Reentry

by Heather Carson

  Project Dandelion: Reentry

  Heather Carson

  “Get to the cabin.”

  The words of Katrina’s father echo in her mind. One sentence, her sole purpose…

  Book 2

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright © 2019 Heather Carson

  Courtesy of Blue Tuesday Books

  ISBN: 9781702099431

  Chapter 1

  Two weeks was all it took. Two weeks for the whole world to change. The sky went dark. Not dark as night, but dark as in devoid of life. Blue gave way to shades of grey and the sun burned red as if in pain. The air hung heavy like the burning of a million oil fields. White ash mummified everything that didn’t run when the fallout came.

  Fourteen days, Katrina thought. It didn’t seem that many when you counted them, but fourteen days felt like a lifetime within the shelter. A lot could happen in two weeks.

  Katrina glanced at the rearview mirror. She saw the dust that the old Chevy truck she was driving kicked up from the dirt road. In the bottom corner of the mirror, she could see Dreya and Jayden leaning against one another in the bed of the truck. Their hazmat suits were still intact. Inside the cab, Dreya’s little sister Mia sat sandwiched between Katrina and James. The windows were closed so the three of them had taken off their masks. All five of them had been selected to survive with a group of other teenagers in an underground government designed fallout shelter when the world fell apart during a nuclear war. Now they were running away from the shelter and the society that the remaining kids had built there. The plan was to head to Katrina’s cabin in the mountains that her father had stocked with survival gear.

  “Do you think the whole world looks like this?” Mia asked while grimly watching the horizon. “Is it all this empty?”

  Katrina laughed. “I sure hope not. We are still in a pretty remote area of the desert. Once we get to some civilization, I hope it will look much different.” Katrina turned to smile at James over Mia’s head, but he was staring out the window.

  Last night, they had camped on the concrete slab platform where their parents had dropped them off at hours before the bombs dropped. They were given sleeping pills and transported from the platform on a bus to the shelter which was sealed off until the air quality levels were safer. Thankfully, it had only been two weeks. Katrina shuddered to think about what would have happened had it been longer.

  They sat around the fire that evening eating packages of their saved food. Dreya told Katrina that she and Mia had never been to this area before. They were from a coastal city in Delaware and were vacationing in Lake Tahoe when a man in a suit approached their parents at the hotel restaurant. They were put into their rental car and left for the platform minutes later. Katrina thought they were lucky because she couldn’t imagine how those major metropolitan areas looked now. Jayden lived more local. His family was from outside of Las Vegas and his dad was the elected sheriff of their county.

  Katrina glanced up at the mirror again and saw Jayden put his arm over Dreya’s shoulders. Dreya didn’t flinch like she did when Lark tried the same thing in the shelter. Ugh Lark, Katrina thought. She was glad to be getting as far away as possible from that guy and his wacky politics. Not wacky, dangerous. The rest of the kids that were following his vision would be in for a rude awakening soon. Katrina unconsciously pressed the gas pedal a little harder.

  “How far until we reach the next town?” James asked, startling Katrina from her train of thought.

  “Just a couple of hours. These roads aren’t major highways, but we will hit about three towns if I take the direct route and only one if I take some back roads.”

  “How many houses along the way?” He turned to face her. Katrina glanced over to see his eyes staring through her, a shade of murky blue, which she had learned would happen when he was thinking something through.

  “Not many.” She looked out the windshield again. “A trailer here and there. The town is a small one too. Population less than 2,000 or something.”

  “Is there no way to avoid it?” James asked.

  “Not really but I’m not too worried. These are farmers and in this rural area they may have been able to avoid a lot of the destruction.” Katrina smiled at James, but he didn’t return the gesture. “We can scope it out first if that makes you feel more comfortable.”

  James nodded his head. “Where is the gun?”

  Mia’s eyes opened wide as she alternated looking at the two of them. “What gun?” she whispered.

  Katrina raised her eyebrows. “What makes you think there is a gun?”

