THE END - Book I - Of THE EVENT SERIES

by Marshall Huffman

  A few minutes later several others came out and stood around talking.

  “I get seven,” he whispered to the man next to him.

  “Eight. One is over taking a leak, just to the edge of the house.”

  “Got it. Eight. That leaves sixteen unaccounted for.”

  “They have to come out some time.”

  “Not if they split up and are someplace else.”

  “I didn’t see any other lights.”

  “Still, we don’t know for sure. Let’s watch till noon and then decide our next move,” Miller said.

  “Sounds right,” the soldier whispered back. They lay on the mound watching as the men started off away from where they were.

  An hour later the door opened and four more men and two women came out. They headed toward them but veered off at the end of the next block.

  “Looks like they weren’t being held captive. The one had a .45 on her hip,” the soldier said to Miller.

  “Yeah, I noticed. That’s not good. It means we may have to take some of them out as well.”

  “Hey, they want to play soldier, they live and die by the same rules. One of them raises a weapon I’ll damn sure shoot to kill,” he whispered back.

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that but if it does, we need to make sure everyone feels the same way,” the Lieutenant replied.

  Another door opened once but no one came out. Now they could account for at least twelve of the men, two women and one unknown. They needed to know where the other women and men were located.

  An hour went by and the sun was noticeably hotter today that any previous time. Miller rolled over on his back and looked up at the sky. The cloud coverage was definitely diminishing. A couple more days and it could be clear again.

  “Hey,” the man next to him said softly. The Lieutenant rolled back over and brought the binoculars to his eyes. Three women had emerged from the house on the right and walked across the street and went inside. They were all armed.

  “I guess we know for sure now,” the man said.

  “Looks that way. Five of the women are accounted for. I wonder where the rest are? And the other men.”

  “Nothing shaking yet.”

  “Keep an eye out. I’ll brief the men and send a replacement for you in a few,” Miller said sliding down the hill once more.

  He motioned for the men to gather around.

  “We know where most of them are. We have spotted twelve of the seventeen men and five of the women. The women are armed. Most with .45s at least two had M-16s. They are located in two houses across the street from each other.”

  He drew a quick map in the dirt and explained what they knew so far. He told them the others were still unaccounted for. The plan was to wait for the rest of the day and see if they could spot any others. It would be best if they could round them all up at once. If a firefight took place and the others heard it they may bolt or try to flank them. He wasn’t about to lead his men into a trap.

  When he was finished he sent two men as a relief. No one grumbled, the national pastime for all military personnel. They just found whatever shade they could and napped or ate. A couple of them were playing cards, which was also typical.

  The afternoon wore on but no further activity took place. Miller would change spotters after every hour to make sure no one was goofing off. At five o’clock one of the men came hurrying down the hill.

  “There’re back. We count twelve men and six women.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “We checked and double checked,” he said.

  The Lieutenant once again climbed the rise to have a look. Sure enough, they were right. He counted twelve men, all with M-16s except one that had a .50 sniper rifle. That was not so good. The six women were laughing and hanging on the men. They were obviously not being held captive.

  “Where the hell are the others?” he whispered under his breath.

  “That’s all we have seen so far.”

  “Sorry, I was muttering. I need to know where the others are.”

  “Maybe they are dead.”

  “Why do you say that?” Miller asked, looking at the man.

  “They don’t seem to care much about human life. What if the others wanted to leave?”

  “Or maybe they already have left. The thing that bugs me is what if they are someplace in the town. That would be the worst case scenario,” Miller replied.

  “I guess we keep looking.”

  “For now,” the Lieutenant said.

  They spent a second long night but in the morning nothing had changed. It seemed pretty clear that the others were not with them. They had either left, were someplace else or were dead as the soldier suggested. The Lieutenant gathered them together once again.

  “Here is the plan. We are going to do a house by house search starting here,” he said pointing to a house, six blocks from where the others were holed up.

  “Shit. We could be spotted at any time and all hell would break loose,” one of the men complained.

  “Yes we could, but we are just going to have to take it slow and keep a close eye out for anything that moves or makes noise,” he replied.

  “Do you have any idea how many houses are in that area?”

  “A bunch?”

  “A big bunch. It will take a week to do what you’re suggesting.”

  Miller thought for a minute.

  “You may be right,” he said at last, “Change of plans.”

  “No shit?” one of the men said.

  “No shit.”

  “Damn, now I have seen everything. Someone in charge that ain’t afraid to admit they are wrong. Damn, I’ll follow you anywhere,” he said softly.

  Several others acknowledge the same thing.

  “Thank you. I just want to make sure we do this right. Let’s scrap that and do this instead,” he said.

  He quickly went through his plan and explained why he was doing things like he was.

  When he finished he said, “So, that’s the plan. Any glaring faults?”

  No one offered a thing.

