Mountain Home

[Christian for Israel]

oh, Jack figures out his mistake. ;)

how'd you like the flamethrower though? :D

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 31

When the majority of the security force failed to return, Sylvia called an emergency meeting of the council. She sent for Jean and told him to be there also, determined to get to the bottom of this. When everyone had arrived and settled down she turned to the colonel and said “it appears that your security team has deserted, what do you intend to do about it?”

Looking exasperated, Jean responded “I don’t know what to do. I can’t bring them back by myself, even if I did know where to look. I need more men to be able to do anything.”

“You know,” Jim said, “they’re not the only ones to leave either.”

Turning to face him, Sylvia said “what do you mean?”

Seeing the suddenly serious look on her face, Jim hesitated before continuing. “Well it seems that since the election most of the children, those under twenty-one, have simply picked up and left. Also many of the older people are gone, leaving us with almost no pilots, and very few people to work the farms.”

Staring at him icily and speaking in low tones that made the councilman nervous, she asked “where did they go?”

“Uh…we don’t know…they seem to have just wandered off. They didn’t take much with them, no more than they could carry, and it doesn’t appear they left in a group…no more than two or three at a time at the most…”

The rage grew within Sylvia at this news. She waited a second to make sure she was in control of her voice as she knew it was more intimidating if she remained outwardly calm. Finally she spoke “and WHY didn’t you tell me about this earlier?”

Beginning to get nervous, Jim replied “I-I thought you knew…”

Turning to Jean she said “Colonel, hand me your pistol.”

Caught off guard by the request, Jean paused before complying. The look in her eyes convincing him that he didn’t want to get on her bad side just now. Unstrapping the top of his holster, the colonel withdrew the pistol and handed it to the woman.

Taking the gun loosely in her hand, she looked off into space and said to no one in particular “I consider withholding valuable information from me a traitorous act.” Then she turned quickly, bringing the gun up as she did. Before he could even voice a protest she pointed it at Jim and fired. The sound of the shot was deafening, it echoed off the walls of the large room. Looking at her in growing horror, the others decided the woman before them must be evil incarnate. They also decided that upsetting her would not be a good idea, and resolved to do whatever she asked, no matter what.

At the sound of the shot one of the few security guards that had actually returned rushed into the room. Stopping and staring in confusion at the sight of a dead councilman on the floor and the gun in the Mayor’s hand, he was unsure what to do. Seeing him arrive, the mayor ordered, “guard, get a detail together and clean this mess out of the council chambers immediately.” Hearing the tone of her voice, the guard turned away to comply.

Sylvia had expected the reaction she’d gotten from the others in the room, what she did not expect was the feeling of ultimate power the killing of another human being had given her. She decided right then that she would always keep a gun on her, and even get Jean to show her how to really use one. Turning to him once again she ordered him to go out and find more people to replace the men he’d lost. She didn’t care where he found them, or what they were like, as long as they were willing to take on some…extreme jobs…and would remain loyal to her.

Backing nervously out of the room, Jean already had an idea who he’d get. Over the summer they’d brought in a number of rough and tumble characters from Eastern Europe, along with some American criminals. They had spent their time in town getting into trouble and fighting, and would be the perfect replacements for the security force, if his suspicions about the mayor’s plans were accurate. He’d noticed the look in her eye when she’d shot Jim. He’d seen it many times before, and always before, destruction had followed.

After the colonel had left the room, Sylvia looked at April. “As soon as he gets the new security force together, I want you to take charge of directing them to secure the town. You will issue the passes to allow people to leave, and you will be responsible for them coming back. If anyone else disappears, your life is forfeit…do you understand me?”

Looking at her with horror, April only nodded. Inside she was thinking that, if she were smart she would join those who were leaving. But she had always craved power, and this position would be more power than she’d ever had in her life. Now she only had to figure out a way to keep anyone else from escaping.

Next, she spoke to the newest council member, Richard “and I want you to begin organizing patrols to bring in more outsiders. We’ve had contact with many groups who’ve refused to join us, isn’t that right?”

“Y-Y-Yes ma’am, there are a lot of smaller clusters who said they were just fine and didn’t want to come here.”

“Good. Well, that is no longer an option for them. I don’t care what you have to do, or what means are necessary to accomplish your mission, but I want this town full again, and you will take care of that.”

Richard looked at her nervously. When he’d agreed to join the council it seemed like a wonderful opportunity to get his own agenda passed, but the events of this evening made him realize that the only agenda that mattered was Sylvia’s. He’d always been a liberal. His biggest concerns were to get the town to understand the evils of burning oil for electricity and hurting trees. They had a chance as he saw it to start over right this time, and not hurt nature anymore. One of his most secret desires had been the legalizing of relations between people and animals. He’d always had a few pets he’d been involved with, and felt there was nothing wrong with it. But now, with the way Sylvia was acting, he was afraid to even mention it. Who knew if she’d get upset and shoot him also if she found out what he liked to do with animals.

Thinking about his desires, he told the Mayor he’d take care of it, but that extreme measures might be necessary. He was well aware that, if he could get their inhibitions down in other areas, they wouldn’t care so much about his particular fetish.

The Mayor told him to do whatever was necessary, but that she wanted people willing to work, not beaten down. He said he understood, and with that, the meeting ended.




Jean had good success, and over the next few weeks was able to recruit more than fifty ruffians to act as the core of his new army. These were men without conscience, men who delighted in inflicting pain on others. Most had some fighting experience of one sort or another, and several had been in various military organizations. Three were pilots and they were assigned the job of training others to fly as well. Since the departure of the teens had stripped the town of qualified pilots, replacing them had become top priority.

Checking out what kind of aircraft they had to work with, the pilots were delighted to find the A-10’s. Quickly mastering the craft, they started training others in their handling as well, knowing they would be useful in forcing other groups to bow to the will of the town. One of the pilots had experience in helicopters, and had workers start prepping one of the remaining Black Hawks for his personal use. This particular craft was the armed ‘Pave Low’ variant, and had stubby wings which held additional weapons. It was equipped with .30 caliber machine guns and carried eight ‘Hellfire’ anti-tank missiles. The pilot thought they were the most beautiful things in the world, and almost wept as he caressed them.

Jean had also recruited other guards to work with April as town patrols. The people he looked for didn’t have much if any experience, but he could tell instinctually that they were willing to do whatever was asked of them. April had immediately conscripted several hundred citizens to begin putting up a fence around the town. She figured it was the only way to ensure that no one else escaped. Her work force didn’t have any experience in things like this, but she didn’t care. How hard could it be? All they had to do was put in poles and string barbed wire, right?

When they were done with the project it sure looked impressive to her. Sylvia even commented that no one would be able to get through it. The fence was ten feet high, and had wire running along every six inches, all the way up. On top there was what Jean had called ‘razor wire’, and if you even touched it the stuff would cut deep. What she wasn’t aware of was, you could still lift the barbed wire between two posts enough to slip through, but they wouldn’t learn that until later.

The fence did stop most people from simply wandering off, but as the weeks went by and only certain people were allowed out, more and more citizens managed to get through the sloppy excuse for a barrier, as there weren’t enough guards to watch the whole perimeter, the migration away from town hardly slowed. April was aware that not everyone was being stopped by her fence, but she made sure Sylvia never found out. After all, she valued her life.

What she did do was increase patrols in town and institute a curfew. Anyone caught out at night was severely beaten and many were raped, both men and women. If that indignity wasn’t bad enough, they and anyone else caught doing anything the new government said was wrong were forced to work the farm as punishment. The people left in town had for the most part never done hard physical labor in their lives. But with the loss of strong young people to work the fields, someone was needed to plant and harvest. Few of the new laborers protested the treatment either, not after seeing examples of what happened to trouble makers. The first few were hanged, but after a while the patrols simply beat or raped them to death. This served to thoroughly cow the people who hadn’t have the courage to escape and soon protests ceased entirely.



During this time Jack and the others in the complex had been virtually cut off from news of what was happening in town. The flow of refugees had stopped, and they had no way of finding out what was going on. At the time of the assault he’d considered torching the security team, but his Christian morals wouldn’t let him do it without issuing a warning first. To his surprise, they had heeded that warning, preventing him from having to kill them. Jack was well aware that sometimes fighting and killing were necessary, but he hated the thought of it. Only if he had solid evidence of wrong doing, or if he and his people were in imminent danger would he consider taking such action. As it stood, besides the rumors and stories, and the arrest attempt, he had nothing firm to base an attack on the town on, and the last thing he wanted to do was start a war. He was well aware that while he did have some weapons, to get into a shooting war with outsiders was pretty close to suicide. After all, they had the whole world around them to use for resources, while all he had was what was within the shelter itself.

Praying that everything would work out, and feeling a leading to stay put and rest in God’s presence, he and his people tried to get on with their lives. Hopefully soon either God would act Himself, Jack thought, or at least give him guidance as to what to do to make things right again.



After six weeks the new assault teams were ready for their first raid. Looking around the town, Sylvia was impressed with how far they’d come. The fence was up and seemed to be keeping people in, and her patrols were roaming the streets. The people were obviously frightened of the patrols, and that delighted her. She knew that the secret of control was fear, and felt the town was well on it’s way to becoming a great seat of power. Now they were reaching out, and soon would control a much larger area. Looking ahead she could imagine every person in the whole world bowing before her, worshipping her as a god and doing whatever she commanded without a thought. The idea filled her with an almost sexual excitement, and in that mood she watched as the team boarded two helicopters in preparation for the start of her conquest of the world.

The team consisted of nine men, more than enough for the job ahead. Besides the pilots there were six troopers and Richard, who was acting as commanding officer and would be conducting the negotiations. The troops were aboard the slick Black Hawk, with the Pave-low along for fire support. They quickly flew to an area about seventy-five miles away, where there was supposed to be a group of eleven people trying to run a small farm. Arriving within the hour, they flew low and assessed the situation. The farm wasn’t very big, there was a small single story house and a barn, with about thirty acres planted. As they came in over the place they saw a couple of people running into the house, and after that, nothing. Instructing the pilot to land in the front yard, Richard got ready to negotiate with the leader of these people.

As soon as they touched down he got out, walking to a point about halfway between the ship and the building. After a minute an old man appeared in the door, and called out “who are you and what do you want?”

The man appeared to be past seventy, and Richard decided this was going to be easy “we’re here to let you know that by order of the United States government, you and your family are to be relocated to an area where you can be supplied with assistance. This area is now restricted and that’s why we’re ordering you to move.” The idea to claim authority of the government had been his, All his life he’d looked to the authorities to provide everything he needed, and the thought of anyone actually not WANTING the government to get involved was foreign to him. That was why he was so shocked when the man refused.

“We don’t need anything, thanks. Now, if you’ll be on your way, we have to get back to the fields.”

“Maybe you didn’t understand me,” Richard tried again, “but you don’t have any choice! You and your family will immediately get on the helicopter or we will gather you up by force!” maybe a little intimidation will work, he thought.

As he finished, the man raised his hands above his head. Unknown to Richard, that was a signal to the people inside that these visitors were hostile, and they opened fire immediately. Shocked beyond belief that anyone would actually shoot at what they thought was the US government, it took Richard a second to realize that he needed to get back into the helicopter before he got killed. Fortunately the shooting had been poorly aimed, and he made it back safely. Getting on the radio to the other chopper, he ordered the pilot to destroy the house. As his bird climbed into the air, the Pave-Low came in behind them, lining up on the front of the house.

