Apocalypse in the Homeland: The Adventures of John Harris

by Anthony Newman

  John walked over to her and held her tight while replying, “You are mine and I am yours forever. Don’t worry about Jeff. I’ll try to handle him gently, but will do what it takes to keep him from bothering either of us. Is there anything else that I need to know?”

  “A million things, but nothing important for now.”

  They were out of bed before 4:00 a.m. and it was the first time that Kristen hadn’t woke him up by making love to him.

  “What’s wrong? Don’t want me anymore?”

  “I am not an early riser. I like sleeping in and waking up with you in my arms. I hate having my eyes open at the ass crack of dawn. I will be bitchy until I get my third cup of coffee down.”

  “We don’t have any coffee.”

  “Not your lucky day.”

  John shut up and ate his breakfast bars that were smashed up into a powdered milk solution that tasted just good enough that he could swallow it without gagging. Damn, he missed his normal breakfast of two eggs over easy, two sausage patties and toast with butter and blackberry jelly.

  Shit, he thought, “I am remembering useless stuff, but it’s better than nothing.”

  They met the others at Jeff’s house and after John checked their gear, he gave them instructions on how to quietly sneak through the town while covering each other.

  “I know how to walk through my own town.”

  “Jeff, do what I just told you or go back to your home. I don’t want you to get the rest of us shot while you attract attention. We will go building to building covering each other or not at all.”

  “Okay.”

  John let Jeff lead them to a warehouse area northeast of their homes. Jeff obeyed his instructions, but was seething on the inside.

  Tom fell back behind Jeff and said, “John, watch your back around Jeff. If he wasn’t Jerry’s brother we would have run him off.”

  “Thanks.”

  They traveled about three miles when they saw the warehouse buildings and a couple of stores ahead just off Highway 90. They had seen a couple of people scavenging around some cars about a block north of the highway, but nothing close and those people did not notice them. They arrived at the first building and it was a furniture warehouse and was too close to the road. They looked in several more and found fertilizer and farm equipment. The next building was a John Deere sales and service building. John saw several older tractors in the used lot and told the others that he could get them running. None of these buildings was suitable for a new home.

  The next building that they checked had been a food dry goods warehouse where most of the stock had been taken.

  John pointed up towards the ceiling and said, “Looks like they left a lot of pallets on the top level of the racks. We need to check those out.”

  Tom climbed one of the racks and John climbed to the top of another and exclaimed, “Damn, there’s Spam, beans, corn, dog food and a bunch of other canned goods. We need to come back and get this stuff.”

  He filled his pockets with Spam and beans and even pitched a couple of cans down to Kristen.

  Jeff looked at John carrying the canned goods and said, “We won’t need them. The government will come and help us any day.”

  John snapped at him, “The US government is now our enemy. The president is the one who orchestrated the attack on our country. The DHS is rounding up people, putting them in concentration camps and forcing them to perform slave labor. They shoot you if you don’t go quietly to the camps.”

  “How do you know this and why should we trust you?”

  “I just know it to be true. I’m sorry I lost my memory, but I know that the ISA and the PSA are our only friends. I see why you doubt me, but I know I am right.”

  The last building was several hundred feet from the road and 200 yards from any other building or cover for attackers. They cautiously walked over to the building and found all of the doors locked with none smashed in as with the others. The sign on the building said 'Johnson’s Automotive Restoration'. They tried to open the door with a crowbar to no avail. John went to the closest window, looked in and saw bars on the inside of the windows.

  “Look at the scars and scrapes on the windows and doors. We aren’t the first to try to break into this place.”

  John replied, “But we are going to get in where the others failed.”

  Jeff shook his head and said, “How, Mr. Smart Guy?”

  “Exactly; because we are smarter than the others.”

  John walked back towards the last building and came back with an oxy-acetylene rig. He wheeled it up to the door and started twisting knobs and making sparks with the striker. Suddenly he had a smoky flame, which he quickly fine-tuned down to a bright blue flame. .

  He took the torch to the door and sparks and molten metal started flying as he said, “Fire in the hole. This door won’t last long.”

  He quickly cut a half circle around the door knob and the door opened.

  “Now you won’t doubt my skills at breaking and entering. Let’s find out what kind of treasure this guy was protecting.”

  They walked into the building and had to pull some drapes back from the windows to see around the shop. The sight stunned them. There were over 50 cars, trucks and boats in the building. This was a rich guy's toy warehouse. There were old 1920s cars and late model Porches.

  John looked at a 1949 F1 that had a large V8 and said, “I can get most of the older cars and trucks running. No more riding around in those bumpy assed ATVs for me.”

  Kristen gave John a kiss and thanked him for being able to break in when others had failed. Jeff just glared at them and pretended to be interested in a Corvette. They took a few minutes to look over the vehicles and then walked over to the north end of the building, which had several rooms and what looked like an office. The office was decorated like a library in a mansion only there were numerous mounted animal heads on all of the walls.

  “Damn, a hunter. I hope his guns are here.”

