Patriots Awakening

by R. M. Strauhs

  “Oh, shit, sounds too much like what Hitler did.” Susan hit the remote to turn it off. “Alice, maybe that’s what that camp across the mountain is, and the men are afraid to tell us.”

  “Wouldn’t surprise me. Nothing would surprise me anymore.” She spoke in a quiet, worried voice. “I forgot the eggs. I’ll be right back.” Alice hurried out the door, not wanting anyone to see her cry. She ran to the chicken house as fast as she could. Sitting among the chickens, she cried her heart out. She was so afraid . . . afraid for her children, afraid for Susan and her children and, although she hated to admit it, afraid for her own life.

  “You okay?”

  Startled, Alice looked up and saw Cord standing inside the door. “No, I’m not.” She jumped up and ran into his arms.

  ~~~

  Day nine, they were awakened by a heavy rain and powerful winds. Hail pelted the ground and orange and yellow lightning cut jagged slits across the black sky. Small branches ripped from trees and flew past the windows. The children were quickly taken to the basement for safety.

  By noon the storm was still in full force and seemed to intensify with each passing hour. The wind howled down the mountain and through the valley below.

  Alice and Susan managed to make sandwiches for everyone and rushed back to the safety of the basement. The power lines were now down, and lamps had to be used inside the house. Ominous black clouds blocked any light from the sun.

  Stephan finally told them, “It’s six o’clock, and the storm’s as fierce as when it started. Maybe worse. This isn’t natural. I think it’s time to head underground.

  Around eight o’clock, Stephan called everyone together. “I’m sorry we’re in here a day or two earlier than planned, but you know that’s fine by me. Especially after we saw that U.N. camp yesterday. Cord and I will go topside tomorrow and check on the animals and, if the storm has let up, we’ll set them free. I can’t understand this type of storm. Damnedest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  ~~~

  “I knew the new experimental weather machines would work,” Cecil Goodman stated as he stood in the room of the Chalet and watched the bank of television sets across the wall.

  “Yes, yes indeed they do, my friend. With luck that should at least raise the death toll to about half the people on the planet,” Jarmain said.

  ~ 18 ~

  Inside the cave, with only clocks to tell the time of day, Stephan set his alarm clock for six each morning. He was determined to keep a regular daily schedule for the group to follow. The adults would get up at six and the children at seven. He dressed and met Cord in the kitchen for a first cup of coffee, and then they went to the control room monitors to see what was happening outside.

  The storm still raged.

  “Can you believe this shit?” Stephan asked Cord.

  “No, and I’m beginning to think someone is manipulating the weather, unless it’s the asteroid doing it . . . which I seriously doubt. I remember seeing a guy on television who said he could stop a hurricane or create one. Maybe he perfected it.” Cord sighed.

  Stephan flipped the TV on, and they watched the horrors happening in the world. Fewer and fewer stations were now on the air. Even the American stations were not to be found. “Well, so much for FEMA,” Stephan commented and switched the set off. “Time to wake the kids. This should be fun.” He flashed a huge grin and flipped open the intercoms to the kid’s rooms, flipped another switch, and a stereo blared out, “We Will, We Will Rock You” . . . followed by screams from the kid’s rooms.

  “Oops! You think I may have pissed them off?” Both men broke into laughter.

  “Now, guys, that wasn’t funny.” Susan said as she and Alice appeared at the door of the control room trying to stifle their snickers and appear angry.

  “No?” Stephan started chuckling again. “Just wait until tomorrow morning. I have at least a thousand CD’s to choose from.” He rubbed his hands together in glee.

  ~~~

  “Okay, all you charming cave dwellers, follow me. We’re going to take a tour of our new abode,” Stephan stated as he rose from his seat at the breakfast table.

  “Aw, Dad, we know what’s here. After all, we’ve been all over this cave for the past few days bringing our stuff down,” Linda snorted.

  “Ah, but you are quite mistaken, my little chickadee. As I said, follow me.” Stephan walked out of the kitchen into the main room and waited for the troops to follow. “I see we are all present and accounted for. Nice of you to join me, and I promise this will be exciting.”