As soon as he was in position the pilot fired one of the Hellfire missiles at the front door. The explosion was huge, lifting the roof right off the house. As the shooting stopped, he held off on firing anymore, and they waited for the smoke to clear. After a few minutes the first ship landed again, but this time it was the strike force that approached. In the rubble that used to be the house they found seven survivors. Four of them were teens and one was a boy of about six. There was a woman in her early twenties, and she was holding an infant. Everyone else had been killed in the blast, and these were shell shocked and bleeding from multiple cuts. The woman was holding her baby tightly to her chest when the men got to her. One grabbed her arm and tried to drag her to her feet, but she resisted, trying to shield the child. Angered, the man ripped the baby from her arms, dropping it on the floor. Drawing his pistol he shot it through the body then turned to the woman and said “if you resist anymore, you’ll get the same…now let’s go!”

Screaming hysterically, the woman clawed the man in an effort to get away and return to her murdered child. Clubbing her on the back of the head, the blow stunning her, the trooper dragged her to the waiting helicopter. On the ride back to the town, the man leered at her and said “don’t worry about the brat pretty thing, I’m sure some of us will be more than happy to give you some more.”

Overcome by grief and horror at the situation she and the rest of them were now in, the woman just sat there weeping for her dead child.

Over the next several weeks the town sent out raiding parties every day. The people they brought in were usually in bad shape, having tried to put up a fight before being captured. When they got to town they were immediately put to work as slaves, first at the farms, then later at other jobs no one wanted to do. The young women and the children were often claimed by citizens of the town, with the raiders and town officials getting first choice. Most of these became live-in mistresses and the children playthings of those so inclined, but others were simply forced to act as household servants. When they invariably acted up or tried to escape, they were abused severely, a few even being killed either through beatings or intentionally, for sport among the citizens.

By this time, anyone who had any decency had managed to escape and the town was full of people who’s only desire was the pain and degradation of others. Although this had united the town in depravity, it hadn’t really served their main purpose, that of getting more people. All told, they had brought in less than a hundred people from the local area, and more than half of these had died since arriving. What they realized they’d have to do was travel beyond the range of the helicopters, and to do that they’d need to figure out a way to get fuel where they needed it.

Faced with the problem, the pilots informed the council that there was a C-130 equipped with the army’s drogue refueling system. The helicopters already had refueling nozzles installed, and it should be simple enough to learn to refuel while in flight. This would extend their range to more than a thousand miles, and bring within range several larger groups that had been beyond their abilities to deal with before. The council gave their approval to the plan, and the next day they started training.

Refueling a helicopter in flight was easier said than done, they found out. With the chopper flying at full speed, the airplane going so slow it was close to stalling, and the prop wash knocking both the drogue and the chopper about, trying to stick the needle like probe into the tiny drogue basket seemed impossible at first. After several near collisions and failed attempts, they finally figured out the trick, and then spent a couple of weeks perfecting the technique.

Among the larger communities now within range was one village in northern New Mexico. The group had reported having more than a hundred people when contacted by radio, but had admitted that half were children. From what they had said, their defenses consisted of rifles and a few light machine guns, and the raiders were confident they would be easily overawed at the sight of the Pave-Low. Apparently the raiders still hadn’t learned anything.

The flight down to the village was uneventful, the refueling going off without a hitch. After more than seven hours in the air they arrived and the large plane landed at a local airport. Leaving it, the choppers arrived at the village, now well used to seeing people scurrying for cover upon their arrival. Landing, the representative was sent toward what appeared to be the main building. They no longer risked their own people on such dangerous duty, and instead sent one of their slaves. As the man approached, he was hailed by someone from within the building. Stating that the town was supposed to be relocated north and everyone here was going to be taken prisoner, the slave quickly dropped to the ground as the villagers opened fire. Of course that wasn’t what he was supposed to tell them, but by this time he was beyond caring what happened to him, simply wanting his wretched life to be over.

The shots from the buildings weren’t unexpected, but their accuracy was. As the first ship lifted back into the air the gunship circled around and prepared to launch a missile. But this time, as he was lining up to take the shot, someone from within the buildings fired a single round from a salvaged .50 caliber high powered rifle. The well aimed shot penetrated the wind screen of the helicopter, hitting the pilot and nearly severing his neck.

Immediately the ship went down, exploding into a ball of fire as it hit. No one from the crew survived, and the pilot of the other bird quickly became aware of the serious trouble he was in as the same .50 caliber opened up on him. Finally moving outside the range of that gun, he tried to assess the situation. His co-pilot was dead, along with the leader of the raider squad. Several of the troopers were injured also, and the helicopter was handling roughly. Climbing above the surrounding hills, he raised the people left to stay with the plane on the radio. Informing them as to what happened, he felt the ship lurch, then become uncontrollable as all power died. Going down, the pilot had never been taught how to auto-rotate, and therefore could do nothing to prevent a crash. They hit the ground hard, stunning everyone aboard. Before any of them could get his wits back, the craft caught fire, exploding seconds later.

Seeing the smoke from the crashed chopper, the pilot of the C-130 made his decision. Starting the engines he quickly took off, headed back towards Mayfield.

[610Alpha]

Love the flame thrower...me thinks that some of Sylvia's people are going to be introduced to it very intimately.

[SamT]

I'm getting uclers with all this waiting for the next chapter... Maybe I should go offline for a week or so....





Nope! That would be way worse.

[qrprat77]

def check_post_by(author)
page.includes_new_posts_by(author) ? answer = "AWESOME!" : answer = "nope :("
return "**REFRESH** " + answer
end

>self.check_post_by("Christian for Israel")
#=> "**REFRESH** nope :("
I hate being a nerd, and having the time to do this...
FEED ME!

[610Alpha]

Never seen code like that before, what language is it?

[qrprat77]

Never seen code like that before, what language is it?

Ruby! http://www.ruby-lang.org

[Christian for Israel]

can't have anyone getting an ulcer on my account (i don't want to be sued...:D)...

Chapter 32

The pilot climbed to altitude quickly, heading home as fast as the plane would go. When he was within radio range he called the town and reported what had happened. Waiting while the message was relayed to someone else, he was distressed to hear the radio operator inform him that Sylvia had demanded that he report to her as soon as he landed. Suddenly breaking out into a cold sweat, he wondered if he were in trouble.

A couple of hours later he landed at Boise. There was a hummer waiting for him at the end of the runway, and when he got in he became even more nervous as the other occupants looked at him as if he were an insect. They refused to answer his questions or even speak, and in silence they rode towards the town. Twenty minutes later they arrived in front of the building, and he was told by one of the guards to report directly to the council chambers. Walking into the room he saw that several people were already there, waiting for him.

Sylvia was in rare form, actually foaming at the mouth. The pilot suddenly knew this was going to be bad, and hoped he’d live to walk out of that room again. The mayor had been screaming at anyone she could since finding out the assault team had been killed. As she got worked up, spittle began to fly from her mouth with every word she spoke. Everyone present had been showered as she ranted on, her face blood red with anger, the veins popping out and pulsing along with her words.

Turning and directing her considerable wrath on the pilot as he walked into the room, she screamed at him “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE ASSAULT TEAM WAS KILLED?” Continuing in a slightly lower tone, she said “how could you let this happen!? Nobody does this to me, do you understand! Don’t they know who I am!? Don’t they know I’m the leader of the civilized world!? How DARE they attack me like this!? YOU! It’s YOUR fault! You’re a traitor…a rotten TRAITOR!”

Suddenly she drew her pistol. She’d spent a considerable amount of time each day practicing with it, and was now quite good. What’s more, she was completely comfortable with it, it was almost a part of her now. Raising the gun and resting the sights on the forehead of the pilot, she pulled the trigger. Again and again she fired, until the gun was empty. The face of the man was practically gone by the time she’d emptied the weapon, and all his blood had poured out, covering the floor behind his corpse. Finally, she lowered the weapon, quickly changing the magazine and re-holstering it, her rage spent. Turning to Jean she said in a more normal voice “I’ll show them. I’ll show them all! The whole world will see what happens to those who oppose me! Get your pilots ready. I want those planes they love so much to bomb those people into oblivion. I don’t want a single one left alive…DO YOU HEAR ME?!

Nodding quickly, Jean said he’d take care of it immediately. He didn’t point out that, without radio or TV services anymore, there was no way anyone would know what they did to the village, and therefore no one else would learn anything. Considering her mood, he thought it best to keep that tidbit to himself. One thing he did realize now however was that his leader was crazy. More than that, she was stark raving mad. Deep down inside he’d always known that, but her actions lately had made it obvious. He didn’t know when it had happened, if it was the plague and the deaths of everyone that drove her insane, or the sudden rise to power that had done it. All he was sure of was that she was getting worse, and if someone didn’t do something, and soon, she’d be the death of them all. Of course, he also knew she had the loyalty of the raiders, as she had taken pains to give them anything they wanted, ensuring that they stayed true to her. Because of that it wouldn’t be easy for anyone to get close enough to remove her, not without forfeiting their life in the process. Thinking these things, he thought for the first time that the idea of just leaving maybe wasn’t so bad after all.

Quickly calling the raiders, he told them what she had ordered. They, as opposed to himself, were delighted with the idea. They were tired of bombing empty buildings, and longed for real, live targets for their weapons. Getting together, they discussed just how to pull this off. After a bit they decided to take six A-10’s, loaded out with an assortment of bombs. The problem was the range was too great. They’d barely have enough fuel to get there, and none at all for the return trip. What’s more, the air refueling set-up for the planes was configured for the Air Force system, and wouldn’t work with the drogue refueler they’d used with the Black Hawks. As there wasn’t time to find an Air Force refueler and they had no experience with that system anyway, they decided to simply load a couple of large fuel tanks into a C-17 and fly it to an airport close to the village. After they refueled they could attack the town, then easily return home.

Deciding on how to pull off the raid, they contacted the airport and ordered the planes readied for the mission. An hour later they arrived and found everything ready to go. Getting into the planes they were soon in the air headed southeast, looking forward to kicking some butt.

A couple of hours later, with very little fuel remaining in the tanks of the attack planes, they landed at the airport in Santa Fe. They were now less than a hundred miles from their target, and this was a perfect place to refuel. As the crew of the cargo plane got out and brought out the fuel tanks, the A-10’s taxied up one at a time and were refueled. As soon as the last plane was full they took off again, the C-17 remaining to top off their tanks on the return trip, before they headed home.

Forming up, the attack group turned toward the village, and a few minutes later they spotted it. Coming in at treetop level, they made one pass to get an idea of which buildings were likely to contain people. The site looked to have been some sort of industrial park before the plague, and there were a dozen or more large metal buildings clustered together. Also the flight leader noticed there were a bunch of mobile homes in the parking lot of the main building, likely housing for some of the villagers. Deciding on how he wanted to hit the place, he ordered his group to attack in pairs. The first two planes were loaded out with five hundred pound general purpose bombs. As they circled the area, the first two leveled off and made their run. The bombs dropped in salvo, and the effect was more than they’d hoped for. The trailers were flattened by the concussion, and all of the metal buildings were severely damaged, collapsing in on themselves. As he’d hoped, the leader saw that the effect had been like kicking an anthill, the occupants, those that could anyway, were running out of the buildings into the open.

