Then Came War

by Jacqueline Druga

It was odd to Foster, being out on the streets late at night. No streetlights whatsoever. The street barely lit by the moon.

  Ten of them went out and scoured the streets. They made only a mile worth of blocks. There wasn’t much there. They did locate a general doctor's office, a family planning clinic and a pharmacy where they might be able to find medical supplies.

  Food and supplies would be easily picked from the two stores.

  Foster wanted to pack up the supplies right then and there. Manny told him that wasn’t how things were done. They had to note where things were located first, then devise a plan, and only then go out and get the supplies.

  Things had to be done carefully. Even though there wasn’t any indication of fighting or soldiers in the vicinity, one never knew.

  Foster was a little done in and he felt useless when he returned.

  He didn’t mean to wake Judith, but he was louder than he thought he was.

  “If I go out there, I want to grab stuff, bring it back and not come back empty handed,” he told Judith. “I feel going out there and coming back without anything was a waste of time.”

  “These people are alive because they do things a certain way. We are their guests, Jimmy.”

  Foster nodded.

  “Besides, did you know what to grab at the doctors’ office or pharmacy?”

  “No, but if I grabbed everything …”

  “Everything?” Judith spoke motherly to him. “You will be much more efficient getting what the doctor tells you to get. Manny said what? Tomorrow you’ll go out and get supplies. Tomorrow you will feel useful.” She patted him on the cheek. “Now, I know it’s late. What time is it?”

  “Almost six.”

  “And you haven’t slept. Get some sleep ….”

  The sounds of people talking, calling, moving about carried to them both.

  “Something is wrong,” Judith said.

  “Stay here, I’ll find out,” Foster slipped by her and into the hall.

  People were running about, all in the same direction.

  “Excuse me …” Foster reached for someone. They kept moving. It was frustrating. Where was everyone going?

  “Hey, Foster, come on.” One of the men who had been out searching with him tugged his arm.

  “What’s going on?” Foster asked.

  “Planes. Come look.”

  Foster froze. “Should we be going up there, then?”

  “Are you kidding? Yeah! They aren’t the enemy. They’re ours.” Excitedly, the man kept up with the others and raced down the hall.

  He supposed they were running to the streets to peer up at the sky.

  Foster wanted to go, but at that second he couldn’t. He felt bad. Everyone was running out to ‘see.’

  They were going out to see.

  Everyone but Judith was. She was in that room waiting to find out what all the commotion was about.

  She couldn’t see and Foster knew she was probably scared and worried.

  He retreated back to the room to let her know it wasn’t anything bad. In fact, it was more than likely a good thing.

  Then, if she wanted to go, he’d walk her out to join the others and he’d describe the scene. So Judith, in some sense, could see the planes as well.

  ***

  Harry had gone back and forth to The Tap several times to check on Tyler. Somewhere around four A.M. Tyler had finally engrossed himself in something other than the box. He was playing a video game with a teenager.

  Though Harry wished Tyler would play with kids his own age, a teenager was a far cry from an old man.

  After checking on him the last time, Harry had returned to the fire hall and helped everyone clean up and get things ready for breakfast.

  Lana was lingering there, looking as if she were searching for a reason not to leave. Harry felt bad for her. She certainly was torn between the love of her husband and the love of her country.

  Harry wasn’t really one for giving advice, but he did tell her, that he himself was a married for a long time and she just needed to find Ben and talk to him.

  She nodded, thanked Harry and said she needed to sweep the floors and then she’d deal with it.

  Harry guessed she was working it out in her mind.

  Tired, Harry just wanted to go grab Tyler and head back to George’s to get some sleep.

  He liked walking back when it was dark; there wasn’t any need for that darting in and out. Harry didn’t see the point in the daylight darting. Staying inside, yes, but surely a person would hear a plane long before they were spotted by it.

  George challenged his argument against the need for daylight darting with his Satellite theory. He believed that they could be using satellites to watch them..

  Harry doubted that.

  He collected Tyler and the box and was just getting ready to leave The Tap when it sounded.

  It was the alarm by the roof watchers. It wasn’t a buzz or blaring alarm; it was them barking like dogs.

  That was their warning signal if planes were coming.

  If planes came, they were to go immediately below and get hunkered down.

  But then the barking stopped. It stopped quickly as the sounds of planes drew nearer.

  The planes were loud and by the noise they made, there were a lot of them.

  It was a simple yell of “‘Holy shit! Everyone! Come look!’ that caused Harry to stop heading toward the basement and pause to look around.

  People ran to the doors.

  Holding, Tyler’s hand, so did Harry.

  Ben had just started to doze off. He had a couple drinks, he was tired and his mind was racing. But it wasn’t the odd barking that woke him; it was the sound of planes.

  Tons of planes.

  It rattled and frightened him. Immediately, Ben’s mind went to the beach house and the experience they had endured there.

  Then Ben panicked.

  Lana.

  He didn’t think of himself or his safety, he thought of Lana.

  She wasn’t there in the science room so she had to still be at the fire hall so Ben took off. He had only one thought in mind.

