by C A Bird
He held her for a moment until she stopped struggling. He heard a car pass on the left, and a screech as a pickup skidded to a stop in front of the Cavalier. Two large, burly men threw open the doors of the pickup and started back toward the Chevy. Aaron, on his knees, was dragging the woman toward him.
“Move over now, or I’ll throw you out!”
She slid over and he roughly scrambled across her and slipped behind the wheel. The automatic transmission was already in reverse and the car had continued to move backward, but the men were almost upon him.
“Leave her alone you Goddamn nigger!” one of the men yelled as he reached the front of the car, smashing his fist on the hood. Aaron stomped on the accelerator and the car jumped backward. He turned the wheel, backing completely off the road into thick brush and shoved the car into drive. With tires squealing and kicking up clouds of thick dust, and the rear end fishtailing, he sped back in the direction from which the woman had originally come. For a minute he drove without watching her, trying to regain control of the car, and his breathing, after the close call. When he was satisfied he wasn’t being followed he slowed down and glanced over at the woman. She was younger than he originally thought, younger than his thirty years. She had stopped crying and was staring straight ahead murmuring something under her breath. She seemed to be praying.
“Look, ma’am, I did you a favor. There was a colossal traffic jam on the main highway and you would have been stuck for good. I needed a car to get around it. Now you can go with me, or I can drop you off, but I need this car. What do you want to do?”
She looked over at him. “Please take me home. I was going to pick up my kids.”
“You wouldn’t have gotten through anyway. Where’s your husband?”
“He’s on his way home from work. He called and told me to get the kids.” She started to cry again.
His tone softened, “Look, I’ll get you home and you can wait for him. Then you can try to get your children. But don’t take the main road again or you’ll get stuck. Where do you live?”
She directed him to turn ahead and pointed to a small isolated wood-frame house about a quarter mile away. He pulled into a dirt driveway in front of the house and she started to open the door. He reached over and took her arm, “Wait a minute. I know of a bomb shelter in the mountains north of here. If you get your family together you can try to make it there.” He lifted his rear, pulling the map out of his back pocket. “Do you have a pen?”
She fished around in her purse and handed him a pen and a grocery receipt. He drew a quick sketch and handed it back to her. “Stay away from main roads and get there as quickly as possible. If the bombs are coming now there won’t be much time. I’m a doctor and that’s where I’m heading. Good luck lady, I’m sorry I had to take your car.” She stepped back and slammed the door as he gunned the engine.
“My God,” he thought, as he raced down the road. “I can’t believe this thing is really happening.”
FOUR
August 21, 1:30 p.m.
Sangre de Cristo Mountains, NM
Pete peeked through thick bushes that separated him from the magnificent buck on the far side of the clearing. He motioned to Sandi to approach quietly and when she reached his side he whispered to her, “Get a picture of this. It’s a Rocky Mountain Mule Deer.” He pointed to the clearing and heard her intake of breath as she saw the animal only thirty feet from her.
“It’s beautiful”, she whispered, as she brought up the camera for a shot. Suddenly the buck raised its head and gazed intently in their direction. It poised only a moment and then, as if they had shouted, leaped away so quickly Pete wasn’t sure which way it had gone.
The camera clicked.
Pete laughed and grabbed Sandi from behind. “Oh, that should be a great shot! Rocky Mountain bushes.”
“Pete let go of me!” She wriggled and turned in his arms, looking up into his eyes. They froze for a moment and he kissed her, a kiss that for him meant forever, as he became aware that his feelings for her had changed overnight.
“Hey, we’d better get back to camp,” he told her. “If we don’t start back before long we won’t get to the car before dark.”
They retraced the route they’d taken on the way from their camp. They’d been out all morning, carrying their lunch and supplies in a small daypack and Sandi had shot an unbelievable number of photos. She always took too many with the assumption that she would delete many of them when she downloaded them to her computer - but she never did.
