Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own.

by Triarii, Colt

  “There were several men who wore green shirts who had grenades. The soldiers killed about twenty of the attackers, but then were killed with two grenades. We were captured, and tied up yesterday,” Chloe said, choking up. It was quiet, then she swallowed hard and continued.

  “On the way to the camp where you rescued us, they attacked another group of survivors who did not have any soldiers,” Chloe said, pausing as she wept.

  “The greens killed the men, then raped the female survivors one by one before beheading them. They said they had enough prisoners.”

  “Two Marine attack helicopters flew over and started wiping out dozens of greens. The surviving greens tied Brad and Cheryl to the hood of the Humvee, and drove away from the dead greens. The Marine helicopters did not shoot, with them tied up on the hood,” Chloe said.

  “Although I prayed the Marines would shoot us all, I was ready to die after what we had seen,” Chloe said quietly.

  “You rescued us the next day, after the gangs spilt into two groups. The greens and the other two gangs work together when threatened by the military, but they don’t like each other. The greens rule the gangs and fear no one, except the military.”

  “We were lost to the non-green group in a drunken poker game. The other group, about thirty, were going on a kill thrill mission. They found a Mormon church group that had survived about fifteen miles away with a ranch full of supplies,” Chloe said.

  “They had recon photos of the women, maps, and radios, and said there was a storehouse with food and weapons,” Chloe said.

  “I heard gang members say they had attacked them before, but the Mormons were well prepared, fully armed, and wiped out the attackers,” Chloe recalled.

  “We will not be captured again,” said Chloe, staring into the distance.

  “None of us,” affirmed Mike.

  “Understood,” said Karen.

  “I will not be captured, either.” Karen nodded, and handed them each an AK 47 and five clips.

  “Can I look at that?” Mike asked Zeke, pointing to a Doron’s Deathmaster. Zeke looked at David, who shrugged.

  Mike looked at Doron’s Deathmaster. “Who made this?” Mike asked. Zeke pointed to Doron. “Ingenious,” Mike said.

  Doron smiled, he knew his Deathmaster saved them. And they knew it.

  Doron remembered just how close he came to dying today when Karen attacked the entire gang, and his stomach burned.

  82.

  Karen changed the bandages and washed K Bar again, carefully checking for other wounds. He panted heavily and was obviously in pain and distress.

  “We don’t have any books on Veterinary medicine,” Liu said. “It’s a deep, wide, bullet tunnel. But unless he has nerve damage, or this gets infected, he will probably pull through.”

  Karen nodded.

  “What about pain?”

  “Karen we don’t know what to do for a dog. If you think he can’t handle the pain, it’s your call on human medicine. We just don’t know. The pills could kill him,” Doron said.

  “Will he be able to walk ?”

  Neither Doron or Liu answered.

  If K Bar could not walk, Karen decided he would have to be put down. She was clearly K Bar’s master, he never even went on guard duty with David until after he married Karen. And K Bar never went on guard duty with anyone else.

  They set up a medical care schedule to monitor K Bar around the clock.

  They were all somber, but Ashley was emotionally devastated by K Bar’s condition. Karen remembered she seemed to talk to him a lot, but they all did.

  Karen smiled as she realized K Bar was actually the Nuclear War Club psychotherapist, a therapy dog, roaming around being petted, and checking on each person every day.

  83.

  While on recon, Zeke found a whole truckload of marijuana bales, beer, and whiskey in a U-Haul truck on the eastside of the mountain that had been used by the shooters.

  He showed Doron, who rolled a joint, lit up, and then said “This is prime stuff! Better than Colorado Gold 420!”

  “Let’s load the best of this into these duffle bags under my books,” Doron suggested, handing his lit joint to Zeke who inhaled deeply.

  “No need to bother David or Karen with this. They just wouldn’t understand,” Doron said.

  “It will be our little secret,” Doron said, covering his lips with his finger.

  Zeke laughed, enjoying the joint.

