Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own. (33 page)

“I read about rifle platoons in Europe in WW2. They had high fatalities in firefights,” David said.

“Exactly, and they were highly trained, fully armed,
our best soldiers
. That’s who we are going to be up against, gangs led by someone with military training, maybe kicked out of the Army, or psychotic, or terrorists, but professionally trained,” Doron said.

“It’s not if we will be hit, it’s
when
,” said Doron.

“
The only way to win a rigged game, is to change the game,” Doron explained.

David smiled, watching Doron think was to observe a maestro, like watching Zeke in combat.

Dad always told him the leader’s primary job was to identify, encourage, and exploit, excellence and unique skills in your team.

“All over America gangs are probably forming for survival, like the one that attacked Mike and Chloe. Some are good, some are evil,” said Doron.

Doron is a strategic genius, pure and simple, David thought.

“Where can we get this stuff?” asked David.

“I will work on that, I just wanted you to have these ideas percolating,” Doron said.

88.

Liu squawked three clicks with her radio, the ambush sign, as she sped back to the truck.

“Must be at least two dozen bikers at the bottom of the hill,” Liu said, showing them the cell phone photo she had taken.

“Zeke?” David asked.

“They have ambushes set up on both roads out,” he said, pointing on the map.

“Doron- suggestions?” David asked.

“We are outnumbered and out gunned. Both roads blocked. But not the railroad track,” Doron noted.

David glanced at the airplane map, and the drone photo on Doron’s laptop. The railroad detoured away from both roads through heavy mountain forest.

“That’s a winner. Load the trailer with the motorcycles. Pack what we can and leave the rest behind,” David said.

“Karen how should we configure the railroad truck?” David asked.

“Two shooters standing behind the cab. Two shooters at the tailgate with sandbags. Armor up the driver, and two shooters in the back seat with shotguns and pistols. Kids on the floor,” she replied instantly.

The motorcycles were more bulky than they thought, they could only load two in the trailer, and filled the rest of the Ford F350 with supplies.

“When we pass the last ambush site, Doron you stop the truck and get off the track. Liu and Zeke, you take the motorcycles and set up a rear ambush site here, along the road at this curve,” David said.

“When we get the truck past this bridge, we will shoot a flare and you both abandon the ambush and meet us at this mountain.”

Liu and Zeke nodded.

“We leave in about thirty minutes, just after sunset. Clean and check your weapons and your boots. Study the map,” David commanded.

89.

David and Zeke struggled to get the truck and trailer aligned with the railroad track , but finally succeeded. Zeke watched Doron engage the hydraulic lift. They were now a railroad truck with a trailer, their own train.

“Adjust mentally to the fact we cannot steer,” David stressed, pointing to his head.

“We go where the tracks are. Doron only has two options, go, or stop,” David said.

“If we are ambushed on the track, everyone leave the truck immediately and use your grenades at any shooters. We are depending upon the element of surprise,” David said.

Zeke felt Doron start the truck off slow, then rapidly gain speed. The track meandered around the mountains, then reached the valley straightway.

“Coming up on the closest point to the ambush site,” David said, looking at his map with a red flashlight.

Doron sped up, and they completely passed the ambush site before gunfire erupted. Zeke realized the bikers just had never planned for someone using the railroad tracks at night in an unlit truck.

Mike and David tossed two grenades at the bikers, and Zeke threw one underhanded a long distance,
behind
the bikers which caused great confusion and panic.

Chloe and Ashley lit, and threw, Molotov cocktails which ignited one of the motorcycles gas tank. Zeke then armed and dropped two Doron Deathmasters which cooked off shots.

It was dark, there were grenades, gas explosions, and it seemed to the bikers they were being attacked from two directions.

Doron almost passed the exit zone, as Liu banged on the cab. Doron quickly stopped, Zeke felt the trailer smashed
into the truck. Zeke disengaged the hydraulic lifts, disconnected the trailer. Doron drove the truck off the tracks.

David and Zeke quickly unloaded the two motorcycles off the trailer, which was still on the tracks, and Zeke and Liu quickly sped off to the ambush site on the curve. Doron sped off down the two lane paved road.

