“I can’t believe you get back and went straight to see her.” Jade snarled.
I took her aside, out of the hall, to my office. It was more private.
“I didn’t go directly to see her. I went to see how it was going with our sick.”
“Which she was in charge of.”
“Actually, no, Mary Agnes is.”
“Then why weren’t you talking to Mary Agnes?”
I tried to contain my frustration. “Because she was busy attending to someone.”
Jade gave that look. That ‘yeah, I’m sure’ look.
I hated that.
But it wasn’t the time and place.
“You should have found me first, Hal,” Jade said. “I needed to know you were back and all right.”
“But I really needed to check on the sick.”
“What the fuck, Hal, they’re gonna die anyhow. We aren’t. Me and the boys.”
“That was cold.”
“Sorry.” She lowered her head. “I’m just stressed.”
“I know.” I ran my hand over her new cropped hair. “I really like this. It’s …” I brought my face closer. “Sexy.”
Jade smiled.
That was it. I wanted that.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “You’re right. I should have come to you first. Check on you and let you know I was all right. I’m just wrapped up in …”
“In taking charge?” Jade interrupted.
“May I finish my own sentences?”
“Go on.” She folded her arms.
I cleared my throat. “In taking charge. But …” I lifted a finger. “I look at it more as leading.”
She closed her eyes.
“Jade, there is so much to do. We’re only just touching the tip of the iceberg in organization. We have to think long term and we are. We have to get everyone in that mode. We have to survive. Plus, we want to surveillance as well.”
“Why does it have to be you? Why?” she asked.
“It doesn’t. But sweetheart, can you think of another person down here, you’d want it to be. You’d trust with the responsibility.”
She drew silent, closed her eyes and stepped into me. “No,” she said. “I can’t. You’re right.”
Taking Jade into my arms, I buried my lips close to her ear. “I didn’t choose this. It chose me.”
Jade pulled back.
“What?” I asked.
“You are so full of shit.”
“What?” I chuckled at her ‘sad to sarcastic’ switch. “I didn’t.”
“Please, Hal.” She moved back into my chest. “You’re so Slagel, you didn’t just choose it, you made sure no one else had a choice.” She chuckled as she snuggled.
I chuckled too. But more so as a response. She said my last name. Slagel. And with that, she bombarded me with thoughts of my family. I pulled her closer and shut my eyes. I hadn’t truly, deeply thought about them until that moment. And when I did, it was the first time I can honestly say, since the bombs fell, that I felt fear for them.
***
“Goddamn it, Hal, pay attention,” My father had said to me.
I could still hear his crass voice in my mind, the way he yelled at me. I found solace in my office after Jade and I parted, and I needed some time alone.
Time to reflect and think about my family.
Possibly even mourn.
No. No I couldn’t think that way.
That one particular day was over one of our family meetings. However, we didn’t have normal family meetings like everyone else. We had survivor meetings.
“Goddamn it, Hal, I mean it.”
My father in all his sadistic, war is inevitable; glory trained us to be survivors.
“Father,” I told him. “Really, what are the chances of us ever facing a nuclear war?”
“More than you realize. Count on it, Hal, in your lifetime.”
I was thirteen. I chuckled.
He was right.
He talked us through every scenario imaginable. We had a contingency plan to meet up.
The contingency.
In the event of an all out national emergency, where civilization as we knew it had come to an end, we were supposed to meet up. When it was safe, we’d meet.
Good God, it dawned on me the place we were supposed to meet in the event of nuclear war.
West Virginia. Not far from where I was.
But my family was smart. There was no way any of us would venture out while the rads per hour were high. I would have to make it to that cabin when the rads dropped.
My father lived in a small town outside of Washington DC. Chances were his home was no longer there. But last I spoke to my father only a few days before the attack, he was heading north to visit my brother’s wife and children.
Yes. My brother’s family. They lived in a small town in Connecticut.
But my brother was in Indiana, stationed there.
My other two were across the country.
What a time for us to be separated.
We were a close family. My father had a series of wives after my mother passed. None of them stayed too long. Pretty much so he raised us four boys all on his own and did a good job.
In a way we all were apocalyptically insane. We all geared ourselves to it, thought about it, planned, joked. Hey, I wrote about it.
Robbie my youngest brother had extensive training in NBC’s. How I wish he were with us. He’d know everything about the Fox.
Jimmy, ironically, was a nuclear technician on a sub. Navy. We won’t talk much about that.
My brother Frank bought ten copies of my first self-published book because one of the post-apocalyptic characters was fashioned after him.
I chuckled and smiled when I thought of Frank. He was the perfect entity and man for a nuclear war ravaged world. He was the proverbial mad max. Sick, demented, and good at what he did.
I could see him walking in ruins. Taking charge. Saving lives.
But were they alive? Were any of them alive?
There was a chance those questions would remain unanswered, possibly forever.
