Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own. (8 page)

Zeke had pushed the freezer over, and jammed it against the wall. He tilted the heavy metal shelves to the windows, making a ladder. She could see everything was melted above ground level, it looked like a precise laser cut.

“I’m going to climb up, take a look, Zeke,” she said.

“OK,” Zeke replied. Mentioning his name probably works, Karen thought.

Karen climbed up the freezer, then the shelves, and looked around. She was strangely disoriented, and felt a type of positional vertigo, as if she was not level, or had just stepped off a carousel. She reflexively grabbed the shelves, to steady herself until she could focus on the horizon. She was level. But her sense of balance seemed to rebel against the lack of direction in the barren landscape. Her inner ear, her sense of balance, seemed to reject what she saw, and the sensory conflict made her nauseous. Everywhere she looked, as far as the eye could see, was charred debris. There were no landmarks, no recognizable buildings. The horizon was not clearly defined. She was finally able to recognize the remains of the crumbled cement football bleachers, and the Interstate exit, and her nausea receded.

The quiet was terrifying. There was absolute stillness,
except for the smell of smoke, and the sound of fires crackling. It took her a moment to realize how horrific the absence of the expected, normal outside traffic and noise was to your senses. The silence echoed.

She suddenly realized the heavy smoke smell was the same as grilling a steak in the kitchen. It was the smell of burning flesh. But this fat was from human bodies. She knew intellectually everything had been destroyed, but it didn’t register emotionally. It was sensory overload.

All the buildings had been there every day. They were all there an hour ago when she started detention. Now all the buildings were simply
gone
.

Then came the realization that if steel and reinforced concrete were instantly pulverized and incinerated, imagine what happened to the flesh and blood
people
in those buildings. And the scale of destruction was mind numbing, it was as far as she could see in every direction.

David was right, she thought.

This was a nuke, and not too far away. It looked like the black and white photos in her history book of Japan after the atomic bomb was dropped in World War II. Except now all the buildings were flattened completely, and it was hard to tell where the paved highways were.

She gulped some water, wiped off her face, tried to put herself back together, then climbed back inside to help Jorge and the others climb through.

“Zeke, we may have to pull them out,” Karen said. She was pleased her voice was steady.

Zeke nodded but kept prying open the large commercial size refrigerator doors with some piece of metal. The refrigerators that were below ground level had been sealed shut by the melted rubber door seals. The refrigerators above ground level were melted.

Karen watched him methodically fill his backpack with small plastic water bottles, energy drinks, oranges, and large chocolate bars from the below ground level refrigerators.

Finally she saw David crawl through the hole, the last one.

“Everyone fill up these cloth laundry bags with bottled water, carry all you can,” David said, as they stood around, confused and dazed. Karen saw him pack a four pound blue box of Morton’s salt.

Karen had almost filled her backpack, when she turned quickly, and vomited all over the wall. The smell of burning flesh, the corpses, the devastation, and shock overcame her. She felt weak and dizzy.

Zeke moved away from the wall, unperturbed. He checked carefully to be sure she had not splattered his Snicker’s bar, then bit another piece.

“Most of us vomit every day during football practice. You will get over it,” Zeke assured her

Karen realized she had not eaten since the mid-morning snack. She had called her Dad during lunch to say she would need a ride home because she would miss the bus. She steadied herself, and forced herself to eat an orange while she opened a water bottle.

“No service, not even one bar, ” Zeke said, looking at the smartphone.

David climbed the makeshift ladder, looked around, then climbed back down. Karen wondered why neither David nor Zeke seemed to have any of the nausea and disorientation she had experienced. You are just as mentally tough as they are, she said to herself. It’s just that I had to skip lunch, and maybe men are just less sensitive, she thought. She noticed David had his backpack ready, and was obviously about to leave for somewhere.

But where?

Karen realized everyone was looking for him to determine the next step. David had become the leader by default, without thought, and that was not acceptable. She was always self-sufficient. She didn’t even know David, much less trust him.

“I suspect this is a nuclear attack,” David started as they all gathered around.

