by Liscom, Sean
IN MEMORY OF
PAUL A. THERRIEN
09/08/72 – 12/14/17
REST EASY BROTHER, WE GOT THE WATCH.
I was always proud to call you my friend, my brother and fellow Firefighter.
CHAPTER 1
Thursday, July 13th, 2017
The cold winter air was sizzling and cracking with bullets from every direction. I slammed my eighth and final magazine into the AR-15, hit the bolt release and looked for my next target. I had no idea how many bikers I’d sent to hell but there were bodies everywhere. Some were moving, most were not. Without warning, my right leg was knocked out from under me. I was falling on my right side, a fine mist of my blood had covered the snow in front of me. I could see the blood stain rapidly growing on my right pant leg. I’d been hit but the pain wasn’t registering in my brain.
I looked up to see a leather clad biker running toward me, firing wildly. Still laying on my right side, I raised my rifle but saw that the bolt had locked back on an empty chamber, again. “When did that happen?” I asked myself, slightly confused. Things were happening too fast. I rolled onto my back and grabbed my pistol, nearly dropping it. It was coated in blood and slippery in my gloved hand. Gripping it tighter, I brought it up and fired. At the same time, a round slammed into my chest. The AR500 armor plate stopped the round but left me struggling to take in a breath. The biker fell face first into the snow and was still. The 230 grain jacketed hollow point I’d fired had found its mark.
I rolled onto my stomach and struggled to get up.
I tried to stand but it was impossible. Staying on my knees, I found two more targets before my Sig Sauer 1911 went to slide-lock. I was fumbling for another magazine with my bloody hands when I was slammed forward into the snow. The blow was devastating and I was gasping for air. My back felt like it was on fire and I couldn't get any of my limbs to work. Everything was going numb. I couldn't move and breathing was near impossible.
I heard footsteps drawing closer and someone rolled me onto my back. Time stopped and it felt like my heart did too when my eyes focused on Marvin. He was standing over me with a huge .44 magnum pointed at my face. I could see the animal rage burning behind his eyes. His smile was that of a predator about to make the perfect kill. I could see his finger pulling back on the trigger. BOOM!
I jerked awake. My heart was racing, I was coated in sweat and my breathing was ragged. Jill rolled over next to me and put her hand on my chest. Her soft voice was telling me that it was okay. It was her way of calming me down after the nightmares. It always worked and I quickly began to relax. It had gotten to the point that I don't think Jill would even fully wake up anymore. It was an instinctive reaction from her. Within a few minutes, I could feel her relax and drift fully off to sleep again.
The nightmare had awoken me a little after two in the morning. According to the wall clock, it was now 5:15. There was too much on my mind for me to sleep
and I was too comfortable with my new bride, Jill, curled up next to me. Her head rested on my shoulder, her arm and leg draped across the top of me. It was cool enough in our darkened room, her naked warmth felt just right. As much as the both of us had been dreading it, today was the first day back to work for us.
One year. In the span of one year, my life had lost all resemblance to what it had once been. When the EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) destroyed modern civilization on July 4th, 2016, I evolved into something that I'd never dreamt of. Something that, in many ways, scared me. Before that, I was content to live here at the ranch and just let life take me wherever it may. Jill and I were the hottest thing on the planet at the time and I was very happy to be a part of that budding romance. When the world ended, my feelings for her exploded. I had no idea that I could love this woman with so much of my being.
July 9th, 2015 was the day that I met Jill. It wasn't really love at first sight, but she had caught my eye. Her 5’6”, athletic body, sandy blonde hair, and ice blue eyes were enough to turn any man’s head. That was the day that events were set into motion that would change my life, both for good and bad, forever. The match had been lit in the powder keg and there was no going back.
The day that Jill barged into my life was also the same day I learned of my father’s death. I’d been taken from my comfortable life in Reno, Nevada and thrust into a world that was as foreign to me as the New
World was to Columbus. To say that I was out of my comfort zone would have been the understatement of a lifetime. Learning of the existence of the ranch, with its many secrets and learning a little about who my father really was, well, it was shocking to say the least. Since that day, I’ve been forced into impossible situations, lost five people who I called friends and very nearly lost my own life.
The young woman that was curled up with me had saved my life that terrible October night. She killed the man that would have killed me, she retrieved my lifeless body from the icy depths of the pond and drug me to the shore. While I was in the hospital in a coma and through all of the recovery, Jill had been by my side. She had been my rock, my motivation and my reason to keep pushing myself. I didn't ever want that to change.
Today was also the first day that my brother, Braden, would be on active duty. He was going to shadow me and see what it was like to run this place. Being the older brother, he really should have played a larger role in the management of the ranch but I understood why he had shied away from the responsibilities. After the EMP, he and his family, along
with Alex's family, had spent 10 hellish months on the road trying to get here. Against all odds, he got all of them here alive but the mental toll was staggering.