  “Oh come on,” James finally laughed. “Your dad is a prepper who stocked a cabin in the mountains just in case the world ended. He somehow left this truck for you in the event that he wouldn’t be back to get you when the doors opened, and you’d have to get to the cabin by yourself. Plus, he is a Marine right?” His smile broadened. “Of course he left you a gun.”

  Katrina grinned. “It’s behind your seat.” James nodded and went back to looking out the window.

  Chapter 2

  “Wait.” Mia’s eyes were as big as saucers. “There is a gun in here. Why do we need a gun? Do you even know how to shoot a gun?”

  Katrina smiled at the girl. “Yes, I know how to shoot. It’s here in case we ever need to use it. Let’s just hope that we never have to.”

  Before they crested the ridge heading to the town, James pointed to a dirt turnoff on a hill that overlooked the valley. Katrina parked the truck at the base of the hill and the three of them put on their masks before climbing out. The Personal Emergency Monitor device on their suits read the air radiation levels as high. Jayden and Dreya jumped out of the back of the truck.

  Mia ran up to her sister. “Dreya there is a gun in the truck!”

  “Does that really surprise you?” Dreya patted her sister on the head with her gloved hand. “I mean there were 9,000 nuclear weapons deployed targeting all the major cities in the world which probably wiped out most of the population. A single gun doesn’t seem that scary now, does it?”

  James started climbing the hill. “I’m going to check out this town we are about to drive through.”

  Katrina followed him up with Jayden, Dreya, and Mia close behind. They laid on their stomachs at the top of the hill which gave them an eagle view of the valley below. James pointed out the tire spike strips along the road. There were people moving about the center of the town. They had blankets over their heads with gas or surgical masks tied across their faces. The people were busy cleaning up debris from the main street. Ash coated all the houses making it seem as though snow had fallen in summer. The roads around the main streets had been barricaded off and large metal fencing laced with barbwire surrounded the town.

  The five of them slowly shimmied back down the hill.

  “We need to go around,” James said to Katrina as they reached the truck.

  “The only way to do that is to off road through this desert and we are low on gas as it is. If we get lost, we might get stuck somewhere and have to hike out. I think they will let us through. All of that is just a deterrent to people who want to hurt them,” Katrina said.

  “It’s a whole lot safer if we don’t test that theory out,” Jayden sided with James.

  Dreya looked at her little sister before turning to Katrina. “How positive are you that it will be okay?”

  “Betting odds?” Katrina asked. “Not the greatest but I don’t see another way. We have enough gas as it is to get to the cabin as long as we don’t waste it. Plus, a part of me thinks we will have an advantage because we are just a group of kids. They might take pity on us or realize that there isn’t anything to be afraid of. Then again, they might be scared and scared people don’t think straight.”

  “I don
’t want to take the chance. Maybe if we had more guns for back up and the streets weren’t barricaded. But this plan is too risky.” James shook his head.

  “I guess we could go around, but it is going to be a bumpy ride.” Katrina shrugged. “As long as you are all okay with us hiking out when we run out of gas.”

  Dreya nodded. “I’d rather take the safest odds right now even if it is the harder road.”

  “Um, guys,” Mia interrupted their deliberations. “I don’t think that it will matter what we decide on in about 30 seconds.” Katrina looked up to see three pickup trucks closing in on them from behind.

  Chapter 3

  The trucks were coming in fast, leaving a cloud of blinding dust and ash in their wake. Two of the trucks were dark grey, a Ford and a crew cab Dodge, and one was a bright blue lifted Toyota. From what Katrina could see, there were at least two men riding inside of each truck with the passengers holding a shotgun across their chest. There were two more men standing in the back of each truck leaning against the roof with rifles pointed directly at the kids.

  “Is it time to pull that gun out yet?” Mia asked in a panic.

  “Definitely not,” Katrina said as she blew out a steadying breath. “Walk away from the truck slowly with your hands in the air.” Katrina put her hands up and began walking forward with Dreya and Mia following behind her.

