by James Hunt
Just then, the door to the studio burst open with an army of swat team members at the helm. They stormed down the hall with their weapons drawn, ready to capture Paul--the suspected terrorist--and take him in. As their hustling footsteps grew louder, Paul screamed into the microphone in one last gasp.
"Senator Bryant! He's the key to everything. His group is living in a bunker underneath the Denver airport. They know everything. This is the truth. It's the only thing we have left. My name is Paul Thompson, I'm nobody, but my wife came across this information because she was there. Her name is Samantha. The media have labeled us terrorists, but they're lying. They're lying to each and every one of you. The megabomb is in the hands of the real terrorists and I suspect they're going to try to attack us very soon. The American people must stop this. We've suffered enough, but if this bomb goes off, there's no going back."
Arthur monitored the switchboard nervously as he heard the sounds of police barreling into the studio, shouting at them to get on the ground. Paul raised his hands in the air and moved to the floor. The show was over.
Ammon's "Brotherhood" had set up camp in Austin, Texas. If Sacha suspected anything, it was that Austin was their final stop. The mere mention of Texas by Ammon had Sacha thinking. Ammon claimed to not know more than a snippet of their plan, but the minute he mentioned Texas, Sacha knew they planned to deploy the bomb there. To take out the largest and one of the most populated states in the country made perfect sense. Who knew how many surrounding states would perish as well.
They parked--one semi-trailer and two vans--at a deserted rest stop outside the city limits and remained there for days, quiet and patient. The mood had changed as the days past, but their new collective excitement led Sacha to believe that the plan was growing into fruition. They prayed constantly, and seemed to be closer than ever to achieving some type of magnanimous goal. Ammon approached Sacha and inquired him about his inevitable conversion.
"Now's the time my friend."
"For what?" Sacha asked.
"For you to denounce your religious upbringing and join us in the afterlife. It won't take long. Just a simple ceremony."
"What are you planning to do?" Sacha asked. "Are you detonating the bomb?"
Ammon smiled in his familiar manner. "Maybe we are, maybe we aren't. I told you that our plan is only known to a few. We can't risk compromise at any level."
"I'm totally on-board, Ammon," Sacha said. "I would just like to know what is going on."
"Only Rashad truly knows," Ammon responded.
Sacha looked past the semi-trailer to see Rashad talking intensely with the others. He had a small burlap sack over his shoulder. Sacha surmised it to be the detonator switch without a doubt. The mannerisms of the group told him they had come this far to finish the job. He had to get to Rashad and get the controller before they enacted their plan. He approached the group with sincere friendliness. Rashad took immediate notice of him. The Austin sun was just over the horizon, giving a mirage of pocketed heat slowly rising above the pavement. Ammon hadn't finished talking with Sacha and was taken aback by his abrupt departure.
Rashad was in the middle of a lively story told in his native Arabic tongue as Sacha approached him. The others took no real mind of him, and listened intently as Rashad continued. He was in the middle of telling a story about a man trying to travel to Mecca and enduring foolish hardship the entire way. The character was in similar vain to Charlie Chaplin; a love-struck hobo trying to win a girl's affection. Only this time, the man had to choose between his supposed true love and completing the journey to Mecca. In the middle of the story, Sacha approached.
"Can I help you?" Rashad asked.
The others in the group stared down Sacha suspiciously. He had gotten uncomfortably close to their leader, but they never thought him to pose much of a threat.
"I would like to ask you a quick question," Sacha replied.
"What is it?" Rashad asked.
Sacha drew close, nearly touching him. "I just wanted to know how long we're staying here."
Rashad laughed heartedly to no end. His long beard shook with his laughter as he cradled to the ground. He rose with a hand on Sacha's shoulder. "You really shouldn't worry about such things, but I can assure you that we're not going anywhere for a while. You might even say that this is our last stop."
With that, Sacha jerked forward and swiped the satchel off of Rashad's shoulder. The guerrillas and the others immediately circled Sacha in a fury. Sacha backed away from Rashad and fished out the controller device in the bag. Once he pulled it out, he held it up in a threatening manner.
"Back the fuck off, all of you! Was this your plan? Did you think that I was just going to let you do it?" Sacha yelled.
The group nearly charged Sacha when Rashad raised a hand in the air, signaling them to halt. "Now, Sacha, I don't know what kind of impression you've gotten from us, but I think you're terribly mistaken," Rashad said calmly.
"You've been driving this fucking bomb across America with the intent to use it. But I have the controller now and I'm going to destroy it." Sacha raised the controller into the air and flung it down on the ground violently with a series of kicks to the device that broke it into pieces. With heavy, panting breaths, Sacha looked to the shocked group before him. "I'm not going to let you do it. Do what you want to me, but I'm not going to let this happen," he said.
Rashad gave Sacha a curious look just as Ammon approached with a similar device in his hand.
"I apologize, I guess you were all right about Sacha after all," he said. He then looked to Sacha and spoke ominously. "They long suspected that when the test of true loyalty came, you would turn against us. They warned me, but I saw something in you from the first time we met. You looked scared and alone. My feelings got in the way. I wanted to help you. In the process I failed my brothers."
