Starts end of Day +17

Angus, Vern, Gage, Ramsey, Lt. Grader, PFC Hulbert, Spec. Grimm, PFC Lopez, Pvt. Weathers
 

As darkness closed in on the flooded camp, the two privates checked out the building and verified Clyde had been truthful. The hard part turned out to be getting the youngster with the injured leg, Casper, over to the Fox. The boy couldn’t put any weight on his leg so he had to be passed over by hand with Hulbert keeping one foot on the building and the other on the Fox, taking the boy from Weathers, and handing him to Grimm.

Once he was certain the young teen was in a good and secure spot, Lieutenant Grader let the three men on the building to pull out what they wanted. He maneuvered around to rescue six more boys and one adult from the locations Clyde pointed out. A few questions to those he got to, allowed him to fully verify the three men had indeed rescued several others. Satisfied, he took the Fox back to the camp store.

Grader watched over Angus, Hulbert and Weathers as they pulled the last three survivors of the camp back up to the top of the Fox with belongings they wanted from inside. He then had Weathers go back into the building with Hulbert to grab anything useful that was not nailed down.

Grader looked over as the two young men brought up everything edible left inside the camp store. Hulbert in particular looked pretty happy when he hefted three full cases of corned beef hash up to Angus, “El Tee, there is like ten more cases of this in here!”

Sherman pointed to a third building just to the north, “If you want to clean out the food, there is way more in there.”

The boy with the injured leg dropped his head down onto the top of the Fox, “Oh, just let me let me starve!”

Sherman snickered even as Clyde moved toward the boy. “Pretty sure all the kids had their fill, and if those asses from Topeka would have let us get over to the other building without shooting at us, we could have provided everyone left with enough for weeks, if not months.”

“So there is some more of this over there?” Hulbert asked with keen interest.

“Not just some,” Casper complained, “tons.”

Seeing most of those from the National Guard, along with Angus and Vernon, look over, Sherman nodded. “About three weeks ago we got a call from a company that had a manufacturing error. It seems one of their canning facilities fouled up and they did a whole run of pull top corned beef hash, and even shipped some, before they realized it. The pull tops didn’t pull off and the rim was not right for a can opener. They recalled what they already sent out, but as companies tend to do, tried to find a tax write-off. They offered it up to youth camps throughout the country.

“Me, in my not so infinite wisdom, heard about this and called them. I told them to send me as much as they wanted… A few days later semi rolled up and dropped off twenty-six pallets of hash. I was working on finding homeless shelters and food banks to come up after we got done with the kids to pick up what we would have left, but in the meantime we stuck most of it, like twenty-three pallets of it, in the old storage shed. We cooked some up for every breakfast and offered cans for free to campers, but it didn’t do more than scratch the surface. So yeah, we were up to our armpits in corned beef hash.”

“What about water damage?” Weathers wondered as he handed more boxes of hash up to Angus.

“Probably still good, as long as the cans are sealed,” Clyde stated.

“Even if they aren’t, the bottom pallets are underwater, but I had to stack ’em three high to make ’em fit. So the top one and a half to two are still going to be above water.”

“Sounds like we got a long day in front of us, people.” Grader stated.

Casper groaned, “That’s pretty much all I’ve been eating for days!”

Clyde knelt next to Casper, “Hey, now, it’s not the only thing, and just think of all those kids stuck out there on trees who would have given anything to have a can or two.”

Casper sighed, “Yeah, I’m acting kind’a of spoiled and babyish, huh.”

“You got a bullet in your leg trying to help take back the dining hall, kiddo. There’s nothing but a brave, tough lad next to me.”

Grader paused to look down at the boy who reached up and gave Clyde a tight hug. This brought a smile to the lieutenant’s face for the first time in several hours. As he looked, he noticed the lad had a fresh and clean bandage wrapped around his thigh with only a trace of blood on the outer side, but was otherwise in really good shape. The appearance combined with the clear attachment Casper had to Clyde, told Lt. Grader he was certain he was dealing with some real good men.

Without any further hesitation, Grader offered all three men their firearms back. Seeing the boy reach for the bow Clyde had set down next to him, Grader slid over and directly handed it to him as he knelt. “We aren’t taking anything from you. The bow is yours, as is your pack, quiver of arrows, and whatever else you want out of what my men are hauling over here. Now relax, you’re safe.” He glanced down at the injured leg, “Is the bullet still in there?”

“Yeah…” the youngster stated while covering the bandage with his hand as if concerned Grader was going to poke at it. “Mr. Hooker tried to get it out twice, but it’s in the bone or something… Please don’t touch…”

Jackson Hooker spoke up, “I tried to dig it out, but it hurt too much and we didn’t have anything to knock him out with. I totally flooded it with rubbing alcohol after my second try and it’s been flushed out a couple of times a day with hydrogen peroxide since then. I’ve also squeezed it each time to make sure there is no infection, then rebandaged it with antibiotic cream, since basic first-aid supplies are one of the few things we had in abundance.

“Looking back, if I had left it alone, it probably would have completely healed over by now. As for the bullet, I’m not sure if it’s in the bone or kind of tumbled after hitting the bone, but it’s in there good and I haven’t even seen it. If there is a good side to it, the camp only used copper polymer bullets with no lead. Since I gave up trying to get to it, it’s healing with no sign of infection, so I’m inclined to say leave it be.”

“Or cut my leg off,” the boy only half-joked. “Cause you ain’t sticking my leg in a bath of alcohol after cutting into it ever again!”

Grader squeezed the boy’s shoulder and snickered, “Leg removal might be the lesser of the two evils. I’m pretty sure I would have cried like a two-year-old! But don’t worry. We have a good doc back in Hill City who will take a look.”

He turned his attention back to Jackson. “Until then, as long as there is no infection, and since he is kind of your boy at this point, I’ll stick with your recommendation.”

Grader turned his attention back to the man who was clearly in charge of the small group, “So, Clyde who is with the groups of kids you dropped off?”

“The first set has a fairly young assistant master with them. He spent two years in Afghanistan and lost part of a hand to an IED. Becoming a mentor to kids was recommended as part of his mental therapy. Good guy, but damned near still a kid himself.”

Jackson agreed, “Not even old enough to legally drink, but the kids really look up to him and he seems to have a knack for keeping them in line.”

Clyde snorted, “He’s a bit hard on them, and he expects too much, but he does seem to grow on the kids who are around him.”

“Sounds a lot like Mr. Korbal,” Gage jumped in with a slight smile.

“Exactly like Mr. Korbal,” Vernon agreed with a wide grin.

Clyde smiled warmly at the boys, “Don’t know who that is, but I can see and hear you respect the hell out of the guy, so glad you got to know him. Anyhow, the other two groups are being led by a couple of older kids who seemed to be decent leaders and from what we could tell were pretty much universally looked up to by the others with them. The first group has a .22 and a bow. The last two both have two bows. It’s the best we could do after we failed to take the dining hall from those rich-ass Topeka fu…” He stopped looked over at the boys and cringed, “um, thugs.”