Calling to his wingman to follow, he started in on his run, these two planes were loaded with CBU’s. CBU’s, or cluster bomb units, were thin walled bomb casings filled with hundreds of small bomblets. About the power of a hand grenade, they were scattered in a cloud by a small bursting charge within the casing, raining the bomblets down to explode on the ground. The shrapnel produced was devastating, and after dropping his load he looked back and saw that nothing moved anywhere in the target area. Climbing out again, all of the aircraft began strafing runs with the big GAU-8 30mm cannons on anything that looked as it might hide a living person. Finally, as the guns were exhausted, the leader told the final two aircraft to drop their load. These planes were carrying napalm, jellied gasoline. As the planes crossed the remains of the village he saw the tanks of napalm drop free, tumbling to the earth and erupting in massive balls of fire. That last run started a firestorm over the target, ensuring that nothing could survive. Happy with the results of their work, the flight gathered up and returned to Santa Fe to refuel, before heading back to Boise.

Landing several hours later, the raiders made their way to town, having already calling in and announcing their great victory. As they arrived they found a huge party already underway, and the people treating them as conquering heroes. As they entered the community center, they were greeted by Sylvia. Smiling and congratulating them on a job well done, she informed them that tonight, the rules were off. Usually the raiders were restricted to raping and abusing only those groups who resisted when they went to bring them into the town, but tonight they were free to do anything they wanted, with anyone in town. Grinning with anticipation, the raiders looked forward to the nights’ festivities. Before they left however, Sylvia had one more job for them. “In the morning I want you to load those planes up with every bomb they can carry, and go up to that Jack’s place and bomb him to oblivion…do you understand me…I don’t want ANYONE coming out of his place alive. Now go and enjoy yourselves, you’ve earned it.”




Deep in his underground shelter, Jack and the others were aware that the town had attacked somebody, having heard the reported victory on the radio. They had no idea of who, or why, or where, and he was now in the dining room discussing the event, although he also had a deep sense of foreboding. Coming to the door of the control room, Robin, who was on duty there called to him and said there was someone on the radio asking to speak to him only. Surprised, as he’d not gotten any direct communications from anyone outside the complex since before the election, he got up and went to see who was calling.

Sitting in front of the computer screen, he acknowledged the call and identified himself. On the screen typed words began to appear.

“Jack, before I tell you who I am, let me first warn you. The people of that town near you attacked us earlier today, and the survivors here have retaliated. They found a bunch of cruise missiles at an Air Force base not far from here last year, and a couple of them had tactical nuclear warheads. They went to try and launch them at the town, and I just heard them fly overhead a minute ago. You only have about an hour, so get all your people inside that shelter of yours right now! You don’t have any time to lose, I’ll wait here until you come back.”

Staring at the screen in amazement, Jack suddenly reached over and hit the panic button. As the sirens went off, he spoke into the microphone “ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ALL PERSONNEL, GET INSIDE THE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY, A NUCLEAR ATTACK IS UNDER WAY. I REPEAT GET INSIDE IMMEDIATELY, WE’RE ABOUT TO BE NUKED!”

Turning to those around him, he began issuing orders to get everyone inside immediately and make sure no one was left on the surface. Then get the doors closed and make sure the air filters were moved into place. Reaching for the short range radio, he felt obligated to warn the town. At first no one responded to his calls, but finally an old man answered, though he sounded drunk. “Yeah…wha’da’ya want. And who is this, anyway?”

“This is Jack, there’s an attack on its way. Get all your people to safety, you’re about to be nuked.”

“Jack? Oh yeah, the perv. Listen, why are ya calling us Jackie, are ya ready to surrender yet?”

“Listen to me, the people you guys attacked today have launched a nuke at you. Get everyone under cover now, there’s not much time!” Jack ordered, exasperated.

“Huh? Them folks we bombed to h*ll today? Don’cha worry ‘bout them none, they’re all dead. Now, if’n ya wanna come on into town, we’re havin’ a little party. You might even get to have a drink before one of us shoots you!”

They could hear the man laughing in the background, until the sound suddenly ceased. Calling again, Jack wasn’t able to raise anyone, and figured the guy had turned off the radio.

“Well, I tried. I don’t know what else I can do.”

“Nothing that I can think of,” Robin said, “you did everything you could and more than they deserved.”

Saddened at the loss of life that was coming, he turned back to the long range radio and contacted their mysterious friend again.

“Thank you for the warning, all of our people are now safe inside. Now, if you don’t mind, would you tell us who you are?” he typed.

A few seconds later, more words appeared on the screen “it’s good to hear that you took me serious, warning you was the least I could do after what you did for me. Right after the plague, you took me into your shelter. You fed me and gave me a bed, and were kinder to me than anyone I could remember. And I repaid you by attacking a young girl and trying to kill you all and take over your shelter. You had every reason in the world to kill me for what I’d done, and no reason to let me live, but you did anyway. You flew me a long ways off and told me about God on the way. I didn’t want to listen and my heart was filled with hate for what you were doing, but that didn’t stop you. Finally you landed, and put me out. Before you left you gave me food and water, and something that became even more valuable to me, a Bible.”

Stunned at this revelation, Jack typed “Doug, is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me. I walked for weeks after you dropped me off, dreaming of getting even with you. But I was too far away to really do more than dream, and eventually finding food was more important. After a while the things you said to me began to penetrate, and my anger finally left me. I started reading the Bible you gave me, and before too long asked Jesus into my heart. I repented of all the terrible things I’d done, and from then on have tried to make up for some of them. Before I go on, I’d really like to apologize to the young lady I tried to rape, is she still there?”

“She’s right here next to me, she’s been reading along this whole time.” He typed

Robin was shocked when she realized who this was, remembering the attack like it happened the day before. But finding out that the man who did it was now a brother in Christ, and was asking her to forgive him, her heart went out to him. Turning to Jack, she said “tell him there’s nothing to apologize for, I forgive him.”

Typing again, he told Doug what she’d said. There was a pause, then the words started again. “Pardon me, her words brought tears to my eyes. From the time I finally realized the truth and turned to God, I have wanted to ask her to forgive me for what I did. Now that she has, I’m overcome.”

“Please go on Doug, tell us what happened.” Jack prompted.

“It was funny really, I guess God was keeping people away from me until I turned to Him, because as soon as I did I found a couple of others. I told them what happened to me, and what I’d done, expecting them to leave when they found out what kind of man I was, but they didn’t. Instead they wanted to know more, and soon both of them wanted to come to God as well.

After that more and more people showed up. We’d taken over an old factory and converted it into a home, and eventually we had to bring in trailers to house all the people here. We never bothered anyone and tried to just do what we felt God wanted us to do. When that town contacted us, I was afraid you’d kill me if I went there, so we turned down their offer to join them.

All was ok for a while, until a few days ago when a couple of helicopters showed up, and someone got out and told us they were there to take us all prisoners. Well, the folks didn’t take too kindly to that, and fired some warning shots. The guy that brought the message just hit the dirt, and didn’t try and get back to the helicopter, so we left him alone. Then the other helicopter attacked us, and we were forced to shoot them down.

After it was over the man got up and surrendered to us. He said he was a slave in the town they were from, and told us where it was, and all kinds of stories about what was going on there. He also said that, although he’d never met you, he’d heard that the leader of that town hated you with a passion, and had you trapped inside that shelter of yours. He said they were trying to figure out a way to get you out, but hadn’t come up with anything yet.

At first the others here wanted to attack the town and stop what was going on, but I stopped them and said that we didn’t have anything other than one man’s word to take. We couldn’t justify attacking a whole town on the testimony of only one, and should just wait and see what happened. I guess I was wrong to tell them to wait, but really there wasn’t time to do anything anyway, they returned before too long and bombed us really bad. The attack killed more than eighty people outright, and wounded about everyone else. I happened to be at the radio, which we kept in another building down the road from the village, which is why I survived.

When I heard who was attacking, and especially when I talked to Mark, the ex-slave, I knew you couldn’t have had anything to do with it, so I decided I had to warn you. I’m sorry this had to happen Jack, I hate that more people have to die, but the survivors here figured that if they didn’t do this, that town would be able to come back, or even do this to someone else.”

“I understand your reasons for launching the missiles Doug, and I don’t blame you.” Jack typed. “Thank you for the warning brother, we all forgive you for what happened before, and would be happy to meet you again someday, if we survive this attack, that is. I need to get the antenna down now so any electro-magnetic pulse doesn’t fry the radio. We’ll try and contact you again, as soon as it’s safe to do so.”

With that, he pushed back from the screen and reached over, flicking the switch that retracted the antenna. Shutting off the radio and disconnecting the wires to be sure, he got up to walk through and check things out, making sure they were really as ready as they could be.

In the town, while taking a break in the cool night air from the noise inside, one of the women heard the sound of a jet engine above her in the sky. Wondering who would be flying over them at night, she looked up. Seeing nothing at first, she was suddenly blinded by a flash of light that filled her world. A split second later, she and the rest of the town ceased to exist.

[WiseOwl]

YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 33

The tactical nuke exploded at an altitude of a thousand feet. It was detonated high to extend destruction on the ground to its maximum distance, and was high enough that the fireball didn’t touch the ground, virtually eliminating fallout. The ground shockwave, traveling faster than the speed of sound, reached the complex about two minutes later, causing the floor to jump slightly and startling some of the people there. Almost immediately the lights went off, due to the electro-magnetic pulse from the bomb, and a second later the generator started up. A couple of minutes after that the complex jumped again, though not as severely as the first time.

In the control room, Pam was confused and asked Jack, “how many bombs did they send, and why did the power go off?”

“Doug said a couple, I sure hope it was only two. We won’t know how bad the damage is until we can get out and inspect it, but I’m not allowing anyone to go up to the surface for at least two weeks, even if we don’t detect any radiation. That way, if our instruments are faulty, we still should be safe enough. As for the power, likely the EMP from the bomb blew out the circuitry in the power plant. It also may have fried the transformers, but we won’t know for sure until we can get out and inspect them also.”

“I thought the radiation would last for years, how could we ever go out there now and inspect anything?” She asked.

“No, that’s a myth. There’s a great deal of misinformation about the effects of nuclear weapons, but the experts at the US Atomic testing facility at Oak Ridge Tennessee have spent years researching the subject, and their findings were available to the general public on the internet before the plague. I studied the information in detail since nuclear war was a very likely scenario that would require us to use this shelter.

“When a nuclear bomb explodes it releases X-ray radiation that doesn’t travel very far through the air, but changes the air so it doesn’t transmit heat very well. Then the heat from the blast along with the great pressure of the explosion compresses the air, heating it to white hot temperatures. This heat burns up the radioactive material not used in the explosion, rendering it almost harmless. If this was a ground burst, the dirt and ash from the blast will be sucked up into the fireball as it collapses and get irradiated. It doesn’t stay irradiated very long, usually not more than a few days, but during that time it can give off lethal amounts of radiation wherever it settles downwind. The good news is, the concrete this shelter is made of is sufficient shielding against that fallout. Not only that, but the dirt alone is enough to block it. With a minimum of six feet of dirt most of the radiation is blocked, and there’s at least twenty-two feet between us and the surface.

“Of course, the maximum amount of damage comes from an airburst. Groundbursts are only used to destroy underground targets like command centers. If this was an airburst then no dirt will be sucked up into the fireball and all we’ll have to worry about is a slight increase in certain radioactive materials that’ll condense after they cool. Most of that will be in the upper atmosphere, and will stay up there for a long time, possibly years, settling out slowly all around the world. That’s ok though, because it’s the ac***ulation of material that’s deadly, the trace amounts that settle from this blast won’t even be noticeable.”

