Nuclear Spring

by Td Barnes

  Sure enough, Bradley’s poodle chased down the ball and was running towards the portal with it in his mouth with half of the players chasing him. Both laughed as they cheered for Sarge. Meanwhile, Sammie’s vehicle branched off towards the south portal while Bradley’s JLTV continued to the party outside the north entrance.

  Sergeant Cooper slowed the JLTV to a near stop when several of the younger children saw them approaching and ran to greet them. He stopped to allow Bradley to dismount. “Grandpa, grandpa,” the children welcomed Bradley.

  Bradley could not help himself. His stern, the stone face became a grin as he removed his Kevlar and dropped to one knee to scoop the children into his arms.

  Bradley placed his helmet over one little boy’s head but removed it when it covered his head all the way to his shoulders. He glanced through the door of the JLTV to see Sergeant Cooper laughing at the scene. “One word of this to the troops, Cooper, and you will be milking cows.” Cooper knew Bradley joked and responded, “Yes, Grandpa.”

  Bradley unloaded the children from his lap and stood up. “May we see, may we see?” a young boy of about six years asked. Bradley lifted him into the JLTV and watched the boy scan over the interior in wonderment.

  “Sergeant Cooper,” he said. Do you realize that some of the children have never been in a vehicle or rode in one?”

  “You’re right, sir. Shall I give them a little ride?”

  “I think it is something that they will never forget.”

  Sergeant Cooper dismounted and walked around to where the children stood in a group.

  “Would you kids like to go for a ride?” The children greeted him with a chorus of excitement. “Whoa, whoa. This is an Army vehicle. You do not say yes. You shout, HOOAH.”

  “HOOAH.”

  “I cannot hear you.”

  The chorus of HOOAH echoed all the way to the ball field, causing several to look towards the JLTV.

  A happy Colonel Barlow and Stacey arrived to greet Bradley after the vehicle loaded with children left to wander around the immediate area. “Welcome back, sir,” Barlow said.

  “Drop the sir bit, Barlow,” Bradley scolded. “You are in command now and you, sir no one.”

  “But,”

  “No buts about it, Barlow. By the way, I think it is great what you are doing today. Our people needed this.” Bradley realized most, if not all the colony members being present for the event.

  He looked back towards the portal at the animals emerging from the tunnel. The number of cats and Guinea surprised him. When they first evacuated to the mountain, he suggested importing cats to keep down the rodent population and the Guinea Hens to control insects. He realized the nuclear winter effectively eliminated the need for this number of both. He made a note to himself to speak to the veterinarian responsible for animal breeding and control. The mountain was due to inventory to lower the numbers to meet the demand.

  “Barlow, I need to speak to our people. This is something that I should discuss with you and staff first, but under the circumstances, I don’t think you will mind receiving your brief along with the rest.”

  “, sir.”

  “You said, sir again. I realize that we did not have an opportunity to follow protocol by having a change of command ceremony. However, doing so now after the fact would be awkward. We will wait until after lunch. If you introduce me as head of special projects, I’ll handle the rest. I am certain that you and everyone else will approve of what I have in mind.”

  “Of course, you have my trust, Tom.” They all looked towards the picnic area when the crowd roared and yelled for someone who hit a home run.

  Stacey listened to the exchange. Married to Bradley all the years, she recognized his needing to say more. “If you two will excuse me, I think I’ll take a spin with Sergeant Cooper and the grandkids.”

  Barlow snickered, and Bradley gave her the finger.

  “Thanks, Stacey.” He waited until Stacey moved beyond hearing them and said to Barlow.

  “Did Bronson tell you what I have in mind for the Grizzlies?”

  “Not yet. Bronson for a meet, but said it could wait until you returned.”

