by Ira Tabankin
“I gave him a choice, he told us he wasn’t going to change sides. There was no other option, we don’t have a jail. We can’t risk just turning him lose. Turning him loose with his arms tied behind his back would have only killed him slowly. It’s better this way for all of us.”
The two girls are crying from the sound of the shot and the realization that their friend was dead. The youngest cries, “You killed him in cold blood, you’re an animal.”
“I gave him a choice, he chose poorly, I suggest the two of you choose more wisely. Yes, I am an animal. I’ll do whatever I have to to ensure my family lives. Randy, Mark, great job. I don’t know why the inner door doesn’t open, but let’s go around and get inside. Let’s close the door so it’s not hanging open.”
After we got the door closed with the camo in place again, we all walk towards the emergency tunnel, Jay looks over his shoulder at where his house stood, he’s thinking, at least I won’t have to try to repair it. Lacy’s going to be pissed. I hope the sheriff doesn’t pick this time to show up. I need to get some rest, a hot meal, and a shower before I check my basement and subbasement. Both should be fine. Tornadoes usually strip the building from the ground level, leaving the basement. It’s most likely filled with the debris from the house. If so, that’s fine. No one will be looking in the basement if it’s filled with crap.
Chapter 22
Admiral Zin reviews the most recent report in his hands, he shakes his head wondering how this happened. He looks at his Senior Aide, “What happened?”
“Admiral, they surprised us. Their damn battleship somehow found an additional supply of sabot rounds. We were looking in the direction of the harpoons, we didn’t see the sabot rounds, even if we had seen them, there was nothing we could have done about them. Nothing in our inventory would have taken them down. Each shell was targeted on a different ship. They fired a couple of salvos which arrived at the same time as the harpoons arrived. Each shell destroyed the ship that was struck. No modern ship could stand up to such a weapon. When we thought we’d survived the worst, their cruise missiles arrived. By the time we got the fires under control and regrouped, the surviving ships, their damned battleship was close enough to fire its original shells, which are either 864 or 1,227 kilograms. Admiral, those shells destroyed every ship they struck. Even unguided their fire control computer was good enough to hit us with four out of every five shells they fired. The battleships escorts added their own harpoons to the battle, we’d already used up most of our anti-air missiles, we lost most of our close-in fire control radars in the battle, we stood naked in front of them.”
“How many ships survived?”
“Admiral, we lost the battle.”
“Captain, how many ships did we lose?”
“Sir, we started with three hundred ships of all types, at the end of the battle, eighteen ships turned towards home, they are limping back to port.”
Eighteen out of three hundred?”
“Yes, sir, that’s correct.”
“Our flagship?”
“Sunk.”
“This is the worst defeat in the history of the Chinese Navy. I have to will an appointment to personally inform the President. He will most likely have me shot as soon as I tell him.”
“Sir, could you send him a report?”
“No, honor dictates I personally inform him. It was my plan, I’m the CIC of the Navy, this is all on my shoulders.”
“Aye, sir. Shall I place the call to the President’s chief aide?”
“Please, I’ll take your report and head to his office.”
“Sir, it’s been a pleasure serving under you.”
“Captain, I hope to see you again. Please give my regards to the staff.”
Two hours later the President’s office issued a new military press release thanking Admiral Zin for his years of service and wishing him well in his recovery. What wasn’t stated is it’s impossible to recover from six 5.45 mm bullets fired from a firing squad. The President’s office announced the promotion of Admiral LingPo as the new head of the People’s Army Navy.
@@@@@
Captain Sarnoff stayed long enough to know there was a huge problem, he didn’t hear any gunfire. By now he should have heard the gunfire from the militias attacking the army. He knew that the militias purchased his weapons which they’ll most likely use against him. He realized he should have known US militias wouldn’t fight the US Army. He’s going to have to move quickly to stay ahead of the Army. His troops wouldn’t stand a chance against tanks and armored vehicles. He studied the map, “Nikita, look at this map, there is a group of farms here, north of Nashville. I think that is going to be our new destination. We should be able to take over a few of the farms and lose ourselves in the countryside.”
“Yes, captain. I will get the men ready to leave.”
Studying the map Sarnoff thinks, the army will most likely head to Nashville or the Mississippi, we’ll lose them in these farms. Poor Alex is going to be upset we never found his beloved GTO, I will try to find him something he’ll enjoy driving around. Maybe he’ll pick up a nice American girl and settle down.
