The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  “Doing what?”

  Joe grumbled then shouted. “Walking around naked in your goddamn backyard!”

  “God, Dad, announce it to everyone, why don’t you.”

  “Frank! You asshole! They can see you!”

  “Oh.” Frank looked around. “I guess so, huh?” He shrugged. “Well, they’re gonna have to deal with it. I’m trying to drain the excess electricity from my body so I stop shocking everyone. I couldn’t even touch my kids today without making them scream. Then again, I was gonna ask El if she wanted to try to have sex and see what . . .”

  “Frank.”

  “What?”

  “Get dressed.”

  “Why?”

  At first Joe blinked, just a few times in his stare at Frank. Then Joe, put his cigarette in his mouth, his hands in his pockets, and walked away.

  ^^^^

  Pomeroy, Washington

  The glow of the still burning Savage body pile lit up the area enough that Robbie barely needed the lantern on the table. Things were still being dumped there and he knew there was a lot more to be found.

  He sifted through them in the camp site he and his men had set up. Slowly, taking in all the information.

  “Hey, Uncle Robbie, generator’s up enough,” Johnny said as he pulled a chair up to the table. “We have to call home. Do you have anything?”

  Robbie lifted an odd shape piece of paper. “Yeah, maps.” He shrugged. “Of where, I don’t know. This one looks like Beginnings.” He held another tan odd shaped paper up. “Doesn’t it?”

  Johnny looked at it. “Yeah, kind of.”

  “Also looks like the ink is . . .”

  “Blood?” Johnny guessed. “It is. We saw it stored in the ground, kind of a natural cooler.”

  Robbie cringed. “Remind me not to run my fingers over it again.”

  “Why not? You’re holding that paper.”

  “What’s wrong with the paper?” Robbie asked.

  “You don’t know what it is? Didn’t it strike you as odd?”

  “Yeah. What is it?”

  “Skin.”

  Robbie dropped the map he held.

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  Joe’s head lowered at the same time the communications signal ended with Robbie. He turned from the wall map and speaker to Frank, who sat at the console. Walking to him, Joe paused to give a pat on the back to Terry, a Security man. “Thanks, Terry. Appreciate you coming down. I needed someone experienced down here tonight.”

  “No problem, Mr. Slagel,” Terry said. “I never minded working the night shift down here.”

  “Good.” Joe nodded. “Frank? What do we have?”

  “Well . . .” Frank lifted the sheet on the clipboard and reviewed his notes. “They’ve definitely been communicating. My guess is by old style Pony Express.”

  “What about the hydro-power source.”

  “Real old world. From what’s described it’s a wind mill style, used basically to regenerate the car batteries that power the radios,” Frank stated.

  “But the radio system Robbie described is really out of date. He’s bringing it with him.”

  “We’ll have to check it out. He said it looks like Morse code. However, unlike when George was using it, we aren’t picking it up.”

  “Or our system is not recognizing it as Morse code.”

  “Possibly.” Frank rubbed the bridge of his nose in thought. “They could have derived their own system of coded communications. They have their own language. Terry?”

  “Yeah?” Terry answered.

  “While you’re down here, why don’t you do some random sweeps?” Frank suggested. “See if we can pick up anything, anything that seems steady, maybe a signal. Even if you don’t think it’s anything, make a note of it and we’ll review it in the morning.”

  “Sure thing, Frank. Any specific areas you want me to concentrate on?”

  Frank stood up, looking at the map on the wall as he did. “That camp was northwest. Society’s taken most of eastern seaboard. Random south scan, mid and north east regions.” He picked up the clipboard. “I’m gonna be doing rounds from the back gate to the UD. I’m on all night. Find me if you need me.”

  “Got it.”

  Frank started to leave. He noticed Joe staring at the board. “Dad?”