Angus snickered, “No need to hold back cause of us Mr. Booker.”

All three men managed to grin, however Clyde shook his head, “Need to keep things civil, at least until I find that prison guard dick-weed, Claude. Then all bets are off. Glad to see you all popped him with a couple of rounds, but honestly… I would’ve been happier if he hadn’t ever got back up.”

“It was tempting to shoot all of them,” Angus admitted. He then looked down at the bow, “Where’d those come from? Last year we only had those stupid-like 35 pound draw cheap bows.”

“New this year,” Sherman stated. “We got lots of feedback over the past few years about kids wanting to learn how to shoot compound bows, so I spent part of the last couple of winters begging sporting goods stores for them. I got lucky and a large chain that wanted some good PR flew me to New York to take photos of me with a bunch of New York scouts, in return they shipped me six of those along with 144 real arrows, each with a three variety set of screw-on tips and a butt-load of pretty nice practice arrows.”

“Quite the opportunist,” Grader chuckled. “Free food, free bows…”

“About a quarter of the stuff the kids had for this camp was donated. It’s probably the biggest, if not the only reason, they kept me on as the only full time employee.”

Clyde snickered as he secured his pistol in a shoulder holster and his former wife’s sidearm in a hip holster. “That and there is nothing you can’t repair, even if it means forging it from scratch.”

“Beating on metal is a great way to relive anger and frustration.”

“You just do it so you have something to hit other than us,” Casper teased.

“And there’s that!” Sherman laughed, while sticking out his tongue at the boy.

Clyde smiled at the back and forth before turning serious, “So Lieutenant, now what?”

“Well, we’re going to get as much of the hash as we can, probably in multiple trips. You’re free to go, but I’d kind of like to find out where the kids you dropped off to the south went.”

Clyde started to answer, but paused to pull out a cigarette and light it, savoring the flavor. He shot the boys a smirk, “What? You going to tell on me for smoking at the camp?”

Angus busted up laughing, while both Vernon and Gage giggled.

“Didn’t think so!” The man chuckled. “Besides, been waiting for days for a good outdoor smoke where no one would see the cherry or smoke and shoot at me! Anyhow, I recommended they all head southwest to Stockton. Jackson, here, suggested going almost straight south. If they went that way they’d be in, or headed to, Woodston. While Woodston’s closer, the north end of Stockton is on higher ground and it’s a bigger town, so my thinking was there’s a better chance of finding help or at least shelter.”

“So why not go with them?”

At this point Jackson spoke up, “Cause, we made sure them bastards from Topeka could see us. This kept them from doing them boys we got out of here any more harm. Them stealing all the food and stranding so many out in the trees and crap was about as coldblooded a thing as I’ve ever seen. By making sure they saw movement over here and keeping all five canoes tied up where they could be seen during the day gave them boys we got to shore some breathing room. I just hope they made the most of it.” He paused and looked over at Clyde, “I guess it’s our turn now.”

Vernon looked over and down at Casper then over to Clyde, “Why don’t you just come back with us?”

Grader glanced over, “I’m thinking the same thing.” He then returned his focus to Clyde, “You all got some skills Hill City could use and I’d sure like to have a real doc look at Casper, but it’s up to you. Are interested in heading to Hill City with us?”

Seeing the others nod, Clyde shrugged, “Sounds like Hill City would be a safer place than wandering the countryside. I’d also like to get Casper really checked out. But it’d be nice to get to them boys we dropped off, so we can see if they are OK.”

“We all need a rest. We’ll move a little south into the higher hills and set up a camp tonight. In the morning, I’ll send the Deuce and a Half with the injured, sick, and supplies back to Hill City along with the Stryker for cover. We can use this to check out both Stockton and Woodston, but we may have to scrounge some fuel along the way.”

“All I’m asking.”

It was well after midnight before solid flat ground was found for the National Guard soldiers to put up a pair of GP medium tents on a hill south of the flooded camp. As most of the lightly or uninjured kids got situated in one of the 512 square foot enclosures, Lieutenant Grader and Clyde decided to give all the kids, and even adults, a full day and night of rest and recovery before heading out. Since many of the kids were still awake and talking out the horrors of the last several days, they further realized it would be quite a while before many got to sleep, so an extra day would do all of them some good. In addition, the added time would allow the Fox to finish getting the stockpile of corned beef hash, then head down into Kirwin to scrounge extra supplies and hopefully siphon off some gasoline from abandoned vehicles.

While all this was being discussed, Angus moved up to Clyde, “Um, sir?”

Clyde looked over, “Question, son?”

“Yeah… I’m sorry to interrupt, but, um, we’ve asked around, but, um, no one has been able to tell us anything.”

Clyde gave Angus his undivided attention, “From what I hear, you and your friends are a huge reason so many kids were saved today. If anyone deserves a seat at the planning table it’s you all. This also means you aren’t interrupting nothing. What can I do for you?”

Seeing Angus start to tear up, Hulbert spoke up from behind him. “They’ve been asking just about everyone about one of the kids who used to be in their troop. It sound like he was up here for opening week and was a real close friend of Angus here.”

At this point Vernon spoke softly, “You don’t happen to know a kid by the name of Spenser Antioch, do you?”

Jackson looked over from where he was seated on a cot next to Casper, “I met a Spenser, but didn’t get his last name. Long dirty blond hair, dark blue eyes, and had an Osprey Atmos backpack.”

“That’s him!” both Angus and Vernon responded as one.

“The backpack is what really caused me to take notice. When I asked him about it he was only too happy to show it to me. He’s a real nice kid. Had the world not blown up, my first Amazon order upon getting home was going to be to get me one. Nicest pack I’ve ever seen.”

“He saved up every penny for it,” Angus responded. “Several of us wanted to get one after we saw it, but Dad said if I wanted a two hundred dollar plus pack at my age I better find a way to earn some extra cash. Do you know what happened to him?”

Casper, who seemed set on sticking real close to Clyde and Jackson spoke up at this point. “I was basically with him and a bunch of others when the water hit. He was in the camp next to ours. After the bombs fell and lots of kids and leaders left, we combined into one. There was seven of us and one adult, Mr. Stokes, when the flood came. Since we kept getting corn beef hash with just about every meal, a bunch of us from a couple of campsites went out to Crappie Point to fish hoping to catch something. Mr. Stokes, our only scoutmaster to stay with those of us who didn’t leave, wanted to see what we caught and cleaned before we cooked and ate it, but we never got a bite.

“We were making our way back to camp. Spenser split off with three others saying they were going to go to the dining hall, while me, Hobbie and Teller decided to skip dinner and head to our camp. We had some snacks left and were going to munch on them while we dug for worms to fish with since the canned corn wasn’t working. I don’t know where Mr. Stokes went. He wasn’t with us and I didn’t see him with the other group after we left the lake.