  Jayden stood whistling as he leaned against the truck with his back towards the patrol. James quickly saw what he was about to do so he raised his arms and stepped behind Jayden, momentarily shielding him from the view of the vehicles approaching. Jayden slid his hand into his bag in the truck bed and pulled out a piece of the sink piping they had dismantled in the shelter before leaving. In one fluid motion, he unzipped his suit, slid the pipe inside of it, and rezipped it before turning around slowly with his hands in the air to walk behind James.

  They stepped ten feet away from the Chevy and stood in a line facing the oncoming trucks. Katrina dropped to her knees in the dirt. Her four friends did the same.

  “Still betting that they are harmless?” Dreya asked Katrina.

  “Right now, I am praying,” she answered.

  The trucks slowed down as they came to a stop forming a half circle around the teens with all the guns pointed at them. The men began to yell “don’t move”. A burly man with a bandana over his mouth that barely covered his red beard jumped out of the back of the Ford truck. From his backpack, he pulled out a bag of zip ties and ran up to secure each of the kids’ hands starting with Jayden. Once their wrists were bound, the driver of the Dodge stepped out.

  The Dodge driver was in his mid-thirties and had an old military gas mask strapped across his face. His hair was buzzed short and he wore a mechanics t-shirt advertising a local business. He walked right up to Katrina and tilted her head back to see inside her mask. Then he did the same to the rest of them.

  “They are only kids,” Buzzcut yelled back to the trucks.

  “Yeah, but they were watching the town,” Redbeard called back. “And check out those suits they are wearing. Something’s off about this.”

  Two more men got down from the trucks and went to check out the Chevy. They pulled out Jayden’s open bag from the back and emptied it onto the ground. The wool blanket, cleaning solution bottle filled with water, rope made from sheets, and the dehydrated food packs from the MREs they were fed in the shelter fell out onto the dirt.

  One of the men grabbed the bag itself, which was made of plastic mattress liner and woven through with strips of torn sheet, to show the other man. He raised his eyebrows. “What is this? Did you make these? Where are you from?” He quickly scooped up the rest of the packs and emptied them out, letting the contents litter the desert floor.

  Before Katrina could respond, Buzzcut said, “Those are military food rations. Are you guys with the government?” All the men immediately pointed their guns back at the kids and began yelling at them.

  Dreya yelled back, “No! We aren’t. We don’t even know what is happening. We have literally been trapped in an underground shelter for two weeks. Our parents just dropped us off there and we left as soon as the doors opened.”

  Katrina cringed. Too much, Dreya! There was something that she wasn’t understanding, and she wanted to wait for the men to talk more to get the answers.

  “Stop talking,” Buzzcut told the men behind him. “Let her speak. What did you just say?”

  Katrina interjected, “She was trying to say we are hungry and confused. We don’t know where we are. We saw your town, but we didn’t want to just drive up in case you were dangerous.”

  “Yeah, that’s very obvious,” Buzzcut said. “But I want to hear what she was saying.” He pointed to Dreya. “What did you say about your parents dropping you off and the doors opening?” Dreya froze. Katrina could see the gears turning in Buzzcut’s head.

  “Oh shit.” Buzzcut’s eyes widened. “They are Project Dandelion.” The men went silent as they looked to one another.

  “What do we do boss?” a skinny guy in the back of the Toyota asked.

  Buzzcut ran his hand over the stubbled hair on his head. “I don’t know.”

  “Wait,” Katrina said. “We don’t know what that even means. We aren’t a part of project anything. We have just been in a fallout shelter for two weeks…”

  “Shut up,” Buzzcut interrupted her.

  “Let’s just shoot them,” Redbeard said. “Screw their project and screw the government. Send them a message by getting rid of these kids.”

  “Oh come on man,” James called out as Dreya scooted closer to her sister. “We don’t even know what you are talking about and we haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “Stop moving,” Buzzcut yelled. “I’m trying to think.”

  “Just get rid of them,” another guy shouted. “What if they are looking for them? We don’t need to draw any attention to ourselves.”

