The Shelter: Book 1, The Beginning (46 page)

The gang’s motorcycles are giving them an advantage we didn’t count on. We built our defenses on the assumption we’d be attacked by people on foot. We blew it in not considering a biker gang would attack us. We thought bikers would have left the city area for greener pastures. We didn’t consider any sticking around Nashville or coming our way. Our mistake is costing us dearly.

Four of them ran into our trench in the driveway which only alerted the others to where it is. Their frontline is almost upon us. I light the fuse to the trench in front of us, it lights with a boom and bright flash. I pass one word to everyone, “SHELTER.”

While the fire in front of us holds the closest attackers at bay, we slip out of our trench to the hidden shelter doors. After the last one of us enters, I close and lock the door sealing us in and the attackers on our farm. I left a group of mines behind us. Hopefully, this will slow down the attackers and give them pause so they won’t be able to follow us too closely. I’m hoping they don’t know we have the shelter complex.

The doctor and nurse Tony brought with him are already working on the wounded, they’ve asked for volunteers. The medical lab is overflowing with the wounded, most have parts of their clothing cut away so the doctor and nurse can gain access to their wounds. I’m surprised to see Lacy and Nancy covered in blood, helping the nurse work with our wounded. I’d sent them to check on the kids. I yell, “Doc, any word?”

“Go away, I’m busy. If you’re not wounded, get out of here and let me save these people.”

I can take a hint. As I’m leaving, Tony and John are walking towards the medical lab. I stop both of them, “Don’t, the doc just ordered me out.”

Tony asks, “How bad did we get hurt?”

“At least eleven caught a bullet someplace, plus we lost the surface. We’re all underground. Whoever the bikers and the mob are, they now have our homes, barns and everything that was on the surface. I’m afraid we should consider everything up top gone.”

“I agree with you. How long do you think we’re going to have to stay down here?”

I’m already depressed, I say, “Until the people up top who beat us leave.”

“Shit.” Says Tony

“Tony, you’ve got that right. We blew this battle.”

“Jay, don’t be upset, we’ll return to surface soon enough. We’ll teach the bikers and others they shouldn’t have screwed with us.”

“Tony, I know you’re right, but look at us, we have eleven plus Fred wounded. We’re down to less than 20 people who are able to fight, we’re now trapped in our own shelter.”

“Jay, this shelter just saved all of our lives.”

End of book one.

The Shelter Book 2, “A Long Days Night is now available on Amazon Kindle.

SPECIAL PREVIEW

“In the Year 2050.”

“America’s Religious Civil War.”

Author’s note

This story started with me reading a report, “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050. Why Muslims Are Rising Fastest and the Unaffiliated Are Shrinking as a Share of the World’s Population” By the Pew Research Center. They published a chart which woke me up.

When I read the report, I thought, what would happen if a radical Muslim was elected President? How would one get elected? Since the report made it’s projections in the year 2050, I choose that as the year to place this story. Rather than turn the story into a “SciFi” story focusing on the advances of technology in the next 35 years, I made very few technology projections used in the 2050s, I wanted the story to be about the ‘What if’ America elected a Muslim as President. Since technology plays a major role in our lives, I did project that our televisions and gaming will be replaced by 3D hologram technology which seems to be a logical step in entertainment devices.  If anyone is interested, the full report is available on line at the Pew Research Center site.

Prologue

In the year 2050 the world’s population based on their religious beliefs, is almost equally split between Christianity and Islam. The high birth rate in the Islamic communities combined with the much lower birthrate in the world’s other religions laid the foundation for Islam to pass Christianity by the early 2050’s.  By 2050 Islam controlled most of the European Union states. The shift started in the late 1990s when Europe’s open borders allowed large numbers of Muslims to relocate to Europe. Instead of assimilating into the existing population the Islamic immigrants separated themselves into Islamic ghettos where they followed their own religious practices and practiced Sharia law. Infidels were not welcome in these ghettos, the Muslim immigrants patrolled their ghettos which over time grew to encompass entire cities with their own government, police, and fire departments.  In order to be competitive local banks were forced to follow Sharia law, which outlawed charging interest.  The Islamic cities formed roaming religious police, who were called the Mutaween. Their job was to ensure the population followed Sharia law. The Mutaween ensured that no remnants of the ‘Western lifestyle’ remained to pollute the followers of Allah. With high birth rates and high immigration, the size of the Islamic cities and communities grew, as did their political power. The Muslim’s voted in an Islamic block. By 2020, they were running their own candidates for public offices.  In 2022, Muslims held the offices of the mayor of London, Birmingham, Paris, Berlin, and over 200 smaller towns and cities. In 2050, the Islamic Caliphate covered all of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, (with the exception of South Africa which after numerous race wars was a devastated battle field of ruined cities) and a third of Eastern Russia. The Chinese Communist Party fought the expression of all religions. Australia and New Zealand outlawed radical Islam, they deported any who tried to overthrow their democratic lifestyle.

In 2015 America and Iran signed the worst treaty in modern history. America agreed to release all economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for Iran agreeing to not produce a nuclear weapon for ten years. Iran laughed at America’s stupidity in accepting their word without a backup plan. Iranians chanted “Death to America”, “Death to Israel.” While their government signed a worthless treaty.

