The Shelter: The Aftermath

by Ira Tabankin

  “General, good hunting.”

  “Thank you, Admiral, you too.”

  They are rewarded with seeing a smoke trail intercept a landing cargo plane, blowing it up over the runway.

  Admiral Jefferson smiles, “There’s our first kill.”

  @@@@@

  Todd sits across from Doctor Basco, “Doc, please just whisper to me my father’s real condition. I’m his son, I have a need to know.

  “Todd, you’re not Jay’s son, you’re his son-in-law, you’re not his direct family. I can’t tell you anything.”

  “Doc, he IS my father. Everyone knows he considers me his son.”

  Doctor Basco shakes his head as he blows on his hot coffee. “Todd, this isn’t going to work on me. There’s only one person listed on Jay’s paperwork whom I can share his detailed information with.”

  “I know, Lacy, but she’s told me, she doesn’t know all of the gory details.”

  “I can tell her, please stop pushing me to tell you, which you know I can’t. Todd, please trust me, I’m doing everything I can to make sure he makes it. I want to make sure…”

  “Doctor Basco, then what are you doing here? Why aren’t you watching Jay?”

  Doctor Basco’s face turns red, “Todd, I’m going to forget you said that. I’ve been on my feet for 36 hours, I’ve had my arms in Jay’s chest till they were covered in his blood up to my elbows, I’ve been doing everything I can to save his life. I needed some food, coffee, and a short break, my nurse is watching him. To be honest with you, the one who has the most say in his future is Jay, he has to decide he wants to live, he has to fight his inner demons. When he’s won his internal battle, he’ll surface and open his eyes.”

  “I thought you put him in a drug-induced coma, how’s he going to wake?”

  “He’s under a mild sedative, I gave it to him so his body can rest and can begin to heal.”

  “Doc, hence, you’re admitting that he’s been very badly hurt. I know you lost him twice on the operating table, but you won’t tell me what his current condition is?”

  Doctor Basco empties his cup of coffee, “I told you all I can tell you. I’m going to get another cup of coffee.”

  “Why don’t you rest, I’d be happy to get it for you.”

  Sighing Doctor Basco says, “Todd, lean in towards me and I’ll whisper his condition to you.”

  Todd leans over the table and twists his body so his ear is less than two inches from Doctor Basco’s mouth. “Doc, I’m ready, tell me.”

  “Todd, it’s none of your business, I’m going to talk to Lacy after my dinner, ask her to tell you.”

  “Bastard, why did you make me lean across the table if you weren’t going to tell me?”

  “You look funny that way, I’m sure everyone in here had a good laugh watching you.”

  “Thanks, I needed that.”

  “I’m sure they did too. If you want, accompany me after I finish to see Lacy. If she agrees, you can listen when I tell her.”

  “Thank you. I’ll do that.”

  “Now, will you let me finish my dinner in peace?”

  “Yes, I’m sorry I interrupted you.”

  “Todd, I understand your concern, everyone is worried about Jay’s condition, I know what he means to this community, I understand we could possibility fall apart without Jay’s vision and leadership. I AM trying to do everything in my power to save him. Todd, doctors can only do so much, there’s a lot to life we still don’t understand. We don’t know why when two people who have the same injuries, one survives and one doesn’t. We know that some people give up and some fight. Jay’s a fighter, I know he’ll pull through.”

  Todd looks at the table remembering his mother, “Doc, you’ve got that right. My mother willed herself to death. She fell, she broke her hip. She decided she was done, she stopped eating and gave up. I couldn’t believe anyone would just give up like that. She was gone in four days.”

  “Todd, do you know I met Jay’s father once, when he was very sick, he had cancer all through his body, he was told he wouldn’t live more than two months, he willed himself to live another six months. Todd, will is one of the most important aspects that decides if a person lives or not. Right now, Jay is fighting an internal battle to decide if he’s going to live or die. He’s fighting his survivor guilt, he’s fighting his inner demons. He’s fighting to live. I have faith that God will help him see the light and return to us.”

  “Doc, what can we do to help him?”

  “Todd, we can’t.”

  While Todd and Doctor Basco are discussing Jay, Ricky is socializing with different families in the shelter. He spreads the story that Jay is either dead or he’s suffered brain damage. He tells them, “Even if Jay wakes, he’ll won’t be able to lead us. His brain was without oxygen for a while, not even the doctor knows what damage he suffered. He could wake and be a vegetable. The doctors haven’t told us anything since Jay was brought into the shelter covered in blood. The only reason they’re keeping his condition a secret is because he’s seriously injured, or maybe he’s already dead.” Ricky wipes a phony tear from his eye. My father-in-law might already be dead. We might have already lost our leader and not know it. I don’t think that’s fair, do you?”

