Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own. (32 page)

Karen was proud of the way Doron and Zeke waited to eat until after the kids. They weren’t always polite before Samuel and Brad and Cheryl joined them. The kids had a civilizing influence on them. There is hope for these savages, she thought.

She was proud David always stood watch while everyone ate. Sarge had told him, Officers eat last. She saw him on duty at the top of the hill.

“It’s Karen,” she said before climbing the top of the hill. He lowered his gun, and reached for the coffee she brought. The sun was setting and the first stars were already visible in the east. In the clear desert you could really see a long way.

“Is my favorite wife okay?” David asked, as she sat next to him against the cliff.

“Yeah, I guess I lost it before,” Karen said.

“Listen Karen, this is important,” David said. “I will never be taken captive. Not after what we saw. If I am in danger, you take the shot.”

Karen nodded, and said, “And you better take the shot for me also. “It was silent as they looked out towards the Interstate.

Then Karen added, “Maybe you and I could practice long range shooting. We can both use practice,” she said, trying to be diplomatic.

David laughed and said “OK so I can’t shoot prairie dog headshots. I did the next best thing, I married you.” David hugged her and wiped her tears away.

“Now get out of here before you lure me into dereliction of my guard duty,” David said.

Karen smiled, and walked down to the campfire, where K Bar lay waiting for her.

“See K-Bar, David said I would lure him away into dereliction!” she giggled, as she petted K-Bar.

____________________

Just before the midnight guard change, David heard a muffled roar to the north east. He ran to the top of the hill, focused his binoculars, and saw twelve large missiles launch. David watched for a few seconds, mesmerized, then remembered he was on guard duty.

David blew his whistle. Everyone quickly scrambled out of their tents.

“There has been a missile launch about twenty miles away. This means there may be an incoming nuclear strike. Get behind boulders facing away from northeast,” David yelled, pointing.

Karen ran with Samuel in her arms. They jumped into a crevice. Soon everyone was behind a cliff shielding them from the northeast.

They waited, barely breathing. It seemed forever, but in minutes the dark sky erupted into a brilliant reddish orange. Then again, and again. Five nukes had hit.

“We are over twenty miles away, so we should receive the blast wave soon,” David said.

They could see the dust rise, and the mushroom clouds form against the full moon. The blast waves arrived, spent, merely scattering dust.

It was beautiful, so incredibly beautiful, David thought. He was instantly ashamed, and felt guilty, for even thinking the thought.

David wondered which direction the upper winds would carry the fallout. And from now on, everyone would have to dig a foxhole near their tent. Next time, there may not be shelter nearby.

Doron was amazed, “How did you know?”

“It wasn’t an initial launch, this was a counterstrike. This was a lunch before an incoming strike, already launched, arrived. Intercontinental nukes launched from Asia would take about thirty minutes to arrive. As soon as they launch, if we still have satellites, we know the place and time of arrival here. Note the strike hit here fifteen minutes after launch. Either those were submarine launched nukes, or they were ICBMs fired fifteen minutes before we launched our counterstrike,” David explained.

“Bottom line, you see missiles launch, always prepare for incoming nukes,” David explained.

85.

Liu noticed they were moving faster now on the trail, and becoming more proficient at setting up camp and preparing dinner. Mike and Chloe learned quickly.

“There is more rice,” Liu said to Chloe. Liu thought Brad and Cheryl still looked hungry.

“Thank you,” Chloe said, scooping some into Brad’s bowl, then Cheryl’s bowl. Chloe picked up an open can of chunky chicken noodle soup bubbling near the campfire with the pliers, and dumped half in each bowl. Liu had noticed that Brad and Cheryl never talked. She wondered why, but after attack day if someone didn’t want to talk you left them alone, you didn’t rip off their emotional band aid.

“So how did all of you meet?” asked Chloe.

“We had all been sentenced to after school detention at Barley Union High School,” Zeke said.

Chloe looked quizzical.

“No, it’s true,” said Liu.“The detention was in the basement, and just before we were to be released, the first nuke went off,” said Liu. It was quiet for a few moments, everyone just watched the fire crackle.