“We all heard the water, but didn’t know what it was. I looked over to the group Spenser was with. They were all running toward the closest hill and tree windbreak to see what it was. The next thing I knew, a huge wave of water came in hard. They were all shouting at us, and a couple of others who were fishing with us, to swim for them while they ripped tree branches and stuck them out in the water, but I didn’t see them after the water hit me. The next thing I knew I was pulled into the camp store. I kind of woke up to Mr. Hooker pushing on my stomach to make me puke up water.”

“He wasn’t on any windbreaks or trees to the west,” Ramsey stated. “We checked them all.”

Angus lowered his head, “And no one said anything about seeing or being with him, so whoever else was on the hill with him weren’t rescued.” Angus let out a half sob, “He asked if I wanted to join his troop for the first week. He really wanted me to be his tent mate. If I had…”

Hulbert put his hands on Angus’ shoulders, “If you had, you might be dead and lots of people you have helped over the last couple of weeks may have died. You can’t blame yourself. Besides, at least he and some with him survived the first wave and were on high ground.” He looked down, “Hey, Casper, do you know if they had packs with them?”

“We all did. Mr. Stokes was kind of worried about stuff getting stolen after Teller came back from dinner a couple of days before the flood and his hatchet and compass were missing. Mr. Stokes made all of us empty our packs, but pretty much what we all expected, it wasn’t one of us. I bet it was those Topeka jerks…”

Grader let out a breath, “The more I hear, the less happy I am with myself for letting them go, especially with firearms. But Angus, look on the bright side. We didn’t find your friend and he had his pack. Even better, the tops of the windbreaks to the west are all still above the water line, so they must have found a way off.”

“I’d be lots happier if we found him,” Angus managed to state without breaking down. He kicked at the ground, “I was really hoping…”

Hulbert wrapped his arms around Angus, “We can tell. Don’t give up hope. If he went anywhere, it would have been south and the lieutenant said we were going to check out both Stockton and Woodston. If he ended up anywhere, those two places are the best bet to look.”

“He’s right Angus,” Casper stated. “Mr. Stokes talked to all of us about trying to walk out of here to Stockton a couple of times, but until the water hit we really thought the camp was a safe place to hole up until we got a radio signal or even a phone message.”

“What were you using for power?” Ramsey asked.

Casper pointed to his pack, “Lower left pocket.”

Vernon dug into the zippered side pouch and pulled out a solar recharger with a cord for a phone and an MP3 player. “Oh, nice!”

Up to this point Westbrook had stayed silent, well away from the other rescued kids. However, after seeing Vernon’s reaction to the solar charger, he dug in his own pack, walked over and pushed a duplicate one into Vernon’s hand. “Here.”

Vernon looked at the charger and shook his head, “I can’t take this from you…”

“You’re not. I am giving it to you. The camp store had a bunch of them but they sold out on the first day we got here. I bet everyone in my troop bought one and a few bought two. It works, but it takes a long time to charge with the sunlight we’ve been getting. I think the solar is more for emergencies, since it has a battery that can be charged from a plug too.”

Vernon once again shook his head, “Brook, I can’t take this.”

One of the kids rescued from a tree, spoke up, “You should take everything he has, just like he did us!”

Angus’ eyes narrowed as he pulled away from Hulbert, straightened up and glared at the older boy who spoke, “Something tells me Brook, here, didn’t take anything from anyone. If I’m wrong speak up now.”

“Doesn’t matter what I did, Angus,” Westbrook spoke with sadness. “My troop did horrible things and fellow scouts died because of it and others were badly hurt. They have every right to be mad at me.”

“No they don’t!” Gifford shouted. “Without you…” He stopped, took a breath, and spoke with his head down, “Without you it would have been a lot worse for me.”

“And me, Sebastian and Tommy,” the boy who Gage shot the adult away from spoke up, “look guys! Come on, look at me.”

Darren took a deep breath, “I can’t believe you are going to speak up for this creep, Alistair, but since you are, I’ll at least listen.”

Another boy who had been pulled out of a tree by Angus also spoke up, “OK, I’m with Darren. But only because I know what you do back in Kansas City, Alistair, and saw some of it with my own eyes.”

Once Alistair had most looking at him including Lt. Grader and several others from the National Guard, who were more than a little intrigued by the respect the youngster seemed to garner, the boy continued. “Many of you know me, and a few know me pretty well. Ross, you and Darren even came up to Kansas City and stayed with me for a few days to help me set up an indoor camping experience for some of the long term care kids at the Children’s Hospital. You got to know I wouldn’t stick up for a bad person!”

Ross shot Westbrook a bewildered look then turned, “OK, Alistair, if you are really going to stick up for him like this, there has to be a good reason, but there are two others with him. What about them?”

Alistair moved over to Dougie, “Come on, before everything went bad most of you learned enough to know he wouldn’t hurt no one! We all had instructions to keep an eye out for Dougie in case he got confused and got lost. He just wants to help and have friends.”

At this point a few others nodded in reluctant agreement, so Alistair moved over and put his arm over the shoulder of the last boy from the Topeka troop. “Guys, this is Stewart. I got to know him over the past several days. He was put into scouts and sent to camp by his mom. She thought it would help him meet new kids and do something different after his firefighter dad was killed only a month or so ago. What happened to any of us has nothing to do with Stewart.

“While I hated what was going on in the dining hall, I can tell you Stewart liked it even less. He isn’t even a part of the Topeka troop, not really. He was in scouts exactly nine days before he came to camp. He’s never been away from home before this, other than to spend the night at friend’s house and is homesick and scared. He had it every bit as bad as I did, maybe worse, cause a few off those jerks thought it was fun to get him to cry by talking about their dads and stuff.”

Sebastian finally spoke up, “I’ll probably never really like Brook, but I’ll never dislike him. He is just about everything I’m not, like strong, tough, good at sports, amazing at capture the flag, and unless he likes horror movies we’ve pretty much got nothing to find common ground on. But I’m telling you all, everything you’re hearing and a lot you’re not is true. Only one person tried to do anything to help us, and it was Brook. A couple of times he took the brunt of some awful things in an attempt to take some pressure off us. The one time you all got cans of beans, it was because Brook convinced the adults to give them away since no one really liked them. He didn’t know they were going to steal stuff from you, either, and he was real mad when it happened.”

Gifford moved up to Brook, “If you had anything took from you when the beans were handed out, look in the green duffle bags the Army guys pulled out of the back of the dining hall. You will find most of what they stole, because Brook risked getting caught to take everything not directly put into others’ packs and stash it all in those duffle bags in the middle of the night while most were sleeping. He then moved them while we were getting smoked out, so no one knew where they were. The only reason I know, is I kept getting pulled down by others and saw Brook move the bags before he got out. Brook also pulled me and Tommy up after he got out, and took lots of tear gas doing so.”

Alistair walked over to the Stryker and came back with one of the bags. Since he was struggling to carry it, Hulbert moved out in the rain to grab it for him.

