Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own.

by Triarii, Colt

  “Don’t record that…” Samuels Mom said as the camera stopped. Karen fast forwarded it till the end. There was nothing else.

  Karen heard movement to her right, down the trail. She quickly grabbed her M16.

  “It’s Zeke!” he said, hoping Karen had not already fired.

  “Don’t move!” Karen commanded.

  It was Zeke.

  “I just wanted to be alone,” Zeke said.

  “Just be sure to tell us when you leave camp,” Karen said, her voice trembling. She had almost shot him in the head, her finger was on the trigger.

  Karen could now see Zeke had been crying, but she didn’t say anything. They had already learned there was a lot of wisdom in acting like you didn’t see things when there was no privacy.

  “Was that Samuel’s Mom?” Zeke asked.

  “Yes, what a great Mother,” Karen said. “Realize she taught Samuel to sing the song that he sang for her own funeral.”

  “You know, sometimes the dark comes when I think about LeShawn and Monique. It came tonight. The dark fled when I heard her sing,” said Zeke.

  Diary of Liu Nguyen

  We rescued Samuel, and everything has changed. We all feel responsible for him. Having a child somehow forces everyone act more like an adult.

  The men have cleaned up their language and stories around Samuel in mortal fear of Karen.

  But Karen doesn’t attack anyone in front of Samuel, she calls them aside where he can’t hear.

  We all read Samuel stories from his little red Bible.

  Even Doron.

  51.

  When Karen came to the top of the hill just before two am to relieve Liu, K-Bar approached, slowly, head lowered. Liu raised her gun, but K-Bar laid at Karen’s feet with his head down. Karen motioned Liu to lower her shotgun. She reached out, and rubbed his head with both hands.

  “K-Bar, you and me, we have both lost our family,” Karen said. “So, now, we are all we have.”

  52.

  “We have improved a lot on our scouting and travelling as a convoy,” Doron told Ashley. He was pleased that the trek east was beginning to assume a comforting routine. David, Zeke, Liu, and Jorge would scout for the truck on their motorcycles scanning for ambush sites and semi-trailers for supplies. He had explained that it was the same concept as navy escort ships protecting an aircraft carrier.

  They were getting very good at signaling each other with mirrors, headlights, and hand signals. Once they passed within two hundred of meters of another armed group, undetected, by shutting off the truck engine and pulling it with a long tow cable until out of earshot. Zeke said they were getting to anticipate what each one would do, like a good football offensive line.

  Doron was alarmed they did not have radiation sensing devices. He told them to keep a sharp eye out for military grade detectors.

  “Why? We can’t do anything about the amount of radiation anyway. So why worry, Doron? Chill,” Zeke said.

  But every morning Doron warned them to stay away from dust. He did note fallout dust patterns and carefully observed dead animals for radiation signs. He was finally able to construct an ingenious Kearney Fall Out Meter from the paperback copy he found of Life After Doomsday by Bruce Clayton, Ph.D.

  Karen, Ashley, and Samuel would ride in the pickup truck while Doron drove. Karen preferred to stand in the truck bed with K-Bar where she could scan with her binoculars and aim her M-16 without any obstructions. But Karen and Ashley would alternate sitting with Samuel in the cab.

  They began to kiddingly call her “Mother Karen” due to her unending demands for Samuel. They were surprised Karen didn’t mind at all, although she told Samuel to only call her “Aunt Karen”, when he inadvertently called her “Mom” one day. They joked that they had to keep a written list of everything that Mother Karen wanted for Samuel. Dried milk, a car seat for the truck, vitamins, a wool sweater, a waterproof winter coat, an extra pair of running shoes, a rain poncho, and children’s books.

  Karen had Doron and David custom fit a military backpack. They cut out arm and leg holes so Samuel could be carried on her back, facing forward in combat. They each practiced carrying Samuel.

  “Today we should pass a Union Pacific railroad hump yard. It’s the major switching yard and we should spend a day searching the trailers,” Doron pointed on the map, when everyone gathered around the truck early in the morning. David nodded.

