An hour later, Rick, who had been in a forward position, broke radio silence. “Look alive, people, here they come.”
The claymore detonated, stopping the convoy, then troops in tan uniforms with black helmets jumped out of the vehicles.
“Who are these jokers,” Terry asked briefly.
“Three tan guys going over the embankment to the north, does anyone have eyes on?” Matt radioed, ignoring Terry.
“I’ve got them!” Collins said over machine-gun fire in the background.
“Snipers, stop firing and provide overwatch. I want all teams to move in and mop up,” Jim said as the enemy fire slowed.
Once the shooting stopped completely, the rest of the men moved down to the highway.
“Did we lose anybody?” Collins asked over the two-way.
“We have two wounded, but no KIA,” Jim responded.
“Anything serious?”
“Pvt. Sanderson took a round in the ass and Terry took some shrapnel from a grenade in his leg. They’ll both live.”
As they checked vitals on the enemy troops and started to collect weapons, ammo and supplies, Terry said, “Hey Jim, come over here.”
“What is it?”
“Look at the uniforms; do you notice anything strange about them?”
They were soaked with blood, but the shoulder patches were interesting. A scene of the Earth and three letters on top read — NWA.
“What the hell’s the NWA?” Terry asked. He cut a patch off of one of the uniforms with his Ka-Bar and took it with them.
“Look for any paperwork in the vehicles as well,” said Jim.
“Two minutes, people,” Rick relayed.
They finished collecting what they could and moved for the trees. They made their way to the hidden snowmobiles and scooted down the trails toward the mountain.
When they made it back to the compound, Jim and Terry made their way through the cave system to the other side. A sign said this was restricted access due to potential cave-ins. A steel door was put in the tunnel with security cameras positioned on either side to monitor all who passed. The existence of the other side of the tunnel was well guarded by the original inhabitants. They needed to keep their families safe and they really didn’t know who could truly be completely trusted on the other side.
Once back at the cabin, they searched for the meaning of the patch on the secure computer with an uplink to a number of satellites. The Marines had helped Jessie set it up.
The results were not surprising. The search revealed, “New World Army.” A website had been constructed depicting videos of training camps and thriving cities in most countries. Children of several races and ethnic backgrounds were seen playing together and they repeated the word unity throughout the video.
“Does this mean we’re losing?” asked Terry.
“That’s exactly what they want us to think,” said Jim. “By putting the U.N. troops in these uniforms and showing this crap on the website, they are demoralizing the populace by depicting to them its fine and dandy.”
“This website shows a map of what they say has been transformed to their vision. Looks like most of the world,” Bill said. “China and the U.S. are mainly under the control of the world army, according to this.”
“I don’t believe it!” Jim said. “We’ll continue to fight back and see this through to the end.”
A meeting was called in the commons to let the community know what was discovered. Questions filled the large room and many people seemed angry. Jim and Bill assured them they would continue to fight back and never give up hope in winning the fight for freedom.
They received word from Dave and Sara in town about a noteworthy person on the way to the mountain. Even with encryption, they wouldn’t elaborate. Rick sent a patrol to the furthest outpost on the perimeter to bring back the mystery guest. The patrol made it back right before dark with a man claiming to have vital information.
“Who are you?” Jim asked the man when he arrived.
“My name’s Dmitri Baryshnikov, from Nikolaevsk.”
“Where is Nikolesk?” Collins asked, not pronouncing it correctly.
“It’s a tiny, Russian-American village near Homer with a population of a little over 300 people.”
“Why should we believe you are who you say you are?” Matt questioned.
“I agree,” Jim said. “We have no way to verify anything you say, so you had better be forthcoming.”
“I was part of the militia down south and had infiltrated a local enemy garrison. I gathered information for a mission when a few of us were compromised. I was told if I ever needed refuge, I could find it here.”
“You were told this by whom?”
“My commander in the militia.”
“Why didn’t you simply go back to the local militia down there?”
“Because, they’re all dead.”
Looks of concern grew across each of their faces.
“You do know we’re taking one hell of a risk by having you here, don’t you?”
“I know, and I don’t want to put you in danger, but I have information you will want to hear.”
“It had better be worth it,” Bill told him.
What he had to say made sense, but could they trust it?
“The New World Army was put together by the U.N. because it’s losing. They started the website we’ve been seeing and put the U.N. troops in the new uniforms as a show of power to the rest of the world. The troops were given false hope and information in order to lift their spirits and willingness to fight. They deployed the NWA in modest units around the world, giving the appearance of taking back control. Unfortunately for them, they are stretched too thin. They have lost millions of troops since they fired the first shots. The world resistance became much more than had been anticipated. Government’s willingly handed their countries over to the U.N. for money and power, but the troops had other plans. Not only military forces resisted, but civilians did, as well, in too many countries for them to handle. You’re not the only pocket of resistance and it’s only a matter of time before the NWA has been taken out of the picture completely.”