The day after their arrival back in May, he and I had spent the entire day at the kitchen table talking while his girls slept. He recounted the entire journey
and many of the things he told me were horrific. He told me of the roving gangs that were killing, stealing and raping their way across western Kansas. The thugs took anything of value and what they didn’t take, they destroyed. Without the rule of law to keep them in check, everything was now fair game
My brother and his family along with Alex’s parents and sister, had spent three weeks playing a cat and mouse game with them. They slept in corn fields, under houses, in storm drains and even a garbage dump trying to avoid them at night. The daylight hours were no better. To be spotted meant almost certain death for the men and an even worse fate for the women. When they had finally slipped out of the gang’s territory, they were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a couple of firearms.
This was where my brothers hunting and trapping skills really came into play. Having lost all of the food they had packed, he resorted mostly to snare traps to catch small game. While it wasn’t nearly enough, it kept some food in their stomachs. Most of their nights were spent huddled on the ground for warmth under the stars, other nights there was no sleep at all.
Their second trial was a cult in eastern Colorado. While they professed peace and love, they were anything but. They were about human sacrifice, polygamy, and even suspected cannibalism to appease their angry gods. They were held against their will and forced to become a part of the cult’s society. The only thing the leader wanted to keep them around for was
to use as breeding stock. As far as he was concerned, they bore no other purpose. It was late one night when the he slipped into the house that Braden and his family occupied. He had decided he was going to have his way with my nieces. Kalin ended up killing him with his own knife and that led to their hasty escape.
They slipped out an unlocked window, knocked out the guard that was kee
ping watch over Alex Sr. and his family, stole an old Chevy nova and hauled ass. Another two weeks of being hunted like wild animals and they managed to slip away. Again, they had nothing but the clothes they were wearing and two pistols. One of which was out of ammunition. They spent the next six weeks trying to avoid any and all human contact as they slowly made their way across that state on foot.
They got picked up by an alleged military patrol outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and were promptly delivered to a “FEMA” camp. They were promised food, water, showers, and a warm bed in the “safety” of the camp. It proved to be more like a hard labor prison that you used to hear about. They were put on work details, sent out in groups of five or eight people and told to bring back anything of use. Car tires, fuel, food, copper wiring, and lumber were just a small portion of the list that they had been given.
Of course, they wouldn’t send family members out on the same work crew, too much chance they wouldn’t return. If part of the family was out working, the other part was kept in camp. They would be taking
care of laundry and other chores. All the while the management of the camp said it was for their own good. They were forced to work 18 hours a day, fed meager rations every other day, and beaten if they did not perform as required. There was even a firing squad that would take care of those who protested too loudly. Fighting back seemed impossible. All their weapons and anything that could be used as a weapon had been confiscated. They were also strip searched every time they came back from a work detail outside of the fence.
Braden said the camp could have sustained about 1000 people. By his estimates, there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 6000 people crammed in there. One night a crowd formed and started attacking the guards and the fences. Many were cut down because the guards were using live ammunition but the tide was too great and the prisoners overwhelmed them. Again, the two families escaped in the middle of the night with absolutely nothing as far as supplies went.
Three days later, running on fumes and at their wits end, they stumbled onto a small, one room cabin deep in the woods of the Rocky Mountains. There were no roads to this cabin and the fact that they found it was nothing more than pure luck. Smoke was coming from the chimney and there was light coming from the inside. My brother and Alex Sr. decided to knock on the door. You have to remember, at this point they really had nothing left to lose so they decided to roll the dice and see what turned up.
They were greeted by the barrel of a 12 gauge shotgun and the hard eyes of a man in his eighties. After about 20 tense minutes on the porch, they struck a deal. Work in return for food and shelter. They learned that his name was Tom, he never did tell them his last name. Their first few nights were spent sleeping on the porch but the weather was still decent and it helped them gain his trust. They spent their days cutting and splitting firewood, hauling buckets of water from the spring to the house and even fixing the roof of the cabin. Tom kept his word and made sure they had plenty to eat and drink.
They stayed there because they knew winter was coming and all signs were pointing to a long harsh one. After the snow started falling, Tom allowed them inside. It was crowded but they were happy to have a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs. About halfway through the winter, they awoke one morning to find that the old man had passed in his sleep. They had to wrap his body in sheets and move it
outside. They let the cold winter preserve the body
until they could give him a proper burial in the spring, before they moved on.
Once the weather started to warm and Tom’s body had been properly buried, they started to think about restarting their journey westward. There was a small debate between Braden and Alex Sr. about whether or not they should just cut their losses and stay at the cabin. Alex pointed out the fact that they
had food, water and a warm, safe place to stay. After
all, they had not seen anyone else all winter. This debate went on over the course of a few days, heatedly at times. In the end, Braden convinced everyone that the ranch was where they needed to be.