“My Dad talked about how to adapt, improvise, and overcome. Once you survive the initial blast, there is no reason you can’t survive the fallout.” David said encouragingly.

Doron shook his head in agreement with David. The others just stared, absorbing the idea.

“Wasn’t the only official Government response to civilians for a nuclear attack to bend over, put your head between your legs, and kiss yourself goodbye?”
Karen thought. David was acting like they could actually survive.

“We have at most a half an hour to get to some shelter before we get fallout. The fallout is radioactive and will kill you. It is radioactive debris that falls like dirty snowflakes,” David said.

“We will not be getting any help as the rescuers could not face the fallout radiation for about two weeks.”

“I drove my Dad’s truck to school today, its half a mile away . I am sure my Dad has survival gear in the truck box. We go hiking all the time, it has a Swiss water filter, a tent and sleeping bags. The backpacks are ready,” David said, pausing.

Karen noticed David was looking each of them in the eye, assessing them. The same way her Dad did on a roundup.

“You are all welcome to come, or you can stay here, and shelter under the debris” David said, evenly.

“I’m in,” Zeke said steadily.

“What’s not to like? If I have to be in a fallout shelter for two weeks, why not with three of the hottest girls in school? ” Doron asked. Zeke laughed, Liu just sighed. Karen did not laugh, her nerves were on edge.

The instructor shook her head, and stayed at the kitchen.

David and Zeke quickly climbed out and started hiking to the truck. Doron followed, Jorge hobbled behind.

Karen moved behind the wall and put a kitchen knife in
her boot, covering it with her sock. She caught Liu’s eyes and tossed her a knife, without saying anything. Liu nodded, then put the knife inside her belt.

“The teacher’s not coming,” Karen said.

“It’s her choice,” David said.

Ashley followed David, but then hesitated, “I am sure my parents will send someone to pick me up,” she said.

“Ashley, this is for real. No one is going to pick you up, this isn’t cheerleading practice . Stupidity has now become fatal,” Doron said, harshly.

Karen saw David turn back, and shut Doron up with his glare.

Ashley stared at Doron, uncomprehendingly, then burst into tears.

“Ashley, no one is coming for at least two weeks,” David said gently.

“Your parents would want you to be safe. Come with us, we will be fine until your parents can come. You carry Jorge’s backpack,” David said, handing it to her.

“OK,” Ashley said distractedly, as her hand trembled below her nose. She looked at David, then following Karen.

Karen was impressed with David. He seemed a natural leader. She knew that without him they would be entombed in the collapsed building. She couldn’t believe how he had calmed Ashley down, and given her a task to focus on. He exuded confidence and competence, and he had a plan.

But she didn’t trust him. She checked to be sure her knife was still in her boot.

15

They walked silently, in single file, through the football practice field. Most of the upper level cement bleachers were crushed, but the pile of debris was still recognizable. The collapsed concrete bleachers oriented the boundary of the practice field, which was covered with debris blown horizontally.

“Stay away from the small puddles, it’s molten metal,” David warned. The small pools had a hardened, crusted, layer but still glowed red hot, like lava.

“Don’t breathe the smoke from the puddles, it will burn your lungs. Use your shirt as a cowboy mask. Stay upwind, not downwind,” David said, pointing the wind direction blowing the concrete dust.

“Focus, focus,” David screamed to himself. Intellectually, he knew no one could survive above ground, but, emotionally, he hoped he would find a survivor. Zeke seemed to freak out every time he recognized the tackling sleds, the goal post stumps, and other debris from football practice. David wondered if he looked that bad to the others.

“I walked two blocks past this stadium, then turned left,” David said. He tried to forget that he would have burned to death on this very field, if he had not been in detention.

Zeke just stared blankly at the field. David moved into his field of vision, and repeated what he said. Zeke nodded.

Once they were on the road, the highway footprint became easier to follow. But the debris had covered everything almost uniformly, and David was worried he would miss the house location. It was impossible to tell where city blocks had been just an hour ago.

