Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own. (31 page)

“Arm the Deathmaster!” Karen whispered. She signaled K-Bar to follow her. Doron twisted the crank. They heard the sobbing grow louder. The moaning seemed to please the guards who were sharpening their knives.

Suddenly a short man with a beer belly came up the other trail and told the guards “Save the woman, waste the rest. Knives only, no gunshots. Then bury them, we will be here a couple of days. We lost three patrols this morning to gunfire, so be sure there is no screaming” he said.

“Karen we are outnumbered!” Doron said. Karen detected abject fear in his voice, close to panic.

“We can do this, Doron. I realize the danger. Promise-it’s a shoot and scoot,” Karen said trying to control her fear.

The Deathmaster went off right in the middle of the tents. Karen shot the beer belly twice in the chest, splattering him all over the startled guards holding their knives. K-Bar lunged, and mangled his shooting arm.

The male adult hostage was bleeding from the mouth as he kicked the kids away, into the woods. The female adult hostage hopped after them into the bushes. Karen swung left, then right, with two chest shots for the guards. People all over the grassy area grabbed their guns and cautiously hid, trying to find out how to rush the Deathmaster.

Karen saw them pointing to the Deathmaster when two
more rounds went off. Karen and Doron both ran down to the prisoners. K-Bar was not growling, just attacking and mangling everyone armed a gun in a vicious bloodlust. Doron took his knife and freed the adult male hostage, then handed him his 9 and the knife. The second and third Deathmasters cooked off, and everyone dove.

Karen shot twice at close range, not scoped, at two men rushing them while shooting. Karen saw K-Bar bite his neck, severing an artery. Blood splattered all over K-Bar.

Three more rounds went off from the Deathmaster. Doron raised his shotgun and fired twice blindly at the tents and the grassy area, and must have hit someone from the screams and blood. Doron grabbed Karen’s 9 and gave it to the woman.

“Out!” shouted Karen. Doron pointed for the man and the woman to get back on the trail. Three men grouped to rush them when Zeke opened up on full auto, drilled all three in the back, and two more behind the ledge.

“We are surrounded!” shouted one of the women near the tent.

“Throw your guns down, on your knees, hands above your head,” Karen yelled. The woman hesitated, twisted towards Karen with her gun in her hand. Karen quickly shot her in the head.

Karen promptly shot two more in the head, as K-Bar attacked them. Zeke closed and caught two more in the chest, as suddenly all the visible survivors threw their guns down, fell to their knees, and raised their hands.

“In the middle with your hands up!” Doron shouted.

“On your knees,” Karen commanded.

Five men and two women held up their hands in the middle of the grassy area. K-Bar, for the first time, started viciously barking at the prisoners, not mauling them, probably some remnant from his police dog training, Karen thought. Zeke had now circled around the ridge and began checking each tent. Suddenly Doron dropped to the ground, as
he heard rapid fire.

Karen looked up, and saw the male and female prisoners had rushed the seven in the middle and executed every single one of her prisoners.

K Bar fell, whimpering loudly. Blood seeped through his fur. K Bar tried to stand but collapsed in a bloody heap. From the angle, Karen knew the freed hostages had shot K-Bar in the hind legs while executing the prisoners.

Zeke screamed “K-Bar has been shot!”

“Leave K Bar. Now!” Karen ordered Zeke.

But Zeke had already grabbed K Bar and threw him over his shoulders, with two legs on each side of his neck. Blood squirted all over Zeke.

Everyone rounded the curve before round one of the Deathmaster covered their retreat. They paused at the bottom of the hill, searching for the truck.

“K Bar!” Karen cried, as she wrapped his upper back leg, near his tail.

“They had surrendered!” Karen said angrily, crouching in a sniper position.

“So did our people, who they butchered!” screamed the woman.

Doron grabbed, and restrained, the enraged Karen. K-Bar barred his bloody teeth, and lunged at Doron, but only three legs functioned. K-Bar scooted towards Doron with his three good legs.

Karen suddenly realized K-Bar would
kill
Doron for threatening her.

“Its OK K Bar,” Karen said, touching Doron’s arm.

