Starts early AM day +18

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

Lieutenant Grader walked around the two tents before entering the Fox. He looked over at the young private manning the radio, “Private Greystone, why don’t you take some down time. I’ll take over the radio.”

“You sure, sir?”

“Yeah, I’m not really tired and you all have done the bulk of the work. This bum wing of mine really keeps me on the sidelines.”

“As long as you are sure, sir.” She stood and yawned, “Is Gage still up on top?”

“No, thank God. Specialist Avila took over. Sending him up finally got Gage off the top, washed, dried off and into a sleeping bag. Poor kid doesn’t want anything to do with any adults other than maybe Hulbert, and to a lesser extent Weathers. I don’t know exactly who did what to that boy, but it has left one seriously screwed up little guy. He went to bed with a solar light on, in his sleeping bag.”

“Maybe me or Grimm can try to talk to him. She has a son and I have a younger brother.”

“I don’t think it will matter, but you are welcome to try. However, his trust of Grimm is right about the same level as he has of me, so I don’t think being a female will help. Actually, after the earlier exchange with Lopez and Grimm clearly supporting Lopez, he isn’t likely to open up to her any time soon, if ever. He is extremely observant and knows Grimm and Lopez are pretty close. Plus, unless I am totally off base, his trust in women in general is all but non-existent at this point.”

“Haven’t really noticed sir, my bad.”

“Nothing to apologize for,” Grader stated with a sad shake of his head. “He is a messed up and very secretive little guy, but he is opening up some. I’d sure like to see a lot more though.”

“He hasn’t even looked my direction, but I’ll still give it a shot. What about all the other kids, sir.”

“Best as I can tell they are all sleeping. As long as we don’t have another strong quake they should all get some decent rest before we head out tomorrow.”

“A couple of them won’t be strong enough…”

“More than a couple. The biggest reason we are staying here is Grimm isn’t sure a few of them will make it unless we can rehydrate and let them build some kind of strength back. We’ll transport in stretchers and keep the worst here in the Fox. Any word from Jennings or Ellis since the quake?”

“Nothing since my last report. But just before you came in, Base reported a really weird message on ham radio from a station just outside of a small town in Colorado by the name of Westcliffe.”

Grader sat down and popped a couple of aspirin for the pain in his arm, “OK, I’m game. What’s so weird.”

The young woman grabbed her rifle and secured it while speaking, “Master Sergeant Keating has had some on and off communications with this Vietnam vet. The guy’s seventy-five years old and says the town is cut off because avalanches have blocked the roads on both sides. There are about 1000 people trapped in the valley between the towns of Westcliffe and Silver Cliff. Anyway, just before you walked in, MSgt. Keating said the old guy radioed in insisting he heard an artillery strike somewhere to the west of his location.”

“Maybe another avalanche?”

“MSgt. Keating thought the same thing, but this guy says he knows artillery and he heard some.”

“Right…” Lt. Grader snickered. “Someone managed to somehow get pieces of artillery up into the mountains of Colorado and are shelling a place with a combined population of a thousand? Why do I find that hard to believe?”

“And again MSgt. Keating is right there with you sir, but the guy also reported a very strong, rolling-like earthquake about two minutes or so before Jennings.”

This caused Grader’s eyebrows to shoot up. “OK, so… Is it even possible for an earthquake to be felt that strong between here and there?”

“No idea. There is a science teacher in Jennings and another in Hill City we are trying to locate to see what sense they can make of it. But I haven’t heard anything yet.”

“I’ll keep my ears open. Now go get some sleep, Private. We have a couple dozen kids to take care of until we can get them safely into the hands of the mayor of Hill City.”

Less than fifteen minutes later, he was on his second hand of solitaire when the radio came to life with Private Whitehorse’s clearly frightened voice, “Kirwin detachment, this is Hill City Base. Over!”

“This is Kirwin,” Lt. Grader stated calmly as possible. “What’s the situation? Over.”

“Sir,” the private’s voice lost none of its intensity, “Jennings is reporting a loud banging sound, and the former Army Ranger our scouts were with, says if he didn’t know better, it was an artillery strike! Over!”

Lt. Grader jumped up, knocking most of his cards onto the floor of the Fox, “Base, Kirwin patrol. Sounds like the same report you got from Colorado. Do we have a time stamp? Over.”

“Yes sir. Zero three ten even, sir! Over.”

“Where is Master Sergeant Keating? Over.”

“Sending someone to get the local high school science teacher! Over.”

“The scouts talked about one in Jennings too. See if they can find him as well. Over.”

“Will do sir! Um, what do you want us to do now? Over.”

“Try to find us some answers, Whitehorse, try to find us some answers. Keep me in the loop if anything else happens. Kirwin out.”

A minute and a half later, as he was collecting the last of his cards off the floor of the vehicle the radio once again came to life. This time MSgt. Keating’s voice came through the speaker, “Kirwin, this is base. We just heard the same sound and had the same event as Jennings. Over.”