Once inside the large tent, Alistair opened it up and tossed it all out for everyone to see. Several items with the names of kids inside the tent spilled into view. “See, there is a good chance if you are missing something it is here or in the other bag. The only reason any of this is here and not on canoes with the others from Topeka, is Brook. No matter what any of you think, what happened here was not Brook’s fault.”

Alistair started to say something else but paused as he felt the ground move under him. It didn’t last long, but was enough to cause a questioning frown to cross his face.

“Probably another tremor,” Lt. Grader stated in a calming voice. “At least this one was small.”

At this Alistair shrugged, “Was hoping we were done with those, but anyway, what I’m really trying to say is we all saw and heard Brook. He tried hard to convince the adults in his troop to change their minds about leaving you all stranded. He even offered to go get you all by himself and take you to shore. He also did other stuff to help me, Gifford, Sebastian and Tommy after they took us, including making sure we all got enough food and made sure we were allowed to get dry and sleep. Last but far from least, he convinced the adults not to kill Mr. Newton after many of you tried to take back the dining hall. Mr. Newton was shot, and they were going to toss him into the water with the rest of the dead, including two of their own, but Brook put him in a canoe and pushed it off with a few cans of food, a first-aid kit, and some camping gear.”

Brook looked down, “I wanted to help him, but no one would let me… he was just trying to get food… and Mr. Hague made sure anyone trying to get to the supply shed with the corned beef got shot at. I think he wanted you all to die and take everything you all had or something…”

“But you convinced them to give him a chance,” Alistair responded. “They were going to toss him off the edge. If they had, he would have drowned for sure…”

Alistair paused again, as the ground under him heaved with enough to force bounce things up across the tent, while to keep from falling, he had to go down to a knee. All around the tent others did the same and the whole tent swayed as the wooden poles bent and several stakes pulled loose.

Lieutenant Grader also went down to one knee, but he glanced at his watch as he did so. The time showed 0157 and changed to 0158 before the sudden movement stopped.

A few seconds of movement gave way to total silence as everyone looked at each other.

Gage’s voice broke the uneasy quiet as he called out from just outside the tent, “That about knocked me off the top of the Fox and me and Private Lopez can see pretty big waves in the flood area with the spotlight!”

“All three vehicles rocked real hard and was enough to knock over the tree just down the hill!” Specialist Grimm responded as she moved quickly with Weathers to put stakes back in the ground.

Grader moved out into the rain with Hulbert and Clyde. All three scanned the skyline, but there was no sign of a bright light or anything else. The only light was the spotlight directed down to the flood area in hopes of attracting the attention of any scouts they may have missed.

Grader let out a giant breath before glancing around, “OK people, no sign of a nuclear explosion, which was my first thought as hard and sudden as the movement was. Still let’s make sure. Grimm, break out the Geiger counter and keep an eye open for any spikes in radiation. I want updated readings every ten minutes. Lopez, jump into the Stryker and get Master Sergeant Keating on the horn. See if they felt what we did! Everyone else, check the tent wires and supplies. We don’t want anything falling down on any of the kids!”

SSgt. Carla Fox, Zeki, Devin

With a storm still raging over Ellis Kansas, Staff Sergeant Carla Fox carried Devin across the muddy graveyard, doing her best to angle uphill. By the time she got to the edge of the graveyard the last vestiges of daylight were gone and she was physically exhausted. Making matters worse, her hand where she had popped her dislocated fingers back in, was really starting to throb. A glance back over her shoulder told her Zeki was doing his best to be a real trooper, but the boy was too small to be carrying two very full packs and the extra mud he was picking up was taking a serious toll on him.

A new flash of lighting actually helped because it illuminated the area enough for her to make out several structures. There were many identical looking ones to the north, and a long one with lots of windows to the northwest, but that would put her closer to the flooded area of Ellis and she wanted to stay as far away from the flood waters as possible. The other option for quick shelter was to the south. Half a dozen single story buildings were in a line around what appeared to be a parking lot. Further up was a two story building, but even though it was only another thousand yards or so further, she really doubted she had it in her to make it. Her other concern was, if she faltered, there was little to no chance she had the strength to get Devin back over her shoulders and even if she did, a fall would certainly open up the wound in his leg and make a grave situation even worse.

She moved up to the parking lot, wobbling. By this point she knew if she even took a knee, it was probable she wouldn’t be able to stand with Devin over her shoulder, so she glanced back to Zeki, “We’ll go to the first of those buildings for shelter and to catch our breath.”

Zeki struggled to move up to her side, breathing hard, “You say us not stay on edge of town.”

“And we won’t be, but we both need a break and Devin needs to get washed off. For that matter, so do I!”

Carla angled on to a concrete parking area, stomped her feet to get some of the mud off, which lighted her load considerably, and repositioned Devin over her shoulder. She then moved up to the first door she saw. It looked like a storage building, partially because the door was older and the small center window had a thick metal screen over it. She looked in as best she could to nothing but darkness, but at this point she didn’t care. If anything, a storage building was a great deal less likely to have someone inside than a house, so in some ways it made a hard entry safer.

However, she couldn’t assume anything at this point and she knew it. To this end, she looked back as Zeki kicked copious amounts of mud off his own boots. “Kiddo, put both packs against the building and get your shotgun ready. If someone is in there, you will need to take care of them.”

Zeki didn’t like what he was hearing and it showed by both voice and facial expression, “Kill them?”

“Only if needed, Zeek. Just make sure whoever is in there can’t get a clean shot at you. If anyone is going to get shot, it will be me. But if you see any kind of movement or someone raises anything other than their hands, then you’ll just have to shoot. I’m sorry to put you in this situation, but it’s us or them.” She pointed, “Stay back and off to the left, over there, and kneel behind the wood parking post. When I kick the door open, I’ll spin to the right to get out of the line of fire. If someone shoots, I need you to shoot back right at the flash.”

Zeki put the packs right up next to the building, pulled up his shotgun and gave a sad and scared nod. He moved to the post and used it to brace the small 410. “Mr. Kobal teach us to shoot at gun flash. Me know what to do.”

Carla spoke calmly to Zeki as she repositioned Devin on her shoulder so she had better balance. “I’m glad to hear you know what to do, but this is where practice meets real life, so I need you ready and focused. Take a breath and steady yourself. Chances are good the building is empty and I know you don’t want to have to shoot, but you have to be ready to do so.”

Once she was pretty sure Zeki was ready, she then reared back her right foot and kicked at the door with everything she had left in her. The wooden edge cracked badly, but the door didn’t open.

“Damn-it!” She snarled as she winced, knowing if she hadn’t been so tired the door would have blown open. “Ok, Zeek, if there is anyone inside, they know we’re here, so get ready.” She moved Devin up higher on her shoulders, and gave it a second kick. This time the door flung open hard enough to shatter the glass behind the metal mesh screen. True to her word, she spun to get out of the way and waited a few seconds. The only sounds came from the rain and thunder. After a few more seconds she called out, “This is Sergeant Fox of the Kansas National Guard with two injured boys! We just need some shelter. Is anyone in there?”