  “You know what, Frank? I have a bad feeling. I think I’ll stay down here and work with Terry for a little while. Go on. We’ll be in touch.” Getting an agreeing nod from Frank, who proceeded to leave, Joe walked to the coffee pot to prepare for a long night. He looked back up at the lit map of the United States and mumbled to himself. “A real bad feeling.”

  ^^^^

  Blank.

  That was the look on John Matoose’s face.

  Dean shined the flashlight across John’s eyes as he stood on the other side of the bed from Ellen. “Melissa found him like this. One second he was fin and the next . . .” Dean put the light away. “Pupillary response is normal. Vitals. Normal. Everything. But look at him.”

  Swallowing, Ellen’s eyes went from John to Dean. “You know what it looks like?”

  “I was thinking the same thing.”

  After only a beat, they both spoke the same word at the same time.

  “Salicain.”

  ^^^^

  The deep buzz of the Communications Room door brought in Frank with a rush. “What’s going on?”

  Joe shook his head with a look of stunned worry across his face. “I wanna see what you make of this.” He pointed to the wall map.

  “What happened?” Frank asked.

  “Monitoring signals. About . . . ten minutes ago, we picked up something that resembled a clicking source, one of those, ‘you never knows’. We marked it, registered it into the system, and programmed the system to lock in and look for it, just in case it happens again.”

  “Routine,” Frank said.

  “Exactly. Then we got this. Watch the board. Terry, play it back.”

  Frank’s eyes peered at the board as the light went off and back on as Terry rolled it into the playback mode. When Frank watched, his eyes widened. “Whoa,” he spoke deeply. “Oh, my God. Play it again.” Frank’s hand slid slowly down his face as he watched again. The dances of light on the eastern United States were common place since George no longer hid his communications. Those lights signified radio and phone transmissions. Then out of the blue, in the replay, a dance of light grew bright and grew in circumference before going black with a flicker of static. Frank quickly looked at his father. “Did the system identify that?”

  “Nope. I was hoping you’d confirm.”

  “Only one thing could cause that, an electrode magnetic pulse.” Frank closed his eyes. “Fuck. Call George.”

  ^^^^

  Quantico Marine Headquarters

  George’s living room was dark as he waited in the silence for his answer. The clicking of his mantle clock was the only sound. It was a sense of torture as it reiterated the minutes that seemed to drag on.

  The knock on his front door jolted through him with the feel of electricity.

  “Come in,” George called out as he stood up.

  Slowly and sadly, Steward shut the door and stepped inside.

  “Well?” George asked.

  Steward hesitated. He looked down then back up, not wanting to deliver the news. “Confirmed.”

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  The moment Ellen stepped into the lab she hurried to Dean’s side. “Dean?”

  Dean caught his balance. His eyes were tightly closed. “Shit.”

  “What happened?” Ellen steadied him.

  “I got dizzy.”

  “Here sit.” She pulled up a stool. “No wonder you’ve been bitchy. You probably haven’t slept since . . . since . . .” She cleared her throat. “Your slumber party.”

  Dean rubbed his eyes. “I haven’t. And it wasn’t . . .” He grunted.

  “Dean?”

  �
�God, my head.”

  “Dean, do you think . . .”

  “No.” Dean stood up. “I thought about that. My vision is fine. The headaches feel the same. It has to be stress, El. And now this. John.”

  “Not Salicain?” Ellen asked.

  “Close, but no cigar. The antidote is useless.”

  “Can we derive something from the antidote if what’s in John’s blood is like the Salicain.”

  “Feel like trying?” Dean asked.

  “Sure, why not. Now?”

  “Who’s with the kids?”

  “Jess is staying. I have till morning.” Ellen pulled up a stool. “Dean? If someone hit John with a derivative of Salicain, that someone has to be working for George in order to have something like that.”

  “I know.”

  “And medical knowledge.”

  “I . . . I know,” Dean said. “What are you getting at?”

  “I love . . . I love Andrea with my whole heart and soul. O.K.?”

  “Ellen.”

  “No, hear me out.” Ellen took a deep breath. “If this Bev thing is a whole set up like you insist, she needs medical help to pull it off.”

