I expected Lucas would be back in the air today if he could. It would probably be a while before he could talk Amber into another flight, as it should have been. Once the soldiers checked, they’d figure out that we never crashed. The good news was that Alaska was a big place, and there were an endless number of small airstrips. Many people had carved them out of the woods by their cabins. It wouldn’t take much to hide the airplane and ourselves. The geothermal power generated no smoke. One thing we couldn’t hide was the kennel. The dogs had a big footprint, but from afar, someone might not see the dogs. I didn’t know what to do about that. As long as we kept to the shadows and stayed inside, maybe no one would know we were here.
Fear. What would it take to live a life without fear?
Our fear was the life or death sort. It took its toll on us. We would give the situation a few days and then go back to our normal routine. If we buried our heads, then what kind of life would that be?
We needed to talk with everyone about what it would look like to stay here for another year or more. We didn’t know how long we’d have to survive on our own. We didn’t even know who the good guys were, let alone if they would come.
I needed asthma medicine, which meant that we needed to find a D-cell battery because we were going back into town. I wanted the Geiger counter to work.
AIRPLANES
We didn’t even have to wait one day before we had our answer. Two fighter aircraft made an appearance to the southwest, between us and Fairbanks. We yelled at everyone to get under cover. Madison ran to the kennel to let them know we were hiding.
The F16s flew as a pair. The lead aircraft was high, while the trail followed lower and to the right. We watched as they made a long, slow loop, disappearing into the distance. Madison returned with Abigail. We all stood outside the lodge, watching and listening. All of a sudden, the lead aircraft appeared above a hill. We hadn’t heard it as it skimmed the deck on its approach toward us.
“Inside!” We scrambled through the door as the jet went by. He was going fast. We ran to the windows to look out. We couldn’t see anything. Then the second jet roared by, bombs and missiles loaded under its wings; a drop tank filled the centerline position.
We waited. Fifteen minutes later, we went outside. The air was clear and warm. What had the aircraft been looking for, and what had they seen?
“Let’s have lunch,” I offered. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. “We need to talk about what we’re going to do next. We might as well eat. Who knows how many good meals we have left.”
Since this was a military issue, they deferred to me. My wife had served four years, so that made us the only veterans. No one else had even studied military history. Their only frame of reference was what they saw on television.
For my part, I had no idea what we were up against. I didn’t know why they would be after us. Our survival drew unwanted attention to us. If helicopters with a big red cross on the side appeared, I would have been relieved.
That’s not what we got. We were on the receiving end of warplanes flying in a combat formation.
Jo was a little rattled, but she rose to the occasion. She took what she had thawed out for dinner and made it lunch. Moose steak, potatoes, plenty of green beans, lettuce, and tomatoes. We were having everything that we made available here. The moose was from a young bull that Becca had shot before the snow melted.
“Maybe we should have somebody out on watch?” Lucas offered.
“Then what would we do?” I asked a bit sarcastically. I was angry at the situation. I couldn’t imagine our military turning against other Americans. “If we saw helicopters or armored personnel carriers inbound, then what?” No one had an answer. “We need to decide what we are going to do based on what we think they want. They saw us. Then they came to find us. They shot at us when we approached their checkpoint, but they didn’t bomb us when they found our home. What are their boundaries?” I finished that thought with the question to which I had no definitive answer.
“Now is when we make a choice. We make the best decisions we can with what we know and then live with the consequences. Sometimes, the world delivers what it will, even when we’ve made good choices.”
THE UNKNOWN FEAR
“What are we afraid of?” They looked away from me as I tried to make eye contact. “We’re afraid of the unknown. All of us. It’s been half a year since someone bombed Fairbanks. And the military finally shows up, but they’re not here to help us. They shoot at us and then chase us with fighter aircraft! What the hell is that all about? Why are they after us?” More rhetorical questions. These people did not deserve to get beaten down.
“Look at you,” I calmed my tone, speaking more softly. “You’re good people. You worked here because you wanted to make money to go to school, to improve yourselves, move up in the world. That choice should not have led to a life of hardship. But it did. Then again, your decisions mean that you are alive today. If you were in Fairbanks, you’d be dead. If you were at Delta Junction, dead.
“Six months. You’ve not only survived, but you’ve made a good life here. The longer we can hold out, the more likely things will get resolved. This is the United States we’re talking about! It will eventually get fixed. And we’ll still be alive. Every day we survive is one day closer to getting back some of what we’ve lost. We will be here when that time comes.”
“What do you think our chances are?” Jo asked me.
“I think our chances are good. I’ve been thinking about why this is happening, why no one has come back after they’ve left. Maybe they think we’re contaminated from the radiation. Maybe they think we’ll be the leaders of the zombie apocalypse!” No one smiled. There was no place for humor in this conversation, but that’s how I coped. That’s how I kept control of myself.
