Into the Apocalypse

by William Dunaway

  “Oh my God, is that what I think it is?”

  “Yep! You said you needed aviation fuel. It’s only 250 gallons, and I had to call in a lot of favors to swing this, so you owe me big time.”

  “I’d say so. Oh my gosh, Jim, I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”

  “Oh, we’re not done yet. It comes with a tow linkage so that you can tow it to whatever location you need and a manual fuel transfer pump.” My mouth dropped open. He then gave a signal to follow him to one of the other Blackhawks, and when we approached, I almost fell over.

  “I know you needed ammo but I wasn’t able to secure a crate as it would have drawn too much attention, but I was able to bring you extra loose rounds that the armorer had.” He then reached in and grabbed a 50 caliber ammo can which was full. “I was able to bring you four of those with approximately 1200 rounds of 5.56 ammo in each.”

  Wit came walking up about that time and saw the ammo, “Oh baby. Colonel, you're a good man.”

  Jim smiled, “Well, here’s one more gift to go along with it. He then handed Wit two boxes. Wit smiled and opened the larger one, and it was full of new links for belting the 5.56 ammo for the SAW. Wit then opened the other box, and it was an ammo belt linker for putting together the belts of ammo.

  “When I was hovering over the house the other day, I saw the saw mounted on the jeep but I decided to play dumb.”

  “Jim, I don’t know what to say. I really don’t. This is like Christmas.” I said being completely flabbergasted.

  “Well, I’m glad you look at it like Christmas because we have two more gifts for you.”

  He pulled up a tarp and sitting there was five 5-gallon buckets. He turned the labels around and four of them each contained 12-pounds of bulk coffee and one was filled with Grape Juice mix.

  “Kim, there was no way to find you any Dr. Pepper, but I remember when we were growing up, you loved grape juice, so I figured you and the kids would love this.”

  Kim walked up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek, “Thank you, Jim. I know this means so much to all of us.”

  He turned a bit red but said, “You're very welcome.”

  “I can’t believe you came through like this Jim. I hope you aren’t going to get into any trouble for any of this.”

  He just smiled, “No, not at all. As I said, I did have to call in some favors but don’t expect any more in the future as we probably won’t be here.”

  I just started to say something, and he interrupted, knowing I was going to question him.

  “We’ll talk a little later. Now, is this going to be a barbecue or what? I saw the beef over the firepit and in my mind, I could smell it from the air.”

  “Let's go.”

  He yelled out “Bronson. Grab our little contribution to this get-together.”

  A Sergeant replied, “Yes sir,” and he ran over to one of the other Blackhawks and he and another crew member grabbed two cases of beer.

  Mia asked, “Oh my goodness. Is that beer?”

  “Yes ma'am, It’s old and warm, but it’s beer.”

  Kim laughed, “Well, we can give it a quick chill in the freezer.”

  Everyone started grabbing our surprises, and as we were walking away, Jim handed me one more box. I opened it, and it contained four Atomic Beam lanterns and a big box of AA batteries. These are great as they take four AA batteries and all you do is raise the top of the lantern and a bright LED light comes on which will light up a whole room. They had a magnetic base and also came with hangers on the top.

  “I figured you could use these if you need a fast light source. I bought several of these before the EMP event and never used them but I figured you guys could.”

  This was like Christmas. He brought everything I requested plus much more. To be honest, I would’ve been thrilled if he just brought us one pound of coffee. To get all of this, though, was a real Godsend.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The barbecue was a huge success, and the beef was perfect. Once again it was hard to think about how the world was falling apart even though seeing three Blackhawks and an Apache sitting in our field was a reminder.

  The fun part was watching Mike and Paul handle all the soldiers flirting with the girls. Mike handled it the best as being an ex-soldier, he knew that the soldiers were just having fun. Paul, on the other hand, didn’t handle it so well. He didn’t say anything, but you could tell he was keeping an eye on Mia and the soldiers that were playfully hitting on her. Finally, he sat down across from me and grunted as he sat.

  “Alright, what’s your problem?”

  “What? Oh, nothing.”

  “You’re the worst liar I’ve ever seen.”

  He looked at me, then chuckled, “Ok, I have to admit that I’m a bit jealous.”

  I cleared my throat intentionally with a bit of a growl and in a low but stern voice, I asked,“ Did you NOT listen to me the other day when I was talking about jealousy? You need to quit that shit! Mia is just being friendly, and so are the troops. A few of them know who she is, plus can’t you remember what it’s like to be a soldier?”

  “Yeah, I know and I did listen to you the other day, but does she have to flirt back with them?”

  I looked over at Mia who was surrounded by three soldiers, but all she was doing was talking with them. All the women were, including Kim.

  After laughing a bit, I said, “So, by the way you’re thinking, I should be worried about Kim talking to the Captain, huh?

  “No, that’s different.”

  “Why is it different? Do you think Mia is going to decide to leave with one of the crew members?”

  He got an embarrassed look on his face, “I guess that is pretty stupid on my part.”

  “Listen, like I told you the other day, the last thing you want to do with Mia is act jealous or possessive. When we talked, you said you didn’t know if she’d want to have anything to do with you.