@@@@@
It’s hard to accept that my home is gone, there’s only a pile of debris which was our home and all of our belongings. Almost everything we owned is gone. Some would say it’s an act of God. I must have really pissed him off for him to take my home. In a way, it’s better for everyone that my home is gone and theirs are OK. From here it looks like the garage and barn survived, so not all is lost. I want to check the basement, but the sun is going down. I need to first see Lacy, tomorrow we can return to begin sifting through our stuff. I wonder where the rest of the mob went or if they’re still here and in hiding. I’d hate to be digging through our basement to have the mob show up. Many of my friends aren’t ready to go into a pitched battle this soon. Tomorrow I’ll ask Todd and Tony to join me to check my house. Thank God we have the shelter, the kids, Lacy and I may have to live in the shelter until we rebuild. Rebuild? Where the hell are we going to find the building supplies and all the small bits needed to build a house? We’re going to need everything from 2X4s, plumbing, electrical, nails, roofing, windows... I don’t know if it’s possible to rebuild. None of the big box stores are open, banks are closed. I’ll talk with Tony if anyone knows where to locate everything required to build a house it’s going to be him. I think we ought to build the entire house of reinforced concrete, it will be fire and storm proof. We might even be able to make it bullet proof. Didn’t Tony say he owned a cement plant or one of his friends owned it? Lacy won’t like the look of an all concrete house unless we skin it with brick and wood. I’ll start on the plans tomorrow. It feels good to be out of our small cage. What am I going to do with the two young women? I don’t want to kill them, I can’t let them go to tell everyone about us. I’ll deal with it tomorrow. Shit, if I’m going to lock them up, it means I’ll have to let Ricky out. God, I hope he stays away from me and Lacy tonight.
“Jay? Jay?”
“Huh? Hey, Randy, what’s up?”
“Just making sure you’re OK, you were standing there lost in thought, I didn’t want you drifting away again.”
Slapping Randy on the back, “You don’t have to worry about that anymore. I’m here to stay. I won the battle with my inner demons.”
“That’s great to hear because my dad will kill me if I let something happen to you.”
“I’m good, let’s climb back into the shelter so I can figure out what happened to the inner door.”
“My dad’s going to ask what happened to the windmills.”
“Look around, do you see them? No? That’s because they’re not here. They’re gone. The twister must have ripped them apart, or picked them up and dumped them someplace we may never find them. I assume our hidden solar panels are also gone. Without them, our electrical generating power is down by 50%. We’re going to dig up the spares we buried.”
“Let’s go inside, I’m sure everyone is
waiting to see you.”
“Randy, in a couple of minutes, bring your brother with you, let’s see if anything remains of the windmills. We have to go into the woods to check.”
“Jay, what woods?”
“Now you see the beginning of the problem. The storm turned and ripped the woods up after destroying my house.”
“Jay, I think we should go inside.”
“Just give me a few minutes to check out the area. Anything we find will be a huge help to us. We’re going to need all of the parts we can find, there aren’t any stores open to replace what we’ve lost.”
“Jay, tell you what, you go inside, my brother and I will bring a few of our friends out to search the area,”
“I get it, you want me inside the shelter. You’ve been told to get me inside haven’t you?”
Nodding his agreement, Ryan says, “You’ve nailed it.”
“OK, I’ll go, but you promise me, you will look for any parts or pieces of the windmills and the solar panels.”
“Agreed. Jay, please come inside before my dad, or worse, Lacy kills me.”
Laughing, I nod my agreement. “I’m going inside.” Crawling up the emergency tunnel is harder than sliding down and out of the shelter. I designed it for a quick exit, not for reentry. Damn this is hard, I should have thought this through better. Why is the front door jammed? The outside door, I understand, why did the inside door fail? If it failed, could the other doors also fail? We need to get to the bottom of this issue ASAP. There are arms hanging down ready to grab me near the door leading into the shelter.
Fred and Lacy are waiting for me, as soon as my head pops into the shelter from the emergency exit tunnel, Lacy hugs me and kisses me. “Honey, please let me get in before you molest me, I love you too.”
Fred helps me get into the shelter, it looks like most of the shelter’s population is standing along the walls waiting for me. “Everyone, I’m fine, your homes look to be OK.” The halls echo with the cheering. “I didn’t see anyone from the mobs, I don’t know where they are or went, we’re going to check in more depth tomorrow. If they are gone, we’ll start moving some of you home this week.”
Everyone is cheering, they are yelling, “JAY, JAY!!”
I hold up my hands to quiet everyone. “The storm did serious damage to our fields, our solar panels and windmills are gone, that’s right, they are gone. Most of the trees along our fields are gone, they’ve been uprooted and tossed around like a two-year-old tossing their toys around. On the other side of the equation, my house is gone. The twister hit our house dead center. We have rubble spread out over the fields.” I see Lacy cover her face and shake her head. I know what she’s feeling, I knew they were going to be lined up waiting for a status update as soon as I popped into the shelter.
Someone yells out, “Jay, do you know what condition our homes are in?”
“I’m sorry, I know they are standing, but not much else. We’ll find out in the next few days. I suggest that because we don’t know where the mobs went, everyone goes out armed and loaded.”