  Find his wife.

  When he got to the street, he saw everyone just standing peering up at the sky as the planes flew overhead.

  Ben didn’t look to the planes, he looked for his wife. He spotted her by the fire hall door where she too was gazing up.

  “Lana!” he called to her.

  “Ben.” She smiled.

  He rushed to her. “What are you doing? What’s everyone doing?” he asked. “Remember the last time. We were nearly killed.”

  “This isn’t the same,” she said and then pointed to the sky. “Look.”

  “Harry?” In one arm he clutched the box and his hand held Harry’s. “What’s going on?”

  “Well I’ll be damned,” Harry said as he peered up at the morning sky. The sun had just caused a break in the darkness, and crossing through the barely lit sky were hundreds upon hundreds of planes, many more than he had seen that day back at his house.

  “Are they gonna shoot?” Tyler asked.

  “No. At least not at us, Tyler. Unreal,” Harry said with awe. “I was starting to worry, you know. Wonder.”

  “Are they our planes?” Tyler asked.

  “No, but close enough,” Harry replied. “It’s Her Majesty’s Royal Air Force. My guess, they’re coming from the east. Our guys are coming from the west. And all those guys in the middle…” Harry looked down to Tyler. “They’re in trouble.”

  “But, Harry … aren’t we in the middle, too?”

  “Yeah,” Harry peered up, watching the waves of planes. He clutched Tyler’s hand a little tighter. “I suppose we are.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  They shared a small room, maybe ten by ten, just off the kitchen, and Foster and Judith made the best of it. He slept on a blanket and old mattress on the floor, and gave Judith the cot.

  Judith was constantly cleaning up, claiming that the reason sh
e and Foster avoided that cold that was passed around was because she kept the room germ free.

  Liquid sanitizer was plentiful for some reason and Judith took advantage of that.

  She was seeing much better, more shapes and sizes and even managed to step over Foster as he lay on the floor on his stomach going through his knapsack. Just the day before, she had stepped on him twice.

  He was supposed to be writing in his journal. Judith had him writing to keep up his penmanship and literary skills. She made him read and then write a paragraph. All while she cleaned around him, stepping over him as she did.

  “April 25.” Foster lifted the ticket to the train. “I forgot I had this in the front pocket of my book bag.”

  “You’re supposed to be working,” she said. “You promised. You can go help the men, but first you study.”

  “I know. I was pausing to go through my book bag and found it.”

  “Found what?”

  “My train ticket,” Foster said. “The date is on there. The day it all happened was April 25.”

  “Oh, wow. Angeline just said this morning it was May 10. That’s over two weeks. My poor daughter is probably worried sick.”

  “Do you think she thinks you were killed?” Foster asked.

  “That’s a hell of thing to say.”

  “Do you though?”

  “Does she have me written off?” Judith shrugged. “Probably does. I would.” At that second, she hunched down and let out a scream. There was an explosion of some sort. It didn’t sound like it was so much above them, but nearby, near enough and big enough to cause dust to fall.

  Foster’s whole body tensed. The gunfire was muffled by the walls of the bunker and only heard when they got close to the garages. It was something they could ignore.

  But the random explosions were scary; there was no getting used to them.

  There was another one and then they stopped. Judith felt her way to the cot and sat down. “I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to those.”

  “Maybe it’s not a bad thing,” Foster said. “Maybe it means things will be over soon.”

  “Let’s hope, Jimmy, because I’m running out of things to clean in here.” She tried to joke, making light of the situation. After all, they were stuck below. Because of the war raging above them, no one had left the bunker for days.

  Cabin fever was starting to kick in a bit for everyone and Judith exhibited hers in the form of cleaning.

  Standing, she grabbed the liquid sanitizer and the rag. She squeezed the sanitizer into the cloth using her thumb to feel and judge the amount. Feeling her way, Judith walked toward the door. Maybe the doorknob needed cleaned again. Just as she did that, two more rapid explosions rang out.

  For a moment, Judith didn’t move. She couldn’t.

  Every day there were more explosions. Every day they were closer. Judith wanted to believe that was a good thing, but something inside of her was just plain scared to death that it meant things were not going well.

  To make matters worse, they were sheltered not only by the walls of the bunker, but from the world as well. There was no news, no radio.

  There was no means of knowing who was exploding what.

  All the way around, they were in the dark.

  ***

  “There!” Ben peered through the binoculars and then lowered them and pointed, handing them to Rick as they stood on the roof of a town building.

  “I don’t see it.”

  “Look for the trail of smoke.”

  “Got it.” Rick gave the binoculars back to Ben.

  “Do you know where that is?”

  “I know the vicinity.”

  “Let’s go.” Ben raced to the ladder at the edge of the roof and quickly climbed down.

  He wasn’t even supposed to be in town, much less standing roof watch, but he had abandoned his plans for Canada when the fighting grew worse and closer

  The war used to be far in the distance. If everyone was very quiet, they could hear far off gunshots popping here and there.

