The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series

by Jacqueline Druga

  Swinging his legs over the cushion of the couch, he put out his cigarette and leaned forward in silent, deep thought.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  AUGUST 8

  “You wanted to see me, Joe?” Henry peeked his head into Joe’s office before stepping inside.

  “Yes, Henry, come on in.” Joe set his things on his desk aside.

  “What’s up?” Slumping a little in his walk—something Henry did not usually do—he made his way to the chair and sat down.

  “Sorry to pull you away from your work. I needed to talk about a few things with you.”

  “Sure, Joe.”

  “First.” Joe held up his finger. “Robbie went ahead yesterday. I don’t know if you know this, but they pulled a test of that tracking system.”

  “I heard they were doing that. Robbie came to me and asked if when they were finished if he should take it back down. I told him ‘no’ not if it works, it’ll stay. It will eventually be connected to the video monitor.”

  “Well the test went great, picked up animals and such. I can’t wait to get that video monitor so we can actually see how it works. Excellent job.”

  “Thanks, Joe.” Henry nervously fussed in his chair. “I stopped by to see Danny this morning. He said he wants to start on that monitor right away. Tonight maybe I’ll bring some parts to the clinic.”

  “Shame what happened out there.” Joe shook his head. “In fact, that is another reason I asked you here. I need to talk to you about what happened for paperwork and documentation sake.”

  “Joe, I’d really rather not discuss it.”

  “Henry, now it’s only paperwork. I know how you hate to do that. But attacks like these need to be ...”

  “I really don’t want to talk about it!” Henry snapped and stood up. “I ... got jumped, that’s all. Frank saved the day as usual. That’s all. I have work to do.”

  “Henry!” Joe called out to him as Henry moved to the door, “since when have you yelled at me for no reason like that?” Joe watched Henry bounce nervously in debate before going out the door. “Son,” Joe dropped his voice, “I know this has to be bothering you.” He laid his hand on Henry’s shoulder, standing behind him.

  “You don’t know, Joe. You really don’t know.”

  “I do. I remember when I was overseas in deployment with the service, police patrol type of thing. There were eight of us and we were all canvassing this town. I had this one block and I heard a woman scream. I swore I heard this woman scream.” Joe’s voice was so calm and soothing as he talked. “It wouldn’t have been me to ignore it, so I went into this building. My first mistake, hey, I was twenty-two years old, and ... I was a Slagel.” He heard Henry snicker a bit and he continued on. “So I go into this building alone and I see this girl. She’s crying and crying and holding her clothes. I tossed my rifle over my shoulder so I wouldn’t frighten her. I stepped to her, you know, holding out my hand telling her it was all right. I should have known by the way she kept shifting her eyes, but all I kept thinking was what happened to this young woman? I had to help her. No sooner was I five feet from her, I was jumped, jumped and beaten by six men, I think. I don’t recall after they encircled me and started hitting me with sticks, my rifle, and whatever they could get their hands on. I was beaten so badly I was in the hospital for two weeks. I think ... I think a week of that was because of my mental state. Here I was, this big tough guy, and I couldn’t get out of this attack. I couldn’t. That was six guys, Henry. You faced ten.”

  “But, Joe.” Henry’s voice was nearly a whisper as he turned around to face him. “Besides it being ten men, it’s different somehow.”

  “Yeah I know it’s different, because you faced Savages. I know how Savages are. I know. I know what they do and I know what they are like. What I am trying to tell you is there are some things that no matter how many times we play it back in our minds, trying to figure out how we could have made it different, there are some things we just cannot do anything about. They are out of our control. They do not make us weak and they do not for one second diminish any of our honor. Though these things may bother us for a long time, we still should hold our heads high.” Joe spoke deeper to Henry as he laid his fatherly hand on Henry’s cheek, holding firm in a grip that spread to behind his head. “Hold your head high, Henry, because you fought. You tell yourself you are the greatest of warriors because you have seen many battles. Through them all, even this one, broken or not, you emerged victorious. Because you ... you emerged alive.” He gave a slight emotional reassuring shake to Henry as his hand still laid on his cheek. “Hold your head high.”

