The Long Road - A Post Apocalyptic Novel (The New World)

by G. Michael Hopf

  He paused, thought for a moment, then continued. “I need to clarify something. My journey to righteousness didn’t come over time, it was thrust on me one day. I still remember that day as if it was yesterday. I got into my car, high on cocaine and alcohol, and drove it right into a group of children on their way to school. I maimed three children. Do you want to know the irony? I walked away with zero injuries. God came to me when I was in prison. He came down from heaven and wrapped his arms around me. He told me that I had a mission to fulfill for him, that I would be his prophet in this world. He needed me to be his instrument who would cleanse the world of all the debauchery and greed.

  “When I was released from prison I immediately began working on God’s plan. I found the faithful and started my ministry. Then God sent a new sign, and that was when everything stopped working. I knew then that the beginning of the cleanse needed to happen in earnest. My ministry needed to grow from the few dozen worshiping in a strip mall to a vast movement.”

  Gordon listened in disbelief. The man he saw across the table was insane. He could see it in his eyes. Gordon wanted to interject but knew it was best to stay quiet. He knew he needed to watch what he said, because anything might set this guy off. Gordon finally took notice of the room he was in. He kept looking for some type of clue as to where he was. Then he saw a stack of folders on the floor behind the man. On the corner of the top binder he saw “U.S. Army.” This didn’t make sense; was he at Fort Irwin? Were the men he’d seen walking the perimeter these men or men from this group? As Gordon thought about all the scenarios that would have him here, Rahab kept rambling.

  “So now all of this brings us here. With you sitting there and me sitting here.” The man pointed at Gordon.

  “Who are you?”

  “No, the question is who are you?”

  “My name is Gordon Van Zandt, and you have my son, Hunter. We were in the desert scavenging, that is all. Your men attacked us.”

  “The devil has many agents. His desire is to stop God’s work.”

  “Just please let us go,” Gordon begged again.

  “How many are in your group?” Rahab asked.

  Gordon hesitated before answering. If these were the same men guarding this expansive base, then Rahab had a small army. Letting him know about the others could put them all in jeopardy.

  “It’s just us, plus my friend; whom I think you killed.”

  The man didn’t say anything; he just stared at Gordon with his dark brown eyes.

  “I swear, it’s just us; we were scavenging. We saw the base and thought that maybe we could get something, but we left.”

  Still the man said nothing.

  “Just let me and my son go. We will never come back here and never tell anyone.” Gordon said this knowing it sounded cliché, but he didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t have much to offer or leverage.

  “I don’t believe you. I think there are more in your group. We will find them. As for you, that is it for now.” Rahab stood up and walked toward the door but stopped when Gordon spoke.

  “Can I see my son?”

  Looking at the other two men before answering, Rahab turned and said, “You’ll see your son very soon. I promise. Now take him back to his cell,” he commanded the men, then left the room.

  “What about the others from the other day?” one of the men asked him.

  “Ah, yes, prepare them for the ceremony tonight,” Rahab commanded.

  Both men acknowledged their leader’s command, then grabbed Gordon and took him away.

  JANUARY 11, 2014

  “Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, face the facts.”

  – Ruth Gordon

  40 miles east of Barstow, CA

  “You need to eat,” Nelson said, handing Samantha a tuna packet.

  Samantha looked at the dark blue packet in Nelson’s hand, then went back to marking grids on an old map of the area. Using a red marker, she shaded the areas they had searched. Unfortunately for her, most of the map was not touched by the red marker.

  “Please, Sam, take a bite. You need the energy,” Nelson pleaded.

  “Every minute I’m not looking for him is a minute lost.”

  “How about I feed you while you mark more search grids for us?”

  “You think this is a joke? My son is out there somewhere; so is my husband. Something happened. I don’t know what, but I can’t leave my baby boy out there! He’s alone and scared! He needs me!” Samantha lambasted Nelson.

