Dukes nodded slowly. “Yeah, honey, I do.”
“What about Clay and his Dad? They were dropping those people off. They were going right into it.” She looked over at Ian as if it was his idea and he had sentenced them to death.
“Penny,” Ian responded smoothly and with fatherly kindness. He had a daughter that was similar in age…he hoped they were similar in the way they processed information. “Clampet, the Fire Chief, right?”
She nodded.
“Just by his position, he’ll have an advantage. He will come from a position of authority, and most people in a confused state respect a person in authority.”
“That’s right, hon,” Dukes chimed in, following the logic of an officer and making Ian’s point.
“I saw that his son, Clay, right?” Ian continued.
She nodded again.
“He had a .357 on the dash in front of him. He’s a good shot, right?”
She nodded again. A small smile curved at the corner of her mouth.
“I also saw the stock of an AR-15 wedged in between the seats of the Chief’s truck. They’re well protected in case things go south.”
Dukes sat back and looked at Ian for a minute before turning back to the radio. “I thought I was observant with all my years in Recon, but you’re pretty good,” he said, casing a sidewise glance at Ian.
“Birmingham is out all over,” the radio crackled as Dukes dialed past the voice.
“Wait,” Ian said, “go back.”
Dukes reversed the dial and fine-tuned the broadcast. “It’s him. That’s Birmingham Bob.”
“Birmingham Bob? Really?” Mary tried to reengage.
“We served together. He was our toon sparky.”
“He was the platoon radio operator,” Ian translated for Mary before she could ask. She nodded that she got it.
“He’s the one that got me into prepping and into short-wave radio about ten years ago,” Dukes added to validate the man.
“Who is he talking with?” June asked her husband.
“I don’t know. Give it a minute. If I hear a silence, I’ll break in.”
“Yeah,” someone said, speaking to Bob on the radio. “It was really just infrastructure stuff here. A few big bridges, mostly ones leading to the refineries, I don’t know why. Over.”
“So, no nukes or EMPs in Texas then? Over.” Bob asked.
“Not that we’ve heard. I have heard something about LA thought.”
There was no response from Bob as he waited for the voice from Texas to give an update.
“I have heard that they nuked San Diego and EMPed the rest of the Northwest. But don’t have a confirmation on that, just a rumor. Over.”
There was a long pause before Bob responded. “I wish I knew what their end game was. Over.”
“Roger that. So, how bad is it in Southeast?”
Ian sat up a little straighter at that question.
“From what I can tell the Atlanta nuke was a small megaton detonation. I heard from one guy about 50 miles south of the city and he thinks everything inside of the Atlanta perimeter highway, is toast, but your chances go up the further your get away from the flashpoint. Over.”
“Damn, Bob. Over,” was all the voice from Texas could muster.
“I think the Northeast EMP took out the eastern seaboard and probably all the way down to the Gulf. I bet it also stretched past the Mississippi, too. Over.”
“Dukes, can you break in and ask him specifically about Birmingham?” Ian asked, clearing his throat and fighting emotion from sheer devastation of the news.
Mary looked at the man that had saved her life. This is the first that she had seen or heard any emotion out of him.
“Sure.”
“Bob, it’s Dukes. Good to hear that you’re okay. Sorry to jump your conversation. Over.”
“Dukes! Glad to hear that you’re alive. You’re one tough Marine! Over.”
“Oorah,” Dukes said somberly. “But we lost a bunch of good ones today. Over.”
“That we did, my friend. Over”
“Hey, I’ve got a former Army officer here with me that has family in B-ham, can you give some more detail about what’s going on up there? Over.”
“Sure,” Bob started. “From what I can tell, chaos is building. The news about Atlanta spread over here fast. Things broke down in a hurry. My son came back with a report that at least three large planes went down around the city…” he paused and exhaled deeply, his hand still on the active mike. “At least one of the planes hit the downtown area. The city is in chaos and probably is a deathtrap…”
“Oh God, already!” Ian said, exhaling heavily while he did.
“They say,” Bob continued, “that the National Guard has a pretty good hold on Montgomery, but everything north of the Montgomery all the way to Nashville, TN is falling into chaos fast. Everything I’m hearing is speculation. Over.”
“Bob, your what, about 25 or 30 miles outside of Birmingham? Over.”
“Roger that. I don’t want to give my location away,” the radio garbled his voice, “…but we’re pretty safe on the farm, for now. Over.”
“Ask him about the corridor south of the city,” Ian asked Dukes.
The radio continued to garble.
“Bob, we’re pretty garbled. Go to a higher frequency. Over.” The radio crackled and Dukes twisted the knobs, but he was never able to reestablish contact. “It’s got to be the EM stuff in the air,” Dukes offered.
Ian nodded. “Dukes, do you and June mind if we crash here tonight? We’ll leave first thing in the morning,” Ian offered, never looking at Mary.
Dukes looked at Mary and then back to Ian. “Sure, all we have is the couch, but I have a bed roll and a sleeping bag.
