The Day America Died! Frozen Apocalypse: After the EMP- A post Apocalyptic America

by A J Newman

  I backed the truck up and signaled to the others to hide their vehicles in the brush on the side of the road.

  “There is a pickup in front of the main building and I see movement in the cab.”

  It was almost daylight and I pulled out my field glasses to see what was going on in the truck.

  “Damn, it looks like a truck load of small children. Scan the area for any people or movement, and then we’ll sneak in and see what’s going on here.

  Davi, I see why your dad sent us here. There is a shit load of military equipment and I’ll bet the buildings are full of supplies.”

  There was no movement except from the kids in the truck, so I sent Joan, Ally and Roger to check out the kids, while Davi, Sam and Ben went to check out the vehicles in the parking lot. Paul, Callie and I headed to the main office while Mike and the others guarded our vehicles.

  Joan followed Ally and Roger into the woods so they could get closer to the pickup without being seen. They stopped before exiting the woods and saw three children playing in the parking lot beside the truck. They kept the end of the truck between them and the kids as they closed the 50 feet to the truck.

  Joan handed her rifle to Roger, walked around the truck and said, “Hello I’m Joan. Is your mommy or daddy here?

  The oldest boy tried to open the door of the truck, but Joan blocked his way.

  “My dad told me to honk the horn if I saw any strangers.”

  Ally said, “We’re not going to hurt you. We want to be your friends.”

  The boy looked up at her and said, “I’ll bet all of the bad people say that before they kill you.”

  Joan replied, “We’re both mommies and would never hurt little children. I have a girl, and Ally has a boy and a girl.”

  “Can we play with them?”

  “Yes, let’s find your daddy and mommy and then you can play.”

  “Our daddy is in that boat building, some bad men killed our mommy.”

  “I’m sorry. I know she is in heaven watching over y’all.”

  We peered through several windows, but couldn’t see anyone in the main building. I sent Paul and Callie around to the back entrance while I entered through the front door.

  I heard some noise coming from the right side of the building and slowly traveled that way. I heard a sound that I hadn’t heard in a while. My mouth started watering as I heard another “pop” and then a “fizz.”

  I was almost to the end of the building when I heard, “My God that was good. Even hot beer beats no beer.”

  I poked my head around the corner, saw a man about my age and build sitting on a table surrounded by beer cans and bags of potato chips. He had an axe on his lap, but no gun.

  I started to speak when he said to himself, “Crap, I forgot the kids.”

  He got up, turned and saw me with a rifle pointed at him.

  “I’m sorry. I was hungry and saw the beer. I would never steal and thought this was abandoned.”

  I replied, “Put the axe down and let’s talk. I don’t want to hurt you and won’t as long as you behave. What are you doing in this army depot?”

  “When the Army bugged out, I came this way to find a cabin and live there until the lights come back on. I just stumbled on this massive cache of supplies. Mister, my kids are outside and probably getting scared. Can we go to them?”

  “Of course. My wife and another woman are out there and they are very good with children.”

  We escorted him outside and all three kids ran to him as soon as he came around the front of the pickup. He hugged them and apologized for being gone so long.

  I said, “Roger, have the team pull down here and we’ll camp here for the night.

  I’ll bet you and the kids haven’t had a home cooked meal in a long time. We’ll have dinner and get to know each other. I’m Zack Johnson.”

  We introduced ourselves and while we exchanged stories Davi, Mike and Jacob inspected the vehicles while Roger, Paul and Lynn searched through the building to see what supplies had been abandoned.

  We slept in shifts, splitting our awake time on guard duty, or loading the trailers with supplies. Jacob and Sam hitched cargo trailers to two of the Humvees and everyone helped load them with supplies, food and ammo. Roger got a Humvee and hooked one of the fuel trailers to it.

  Late in the day I asked, “Forrest, did the Army say why they left in a hurry?”

  “No, the captain just said that they were leaving and that I should take one of their vehicles, load it up with food and get out of here quickly.”

  That worried me and I said, “When did the captain say this?”

  “Yesterday, about noon, as they were leaving. He was very concerned, actually he seemed almost scared.”

  I thought, Oh shit, and yelled for the team to join us.

  “Gather around. Forrest tells me that the Army bugged out yesterday and the captain warned him to get away from here quickly.”

  Davi said, “Oh shit, and he waited to tell us that little tidbit of info until now? We have to gather supplies and bug out also.”

  “I agree. We could be under attack at any moment. Load your vehicles up to the brim with food, water and ammo. We are leaving here in one hour.”

  I caught Forrest and said, “Y’all are welcome to come with us. We are heading away from this area and looking for a safe place to live away from all this turmoil.”

  “I think we’ll just move on down to the bottom of the lake away from whatever is heading this way. I want to set up a home as quickly as possible for my kids.”

  “Okay, but get out of here quickly.”

  “I will leave with you and follow you for a while before I split off back to the lake. I’ll head south on 25 and take a back road over to the bottom of the lake.”

  I said, “We’ll split off on Highway 365 and head south west.

  Oh, by the way, we have some extra guns and I’d like to leave a pistol and rifle with you.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “Come on over to my truck.”