Ammon looked Sacha squarely in the eyes with a wounded expression. "I must say, I'm hurt by your actions. Not surprised, but hurt. You were never one of us, and it was foolish of me to try to change that. My brothers were right. That's why we gave Rashad the decoy controller, to see who the true traitor was."
Sacha stared at the mess of plastic and wires below his feet as the Brotherhood encircled him. "You can't do this. Ammon, please, don't do this," Sacha pleaded.
Ammon approached him with astute assurance.
"Sacha, my friend, it's already done."
As he finished his words, Ammon pressed a red button on the controller module. Sacha heard the whirring mechanisms of the bomb in the trailer next to them. A flash of light followed and then there was nothing.
Paul's broadcast had ended. Three police stood overhead as he knelt on the grown with his hands behind his head. The lights on their rifles blinded him, but he did his best to comply.
"Now get on your stomach!" the officer shouted.
Arthur recoiled behind his switchboard, trying to stay out of sight, but the police had already seen him. Paul carefully moved his hands and slowly went to the ground. As soon as his face felt the tile, a boot pushed onto his back, holding him there. Paul looked across the floor and saw Arthur in the same position. He gave Arthur a saddened smile that said, "We tried."
"Put your arms behind your back," the officer continued.
Paul moved his arms uncomfortably to his back as the officer furthered his instructions.
"Keep your fingers out and your palms showing."
Just as the handcuffs went over his wrist and clicked, a rumbling came like a small tremor of an earthquake. The building shook and bits of insulation fell from the ceiling. The police officers looked around in confusion as the vibration grew louder and louder to the then massive rumbling of a tidal wave. There was intense heat followed by an avalanche of nuclear flare jettisoning throughout the studio in a violent, sweeping burst that reduced it to ash. Thousands of lives erased in the blink of an eye.
Samantha and Julie felt a ground tremor from inside the cavern. Dust and pebbles fell from above,
startling them. Samantha had a premonition, a sick premonition that something awful was happening.
"Move in back of the cave," she told Julie as they stood up.
Julie looked at her like she was crazy. "Why would we go further into a cave that's falling apart? We'll be crushed."
Samantha was undeterred by Julie's concern, and pulled her along. She knew. She could feel it in her insides. The rumbling was from the bomb. The bastards had detonated the bomb.
"Run!" she yelled to Julie while pulling her along deeper and deeper in the cavern. The light from her flashlight bounced violently along their path. The ground shook more forcefully as Samantha realized she was going to have to make a choice.
"We can die in here, or we can die out there," she thought.
The narrow path twisted and turned as the ceiling got lower and lower. They Samantha crouched with every hurried step as the air become more damp and restrictive. They came to a point where Samantha couldn't move any longer, so she sat against the wall breathing heavily with Julie in one hand and her flickering flashlight in the other. The vibrations got heavier and it seemed as the entire cavern felt as though it was going to crash in. Samantha couldn't hold back the tears from squeezing out of her shut eyelids.
"Julie, close your eyes, baby," Samantha said squeezing her hand tightly.
"What's happening?" Julie cried.
"It will all be over soon, I promise, it will be over soon."
One last violent shock and the cave rattled the flashlight out, leaving them in the pitch black.
Outside the cavern and below the mountain, a wave of thermal nuclear vehemence eradicated the forest and everything in its path like a thousand degree tsunami of death. It passed through in the Rocky Mountains in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but ash and ember in its wake. All was quiet and dead, though the mountains were still standing without rhyme or reason. It was a bit of the old world still remaining in the new.
The nuclear explosion spread in a vast circular radius from Texas, through New Mexico, Colorado, and part of Wyoming. The states above Texas: Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska were obliterated, along the surroundings states to the east: Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri. The culmination of the early nuclear strikes and the detonation of the megabomb had rendered America into something different, as planned. The surviving states and people would be among the residents of a once vibrant country reduced to a vast nuclear wasteland. For the survivors of the states hit--and there were many of them--they would face the unknown. They would be on an endless search for civilization, for some place that existed outside the darkened skies of a nuclear winter. Some would find home, some would find other states, but their own futures, and that of the nation's was a cataclysmic uncertainty. Could there be such a thing as a post-nuclear world? Could they live in a post-apocalyptic era where half of the nation's population was wiped out? Only time would tell.
Samantha and Julie were the very survivors faced with those types of questions. After the tremors ended, Samantha opened her eyes to only find more darkness. They would have to feel their way out. Miraculously, the cave did not fall in on itself, and Samantha hoped and prayed that no obstruction had fallen in the path.
"Is it over?" Julie asked.
"I think so, let's move," Samantha answered.
They crawled back the way they had come with Samantha feeling along the path before them. As the space got bigger and they had room to stand and walk, Samantha felt an uncomfortable heat radiating in the air. They reached a point where they could see light. Samantha pulled Julie along, eager to see what awaited them outside. Perhaps it was only a light earthquake and nothing more. Her paced quickened and she could see the opening of the cave leading right out of the mountain.
"Almost there," Samantha said.
