by Hunt, James
“We will,” Connor said, answering in the dutiful way an older brother should speak.
Ben was glad Connor was a good brother. He tried to teach his boys the importance of their relationship, making sure they always made up even after they fought. Because brothers fighting was inevitable, Ben couldn’t stop that from happening. But he could stop it before it escalated into something they couldn’t repair. Like what happened with his brother.
“I love you,” Ben said, kissing each of them on top of the head. “I love you so much.”
They replied with sleepy “I love yous,” and Ben stood, looking back to Marty and Jeff, who were performing the same ceremony with their own families.
Ben didn’t push them or tell them to hurry up, knowing that each of them was making a sacrifice for the rest of them. It wasn’t a new idea to them, though. They risked their lives every time they clocked on for their shift. Every call they took could be their last, but they always answered. Because that was their job.
Once they completed their goodbyes, Ben led Marty and Jeff out of the compound, their wives and children waving and screaming their goodbyes in a send-off.
All of them savored the sounds of their family, which followed them far after they could no longer see the compound.
Ben didn’t turn back though after his final wave like the others. Because he knew it was important for him to stay dedicated to his task. And that task was to protect his family from the harm waiting for them at the dam.
LIZ HATED that her family was once again separated, but she was glad to have her boys, and for the company of the others at the compound. Liz knew she could trust these people, and in times of crisis, trust was a valuable currency.
Liz caught up with each of the women, but most of them were still concerned about their husbands or the state of affairs of the country. Everyone was worried about what happened next.
“You don’t think this is a terrorist attack, do you?” Ali asked.
“I don’t know,” Liz answered. “It seems too sophisticated for those types of organizations to pull off.”
Ali looked on as her son and daughter played with Tommy and Connor. The two sets of children were close in age and had become friends at school. “How long do you think it’ll take before the other wives start pointing fingers at me and whispering behind my back.”
“Oh, I’m sure they’re doing that now,” Liz said, trying to make light of the situation.
Ali smirked, but it faded quickly. “Lina looks like me.”
Liz frowned. “So she’ll grow up to be a beautiful woman who has a good head on her shoulders. Last I checked that wasn’t a curse.”
Ali crossed her arms and leaned back into the chair. “She’ll grow up to be a beautiful Arab-looking woman.” She turned to Liz, arching her eyebrows.
“People can change, Ali,” Liz said. “It happens all the time. By the time she grows up, people will have moved on to other things. The world gets smarter every day.”
“I don’t know it will get smart fast enough,” Ali said. “You don’t know the number of glances I get every time I walk somewhere alone around here. And I’ve lived here for ten years. Ten years. Strangers take one look at me and have the sudden urge to call the Homeland Tip Hotline. I don’t want that for my children.”
Liz knew Ali wasn’t exaggerating. While her parents were born in Iran, Ali grew up stateside after her parents fled the country. She had lived through 9/11 when tensions were high, and threats were made against her family. She had seen Ali be pulled aside at the airport when the two families had gone on vacation together.
“People aren’t as good as you give them credit for, Liz,” Ali said. “You know, after the 9/11 attacks, people would drive by my parents’ house and fire gunshots? It would break our windows. My father came within inches of one of those bullets.” She held up her fingers to symbolize the short distance. “That much and I would have lost him.”
“I don’t pretend that people are good,” Liz said. “You’ve seen the way Ben and I have prepped, hoping to provide our family with some sort of barrier against chaos.” She scoffed. “And look how that turned out.”
Liz glanced back out to the children playing on the tires, laughing as they forgot about the precariousness of their situation. In that moment, the kids weren’t worried about what might happen to them; they weren’t concerned with fires, or gunshots, or evil lurking in the shadows. They were simply content with playing with each other and having fun.
“I miss being able to do that,” Liz said, watching the kids play. “Just turn off everything and play.”
Ali grunted a noise that suggested she understood. “The older I get, the harder it is for me to tune out the noise of the world.”
“It does get pretty loud,” Liz said.
The pair sat there for a little while longer, and Liz glanced around, looking for Nancy, who she hadn’t seen since Ben left.
“Can you watch the kids for a minute?” Liz asked.
“Sure.”
Liz thanked Ali and then headed over to the barracks. The families had claimed all but one of them, and it was the empty pod where she found Nancy.
The girl lay on her side, her back to the door, curled up in a ball on one of the bare cots. Liz knocked before she entered.
“Mind if I come in?” Liz asked.
Nancy didn’t reply and remained completely still as Liz stepped into the small pod, with its tiny square windows. It was hot inside, the lack of breeze making the air stuffy. Liz reached for one of the windows and opened it, allowing a breeze to enter.
“How are you?” Liz asked, knowing it was a loaded question, but unsure of what else she could say to the girl who had already been through so much loss in such a short amount of time.
Nancy maintained her silence and her stillness, and Liz sat on the bed directly across from her, folding her hands in her lap. She didn’t know where to start.