  “Oh My God.” Dean hurriedly looked up. “Did you just . . . did you just say what I think you did.”

  “Yeah, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about someone with medical knowledge being the insider.”

  “We’ve discussed this. Andrea is not the only option.”

  “Today she is,” Ellen stated. “Please, take no further than this lab.”

  “Go on.”

  Ellen leaned into Dean. “Danny was here today talking to John. You know, doing that Danny trial intimidation thing. The walls in the rooms are like paper . . .”

  “Ellen.”

  “No, hear me out.” Ellen pulled two charts closer. “Danny said he left here around twelve fifteen. Gene is in the room next to John with shingles. Look at the time Andrea did her rounds.” Ellen flipped open the chart. “She noted Gene’s vital at . . .”

  “Twelve-fifteen.”

  “O.K. Here’s the I-vac readout from John’s pump.” Ellen pulled out a strip. “Look at the time it was refreshed.”

  Dean closed his eyes briefly. “Twelve-eighteen.”

  “Knowing these walls, knowing the time. Andrea . . . heard everything.”

  Dean breathed out heavily.

  ^^^^

  “Joe.” George’s voice came through the speaker in the Communications Room.

  “I’m here,” Joe spoke through heavy words. “What’s going on?”

  “First, let me just say.” George’s words echoed in the quiet room where Henry, Jason, and Frank also listened. “When you called with the news that there were this many, I found it hard to believe. Then when you called and said they had possible means of communications, I thought you were pushing it.”

  “Is it plausible to you now?” Joe asked.

  “Plausible?” George chuckled. “It’s probable. I’d go as far as to say definite now. These things are a lot smarter than we, in our history of fighting them, gave them credit for.”

  “I think we’re beginning to see that,” Joe said. “My God, let’s stop and take a moment to realize that they’ve had as long as us to organize.”

  George’s sigh came through the speaker with a brush of distortion sound. “And they did. I wanna take the bastards out and take them out all at once. We cannot do any more one at a time hits. You or I cannot afford that. And screw three hundred. I have three thousand scouting out tomorrow first light, north, south east and west. Everywhere. I’m finding them and finding them soon. I suggest you people move as quickly because this is deadlier than we anticipated.”

  “George, what . . .”

  “They got us. They got us good, Joe. It’s just as Frank thought. All the work we did to try to get it started again, finished. Our shipping in Norfolk, gone.” George took a long sad hesitation. “We’ve been nuked.”

  Savage Wars

  Beginnings Book 13

  CHAPTER ONE

  Beginnings, Montana

  October 24

  Jason, holding his notes, stood in Joe’s office as he brought the awaited news, the weather forecast. And for the first time since planting, it meant something. “I don’t think the severity of the after effects is something to worry about. Dean?”

  Dean looked up from his own notes. “I don’t believe so either. Even though George reported mild to moderate cases of radiation poisoning, it should dissipate before it reaches us.”

  “The cloud will reach us,” Jason continued, “probably by tomorrow, late afternoon or early evening.”

  “Remaining crops?” Joe asked.

  Jason shook his head. “There should be minimal radiation although we’re talking a nice size warhead that exploded. Dean and I believe that for the day and a half it’s in the area we’ll be O.K. Just . . . any pregnant women, or those who suspect pregnancy should stay indoors.”

  Joe nodded. “Robert. Scouts?”

  “We haven’t heard anything yet,” Robbie answered. “We didn’t think we would. Nothing from George’s men either. I guess we’ll get something in a day or two, next week at the latest.”

  “Let’s please not forget . . .” Frank interjected, “even if we find the remaining base or bases, we aren’t finding the remaining Savages, just the ones who organized. There’s no way we’re locating all the ones in the States gone bad.”

  Jason held up a pencil. “I have to agree with Frank. I did some of my own calculations based on the Dawson apocalyptic survival theory and I came up with estimated numbers in the States alone, not including Mexico or Canada, around one hundred and ninety-two thousand. About ninety are accounted for. Where’s the rest of the population?”

