Final Dawn: Escape From Armageddon (19 page)

     “We have a safe place for us to go, after the sky turns dark, and the earth freezes over. And we’ve got enough food and water and other supplies to keep us safe until the earth thaws out again.

     “And then when it does thaw out and when we can come out of our shelter, we have a different place we can go that is safe. Where we can start to rebuild our lives and get back to normal again”

     David, with a look of great relief on his face, asked “Where is this place?”

     Hannah took over for Mark. “That’s the thing. We’re not going to tell you. It’s nothing personal, and if any of you have any anger about that, you can blame me. It was my idea to keep the location a secret.”

     Mark spoke up again. “Here’s the thing. The more you know about our secret location, the more chance the word will get out. And if the word gets out, people will start looking for our safe place. And if they find it, there could be violence. And some of us, or some of our loved ones, could get hurt.”

     “I’m asking you to trust us. You all know me. You know I wouldn’t lie to you. I wouldn’t tell you we had a
shelter if we didn’t. I’m asking you to trust me when I tell you that our shelter is safe, it’ll be fairly comfortable, and that it will give you a chance to survive. Now, please, let’s just leave it at that for now.”

     Hannah said “That’s the good news. But there’s some bad news too
. The bad news is that we only have enough provisions for forty people. That means that some people are going to be left behind.

     “Everyone here, and your immediate families, will of course have a place. David, we’ve made space for your mom and your dad, and your brother Robert and your sister-in-law Jennifer. But we had to draw the line there. We cannot invite Jennifer’s parents or siblings. We’re sorry. But if we invited her parents and siblings, then they would want to bring their own
spouses and their siblings, and their kids. And each of those siblings’ husbands and wives would want to bring their own parents and siblings, and before you know it, the list of forty would be four thousand instead.”

     Mark said “What we all need to remember, is that we can save forty people, and only forty. If we try to bring more than that, we run the risk of running out of food or water, and threaten
ing us all. That’s why we must draw that line.”

     David said “I understand. But what on earth do I tell Jennifer? She’s my sister-in-law, and she’s a great woman. And she loves her parents and brothers as much as we all love our own.”

     “Tell her we’re sorry. We have some money left from the lottery that we’ve set aside for this very reason. We’re prepared to give Jennifer a hundred thousand dollars. Today. All she has to do is give us her bank account number so we can transfer the money into it. Tell her to have her parents and brothers find a safe place to shelter. Use the money to buy whatever supplies they can.

     “And tell her to pray that they can survive. And hope that they’re still alive when it’s all over, and we can all get together then. I’m sorry, but tell her that’s the best we can do.
”

     Hannah turned to Debbie’s husband, Mike. “I’m sorry, Mike, but the same situation applies for your extended family.

     “We’ve put some money aside to help them prepare. And we will pray for them to make it through. And if they can survive until the earth thaws, we will help take care of them. But they’ll have to get to that point on their own.

     Mike was speechless. He simply didn’t know what to say. His two brothers were avid outdoorsm
en. They were used to hunting for food in cold weather. His youngest brother was a survivalist, and even built a bunker when the world was going nuts about the Mayan calendar thing. But he didn’t know much about it. And he doubted that it would be big enough to hold everyone they would want to protect.

     “Honey, I know what you’re thinking.” Debbie told him. “But you won’t
be a damn bit of good for them if you stay back to help them. You’ll just be another mouth to feed. Your family is rugged. If anyone can survive on the outside they can.”

     Mark wrote a number on a small piece of paper and handed it to Mike
and David.

     “That’s the ham radio frequency we’ll be monitoring. If your
brothers and their families can survive until the earth warms, we’ll have a safe place for them to stay and live. We’ll have livestock and crops and security to ward off marauders. But they have to dig in somewhere and survive to that point.

     “Tell them to memorize this number. When the earth warms, to find a ham radio and a power source. A large truck battery will work. Tell them if all the batteries are dead, to find an industrial battery store. They’ll have new batteries. They’ll also have powdered sulfuric acid.

     “Tell them to pour the acid powder into the battery and add water to activate the battery. Then to use the battery to power the radio.

     “Tell them when the earth starts to warm, to transmit on that frequency every day at noon. Tell them when the sun is directly over their heads.

     “We’ll monitor that frequency every single day when the warming starts. If they survive to that point, we will give them directions to guide them to the compound.”

     Mike still had no words. He had tears in his eyes, though. Debbie held him close. She said “They’ll be okay, Honey. And
our Anna and Little Dave will survive. They’ll get a chance to grow up, and have children of their own. You’ve got to be strong for them.”

     No one spoke for a full two minutes. There was nothing anyone could say or do to make this situation palatable.

     Finally, Bryan spoke. “Those of you who are on medication, start stocking up now. Go to different doctors. Don’t tell them you’ve been seen by anyone else. Merely tell them you’re a new patient who hasn’t been to the doctor in awhile. Let them do labs on you and prescribe you medications. Ask for a 90 day supply. Get them filled at a local drugstore, and then see a different doctor to do the same thing again.

     “
Get as much medicine as you can. You won’t be able to get enough, but the more you get, the slower we can wean you off of them. And the more time we’ll have to try to find a non-prescription substitute.”