Samuel brought his red
My First Bible in Pictures
, to Doron. He had it opened to Moses. Samuel sat in Doron’s lap and waited for him to read. Samuel showed everyone the picture, Moses was looking up, the Ten Commandments were on a rock nearby. Doron read and pointed to the words.

“What are God’s ten rules called?”

“The Ten Commandments,” Samuel answered.

“Hey Zeke, do you know any of the Ten Commandments?” asked Doron.

“Sure,” said Zeke, confidently. “I went to Vacation Bible School. And I watched the movie
The Ten Commandments
.”

“OK,” said Doron. “How about I say one, then you say
one, see how many we can get?”

“Do not steal,” said Zeke.

“Do not lie,” said Doron.

“Do not work on Sunday,” said Zeke.

“Actually it was Saturday, but I’ll give it to you,” Doron said.

“Only worship God,” continued Doron.

“Honor your parents,” said Zeke.

Doron paused, he was forgetting some, then he said “Do not take God’s name in vain.”

“Do not murder,” Zeke said, after hesitating.

“Do not commit adultery,” said Doron, pleased with his memory.

“Aunt Karen, what is adultery?” Samuel asked. Ashley giggled, and Liu choked on her rice soup. Karen looked at Doron, who shrugged at her.

“Adultery is when someone acts like they have more than one wife,” Karen explained. “God says only one wife for the husband, and only one husband for the wife,” Karen said, holding up one finger on each hand, and pointing to her, then David, then intertwining the fingers.

Samuel seemed satisfied with the explanation.

“Ready for the hot chocolate?” Karen asked quickly.

Liu noted that Samuel carefully put his red Bible in his school backpack before reaching for his hot chocolate. Samuel sat on his blanket hugging Karen’s knee as he stared at the stars. In the dry desert air, with no light except the campfire, there seemed to be an infinite number of stars.

David painted a rock with the green laser pointer, and Doron jumped up to relieve him from guard duty.

There was a comfortable silence, when David returned.

“I have been thinking about Sarge and the Airborne unit. How did we know they were soldiers, and it was okay to surrender to them?” David asked.

“Well, they were in uniform,” Zeke said, puzzled. “The uniform said “US Army.”

“But the uniforms are easily available in any surplus store,” said David.

“I think it was their discipline,” David said.

“I never understood saluting until now. My Dad was in the Air Force, I just assumed saluting was to signal who was the superior office. But now, I understand that’s not all,” David paused, savoring the hot chocolate.

“Soldiers only salute
other soldiers
. You could be the most powerful civilian ever, but you do not get a salute. A salute says,
you are worthy to be in the tribe,”
said David. “They didn’t salute very often, as it selects targets for snipers, but saluting is a powerful identifier of soldiers,” David said.

“Your point?” Zeke asked.

“We were watched and photographed at the cabin,” David said. Liu felt uncomfortable at the bad memory.

“Suppose we had saluted each other, acted like a military unit. Maybe they would have gone away, and skipped the ambush,” said David.

“Only a foolish gang would knowingly engage a military unit, when they could slaughter untrained civilians instead. These criminal groups will pick the low hanging fruit first,” David said.

Liu was impressed. This was brilliant, easily accomplished and it would work. She knew it.

“Great idea. Let’s practice saluting. You think we should wear uniforms?” asked Zeke.

“No, falsely wearing military uniforms in a war zone can earn you a firing squad. In World War 2, German soldiers in US uniforms were executed by firing squad. They photographed it, it’s in the history books,” David said.

“Just be thinking about it,” said David, as he dropped the matter.

“Good night,” Samuel said, as Karen led him to the tent. David followed. Chloe left with Brad and Cheryl to their tents. Liu observed that now everyone went to sleep shortly after dark. Just after nuke day, people stayed up all night, but
not anymore.

Liu set up her tent in case it rained, but rolled out her sleeping bag behind the boulder, near the fire where she could hear everything. She liked to watch and listen when people came up the fire for guard shift change, or just to talk. For some reason she felt alone and depressed in her tent. Sleeping outside in her sleeping bag, looking at the stars, cheered her up.

Zeke and Mike stayed, looking at the fire. Zeke laid out the coffee and tea packets next to the coffee pot, and stacked what was left of the dried wood near the fire. There was very little wood here, only dried tumbleweeds that they flattened and broke into pieces. They were using up the wood they brought.