  If you want to ruin the relationship before it really gets started, just act like this. Do you realize how many relationships are destroyed by jealousy?

  First of all, the soldiers are just enjoying their company and having a woman to talk to. You can’t be mad at them for that, they don’t know you or the situation. As far as Mia goes, she’s not doing anything wrong.”

  “I know, it’s just been so long that I guess I’m a bit insecure.”

  “Well, trust me, you don’t want to act like three-quarters of the clowns out there that act like their boyfriend or girlfriend is their personal property. If you’re with someone and you feel you have to keep an eye on them or can’t trust them, then you shouldn’t even be with that person because sooner or later it’s going to blow up anyway.

  Trust is a key ingredient in helping your love to grow, and jealousy and mistrust will destroy that love.

  As far as Mia goes, she’s very loyal and honest. Sure, she was an actress and likes to entertain, plus she loves the military and realizes the sacrifice they make for others, so she’ll always show them that they’re welcome and she’s grateful for their service. But as I said, you’ll know exactly where you stand with her. If she didn’t want to be with you, she’d let you know, and as long as you guys are together, you don’t have to feel threatened because she’s talking to some guy.

  Now seriously, you need to get that out of your system.”

  Paul thought a moment, “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t have anything to be sorry about with me. If you acted mad at her, she’s the one that you need to apologize to.”

  “No I haven’t, and I won’t let it bother me anymore. Thanks for the advice.”

  “That’s what I’m here for. Why don’t you just go join in on the conversation.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.”

  For the next two hours, everyone played games, and really enjoyed the meal. Jim tried to have a good time, even though I could tell something was on his mind, so I finally asked him if he wanted to go catch up on everything, s
o Kim, Jim, and I walked inside to talk.

  “I really want to thank you guys for setting all this up. I know it means a lot to my crew.”

  “No, thank you. What you brought us was more than I expected.”

  “Well, I wanted to bring this stuff to you guys and have this cookout, as very soon we may be leaving the area.”

  Kim asked, “Oh, no. Where are you going?”

  “Well, this is all confidential, but we’re probably heading to the east coast. We’ve been getting reports that the EU which has been supplying much of the aid has been forcing people to evacuate, whether they want to or not. They’ve been dropping leaflets announcing food distribution centers in several major cities and offer the chance to evacuate. There are reports that when people arrive to get the food, they must agree to be evacuated to refugee centers overseas. At first, we thought it was only happening in random areas but after review, it seems that the forced evacuations are only in areas with vital assets such as an oil refinery or major shipping port. If it’s true, no need to say that’s a problem.”

  “You’re kidding me?”

  “No, it's only rumored, but during the last staff meeting, it was brought up. If confirmed, it could turn ugly very quickly. The President agreed that volunteer evacuation might be best, especially in the larger cities but when the mandatory evacuation was brought up, he said in no uncertain terms it wouldn’t be considered at this time.”

  I thought to myself how in the prophecy chapters it stated that Ephraim would be taken into captivity by Assyria. I wondered if this is the start of it, but I didn’t bring it up to Jim.

  Then he told us that we planned a nuclear strike on Iran, as it was confirmed that their so-called weather and surveillance satellite was the EMP and the strike on Washington. Then right before we made the strike, the EU launched their own nuclear attack on Iran wiping out their major cities. Somehow, during the attack, Iran got three missiles launched, and two struck Great Britain: and one detonated above London causing the same type of EMP effect over much of England. The other two hit two of Great Britain’s primary naval bases. The EU was supposed to be defending Englands airspace, but somehow these three missiles made it through.

  I told him how we heard about the two naval bases on the shortwave, but then we lost the signal, and we discussed how that must have been due to the EMP effect.

  As he was telling us this information, I could see by the look on his face that he was very suspicious of how the only three missiles launched by Iran were missed. I started to grill Jim with questions but he told me that was all he knew, but I was sure he knew more than he was saying.

  I was stunned in one way but in another way, it didn’t really surprise me. In prophecy, Great Britain is part of Manasseh, and due to the fact that Ephraim and Manasseh were brothers, basically, both nations had the same prophesied about them.

  Again, I tried grilling him with questions, but he repeated again, that this was all he knew for sure but that it did mean that one of our main allies and someone that was supplying us with a great deal of relief, now had their own problems.

  He filled us in on the news from around the country and how things were just deteriorating on a daily basis.

  I filled him in on our part about the trouble with the bikers, and how we’re certain they killed Blake, the recent trouble that Charlie had, and then told him about Brian and the situation with his girlfriend and her mother.

  “Well, that sounds like someone you’re going to have to take offensive action on.”

  “Oh, I agree, but the problem is they outgun us and out man us with what sounds like a bunch of guys in their early to mid-twenties. Plus, I haven’t seen it yet, but by the sound of their set up, it would be hard to attack as it is surrounded by open fields. We’ll probably end up doing a recon flight using Mia’s airplane.”

  “Well, what about all the people your helping in town close to you? Wouldn’t they be willing to help you?”

  I rolled my eyes, “I really don’t know, but I’m not sure how much help they’d be even if they were willing.”