“But what about the blast? Shouldn’t it destroy everything for miles around?” the girl asked, although she was already feeling better since he’d explained things.

“I’m sure it did in town. It really depends on the size of the warhead, but Doug said they were tactical weapons, so I doubt it was bigger than a hundred kilotons or so. A hundred kiloton bomb will destroy everything for a mile or so in all directions, and do some damage to structures several miles away. More important though is the thermal wave. The heat from the wave can start fires several miles away from the blast, and those fires can get fierce. They can actually suck the air out of shelters, unless their ventilation pipes are equipped with special valves to prevent it. We have just that type of valve in place here, but anyone in a shelter in or near the town won’t, and may survive the blast only to suffocate or burn to death in the fires.”

At the thought of this, Pam started to feel sick. She now realized they were safe enough, but she felt bad for the people in town, no matter how bad they’d treated Jack, nobody deserved to die like that. Turning to the radiation detection equipment, Jack noticed the reading was elevated slightly, but not enough to worry about. The probe for the device was mounted on the surface near the entrance elevator. There were several others at various heights above the ground around the property, and he slowly scanned them all, looking for a sign that fallout had started to arrive. After several hours without an increase he finally decided they weren’t likely to get any, and called the other residents to the dining room for a meeting.

After everyone gathered he told them what he’d already explained to Pam, emphasizing that they were completely safe and could go back to the surface within a few weeks. He also informed them they were far enough away and, if the weapon exploded over the town and not between it and them, their trailers and surface buildings should be ok as well. Those who lived on the surface were relieved to hear this, and were in better spirits after the meeting as they prepared for the lengthy stay in the now crowded shelter.

All told there were close to a hundred and fifty people in the complex, and only enough beds for a hundred. They solved that problem by assembling cots that had been in one of the storage silos, setting them up in the recreation room and chapel. Also, people who had apartments took in others, including Jack and Pam. With everyone having a place to sleep, Jack set a schedule that allowed everyone to eat in shifts, ensuring everyone room in the dining room for their meals. Air and water weren’t a problem, as the complex had been designed with multiple redundancies, and Jack had expanded on these when he’d had the restoration done. Also food wasn’t a problem, they’d restocked the place during the summer and there was more than enough for everyone present for more than a year. All in all, he was satisfied that all their needs were covered.




Over the next two weeks he went to the control room several times a day to check the radiation monitors. They never changed, but he still checked. The outside cameras and electrical equipment, including the fence sensors, were out due to the EMP effect so he was unable to see the surface, but he figured the five foot thick doors should prevent anyone who might be out there from bothering them. The interior electronics were still ok, as the ground effectively shielded them from the pulse, and as soon as they were able to go out they could replace what they needed to from storage. Jack just hoped that the C-130, as it was a military plane, had been shielded from EMP or else it’d just be so much scrap metal sitting there. The same went for the Black Hawks, as there hadn’t been room for them in the underground hangar. Unfortunately the Global Express, which had been parked above instead of being returned to the airport in Mountain Home definitely wasn’t shielded and likely was worthless now. That was too bad, he’d really loved that plane.

After fourteen days, he decided it was time to take a look around outside. After letting the core members of his group know what he planned to do, he made the decision to take every precaution as if they knew there was deadly radiation out there. His precautions included donning a ‘Tyvek’ suit, a white lab suit that had a hood and elastic at wrists and ankles. Along with these went a pair of gloves and booties, and an N-100 respirator. He was aware that this outfit wouldn’t stop radiation from penetrating his body, but then again neither would the ‘MOPP’ suits the military used. Radioactive particles would go right through the charcoal liners they had, as there wasn’t enough mass there to stop them. All the outfit was for was to keep the dust particles off his skin and out of his hair. After he returned from the outside he could wash most of the fallout off himself in the emergency shower, and then discard the clothes which would remove the remaining fallout from his body. When Mel asked about the danger of exposure, he told her that the main danger was due to length of exposure. A small amount of radiation was safe unless you were exposed to it continuously over a period of time. The effects of radiation were ***ulative, and therefore short exposures to low levels weren’t dangerous.

“It takes about a hundred rads of total exposure for the first symptoms to appear, and around 300 rads before it becomes incapacitating.” He told her. “According to the instruments the level outside is around 1 millirad an hour, which isn’t that much above normal ambient levels. If the instruments are off and it’s a lot higher, a few minutes of exposure won’t hurt me as even a thousand rads an hour isn’t too much with an exposure of only a minute or two.”

Even though she still wasn’t convinced, she saw he was determined to go. Backing off, she helped him get into the outfit, reminding him to take his pistol just in case, then walked with him to the elevator. Jack knew that Pam would have put up even more of a fuss, and had asked her to stay in the control room to prevent it. He was glad Mel had backed off also, as he was nervous enough doing this without having to answer so many questions. It was one thing to believe what you’d read in books, he thought, but actually going out into what could be high levels of radioactive fallout was something else entirely. Leaving her outside the door to the elevator room, he pushed the button to open the overhead doors. Stepping on the elevator pad he began to rise to the surface, delighted to see the sun and sky again after so long underground.

As his head rose above the edge of the open door he was surprised to see a tent set up a few yards away and several people standing there, apparently they’d seen the doors open and were waiting for him. Resting his hand on the butt of his .45, but not drawing it, he addressed the nearest one “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

The person he spoke to appeared to be in his mid twenties. Seeing this guy appear decked out in what looked kinda like a space suit made the young man nervous, especially when he noticed the gun, but he spoke in a clear voice “I’m Reggie, we’re looking for a man named Jack Mitchell.”

“I’m Jack, where did you come from and how did you get here?”

“We’ve been staying down in the Air Force base, at least up until a couple of days ago. We all bugged out of town when things started getting weird.”

“Well, why don’t you all come on inside, we’ll get you warm and fed, then you can tell us your story.”

As they were getting their things together, Jack replaces the probe on the entrance radiation sensor with a new one from inside. Now they’d know for sure that it was working. He also did a quick sweep with his handheld radiation meter and found nothing registering.

When the group was settled in the dining room after stowing their stuff and eating a late lunch, Jack asked them to tell him what things were like outside and how they’d come to be camping out at his front door.

Reggie wiped his mouth after taking the last bite of his sandwich, then began to speak. “Me and Cindy over there left town about two months ago. Things were getting too flaky for us and we made a break for it one night, barely even slowing down at that stupid fence they put up around the town.”

Jack didn’t know about the fence, and decided to ask about it later, not wanting to interrupt the story.

“We headed south, and followed the road until we came to Mountain Home. There wasn’t too much there, but we did meet the others here, including Eddie, who had left months before us. He wanted to come here and find you at that time, but none of the rest of us knew you and after what happened at town, didn’t feel very trustful if you know what I mean. Eddie said he’d seen you around when he was training to be a pilot, but had never actually met you. He said you were a real stand up guy, and everyone who knew you always had good things to say about you. Still, most of us didn’t want to trust anyone then, and finally we decided to move down to the base and see if there was anything we could use there. We kinda had the idea of attacking the town and freeing the others, but couldn’t figure out how to get most of that stuff to work. It was while we were messing around with some of those bombs and missiles that we saw the flash, and then heard the sound of the nukes going off.”

“So there was more than one,” Jack said, “where did they land?”

“As far as we could see, there was two of them. One appeared to be over the town, and the other one was off to the northwest. Eddie figured it was in Boise, at the airport. We sorta figured whoever nuked the place was trying to prevent a counter-attack, and that’s why they bombed the airport.”

“Actually, that was the counter-attack.” Jack informed them. “The town sent their A-10’s to bomb a village in New Mexico because they refused to join the town, and the survivors launched the nukes in self defense.”

Surprised, Reggie said “you mean that crazy b*tch actually attacked some folks because they wouldn’t join her?!? That’s nuts! Tell ya what, I’m glad they launched the nukes, that town was just full of every sort of pervert and sadistic kind of person you’d ever wanna meet. In fact, so many were leaving that I doubt if there were too many there who didn’t want to be there…I think those folks in New Mexico did us a favor!”

Jack could see the passion with which the young man spoke, and wondered again how things had gone so badly so fast. Again he vowed never again to do anything that he wasn’t SURE God was behind one hundred percent…it just wasn’t worth it.

“Anyway,” Reggie continued, “after the nukes went off we hung around there for a while. Ronald found some equipment in one of the buildings and we were able to tell there wasn’t any radiation around us. I thought the stuff must be broken because the movies always show fallout after a nuke, but there were a whole bunch of the things there wrapped up in plastic, and none of them showed any radiation.”

Jack quickly briefed them on why there was no fallout, as well as giving them other useful information on the subject. Afterwards Reggie and the others felt better, they’d all been worried they were going to die.

“Finally, after Eddie kept on telling us that you’d help us and since there wasn’t anything else we could use at the base, we decided to take a chance and come here. We tried to get a car or truck to run, but none of them worked, I guess they’d sat there too long. So instead we started walking and got here the day before yesterday. We tried to call you from the gate, but no one ever answered, so we set up camp at the entrance, figuring someone would come out eventually.”

After the meeting they got the newcomers settled for the night. The next day they began cleaning up the surface, getting ready to move the excess people back into the trailers. Since there had been no radiation in their area, all the animals had survived as well. They’d left enough feed out just in case, and it was a good thing as they didn’t have to work to replace them. As it was now early March (close to the four year anniversary of the plague), they considered letting the stock out to graze. But Jack advised them not to, at until after the first good rain, as he wanted to make sure any fallout dust was washed away. Besides, he knew they had enough feed still in the bins to feed them for months, and it wasn’t worth the risk in his opinion.

As soon as the mobile homes were again occupied and the shelter returned to its less crowded state, they organized everyone into crews and assigned jobs. Neither the C-130 nor the Global Express would run, their computers fried by the EMP. Therefore, one of the first jobs was to salvage as much as they could from the craft then move them off to one side of the property where they wouldn’t be in the way. Jack intended to eventually chop them into small enough pieces that the Black Hawks could sling them out of the area, but the thought of chopping up the GE bothered him to the point that he put the project off. When room for operational craft got scarce then they’d go ahead and do that, he thought.

A few days later, wanting to know for sure what the situation was in town, as well as at Gowen field, Jack and Mike brought the Huey out of the hangar and got it ready for flight. Taking off, the two men flew north toward Mayfield. A few miles from town they started seeing damage caused by the blast wave, and it got worse the farther they went. Jack was surprised to see little sign of a firestorm, and figured they’d gotten off lucky. Over the downtown area nothing was recognizable, everything had been turned to rubble. They circled the area several times, looking for signs of life, but found none. Finally they decided to land near the outskirts and look around.

Among the equipment they’d brought was a radiation survey meter. As Jack stepped out he brought the devices’ probe near the ground and wasn’t surprised to detect radioactivity. As the box began to click, Mike asked “how bad is it Jack?”

“Near the ground there’s about three rads, but the level quickly drops as I raise it up. I’d say it’s likely some leftover Beta radiation, as it can only penetrate about a foot of air. It’s safe enough for a few minutes exposure, but I don’t think we need to stay around here very long. The chopper’s downdraft scattered what little dust there was here, but I don’t want to track any back. Let’s go over towards Boise and see what’s there, they go home and wash ourselves down good.”

“Suits me.” Mike responded.

