The first bombs started falling at a little after one in the morning, Pacific time. Colorado was hit at 1:53, then not more than a couple hours later they fell everywhere else.
Harland had the radiation level taken an hour after the bombs at 500 Rs. Abe wasn’t sure what that meant, but 500 didn’t sound too high, maybe they lucked out. Of course, he would look in that book.
He heard the door open and thought Harland forgot something, but he turned and saw Kit walk in. “Hey, I thought you were sleeping?”
“I woke up again.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Awful. I have coffee for us.” She extended a cup. “Thinking maybe the caffeine might help.”
“Thank you. Here…” Abe stood and pulled up a chair. “Sit.”
“Thanks,” she said. “How are things going?”
“I just took a shower, it felt so good.”
Kit sat down, the second she did, she saw the survival book. “Oh, wow, my father had this book.”
“Really?” Abe returned to his chair. “Harland suggested I read it. Is it any good?”
“I guess, my father swore by it. My father wanted me to read it. I didn’t. Of course, he gave me, Alas, Babylon at Christmas and I never read that. I was reading it on the plane. Sadly, I was on my way to his funeral.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Wait. Alas, Babylon.” Abe crinkled his brow.
“That is pretty ironic don’t you think? You’re reading a book about nuclear war when it actually happens?”
“What makes it even stranger is he had things underlined.”
“Like what?”
“I can’t recall right now. Things are fuzzy, but I know he underlined Alas, Babylon and the word missiles.”
“Wow.” Abe whistled. “That is really foretelling. Almost psychic of your father.”
“Never knew him to be psychic, just prepared for war. Then again, that was his job. I think. Not sure if that’s all his job entailed.”
Abe laughed. “What did he do?”
“He was Secretary of Defense.”
Abe’s eyes widened. “Dennis Rolland is your father?”
“Was. Is.”
“I am so sorry about your loss. He passed three days ago, right?”
Kit nodded.
“Well that makes it even odder,” Abe said.
“Why’s that?”
“All those seats they were buying at the gate, saying they were overbooked. They weren’t overbooked. They were for essential personnel and their families. It was an evacuation flight. I learned as soon as I boarded that the flight was part of COGCON. Which is…”
“I know what COGCON is. That’s just even weirder.” Kit shook her head. “My father would have been essential personnel. I guess in his own way, he was insuring our survival. He always said he would. We were meant to be on that plane. Although to be honest, if I had a choice…” She leaned back. “I’m not so sure I want to be a survivor in this madness.”
SIXTEEN – Discovery
Regis had fallen asleep and Mark was glad to see him resting. He looked worn out. It took the nurse in a military uniform to come in, hand him two pills in a little shot glass looking cup, and ordering him to rest.
“You were in a plane crash, in case you don’t recall,” she said.
He took the pills, rested back and was out in ten minutes. Mark didn’t know if it was the medication, or exhaustion.
Then while Regis slept, she proceeded to hook not only Mark up to an intravenous line, but Regis as well.
“Can I ask why?” Mark asked her. “Do we have an infection?”
“You both were outside longer than others. We don’t know to what extent, or how much exposure to radiation, if any, you got. There’s no test, we look at white blood cells. Right now it’s too early to tell, so we are being proactive.”
“Are we contagious?” Mark asked.
“No. Not at all. We just need to observe you for twenty-four hours before we let you move into general population. This is for you, not them. Okay?” she spoke gently.
“Okay,” Mark nodded. “I’m just anxious to see my family. We should be together.”
“You have family here?” she asked.
“Yeah, they were on the plane. My brother saw them both. My sister was carried out, but my nephew was fine and walked.”
“We have a few people here from the plane, that’s it. I can check for you if you want.”
“That would be great. Only a few? I thought there were a lot of survivors?”
“There were,’ she said. “Unfortunately, we had to call in the volunteer fire departments from two towns, along with volunteers so it would be a fast rescue. A lot of survivors are in the two towns near here.”
“Shit. What if they’re there?” Mark said.
“You’ll find them easily. We are in radio contact. No worries, if they’re fine, they aren’t going anywhere.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Now, I need you to rest. I realize it’s early morning, but you have a few fractured ribs. I can get you something to help you sleep.”
“No, no.” Mark waved out his hand and lay back, cringing a little in pain. “I’m fine. I won’t have any problems.”
“Do you need anything else? Are you hungry?”
“You know what? Yeah, I actually am.”
“How about I get you some broth? Something easy.”
“That’s sounds great.”
“Be right back.” She smiled and walked out.
“She’s really nice,’ Mark thought as he relaxed and closed his eyes. The moment he did, there was a knock on his door. “That was fast.” He inched to sit up. “Come in.”
Apparently, the nurse didn’t have the broth right outside the door like Mark thought, because it wasn’t her that entered.
Mark knew who the man was, he had met him a few times, but usually under political circumstances. The older, debonair gentleman, despite it being war, still looked every part Vice Presidential, down to his dress shirt and tie.
“When I heard Dennis’ sons were here, I came immediately,” Vice President John Conway extended a hand to Mark. “Don’t get up.”
“Okay, I won’t. Wow… I thought you would be in some real secure bunker out east.”
“The president is,” John winked then nodded his head to a sleeping Regis. “Is he all right?”
“Yeah, he’s was given something to help him sleep.”
“So I hear…” John sat on the bed. “That you were thrown from the plane and Rege stayed behind to look for you?”
“Isn’t that something? What’s a big brother for? Thank God that soldier came back for us.”
“Dalton, yes, good young man.”
“What are you doing out this way?”
“I was at NORAD,” John said. “They put all members of the executive branch in different locations as a safeguard.”
“Continuity of government.”
“Exactly. Good thing we moved on it. We had unconfirmed reports for almost a week that this was going to happen. The president attempted to talk to the other side of the world, they denied the rumors. We were diligent, but couldn’t fire offensively.”
“So we fired defensively?”
John nodded. “When we did, I was moved here. Just as a precaution. When I heard you were here at the same bunker, I thought I better get my butt in there to check on you. Dennis would want that.”
“Yeah, he would have. So… wait. A week? You guys suspected this for a week? Then my father was aware?”
“Of course. He wasn’t allowed to tell you. Hell, your father predicted this was a possibility back in December when Russia started moving their stockpile. They claimed it was disarming, maintenance, whatever, but your father insisted within six months it would happen. Here we are four months later.”