Apocalypse in the Homeland: The Adventures of John Harris (17 page)

John walked up to the hanger and heard several voices. Beth was laughing.

“You are just too funny. Is your husband always cracking jokes?”

“Yes, he thinks life shouldn’t be so serious.”

John knocked on the frame of the door and entered the hanger saying, “Lucy, I’m home.”

“John, come on over here and meet our new friends.”

There was a well dressed man and woman with three kids standing by Beth. The adults and the tallest kid had rifles slung over their shoulders.

“John, this is Eric, his wife Sandra and their children.”

John walked up and shook their hands.

“I’m glad to see some friendly faces. There appears to be a war going on north of here.”

“That’s why we came to investigate when we saw you land. Those gangs have been fighting for six months and I hope they keep killing each other and leave good folks alone.”

“What is there to fight over around here? There is plenty of land for everyone.”

“They’re fighting over a factory that manufactured pain killers. It appears that some idiots still want the drugs. If that factory blew up they would go away and leave us alone.”

John smiled at Beth and said, “Here’s my map show me where the factory is located. We want to avoid that place.”

The guy showed him that the factory was on the northeast side of town and pinpointed its location. John made some notes on the map and put it back in his pocket.

“Have ya’ll heard about the new country, the ISA?”

“Yes we have and we can’t wait for them to get up here and help get rid of these criminals and thugs. Rumor has it that they have a large group heading north out of Dallas and we hope they come through this area. My buddy down in Stillwater says a convoy rolled into the old Tinker Air Force Base last week and set up camp.”

“My God, I hope it’s them. We are trying to get back to the ISA. Our plane crashed up in Wyoming early this winter and we just now got this plane to fly.”

“We wish you good luck. They’re only 90 miles from here. You can make it there in an hour in that old girl.”

John and Beth hugged and kissed while it sunk in that they were almost back to their home in Mobile. Beth couldn’t wait to see her little Jenn, Randy and Kristie. John just wanted his family back together.

“Where do you live in the ISA?”

“We live in Mobile. It’s the capital of the ISA.”

“Then you don’t know that we heard on the ham radio that the Iranians nuked Mobile two days ago.”

Beth started crying and John bit his lip to keep from flying into a rage.

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Chapter 21

“Gus, Israeli intelligence has just told me that Iranian operatives have smuggled two nuclear bombs into the Mobile area. One is in place on a small submarine out by the Alabama and the other is in a truck en route from Pascagoula. It will arrive at the Compound in about two hours if we can’t stop it. Their instructions are to detonate both bombs immediately if the ISA has detected them."

“Admiral, can we trust the info?”

“Gus, we have to. Quietly move your families and key personnel to either the bunker or 30 miles north of Mobile ASAP. I have ordered our fleet to move away from Mobile, but don’t dare move a large amount of boats away from the dock at once. I have also ordered two cruisers to get underway and head towards Texas under cover of supporting the fight against the drug gangs in Matamoros. Our plan is to launch four Tomahawks at each bomb and destroy them. We launch in one hour.

“Thanks and good luck.”

***

Gus contacted his key people and told them what was happening and to either got out of Mobile or to the Compound bunker ASAP without tipping off the population.

“Gus, I feel like a rat leaving the others to die.”

“I feel the same way, but if everyone panics and heads out of Mobile, the Iranians will detonate the bombs early and no one will be saved. Just hope that the Navy can take out the bombs.”

“Gus, how will the Iranians know if we suddenly move a large amount of people? They don’t have satellites do they?”

“Good point, I don’t think that they will unless they have spies on the ground in the area. Peter, we just can’t risk them finding out. Stick with the plan.”

***

“Scott, I have bad news. Iranian operatives are attempting to bring nuclear devices into Mobile. We have a plan to destroy their weapons before they detonate, but only have a 50/50 chance of success. Prepare to head back towards Mobile. I will call for help or if we lose communication come on back to assist the survivors.”

“We are at your command. Can you get anyone out without tipping the Iranians off?”

“We have been moving key people and their families either to the bunker or north of Mobile, but we only started an hour ago and the bombs will be in place in less than two hours. The Admiral plans to take the nukes out in about 50 minutes. Good luck.”

“Gus, get you and your family deep in the bottom of the bunker now.”

“We are operating from the bunker and it is filling up quickly.”

***

“Admiral, we have a problem.”

“Well, tell me.”

“The bomb left an hour earlier than we thought. It is in a small car about 15 miles from the Compound. We must launch now.”

“This is Admiral Jones launch the Tomahawks. Now!”

The Admiral paused and said, “Warn the VP and all military personnel.”

The Tomahawks took out the Toyota heading through Mississippi and blew the nuclear bomb to pieces. The area would be radioactive for years. The bomb at the dock in Mobile exploded a few seconds before the missiles impacted. The blast vaporized everything for half a mile in all directions and the shock wave leveled all buildings, trees and bridges for a mile and a half. The ensuing firestorm covered an area three to four miles around Mobile. Thousands died in a few seconds.

***

Commander Cox lay on the deck of the Dover covered in glass and thought he was dead. He had a ringing in his ears and was soaking wet. Blood was running down his face from a cut on his head.

All he could think was, “
I’m too old for this shit. This makes twice that I’ve survived a nuclear explosion.
”

His ship had been tossed about, but sustained very little damage. He saw his crew checking each other out as he looked up, saw the mushroom cloud still rising over Mobile Bay and cried. He had tried to contact his wife and daughter, but couldn’t reach them. The bomb detonated a few blocks from their house.

He shook his fist in the air and screamed, “I’ll kill every one of you son of a bitches with my bare hands.”

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Chapter 22

“We were told that an ISA attempt to build nuclear bombs backfired on you and destroyed Mobile.”

“Josh, that’s more of your socialist President’s bullshit. She probably helped the Iranians just as her predecessor. I wish we could take her out, but now that we have peace talks it would look bad.”

“Dad, that kind of talk makes the five o’clock news and would hurt our progress at the peace talks. We need to have a private discussion. Mom and Jenn can entertain Josh with more of your exploits.”

“As you know we have plans to take out the nuclear armed boats and other nuclear capability of the USA and UN. What you don’t know is that they were willing to take the retaliation losses as a cost of killing the ISA. Their leaders were to be safe in secret bunkers.”

“Damn. They would lose millions just to stop democracy.”

“The bad news is we just learned where their leaders are hiding and will be eliminating them and their nuclear capability before they strike at us.

***

“Beth, so you and John were just 90 miles away from Scott’s location when Mobile was nuked?”

“Yes and we could have joined up with them and got a safe helicopter ride back to Mobile. Not that it mattered with Mobile having been reduced to ashes. We lost many friends that day and it took years for the country to recover.”

“Was there any attempt at retaliation?”

“Of course we retaliated. The last of the Iranians and all of their allies except the USA were eliminated, but we need to finish the story about the final leg of the trip back to Mobile.”

THE END         

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Watch for “The Day America Died” the first book in my new post-apocalyptic series. It will be published on Amazon by spring of 2016.

Thanks      A J Newman

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