Climbing back aboard, they rose into the air and turned towards the city. Both men were depressed at the loss of life represented by the destroyed town, but they were aware that most of the people had gotten what they deserved. In a few minutes they were over the downtown area of Boise. The damage here wasn’t as extensive, but increased south of town, as they neared the airport. One thing they both noticed was that the food warehouses where the town had gotten their food were gone, flattened by the blast wave. Little that was recognizable remained at the airport, and the armories were in the same shape. Seeing nothing worth investigating, they soon turned towards home.

After parking the helicopter the men went in the main entrance. They removed their ‘Tyvek’ suits and booties, then one at a time got in the emergency shower and washed down thoroughly. After getting dressed again they used a sensitive radiation meter to see if they’d missed any of the fallout. Jack was clean but Mike still seemed to be hot. Stripping, he again showered thoroughly, then stepped out as Jack ran the meter over him again. Coming up clean this time he got dressed and both men headed to the dining room to let the others know what they’d found.

[SamT]

Ouchie, ouchie, ouchie.

No law.

Better watch who you mess with.

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 34

Rodney had been a sophomore in high school at the time of the sickness. Since then his life had changed dramatically, swinging back and forth between horrible and wonderful. During the past four years he’d gone from starving and alone to living with another group of survivors, decent people who had taught him a great deal about surviving in this new world. Not long after joining the group he’d met a young girl named Jill. They soon became friends, and eventually more than that, finally even sharing a room. Then the group he was with had been contacted by some folks in Idaho who said they were trying to rebuild civilization. They decided together to join the folks out west, and at first things there seemed ok. No one cared that he and Jill were still teenagers, at least not at first. They had gone to work on one of their farms, and even made some new friends. But after a while things started turning bad in town, and soon a new law was passed making him a kid again in the eyes of the older people in town. No longer allowed to live together, he and Jill talked about the situation often, and soon decided they’d be better off somewhere else.

They waited for a good opportunity to leave, hoping to be able to put some supplies together for their journey, and ended up waiting too long. Before they knew it there were guards all around and a fence was put up around the town. Several of their friends had been beaten or raped by the patrols just for being out after curfew, and a couple had died trying to get through the fence. Realizing that they were nothing more than slaves being forced to work for the adults, they did only as much as they had to in order to get by, still hoping for an opportunity to get away.

One thing Rod really felt they would need outside the town was some sort of weapon, but by this time only the security patrols had guns. Then one day the entire security force left town to carry out an attack on somebody, he didn’t know who and didn’t care, but almost none of them came back. This looked like the opportunity they’d been waiting for and the young couple made the decision to take their chances. Getting to the fence was easy as almost no one was on patrol, and the fence which had looked so intimidating from far off turned out to be simple to get through. Once through they made their way away from town easily enough, and for the first time in a while truly felt free.

Hoping they wouldn’t be discovered gone until morning, Rod doubted there would be a search, as several people he knew had disappeared, and the people in charge of the farm hadn’t reported that fact for fear of being blamed. This was fortunate for them, and once they were well clear of the town they made their way to the highway and began traveled along it, as the walking was easier. They’d been able to put back enough food and water to last a few days, and were ok for the time being, but he knew they’d have to find more supplies quickly or they’d be in trouble.

The first night out they’d slept in the brush, each of them staying awake part of the night to watch for trouble. Near the evening of their first full day of freedom they spotted a house off the road and decided to check it out, as they were now many miles away from town.

The building appeared to be an old farmhouse, but it obviously hadn’t been lived in since the sickness. Going around to the back they broke a pane out of the back door window and reached in to unlock the door. Once inside they quickly checked out the house and found the shriveled up bodies of two people in one of the bedrooms upstairs.

“I guess these were the owners,” he said to Jill, “and it doesn’t look like anyone else has ever been here. I think we’ll be safe enough for the night, you want to stay?”

“Yeah, you’re probably right, and I don’t want to sleep outside again unless we have to, it’s still too cold out there.” The girl responded.

Looking around the rest of the house they found another bedroom with a bed big enough for the both of them. When they’d first gotten to the town they’d shared a room at the farm, but then came the law that had forced them to separate. Still, they felt fortunate, as they hadn’t had any children at the time. Friends who’d had kids had them taken away and given to older residents, and the separation had been traumatic. If that had happened to them Jill didn’t believe she could have just left like they did, even though she knew it would have been nearly impossible to get children back. Some of those who’d left had had kids and were unable to get to them, but she didn’t think she would have been strong enough to do that.

Looking through the closets, Rod suddenly called to her. Walking through the cold and quiet house, dust being kicked up from the floor with each step, she found Rod standing before a closet in what must have been an office, as there was a computer sitting on a desk on one side of the room. In his hands was a dusty pump action shotgun, and in the closet she could see several rifles as well.

“There’s some handguns in the drawer also Jill, and plenty of ammo. At least now we don’t have to be completely defenseless.”

Brightening up immediately at the sight of the guns, she vaguely remembered back to the time before the plague. She’d hated guns then, having no experience with them besides what she’d seen on TV. But four years of having to learn to survive without civilization had changed her, and now she saw guns not as dangerous killing machines but as tools that would ensure her ability to take care of herself. Reaching out for the shotgun she saw that it was a Remington 870 12 gauge, a lot like one she’d had before the town had taken guns away from everyone. Working the action she saw that, although it was dusty and had some rust, it was definitely serviceable.

“Is there any ammo for it?” she asked her husband. They’d never actually stood before a preacher and said vows, but in her heart she considered them to be married, no matter what anyone in town thought or said. Rodney also considered them married, and had never even looked at other girls, even when there had been many around and even though he’d been forcibly separated from her. As far as the couple was concerned, they were married for life, and nothing that happened to them would ever change that.

“Yep, a whole bunch. You want buckshot or slugs?”

“Slugs. I’m accurate enough and I want to make sure anyone I shoot won’t get up again. There’s no way I’ll let them take me back to town, not alive anyway.” Her husband felt the same way she did and said as much, handing her a box of ammo for the weapon.

As she stood there loading the gun, the girl thought back to the times people in town had forced her into their beds. Several of the older men who’d been given the job of running the farm had forced her to sleep with them, and a couple hadn’t been too gentle about it. At first she’d resisted, but after one of them nearly killed with a piece of two by four, she’d made a conscious decision to let them have their way. It was better than dying, at least that’s what she told herself afterwards.

But now that she was away from them and free she decided she’d been wrong. Now no one would ever force themselves on her again, not while she was alive anyway, and if it was at all possible she’d take several of them with her. Working the action of the shotgun she jacked a shell into the chamber then topped off the magazine and engaged the safety. That done she slung it over her shoulder and looked at the selection of handguns.

While she’d been inspecting and loading the 870, Rod had been looking over the remaining selection of weapons. Unlike his wife, he knew all about guns as his dad had been a gun dealer. There wasn’t too much selection, mostly hunting rifles, but on one side of the closet he found a cheap cloth rifle case and, opening it he pulled out a Chinese made SKS. This was one of the older versions and had a spike bayonet. The previous owner or someone had also replaced the original ten round fixed magazine with a twenty round version. In the pockets of the case he found stripper clips with two hundred rounds of ammo for the rifle, along with a rolled up ammo belt. His find delighted him because he’d shot his father’s SKS several times and knew the rifle to be durable and accurate. After he loaded the magazine and charged the rifle, he put the rest of the ammunition in the belt, then put it on. Next he reached into the drawer and pulled out a Colt .357 magnum revolver along with its holster. It wasn’t his first choice for a handgun, but it would surely do the job! Threading his belt through the holster he loaded and secured the pistol. Jill had also picked up and loaded a handgun, hers a Russian Makarov in 9X18mm. apparently, Rod thought, the owner of the house had been into military surplus guns, that or he hadn’t had a lot of money to invest. Fortunately, the ammo for the different weapons had also been cheap and he’d bought a goodly supply.

Taking their new treasures down to the main floor, the two started searching for something to eat. There wasn’t too much left that was still good, even most of the canned food having rusted through by this time. Finally they had to settle for a bag of rice they found in one of the kitchen cabinets, cooking it in a pot over a fire they built in the back yard. They both knew it was risky to have a fire, if anyone was looking for them they’d be able to see or smell the smoke, but they didn’t have much choice in the matter. They had to eat after all, and besides, life was full of chances one just had to take. While the food was cooking, Rod watched for signs anyone had spotted them. After nearly an hour the rice was done and they’d been able to put out the fire, greatly reducing the chance of someone realizing they were there. Still they kept a sharp lookout all the rest of the day, and that night one of them was awake and alert every minute.

The next morning they mixed some sugar they found with the rice to make a halfway decent breakfast cereal. Sugar keeps forever as long as it stays dry, so they had no fear that it had gone over. After eating they filled their water containers from the well out back. Fortunately, the well was nearly two feet in diameter. If it had been one of the more modern six inch wells they’d have been out of luck. They also packed one of the cooking pots along with a few pounds of rice and sugar and set out, wanting to put more distance between themselves and the town.

Walking along the highway later that day, Rod suddenly stopped. Distracted by her own thoughts, Jill almost walked right into him. “What’s wrong, why’d you stop?” she asked.

“Shh…listen.” He whispered.

After a second she heard it too, the sound of an engine. Quickly the pair got off the road, moving several yards away and looking for somewhere to hide among the sage bushes. About sixty feet from the road they found a depression and hunkered down behind the bushes there. After a few minutes they saw a vehicle coming. Keeping quiet and not moving they waited, their guns at the ready in case it stopped. As it got closer they saw that it was a hummer, likely one from town. The vehicle didn’t even slow, but continued past them at around forty miles an hour. After it had passed out of sight the two got up from their hiding place, slinging their weapons after making them safe once again. Looking down the road in the direction it had gone, Jill said “do you think we should stay off the road?”

“I don’t know, there’s not much in the way of cover out here. Besides, we should be able to hear them if they come back, and hide again. If we get too far away from the road we could get lost, and most of the houses will be near it anyway.”

Nodding in agreement, but still nervous, the girl picked up her bundle and the two began making their way again, but this time they stayed closer to the brush so they could hide quicker. About two hours later they heard the vehicle coming back and hid again. This time when it passed they could see it was piled high with stuff. They decided the passengers must have been out scavenging, and weren’t likely to have left anyone behind anywhere. Getting up again once it was safe, they kept going, finding another house off the road as the sun started to set.

Rod had an old habit of counting his steps as he walked. He knew his length of stride was right around a yard, and was able to do the calculation and figure out that they’d come about twenty-two miles all together since leaving the town. The house they’d found this time had a propane tank that still had fuel in it, and tonight they’d be able to use the gas stove inside to prepare their dinner. After looking around and finding the well in the backyard had a windmill on it to provide water to a trough he supposed used to be used for livestock, Rod decided to see if he could set it up to provide water inside the house. He looked over the set-up carefully, and after a few minutes figured it shouldn’t be that difficult. There was even a plastic tank in the yard that held at least a hundred gallons, and he figured that if he could get it up on the roof and use the windmill to fill it, they might even have enough pressure to take showers.

Considering everything the place had to offer, he said to Jill “you know, this might not be too bad a place to stop for a while…at least until winters over.”

“I don’t know Rod, we’re still awfully close to town, do you think that’s such a good idea?”