They reached the end of the cave and were met with a fowl, almost toxic air. Samantha jumped back and hit the wall of the cave. Julie took a step back as well, holding a hand over her mouth.
"Julie, get back," Samantha ordered.
She took a few steps away from the opening of the cave and leaned against the wall with her mom. Samantha's mind raced. What had happened? She could smell the fire, the smoke, and the ash. Her worst horrors had been confirmed. The terrorists had detonated the bomb. And Oh my God, Paul! She had to get to Paul. Maybe he had survived as well. Maybe it wasn't that large of an explosion.
She told Julie to stay as she ventured forward to look out into what was left of the Rocky Mountains. The first thing she noticed was the color. Everything was gray and black, even the sky. It looked as if a forest fire had vanquished the entire landscape in a matter of seconds. There was so much smoke in the air, it was hard to breathe. Whatever radiation in the air that existed was invisible. Samantha was sure that from the moment they emerged from the cavern, radiation would envelop them. Her knees grew weak, and she started to shake uncontrollably. She leaned to the wall and fell, defeated and anguished. Julie rose from and put her arms around Samantha as her mother wailed in silent sobs that soon grew into full-fledged outbursts of pain and sorrow. Julie rubbed her back as Samantha dropped closer to the ground. Her tears dripped into a small puddle in the blackened dirt.
"It's okay," Samantha cried out, trying her best to console her own daughter.
With her arms around her, Julie tried to pull her mom back up before she hit the ground.
"Don't worry about me. We're alive...that's all that matters. We're alive," Samantha continued.
"I know, Mom," Julie said, too shocked for protest and too numb to feel anything. She did the only thing that she knew, at the time, she was capable of: show her mother love.
Samantha rose to her knees, put her arms around Julie, and squeezed. They held each other as smoke trails drifted by the opening of the cavern venturing upwards into the ashen sky.
Epilogue
New World
I don't even know if there's any point to writing you, Tommy, but maybe you got lucky like we did and survived. I used to write to my friend, Jessica, but I doubt that she's alive anymore. You know what's funny? I never sent Jessica the letters I wrote, but would get upset when she didn't write back. I must be losing my mind. Where do I start? Me and Paul found my mom, we ran here and there, then the police chased us, and me and my mom hid in a cave waiting for Paul to return. He never did though. We walked out of the cave and the entire forest was scorched. That's the word my mom used. She said, "scorched." The ground was hot like if you walked on a fire pit the day after. I didn't feel safe. Neither did my mom. She held a rag over her face and told me to do the same.
She said we needed protective clothing and that we would have to find a way. No one was around. Not a soul. There wasn't even an animal. A bird. A bug. A beetle. Nothing. By the time we got to the highway, my mom was in pain. Her sandals had worn out and she could barely walk anymore. She said she had bad cramps. I don't know. I felt really bad for her. We could see miles down the road where you could at least see part of the buildings of the city, but there was nothing but smoke. I mentioned the bunker at the airport which just made her more upset. She said we'd never make it on foot in our condition anyway. The best thing we could do, she said, was to go back into the mountains and rest until maybe it became easier to breath.
The next day we ventured out again after my mom wrapped her feet with what cloth we had left. We came to the last of our water. That was the biggest problem. She said we would have to find a creek somewhere or we would be in trouble. But wouldn't the water be contaminated? That's what I asked her. She said we would have to see, but if we didn't get any food or water soon we would be hurting. I started to wonder if it wasn't better just to be dead. I mean, what we were going through seemed actually worse. We couldn't go that far out because my mom was getting sick and she was very tired. One day while she slept I decided to go out and see how far I could go to find us supplies. Most of the forest was burnt down anyway, but at least there were trees in the mountains. I'm not much of a mountain climber. May
be I'll have to learn.
So I was going up the mountain when I came across a group of people bundled up completely. They were even wearing gas masks. I screamed and ran, but they caught me. I thought I was going to die, but they took me to their place in the mountain and gave me food and water and new clothes. They're like some kind of survival people. "Preppers" they called themselves. They had a prepping community. I told them that we had kids at our school that we called "preppy," but I don't think they're the same thing. I couldn't wait for my mom to meet them. So we came and got my mom, and they helped her not be so sick again. The man and woman who run the place are named Jack and Cindy. They're nice, I think. But I don't really trust anyone anymore. I mean, I barely trusted you. We live with them now in some underground place. They said we're going up in a couple of days, once we get rest, and we're going to leave Colorado. They said we're going to find a place where there's still life. Hope to see you soon.
Samantha was badly dehydrated when Jack and his prepper group found her. There was no telling how much longer she would have lasted. They placed her on a stretcher and carried her to their underground bunker, further up the mountain. There were ten people in all, living within the tight confines. But they had food, water, clothing, medical supplies, and radiological test equipment, whereas Samantha and Julie had nothing. Samantha slipped into unconsciousness soon after being placed on the stretcher. When she awoke, the damp air and dimness of the cold surroundings seemed all too familiar. She had been in a place like this before. Had they taken her back? Was she in her own personal hell?
"You're safe now, Mom," Julie said, standing over her bed. "These people are here to help."
