Television cameras showed near pandemonium in the meeting chamber when the vote was read. Everyone was running toward the exits. The President and Vice-President were being whisked off in different directions behind the podium by Secret Service agents.
“This is it,” Glenn muttered, sitting on his sofa in his earth sheltered home, watching the big screen TV go blank. He got up in a hurry and ran over to the intercom station mounted in the wall near the kitchen.
Glenn hit the master override and began to speak. “Attention, everyone, attention! Take shelter in the basements of your building! Take shelter in the basement of your building! We may be under attack with nuclear weapons. Everyone take shelter immediately!”
Releasing the intercom switch, Glenn picked up a radio microphone, keyed it, and said, “All units! All units! Return to the Farm and take shelter! Return to the Farm and take shelter! We are under attack with nuclear weapons! We are under attack! Take shelter!” Dropping the microphone, Glenn headed outside to make sure everyone was getting into shelter.
He was vastly disappointed to see people standing around, looking at the sky in all directions. He’d planned some drills for various scenarios, but had just never got around to running them, knowing that many of the students would probably object to the situation, as they realized that Glenn was, in fact, one of the dreaded Survivalists.
That didn’t matter now. “Come on! Come on!” he yelled, waving them over to the work and residence building. “Down in the basement. Everyone. Please!”
He was having no luck at all getting people to head for the shelter areas he had built into the basement of every structure. Only when a streak of contrail suddenly appeared over head, and moments later the sky lit up to their south, in the direction of Cape Girardeau, did people begin to respond.
The ground shock, when it reached them, knocked almost everyone down. There were cries of ‘earthquake’ and ‘The Big One’ as Glenn continued to plead with people to take shelter. The blast wave, nothing more than a quick, hard wind, and then reversal, seemed to shake some of the students out of their daze.
Some started toward the building entrance and then more followed. Glenn grabbed one of them and said, “Keep everyone moving!” and then he ran for one of the barns to get those workers to head for shelter.
Fortunately at least a couple of people had realized what was happening and were bringing in the animals from the pastures, riding two of the Hatz converted ROKON bikes, to get them into the shelter of the barns.
Glenn helped where he could as several more people began to do the same thing. When the animals were secured, he hustled everyone toward the shelters in the basements of the barns. He checked every building, going at a run from one to the other, calling out for people to head for the basement of their building.
Finally he ran back to his house and into the basement. He went to the intercom panel and called each building shelter in turn and asked whoever had taken charge to get him a census and check for missing people.
Glenn waited anxiously until he heard back from each of the building shelters. Everyone was accounted for and in one of the shelters. After checking the CD V-717 radiation survey meter for signs of fallout, Glenn made the rounds of the buildings again, this time using the 30” diameter culverts that connected the building basements with each other.
Only Fredrick and Alison had been informed of the presence of the tunnels and the shelters. Glenn had insisted that they take some FEMA sponsored training in disaster preparedness. Fredrick had done so reluctantly, Alison eagerly. It seemed that only Glenn, besides Fredrick and Alison had any sort of training for the situation.
Glenn decided to place Fredrick and Alison in separate shelters, as shelter managers. Fredrick would be in the animal barn shelter with responsibility for it and the shelter in the ‘spares’ rooms basement. Glenn sent Alison to the work and residential shelter. She would manage it and the shelter under the greenhouse support building.
When Glenn ran across the name on the census sheet of Harry O’Malley, he found him and asked him to take charge of the clinic shelter. Curious, Glenn asked him, “What brought you out here today?”
“Remember, you asked me to take stock of the supplies of the clinic from time to time?”
Glenn nodded.
“It’s my day off. I was here doing that. And trying to see Brittany. I think she’s been avoiding me.” He paused for a moment and then asked Glenn, “Thanks for having the shelter, but I think I may have to leave. I have a responsibility to the community. What do you think?”
“You have a responsibility to yourself first,” Glenn said somberly. “You won’t be much good out there if you come down with radiation sickness. Your skills will be invaluable in the aftermath of this. I can’t fathom why they would have hit the Cape, but one of the countries did. You may wind up being the only medical professional in a very large area.”
“I don’t know. It just seems like I’m letting people down.”
“I won’t try to make you stay, if you want to leave to try to help.”
“I tried to get my car started to leave as soon as it happened, but it wouldn’t start. A bunch of the others tried their vehicles, too. Not a one started.”
Glenn considered the risk/benefits of offering to let Harry take one of the diesel ROKON’s. He was sure they would run.
“If you insist on leaving,” Glenn said, “you can take one of the ROKON’s, until you get other transportation. Do you think your ambulance will run?”
Harry turned white when Glenn asked that question. “Geez!” he said, “I never even thought about that. I don’t know what I could do if it didn’t. And it probably won’t.”
