Chapter 11

Day 10 Sunday 22 April 2007 Impact plus 6 days

At midnight we started moving towards Monterey and had no problems on the way there. We cruised through town with no problems and headed for Churchville on RT 250 this time.

We were almost to McDowell, on the long straightaway before you pull into town, when I saw someone walking in the other direction towards Monterey, so I slowed down to take a closer look at them.

It took a second or two, but I finally recognized the person walking.

"Well shit, I thought he was dead, and here he turns up right in our path," I said.

"Who is it?" Betsy asked.

"It's Mark, one of my closest friends ... You might recognize him from the Zodiac Club."

"Oh yeah, I do remember him. What's he doing out here?"

"I called him the same day I called you, I thought he decided not to come and got killed."

"Well, by the looks of things, something else must have happened."

"It must have."

I slowed the truck down to a crawl, brought it to a stop twenty feet in front of him, pulled the parking brake, and slowly climbed out of the truck.

"Don't you know you ain't supposed to be in these parts, boy?" I said in my best southern accent.

Mark is a good sized black guy, so I thought he was going to turn white for a moment, until I took off my helmet and he finally recognized me.

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" I asked grinning at him.

He smiled at me and said, "man, you had me going there for a minute. I thought I was going to have to break out the nine on you!"

I started laughing, and when I could speak again I said, "Where the hell have you been? I thought you were dead."

"Well, I'm not," Mark replied with a chuckle, "but if I was much later getting out of Hampton, I would have been."

"Why? What happened?" I asked.

"Well, I got almost to the foothills of the Shenandoah Mountains when my truck just stopped. I didn't know what had happened, so I grabbed what I could and started walking toward your place."

"That's a hell of a walk."

"Don't I know it! I made it to the top of the mountain, when looking back, I saw the wave come up the valley ... Anyway, I made it a couple of miles from the outskirts of Staunton that day and stopped for the night, because I was dog tired. I set up a makeshift camp and went to sleep, but was jarred awake by a huge explosion, and bright light that lit up the sky. I thought I was a goner, but all that hit me was a huge gust of wind and lots of dust and debris," Mark said.

"You are just one lucky son of a bitch aren't you?" I said and smiled.

"Luckier than a lot of people, if I'd made it into Staunton that day I would be as dead as the rest of them."

"Yeah, it has been hard on us, if we stop long enough to think about it. Luckily that hasn't happened much in the past week or so. We have been, pretty much, busting our butts since this whole thing started."

"Yeah, but for me, I've been alone and walking the whole time. So that gave me plenty of time to have it running through my mind."

"I'm sorry you had to go through all that alone but if I'd thought for a second that you might still have been alive I would have come sooner and looked for you."

"I know you would have."

"Come on let's get going. We have a lot of work to do today and we need to get at it."

We got Mark's stuff loaded into the truck and got him inside and settled, and then we started on our way to Harrisonburg again.

"Mark, you remember Betsy don't you? The two girls back there with you are Julia and Caroline. I still have yet to find a way to tell them apart," I said with a grin.

"Nice to see you again, Mark," Betsy said.

"Nice to meet you," Julia and Caroline echoed and shook Mark's hand.

"It's great to know you all. So what have you been up to since you called me?" Mark asked.

On the way to Harrisonburg everyone filled Mark into what we have been doing over the past few days and then brought him up to speed on tonight's planned activity at the Army National Guard Post.

"It sounds like you all have been really busy, so do you think you will have any problems tonight?" Mark asked.

"I don't think so. When people heard about the asteroid it was like everyone started thinking 'every man for himself', so I don't think we should run into anything tonight, but I think the chances are going up. People will start to mess with us as their supplies begin to run out. There are a lot of people who have been watching us bring loaded trucks through for days so it's just a matter of time before someone does something," I said.

"I agree with you there, is that why you look like you're armed to the teeth?" Mark asked.

"Armed to the teeth and then some, I already had to take out a guy a couple of days ago who was trying to get the drop on us. Then yesterday, we had a run in with the sheriff in Monterey. I want to live through all this mess and take as many of my friends along for the ride as I possibly can, but I don't want any of us to get hurt in the process," I said.