They found two weapons in the cabin, the 12 gauge shotgun and a 243 hunting rifle. There were only about 30 rounds for each but it would have to do. They also scavenged a fishing rod and reel with a small tackle box. Over the course of the winter, they had gone through all of the canned food and dry goods in the house so they decided to do some hunting and foraging before leaving. That endeavor netted them one big deer, some wild onions along with a few pounds of pine nuts. They also did a lot of fishing at a small mountain lake that was about a half days walk from the cabin. After smoking all the meat and packaging everything else in makeshift packs made from sticks and bed sheets, they set out again.
They avoided all of the population centers as they made their way across Utah into Nevada. They managed to forage for food and trap a lot of small game to keep them going. It was outside of Wells, Nevada, where they got a hold of some contaminated water and all of them came down sick. Kalin and Allison, my nieces, were sick but in a last ditch effort, they went into town.
Upon hearing about their situation, the locals mounted a rescue effort and got them all back to town for medical care. Nearly a week had passed since their rescue before anyone realized who it was that they had
been caring for. That’s when they called Jill on the HAM radio we had given them. Not really believing they had the two families, Jill kept it to herself and took a team to check it out. She ended up bringing them the last leg of their journey.
I'd just finished going through all of it again when I felt the slightest movement from Jill. There was a subtle change in her breathing and I knew it wouldn't be long before she was awake. A quick glance at the wall clock and I could see that it was a quarter to six already. As much as I didn't want it to, the thoughts of what I had to do today began to slip into my head.
Breakfast with Jill and Braden at 6:30am, on duty in the security shack at 7:00am, senior staff meeting at noon, and a one hour long class for the recruits of class 3 at 3:00pm, the topic for today was team management and dealing with adversity. All the while I would be babysitting my brother. I knew that he was going to have at least as many questions as my students.
Jill stirred again and this time I felt her eyelashes flutter against the bare skin of my chest. It took a few moments but she finally yawned and stretched. She began to softly rub my side with the open palm of her hand. It was her way of waking me up and it always brought me from the deepest of slumbers.
“Good morning,” I said quietly. She stopped rubbing and pushed herself up on her elbow.
“Any morning I wake up with you is a good morning,” she smiled and gave me a quick kiss before
laying her head on my chest again.
“You ready to get back to work today?” I asked.
“No,” she replied without hesitation. “I'd much rather spend another day here, in your arms.”
“Me too, babe. Me too,” I said as I began to gently caress her lower back with my left hand. We just laid there, enjoying each other’s company until 6:00am, that's when the wind up alarm clock went off. Both of us let out heavy sighs and she slowly rolled over and turned the alarm off. She kicked her feet off of the side of the bed and sat up. She usually took her shower first so I just continued to lay there.
Jill stretched again and let out another long yawn. She turned her head so that I could see the side of her face, that seductive smile of hers was evident in the dim light of the room and the look of mischief in her eyes was unmistakable.
“Come on,” she said as she reached for my hand. “Let's go hop in the shower and end this honeymoon the way it began!”
“I can't think of any better way to start my day,” I said as I threw back the sheet and slid out of bed.
We left our bedroom at 6:30am. As soon as the door opened, both of us could smell the bacon and fresh bread aroma that was making its way up the stairwell. My sister-in-law, Megan, loved to cook and she was very good at it. I oft
en wondered why none of us had packed on the pounds since she had taken over the meal prep. After some thought, I decided that it
had to be the fact that she didn't go overboard with
any one thing. Her meals were very well rounded and if you left the table hungry, that was your own fault!
When the two of us walked into the dining room, Braden looked up from the journal that he was reading. He had shaved his head and all of his facial hair was gone. Up until now, he had been sporting almost shoulder length hair and a beard that a sea captain would have been proud of. He was also dressed in a desert multi-cam uniform, just like Jill and I were. His new look gave Jill reason to pause and take a second look.
“Looks good on you!” she said, making her way into the kitchen. I took my seat at the head of the table, opposite of Braden.
“Thanks, the beard was starting to itch anyway. So, good honeymoon?” he asked with a wink and small smile.
“BRADEN!” Megan scolded from the kitchen. “You stop that!” she softened it with look that only her husband of 20 years could read.
“Yes, dear,” he chuckled. “What's our plan for the day?” he said, looking back at me.
“I figured we'd just kinda slip into things nice and easy like. We can spend the first few hours showing you how to run the shifts from the security shack. There is a senior staff meeting at noon that I'd like you to attend, those usually last about an hour every other day and we just talk about the day to day operations around here. I've got a class to teach at 3 o’clock that you are more than welcome to sit in on, if you'd like.”
“Okay, sounds easy enough. I do have one question though.”
“What's that?” I asked as Jill made her way to the table with the coffee urn and four cups.
“Well, it's kinda been on my mind ever since we got here...” his voice trailed off.
“Say what's on your mind, Braden,” I urged.
“How am I, how are WE going to fit in around here?” he motioned toward Megan. “I mean, you've got a very tight knit group here and we don't want to step on any toes,” he finished. I started to open my mouth but Jill beat me to the reply.