by Ira Tabankin
“Yes. I got it. I’m ready.”
A net covered in vines that none of them saw before slides to the side, he sees a metal door in front of him which slides up, Captain Black nods to his team,
“Stay here, I’ll be okay. If I’m not back in three hours, execute plan Delta Four.”
Captain Black enters the shelter, the front door slams shut behind him.
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The American Secretary of the Treasury decided he could handle the situation without the help of his Secret Service agent whom he really disliked. He disliked anyone who carried a gun. He felt the world would be a much safer place without people owning guns.
He left his office to see if there were really anyone at his house or if the call was a way to pressure him to allow the cartels to exchange their currency. Arriving home, he was shocked when he was grabbed by four men armed with AK 47s as he entered his house. The scene in front of him scared the hell out of him. He couldn’t control his bladder seeing his oldest daughter being gang raped by the armed men.
“Stop this at once. Don’t you know who I am?”
“We know who you are. You are either going to accept the offer on your desk or you’re going to watch your family tortured to death. The decision is yours.”
“I’m a member of the President’s cabinet. You can’t threaten me like a common …”
The leader slams the but of his AK 47 into the Secretary’s stomach bending him over and causing him to throw up his lunch. He shoves the paper with the instructions on it into the Secretary’s hands.
“What’s your decision going to be? We can do this all day long. When we’re finished with your eldest, we’ll start with your youngest, then your wife. You’ll sit here watching them beg for mercy. Their only mercy will come when we’re done with them and we slit their throats. Read the instructions and tell us what your answer is.”
His eldest screams, “Daddy, please make them stop! Daddy, they’re hurting me.”
“Turn her over and take her up her ass, it’s the only virgin thing left on her.”
“NO! I’ll agree. I’ll sign the paper.”
“Good, see how easy that was?”
Signing the exchange agreement he looks at the thugs, “Now get out of my house and leave us alone.”
Laughing, the leader says, “Oh no. We’re going to stay with you until the actual exchange is made. We don’t trust you. None of you government elites values your word or your signature. The only thing that means anything to you is your own skin. If you cross us, we’ll skin you alive and slowly feed you into a wood chipper feet first. I’m going to play you a video showing someone who crossed us getting the special treatment. The Secretary throws up three times watching a dark skinned man skinned alive and slowly fed screaming into the wood chipper.
El Chapo gets his currency exchange ahead of anyone else.
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Millions stream across America’s Southern border from Mexico and Central America, mixed in with the poor are cartel soldiers who are building an army to bring down the local and state governments, police forces and anyone else who stands in their way. El Chapo sent five thousand soldiers into America to kill any first responders they found still on the job. They took over the roads leading in and out of Mexico. El Chapo planned to take over most of America’s Southern border. He lowered the price of cocaine to $10 an ounce to expand the number of users, as the number of users exploded he planned to slowly increase the price, making himself billions of dollars.
El Chapo’s captain, Juan, gathers his team of twelve together, they load their M4s and M240 grenade launchers. They strike the Amarillo police station, killing eighteen officers. They take all of the weapons and ammo in the station before setting it on fire. Their next step is the city’s fire department main station where they kill everyone and burn the building to its foundation. Their third stop is the National Guard Armory, there are only five people on duty in the armory, they are quickly killed. The armory is stripped of all usable items before it too is torched.
New recruits and troops from Mexico quickly expanded El Chapo’s team to a fighting force of nine hundred and fifty. They moved from town to town, heading north towards their target of Nashville. El Chapo sent other teams to Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Huntsville, New Orleans, Pensacola, and Austin. Other cartels sent teams across the Southwest towards Los Angeles. They planned to own America’s south from a line drawn from Raleigh, North Carolina across the country to LA. Fifty different teams started killing every police officer they saw. Every police station was destroyed, every National Guard Armory looted and burned. While the police were attacked, others set up tables offering cocaine at cut-rate prices or in some cases free, small amounts in order to hook people. Others gave away samples of heroin further expanding the cartels hooks into America’s soft underbelly. Millions who lost most of what they owned were shown the warmth and feelings of invincibility the drugs gave them. People lined up for drugs. The cartel laughed at how easily they’ve taken over part of America. When the cartels left a town, they left behind enforcers and dealers to control the population. El Chapo left behind an offer the people couldn’t turn down, an offer to forget and leave behind for a short time the problems and stresses of their daily life. The drugs enabled people to operate in a haze.
