The Shelter: Book 1, The Beginning

by Ira Tabankin

  Walking into the mess hall, I run into Lacy, I ask her to stop in and spend time with Cheri, “Jay, I was just heading to the infirmary. I have a change of clothing for Cheri and some breakfast.”

  “Honey, you’re the best. If Fred comes around, or when the doc tells Cheri how he is, please call me.”

  “We will.”

  The rest of us meet in the main shelter’s dining room at 7:00 AM for breakfast. Sipping a large cup of coffee, I look at John who also hasn’t gone to bed yet, “John, is it possible to make more exploding mines? If we had lines of them, we should be able to surprise the hell out of the next wave of attackers without us risking our lives.”

  “It’s possible, we have everything we need. I’ll look into it.”

  “Great, I’d like us to make and bury as many as we can build.”

  “The ground is soft which will make it easier to bury them. How soon before you can make more? I’m concerned about another attack.”

  “I’ll start after I get a short nap in, I haven’t gone to bed yet. I wanted to review the battle and try to figure out where to move our sensors and cameras so we get a better indication we’re going to be attacked. Had we all not been in your home, we wouldn’t have made it to the trench in time to stop the attack. We need better advance notice. We need the time to man our battle stations.”

  “Jay, we’re going to be limited in our mine production by the limited chemicals we have. I know a plant not far away. I’m not sure if they still have any inventory, but it would be a good place to check out.”

  “John, if you know of a plant close by, I think we ought to send a team to grab everything they have. One so it can’t be used against us and two so we can ring our property with mines. Get all of the material you can find, we can make hand thrown pipe bombs and rig a lot of surprises for attackers.”

  “Damn it, you’re not going to let me take a nap are you?”

  “Nope, last night scared me. It showed me we have too many weaknesses in our defensives. We got lucky.”

  “Jay, every battle plan goes out the window when the enemy is engaged. We won last night.”

  “We won and we lost. What about Fred and Todd?”

  “Todd just got creased, not in the least serious. Even the bleeding stopped. Fred’s going to make it, the bullet struck him in the shoulder. A real lucky shot, it struck him through a gap in his armor. Our body armor isn’t magic. It’s designed to block a kill shot. Nothing is going to block a shot that causes a serious wound. We’re very lucky we suffered only one casualty.”

  “John, we can’t afford to lose many. We’re not starting out with many people. We can’t afford to lose even one if we’re going to survive. We need numbers to fight off a large attack.”

  “Jay, we are in a war. Call it anything you want, but it is a war. Think in terms of the Middle Ages, you’re the local landowner. Instead of a castle, we have barbed wire.”

  “Which didn’t keep the gang out.”

  “It slowed them down, which is all barbed wire is supposed to do.”

  “I wish we had a twenty-foot wall around us.”

  John laughs, “There aren’t enough building materials around to build a wall like that.”

  “It’d be nice.”

  “It would take years to build a wall like that, years we don’t have. Have you seen the last reports from the HAM operators?”

  “No, what do they say?”

  “Complete meltdown across the country. I don’t think there’s a city that isn’t burning. People are starving to death, they’re fighting for a slice of moldy bread.”

  “Crap, I’d hoped we could get to winter before it turned this bad.”

  “Why winter?”

  “Cold will keep people off the streets. It’s still warm enough that people will be out looking for food and supplies.”

  “Jay, with the cities destroyed, I estimate the country is going to lose over a third of our people by the time spring comes around. There’s not going to be enough food located where the people are. There’s a lot of food in the country, it’s just not where the people are.”

  “John, I’ve said for a long time the country is going to tear itself apart.”

  “Jay, it’s going to be a complete disaster. I’m worried about next spring when the weather warms and all of the bodies that were left where they died will rot and spread diseases. We could be seeing the spread of diseases, unlike anything the world’s seen since the black plague.”

  “Shit, what can we do to protect ourselves?”

  “Stay clean and be careful of strangers who might be carriers of whatever bug that spreads across the world. While the doc is good, we don’t have access to the CDC or anything like it anymore. All kinds of diseases are going to make a comeback. Stuff we thought was gone will be making a comeback.”

  “You’re always full of good news. By the way, who’s watching the cameras while you scare the shit out of me?”

  “Your son-in-law, Todd. I trained him to be my primary backup.”

  “Good, John, how far can we place cameras or sensors so we get as much advance notice of uninvited guests?”

  “I’m looking into that right now, I’m planning to test small radio-controlled drones.”

  “Will they work at night or in bad weather?”

  “We can mount one of the FLIR cameras on the drone, but I don’t know how the drone will operate in bad weather. We need more tests.”

  “Please remember we only have a small number of FLIR cameras.”

  “I know, but it’s the only way I can think of to give us the range we need and also function at night.”

  “I know you’ll keep us informed of the tests.”

  “Why don’t you join me for a test tonight, around 10?”