  “I don’t think this a joke, Samantha. Not at all. I just know if you don’t keep your strength up, then you can’t keep going. Then you’re no good to anyone, especially Hunter.”

  Samantha had stopped looking at Nelson and was intently making marks on the map. But his last comment caused her to stop what she was doing and put the map down. Grabbing the packet of tuna out of his hand, she exhaled deeply.

  “I’m sorry, Nelson, I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

  “I know, Samantha, it’s okay. You eat that, and then we’ll head back out to the north to look for him.”

  “You know, I’m also worried about Gordon, but he’d understand that I’m prioritizing the search for Hunter.”

  “Of course he would,” Nelson said reassuringly.

  “Where do you think Gordon is?” Samantha asked, tossing the empty tuna packet on the ground.

  “I’m glad you asked. I wanted to talk to you without everyone else giving their opinion on the matter. I think we should send one team to go look for Gordon and Holloway. We know where they went. Plus, I have to say this: What if Hunter was with them?”

  Samantha didn’t respond. She sat looking at the map on the ground. The light wind was blowing the edges up and shifting sand grains across the top. She had thought that could be the case but felt that Gordon wouldn’t have allowed it, no matter how much he wanted Hunter to be “a man.” He would never take their son with him.

  “I have thought that, but Gordon wouldn’t have allowed it. I know him.”

  “What if Gordon didn’t know?”

  Shaking her head in amazement, Samantha said, “It’s possible. Oh my God.”

  “Let’s send Eric and my dad.”

  “Okay.”

  Nelson left Samantha to finalize the search grid on the map while he instructed Eric and his father on their task. As he walked, he thought that Gordon had truly fucked up by going out to scavenge. He knew his friend, and knew that if he was still alive, he was cursing his decision with every ounce of his being.

  Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

  The whispers were the first thing Julia heard. She couldn’t make out who it was, but they were in the other room. She opened her eyes to an unfamiliar place. Looking left and right, she didn’t see anyone. Judging by the room, she was in the base hospital. When she moved her arm she felt a tug. She looked down to see an IV hooked up to her elbow. The events of two days before were clear in her mind up until she’d blacked out.

  She ran her hand across her belly and talked to herself. “How are you doing in there, huh?”

  What had happened to her two days before was new for her. She hadn’t blacked out in her last pregnancy, and she couldn’t recall ever having such severe abdominal pain.

  A nurse entered the room wearing the camouflage uniform of an Air Force tech sergeant. She was young and round with her hair pulled back in a bun.

  “Mrs. Conner, you’re awake?”

  “Yes, I just woke. How long have I been here?”

  “You were brought in almost two full days ago.. You fainted in the hallway. Dylan McLatchy found you,” the nurse said as she walked around the bed checking on the monitors and attending to her duties.

  “I’ve never done that before. Is everything okay?”

  “The doctor will be in shortly to go over everything with you,” the nurse said as she took her pulse.

  The door opened and a middle-aged man wearing a white lab coat entered. He stepped over to Julia’s bedsid
e.

  “How are you doing, Mrs. Conner?”

  “I’m fine. I was just telling the nurse.”

  “Everything’s normal, Doctor,” the nurse said directly to the doctor.

  “Great.” He smiled back.

  After the nurse left the room, the doctor pulled over a chair and sat next to Julia.

  “Mrs. Conner, I’m Captain Weatherby, one of the doctors here.”

  “Can I sit up?” Julia asked, looking for the button to operate the bed.

  “Sure, here,” Weatherby said, pressing the button that raised the head of the bed.

  “Thanks. Now I can talk with you and not feel so awkward.”

  “Mrs. Conner, you came in severely dehydrated. Also, your blood pressure was incredibly high. When we undressed you, there was vaginal blood, so we . . .”

  “What do you mean vaginal blood? Is the baby alright?” Julia asked, concerned. She sat up straight and tense.

  “Mrs. Conner, when there is vaginal bleeding, it is a sign that something might be wrong with the pregnancy. We examined you with an ultrasound, and unfortunately found that the pregnancy is ectopic.”

