Alice wet a washcloth under the cold-water tap, wiped her red, sweating face and arms, and then stood before a small fan.
Across the room, Cord took in every detail as Alice turned to the fan. The tank top glued to her body showed every feature.
Stephan broke the silence. “Cord and I will let all the animals out so they can run wild before we head down. They may have a chance to survive.” He took the cup of coffee his wife handed him and grinned, nodding toward Alice doing the mating dance for Cord.
Susan winked in acknowledgement and gave him a hug, even though she looked a mess. Hair had plastered on her forehead from the perspiration, and beads of sweat ran down her neck.
The room was quiet for a few moments, except for the hum of the fan, the bubbling of the meat boiling on the stove, and the steam hissing from the pressure cooker.
“Well, let’s catch the news before we continue the chores.” Alice turned on the small television sitting on the counter. “Wonder how much worse it is today?”
FEMA was in charge of all the broadcast stations in the United States – radio and television. A soldier stood before the cameras giving out instructions of where to go to be safe. Nothing was being shown about the chaos in the country.
“Good thing we have satellite.” Alice flipped through station after station until she discovered a station showing live coverage overseas.
The slight, Asian woman spoke about the anthrax outbreak in the Middle East, about New York City on fire, and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands in Africa and South America.
Suddenly, Alice punched the button to turn the set off. “I can’t handle seeing any more of that.” She turned toward Stephan and asked, “Just how will we know when to come out again? When will we know when it will be safe?”
Stephan dropped his gaze to the floor and shook his head. “Beats me. I have no answer. Sorry. Using the short wave to reach people will have to be put on hold for awhile. It’s too easy to triangulate on a radio frequency and catch the users. We do have other Special Force members we’ll contact when the time is right.
“Before you continue the canning this morning, be sure everything is packed and ready that you want taken to the cave. All computer files, photos or heirlooms need to go. Someone could set fire to the house, and you’d lose everything. Cord and I will help the kids move things. I think it best one of us remain topside from here on in to keep an eye on the area.”
“You go ahead and get started with the moving, Alice, and I’ll start breakfast.” Susan opened the refrigerator door to get the eggs and bacon.
~~~
Long after Susan snored from exhaustion, Stephan lay awake, finally slipping out of bed. He quietly pulled on his clothes, picked up his boots and gun, and tip-toed down the two sets of stairs to the main floor and out the back door. On the back porch, he pulled on the boots, strapped on the gun, and headed past the barn to an old gnarled tree and sat down.
Heavy duty shit had been on his mind the past few days. Would he have the guts to kill his own family if it came down to it? No way would he allow them to be captured, that’s for damn sure. But could he pull the trigger?
There, in the moonlight and all alone, Stephan cried his heart out.
~ 16 ~
A hot, stifling morning greeted the occupants of the Holden Compound. Alice got out early to transplant her herbs into planters while they were still in the shade of the house. There was no way she was leaving her herbs behind. She wanted to put them in the cave under grow lamps. Susan was up working on the large piles of laundry to get most of it done before the heat hit.
The kids took the opportunity to sneak the cages of Love Birds and Parakeets into the cave. They even managed to move Simon’s 25-gallon fish aquarium.
“What happens when they run out of food?” Phillip asked as he sat a birdcage on the large table in the main room.
“Oh, we have plenty,” Simon answered. “Living up here on the mountain, we don’t go shopping too often, so we bought large amounts of everything.”
“You boys go on and get the food. We’ll find someplace to set up the bird stands.” Linda said as she removed a Love Bird and petted it. The bird immediately flew from her hand, up on top her head, and began pulling her hair.
“You’re gonna get bird poop in your hair.” Laurie giggled.
~~~
Stephan and Cord scouted the area. They didn’t want to be taken by surprise by a roaming band of thugs looking to loot and kill. Today, they decided to walk several miles down the road towards town, hoping to get close enough to see how bad things were in the area.