They’d strayed a considerable distance from their campsite, traveling west into the high country and passing the trail leading down into the canyon. This portion of the footpath led along the southern edge of the colossal canyon. Pete looked across the abyss and pointed to the other side, “Hey Sandi, look over there. What a huge group of hunters.” Although the rim of the canyon was quite distant Sandi could see a large group of people dressed in hunters’ blaze orange. She waved at them.
“Hey, wait a minute.” Pete said. “It’s too early for hunting season. Large and small game seasons usually start in the fall, though sometimes bow and arrow hunts are held earlier. I wonder if they’re poachers. It’s probably better not to attract their attention.”
He had no idea how lucky they were that there was a monster canyon between them and thirteen homicidal maniacs.
The trail veered away from the edge as they retraced their path, coming to the brook they crossed on the way out, six feet across, with several large rocks forming a natural bridge. Pete took Sandi’s hand and stepped gingerly on a rock, damp and slick with algae. His foot slipped, and trying to catch himself, he threw out his other leg, landing on his butt in a foot of water. Sandi started to laugh, and then shrieked, as Pete jumped up and pulled her after him and they both toppled backward into the pool. She fell on top of him and they splashed around, getting completely soaked.
“Oh damn! Pete, you retard, look at me!” She jumped up and promptly slipped down again on the slick rocks. He managed to keep his footing and pulled her to her feet, both of them laughing so hard they hurt. Sloshing to the edge of the stream, he retrieved her camera where she had thrown it clear, and handed it to her.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” he said. But he wasn’t. “Now that we’re already soaked let’s head downstream, it’ll be quicker than taking the winding trail. Otherwise we’ll get chilled before we can dry off.”
They traveled downstream, crisscrossing it several more times, and finally reached camp and dry clothes. They’d only brought one extra set of clothing apiece so they hung the others on a tree limb to dry in the sun.
“We should let them dry a bit before we stuff them in our packs so they won’t mildew. I guess we can wait a while before we head back since we saved some time by staying with the stream. Do you want a snack?” He pulled out a bag of dried fruit and tore off the top.
“I’m dying for McDonald’s. How about a Quarter Pounder with cheese. And with onions. Can you arrange it?”
“This’ll have to do.” He handed the bag to her and flopped down on his sleeping bag. “We made good time. We don’t need to start back for an hour. I don’t know about you but I came up here for rest and relaxation so I’m going to take a nap.”
“That sounds like a winner. Me too.” She lay down beside him. He looked over at her, took her hand and pulled her closer. Just as they started to embrace there was a brilliant flash in the southern sky followed almost immediately by another and still another. The flash was so bright it temporarily blinded them as they jumped to their feet.
“What in the world was that?” asked Pete.
“I don’t know. It almost looked like an explosion.”
They watched as the light faded and suddenly noticed that there was a dead calm to the forest. The usual background noises, birds chirping, even leaves rustling had stopped. Deathly silence.
“Look!” he cried, pointing south in the direction the light had come from.
She looked
up, already having a gut feeling what she would see. Rising above the trees in the far distance were three oddly shaped clouds, billowing mushrooms, one large and two smaller ones, as if they were at a greater distance, that were already spreading out in the stratosphere due to the extreme altitude they’d reached by the time the couple espied them above the trees.
“Oh my God!” moaned Pete, “My parents!” He grabbed at Sandi’s hand. “Come on let’s go!”
She snatched her hand away and held up both in front of her as she backed away. “Pete, don’t be a fool! If that was a nuclear bomb we can’t go back there. We have to stop and think a minute. It would be too dangerous with radiation or heat or something.”
“But it looked like it came from the direction of Las Vegas,” he pleaded. “I have to go. Sandi, Please!”