     Mark said “We’ll come for you a few days before the meteorite hits. Pack lightly. No more than a couple of suitcases per person. Bring your precious memories and your medicines. Leave the jewelry and valuables behind. They won’t be of any use to you anymore.

     “And please, I can’t emphasis this enough. You cannot tell anyone, no matter how much you want to. All it takes is one person knowing our secret to put us all at risk.”

-41-

NOV 21, 2015      7 WEEKS UNTIL IMPACT

     President Sanders cleared his throat as he took the podium.

     “My fellow Americans, I want to give you an update regarding Saris 7 and our mission to divert it from earth.

     “Our best and brightest NASA scientists, and technical experts from the United States Air Force, are now on the ground in the People’s Republic of China.

    
“Our NASA experts concluded that they simply do not have time to build and prepare a rocket to do what we need it to do.

     “
China, on the other hand, has a three stage rocket on their launch pad. They were planning to use it to launch a new military satellite before we found out about Saris 7. Now, they have consented to allow our technical experts to retrofit the rocket and mount a 20 megaton warhead onto it.

     “It will take a top team of experts and scientists from each country, working together, to make this happen.

     “The rocket is scheduled to be launched on January 14th, one day before impact. It cannot be launched before then because the rocket will use liquid rocket fuel, and has a limited fuel capacity.

     “Once free of the earth’s atmosphere
, the rocket will travel to a point 112,000 miles from earth, where it will be directly in the meteorite’s path.

     “T
he best computer in the world will be on board, and it, not man, will determine the optimum time to detonate the warhead.

     “It will have a very small window, but our experts, and the experts on the Chinese side, have assured me that it will be successful.

     “Now, my friends, I must ask for your help. We are losing control of our streets. The rioting going on in our cities must stop. The looting must stop. Our police forces are becoming overwhelmed.

    
“I have asked the Department of Justice to appeal to district and county court judges across the country to stop granting bail to looters and rioters. We want to send a very strong message to those of you who will steal from your neighbors, and your neighbor’s businesses, that if you are caught, you will sit in jail until your trial date. That may be weeks or months. That pound of hamburger, that case of water, that television set, is not worth several months in jail. Trust me, it just isn’t.

     “The same holds true for rioters. Now is the time to be calm. Running rampant through the streets in an effort to cause chaos and anarchy isn’t going to do anyone any good. If you are jailed for rioting, you will also be jailed indefinitely.

     “I have also talked to each of the governors across the country and given them authorization to use their military bases, and military policemen, to help house prisoners if their civilian jails and prisons get overcrowded. We simply will not let our streets be taken over by hoodlums and thieves.

     “Lastly, an appeal for hope
. We are all in this together. This government works for you. We are not, contrary to wild rumors, going to protect ourselves and let others perish. We have a handle on the situation, and no one is in danger.

     “Please, please, do not lose hope. Do not take your own life, or the lives of others. To do so would be to die needlessly. And that would be an awful shame.

     “Thank you very much for being patient through this crisis. Please continue to be strong. Please continue to pray for our people who are in China working on this problem. Pray that all goes well, so that on January 15th, we can watch Saris 7 go flying by in a new, harmless orbit.

    “Thank you. And God bless you all.”

     Before he introduced the President, his press secretary had informed the press that the President would take no questions.

     But the press was having none of it.

     As Sanders left the briefing room, flanked by six heavily armed secret service agents, the reporters shouted questions behind him.

     “Mr. President! Why does the military still have control of all the observatories? What is it you don’t want the world to see?”

     “Mr. President! Why hasn’t the first family been seen in over two weeks? Are they already in the bunker?”

     “Mr. President! What about the all of the hundreds of trucks that have been coming in and out of the area around
Arlington National Cemetery? Can you give us any information about them?”

     “Mr. President! What if the warhead misses? Then what?”

     But he was long gone.

     “Well, what did you think?” Mark asked the group.

     Hannah spoke up first. “I think he’s full of crap. He’s lying through his teeth to buy him
self time.”

    
Bryan countered “Hey, none of us know what the Chinese are capable of doing. What if their technology is better than ours? Maybe they really have the capability of pulling this thing off, of knocking Saris 7 off track.”

     “No.” Sarah said. “It’s not possible. There are too many things working against them. Just getting there is iffy. And getting the nuke out of the earth’s atmosphere without it burning up is iffy. They are not protected the way a rocket to the moon is, for example. They weren’t made to be. They weren’t made to ever leave the earth’s atmosphere.

     “If it is retrofitted and enclosed in heavy steel to protect it from burning up, will that protection interfere with its operation? Will it prevent it from firing? Will going through the atmosphere damage the electrical components, or the computer that tells it when to explode?

     “There are a million things that would have to work in order for this to happen, and only one thing that would have to go wrong to prevent it.

     “As far as I’m concerned, he’s full of crap. This is just a red herring. It’s only meant to get the country off his back until Saris 7 hits. And by that time he’ll be safe and sound in his bunker and there won’t be a damn thing anyone can do about it.

     The other three all looked at Mark, who was the only one not to voice his opinion.

     “I agree with the girls. I think the whole reason they supposedly moved the problem to China is because the government controls the media there. China can say whatever the hell they want to say, and there won’t be any reporters to contradict them.

     “Hell, there may not even be a rocket at all.”