Nothing moved and lightning from overhead gave enough illumination for her to see it was a shop of some sort. However, something really caught her attention in the momentary light. “Zeek, grab the packs and get in here. Once you do, grab us a small flashlight!”

Zeki appeared less than a minute later struggling to get both packs up high enough to where he wasn’t dragging them. “Light be bad at night. Bad people see it!”

“A risk we’ll have to take buddy,” Carla commanded. “Close the door and I’ll put my back to it with Devin so very little gets out. But we need to see what’s in here.”

Zeki shrugged and pulled out an LED penlight. As soon as the beam panned over the inside of the building it was clear they were in a maintenance shed of some kind. What really caught Zeki’s attention was also the same thing Carla hoped she had seen in the brief flash of lightning. Three golf carts were parked in a line and two others were toward the far back and were half torn apart.

“Zeek, get low and keep the light on the carts for me!” She demanded even as she moved up to the first one. Seeing the key in it, she went down to a knee and with a great deal of effort put Devin into the back. She then slid behind the steering wheel and turned the key.

LED indicator lights showed the battery level was just barely into the green, but still had a decent charge. She leaned forward and let out a giant sigh of relief. “Zeek, get yours and Devin’s packs into the back of this.”

“We take golf car?”

“Once we take a break, yes. It’s too dirty in here to put Devin on any of these tables even if we took everything off of them and there is grease, oil and God only knows what else on the floor. This is not a place we want to sleep in. While I go out and use the rain to shower off, I want you to cover the window so no one will see light, then look around and see if there is any dark colored paint in here. If there is, start slapping it on. While we’ll take it one way or the other, if we can make it a dark color, even for a little while, we won’t stick out as much.”

“Then what?”

“Then we take it deeper into town and find a place to base out of.” Carla dropped her pack, pulled out some clean clothing, a bar of soap and her rifle. “I’ll be right back.”

“No go alone!”

She looked over at Zeki, “Hey if you want to keep watch while I shower, fine. But I expect you to keep your eyes looking out for danger most of the time, and not on me.”

Zeki blushed bright red, “Me no look!”

Carla snickered, “You’re a boy; sure you will.”

Zeki covered his face in an attempt to hide his embarrassment, but at the same time he didn’t argue further.

This only got another laugh out of Carla, who showed no bashfulness about stripping down, stepping out into the rain, and washing from head to toe. She came back in, shook off and quickly redressed in clean clothing even though she was still very wet. Feeling a little better and much more awake after taking a shower in a cold heavy rain, she moved over to the other carts. The middle one showed power levels to be in the yellow, but the final one had a power bar well into the green.

She thought about swapping carts, but quickly decided she really didn’t want to have to move Devin again unless she had to. In addition, Zeki managed to scourge up a half gallon of dark blue paint and wasted no time in coating the front of first cart in it. She took a long drink of her canteen before she looked over the two carts someone had been working on. She found the battery compartment, and used the tools on the bench to pull the battery out of cart with the fullest charge. She lugged it over and set it down on the back seat next to Devin. She then loaded a portable generator, a can of gas, and a battery recharger into the far back next to the three packs. She had to juggle a few things around, but the cart was set for four people and four golf bags, so with some finagling, she made it all fit.

Once satisfied, she grabbed a paintbrush and got to work on the back while Zeki coated the sides in an over-liberal application of ‘federal blue’ colored outdoor paint.

She took a few minutes to cover the packs in the back with a plastic sheet she found under the work bench and pointed out to Zeki how they did not want to get paint on any of the firearms, Devin or even themselves. This slowed Zeki down some, but the boy was dead set on over application in an attempt to hide as much white as possible.

By the time the vast majority of the cart was ‘federal blue’ so were several spots in Devin’s hair, Zeek’s painting hand, and one large blotch on the still unconscious boy’s right hand and arm that had moved and rubbed down the wet paint, but other than those few spots and some clear brush marks, it would do.

Carla broke out a couple of MREs so both her and Zeki could rest, get some nourishment, and at the same time let the paint set some. Once they had eaten, Carla took almost an hour to take a few buckets, fill them with rain water coming out of a gutter, and used it to wash down Devin from head to toe with soap and water, then rinse him down to get as much of the filth of the flood water off of him as possible. In her way of thinking, with all the rain, the water coming off the roof and down the gutter was probably pretty clean and had to be way cleaner than what she had walked through.

She then used the rest of her first canteen up to dribble some water into Devin’s mouth to keep him hydrated.

Since the paint was still tacky, she covered the front seats and sides where they would come into contact with the cart with more plastic, opened the garage door and had Zeki ready his shotgun. She pulled out, noting the rain had let up considerably, but a hard mist was still falling and lightning still flashed angrily across the sky. She thought about just pulling away, but just couldn’t bring herself to leave the building wide open, so she hopped back out, put a heavy tool box inside the door she had kicked open to keep it closed, and pulled the garage door down.

She pulled around into the parking lot. As she did so, she felt the front of the cart shimmy, which made her grab the wheel with both hands. For a moment she thought there might be something wrong with the cart, but as it moved forward it returned to normal.

Both Zeki and Carla frowned at the odd movement, but Carla quickly dismissed it as having possibly hit a deep puddle or bad spot in the parking lot. She panned her assault rifle around, saw nothing and turned south onto Spruce Street. She glanced down the first turnoff to the west, but a quick look with a penlight showed it to be a very muddy alley with puddles. With a shake of her head, she continued south. Just as she got to the next turn, the whole cart shook violently and was even lifted up some. At the same time the power polls directly to the east tilted dangerously in their direction and the brick house on the corner started to come apart as the outer wall crumbled inward and the roof partially collapsed. The sounds of other structures breaking apart could be heard coming from the town as well. At the same time, loud clangs could be heard coming from several areas, including directly to the right and left by them.

“Earth shake!” Zeki screeched out as he grabbed at his seat and started quaking uncontrollably in fear.

Carla had no choice but to turn onto 14th Street and push down on the accelerator as hard as she could to get away from the line of teetering utility poles, of which at least three fell in rapid succession. While it was only a golf cart, it made the corner and got them clear with room to spare. However, the street sign telling her she was at the corner of Spruce and 14th, narrowly missed the cart as it fell into the street.

Even as she continued forward as fast as the cart could go, she noticed the road was suddenly rougher than it had been. This forced her to steer with both hands. If there was any upside, the rolling of the ground only lasted at most a couple of seconds, but it was enough to make her feel like her heart was up in her throat.

As soon as she was certain they were out of imminent danger, she pulled over behind a Chevy Equinox which up to a few seconds prior had the hood up, but the movement caused it to slam down. She quickly reached over and pulled Zeki into her side. Much like those at the scout camp, her eyes panned the skyline looking for any sign of a nuclear explosion, but found only darkness speared by flashes of lightning. With a huge sigh of relief, she kissed Zeki’s head and clutched him tightly. “Relax, buddy, we’re fine…”

Zeki looked at her with terror in his face, but her firm arm around him seemed to help a great deal. The fact the phenomenon didn’t last very long was also a big plus. With tears rolling down his cheeks, his head and eyes started to dart around, but as he continued to calm his brain took over. “Fine? No not fine!” He gulped back some tears as he continued to shake in fear, “Not right for earth shake… what… what happen?”