  “Looks good to me,” a crusty old Sergeant said looking at the map and the sketch the Lieutenant had drawn out.

  “All right. Get some rest and we will start out at 0-four-hundred.”

  As the men broke off the Sergeant leaned over and said, “You did good. Good recovery and good way to get them to trust you. We’ll get it done,” he said and winked.

  “Thanks Sergeant. I truly appreciate that.”

  ****

  Miller looked at his watch. Having no communication devices made it difficult to make sure everyone was in position. He had given each team more than enough time to get situated but still there was that lingering doubt. Four o’clock. He raised the loudspeaker to his lips.

  “All you men and women in the houses. This is Lieutenant Miller from NORAD. You are totally surrounded. Come out of the house with your hands over your heads. Anyone armed will be shot immediately. You have thirty seconds before we open fire.”

  His words split the night like a predator chasing after its quarry.

  They waited but nothing happened. With ten seconds to go, windows were broken out from inside and guns started firing. It was a wasted effort. They were just firing in hopes of deterring the opposing force. It was a useless gesture. Miller had both houses covered in triangulation and all sides of the two houses were covered. No one was going to shoot their way out.

  “Can you get a flash-bang in that front window?” Miller asked the soldier next to him.

  “Not a problem,” he said as another hail of bullets ripped through the night air.

  A few were starting to come close to where they were kneeling by the edge of a house.

  “Okay. They obviously have no intention of giving up so toss one in and let them know we mean business,” Miller told him.

  The soldier stood up and heaved the grenade through the front window. The explosion that followed blew out the door and part of the front of
the house.

  “For Christ sakes. That wasn’t a flash-bang,” Miller said.

  The soldier shrugged and said, “Oops. Got the wrong one.”

  The Lieutenant looked at him for a second and then just shrugged his shoulders. The firing had stopped. Someone came staggering out of the house and fell down in the front yard. A few seconds later another crawled out moaning.

  “All of you inside the two houses. Come out now or you will all die. This is your last chance,” Miller said.

  This was not the time or place to discuss what the soldier had just done and after all, mistakes do happen.

  Nothing happened for a few seconds then someone yelled out, “Don’t shoot. We are coming out.”

  Suddenly from behind the house across the street, Miller could hear automatic weapons open up. They stopped almost as quickly as they had started.

  “Step out of the house now. Do not have any weapons on you or you will be taken down immediately,” he shouted.

  The door to the other house opened and people began filing out.

  “Walk to the street and lay face down and put your hands behind your back. Don’t make any sudden movements,” he ordered.

  A small fire was starting to take hold of the house that the grenade had been tossed into. Smoke was starting to come through the windows and several places in the roof where fragments had punched through. In less than twenty minutes it was all over. The street was lined with the men and women of the former NMF. It took longer to put out the fire than to subdue the prisoners.

  “Who is in charge?” Miller asked. No one spoke up. He didn’t bother to repeat the question. They gathered them up and marched them back to the NORAD complex. The three Hummers followed along with the .50 caliber machine guns pointed at them. No one tried to run.

  ****

  “Excellent work,” Webber said, shaking Lieutenant Miller’s hand when they returned to NORAD.

  “It went pretty well. Only one of our men was wounded. Nothing serious. A ricochet got him in the forearm. He has already gone to get medical treatment,” Lieutenant Miller said.

  “How many did you get?”

  “Ten dead. Three women and seven men. We brought back the rest as prisoners. Three are hurt pretty badly. I doubt that two of them are going to make it. One of the women will probably pull through.”

  “That leaves four unaccounted for. Four aren’t much of a threat. I take it they must have taken off before you got there.”

  “As far as we can tell. We never accounted for them at any time. They either split or were someplace else in the city. We never saw hide nor hair of them.”

  “Doesn’t matter. You did an outstanding job. We will get the others or find out what happened to them from the prisoners. Have Sergeant Clark do the interrogation. He will find out what they know. Tell him the gloves are off. He is free to do whatever it takes to find out where the others are or what happened to them. He’ll get the message.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Lieutenant, I am proud of the way to handled that. You did a hell of a job and brought our men back without a single loss,” Colonel Webber said.

  “Thank you Sir.”

  “Now we can get on with the business of rebuilding the nation,” Colonel Webber replied.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Pennsylvania

  Randy and the procession finally made it back to the Waynesburg Mining Company. It had been an exhausting trip. With that many traveling together it seemed like they had to stop every other mile.

  The trip took the better part of three days, much longer than Randy had estimated. They had to stop and scavenge food and water on the last day of the trip. Finally they made the last turn that would take them to the mining company.

  “Lord, I thought this would never end,” Billy said.

  “Long trip,” Randy agreed.

  “Never thought I would miss this place so much,” Eric chimed in.

  “Amen to that,” Billy replied.