And I wasn’t quite sure I could live peacefully with that.
Never knowing what happened to my father and brothers.
One day I would. I’d make certain I would.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It was about nine days post attack, or PA as we started to call it, that the last person died of radiation sickness.
Most of the fifty some succumbed six days into it. It took us two days to burn them, and while we did that, more died.
It was never ending. Non stopping. Burning body after body.
One person from that entire tunnel crew survived the illness. They were making progress, miraculously. A forty something man who had yet to give his name. Actually, he was just starting to talk. He had lost all of his hair, his sores were just starting to heal, and he still vomited. There was not much left of his frail body. But he was indeed showing signs of improvement.
But that didn’t help the viral infection that spread throughout the shelter. Just as the fifty started to die, we started to get ill. Thank God it wasn’t a stomach virus; I don’t believe any of us could take any more shit. No pun intended.
By the Twelve days PA, I don’t think there was a person who didn’t catch the bug. It seeped through the ventilation system. It started with sneezing and runny nose, and before long the entire shelter sounded like a tuberculosis factory. Hacking coughs, sometimes rattling. Only a few were spared the harsh symptoms.
At first we all feared some sort of plague had descended upon us, or a biological weapon was used. But by Sixteen PA, and people started to get better. We put our fears to rest.
Mary Agnes called it a stress cold. Told us that the same thing happened after the September 11 attacks and then again on the 1010 attacks. The country was stressed, and the forty percent of the nation came down with cold and flu symptoms, ejected the country into a full fledge flu season a month early.
I just believed that stress worsened the cold. Adjustment to new air, diesel fumes, and so forth caused it.
I felt horrible, but there was little I could do.
I can say that was the most soup consumed in all the time in the shelter.
“40 rads,” Ray said. “Holding steady now for days.”
“Not a fluctuation?” I asked. “One or two rads?”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “It has been steadily decreasing. Even though the decrease isn’t much. This is the first time it stayed steady.”
“Forty rads?”
“Except after sun down. It goes to 32 RADS.”
“Jesus Christ. This is wrong. It seems so wrong.”
“Tell me about it. Theoretically we should be able to walk outside for at least half a day at this point.”
“It’s been two and a half weeks. Seventeen days. This isn’t hopeful.”
“No, it’s not,” Ray said.
“And you’re sure we’ll be safe taking the fox out.”
“Absolutely,” Ray replied. “When radiation was at a hundred, the readout in the fox was ten rads per hour. Even at that, we can go out for several hours in our suits. I checked this morning. Needle barely moves. We’ll be good.”
“Fuel?”
“Full tank gets us there and back to Roanoke, and another trip to Charleston can be another day.”
“DC?” I asked.
“We can make it there and back. Five hundred mile range plus it has a reserve tank.”
“When do you want to make the trips?” I asked.
“Well, things have settled. We’re all settled. Sick have died. I’m pretty bored now since we stopped burning bodies. Let’s take a trip a day. You up for it Captain?”
“Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Let’s start making preparations. We need to see what has happened.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and find out it’s just some lingering nuclear cloud.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what if we just have a lingering cloud. No air flow. We might go to Charleston and find the levels lower. Who knows. Only going out there will tell.”
We were in the cafeteria having our conversation, watching the two women prepare the meals and waiting for their usage so we could mark it on the ration sheets.
It was a quiet afternoon. Most people were in the Television room watching Titanic. One of the DVD’s we brought from topside. I heard footsteps. Running. At first I thought it was my boys again, but then Marcus blasted into the room.
“Captain,” he called to me out of breath.
“Marcus, what’s wrong?” I stood up. “Why are you running?”
“I was monitoring the video feed.” He caught his breath. “I saw them approaching outside.”
“Who?”
“Looks like a family. A group. Maybe ten. There are some kids.”
“Where are they now?” I asked.
“Making their way down the tunnel.”
Curiously, I turned to Ray. “How the hell?”
“Two ways,” Ray replied. “Either they knew about this place a head of time. Or ….” He scratched his head. “We have been burning a lot of bodies Captain.”
My eyes widened. “Smoke signals.”
“If you send them, they will come.” Ray smiled.
“Hmm.” I gave him a disgruntled look at his attempt of bad movie humor. But according to Marcus, humor or not, whatever the reason, there was a group of people headed our way. I secured my weapon—just in case, and then made my way to the main vault door with Marcus and Ray.
***
We still had a few minutes until they arrived at the secured vault door. I no longer worried about someone stealing our food surplus, because we had moved the rows and stacks of food to the other tunnel and sealed that from anyone coming in from the outside.
I passed Jimmy, my oldest, in the hall as we made our way from the cafeteria. He was counting medical supplies. He had been quiet; of course, he was always the quiet one. Telling me the night before he had never read so many books as he did the past couple weeks.
Books. Jimmy. What was with the name? My own brother Jimmy was an avid reader.