  Julia’s eyes gave away the emotions she was feeling deep inside. Tears ran down her face and dripped onto the clean white sheets. She tried to speak, but the words would not come out. Losing even the strength to remain sitting up, she fell back into the pillows and gazed past the doctor. She wasn’t looking at anything specifically. Her thoughts went to the dreams she had of a new baby. Brad’s disappearance was helped by the fact that she had his baby. She consoled herself with the knowledge that even if he was confirmed dead, she would have someone. She would still have a part of him.

  The doctor started to talk again, but it sounded like he was in the other room with the door closed. His voice just faded into the background and was unintelligible to her. All she could think of was losing this baby. Ever since she had found out about the pregnancy she had had visions of actually holding the baby and looking into its eyes. Her fantasies even extended to being there every day as it grew up, the first birthday, first steps, first time it said Mama or Dada, all of those precious moments that parents get to experience. Now, without notice, this new life was being taken away. These thoughts were suddenly stopped when Weatherby touched her arm.

  “Mrs. Conner. We need to get you prepped for the procedure.”

  “Get out,” she said in a low voice.

  “Mrs. Conner, we need to get this done.”

  “Get out, get out, get out!” she screamed.

  Weatherby flinched, but he wasn’t shocked. He had been a doctor long enough to know that her response was not unusual. He pushed his chair back, stood up, and promptly left the room.

  All Julia could see in her mind’s eye was the little baby. She wanted this baby, and for whatever reason, she felt that God was taking it away.

  Unknown military installation

  Gordon paced his cell hundreds of times. He didn’t have much to go on. He had to get out of there and find Hunter. The dreadful noises and screams that had echoed across the area last night foretold a fate he had no intention of experiencing. He couldn’t for the life of him understand how Rahab and his men had been able to take this base. All he could imagine was that Rahab had gathered together a large force who were just as crazy as he was. He knew Rahab was an extremist in the purest sense. He was driven by a deeply held belief that his cause was just and divine.

  Gordon had run into these types in Iraq, and now they had taken root here. History had dozens and dozens of examples of these kinds of zealots. During catastrophic events, some look to a god to help explain why or to give them hope. Rahab’s flock had probably grown tremendously after the lights went out. It took Gordon only minutes to see the charisma and eloquence seeping out of the man. The sheer confidence was intoxicating. Rahab was a natural leader who was hell-bent on further destruction. The vacuum of authority and lawfulness along with Rahab’s obvious abilities would have made his climb to power quick. Gordon wasn’t scared easily, but Rahab scared him.

  The sound of the door unlocking paused him midstride. He looked at the door in anticipation.

  Same as the day before. The clang, bang, and creak as the door opened. The same two men approached him; each grabbed an arm and marched him out. This time they didn’t tape his mouth or cover his head. They rushed him out of the box and into the sunlight.

  What Gordon saw now confused him. This wasn’t Fort Irwin. Ahead of him was a small bermed area that held a fuel truck. To his left he saw a paved runway with H emblazoned on some of the areas. He recognized them as helicopter pads. The tarmac stretched for hundreds of feet, two shorter runways running perpendicular to the main one. As he was being paraded through the small base, he saw dozens of people. Some carried guns; all the men had long hair. The women were covered in long robe-like garments. All of the structures he saw were temporary. Two large metal hangars stood at the ends of the shorter runways. He looked over his shoulder to where he had come from and saw another dozen Conex boxes. He thought, Is that where Hunter is?

  He was attempting to commit the base’s layout to memory. He counted each person he saw, how many guns, positions, buildings, what the buildings might be used for, vehicles, and any other useful item that could help him put together a plan to escape. To the far side of the hangars were ten large white structures laid out in two rows with five buildings in each row. Gordon assumed those were barracks. Smaller shacks and random gear were everywhere.

