by Mark Goodwin
“I love you.”
Cassie wiped a tear. “I love you, too.”
Sharon and Isaiah walked into the living room hand-in-hand.
“Ready to go?” Isaiah asked.
Noah nodded and handed Cassie’s keys to Isaiah.
When the two men reached Noah’s house, Noah asked, “Would you like me to drive you home?”
“Then you’d have to come get me tonight.”
“You could take Cassie’s vehicle, but you’re welcome to hang out here until tonight. I’m not looking forward to being in the house alone. Even the cat is at the cabin.”
Isaiah nodded. “Mind if I take a shower and crash out on the couch for a couple hours, then?”
Noah opened the front door. “No problem at all. I’d appreciate the company.”
An hour later, Isaiah was asleep on the couch. Noah took a shower and lay down on his bed. He was exhausted and knew he should try to take a nap, but he simply wasn’t sleepy. He looked at his rifle, boots, tactical vest, and backpack that he would be wearing to the raid in a few short hours. He closed his eyes and prayed silently for a while. His mind slowed, and he soon drifted into a deep sleep.
Noah’s alarm went off at 10:00 PM. He jumped out of bed, afraid that he’d somehow overslept. He turned off the alarm and looked at the time. “Two hours before we need to be at David’s. We’re fine.” Noah’s head felt swimmy. He couldn’t remember ever being awakened by an alarm clock at this time of night before.
He walked into the living room and gave Isaiah a gentle nudge. “Ready to go play cowboys and Indians?”
Isaiah sat up and stretched. “I wish that’s what we were doing.”
Noah went to the kitchen and started a pot of strong coffee. “Becky sent us home with a ton of leftovers from Thanksgiving. Can I make you a plate?”
“That would be great,” Isaiah called out from the living room.
The two men ate, and then geared up to go to David’s. Shortly after they arrived, the team ran the final drill. After having done it over and over that morning, the final round of training went without a hitch.
Jim and Elliot each drove to the drill in vehicles they’d borrowed from the police impound lot. Jim drove a white work van, and Elliot was in a small pickup. Either one could be used to evacuate the entire eight-member team if one of the vehicles broke down.
At 4:00 AM, David gave a quick speech. “Everyone did a great job in training today. Unfortunately, most missions never go as planned. You have to adapt to the situation and overcome the obstacles when anything comes up that challenges the operation. You’re all smart. I know you can do it. When we’re finished, we’ll come back here, assuming we’re not pursued. Jim and Elliot will return the vehicles to the impound lot and then come back to the house. We’ll lock and load and see if we get any company.
“Isaiah, if you’d like to ask God to watch over us and grant us victory, I’d appreciate it.”
The men all sat their rifles next to the van and bowed their heads. Isaiah prayed. “Lord, the apostle Paul told his young protégé, Timothy, that in the last days, people would be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, unholy, brutal, treacherous, and unforgiving. It sounds like he was reading our headlines. You told your disciples that, in the last days, we would be imprisoned and persecuted for your name’s sake. We take heart, even in these wretched signs, because we know the day of your coming is near. We pray that you will grant us courage to stand against the enemy until that great and glorious day when you call us home. We pray for victory in this mission and protection over each one of us. I ask that you would bring all of us home safely, but if that is not your will, I pray you will comfort those left behind. Into your hands, we commit our spirits. Amen.”
The team loaded into the vehicles. Elliot drove the pickup with Sarah and Kevin as passengers. He would drop them off roughly a half-mile north of the landing site to retrieve the tug and barge from the construction company.
Jim drove the van with Noah, Isaiah, Benny, and David. They cut the headlights before they arrived at the river bank. Everyone rolled out, and each team member pulled one of the metal Jon boats out of the tree line along the bank. They waited until they saw the tug push the barge against the other bank and pushed off using a single oar each to cross the river. All the Jon boats had small motors to use on the return trip, when noise discipline wouldn’t be such an important factor.
Quietly and smoothly, Jim and Isaiah carried the ladder to the water treatment building. Benny hooked up the power supply to his transmitter for the jamming signal from behind the cover of the building and ascended the ladder behind Jim, Isaiah, and Elliot.
David and Noah retrieved their bolt cutters from their assault packs and turned the safety off their rifles, which hung in front of them by single point slings over tactical vests filled with extra magazines.