In 2020, Iran launched a surprise attack against Israel with fifty nuclear-armed missiles. Forty-six of the missiles were intercepted by Israel’s expanded anti-missile shield. Israel struck back at Iran with 200 nuclear missiles and bombs. Tehran was struck by six 350KT Israeli weapons, the capital of Iran was vaporized, the city ceased to exist. Saudi Arabia also struck Iran using their secretly developed nuclear weapons.  Israel had secretly traded nuclear assistance to Saudi Arabia in exchange for them attacking Iran if Iran struck Israel first. Israel also shared with Saudi Arabia various technologies. The two entered into an uneasy peace. Saudi Arabia knew Israel had enough weapons to destroy the Kingdom if Saudi Arabia moved against Israel. With the destruction of Iran, Saudi Arabia took its place as the leader of the Islamic world. The King of Saudi Arabia signed an agreement with Israel agreeing to recognize the right of Israel to exist in exchange for Israel agreeing not to attack Saudi Arabia. The treaty allowed Saudi to focus on converting the rest of the world to follow Allah. The Saudi Royals knew that when Islam was strong enough, they would return to the question of Israel.

While In the United States, twenty Muslims were elected to Congress in the midterm elections of 2020. In the 2024 elections, Muslims won 55 seats in the House and 6 seats in the Senate. In 2026, there were 102 Muslim members of the House and 16 Senators. They formed a powerful congressional group, the Congressional Islamic Group, (CIG). The CIG pressured the liberal media to suppress any story which didn’t reflect Islam in the best light. Any Story about an Islamic attack on an infidel was suppressed. The CIG understood that most Americans got their news from fifteen second sound bites, they knew, who ever controlled the media, controlled how the average American thought. Their antagonists were the right wing talk radio hosts who had the largest share of the radio market. The CIG pushed the equal time rule through Congress. Any media that broadcast a right wing radio or television program also had to broadcast an opposing program for the same amount of time in a similar time slot that had a similar number of listeners or viewers. The new law doomed talk radio. If Rush was on for three hours in mid day, then the same station had to broadcast an opposing view program in a time slot that had the same number of listeners. Since Rush had the highest rated radio program, there wasn’t another time slot or available program that provided an opposing view. Talk radio’s success was its own downfall.

The right wing talk radio and television hosts, Rush, Glen, Sean, and Mark were all kicked off the air. The four of them merged their networks into a new Tea Party/right-wing network they called the EIBLAZE network. They quickly learned, regardless of their number of viewers and listeners, due to the equal time rule, no commercial station could host them. They began broadcasting on the Internet. The CIG brought suit against the EIBLAZE network and Google saying Internet providers, under the FCC’s takeover of the internet in 2015 were covered by the equal time rule. The FCC sided with the CIG. The EIBLAZE found no provider would host them due to the fear of being sued by the FCC. The EIBLAZE’s only option was to move offshore so they could continue their broadcasting. The CIG and FCC pressured service providers in the EU and Asia to block the EIBLAZE network, which left the hosts having to fund their own Internet provider based in Israel. The CIG filed suit against the new network and all broadcasts originating in Israel. Israel refused to hear the lawsuit. The CIG pressured Congress to cut all aid to Israel until they followed the equal time rule. Israel had sufficient support in Congress to block the CIG from cutting aid. Israel continued to host the Tea Party/right wing broadcasts which became the only voice of logic and conservatism available to the American public. 

When the 2052 Presidential election process started, the CIG offered their own candidate for President. Their candidate, Senator Osama bin Mohmand won 274 Electoral College votes. Becoming America’s first openly Muslim President.  President elect Mohmand promised America a new generation of peace, an end to the various wars which had gone on for fifty years. The American public was tired of and fed up with two generations of wars. They elected Mohmand thinking he would bring peace and since he ran as a Green Party candidate, the public expected him to protect the environment.

Sitting President Jackson tried to take some of the glow off of President elect Mohmand by releasing President Obama’s sealed records. The unsealed records showed what many on the right had long suspected, President Obama was a Muslim. President Jackson hoped that by releasing President Obama’s records, he would defuse those who were worried about a Muslim President. He hoped that like most candidates who won elections, once in office, they realized if they wanted to get anything done, they had to move towards the center.

President elect Mohmand promised he would sign an executive order marking President Obama’s birthday as a national holiday. Thus celebrating the birth of the person who started the transformation of America towards becoming an Islamic country. The new national news station, Al Jazeera, renamed the transformation of America as the jihad of America. Al Shihabi was granted a daily interview time every day with President Mohmand. Al Jazeera was the only media to have total access to President Mohmand. AL Shihabi helped script a wide-ranging jihad of America, one which they hoped would fully transform America into a devoted Islamic country which will proudly take its place within the worldwide Caliphate. 

Chapter One

Amid the loud cheering and chanting at the Mohmand election headquarter hotel, the CNN reporter looks into the camera saying, “Good evening America, tonight, November 17th, 2052 history has been made for the third time. We’re all witnesses of this historic event. In November 2008 we elected the first African-American, Barrack Obama as President. He started the transformation of America to make us a more peaceful, caring country. As everyone knows, President Obama served two terms, he left a legacy of accomplishing more than any other President prior to him. In 2016, the conservatives’ voter ID laws blocked many minorities from voting thus allowing the radical Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz to be elected as President. President Cruz defeated Mrs. Clinton who performed horribly in the debates. Many said that President Cruz pushed her buttons causing her to lose her temper in every debate. Some say the ‘real’ Hillary Clinton was seen during the debates. Everyone may remember when she lost it in the second debate when Ted Cruz held up recovered emails showing Mrs. Clinton sent Ambassador Stevens to Benghazi to ship illegal weapons to the Syrian rebels.  As Secretary of State, she not only knew the attack was a terrorist attack, she turned down his request for additional security. She stood by, doing nothing allowed Ambassador Stevens to die a horrible death. Ted Cruz repeated during the debate, Clinton’s hands were covered in blood. At the end of their third and final debate, he showed emails proving she ordered the military to stand down dooming the Ambassador and his staff to death.