“What’s up, Captain?” he smiled as I approached.
“Staying busy, I see,” I told him.
He nodded.
“You’re not wanting to watch the movie with everyone else.”
He crinkled his face and shook his head.
“Could you go there now for me, please?” I laid my hand on his back. “We have some people approaching the main vault door and I’d like to keep everyone away, until we check them out. Especially your mother.” I started to walk away.
“Mom’s not there.”
I stopped. “Where is she?”
“She said she wasn’t feeling well again.”
I let out a breath. I’d have to check on her later. “Jim, can you go find Mary Agnes and have her check on your mother?”
“Sure thing.” He put down the supplies. “Let me know about the people.”
I winked. “Sure thing.”
Brad was the enthusiast and was waiting by the vault door when I arrived.
“Heard people are coming,” he said.
“How did you hear that?” I asked.
Brad pointed to Marcus. “Heard him tell you. I followed him when he was running.”
I grumbled. “Brad, until we check them out, can you stay back.”
“Aw, come on, can’t I watch.”
“Watch from a distance,” I instructed and waited until he stepped back.
Not like we expected them to knock or anything, and since the monitoring room was close by, Brad went an checked the feed, calling out upon their arrival at the door.
Ray moved to the side, holding his revolver, and I slid open the door.
A gentleman, about fifty, all bundled up led the pack of people that, too, were bundled from head to toe, very little skin exposed.
My eyes shifted to the children. There four were standing and one was in his mother’s arms.
The leader, Stan, saw my weapon and raised his hands. “We don’t come in any harm.” He said. “You can check us. All I have is this rifle. I’ll pull it forward and set it down.”
I nodded.
Eyes connected with mine, Stan pulled forth the rifle and lay in on the floor. “We’ve been hunkered down in my house about ten miles from here,” he said. “I was hitting the well for fresh water when I saw the smoke.”
Immediately upon hearing that I looked at Ray.
Stan continued. “We’ve been rationing what was down there. Four of us aren’t feeling well. Not real sick. Don’t think we got hit too bad with radiation. No sores, see.” He lifted his sleeve. But we’re hungry and sure would appreciate you letting us in here.”
“How did you know about this place?” I asked.
“Everyone round here know about this place. We figured folks would have made it down here after the attack. I just couldn’t take a chance with my family and neighbors, trudging through the fallout. I couldn’t.”
“The radiation is still high.”
He nodded. “I know that. Made a homemade counter with a bucket. Learned it from my grandfather. Got a reading of fifty. Figured. Fifty units in an hour still ain’t much. Didn’t take us an hour to get here.”
He paused then continued. “This place is supposed to be a haven. A place for survivors. We’re survivors. Are you gonna let us in? If not the adults, can you take the kids?”
There wasn’t any hesitation on what I was going to do. Obviously Stan was intelligent when it came to warfare and survival. He took care of his pack. Ensured they ate and were protected.
I gave him an absolutely, and that they were welcomed.
Ray took them back down the tunnel to the other entrance and to decontamination. While they waited there I prepped for their stay and made room.
The arrival of these people filled me with excitement. Though some were reported i
ll, overall they were well.
Alive and well.
Other than us, there were survivors out there. We just had to find them.
In the form of a two farmers, three women and five children a very clear cut sign arrived.
Live prevails.
CHAPTER NINE
It didn’t take long to get the new people into decontamination. While they were there, with their belongings, we found a place to put them. I was grateful that we planned ahead for incoming survivors.
Stan and his wife had no children. We put them in dorm four with other couples without kids. The other eight people were two families.
I got a little concerned letting them in. Again, I was approached by two of our residents about this. I had to explain my position. We are a survival shelter. It isn’t about locking the world out; it’s about keeping the world going. If we have and we can help, then that’s what we should do.
I hope that as time goes on, the hotel originals will be more open to new survivors.
While the Stan crew was in decontamination, I stopped in to check on Jade. She was sleeping. I left a note telling her I was there, kissed her, and went back to my duties.
In the hall I passed Mary Agnes who was going to examine her.
“I’m sure it’s just the bug remaining that’s all,” Mary Agnes assured me and went to our dorm room.
Ray and I were making space in Dorm Four when Marcus came up with an idea. It was something that could actually keep people busy.
I was all ears, and willing to go along with it if it would work.
“Wood,” Marcus said. “Remember when we were down on the basement of the hotel they had all sorts of storage rooms. Those walls were separated by wood. What if we made it a project, go tear down those walls? They should be pretty rad free. Tear down the walls, bring the wood and nails in here and start sectioning off the dorms. We may lose bed space, but I don’t think we’ll ever have 1800 people in here.”
“Such as what?” I asked.
“Huh?” Marcus scratched his head.
Ray explained. “I think the captain means what kind of sectioning. Some of the dorm rooms already have section walls between each bunk.”
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