The Search For Home

by C A Bird

  Dombrowski raised his eyebrows and glanced over at Packer, wondering just what kind of discussions these two were having.

  “Mr. President, I have just spent the last three months traveling cross country to California. I have seen people beginning to rebuild. I’ve seen towns that have isolated themselves from others and want to go it alone, and I’ve seen towns that are completely open to anyone. I’ve seen good people, and some incredibly evil people, but communities are forming and joining together to try and reestablish some normalcy. Sir, if Americans are left to their own devices our country will come back. They have formed small, local governments and at this point just want to be left alone.”

  “Mark, I’m going to need the locations of these communities so we can bring them into the fold.”

  Suddenly Mark felt a chill up his back as he realized that Jeremy Rissman wasn’t the man he had known before the war, a president with the best interests of his people at heart. He had become a ruthless dictator, and Mark was afraid he had said too much.

  “Mr. President, it’s been wonderful speaking with you and I will get back to you in the very near future, as soon as I can convince myself that my home in Newport is no longer a place where my family and I can survive. Believe me, sir, I want nothing more than to help my country get back on her feet.”

  The voice over the radio had become cold and hard. “Put Captain Dombrowski back on the radio.” Mark stood and moved out of the way as Capt. Dombrowski picked up the microphone.

  Mark looked over at Colonel Packer. He had a smug look on his face.

  “Mr. President, I will submit my report of the action against the Chinese and we will speak again soon, sir.”

  “Yes Captain. Very soon. I have additional missions for you.” The background noise ceased as the radio went dead. Mark looked over to the open door and took a deep breath of the salty sea air.

  He was scared.

  “Well, gentlemen let’s get back to my office. Mark you can fill us in about the conditions between here and New Mexico. We still need your information.”

  As they walked along the catwalk and went down the steps leading to Dombrowski’s office, Packer turned toward the boat. “I need to get back to the base, Captain. Please debrief Mr. Teller and prepare a report for me. I’ll talk with you tomorrow and Mr. Teller can be sent back to town.”

  Mark saw a frown cross Dombrowski’s face as Packer went on down the stairs toward the dock. Captain Dombrowski was of equal rank to Packer, and they weren’t on the base. Why was he giving orders? They entered the office and sat facing one another across Richard’s desk.

  “Richard, do you think I made a mistake? What do you know of the president rounding people up and bringing them to West Virginia? Are we talking FEMA camps here?”

  “I don’t know Mark. We just got back from blasting thousands of military and civilians into oblivion. Some of us weren’t happy about that. My XO even went so far as to suggest that we let them come. He said that in one hundred years the entire Earth would be Chinese and there would be peace at last.”

  Mark turned and looked at him, dumbfounded. “He may have a point, but I still believe the United States of America, governed by our Constitution, the greatest document in the history of earth for governing a people, is a great and noble experiment. The first country on earth where the people run the government and not the other way around. It created a country of entrepreneurs and innovators. A country where everyone had an opportunity to make something of themselves, free to run their own lives. It’s true that over the past few decades this experiment was coming to an end, as the balance of power began to shift from the people back to a dictatorial government. The initiative of a free people was being destroyed.” He sat up straighter in the chair.

  “This war was a terrible thing, but I thought it was going to give us a chance to return to constitutional government, small government on a local level. Now it looks like the old administration has survived, and has equipment and personnel to enslave the population under the guise of rebuilding. Hell Richard, what are we going to do?”

  “I’m still an officer of the United States Navy and I still take orders from my president.”

  “Yeah, and you still command what’s probably the greatest concentration of power left in the world, in this submarine and its armament. That’s a huge responsibility.”

  Dombrowski stood and came around the desk. He reached out and slapped Mark on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s get some dinner and we can discuss this in my office over some Glenlivet 21, I’ve been saving.”

  They drank until sunset and before Mark reached his bunk, he paused at the railing of the platform and gazed out at the sea. The sun was just setting, throwing red streaks toward him, across the water.

  The oil rigs provided habitats for all sorts of fish and other sea creatures, and they in turn attracted a multitude of birds. Gulls and Cormorants dived into the ocean, taking flight again with beaks full of struggling fish. Dark clouds on the western horizon drifted in front of the dying sun and plunged the day into early night. It was still clear overhead and as the hidden sun descended into the ocean, the stars burst out, crisp and clear. Just above the cloud layer in the west a brilliant jewel lit up… Venus, Goddess of Love.

  Mark thought of Lori, and realized that after tonight he would know enough to gather his family and friends and head home. His real home, not some dream from the past, but the home where his people were. Where Will was buried, and where he and Lori and the kids had their future.

  34

  Lori stood in the back yard and gazed out toward the north, toward Vandenberg and the man she loved. Her best friend. He’d been gone all day but she realized he couldn’t be expected to return, in the best of circumstances, for another day or two. She could feel the stress building, the darkness affecting her mood,

  She heard a soft cough behind her and turned to see Matthew approaching. She never would have known he was there. The cough was intentional.