“Well, as I see it, here we have propane for cooking and heating, and with that windmill I think I could fix it so that we could get the water in the house working again. We’d still have to scavenge around for food and keep our heads down, but I think it’d be ok. Besides, we’re back away from the road a good piece and I doubt if the town’ll ever get around to going into homes, not with empty cities all around us.”

“Well I guess it’d be ok, we can try it anyway.” She said.

“And if people from town do show up, we may be able to get the jump on them. There were only two people in that hummer today, and we’d have the element of surprise.”

With that settled, the couple prepared a meal of sugar and rice, then got ready for bed.

They’d arrived at this house near to sunset, and hadn’t had enough light to more than make sure it was empty. The next morning they corrected that and did a careful search. The house was a treasure trove, the original owners must have either been Mormons or at the least preparedness nuts. In the basement were cases of preserved foods in big cans and there were also several fifty gallon drums of water. There was all sorts of equipment including a siphon pump for the water barrels and even radiation detection stuff. Looking through the stuff Rod found several kerosene lamps and a container that held at least twenty gallons of fuel. After lighting one he began going through various books and found that they were mostly on how to get by without electricity and such.

In the shed out back he found all sorts of PVC pipe, more than enough to plumb the water tank once it was on the roof. Surprisingly, he didn’t find any guns, and that’s what led him to suspect that Mormons once lived there.

With Jill’s help he was able to secure the tank to the roof. After that it was only a matter of running pipe from the well to the tank, then into the house. They got done before the sun had completely set and went inside to prepare dinner, tired but satisfied with what they’d gotten accomplished. The windmill seemed to have a hard time filling the tank, and they figured it might be trying to push the water too high, but by the end of the next day the tank had about thirty gallons in it and they decided it was good enough. That night they enjoyed a hot shower for the first time in ages, being happy to discover the propane fired water heater hadn’t rusted out as they had feared. Lying in bed that night holding the love of his life, Rod felt at peace for the first time in a long time.




As the days passed, they continued fixing up the house to their satisfaction. The food stored in the basement was surprisingly good, especially after they found a book on how to prepare meals from storage food. One of the things they’d decided on was making the house more defensible, and to that end had stacked lumber they found behind the shed under the front windows inside the house. They figured the extra mass would likely stop any bullets that got through the brick wall, giving them something to hide behind while returning fire. They also cleared several bushes from the front yard so they’d have a clear field of fire and to take away hiding spots from anyone who might try and attack them.

One morning, several weeks later they were startled to hear a vehicle pass by on the road outside. It sounded like it kept going, but they didn’t take any chances. Getting to their fighting positions at the front windows, they saw a few minutes later that the hummer had returned, going much slower this time. As it turned into the front yard they got ready, watching as it slowly made its way up to the house. Finally the vehicle came to a stop just a few yards from the building and the driver’s door opened. As soon as the driver got out Jill recognized him as one of the men who’d forced himself on her. Seeing him in the clear she raised her shotgun to her shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The gun bucked in her hands, and she saw her shot had been true, the man staggered and fell back, half his face now missing. Rod was startled at her shot but quickly recovered. He lifted his rifle and began shooting also, as the people in the yard ducked behind cover and returned fire.

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 35

As the three men drove slowly up to the house, Jimmy told them his plan.

“I’m going to pull up nice and official like, and get them to trust me. I’ll tell them we’re with the government or something, and we’ve finally getting into the area and starting to help folks recover. I want you two to hold back at first, then once I get inside move around to cover the back. When the shooting starts come in as quick as you can and finish off anyone who’s left. Remember, don’t shoot any of the women or children unless you have to, we’ll have uses for them later.”

At this, the other men laughed. Oh, they’d have uses for them all right, ever since they’d left the town there hadn’t been anyone else around to ‘play’ with, and all three were craving a little raping session. They had been on their own since the fiasco at Jack’s place. On the way back to town they’d decided that crazy Frenchman would get them all killed, and they would be much better off striking out on their own. They’d be kings, Jimmy said, but things hadn’t worked out that way. The first problem was the lack of any other people around they could rule, and the second was the lack of food that was still fit to eat.

But it looked like they had hit the jackpot today. They had passed this house several times over the past weeks, but today they saw that the shrubs had been cleared out of the front yard. That told them someone was there, and now whoever it was would give them their first bit of action in a long time.

But as Jimmy stepped out of the vehicle, the unexpected happened again. Suddenly they heard a booming roar and saw Jimmy’s head almost explode, his body falling backwards against the truck. Realizing they had been ambushed, the two men quickly got behind the vehicle. Ricky was fumbling with his rifle, trying to figure out why it wouldn’t shoot. When they’d joined the town’s security team they’d been given the guns, but no one bothered to show them how to use them. Ricky had never liked guns much, but the new power they gave him in town had changed his mind. With only the security people armed, the rest of the town had been at their mercy, not that they had much. But now, with someone shooting at them for real, he realized that learning at least a little about how the gun worked would have been smart. Giving up on the gun as he still couldn’t get it to fire, he dropped it and stood, preparing to run away. Just as his head appeared above the rear of the Hummer Rod, who’d been watching that area, fired a shot, the bullet penetrating the bridge of Ricky’s nose and continuing on through his brain to explode out the back of his skull. He never knew what hit him, the lights simply went out as his body fell backwards to lay unmoving on the ground.

Seeing the other two go down was too much for Vince. He’d managed to empty his magazine at the house, but was having trouble getting a new one in the gun. As Ricky fell he made his decision, throwing down his weapon and calling out towards the house. “DON’T SHOOT! I SURRENDER!”

Inside, Rod cautiously called back, being sure to watch for any tricks. “Ok, drop your weapons and come out slowly, with your hands on your head.”

After a minute Vince appeared, hands on his head and no weapon apparent.

Calling again, Rod asked “are there any more of you?”

Vince trembled but spoke up “no, I’m the only one left.”

“Ok, slowly walk away from the truck. Come up on the porch and then face the road.” Vince did as he was told. When he was on the porch Rod said “now, get down on your knees, then lay down, keeping your hands behind your head.”

When the man had lain down, Rod carefully went out to him, being sure Jill had him covered. He quickly patted the man down to make sure he had no other weapons, then told Jill to watch him and shoot him if he moved. She acknowledged him, walking up and pointing the shotgun at the man’s head. When she was in position Rod moved slowly towards the vehicle, watching for any sign of movement. After moving to the back and seeing the other two were definitely dead, he returned to the porch and told Vince to stand up.

“Ok, who are you and what do you want?” he demanded.

Sure that they’d kill him if they knew he was alone, Vince said “we’re with Mayfield security. You two are in a lot of trouble! You attacked the legal law enforcement for this area and our back-up will be here soon to see what happened to us! If you know what’s good for you you’ll turn yourselves in to me right now, before things get even worse for you!”

Rod didn’t know whether to believe him or not, but decided it would be smart not to take chances. With Jill watching the guy he went into the house and got some cord. He then tied the man’s hands behind his back and told him, “I’m not going to just kill you in cold blood, so I suggest you start walking. If you’re telling the truth someone will find you soon enough and cut you free. If you’re lying…well that’s your problem. Not get!”

With that he pushed the man forcefully off the porch. Tripping on the top step, Vince fell headlong down the steps, landing on his face. After a moment he managed to get to his feet and start off, unsure what he was going to do now. As he reached the road he turned and began cursing at Rod, until a shot from the house ricocheted off the roadway near his feet, prompting him to run for all he was worth.

At the house Rod spoke quickly, “grab everything you can, we may not have much time. We’ll load the Hummer with the food and weapons and get going. Maybe we’ll even find some fuel along the way. I don’t know if he was telling the truth but I’m not going to take a chance. We need to get far away from here as soon as we can.

Nodding her head in understanding, the girl hurried inside the house to start packing. She hated the idea of leaving, especially after all the work they’d done fixing up the place. Still, not everything they had done had worked out like they expected, the water tank on the roof had frozen and split, reducing them to carrying in buckets of water from the well by hand. But despite the problems, she was really starting to like it there. Grabbing a case of food, she made her way up from the basement and out to the truck. She had no remorse inside her for her actions, that b*stard deserved to die for what he’d done to her, she thought. In fact, she didn’t feel anything at all, not since being raped repeatedly by the people in town. She hoped that one day she’d be able to feel again, but that day hadn’t come yet.

After he fit the last box of food into the back of the vehicle, Rod turned to look at the guns they had captured. All three were M-16’s, but none of them had been taken care of. Of the three he figured only one was worth keeping, and he decided to give it to Jill. The M-16 was a poodle shooter as far as he was concerned, not really much good against people. He would stick to the heavier bullet used in the SKS for now, and hopefully soon he would be able to exchange that for something in .308. Looking around he gathered up magazines for the rifle. Each man had apparently carried one in the gun and two more on them. That wasn’t enough for a combat mission, and he wondered why they didn’t have more. Still, eight mags were enough for one rifle, at least as long as they didn’t get into an extended fight. Taking the gun apart he cleaned it as best he could, then reassembled it and loaded it. Calling to Jill that it was time to go, he handed the gun to her when she appeared, showing her how to work the controls.

They two took one last look at the house, then got into the truck and pulled out onto the road. As he started down the road he saw they only had about an eighth of a tank of fuel, and he was aware that it wouldn’t last them long.

“Well, it doesn’t look like they left us with much fuel, we’re almost out.” He said.

“Can we get some out of a car? There are plenty of them at the houses around here.”

“I doubt it, most cars use gasoline, but this is a diesel, it takes a different kind of fuel. But come to think of it, maybe we can after all. A lot of tractors use diesel, and if we found one we might get lucky.”

Suddenly Jill pointed to a building off the road. “There’s a barn, why don’t we try there?”

“I want to put a few miles between us and the house first babe, just in case that guy was telling the truth. We’ll start looking in a little bit.”

Ten minutes later he said “that’s probably far enough, let’s see what we can find now.”

A minute later they came to another driveway. Slowing, they both looked the property over carefully. There was a barn near the house, and they decided to check it out. Pulling in to the drive, they stayed well back from the house, remembering not to make the same mistake the security patrol had. Stopping, Rod stepped out, leaving his rifle on the seat next to him. Holding his hands above his head in a non threatening manner, he called out “HELLO, IS ANYONE HOME?” There was no answer.

Waiting a few minutes he called out again. After not receiving a response to his second hail he got back in and drove slowly up to the house. This time when he got out he brought his rifle with him, figuring any friendly person would have answered him. Going up to the door with Jill covering him from the truck, he turned the handle and swung it open. The house was as quiet as a tomb, and soon he determined that no one lived there anymore. The pair quickly looked through the house for anything they thought they could use, then proceeded to the barn. The tractor within had been old and worn out when the plague struck. The past four years hadn’t helped it any, and Rod doubted it could ever be made to run again. That was ok, all he wanted was the fuel. Opening the tank he sniffed, then turned away, disappointed.

“Not the right kind?” the girl asked.

“Nope, it’s old gas. Let’s look around and see what else we can find, maybe there’s a container of kerosene around here or something.”

“Hey Rod, what about that?”

Turning towards her, he saw the girl pointing to the fuel oil tank behind the house. Quickly walking over to it he climbed on top and opened the cap. Sniffing the liquid, he suddenly turned to her and smiled, “Perfect! What would I do without you?” then he jumped down and gave his love a hug.

“Ok, we need a hose. Why don’t you look for one while I drive the Hummer over?”