  “Be looking for a trailer to tow behind the pickup truck. Ideally one with the same size tires as the truck that could be cannibalized for emergency spares,” Doron said.

  “I have been thinking that if we had a trailer, we could drop it if chased to block the road. We could also have it rigged to blow up remotely if any attackers approached it……” Doron continued until he noticed David’s poorly concealed impatience.

  “Karen, did you get a chance to review my plays?” David asked. David had outlined a defense for the truck if attacked when Samuel was inside. Doron thought the diagrams looked like football plays.

  “Yes,” said Karen. “I have a few suggestions. We could weld a couple of metal plates near his car seat, and behind Doron’s head.” Doron noticed Zeke wince.

  “America armored up Humvees in Afghanistan, the Israelis armored up trucks and cars in the 1948 war,” Karen said defensively.

  “It’s a good idea, we will look for a welding generator and machine,” David said.

  Doron was pleased the others recognized he had been dead right about bypassing the highways for the power line right of way. They ran across several brutal ambush sites, some fresh, but they had avoided firefights.

  Since they left California, they saw far less blast damage. California had been really thumped hard, they had counted over 122 separate nuke craters. But now they saw many intact corpses that had survived the blast, then died horribly from radiation exposure.

  It’s like those who had survived were either fallout stupid, or had just lost hope. Doron knew that they could not see, hear, or taste radiation, but it seemed so stupid to survive the blast, then die of radiation exposure when you could dig a hole anywhere. Probably many died of water borne illnesses from failing to sterilize the water.

  He remembered reading somewhere that in the camps in WW2, prisoners could tell when someone had just given up and was going to die. They would just quit caring about life. Perhaps only criminals and terrorists adapted, improvised, and overcome, he thought. Or maybe any survivors were all just avoiding contact, like they were.

  “Doron, any luck monitoring the Yacht Boy shortwave?” David asked.

  “No,” said Doron. “When we get higher up, we will string out a long wire antenna,” Doron explained.

  “Jorge, how are we on food?” David asked. “We have enough for four days. We need to find some dry dog food for K-Bar, if we can. K-Bar eats four large cans of soup a day,” Jorge said accusingly at Karen.

  Karen was petting K-Bar, who had perked up his ears when Jorge said his name, but then lowered his head apparently recognizing the “bad dog” tone of voice. Doron thought about defending the dog, saying something about how helpful K-Bar was on guard duty, but did not. K-Bar looked healthy and lethal since Karen had washed him, treated his cuts, and combed out all the matted, dried blood.

  “Keep an eye out for ammunition,” David said.

  “Now, we may not be the only one to search the switching yard. We need to recon the entire area before Doron drives up,” David said. “This is a prime ambush site.”

  “How are we on water?” David asked.

  “Good to go, we are filled up, three double bagged garbage bags, about forty two gallons,” Doron said.

  “Any questions or comments?” David asked, looking at Doron. Liu and Jorge shook their head, Doron didn’t respond.

  “All right, let’s go,” David said.

  Diary of Liu Nguyen

  She is not Karen, Samuel’s Mom, she is now Samuel’s Mom, Karen. Subtle, yet profound, identity shift.

  Kar
en’s ego is getting way out of hand. Having a 4 year old son is a rush- to him she is everything

  David seems to find Karen more and more attractive, maybe because she is a good Mother. Mom always said men may chase whores, but men only marry their Mother.

  K-Bar only goes on guard duty with Karen, not with me or anyone else.

  Karen is a (first two letters completely erased, last two letters “tch” barely visible, with the following over written)

  Karen has been a good friend, we are lucky to have her.

  53.

  David was amazed that the railroad switching yard sprawled over the valley as far as the eye could see in every direction. The east west double tracks splintered off into at least one hundred short tracks. Thousands of railroad cars and semitrailers were tipped over to the east, apparently the nuclear blast came from the west. There were three strikes about 10 to 15 miles away, but no direct hits.

  David motioned for Doron to park truck under the top ridge so it would not be sky lined. They crawled to the rim. Karen scanned the entire yard with the binoculars.

