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The Balloon Pops
The air Raid sirens blared.
Three thousand miles away, at seven-twenty-one in the morning the old air raid warning sirens that had only marked Noon once a week for decades, wailed suddenly, and frighteningly in the distance, filling the air with a mournful sound that was impossible for anyone to ignore. A penetrating, and soul piercing blaring, that resonated through-out Mike’s house, and was reminiscent of a fifties low-grade, end-of-the-world movie.
Every military installation, any organized body of troops, every station and vehicle in the nation’s armory went to the highest alert.
Every airplane, and its crew mobilized for war. Naval men of war at sea and ashore went to General Quarters and prepared for war.
Public officials were being rounded up and moved to secure and safe locations for their personal safety, for their staff members, and families. Although it had not been declared, America was at a status of all out nuclear war.
A couple of houses away a woman screamed, then hysterically was heard yelling at someone. A dog barked incessantly, and the sound of squealing tires and fast-moving vehicles filled the air. The tires hummed loudly as they raced away, and you could hear them thumping as they passed over imperfections in the roadways. There were sirens, lots of them, terrifying in their intensity as they screamed out their horrendous warnings, made worse because this time they were authentic. Radios, Televisions, people screaming out the news all told the same tale, America was under attack with nukes.
The sound of an ambulance close by was very loud and then diminished as it disappeared into the far reaches of the neighborhood. It was speeding away on another street, close at first and then ebbed away. Sirens melted together with a cacophony of dreadful sounds as if a mad conductor was tripping out on some sci-fi production.
Except, unfortunately, this was real. The world would experience the dreaded nuclear war everyone dreaded and feared more than any other man-made event.
The ear-splitting sirens awoke the basic instincts in every dog, and it seemed, all of them from Chihuahuas to Great Danes joined in as they yelped, and howled, in mournful synchronization to the total meshing of loud noises.
The birds in large flocks took flight and were gone. It was as if the sound was so thick, almost like a fog on the water, you could almost see it. The madness penetrated everything, and bounced off walls, and then bounced off others like a tsunami of sound waves. The TV news station said there was a terrorist attack on the East Coast of the United States.
Most of the stations gave the same message and implored everyone to remain calm and stay at home. The deafening of the combined noises made it difficult to hear what was being said. Mike aimed the remote at the screen and toggled the volume up.
The radio on the kitchen counter was tuned to a soft rock station when the emergency broadcast signal started to scream out the warnings to anyone within earshot. Mike turned off the radio to listen instead to the local FOX news channel.
The news anchor woman, looking much like she just climbed out of bed read from a pile of papers in front of her.
She was nervous, and she kept looking around her at things in the station. Things that were in front of her away from the camera’s eye.
Her hands shook as the papers jiggled in her hands. She put them down, smoothed them out with her palms apparently in order to read them, and she started to speak…with obvious difficulty,
“A message has been handed to me by the station director. It’s my sad duty”
…her voice wavered, and she looked around uncertainly, then started speaking again and said,
“To… to inform….
She paused again then continued,
“To inform yo… you that a nuclear device of unknown origin was detonated in Atlanta, Georgia a few minutes ago.
That was when she paused again as she read silently and said,
“Oh my dear God….Oh no!”
She composed herself and sat upright in her chair and began reading again….her hands holding the script shook uncontrollably….
“Casualties are running extremely high,…… but details are sketchy. Stay tuned for further developments. “
Suddenly, she leaped up from her chair knocking it over, and she was heard to say as she ran from the newsroom….
”I’m getting the hell outta here”.
The staccato of her high heels shoes rapidly pounding the floor as she ran echoed off the walls.
There was a scramble of people that could be heard in the background, until someone sat back down in the Anchor chair saying,
“We’ll be right back.”
Incredibly A Toyota commercial came on the screen then the screen went dark.
Mike knew exactly what he was going to do. It was the same thing the rest of the members of their sanctuary in the mountains were probably doing right now. He prepared to leave, packing up his “bug out” essentials so that he could head for the retreat.
He and members of his group kept several crucial items handy in backpacks and a few nylon bags that they would grab and take with them if anything like this ever happened. It was happening now by the sounds of things!
Mike and the members of his group planned and rehearsed for a contingency such as this one several years ago, but none of them believed it would happen in their lifetime.
The sirens were telling him a different story, and he had to get going as soon as possible. Suddenly the T.V. came to life again, he turned and looked at the screen in an automatic response…..