  “Thank you, Joe.” Henry’s eyes lowered. “Thank you very much.”

  “You’re welcome very much. And ...” Joe stepped back and changed his demeanor, “there is one more thing I have to talk to you about.”

  “Can it wait, Joe? I really have work to do before ...”

  “I think you may want to hear this.” Joe walked back to his desk.

  “What’s that?”

  Joe sat down. “I had a nice little breakfast with my daughter this morning. She told me that after their dart game at the Social Hall, she headed off to your house to talk to you. But ...” Joe tossed his hands up. “In an unusual occurrence you were in bed.”

  “Really, Joe? She came to my house?” Henry smiled as he watched Joe nod. “Why?”

  “She said she was feeling bad about all you went through yesterday and wanted to check on you.”

  “You’re lying. She didn’t say that.”

  “Yeah, she did and ...” Joe’s head sprang up to the loud steady beeping. “Is that?”

  “The tracking system.” Henry sprang up.

  “Son of a bitch!” Joe slammed his hand down, grabbed his cigarette and stood up. “It started.”

  <><><><>

  Racing, M-16 in hand from his back perimeter gate, Frank hurried toward town. “Tower, come in. How many do you see?”

  “Got about fifty coming in east and another fifty fast approaching the front gate, not to mention what we have coming from south. There are too many to count.”

  “Hit the horn!” At that second, loud and blaring the sirens went off in Beginnings, ringing through. “Robbie, come in.”

  “I’m on my way to the hangar, Frank.”

  “You’re in charge. Get our bird team in the air and commence to hit them from the air.” Frank jumped in his jeep and switched channels on his radio as he drove. “Cole.”

  “Yeah, Frank,” Cole came back.

  “Get me my back gate and northwest squads armored

  up and in position. They know they should go to you for dispensary. They’re on their way.”

  “Got it, Frank.”

  Frank screeched around toward Armory. “Dad, are you ...”

  “I’ve been in touch with the squad leaders 2 through 6. I have them heading toward the other dispensaries and I just radioed our links for every available man center town for evacuation.”

  “I should be there in ...”

  “I spot you, Frank.”

  Frank screeched to a halt near the Armory. About thirty men were coming out, men that not only were active Security but from other divisions as well. Frank jumped from the jeep heading to them, barking out orders over the loud blasting horn. “Dan! Take your squad and hold tight in the UD Section. Squad 7, 8, and 9, I need you as back-up at the front gate. Squads 10 and 11, back gate. The rest of you spread out! We have to clean this place up then hit outpost. Now!” Frank looked down at his watch. “Come on, Robbie, lift them goddamn birds.” Frank looked up at the sky first then charged forth into Beginnings’ heart of town.

  <><><><>

  Charging down the empty hall of the clinic, Dean flew into the lab. “El, come on.”

  “No that’s OK, I’ll stay here.” She sat on a stool, her legs crossed.

  “Do you hear the sirens? Come on! The clinic’s been evacuated.”

  “No, Dean. This is stupid. I’m staying h
ere.”

  “Fine!” He smacked his hand off the archway. “I’m going to our kids.”

  Ellen rolled her eyes, waited until she heard the pitter-patter of his little feet fade, slid slowly from the stool, and walked out of the lab. Down the corridor, the closer to the glass doors that she got, she could see the running up and down the street. The noise level at that moment to her was unbelievable, annoying. Within a minute, as she stood at the glass doors looking out, the sirens stopped and the helicopter noise faded. She peered through the glass, up and down the street then shuddered. “Spooky.” Shrugging her shoulder she returned to the lab, re-took her stool, and picked up her nail file.

  The peace and eerie quiet did not last long. Heavy stomping of boots happened only a split second before Frank’s loud. “El!”