  “Nothing moving,” Karen said to David as she handed him the binoculars.

  “They have had recent rain. I can’t tell if there are any footprints,” David said. He struggled to overcome a nagging concern that they needed at least a couple hours of surveillance before moving in.

  “What should we do?” asked David. He had detected resentment to the way he made almost all the decisions.

  “I have a bad feeling… let’s skip this area,” said Liu forcefully.

  It was quiet. Liu’s comment was ominous, and she rarely talked. David knew they could skip this switching yard, they had water and food and plenty of gas.

  “I am with Liu, this is an ambush waiting to happen. The roach motel, you can check in but you can’t check out,” Ashley said.

  “This is like finding hundreds of Wall-Marts,” Doron said. “No telling what is down there. See the hundreds of semitrailers?”

  “I see three mil spec secured trailers, could be weapons,” David said.

  “I say lock and load, let’s do it,” Zeke smiled.

  “Karen?” David asked.

  “Let’s pass this one up. It’s too inviting. A perfect trap,” Karen said.

  “Jorge?” asked David.“We go,” Jorge said confidently.

  The gender gap, David thought. Three women opposed, all the four men for a search.

  “Okay, we can keep Karen, Ashley, Jorge, and Liu up here on the ridge, while the rest of us go in,” said David.

  “No,” said Karen firmly.

  “We may have wanted to bypass, but now that we are going, we go as a team,” Karen explained.

  “I need to go in. K-Bar works with me, and he will help here,” Karen said.

  “We need Doron, Ashley, and Jorge up here monitoring the area with Samuel. Doron will be ready to shoot as a sniper with his scope, he has learned a lot about being a sniper. You will be ready to come in as our backup. Jorge’s leg is still not a hundred percent,” Karen said.

  “We cut off about five trailers, we secure those trailers with a perimeter, then search each one,” Karen finished.

  “K-Bar will not bark unless there are enemies near,” Karen continued.

  “Doron, can you signal us with the mirrors below?” David asked.

  “No problem,” said Doron.

  “Is that the plan?” asked David.

  "Yes,” Liu answered.

  “Ashley?”

  “Sure,” she replied.

  “Zeke?”, David asked.

  “Do it,” Zeke smiled.

  “Jorge?”

  “Charge!” Jorge said.

  “Doron?” David asked.

  “I am not nearly as good as Karen, even with this new scope. I know the physics, but it also requires anticipating what your enemy will do, and I am clueless on that,” Doron said. “But I am all in, if I can see them I can shoot them. It’s just Karen seems to know where they will be.”

  “Doron, can you watch the target while we do a gun check?” David asked.

  “Will do,” Doron said.

  “Rock and roll. Lock and load,” David said.

  _________

  Doron watched them maneuver down the canyon through his scope. David was leading on point, followed by Liu. They were spread out in two lines. Zeke was about five yards behind David, and to the left. Karen followed to the right. K-Bar led a couple of yards in front of Karen.

  The hill was steep, and he noticed David turned his boots sideways to avoid slipping in the scree. Doron strained to hear. Liu may have spooked them, but Doron was beginning to feel uneasy too.

  Suddenly K-Bar ran past David, barking viciously.

  “Hit the dirt!” Karen screamed.

  David and Zeke immediately dove into the gravel, which dug into their arms. Full automatic weapon fire riddled the trail they had jumped from. Zeke crawled under a boulder on the right and searched for the shooters. Karen and Liu had jumped into a crevice and were returning aimed fire, where K-Bar was barking

  Doron flashed the signal mirror three times on the trailer K-Bar was attacking, then he fired a sniper shot at the trailer. He was very pleased he actually hit a shooter in the chest, who fell out from behind the trailer.

  Three men then fled from the trailer at the same time, going in different directions. Two fired at Doron, and the other one fired at Karen. She hit one of the shooters firing at Doron, but he wasn’t sure he was dead.