“You’re more than welcome here, but if you want to go, let Fredrick know and have him call me to release one of the ROKON’s.” Glenn said and walked away, his fingers crossed that Harry would decide to stay. Glenn really thought it would be best, but wouldn’t try to make Harry stay. Much better if he stayed on his own.
When Glenn checked with Fredrick half an hour later, Harry had not asked for one of the bikes. Glenn breathed a sigh of relief. But other problems cropped up almost immediately. Other people had had time to think about things and wanted to leave, despite the sudden arrival of fallout.
Glenn announced that the radiation had jumped up to 50 R/hr and some of those wanting to leave changed their mind. But not all. Brittany and Tabitha were with a group that approached Glenn as he was leaving the clinic shelter.
“You have to let us out of here,” Tabitha said. She looked like she had been crying, but was now dry eyed.
“Yes!” cried another. “I want to go home!”
Glenn hardened his heart, after a glance at Brittany. “Okay. I’m not keeping anyone here. Anyone that wants to can leave. But you’ll have to find transportation on your own. I’ll not risk the farm equipment that still runs, or the horses.”
“Why not?” Tabitha asked angrily. “The horses are doomed, just like we are. We just want to go out and be free for a few minutes. I don’t want to die in hole in the ground.”
“We’re not doomed!” Glenn said. “We’re in good shelter and have all the necessities. Barring some kind of ridiculously bad luck, we should come out of this with shining colors.”
“Shining colors!” Tabitha almost screamed. “How can you say that? Haven’t you read, or at least seen, On the Beach? The crazy politicians and war mongers have doomed us all.”
“Quit saying that,” Glenn said, forcefully. “We are not doomed! There wasn’t a lick of truth in that story. It was an anti-war story and paid no attention to the facts of the matter when it comes to nuclear war.”
“I’ve been trying to tell her to have hope,” Brittany said quietly, stepping up to Tabitha to lay an arm around her shoulders.
Tabitha shook Brittany’s arm off roughly. “There is no hope. Don’t you understand? We’re all going to die! Every living thing on Earth will die!” She looked defiantly at Glenn. “Better to
die now than later. You that try to survive will just envy those of us that died first, because you will suffer greatly until you do die. And this is all because of people like you!”
Coldly Glenn said, “You will note that I am not trying to stop you from going outside. I won’t allow you to take any of the Farm or Ranch equipment or animals. You will die if you do go out, from the radiation.”
“Please, Glenn,” Brittany pleaded, as Tabitha headed for the entrance of the shelter. “Don’t let her go out there!”
“It’s her choice,” Glenn replied, watching Tabitha and several more also headed for the shelter door. “Their choice.” He walked over to where the CD V-717 was mounted on the wall of the clinic shelter. “Look. It’s already up over 100 R/hr now and the fallout has barely started. We’re close enough to the blast to probably have fallout radiation as high as 1000 R/hr or more. A few hours out in that and they really will be dead. I for one will not be envying them that death.”
“But can’t you stop her, somehow?”
“I could. But I believe in people’s right to self-determination, even if it is based on erroneous information and the person is too obstinate to even listen to reason and an explanation of known facts.”
When it came down to it, of the group that started out, only Tabitha and two others, both women, went outside.
“Isn’t there anything you can do? Will do?” Brittany pleaded.
Glenn frowned, but said, “If she stays around the buildings you can talk to her over the intercom. Try to persuade her to come back inside and decontaminate.”
Brittany followed Glenn over to an out of the way corner of the shelter and Glenn showed her how to bring back the mechanic’s crawler that he would use first to go to the main farm house.
When they were in the house shelter, Glenn went over to a control panel sitting on a desk. “You’ve seen the security cameras around. I can control them from here.” He flipped through several camera views until they saw Tabitha and the other two on the monitor.
All three were sitting cross-legged on the grass near the center of the compound of buildings. The fallout was coming down like snow. They were already coated with the gray dust. Glenn flipped a switch and pointed to a microphone sitting on the desk.
Brittany began to talk and Glenn busied himself elsewhere. Quite some time later Brittany called Glenn over. “Janis and Olive are coming back in.”
Quickly Glenn said, “Have them come to the house. I don’t want them contaminating the other shelters.” He looked at Brittany. “You’ll need to help me. They are going to have to strip and shower off as they come in.”
Brittany nodded. She turned back to the monitor and the mike. “I’ll be back to talk to you some more, Tab. Janis, you and Olive come over to the house. We’ll decontaminate you here.”
Glenn got out two of the lightweight Tyvek jumpsuits he had for such a situation and showed Brittany how to work the decontamination shower off the air-lock entry to the shelter. He stayed handy, but let Brittany get the two women stripped and showered and into the jump suits.
Glenn took both women to the clinic shelter for Harry to monitor, and rejoined Brittany. It was another hour of on-again off-again talking before Tabitha too stood up and headed for the house. Brittany decontaminated her and got her dressed in another of the jump suits.