“Zeke, Karen, I am having trouble finding the intersections. Each time you see a connecting road tell me,” David said.

“Sure,” Zeke said, who motioned for Karen and Liu to
spread out.

“Here is an intersection” Karen said a minute later.

“Next intersection we turn left. Let’s double up, one line on each side of the road,,” David said. He turned and looked, everyone was keeping within view, even Jorge. They could no longer follow single file, everyone was straggling out too far.

When David turned left, his view to the northwest was no longer obscured by the mountains, and he saw it.

The mushroom cloud was visible for miles. David was surprised it was not white, but dirty looking. Everyone just stopped, and stared.

“How could this happen?” Ashley screamed. No one responded, or even acted like they heard her.

Before this, David thought, the nuclear attack had been a theory. Now it was a hard, cold, fact.

“Two more!” Doron said, pointing to a second and third mushroom cloud to the south. The white remnants of dissipating contrails, resembling those made by a jet, scarred the bright blue sky.

Somehow David had always thought a nuclear attack would come at night or during a dark day. In the bright, cloudless sky, the mushroom clouds seemed obscene. The sun was the same, the sky was the same, but here were three mushroom clouds.

David needed to get them moving, the fallout was coming and he was very alarmed there were
three
mushroom clouds.

“The truck is a green pickup,” David said, “let’s get moving.”

Every house was destroyed. Smoke and a sickeningly sweet burning smell filled the air. There was no sound other than cracking of fires. They never saw any live humans or animals, nothing moved.

Cars were smashed with debris and rolled over. Some of the cars in the distance were still on fire.

David jumped, startled when he heard a faint car alarm in the distance. He realized he had never considered his truck could be burnt.

“This should be it,” David said, pointing to the driveway.

“Spread out and look for a green pickup truck with a large silver box in the truck bed. It was parked in the garage, so it may be under debris.”

David had decided to give it fifteen minutes. Then, if they didn’t find the truck, they would start sewer diving, prying up manhole covers looking for a shelter, or dig an expedient bunker and cover it with doors, wood, or debris with dirt piled on top.

“Here it is!” shouted Liu, using a short piece of metal bar to pry the rubble apart.

Somehow the truck was smashed upside down. But the cab had left about three feet of space between the truck box and the cement foundation.

“You think this is stable?” David asked Jorge, who hobbled behind on a makeshift splint Liu had made for him.

“Yes, just don’t jar the back of the truck,” Jorge replied, as he stacked cement rubble to stabilize the inverted truck bed. Liu immediately joined in,

David took his key from around his neck and inserted the key into the lock. The lock was jammed. He tried again and again.

“It’s stuck,” said David.

Zeke pulled out the jack pry bar from behind the seat. He inserted the pry bar, and David hammered it with a broken chunk of cement rebar. David wondered if they could pry the box open, it was a hardened, military spec, gun box. But Zeke was extremely motivated, and after a couple of minutes he had pried open the box. It flew open, since it was upside down, and the contents scattered .

“Thank you Wayne LaPierre, Charlton Heston, and the NRA!” Zeke screamed in delight.

Two AR-15s in soft black cases, ten loaded clips, two 12 gauge riot shotguns, four boxes of 12 gauge shells, and Two 9mm pistols with seven loaded clips fell out.

“Sorry,” Zeke said. He had already grabbed an AR-15 and a 9, pointing the barrels in the air. He backed off, realizing this was, after all, David’s property. There were two military backpacks, David grabbed one and handed the other to Zeke.

“Have any of you fired a gun before?” David asked.

Karen, Liu, Zeke, and Jorge signaled their hand.

“Good. You can help us carry the weapons and clips,” David said as he started to pass out the weapons. “If we are carrying guns openly, they need to be loaded, and ready to shoot,” Karen replied evenly.

David paused. She was right, but he didn’t have time to teach everyone now, the fallout was coming. Zeke was alarmingly giddy with excitement at the guns, and Dad always warned him to verify by watching people actually handle and fire guns at a shooting range, and
never, ever
, just by relying upon what they said.