  “I’ll give you a head up and fill you in on the details later that and what we brought back from the Area. Some I’ll announce to the colony today in a broad way. Earlier, I mentioned to you my heading up a special projects department. The Grizzlies are part of special projects, along with a new weapons system that Sammie is securing inside the mountain as we speak.” He paused and glanced around to ensure no one was listening. “We have brought back the ultimate defense system. We must avoid at all costs any compromise of this. I also realized at Groom the necessity to classify some of our defenses, which is the basis of individual projects—how we will conduct projects that we must keep black.”

  “Understood. I hoped we were through with having secrets.”

  “I know. I hoped so as well.”

  He looked at the portal. “Jane, you will think that I have gone nuts. Here inside the mountain, we always have the sound of air circulating through the mountain, rocks falling, people talking at all hours of the night, coughing, sneezing, making love, cats prowling, the noisy Guinea hens, and that damn 24-hour paging system that never shuts up. We have our computers with music, games, and videos. At Groom, we heard none of these sounds, no coyotes howling, no crickets, birds, or the sounds of our electronic toys. If the wind did not blow, we heard no sound at all except us guys talking to one another. Seeing the stars overhead seemed strange and very intimidating. Even the moon looked hostile. We felt insecure. It was not just me. All the guys felt that way at night. We sat up half the night talking just to keep the boogeyman away. We were afraid to go to sleep. We felt unsafe, naked, being out of our environment.”

  “My gosh, Tom. I have never thought about something like this, but it makes perfect sense. We have always known of prisoners wanting back in the pen where they felt secure. I wonder if this is something that we should discuss with our shrinks. I am sure the others are feeling the same way. Enough of that—let us join the troops. I see they are serving food—if you want to call it that. The cooks most likely mixed up a tub of MREs and have given the concoction an illusional name.”

  Bradley felt in a jubilant mood being home and seeing the colony at play. He laughed at Barlow’s comment about the food. “I see Lieutenant Beauregard is mess hall officer this week. No telling what that Cajun coonass has come up with.”

  “HOOAH.” Sergeant Cooper parked the JLTV, unloaded and was now marching the children like soldiers with them shouting their new keyword, HOOAH.” “The parents will love you for this, Cooper,” Bradley whispered to Cooper.

  Bradley joined some of the enlisted men at their table for lunch and a bit later accepted a challenge in a game of horseshoes. Seeing the children getting tired and the gala event winding down, Bradley motioned to Barlow to gather everyone for him to address them. He noted with great satisfaction where someone in the signal section had set up a microphone and speakers so everyone could hear.

  Barlow performed the usual ‘hope all of you enjoyed the festivities’ bit and then introduced Bradley by stating that he wanted to address the colony.

  Bradley cleared his throat before turning on the microphone where he mimicked Barlow’s comments about the fun day. Other than the children playing in the distance, the crowd remained silent and attentive when he proceeded into the meat of his message.

  “I think all of you know that just before some of us went to Groom Lake a few days ago, we promoted Lt. Colonel Jane Barlow to Colonel, and she assumed command of the Mountain Command on what we have designated as the Jackass Flats Territory.”

  He turned towards Barlow and performed a presenting Barlow gesture. Everyone applauded with respect.

  “I stepped down to take command of a special projects division. Coming out of the mountain, at last, we realized the need for utilizing some of our experts in their respective fields to establish a weather alert s
ystem and to determine the identities of those we have seen overflying us. You might say that I am now the eminence grise, a secret agent for these special activities.”

  The crown acted surprised and puzzled by this.

  “Support and participation in our special projects will not be military. Military personnel assigned will be TDY, on temporary duty for the job or duration that they are needed. In some cases, the same will apply to the civilian sector. We retrieved from Groom Lake the equipment we need to learn the state of the world regarding the nuclear winter. It is beautiful out today; however, our meteorologist is confident that the winter conditions will return with the change of the seasons. This means we will remain inside the mountain.”

  Other than shuffling around a bit and glancing at one another and up at the sky, most of the residents accepted the news in silence. Bradley continued.