“Have you eaten anything?” Liz asked. “There’s food in the kitchen. I can make you something—”
“I’m fine,” Nancy said, her voice small and quiet as it drifted up and vanished into the air.
Liz knew that wasn’t true, and the last thing the girl needed was to be alone. “We can go back for them, Nancy. After Ben returns. We can find your parents and give them a proper burial.” She tilted her head to the side, looking for any sign that she was listening, or any sign of a reaction. “It’s important for you to have closure, Nancy, even if—”
“When I was back at the house, my mother left my father and me to save herself,” Nancy said, her back still turned to Liz. “She blamed me for my father’s death. And then when I tried to pull him out of harm's way on my own, I couldn’t. And he told me to leave him, to burn alive.” Nancy’s words were hollow and robotic, and it caused Liz’s arms to break out in gooseflesh.
“Nancy, I don’t…” Liz swallowed, gathering spit in her mouth. “I’m so sorry.”
Nancy finally sat up and turned around. The girl had no tears in her eyes, and there were no physical signs that she had been crying at all. Liz suspected the girl had no more tears left.
“I am alone,” Nancy said. “And no amount of closure is going to change that.”
Nancy turned back around and curled up into a ball, returning to the same position Liz had found her in. Liz didn’t think there was anything to do for the girl except give her space.
“I’ll come back and check on you in a little while,” Liz said. “But if you need anything, I’ll be in the mess hall.”
Liz stood to leave, stopping at the door to look back on the young girl who had experienced more loss in one day than someone twice her age could have gone through in their lifetime.
But Liz never saw the knife tucked beneath Nancy’s leg, as Nancy had decided what she wanted to do with it.
22
Everyone remained on edge during the hike. There was no idle chit chat, everyone watching, waiting, looking for anyone that might be lurking in
the shadows, or just over the hilltop.
Ben led the charge, and while he tried to maintain a brisk pace, he found it difficult to move as quickly as his mind wanted him to. Not to mention the distraction to the east.
The higher they climbed the ridge toward the dam, the easier it was to see the massive levels of devastation caused by the forest fires.
Gray and black had replaced the beautiful green landscape. Ben had seen areas like this when he had volunteered for forest fire duty in other states, but he never imagined such devastation would arrive at his front door.
Nature had been Ben’s escape after his parents’ death. He used to hike for hours outside, reveling in the peace and quiet and the beauty of the world around him. Nature had always provided Ben with answers he couldn’t find in the regular world. Out here, things had always made sense to him.
But this type of destruction made no sense. There was no rhyme or reason to what the terrorists had done. He didn’t understand why someone would want to burn down their home.
“Everything all right, Benny?” Marty asked.
“Fine,” Ben answered. “Big breakfast is making me pay for it now.”
The guys laughed, and Ben was relieved. The last thing he wanted was to cast any doubt on his ability to lead. Because right now, he needed to make sure they accomplished their mission, and he didn’t trust anyone else to see it through other than himself.
“Must have been nice,” Jeff said. “What’d you have?”
“Oh, the usual,” Ben answered, playing along. “Pancakes. Eggs. Four slices of bacon.”
Marty whistled. “My cardiologist would not approve.”
“Oh, I didn’t even get to the butter on the toast yet,” Ben said.
“It’ll probably be a while before we get another meal like that,” Jeff said. “I still can’t believe those people managed to do all of this. I mean, where’s the military?”
“They’re probably scrambling around just like we were,” Marty answered. “If our electronics are down, then I’m sure they’re having trouble too.”
Ben nodded. “I don’t know of any contingencies for something like this on a national scale.” Ben had conceded that he believed this was happening everywhere. If it hadn’t, help would have arrived by now. But with no choppers or planes in the sky, Ben knew they were on their own for the foreseeable future.
“How long do you think it’ll take before things get back up and running?” Marty asked.
“It depends,” Ben answered.
“On?” Marty said.
“On how long it takes us to put everything back together,” Ben said. “There isn’t anyone coming to fix this, guys.” He stopped and turned around, catching his breath and seeing the sweat beading on everyone’s faces. “If we want something done, we’re going to have to do it ourselves.”
It was quiet for a little while as the men contemplated what a future would look like under these new and trying circumstances.
The world had changed in the blink of an eye. One second everything was fine, and the next, they were facing unprecedented circumstances beyond any of their control. The country had never faced anything like this before, and Ben had no idea how people would respond in the long term, but he knew how they would respond in the short term.
Panic.
It was the instinct reaction for the majority of the population. Because no one had prepared, no one had the confidence to survive the tough road ahead. And for Ben, it wasn’t for lack of trying.
Every chance Ben had, he told people about prepping for a disaster, and he did it because he knew preppers didn’t have the best reputation in the community. People saw preppers as fanatics and conspiracy theorists, but that wasn’t the truth.
Ben conceded that there were certain members of the prepper community who were more rooted in off-grid living, and he would admit that any group of people would always have outliers who gave the rest of the group a bad name, but the majority of preppers simply wanted to make sure their families were secure during times of crisis.