“That will work, thank you,” Ian offered. There was a determination in his eyes now that he had heard a voice from his hometown; a town that was on fire, and apparently falling into anarchy.
Dukes flipped off the radio and put it into a metal chest and locked it. “You might want to get out early in the morning.”
“I plan on it,” Ian offered. “Also, do you mind if I borrow some things?” Ian hated asking a fellow prepper for anything. He knew that everything a prepper has was strategic to their survival.
Dukes drew in a deep breath. He had been expecting a question like this. For a prepper, having the right tools, the right supplies, the perfect balance of security and readiness was what they strive for. But, there was something about Ian that allowed him to think differently and actually consider giving away some of his preps. For some reason, he trusted Ian. “I thought you might ask. Let’s talk in the morning.”
Dukes watched his family retreat to their rooms and flipped off one of the lights in the main room. “It’s been a long day for us all.”
“For like all of humanity,” Mary offered.
Dukes nodded. “I am pretty sure the world is changing around us tonight. The people we know should be the people we trust. Get some sleep tonight, and we’ll help you two on your way in the morning.”
Ian shook the man’s hand. “I will repay you one day for everything.”
“That’s not why I did what I did and why I will do what I will do. Get some sleep, Ian.”
Ian smiled at the man and rested assure that with people like him, humanity would not perish.
The lights went out and Mary slithered into the sleeping bag on the couch and Ian climbed into a sleeping bag on the floor in front of the fire.
“Do you think we can trust him?” Mary asked quietly.
“I know we can. Besides, there aren’t many people left that we want to trust.” A deep silence filled the room, only pierced by the crackling of the fire and the gentle sobs of Mary. Ian closed his eyes to visualize his family and to say a prayer of thanks.
CHAPTER 15
Leah awoke around 5 AM after falling asleep on the couch earlier in the morning. There was no sound in the house other than Daisy snoring in her bed in the corner. Usua
lly there would be an air conditioner running or a ceiling fan spinning which created noise; even the LEDs in the clock had a noise; but now, there was nothing. Leah pulled her wristwatch to her ear to hear the sound of the ticking. Her watch matched Ian’s; they had gotten them together. It seemed to settle her.
But, it wasn’t just the lack of noise that was bothering her; it was the lack of her family. Ian traveled a lot, so she had grown used to him being gone for short periods of time, but not her daughter, and certainly not both of them. She felt like she had let herself go soft from her life before she had children, but being a wife and a mother had changed her in a positive way that she never thought possible.
Now, with that thought, she was fully awake, and her mind took over. Have I followed the plan? Did I give Grace the right instructions? Why isn’t she home yet? Is Ian okay? Will he make it back alive? Should I hunker down or should I bug out? Can I leave my family out there and save myself? Will I remember my training and the plan? Should I forget everything and go find them myself?
Three days is what Ian and Leah had agreed on. Three days was the time in which anything could happen. At the end of three days the magic window of anything happening closed, and it was time to make hard decisions.
Leah had followed the plan. She had everything ready to hunker down and everything ready to bug out. She had tripped her watch when the power when out, it had been about 12 hours.
Originally, when they had been developing the survival plan, they wondered if three days to make a decision would be too long. Now, Leah found herself wishing for more than three days in which to decide what to do.
Again, Leah stared at her watch and wished for more time as each second ticked by on the analog dial…she shook her head clear from gazing at the watch. There was no way she was going to make a decision, based on the ticking of a watch, whether she was going to leave her family out there to die or not.
She got off of the couch, causing Daisy to stretch, yawn and also get up.
“Sorry girl. I didn’t mean to wake you,” Leah said. She looked at the two-way radio; it had been on scan mode the entire night, but never picked up a transmission. So, she left it on the counter, grabbed a few teabags, a gallon of water the camping coffee percolator and went onto the back deck. Daisy followed her out and performed her morning ritual of sniffing and patrolling the entire back yard.
The air was cool, but not overly chilly for a morning in April; living in the South had its advantages. She lit the side burner of their propane grill, filled the percolator with water and set the pot on the blue flame. Once the water started steaming she threw the tea bags in the pot and let them steep.
The smell of fresh brewing tea relaxed her, but it was the caffeine that she was after. She hated coffee, so this was her drink of choice in the mornings and it was one of the commodities that they had stocked up in abundance in case it all hit the fan.
“Hit the fan?” she mumbled to the dog as she hopped back onto the wooden deck. The dog looked at her and wagged; pretty common response.
“What are we going to do, Daisy?” she asked, taking her first sip of tea and looking out towards the city.
Their street was built along a series of small mountains and lakes. Their house was at the highest point of the street, and afforded them a pretty good view of downtown during the early morning hours. The city was about 20 to 25 miles from where they were, but the higher buildings and radio towers were usually visible from their back deck, even at that distance.
Leah took another sip of tea and then went inside to get her glasses. She only just started wearing glasses. It was seeing at a distance that seemed to bother her most. When she came back out, the sun had spread a little more light on the area and she could see the city clearly for the first time. What she saw frightened her.