  “Yeah, what he said,” Frank added. “That just supports my theory even more.”

  “Christ, Frank.” Joe shook his head. “We gassed a major camp. They nuked George in retaliation. It was probably something they had set up all along, a contingency plan.”

  “Don’t stay strictly on that, Dad. I’m telling you, anyone breaching our radio communications like Hal used to do could have seized the opportunity to hide their strike behind the Savages,” Frank replied. “Now I’m not ruling out that the fuckin Savages didn’t have one intelligent suicidal man who would set it off. Granted, Norfolk is big. They wouldn’t have noticed him, unlike here in Beginnings or New Bowman where we’re small and we’d see someone sneaking in with, let’s say, a ten megaton nuclear warhead. But . . . it could have come from anywhere. We got that signal. That could have been the radio signal of the nuke coming in.”

  “We took out the capabilities of most of the silos,” Joe argued. “And you’re forgetting that was Norfolk. We also have a landmine of available nuclear weapons just lying around the United States.”

  “True,” Frank said, “but we didn’t hit the rest of the world. Cuba, Canada, overseas, you name it. Like I said, they could have been listening to us and masking their attack. It was the perfect opportunity. A nuclear weapon is not within the brain function or the style of the Savages.”

  Joe held up his hand to silence the moans of aggravation that erupted in the room, stemming from an argument Frank was insistent upon all morning. Joe, like everyone else, was getting fed up with Frank who seemed to be headed into fighting a war that existed only in his mind. “So what are you suggesting, Frank. Forget the savages? They aren’t a threat?”

  “No.” Frank lifted his finger. “Fuck the Savages. We still take them out. We don’t need them. They are a threat but not a nuclear threat. When they retaliate, they will retaliate big by ground, not by air or massive explosion. I’m just saying for us to keep our eyes open. After we get this Savage situation and their barbaric linked up civilization out of the way, we should start looking elsewhere.”

  “So the Savages and George aren’t enough in this screwed up world?” Joe asked with a hint of sarcasm. “We’re looking for a new enem
y?”

  “Maybe not.”

  Another eruption of moans and Joe threw up his hands. “Maybe not?”

  “Maybe it’s not an enemy,” Frank stated.

  Joe laughed and looked around the faces of the room. “No. I’m game. I wanna hear this. If the Savages don’t have the nukes and aren’t using them and someone else is, how are they not the enemy?”

  “Easy. If they listened to our transmissions, then they’ve listened for a while. They know what’s going on with us, the Society Wars, the UWA, and so on. If they waited for a masked retaliation moment, they waited until we took out the big Savage camp. If they heard about that drop, then they know we, Beginnings, did it. If they know that . . .” Frank grinned. “Why did they hit George?”

  ^^^^

  “I’m free!” Richie screamed joyfully as he bolted from the Containment door.

  Ellen’s shriek was not far behind as she chased him. “Richie!” she yelled then saw Johnny coming out of the clinic. “Johnny! Grab him! He escaped!”

  After a chuckle and seeing Richie making it far away from Containment, Johnny, who was much bigger than Richie, intercepted the little man’s run. He grabbed him and tried to stop him. “You can’t escape Rich. Those are the rules.”

  “No. No. See I’m not . . .” In the midst of his struggle, Richie’s head turned to the right. “Hey.” He pointed at Bev. “I know her.”

  “You what?” Johnny laughed nervously.

  “Why is she allowed to live here?”

  “What . . . what do you mean?”

  “Her.” Richie said. “Man, she must be trusted. Because isn’t that . . .”

  “Ow!” Johnny yelled out.

  “Huh?” Richie looked confused, but before he could say anything . . . whap. Johnny nailed him. His knees buckled and Richie started to drop to the ground. Before he fell, Johnny hoisted him up over his shoulder and carried him back to Containment.