Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own. (25 page)

“Here are the books and maps we recovered off the dead greens,” David said, handing them to Sarge.

“Thanks, we will have these analyzed,” Sarge said.

“Sir, what happened? I mean, how did this war start?” David asked. “What happened to America?”

“We are Airborne. We were on maneuvers in Washington state when the strike hit. We tried to get back to our base, but three more nukes went off,” he said.

Sarge was quiet, and wearily stared into the distance. Why, how, or who started the war was irrelevant, he thought.
Even if anyone who knew what really happened would tell the truth. There had been so many lies. A
Profile in Cowardice
.

After much of America lay in smoldering ruins, the President disgraced the office by pathetically begging on television for UN
negotiations
, while cowering deep underground in the Presidential Bunker.

He knew then that the battle had been lost some time before, because of the President’s lack of character.

The President’s failure to immediately retaliate after Strike I resulted in needless carnage when America absorbed Strike II and III. Other enemies scrambled, and attacked an America they thought was finished. The White House com net went dark after Strike II.

The Speaker of the House contemptuously left the Congressional nuclear blast shelter. She stole a government pick up truck, an M16, a box of grenades, and left to return to Texas. Several dozen Congress members from Texas and other states joined her. They called it the Alamo express. She said she would die with her people.

She became President when no one else in the Presidential line of succession could be found, alive, after Strike II.

At least, that was the official version. Sarge had heard rumors. But as they say, “what difference does it make?”

The new President was slowly dying from a untreatable, fatal, dose of radiation. She joined the ranks of millions of Americans known as “Lethals” for their terminal, incurable, lethal dose of radiation.

But while she was alive, America was back. There was some serious payback. She unchained the military and threw away the leash.

She released the launch codes to the commanders of nuclear submarines, to use, as they saw fit, and as circumstances warranted.

Individual troop commanders in the field were released, indeed ordered, to engage the enemy without seeking further
orders or permission. Any commander who did not immediately retaliate after attacks with the means available, would be court martialed. Sarge grinned as he remembered the mass relief from command of paper soldiers, and politically correct hacks. They were quickly replaced by war fighters with battlefield promotions.

Sarge had been tasked with the mission to locate and destroy enemy terrorists and criminals in Nevada Sector. He patrolled up to the California red No Go Zone 3 which these kids had escaped from. His orders were to find and kill terrorists. Before they killed his troops, or beheaded more American civilians like these kids.

His Colonel had taken him and his Lieutenant aside before the last mission and told them the President had ordered a more aggressive approach.

“You will be backed up. I am telling you this in writing. To the extent possible, train Americans to defend themselves, especially with grenades, and arm them. Do what is necessary on the field as a warrior,” the Colonel said, handing a paper to both.

Sarge read him loud and clear. He never told the Colonel that’s what he was going to do anyway. He had nothing to lose after the day.

He thought about telling all this to David. But why burden the kid with the shame of a cowardly President, he thought. And David’s Dad was in the Air Force, he might have died because of the President’s cowardice and lack of character.

“I have told you everything that is open source,” Sarge said instead, as he got up to leave.

Diary of Liu Nguyen

Jorge sacrificed his life to save Samuel
.

That needed to be recorded. They wrote it in the Bible
.

Millions died in the war. We see the bodies. We smell the rotting corpses
.

But Jorge’s death is personal. We are not bulletproof
.

Yesterday he laughed, today he is buried
.

Ashley and Doron may die also from their gunshots
.

Sometimes I wonder what’s the point of all this, and I understand what Zeke means when he says the dark comes
.

But then I hear Samuel laugh and play, and the sun comes out
.

Some days, Samuel and K-Bar are all that keeps me from giving up
.

58.

David walked away from the fire to check on Ashley and Doron. Doc had changed the thick dressings, and some kind of clear liquid dripped into their arms. Doc was explaining to Liu how to change the bandages.

Both Doron and Ashley were hard asleep, and you could hear them labor to breathe, wheezing. Both of them were lying on ponchos ready to move to the new campsite up the canyon.