  Now, it was close. It came from all angles.

  Early morning the sky was lit up as jets engaged in battle. Somewhere to the northwest, the enemy fired antiaircraft missiles at the American and British planes.

  They had seen one go down.

  It was an American jet. Ben and Rick wouldn’t have cared had it been a Ranuelan plane, but it was American and they had to find the pilot. Ben swore he saw him eject.

  They moved with urgency, fearing the Occupiers would get to him first. Ben and Rick rushed from the roof top of Jerry’s Hardware, called for replacements and hopped in the pickup.

  They would have gone on horseback, but decided to take the truck in case the pilot was injured.

  It was the first US plane they had seen go down all morning.

  ***

  Another explosion sent Tyler scurrying to Harry’s side, cuddling next to him for support.

  He was scared.

  The days of living a quiet existence were over.

  Until everything calmed down outside, everyone was moved to the basement of the school.

  It happened so fast.

  One day they were fine. They saw the planes, but it remained quiet. Then suddenly the war wasn’t just west of them, it was at their door.

  They didn’t even have time to relocate or move the children.

  Where would they go?

  Harry told Tyler that the gunfire wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, that it was all part of the war. The farther east the fighting moved meant the farther the United States was pushing the enemy out of the country.

  “Could we die, Harry?” Tyler asked.

  Harry didn’t want to answer that question, but he did. And he did so honestly. “We could But we’re gonna try not to. We’re underground in case they bomb us.”

  “I heard George saying that the Utah guy said the enemy is storming towns and just shooting people and taking only a few prisoners.”

  Harry nodded. “That’s what they’re saying. But I can guarantee you, if they try to storm this town, they’ll have a hell of a fight on their hands, that’s for sure. None of us, Tyler, none of us are going down without a fight.”

  ***

  She screamed in pain and there was nothing anyone in the bunker could do to help her.

  Her labor was intense and Judith could hear her crying.

  The bunker was all that small, but it wasn’t big enough to hide the noise. Not even the fighting above them was big enough.

  They had ventured from their own room into the recreation family room which happened to be just down the hall from the small medical office.

  Doc Baker was summoned and made his way underground to assist.

  But the young woman was still some time away from giving birth.

  The doc stated he hoped he didn’t have to do a cesarean section, not that it looked like he would, but he was fearful.

  The war was so close; the battle was right above them.

  No one dared move.

  Another cry and Judith closed her eyes.

  “Are you all right?” Foster asked her.

  “Yes, yes. I just feel so bad for her.”

  “We all do, and in more ways than one.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, she doesn’t have the conveniences of modern medicine, and she’s having a baby in the middle of a war, literally in the middle of a war, Jude.”

  “It sounds so close,” Judith said.

  “I heard trucks when I was in the garage.”

  Judith, who had been pacing, grabbed her chest, felt for the couch and sat down. “Let’s just hope those trucks are our men. I don’t want the enemy rolling down into the garage.”

  “The garage and bunker doors are sealed. If anything, we’re trapped in here.”

  “Oh, great,” she commented with sarcasm. “That makes it better.”

  Foster chuckled. “Wanna go to the garage and listen?”

  “To wh
at?”

  “Listen to the sounds of the battle.”

  Judith shook her head. “No, that sounds ….” She winced at another cry from the laboring woman. “You know, what, sounds of the battle might be better. Yes. Let’s go.”

  “In other words it’s better than listening to her?”

  Judith hesitated before answering. “It’s just that as a mother, it’s a pain you quickly forget but when you hear sounds like that, you remember how bad it was. Does that make sense?”

  “Not really.”

  “It brings up bad memories.” Judith clarified and held out her arm. “Lead the way Foster. Shadows still all look the same to me.”

  Foster took her arm. “I can’t wait to meet your daughter. You’re so funny. What is she like?”

  “Linda …. Linda is sensible.”

  Foster waited. Judith added nothing further. “Sensible? Just sensible?”

  “Yes. She’s an accountant. She’s not a risk taker and that’s the reason I think she’ll believe I am dead.”

  “If I were your kid…”

  “You are,” Judith corrected. “I adopted you. It may not be legal but in my heart it is. Continue.”

  Foster laughed as he led her. “Thank you.” Then he continued. “If I were out there as your kid and not in here, knowing you as I do, I would doubt highly that you had died.”

  “Really? With all the destruction and death, you would believe I lived?”

  “Absolutely, because you’re the strongest woman I have ever met in my life. You don’t rely on drugs or anything, just God and inner strength. To me, I wouldn’t doubt for a second that you weren’t kicking, screaming and fighting your way to stay alive.”

  “Funny,” Judith said. “If I was out there and you were my kin in here, knowing you the way I do, I would say the exact same thing. Nothing would keep you down.”

  “We’re a good pair.”

  “No, we’re a great pair.” Judith patted his hand and continued her walk with Foster.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Judith’s one and only daughter, Linda Freeman, had a very good position. She was the Assistant Chief Financial Officer at a huge Vegas Casino put her in touch with the right people.