Redaction: The Meltdown Part II (36 page)

“Thank you. But we’ve all lost family. I just want to prevent any more senseless deaths.”

Armed men guided them along the main drag past boarded up store fronts and abandoned cars. They turned past a Mormon temple and that’s when he saw it. Kids running around a playground. Masks covered half their faces but they swung on swings, climbed monkey bars, and shot baskets like the world hadn’t ended.

“We’re safe here.” The man gestured out the window. “No need to go all the way to Colorado.”

An older couple guided them into the school parking lot then toward a handicapped spot near the double glass doors. Adults and teens jogged for the entrance. They really were coming to hear what the doc had to say.

Mavis shrugged. “If you still feel that way after I’ve said my piece, then I give you my word, we’ll leave you to die in peace.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Mavis unzipped her jacket then zipped it back up. Voices swelled in the cafeteria around her. Except for the first row, full of elderly folks, everyone stood, filling the rectangular hall and spilling three deep out the door. Good Lord. The entire surrounding vicinities of Pine and Strawberry must be here. Twittering, chatting, nervously glancing at David and Sally.

A man in his fifties smoothed his salt and pepper comb-over and walked toward her. The minuscule stage creaked under his dress shoes. “As you’ve requested, Doctor Spanner, we’ve assembled everyone except the small children to hear your address.”

Mavis released her zipper and forced her hands to her sides. “Thank you. I appreciate your cooperation, Brother Bob.”

She addressed him by the name he’d been introduced to her in a show of respect but didn’t ask him to call her by her given name. Her title and education were her means of authority, her credentials for what she was about to tell them. Proof would come in three days, if her people kept the power plant running that long.

Bob’s pale blue eyes drifted to David and Sally then lingered on their weapons. “I hope your words were of peace not a warning of violence to come.”

From the corner of her eye, she checked her personal bodyguards. David’s rifle pointed to the ground and his fingers wrapped the clip. Sally’s pistol remained holstered although her hand rested on its grip. The ‘them versus us’ mentality was settling in. The military would have to be phased out then repackaged.

“You have nothing to fear from me or
our
military.” She stressed the commonality. They had to be united.

He grunted, then checked his watch. “I understand there are four of your trucks packed with armed soldiers standing by.”

Mavis unzipped her jacket and flashed her Kevlar vest. Its weight rubbed her shoulders and cut across her nape. In the Humvee it had been comforting, now it hung from her like a millstone. “I nearly faced mutiny leaving them to talk to you. But the trucks were left to take anyone who wants to leave.”

“And if no one does?” Brother Bob rubbed at the damp spots on his navy blazer. “Will we be rounded up like cattle and forced on board?”

So the threat of the grenade launchers had swayed them into listening to her. Ah, well. If they feared those, wait until she told them about the real ticking time bomb. “If anyone wishes to stay after my speech, we will continue on our way without you.”

She glanced at the crowd. Some would stay. The decision etched their faces in lines and grooves. Ah, well, perhaps they would help others on their path to Colorado.

Brother Bob steepled his fingers under his chin and pursed his lips. “I suppose I must trust you to keep your word.”

She inclined her head. From his tone, he didn’t trust her as far as he could spit.

“Shall we begin?” He clapped his hands and walked toward the center of the stage.

Silence rippled over the crowd until it stifled the flow of air.

Mavis waited in the wings behind the frayed red curtains. Gold tassels dripped from the edges in gossamer threads. The floor creaked behind her. She caught the whiff of spice above the damp and cold. David.

His fingers skimmed her spine before he removed his touch. “You ready?”

“No.” She shook her hands, hoping to break loose of the tension gripping her. “I don’t have a speech or anything prepared.”

“You’ll be fine.”

Maybe if she prepared for a week. Or a month.

Brother Bob raised his hands, palms forward a gesture of nothing to hide and openness. “Brothers and sisters.”

Mavis stopped her shaking. God, now they were his family and she was the invader at their barricade. “He’s good.”

“You’re better.” David nudged her shoulder.

Not even in her dreams.

