Day of Destruction
Chapter 11

Copyright© 2010 by Frank Speaks

BOB

We all arrived at our house in less than an hour from town. Elaine and her children could pick a house and come by ours again. My wife, Doris, wanted her to come to our house for supper. We parked at our house and Doris suggested that Charlie take Elaine, Jack and Alice out to pick a house. Melody volunteered to go, also. "Okay," Doris said, "Bob, you and Angela can help me prepare supper."

"Okay," I replied, "Charley and Mel can show them around. Elaine, you don't have to chose tonight, either. There are enough houses since we are only using this one which we owned before the Destruction." I thought to myself that, even though I had no connections to Florida and the terrible events that had occurred there, it was still the beginning of a major change in the world. So much for the Mayans and 2012! If the world ended next year in December, it would now be anti-climatic! No matter, we had much to do.

The kids and Elaine left leaving Angela with Doris and I. "Bob, Doris," Angela said, "I want you to know that taking me in saved my life. I didn't know what to do and just couldn't start to plan. This is the first time that I've been alone with the two of you since I joined you so I've been saving my speech for now." She smiled and drew us both into a tight hug. Doris kissed her as I wrapped my arms around them both and pulled us all tightly together. I could feel her crying softly.

"Don't cry, Honey," Doris said softly, "it will be alright. We're here, you're here, and you are part of us from now on." Doris kissed her again and Angela squeezed us tightly once more and then released us gently.

We went after the dinner that we had started and Doris directed us in our activities. We were just finishing the cooking when the Arnolds and Melody and Charlie came walking in. Elaine was excited as she had picked a house to be the new home for her and her children. They had decided on the way back that they would stay there for the night just using what was available. They would pick up their clothes and sheets and all tomorrow.

Elaine said, "I feel a little ghoulish moving into someone's house with all their stuff still there. But, I guess that's a sign of the times. It's a nice little house with a good pasture for animals. We know farming, but we've had more livestock experience, so it should work well. Thank you for letting my kids and I join you out here."

We had a great meal. Doris and I got a kick out of watching Jack and Melody and Charlie and Alice start to interact. It was fun watching them fumble. On the other hand, I had had a concern that we might have trouble creating romance for our children. It looked like that issue may be taking care of itself though it was much too early for my peace of mind. At some point, they would necessarily need to create their own families to carry on. Doris and I were in our early forties but wouldn't be young forever.

The kids went off to talk without grown ups listening in. Elaine, Doris and I talked about what we needed to do to get Elaine moved in to her new home. I moved the conversation to other family groups that should have survived and how we could contact them. We decided that the best bet would be through the radio quickly and, later, through the Memphis television stations. The small local radio station would be a good start to make some contacts. We wanted to see and meet people before we took them to our family/group compound. From our prior experience, I had the feeling that some wouldn't be compatible and some would not be nice people.

The next morning, I decided that working on the radio would be a good idea. Doris and Elaine would take the kids to move Elaine and her kids to their new home and I would go to the radio station. I had to look it up in the phone book to find it. I went to the studio and found the door locked. I forced the door and an alarm went off. I went around trying to find the stop button and found a key pad. Without the code, that wasn't much good. I went around and disabled the alarm speakers. There were two outside! I was surprised that a small town station had that much security. I went into the studio proper and figured out in a basic way how it was playing tunes continually. We had noticed that there was about five minutes of dead air at the top of the hour. I figured out that all of this was computer controlled from the control room. I went in their and figured out what the computer readout could tell me about the operation. I found a news feed line that it was giving broadcast time to each hour punctuated by a commercial. Changing the feed from the news line to a CD deck was not too difficult. I then recorded a message about two minutes long telling people who might be listening that there were survivors here and that other survivors were welcome to make contact. I listed my cellphone number as a way to reach us. I did not tell where exactly we were located. I wanted to meet first and then decide. I had five minutes left before the top of the hour so I waited. It played twice with a commercial in between. That would work. My phone rang.

It was my wife. She had heard the message and called me so I would know it was working. I then set about looking at how commercials were played and found they were on three CD decks and played repeatedly. I prepared another CD that was shorter just giving people information that a message to survivors would play at the top of the hour along with a bit of other information to fill out thirty seconds. I didn't realize how long thirty seconds was until I had to talk that long. I saved my little speeches on the computer, also. I thought that, perhaps, everybody could prepare a commercial for replay. I decided to exercise veto over what was said to keep us from being found unexpectedly.

With that accomplished, I closed up the station and left for Elaine's old place. I found they were almost finished and helped out. We then caravaned back to the house. We all pitched in to get Elaine and her kids moved in and then explored their new home and the surrounding area. She, Jack and Alice were going over a plan to get the animals back under control. I apologized for simply letting them loose but added that I didn't know what to do. She told Doris and me that, in view of the circumstances, it was perfectly sensible. We went back to our house for a late lunch.

As we were eating lunch together, my phone rang. Since we were all in the same room, an immediate hush descended as everyone knew what my phone ringing probably meant. I was startled but opened my phone. "Hello," I said.

"Hello," said the voice on the other end. It was a pleasant, civilized sounding voice. "Is this the Bob from the radio station?"

"Yes," I replied. "What can I do for you?"

"My name is Frank, Frank Speaks. I heard your message on the radio station as we were passing through and my wife and I decided that we should contact you. We are coming into town headed toward the Wal-Mart parking lot. Could you meet us there?"

"Yes, it will take a few minutes to leave and then about fifteen to get there. We were just finishing eating lunch. That's fine. There's no hurry. Diane is preparing sandwiches for us. We'll eat while we wait."

"Okay, I'll see you soon."

"Great, we're in the big Class A Winnebago RV and I'll park in the middle of the lot."

"That's good. See you. Bye."

I hung up. That was quick. The man's name is Frank Speaks and his wife is Diane. They're in a Winnebago. As I had suggested in my radio message, they will be in the Wal-Mart parking lot. We need to think this through quickly and then get moving. Charlie, I will want you to come with your rifle. You, too, Doris. I think the rest of you should stay here. We have the phones for contact though I think we will have to address that issue at some point. Don't call us, we will call you. This Frank guy sounds good but we will be careful anyway."

 
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