“I think there’s still a war, and we’re in the middle of it. But it’s being fought somewhere else. Our military has agreed somehow to maintain a demilitarized zone, and we are right in the middle of it. If they evacuate us, then what happens? For Madison and I, our whole world is our family and our home, and we don’t want to leave. For you guys, maybe evacuation is the best choice. I don’t know. I don’t know what they think we are or what they intend to do with us. What if we’re considered prisoners of war? Refugees? The same government that couldn’t get us help in the past six months is going to take care of us someplace else? That’s not my idea of my future.” No one talked. Everyone’s eyes were still on me.
“What’s next, you ask? Here’s what I see, what I think they’ll do.
“It starts with the reconnaissance of the resort, which I assume the F16s did. Next, if someone thinks they saw something, there will be a more dedicated reconnaissance or even a reconnaissance in force. There’s no way we looked like a threat, so I don’t expect they’ll come rolling up here in tanks or that they’d resort to simply bombing the place. That didn’t seem to be the goal, otherwise, the F16s could have easily done that.
“If their goal isn’t to destroy the place, then maybe they are just rounding up people. I don’t know if that is good or bad. If they wanted us to land the airplane when they saw us, they could have simply waved when we flew past, maybe fired up a green flare. Green is good, right?” Most people nodded. I still had the floor.
The military was a foreign concept to them. They didn’t have a frame of reference from which to form an opinion. They needed more information. I needed to choose my words carefully. If I recommended a course of action, they would probably accept it. I would not surrender to an unknown authority, and I didn’t think it was best for the group either. I was thinking of protecting them through a disinformation campaign.
“I, for one, have no intention of dealing with a military that shot at civilians. If anyone comes, I suspect it will be in the next day or so. I don’t think they’ll come by ground – too many hot spots between that checkpoint in Tok and here. So I think they’ll come by helicopter. I think that if we want to meet with them, w
e want to do it on our terms. Until we know what this is all about, I suggest we not be here when they arrive.
“Let’s leave a note saying that we are trying to make it to Canada. And we disappear.”
“I will stay and take care of the dogs,” Abigail immediately jumped in.
“If they come and take you away, what do you think they’ll do with the dogs?” She hung her head. They would leave them in the kennel, where they’d die.
“What happens if we turn them loose?” I asked.
“They run away,” she answered, still looking down.
“Can we try it? Maybe turn a number of the dogs loose and see what happens while we’re getting other things ready? In the end, it’s your choice, but I’d like you to have options that give both you and the dogs the best chance for survival.”
“I’ll do it.” It didn’t sound like her heart was in it. “I’ll take care of it now. I have what I need over there. I can stay or leave from there.” I’d heard that she had taken to bringing some dogs inside the dog musher office where she’d moved a mattress. She slept in a pile of dogs. I’m sure she was never cold or lonely.
“Thanks, Abigail. We don’t want to see anything bad happen. We didn’t ask for any of this, but we have to deal with it.” We needed to hurry and I was starting to lament our situation. These people needed their orders, and they needed a timeline to execute.
“Our choices are simple. Stay or leave. If we stay, then we go about things as we always have. Madison and I will take the twins to our home. Colleen?” I looked over at her.
“Going home,” she replied. Others nodded. No one wanted to stay at the resort. At least with the Community, they knew what they had. No one was willing to brave a hostile unknown.
“There are houses in our neighborhood where people can hole up. We’ll leave a note on the door here. It will say that we’ve headed east, toward Canada. That we were afraid and didn’t want to die. We can draw a line on a map, too. They’ll like that. We need someone to hide in the hills and watch, for maybe a week or two. I really want the military to come, confirm that no one is here, and then move on and leave us alone.”
“I’ll stay,” Darren offered. He and Becca had been sitting silently, holding hands.
“And I’ll stay with him. We can hide in the hills and watch from there. No one will see us,” Becca said firmly.
“Take a quad. After they’ve come and are long gone or if they haven’t come after two weeks, come and get us.” I told him the directions to our house. I didn’t want anything in writing, just in case they were captured. There was one turn after fifty miles – the directions were simple.
“Everybody else, pack the minimum, and let’s get on the road in thirty minutes.” It was not an arbitrary amount of time. It had taken almost a full day for jets to come looking for us. If they reported back that they thought they saw something, it would take time to put a response team on a helicopter and then fly two hundred miles to get to the resort. We should be able to make it to our home outside Fairbanks well before a helicopter could see us.
What they showed up with would give us an idea of their intent. If they arrived in transport helicopters and few troops, which I suspected, then they intended to evacuate us. If they showed up in gunships and with a large number of troops, then our decision to hide was best. In both cases, we needed to not be here if or when they arrived.
“Darren. If the only thing that shows up is a white helicopter with a red cross and no armed troops, maybe you’ll want to go introduce yourself. Don’t tell them where we are, but leave a note in the yurt if there’s no threat. I would love nothing more than to be wrong about all this.”
He and Becca both nodded, jaws set firmly. They didn’t believe the Red Cross would show up any more than I did.