Someone else yells out, “Jay, I heard you brought back two sex slaves, what’s with that?”
Lacy looks at me with questioning eyes, “When the storm was about to hit us, we ran to the shelter, three of the mob ran with us. A young man and two young women. The young man decided he didn’t want to stay with us, I sent him to his next stop along his spiritual path. The two young women are being held in the storage room until we figure out what to do with them. They are young, I think both are confused, the entire community will have to figure out what we do with them. I couldn’t toss them out into the storm. It would have been cold-blooded murder.”
Ricky glares at me, I knew letting him out was a mistake, he yells, “Didn’t you kill the young man who was with you? Wasn’t that cold-blooded murder?”
“I gave him a choice, he chose poorly. That’s all I’m going to say about the situation. If anyone has any issues with what I did, I suggest you see me privately.”
Someone else asks, “Jay what happened to the doors?”
“The twister threw a tree at our outside door, it splintered with parts of the tree getting jammed in the tracks. Once Randy and his team cut up and removed the tree, the outside door was able to break through the remaining wood and open, I don’t know what happened to the inside door. We have to check it from this side.”
“Does that mean we have to use the tunnel if we want to exit the shelter?”
“Right now, yes, it’s the only way in or out.”
Someone else yells, “I don’t find that acceptable, plus, I want the electrical infrastructure fixed.”
“I admit as a landlord, I may not be a very good one. Why don’t you deduct from the rent you don’t pay me any amount you think is fair to cover your inconvenience about the broken front door and the storm destroying our windmills. I would consider the storm an act of God, however, it sounds like you think I should responsible for everything. I’ll accept that, but right now, I’m going to shower, spend some time with Lacy before I get a hot meal. If you’ll excuse me…”
The person who yelled out the last question is being stared at by almost everyone else in the shelter. Lacy and I hug each other, we walk towards our room, people pat me on the back as we pass them. Ricky stands along the wall, his eyes show hate towards me. I pause at Ricky, bending to whisper in his ear, “Keep up the BS and you’ll find yourself outside without any weapons. If I were you, I’d be on my best behavior.”
“I’ll get even with you for what you’ve done to me.”
Laughing, “Try it.”
I think it’s getting to be time for my daughter and I have a long and serious discussion about her husband. First I need to chill.
Lacy asks, “Jay is something wrong?”
“No honey, everything is great now that I’m back. We have to talk about the house and what we do next.”
“As long as you’re safe and we’re together I don’t care if we live in a tent.”
“I promise you, we’ll rebuild. I want to ensure we rebuild our security barriers first then we’ll work on our home.”
“Do you think there are other threats out there?”
“We know the sheriff is still after us. I’m sure there are other gangs traveling the countryside looking to take from others. We have to make sure we don’t think that since we survived one battle, we can now relax. Now is the time we have to learn from what went wrong and improve our defenses.”
“What do you think the others will think?”
“I think some are going to want to go to their homes and be left alone, others will agree with me. A lot of it is going to depend on the news, speaking of which I want to make sure we catch the evening news programs.”
“Then hurry up and shower, we can catch it while we have dinner.”
“Give me fifteen minutes to wash the dirt and sweat off.”
Twenty minutes later Lacy and I walk into the mess hall, everyone is smiling, knowing they're going home soon has put them all in a good mood. Lacy and I take our trays, we sit at a table with Tony and Nancy just as the evening news program starts.
“Good evening, America. Here’s the news that matters tonight. First the very good news, we’re happy to announce the US Navy has beaten the Chinese fleet. The handful of surviving Chinese warships have turned back to China. Hawaii is safe and remains part of the Union. A big THANK YOU goes out to the mighty US Navy.” I look at Tony, Nancy, and Lacy, “Notice he didn’t make any mention of our losses or the number of causalities, nor did he say what China may do next in order to get paid. They’re not going to walk away from the money we owe them.”
Toney says, “Stop thinking logically. It’ll only give you a headache.”
“The President’s plan to use the US military to stabilize the country is beginning to work, we’ve received reports that the number of deaths from murder and violent crime has declined to a new crisis low of only 45,000 last week.”
Nancy says, “Remember when they used to report the number of unemployed, now they report the number of dead. It’s a sad state of the country.”
“The President announced today that he’s hoping the banks will begin reopening one day a week on the 20th. The White House press release said the Department of the Treasury is going to issue new currency when the banks reopen. The Secretary of the Treasury said today that people holding old currency are going to be required to trade in their old for the new design. The secretary also said that the existing currency will no longer be accepted for trade or tender in 60 days. This is the first time the country is getting a complete currency change and recall. It’s going to be a very exciting time for all of us. This station is running a contest to see who can guess the people who will be on the new currency. The person who gets the most names correct wins one of every domination coin and bill of the new currency in a beautiful frame signed by the Secretary of the Treasury.”