Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own. (35 page)

Suddenly, David woke up, terrified. His heart was beating uncontrollably. Karen woke up instantly.

“What is it, David?” she whispered.

David didn’t answer, he just grabbed his gun and slipped his boots on without tying them, and burst out the tent. Karen picked up her rifle and combat pack and followed. She had her boots loosely laced so she could slip them on. K-Bar was instantly alert and followed Karen.

“Calm down,” David told himself. It could just be a nightmare. But it was so real.

He hurried south of the bank where Doron was on guard duty. There was a quarter moon, the sky was clear and crowded with stars. He forced himself to pause and listen. His
adrenaline surge screamed for him to run and shoot.

David knelt on one knee, and scanned the horizon, looking for movement. Doron was nowhere in sight. Karen turned her back to his back, and looked the other way first, quickly scanning the perimeter with her naked eyes, then slowly with her sniper scope. K Bar was in an alert, crouched position, ready to pounce.

Karen silently pointed to footprints, it had Doron’s imprint. David followed the tracks past the bank towards the mountains. Karen moved to his right, as K Bar moved ahead. He crouched through the bushes to avoid the cactus. He aimed his rifle as he heard breathing, then suddenly swept the barrel away.

Doron was propped against the bottom of the riverbed bank in a deep sleep. His M16 had slipped out of his hands and was pointing towards the camp.

David was livid. He handed his rifle to Karen to punch Doron, when she put her hand on his arm.

“Easy,” Karen whispered.

Karen moved Doron’s rifle away, then said “Doron, its Karen and David. Doron still slept soundly.

Karen gently shook Doron’s shoulder. He woke up suddenly, horrified, reaching for his rifle.

“Karen?” Doron said.

“Yes, Doron its Karen and David,” Karen said. No one said anything. Doron hung his head.

“My bad,” he said.

Karen was very proud of David when he didn’t immediately hit Doron for endangering everyone’s life.

“Later,” David said with barely controlled fury. David checked his watch, it was probably an hour and a half before sunrise

“We need to spread out, and search the perimeter, check for tracks,” Doron said.

“Doron, we will talk about this later when I calm down,” David said, walking away.

_______________

David was even more furious now, burning with anger, and Karen was too keyed up to sleep. They decided to stay on guard duty until sunrise. They saw Zeke walk back from the desert in the predawn light.

“Good morning,” said David.

“Morning,” said Zeke. David thought Zeke seemed distracted, very relaxed. Maybe he just wanted some privacy in the desert while using the bathroom. David however, sensed Zeke was hiding something, trying to be
too
calm. It seemed Zeke was in a different zip code, like some friends he knew that smoked weed every day after school.

David and Karen watched Zeke trudge back to the camp as the dawn light increased. Once he was out of sight, David jumped up.

“Where are you going?” asked Karen.

“Let’s just
see
where he went,” David whispered.

Karen followed David as he tracked Zeke’s footprints. K Bar ran ahead and stopped. Zeke had followed the dry riverbed about twenty yards, then stopped at some rocks, where the boot tracks disappeared.

David could still smell the sweet smoke lingering in the predawn stillness. He moved the dirt with his boots, and found marijuana debris and burnt rolling papers stubble.

Karen was quiet when she saw the marijuana stubble. Neither Karen nor David said anything.

“Was Doron doing drugs also?” David whispered to Karen.

“While on guard duty!” David said in an angry whisper. He kicked the dirt back over the debris, and they walked back to camp.

96

“What’s wrong?” Chloe asked, instantly alarmed.

Everyone gathered around the hood of the pickup truck.

“This meeting is for adults only, the kids need to play near the tent,” David motioned

Clearly this was some type of showdown. Chloe wondered if it was over the women. She had told Mike trouble was inevitable when you mixed attractive young women, raging teenage male hormones, automatic weapons, and lots of ammunition.

“Doron fell asleep on guard duty, and Zeke has been smoking weed,” David spat out angrily.

“How long has this been going on?” demanded David.

“Zeke and I loaded four duffle bags with marijuana and whiskey we found,” Doron explained, calmly. “It calms us down.”