  Ricky continues telling small groups, “Who’s going to arrange the building materials we’re going to need to rebuild our homes? If Jay’s out of the picture, should we even be staying here, or should we move on and look for greener pastures? This location turned into a gang magnet, I think it's Jay’s money and supplies that attract criminals here. I bet criminals never bothered anyone here before Jay and Lacy set up home here. How many times did you have run-ins with the Sheriff before Jay came to town? When you pause and think about the truth of why we’re sitting in the shelter and not in our living rooms is that Jay is the cause of most of your problems.” Ricky expertly plays on the community’s fears, he succeeds in getting everyone thinking that Jay is either dead or a vegetable.

  Many of the families agree with Ricky, they thought he was right, while they were in debt, no one had run ins with the sheriff, none had to fight for their homes, or had their belongings stolen and their homes ripped apart before Jay. They never worried about invaders in their quiet farming community before Jay. Ricky sowed the seeds of deceit and left the families to think about what he said. He asked a couple of people who agreed with him to visit with the families to reinforce his message.

  Ricky smiled to himself as he walked back to his room, he whistled knowing that Jay’s injury was the best thing to happen to him in a very long time. He knew that he was winning the war against Jay and his stupid rules. Even if Jay lives, he’ll never again be the king. If he makes it through surgery, he’ll find a ‘Brave New World’ in his holy little shelter. He’s going to have to respect me and listen to me a lot more. If he doesn’t make it, I’ll be the king maker or maybe even the king. I’ll lead the families back to the surface and into a new era of peace with everyone. I’m so tired of the constant war and battles Jay causes. There are too many guns here, hell, even the kids have their own guns, this has to stop. Soon I’m going to be in the perfect position to show everyone that Jay’s policies don’t work. I’m sure when the families see the benefits of socialism and equality they’ll accept it with open arms.

  @@@@@

  Private First Class (PFC) Frost and Corporal Jones are playing cards in one of the bedrooms in Jay’s castle. PFC Jones looks around at the walls and the high windows saying, “You know I bet this place is real easy to defend. It would be a royal pain in the ass to storm this place. It would be like the knights in the Middle Ages.”

  “Yeah, I agree. Bet it was a pain in the ass to build, I wonder how much concrete it took.”

  “Glad I didn’t have to build and fill the forms. I don’t know why someone would spend the time and money to build a castle out here in the middle of nowhere. It’s a crazy place to build a castle.”

  “I wonder where the owners went.”


  Before the private can respond a first lieutenant enters smiling, “Just the two people I’m looking for.”

  PFC Frost jumps to his feet saying, “Sir, we didn’t do nothing.”

  “I know, Captain Black wants us to look for the owners of the castle, he wants us to scan the area with the ground penetrating radar unit that you two are trained to use. Guess that means you two are going to lead us tomorrow in a game of find the owners.”

  The PFC smiles asking, “Sir, we can do that, do you have a search grid already set up or should we create one?”

  “PFC, why don’t you create one and upload it to our laptops, that way we can follow your progress. Make sure you enable the wireless mode on your GPR units so we can watch your scans in real time.”

  The two enlisted men smile, responding, “Yes, sir. We’ll be ready at first light.”

  After the First LT leaves the PFC says, “Corp, tomorrow is going to be our lucky day, we’re going to get to use the GPR in a real search operation.”

  “I don’t know if we’re lucky or unlucky, remember the fields we’re going to be searching are mined.”

  “We’ll get a few of the mine detector guys to walk in front of us, hopefully, they’ll find any mines before we do.”

  “Yeah, if we break the GPR unit, the Captain will dock our pay for it.”

  “If we’re still around for him to collect.”

  The two laugh to break their stress over the thought of breaking their sole GPR unit, and pissing off the Captain. Frost says, “Let’s see what’s for dinner and grab some shut-eye, my gut says tomorrow is going to be a very long and stressful day.”

  @@@@@

  John taps Todd on his right boot which is the sticking out of a workstation he’s back inside of, “You almost done in the cabinet?”

  “Yeah, just two more wires and this one will be done.”

  “Tell me when you want me to check the video.”

  “Try it now.”

  John adjusts the monitor, “We’ve got video from six of the new cameras.”

  “Great, I need you to back out to give me room to slide out.”

  John pushes his chair out of the small security room so Todd can slide out of the workstation, standing up, he stretches to work the kinks out of his muscles. “Man, it’s tight in there.”

  “While you’re up, let’s grab some coffee.”

  “Great idea. I’ll set the alarm to auto. If the sensors catch any movement they’ll alert us.”

  “Good, I hate surprises.”

  As the two walk through the shelter they hear bits and pieces of conversations, Todd taps John on the shoulder, he holds up his hand telling John to pause. Todd leans close to John’s ear, Whispering he says, “I think I heard something that concerns me.”

  Whispering back, “What did you hear?”

  “Two families talking about Ricky, something about Jay, it sounded like Ricky is trying to undermine Jay.”

  “That boy is real trouble. I told Jay he should have kicked him out when we were able to exit the shelter. I think Tony and I are going to pay Ricky a little visit.”