When he returned with the vehicle he saw Jill had found a length of garden hose. Opening the truck’s filler cap he stuck one end of the hose into the fuel oil tank and began to suck on the other. A second later he yanked the hose out of his mouth, spitting out the fuel that had squirted in. “Yuck! That tastes nasty!”

“Then don’t drink it hun, duh!” she replied giggling.

“Uh huh, whatever.” He said, sticking the now flowing hose into the vehicle’s tank and filling it all the way up. He knew the fuel oil wasn’t the best thing to burn in a diesel, after a while it would probably clog the fuel lines. But it was a lot better than nothing, and both of them were tired of walking. After it was full he pulled the hose out of the oil tank and replaced the cap, figuring they might want to return someday and get more. Then the couple returned to their searching, making sure they didn’t leave behind anything they might be able to use.

With a full tank they were able to get far away from Mayfield. By the end of the day they’d traveled to Twin Falls, the next decent sized city on the highway. As it was starting to get dark Rod began looking for some place to spend the night, settling on a house on the outskirts of town. Quickly checking it out and finding it deserted, they got the Hummer hidden around back and went inside to fix something to eat.




They spent the next few days going through the town, scavenging for the things they needed. Fuel was the first priority, and Rod knew it would have to be treated before they could use it. Finding a phone book and map, they started out their search with an auto parts store. He was looking for a product called ‘Pri-D’. It was a fuel stabilizer for diesel and could even make old fuel usable again. They found a couple of cases at the first parts store they came to, along with several gas cans and assorted other supplies he figured they could use. Now that they had a working vehicle he intended to keep it running as long as they were able. Next they drove around until they found a gas station that sold diesel fuel. The problem they ran into immediately was how to get the stuff out of the underground tank. The station’s pumps were electric, having been run off outside power, but that didn’t help them all that much now.

“I guess we could look around for a portable pump.” He said after a bit. “I don’t know what else to do.”

“What about finding a generator to power the station pumps?” Jill suggested, hoping the idea didn’t sound dumb. People usually made fun of her suggestions, although Rod never had. Still, she hesitated to offer them, not wanting him to think she was dumb.

“Actually, that’s a great idea! The problem is we need a diesel powered engine as gasoline this old can’t be made usable again, and diesel powered generators will be more common than the small engines that run pumps.” He said as he gave her a hug. She was thrilled with his response as he was the only person who’d ever taken her seriously about anything.

Rod grabbed the phone book out of the truck and flipped through it until he came across hardware stores. He saw there was a Sam’s club in town and remembered they usually had all sorts of things, including automotive stuff. The store wasn’t too far away, and the couple loaded up to go check it out.

They arrived in front of the warehouse sized store quickly. The parking lot was deserted as were those of most businesses in town, undoubtedly due to the fact that most people had died in their homes. Walking up to the front doors they saw that one of them had been broken out, and there were signs that someone had been going in and out. Realizing there might be a danger they returned to the truck for their weapons, then proceeded cautiously into the dark interior of the store.

They cautiously made their way into the store, past the registers, taking pains to be as quiet as possible. As they advanced they could hear the sounds of scuffling feet from the far side of the building. Stopping, Rod called out “is there anyone here?”

The noises immediately stopped and all was silent for a moment, then there was a sound as if a box had been knocked off a shelf somewhere off to the left.

Speaking again, he said “we don’t want to hurt anyone or cause trouble, please answer us.”

From the shadowy isles in the same area the sound had come from, a timid voice spoke. “Yes, I’m in here, please don’t hurt us.”

“We’re not going to hurt anyone, if we lower our guns will you come out where we can see you?”

“Ok.”

Nodding to Jill, they lowered their guns so they pointed at the base of the shelves, ready to bring them up quickly again if necessary. A moment later a figure stepped out from between the isles about a hundred feet away, looking nervous. Seeing her, Rod lowered his rifle even more, and stepped forward. Jill stayed a few steps behind him to cover him in case this person turned out not to be friendly. As they got closer they could see it was a woman, apparently in her mid thirties. Finally moving to within a few feet, Rod slung his rifle and stuck out his hand.

“I’m Rodney, and this is my wife Jill.”

The woman relaxed and took the offered hand. “I’m Vicki, but the folks here call me Miss Vic.” She said with a small smile.

“How many others are there Miss Vic?” he asked.

“Eight. We all used to live in a town west of here, but left because things were getting bad there.”

“You don’t mean Mayfield do you?”

At her nod he said “we’re from there also, I think a lot of people are leaving. How long have you been here?”

“I’ve been here almost two months, the others have come along since then.” Suddenly she spoke louder, “its ok guys, they’re not going to cause trouble, come on out and meet them.”

At her call the couple could see and hear several people coming towards them. They also realized they were all armed, and could have cut them down in an instant if they’d been hostile. Glad they hadn’t done anything to make these people nervous; they moved forward to greet them. Everyone besides Miss Vic seemed to be close to Rod’s age, if not younger. That had always seemed strange to him, but he had also come to expect it now. Finally, after he and Jill had met everyone Miss Vic invited them to the back where they had some food prepared. As they walked in the direction the group had come from they could see that the shelves had been moved out to create a larger area. The ends of the shelves had been left in place however to give the illusion that no one was there. Rod noted that fighting positions had been erected to give cover to the residents in case they had to fight, and he approved.

In the far corner the group had a couple of propane barbecues going, cooking some sort of meat. Thinking that the set-up wasn’t as safe as could be, due to carbon monoxide poisoning from the barbecues, he asked “how do you keep the air fresh in here, those propane grills put out deadly gases that could kill everyone here.”

“We cut holes in the roof. They let the gases out and give us fresh air.” Miss Vic replied. She seemed to be the spokesperson and leader of the group. “We used to run the diesel generator until the fuel ran out, so we had to find another way to cook.”

“But there’s plenty of diesel around, all the gas stations have some.”

“I know, but we couldn’t get it out. Besides, we don’t have a way to move stuff about; we really need a car or truck.”

“Well, we have a truck,” he said, “and I know a way to get all the fuel we need. Tell me; are there any portable generators here? Preferably new ones?”

“Yes, there are several, but we don’t have fuel for them either.”

“Show me,” he commanded.

As the woman walked towards the other side of the store, Rod followed. Rounding an isle they entered the automotive section. There in front of them were several construction style generators, and looking them over he was happy to see several ran on diesel. Grabbing the handle of a five kilowatt unit, he began rolling it towards the entrance. Back at the truck he asked Miss Vic to get one of the other men to go with them to get some fuel. A moment later they were joined by a man in his late teens, who said his name was Mike. Together they wrestled the generator into the back of the Hummer, then got in along with Jill to return to the gas station.

At the station it didn’t take long to get things hooked up. Using a little fuel from the vehicle they got the generator running, and soon had the station’s diesel pump working. They filled all the fuel cans they’d brought, then found a twenty gallon drum in the garage that used to hold motor oil. They washed it out and filled it as well, treating all with the Pri-D.

Returning to the Sam’s club they went around to the back of the store to where the generator was kept. Filling its tank, they left the rest of the fuel next to the unit and cranked it. After a minute it ran smoothly, and they could see lights on inside the building and hear cheering from within. When they got back inside the others treated them like Heros, making the couple feel at home.

They made the decision to remain at the store for the night, first moving the Hummer into the service center garage attached to the store to keep it safe. The group showed them to an area where they could have some privacy, and Rod and Jill settled down for the night, happy to be among other people again.

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 36

“Ok, try it now.” Rod called out.

In the cab of the old semi tractor Billy hit the starter again. This time after turning over a few times, the engine cranked, running rough after years of sitting abandoned.

“Give it a few minutes to warm up.” Rod said, walking over to talk with Vicki. “Now all we need to do is fill the tank and stabilize the fuel, then we’ll be all set.”

“How long will it last?” she asked, looking mystified at the idling truck. She knew she was in over her head; she’d never paid any attention to things like this in the past and didn’t know the first thing about how to do things like get the power up again. What’s worse, none of the others knew much either. The oldest of them was Mike who was nineteen and had only been fifteen when the plague struck. The only experience these kids had was with video games…hardly what was needed in this new world. The arrival of Rod and his wife was a blessing from God, and she was thankful for their knowledge.

“Hard to say. I have no idea how much that generator burns a day, but it should last a few weeks at least, likely not more than a couple of months. But the important thing is, we’ll be able to finish out the winter with light and heat. After things start to thaw we can look for a better place to live.”

Vicki saw no reason to leave the Sam’s club, everything they needed was there, wasn’t it? But she trusted this young man. He’d only been with them a week and had already started making great changes. If he said they needed to move, there certainly must be a good reason for it, she thought.

After a minute more the truck smoothed out, and Rod walked back over; taking Billy’s place behind the wheel as the boy had never driven anything before, much less a rig such as this. As he settled into the seat he reviewed the shifting pattern. His dad taught him to drive a stick when he was fourteen, and he figured out how to drive a truck similar to this one before his group had joined itself to the town.

Depressing the clutch he slipped the stick into what he hoped was first gear. Slowly easing up on the pedal the truck began jerking forward, then smoothed out. Shifting into second was easier, and soon he was moving, driving like he’d been doing it all his life. He figured it was like riding a bike, once you learned you never forgot. After a minute he checked his mirrors and saw the others trailing along behind, staying back and looking watchful. They didn’t know if there was anyone else in town, but the incident at the farm had taught him to always err on the side of caution. They had two pick-ups they’d found at a dealership in town. Both ran on diesel of course, and getting them going had been easy. In the backs were a couple of machine guns they’d found at the local armory, held in place by bungee cords. The trucks took up positions on either side of the rig, offering cover in case of attack.

They arrived at the gas station within a few minutes and, as he stopped next to the tanks, Jill pulled up in the Hummer with the generator and cases of stabilizer. It took several hours to get everything done, but in the end they were successful, returning to the store with eight thousand gallons of fuel ready to be hooked up to the generator.

The morning after their arrival Vicki had approached him. “Rodney, none of us knows much about ‘survival’, and we’re kinda lost here. Could you help us? It’s obvious from the way you got fuel for the generator and from the story you told that you know what you’re doing; we really could use some guidance.”

Seeing the desperate look in her eyes, he said “yeah, it’s kinda obvious. You folks did ok once we got inside the store yesterday, but in truth we never should have even gotten close. You need better security first thing, along with ways to slow down an attacker.”

“Will you help us?” she repeated.

“Of course. We wouldn’t have been very well off just the two of us, the larger a group is the better the chances for them to make it. Let’s see if we can work together to make this place safer, ok?” He was aware that this woman really didn’t know him or Jill and he wanted to reassure her he wasn’t going to just take over.

Relieved, the woman smiled and began to relax for the first time in weeks. The burden of being responsible for all the people here, especially when she had no idea what she was doing in the first place, had been weighing heavily on her. “Sounds good to me. Now, where do we start?”

Looking around for a moment, he said “first we need a way to see what’s going on outside. Now that the power’s on, let’s check out the security office. These cameras must have monitors attached to them somewhere, let’s see if we can find them.”

Vicki called the rest of the group together and explained what they were doing and why. Having someone taking charge reassured the others and they eagerly began searching for the security office. They found it a few minutes later. When he entered the office, Rod saw immediately that at least half the monitors were dead. Looking over the controls, he soon found out how to switch between them, and determined that it was the cameras that weren’t working, not the monitors themselves. Those that were working showed the store below, along with the parking lot out front. Rod knew it was a start, and told the group they would need to remove some of the interior cameras and use them to replace the dead ones outside.