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Admiral Jefferson got a surprise when he received his orders to stay with the Missouri and not come to D.C. He was ordered to remain and plan to blockade Hawaii. He reviewed his options which were few to begin with. His aide Commander White said,
“Admiral, why don’t we use the Missouri as a towed gun and missile platform? If we wait for repairs, we’ll have to wait months to get our chance to enter a dry dock for repairs. We’re still able to fight and bring the fight to the Chinese. We can use ocean tugs to tow us into position, we can hit them with our guns and missiles. We’ve repaired the leaks from the torpedo attack, we’re stable and in no danger of sinking. We’ve drained the magazines and are in the process of rearming and resupplying everything we consumed. The sensors that were damaged in the previous battles are being replaced and updated. Sir, in 72 hours we’ll be rearmed and ready to go.”
“Commander, are you sure the tugs will arrive in time?”
“Sir, there are four ocean tugs in transit to us, we can move, we can fight. Please, sir, don’t take us out of the battle.”
Pausing to think about what the Commander said, Admiral Jefferson smiles,
“Commander, you’ve sold me. Let’s take a tour of the ship and then I’ll decide.”
“Sir, how is your arm?”
“Good enough. I’m not loading shells or doing anything that requires two arms. I’m good to go, just like the old lady, we’re both wounded, but eager to get back into the fight. I want to start with engineering.”
“Yes, sir.”
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Captain Black wasn’t sure what he’d find when he passed through the entrance portal. He was surprised to actually find the second door that the shelter leaders mentioned He smiled to himself thinking, very intelligent, their main door locks any unwanted intruders between two sets of doors, a perfect way to trap anyone who manages to get through the mines and booby traps. They can trap an invader between the two doors, the invader will have no option except to die. I’m going to be on the lookout for other traps if they let me in. I hope I didn’t walk into a trap. There must be at least one camera allowing them to watch me.
He faces each of the corners in front of him, he salutes what he assumes is a hidden camera watching his every move. He looks up,
“I assume you’re watching me, as you can see, I’m unarmed and alone.”
A voice comes out of an unknown speaker, “Yes, we’re watching you. Had you been armed you wouldn’t still be alive.”
Smiling and looking for the microphone and speaker,
“You have the ability to kill me in-between the doors?”
“Of course, why do you think we built it with
three sets of doors?”
“You’re not very trusting.”
Laughing, “Would you be? We’ve been attacked a few times, we’ve killed hundreds, maybe even thousands of people attacking us. We’re still here.”
“How much further do I have to go before we meet?”
“Two sets of doors, a metal detector and a search by an armed security team before we meet face to face.”
“I have nothing to hide.”
“We’ll be in position to confirm or deny that very soon, if you’re trying to hide a weapon or explosive, you’ll die before you make it past our security team.”
“I assumed as much. I' m a man of my word.”
Those not on duty are in the cafeteria buzzing with the news that an Army Captain is entering the shelter. Tony fed the video from the door cameras to the cafeteria monitor so everyone not on duty could see and hear the captain’s entrance as it happened. Tony hoped that the live feed would stop any rumors before they started. The Captain will be only the third outsider to enter the shelter since the two girls were taken inside after the storm. Some of the inhabitants of the shelter arm themselves in case it’s a trick and an armed force is waiting to invade. Many are waiting for him to be checked and cleared so he can hopefully tell them the news. They have very little information about what’s going on across the country or in the world. They'd been able to communicate with a few ham radio operators before the storm took down their radio antennas. Some of the families in the shelter have already started packing hoping the presence of the captain means they will soon be able to return to their homes.
Captain Black clears the third door, he’s met with the barrels of two M4s and two Uzis.
“Whoa. I’m unarmed.” Said the captain with his arms held above his head. Todd steps forward running a hand-held metal detector over the Captain.
“He’s clean.”
“Captain, welcome, I’m Tony.” Slinging his Uzi over his shoulder and holding out his right hand.
Shaking his hand, Captain Black smiles,
“Interesting entry method you have to welcome visitors. I guess you don’t plan on entertaining often do you?”
Laughing, Tony shakes his head, “You’re the first official visitor we’ve had.”
Looking at the walls and the steel door, Captain Black smiles, “Planning to survive the third world war?”
“If need be, we can survive almost anything. The shelter has saved our lives at least twice. What can we do for you?”
“I’d like to see a little more of your shelter, and I’d like the opportunity to address all of you. By the way, could you now share with me how many of you there are in your shelter?”
“Let’s hold that for a minute or two. Since our meeting room is the cafeteria, which is in the center of the shelter, we can chat as we walk there.”
John touches Fred’s shoulder, he leans over whispering to him, “Tell Todd to announce the meeting and to record everything outside and inside the shelter.”