Lt. Grader’s elbow once again knocked the stack of cards off the table as he snatched the mic, “Seriously? Over.”

“Yes sir, and I swear to God it sounded like an artillery strike! My first instincts were to dive under the table here. If I didn’t know better I would have sworn it hit within a few hundred yards and there was even a compression wave with it. I marked the time at zero three twelve and six seconds. Two minutes and six seconds after Jennings. This is some scary shit, sir! Over.”

“Stand by, Base. If it’s moving from west to east it won’t be long till it hits here. I am going to shout out an alert. Kirwin Out.”

Grader pulled the door to the vehicle and shouted, “Specialist Avila, yell out an alert and get all our people up. Unless I’m mistaken we are about to get hit with a hell of a soundwave!”

Hunter, Luke, Sgt. Haley Collins, Senior Airman Nancy Arnold, SSgt. Carla Fox, Zeki, Devin

Sergeant Collins leaned her head back and closed her eyes, but still spoke, “Airman, have you driven with blackout lights before?”

“Just once. It was part of mandatory training. Honestly, I did pretty good especially compared with some of the others.”

“Great,” Haley stated with clear relief. “For the most part we’ll go with blackout and I want you to use the backdrop of the lightning flashes to stay on the road.”

“Better than headlights and I don’t want to use the spotlight the whole time. The last thing I want is to be a target,” Luke commented.

Nancy quickly agreed, “Luke, you’re right. Don’t use the spotlight unless we have to. Also, let’s use the duct tape to tape it to the handle of the shovel.”

“Good idea.” Haley agreed even as she pushed her poncho up to the window as a makeshift pillow. “Luke, keep it ready and if we need it, hold the shovel way out the window. This way if someone decides to shoot at it, they will not be aiming directly at you.”

Luke shuddered, “I can’t believe we have to worry about being shot at just trying to drive down a stupid road. The whole world is nuts!”

“No argument from back here,” Haley sighed. “But for now, would you mind keeping it down? Unless I’m needed. I really need a couple hours of sleep.”

The only sound for several minutes came from the engine of the Humvee and the tires on the wet road. Haley quickly fell asleep. After a couple of miles, Nancy pulled to as stop in front of water going over the road. “Luke, give me some real light.”

Luke clicked on the spotlight and held it out the window with the shovel. He panned it over the water, noting it was only about five yards of submerged road with water kicking up over whatever was under the road that normally kept the water flowing under the road. “I’m not sure…”

“Me neither…” Nancy stated. However she put it into four-wheel drive and took a deep breath. “Roll up the window. I’m going to gun it and try to get across.”

Luke and Hunter both cringed as they felt the vehicle start to hydroplane, but the back tires caught just before the vehicle went off the road. Water shot up well above the frame of the Humvee as the front tires also found something to grip onto. A couple seconds later they were over the section of flooded road.

Nancy slapped the back of her head into the driver’s seat. “Oh, way too close.”

At this point Luke glanced over, “Um, ma’am…”

“Yeah?”

“Um, well… my dad and brother always told me to go slow over water so the tires stay on the ground…”

“Little late to tell me now.”

Hunter managed a nervous giggle, “Better late than never.”

With a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head, Nancy growled, “And this is why I’ll never have kids… Anyway, Luke turn the light off and let’s hope we can get to Ellis without any more problems.”

Her hopes were dashed less than two miles later as she once again pulled to a stop. Directly in front of her was a bridge with water flowing over the part closest to them. Making matters worse, the whole bridge was at a slight angle to the road. The far side was only fifteen yards away, but was pointed upward at about a ten degree angle.

On the far north side of the road, a semi could be seen with a cattle trailer that had at one point been attached, but had broken lose and was on its side. The cab was still upright, but twisted and mangled. The front window of the truck was clearly broken out from the inside and the greater portion of what was left of a body was sticking out through it. This all but told those looking on what had happened.

The truck’s cab had slammed into the angled up bridge and had crushed the front end of the truck against the raised-up far edge of the bridge. It had to have been going extremely fast since the smashed front end told them it had hit with a great deal of force. With an extended examination using the spot light, the collision seemed to have pushed the small bridge into the road on their side, which in turn formed a makeshift anchor with the cab of the truck holding it in place on the far end and the close end buried into the road on their side. This was also the whole reason the small bridge had not totally washed away.

“Wow,” Luke whispered, “what a mess…”

“The truck must had hit it just as the bridge was starting to give way.” Hunter added in with a great deal of sadness. “The driver never stood a chance. At least he’s with God now.”

“There is no turnoffs to try a different route between here and the last washout,” Nancy stated, clearly ignoring Hunter’s comment while eyeing the bridge. “I’m open to suggestions boys.”