  “Hi Matthew. It’s been a long day.”

  “Yes. I slept this afternoon so I’d be rested for tonight.”

  “Tonight?”

  “I’m going to do some reconnoitering at the base.”

  “Really?” she said excitedly. “What are going to do?”

  “I want to find out what part of the base the military is using and get an idea of their numbers. Just in case we need to move against them. There’s no moon, so I don’t think it’ll be difficult.”

  “I’m so relieved. I have no idea what Mark has walked in to.”

  “I’ll be leaving soon. Derek is going most of the way and will bring Chief back. We’ll arrange a rendezvous for tomorrow afternoon so I don’t have to waste time walking back. Please don’t say anything to the others.”

  ***

  Binoculars brought the buildings into focus from three hundred yards away. Matthew had spent hours around the front gate of the base, only to find the military was concentrated around the western shore. He lay prone, behind a fence at the top of a rise. A line of barracks partially blocked his view. The land was a wetland, but undulated slightly and was dry in his current position. The night was warm and he could feel the humidity.

  It was 0300 and the only activity was around a large, concrete building on the north side of a parade field. There were lights, not oil lamps, and he could hear the sound of a far-away generator. He spotted two guards at the entrance to the building, which he surmised was the Command Center, and two more at the door of a barracks beyond,

  There were also lights, this time appearing to be lanterns, in the barracks directly in front of him. It was too dark to see anything else which was both a blessing and a curse. He rolled over and removed a Powerbar from his pack, eating it and washing it down with water. His crossbow lay beside him. He had .45 caliber, semi-auto pistol, but preferred the crossbow for stealth.

  He slipped down the backside of the embankment, and walking around, did a few stretching exercises to stay loos
e. So far he hadn’t seen any guards along the fence line. When the sky gradually lightened in the east, he began to see some activity in the compound below. There was a changing of the guards, and a platoon of soldiers was forming on the field between the Command Center and the barracks, doing calisthenics and marching to a cadence called out by an officer.

  In the distance, Matthew saw an airfield. Even as he watched, a plane took off toward the north and swung around over Lompoc to disappear into the rising sun. They had seen a plane the day before and Matthew wondered if it went out each day for recon or for mapping radiation areas.

  Gazing through his binoculars, he was surprised to see a squad of men in Navy uniforms. They rode in two jeeps that approached from the direction of the ocean. The jeeps pulled up in front of the Command Center where the men joined a squad of airmen. They all jumped into a supply truck that drove off to the east, where there was a large concentration of base housing, a Base Exchange, recreation areas and warehouses. He could only assume they were going for supplies.

  Making sure there were no sentries, he grabbed his crossbow, slid down the back of the hill, shouldered his pack and set off for the coastline at a slow trot. He squished through the bogs, the smell nauseating him, until he came to firmer ground a few hundred yards from the ocean. Crossing over a two lane road, he trekked through coastal bushes and made his way down to the surf.

  He stared in wonder at the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean and the waves breaking on the white sand. In the early morning light, there was a trace of phosphorescence in the curl of the breakers.

  White sand ran down to an embankment that sloped six feet to darker beach where the waves ran up, frothing, before receding back to the arms of the sea. He walked down and saw holes in the sand and when he scooped a handful, he was delighted to discover small wriggling animals. He’d heard of sand crabs but had never seen one. He squatted and set the sand back on the beach and watched the tiny creatures burrow back to safety. Kelp had washed up on the beach and lay in clumps. Standing, he gazed out toward the horizon, absolutely awed by the vastness of the sea.

  He had never seen an ocean before in his life.

  ***

  Just after midnight in West Virginia, with no moon, the darkness was complete. To save gas, they didn’t use the generators for lights, and the guard tower was invisible.

  Sandford crawled under the fence, scraping off his skin as the sharp points of the chain link scratched down his back. Damn, should have cut ‘em shorter. He pulled himself forward out of the trench and, quickly looking both ways, jumped to his feet and scurried fifty yards across the buffer zone and into the trees.

  He had timed the guard’s journey around the perimeter for days, to determine when it would be safe to make his escape. He’d found the wire cutters in the old shed where they kept the gardening tools, on the ground under one of the benches. They were rusted and dull and he could barely get them to clip the chain link. He’d hidden under the bushes that filled the drainage ditch and clipped a few wires each time it was safe, until he had a hole large enough for his broad shoulders.

  Standing inside the edge of the forest, he looked back to see if any of the others had followed him. Cheney and Fillmore said they would, but Sandford knew they were too afraid. The last guys that had tried to escape Camp No-Hope, swung by their necks from a noose, on the orders of the president.

  He saw the light from the guards flashlights coming down the fence line from the north. Cheney and Fillmore had a window of about thirty more seconds before the guards came around the corner of the fence and cut off their chance for freedom.