  “Do you think that’s wise?”

  “He has to be stopped. We’re too small a group to have that kind of problem. I don’t understand Ricky, Jay treated him like he treated you, what turned Ricky against Jay?”

  “Ricky has a different philosophy. He doesn’t like Jay putting down the current administration, he believes most of our country's problems were caused by Reagan and the Bushes. He believes socialism is the answer.”

  “Christ, even if they did cause or allow some problems to get out of control, combined, they weren’t anything like the current administration. I don’t understand why Ricky would play with fire over politics, especially now.”

  “He sees Jay’s injury as an opportunity for him to strengthen his power and influence.”

  “I’m surprised anyone listens to him.”

  “Why? How many listen to the President, isn’t it the same BS?”

  “You’ve got a point there. After coffee, I’m going to chat with Tony. I’m sure he’ll know the best way to handle him.”

  “John, I’m not sure Jay will be happy that Ricky is wearing cement overshoes.”

  “It will solve a problem.”

  “John, it will cause a much larger problem.”

  Chapter 8

  “Admiral’s on the bridge.”

  Admiral Jefferson nods to the officer of the deck, (OOD) “Commander, bring the fleet to general quarters.”

  “Aye, sir, bring the fleet to general quarters.”

  The OOD nods to the ensign who flips the switch on the alarm box mounted on the bulkhead, the GQ alarm sounds on every ship in the Task Force. A sailor hands Admiral Jefferson a flack jacket and helmet. “Commander, there are Chinese ships trying to enter Pearl, sink them, use the minimal number of weapons necessary to sink each ship, we have to husband our weapons.”

  “Aye, sir. Sink every Chinese ship attempting to enter or exit Pearl.”

  Admiral Jefferson picks up the radio handset, “Connect me with the tactical air officer.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Admiral, Captain Simpson, Winston Churchill.”

  “Captain, deploy the air defense ships so that any Chinese airplane that escapes the land forces are taken down before they leave Hawaiian airspace.”

  “Sir, what about commercial flights?”

  “Give them one warning. They’re using commercial planes to transport troops. If they don’t turn back, take them down.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Two hundred miles from the USS Missouri three Chinese destroyers are running at 31 knots towards the entrance of Pearl Harbor when GPS guided 13-inch sabot rounds fired from the Missouri arrive striking each Chinese ship. The shells easily penetrate the thin armor of the Chinese ships, exploding inside the ships. All three ships are broken in half, the stern half, being driven at 31 knots quickly drives itself under the waves, the bow floats a few minutes before they too sink. Less than 100 survive the sinking. Admiral Jefferson is thinking, thank God the integrators got their shit together to quickly assemble more sabot rounds. Nothing like a nice 1,100 pound wake up call to start one’s day.

  An alarm sounds on the bridge of the Missouri, “Admiral, combat, we’re tracking two sunburn missiles targeting us.”

  “Combat, go to auto defense mode and bring them down, get everyone inside the armor belt.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Admiral Jefferson smiles to the OOD, “They never learn, their anti-ship missiles can’t penetrate our armor belt. The last strikes only burned and chipped paint. As long as everyone is inside the armor belt, none should be injured.”

  “Sir, what about if they have nuclear warheads?”

  “They wouldn’t be that foolish, if they are, the remaining ships will launch a nuclear counter attack.”

  “Sir, if we do, we’ll end up killing our own citizens.”

  “Commander, I didn’t say we’d strike them in Hawaii, we’ll strike China’s mainland. We’ll target her military bases and missile sites.”

  “Aye, sir.” The Admiral watches the video of the newly installed RAM mod 2A missiles launching to intercept the incoming Sunburn missiles.

  “Admiral, combat. Splash two, say again, splash two. Sir, both incoming Sunburns are down. The new RAMs are working much better than the old version.”

  “Combat, Admiral, great news.”

  “Admiral, combat.”

  “Combat, go, what’s next?”

  “Sir, we’ve taken down eleven SU 35s and one 737 which refused to heed our warning. Sir, we don’t think the 737 was carrying civilians when hit by an SM2 it blew like it was carrying five tons of explosives.”

  “Combat, it most likely was, which is why I gave the order to bring them down. They’re most likely using captured commercial planes as large UAVs or kamikazes. We can’t afford to allow any to breach our security zone.”

 
; “Aye, sir.”

  The second battle of the Pacific in the twenty-first century was going as well as the first. The American Navy was destroying the remaining Chinese fleet.

  “Admiral, combat, we hold a swarm of small boats heading in our direction. Estimate twenty high-speed boats.”

  “Release each captain to defend his ship, warn them not to hit any of our ships. Don’t allow any of those small craft to get close, they’re most likely loaded with explosives.”

  Admiral Jefferson hears cannon fire and the 20mm CIWS firing. A minute later he hears deck mounted 25mm and 0.5-inch heavy machine guns firing at the small boats.