"Sounds good to me," Mark said, and the girls agreed with him.

We cruised through the mountains with no problem and headed for Churchville and the road to Bridgewater.

We got to Churchville and made the turn on the road for Bridgewater with no problems. We did notice on out way through that the IGA and the Dollar Store had been ransacked and the windows broken.

We cruised to and through Bridgewater and it looked like nothing had changed there. Some of the stores looked like they had been damaged but there wasn't much going on at this time of night to worry about.

We pulled into Harrisonburg at 2 am and found the Army National Guard Post. It looked like the place had been spared from the looting, but I still decided to take our time and see what was up with the place.

I broke out the bolt cutters, got out and went to the gate, then cut the lock and opened the gate for us to drive through. I spent a minute looking around then headed back to the truck, climbed in and pulled into the Post's parking area.

We climbed out of the truck and gathered together in front of my truck.

"Well, let's go see if there is an office and we can find out what's stored here," I said.

Everyone agreed and we headed for a group of buildings that looked like they might be the command area. We were halfway to the building when we were suddenly lit up by spotlights.

"EVERYONE FREEZE! YOU ARE TRESPASSING ON GOVERNMENT PROPERTY. GET YOUR HANDS UP WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM," a voice yelled from behind the light.

"Everyone, slowly do as he says. NO ONE, do anything stupid," I said.

I slowly raised my hands above my head and happened to look down and noticed two red laser dots on my chest.

"Now, one at a time, drop your weapons and step away from them," the voice said.

I went first and pulled off my AA12 and set it on the ground, then pulled the .45 and the .50, set them on the ground, then stepped to the side about five feet. The rest of the group followed suit, placing their weapons on the ground and walking in my direction.

Once we all complied with his orders, I heard movement in front of me and a man walked up to us.

"I am Lieutenant Thomas Burr. What are you doing trespassing on Government property?" he asked.

"We are gathering supplies and equipment so we can survive the coming ice age," I said answering his question.

"ICE AGE? What ice age?" he spat.

"Come on Lieutenant, anyone who watches the Discovery Channel knows what's going on here," I shot back.

"Nah, we are just having a power outage and some bad weather," he replied.

"A power outage and some bad weather, huh? Who's been pumping sunshine up your ass?" I asked with a grin.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, NO ONE HAS BEEN PUMPING ANYTHING UP MY ASS!" he yelled back, turning red with fury.

"Sir, calm down. I apologize for what I said, but you have to look at the facts. We are in for a shit storm and if you aren't prepared you're going to be buried by it."

"Everything is fine, we just have to wait and we will be contacted by upper command."

"Hell, if I was upper command I would be in Panama or at least southern Mexico right about now."

"You don't know what you are talking about," he said accusingly.

"Look at the facts, an EMP took out most of the electronics and the power grid. Multiple asteroids hit the earth, with at least one of them being in the mile wide range. A huge tsunami hit the east coast of the United States destroying most of the cities and towns east of the Shenandoah Mountains. The dust thrown up by the asteroids is already blocking out the sun and the only thing that leads to is an ice age. Now who doesn't know what he is talking about?"

"How do I know everything east of the mountains has been destroyed?"

I didn't care if they had guns on us or not, I was starting to get pissed. "Go see for yourself! It's only a 20 minute drive from here to see all the damage done by the tsunamis. Then while you're at it run down to Staunton and see all the damage done there. Hell, I'll sit right here and not move a muscle till you get back. But believe me it's not a pretty sight you will be seeing," I said, then sat down on the ground.

"He's right, it's not," Betsy added, and then sat down also.

The rest of my crew followed suit and sat down near each other.

"Stay here," he said looking pissed and visibly shaken. He then turned around and walked behind the spotlights, out of view.

"What do you think is going to happen to us?" KC asked.

"One of three things: they'll let us go, shoot us for trespassing, or if we work it right, we might be able to get them to join us," I said.

"Why would you want them to join us?" Kristian asked.