It took the better part of the morning to accomplish. First they used motorized man lifts to retrieve the interior cameras, than they took them to the roof and replaced the ones that were out. Finally they wrapped plastic sheeting around them, as they weren’t water proofed and it would help them last longer. When the final one was installed they returned to the security office to find that everything worked like they expected. At this point Rod told them that one person needed to stay there at all times, to alert them in case anyone approached. Vicki spoke up and asked one of the younger kids to do it for the moment, and she said she’d have a schedule made up by the end of the day so everyone would take a shift.

“Actually, I’ll need some here for other jobs,” Rod said, “and I’d like them excused from the schedule if it’s ok.”

Agreeing, the woman pointed to Mike and two other boys, asking Rod if that were enough. He said it was and everyone left the room except for the kid assigned to stay there.

Indicating that the selected people should follow him, Rod stepped away from the group with Vicki and Jill. “Next we need better weapons. I want to see if there’s a National Guard armory in town. If there is we may be able to find some heavy firepower.”

Going to the manager’s office they found a phone book. Looking through it they found the location of the armory, along with several gun stores. Rod then asked Vicki to stay and get the others organized, and he and the rest of his work group would see about finding what all they needed.

For the most part the armory had been a disappointment. Besides a dozen .50 caliber machine guns and some M-16’s, there wasn’t much there. The group loaded what they could into the Hummer and headed back. One of the Brownings had been mounted on a tripod, and he figured it would be perfect on the roof as a sort of exterior support weapon. On the way back to the store they passed a Dodge dealer, and Rod quickly swerved to enter the lot. He explained that they needed more vehicles and the group got to work, following his instructions. After they got two pick-ups running the real fun began, as none of the others had ever driven a car before. Fortunately the trucks were automatics, but the next few hours were harrowing as he gave them crash courses, so to speak. When they had the hang of it he led the way back to the store. From then on he told them, they’d have at least two vehicles together when they went anywhere, and each of them would have a machine gun mounted in the back.

The next step in securing the building was to limit access to the interior. They did this by dragging abandoned cars in front of the doors. To prevent anyone from just pushing them out of the way they jacked them up and removed the wheels. Rod explained that, with them sitting on the frame, they would be next to impossible to move quickly. Two of the cars they didn’t remove the wheels on, one for the front door and another one at the back door they planned to use as an emergency exit. At the front they placed the cars in a ‘sallyport’ forming a zig zag path between them wide enough for two people to walk side by side, but not big enough for a vehicle to get through. He told them it wasn’t a straight path to prevent the door from being rushed. An attacker would have to negotiate the turns, which would slow them down a bit. That would give the folks inside time to shoot them. The car with the wheels still on was placed so it could be moved, giving access to the doors to a truck. That way the group could get one of their trucks into the building if they needed to. Everyone saw the wisdom of these measures, and several commented on how much safer they were now. Rod disagreed, he felt they would not be safe until they found a more defensible place all together, but he didn’t say anything. He also knew morale was important, and he didn’t want to say anything to hurt that.

Finally he formed his team into a quick response force. While everyone might be called upon to fight if they were faced with an all out assault, this force would respond quickly anytime there was a threat to the group. To that end he made a trip to a local gun store to get something better than the M-16 pop guns they’d found at the armory. Inside they found that apparently no one else had ever been there, and everything they’d ever need was on the walls. They each selected rifles they liked, the only stipulation Rod made was that they use the same caliber. They settled on .308, getting two FN Fal’s, a CETME and an M1A. Jill was the only one in the group to continue carrying the M-16, as the recoil wasn’t severe and she could handle it. They also loaded up on cases of ammunition, supplementing what they’d gotten from the armory.

Back at the store parking lot Rod began teaching everyone the basics of shooting, only being satisfied when they could consistently hit a man sized target at a hundred yards. He explained to his response force that they should continue to practice every day until they could hit a man at three hundred yards. The reason being, they were the back-up group and therefore needed to be better than the others.



The next issue in need of attention was drinking water. Of course the water mains had been dry since the plague and without an outside source the group had been consuming bottled water from the stores’ shelves. Their supply was nearly depleted, making a replacement supply a top priority. When first told of the problem Rod suggested they hit the supermarkets and get what was there. That seemed the logical step until they got to the first one and found many of the gallon bottles had ruptured. Vicki mentioned something about the plastic ‘milk’ style jugs being biodegradable and that over the past years they had apparently begun to break down. Lifting a jug off the shelf only to have the bottom come off, spilling the contents all over himself, Rod realized she probably was right. In the end they did find a few of the five gallon bottles used on water coolers still in good condition. They reasoned that the reusable bottles must use another kind of plastic. The group loaded up what they could find, but they all knew it would never be enough to get them through the rest of the winter.

Rod took the next day with Jill and Vicki to consider their options and try to come up with a solution. Vicki asked if they could drill a well nearby, but he didn’t think that was possible. First off he had no idea how to do such a thing, and second he didn’t know where to find the equipment. Jill suggested they find a water tank and fill it from somewhere. The others thought that a good idea and they searched the phonebook, but had no luck. Finally Jill asked about fire trucks.

Rod sat up straight and said “that’s an excellent idea! Let’s see where the nearest fire station is, most have pumper trucks that have a tank as well. And they have the pumps and siphons we’d need.”

They quickly found the nearest fire house and then called the team together to check it out. When they arrived they found two trucks. Both were dusty, but otherwise in excellent condition. Rod figured it was due to the tendency of firemen to always be cleaning and maintaining their equipment. Looking over the trucks they found the pumper had a twelve hundred-fifty gallon tank, along with pumps, hoses, and siphoning equipment. Figuring the system out proved to be a job, but after a while Rod felt he could run the thing. The team got the truck running and they drove to the town’s municipal swimming pool. The pool was green with algae and covered with a sheet of ice. Breaking through and dropping the hose into it, they turned on the pump and soon had the tank full.

Delighted with their success, the team returned to the store. Rod had an idea he could attach a hose from the truck to the buildings’ sprinkler system through a hydrant and use the truck’s pump to pressurize the system. They found such a connection around in back of the store, close to the generator. It took a standard four inch line, the same as the truck, and within a few minutes they had it connected. Rod engaged the pump and brought the pressure up to sixty pounds, but within minutes the tank was empty and they began to wonder where all the water had gone! Rod shut down the truck and the group went inside to see if they’d flooded the store from an open faucet or something, but nothing inside had changed. Finally it occurred to him that the water main to the rest of the town was still open, and they would have to close it if they wanted to maintain pressure in the store only.

Disappointed, the crew spent the rest of the day looking for the main water valve, finally finding it by tracing the sprinkler pipes to where they entered the store. With it finally shut they quickly returned to the pool for more water, not wanting to be out after dark. When they’d once again gotten back and reattached the hose they activated the system and this time it stayed pressurized. With the truck set to idle they went inside and tried a faucet in one of the bathrooms. It sputtered and spat and finally brown water came gushing out. After a minute it cleared, and everyone cheered. Rod cautioned everyone not to drink it until they could purify it, but said it was good enough for showers. There was an employee shower in the break room bathroom and, after giving the store’s water heater time to warm up, everyone took turns getting clean for the first time in months.

Vicki luxuriated in the showers’ hot water for her allotted five minutes. She felt wonderful to finally be able to wash the dirt and stink off her body. As she stood there she thought about having to get out all clean just to put on dirty clothes again and wondered if they could get one of the washing machines going as well. After she got out she asked Rod about it. He felt like an idiot for not thinking of it first, but said sure, it would be easy. They got one of the units from the sales floor and hooked it up, glad to have a large supply of detergent on hand as well. As the first load of clothes was being washed they got an electric dryer set up and going also.

Having a way to clean themselves and their clothes had an incredible effect on the group’s morale and that evening there were smiles and laughing late into the night.



After breakfast the next day the crew got together for their morning meeting. Vicki asked Rod how they were going to purify the water for drinking.

“I figured we could look around for some filters, maybe a sporting goods store would have some.” He said.

“What about distilling it?” Mike asked.

Rod was thoughtful, “do you know how?”

“My dad had a still at the house; he was into making his own alcohol.”

The others looked at him in amazement, and one of the younger boys started to giggle.

“No, it’s not like that, the government used to let people make that stuff as long as they didn’t sell it. My dad made wine and beer and gave it to his friends, and even built a still and played around with it for a while.”

“Do you think you could build one too?” Rod asked.

“Sure, my dad let me and my brother help him build it, he said it was a good science experiment. In fact, he helped me build one for school, but it was only for water. I still won the science fair with it though.” Mike said with obvious pride.

“Cool! So, what do we need?” Jill asked.

“Well, we need a container. It doesn’t have to be strong because it won’t be holding pressure, just a big pot with a tight lid. Then we’ll need some copper tubing and some fittings to attach it to the lid so the steam can go through it. We’ll need another tub or pot for a condenser and it should have water in it to cool the steam.” The boy felt important when he realized everyone was looking at him for the answers. For the first time he felt like a real team player instead of just a strong back.

The team covered the store and found the pot and tubing quickly, but there wasn’t much in the way of plumbing parts so they made a trip to a near by hardware store to get the fittings. They assembled the still in the back storage area, just in case something went wrong and it exploded. Mike assured them it was safe, but everyone else was skeptical. They brought out a large propane burner and hooked it to one of the grill propane bottles to provide the heat source, and filled the pot half full of water. After lighting the fire, Mike stayed with it and the others went to lunch as he’d said it would take a while.

After lunch they returned to find the fresh water container had about a gallon of clean water in the bottom. Rod dipped out a cupful and tasted it, pronouncing it good. After that everyone had to taste it and all said it was wonderful, praising Mike for his abilities. Mike just stood there blushing and embarrassed, loving the feeling.

By the end of the third day after solving the water problem, the fire truck tank ran dry. Vicki asked a couple of the guys to go back to the pool and get some more, and while they were gone Rod decided they needed a larger stock, not only of water, but fuel for the generator. He got with Vicki and the team and they decided to go on a scavenging run around town, looking for a tractor-trailer tanker for fuel, along with a larger water tank.

They found the tanker quickly enough, but it was partially filled with bad gasoline. Rod didn’t want to just dump it on the ground but he didn’t see any alternative. They stretched out the hose as far from the tractor as they could and opened the valve, letting the gas run down the parking lot and into a sewer. When it was empty they closed the valve and went to look at the tractor.



Once the tanker had been dropped off at the store they proceeded to look for a suitable water tank. The city’s municipal garage had a water truck that held several thousand gallons that they’d used to wash the streets. This time however, try as they might, they couldn’t get the old engine to run. Finally they attached a couple of tie-down straps from a flatbed trailer between the truck and the tractor, using them like tow straps. In this way they dragged the water truck back to the store and parked it next to the fire truck. They used the pumper to fill it, having to make several runs, and by the end of the day had nearly five thousand gallons to draw on.

With everything accomplished, Rod figured they’d be ok until spring. He hoped they’d be all right until then, but he knew Mayfield was still there and would likely be a problem in the future as they continued to expand. All he could do at the moment however was hope they wouldn’t be found, and in the spring they could look for a better place to live.

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 37

The greyhound lifted into the sky just as the sun was clearing the horizon, climbing to twenty thousand feet. Jack set the course and engaged the auto-pilot, then got up and walked back to the cabin. Seated there were Louise and her two assistants, Susan and Ellen, who she