Glenn let Brittany take the muttering Tabitha through the tunnel to the clinic shelter. Glenn just shook his head at Tabitha’s repeated mumbling, “I should be dead. I should be dead. I should be dead.”
Glenn did a thorough cleaning of the decontamination room, handling the women’s discarded clothing with long tongs. He shoved them out of the room through an access port that opened into a lead lined concrete holding container. Once the radiation had died down they would be further decontaminated and then washed.
Brittany came back to the house shelter and told Glenn, “Harry had given all three of them something to help get them to sleep.” She paused, looking at Glenn as he looked back at her, a neutral look on his face. “What’s going to happen to them? I don’t know much about radiation effects on humans.”
“They will get radiation sickness,” Glenn replied. “Bad cases of it. A lot depends on how much of the fallout they inhaled. Very much and they’re goners. With Tabitha staying out as long as she did, she’ll be much worse. Her dosage may very well be fatal, even in the short run. All three have very high risk of cancers and other damage. If they do live, they’ll probably be sterile.”
“Oh, Lord! Why wouldn’t they listen?” Brittany started crying and stepped toward Glenn. He took her in his arms and led her cry herself out.
Finally Brittany stepped back and wiped her eyes with the sides of her hands. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” replied Glenn. “I think I’d better take over to Harry the information I have on radiation sickness. He may not know much about it.”
“He said he’d only had a little training about it. I’m sure he would appreciate some help.”
Glenn went over to a large bookcase and ran his fingers across several books and binders on the shelves. “Here it is. Radiation sickness.” He pulled the three-ring binder from the shelf. “Stuff I’ve downloaded from the Internet.”
Brittany followed him over to the clinic shelter and stayed to study the information with Harry. Glenn checked on the other shelters and then went back to the house shelter when he was satisfied everyone was situated for the long days to come before they could leave the shelters.
He made sure that Fredrick understood that those going up into the barn proper to tend to the animals had to be suited up and limit their time of exposure. Each one would have to wear a dosimeter whenever they were out of the shelter.
Glenn told Alison the same thing about working in the greenhouses. Limited time and keep records of exposures for everyone. Like the barns, it would be at least three days before anyone had to risk exposure to take care of anything.
Tabitha, Janis, and Olive all suffered the miseries of the first symptoms of radiation sickness. The nausea and vomiting, general fatigue, losing hair a few days later. To Glenn’s surprise, Janis suffered more than Tabitha, though all were very ill. Tabitha either had a bit more resistance to radiation, or Janis had inhaled significantly more of the radioactive dust than Tabitha or Olive. Perhaps both situations existed.
Glenn made the rounds of the shelters every day. People seemed to be adapting to the situation fairly well. There were no fights of any consequence. People were keeping themselves distracted with various activities. The fact that the shelters were large and well ventilated helped tremendously. People were able to exercise regularly. They would not have been able to do that without the excellent ventilation.
The ability to move between the shelters was helpful, too. One concrete room looks much like another, but there were enough differences, along with the different people, that quite a bit of switching around took place. Fredrick and Alison kept an eye on it and kept it to manageable levels, but it did happen.
As soon as the radiation levels in the earth sheltered buildings was low enough, people began spending time in them, but always slept in the shelters.
A month into the shelter stay Janis died as a result of her radiation sickness. Despite efforts to avoid it, a mild flu swept through the shelters. Janis caught it and died almost immediately. Harry was keeping Olive and Tabitha alive, but just barely.
They began to do their first outside decontamination of the greenhouses when the radiation dropped below 2 R/hr. Everyone able took a turn. There was some significant loss due to the radiation, but no total, catastrophic losses.
Gradually the other buildings were washed down, and then the spaces between the buildings. The ROKON’s, Bobcats, Glenn’s Suburban, and much to his surprise, the Talisman, all started right up when they were tried on May 12th.
Four of the Unimogs had been in the equipment barn, being readied for the spring ground work when the war began. They all sta
rted. The two sitting out didn’t. Glenn had been careful to have spare parts for all of the equipment, and the two Unimogs with EMP fried computers were soon running again with new computers installed.
A couple of older model cars owned by the students at the farm ran all right. If they could find a competent mechanic, several of the others might be made to run, but no one currently at the farm had the skills, much less the parts that probably would be required.
The fields that would be growing food crops, despite the late start, had the top few inches of earth removed. The soil contaminated with fallout was stockpiled in windrows for future use, though not even Glenn could think of what it might be used for. The oil producing crops fields were decontaminated and planted after the food crops were in.
Next the pastures were stripped of their top layer and reseeded. The animals would live off stored grain, silage, and hay until the pastures could recover. It took the farm hands all summer to accomplish their tasks.
Simpler Times Page 6