  Yes, this was prime stuff, Zeke thought. Only to help me relax, he justified to himself.

  84.

  “We eat pretty well. And we have plenty,” Karen said as they sat around the campfire.

  “You eat much better than the gangs,” Chloe said.

  “Everyone gets to choose which kind of canned soup, beans, or chili to pour over their rice. The other big meal is pasta with tomato sauce, dried onions, canned mushrooms, and canned olives,” Karen said.

  “Where did you get all this?” Chloe asked.

  “Doron figured out that on any given day, one to three days’ worth of food supply is in semi-truck trailers somewhere in the United States. Either on a highway or a railroad yard,” Karen said. Chloe nodded, awed by the food.

  “Great selection of food,” Chloe said.

  “Yes, we have to guard the food carefully. Like John Wayne in True Grit,” answered Ashley.

  “Which part?” Karen asked as Chloe looked puzzled. Karen had noticed Ashley didn’t talk much, and when she did talk she used movie plots as shorthand communication.

  “Mattie gets snake bit and is dying. US Marshall Rooster Cogburn has to get her help. Rooster robs a wagon from some innocent settlers at gunpoint,” Ashley explained.

  “Good people will commit crimes, even kill, to save someone they love,” Ashley said, clearly using up her speech quota for the day.

  Karen was proud of the way Doron and Zeke waited to eat until after the kids. They weren’t always polite before Samuel and Brad and Cheryl joined them. The kids had a civilizing influence on them. There is hope for these savages, she thought.

  She was proud David always stood watch while everyone ate. Sarge had told him, Officers eat last. She saw him on duty at the top of the hill.

  “It’s Karen,” she said before climbing the top of the hill. He lowered his gun, and reached for the coffee she brought. The sun was setting and the first stars were already visible in the east. In the clear desert you could really see a long way.

  “Is my favorite wife okay?” David asked, as she sat next to him against the cliff.

  “Yeah, I guess I lost it before,” Karen said.

  “Listen Karen, this is important,” David said. “I will never be taken captive. Not after what we saw. If I am in danger, you take the shot.”

  Karen nodded, and said, “And you better take the shot for me also. “It was silent as they looked out towards the Interstate.

  Then Karen added, “Maybe you and I could practice long range shooting. We can both use practice,” she said, trying to be diplomatic.

  David laughed and said “OK so I can’t shoot prairie dog headshots. I did the next best thing, I married you.” David hugged her and wiped her tears away.

  “Now get out of here before you lure me into dereliction of my guard duty,” David said.

  Karen smiled, and walked down to the campfire, where K Bar lay waiting for her.

  “See K-Bar, David said I would lure him away into dereliction!” she giggled, as she petted K-Bar.

  ____________________

  Just before the midnight guard change, David heard a muffled roar to the north east. He ran to the top of the hill, focused his binoculars, and saw twelve large missiles launch. David watched for a few seconds, mesmerized, then remembered he was on guard duty.

  David blew his whistle. Everyone quickly scrambled out of their tents.

  “There has been a missile launch about twenty miles away. This means there may be an incoming nuclear strike. Get behind boulders facing away from northea
st,” David yelled, pointing.

  Karen ran with Samuel in her arms. They jumped into a crevice. Soon everyone was behind a cliff shielding them from the northeast.

  They waited, barely breathing. It seemed forever, but in minutes the dark sky erupted into a brilliant reddish orange. Then again, and again. Five nukes had hit.

  “We are over twenty miles away, so we should receive the blast wave soon,” David said.

  They could see the dust rise, and the mushroom clouds form against the full moon. The blast waves arrived, spent, merely scattering dust.

  It was beautiful, so incredibly beautiful, David thought. He was instantly ashamed, and felt guilty, for even thinking the thought.

  David wondered which direction the upper winds would carry the fallout. And from now on, everyone would have to dig a foxhole near their tent. Next time, there may not be shelter nearby.

  Doron was amazed, “How did you know?”