  “This means that we must act like bees to prepare for the return of winter. We must take advantage of this break in the weather to prepare—to replenish our food supplies and other necessities. We must obtain hay and feed for our animals. Starting tomorrow, we will have trucks and crews touring the neighboring farm and ranch communities in Amargosa Valley and around Beatty to recover any food for the animals that we can find. We have learned that we can clean the feed, in most cases, enough safe animal consumption. This leads us to our feeding all of you. Starting tomorrow, we will increase Dr. Kathy Sanders’ photosynthetic gardens to include other alcoves. This requires installing lighting for the plants.”

  Everyone looked at Sanders, a trim woman with her hair in a ponytail and wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots. Doctor Sanders, a former Starquest Aerospace botanist, established inside the mountain a photosynthetic garden designed for extraterrestrial application with a space colony. She was like the Bradleys, a native of West Texas. Unknown to Bradley, it was she who hit the earlier home run.

  “We will also construct greenhouses outside the south portal with protected access from the entrance. This means our installing water pipes, electrical, and lighting for the plants grown here as well. We do not have enough plumbers, electricians, or carpenters, so if you have any of these skills, please let someone in charge of that project know. As I said, we must replenish our food stores or at least produce enough to offset consumption so that we will increase our livestock breeding and production. Raising chickens is easy under our conditions. We will expand our poultry farming. As you can see, we are creating jobs for those of you who do not have a current occupation.”

  Someone taunted out of the crowd, “You can’t be serious, expecting high-educated engineers to become ordinary chicken farmers.” It was obvious by the tone that the individual was not joking. Bradley could not identify the heckler, and the crowd did not respond enough to point him out to him.

  He continued. “While the weather was favorable and the radiation level safe, we dismantled and brought here what we need from Groom Lake.”

  He paused a moment to shift topics. “We must realize that resuming our previous way of life before the mountain is no longer an option. There will be weeks, months, and even years that the radiation will keep us confined to the mountain. We must keep our subterranean life self-sustaining and productive. As the saying goes, we will make hay while the sun shines. This all means that we must rethink our structure in society as well as government. The same applies to our military and special projects. We must think ahead to how our society, be it pluralistic, socialistic, democratic, or whatever can avoid Carte Blanche rule by tyranny.”

  Bradley viewed the colony as being on a transitional voyage while inside the mountain, making the mountain a vessel needing a commander much like a spaceship. On the other hand, once outside the mountain, they would become independents in a capitalistic world and would require a voice in how they lived their lives. He viewed this too complicated an issue to bring up for general discussion now. The people needed a plan with the pros and cons before they could resolve these matters. Since the colony could not engage now in permanent activities outside the mountain, he considered today’s social a mountain event and subjected to the rules of the mountain. He continued.

  “We suspect the belts of fallout are forcing areas and nations unaffected by the EMP to seek safe venues from the fallout. Someone has been overflying us because now it is safe for them to do so. Whoever it is, rest assured that they are looking for a new home. We do not want anyone deciding to take what we have, so I have ordered the installation of a developed weapon at the entrance of each portal. We are classifying this and restricting access to all except those needing to know and authorization for access. The same applies to our radio room and any other means of emitting signals outside the mountain. We have reason to believe that we may become a target of Islamic jihadist by the Muslim Brotherhood and must control what our enemies know about us.”

  “We have enough of your damn wars and warmongering,” the heckler yelled again. Again, the residents said nothing or reacted in any way to the heckler.

  This time, Bradley recognized the heckler being Dr. Shahidullah Fazlullah, one of the nuclear physicists.

  “Doctor, we have nothing but time on our hands. Would you like to enlighten us on we need to do to ensure our security?”

  “Some of us here inside the mountain are Muslim. We resent you identifying every instance of violent extremism as radical Islam. Because you do not understand Islam, you are treating anyone Islam as an enemy.”

  Hearing this coming from someone that the military protected for four years shocked Bradley. He controlled his urge to unload on the man and chose to respond.