“You have to make a choice, the weed and whiskey or us. You can’t have both,” David said.

“Chill, David,” said Doron. “You are right to be angry about me using weed while on guard duty. My bad,” Doron continued, shrugging his shoulders. Chloe noticed that shrugging the shoulders seemed to stoke David’s anger.

“But what we do on our own time is our own business,” Doron said.

“You are not our parents,” Doron said.

“Realize there is enough whiskey and marijuana around after attack day to last all of us,” said Doron, holding his hands out, palms up in reconciliation.

“No,” said David, with an ominous, quiet, finality.

Chloe panicked when she saw Karen casually put her finger above the trigger guard on her AR 15, and move next to David, back to back.

“You either stop, or you leave,” David said calmly.
Chloe noted Karen nodded sagely, like David had just pronounced the wisest judgment of all time.

“Each of you are endangering the lives of everyone here. In combat there is no time off to get high. Everyone here is carrying automatic weapons, and you want to get high!” David exclaimed.

“We are responsible for the kids,” David said, menacingly, in a vicious tone Chloe had never heard before. Chloe noticed K-Bar tensed, and crouched, looking at Karen.

“You got high, and fell asleep on guard duty with your M16 pointed at the camp,” David said.

“The whole country is there for you to smoke weed and drink. So get out, or stop,” David said.

“Screw you!” Doron screamed at David, grabbing the duffle bags. K Bar began to growl, looking at Karen.

“Notice that none of you even get to speak, David almighty has spoken!” Doron taunted. But Doron looked at Mike, Chloe, and Liu, and realized that they backed David, and it made him even more angry and bitter.

Zeke reached past David, and got his duffle bag, avoiding David’s eye.

“Zeke, this is no good. Stay!” David urged.

“No,” said Zeke. “I am out of here, too.”

“I am leaving with them,” said Ashley.

Karen rushed up to Ashley, and touched her arm, “Don’t go with them, this is trouble!”

“Back off,” Ashley said, jerking her arm away.

“No K-Bar!” Karen yelled as K Bar growled and bared his teeth to bite Ashley.

“You can take a truck and your guns. Take a bladder of water and food,” said David, lowering his voice and patting K-Bar.

It was over in two minutes. Chloe was amazed there were no gunshots.

Doron defiantly lit a joint, then blew the smoke at David and Karen.

They fled east in a cloud of dust, with no recon.

97.

“There is an abandoned mining site at Rattlesnake Ridge. They had a water tunnel from the mountain spring, and they should have water and gas,” explained David, showing them the map and the tour book.

They had learned that all trips should be based upon water supplies. Travelling from spring to spring was smart. But springs were also natural ambush sites, many were littered with bloated corpses of those who camped there. And the greens routinely poisoned the wells, so each had to be tested, and usually cleaned out. The trucks and the water bladders provided a huge security advantage since they could load up with water, then move to a deserted area to camp.

“We are entering survivalist territory,” David said.

“The Colorado Utah border has many areas where people built shelters and planned ahead for nuclear war. They will be armed, trained and ready to defend. Once we reach better water sources, the survivalist areas will increase.” said David.

Mike nodded, and added wood to the campfire. The sun would rise soon. Chloe retrieved the coffee pot, and refilled everyone equally. Everyone unconsciously followed David’s lead, and sat facing away from the fire, always alert, scanning the desert.

“Most survivalists will be defending their homes, not off ambushing and killing people. Some survivalists formed communities, and have medical professionals, and clinics,” continued David.

“If the United States Government did not survive, it will be reborn with survivalist families setting up towns and then cities. Remember, in America the pioneers formed communities in the wilderness,
then
formed state
Governments. Not the other way around,” David said.

It was quiet, the fire crackled, then David continued.

“My Dad told me that after the Roman Empire collapsed, the barbarians sacked the city. Romans who had been living off the free welfare dole corn ration still gathered for weeks at the place where they had received the corn. They could not accept the collapse, even though they were
in
the collapsed ruins,” David said.

“They had become dependent on welfare. They had lost the ability to be self-sufficient. They thought the corn grew from where they lined up each day to get the corn dole.”