“Fellow Americans”, …..
It was a woman this time, someone whom Mike didn’t recognize but appeared to be someone attached to the government and she was dressed casually, not the everyday suit and tie, or fancy dress and attire they usually wore for on-camera broadcasts….
“We are being asked to please stay home and off the streets to allow emergency personnel and officials to get to the areas where they are needed. We will inform you of any current and updated information as it comes into the studio. Please remain calm and, again, please….., I implore you please,….. please,….. stay at home.
Give the police and the fire trucks, and especially the ambulances a chance to get by you. It might be someone you know in one of them. We’re Americans and we can get through this, stay calm everyone”.
Her voice was stressed and not at all composed. There was a slight pause and then a message came over the air…
A civil defense Public Information spot came on restating the same information.
“Stay at home?”
He was incredulous at that statement.
“No way, I’m outta here!”
Mike said it aloud, his voice momentarily echoing off the walls of the sparse walls of his home.
“I knew it was coming, I knew it. God!…… Damn, I just knew it….. How stupid can we be?”
Mike turned on his handheld Short-Wave radio, listened intently for a time until he recognized the familiar sound of the message signal he was looking for.
The keyword “firestorm” was said five times audibly, and then there was a slow but precise rhythm in standard Morse code of a message being transmitted that only he and the members of his group would be able to decipher.
It was a simple exercise really….they all used a copy of “The Divinity Code” by [Dan Brown], [paperback version], as a code reference.
Mike made his way over to the writing table, opened the copy of his book, and began writing.
You didn’t have to use the Morse code if you could copy the instructions from the book, you could conceivably have spoken those directions if no one knew from which book it was being read from, but Morse code assures the maximum odds of overcoming interference, so it was used.
“Chapter six, page thirty-five, third paragraph, twenty-third word, and third letter (w).”
“Chapter six, page thirty-five, second word, fourth letter (e).”
Break.
“Chapter six, page thirty-six, fourth word, second letter (a).”
When he had copied all the letters it read,
“We are all leaving now. Cache first. See you there. Luck.”
The code continued repeating itself, but he knew why, since it was still early, others in the group might not have gotten the message. It would transmit this way for the next twenty-four hours, so everyone could receive it and act accordingly.
It was a recording activated by a computer and battery powered, with a charger on those batteries that was plugged into 120 volts if there still was electricity, if not, the batteries powered the recording on the computer.
It was activated by certain transmitted code words. It was supposed to work for twenty-four hours but never tested for effect. It didn’t matter, by the time it was no longer sending out the message, they’d all be safe and sound at the retreat. The unit was in Doctor Croft’s basement in his home.
The phone rang……
Mike answered it, a voice said,
“Mike, are you getting the message?”
It was Caroline the pretty blond nurse in his group and she sounded frantic. Mike, sensing she was stressed and attempted to calm her,
“Caroline, listen to me….. Relax, we have a plan remember?”
He was calm and matter-of-fact, and his reassuring voice came through convincingly, he knew she was scared.
“Yes, I’m getting ready how about you?”
He remained calm and very deliberate in the words he chose. She seemed more relaxed now as she listened to his soothing voice and it was good for Mike to know that…..
“I was doing it when I decided to call you, I’m scared.”
“You’ll be alright.”
He insisted, and he was very calm.
“Just do what we trained for all these years and don’t skip anything.
Be careful, and I’ll see you soon okay? Watch your SIX. If you aren’t there at the first stop, I’ll come looking for you. I know your route. Don’t worry, we’ll all be safe in a very short while. See you in less than a couple of hours. Are you home right now?”
“Yes,”
She answered. He assumed that but wanted to be sure where she was.
He hoped she wouldn’t panic. People who panic are not predictable, it was important he calms her down…
“Just get yourself ready and head for the first cache. You have your sidearm right?”
“Yes.”
“Good, then you have nothing to be worried about. Remember your training and your muscles will kick in at the right time, remember your training……”
She seemed to heave a sigh of relief when he sensed her breath hitting the phone, now much calmer,
“I was thinking about swinging by the hospital before heading out……
Mike interrupted her, he almost lost his cool for a second,
“Caroline listen to me, don’t do that! There’s going to be widespread looting, lots of violence, and no one will be safe from it.
There are others already at the hospital, let them deal with it. That will break down too, and it will happen soon I suspect. I don’t want you to go there. Don’t be a humanitarian, go to the cache. Follow the plan, I’ll see you there.”
