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Authors: Jordon Quattlebaum
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yet. Too many computers on those things these days. Diesel engines, though. Might be they can get some replacement parts somewhere that managed to avoid the magnetic pulse. Would do this country a lot of good to get a train up and running.”
“How do you figure, Herbie?”
“Well, we get a train running from the wheat fields of Kansas to the granaries downtown, we save a lot of lives and keep good wheat from rotting in the fields. If we can get enough folks to harvest it. Gonna take whole communities to keep one another alive. Lone wolf stuff ain’t gonna cut it for too long. Those folks may have a year or two of supplies stocked up, but what happens when they get sick? No one to take care of ’em. What happens when they need to start growing their own food? Ain’t enough hours in the day to trap, hunt, garden, harvest, preserve the food, cook the food, eat the food.”
“I gotcha. So, trains are important. I’ll keep that in mind if we run into any engineers.” Thom grinned, thinking he’d made a joke, but Herbie just nodded.
“That’s the most sensible thing you said all day.”
Thom just couldn’t win.
The streets were nearly deserted; not even the birds were chirping. The two men continued on, passing through a couple of blocks of completely burnt-out houses, where the rubble was still too hot to even get close. It was like someone had dropped a bomb on the city, which was true, in a way.
“Herbie, I gotta ask. When do we need to start worrying about radiation? Fallout, all that stuff?”
He laughed. “Thom, there won’t be any fallout from this. Maybe some political fallout. No radiation, though.”
Thom was confused. Again. Obviously.
“The EMP was set off by a nuke exploding over us, though, right? Isn’t that what happens? I’m young, but I remember seeing those old duck-and-cover videos from the tail end of the Cold War.”
“Thom, you’re going about it wrong. Fallout is what you get when a nuke detonates at ground level. Basically, it irradiates all of the debris and dust and dirt, and the superheated air lifts it up into the lower atmosphere where it can mix with water droplets and be carried hundreds of miles away to rain down on the land, causing all sorts of horrible things.”
Thomas nodded, understanding.
“So no ground level explosion, no fallout?”
Herbie smiled and clapped Thom on the back.
“Now you’re following. So, thankfully, that’s not what our attacker intended to happen, or you and I would have never seen it coming. We’d have been vaporized, or burned to a crisp, or just suffered lethal radiation poisoning and died a relatively slow and painful death.”
“Cheery. Thanks, Herbie.”
“No problem, Thom. But you’re missing the big picture.”
“Big picture?”
“Someone goes to all this trouble to nuke the United States to cause as much havoc and loss of life as possible. Those opening minutes probably killed more than Pearl Harbor and 9/11 combined, but they left our land radiation-free.”
It dawned on Thom then. “You’re saying there’s going to be an invasion.”
Herbie nodded.
“Afraid so, son. Afraid so.”
Chapter 6 — Kill it with Fire
The bowling pin lamp came crashing down, catching the attacker squarely on the wrist, blowing through the little resistance offered by his upraised arm. A sharp crack reverberated through the room, and the scream of Anna’s attacker married with the sound of Anna’s battle cry in the air.
Her momentum carried Anna into the corner of the dresser that she had stacked in front of the door, catching her right in the solar plexus and causing the wind to leave her in a hurry.
The girl gasped, trying to recover her breath. Finally willing herself to her feet, Anna raised the pin once again in a desperate effort to strike out, and her attacker screamed, “The building’s on fire, you crazy bitch! We need to get the hell out of here!”
Moments later, she smelled the smoke, and adrenaline flooded
“How do you figure, Herbie?”
“Well, we get a train running from the wheat fields of Kansas to the granaries downtown, we save a lot of lives and keep good wheat from rotting in the fields. If we can get enough folks to harvest it. Gonna take whole communities to keep one another alive. Lone wolf stuff ain’t gonna cut it for too long. Those folks may have a year or two of supplies stocked up, but what happens when they get sick? No one to take care of ’em. What happens when they need to start growing their own food? Ain’t enough hours in the day to trap, hunt, garden, harvest, preserve the food, cook the food, eat the food.”
“I gotcha. So, trains are important. I’ll keep that in mind if we run into any engineers.” Thom grinned, thinking he’d made a joke, but Herbie just nodded.
“That’s the most sensible thing you said all day.”
Thom just couldn’t win.
The streets were nearly deserted; not even the birds were chirping. The two men continued on, passing through a couple of blocks of completely burnt-out houses, where the rubble was still too hot to even get close. It was like someone had dropped a bomb on the city, which was true, in a way.
“Herbie, I gotta ask. When do we need to start worrying about radiation? Fallout, all that stuff?”
He laughed. “Thom, there won’t be any fallout from this. Maybe some political fallout. No radiation, though.”
Thom was confused. Again. Obviously.
“The EMP was set off by a nuke exploding over us, though, right? Isn’t that what happens? I’m young, but I remember seeing those old duck-and-cover videos from the tail end of the Cold War.”
“Thom, you’re going about it wrong. Fallout is what you get when a nuke detonates at ground level. Basically, it irradiates all of the debris and dust and dirt, and the superheated air lifts it up into the lower atmosphere where it can mix with water droplets and be carried hundreds of miles away to rain down on the land, causing all sorts of horrible things.”
Thomas nodded, understanding.
“So no ground level explosion, no fallout?”
Herbie smiled and clapped Thom on the back.
“Now you’re following. So, thankfully, that’s not what our attacker intended to happen, or you and I would have never seen it coming. We’d have been vaporized, or burned to a crisp, or just suffered lethal radiation poisoning and died a relatively slow and painful death.”
“Cheery. Thanks, Herbie.”
“No problem, Thom. But you’re missing the big picture.”
“Big picture?”
“Someone goes to all this trouble to nuke the United States to cause as much havoc and loss of life as possible. Those opening minutes probably killed more than Pearl Harbor and 9/11 combined, but they left our land radiation-free.”
It dawned on Thom then. “You’re saying there’s going to be an invasion.”
Herbie nodded.
“Afraid so, son. Afraid so.”
Chapter 6 — Kill it with Fire
The bowling pin lamp came crashing down, catching the attacker squarely on the wrist, blowing through the little resistance offered by his upraised arm. A sharp crack reverberated through the room, and the scream of Anna’s attacker married with the sound of Anna’s battle cry in the air.
Her momentum carried Anna into the corner of the dresser that she had stacked in front of the door, catching her right in the solar plexus and causing the wind to leave her in a hurry.
The girl gasped, trying to recover her breath. Finally willing herself to her feet, Anna raised the pin once again in a desperate effort to strike out, and her attacker screamed, “The building’s on fire, you crazy bitch! We need to get the hell out of here!”
Moments later, she smelled the smoke, and adrenaline flooded
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