  Ellen lifted her head and went back to doing her nails.

  “El!” Frank blasted into the lab. “Let’s go!”

  “No, Frank, go away.”

  “Ellen, what the fuck do you think you’re doing? Move your ass.”

  “Don’t talk to me like that, Frank. Go away. I’m enjoying the silence.”

  “Ellen.” He marched up to her. “You knew this was coming.”

  “Yeah so, it’s stupid.”

  “Stupid? Stupid is radioing my man in the tunnels to find out you aren’t there. Stupid is radioing my man in the Living Section to find you aren’t there either. Stupid is finding you sitting in this lab with a fuckin nail file in your hands. Now get your ass off that stool and head to the tunnels or I’ll carry you down there.”

  “You will not, Frank. I’ll lock myself in the back closet. It’s hot out. It’s sticky and with all those people, it will smell down there.”

  “If this was a real attack ...”

  “If this were a real attack, I would be there!” Ellen yelled then calmed down. “But it’s not and I’m not.”

  “Fine!” Frank backed up, speaking into the microphone. “Dad, I’m at the clinic. How much time do I have?”

  “Forty seconds, Frank,” Joe told him.

  “Thanks.” Frank headed to the door and looked back. “El, just so you know, the clinic is a targeted hit in this drill. Thirty seconds, if your ass isn’t out of here, you’re dead.”

  “Oh so what?” She sat there. “Go do your drill.” Laughing when Frank grumbled at her, Ellen swung her leg back and forth, filing her nails. A few seconds more of that silence and her thoughts, Ellen sprang from the stool, raced from the clinic, and down to the front door. The second she got there, Dan stood blocking the doors. “Dan.” She tapped on the glass. “Let me out.”

  “Can’t do that, Ellen. You’re dead. The clinic is gone.”

  “Let me out.” She rattled the door and only grew irritated when Dan smirked at her. She tossed her hands up. “I’m a casualty. Wait until I lay out Frank for letting me die in here.”

  <><><><>

  He munched on what looked like beef jerky but in actuality it was a protein snack, created by the Caceres Society laboratories, made from soy and other vegetables. But to Private Tom Collins, instead of enjoying it, he thought of that plane load of soccer players that crashed into the Andes Mountains. He stared at it, tried to bite it then pulled it away from his mouth. “Berry, do you suppose this is really vegetables or do you think this is human flesh.”

  “What are you talking about?” The other soldier sat next to him.

  “This.” Tom showed the protein snack.

  “There’s something wrong with you.” Berry snatched it up, stuck it in his mouth and continued to clean his rifle. “You are going to be hungry now.”

  “I’ve been hungry before but I’ve never been soldier before. This is a first.”

  “You should be honored.”

  “Why?” Tom asked. “I didn’t ask to serve in some army. I wasn’t told that I would have to. When that peace ambassador found our camp, he told me that society has started rebuilding and in exchange for food and medical, our help was needed help build the United States of America back.”

  “And you’re helping. You’re protecting. Some farm, some build, some protect.”

  “Protecting what?” Tom tossed his hands up. “This morning we’re told that we’re getting shipped out. To where? We’re trying exercise ‘Eileen’ out for real. What is that shit?”

  “You heard the Colonel. He said we’re hitting some militant post on the west. Suppose to be important.” Berry shrugged. “I don’t question it. If it’s for the good of the country, then it’s for the good of me.”

  “Should we be fighting though? I don’t mind participating in the ‘Operation Clean Sweep’ you know, finding others and putting them in the Caceres cities, but this fighting.” Tom shook his head. “I wasn’t told I’d have to fight, not to mention fighting alongside crazy men.” Tom pointed to a large squad. Orderly and in synch, they cleaned and prepared their weapons.

  “They’re just the quiet bunch.” Berry looked at the CMEs.

  “They’re aliens.”

  “They are not.” Berry shook his head. “Get your weapon ready. We have maneuvers.”