Carla stroked Zeki’s cheek as she chanced another quick on and off click of her flashlight. The few moments of illumination told her why the road had so suddenly become rough. The concrete on the section of road she was on had actually buckled and cracked in an amazing way. What had once been a paved road, now had the texture and look of gravel, while the street sewer grates on both corners had disappeared, leaving huge holes where they had been. This at least told her what the loud clangs had been caused by, but the fact they fell in so suddenly was difficult for her to wrap her brain around.

She blinked and flipped her flashlight back on again, not believing what she had taken in. She panned over the road for several seconds, noting just up the street, the concrete was badly cracked but not like it was where she currently had the cart parked. She also noted the non-brick homes further down the street had survived amazingly intact. She panned the light down the street, back and forth several times before Zeki reached up and clicked it back off. Carla blinked wondering what had happened before she noticed Zeki’s small hand on the button. She gave him a nod of thanks and gave the frightened boy another hard squeeze. But the image of what she and seen was embedded into her mind’s eye, “Dear God, what was that?”

Hearing Devin moan in the back, she refocused. She drove a full block, using quick clicks of her flashlight and flashes of lightning to look over possible places to seek shelter. Suddenly she saw what looked to be something very promising. It was a two story house with no outward sign of damage other than the front door hanging on only by its top hinge. “Zeek, I know you don’t want me to go alone, but I need you to stay here with Devin and guard our packs.”

Before the boy could argue, Carla darted across the street and entered the house. Much like she suspected, it had been pretty heavily looted, and there was no sign of life. She made her way back to the golf cart and drove it up over the curb and into the back yard of the house. She parked the cart between the shed and house and pointed to the open back door, “Zeek, I’ll stay here with Devin until you get the packs inside. There are bedrooms upstairs where we can get Devin comfortable and let me work on him a little more, so put the packs in the biggest one and take a few minutes to clear me a path so I don’t trip on anything.”

“What about earth shake?”

“I am with what you said earlier. I don’t think it was an earthquake, but I sure as hell don’t know what it was. Maybe another nuke or something. One way or the other, we need shelter and to take care of Devin.”

Zeki looked around before grabbing two packs and moving toward the house.

As he disappeared inside, Carla pulled up her radio, “Hill City Base, can you hear me?”

Hunter, Luke, Sergeant Haley Collins, Senior Airman Nancy Arnold

Hunter woke shortly after dozing back off as the whole building they were in seemed to vibrate. Next to him, Luke rolled over, but stayed asleep. He thought about closing his eyes again, but Mr. Korbal had told all of them, if something doesn’t feel right, don’t ignore it. To this end he reached down and grabbed his pack. He barely had it in his hand when everything bucked violently. As this happened the front porch area collapsed and the Tundra that had been up on jack stands out front fell on its right side. The chaos didn’t end there. The badly worn barn the Humvee was in had its west wall fold, which in turn cause the barn to fall to the west. The east wall held, leaving a half-toppled barn with no major damage to the vehicle, but the entire structure was unstable and the exit was blocked with debris hanging from above.

In addition, what was left of the foundation of an old metal silo-like structure crumbled and sent the entire thing crashing into nearby junk cars. The screech and protest of metal on metal pretty much drowned out all else for several seconds. This prevented anyone from noticing, until after the fact, every remaining window in the place had broken out.

For Hunter and Luke’s part they felt the whole bed jump and Luke was tossed off edge, while Hunter ended up in the middle of the bed.

Luke let out a yelp of pain as the bed moved just enough to pin him to the wall, but other than force his left shoulder blade pretty hard into the drywall and a stud behind it, he was not hurt. However, he did end up with a piece of broken glass from the window in his heel.

In the next room, Senior Airman Arnold had the window she was looking out of crumble and shower her with shards of glass. She jumped back, lightly bleeding from a dozen locations while shouting, “Earthquake!” She then moved to stand in the doorframe of bedroom and braced herself expecting more movement.

Sergeant Collins stayed in the bed she had just settled into, but ended up pinned under shelving of a dresser when it toppled onto the bed. Much like Luke, she was not seriously hurt, but the way the shelving unit fell, prevented her from finding any leverage to free herself. She cringed, fully expecting more to fall on top of her, but after several seconds of nothing, she finally shouted out, “Need a little help in here!”

Hunter looked around wildly, but didn’t move for almost a minute. Since the house was dark, he couldn’t see much except from an occasional flash of lightning, but it was enough to notice Luke’s predicament. He jumped out of the bed, and pulled at the heavy wooden frame. When it didn’t move much, he rolled over to Luke’s side, put his back to the wall and shoved his feet down into the mattress and pushed using his legs.

This slid the bed away from the wall by several inches and gave Luke enough room to turn and also push. The combination allowed them to move the bed fully away from the wall enough for Luke to stand and roll onto the bed.

Once Luke was free, Hunter flopped forward onto the bed while reaching over, “How bad you hurt?”

Luke took a few moments to check himself over before letting out a long sigh, “Something is in my foot…”

Hunter had to fumble around to locate his pack. Fortunately it too had stayed on the bed and because of the requirements Mr. Korbal instilled into all of them, as soon as he had his hands on his pack, he knew right where to find the flashlight. At this point he no longer cared about the risk of anyone outside seeing it. He flipped it on and panned it over Luke. He saw the chuck of glass and winced. “Don’t pull it out yet. Let me get a bandage and some hydrogen peroxide ready first.”

“I can do it. Just get me my backpack.”

Hunter panned the light around, spotted Luke’s pack and shook his head. “Too much glass between me and it. Here, take my light and hold it so I can get dressed.”

In the next room, SrA Arnold finally let go of the doorframe and used her shoulder to lift the shelf up enough for Haley to wiggle around and get some leverage. The two then combined to push it off onto the floor.

SrA Arnold backed off, pulling a sliver of glass out of her right cheek as she did so, “You OK?”

Haley rolled her shoulder, wincing lightly as she did so, “A bit battered, but I’ll live.”

“Thank God, but stay on the bed until I can get some light and find your shoes. From the way it sounded and felt both windows in this room disintegrated!”

Haley nodded, “Thanks for the warning.” She then shouted out, “Hunter, Luke!”

“Still here!” Luke called out while looking away from the glass in his foot.

“What about Hunter?”

Hunter appeared in the door with a flashlight in his hand, rifle over his shoulder, vest on but not buttoned, pants on, belt unbuckled, and untied boots on his feet. It was enough for both woman to exchange looks and grin at each other.

Hunter didn’t seem to notice, instead he played his light over the room as he spoke, “Not a scratch on me, but Luke has a pretty big piece of glass in his foot.”

SrA Arnold moved over to her gear, turned on a flashlight and after a quick nod from Haley, grabbed her medic kit, “Luke, sit tight. I’ll be there in a sec.”