  Karen and David then began taking fire from at least four other shooters behind a trailer, two railroad tracks back. Karen quickly tapped one with a head shot, and David downed one with a gut blast. But Doron was beginning to panic, a lot of lead was being sent their way, they were outnumbered, they were exposed. Now the shooters had Doron sighted, and moved behind cover to keep him from getting a shot.

  Doron heard full clips being fired at Ashley, and Jorge from close range, echoing down the ridge. Now the boulder beside him was being sprayed with bullets.

  “Let’s go,” Doron said, grabbing Samuel and running away for better cover. Ashley and Jorge were providing covering fire.

  “Stay between the rocks,” David yelled to Samuel. He quickly looked in his scope. He saw Karen drop her clip, and insert a full clip. She jammed her old clip in her pocket, and charged the trailer with the shooters. She motioned to David she was going to make a sweeping attack, then race to Doron and Samuel.

  He saw David look over at her, and she motioned to the trailer. David nodded, and he crawled down the side of the rock while Zeke kept shooting.

  Karen suddenly took off running from boulder to boulder, drawing fire, then David started running from trailer to trailer. Zeke jumped off the boulder, and charged between the two.

  The shooters shifted their fire from Karen to David.

  “Grenade! Fire in the hole!” Doron heard David yell. It was like an old John Wayne war movie, Doron thought, as David threw a rock like he was throwing a grenade on top of the trailer.

  Six shooters fled in panic from the trailer, and Zeke mowed three of them down. David missed all three.

  Karen raced up the trail to rescue Samuel, ignoring all the bullets ricocheting. She seemed to panic when she couldn’t see Samuel at their previous site. Doron flashed her with his mirror and she acknowledged. David provided covering fire, and Karen and Zeke ran up the crevice towards Doron and Ashley.

  Doron listened helplessly as he heard five men attack Jorge and Ashley below. He couldn’t get a shot because of the boulders. Two dead bodies suddenly fell about 15 meters in front of Doron.

  Doron was felt a red hot burn. He was down, shot in the chest. He was gurgling blood, choking, struggling to breathe. His bloody hands slipped off his AK 47. He fumbled, but was able load his other full thirty round clip. He leaned against the cliff as blood pooled around his feet.

  Doron turned, looking for Jorge, and fumbling in the blood with his fingers slipping off the dial, was finally able s
et up two Doron’s Deathmasters which began firing.

  He saw Ashley had been shot twice in the chest and was seeping bloody bubbles. She made no sounds.

  Doron felt a strange calm as he awaited his death from the final attack. He was going to take at least two or three more down, if he could remain conscious.

  Dying seemed normal, the motion past slowly, the noise was muffled.

  54.

  David heard rapid full auto fire, and saw two attackers crumpled to the ground in front of Doron.

  “United States Army!” shouted a uniformed soldier.

  “Drop your weapons NOW!” he commanded. Doron collapsed, and slumped over. One of the soldiers applied an Asherman chest seal to Ashley, then quickly moved to Doron. He pointed to Samuel.

  “None of us hit,” one soldier said to the medic.

  “Treat these civilians first, then the terrorists,” he commanded. Three soldiers turned, and ducked behind rocks with their M-4s aimed, as they saw David and Karen approaching up the trail.

  “US Army, Drop you weapons NOW!” the soldiers yelled at Karen and David. Both instantly complied.

  “Raise your hands!” the soldier yelled. David and Karen quickly raised their hands. When David saw the bloody mess, he doubted either Doron or Ashley would survive.

  “Get on the ground! Face down!” the soldier said motioning with his M-4.

  Karen and David spread out on the ground face down, choking on the dust.

  “Hands behind your back!” he commanded, as another soldier pointed his M-4 at both of them.

  “Do you have any bombs or explosives?” the soldier demanded.

  “No,” David said.

  “Grenades?” the soldier demanded.

  “No, no grenades,” David said quickly.

  The first soldier put his knee in David’s back, then bound his hands with plastic zip ties. Then he frisked David. The plastic hand ties hurt. His shoulder ached from the strain of having his arms pinned behind his back.