Luke hopped out and cringed as his heel came down hard. With a slight yelp and shake of his head he limped up to the bridge followed by Nancy and Hunter. Haley mumbled something as some mist blew in on her, but other than adjust the poncho to cover the side of her face, she remained asleep.

Hunter closed the door as softly as possible before playing his flashlight over the carnage. “The water’s not even a foot deep on this side and no water on the other. If we can just get across…”

“Back up and take a running jump?” Luke asked before he forced a grin. “If we live, it’ll be a blast!”

Nancy slapped her forehead, “Yet another reason to never have a kid!” She looked up and shook her head, “On the other hand, I really don’t see any other option. There should be enough room since it looks like the driver saw the bridge coming up at the last minute and tried to swerve to the side.”

“If he had hit it head on, he may have blown his tires on the edge, but made it,” Hunter noted. “At least it looks like God took him quickly.”

Luke nodded, “Probably instantly, which is way better than some of the wrecks we’ve seen and a million times better than the plane wreck.” He pointed to the driver’s side gas tank. “But God may be with us right now too, Hunter. We might be able to scrounge some diesel. It isn’t even in the water and the cap is still on the tank, so with any luck no one emptied it yet.”

Nancy pointed out the obvious, “Only if we get over to it. The other problem is if I get a running start and I lose traction we could end up embedded into the side of the truck or off into the water on the south side. However, if we go back there is no guarantee we will make it past the flooded section a second time. Even then, we would have to do another big backtrack to find a way to get to Ellis.”

“I vote we try to jump it,” Luke stated. “If I’m gunna die, at least it will be doing something awesome.”

Hunter couldn’t help but give Luke a light push even as he giggled. “We need to get to Devin and Zeek and the turn off to Ellis should only be a few miles up this road, so I am with Luke. Just for totally different reasons.”

Luke gave a light fist pump, “Yeah, this is going to be so much fun!”

“You really need help, Luke…” Nancy snorted with a hint of a smile. “We really should wake Sgt. Collins. She outranks me…”

Luke shrugged, “My brother used to tell me it is sometimes better to ask for forgiveness later than permission and get told no.” He then pointed out another factor. “Besides, we are down to three cans of diesel and a half tank. We need whatever is left in the tanks on that semi or we may not have enough to find another way back to Hill City. Cause one thing’s for sure, we sure ain’t going back this way.”

Nancy rubbed her hand down her face as she realized she had no good counter argument, “Hunter, see if you can buckle Sgt. Collins in, then you two do the same and make them as uncomfortably tight around your laps as you can. I’m going to make sure the fuel cans are as strapped in as tight as possible.”

Luke nodded even as he pumped his fist again, “This is gunna be awesome!”

Hunter snickered, “Airman Arnold is right, there is something wrong with you!”

“Thanks!” Luke stated with a wide grin as he limped back to the Humvee.

Nancy did a quick scan of the others, backed up and took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing. And Hunter, right about now is a great time to pray to the God you are so sure exists.”

“Is that why you don’t seem to like me? Because I am sure God is with us?”

“No good and decent God would let all this happen.”

“God gave us free will. So don’t blame Him, this is all on us.”

Nancy shook her head and let out a sigh, “Well, on the off chance you’re right, get to prayin’!” She then backed up, made sure she had as straight a shot as possible and floored the accelerator.

When the front wheels hit the edge of the road-locked bridge, the whole vehicle bounced to the right, but it easily shot up the incline and got some air before slamming down on the road on the opposite side of the bridge. This was followed by a clang and screech of angry metal as the driver’s side hit the underside back axel of the flipped trailer and ripped off the driver’s side mirror. She then slammed on the brakes and cranked the wheel to the side so she stayed on the road.

Haley jerked awake and grabbed for her rifle only to find she was strapped in with a safety belt and had less mobility than she expected, “What the fuck Airman!?!”

“Oh, I sooo want to do that again!” Luke shouted at almost the same time, only to get a punch in the shoulder from Nancy hard enough to get a yelp and leave a bruise.

He rubbed his shoulder while shooting the airman a dirty look, but the smile quickly spread back over his face, “Best rush ever!”

Hunter reached over and unclicked Haley’s seatbelt while he looked at Nancy through the rearview mirror, “Still think there is no God, ma’am?”

“While I doubt it, I’m gunna thank him just to cover my bases. Is everyone OK?”

Haley’s head continued to jerk around even as her hand found the door handle. Because of the hard sideswipe, it protested being opened, but a firm shoulder was all it took to pop it open. The sergeant jumped out and looked around, still trying to get her bearings. Fortunately a couple of nearby bright flashes of lightning illuminated the scene enough to allow her brain to make some semblance of sense of the situation.

Still Haley needed a few more seconds to regain full cognitive abilities. To this end, she grabbed her flashlight, and panned it over everything. Finally she turned to Nancy with a great deal of anger, “You jumped a damned bridge without waking me?”