His voice lowered a bit as he relaxed.
“We need all the members of the group and that includes you. Besides,”…
he paused, he seemed lost for words and then he said it, he just blurted it out, “Besides, I need you.”
She was quiet, all Mike could hear was her breathing.
“’k, see you soon!”
The dial tone followed the clicking sound as she hung up her phone. He wanted to say more but she hung up. He made a personal resolve to make sure if he survived this to let her know in no uncertain terms how he felt about her.
“God, I hope she’ll be okay.”
He said it to no one as he readied his things to leave this place forever, or for however long it was going to take to get through this. Just a couple more hours at best, and they will be at the cache. He’ll have more control then, of that he was sure.
She was a special woman to him, but nobody knew it, at least that was what he thought. He never admitted it or denied his feelings for Caroline. To his friends, it surely was known by everyone, but nobody talked about it. He just felt it and kept it to himself. Mike thought of Caroline a lot but now was not the time.
She knew what to do and where to go, she would be fine. Right now, he needed to pay attention to the task at hand, and that was to get going. He crossed his fingers and hoped he got her back into focusing on what she had to do.
“I’ll be damned”…………….
Mike thought as he readied to leave. Thinking about what was happening brought everything into clarity. All the years he instructed them, to telling them what might happen, and here it was unfolding,
“It actually has finally happened!”
It had him shaking his head. He believed for many years this eventuality was just around the corner, he was ready for it. None of them wanted this. It was going to be a time of scarcity of things, the things everyone took for granted. In many places, there won’t be any food, clothing, fuel, medicines, and the conveniences of an organized society. It’s going to happen fast. All would be lost, and who could know for how long?
Mike’s thoughts were one of sadness and additionally, he realized,…
“Today is probably not going to be a good day to call 911 for help”.
The phone rang again. It startled him. Mike saw it was his friend and partner in the retreat Dan Croft, calling on his cell. Mike picked up the handset, punched the button to connect and said.
“Mike here”.
Words just poured out of Dan, he was excited.
“I never would have believed it but here it is. All those plans, the training, all that money, it’s coming together just as you said it would!”
He sounded almost jubilant and was shouting.
“Mike, we’re going to be safe, thank God for our retreat!”
“You be careful Dan, it might get crazy and for God’s sake, don’t be a Good Samaritan on your way, we need you, don’t stop for anything, I just talked Caroline out of going to the hospital and that advice goes for you too. Don’t do that. Go to the Retreat!”
Mike sounded stern. He knew the Doctor well enough to know he was apt to stop and help anyone and everyone. It could get him injured or worse, killed. Mike was worried.
“Don’t worry Mike, I can handle myself thanks to our training, I’ll be alright. Incidentally, I’m already here at the retreat, so don’t worry. I had some things to take care of, so I left a couple of days ago. How about that for luck?”
He was confident as usual but naive at the same time, his voice sounded more even and not so damn happy about it now as they talked. That was what worried Mike.
“I’ll see you in a few hours. Man,…… I can’t wait for all of us to be together and who knows how long this is going to last?”……..
Click! Just then the dial tone stopped resonating and the phone appeared to be dead. He wasn’t sure if Dan’s phone was still working or not or maybe it was his own phone. He tried the cell phone again, and it was dead.
“Man, that sure was quick!”
He thought about it and decided the FCC probably shut down the service for the sake of officials trying to communicate with one another and not having the airwaves flooded by panicking people. They needed to stay clear for those especially high-level officials and emergency personnel.
His thoughts were flashing at light speed.
As he reflected on what the blaring sirens were telling him. Installed decades ago, they hadn’t seen actual use aside from infrequent testing since their installation in most major American cities in the early 1950’s when the Civil Defense ran occasional drills. Sure, they had been tested, but never at this level, and for so long. The shrieking was becoming unnerving.
All members of his survival group completed numerous practice drills using the same system, except today, it was the real deal and there were sirens blasting out the news.
The monotony of their tone was distracting, it was making it hard to think.
Security was paramount in any group, and they knew that secrecy in this matter was overriding if it was ever put into actual use.
They all knew when any message transmitted over the airways or using the phone system, anyone could intercept what was being transmitted, and they desperately needed a balance between security and usability.
A group as small as theirs couldn’t afford large losses of life or casualties. They attempted to mitigate the danger with proper planning, execution, and clear communications that could only be understood by their own people.