  “Well, that does sound like a tough nut to crack, but it sounds like they just need to be eliminated. If not, it’s only going to get worse. I wish we could help, but I can’t open up on civilians without being fired upon.”

  “Oh, I know that Jim. I wish you could too, but I know that isn’t possible. No, we’ll come up with something. The good thing is, by what we’ve seen so far anyway, they don’t have any real training. They’re led by some Nazi-type that belonged to some militia in Arkansas before it got busted.”

  Jim just shook his head.

  “I know the type. There is a lot more of those around the country. They always seem to be led by radicals. Usually, people that couldn’t make it in the military or didn’t have the guts to join in the first place. They justified their groups by saying they were formed in case the government ever ran amok. For the most part though, like this group, they just turn into another gang.”

  “Well, apparently their fearless leader has a hard-on for us because his cousin or something was in the Pine City group when they attacked us, and he was killed.”

  “Oh, I see. He wants revenge.”

  “Pretty much.”

  Jim thought for another moment, “You know, he probably knows you have the plane. If you go flying around his place, he’s going to know you’re up to something.”

  “Well, that’s a lot less dangerous than a foot recon.”

  “Yeah, I agree but what I was thinking of, is after my guys enjoy themselves for a while, why don’t we just take a little recon flight over the area. How far away is he?”

  “Brian says his place is about 10 miles to the east.”

  “To the east, huh? So that means they’re used to seeing the Whiteman traffic flying over. Yeah, why don’t we just take a little flight over his place? You grab this Brian of yours, and we’ll just take a little ride.”

  I chuckled, “Well, I’m not going to argue with that.”

  I called Brian in. When he walked in, you could tell he was a bit intimidated and was amazed at the idea of Jim and his crew being there. We filled him in, and Jim asked him several questions. Brian basically repeated the story that he had told us but I could tell Jim just wanted to size Brian up for himself.

  Afterward, we told Brian to go enjoy himself but for now to keep it to himself, but we’d be making a flight in an hour or so.

  We were just about to break up the meeting when I saw Brandy walk in with a look of anticipation. To be honest, with the news Jim had just told us, I had forgotten about her wanting to call her folks.

  “Oh, Jim, I almost forgot. We have someone that wants to ask you a favor. You remember Brandy don’t you?”

  He had a look of suspicion on his face, but when he looked up and saw Brandy, he immediately turned that look into kindness.

  I said with a chuckle, “Brandy, come on in.”

  Brandy walked in with that same sweet smile that Carmen made famous. I knew Jim acted as though he was a hard ass but the minute I saw his look, I knew he was going to let her make the call.

  “Hello, Colonel. How are you?”

  I’m fine, how are you doing?”

  “Ok, I don’t know if Vince told you, but I need a rather large favor.”

  Jim put on a stern face, even though I could see that his eyes were soft. “What’s that?”

  “Well, my folks are in Italy, and I’d love to get word to them that I’m ok. I know you let Red use your satellite phone to call his wife and I was wondering…..”

  “You want to use my phone?”

  “Do you mind?”

  “Well, I don’t know.” Jim was just about to give her a hard time, then suddenly said, “Sure. Do you have the number?”

  Brandy’s smile returned, and she pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to him. Jim reminded her that the call needed to be restricted to ten minutes and started dialing in his codes and then the number.

&
nbsp; As he was dialing, I looked at Brandy and asked, “Have you decided if you’re going to tell them?”

  With a sad face, she replied, “I have to. I don’t know how to get around it, and they do need to know. ”

  I gave a sympathetic smile, “I know, I don’t envy you though.”

  “I was going to call the friend that he was staying with in Italy, but then I realized I could call his cell. It should work, shouldn’t it?”

  “I would think so, but I don’t know how that works.”

  Jim handed her the phone, “It’s ringing.”

  She stood for a moment with anticipation with the phone to her ear and then she said, “Dad? This is Brandy…... I’m fine…… We flew in with Mia, and we’re at a farm about 45 miles outside of Kansas City.” Brandy then walked towards her bedroom.

  Kim asked, “Can you guys excuse me for a minute? I need to go out and check on everyone and see if they need anything.”

  After Kim left, Jim stated, “I was going to give Brandy a hard time, but then I realized that she was Carmen’s sister. That call is going to be hard on both of them.”

  “Yeah, I agree. Assuming that you might let her use your phone, she has been struggling with whether she should tell them or not. But I don’t see how she could get around it.”

  “No, she needs to let them know.”

  We both sat there quietly for a moment in our own thoughts being glad that we didn’t have to make a call like that. I have to admit, a lot of pain started to come rushing back to me but then suddenly Jim started talking.

  “Hey, I think I have an idea when we go on our little recon flight which should solve a big problem for you. Assuming she’s there, why don’t we just pick up Brian’s girlfriend’s mother. That would be much safer than you guys driving over there to try to pick her up.”

  I was shocked that Jim would suggest it and showed it with my look, and then asked, “Are you sure? Hell yes, that would be safer. Then all we would’ve to do is figure out a way to rescue Jana.”

  “Well, I have an idea on that also. I think we can do it at the same time.”

  “What do you have in mind?”