Hunter pointed over to Luke with a smirk, “Blame him, ma’am. He talked us into not asking you.”

Luke flipped off Hunter, even as Haley glared at Luke, then back at Nancy, “You let a twelve-year-old boy talk you into jumping a half-washed away bridge? What is wrong with you?”

“Hey, it worked and man, was it cool!” Luke stated with a wide smile.

Nancy reached in, grabbed a siphon pump and tossed it to Luke, “Go get us some fuel before our sergeant smacks you.”

“Still be worth it if she does,” Luke stated while rubbing his shoulder.

Haley ran her hands down her face, “I am sure I just lost ten years of my life getting woken up like that!” She took a few deep breaths and moved closer to the wreck helping Luke with some fuel cans as she did so. Seeing Luke tap the driver’s side tank and nod, she let out a long breath, “Got some in the tank?”

“Yeah, well over half full. If this is like most trucks, the tank on the far side should have the same amount, or pretty close to it. If I crawl through the cab, I can get to it and we’ll be able to fill up and top off all our gas cans.”

“OK, but there is water flowing only a couple of yards away. I want you to tie in and be careful of the body…”

“Not on my wish list to touch. If there is a plus side, he is mostly on what is left of the hood.”

Haley panned her flashlight over the body, but jumped up on the wreck and pulled a .357 magnum revolver off the man’s hip. She turned her head to avoid some of the smell but managed to grab three speed loaders off the belt, two pairs of handcuffs, and a spray bottle of pepper spray as well. Covering her nose and mouth, she pulled a set of keys off the opposite side and checked his wallet. Not surprising her at all, she found a badge and an ID as the guy having been a reserve deputy out of Hays, Kansas.

She backed off, grabbed the Geiger counter and took a quick reading. The truck was not hot and the surrounding air was actually lower than the last reading. “He’s from Hays, but probably didn’t come from there in this…. Nasty… but no one would leave this, so it hasn’t been looted. Hunter grab your rifle and cover me while I check the trailer.”

“It’s a cattle hauler, so probably dead livestock,” Hunter warned.

“Not smelling a large amount of death other than when I get close to what is left of the driver and pumping the diesel is taking care of most of it,” Luke countered, as he started the use the hand pump to fill the first five-gallon gas can, “so maybe not.”

Haley moved to the back, and panned the flashlight over the back. “Just a hint of manure, so no way there are any dead animals.” She climbed up the axel with the Geiger counter and stuck her flashlight up to the slats in the side of the trailer, “Household stuff and it’s not radioactive either. I see some furniture, broken open boxes of pans and dishes, a grill and some trash bags of spilled clothing. Some looks like female and kids’ clothing, but he’s the only one in the truck.”

Hunter scanned the countryside with is rifle while responding, “Maybe his house got damage in the early earthquakes and he used this to pack what he could save or something. His family must have taken a different vehicle.”

“Good a guess as any.” Haley climbed back down, “But there is lots of weather damage and I really don’t see anything useful. Let’s get as much fuel as we can and get to Ellis.”

With everyone taking turns pumping, they were able to top off the Humvee and fill all eight gas cans. In addition, Luke found a box and a half of .357 ammo, two boxes of 7mm-08 ammo, and a Winchester 7mm rifle with a broken scope.

Haley stuck the revolver ammo in her pack and looked over the long arm, “Stick it in the back until Master Sergeant Keating or one of the others looks it over, but other than the scope, seems good to me.”

“Same caliber as my favorite rifle,” Luke announced even as he patted his own long arm. “Hope it is as good as it looks, cause it’d be nice to have a back-up.”

Nancy fired the Humvee back up, “At the very least you have more factory-made ammo for it, so you came out good. Come on, guys, we’re full. Let’s get going. With all the light and noise, we’ve been here too long already.”

Haley motioned for the two boys to jump into the Humvee while she double-checked the straps holding the fuel cans. She hopped in next to Hunter and tapped Nancy on the shoulder, “By the way Airman, the next time a twelve-year-old boy suggests you do something, check with me before doing it.”

Nancy reached over and ruffled Luke’s hair, “Oh come on Sergeant, it was a good idea and you said not to wake you unless we needed you.”

Luke turned to look into the back with a gleam in his eyes and huge grin plastered on his face, “I think you are just jealous of the rest of us since you weren’t awake, so you missed most of it!”

“Ugg!” Haley grumbled as she slammed her head into the back seat. “Luke you are impossible!”

“I try!”

This broke some of the tension and caused some laughter from the other three. As Nancy continued to drive down the road, Luke pointed to a couple of inactive oil wells, one with a set of four large tanks next to it. “There could be lots of oil in those.”

“And parts to get at least one up and running so we could pump more,” Haley added in.