Haley gave Hunter a visual once over, forcing herself not to snicker as she did so, “How about you locate my pack, and boots, then finish getting dressed, big guy?”

“Sure,” Hunter responded as he moved over and handed Haley her equipment and firearms, then shook her boots out to make sure there was no glass inside before handing them over. “Anything else?”

“I’m gunna be sore over the next couple of days, but I’m good. Why don’t you go finish getting dressed and help Nancy. It looked like she got some glass into her, so she might need some help patching herself up.”

“What about you?”

“I’m going to get dressed, make sure we are all basically in one piece, then the two of us are going to check on the Hummer.”

A yelp from the next room told both Hunter and Haley the hunk of glass in Luke’s foot had been removed. The subsequent, “Ye-ow! That burns!” verified the airman had put on some alcohol, peroxide or something else to prevent possible infection.

Nancy’s voice responded with an annoyed undertone, “Stop squirming, you little imp. It’s deep enough to where if you don’t let me bandage this right I am going to sit on you and get some live practice on stitching, and I am not very good at it yet!”

Hunter and Haley exchanged cringes. While Hunter added in a brief shudder, Haley couldn’t help but whisper, “I think Nancy needs to work on her bedside manner.”

Hunter had to cover his mouth to mute an outburst of laughter as he moved out into the hall to adjust and secure everything, so Haley could get up and dress in private. As he finished tying his boots, he noticed a long crack in the drywall and started following it with his flashlight. What he saw caused him to cringe and shout out a warning. “Hey, I think there is more damage than we thought. We got some nasty looking cracks and the ceiling in the hall is sagging some. After the first round of earthquakes, we had part of an upper floor fall in and about crush some of us below it, so be careful.”

“Good advice, Hunter,” Nancy called out, “but that was not an earthquake.”

“Sure felt like an earthquake to me!” Luke commented while doing everything he could to not look at the woman bandaging his foot. It was bad enough feeling it, the last thing he wanted to do was see her do it.

Nancy shook her head and spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear her. “Oh, the ground moved, so technically, it may count as an earthquake, but I was born in Alaska, then my family moved to California when I was thirteen. I know earthquakes. This was something different.”

“You thinking a nuke?” Haley asked was a great deal of concern.

“I have no idea, but there was a light tremor a few seconds before and I was looking out the window when the jolt hit. There was no bright flash or noise of an explosion.”

“Maybe we were too far away to see or hear it,” Luke responded.

“Possible, but I’d think whatever it was had to have been close or super big, cause the shock was enough to bounce me off the ground.”

“Sure tossed me off the bed.”

“And dropped a dresser shelf on me,” Haley added.

Nancy finished up by taping a thick bandage to Luke’s heel and giving him a hard pat on his back, “Foot wounds seem to heal fast, and you should be able to walk on it some, but take it easy. Be careful when you put your sock and boot on, and make your boot a little tighter than you might like. But whatever you do, keep your foot dry and let the area air out a few times a day. Over the next couple of days I want to rebandage it two or three times per day, so we can continue to disinfect and put some antibiotic on it.

“Now would one of you hold a light so I can pull a few pieces of glass out of myself?”

Hunter moved up, “I can help if needed.”

“No, go ahead and check on the Humvee with the sergeant. Without that truck, we’re stuck in the middle of a junkyard inside a badly damaged house with limited food and water! If I need a sliver or two pulled out or found, Luke can help.”

Haley moved out into the hall and panned her light around, “Let’s go Hunter, but careful on the steps. We don’t know how stable they are.”

“Stay close to the wall when you go down.” Nancy called out. “Also, keep your foot firmly planted until you are certain the front one is on something solid enough to hold your weight.”

While a couple of the steps creaked in protest, Haley and Hunter made it down with no problem, however Haley had to put her foot on the wall and yank hard on the doorknob to get out, indicating the front doorframe had shifted.

Once outside, both of them pulled rifles and panned the area. As dark as it was, it was impossible to see much, but a few flashes of lightning allowed them to move around the junk cars and make it to what was left of the barn without having to use a flashlight. However, as they got to the barn, Haley winced. “Doesn’t look good.”

Hunter finally broke out his flashlight again and quickly panned it over the mangled structure. “Do you think you can wiggle in there and drive out?”

“Don’t think I have much choice. But do me a favor; get on some gloves and help me pull some of the debris away from where I am going to pull out. No need to damage tires if we don’t have to.”

Hunter and Haley dragged several boards and a section of the door out of the way, making a more or less clear path out to the muddy drive. Haley yawned and rolled her already bruised shoulder as she pulled the securing chain off the Humvee and freed the steering wheel. She fired the engine, thought it over for a few seconds, then stepped hard on the accelerator. Not surprising, the vehicle blew right through the sagging section, but she then had to crank the wheel hard right to avoid some junk cars while hitting the brake to slow down. Because of the muck and mud, the back end lost some traction, so she smacked the back fender into a badly rusted Pinto. While it did very minor damage to the Humvee, the Pinto’s back caved in. On the other hand, this helped to straighten the vehicle out and point it down the drive toward the paved road. After some thought, she backed up, putting the truck between a couple of other cars hoping it would blend in to anyone giving the area a quick look in the dark.

She looked out the window, “Be damned careful, but get the others. We are just going to have to sleep out here tonight.”

As soon as Hunter headed into the house, Haley flipped on the radio, “Hill City Base, this is Sergeant Collins. Anyone on? Over.”

The reply was quick, “Got you pretty clearly, Sergeant. This is Private First Class Whitehorse, Over.”

“Whitehorse, did you all get a jolt about thirty minutes ago? Over.”

“Big one, Sergeant.” The young private’s voice told of his agitation. “So did the El Tee up at Kirwin and Sergeant Fox in Ellis. We also heard from the folks in Jennings. They got rocked there too. The master sergeant wanted me to ask you as soon as you checked in if you saw any sign of a nuke? Over.”

“No. We were thinking the same thing. So no one else reported one? Over.”

“No. Over.”

Haley let out a long, “Thank God!” before keying the mic again, “Any idea of what it was or even where? Over.”

“The master sergeant, El Tee, and the old sheriff in Jennings all looked at their watches, and we have been syncing them twice a day, so we should be pretty accurate. Um, Jennings was hit before we were and Kirwin within seconds of us, so best guess is it was out to the west. Did you happen to get a time? Over.”

“No, sorry. We had other issues. Let Master Sergeant Keating know Luke’s got a cut foot and both me and Airman Arnold are slightly banged up. Hunter came away unscathed. What other injuries do we have? Over.”

“Last check in, Devin is still unconscious. That Zeek kid is sound asleep and Sergeant Fox has signed off, saying she had to get some sleep as well. We managed to get enough information to have a good idea where they are at. I can give you their coordinates. Over.”

“No. Not on open radio, especially if all of them are sleeping. We don’t want to lead anyone to them. I’ll get it from you when we get close to Ellis. Any other status updates? Over.”