“You can stay here for now, but in a limited capacity,” Bill told Dmitri.
“I’ll do whatever I can to aid you in your efforts here.”
“Go with these men.” Bill pointed at Matt and Rick.
“Matt,” Jim motioned him over. “I want eyes on him constantly.”
“I already planned on it.”
“There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.”
—Ronald Reagan
Chapter Twenty-Three
The kids had played hide and seek in the tunnels for months, and no one had any issues with it until the blackout.
A storm, with winds stronger than hurricane force, swept through the mountains, halting patrols and all that needed to be done outside. People were stuck in their positions on the perimeter with no relief until the storm let up.
“Matt, we have three kids missing. We need to assemble search parties.” Jim said over the radio, not long after the lights turned off.
“Roger that. I’ll be on my way in a minute. I have to drop Sally off with Mary.”
“We need to get the electricity back on as soon as possible or we’re going to run into more issues, starting with heat, ventilation and humidity levels,” Rick added.
“I have electricians working on the problem as we speak,” Bill said. “The wind storm has taken down two of the windmills. They’re going to try to get them back up before dark.”
“How did that happen?”
“A few birch trees knocked them over when they were uprooted.”
“First, we need to start with each spur of the tunnel system and work our way toward the main entrance,” Matt ordered the search parties forming in the main cavern. “From there, we will work our way out through the perimeter, if we’re able. I want sentries to stay at their posts and let us handle th
is.”
Matt had become the resident law enforcement official for the community, and all inside guards took orders directly from him. He had been a corrections officer in his daily life before and continued to be the best they had.
The kids were supposed to have a flashlight with them, as with the rest of the people, in case of emergencies or power outages like the current one.
“We found an open door and it looks like the lock has been pried off somehow,” Danny said over the radio.
“Where are you?” Matt wondered.
“The south tunnel beyond the spur with the rail tracks.”
“Stay there, we’re on our way.”
“Bill said doors like this were put in place for a reason,” Danny told Matt when he and his party arrived.
“You’re right, someone pried this lock off,” Matt said while inspecting it. “Let’s go, single file and be careful.”
The tunnel smelled extremely damp as they entered beyond the door. The musty air filled their nostrils. After about fifteen minutes of walking they started to hear a roaring noise which grew increasingly louder as they moved forward.
“The cave’s flooding!” a woman yelled over the deafening sound of rushing water.
“No,” said Matt as he moved closer and shined his bright flashlight into the drop-off. “It’s an underground stream and we’re at the falls.
“Look down there,” a man hollered.
They could barely make out a beach and a pool of water at the bottom.
“It looks like we can get down over here,” said one of the men in the search party. The roar of the water slowly dissipated as they made their way down toward the pool with a wall of rock separating them and the falls.
“Did you guys know about this?” asked another man in the group.
“I don’t remember it,” said Matt. “We must not have ventured this far into this tunnel. I thought we’d explored and mapped each part of it.”
“The tunnel keeps going up beyond the pool. We need to cross and go look,” said a woman who shined her light onto the other side.
“I want you two to stay here and look for signs of the children,” Matt said to a man and a woman. “The rest of us are going to go back up to the main cave. We need to get rope, more lights and something we can float on.”
“Why don’t we just walk across?”
“Because, we don’t know how far down it goes or what the bottom’s made of, but I can tell you the water’s glacier runoff and you would die of hypothermia within minutes if you walked in and couldn’t get warm and dry pretty quick.”
About an hour later, Matt and the others returned with the equipment. Meanwhile, in the main cave, word of a stream a few hundred yards away — inside no less — made many people excited. The thought of not having to go out into the cold and bring back snow to melt for drinking, cooking and showering water was a godsend.
Upon returning, they began working getting everything ready. Matt shot an arrow with 550 cord attached into the beach on the other side. He set his bow down and climbed onto the snow-tube he had borrowed from Jim’s son Cody, then pulled himself to the other side. After getting across, he secured a rope to a large boulder to use as an anchor, and the men made a simple rope bridge. Four more men crossed to continue the search while the rest of the party stayed by the pool.
A few hundred yards in, one of the men found a Hello Kitty hair clip that looked fairly new.
“I think this belongs to my daughter, but how did she cross over to this side?” one of the men said.
“We’ll find her and the other kids,” Matt reassured him.
“Looks like we’ve gone the right way,” Danny observed.
“Keep going and check everywhere,” Matt told them.
The tunnel started to ascend as they pressed on, and they quickly felt cool air on their faces after walking for about 15 minutes.
“Go slow,” Matt cautioned.
The men reached a large room and could see lights on the other side.
“Lights out,” said Matt quietly as they hugged the wall.
Lights from in front of them suddenly pointed in their direction, and they could faintly hear people talking. The people made their way toward Matt and the others.
