Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own. (38 page)

Liu just held Sarah close. David wiped his eyes, and asked Mike, Zeke and Doron to help him set up the tents.

110.

“I know it’s morbid, but we need to search the bunker for anything we may need,” David said to Doron, Mike, and Zeke when they stepped away.

“What do you think happened?” asked Zeke.

“This was a very well planned, concealed, reinforced bunker. We had a hard time seeing it when we were looking. Notice the rebar cement reinforcement embedded with local rocks, manual ventilation, medical supplies, water supply, and even solar powered electrical system. Notice the rock surface which eliminates tracks leading here. No nearby road. And they had no gunshot wounds, no sign of a fight.”

“Best guess, they died of radiation exposure
getting
here,” David said.

“What do you mean?” asked Zeke.

“My Dad told me, over and over, that there would be a nuclear attack one day. He said there had never been a weapon invented, but not used in war. Never,” David explained.

“Then he said if I survived the blast, there is no excuse not to survive the fallout. Radiation protection is dirt cheap. Even an open foxhole gives you forty times more protection than walking around. And you can always cover a foxhole with a door, or boards, and stack sandbags or dirt filled pillowcases on top for an expedient shelter. ”

“Dad explained it so I would never forget it.”

“He took a bag of microwave popcorn and turned the microwave on, as the light came on and the glass platter slowly turned. He said walking through fallout anytime thirty minutes after a nuke explosion is like walking in that microwave oven. He said get to a shelter within thirty minutes, because the worse shelter, even just a covered foxhole, is far better than a perfect bunker a couple of hours later,” David said.

“Dad taught a class showing the flight crew how to use shovels and sledge hammers to break up the floor, and dig a
fallout shelter in their house after any attack. He explained how to use the book shelves to cover the windows. He demonstrated how to make sandbags out of the pillow cases, and make a toilet in the garage,” David remembered.

He paused for a while, then looked around, choking back the emotion. He realized he was referring to his Dad in the past tense, it was as if he really knew.

“They travelled too far, too soon, to get to this perfect bunker. They walked in dead and dying from radiation exposure,” David finished.

“That’s why we took the sewer immediately, rather than search for a couple of hours to find a better shelter,” he said.

“David, do you realized we owe our lives to your Dad? And to the fact you listened to your Dad,” Doron said.

111.

“My back and neck hurt,” Sarah said about an hour later. Liu and Karen exchanged a startled glance. Could they give Sarah pain medicine without killing her? Liu quickly gave her a dose of pain medicine, which Sarah swallowed with difficulty about ten pm.

“I feel a lot better,” Sarah said around midnight. “My neck and back don’t hurt anymore.”

Sarah’s breathing slowed, and became erratic around three am. She struggled, gasping for air, and was thirsty. Liu held her hand, and wiped her forehead as Sarah swallowed. Karen just sat quietly with Liu.

“Liu..” Sarah said, holding her hand as she gently just stopped breathing. Her eyes rolled, and her frail body went limp. No struggling, no gasping, she just seemed to slip away.

Liu did not wake anyone, she just sat next to the body weeping until dawn. Karen watched, but didn’t say anything. Liu would always remember that Karen was
there
all night, during her midnight hour. Sometimes you just need someone there, Liu thought.

At dawn, Liu wrapped Sarah’s body in her blanket. Karen wrote Sarah’s name and death in the Gideon’s Bible, and handed it to Liu. She swallowed, wiped her eyes, washed and dried her hands, then carefully signed.

Mike and Doron pulled their bandanas over their nose, removed some of the rocks from the bunker entrance, and laid Sarah in the bunker with her family.

Doron briefly described what happened on the bunker wall with spray paint. He wrote something in Hebrew on the wall, explaining that the door ornament was a Jewish Mezuzah.

Liu asked if there were any special ceremonies, but Doron shrugged and said he didn’t know, they didn’t even
know if Sarah was Jewish, or maybe someone else in the bunker. He said there was a special prayer, but he couldn’t remember it, he would try to find it later. Liu was extremely grateful Doron had noticed the Mezuzah, and spray painted Hebrew on the wall, in case she was Jewish. It was important to her.

Karen pinned one of the pink ribbons her Dad had given her onto Sarah’s blanket, took Liu’s arm, and led her from the bunker.