But none of them wanted a crisis to come their way. No prepper sat around, waiting for the world to end. They simply did the best they could to weather the storm. Because Ben knew there was always a storm on the horizon. Everyone had their reasons, but Ben’s were personal.
After Ben’s parents had passed when he was young, Ben’s older brother was in charge of taking care of him, but his older brother was hardly ready to become a parent. The guy could barely take care of himself, let alone an eleven-year-old kid.
It was hard for both of them, but Ben received the short end of the stick. His brother had the advantage of being older, with more freedoms and opportunities. Ben was stuck at home, waiting for his next meal, doing his best not to focus on the rumbling in his stomach.
Ben lost track of the nights and days he would be alone, starving, wondering when his brother would finally come home. It wasn’t until Ben was older that he realized his brother would go on drinking benders until he ran out of money and then crawl back home with a few slices of pizza, or bread, or eggs for Ben to eat.
It went like that for a long time, and no matter how hard Ben cried or begged or pleaded with his older brother, the situation never changed. At least not until Ben was older and learned to take care of himself.
Ben thought of something else, not wanting to dwell on his childhood because it only made him angry. Angry with himself, his parents, his brother. And too much anger was bad for the soul. And Ben had other things he needed to focus on at the moment.
“Do you think the captain and Kurt made it out?” Jeff asked, breaking the silence that had fallen between everyone.
“I hope he did,” Ben said.
“But?” Marty asked.
Ben sighed. “But everyone here saw the fires.” He looked back at his comrades. “Do you really think he was able to make it out of there alive? With Kurt?”
“Captain was getting up there,” Jeff said, solemnly.
Marty laughed. “But you’d never know it by how many times he’d remind you that he passed the physical exam just like the rest of us last year.”
Ben smiled. “It was his favorite dinner time story.”
“And lunch story,” Jeff said.
“And breakfast story,” Marty said.
All three men laughed, and it helped lighten the mood and allowed the men to forget about the impending danger all three of them were moving toward. But the respite ended when the dam came into view as they rounded a corner on the trail.
The sight provided both relief and trepidation. Relief at the fact that it was still standing, and trepidation over having to stop armed fanatics from blowing it up.
Ben gathered the others around him and kept his voice low, unsure of if the enemy would have scouts along the outside to look for anyone that might be listening and watching for intruders.
“We all need to keep quiet and stay alert,” Ben said. “No more talking from this point forward.”
“How will we communicate?” Jeff asked.
“You see something, you tap on the shoulder of the man in front of you,” Ben answered. “If I see anything, I’ll hold up my hand to tell you to pause. You move where I move, and you stop when I stop, and you only shoot when it’s absolutely necessary. All right?”
Jeff and Marty nodded.
“Good,” Ben answered, and then he took a moment to realize that these men had never really been in a fight before. And up until the chaos that Ben encountered in the city, that was his first time in a real firefight. In the heat of the moment, it was easier for him to act, but this was a premeditated move, and Ben knew it was different.
“You have to remember that these people are murderers,” Ben said. “They don’t care about anything other than their mission, and we have to be just as ruthless.”
Ben let his words linger, making sure Marty and Jeff understood what they would have to do. And as the realization dawned on them that they would have to kill someone, Ben
watched as their stares hardened.
“We didn’t come all this way to fail, Ben,” Marty said. “We’ll follow your lead. No matter where that takes us, all right?”
Jeff nodded his agreement, and while Ben knew both men had the best of intentions, it was impossible to really know how you would react to a life and death situation. But each of them was about to find out.
Ben restarted their trek toward the dam, keeping alert for anyone lurking in the woods. He knew this enemy was well trained, well-armed, and well-coordinated. He had gotten lucky when it came to the sniper on the roof. One wrong move and he would have been dead. He needed to make sure he was on top of his game for this run. His life and everyone back at the training facility was counting on it.
Ben led the group through the woods, keeping close to the access road that led to the top of the dam. He had visited the place before and had taken a tour. Entrances were on either side of the north and south sides of the dam.
When they neared the entrance, Ben paused at the tree line and surveyed the area, Marty and Jeff positioning themselves on either side of him.
The building ahead looked like the administration building, which fed into the dam’s interior.
“If they were going to blow it up, they would do it from the inside,” Ben said. “It would cause more structural damage.” He peered through the scope of his rifle to the entrance of the building. “I don’t see anyone topside.”
“I can go up a little farther,” Jeff said. “See if I can see anyone at the entrance on the other side of the dam.”
Ben nodded. “Okay, but make sure you stay quiet and watch yourself. And you come right back.”
“Got it.” Jeff disappeared, his big frame moving surprisingly efficient through the woods.
“You think they’re already here?” Marty asked.
“Maybe,” Ben answered.
“Maybe they won’t show up,” Marty said.
Ben turned to his friend, noting the fear laced in his words. It was rare for Marty to show fear, but under circumstances like this, it was something Ben understood.