“No! Stop and think a minute, okay? If it was a bomb, we’d die, and if it wasn’t, then there's no reason to go rushing back. Let’s just keep our heads. I think we ought to take the equipment. We might need it if there’s really something wrong. Then we should go back down to the highway and see if we can get some news. Let’s stuff our bags. Come on.” She grabbed the clothes off the tree limb and put them in her pack. Her actions calmed him slightly,
“You’re right, I . . . I’m sorry. I’m just scared for my folks and my brother. If it’s an atomic bomb they might all be dead.” His heart was in his throat as he threw the other supplies in their packs, and then, with a renewed surge of panic, grabbed her hand and started on the return trip to the car.
The silence persisted as they hurried down the trail, Sandi almost having to run to keep up with the pace Pete was setting. Finally, regardless of what she’d said earlier, she dropped her pack and ran to catch him.
A few minutes later, they heard the noise. The most terrifying noise either of them had ever heard. She went to him and he held her.
A low rumble, it gained in volume until it was a steady roar even though the distance muted it. They held each other, imagining they could feel the sound vibrating in their bones, a death knell for civilization. She buried her head in his shoulder trying to block it out.
***
Sunlight reflected off something metallic across the canyon, catching Arby’s eye. He detected movement and realized he was seeing people.
“Hey, dudes! Come here!” He yelled at the others. Three of the men joined him at the canyon’s edge where he was pointing toward the south.
Moose shook his head, “So what? Look at the size of that fucking canyon. It would take us the rest of the day to cross it, even if we could find a way down. I say we go back the way we came. At least there’s water in the bottom of that last canyon.”
“There’s water in the bottom of this one too,” said Arby pointing down into the ravine. “Look, by the big rock, you can see it.”
Bobby Bennett agreed. “Yeah, he’s right. I can see it. Those dudes probably have food and they must have a car somewhere.”
“We still don’t know if we could find a road if we went back. I say let’s go on.” Anders said. Arby was surprised Anders agreed with him. He had bitched vehemently when they initially started up the game trail, having wrenched his knee badly in the bus crash.
They went back to the others and, with a lot of cursing and shouting, talked them into continuing.
They couldn’t see a trail on their side but could see that the couple on the other side was obviously following one. They assumed the couple had to have backpacks and all thirteen of them became very excited at the prospect of acquiring them and the food they must contain. Just then the smaller of the two people waved in their direction and Arby could tell it was a woman. This excited him more than the prospect of getting his hands on the packs. “Come on!” he yelled. “Let’s find the fucking trail!” The cliff before them was too steep to climb down so they crashed through the bushes along the precipice searching for a way down.
“Dude, check it out.” Ramirez pointed to the other side at a faint line crisscrossing up the opposite canyon wall. “That’s a trail. If it goes down it has to come back up this side. Come on you guys. Spread out” He hurried farther along to the west, looking for the trail down.
Twenty minutes later they found it. It led over the edge and began a series of long switchbacks. They were becoming weak from hunger but headed down the trail with renewed vigor. The switchbacks caused the trail to be much longer than they originally thought and by the time they’d descended to the bottom of the gorge they were exhausted, even though they’d been going downhill. Arby, Bennett, Ferrar and Ramirez arrived first, the rest of the band lagging behind. They threw themselves down beside the river to rest after slaking their thirst in a small pool with a huge overhanging rock. Ferrar, looking in the water upstream, slowly came to his feet, climbed the rock and crept stealthily toward the pool. He jumped in headfirst, surfacing in a spray of silver droplets with something wriggling in his hands and flinging water everywhere!
“I got the son-of-a-bitch!” He had a large Brown Trout held securely by the gills. The men came to their feet, gathering around him as he waded to shore. The other ex-prisoners arrived, grousing, but ran over when they saw the fish.
“How we gonna to eat it? We ain’t got no knife,” complained Ramirez.
“Don’t need one.” Ferrar said as he pulled with both hands, his biceps bulging. The fish split apart, red blood droplets splashing his face as the head of the fish snapped off in one hand.
Ferrar returned to the pool and washed the blood off the fish. Laying it on a large, flat rock he looked around for a smaller one with an edge. They all searched until Bennett came up with one that would suffice. Ferrar, wielding it like a crude knife, ripped the fish apart, pulled out the backbone and hacked the fish into pieces, skin still attached.