“I’ll need to find some serious science books on how to make usable diesel and gas once I have the basics separated,” Hunter warned. “While I am not sure, I highly doubt my three-tiered separation process produced diesel and gasoline usable by cars and trucks. Kerosene is a different thing. It will burn in oil lamps and we can make it work for cook stoves and even heaters, even if it isn’t pure. But we will need to make sure it vents good, cause carbon dioxide will kill. Other than the very basics I have lots to learn to be really useful.”

Haley reached over and squeezed Hunter’s shoulder, “The very fact you know the fundamentals of how to do it all is incredible to me. The very fact you can process it enough to give us something to cook and keep warm with could save more lives than the other three of us combined could ever hope to.”

Hunter shook his head, “I couldn’t do nothing without oil to process, and God managed to put Ms. Arnold out in the middle of Kansas where she was sent to link up with you and hopefully give us a way to pump crude oil so I can show others how to process it some. If nothing else, this ought to show God is trying to help us.”

Nancy sighed, “Where you see God I see a huge coincidence, nothing more. We still have to face all sorts of radiation, at least some kind of nuclear and volcanic winter, large scale extinctions, polluted water, diminishing stockpiles of food and medicine, and… who knows what else.”

“God knows, and He will find a way to help if we let Him,” Hunter responded with steadfast faith. “But we did this to ourselves, so we can’t go blaming God when things get harder for survivors over the next couple of years. We will have to rebuild and make sure this can never happen again… somehow.”

“One step at a time, Hunter,” Haley grumbled. “First we have to survive.”

Nancy started to respond, but a streak of lightning across the skyline showed yet another problem up in front of them.

Luke pointed, “Did I just see a plane in the road up there?”

Nancy nodded even as she slowed. “Yeah… yeah you sure did. Give us some light, Luke.”

Luke clicked on the floodlight and panned it over a twin engine plane with a high front wing. Support braces went from the fuselage right above the back wheels to the wing beyond the wing mounted engines. Adding even more character to the aircraft, large vertical stabilizers were on the end of both tail wings. The plane itself was fairly boxy in shape and appeared to be in good shape save for large hole in the front right side and the front landing gear stuck into a tractor off on the left side of the road, partially pushed into the ditch from the collision.

A bright orange stripe ran down the entire length of the aircraft, while just in front of the tail section was the emblem of the U.S. Forest Service.

Haley popped the door, dropped down onto the ground with her rifle out, “This could be an ambush point. Luke, kill the light and stay low! Hunter, cover us from the other side, but stay behind the door!”

After several seconds of nothing, Haley moved forward staying low, “Airman, get out and cover this side of the vehicle. Luke, I know your foot hurts, but I need you to move to the back of the Hummer and cover our rear and keep a close eye out on the farmhouse to the south. Hunter, out of the three of you, you have the best understanding of small squad tactics and are real good with your rifle. I need you to cover me, but be ready to support Luke if there is trouble from the farmhouse. Remember to aim…”

“For the muzzle flashes, I know ma’am.”

“Yeah I know too,” Luke spoke up. “Hunter taught me that at the roadblock yesterday.”

“Glad three of you do”, Nancy spoke to no one in particular while bracing her M-16 nervously on the open window frame of the driver’s door.

“We’ll get you there,” Luke responded.

“Yes we will, and quickly,” Haley fired back as she edged closer to the wreck. She did a sweep of the perimeter, before risking a quick look into the open back cargo area. After a few seconds she panned her flashlight over the back before disappearing inside. Before jumping back out, she shouted out, “We’re clear.”

As Haley made her way back to the Hummer, Nancy stuck her rifle back inside the vehicle. “Anything good inside, Sergeant?”

“No, totally looted. Someone even pulled down all the cargo straps and took them.” She gazed back at the aircraft. “It’s a good thing we took the medic Hummer, cause there is no way one with a gun shield would fit under the tail section, and even then I bet we scrape the crap out of the top, but I don’t see any other way around. On the plus side, if we can get by this, the turn off is only a couple hundred yards further. The street sign on the far side even verifies it’s Ellis Avenue right in front of us.

“Hunter, like before, let’s clear debris to protect our tires. But this time, let’s stay out with weapons ready while Airman Arnold maneuvers under the tail. Luke, jump back inside, but keep your rifle pointed at the farmhouse to the south. As long as anyone inside leaves us alone, we will do the same. If they fire, we light ’em up.”

Both Hunter and Haley gritted their teeth as the top of the Hummer cried out in protest as it scrapped the underside of the nose up tail. For a heart-stopping moment, the vehicle bogged down, but a quick back-up followed by a hard push on the gas pedal propelled the Hummer past the low spot, but tore the back soft top over where the ambulance portion was.

Haley shrugged off the damage as she jumped back in. Ten minutes later they got to the outskirts of Ellis with no further problems, However, off in the distance just over to the left side of the main road, the glow of lights could be seen.

Luke stated the obvious, “Well, someone sure lives here. So what now?”