  “It wasn’t an initial launch, this was a counterstrike. This was a lunch before an incoming strike, already launched, arrived. Intercontinental nukes launched from Asia would take about thirty minutes to arrive. As soon as they launch, if we still have satellites, we know the place and time of arrival here. Note the strike hit here fifteen minutes after launch. Either those were submarine launched nukes, or they were ICBMs fired fifteen minutes before we launched our counterstrike,” David explained.

  “Bottom line, you see missiles launch, always prepare for incoming nukes,” David explained.

  85.

  Liu noticed they were moving faster now on the trail, and becoming more proficient at setting up camp and preparing dinner. Mike and Chloe learned quickly.

  “There is more rice,” Liu said to Chloe. Liu thought Brad and Cheryl still looked hungry.

  “Thank you,” Chloe said, scooping some into Brad’s bowl, then Cheryl’s bowl. Chloe picked up an open can of chunky chicken noodle soup bubbling near the campfire with the pliers, and dumped half in each bowl. Liu had noticed that Brad and Cheryl never talked. She wondered why, but after attack day if someone didn’t want to talk you left them alone, you didn’t rip off their emotional band aid.

  “So how did all of you meet?” asked Chloe.

  “We had all been sentenced to after school detention at Barley Union High School,” Zeke said.

  Chloe looked quizzical.

  “No, it’s true,” said Liu.“The detention was in the basement, and just before we were to be released, the first nuke went off,” said Liu. It was quiet for a few moments, everyone just watched the fire crackle.

  Samuel brought his red My First Bible in Pictures, to Doron. He had it opened to Moses. Samuel sat in Doron’s lap and waited for him to read. Samuel showed everyone the picture, Moses was looking up, the Ten Commandments were on a rock nearby. Doron read and pointed to the words.

  “What are God’s ten rules called?”

  “The Ten Commandments,” Samuel answered.

  “Hey Zeke, do you know any of the Ten Commandments?” asked Doron.

  “Sure,” said Zeke, confidently. “I went to Vacation Bible School. And I watched the movie The Ten Commandments.”

  “OK,” said Doron. “How about I say one, then you say one, see how many we can get?”

  “Do not steal,” said Zeke.

  “Do not lie,” said Doron.

  “Do not work on Sunday,” said Zeke.

  “Actually it was Saturday, but I’ll give it to you,” Doron said.

  “Only worship God,” continued Doron.

  “Honor your parents,” said Zeke.

  Doron paused, he was forgetting some, then he said “Do not take God’s name in vain.”

  “Do not murder,” Zeke said, after hesitating.

  “Do not commit adultery,” said Doron, pleased with his memory.

  “Aunt Karen, what is adultery?” Samuel asked. Ashley giggled, and Liu choked on her rice soup. Karen looked at Doron, who shrugged at her.

  “Adultery is when someone acts like they have more than one wife,” Karen explained. “God says only one wife for the husband, and only one husband for the wife,” Karen said, holding up one finger on each hand, and pointing to her, then David, then intertwining the fingers.

  Samuel seemed satisfied with the explanation.

  “Ready for the hot chocolate?” Karen asked quickly.

  Liu noted that Samuel carefully put his red Bible in his school backpack before reaching for his hot chocolate. Samuel sat on his blanket hugging Karen’s knee as he stared at the stars. In the dry desert air, with no light except the campfire, there seemed to be an infinite number of stars.

  David painted a rock with the green laser pointer, and Doron jumped up to relieve him from guard duty.

  There was a comfortable silence, when David returned.

  “I have been thinking about Sarge and the Airborne unit. How did we know they were soldiers, and it was okay to surrender to them?” David asked.

  “Well, they were in uniform,” Zeke said, puzzled. “The uniform said “US Army.”

  “But the uniforms are easily available in any surplus store,” said David.

  “I think it was their discipline,” David said.

  “I never understood saluting until now. My Dad was in the Air Force, I just assumed saluting was to signal who was the superior office. But now, I understand that’s not all,” David paused, savoring the hot chocolate.