“We have stood together, with the Grace of God and faced down the Horseman called Pestilence.” Brother Bob raised his hands higher, catching a sunbeam that strayed in through the cutout windows over the door. “We have beaten his Horseman called Death by sharing our meager stores and taking care of our neighbors.”

Oh, Lord. “He’s a preacher.”

And not the evil Trent Powers kind. A true believer. It rang in the power of his voice and echoed off the ceiling. She swallowed the lump in her throat. She was the opening act to a superstar and the superstar had gone first.

David rested his hand on the small of her back. “Must be why I’ve got the urge to say a few Hallelujahs.”

“And now a new Horseman rides across our meadows and hills, marking the pines surrounding us. War has been brought to our shores and is carried on the wind, into our homes.” Brother Bob clasped his hands in prayer and bowed his head. “The herald of such bad news has joined us today.”

Hostility bubbled from the crowd like lava in a volcanic vent.

Great. Now she was going to be condemned for being the messenger. Divine messenger, true, but she didn’t plan on being a martyr today.

Brother Bob shook his head. “Nay, brothers and sisters. We cannot condemn Doctor Spanner any more than Mary condemned Gabriel for bringing news of the savior growing within her womb.”

Mavis blinked. What? Had she missed something? Was the preacher actually comparing her to an archangel?

“Doctor Spanner warned us of the coming apocalypse. She delivered unto us medicine, food, supplies and other brothers and sisters in need.” He pointed a finger at her.

Was it her imagination or was there an accusation in there? She stepped out from behind the curtain and faced the congregation. If any one of them picked up a stone or lit a torch, she was outta here. Fortunately only a few remained hostile. Of course, a few could quickly turn this gathering into a riot.

“And now, Doctor Spanner has arrived with the world’s most powerful army at her back.” Mutters rippled through the crowd. Two men in the doorway dissolved in the falling snow. “And although she brings tidings of war, she walks in peace.”

Well…shoot. She changed the swear word. Mental or not, Brother Bob’s sermon had turned this lowly auditorium into a church.

“Brothers and sisters, open your heart and minds to Doctor Spanner’s message.” Backing away from center stage, Brother Bob opened his arms to her.

Great. She’d been invited to be the guest speaker at a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting.

“I have faith in you.” With a little pressure, David pushed her toward center stage.

Hundreds of eyes tracked her progress. She stepped to the right of where the Reverend stood and touched her hand to her chest. “Thank you Brother Bob, but I’m no archangel sent from God.”

A few twittered among the stony silence.

She splayed her fingers wide and opened her arms to the crowd. Nothing to hide here. “What I am is a scientist, well versed in how men kill each other en masse. I speak the language of war, hatred and intolerance.”

In the front row, skepticism replaced set jaws and narrowed eyes. Here and there, crossed arms relaxed.

“I tell you these things so you can understand how it was that I recognized the anthrax attack.”

“And we thank you for that, Doctor Spanner,” Brother Bob shouted from the wings.

A few heads nodded.

She swallowed her apologies for failing to do so sooner. Now was not the time. “But I was remiss in my broadcast for not warning you of another threat. One greater than anthrax and the Redaction combined.”

Her audience glanced at each other as if the answer was written on their neighbor’s face.

“In 1945, brilliant men, with the best intentions, unleashed the power of the atom upon the face of this planet.”

Their attention returned to her. Hostility fled in the wave of confusion and interest.

“They brought a horrible war to an equally horrible end but from those ashes came the hope of something new. A peaceful atom, one that would provide us with clean energy.”

“Nuclear power!” a man in the back shouted as if on a game show.

“Yes. Nuclear power. The United States and many other nations embraced this new energy source. For more than sixty years, we have lived with these generating stations humming on our doorsteps. Palo Verde just outside of Phoenix has three such reactors.”

“Don’t they power down in an emergency?” a voice on the left piped up.

“Yes.” She nodded. Fear crackled in the air. “But the spent fuel rods are stored in pools of water. Water that will evaporate then boil off, leaving the rods to burn freely and pollute our atmosphere with radiation.”

A woman in red fainted. Hands lifted her until a burly man carried her away.

“But we’re safe here. Phoenix is nearly a hundred miles away.”