Under strict orders, one of the kids was to man the monitors in the house at all times while the men were away.
“Stephan, you’re pretty quiet today. Are you getting sick or something?”
“No. Been thinking about things, is all.”
“Something you’d like to discuss?”
Stephan hiked the sling of the M 16 back up and shrugged his shoulders slightly. “I don’t know. Something I’ve thought about that’s so hard to fathom ever having to do. I don’t know if I have the guts it would take.”
Cord remained silent as they trekked along the edge of the road, waiting for Stephan to decide if he wanted to talk about what was bothering him. A squirrel chattered above their heads in a tall pine tree and the men gave it slight notice.
Remaining silent for perhaps another twenty yards or so, Stephan stopped and looked up at the bright blue sky through the towering green trees. “Cord, I won’t let Susan, Alice and the kids be captured by any of these bastards. I’ve thought about nothing else the last few days. For myself, I’ll go down fighting, no quarter given, none expected. But we cannot let any of our family be taken.”
Cord knew Stephan was deeply concerned and probably even afraid, but not for himself. Cord, himself, had thought about the same issue, even considering detonating the whole place as a last resort if they were overrun. “Yeah, I’ve thought about that. Of course, a couple of mean bastards like you and me, hell, it’d take a battalion to over-run us.”
“Yeah, but what if they send a fuckin’ Army?”
“Then we’ll kill their fuckin’ Army.”
Turning, he stared toward the town below. “Cord, I was going to ask you if something happened to me, if you would do away with my family before the enemy got them.”
Cord motioned. “Let’s move on down a bit and see what’s going on in town.” When they started walking he spoke. “I figured you were thinking about how to spare your family from capture and torture. I’ve had it on my mind, too. Shit, you know I’ll do what I have to do if there’s no way out. But one goddamned thing is for sure, those we don’t kill personally will go out with us. I’m not about to let those mother fuckers get their hands on our family.”
Cord worked his way downhill through the thick brush, wanting to stay ahead of Stephan so he didn’t have to see the hurt on Stephan’s face. And, he didn’t want Stephan to see the pain on his. How the hell can I kill Alice? I’ve loved that woman from the time I first laid eyes on her. ‘Course, back then, she was married to Blake. I should have come to take care of her when Blake was killed. I guess I was afraid to be close, even though I thought I was being respectful of a fallen comrade. Now that she’s mine and loves me, too . . . We’ve had so damned little time. Man, I wish someone else could make the decision. How can I kill her?
~~~
“My God, where have you been?” Susan screamed as she ran and threw her arms around Stephan’s neck and hugged him tightly. “It’s after midnight, and we’ve been worried sick that something had happened to you.”
Alice caught herself before she ran to Cord. Instead, she smiled at him and turned back to check the food on the stove. “So, did you see what’s going on in town?” Alice asked as she grabbed two mugs and poured coffee for the men.
“Give us a minute to get washed up, and then we’ll fill you in.” Cord said, giving her a grin and a wink as he headed for
the washroom off the kitchen. “Got any food? We’re starving,” he yelled over his shoulder.
The girls hurriedly removed the pot roast and vegetables from the oven where they had been kept warm. They turned the oven up and threw in some homemade sourdough rolls. A burner under a pan of gravy was switched on. In less than five minutes the food was on the table before the hungry warriors. Cord and Stephan devoured it in true fast military fashion and washed it down with a shot of good whiskey, then several more cups of coffee.
“Damn, that was delicious.” Stephan finally said as he pushed his plate back and rubbed his stomach. “I think I went a bit overboard.”
“Yeah, that was good chow, ladies. I think I’m too stuffed for a piece of that apple pie,” Cord said between gulps of coffee.
“Now, we’ll fill you in on our trip. We managed to get to town without running into anyone.” Stephan paused and shot a fast glance at Cord. “What we found there sure wasn’t good. The town has been mostly burned to the ground.” He glanced around to be sure none of the kids had wandered in unnoticed before continuing. “Truth is there are bodies all over the place. We looked around but found no one alive.”
