There was talk of trying to relocate the MAG further south to avoid the worst of the weather. Brady was ambivalent about it, sometimes agreeing and sometimes not. The decision was put off for another year. Game was beginning to come back into the area, and there was much new growth of vegetation. Brady was careful to only let the firewood team cut deadwood. There was quite a bit of it from the radiation and the ash fall. He wanted every living thing to continue that could. The volcanic ash was already breaking down, enriching the soil where it had accumulated.
Star and her new shadow, Claudia, were at Brady’s housing unit helping him do a spring cleaning. He’d always been a neat housekeeper, but so much of his time was taken up with MAG business he had let the housekeeping go.
Claudia and Star were on each side of Brady’s bed, making it up. Claudia didn’t see the wistful look on Star’s face, as she looked over at Brady, putting clothing away in the closet, and then looked at the bed again, as she carefully smoothed the coverlet.
All three felt the sudden tremor shake the place. And all three ran out into the open, not so much for safety since the construction had stood up well to the earthquakes related to the Yellowstone super eruption, as to get to the communications station and find out what was going on.
As they ran toward the blast shelter Star asked, “You think it’s Yellowstone again?”
“Different feel,” Brady replied, going down the steps to the shelter. “What do you have, Connie?”
“Reports just now coming in, Boss. Looks like it’s some of the New Madrid earthquake zone letting loose.”
“Might not be too bad, then,” Brady said. “It acts up every once in a while. Let’s just hope it’s not the ‘Big One’.”
“Don’t tempt fate,” Star said.
Another tremor rocked them on their feet.
“See,” Star said.
“Still small,” Brady said.
More people were coming into the shelter, looking for news. Brady told them what he knew for the moment, and then sat down beside Connie to monitor the situation. Star and Claudia went back to Brady’s housing unit. “What do you say we make him a pan of brownies?” Star asked.
Claudia’s eyes lit up. “Yeah! He’d like that!”
Star ruffled Claudia’s hair. “So would you, wouldn’t you?”
Claudia smiled at her substitute mom. “Yeah. I guess so.”
“Me, too.” Star led the way into Brady’s kitchen. She’d rearranged it herself that morning so she knew where everything was.
Brady hadn’t come back by supper time, so, with a little smile on her face, while Claudia studied her schoolwork, Star fixed them a supper. Brady came in the door just as she put things on the kitchen table.
He sniffed the air as he came toward the kitchen. “Hey! What’s going on?”
“I thought you might be hungry, it being supper time,” Star said. “What news do you have?” she asked.
“Definitely the New Madrid Earthquake Zone. Both shakes were felt in a wide area. Wow! This looks and smells good. I didn’t even know you could cook.”
“I’ve been helping in the community kitchen some when I’m not busy elsewhere.”
“You’re always busy, it seems like,” said Claudia, putting her books away.
“Wash your hands,” Star reminded her.
Claudia did so at the kitchen sink, and Brady did likewise. He moved to seat Star when she started to sit down. “Oh. Thank you.”
Grinning, Claudia waited until Brady moved to her chair.
“See, Claudia,” Star said, “Manners aren’t dead.”
Brady took his seat and reached for the entrée. “May I say Grace?” Claudia suddenly asked.
Bringing his hand back to his lap, Brady said, “Yes, Claudia, of course.” He looked over at Star and saw that her eyes had misted over.
Claudia thanked God, and Jesus, and Star, and Brady.
After she said Grace, Claudia immediately reached for the biscuits. “My Mom used to make biscuits all the time. They’re my favorite. Biscuits and rabbit stew. It’s the best.”
“Really,” Brady asked. “Well, the animals are coming back. Maybe I can get us one or two if Star agrees to cook them.” He looked over at Star. So did Claudia.
“Will you, Star?”
“Sure I will. I never have, but if you help me I’m sure I can do it.”
“I used to help Mom all the time.” She turned to Brady. “Can I go with you to hunt? I’m pretty good. I’ve shot rabbits before.”