Smith came up and said, “Time to bug out.”

Doc nodded for David to carry Doron. David was surprised how heavy he was as deadweight, his arms soon ached. Finally they reached the new campsite, where Sarge stood guard with his night vision on.

Sarge pointed to an indentation in the cliff with a rock overpass, and they laid Doron and Ashley on the ground. Doc handed a clear plastic bag filled with liquid to David, then silently hung up the bag above Doron using parachute cord.

“This is your camp area,” said Sarge. It was shielded by the cliff and huge boulders on two sides, with only one opening. “Be sure your people stay inside,” Sarge warned again.

“Once I had a soldier almost killed when he left to use the bathroom at night,” Sarge said.

David went back to the truck and got his backpack with the tent. He retrieved the portable five gallon plastic bucket toilet and set it up in the shower tent for privacy.

Sarge had built up the campfire at the old site. Samuel was asleep, and Karen carried him up the trail in her arms. Sarge had the soldiers roll rocks around the campfire for cover, like he would deploy if they spending the night there. David noticed how he set two soldiers with interlocking fields of fire covering the old site.

“Where are your weapons?” asked Sarge.

“Each one carries their own,” said David.

“Be sure they are ready tonight if we get attacked, stack them against the cliff with your clips within reach,” ordered Sarge.

“When did you clean your weapons?” asked Sarge, looking disgusted, and personally insulted, as he inspected David’s M16.

David shrugged his shoulders, “Probably a week ago.”

“Every night you check every weapon,” thundered Sarge. “Your life literally depends upon a clean, functioning weapon. You clean your weapon before you eat. Sarge checked the clips, and took two bullets out.

“You always take two rounds out so you do not over strain the clip spring,” Sarge said, handing David the extra rounds to put in an empty clip. “If we are attacked, what is your escape route?” Sarge asked.

David quickly looked around.

“You never, ever, set up camp without planning at least two evac routes, and be sure every member of your team knows them, and how you cover the evac with suppressing fire” Sarge explained.

“It’s the small, routine, precautions, done every time, that let you bring home empty body bags,” Sarge said.

David thought he had been doing great. He realized he had a lot to learn, and had been a lousy leader by military standards. They weren’t in High School anymore. Age was no excuse, most of Sarge’s men were only a year or two older than David.

And now the tuition was paid in blood.

_______

Jefferson and Smith checked their weapons before heading on night patrol. “Locked and loaded,” Smith said.

They walked quietly off the trail, past the civilian side of the camp. Jefferson saw Samuel and Karen’s silhouette
kneeling and praying inside the tent. They could hear Samuel tell her he was ready to hear her read from the real Bible verses listed on the bottom of the pictures.

Jefferson knew his mission was protecting these kids. He felt proud, like he had won a medal. Being a soldier and protecting these kids was important. And he needed to know that what he did mattered. He needed a mission, more than anything else, after the nukes.

These kids would not be beheaded by the greens for reading the Bible while he was a soldier.

59.

“It’s David,” he said, outside of Samuel’s tent.

“Yes?” Karen whispered. Samuel was asleep. Zeke and Liu were down with Ashley and Doron. They were alone at this end of the camp.

“Karen, I would like to talk to you,” David said.

She sat up and looked at him in the moonlight through the mosquito net. He sounded very serious. “Let’s sit outside, so we don’t wake up Samuel,” she said. She opened the flap then closed the mosquito net and sat outside next to David.

“Karen, I love you. Will you marry me?” asked David, quickly.

Karen choked. So much for laying the groundwork, she thought. David the direct.

“Are you serious?” she recovered.

“Deadly serious,” David said. She looked in his eyes. He was serious.

“Sarge can marry us. He’s like the Captain of a ship, who is allowed to marry people, “David said.

“Are you eighteen?”

“Not yet, but I will be in five months.”

“I just turned seventeen,” she said.

“In the old world, we would be far too young,” Karen said.

“Exactly,” David said. “In the prewar.”