“I ain’t gonna eat no raw fish.” Ramirez said.
“Great, Asshole, that leaves more for the rest of us.” Ferrar told him.
Each man ate a small portion including Ramirez whose hunger overcame his squeamishness. They were eating the fish right off the skin when the sky lit up with a strange radiance.
“Shit, what the hell was that?” Arby was holding his arm over his eyes as he looked up out of the canyon. The light faded slowly.
“Must have been the sun hitting a cloud or something. That was fucking weird.” Bennett said.
“If we don’t get out of this hole we’ll never catch the bastards,” said Arby. “Let’s get moving. Come on, drink up.” They all drank as much as they could and started following the trail along the river looking for a way out of the canyon.
“Shut up! Listen. Do you guys hear something?” asked Arby. They all shushed and listened expectantly. “I thought I heard an engine, but it’s gone now.” They listened, shrugged, and kept going, thinking of the food in the backpacks of the hikers.
As they trudged along the bottom of the canyon they missed the vegetation covered trail, and continued upstream along the river. Darkness came quickly in the depths of the canyon and when it became too dark to continue they settled down beside the river to spend another long, cold night.
August 21, 2:45 p.m.
Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, NM
Kristen had used an ovulation test kit and, smiling with anticipation, informed her husband Lieutenant Jason Douglas, it was time. She went back into the bathroom to freshen up.
Jason had taken the entire week off for them to enjoy a second honeymoon and had unplugged the home phones and turned off the cells that morning to ensure they wouldn’t be disturbed.
After their marriage, they’d waited for two years to have a baby, while she finished her enlistment and he finished his Bachelor’s degree. Discontinuing the pill six months ago, they’d been using condoms until the time was right.
She and Jason had met at Howard Air Force Base in Panama, where she worked as a secretary at the Tactical Air Command headquarters, and he worked as Security Police. At the time, Kristin still had a year left of her enlistm
ent and intended to return to civilian life. Jason was a lifer.
After her discharge, Jason had been transferred to Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico where they were married. He finished his degree at the University of New Mexico with a major in physics and applied for, and recently completed Officer Training School. Kristen had stayed in Albuquerque working in a lawyer’s office as a legal secretary until he was commissioned and returned to Kirtland.
Now he worked at KUMSC, the Air force’s nuclear weapons storage facility. He enjoyed the assignment. The facility was fairly modern and technologically advanced since the Air Force had transferred the weapons from Monzano Mountain within the last decade. Jason’s passion was nuclear physics and he hoped to continue his education and earn an advanced degree that would enable him to become one of the military’s greatest authorities on nuclear war. He was especially interested in the effects of nuclear radiation on military and civilian populations during a nuclear conflagration and had written several papers on the subject.
Jason had gone to Home Depot in the morning to buy supplies to repair the sprinkler system and, returning home after noon, they’d spent a leisurely couple of hours having lunch and just enjoying a rare day together. The last two years had been hectic, with him going to school and her working, earning enough money to afford a family. With the phone unplugged they had no idea Jason’s commander had ordered him contacted to report for duty, or that the base had gone to ThreatCon Delta.
Standing at the bathroom sink Kristen heard a noise, and turned just as Jason swept her into his arms and carried her to the bed. Their lips met, tongues probing passionately. She pushed him away laughing.
“Jason, pull the drapes. Do you want the whole neighborhood to see us conceive our first child?”
“What the hell, this is a pretty boring street. We could liven it up a bit.” He got up and pulled the heavy drapes shutting out most of the midday sunshine. She stood with him, hugging him from behind, swaying against him seductively as she reached around him, unbuttoning his pants as he took off his shirt. He turned around and continued to kiss her, with increasing passion, as he undressed her. Jason’s twenty seven year old body was hard and well-muscled and he had obviously been thinking about this moment. She became excited looking at him, touching him, caressing him. He gently shoved her back on the bed.