  “First stop is the bathroom.” He turned and walked to the bathroom, opened the door, and stood aside. “What do you see?”

  “Dad, its toilet’s and showers.” Phillip quipped.

  “Hum, that’s what you’re supposed to think. In reality, if you punch the button next to the last stool . . . Wallah . . . a door slides open. We have another tunnel. Come on, follow me.” Stephan was enjoying himself immensely. The looks on the bored children’s faces, transformed to a look of surprise, made him a happy man.

  “This is another escape route. If we only had one, it could be blocked by armed people rushing in. We have to have another way out. This one is very interesting, however, as you will soon see.” He opened one of the three heavy steel doors like what you’d find on a ship as they marched through the tunnel.

  Soon they felt the dampness. “Yuck! It stinks in here. Smells like rotten eggs.” Phillip held his nose as he spoke. “Oh, man! This is gag city.”

  As the group rounded a bend, the tunnel opened to a large room with a body of steaming water about the size of an Olympic swimming pool.

  “Oh, great, Dad. We’re living in a mountain with a volcano vent,” Linda yelled. “You put us on a volcano for our safety?”

  “It’s quite safe, Linda,” Stephan reassured her. “Now, this tunnel will snake through the mountain and come out about three miles from the house, towards town. The entrance is hard to find. Blake dropped me off one day and said I couldn’t return to the house until I found it. Even knowing the opening was somewhere close, it took me six hours to locate it. So I don’t think anyone will find it. Now, about face and head back to the bathroom.”

  Ten minutes later, back in the main room, Stephan asked the kids if they had any idea where another secret door might be. “While you’re thinking and looking around, I’ll go check in with Cord.” He walked away from the puzzled group.

  “Are we having fun yet?” Cord asked as Stephan entered the control room.

  “Oh, yes. Linda was ecstatic to know she was living in a mountain with a volcano vent. Anything new outside?”

  “Yep. I saw a wolf run by.” Cord grinned and chewed on a toothpick. “It’s still storming like hell. I’m beginning to wonder if we shouldn’t start ripping the barn and house apart and build an Ark.”

  Stephan laughed. “I’m sure our gang would really go for that. You want to take them on the next tour?”

  “Naw, looks like you’re doing just fine making enemies of the kids. I’ll let you do the tour thing. I wanta remain their friend. Besides, they outnumber me and might get me in my sleep.”

  “Chicken!” barked Stephan.

  “Damn tootin’. I’ll take on a whole damned squad of the enemy, but six kids can be a detriment to my health.” Cord chuckled as Stephan moved back out into the main room.

  Stephan looked at his watch. “My goodness, you’ve only been snooping around for five minutes. Okay, now tell me where another secret door is located.” He looked into six blank faces, turned and headed into the kitchen where the women were having coffee. “Alice, Susan, come join our search party. I think you’ll be surprised.” Bypassing everything, he went into the food storage room. Behind a large stack of boxes at the end of the room, he touched an unseen object on the wall. The boxes moved out into the room, revealing a small walkway behind it, which led to another long tunnel. A hundred yards down, the tunnel opened into a large room. There were chicken coops with Alice’s
chickens and several rabbit hutches, with Brittany’s lop eared rabbits. The kids and Alice let out a yell, scaring the chickens and rabbits alike.

  “Stephan, you and Cord are the greatest. Thank you for bringing them in.” Alice said and grabbed a handful of corn to toss to the chickens.

  Brittany wiped away tears and was already hugging her favorite bunny, Sweet Pea.

  “As you can see,” Stephan said, waving to two different steel doors. “The cave splits off into two directions from this room. The one over here on the left runs back up under the barn. The one on the right travels about two and a half miles and comes out on the mountainside and is well hidden. We not only have video cameras aimed at all the entrances but alarms as well. If you hear a loud blast, you know someone has entered one of the tunnels. The control room monitors will show us which one. We simply work accordingly. If it’s only a couple of men, we stay and fight. If it’s a large group . . . that may be a different story. We’ll just have to assess each situation. Class dismissed.”