“Who are you?” asked Matt, turning his light on them.
“We’re the occupants of this cave, and you are?” asked a middle-aged woman with dirty clothes and tangled brown hair. “And how did you get passed us?”
“We came from the other side of the mountain. Three of our kids have gone missing and we came down here looking for them. We don’t want any trouble, we just want to find them.”
“I had no idea it went through the mountain. Please come with us,” she said.
They followed, but not too closely. They could see the entrance to the cave with snow and icicles hanging around it, and the light from outside made them squint.
“How can it be so warm in here?” Matt asked.
“The hot spring over there near the opening has heated this place for as long as I can remember,” she said.
“How many people are here?” asked Matt.
“Six of us,” she said. “Three, once you take your children. They wandered in here soaking wet a couple hours ago, but they wouldn’t say much.” She pointed at a faded yellow tent looking tattered and old.
“Who are you?”
“My name’s Kali, my husband, Ben, and our son, Nate.”
One of the men walked over and called for the kids, who came right out of the tent.
“I’m so glad to see you!” the little girl said to her father. “When the lights went out we didn’t know where we were and fell into the water.”
“It’s going to be OK now. We’re going to take you back to your parents,” said another one of the men, comfortingly to the other kids.
“How long have you been here?” Matt asked Kali and Ben.
“We came up here to get away from the invaders last year,” Ben said.
“Have you seen anyone else since?”
“No. We were surprised to see the kids when they arrived, but they couldn’t tell us how they made it here. We had a brown bear sow try to kick us out right before winter, but we were able to persuade her to find another den.”
Matt laughed, then introduced himself and the rest of the men.
“Would you like to come with us to the other side of the mountain, to our sanctuary?”
The family of three looked at each other and then back at the men in disbelief. “I tell you what, come over and check it out. If you don’t like it you can come back here.”
They agreed, and the 10 of them started walking toward the other side.
“Would you like help with your belongings?” Matt asked.
“No,” replied Ben. “We’ll decide if we want to stay once we have seen what you have to offer and can come back to get our things.”
The group made their way back into the belly of the mountain, across the waterway and up to the main cave. Kali and her family couldn’t believe their eyes. People gathered around to greet them, and the other kids who had been lost ran to their parents.
“This is our community. We’ve built it away from the NWA troops. You’re welcome to stay here,” said Matt, as he motioned for a woman with short blonde hair and glasses to come over. “Kali, I want you to meet Diane. Diane, if they decide to stay can you show them to one of the newly constructed living areas, please?”
“Will do,” she said.
“Oh, and find out their skills and let Doc check them out after they’ve showered.”
The smiles forming on the three new faces became even larger when Matt mentioned a shower. The hot spring had kept them fairly clean, but had a hint of sulfur in it making them smell like rotten eggs over time.
We have a water source right next to us and the kids are safe. Life looks to be getting better, thought Matt.
The repair to the windmills had been deemed a priority, they needed to have full pow
er, so after the storm passed, the electricians and several volunteers began working.
The labor would be exhausting especially in the cold, but had to be done. With a large number of people to help, it didn’t take long.
“Believe in yourself, and the rest will fall into place. Have faith in your own abilities, work hard, and there is nothing you cannot accomplish.”
—Brad Henry
Chapter Twenty-Four
“We need to reinforce the tunnels and run electrical lines through them so we can light and power the area around the pool,” Bill told Jim. “I knew this water source would be in here somewhere.”
“I’m glad someone found it. With the plumbers and carpenters we have in the community, a pump house can be built.”
“Did we ever find out who pried the lock off the door?”
“The three kids said they didn’t see it. No one has confessed, so we may never know.”
“How are we going to filter the water?” Terry interrupted.
“We have a couple of rain barrels we’ve haven’t used,” Bill brought up.
One of the plumbers nearby butted into the conversation.
“The drums would be perfect and we have the rest of the materials we would need for a filter. Gravel, sand, charcoal and cloth layered inside will work perfectly.”
“I’ll go get one of them,” Terry said.
“How’s it progressing on the outside?” Bill asked Jim.
“I’ve been sending patrols out regularly, but it’s been real quiet out there — too quiet, if you ask me.”
“What about in town?”
“Dave sends daily updates, but not much happens to be going on there either. Like I said, I don’t like it. It’s only a matter of time before it gets crazy again.”
The construction in the passage to the water was underway and looking great, with so many people helping. After a week of solid work down in the damp tunnel and around the water, a few of the men and women developed a cough. The Doc gave them cold medicine and told them to stay warm. A heater was already in the work area because of the colder temperature from the icy glacier water running through. This was thought to be the problem, until one of the plumbers started coughing up blood. The project was put on hold and the workers were quarantined so no one else would get sick. The area was closed off and water was brought in from outside again.
Uncertain Times: A Story of Survival Page 13