  “Who are they and what do they care about us?” Katrina asked the man in the truck. He spit on the ground in reply. The men were growing restless as they shifted around while holding their guns. Katrina racked her brain trying to think of a way to diffuse the situation before they ended up dying right there in the desert.

  “I vote shoot them,” a third man called out and more began to agree. Katrina started to take off her mask hoping that seeing the face of a teenage girl kneeling there might prevent them from actually taking the shot.

  “Enough,” Buzzcut put his hand up. “We are going to keep them as hostages. That gives us a card to play if they come through. We’ll sell them if we need to or we can kill them later if they don’t end up serving a purpose.”

  “What?” Jayden and James yelled out simultaneously and Buzzcut pointed his shotgun toward them.

  “Sit down boys,” he said. “You aren’t dying today.” James and Jayden got back down to their knees. “Throw them in the back of their truck. Gene can drive it into town.” Redbeard, aka Gene, climbed into the driver’s seat of Katrina’s Chevy as six men ran over to get the teens into the truck bed. They grabbed them by the back of their suits and roughly lifted them in the back before closing the tailgate. One man came over with a duffle bag which he used to pick up the discarded contents of the kids’ packs.

  Mia scooted across the lining of the truck bed to sit next to her sister as Katrina struggled to sit up from lying on her stomach. James rolled to the back near the rear window and Jayden slid across next to him as the truck started moving. The men ran back to their own trucks and they all pulled onto the dirt road which headed toward the highway. Katrina locked eyes with Jayden just as he put the exposed tail of the zip tie in his teeth and pulled it as tightly as he could. Turning to her side, she lifted her hands to her mouth and did the same.

  The truck picked up speed and the kids began to bounce around in the back with each rut that Gene hit. Katrina finally got into a seated position. She looked over to see James and Jayden furiously shouting at one another, but she couldn’t hear what
they were saying through the deafening roar of the wind as the truck peeled out onto the main road. Behind her, the three trucks following spread out to flank them on either side.

  Jayden put his hands on Dreya and Mia’s shoulders, pushing them down so they lay flat against the truck bed floor. Then he unzipped his suit and reached in to pull out the metal pipe. He kept his body slightly turned from the view of the following trucks and laid the pipe across his leg. Katrina registered what they were about to do just as James and Jayden nodded to each other.

  Time slowed down as Katrina watched Jayden lift his arms over his head. James motioned toward the driver’s seat and Katrina nodded to him. Jayden slammed his wrists into the middle of his body and the zip tie broke in two. He swiftly grabbed the metal pipe as Katrina lifted her own arms up and tried to break free. It took her three times before she was able to get the zip tie to snap.

  Jayden smashed the back window with the pipe. The glass exploded into a shower of jagged marbles and ice chunks that spilled into the cab and back of the truck. Katrina pressed her body to the floor as the shots began to fire from the three trucks behind them. Gene turned around just as James used his zip tied hands to pull him out of the driver’s seat by his neck through the broken window. Jayden reached behind the passenger seat to pull out the rifle and then he also dropped to the floor.

  Katrina took a deep breath before she scrambled across the bed of the truck. James had just finished wrestling Gene out of the cab as Katrina climbed through the busted window and slipped behind the wheel. The truck was beginning to slow down but she slammed on the gas pedal as more bullets peppered the vehicle. The windshield burst, covering her lap with glass. She pulled the wheel hard to the right. The momentum helped James as he finished pushing Gene over the edge and out onto the road. The men in the Ford stopped to pick him up.

  Katrina pulled down the seat in the cab to expose the center console. She opened it quickly with one hand and retrieved the box of bullets which she handed back through the broken window to Jayden. She kept the accelerator pressed to the floor and moments later the sound of the rifle being shot from the back of the truck filled the cab. Jayden expertly shot out the tires on the grey Dodge and blue Toyota. She drove the truck through the desert as they passed wide around the border of the town. The teens bounced around in a bed of glass and Katrina didn’t slow down until that awful place was miles away from the sight of her cracked rearview mirror.