  Brittany stayed behind with her bunnies, and the other kids returned to the storeroom exit.

  “Stephan, I have a question now that we’re in the store room. WHERE THE HELL ARE MY CIGARETTES!” Susan yelled.

  “Yeah, Stephan, I’m on my last pack, and there better be some in here,” Alice added.

  He chuckled and rubbed his finger across his chin like he was thinking. “Well Alice, Blake knew you and your nasty habit couldn’t be parted. He did insist your cigarettes be part of the inventory.” Stephan walked toward another wall.

  “STEPHAN, you better love me enough to have a stash of my brand behind that wall,” Susan shouted.

  Without saying a word, Stephan hit another hidden button, and once more, the boxes slid out, revealing yet another entrance. He stood back and let the girls go through.

  Stephan walked on into the tunnel and waved his hand for the girls to follow. Once more they passed through a steel door. There was a large box-looking thing.

  “Step inside, ladies.” He bowed low as they passed. Without saying a word, he punched a button, and the box moved downward. It was an elevator that opened into the largest storage room yet. Boxes piled high everywhere made the women’s eyes bulge.

  “So where you got our smokes stacked?” Susan demanded.

  “Hum, very good question. I have no idea. I suggest you start searching.” With those words Stephan turned and scurried back on the elevator. With an exaggerated salute, he was gone.

  “Well, Susan, that man is going to be dead meat if I don’t find my brand of cigarette.” Alice headed for the right side of the room. In a neat row lined up against the wall she passed a dozen brand new motorcycles.

  Susan began reading the box labels on the left, looking for anything marked ‘cigarette’.

  The ladies were amazed at what they found: boxes of fatigues and jump suits, combat boots and blankets, sweat shirts and pants sets, gas masks, all types of guns and ammo, tools for any job, ropes, cable, flashlights, radios, batteries -- enough of everything to equip a small Army. They soon found an area marked “LADIES.” There, they found boxes of underwear, shampoo, conditioner, hair driers, curling irons, lady shavers, slippers, socks, and you name it . . . including chocolate bars by the gross. Both men knew the girls were chocoholics. And, stacked behind all that chocolate was a mountain of boxes full of different brands of cigarettes, along with a few cases of throw-away butane lighters.

  “God Bless them,” Alice shouted, when she discovered the stash.

  In seconds, Susan was at her side, and they raced to the boxes. They ripped into a box and unwrapped a large candy bar.

  “You know Alice, we can’t ever let the kids know about our chocolate stash. There has to be some way to keep it hidden. Besides chocolate is bad for children.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Susan giggled, munching on the delicious treat. “Lets see. What if we stash the chocolate bars behind the Cigarettes?”

  “Let’s get busy before one of the kids starts looking for us.” Alice jumped up and began lifting the boxes of cigarettes away from the back wall. “I wonder if this is a moving wall,” she mumbled under the strain of lifting a box.

  ~~~

  Cord was glad to see the storms had stopped by dawn on day eleven. “Hey, morning, Stephan. We have a clear day. I’m going to go topside and check things out right after breakfast.”

  “I’ll join you. But first I have to wake the darlings.” He clicked on the intercoms to the kid’s rooms and hit the stereo. Dueling Banjo’s blared through the sleeping quarters and again, shouts from the children. Stephan roared with laughter.

  “High point of your day, isn’t it?” Cord snickered.

  “Hell, yeah,” Stephan answered, still laughing as he walked toward the kitchen for another cup of coffee.

  Cord had a feeling . . . an urgent feeling. He immediately switched on the short wave radio to see if it was working. He turned the dial slowly until he heard . . .

  “Macaroon One, Clementine here, do you copy?”

  Holy Shit, it was Seth.

  Cord swiveled his chair around, yelling. “Stephan, get the hell in here, man.”

  Stephan ran from the kitchen toward the control room, splashing coffee all over his fatigues and the floor. “What? What’s wrong?”

  “Seth’s in trouble. I just turned on the short wave to check her out, and Seth was calling for us. He’d have to be in trouble to call this soon.”

  Stephan listened carefully to the static coming from the short wave. “Macaroon One, Clementine Cracker here, do you copy?”

  The word cracker was not what they wanted to hear. “DAMN! He’s been captured, and they have him trying to call the rest of us in, or at least one set of us,” Cord said. He felt like a fist had slammed him in the stomach.

  Clementine made one more call to them, then silence. The blood had drained from Stephan’s face. “Thank God none of us know where the others have safe houses,” he whispered.

  Cord turned the dial slowly, looking for any other chatter. Nothing.

  Stephan returned to the kitchen and found Mike. “Son, I have a job for you to do. Cord and I are going out for a look-see. I need you to listen to the short wave radio. Finish eating, and meet me in the control room.” Stephan went to tell Susan of his plans.