“I believe you told me that before. Sure.”
“Could we make it a threesome?” Star asked.
“I don’t see why not. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to shoot your Vierling.”
“What’s that?” asked Claudia, after swallowing a large bite of biscuit.
The conversation turned to guns and shooting and hunting and fishing. Claudia held up more than her end of the conversation, as she seemed the much more experienced of the three. The closest Star had come to hunting was shooting skeet with her father. Brady had only hunted a few times, at the invitation of a couple of his employees who hunted.
It was Brady that suggested they watch a movie after their dinner. Claudia and Brady helped Star clean up and do the dishes. They took their brownies and milk to the living room and discussed a movie from Brady’s collection of DVD’s.
Claudia was sitting between Star and Brady on the sofa. She fell asleep almost immediately. Brady fell asleep soon after. Star got up quietly and eased an afghan over the two, and then sat back down to watch the end of the movie.
She shook Brady gently after the movie ended. “Brady,” she whispered. “Wake up. Movie is over. Brady.” She shook him again. He came to with a start.
“Oh. Movie is over? I guess I fell asleep.”
“I’ll say,” Star replied, still speaking softly. “I need to get Claudia up and off to bed.”
“Oh. Sure.” After a moment’s hesitation Brady said, “I hate to wake her. Why don’t we just put her to bed in the second bedroom?”
Star nodded and removed the Afghan and Brady picked up Claudia. He carried her to the second small bedroom and left Star with her to get Claudia in bed. He gathered up the brownie plates and milk glasses and rinsed them in the sink in the kitchen.
When he went back to check on them Star was standing in the doorway of the bedroom, watching Claudia. “She never even woke up,” Star told Brady, her voice very low.
“Brady,” she said then, stepping right up to him. He leaned back against the door jam. “I want to stay, too. With you.” She leaned forward slightly more and her lithe form molded to his. She kissed him gently on the lips and then again more firmly.
Brady responded to the second kiss, kissing Star deeply, his hands going to her back. He took her hand then and led her to his bedroom.
The next day she moved her things and Claudia’s things into Brady’s place. They were a family now.
CHAPTER NINE
Author’s note: Please excuse my butchering of Tectonic Science.
The tremors didn’t stop. They had shock after shock during the winter, sometimes two or three a day. Brady read up on the history of the New Madrid Earthquake Zone. He didn’t like what he found out. There had been a whole series of moderate quakes leading up to several big ones during 1811 and 1812. The pattern seemed to be repeating itself.
From what the amateur operators were telling him the world was acting up geologically all over. Yellowstone had blown and The Pacific Rim was alive with erupting volcanoes now. Some had been active, but many dormant ones were becoming active again. There were even reports of some new fissures opening up and creating new cones in several areas.
The material going into the atmosphere from the volcanoes was one reason the National Weather Service kept pushing back the timeframe for the climate to return to a more ‘normal’ set of seasons.
Brady, Star, and Claudia were working in their section of the garden when the world around them se
emed to go wild. Noise beyond what one could imagine sounded and the very ground dropped from beneath their feet. Claudia screamed and Brady and Star both tried to grab her but all three fell to the ground when the ground itself stopped falling.
Brady had no reference of how far the ground had subsided, but he felt like he had fallen several feet.
It was generations before scientists pieced together what had happened that day and several subsequent days. A tectonic movement of epic proportions had snapped the North American Tectonic Plate in two from deep in the Gulf of Mexico up the Mississippi River Valley and over to the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway.
For eons the bedrock deep under the center of the United States had been stretched thinner and thinner, resulting in the Reelfoot Rift. The surface would have sunk with the bedrock, except billions of tons of eroded rock coming from the Rockies and the Appalachians, and even the Ozarks, had filled the sunken land in, just slightly slower than the ground was sinking.
When the plate separated magma began to stream upward in hundreds of places. But it was still deep in the earth and much of it cooled and hardened quickly, sealing the crack except for here and there. A new line of volcanoes arose along the length of the split.