“Oh, Jesus,” Alice said. “I knew a lot of those people. They wouldn’t hurt anyone.” She paused from her outburst. “How come we didn’t see the smoke?”
Susan never said a word, but tears ran down her cheeks as she looked across the table into her husband’s eyes. The slaughter of hundreds of innocent people happened only a few miles from the house. The house in which her sweet innocent children lived.
“Actually, we noticed the smoke yesterday. The reason you didn’t see it was because the wind was blowing down the mountain, moving the smoke away from us. We saw enough to wonder what it was, and that’s why we went to check it out today.”
Alice stared at them; her eyes filled with tears. As she wiped them with a tissue, she said, “If everyone’s dead, there must have been a large force attacking them. Do you think the killers might come in this direction?”
“No, we don’t. They probably took off in the other direction to raise hell. I will tell you that the road in this direction is full of cars and trucks flipped on their sides or tops. Evidently some of the people failed in their attempt to leave town. No one is going to drive through there unless they have some heavy equipment to shove those vehicles out of the way. I’m not worried about being invaded by a large military force unless they’re on foot or horseback.”
Susan looked puzzled and asked, “Why didn’t we hear explosions or gunfire?”
“It probably happened night before last, during that bad thunderstorm. Damned town was being blown to bits, and we thought it was thunder.”
“Does that mean we don’t have to go into the cave? We can live here in the house like normal?” Susan asked as she started clearing the table.
“No, we need to move into the cave, and I’ll explain. Whoever is perpetrating this hoax, if it is one, has the highest tech equipment possible. They’ll be monitoring the satellites, and we can be spotted from them. You can tell from infrared how many, ‘live people’, are in a house and in what room. I don’t want a jet flying in and dropping a bomb on our heads.”
“But why would they care if one house had people in it?” Susan asked.
“Maybe they won’t care about one houseful of people. But I don’t want to take a chance on our lives since we don’t know what their agenda is. Which might be . . . to kill off most of the people in the entire United States.”
Silence filled the room.
Cord stood, stretching his tired back and arms. “Tomorrow we need to hike to the top of the mountain and have a look-see on the other side. Don’t want any surprises coming from that direction. If you good folks will excuse me, I’m going to bed.” He picked up the M 16 rifle he’d leaned against a chair and left the room, hitting the stairs two at a time.
~ 17 ~
The eighth day was no different than the previous, too hot and sticky. The temperature read 102 degrees even at that high altitude.
Stephan and Cord left at sunup to climb the mountain. The kids decided to put on swimsuits and play in the cold spring behind the barn. They knew it might be the last time for a long time. Alice and Susan felt confident enough of their safety not to have one of the children watching the monitors.
Alice went out to gather the eggs, and Susan gathered vegetables from the garden; both wishing they could join the kids in the cool water. That was when Alice looked up and noticed Susan out in the garden . . . with a man.
Alice pulled the 9 mm from the holster on her hip, crouched out of sight, and worked her way around to see the couple better and have a clear shot, if need be.
When Alice ducked behind the tool shed, she noticed Susan hadn’t donned her gun belt. SHIT! Alice was close enough to see Susan was trying to be pleasant to the man. He was a tall gangly guy in his late twenties or early thirties and wielded a large knife in his right hand. Yanking on Susan’s arm, he gestured towards the house with the knife. When Susan nodded, he shoved her forward. He walked behind with the tip of the knife not more than two inches from her back. Susan carried the vegetable basket in her left arm. Alice was drawing a bead on the man when Susan suddenly slipped her right hand into the basket without the man seeing her. As she threw the basket aside, she dropped to the ground, rolled over, and came up firing.
The man pumped blood like a sieve as Alice ran from the tool shed to help Susan. The stranger gasped; his head rolled to one side, and breathed no more.
