“What’s going on?” Rick asked as he stepped slowly out of the SUV.
The soldier stepped forward and eyed Rick up and down, visibly relaxing as he saw that Rick wasn’t posing a threat. He glanced at the SUV and then raised a hand in the air as he shouted at the soldiers back at the blockade. “Older model! Not a threat!” The soldier then turned to Rick and addressed him.
“Sorry about this, sir. We’re evacuating civilians from the city to Nellis.”
“Why’s that?”
The soldier shrugged. “It’s orders for now, sir. Are you aware of what’s going on?”
Rick chuckled. “Yeah you could say that. I barely made it out of Los Angeles with my life.”
The soldier nodded sympathetically. “I understand, sir. Before we take you to Nellis you’ll have to leave your car behind. Security reasons.”
Rick sighed. “Yeah, that’s fine. It’s almost out of gas anyway.”
“Do you have any weapons on you, sir? You’ll need to discard those as well.”
Rick hesitated, then glanced at his bags in the front seat of the SUV. “You guys are confiscating all weapons? Why?”
“Base rules, sir. If you’re concerned about your safety I can assure you that you’ll be fine.”
“Ugh.” Rick scratched his head. “I think I’d rather just continue on my own. I’m not trying to reach Las Vegas anyway. I’m trying to make it home to Virginia.”
The soldier shook his head. “I’m afraid driving through is out of the question, sir.”
“How come?”
“There’s been some bad gang activity, sir. Orders are to not let any civilians through without loading them into the buses and providing an escort. If you’re trying to get back home quickly, I can tell you that we’re trying to get transport planes up and running to get civilians like yourself where they need to go.”
“Really?” Rick nodded. “How long until the transports get moving?”
“Sorry, sir. I don’t have that kind of info.” The soldier’s patience appeared to be wearing thin as he sighed and motioned at Rick’s gear in the passenger seat of the SUV. “Come on, sir. Unless you want to turn around and head back to L.A. I suggest you grab your gear. We’ll do a quick search then get you on the—wait… what the hell?”
The soldier stopped talking to Rick and stepped a few paces toward the rear of the SUV. He shouted at the other soldiers with him and they ran past Rick’s SUV out on the road. One of them held up a bullhorn and shouted into it. “Stop your vehicle! Stop your vehicle now!”
Behind Rick, farther down the road, a car was blazing down the highway so fast and erratically that Rick was surprised they had managed to avoid flipping over. As the vehicle approached the blockade, Rick ran to the passenger side of his SUV and grabbed his bags before slipping away towards the horde of people clustered around the school buses. By the time he nearly got there, most of the soldiers were out on the road with their weapons raised as they shouted at each other about the car that was approaching.
The car initially seemed to slow down, but at the last second it made one last turn and veered off of the road and into the sand and scrub on the side. The vehicle lurched and flipped through the air sending pieces of plastic and glass flying everywhere. The soldiers scrambled to avoid the twisting mass of the car while shouting at the civilians standing near the buses.
“Get on now! Let’s move! Get these people out of here!”
Rick jumped up through an open rear door on the back of the last bus in line and took a seat in the rear. He tucked the rifle case underneath his seat and turned around to watch out the back window. Flames were erupting from the overturned car as the soldiers ran back and forth with fire extinguishers, trying to put out the blaze and rescue whomever was in the car. Rick turned back and shook his head, wondering what on earth he had just gotten himself into.
Out of the frying pan, into the fire I guess.
Chapter 2
The Waters’ Homestead
Ellisville, VA
Dianne was naturally an early riser, but the morning following the “very bad day,” as her daughter put it, was one on which she got up extra early. Before the sun had even cracked over the horizon she was puttering in the kitchen making coffee and setting out breakfast for when her three children got up. She went to the TV in the living room and switched it on, but there was nothing playing except for digital static. She set the TV to automatically switch channels every few seconds and started going through the house and taking notes on what appliances they would be able to run off of the solar panels and which ones they’d have to do without until the power grid was restored. If it ever gets restored.
Dianne sighed and tried to push such thoughts out of her head, but it was difficult given what she had seen and heard the day before. If things were really as bad as the newscasts predicted and what she saw in their small town the day before, she wasn’t sure if power or normal life would be returning anytime soon.
As Dianne sat at the living room table drinking coffee and listening to the TV static from the other room she started making a mental list of the things she needed to do to get the house, the property, the children and herself ready for whatever might come next.
Living in the country for years had brought about certain benefits when it came to raising her children in terms of enabling them to be largely self-sufficient, at least when it came to Mark and Jacob. At thirteen and ten respectively they routinely carried out chores both inside and outside the house on the homestead and had been taught the basics of survival and preparedness. Much of the teaching had been theoretical rather than practical due to Rick’s hectic schedule with his company, but Dianne felt confident that her children would be able to slip into their new roles and duties after a good nights’ sleep.