Leah set the tea down and went inside to find the binoculars. Once she returned to her deck, she focused in on the giant plume of black smoke that billowed over where the city had stood.
“Oh my God, I think they blew up the city,” she said to no one but herself and the dog. She panned the view of the binoculars left and found another column of smoke. This one was not as black and didn’t billow as much. “That one’s almost out.” She then walked to the front of her house, where she could see a third column of smoke to the east. It looked the same as the second one. “Airplanes…” she whispered.
“Daisy, an airplane hit the city, and it’s still burning,” she said, lowering the binoculars and her vision falling on her neighbor’s house across the street. Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh God, Amy. Rob was downtown yesterday.”
She turned to go back inside and heard something.
“What was that?” she stopped and asked the dog, who also stopped at her knees and seemed to perk up.
Leah strained to listen. Birds were awakening and starting their morning ritual of calling to the sun and the worms, but the noise wasn’t a bird, it was artificial.
Inside the house, the two-way radio crackled on channel 25 with the sound of a man’s voice. Leah heard it that time, even from her front yard, and she took off around the house to get to her unlocked back door. She burst through the door and was about to pick up the radio to answer, but the voice and the tone of the man froze her from action.
“Do you hear me? You Jeep bitch, you shot my brother! I have your map and your radio and I coming after you! Do you hear me?”
With trembling hands, Leah turned off the radio and sank to her knees.
“Ian. Grace. Where are you?” she asked in-between sobs.
The dog nuzzled up next to her, trying to help in her own way.
“It’s time to go,” she said to the dog. Tears ran freely down her face. She was so tired and felt hopeless.
CHAPTER 16
Ian slept fitfully. He could hear Mary tossing and turning on the couch. He was sure that she really never slept either.
The last day had been unlike anything else he could have ever imagined. Even as a soldier in combat, he had never seen anything like what the day had brought. The scope and scale of the level of destruction that the country had endured, the millions of lives that were vaporized or killed because society was breaking down was like nothing he could dream of; and he had spent several years imagining some pretty horrific scenarios.
< >
When they first started prepping, it was just a few items here, or an extra bottle of water there. But, as time passed, and their belief that America was open to attack, their pastime became serious.
As a prepper, knowledge is power, and could be the difference between death and survival. With this simple idea, they began to use their resources to learn about who the real threats were, and how they might reach the Burrows family.
Using her degrees in social behavior and previous analytical training, Leah focused on terrorism and the reaction that a community has to terror. Through her research, she quickly identified a societal reaction pattern to when terror strikes, and dubbed it the Freaker Zone.
The Freaker Zone, or the first three days after a disaster is the most dangerous period of an event. During this window of time it was shown that people could lose all sense of morality, and revert to animalistic instincts for survival. This was a very dangerous period, and one that Ian wanted to be overly prepared for.
Grace took an unusual interest in her parent’s academic attitude towards the behavior of people. She liked psychology, and shared her mother’s interest on how people would react in the first three days after a disaster. She would often read the same data that her mother pulled up on the subject. The data would spark deep discussion about the psychological and sociological development of the individual and the mob mentality. They would discuss how these aspects of human nature would change as the crisis evolved, or how a group might react to one scenario like a hurricane versus a terrorist attack.
Leah often remarked to Ian that their daughter would make an incredible leader.
“She just gets people. Sh
e can almost see into their minds and predict their behavior,” Leah offered.
“What do you think she can do with that?” Ian asked.
“I don’t know, phycology, business, politics…”
“She could go into the CIA,” Ian offered.
Leah exhaled slowly. “Easy killer,” she smiled at him. “Our family might not be big enough for another intelligence officer.”
“I think she quickly gets a handle on almost any situation,” Ian agreed, and then flipped the conversation to something more serious. “So, our worst case scenario is a multifaceted terrorist attack. Right?” Ian asked the leading question.
“Yeah, or that coupled with an invasion.”
“Okay, so what happens if the big one comes down and Grace is on her own? Like away from us. Perhaps cut off from us, or,” he stopped, and shook his head. “Or, we’re dead, and she’s on her own.”
Leah thought about that. She had been thinking about that for quite some time. The odds were good that if something happened, it would happen while Grace would be separated from both of her parents.
“I think,” Leah offered, “that Grace is a very mature, level headed young lady who will make the right decisions. She will follow our plan, or listen to our instructions. Ian, we have been drilling her on this stuff for years. She could teach it herself. She comes by it naturally,” Leah answered with smile.
“You’re not answering the question,” Ian chided. “Can she make it on her own?”
“Yes,” Leah said with confidence.
“I agree,” Ian said with a nod. “So, you’re okay with me putting the gun in the safe box on the Jeep?”
“Um,” Leah stalled to collect her thoughts. “I’m okay with it, but let’s hold off on telling her right now. Remember she drives the car to school, and they’re seriously anal about anything to do with a weapon.”
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