Liu watched as Zeke, David, and Doron silently sealed the entrance, and obscure their footprints from the bunker entrance back to the rocks with a tumble weed.

Diary of Liu Nguyen

Sarah struggled to breathe, then was still. I felt her heart stop
.

Karen stayed up with me all night. I will never forget that
.

Even Doron, who doesn’t believe in funerals, helped. Karen gave her a treasured pink ribbon her Father had given her
.

Why, God?

Why couldn’t Sarah live? All my family is dead, and now Sarah. I am hurt and bitter, and wonder why I am even alive.

I am grateful Sarah did not die alone
.

God, I praise you for that
.

112.

David sped in front and raised his hand, signaling a stop. They had been running along the timberline to hide from a terrorist convoy in the valley below. David was a much more cautious leader now, and desperately tried to
avoid
firefights, if at all possible. He saw a convoy below, the same group that had kidnapped Mike and Chloe.

Everyone was spread out in convoy separation intervals. They stopped where they were, hit the ground, and scanned below. David watched in awe as three attack helicopters launched missiles at the front trucks, and then the four wheelers, and snipers shot at the motorcycles. Then they strafed the column twice with machine guns. The explosions were deafening. David was disoriented by the concussion, and his hearing faded.

Another larger, slower, helicopter followed, with two sets of doors on each side. Soldiers fired belt fed machine guns from the back door on each side, and snipers with ear protection headphones fired from the front door.

The terrorists were firing AK 47s and RPGs , but the helicopters popped up from the mountains, wiped the terrorists out, then dropped back behind the cover of the mountains. The heavy helicopter machine guns splattered bloody carcasses all over the road, cutting bodies in half.

Another large, slow helicopter passed close enough for him to see the door gunner. He cheered when he saw the large oversize American Flag painted on the side of the helicopter door.

“We have United States helicopters attacking the trucks. Stop and do not move,” said David on the radio. Two narrow, fast, attack copters pulled close, then zoomed away at a sharp angle, up and to the right.

“Pull up to me, I have my flag out,” Doron instructed on the transceiver. Karen and Chloe pulled up, then Zeke and
David caught up. The large green helicopter circled, then hovered over the ridge, about fifty yards away. Twelve soldiers immediately jumped out, and the helicopter swirled debris as it climbed away.

“Drop your guns!” David shouted to his group, “And raise your hands.”

“United States Army,” one soldier shouted pointing his rifle at them. “Hands up! Don’t move!”

Everyone instantly complied, and the soldiers spread out.

“If you have any weapons on you, tell us,” said the leader.

“I do,” said David.“Me, too,” said Zeke.

“David?” asked the leader, who was older than the other soldiers.

“Yes,” said David.

“It’s me, Sarge. I married you and Karen,” Sarge said, lowering his rifle. “These are friendlies!”

Ramirez and Jefferson came up, smiling. Ramirez punched David lightly on the arm.

“We were hoping that was you,” Jefferson said.

“It’s just that you and Zeke are so much uglier now, we weren’t sure,” Ramirez smiled at David.

“We had a battle with terrorists at the other side of town and this group here,” said Jefferson.

“Listen up, we are out of here soonest,” said Sarge, clearly pressed for time.

“This area is under attack. They have been roaming around massacring survivors,” Sarge said.

“Where are they from?” asked David.

“Most came up through Mexico after the nuke attacks. They really like to behead people ,” Sarge said.

“We are on an op and are leaving. We can’t help you,” said Sarge hurriedly. David nodded.

“Denver is stage three hot, don’t get within seventy five miles. Paint US Flags on your vehicles, put US flags on your
hood with magnets, and carry flags on your motorcycles. If you had not stopped we would have destroyed you,” said Sarge.

“Understood,” said David.

“Try to get to Texas, Tennessee, or Montana,” Sarge said, handing him a small brochure with the interstates and states marked for refugees. “They have good water, large fallout free zones, troops, and some are even starting functioning civil governments. The New York to DC triangle, and most of the Northeast, are all stage three hot. Different US units are in repeated firefights here, and more nukes have gone off recently,” said Sarge.

Jefferson handed Sarge the transceiver, “Bloodhound Six actual,” Sarge said.

“Ready now,” Sarge replied.