“Here, it’s like we have gone back in time. Like your wound, we used WWI technology, we use car technology fifty years old. People used to get married at seventeen or eighteen,” David said.

“How do you know I am the one you love?” Karen asked.

“ I have spent twenty four hours a day with you for over a month. We have been shot at, stayed up all night on guard duty, nursed you back from a wound, and lived in a sewer. If
we don’t know each other by now we never will,” he said.

“You know David, my Mom left my Dad and me when I was four,” Karen said.

He didn’t say anything.

“I want to be sure I get married for keeps,” she said, then paused.

“I do love you, I lie awake at night in my tent, until you come back from patrol, and I hear you unzip your tent,” Karen continued.

“But I am not sure, we are only seventeen.”

“Seventeen, going on thirty, in war years,” David said, softly.

Karen grabbed his hand, “This is a lot. Let me pray about this overnight.”

“Sure. Remember though, Sarge will be gone tomorrow,” David said.

They stared into the valley for a few moments, holding hands, saying nothing. He caressed her hair, and went back to Doc, Ashley, and Doron.

_____________________________

David was excited, he had asked Karen to marry him! He had been nervous, but he thought he had sounded confident. But most importantly, he had actually done it! He felt a tremendous relief.

The ball was now in her court.

60.

The sun had just cleared the eastern ridge of the valley, warming the camp. The dry wind picked up, gusting dirt in tight swirls around the boulders. Liu noticed the soldiers seemed incredibly busy. Everyone was packing and re-packing their backpacks, cleaning their guns, checking their feet and boots, washing and drying their socks, checking the ammo and grenades, and meals ready to eat or MREs. She was surprised there were only eleven soldiers, she had thought there were a lot more.

“Is that a shower?” Karen asked Liu, pointing to the tarp enclosure.

“Yes, just load three gallons in the bucket from the spring, its really nice. Go ahead, I will watch Samuel,” Liu said.

The water was ice cold, but Karen loved the shower. She was able to shampoo her hair.

“Do you know where I can get some detergent to wash my clothes?” Karen asked Liu.

“Yes, the soldiers have set up a wash tub near the Medic,” Liu said.

Karen thought the clothesline was very clever. It was two parachute cord lines twisted together, and you pried the strands apart to hang the clothes. The cords held in the strong wind.

She hung her clothes next to Liu’s, and sat down to brush her hair in the sun. Samuel sat next to them, playing with his plastic soldiers in the rocks.

“Liu, let me ask you for some advice,” said Karen.

“Sure,’ Liu said.

“David asked me to marry him last night,” Karen said.

Liu just nodded, trying, and failing, to hide her shock. Marriage!!

“Yes, he said he loves me, and wants to marry me,”
Karen said.

“Do you love him?” asked Liu.

“Yes,” said Karen. “I didn’t realize how much. But whenever he leaves us on some mission, I can’t sleep. When we have guard duty together my heart races. I just love being with him. He wants Sarge to marry us right now,” Karen said.

“Right now?”

“Yes, today.”

“Can Sarge marry people?”

“Yes, just like the Captain of a ship can marry people. And after the nukes, things have changed anyway.”

“How long have you known David?”

“Just since detention, I met him on attack day. But he says we have lived in a sewer together, stayed up all night on guard duty together. If we don’t know each other after a month of this we will never know each other. He says I make him complete.”

“Marry him. Marry him now!” said Liu firmly. “David is a good man. He is mature, he is ready. Do you realize David is already providing for you and this entire Nuclear War Club?” Liu pressed.

Karen silently considered the truth of what Liu said.

“Do you realize that you are like a single Mom raising Samuel. And David is willing to marry, in effect, a single Mom and her son. That’s rare. I can’t see Doron or Zeke signing up for that,” Liu said.

“Ask yourself, why was David the leader and not Doron? Doron is smarter, yet David is the leader,” Liu probed.

“You know David is concerned about each member of the Nuclear War Club as the leader,” Karen answered. “Doron is concerned about Doron.”