“See, they were
entitled
, ” David paused.

“We will see the same mindset in some survivors,” David said. “They are still waiting for Walmart’s to reopen and accept their EBT food stamp cards.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Mike.

“
Country folks can survive
, it was a country song by Hank Williams Jr.” David said , smiling.

“
Sweet home Alabama
,” added David.

“Were you born in Alabama?” asked Mike, who detected no accent.

“No, I was born in New York. But we lived in Alabama two years,” said David.

“You seem to have adapted to Alabama,” Mike added.

“Coach told me not to worry about being from New York,” David explained.

“True, you have to play the cards you are dealt, everyone has a past” Mike said drily.

“There are, or maybe were, fifty states. But Alabama is more than just a state, it is a state of mind,” said David.

Karen started laughing. “Alabama, a state of mind? No wonder I married you,” she said, hugging his arm.

“Karen, just think of all the top songs about Alabama,” David prodded.

“
Sweet Home Alabama
,” said David. “Somewhere, sometime, played in every NFL game.”

“
My Home’s in Alabama
,” interjected Chloe.

“By the top group,
Alabama
,” added David.

“Then ask yourself how many top songs about Connecticut, or Oregon, or any of the other forty nine states?” asked David.

“Texas,” Chloe said. “There are lots of songs about Texas.”

“Granted,” said David. “If you can’t go to Alabama , Texas is close enough.”

“We interrupt this Alabama love fest for a message from our sponsor, Get on the road!” said Mike, smiling.

“We stay on the paved road until we cross the Midnight Canyon. Hopefully we can use one of the two bridges, if not, we will have to detour,” said Mike. He shoveled dirt over the fire, as David folded up his maps.

Storm clouds darkened the sky as they sped southeast. David had never seen clouds cover the high desert sky from horizon to horizon.

Diary of Liu Nguyen

We had a showdown over drugs. Ashley, Doron and Zeke left
.

It is awkward now, Karen and David are married. Mike and Chloe are married. They are it now, besides the kids. I am the odd person out
.

I look at them laugh and talk around the campfire. They seem so happy, so comfortable, so complete with each other
.

I wonder where I will ever find a husband
.

98.

Rattlesnake Ridge, Elevation 5,964 feet, the metal sign, riddled with bullet holes, proclaimed. A two lane road hugged the mountains, twisting to the top of the ridge.

“The two story medical clinic is our objective,” David said, using the map on the hood of the truck, and pointing.

David scanned the Shell gas station signs promising Rocky Mountain High Marijuana Longs, Tastee Fried Chicken, Marlboros, Coors Light, Lotto tickets, and Red Bull.

There was another layer of businesses crammed behind the road front shops. The ridge only afforded a narrow strip of level ground. A rocky dirt road terraced down and out to another flat strip about thirty yards below. This second ridge was crammed with weathered mobile homes, satellite dishes, garbage cans, bricks of smashed aluminum cans, children’s swings, and worn trampolines.

David parked his motorcycle behind the Winston County Sheriff’s Annex and walked down the street.

“Once I am at the objective, meet me there,” David radioed. He heard the acknowledgement clicks.

There was no sign of recent human. The road was dust free, but there was a downdraft from the top of the ridge. Windswept garbage littered the road and the sidewalks, but none of the windows were smashed.

The road ended in a cul-de-sac and David saw vultures squatting outside a brick two story building.

“Urgent Care Entrance–Medical Clinic” the florescent green letters proclaimed. The double front glass doors were propped open, and two ambulances were backed up to the adjacent loading dock. Clouds of black flies swarmed around the glass doors and the open ambulances.

David saw a marked Sheriff’s car to the left of the building in a connecting alley. The doors to the police car were open, and a shotgun remained upright attached to a metal
barricade between the driver and back seat. There were bullet holes in the back door of the car, and the front passenger seat right window was shattered. A bloody handprint was splattered on the black plastic back seat.

David suddenly understood that every police officer in town had died protecting the kids in the clinic.

“At Objective,” David radioed. Everyone drove up.