The waters of the Gulf of Mexico flowed northward over the sunken ground, stopping only when it reached Cape Girardeau, Missouri in the north, the Ozarks in the west, and the foothills of the Appalachians to the east. The Gulf of Mexico was now the American Sea.
Water flowed from the Atlantic into the new sea, and the Pacific flowed into the Atlantic. It took years for the oceans to equalize. In that time old currents disappeared and new ones were created.
The tremors continued for days. Communications were out. Brady and his group, and the other groups close, had no idea of the extent of what was happening. They only knew that the greatest earthquakes in recorded history had occurred. And they had survived them. So far. There was doubt in some minds about their future survival. One thing they noticed and couldn’t explain was the occasional scent in the air much like that of the sea.
They also couldn’t explain the loss of so many Amateur Radio contacts along the Gulf Coast. At first. Then the reports started to come in. Brady and the others found out they were only a few miles from the new coastline.
But life in the Ozarks went on for another year. There had been marriages and births and some additional deaths. Some of the marriages were between residents of different compounds. One of the births was Star and Brady’s son, Joshua Brady, named after Star’s father and Brady.
But the Ozarks had become a very small gene pool. There was pressure to go exploring and find some of the other survivors they talked to on the radio. Also to set up a presence on the new coast to take advantage of the bounty of the sea. So Brady’s MAG, in cooperation with the other Ozark locals, set up a plan to go to the nearest coast.
But that is a story for another time.
OZARK RETREAT: PART TWO
PROLOGUE
“I don’t know, Sweetie,” Joshua Hardcastle said. “With things going the way they are; I don’t think going on a world cruise is such a good idea.”
“It’s because of Precious, isn’t it?” She used Joshua’s daughter’s name almost like a curse. “She’s a spoiled little brat and you shouldn’t cave in to her the way you do. She should be making a living for herself, not living off you.”
“Of course Sue Billingsly living off me is all right,” Joshua thought, but didn’t say. “I like it this way. She’s the only family I have or am likely to have.” Sue had told him that outright. No babies.
“You have me,” Sue said, slithering over to him and plastering her body against his. “Don’t I keep you happy?”
“You do. You do,” he said. And thought, “In bed.”
“Let’s wait until Precious gets here. Maybe she’ll want to go. I feel bad about what happened the other day.”
Sue un-plastered herself from her Sugar Daddy. A conniving frown curled her lips. “We need to leave tomorrow to get on the cruise. You believe me, don’t you? She’s the one that did it.”
“Of course I do, Sweetie. Of course.” Of course he’d never known Precious to lie to him, either. They couldn’t both be telling the truth.
Sue used her best weapon. She took Joshua’s hand and tugged. “Let’s go upstairs. I’m in the mood.”
It was too good an offer to refuse. Joshua went along eagerly.
While Joshua was napping, afterwards, Sue got on the computer in the bedroom. She took his wallet from his pants and pulled out the Platinum American Express card. It took only moments to finalize the booking on the cruise, with payment in full. She’d been planning this for weeks after she found out the cruise was getting cancellations and bookings were again available. The bags were all packed, stored in a spare bedroom, without Joshua’s knowledge.
CHAPTER TEN
Joshua couldn’t bring himself to tell his daughter he was leaving, until he was leaving. As the Cruise Ship Elite left New York Harbor, he used his cellular phone to call her before they got out of range. Sue was suddenly no longer in evidence.
“Hi, Precious. I have something to tell you. I’m going on a world cruise with Sue.
“We’re leaving the port now. Sue and I think you need some time away from me. To do more on your own. I know you can do it. You’ve done it at times before. Don’t be mad, but I’m closing up the house, too, so you’ll have to use your apartment. I put a hundred thousand in your credit card account, so you have plenty of money. And don’t worry about us. Sue thinks this will all blow over, just like always. Bye.”