  The rooms had combination type locks on the doors. John went outside and brought the torch in to make light work out of these barriers.

  John cut through the first door and yelled, “Bingo, we have an arsenal. This guy has more guns than Fort Knox.”

  There were guns lined up on the walls and on floor racks. There were hundreds of long guns. At the far end of the room the wall was covered in handguns mounted to the wall on display.

  John pointed to a door said, “Ammo,” and opened the door to find shelves stacked high with the ammo for all of the guns in the room. He also saw military weapons in this room. S&W MP15s, Berettas, a Barrett .50cal sniper rifle, an Uzi and several foreign weapons that John recognized.

  “We have hit the mother lode. Now we can defend ourselves against any scum sucking gang. This will make a great base for our operations. I will weld the outside door back together and we'll head home to give the others the good news.”

  John gave Kristen, Tom and Jeff an MP15 and a Beretta each while taking an MP15 and a Colt 1911 for himself. He showed them how to load them and then gave them a brief lesson on how to properly use them.

  “Everyone grab an extra MP15 and handgun and as much ammo as you can carry back to the camp.”

  Jeff balked and said, “They can come and get their own. I’m not carrying guns back to them when we are moving here ASAP. Besides, can’t we just drive one of these cars back to camp?”

  John contained his anger and replied, “These cars have been stored and only a few of the new ones were ready to drive until the EMP blasts fried their electronics. We have to walk this time and what happens if someone else stumbles on our new home and takes all of the guns and ammo before we get back? Now please help us take some back to camp.”

  Jeff knew he had screwed up and shouldered the extra guns and ammo.

  ***

  The sheriff’s wife took Beth to her house after the town council meeting for coffee and so Beth could catch her up on what had happened in the rest of the world. She filled he
r in on the nuclear attack and how the ISA was formed and she told Beth about the town’s last year and a half since the lights went out.

  “Everything was chaotic and many people panicked. Joel tried to keep the peace, but most of his deputies quit to watch out for their own families. We didn’t have a gang problem before the lights went out so it was just six months ago when they started raiding the outlying farms and the houses at the edge of town. Joel and several of the men fought them off several times and drove them off, however we lost ten men over the past few months. We were at a loss as to what to do when you showed up in town.

  “Jan, our team can train you how to take out the bad guys and keep your losses to a minimum. The key is to train everyone of you to shoot and be prepared to defend your homes.”

  “I’ve never handled a gun and don’t think that I could kill anyone.”

  “You’ll change your mind when a gang attacks and kills your family or friends. It’s a bad situation, but you have to fight or die these days. What makes the ISA so strong is that everybody works and everybody fights. We won’t tolerate any slackers. Everyone 12 and older is trained on several weapons and proper military tactics.”

  “Beth, my brother lost his wife to the gang raids six months ago. Have you thought about taking a husband to help raise your baby? He has a 10 year old girl.”

  “Jan, thanks so much for thinking about my security, but John will return. He always does. John is a very hard man to kill and he always gets the job done. I actually feel sorry for whoever took him.”

  Beth wanted to tell Jan that John was the President of the ISA and had fought many battles and won them all, however she knew that would place John and the team in danger.

  “Well, I tried to help. How about filling me in on the war between the USA and the ISA? We have heard a few rumors, but are so isolated and have no radios so we hear zero news."

  ***

  Billy heard the scream and ran out into the living room where she almost ran over Janet.

  “Who screamed?”

  “Help me!”

  The yell came from the bathroom. Billy pushed the door open and saw Beth lying on the floor with blood soaking her robe below her waist.

  “Help me. I’ve lost the baby.”

  Billy and Janet helped her into bed and tended to her the rest of the day. Beth was dazed and rambling about losing the baby and John.

  They heard Beth say, “Jan is right. John is dead and I must move on and survive.”

  Beth was never the same after that day. She was harder and blunt with people trying to help her. She had lost hope and was resigned to a life without the love of her life.

  ***

  “Hey Jim, I didn’t expect you back until tomorrow. Did you find us a new home?”

  John handed Jerry an MP15, Beretta and several boxes of ammo and said, “Thanks to Jeff and Tom’s knowledge of the town we actually went straight to a perfect building and found food and weapons along the way. The building is a bit large, but is perfect for our new home. It will allow us to move another 50 - 100 people into the group. We need to move as quickly as possible before someone discovers the food.”

  Jeff was surprised that Jim gave him credit for helping find the new location and said, “Thanks. Tom and I knew where to look, but I must say I was impressed by Jim being able to break into the storage building when so many others had failed.”

  “Thanks.”

  John filled Jerry in with, “We found a dry goods warehouse that still has pallets full of beans, Spam and other non-refrigerated food. We found a building that must have been some rich guy’s storage building for his toys. There are antique cars, trucks and his gun collection. We found the mother lode. I am confident that we can get all of the old cars running in just a few days.”

  “Great news, I’ll call a meeting and we'll see how fast we can bug out to the new location. It’s too bad we don’t have a couple of those trucks to help make the move faster.”

