Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own. (7 page)

Doron furiously calculated some new theorem and seemed to be using the time most productively. Ashley glanced his way with a look of disgust. Liu seemed embarrassed and humiliated to be here. Jorge just stared blankly at nothing, like a prisoner careful not to visually challenge anyone in jail.

The instructor walked around the room looking at what the students were doing. David watched her walk behind the class, and disappear.

13.

At precisely 4:11pm Pacific Standard Time- four minutes before the end of detention-David struggled to breathe as pressure seemed to squeeze the air of out of his lungs. He tried to inhale, but the air was being forced out. It felt like he had dropped a fully loaded bench press weight bar on his chest. The pressure eased slightly and he was able to suck in just enough air to choke. He strained to cough, smothering in the dust, hungrily gasping for air. Finally he was able to take a half breath.

The classroom was absolutely dark, like a cave. Sweat burned his eyes. He couldn’t see his hands in front of his face. His heart raced uncontrollably, even though he wasn’t moving. It was like it belonged to someone running sprints. He tried to move his legs, but he was trapped.

He couldn’t see anything, but he knew the ceiling had collapsed, his head was gashed by fluorescent light fixtures. But he couldn’t orient himself, there was no light at all. His head throbbed, his hair was soaked with blood.

He had no idea how to get out. He frantically tried to remember where the exit was located.

“I’m going to die. Trapped in this rubble,” he realized.

Some of the other students were screaming, some praying, and others cursing. Losing control. The utter darkness seemed to make everything much worse. David knew he was panicking. His Dad explained to him over and over that panic led to death for pilots.

“When panic comes, run the checklist,” his Dad had said.

“Your brain can’t panic and run a checklist at the same time, and you can use that to your benefit. Run a checklist and you choke off the panic,” Dad emphasized.

“Okay, so let’s run a checklist,” David said out loud. His voice was fairly calm and for some reason, made him feel
better.

“One step at a time,” he said.

He could breathe, and the dust was settling, so he slowly took several deep breaths before he tried to move. He was surprised how much better he felt. Next he
could
orient himself in total darkness.

“Just break it into small steps, Phelps,” he said.

“First find the floor, then the wall. Now get out of the desk.”

Simple steps, but he felt the panic recede, his heartbeat slow. His morbid fear of being trapped in rubble faded. It was coming back to him, he was on the second row facing the front desk. The closest wall would be to the right and lead out of the room.

He felt the wall with his foot. Raising his arms, he confirmed he could crawl on his knees without hitting his head on the collapsed ceiling.

David heard Zeke curse, then saw him turn on his cell phone he had grabbed from the front desk. Zeke held the lit display screen above his head.

David struggled to calm his voice.

“Zeke, can you toss me one of the cell phones?” David said, pleased with his calm tone.

“Are you okay?” asked Zeke.

“Fine, no sweat,” David lied.

“Toss me a ph..,” Karen yelled to Zeke.

Karen was drowned out by a loud, muffled, crash, then the sound of metal straining, groaning, collapsing under stress. Dust mushroomed from the hallway behind the instructor, illuminated by Zeke’s cell.

David thought immediately of the video he had seen in history class of the dust clouds when the Trade Center collapsed on 911. His Mom told him she had actually watched 911 live on television, back in the day. Ever since David had seen the debris from the towers, he had a lifelong fear of being trapped under rubble. He tried to remember how many building
floors were above, pancaking down on them.

Suddenly the ceiling caved in at the front of the class. Liu screamed as she was thrown to the floor and tangled in her desk. Zeke grabbed Liu’s legs and jerked her free.

“Karen, see if you can drag Jorge out,” David yelled.

The dust now billowed up and it was impossible to see anything. It stung David’s eyes. His eyes burned as they teared. It only stopped when he shut his eyes. He gasped, trying to breathe, the air looked clearer back near the steel beams. Jorge and Karen were violently coughing as David struggled to reach them.

By touch, David estimated the ceiling had collapsed around Karen and Jorge, leaving about a two foot high crawl space which could collapse at any minute. Worse, debris had fallen in a random pattern so Karen and Jorge could not reach them by crawling in a straight line.