  We walked over to my pickup and I handed him a Springfield M&P15 and a Ruger 9mm plus seven magazines for each weapon plus a hundred rounds for each. I showed him how to operate the M&P15. He was familiar with the Ruger.

  “Thanks for the home cooking and the guns. I never was a gun nut, but these days a gun can come in very handy.

  I guess I need to go steal my kids away from Joan.”

  “Yes she likes little kids.”

  “They like her a lot. Is she married?”

  “No, she’s my ex-wife and her boyfriend was killed a few months back. She loves kids. You need to get to know her. Kids need a mom.”

  “Well it doesn’t matter. I won’t see her again.”

  He shook my hand and said, “I’ll fall in line behind your vehicles and keep going when you peel off. Good luck.”

  “Good luck to you and your kids.”

  He headed over to the far left end on the main building where Joan was playing with the children.

  I heard footsteps behind me and then Ally said, “He seems like a great guy. Joan and he would be a nice couple. She loves his kids.”

  “I suggested that he stay and get to………….” I said before I was cut off by gunfire from the direction Forrest had just gone.

  “Grab your guns. We’re under attack.”

  Several of us ran towards the gunfire while scanning ahead for intruders. There were two more shots, then silence. We got to the end of the building and saw the kids crying. Joan was holding Forrest’s head in her lap.

  He was covered in blood from a wound on his head and another on his left arm. There were three dead strangers dressed in black BDU’s lying on the ground twenty yards away.

  “Joan, what happened?”

  “I was saying goodbye to the kids when we were attacked. One just missed me when Forrest started shooting. He killed the first one and I shot the second as he jumped between the third asshole and me. Forrest killed him as he fell to the
ground.

  Callie, please take the kids while we tend to their father.”

  “Thank God he was here and I just gave him the guns and a quick lesson on how to use them.”

  “You know he was one of those gun control people before the lights went out.”

  “I think he just joined the NRA.”

  The head wound was just a graze that bled profusely and knocked him out. The arm wound was a through-and-through. Joan and Lynn bandaged the wounds and kept pressure on them while we loaded him into the bed of one of the pickups.

  Joan then applied WoundSeal to control the bleeding. She got in to tend to him while we bugged out. We grabbed the attacker’s guns, ammo, ID papers, and hit the road at high speed. We got on Highway 25, headed down to our turn and kept moving as fast we could around the stalled cars.

  We traveled the 40 miles to Highway 45 in a little less than two hours and kept heading south. The ride was getting monotonous as we weaved around the stalled cars and watched for ambushes.

  ‘Boredom with a chance of sheer terror,’ is the phrase we coined for driving along the highways of the USA. It was still daylight and I felt very uncomfortable driving while everyone along the road was up and moving around. Thank God, there were fewer stalled cars out on the open road.

  We stopped at 1:00 am for lunch and bathroom breaks. As usual, it was a cold meal of meat, crackers and canned fruit.

  Joan opened the conversation by asking, “What do we do with Forrest? He wanted to stay by the lake and here we are a hundred miles from there.”

  Mike replied, “We can’t stop and wait for him to recover enough to take care of his kids, and we can’t just dump them on the side of the road.

  Joan is taking good care of him and certainly seems to becoming attached to the children. I say we just have to deal with him when he gets better.”

  The moon was bright as I looked around at the faces and said, “Look, if we hadn’t been there he would have had to deal with those men by himself. They could have killed him and left the kids to die. Joan, how is he doing?”

  “He’ll have one hell of a head ache when he wakes up and he won’t be using his arm for a while, but all in all he’s doing okay. I’ll be worried if he doesn’t wake up by tomorrow afternoon. I agree on taking them with us.”

  We stopped before sunrise at an abandoned farm supply store on Highway 8 just off 45 for the night. There were no lights on in any of the houses and we always had guards so it should be another calm night.

  Davi told me that her dad had contacted her and both exchanged statements that all was going well and so far, everyone was safe.

  Aaron asked if we had found any groceries along the way and Davi replied that we had found some but a bear ran us off before we could get our fill.

  “Davi, I guess it gets kinda weird talking to your dad in code words.”

  “Well, it used to be, but not so much now. Of course, we do have to change call signs regularly to help make sure no one is trying to pinpoint our position.

  Dad and mom change up talking and I use Ben to rotate up with me. I know how important the secrecy is so I don’t mind.”

  “Well I want to thank you for you for all your help. Most of us would be dead or slaves by now if we hadn’t met you.”

  “Thanks. That’s what friends are for.”

  Ally and I settled on top of our sleeping bags with mosquito netting above us. The further south we traveled the more the annoying little bastards tried to make blood withdrawals. The netting worked while we slept, but I wondered what we would do in South America when the insect repellent wore off.

  “Darling, I was just wondering about our trip south and the diseases that we could encounter.”

  I rolled over towards her and said, “Yes, we won’t have drugs for malaria, typhus or a dozen other diseases. Scares the crap out of me.”

  “Zack, even if we stayed in the USA all drugs will eventually run past their useable lives. I wonder how far back this will set mankind.”