  “You know what?” Tom stood up grabbing his rifle. “I’d rather nap.”

  Berry watched Tom walk away, but he didn’t go to his sack to lie down. He stopped at another group of men, ones that Berry heard complaining similar to Tom. Making a mental note of that, Berry returned to cleaning his rifle, fully intent on bringing Tom’s attitude to the attention of the Society heads.

  <><><><>

  “You have just got to love Drill Day.” Frank gloated as he walked into his father’s office and set down his clipboard.

  “It was exhilarating,” Joe said, sitting back. “The people seemed to have fun.”

  “Yeah that they did.” Frank plopped down in the chair across from his father, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a cigarette. “But I’ll tell ...”

  “Frank, why are you smoking?”

  “Who me?” Frank put the cigarette away. “I wasn’t.”

  “You just pulled out a cigarette.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Frank!” Joe slammed his hand down. “I watched you.”

  “You’re thinking of Robbie.” Frank grabbed his clipboard. “Are you ready to go over these results?”

  “Yeah, go on.”

  “All right. The whole entire drill, from start to finish, took twenty-two minutes. We have to shave some time off. From the initial spotting of the troops, we were giving them heavy artillery, tanks to storm, and missile launchers, we proceeded to armor up and evacuate to the tunnels. Within four minutes, we had a front line at the back gate. That was pretty good. Five minutes to six minutes we had every available man at either south or north dispensaries and Armory, prepping them to go. We dispersed them immediately and we had our center town team of twenty moving out and about by nine minutes. That’s where I need to shave time. Clinic reported having the patients out and into the metal structure in eleven minutes. Now I added two more minutes to that because we were moving dummies. Had they been real, it would have taken more time.”

  “That’s good, where are our incoming now?”

  “Eleven minutes post start at a good ground speed, two hundred yards to Beginnings.”

  “Helicopters?”

  “In the air.”

  “Town’s people.”

  “Pretty much all in the tunnels.”

  “Picking up the troops at what, three miles away? Where did we stand at the end of complete evacuation?”

  “Like I said, choppers were up by the time we had the town pretty much squared away. Robbie and the other choppers were in firing position, able to take them out.”

  “You?”

  “Fighting with Ellen.”

  “Christ.” Joe leaned back. “She wouldn’t leave again?”

  “Nope, so I marked her as a casualty. I said they fired ten missiles at us. Any more than that and strategically they’re destroying what they want. She was a goner.�
�

  “How many casualties with the missile attack?”

  “With the trenches at the gates now and buildings hit, I’m gonna say we were good with about twelve. We had eight people in the Living Section, they hit the basements. But you and I both know, the safest place for everyone is the tunnels, especially if they hit us with gas.”

  “What did your tunnel man report?” Joe asked.

  “He said everyone was organized. They all grabbed emergency supplies and were ready to hit the route out.”

  “Then I say we had a very good evacuation drill. As long as everyone doesn’t mind the disruption, we should keep it up. How much less time was this one than the last?”

  “Four minutes.”

  “Excellent. We’ll protect this place yet, won’t we? Remind me to get Dean tomorrow to generate some of his gas. We want to be fully stocked if we ... what?” He saw Frank snicker.

  “Dean’s gas.” Frank shook his head.

  “What the hell is the matter with the grown men in this community?” Joe shook his head and picked up his phone when it started to ring. “Excuse me.” He pressed the button. “Yes? Oh really?” He looked at Frank. “One of us will be right there.”

  “What’s up?” Frank asked as he watched his father hang up.

  “That was the dead woman. She said if we want to find out the winner in Beginnings biggest betting pool, we’d better head down there right now.”

  “No shit?” Frank stood up. “I have twenty hours at stake. Need a lift down?”

  “Uh you know, I think I will. Someone has to be there to help keep the crowds in order.” Joe, in a good mood and excited about finding out the ‘big’ results, headed out with Frank, certain he was going to be a winner.