“Head on back, I’ll be right there,” Harland said.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
The Bilco door slammed and Harland came back down. “I’m going to grab some stuff and head to the hospital.”
“You sure it’s safe?” Kit asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine inside the hospital. It’s not that big. I can’t imagine them taking that many in. They’ll have to send them to the fire station, or school.”
“If it’s that safe,” Kit said. “I want to go.”
“I can’t take you to look for…”
“No.” Kit shook her head. “I want to help. You need hands.”
“Me, too,” Abe said. “Put me to work. We’re healthy and fine. Let’s us help.”
After a moment, Harland nodded. “That’ll be great. I appreciate it. Before we go, we put an extra layer of clothes on, just to be safe. On the way there, I’ll give you the best crash course I can.”
Kit followed Harland’s advice and quickly sought out those extra clothes. There was no hesitation for her to go and help. She hadn’t reached the point of stir crazy yet and unlike so many, they had been protected from the worst of it. What Kit didn’t realize was they were more sheltered than they knew.
The crash course in the car and the book would do nothing to prepare them for the hard reality they were about to face.
TWENTY-TWO – Nearing
Never in a million years would Regis had imagined that he would utter the words; “I’m killing my father,” so soon after learning his father hadn’t really died.
He was still processing that.
When Mark told him his father’s death was staged in order to make the country appear vulnerable or weak while they worked on an offensive and defensive plan to the impending attack, Regis didn’t buy it.
Then the Vice President reiterated that.
Reality sunk in.
Of course, when he learned that information, he was quite sick. For two days after the crash, Regis could barely get out of bed without the urge to vomit. Then they pumped him with fluids, blasted him with antibiotics and gave him and Mark something called Prussian Blue, a medication they gave them daily.
Both of them, sick as dogs a few days ago, were out of bed feeling more like themselves.
In fact, Regis really felt like himself. He was irritated.
He was angry that his father ‘faked’ his death. He understood the reasoning, but why exclude his family from knowing the truth. The anguish they all felt was some sort of mental abuse, Regis, grateful his father was alive, wasn’t easily going to forget.
The nuclear holocaust was fast working his nerves and he was short tempered. He knew it was still unsafe outside, yet, he learned after getting out of bed, his new friend Dalton, who was just as sick as Regis, had gone AWOL.
He went to search for his family. While that didn’t surprise Regis, he just didn’t understand why Dalton couldn’t wait.
To Regis, that was stupid. A sick Dalton was no use to his family.
Then there was Mark. He bounced around the base shelter as if he were on vacation. Yes, they knew Kit was alright, or suspected she was, but wasn’t Mark worried about his son?
He told Regis he was, but was certain his son was alright. After all, they had been in Spokane and last Mark knew Spokane wasn’t hit and far away from anything that was.
“As soon as we can, I’ll go looking for him.” Mark said. “I’ll head out that way.”
“How?” Regis asked. “How do you plan on doing that? Walk? Drive? Do you know what happened?”
Regis was pretty sure Mark didn’t have a clue other than asking those in the command center, “Is Spokane still good?”
The command center was pretty open and Regis went in there a lot. He looked at the map a lot, staring at the dark spots over Seattle and Washington D.C. Did his mother and niece make it to safety? Did Deana get out of Washington? Did they have warning?
They had to have.
The bombs didn’t all fall at once. They came in waves.
The first and second were strategic hits aimed mainly at military installations. The second wave were major cities, and the third and fourth waves were a bunch of smaller cities here and there. There were reports that Denver, Kansas and Miami were hit with some sort of biological weapon. The effects of which, Regis was sure would be felt everywhere.
Nothing had happened for days, there were rumors that the United States unconditionally surrendered. What that meant, Regis didn’t know. They were rumors spread by a bunch of frightened people, and rightfully so.
Yet, he noticed a buzz about the bunker. The soldiers started preparing for something. Regis didn’t know until his nephew told him what was going on.
At that point, the father in Regis took over when he realized his nephew only knew, because he nephew planned on being a part of it.
“No,” Regis told him. “Absolutely not. You will stay put until we can go find your mother.”
“Uncle Rege, isn’t this the best way?” Zeke asked. “I’ll be out there.”
“You think you’ll find your mother that way?” Regis asked.
“Yes.” Zeke nodded. “I’ll be going to all the shelters and hospitals around here. I’ll find her.”
“You’ll find her by staying put. No.”
“I’m not enlisting. I’m not going out to fight in some war.”
Regis saw it on Zeke’s face, the boy instantly regretted saying that. Regis flashed to his own son. He was proud of him. His son served his country with pride, just like Zeke wanted to do. “You aren’t,” Regis said. “You’re going out into something just as dangerous. A world torn apart by war. Beside, you’re seventeen years old. You need parental permission.”
“To help out people? Pap, told me to help. I spoke to him on the radio. He said that it was a great idea and he’d see me when he came up here. I’m only helping until then.”
That was when Regis thought, “I’m killing my father.”
“He’s coming here,” Zeke said. “He wants to bring us all back to New Mexico with him. He said he’ll help find mom. We’ll all be together.”
Regis closed his eyes. “No we won’t. Your sister, my sister… my mother. I don’t think we’ll ever all be together.”
“You can’t think like that, Uncle Rege. You can’t.”
At that moment, Mark entered the room. Regis’s attention was drawn to him for a moment, he looked pale. He didn’t move or act like he was sick, but he looked it.
“I just…” Regis said to Zeke. “I just don’t want you to leave. I want us to spend as much time as we can together while we can.”
Zeke smiled. “We will.”
“Hey,” Mark interjected. “It’s okay, Rege. You can stop worrying. We beat this. We will be together. All of us.” Mark reached out and squeezed Regis shoulder. “We survived a plane crash, nuclear bomb and some radiation. I told you I’d keep reminding you of that. We’re out of the woods. We need to focus on our next step.”
Out of the woods? Focus on the next step?
Regis just stared at his brother and then his nephew. In spite of everything, they remained optimistic. More so because they were staring at clean, bright walls, a hundred feet or so below the surface.
Regis wasn’t optimistic. He couldn’t be. A war was still happening above them whether the bombs stopped, or not. As far as beating everything, Regis wasn’t sure about that either. That weighed heavily on his mind and played a factor into wanting his family to spend time together. Time was something Regis wasn’t sure that he had. How could he be out of the woods if they were still treating him and giving him medication and antibiotics for radiation? More so than the medicine, the abrasion on his cheek was a screaming tell tale ominous sign. It had been almost a week and not only was it not healing, it was getting worse. That told Regis more than anything else ever could.