Noah leaned against the wall of the water treatment building and looked at David. “You ready?”
David smiled, revealing his white teeth, which contrasted against the dark camo face paint. “Not really. Are you?”
Noah grinned and shook his head. “But I feel better knowing I’m not alone. Where’s the train?”
David shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, but no train, no assault.”
Noah leaned back up against the wall and looked at the stars in the clear black sky. Sunrise was still more than two hours away. It was cold outside, just above freezing, but Noah’s adrenaline was acting as an anesthetic and keeping him from feeling the chill.
Noah thought he could hear something in the distance. Could it be the train? He held his breath to listen closer. Seconds later it was more pronounced; the steady drum of the engine coming down the track. He looked at David, who nodded and drew his pistol. Noah did the same. They trained to approach the fence with the bolt cutters in their left hand and a pistol in their right. This would provide some possibility of defensive fire if needed. If they came under heavy fire and had to drop the cutters, they could quickly holster the pistol and bring the rifles up to a firing position.
The train became louder and louder as it approached. Noah wondered if Sarah and Kevin had been successful in removing the two lengths of track. He wondered if the train engineer would see the sign instructing him to jump and if the engineer would believe the sign if he did see it.
Suddenly, the sound of the breaks being thrown on a moving train began to screech through the darkness. Noah looked at David with eyes wide open.
David no longer needed to worry about whispering, as the sound of the breaks were deafening. “I guess he saw the sign.”
Noah nodded. The sign was a courtesy, allowing the engineer time to jump, but it was far too late for him to stop the train.
The engine hit the missing section of track and careened off the rails and into the adjacent grass. The kinetic energy of the two-miles of moving rail cars behind it swiftly pushed the engine into Third Creek, which ran into the Tennessee River. The sound of the rail cars flying off the tracks and folding into one another like a giant accordion made the loudest, most horrendous sound Noah Parker had ever heard in his life. He stuck his head around the corner and gaped at the unfolding catastrophe. He observed rail cars being pitched like toys off the ground and others scraping along the metal tracks, shooting sparks like fireworks several feet into the air. He nearly froze from the mere shock of the spectacle.
David slapped Noah on the shoulder and yelled loudly enough to be heard over the screeching symphony of crashing metal against metal, “Go!”
Don’t Panic!
Inevitably, books like this will wake folks up to the need to be prepared, or cause those of us who are already prepared to take inventory of our preparations. New preppers can find the task of getting prepared for an economic collapse, EMP, or societal breakdown to be a source of great anxiety. It shouldn’t be. By following an organized plan and setting a goal of getting a little more prepared each day, you can do it.
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Thank you for reading
The Days of Noah, Book Two: Persecution
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Continue the adventure with
The Days of Noah, Book Three: Perdition
You may also like my first fiction series, The Economic Collapse Chronicles, available on Amazon.com. In the first book of the series, American Exit Strategy, America is on the cusp of financial annihilation. Matt and Karen Bair face the challenges of Main Street during a full-scale financial meltdown. Government borrowing and monetary creation have reached their limits. When funds are no longer available for government programs, widespread civil unrest erupts across the country. Matt and Karen are forced to move to a more remote location, and their level of preparedness is revealed as being much less adequate than they believed prior to the crisis.
Stay tuned to PrepperRecon.com for the latest news about my upcoming books and preparedness related subjects. While on the website, you can download or stream the Prepper Recon Podcast, and subscribe to the show on Stitcher, iTunes and YouTube.
The Days of Noah,
Book Three: Perdition
Mark Goodwin
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For information on preparing for natural or man-made disasters, visit the authors website, PrepperRecon.com and
CLICK HERE to request your FREE copy of The Seven Step Survival Plan.
Technical information in the book is included to convey realism. The author shall not have liability or responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or allegedly caused, directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.
All of the characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015, 2017 Goodwin America Corp.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote short passages in a review.
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc™. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.
ISBN: 1516976355
ISBN-13: 978-1516976355
DEDICATION
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Acts 2:17-21
This book is dedicated to the Holy Spirit, without whom it would not exist. Like a man born blind and deaf, I am utterly dependent on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As the days grow darker in our nation, we will have to depend more and more on the wisdom, leadership, and peace that only come from the Spirit of God.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A most heartfelt note of appreciation to my beautiful bride and constant companion. Thank you for your patience, encouragement, and support.