“Karen, we weren’t there, and we don’t know what they did to her,” Doron said softly.

“Let it go, ” Doron finished.

Zeke agreed, quietly saying, “Stuff happens. It was justice.”

Karen calmed down, trying to catch her breath, gathered the hostages and ran down the trail. Zeke and Doron
quickly closed the rear.

“There is another part of the gang, about thirty more,” the woman hostage said.

“They went out on a kill and thrill mission, a euphemism for a kill and rape raid. We heard our guards complain they could not go,” she finished.

81.

Great, thought Doron, thirty more armed gang members out there. Thirty more ways to die by ambush. They ran down the mountain and everyone but Zeke was out of breath as they approached the creek.

“We have about a mile and a half to go,” Karen said to the woman, who was carrying the small girl on her back.

Doron noticed blood seeping from them man’s mouth.

“What happened?” Doron asked.

“I think my jaw and a couple of teeth are smashed.” Doron gave him a bandana to put in his mouth.

Suddenly they saw Ashley driving the pickup truck towards them with David and Liu standing in the truck bed with rifles ready. Everyone climbed in the truck.

“They were about to be executed,” Doron told David. “So we attacked.”

“How many?” asked David.

“We attacked twenty, she says there are another thirty nearby,” said Doron.

“What about K-Bar?” Karen demanded.

“Bleeding slowed, didn’t hit any arteries. Can’t feel any broken bones. Shot right through his left rear,” Liu said.

No one said anything while they sped away, slinging the loose gravel.

________

“Doron’s Deathmaster rocks,” Karen told David. “It covered our retreat.” David nodded.

“But a gang of fifty! That’s much bigger than Sarge’s Airborne Unit,” David said.

Ashley drove slowly, swerved, and stopped behind the ridge. David, Liu, and Zeke jumped out to get their motorcycles.

“My name is Karen Phelps. I am married to David, the man I was talking to,” said Karen to the woman, offering her hand.

Doron saw the woman’s lingering glance at Karen’s finger, which had no wedding ring. Neither woman said anything, but the questioning, disbelieving, glance seemed to throw down the gauntlet. This could be interesting to watch, Doron thought.

“My name is Chloe O’Hara, this is my husband Mike, and our kids Cheryl and Brad,” she said, twisting her wedding ring with her thumb.

For the first time, Doron looked at Chloe carefully. She seemed to be in her late 30s, deeply tanned skin, blond hair cut short, and deep blue eyes. She moved with the effortless ease of an athlete, very physically fit, maybe a runner or hiker. Her face and arms were deep black and blue, she had been beaten all over.

Mike had light blond hair which was balding, rimless glasses framed his green eyes, and he had a slight beer belly paunch. His face had been smashed and was swelling. Mike seemed older, maybe 40s. His arm muscles seemed overdeveloped, he probably lifted weights, but his legs were weak. The kids seemed about ten or eleven, and stared vacantly into the distance.

“What happened?” asked Karen.

“We were moving to San Diego, because Mike got a transfer. He is a Petroleum Engineer,” Chloe explained.

“Our SUV suddenly died on the Interstate in the middle of the desert. Then two nukes went off. Mike said later the SUV died because of the EMP effect,” Chloe explained. Karen nodded.

“Some nukes were specifically for an EMP effect,” Chloe added.

“Then a US Military unit came by, they let us ride in a truck. They had a fallout bunker and we stayed there about three weeks. They had plenty of those delicious army meals in
a bag- MREs. When we left with them, our column was attacked by this gang with some type of rocket or bomb which blew up the big truck, then they attacked our smaller Humvee. The soldiers hid us in a ditch, and the firefight was brutal,” Chloe said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“None of us,” affirmed Mike.

“Understood,” said Karen.

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

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

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

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

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

82.

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

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

Karen nodded.

“What about pain?”

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

“Will he be able to walk ?”

Neither Doron or Liu answered.

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

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

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

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

83.

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

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

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

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

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

Zeke laughed, enjoying the joint.

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

84.

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

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

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

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

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

“Great selection of food,” Chloe said.

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

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

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

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