"Because we will be running into more and more confrontations with desperate and hungry people ... who better to handle that threat then a bunch of trained soldiers," I answered.

About that time, the Lieutenant returned to our group looking a lot calmer.

"Let's say I believe everything you say, what do you think our options are?"

"Well, like I told some people yesterday, grab as much food, weapons and equipment as you can and move as far south as you can get. Or..." I said and looked around at my people getting the go ahead.

"Or what?" he asked.

"You can join up with us," I stated.

"Why should we join you?"

"We have been busting our butts for the past nine days gathering supplies; we have a relatively secure location, medical personnel and gumption to hopefully make it through this mess."

"What do you get out of this?"

"Trained soldiers. We are running into more and more problems on our scavenging missions. Just look at what happened here, for example. We can use all the help we can get."

"Hold on, while I go talk with my men." he said and turned and headed back behind the spotlight again.

He was gone about ten minutes this time and my group was really beginning to fidget. I was starting to get a bit worried myself until several of the spotlights turned off, and the others were aimed at the ground.

The Lieutenant walked back up to us, followed by a few of his 'men', "we put it to a vote and it looks like it is in our best interest to join you and your group."

"That's great to hear, you had us all worried there for a minute," I said smiling as I shook his hand.

"Well, I didn't mean to worry you, but it took a while to talk to everyone."

"Everyone? How many people do you have here?"

"Fifty actual personnel, but we have another seventy-five civilians with us."

"Why so many civilians?" I asked.

"Well, when the post heard about the asteroid, a lot of the soldiers went AWOL. A few like myself had nowhere to go so we just stayed here. Some of the soldiers that left live in the area and they came back with their wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, and their kids."

"I guess they thought this would be the safest place to be, and they were probably right."

"Why, is it getting bad out there?"

"It's starting to. We haven't run into much yet, but I have a feeling it's just a matter of time."

"It usually is in these matters."

"It looks like you have a lot of equipment here. Have you been going out and scavenging to get more?"

"No, we haven't started to scavenge yet, with the supplies we have on hand, I didn't think we needed too. Until an hour ago I was still thinking the powers that be would contact us and give us orders on how to proceed. But that probably won't happen ... Anyway, the equipment here was meant for a new operations base in Iraq."

"What do you have stored here?"

"We have enough supplies and equipment to build and support a good sized base. We have high capacity power generators, water purification, sewage treatment, and several types of buildings."

"What type of buildings?"

"Most of them are tents. They look like Quonset huts but are made out of heavy duty materials and are very well insulated."

"Doesn't sound like a lot of fun living in a tent."

"If they were the little pup tents you civilians go camping in I would agree with you. But they are designed for extreme weather. They can survive hurricane force winds; you can use them in the desert or in the artic."

"They can't be that good?"

"They are. They are designed to last 20 years, and I have seen pictures of them used in Antarctica and Greenland."

"Damn, they do sound impressive. What are the other buildings like? Bomb shelters?"

"Not quite. They look like those big shipping containers, but once you get them on site the walls move out and they expand into a very sturdy building."

"They sound very impressive."

"They are at that, most of them are used for command buildings, but they are also used for kitchen, medical facilities, as well as latrine and shower facilities."

"How's it all packed up?"

"Hell, we were ready to move out in less than a week, so everything is in shipping containers and loaded on flatbeds."

"Can we go see what we are going to be dealing with?"

"Sure, come on this way."

"Wait! Let me go grab my stuff."

I went over and grabbed my weapons off the ground, followed by the rest of the gang. I holstered my pistols and then walked over to my truck and put the shotgun on the seat.

Returning to the Lieutenant, "Ok, let's go see what we have to work with."

We walked around the buildings, headed for their back lot, and came face to face with a dilemma.

"Damn, that's a lot of stuff," I said.

"Most of the army doesn't travel light," the Lieutenant said laughing.

"That is an understatement if I ever heard one," I said looking around when something caught my eye. "Damn! Look at the size of that truck."

"Impressive ain't it? The up-armored M1070 HETS, it was designed to move the M1 tank."