Susan melted into a sea of tears as her body shook uncontrollably. The 9 mm semi-automatic lay on the ground as she rocked back and forth on the garden path. Then, she jumped up and ran by a tree and vomited.
The kids came running at the sound of the shots but had enough sense to stay out of sight and draw their own weapons. Soon, they emerged from their hiding places and hurried into the open field to the women.
Susan’s three children trotted up to their mother and hugged her tightly.
Mike walked over to the dead man, picked up the large knife, and strolled toward the tool shed. He returned with four shovels. “Okay guys, we have to bury that turkey. Come on and grab a shovel. Mom, where do you want us to plant him?”
Alice told him, “How about behind the barn Mike? The ground should be soft there. You can hide the grave with hay, and the animals walking over it should help, too. I’ll go in the barn and get some plastic sheeting to wrap him in. For God’s sake, please don’t touch him until I bring out some rubber gloves.” Alice turned from Mike to Susan. “You going to be okay?”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll be okay. That son-of-a-bitch said he was going to rape me before he slit my throat.” She managed a weak smile and continued quietly, “Guess I showed that piece of slime, didn’t I?” Susan put her arm around her daughter’s shoulder and sauntered towards the house. “Don’t think I’ll ever eat string beans again,” she mumbled as she looked at all the beans dumped from the basket.
~~~
An hour later, Stephan and Cord rushed in the kitchen door totally out of breath. “What happened? We heard shots. Are you all okay?” Stephan asked as he ran and grabbed Susan.
“Yes, we’re fine. We had a problem and took care of it. Go wash up while we fix some grub.”
The women hurriedly slapped together four sandwiches from the leftover roast beef, opened a large can of pork and beans, and placed a bag of potato chips on the table. Large glasses of ice water and iced tea sat behind the plates by the time the men returned a couple minutes later.
“We heard shots, but were miles up the mountain. What happened? We got back as fast as we could.” Cord explained.
Susan looked at the floor. “Well, we blew it today. After you said no one was in the area, we let our guard down and allowed all the kids to go swimming in the spring. No one was watching the monitors.”
“What the HELL?” Stephan yelled, even though his mouth was half full.
“We learned
our lesson, Stephan! We learned it damned well. It’ll never, ever happen again.” Susan gazed at both men and took a deep breath.
Stephan never said a word while Susan spoke, nor when she had finished the hair raising, close-to-being-murdered story. He simply got up, walked around the table with tears in his eyes and hugged her tightly. “Sorry I yelled at you.”
“Damn!” was the only word Cord said, but he was looking into Alice’s eyes.
“What did you guys discover today? Did you make it to the top and look to the other side?” Alice asked as she sat down and sipped iced tea.
“Yep, we made it to the peak, and yes, we saw something we didn’t like.” Cord answered. “It looks like a large camp has been set up in Greentree. There’s a lot of blue helmeted military down in the valley. We didn’t get close enough to tell much more than that. But with the enemy on the other side of the mountain, we have to be a lot more careful. Helicopters or planes flying in or out of the camp might fly over and spot us.” Cord finished talking, shoved his chair back, grabbed his rifle, and went outside to check around.
“So the U.N. has come to our little area of the world. That means they’re probably foreigners and don’t care too much for Americans,” Alice commented.
“Yes, I’m afraid so. We didn’t tell you, but we found a body of one of the U.N. boys in town yesterday.” Stephan grabbed his glass of tea and downed it in a few gulps. “I’m going out and check on where Mike buried that man.”
~~~
Susan switched on the television and finally found a foreign channel still broadcasting the news. The commentator looked strained, and there was something else Susan couldn’t quite put her finger on. Perhaps fearful? According to the haggard looking broadcaster, it was estimated a third of the population on earth had been killed one way or another. Many countries were setting up camps to house people, but most people were afraid to enter them. They had to be forced into buses and trains and taken to the camps physically.
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