“Pick up at the ridge,” Sarge said to Jefferson, who hurried off. The faint, low pitched thump of helicopter blades sounded below in the valley, and Sarge said, “Hate to shoot and run, but got to go.”

“What’s with the bars?” asked David running with Sarge.

“Well there’s good news, and bad news. Bad news is the war and nukes, good news is they promote everyone quickly,” Sarge said smiling. “I am a Captain now, I will probably be General next week,” Sarge laughed, then became somber and said.

“Don’t get captured. We have seen some horrible things. Better to die than surrender. Especially for the women,” Sarge said, running off.

“Follow me,” Jefferson motioned to Zeke and David. They ran after him to the helicopter, ducking their heads like Jefferson did.

“We have been re-supplied, so we can spare these,” Jefferson said handing Zeke six grenades, and a small military transceiver with solar recharge roll, packed into a metal ammo boxes from the helicopter.

“Don’t tell anyone,” Jefferson laughed, holding his finger to his lips, as Sarge and everyone watched.

Sarge’s unit had been a recon unit, tasked to find, and locate terrorists, then bring the choppers to destroy them. That’s why they only had eleven soldiers. David understood now, for the first time, how Sarge had risked his unit by rescuing them at the railroad yard.

The helicopter slowly lifted off, scrambling to catch the other helicopters racing along the ridge. Everyone continued to stare after the helicopter disappeared, and the low pitched thumping sound faded. David felt incredibly alone, abandoned, left behind in the silence.

He quickly wiped his eyes, and glanced around to be sure no one had seen him. Everyone seemed devastated, staring silently in the distance. He needed to do something, get them focused. No time to whine, there was plenty of time left for them to be attacked today if they did not keep their heads in the game.

“Let’s get moving,” David commanded.

113.

“Any DC-3s will be at isolated airfields, not the commercial terminals. If we can find old printed phone books, look for skydivers, they used DC-3s a lot,” Doron said.

Doron spread out the Visual Flight Rules airplane map on the hood of the pickup truck. There were four satellite airfields within seventy five miles. Doron compared how close each airfield was to major roads, which they always tried to avoid, and saw two fields had the symbol for parachute zones.

David had split them up into two trucks and three motorcycles. Doron reflexively checked the sky, there was a light wind, scattered clouds. It should be a good day to ride. They had two motorcycles scouting ahead, one truck with two shooters, followed by the kids, Chloe and Karen in the up armored truck with K-Bar in the truck bed, and a rear motorcycle. They would have to take the highway as the foothills were rugged, and there were no power lines nearby. Doron was pleased as he watched how everyone easily slipped into thunder road mode.

The sign read “Precision Parachute Training”. There were four large hangars with smashed windows, and a torn roof, but intact steel beam building frames. Small overturned Cessna small planes littered the taxiways. The windsock was shredded.

Doron noticed there were no new vehicle or human tracks, at least since the last rain. Grass was growing through the cracks in the runway. They stopped and scanned the field and the hangar.

Karen and David drove the truck next to a building and climbed from the truck roof to the second floor of what had been a three story building. David looked for wind direction and speed signs though his binoculars, as Karen set up her sniper and scoped the hangar. Mike handed Karen a couple of
sand bags from the truck to set up her sniper stand.

David pointed to the largest hangar and motioned for Zeke and Ashley to circle around the back, as he left Chloe and the kids below the sniper nest. Doron signaled David, who checked with Karen, then gave the thumbs up.

K-Bar circled the doors and did not bark.

Doron crept warily up to the large hangar doors. The heavy doors slid on a full sized railroad rail and were intact, but seemed jammed. He saw they were locked shut with steel chain. There were normal size doors on both sides. He tried the knob, and it was unlocked. He turned the knob, then stepped back, away from the doorway.

Doron hesitated to enter the cavernous darkness, but K-Bar rushed in, and still did not bark. He turned on his flashlight, and rolled it on the floor, into the darkness. They had used up the last of his soccer lights, which he had invented using a soccer ball with two elastic headlands tightly wrapped around them, with the lights on opposite sides of the ball. They were brilliantly simple, just turn the headlamps on, then kick the soccer ball into a dark room or behind your perimeter to backlight. They provided a significant distance advantage to light up a building or backlight the perimeter at night. David really appreciated Doron’s adaptation, he called them Prepper’s illumination flares.