Zeke signaled that Liu had the ambush set with one short and two long radio squelches. Zeke could see Doron turned on his headlights about a mile past the ambush site.

Enraged bikers chased the truck into the ambush kill zone at the curve. Zeke shot the first rider who then collided with three more. It was like bowling pins.

Liu tossed a grenade into the melee. As expected the other bikers dove for the ditch for cover, which was a bad decision, as Liu had sighted it with her AK 47. Zeke heard a dying biker scream into his radio they were being attacked by special forces.

Zeke and Liu stopped at the next curve, and quickly fastened a cable across the road from tree to tree, waiting.

But there was no further pursuit by the bikers.

Doron flashed the truck lights, waiting for them at the next ambush site. Zeke and Liu leapfrogged them, then they all fled together, with lights out to the next mountain.

90.

“David, everyone is dead tired. We are making stupid mistakes,” Doron said, “We need to rest for a couple of days.”

“An operational pause,” said David. “That’s what the military calls it.”

“Where will we stop?” asked Karen.

“This area looks promising, Blue Springs,” Doron said, pointing on a map. “A lake, a nearby town, an easily defensible, natural perimeter with the canyons.”

They scouted the area, looking for a campsite. The unmistakable battlefield debris from the firefights littered the area. This had been a high income resort, surrounding a large lake.

“This would work, a small spring, good defensive perimeter,” Doron noted.

“There are about a dozen dead bodies a hundred meters down range,” Doron pointed. They preferred not to choose sites with bodies, but this was an excellent site, the prime factor being the uncontaminated spring.

“Zeke and Doron, on me to clean up the camp perimeter. Karen you and everyone else set up camp,” David commanded.

Doron remembered David had told him he learned the hard way to leave Karen and the women out of the battlefield burial crew. Dead children seemed to freak them out.

Doron, David, and Zeke each paused, and put a bandana damped in very diluted vinegar water over their nose and mouth. Then they lowered the snowplow type wedge Doron had rigged on the front of the truck to shove five bloated corpses into a ditch. The wedge was incredibly clever, it could both shove dead bodies, and, when lowered, plow dirt up from the ground to be shoved.

The five dead bodies were in the open, apparently part of the attack group. Zeke silently drove forward, shoving dirt
over the bodies. The other seven bodies had died in the ditch, apparently four of them were defenders, Mom, Dad, and two kids, judging from their positions and clothes.

David and Doron both quickly turned, and puked.

They had become callous to the dead, but this had ended hand to hand, to the knife. They checked the guns and confirmed the ammo had ran out. Even the children had been hacked to death. There were no footprints out of the ditch. It appeared that one of the attackers had almost made it out of the ditch after the attack, when the dying Dad had impaled him through the chest with a sharpened, folding, military shovel.

Zeke alone seemed stoic, he just shoved dirt over them in the ditch, which was now their grave. Everyone threw away their disposable gloves, then washed their hands for a long time. They tipped a water jug off the tailgate with holes in the top like a shower nozzle, and used soap, then bleach water. No one spoke on the way back to camp.

“No swimming except in the small spring, which is clear. Remember Doron’s briefing,” David reminded everyone when they returned.

“Remember, the greens routinely poison or contaminate all water sources. It is ingrained in their warped worldview,” Doron confirmed, “I tested the small spring water with the kit, its good.”

Karen waded into the spring with Samuel, and Mike started a huge bonfire. Everyone swam, two at a time, before dark, then warmed up next to the fire. Doron set up the metal tub next to the fire to heat the water for hot baths.

“Heads up,” Doron said, pointing to his head. “On guard duty you are not relieved until your replacement is standing up, walking, talking, and caffeinated. We may be on vacation but the greens never take a break.”

Sometimes when dead tired, people fell back asleep unless they stood up. Everyone had started sucking on small coffee pouches Jorge had invented to stay awake when on duty.

Everyone fell asleep shortly after dark, and it was
unusually difficult arousing each guard shift. The next morning, everyone slept late except Mike, David and Doron. Liu was on guard duty. Doron was busily working on the remnants of four laptop computers.

“What are you doing?” asked Mike.