  “I could take a couple of guys and some tools and get several of the pickups running in the morning. We just need to find a gas station and get some oil, anti-freeze and a few other odds and ends and I think we can deliver a fleet of trucks for the move. Jeff and Tom will you go with me?”

  They both were eager to assist.

  “I’ll be at Jeff’s house at 4:30 a.m."

  “I’m going back to our new home in the morning to get some trucks running to help with our move. Do you want to come with us?"

  “You’re not going without me. Who else is going with us?”

  “Tom and Jeff volunteered, but I think we should take a real mechanic along with us just in case we find more than we can handle.”

  “Billy Gray is a genius with cars. He lives with his mom and dad just two houses up on the left. I’ll fix supper while you get him to volunteer. Do you want Spam and beans, Spam and potatoes or Jalapeno Spam, beans and potatoes?"

  “The Jalapeno sounds great. Put the toilet paper in the freezer. I’ll be right back.”

  She laughed and went about preparing supper.

  John woke with Kristen in his arms and said, “Ann, we need to get up and hit the road. No time for fooling around this morning.”

  He felt a sharp pain in his ribs and Kristen said, “Who the hell is Ann? One of your girlfriends?”

  John thought for a minute and replied, “I don’t know. I blurted the name out so it must have meant something to me from the past. Didn’t I say that I was married? Perhaps I was married to a woman named Ann.”

  “I don’t know, but it really pissed me off being called another woman’s name just as I was about to make love to you this morning.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You sure are.”

  Kristen had fell in love with John and was scared that he would leave her if his memory came back. She would do anything to keep him. She looked over and just couldn’t imagine life without him.

  “Darling, it did hurt, but I’m not mad at you. I love you and want us to get married and have two or three kids.”

  “I want the same thing. We need to keep an eye out for a preacher to make it official.”

  They got dressed, ate leftover Spam and headed over to Jeff’s house to start their trek to their new home to get the trucks. The walk over to the warehouse area was uneventful and they didn’t see anyone out. It was still dark and John noticed that he didn’t see any lights or fires for as far as he could see. He thought that more than likely meant people were hiding and covered their windows.

  They stopped at two gas stations, gathered 20 quarts of oil and found a toolbox that had all the tools they needed. John sent Jeff and Tom over to a shopping mall across Highway 90 and told them to bring back a couple of shopping carts to haul their automotive supplies. Billy saw a rack with new batteries and chose four that should work.

  Kristen said, “What about gas?”

  “There is a hose over there and some empty gas cans behind the counter. I’m going to syphon some gas out of the cars at that Honda dealership by the food warehouse.”

  Billy cut a five foot piece of hose and checked to make sure that it didn’t have any obstructions. The other two came back pushing two carts and were wearing new clothes.

  “Sorry Jim, we have been wearing those ragged jeans for months and couldn’t resist some new duds.”

  “Not a problem, I think I’ll go shopping after we get moved. Both of us could use some new clothes.”

  They loaded everything up and took turns pushing the carts to the Honda dealership. John broke into the showroom and chose a large sedan as his target. He stuck the hose into the tank and started sucking on the end of the hose. A few seconds later, he was rewarded with a mouth full of stale gasoline. He sputtered and spit, but remembered to stick the hose into the plastic gas can. Billy took over while John washed his mouth out with water from a water cooler. They filled the three five gallon cans and headed to the car storage building.

  John broke in again and they started
closely inspecting the trucks to determine which ones were the best bet on being able to get running. They picked out a '75 F100 short narrow bed truck for their first effort. It was highly customized and had a 460 with a five speed manual transmission. They checked it out and as expected, there was no water in the radiator. They filled the radiator with a mixture of antifreeze and water, checked the oil, brake fluid, transmission and rear end. All were found to be at operating level. Billy poured about three gallons of gas in the old Ford and told the others that they were good to go.

  “The battery is flat. How do we start the engine?”

  “That’s why we chose a straight shift for our first truck. We are going to push you, you will turn the key on and pop the clutch to get it started. I’ll put a small amount of gas in the carb to prime it and it should start. Of course, it might take several times to get the gas up from the tank to keep it running. They opened the nearest garage door and pushed the truck out into the cold morning. He took the air filter off the engine and poured about an ounce of gas down the carb. Kristen got in the truck, turned the key on, pushed the clutch in and the men began pushing the truck.

  They got it going at a good rate and John yelled, “Pop the clutch!”

  The engine coughed and sputtered, but did not start. John poured about two ounces in this time and they started pushing the truck again. This time the engine roared to life when Kristen popped the clutch and ran for a few seconds.

  “Great, we just need to keep doing this until the engine runs long enough to pump gas up to the carb.”

  They repeated the process twice more before the truck stayed running. Kristen pushed the gas pedal down hard once and the engine roared and backfired a couple of times.

  “Jeff, watch for intruders because I think we just woke up the neighborhood. Tom, could you go get some more gas after we pour what gas we have into the trucks? Kristen, please drive the truck into the garage.”

  “Boss, I never drove a straight shift before. I just know to keep the clutch in to keep the motor from dying.”