  “I will, I’ll ask Tony to join us.”

  Tony walks over saying, “Did I hear my name taken in vain?”

  I laugh, “We were just talking testing an RC drone with one of our FLIR cameras mounted on it. John invited us to see a test tonight around 10.”

  “Count me in. I agree we need as much advance notice as possible, last night could have ended differently had we not all been together when the alarm sounded.”

  John replies, “The issue is even with forty people, we don’t have enough bodies to operate over 1,000 acres of farm and provide security. We should be operating random patrols around our perimeter plus have a ready forcefully armed and ready to respond to any incursion to our property. A large force can overwhelm us before we can respond, we have too large an area to defend. It can take ten minutes or more for people working in the fields to arm themselves and arrive at the fighting. They could come under fire in transit to the main battle area. Anyone who is serious about attacking us can watch us for a couple of days, they’ll quickly learn our routine. If I were leading an attack against us, I would watch our routine and I’d attack when I saw most of us in the far corners of the fields. I’d know how long it takes us to respond. I’d place snipers in position to take down our people when they try to make their way from the fields to the front line. I could reduce our numbers by 15~20% with a couple of good snipers.”

  Tony and I sit down in surprise and fear. We look at each other asking John, “What should, what can we do with our limited numbers? We can’t stop working on the farm, it’s how we feed ourselves.”

  John sips his coffee, “I’ve given this a lot of thought, we can’t reduce the numbers working in the fields or we won’t get the yield of crops we need. We can’t keep a large number of people in the trenches 24/7 because we could be attacked in a different position. We need advance information, and we need to slow down any attack, we need to keep them tied down at our perimeter before they can get close enough to us to hurt us. I want to increase the number of hunting traps and mines along our border. I think we should dig more pits, and increase the depth of the barbed wire fence. We have enough wire to add another layer in the sections near our gates.”

  Tony replies,
“Don’t forget about the gates, we thought the locks were secure, last night we learned they weren’t as secure as we thought.”

  “I’m going to increase the number of locks and also add some steel rebar poles to block the gate from opening. If we assume most of the attacks against us will occur at night, we can add spikes and barbs to the ground which will slow the invaders down.”

  John, “I think we need to add barbed wire or something on top of the gates to slow down anyone trying to climb over them. My other concern is anyone checking us out will see our defenses in the daylight, they might map them to know the areas to avoid.”

  John responds, “We’ll let the grass grow longer, the spikes and barbs don’t have to be high, just enough to slow them down. I wish we had some bouncing Betty’s.”

  “Huh?”

  “Land mines, when triggered, they bounce up and explode.”

  “I like that, can we make some on springs?”

  “Too much work for the return, we can make regular mines and spikes much quicker. We’re going to need thousands, over ten thousand of them to cover the area from the road to our homes. I know where to find the rebar, we can cut and weld them into “X” shapes. I also want to look at cutting more trenches and vehicle traps just behind the barbwire.”

  Tony asks, “John, all well and good, however, how much time do we have before we’re attacked again?”

  John lowers his coffee cup, he looks at Tony and me, his voice lowers to almost a whisper, “Tony, that’s the real question. Isn't it? I don’t know. The reports we’ve picked up on our radios tell us a story I wouldn’t have believed six months ago. Hundreds of thousands of people are wandering around the country looking for help, hundreds of thousands are either fighting over scraps in the cities or they’re dying from starvation. Bodies are lying where they died.”

  “Shit, I built the shelter as a last resort, hoping we’d never have to use it.”

  “Jay, I think we’re going to need the shelter sooner versus than later. I think the only way we’re going to survive is the shelters. We were lucky last night. We’ve talked many times that if we’re hit by a large group, they’ll overrun us, it’s all a question of numbers. Even though we were lucky last night, one of us got hit, this proves no matter how well built our defenses are, there’s always a risk. A lucky shot can get any of us. If we assume the reports are correct, everyone with half a brain is leaving the cities, the government stopped sending military convoys into the cities with food and water. Those people have nothing to lose, they’re not going to be as easy to negotiate with as the first group. When we get hit, we’ll have to retreat to our shelter to live to fight another day.”

  “John, how long do you think we have before a sizeable group hits us?”

  “It could be at any time, which is why I want to expand our eyes ASAP.”

  Tony smiles, he pats John on the back, “So why are you wasting daylight talking with us, get going. Set up new cameras. I hate surprises, especially surprises that want to kill me.”

  “I’m going, I stopped here for coffee.”

  “Excuses, excuses.”

  Tony smiles at John, who nods his head at us. “I hope I’m wrong, but my gut says we’ve been lucky.”

  Tony gets very serious, “How many people do you want to accompany you?”

  “Four shooters in case we run into trouble, plus four to help install the cameras.”

  “They’ll meet you at the warehouse in fifteen minutes.”

  “Works for me. Gives me time to have another cup.”