“Sure.” Whispering, “Do you really think, he’s dangerous?”
“I don’t know but, I want us to be one hundred percent safe.”
“I agree.”
Captain Black asks, “Would you tell me which one of you is military?
John extends his hand, “I’m John, ex-USMC RECON, I held the rank of Captain.”
“I knew at least one of you was military. My people want me to tell you, nice job with the homemade claymores and other mines and traps. We would have missed some of them if you hadn’t disarmed them.”
“Sir, we’re always outnumbered, we look for things which are force multipliers.”
“Too bad you don’t have any mortars.”
Laughing, John nods his agreement, “We tried, we really did.”
“I think I can spare a couple. Is there anything else you need? How are you fixed for ammo?”
Tony laughs, “We could probably sell you some. Tony leads Captain Black through the shelter on the way to the cafeteria. “Each adult couple has their own bedroom, the kids share large bunk rooms, they also have their own playroom/classroom.”
The Captain’s head swivels around taking in every detail of the shelter. “How thick are the walls and ceiling?”
“Very, Captain, for security reasons, we’d rather not discuss the construction details of the shelter.”
“Will I get to see everything?”
“Our security room is off limits as is our storage area.”
“I understand. Do you need medical assistance?”
“I’ll show you our medical room, you can decide if any of your people could use our assistance.”
Tony leads the captain on a slight detour. “Captain, please whisper, we try to be very quiet near our medical area. Our walls are very thin, we want our neighbors to be able to get as much rest as possible.”
“Do you have any current patients?”
Lowering his voice to a low whisper, “We have one patient, he was wounded in our battle with the Russians. He’s a very special person to all of us. He’s our founder.”
“He’s Jay Tolson?”
“Yes, he is. How do you know his name?”
“I have Sheriff Grover under arrest. He gave me Jay’s name.”
“Do us all a favor and keep the Sheriff. He’s a disgrace to his uniform.”
“Does your doctor need any help from our medic?”
“You can ask him yourself.” Tony knocks on the door frame. Doctor Basco opens the door, he smiles at the group in front of him.
“Hello, I’m Doctor Basco, Doctor White is currently sleeping. Captain, I’m sure you’ve seen space is at a premium down here. We don’t waste an inch. We have one current patient. You can stick you head in to look, we have an exam room, a small operating room, a recovery room and a two-bed hospital room.”
“Doctor, what type of equipment do you have?”
“I have a small X-ray, of course, we have EEG and EKG. We have everything you would normally find in a small hospital emergency and operating room. We’ve performed a number of operations, we’re prepared to do everything from delivering a baby to inserting a pacemaker.”
Captain Black sees the curtain pulled around a bed, he also takes note that there are two visitors in the patient’s room, one sitting, and one standing. He figured it by seeing the placement of the visitor’s feet under the curtain.
“I assume Mr. Tolson is in there.”
“Yes, his wife and one of his daughters are with him.”
“Could you tell me his condition? I’m very much looking forward to speaking with him.”
“Captain, maybe later.”
“Okay.”
Tony jumps in, “Let’s continue to the cafeteria.”
Captain Black thinks, Jay’s condition must be very serious, something they don’t want to share. Reasonable since they’d don’t trust me yet. I know there’s at least another two-thirds of the shelter I haven’t seen yet. I’m not surprised they’re not going to show me anymore without them trusting me. This is truly an amazing shelter. I hope Jay and I get a chance to talk, I’d love to learn the back story to the shelter and the castle.
The group walks down a corridor, they hear a lot of voices coming from the room at the end of the hall. “We’re approaching our cafeteria, what you call a mess hall. I think most of our people are already here. I’m going to warn you that some if not most of our people are going to be armed. When we opened the door, it set off an automatic alarm warning everyone that someone was entering. In such times, our quick response teams arm themselves and prepare for any contingencies.”
“You have a quick reaction, team?”
John smiles, “Of course. I didn’t forget what the Marines taught me.”
“That’s clear. I’ve seen your mine plots. They’re very impressive. Based on the brass we’ve found, I assume you have full auto weapons.”
“No comment.”
“We found shotgun, 9mm and 45 shells, and of all
things a few Thompson drum magazines.”
Tony smiles, “Damn it, I knew I was missing at least two of them, how many did you find?”
“We found three of them, two empties and one full.”
“Great, if it’s not too much trouble, could you bring them on your next visit? They’re very hard to come by.”
“No shit. I don’t want to know what weapons you have. Part of my orders are to enforce martial law and disarm the population.”
Tony and John stop in mid step. “Captain, I’m sorry, did we hear you right?”