  Surrounding the entire base was a dirt berm; beyond it was flat, open desert that ran into towering mountains to the south and west. Everything he saw spoke to it being a military base, but this wasn’t Fort Irwin, this was a training area outside the base. Then Gordon’s memory from his Marine Corps days kicked in. Although he had never been to the base before, he had heard how large it was. It was similar to 29 Palms in size, mostly vast desert and training areas. He remembered someone telling him Fort Irwin’s National Training Center was almost the size of Rhode Island. Gordon didn’t recognize the mountains; he had no idea where they were or where Samantha and the group was.

  Walking past the closest hangar, he peered inside. It looked like it was housing a classic car collection. A dozen or more vehicles, one being his truck, were parked in there with some more of Rahab’s people working on them. Gordon had counted more than fifty of Rahab’s followers. How could this be? he wondered. How could one man put together such a sizable force so quickly? Gordon’s thoughts soon went to his own escape. A feeling of dread came over him as he realized he didn’t know how he and Hunter would be able to get out of this place.

  His trek across the base ended with the two men taking him into another hangar-size building just to the west of the barracks. Gordon’s angst quickly turned to confusion as he saw a large group of children playing. He scanned each face hoping to see Hunter, but to his dismay his son wasn’t there. They hurried him past the children and into a small side room. Just as he stepped into the room, he heard a familiar voice coming from the group of children. It sounded like Hunter; he tried to step back, but the men forced him into the room.

  “Sit down, we’ll be right back,” one of the men said to Gordon after they placed him on a sofa that was against the far wall.

  Gordon didn’t answer the man; he adjusted himself and looked around. The room at one time had been an office. Besides the couch there were two chairs and a large desk. He could hear the children laughing in the other room. He didn’t know how to act now. He instinctively wanted to call out to his son, but he knew every move he made had to be calculated. He needed to ensure his and Hunter’s survival by making sure that he didn’t enflame the situation until he could execute an escape plan. The only reason he thought they’d bring him to this building and this room was to see Hunter. He obviously didn’t know Rahab, but maybe the man had been telling the truth about his being able to see Hunter. The walk across the small base had been helpful and informative. The office, though, d
idn’t provide any clues; it was much like the one from the day before.

  “God, I got to get the fuck outta here,” Gordon said out loud. He knew the longer he stayed the greater the chances were that Samantha and Haley would end up here too. Just when his wife would come looking for them was the only unknown. He knew she would, but when would she find this place? He had given instructions to Nelson to pull up stakes and head north if anything ever happened to him, but he knew Samantha. With Hunter missing, that wasn’t going to happen.

  Thoughts of regret now filled Gordon’s mind. He should have listened to everyone else, he should have listened to Nelson and Samantha. Leaning forward, he planted his head in his hands. A feeling of defeat replaced the regret. He’d tried so hard to keep things together in Rancho Valentino, but for what? Everyone eventually fought each other, and it had torn the community apart, resulting in the deaths of two good friends. He attempted to defend his own doubts by asking himself, How am I supposed to know and plan for each eventual outcome? Leading people was not easy, and he found it even tougher to lead when his family’s lives were at stake.

  Samantha’s frustration with him had grown the moment they left the gates of Rancho Valentino. He knew she was upset about Simone, but there wasn’t anything he could’ve done about her suicide. Then had come the attack on the road days ago. In order to lead this group he would have to take risks. His inner self now knew this decision to go out scavenging was a mistake, a mistake that had caused the death of Holloway and now might even bring about his and Hunter’s untimely demise.

  “You’re such a fool,” he muttered to himself.

  The laughter of the children jolted him back to the present. He stood up and walked over to the desk to see if there was something on it that could help him identify his location.

  The desk had been stripped bare. In each drawer he opened he found just miscellaneous items, like paper clips, pens, a penny, thumbtacks. Nothing gave him a location. He then remembered back to the Marine Corps and how they would mark each piece of equipment, including desks, with stickers stating it was government property. Maybe, just maybe, there would be such marking here. He looked under the desk for a sticker—nothing.