Someone would have to go back, in the dark, and get them out, David realized.

David took another breath, and tried to calm himself. He preferred almost any death rather than being trapped in rubble, dying slowly. Going back for Karen and Jorge required him to overcome every instinct screaming for him to run away. Karen and Jorge were only about fifteen feet away, but in the debris, the dust, and the dark it might as well have been a mile.

“Zeke, I have my eyes closed, touch me with the phone. I am going to get them,” David said.

Zeke tapped David’s hand with the phone and said, “Liu’s bleeding, looks like her arm is cut.”

“Put your hand on the bleeding until we get everyone out,” David said.

“Now, I need one of you to take off your belt and hand one end to me and hold the other end, like a rope.” David said.

“I’ve got one,” Doron said.

“Thread the belt through the buckle around your ankle and hand me the other end,” David said, remembering what his Dad had told him.

Doron tried twice, as his hands were shaking.

“Okay, listen up. Karen and Jorge, we are going to get you out,” David said.

“One of you grab my belt, the other one grab their ankle. We will make a human chain,” David said. David crawled backwards with his eyes shut to Karen and Jorge so he would not lose his bearings, and would be able to crawl back to the steel beams. David had taken off his leather belt and looped the belt through the buckle around his right ankle.

“Where are you?”, David asked.

“Here,” shouted Jorge.

“Over here,” shouted Karen.

David judged from the sound that Karen was closer. The cell phone light was blocked by the debris, the dust looked like snow flurries. He checked with his right foot, touching her head.

“Karen, I am tossing you my belt tied to my ankle. Grab it, then Jorge, you grab her ankle,” David said. “We are going to make a human chain so we can get to the beams.”

David then tossed the other end of the belt to Karen, hitting her head. His athletic shoes slipped on her head, like on a wet, greasy floor. Karen grabbed his belt, and kicked Jorge.

“Got it,” Karen shouted.

Jorge then grabbed her ankle.

“Good to go,” said Karen, “Jorge has my ankle.”

The ceiling began creaking again, just as it sounded before it collapsed.

“It’s coming down David, get out!” Zeke screamed.

“We are getting you out now,” David said in the calmest voice he could project.

“You will curve left, then right,” David said calmly.

“There is a path, we just have to crawl around twice,” David said, calmer than he felt.

David began to crawl to the open space underneath the steel beams at the back of the room, making sure he could feel the taunt belt pulling his ankle as he turned left, waited, then
right.

David reached the space sheltered under the steel beams. Zeke grabbed the belt and yanked Karen and Jorge to the sheltered space in one pull.

Karen and Jorge were coughing hard and gasping for breath. Zeke shined his cell phone display light at Karen.

“Karen’s head is bleeding and it looks like Jorge has a broken leg, its twisted,” Zeke was saying when the ceiling suddenly collapsed another two feet in the front of the class, precisely where Karen and Jorge had been.

Karen and Jorge missed being entombed by about eleven seconds. As he wiped off his face, David was aggravated by Doron, who sat observing it all clinically, like this was an interesting science experiment involving rats in a maze.

Jorge spoke up, “We should expect more ceiling pancaking and secondary crush. This building is four stories above ground and we are in the basement. We are all here. We have to get out
now!
”

David said, “We need to make a rope as we probe for an exit, it’s easy to get disoriented. Thread the belts through the buckles to make a rope. Feel the walls and see if there is a fire hose. Look for anything, broken desks, steel bars, cement rebar, anything that can be used as a pick or a shovel. Dump any books out of your backpacks, and put them back on.”

“Take one of the belts and see if we can fix a cell phone on my forehead, like a coal miner’s lamp,” Zeke said to Doron.

Instead, Doron cleverly took one of the shoulder straps off his backpack and secured the cell phone on Zeke’s forehead, and cinched it tight.

“Great idea, Doron,” David said. Maybe Doron had panicked before, David thought, remembering his incapacitating terror.

“If you hear a low frequency creaking, that means load shift. Scream or jerk the rope and we will pull you out,” Jorge explained.

Zeke nodded.

“Ready to go. I can die here, or die there. At least I will be doing something,” Zeke said.