Sue was back at his side. “How’d she take it?” she asked.
“Very well, actually,” Joshua said, putting away the cell phone. He noticed that Sue seemed to be disappointed.
But she took his arm and said, “Let’s go down and wait for them to open the casino.”
With a sigh, Joshua went with her. He wasn’t too interested in the casino. He’d gambled in most of the major casinos in the world. He’d never won big and he’d never lost big. It just really didn’t interest him much anymore. But the casino wasn’t going to open until after the Lifeboat drill, anyway. They went to their suite and waited for the alarm to sound.
After the drill, Joshua left Sue, a glass of champagne in her hand, at the casino, that excited look in her eye of a gambling addict. She had several addictions, including alcohol. Joshua set about learning his way about the ship. He didn’t like not knowing where everything was. When it was time for their early dinner seating Joshua had to go get her from the casino. She was already moderately drunk.
Joshua got her to the dining room and as much of a meal into her as he could. They were sitting facing the stern of the ship. Suddenly bright lights began to flare in the far distance. “Fireworks for us! Cool!” said Sue.
Absolute quiet fell over the dining room. But it didn’t last. There was total pandemonium as people realized they were watching the nuclear destruction of New York and surrounding areas. Bells began to ring and then the Captain’s voice came over the public address system.
“Be calm. Everyone go back to your staterooms while we find out what is going on. I assure you we are in no immediate danger. Go back to your staterooms. The crew will assist you if you cannot locate your stateroom. I will be talking to you again soon.”
Joshua got Sue up on her feet. She was drunk. He half carried her toward the stateroom. He had to struggle slightly. She wanted to go back to the casino. “It’s closed, Sue! We’re at war now. Please. Please. Just let me get you to the stateroom.”
“You’re no fun,” she said, but quit struggling. She seemed to have no grasp as to what had happened. As he started to undress her she tried to turn it into fun and games, but Joshua resisted the urge. He got her undressed and into bed. Hating to need to do it, he got a 50ml bottle of gin from the dispenser in the room and poured her a drink.
Joshua had been in the Navy, an ordinance tech on aircraf
t carriers. He knew the feeling of a ship suddenly accelerating and turning. They turned left slightly. They were now going almost due north rather than northeast.
Knowing better, Joshua tried to leave the suite. He was ushered back inside unceremoniously. He thought about unpacking the cases, but decided to wait until the Captain spoke again. Joshua checked on Sue. She was out, the empty glass lying on the bed beside her hand.
He took out a book and tried to read in the sitting room of the suite. Finally, he just stood by the windows and stared out, thinking about Precious and how big a mistake he’d made.
The Captain didn’t make them wait long. The alerting signal sounded and the public address system came alive again. “This is Captain Roger Bainseborough-Smith. It is my duty to inform you that a thermo-nuclear war has begun. The flashes of light we saw behind the ship were nuclear warheads detonating. Do not worry. We are steaming north by northeast at top speed to try and remove ourselves from the path of any fallout.
“I am going to allow you out of your staterooms now so you can use the facilities of the ship. Stay calm. Please do not go out onto the decks. You will be asked to return to your stateroom if you do so.
“If, in fact, we do begin to experience fallout you will be ordered to the lower levels of the ship. If such is announced, please cooperate with the crew. They will show you to the safest locations in the ship. Thank you. More later.”
The Cruise Director came on and announced the various activities that would be available. Joshua wasn’t interested in the activities. He wanted to know something. Figuring there would at least be some rumors floating around in the various bars on the ship; he left the out-for-the-night Sue and headed for the smoking parlor. He’d have a cigar and a tonic water and see if anyone knew anything else.
No one did, but there was plenty of speculation. Joshua discounted it all and just enjoyed his cigar. He didn’t smoke often, but when he did, he enjoyed it. The cigar done, he headed back to the stateroom. Being among the obviously terrified passengers and crew of the ship was as bad as being in the suite. Quite a few of the passengers were getting drunk.
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