I would like to thank my editing team, Catherine Goodwin and
Stacey Kopp.
Thank you to Jeff for consultation on accuracy regarding tactical and military information in the book.
CHAPTER 1
The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name.
Exodus 15:3
The engine hit the missing section of track, careened off the rails and into the adjacent grass. The kinetic energy from the two miles of moving rail cars behind it swiftly pushed the engine into Third Creek, which ran into the Tennessee River. The sound of the rail cars flying off the tracks and folding into one another like a giant accordion made the loudest, most horrendous sound Noah Parker had ever heard in his life. He stuck his head around the corner and gaped at the unfolding catastrophe. He observed rail cars being pitched like toys off the ground and others scraping along the metal tracks, shooting sparks like fireworks several feet into the air. He nearly froze from the mere shock of the spectacle.
David slapped Noah on the shoulder and yelled loudly enough to be heard over the screeching symphony of crashing metal against metal, “Go!”
Noah shot like a rocket toward the fence. The years of running for exercise paid off for Noah as he began to instinctively pace his breathing. Nothing else entered his mind except the task at hand. He strained to make visual contact with the detainees on the other side of the fence.
“They’re all looking at the train wreck,” he whispered beneath his breath.
Fortunately for Noah and the rest of the team, the guards were also completely focused on the rail disaster. Noah reached the fence and quickly cut open an area big enough for the prisoners to escape. The distance from the water treatment plant and the fence was exactly the same as it had been during the training. What they had not anticipated was that the men in the detention center would be on the other side of the sports field watching the carnage of the derailment.
Noah stood at the opening waiting for the detainees to notice him, but none did.
“I can’t believe I’m going to do this.” He gritted his teeth and went through the opening. Noah crouched down as he walked briskly toward the group of prisoners.
He tapped one man on the shoulder. The man turned and started to shout, but Noah put his hand over the man’s mouth and whispered, “We have to go now. Tell the others.”
The man quickly tapped several other men and pointed at Noah. Noah motioned for them to follow as he led the way to the opening in the fence. Before he left the enclosed area, Noah opened the bag of redneck liberators and poured the contents on the ground next to the opening. Noah kept moving and slowed down only once to look over his shoulder. Steady strings of detainees were filing out of the sports fields and toward the river bank. When he hit the tree line, Noah felt someone grab him.
“Get down!” David pulled Noah down in the shrubbery.
Noah rolled over on his stomach and took aim back toward the camp. “Have the guards spotted us yet?”
“I haven’t heard any gunfire, so I guess not.”
Noah kept his eyes trained on the detention areas. Behind them, the wreckage of the train was a creaking mess, but no fire. Just then, he heard four successive rounds being fired from his left.
David rolled over on his back and switched magazines. “Scratch what I just said. Sounds like they’ve made us.” He rolled back over, came up to one knee and began firing toward one
of the derailed fuel tankers toward the south.
Noah watched the bright white lights from the phosphorous tipped tracer rounds as they darted through the night. Suddenly the tanker was engulfed in flames, which followed the steams of spilt gasoline down the tracks to several other rail cars, creating a massive bonfire that lit up the sky. The blaze illuminated the background of the men rushing toward them. He recognized the dark silhouettes of Jim, Benny, Isaiah, and Elliot against the orange blaze. Noah stood and waved one hand to signal the other team members. They dropped down behind the bushes next to David.
David said in a loud whisper. “Benny, are you still jamming the signal?”
Benny opened the satchel containing his equipment and peered inside. “It’s still transmitting, but I’m not sure how useful it is. Once we came down from the roof, we lost a significant percentage of the effective range.”
David switched back to his magazine of full metal jacket ammo and ejected the remaining magazine of phosphorous tipped. “Keep transmitting until you’re in the van and back on the road. We have to take whatever we can get.”
Almost in unison, massive explosions, which shook the ground, rang out from the north and south. Noah flinched. “Wow. I guess that was the end of the bridges.”
David smiled. “Yeah, it’ll take a while to get any ground vehicles across the river.”
Jim said, “Looks like we’re getting some company. The guards are in pursuit of the escapees.”