“Master Sergeant Keating has been trying to establish communications with towns all over this area of Kansas and into Nebraska. There has been nothing from here, so we have no idea who we would be dealing with. So for now we get to our people and bug out. Once we are back in Hill City, We’ll let the El Tee know and see if he wants to try to make contact.”

“But we could help each other…” Hunter tried to argue.

Haley shut him down before he could get started. “Only if they want to help. For all we know it could be a biker gang or those thugs from Colorado you told us about. Do you want to go over there and say hi if it’s the same group who tried to take you, your buddies, and Luke?”

Hunter fiercely shook his head, “No way!”

“Me neither, so we complete the mission and let those above us decide what to do. Got it?”

“Yes ma’am,” Hunter stated without any hint of disagreement.

“Good,” Haley stated while pointing down a road off to the right. “Keep us slow and stay to the east side of the town and as far away from those lights as possible.

“Luke, hand me the radio.”

Haley took the mic and was about to key it when a roar from the west cascaded over the vehicle which hit with enough force to be felt by all inside.

As Nancy pulled to a stop, Haley glanced in the direction of the lights, saw nothing odd and turned her eyes straight to the west, “Hunter, get me an exact time, now!”

Hunter glanced down at his watch, “3:13 and 4 seconds…”

“Write it down!”

Luke grabbed a pocket notebook, “Got it… Um why and what was that?”

Nancy looked to the west deep worry. “Sounded and even kind of felt like the sound of exploding artillery.”

“Pretty much the same thing I was thinking,” Haley admitted. “So how do you know what artillery sounds like?”

“Heard it several times when I went to Fort Sill Oklahoma for a few days to cross-train at the Army hospital there…”

“Field Artillery School is there, so I am sure you did. Any of you see any bright flashes anywhere to the west?”

Hunter shook his head, “Most of the lightning is to the east. I don’t see nothing but the lights at whatever is lit up in town up there. So why mark the time?”

“Just in case anyone else heard it.” Haley answered as she pulled the mic back up to her mouth, “Base this is Ellis recon, can you hear me? Over?”

“Got you, recon.” Master Sergeant Keating responded. “Status? Over.”

“Base, we are in the target area, but just heard and felt what sounded a whole lot like a barrage of field artillery. Over.”

“We did here as well. Do you have a timestamp on it? Over.”

“This time we do,” Haley spoke even as she used a pen light to read what Luke had written to make sure she hid it right. “Hunter marked it at zero three thirteen and four seconds and his watch is synced with us. Over.”

“We got it at zero three twelve and six seconds,” Keating responded. “Jennings got the same thing at zero three ten even. They reported the noise to us before it even got here. Both them and us report it definitely came from the west. Over.”

“Holy crap!” Haley shouted, “It was loud enough for me to think it was within a half a mile of us, but now you’re telling me it was west of Jennings? What the hell can be heard from thirty to forty miles away? Over.”

“No idea,” Keating admitted. “Stand by. Over.”

Before Haley could respond, Staff Sergeant Fox’s voice came over the radio, “Hill City Base, this is Ellis unit, can you hear me? Over.”

“Go Sergeant,” Keating responded. “Be advised, our recon team should be real close to you and I am sure can hear you. Over.”

“We can hear both of you,” Haley jumped in quickly. “Over.”

“Fantastic!” Carla Fox’s voice clearly sounded relieved. “But Base and recon I was just jolted awake by what sounded an awful lot like a not so far away artillery strike. Over.”

“We all heard and felt it Sergeant,” Keating stated in a firm and reasonably calm voice. “It was west of us here, so it wasn’t as close as you think. Now switch over to alternate frequency three and guide our recon time in. They are reporting lights and activity not far from you, so keep transmissions short. Over.”

“Understood. Ellis unit out.”

While Sergeant Fox guided the Hummer to her location, the radio was interrupted about a minute later by another message from MSgt. Keating, “Recon and Ellis teams be advised, we just got a report from our rescue team up in Kirwin. They just heard and felt the sound wave. Over.”

Hunter blinked, “The scout camp at Kirwin has to be sixty to seventy miles from Jennings… there is no way a sound could travel so far, is there?”

Nancy swallowed hard, “It could… If…”

“If?” Haley demanded to know. “If what?”

Nancy tried to take a few calming breaths even as the chatter on the radio continued. However, her voice told those listening she was far from composed when she managed to speak again, “If it was a big enough volcanic eruption.”

“Huh?” Luke asked.

“Again, guys, my father is a volcanologist. I grew up around this my whole life…” She gulped as she once again tried to compose herself. She only partially succeeded as was evidenced by tears of fear trickling down her face. “August 27th, 1883… Krakatoa…”

Luke cocked his head to the side, “What’s Krakatoa?”

Haley answered, “Quite possibly the biggest explosion in recorded history. While I don’t know much, I know it was a volcano that basically ripped itself apart in a giant explosion.”