  “Soldiers only salute other soldiers. You could be the most powerful civilian ever, but you do not get a salute. A salute says, you are worthy to be in the tribe,” said David. “They didn’t salute very often, as it selects targets for snipers, but saluting is a powerful identifier of soldiers,” David said.

  “Your point?” Zeke asked.

  “We were watched and photographed at the cabin,” David said. Liu felt uncomfortable at the bad memory.

  “Suppose we had saluted each other, acted like a military unit. Maybe they would have gone away, and skipped the ambush,” said David.

  “Only a foolish gang would knowingly engage a military unit, when they could slaughter untrained civilians instead. These criminal groups will pick the low hanging fruit first,” David said.

  Liu was impressed. This was brilliant, easily accomplished and it would work. She knew it.

  “Great idea. Let’s practice saluting. You think we should wear uniforms?” asked Zeke.

  “No, falsely wearing military uniforms in a war zone can earn you a firing squad. In World War 2, German soldiers in US uniforms were executed by firing squad. They photographed it, it’s in the history books,” David said.

  “Just be thinking about it,” said David, as he dropped the matter.

  “Good night,” Samuel said, as Karen led him to the tent. David followed. Chloe left with Brad and Cheryl to their tents. Liu observed that now everyone went to sleep shortly after dark. Just after nuke day, people stayed up all night, but not anymore.

  Liu set up her tent in case it rained, but rolled out her sleeping bag behind the boulder, near the fire where she could hear everything. She liked to watch and listen when people came up the fire for guard shift change, or just to talk. For some reason she felt alone and depressed in her tent. Sleeping outside in her sleeping bag, looking at the stars, cheered her up.

  Zeke and Mike stayed, looking at the fire. Zeke laid out the coffee and tea packets next to the coffee pot, and stacked what was left of the dried wood near the fire. There was very little wood here, only dried tumbleweeds that they flattened and broke into pieces. They were using up the wood they brought.

  “Zeke, I looked at the shooters. Most were killed with headshots from Karen. Where did she learn to shoot?” Mike asked. Liu listened, laying on her sleeping bag, staring at the stars.

  “She and her Dad tracked and killed cattle rustlers on their ranch,” said Zeke.

  “She is our best shot, and Doron is her spotter.”

  Mike was quiet, then continued.

  “Is Samuel her son?” Mike
asked.

  “Yes, we rescued the Mother just before she died. Karen took over Samuel and K-Bar,” Zeke said. “What are your plans?” asked Mike.

  ‘We are all going to Alabama, that’s where David lived. His Mom is still there, couldn’t get out before the nukes. We are looking for an American government that has formed,” said Zeke.

  “Zeke, do you ever think about everyone who died?” Mike asked.

  “Every day,” said Zeke, brokenly. “I had a younger brother and sister. David went with me to make sure they were not alive. He took a radiation hit to go with me,” Zeke said.

  “Do you get depressed?” asked Mike.

  “Yes, sometimes I dream about taking

  LeShawn and Monique to the school bus, them waving goodbye to me in the rain, and I wake up trembling,” said Zeke.

  “The dark comes.”

  “And sometimes when I see some kid’s bloated dead body, I do not see the corpse, I see LeShawn and Monique’s face,” Zeke finished.

  “What about you?” asked Zeke, eager to change the subject.

  “When we were captured, and I was helpless to protect my family, I really wished I was dead. I just wanted some heroic way to die. A Samson option. I will never be captured alive again,” said Mike fiercely.

  “And I wonder how I can prepare my kids for this type world,” Mike continued, softly and contemplatively.

  “Will it be like Europe in the middle ages after the Black Death Plague? Europe eventually recovered, after a long period of devastation. Or will we collapse, and never rise again, like the ancient Mayan and Aztec civilzations?” Mike wondered.

  “This is a good team. Good people. I am glad my kids are here,” said Mike as he left for his tent.

  Liu listened carefully, staring at the stars. She thought about why she had survived, and what her purpose was.