“Zeke, take your t-shirt off and make a mask over your nose and mouth like the cowboys did for the dust,” David suggested.

Zeke quickly made a mask and started crawling. David watched him crawl through the opening in the debris that was about fifteen inches high and reached another open area near a steel beam that was about five feet high. Apparently these steel beams had been placed between the new and old building and were the strongest points. The ceiling crush always radiated away from the ceiling beams.

“A door is crushed, blocking the exit to the kitchen. I am going to kick it in,” Zeke yelled.

“Is there any rubble around you that you can stack?” shouted Jorge.

“Yes,” said Zeke. “Stack it up on both sides of you in case there is some minor shift of the debris over the door,” Jorge yelled.

“OK,” Zeke said as he stacked cement slabs with twisted rebar metal rods sticking out. He kicked the door, but nothing happened. He kicked it again with both feet, hard. The remnants of the lower door splintered, and the top intact portion of the door fell onto the debris he had braced on either side. Zeke covered his head with both hands, and waited for further movement. It was still.

“I am crawling under the door, about twelve inch clearance,” Zeke shouted.

“Got it,” David shouted, feeding out his twisted football jersey he had taken out of his backpack to extend the rope.

“I am in the kitchen. There is sunlight. We can escape through the smashed windows.”

“There are four bodies! Burned!” Zeke screamed.

David realized from the sound of his voice that the bodies had freaked Zeke. He was close to panic, like David
had been. He needed a task to focus on, rather than staring at torched bodies. A checklist.

“Zeke, we are coming through. Leave the rope and tie it to something that won’t shift. You see if you can find things to stack to climb out,” David said.

“Sure,” said Zeke.

“Zeke, great job,” David said.

“Zeke found an escape route,” David said loudly so Zeke could hear him getting the credit.

“We go through one at a time,” David explained.

“The Instructor has not moved or said anything,” Ashley said.

“I will pull her out last, if she is still in shock,” David explained.

“Let’s go, Karen, Liu, Doron, Ashley, Jorge, then me and the Instructor,” David commanded.

“Karen,” David whispered near her ear. “Check Zeke for shock. If his head is messed up, give him a useful simple task to do until I get there. I will need you to help bandage Liu when she gets through, and look for a splint for Jorge’s leg,” David explained.

“Understood,” Karen said.

Then David grabbed Karen’s arm, “If there is more pancake shifting do not come back to get us. Get outside, and away from anything that can fall on you. Look for a sewer or water manhole cover with no buildings or other debris above your head. Pry open the hatch and get in, there may be more explosions or fallout,” David explained.

“What makes you think this is not just an earthquake?” Karen asked, also whispering.

“It’s just a hunch, but the over pressure and the burned bodies in the kitchen fit the profile of a nuke,” David replied.

“We will know if we see fallout, it looks like dirty snowflakes. And if it’s a nuke, there will be no rescue. We will be on our own for at least two weeks,” David said.

David rinsed his eyes off with one of the water bottles
in their backpacks, and checked Karen’s head with the cell phone light. Her hair was matted with dried blood, but the cut had clotted and was not bleeding.

“I am claustrophobic,” Karen said nervously.

“Just shut your eyes and follow the rope. You will be fine,” David said calmly, deciding not to mention he was also claustrophobic .

David watched Karen crawl out into the tunnel, turning, with a thumbs up. He could see her enlarge the door space when she went through with a bent piece or metal rebar.

Jorge followed, screaming in agony when the debris Zeke had stacked hit his compound leg fracture. David had to call for help to pull the instructor through with the rope tied around her armpits.

It wasn’t pretty but they had all made it to the kitchen windows, David thought.

14.

“Good job, Zeke,” Karen said.

Zeke didn’t respond, he just stared at the bodies.

“How are the others coming?” Karen asked, to divert his attention. When he went back to the hole, she immediately tried to roll the smoldering bodies out of the way with her boot, but to her horror the arms broke off.

“No!” she screamed, involuntarily.

Zeke didn’t seem to notice. She quickly regained her composure, and just put shelves over the heads of the bodies. She already noticed bodies didn’t seem so human if the faces were covered.