  ~~~

  Stephan and Cord opened the barn door from the tunnel. It was blocked with broken timbers. “Well, that’s a fine how do you do,” commented Stephan. “Okay, back around to the house I suppose.”

  Carefully walking to avoid making sounds, the men entered the basement some thirty minutes later. It looked okay. Rifles at the ready, they climbed up the stairs into the hall. The only sounds were their beating hearts as they searched the first floor. When they secured all areas they could get to, they let out a breath and looked at the mess. The house had not withstood the power of the hurricane force winds for days on end. The attic and half the second floor were gone. Windows on the ground floor were all broken, and tree branches and twigs lay strewn all over the main floor.

  “Looks like we moved downstairs just in time,” Cord commented as he kicked a branch across the room.

  No exit there. They retreated to the front door and out on the porch, which was half gone. The other half was left hanging by a post, its underpinnings swept away.

  Rounding the house, they got a clear view of what used to be the barn. It was now a pile of rubble, completely encasing the helicopter under its roof. A close inspection assured the men that no one would ever know of its hidden treasure. They soon had the debris cleared away from the secret door to the tunnel. Dragging broken farm implements over to camouflage the area didn’t take long.

  Scanning the area in all directions to survey the damage, they saw the farm animals were missing. “Those poor creatures never stood a chance of living through that storm unless they made it into the smaller caves, or rock overhangs for protection.” Stephan was an animal lover, and the thought
of those beautiful horses being injured or killed broke his heart.

  “Want to climb the mountain and see how the camp faired through the storm? Might be it blew away, too, and they’re no longer a threat to this area.” Cord gazed toward the mountaintop.

  ~~~

  The journey to the top was long and hard. Stephan and Cord had to skirt downed trees and rockslides. A few birds were out of hiding looking for food. A doe stood a hundred feet from them, as if in a daze. She never moved. A pair of squirrels chattered from a nearby tree. By two o’clock, Cord guessed it must be at least 105 degrees. Their fatigues were drenched in sweat by the time they reached the peak.

  “Wow, look at that!” Cord exclaimed when he viewed the valley below. “Nothing. Not a damn thing left.”

  “Nope, looks like a flood came down that gorge from the north, and swept the entire camp away. All those thousands of people penned up like cattle . . . didn’t stand a chance. The dirty bastards. Let’s walk on down a ways and take a look.” Stephan vaulted over a boulder and headed down the other side.

  “We’re over half way down, and I don’t see a damned thing.” Cord leaned against a tree and took a long swig of water from his canteen.

  Stephan sat on a boulder and looked out over the bluff. He shook his head in silent agreement as he viewed the devastated valley. “The only consolation I get out of this is those blue helmeted pricks got washed away, too . . . along with all their fucking power to imprison people.”

  “Man, Stephan, I don’t even want to think what the hell has happened to our country. I wonder where the President and all the politicians are . . . or if they’re all dead?” Cord walked over to the ledge and gazed out over the ugly remains of what had been a beautiful valley. “The number of dead could reach millions by now. Those who survived so far will probably die from hunger in a few days or weeks. It’s spooky shit, thinking our vast land may have only a few pockets of people left alive . . . that is, if there is no asteroid.”