  They pulled into the compound and found it mostly abandoned. The three of them looked around, startled.

  “What the hell?” Eric said, surprise registering on his face.

  “I don’t get it,” Billy said.

  Randy was already walking toward the dining area when one of the men came out and waved.

  “Damn glad to see you made it back,” he yelled walking towards them.

  “What’s going on? Where is everyone?” Randy asked.

  “You’re in for a big surprise. We have made a lot of changes since you left. I see you brought others with you. They aren’t the only ones. Groups have been showing up for the past two weeks or so. Ten, fifteen, at a time.”

  “So where are they?”

  “I’m the watch. I’m supposed to take you to them when you got back. It isn't far. Come on, I’ll show you.”

  “That was Frank Wilkinson. What’s going on?” Eric asked when Randy returned to the Jeep.

  “Frank said to follow him. I guess they moved to a bigger place. Probably to town. He said people have been showing up for some time now.”

  “Damn. I’m ready for a hot shower and to get out of this Jeep,” Billy lamented.

  “Aren't we all? He said it wasn’t far so let’s get everyone headed out,” Randy replied.

  It took a few minutes to explain to the others what was going on and to get them all turned around and headed back down the road.

  Wilkinson was right; it only took fifteen minutes to get to a subdivision on the outskirts of the town. Cars were in driveways and on the streets. People were working in groups and for the first time since the event, it looked like a normal day in America. Frank led them to a strip center. Cars were in the lot and people were going about the routine business of living.

  “Told you it had changed,” Frank said as he climbed out of the car.

  “That’s an understatement.”

  “Come on. Ben is anxious to see you. He has been like a mother hen worrying about you guys.”

  They went inside a storefront where a counter was in place and several chairs along one wall and some small tables.

  “Holy smokes. Randy, Eric, Billy. Man is it great to see you guys,” Ben said, coming around from behind the counter.

  He shook hands with each of them and gave them a quick hug.

  “Man good to be back. What in the world is going on here?” Randy asked.

  “I see you have brought others with you. Let’s get them situated before I bring you up to speed. Frank, take them over to processing will you?”

  “You got it Ben. Nice to see you boys again,” Frank said as he headed out.

  “I guess we have a lot of catching up to do.”

  “Maybe a tad. I’ll have Holly take over here and we can go in the office and talk.”

  “Man,” Eric said, shaking his head.

  He had been looking out the window as a dump truck pulled up outside the Shop and Save grocery story. Several people came out and began unloading crates and carrying them into the store. Obviously they had a system in place to keep everyone fed. They followed Ben into the back office and settled in.

  “Here is what we have done so far. We have divided people into various work categories. Everyone that is able works. I mean everyone gets assigned a job. We have electrical teams, construction teams, medical people and even trash removal.

  Right now we have electricity to four hundred homes and hope to have even more by the end of the week. We have running water, street lights, and are working on a phone system. Got a ways to go on that still, unfortunately. Everyone gets paid for working. Not in cash but pay vouchers. Each team has a foreman that collects the work cards and checks them off. They bring them here and we issue pay vouchers for food. Everything but food is free. No work, no food. It’s as simple as that.”

  “And that works?” Eric asked.

  “So far. It may not in the long run but it is certainly working for us now. Everyone gets equal pay for work,” he added.

/>   “Even the doctors?”

  “Everyone. We make no differentiation in job descriptions. Men, women, black, tan, white. Everyone works and everyone gets the same pay.”

  “Still, some jobs have got to be harder.”

  “Every job is hard. We don’t have many white collar jobs here. The work that has to be done is mostly physical. No insurance salesmen, car dealers or anything like that.”

  “What about the sick and those who can’t work?”

  “We take care of them. The doctors certify their condition and they become our responsibility. They have been through enough so we try to make it as comfortable as we can,” Ben said.

  “And this is actually working? For real?” Billy said.

  “It seems to be so far. Like I said, when we get bigger it may not go so smoothly. We have had a few problems but we have a grievance committee that steps in and arbitrates if needed. So far we have only had to use that three times.”

  “This is amazing Ben. You have done one heck of a job since we left.”

  “You have done a hell of a job getting people here. All three teams have sent back a lot of people so we could come this far.”

  “How does housing and getting situated in a job work?”

  “They are taken to the reception office and given a map with available houses that have utilities. They can pick any of the ones on the list. The thing is, everyone gets exactly the same amount of water and power. No exceptions, well, except for the business, the school, and the hospital. Water is metered and so is the electricity. The bigger the house the closer you have to watch your usage. So far most people caught on quickly and are taking the smaller houses. They take less electricity and water so they have hot water all the time and do laundry and such. Larger ones eat it up fairly quickly.”

  “What about natural gas?”

  “None so far. Maybe down the road but that is way down the priority list. Keeping up with the needs of the new arrivals is our number one concern.”