Heads nodded.

Mavis sighed. Now she had to shatter their illusions, destroy what for many of them had become a sanctuary. “These hills are filled with metal and might protect you a little. But we’re not looking at the meltdown of just Palo Verde, but the thousands around the globe. There is no one left to man the cooling pools, to keep the rods covered.”

She waited for her words to blanket the crowd, to smother their hope.

“It took seven days for the radioactive fallout from Chernobyl to circle the globe. Eleven days for the radiation to reach Los Angeles from Fukishima.” She hit them with the stuff of nightmares. “And we don’t know how long the Chinese reactors have been abandoned, but I can tell you that the Japanese have abandoned their homeland. Boats are heading for Australia, planes landed on the west coast hours ago and are now moving to safe havens in the mountains.”

“Safe havens?” Men and women grabbed onto the lifeline.

“Mines. We’re going to live underground for the next hundred years.”

“A hundred years.” The crowd collapsed against each other, unable to bear the burden of truth.

Brother Bob shuffled onto the stage. His skin resembled ash. “What if we stay.”

“The rods will burn for years and eventually the plume will reach you.” Mavis faced him. This man, his followers would march with into Hell. If he believed her, then there was a chance they would join her and the soldiers. And, God help her, she’d love to rub Trent Powers’ nose in the cloth of a true preacher. “We’ve given you iodine pills to stop your thyroid from absorbing the iodine isotopes.”

Brother Bob nodded. “We have taken them as directed.”

“The trouble comes from the Strontium and Plutonium isotopes. Our bodies will confuse them with Calcium and iron. Some will settle in our bones, giving us and our children and our grandchildren leukemia. Others will accumulate in our lungs and liver, giving us cancer.”

Sadness filled Brother Bob’s brown eyes. “Given the current state of our health care system, neither will be treatable.”

Or survivable.

“If we band together, like you have here, helping our neighbors, the strong taking care of the weak, sharing what we have, then we all can survive this.”

Mavis stuffed the facts and figures she’d memorized inside her head. No one needed to know that Plutonium had a half life of twenty-four thousand years. None of them would live that long.

“I’ve said my piece.” She held out her hand to Brother Bob. “We’ll wait for an hour. If you don’t show, then I wish you luck.”

Brother Bob grasped her hand and squeezed lightly.

“And if we don’t show, then I hope you’ll all pray we succeed.”

Amens chorused around the room.

She tugged her hand free, strode off the stage and out the side door.

David caught up with her as she hit the main sidewalk. “You’ve got the makings of a fine preacher, Doctor Spanner.”

“No thank you.”

Sally dodged around her and opened the back door of the Humvee. “Do you think they’ll come?”

David shifted the vehicle into gear and backed out of the parking lot.

Mavis rested her forehead against the cold glass. Her breath fogged the view, blotting out the sight of children playing. “We’ll find out in an hour.”

Chapter Thirty

The shotgun barrel tapped Audra’s temple. She flinched as the pain skittered across her scalp. “You don’t have to do this. We’re cooperating.”

At least two dozen men in various shades of black swarmed the buses. Rifles, shotguns and handguns directed the evacuation of the people. Ball caps covered their hair; dark blue and black handkerchiefs masked their noses and mouths. Mirrored sunglasses hid their eyes. A few wore gloves; most had bare, chapped hands.

Someone behind her slammed a bat against the back of her knees.

Audra’s legs folded. The pavement rose up to meet her and she dropped her hands to catch herself. She hit the drift of snow on the side of the road first. Then pebbles dug into her flesh through her jeans. She hissed at the assault.

“Shut up.” The gun locked on her temple and a hand sunk into her hair and yanked.

Tears blurred her vision as the burn lit fire to her head. She raised her hands, reaching for the person’s hold. Metal knocked her away.

“Leave her alone!” Eddie pushed Stuart away from where he carried him and stalked toward her.

Stepping forward, a bulky man with a camouflage handkerchief swung for home. His bat collided with Eddie’s stomach.

Eddie doubled over with an oomf. Red flooded his face and he went down on his knees, catching himself with one hand.