  “I’m not sure how the rest of the world was affected. South America could be untouched.”

  “I think that would be great, but will they want a flood of Americans, Canadians and Mexicans flooding into their countries?”

  “I guess we’ll find out in a few months.”

  I was thinking about a most uncomfortable life in a Brazilian jungle when I fell asleep.”

  ***

  I awoke to a gunshot and heard, “Dad, wake up,” being yelled at me.

  My eyes opened and I saw Callie standing over me.

  “Dad, someone tried to steal some of our food and supplies.”

  I bolted upright, wiped the sleep from my eyes and said, “What happened,” as I buckled my holster and grabbed my AR, Ally jumped out of bed and joined us.

  “Some kids distracted us while someone tried to steal from the trailers. The kids were working too hard to get my attention so I turned away and caught a glimpse of someone by one of our trailers. I asked Jacob to watch the kids while I checked on the trailers. The man saw me coming and pointed a pistol at me. I shot him.”

  Ally asked, “What happened to the kids?”

  “Jacob caught the smallest two, but the larger two ran into the woods.”

  “Ben, Joan and Callie, check the trailers to see what is missing.”

  I walked over to where Jacob had the two small kids corralled and found a small boy and smaller girl. They couldn’t be more than five years old.

  “Jacob, it looks like you caught some master thieves.”

  The boy replied, “We ain’t no thieves. Joe said we wuz just collecting taxes from people travelling on our road.”

  “The road belongs to you.”

  “No, Joe said it belongs to him.”

  “Is he your dad?”

  “No. He found us when some bad people killed our mom and papa. We work for him collecting taxes.”

  “What happened to the bad people?”

  “We never saw them. Joe said he run ‘em off. We were sleepin’ when they killed our folks.”

  “Are the other two kids your brother and sister?”

  “No. They were with Joe when he saved us. The girl is Joe’s wife and the boy is her brother.”

  Ben returned and said, “They only took a few packages of food. They dropped most of what they were stealing when Jacob and Callie surprised them.”

  “At least we can be thankful that they weren’t very talented thieves.”

  I caught Callie off to the side and asked, “How old were the other kids?”

  “Dad the boy was maybe 15 and the girl was 12 or 13. I heard what the little boy said. That asshole is a pedophile. We need to shoot him again, maybe ‘bout ten more times. He has probably scarred that poor girl for the rest of her life.”

  I walked back to the kids and asked, “Can you find your house where you stayed with the man, Joe?”

  “Yes sir, it’s the next house on the left down that way.”

  I hoped that we could catch the two teenagers and help them recover their lives, so I picked up my rifle and waved at Davi, Roger, Ben and Paul to follow me to the house. We got closer to the house, but we were too late. There were tail lights a half mile down the road and we could hear the engine roar as they drove away.

  “They’re gone, but let’s check the house for other kids and maybe find what they stole from us.”

  We carefully entered the house and cleared each room and the garage. There was nothing of value, but we saw signs that they had been living there for some time.

  “Zack, the bastards are living like pigs. This guy was a filthy sumbitch.”

  “Okay, there’s nothing we can do here. Let’s go back to the camp.”

  We walked into the camp and saw Ally and Callie watching the two kids sleep. Ally told us they were brother and sister and their names were Johnny and Karen Swope. They are from Citronelle, Alabama. Their family was heading north to live with their uncle in Meridian when the bad guys killed their mom an
d papa.

  The little girls head was in Ally’s lap and she was stroking the girl’s hair.

  Ally said, “These two will be okay. They never knew they were breaking the law and harming people. We can help them through this and they will become good adults.”

  I bit my lip and said, “We’ll check with a few people in Meridian as we pass through to see if anyone knows their uncle, but it will be lucky if we find him. Perhaps we can find a good home for the kids along the way to Mobile.”

  Ally replied, “What if we can’t find good homes for the kids?”

  I replied, “We have picked up one wounded man and five children this week. We simply can’t keep saving everyone in this screwed up world. We have to save ourselves before we can save anyone else.”

  “You’re not proposing that we drop these kids off with the first people we see. Are you?”

  I saw the look in Ally’s eyes and replied, “Of course not, but we can’t keep adding children, or adults, to a boat that we don’t even know the size of.”

  “We can take two boats.”

  Damn, she had me there, so I replied, “We need to find more food on the way or these kids will starve on the trip to South America.”

  “We need to find some ocean fishing gear. I heard the Gulf of Mexico has fish.”

  I could only choke down my usual smart assed reply and said, “Yes dear, great idea.”

  ***

  Air Force Base

  Aaron and his wife checked out the military semis and none would start. The batteries were dead, and there was no way to recharge them. He walked back to their truck and drove it over to where the semis were parked. He tried to jump start one from the truck’s battery, but the truck’s starter only clicked. He disconnected the trailer. Sharon checked each semi and discovered that every single one was an automatic shift…no push start.

  “Sharon, let’s hook the jumper cables up to the semi and charge the batteries with our truck. It will take a while, but I’m sure it will work.”

  While the batteries were being charged, they filled up the fuel tanks, five gallons at a time, from the fuel depot.