  Knowing they weren’t coming, he turned and melted into the woods. He could feel blood running down his back and it stung like crazy… but that was the least of his worries.

  If the guards spotted the cut fence he would have a very short head start, and probably a short lifespan.

  If they didn’t, he might have until they missed him in the morning, more than five hours from now. There was no moon, so he hoped they wouldn’t see where he had broken the window in the dorm or where he had squirmed through the rut under the chain link.

  Rumor had it that the campaign in the South had run into problems, so he hoped he could get past the Carolinas into Georgia, and outdistance any pursuit. He was from D.C., but had been in Pittsburg on business when he heard the missiles were coming. He drove the rental car as far away from the city as he could and then holed up with a few others in a mall. He knew his family, his wife and son, were gone, that D.C. would have been a prime target.

  Sandford was captured by the military in Parkersburg as he made his way south. They put him on a work crew in the fields, growing crops for the army, until he was transferred to this new detail. He was told they needed more men to build the president’s house.

  The president was insane. That was clear. The power of the presidency had gone to his head, as it had to so many before him. But Rissman had military leaders around him, and the remainder of the U.S. Congress that, at least for now, were backing him. Sandford didn’t know what had happened in the rest of the country but he knew he had to try and get to a place where he could live a decent life.

  Survival was all he had now.

  ***

  “I can’t believe you let another one get away!” Rissman fumed and stormed over to stand above Major Cartwright who was on his knees, his head bent forward by the pistol pressed to his neck by General Ladner. Colonel Faricy had backed as far away into the corner of the room as possible to avoid drawing any attention. He was Cartwright’s superior officer and the next in line for vengeance. Two uniformed and armed guards flanked the door.

  “How did he get out of the compound?”

  Cartwright stammered, “He… he cut a hole in the fence, sir. He snuck out between the guards making their rounds.”

  “Where the hell did he get a cutter?”

  “That’s unknown sir. It was found on the ground outside the fence. There are tool sheds around the school property that have never been searched. He probably found it in one of them.” His neck was cramping but when he tried to raise it, it jammed into the cold, hard muzzle of the general’s .360 Magnum.

  “I want every building that isn’t fenced off to be searched. Double up the guards… and hang the men in the guard shack. They should have seen him escaping.”

  “Jeremy, there was no moon and the lights don’t work,” Ladner told him. “We can start using a generator for the lights but we need to conserve gas until we can get a refinery going.”

  “I said to hang them both!” Rissman paced the length of the room. He whirled and pointed at the hapless Cartwright. “You were responsible for the guard unit.” His narrowed eyes switched to Colonel Faricy. “He’s your man. If we don’t capture the bastard today, you will personally hang Cartwright.” Faricy paled. He had owned a tire store before the war. His rank came from former military service but he had never seen combat. Hanging a man was not really in his nature, but if it came down to him or Cartwright, well… he had a wife to think of.

  “All of you except the general, get out of here, now!” The president waved at the guards. “Including you two.”

  Once the room was cleared, Rissman sank into his chair. He squeezed and rubbed his forehead with his hand and let out a sigh. “How are we going to maintain discipline if these guys keep screwing up?”

  “Jeremy, I think you’re overreacting. We’ve been rounding up work crews for over a year and there’ve only been two attempts. Three guys have managed to actually get away. It’s not significant.” He stood at ease, his hands behind his back, facing the president across the desk. His bald head shone in the light from the wall-mounted, oil lamp.

  “It IS significant. It will only encourage the others.”

  “Quite frankly, sir, every man, woman and child thinks of nothing else but escape. They know their chances are slim to none. Hanging the last group took the wind out of their sails. They’re defeated.”

  “
We need them to come around and realize that this is for their own good.”

  “This generation has been used to freedom. I don’t think they will ever come around. Our hope lies with our re-education camps. Once we have the minds of the kids and they believe in our agenda, then we will have the country we want. Ten or fifteen years, sir.”

  The president smiled a wry grin, “I’ll have to start grooming a successor. I’ll be over seventy by then.”

  “You’ll still be going strong, sir.”

  “You know, they’re calling me a dictator. That hurts, but I know this is the best thing for them. Why can’t they see that?”

  “Sir, you and I both agree that a benevolent dictator is better than the mess we had before the war. This is best for everyone.”

  Rissman looked up at General Ladner. “You’re the only one I can trust, Charles. You stay at my right hand and we will rebuild this country into a perfect nation.”

  “I will, sir, and with Colonel Packer taking care of things in the west we’ll soon have the country reunified.”

  “I need to think about promoting him. He can’t be too high a rank, of course. It might go to his head. Although, if we reorganize the military and make you the Chief of Staff, it won’t matter what rank he is. Whatever keeps him happy. But we have to bring these rebels under control. I won’t put up with it. Georgia, Utah and Idaho, and New Mexico. They must be handled.”

  There was a knock at the door.