“Building and programming a laptop that can bypass the burned out computer chips on cars,” explained Doron.

“How is it going?” asked Mike.

“No luck yet. I am trying to bypass each burned out chip.”

“What not just have a deceit chip?” asked Mike.

“Deceit chip?” asked Doron.

“Instead of actually repairing the chips, the deceit chip just lies and tells the computer it has been repaired. We used them on pipelines, called them the Presidential chip.”

“Yes!” said Doron. “The engine specs could be transferred to a hard drive and deceive the car into believing the chips were working!”

“Once you bypass the chips, the engine is mechanically ready to run,” explained Mike.

Doron’s eyes lit up with excitement. He went nocturnal, working around the clock. The next day he told David “I have been experimenting with bypassing the car computer chips burned out in the EMP. I am going into town and try it out.”

“Sounds great, mind if I tag along?” David asked.

“Come on,” said Doron. David, Doron, and Zeke grabbed their M16s and 9mms and jumped into the truck.

Doron slowed down at the remains of the BMW dealership. There had been no blast damage, but the building had been vandalized and the huge glass windows were shattered. But the lot was full of BMWs since that would not run after the Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) effect of atmospheric nuclear blasts.

Doron choose two identical model gray BMWs sitting side by side. He connected his programmed laptop hard drive to the input jack on the cpu. Zeke approached with the keys left
undisturbed on the manager’s office board. The scope on the laptop screen fluctuated until Doron adjusted the inputs.

“Try to crank it up,” Doron said.

Zeke pressed the button, and the engine roared to life.

“It’s bad. Really bad,” said Zeke appreciatively, admiring the leather interior, stick shift, and the throaty roar of the engine. This BMW was born to race.

Doron excitedly disconnected the laptop and inserted the thumb drive he had programmed to the second BMW. The next BMW roared to life, and Doron tossed David the truck keys and said, “David, you have family responsibilities. Zeke and I will drive these bad boys back.”

Zeke opened the sunroof, raised both hands above the roof, then squealed out, tires smoking. Then put his hands back on the steering wheel. Doron followed. They raced through town, then tightly turned in circles at the old red light. They raced, side by side, back to the lake.

“What’s this?” asked Liu, impressed.

“Doron has made a jailbreak to get around the burned out chips. Doron’s laptop is the key to any car!” Zeke said with delight.

“Are they both the same?” asked Liu.

“Exact, same engine, everything,” said Doron.

“My Dad had a BMW, I loved driving it,” said Liu.

Doron and Zeke parked their BMWs inside the perimeter. They both kept their key fobs, instead of leaving them in the cars like the trucks, four wheelers and motorcycles.

The possibilities of the Doron Jail breaker excited everyone at dinner. Doron went to bed early and traded off his guard duty with Zeke, since he had not slept the night before. Everyone was dreaming about what car they would get.

91.

The next morning, Karen saw Doron and Ashley leave together early in his BMW to find a Porsche. Karen watched Doron in her binoculars as he tried out his jail breaker on a police cruiser. She saw Ashley sped by him, towards the lake, apparently Doron had found her the red Porsche. Everyone gathered around the two BMWs and Ashley’s Porsche. The excitement was contagious.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Doron announced.

“Welcome to the Big Apple Duck Race!”

“Big Apple Duck, back in the day, set the World’s street speed record racing around Manhattan in his BMW, then posted the feat on YouTube. He stopped at every red-light,” Doron announced.

“Big Apple Duck would have probably gotten away with his achievement, except he foolishly taunted the New York City Mayor when he celebrated by drinking a thirty two ounce gut buster Kentucky Fried Chicken soft drink,” Doron continued, as everyone laughed.

“So now, a race to the roundabout past town, then back to this Lake. In BMW #1, its Liu, BMW #2 Zeke, and the red Porsche, Ashley. I will be monitoring with a motorcycle so I can take shortcuts,” said Doron.

“The race begins when I speed off in the median,” said Doron.

“Speeders, start your engines!” Doron said.

Zeke, Liu and Ashley lined up abreast on both sides of the four lane highway. The engines raced, and smoke billowed from the tires as they surged forward when Doron raced up the median.