“Yes, Sergeant. One of our wind generators was damaged, but the other is still fine. Sergeant Lang dropped off three upper sections with turbines shortly after we got the food trucks unloaded, so we may have to use parts from one of them to fix whatever is wrong. We’ve got the gravel workers checking the foundation, it sounds like they are shoring one of them up.

“Sergeant Lang took the team back out and they were able to get both trucks to Jennings with main turbines of the windmills and one section of tower. They were coming back here and got to Lenora. Sounds like the place has very heavy damage and they had a fight with who they now believe were convicts from Norton, but we had them outgunned from the start. It wasn’t much of a fight. However, they decided it would be safer to head back to Jennings, so they pulled in there about an hour ago and are helping with some damage and clean-up there.

“The good thing is the fuel tanks at the main station in Lenora are intact with a considerable amount of both diesel and gas. We are going to try to get a tanker and generator to get the pumps started out to meet them in the morning. Over.”

“We are really spreading ourselves thin…” Haley stated with trepidation. “Tell Sergeant Keating I am going to chance it at this point and get to Ellis. As long as this road holds, which looking at the maps we think it will, I am guessing I can get there before dawn. Once we get close we will call for a location on Sergeant Fox, so stay by the radio for me. Over.”

“Will do. Be careful Sergeant. Over.”

“Count on it, Hill City. Sergeant Collins Out.”

Haley looked over her shoulder as Hunter put Luke’s gear into the back, and Nancy assisted Luke. “We’re going to risk it guys. Sergeant Fox was too tired to stay awake so all three of them are asleep in Ellis somewhere without back-up. Speaking of which, I am the only one without sleep, so would you mind driving, Airman?”

Nancy moved up to the driver’s door. “Be happy to. Luke why don’t you ride up front with me and give Sergeant Collins more room to get comfortable in the back. This way you can hold onto the spotlight and pan it over the road for me every once in a while.”

Luke lightly limped over to the passenger side even as Hunter spoke up, “Did Hill City feel the earthquake or whatever it was?”

“Everyone did, including your friends in Jennings,” Haley stated as she slid in next to Hunter. “No sign of a nuke, but the way the ground moved, and the times some of the others marked, it came from the west.”

“Hell of an S wave,” Nancy remarked as she jumped into the front passenger side.

“S Wave?” Hunter asked.

Nancy’s eyebrows shot up at hearing the keen interest in Hunter’s voice. “Earthquakes generate two different types of waves as they move through the ground… Actually there are three, but the last is a surface wave. Anyway, the P wave, or primary, moves the fastest and pushes the ground out laterally, so there is side to side movement, not much up and down. The S wave or secondary is slower and causes more vertical movement. This is easier to feel and a little more destructive since the ground is moving up and down.”

“What about a surface wave?” Hunter really wanted to know.

“Those are pretty much like a wave on the surface of the water, it is rolling motion of the ground in a wave.”

Luke spoke up, “Would a surface wave bounce us up in the air like a big wave on a boat does?”

Nancy’s lips pressed together as she gave it some thought, “I guess it would be possible, and it would fit with what we felt, but it would have to be a hell of a surface wave to do so… But you’re right Luke, we very well may have been hit with some kind of super surface wave.”

Haley found herself impressed with the woman in front of her for the first time since she met the airman. “Extraordinary bit of knowledge.”

Nancy’s lips twisted up in a smirk, “No choice in the matter. Dad’s a Volcanologist and works for the USGS. Between that and growing up in earthquake country, I know my earthquake science.”

“So why become a medic?” Hunter asked as the woman pulled out a portable spotlight and plugged it in, then passed it over to Luke so he could pan it across the road as Nancy pulled out onto it.

Nancy responded with a hint of annoyance in her voice, “Wanted to try something different, but up until the end of days happened, I was taking Arizona State online classes in Geology. I was kind of angling toward oil exploration, partially because I am fascinated on the fault slippages from deep waste water disposal when fracking happens. I’ve been studying oil pumping and fracking since I was a junior in high school.”

At this Luke’s demeanor really perked up, “So do you know enough to get some of the oil wells we’ve been passing restarted?”

Nancy shrugged, “With some help, probably, but crude oil isn’t going to help us unless we can refine it. I have no clue how to do that.”

Luke looked back over his shoulder with a huge smile, “Time to go back to what got you noticed as a super genius.”

“Long ways between making a science project that boils a gallon of oil and distills out the heavy oil at the bottom, the diesel fuels in the middle, and the gasolines at the top, Luke. I don’t know how to refine them further or anything.”

At this Haley looked over and Nancy pulled over to the side and looked back. Nancy’s voice showed her skepticism far more than her face, “What kind of science project was that?”

Luke snorted, “For Hunter, third grade, well fourth since he passed the rest of us like we were standing still. It got him number one for youth in the state fair. Youngest ever.”

“Yeah,” Hunter signed, “and got me asked a zillion questions by all the judges who even brought in a couple of oil scientists to verify it was my project and to make sure I knew it all. After the fair, Dad had to let them take me to a lab so I could show them I could build it by myself before they finalized me in first spot. Until then, it was awarded under condition I could prove I was the one who made it.” He then forced a grin, “But hey, got Dad and Mom a three day vacation at a nice hotel in Wichita and is probably the reason why they decided I was old enough to get and take care of a dog.”

Hunter’s smile faded, “I hope I still have a dog…”

“We’ll help you keep looking,” Haley promised. “But right now, how sure are you, you could redo the science experiment?”

Hunter couldn’t help it, his shoulders dropped and he let out an annoyed growl, “In my sleep! It’s not hard…” He paused as he saw the looks both women were giving him. “Sorry… Um, but it’s no big deal. I based it on how kerosene was first made by distilling it out of coal, then oil. I read about it and it looked like it would be fun, so I drew out how it would work and what I would need on paper. After begging for what felt like forever, Dad got me everything I could need to make it. But I thought it was too simple to put into the state fair, so Grandpa slid in quite a bit of extra money so I could play around and make the three chamber oil distiller instead. I bet I could find everything I need to jury-rig another one at any decent hardware store.”

Luke cocked his head and blinked, “So you can make kerosene out of oil too?”

“Uh huh. I was starting to fiddle around with putting together a distiller so we could refill those oil lamps we found, cause I’m sure there is lots of oil still in some of those tanks and I don’t know how to make candles.”

Haley blinked, “Forget candles! I’ll take the kerosene and even somewhat processed gas! Rest assured, before we get back to Hill City, we are going to find you a hardware store to loot!” She then patted Airman Arnold on the shoulder, “And soon as we get back to Hill City, you need to get one of those wells fired up!”

While Kyle likes feedback, he really likes it in the form of criticism. If you don’t like something, find errors, or just want to bitch about something, email him at: KyleArrons at CastleRoland dot net. If you are only reading this and you are enjoying the story, you may still let him know at the above email addy.

Follow Kyle on Twitter: @k_m_aarons