Everyone packed quickly and paired up on the quads. The good thing about our sleight of hand was that we didn’t have to make it look like no one was here. Quite the opposite. We could leave the greenhouse and even leave things in the refrigerator. If we lost power, then we’d lose some food, but we’d deal with that if it happened.
We stopped by the kennel on our way out. Abigail was in the process of letting all the dogs loose. They were running around, but not running away. We all pitched in to help. She still didn’t want to leave. Someone had to feed them. I told her our plans and that Darren and Becca had already departed to hide on a hill to the northwest.
She liked that and offered to hide in the hills to the southwest. She could return daily as needed, always staying under cover of the trees, and still take care of the dogs. She didn’t need a quad.
She also had her pack of dogs that wouldn’t leave her side.
Everyone took turns giving her a quick hug, and then we headed off, careful not to hit any of the dogs that were now running everywhere. We got to the road and some of the dogs followed us, running alongside the vehicles. We sped up until they fell behind, and then we hit the gas. We had agreed on keeping good spacing between the vehicles. That would limit our visual footprint should any helicopters sneak up on us. In our Jeep, we would arrive earlier than everyone else. We’d wait at the turn-off to our house. I didn’t know what the top speed was for the quads, but I didn’t want anyone to push it and wreck on the drive.
We made it to the turn-off to our home in record time, forty-seven minutes. The others cruised in over the next hour. The skies remained clear, without a sound from any aircraft.
TEMPORARY HOUSING
We rallied at our house as people arrived. We hid the quads under trees or in sheds. As usual, we brought a bunch of vegetables back from the Community. They would go to waste otherwise. We even still had some halibut in the freezer from last year’s fishing trip. That could be a treat. We would fire up the grill and do our best. We might as well make the most of our exile.
Maybe we would take everyone to see the city.
We settled people into where they would be staying. There were two couples and two singles who needed beds. There were a number of houses in the neighborhood that were in good shape, ready for guests. We had an extra bed in our home and Colleen had extra bedrooms. No one would be left out.
Who wanted a house to themselves? Jo and Emma volunteered. Amber and Lucas thanked Colleen for her hospitality, along with Felicia, the woman who took over in the greenhouse when Lucas moved into full-time maintenance. I’d ask her to take a look at our garden to see if she had any suggestions.
Chris stayed with us. He had hired on as a housekeeper, but after the guests stopped coming, he became a general helper. He was always in a work group as he did not have an area where he was in charge. He was very quiet. As a matter of fact, I’m not sure I’d heard him speak more than five words at once. I didn’t care that he was black. He was just like everyone else – doing everything he could to help us all survive.
And that made him a good man, something we all aspired to be.
We asked everyone to come back around five, after dropping their things off and getting the lay of the land. It was new, so people were a little adventurous, the reasons for being here, quickly forgotten.
As long as we didn’t have a visual footprint, something that someone in an airplane (or helicopter) could see on a fly by, we should be safe. We were fifty miles from where they might have seen us last. I hoped that Abigail, Darren, and Becca would all be safe.
As it turned out, we didn’t have to wait long.
THEY CAME, THEY SAW, THEY LEFT
The next morning, bright and early, I was outside with Phyllis and Husky. I heard the quad from a long way off. Someone was coming. I suspected it was Darren and Becca. They didn’t seem to be in a hurry. I strolled out into the road to wait for them. I waved as they rolled up.
They stopped and got off. Both were smiling.
“It worked, man!” Darren said, shaking my hand. “A helicopter came about three hours after you left. They stayed only ten minutes, and then they all jumped back into the helicopter and flew out, directly
east along the route you drew on the map.”
“They never came back,” Becca added.
“That is great news. Did they find the airplane? I assume they didn’t see Abigail.”
“No and no, I don’t think so. Abigail is still there? We saw the dogs running free. They ran up to the soldiers when they landed, but the soldiers chased them away.”
“Abigail hid in the woods as a compromise. She wasn’t going to leave her dogs. Tell me, how many soldiers came, what kind of helicopter was it, and what kind of uniforms were they wearing?”
“The helicopter was big, a big bulbous nose for the pilots. The helicopter looked filled with soldiers who wore camouflage, with helmets. I don’t know, soldiers.”
I would have thought any Army actions here would be in the Blackhawk, or maybe the Chinook. It didn’t sound like a U.S. helicopter.
“Two big rotors, front and back, or one main and a small tail rotor mounted perpendicular to the ground on a skinny boom going back from the fuselage?” I asked.
“A small tail rotor. And yeah, a long skinny boom. ”
“What did the engine intakes look like? They were over the cockpit, right, not on the side of the engines?”
“Two round ones, like a jet engine would have, side by side, and yes, right over the cockpit. What’s it mean?”
I pressed forward with one final question. “What kind of guns were they carrying?”
“We were a ways off, but they looked like AKs.”
“I think you saw an Mi-8 filled with soldiers. No room on it for passengers. That means the Russians,” I said, gritting my teeth. “It means they weren’t going to evacuate us.” I swallowed hard.
Run (End Times Alaska Book 2) Page 4