s and threw them in the bag. He then grabbed the stuff in the back of the truck and put it all in the cab.
“I’m lucky someone didn’t come closer to the truck or I probably wouldn’t have anything left.”
He then ran back into the emergency room and ran up to Samantha.
“Here, you left this in the bed of the truck.” She looked puzzled, so he leaned down whispering, “I put four more MRE’s in the pack. I’d suggest not eating them out in public.” She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and reached out and gave him another hug.
He ran back out to the truck, where this time people were gathering around.
“How come your truck’s running? What did you do to make it work?”
Paul, being polite said, “It’s running because it's older.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. What’s that have to do with it?”
He then heard several people asking him for rides. Some were starting to act like it was Paul’s duty to take them all where they wanted to go. He kept saying, “I can’t, I don’t have the gas.” That didn’t seem to make any difference to a few of them. When he saw some people picking up their stuff like they were going to go with him, he jumped in the truck and took off. A couple of people tried blocking the path, but the roar of the muffler and the acceleration of the truck gave them second thoughts apparently, as they scattered as the truck approached.
He finally got back to the main road and no one was there, so he glanced at his Atlas.
“Ok. Turn left, go to the next major intersection, turn right onto 160, and then all the way to 69. Then it’s a straight shot north, all the way to Highway 2.”
Then he noticed that if he drove all the way over to Highway 69, he would have to drive through Pittsburg, Kansas, which looks like a larger city on the map. After having to drive already like he was on an obstacle course, plus the way the people outside the hospital acted, he didn’t want the increased population of Pittsburg. He looked, and if he took 160 to Highway 7, he’d miss a lot of towns. He’d be driving mainly countryside, compared to 69. He’d eventually have to make his way over to Highway 69, but it’d be north of the larger towns.
Being about 5:30 in the morning, he made it through Oswego, without any more problems except for dodging the stalled cars of downtown. As he drove to the east, he could see that the sun would be up soon. He sat back and remembered back when he would go deer hunting when he was younger. You could shoot at a deer 30-minutes before the sun came up as there was enough light then. He remembered how everyone would always leave for their deer stand about 30 minutes before that. The sky ahead of him looked exactly as it did, while he was walking thru the field to his stand. He remembered the last time he hunted was on the farm.
“It seems so long ago, almost like a different life. In a way, I guess it was.”
As he drove, he seemed to have to maneuver around a lot more vehicle than on the highway he was on. As he approached the Columbus, Kansas exit, he also noticed the road sign that read Highway 7. Thankfully, Columbus was to the south of the intersection as he was going north. As he turned left onto Highway 7, he looked to the right and saw all the businesses that usually lined the street entering a town or city. There were several gas stations, numerous restaurants, and he could even see a Walmart sign farther down the road. Just a few weeks earlier these restaurants would’ve been getting ready for the breakfast crowd. The gas stations would start getting busy with people stopping for gas and buying coffee on the way to their jobs. But this morning, it was as if the people had disappeared. He’d love to go to the Walmart to get some supplies, but it was much too dangerous, and he wondered if it had been looted.
He thought about the fine line between looting and someone getting some supplies to survive. When it came down to it, technically, it was all stealing. You were taking someone's or some business’s property. But he considered looting to be those that go in and grab items like televisions, electronics, and jewelry. They weren’t grabbing food, water, tents, and sleeping bags. They were taking it out of greed, not survival.
As he kept driving north, the sun finally broke the horizon. It was beautiful. He thought about all the chaos that was going on, but God’s creation was still perfect. He felt sorry for those that believed that there was no God and that we’re born, live, and then we die, and that’s it. We just exist for a short 80 years and poof; we’re gone. A memory, never to exist again in any form.
Paul had gone down the wrong path. He went the way of the world, only being concerned with self-satisfaction. At that time, he didn’t care who he hurt as long as he got his drug fix, a woman in his life so he wouldn’t be lonely, and money to buy what he wanted.
“What a waste!”
Chapter Twenty-One
“…Assyrian, the rod of mine anger and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.”
Chancellor Kohl had called for an emergency closed-door meeting of the European Union. Her main reason for calling the meeting was to discuss the actions that needed to be taken, due to the attack on the United States. Then after all briefings and discussions, a final vote would be taken on unifying the military of all union members and be commanded by one central command. If the unification was approved, a secondary vote would be taken on the disbandment of NATO because all of the members of NATO, excluding the United States, were now members of the Union.
An intelligence briefing was being given by Oberstleutnant Carl Fritz, where he was displaying satellite images of the nuclear attack on Washington, D.C. He then continued with imagery of the effect of the obvious EMP attack, which covered the entire mainland of the United States and the majority of both Canada and Mexico. This image was taken during nighttime hours, and the darkness of the affected areas was startling. The only light sources were of wide areas of fires spread across the state of California and several fires in most major cities across the United States.
He then showed several images taken the next day during daylight hours of the major and military airports in the U.S. and northern Mexico and Southern Canada. These images showed runways being blocked by either the wreckage of departing and arriving aircraft or by stalled aircraft that were on or around the runways. He also reported that they suspected that many aircraft that were inbound to the affected countries but were far enough out not to be affected by the EMP may have ended up crashing. They couldn’t have landed at any of their alternate airports and would have run out of fuel or at collisions with obstructions while trying an emergency landing wherever they could. He also explained how many incoming aircraft would be forced to fly VFR or visual flight rules as IFR or instruments flight rules would not be possible because all VOR stations from the U.S and affected areas would no longer be broadcasting. He then repeated that this was just a theory on their part.
After a question
and answer period, the Oberst showed imagery of North Korean troops mobilizing, due to the beginning of the withdrawal of the American military that was stationed in South Korea.
Finally, after another question and answer period, the final satellite imagery displayed was of Syrian and Lebanese troops massing at the Israeli border and at the same time Iranian and Iraqi Troops were mobilized and entering Syria, which appeared not to be without Syria’s approval.
At the conclusion of his briefing, he apologized to the Chancellor and all members for the delay in providing the imagery. He explained that it took several hours to move a working surveillance satellite into position over North America, as any satellites that were in the vicinity of the United States at the time of the attack were no longer operating.
The next briefing was given by an unnamed representative of the Bundesnachrichtendienst, or German Federal Intelligence Service, which is subordinate to the Chancellor’s office only; he gave a preliminary report on the theory that Iran was responsible for the attack on the United States, with the support of Russia. Confirmation couldn’t be given though, due to how recent the attack was.
He also reported that they didn’t feel that an attack on Israel was imminent but that they did feel that the involved middle eastern countries were preparing for war with Israel.
Finally, his report on North Korea was very pessimistic and stated that there was enough intelligence to lead them to believe that an attack by North Korea was imminent.
After an intense question and answer period and then a two-hour break, which was used for more private discussions, it was time for the first vote of unifying the Union’s military and putting it under one central command.
One of the larger concerns by the members, was President Prescott previous address when he announced the EU would replace all US troops that had been recalled. The majority didn’t want to be responsible for the Korean Peninsula and areas such as Afghanistan.
Chancellor Kohl stated that she didn’t make that agreement and she felt that many of the US troops would be held in place until they were relieved. There was quite the debate on whether US commanders would follow President Prescott final instructions, before his death.
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