She then keyed the radio, “OK, Staff Sergeant give us something, so we can get to you. Over.”

While Haley focused on finding SSgt. Fox, Nancy took a few more deep breaths, “Krakatoa was probably the second biggest explosion in recorded history, however, what’s really important is the blast was so immense it was heard over 2000 miles away in Central Australia and some even claim as far as on an island 3000 miles away. The sound wave was so powerful it was felt by scientific instruments of the day around the world, and some reports say it was felt more than once since it bounced around the whole atmosphere multiple times… It would also fit with what very well may have been the surface wave we felt about just over an hour ago. Krakatoa spawned all sorts of tidal waves, probably because of a massive surface wave that pushed water out in all directions.”

“Holy crap!” Luke gasped. “Now there is a bang! But how could we feel an earthquake over an hour before we hear the sound?”

“Because surface waves travel at about eight to nine thousand miles an hour, Luke.”

Even as Haley directed Nancy toward SSgt. Fox with points of her arm, Hunter instantly understood what Nancy was saying, “And sound travels about seven hundred and seventy miles per hour, give or take temperature, air pressure and the like… So the earth wave got to us way faster. Let me see your notebook, Luke.”

Hunter spoke more to himself than those with him as he put pen to paper, “So an hour and twenty minutes, give or take, with the speed of sound being somewhere around seven hundred and seventy miles an hour. Convert hours and minutes into decimal, so 1.33 times 770… that gives us 1024.1 miles. Add in extra time to make up for the surface wave, right about seven minutes if it was traveling at 8500 miles an hour and take that times the speed of sound, so add in an extra 89 miles or so, gives us about 1113 miles from us. What massive volcano is about 1113 miles from us?”

“Oh shit!” Luke gasped out, “I saw a special on the super volcano a couple of months back with my dad. How far is Yellowstone?”

“Remember our trip there as Cubs?” Hunter asked calmly.

“Only the buffalo when it walked right up next to the RV, but I am sure you remember more,” Luke responded with pure fear.

“Yeah, like the fact we road for just over eight hundred miles and Devin’s dad told us we would have saved over a hundred miles if with could have flown straight there instead of going in his RV.”

Luke let out a big sigh of relief, “Ok, so Yellowstone is way too close… What about Mount St. Helens? It blew up like way back in the seventies, right?”

“1980, Luke.” Nancy answered. “But this was way too big for something so small as St. Helens. We are talking something with many, many times more magnitude.”

Hunter didn’t like the sound of what he was hearing and it showed as his voice became a great deal more serious. “If you can get me more times and give me a few minutes I bet I could come up with some much firmer numbers. Right now I could easily be off by a hundred miles. Also with numbers from other places I could do a triangulation back to the source.”

“Hunter,” Haley couldn’t help but give a humor-filled snort regardless of the seriousness of the conversation, “if the earthquake and sound is related to some massive eruption and you got within a hundred miles of an event when it was over a thousand miles away in the minute or two it took you, I might well turn over command to you!”

“Then hand over your rank right now, ma’am,” Luke quipped. “I’ve been dealing with his brain making the rest of us kids and most adults in this area of Kansas look like we’re retarded pretty much my whole frickin’ life!”

“Luke, I’m the only kid who forgot extra flashlight batteries.”

“Yeah, and the only one who pulled solar lights off of Mr. Ward’s house so we all have solar recharging lights we can use as back-up.”

At this Nancy looked back over her shoulder, “I would have never thought about those. Great idea.”

“Desperation. I forgot my batteries.”

Haley rolled her eyes even as she grabbed the notebook and pen, switched the radio back over to Hill City and got times of the earthquake and sound waves along with locations they were recorded. She then handed it back over to Hunter, “Ok, kid, work your magic. It sounds like Lieutenant Grader wants your best guess ASAP. He just got hit with the same sound wave.”

Nancy turned into the alley off of Walnut, north of 14th and used idle speed to go down the alley. Suddenly a trio of flashes from a back upper window hit the windshield. She pulled to a stop. A few seconds later Staff Sergeant Fox came into view with her assault rifle ready.

Haley opened the back door, “Good to see you. Where are the boys?”

“Upstairs master bedroom. Right after the artillery sound Devin woke up, but started crying out in pain. I forced him to eat a cold can of soup then hit him with a half dose of morphine. He dropped out like a light. Zeek is watching over him.”

Hunter looked up from the notebook with shock, “You hit Devin with morphine?”

“Had to,” SSgt. Fox stated with no remorse. “He was making too much noise and I have no idea who is around. There is a glow right over there.” She pointed to the south west. “From what we were told on the radio it may be the high school which is also some kind of emergency shelter, but we can’t be sure and I sure don’t want to risk Zeek by checking it out.”

“OK, let’s get your stuff and relocate.”

“Relocate? Why not just get the hell back to Hill City?”