  “Doctor, to me the word “extremism” is meaningless. People do not devote themselves to being extreme. Extremism has no content. The extreme of what? I am preparing the colony to protect itself from an absolute devotion to the supremacy of a radical fundamentalist vision of Islam and its murderous quest for dominion over all others.”

  The heckler stood his ground with no one else reacting in any way.

  “You are using religious coloration to paint Islam as evil. We demand that you remove Islamist from your lexicon.”

  This unfair comment pissed Bradley. Recognizing that the heckler was one of his Ph.D. VIPs, he attempted to respond at the heckler’s academic level.

  “So, sir—you are saying that the war we face is lexicological. I love your linguistic tricks, deliberate misnomers, and transparent euphemisms. You sound like our president did with his confusion of policy served by constant obfuscation. It sounds to me that you are advocating that we take a position of visual ambivalence with a vacillating stance on preparedness that reeks of incoherence.”

  Bradley felt his anger rising—not at the man, but at the colony for listening as though this was entertaining. It should be them, and not him having to respond to this radical rhetoric. Despite all the cross training and the emphasis on training everyone to defend the mountain, the civilians still failed to realize what the future held for them if they were to survive.

  “You people have forgotten your history lessons. World War II reduced vast swaths of Europe and Asia to ruins. Redrawn borders and homecomings, expulsions, and burials were the starts of massive efforts to rebuild from a war began in the late 1930s. At the time, the world’s population was two billion. In less than a decade, the war between the Axis the Allied powers resulted in 80 million deaths—killing off about four percent of the whole world. Occupiers took control of Germany, Japan, and much of their territory. What makes you think it will be any different now?”

  The thought of how past world leaders looked the other way from the many killed infuriated him even more. He spread his feet a bit and placed his hands on his hips while focusing on the protestor.

  In a scolding whisper, he said, “After four years, you are just now raising this issue? Where were you while those thugs held us under siege? For Christ’s sake, man, we are still in the jihadist war that existed before the EMP. You can use wordplay to call our evacuation of the emb
assy in Yemen as a reduction in staff. You can blame the Benghazi terror attack on some hapless Egyptian-American videographer, or the Fort Hood shooting as nothing but workplace violence by a loony Army doctor gone postal. But, sir—I say to you—to all of you—if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it must be a fucken duck! Jihadism and terrorism are disease germs like malaria. One can suppress jihadism, but never wholly eliminate it. This is a different order of threat from communism that we once faced. We will prepare to defend this mountain from all enemies regardless of religion, beliefs, nationality, race, or creed. If you have a problem with that—the road out of here is just behind you.”

  Colonel Barlow stood off to the side alongside, Stacey and SMG Marshall during the exchange. She turned to Marshall, anger flashing in her eyes. “Sergeant Major,” she hissed angrily.

  “Ma’am?”

  “Assemble the troops.”

  “Ma’am?” He looked puzzled at Barlow.

  “Dammit, you heard me. Assemble the troops and march them into the mountain. Our people need a little attitude adjustment.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Barlow’s voice softened, but not enough to erase her anger. “Stacey, I suggest you retire to the mountain. The colonel will be along.” She motioned to Mayor Robinson and informed her of her intentions. Mayor Robinson nodded her head in agreement and walked away to join the crowd.

  At the podium, Bradley heard the Sergeant Major assembling the military personnel and their dependents but felt so outraged at the heckler that he paid it no attention. Looking in the direction of the sound of the heckler, he said. “Is all this religious rot what you plan to tell the invaders when they swoop in here demanding your food, water, Army cot, wife, and daughters?” He turned when he felt Barlow’s hand on his arm.”

  “Sir, if you will follow me,” she said. That is when he noticed all the military personnel herding their dependents into the mountain. He and Barlow lingered behind them until all entered the mountain. His poodle, Sarge, and they were the last to get into the mountain.