“Zeke, I looked at the shooters. Most were killed with headshots from Karen. Where did she learn to shoot?” Mike asked. Liu listened, laying on her sleeping bag, staring at the stars.

“She and her Dad tracked and killed cattle rustlers on their ranch,” said Zeke.

“She is our best shot, and Doron is her spotter.”

Mike was quiet, then continued.

“Is Samuel her son?” Mike asked.

“Yes, we rescued the Mother just before she died. Karen took over Samuel and K-Bar,” Zeke said. “What are your plans?” asked Mike.

‘We are all going to Alabama, that’s where David lived. His Mom is still there, couldn’t get out before the nukes. We are looking for an American government that has formed,” said Zeke.

“Zeke, do you ever think about everyone who died?” Mike asked.

“Every day,” said Zeke, brokenly. “I had a younger brother and sister. David went with me to make sure they were not alive. He took a radiation hit to go with me,” Zeke said.

“Do you get depressed?” asked Mike.

“Yes, sometimes I dream about taking

LeShawn and Monique to the school bus, them waving goodbye to me in the rain, and I wake up trembling,” said Zeke.

“The dark comes.”

“And sometimes when I see some kid’s bloated dead body, I do not see the corpse, I see LeShawn and Monique’s face,” Zeke finished.

“What about you?” asked Zeke, eager to change the subject.

“When we were captured, and I was helpless to protect my family, I really wished I was dead. I just wanted some heroic way to die. A Samson option. I will never be captured alive again,” said Mike fiercely.

“And I wonder how I can prepare my kids for this type world,” Mike continued, softly and contemplatively.

“Will it be like Europe in the middle ages after the Black Death Plague? Europe eventually recovered, after a long period of devastation. Or will we collapse, and never rise again, like the ancient Mayan and Aztec civilzations?” Mike wondered.

“This is a good team. Good people. I am glad my kids are here,” said Mike as he left for his tent.

Liu listened carefully, staring at the stars. She thought about why she had survived, and what her purpose was.

86.

Liu felt raindrops and moved inside her tent. She checked, K-Bar was under his tarp. Karen always set up a five foot square tarp about three feet off the ground on poles for K-Bar, close to Samuel’s tent.

She had tried to get K-Bar to go on guard duty with her, because she was lonely, but the dog only left camp when Karen did. Liu saw that K-Bar would not go on guard duty with David either,
until
Karen married David. Then K-Bar also went on guard duty with David. Even K-Bar knew they were married.

Liu wondered why Karen was always just assumed to be Samuel’s Mom, K-Bar’s master, and David’s husband. As Liu tossed and turned, she heard rain begin to fall in torrents, and wash away part of the trail as it rushed downhill.

The lightning and thunder struck closer, and Liu heard Samuel scream.

K-Bar barked, but did not leave his tarp doghouse. Apparently, K-Bar just barked to make sure Karen woke up, and took care of Samuel.

Liu opened her mosquito net and saw Karen hurriedly leave her tent, barefoot, drenched, scrambling in the heavy rain to Samuel’s nearby tent. She could see Samuel’s flashlight come on, and Karen’s silhouette smoothing his forehead.

The lightning and the rain died soon. Karen left Samuel’s tent, and returned to her tent.

She could hear Karen and David’s quiet, muffled laughter from their tent when the rain stopped.

Liu covered her head with the clothes she used for a pillow, and wept, trying not to hear.

87.

“David, you got a minute?” asked Doron.

“Sure,” said David, mixing the coffee, and sitting next to Zeke, Mike, and Ashley.

“Three ideas to think about” Doron said.

“First, if we could get military night vision we could travel at night and avoid ambushes,” Doron said, holding up one finger.

“Second, if we can find an older, pre-chip plane, like a DC-3, we could
fly
to Alabama,” Doron said, holding up two fingers.

“Flying to Alabama would probably save us at least 6 firefights,” Doron stressed.

“Third, we really need military grade weapons, grenades, mortars, mines, and a military truck,” Doron said, holding up three fingers.

“Our rifles are good against gangs, but anyone with grenades, mortars, or artillery will wipe us out,” Doron continued.

“David, we have to get an edge or we are going to eat it sooner or later in a firefight or an ambush,” Doron said.