“Because Hunter is working on something for us and we may not want to be out in the middle of nowhere if it’s what we suspect.”

“Why not just stay here?” Luke asked.

“No place to hide the Humvee,” Sgt. Collins answered. “We need a garage or large shed.”

Hunter glanced back at his notebook, “No, we need a map of the U.S.”

“You have something already?” Nancy demanded to know with a great deal of skepticism.

Hunter shrugged, “Got enough for some triangulations and will have more in the next couple of minutes. I was off by about fifty-nine miles. Getting the differences of the earthquake getting to each location let me better compute the speed of the ground wave and let me adjust the numbers for the sound we heard. We were right at 1054 miles from the blast and Jennings was 1014. With those two points and a map I can locate the spot on a map. I should be able to double-check with the miles from both Kirwin and Hill City, too. Also keep in mind I still could be as much as fifteen miles off because I am estimating speed of sound which changes some.

“Also, since they aren’t right in Kirwin, my numbers will be off by a mile or so because we don’t know where they are exactly, only close.”

Seeing all three adults staring at Hunter, Luke giggled, “I warned you how smart he is. Now all we need is a U.S. map with a measurement legend on the bottom so he can tell us where the volcano is at.”

SSgt. Fox didn’t know what was going on, but pointed directly west. “There is supposed to be an elementary school just a couple of blocks down there. I’d bet, even if it is a total mess, we could find a map of the U.S. with some kind of measurement key on the bottom. Let’s find a place to base us out of, then I will take Hunter over to the school on foot so it will be harder to spot us.”

Zeki saw Hunter as soon as he appeared at the door to the master bedroom. He ran over, all but crashing into him, “Hunter! You came!”

“No way am I leaving anyone from our patrol stranded!” Hunter stated as he returned the hard embrace. He watched as a nearly nude Devin was moved onto a stretcher under Nancy’s close supervision. The blood stain on the bed where Devin’s leg had been caused him to cringe. It didn’t look good and he knew it. “Come on, Zeek, let’s get yours and Devin’s gear so we can get out of here.”

Zeki quickly secured both Devin’s and his pack, only to have Devin’s grabbed by Luke who came up limping.

“You have hurt leg,” Zeki spoke with worry. “Me can take both.”

Luke shook his head, “I got it. Just a hurt foot and I’m sure Ms. Arnold will want to clean and retape it once we get someplace safer.”

Fifteen minutes later Carla and Haley swept a house on the corner of 13th and Maple with a garage large enough to hide the Hummer and moved everyone upstairs while pointing out the house right next door was not in the greatest condition but could be accessed by going out the back of the house and over a short fence. It would make a good fall back point if needed. Much like the other house they checked out, these two showed quick evacuation followed by some looting. There was nothing in the pantries, quite a bit of clothing was gone, and medicine cabinets had been cleaned out. But overall, the homes were left in decent condition save for weather and earthquake damage.

Nancy looked over Zeki’s chin and decided it was doing fine. She then turned her full attention to Devin. She put in an IV, added a little morphine, and unbandaged the wound. As soon as she got it open it started bleeding badly again. “I’m going to have to clean and stitch this and start some antibiotics.”

“Do what you need to do,” SSgt. Fox commanded before turning her attention to Hunter. “Okay, young man, let’s go find you a map. While we do, you can tell me what is going on.”

The elementary school was badly damaged, with a whole section of the ceiling collapsed, but in a fifth grade classroom on the south side wall, Hunter found exactly what he was looking for. A huge map of the U.S. with all the capitals shown.

It took him a few minutes to find a roll of tape and a ruler. As he rummaged, he told SSgt. Fox about the possibility of some kind of massive eruption and why Nancy thought it was not only possible, but probable at this point.

With the measuring ruler and tape in hand he pulled long sections of tape, folded it over so it didn’t stick to the map then cut them to the right sizes with some scissors in the desk. He then used some thumbtacks that had been holding up other displays to stick the edge of the tape over Hill City, Kirwin, Jennings, and finally Ellis. He then moved all the tape around until they met.

Carla Fox whistled lightly as all four pieces came together at almost the same spot. “Hell of a triangulation job, Hunter!”

“Thanks, but there is nothing noted on the on the map here.”

SSgt. Fox moved up to the map and brought up her handheld radio, “Haley, it’s Carla. Over.”

“Go Carla. Over.”

“Ask our resident volcano expert if there is anything about forty miles east southeast of Yosemite National Park in California. Over.”

Nancy grabbed the radio and responded with a shaky voice, “Yeah… The Long Valley Caldera… If everything points there, it’s beyond real bad.”

Hunter reached over and keyed the radio, “It’s there. All four termination spots point right to it and I know my math is right. So how bad is real bad?”

Nancy responded with a note of resignation in her voice. “Bad enough to where I bet we just lost a quarter of the U.S.”

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.

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