  Tony and I walk towards the infirmary to check on Fred. The doc meets us before we reach the ER, “Guys, he’s sleeping, please don’t wake him.”

  We nod in agreement, “How’s he doing? I swear when he got hit, it felt like I did too.”

  “Jay, we got the bullet out, he should be fine, the only potential issue is an infection, I’ve given him a strong dose of antibiotics to counter the possibility. If he doesn’t develop an infection, he can go home in two or three days.”

  “Thanks, doc.”

  Tony and I turn to leave when I get a brain flash, “Tony, if John hasn’t left yet, I think we need to see him.”

  “Let’s hurry.” We catch John and his team as they are loading into two pickups, “John, before you go, can we see you?”

  John laughs, saying, “First you tell me to go, and then you ask me to wait.”

  “John, how much mace or pepper spray do we have?”

  John stops mid-step, “Damn it, I think I see where you’re going. Why didn’t I think of it?”

  “We can rig a remote sprayer of pepper spray. It may break up a large group. If we can get or make tear gas, we could mix the two together, the gas will surely break up large attacks without us killing them.”

  “Tony, you brought a college chemistry teacher with you, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, Jeff Stone. I’ll find him.”

  Jeff was found in the small lab looking at fertilizer. “Jeff.”

  “Tony?”

  “Can you make tear gas?”

  “Sure, it’s an easy formula, I was afraid you were going to ask for VX.”

  “What’s VX?”

  “Forget it, you don’t want it because I won’t make it.”

  I nod responding, “It’s nerve gas, very deadly shit. The wind could blow it back at us, killing all of us.”

  Tony frowns, “You guys win, just tear gas.”

  “To repeat, yes, I can make it, anything else?”

  “Explosives. You’ve got fertilizer, and diesel we need to make thousands of land mines.”

  “Harder than large bombs, I’ll see what I can develop. I’ll need some supplies.”

  “Give the list to Matt, he’s going to take a team into town.”

  Twelve hours later Matt and his team return with most of John’s list. John’s team mounted Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) remote control cameras on existing telephone poles a mile from our gate. He wired them with small amplifiers to ensure the images were good quality and he could control them from the security shelter. At 7:00 PM, many people complained about a buzzing noise over the farms, people even shot into the air, trying to hit or scare away the buzzing. Todd laughed at the shooting, he landed the small RC drone in front of a group of our people who now realized what the noise was. The video of our neighbors scared by the buzzing was enough to make most of us laugh for the evening. Our spirits lifted thinking we had a handle on our security. We felt we’d be able to see anyone attacking the farms before they could close enough to harm us. We were wrong. Dead wrong.

  Chapter 20

  Captain Black taps Sergeant Gray on the shoulder whispering, “Sarge, we have to get out of here. The Russians have almost closed their circle with us in the middle, I don’t think they liked us taking out three platoons of their tanks. Our orders are not to get caught and leave nothing behind which they could use to prove we were here. Wake the men, we’ll try to slip out in this heavy rain, we won’t leave tracks in this weather.”

  “Sir, where’s our pick up point?”

  “Sarge, about ten klicks from here, a Pave Low helicopter will be waiting for our radio call.”

  “I’ll get the men ready to move.”

  The Russian Spetsnaz captain whispered to his team, “The Yankees are two klicks in front of us, I want them alive. Our orders are to bring back live prisoners who can prove the Americans attacked our troops. Putin wants to use the prisoners to force the Americans to pay for the damage they’ve done. Tell the men to wound, not kill. If they kill all of the Americans, I’ll kill them. Am I clear?”

  “Yes, sir. Sir, the Americans are broke, they don’t have anything to pay us with. China is pressuring them into giving up their state of Hawaii.”

  “Maybe our dear leader wants New York City.”

  “That would be interesting.”

  “We move out in thirty minutes.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The American Special Forces team quietly
breaks their cold camp, moving towards their pickup point in a driving rain. They move in single file with their fingers hovering over the triggers on their Russian-made AK74 assault rifles. They're wearing NVGs, which enable their transit through the dense woods which have heavy ground foliage. They move almost silently, unaware there is a Russian Spetsnaz team following them. Captain Black took point at the start of the march. His sixth sense kept telling him something was wrong so he drifted back to the rear kneeling in the mud listening. He felt in his bones something was wrong. He heard a branch snap, he tapped the last soldier in line, holding up his hand to tell his squad to pause. Each troop paused in mid-step. Captain Black motioned to his men to take up an ambush position. His men dropped to the wet ground, covering themselves with the ground material. They waited for the people who were following them to reach their position. The Russian Spetsnaz team was very good, they were almost silent following the Americans. They had intercepted the American communication figuring out where the probable pickup locations were. They were lucky in picking up the American’s trail, they decided to follow the Americans to their pick-up point, where they would capture the Americans and their helicopter.