Survival-The Awakening-Day of Reckoning

Forward;

Upon receiving several requests for the serialized version of  Survival-Day of Reckoning to be compiled in a post and considering that it might be worth some extra link-love(seogasm), I complied.

Here it is, folks!  In all it’s un-cut glory!  Actually, I’m just building up the hype to prepare for the next chapter, the main focus of the book, which will be coming real soon.  Sorry the images didn’t transfer, when I get a chance I’ll see about getting the pictures back where they belong.   woodco

The hard-frozen December morning silence was shattered by a reverberating howl.  The ground seemed to come rushing towards him as equilibrium flew away like his  misty breath.  The spinning  snowbank softened the body-blow but filled  his eyes and mouth with dirty,  re-plowed ice and gravel.

One second he was absent-mindedly  shoveling the old, frozen-over snow fall from several days past, and the next he was thrown to the ground as the world spun and bucked like a rodeo mustang underneath him.

He was flailing his arms trying to hold onto something, anything, as the ground humped and twisted, shrieking in it’s agony beneath him.  His thoughts and perhaps his screams were drowned out by the howling roar of a million freight trains filling the otherwise subdued winter  morning air.

His mind was screaming, “Earthquake! earthquake!”   Then the profanity came streaming out like a full on firehose.   Or maybe it wasn’t his  mind screaming, he couldn’t tell.

Gasping for the breath stolen by the body slam to the snowbank, the burning hoarseness of his breathing belied the fact that he was the one screaming, unnoticed in that roaring, howling insanity totally filling the world around him.

As the world stopped spinning and the howling died down,  he was able to hear other sounds, very much non-typical sounds for a cold winter’s day in December.  The howling of dogs, and the excited clatter of chickens was first and foremost, the deep rumbling of the earth taking  second stage to the excited animal world.

An  odd crackling noise interspersed with pops and fizzles  propelled him off  his bruised side  looking for the fire.  The first tendrils of smoke coming from a shattered window made it clear what to do next.

Fire! fire!   Someone shouted, but he couldn’t tell where it came from.

Running the thirty yards to the cabin was not easy in winter gear and Packs but adrenaline gave him the ability to reach the door in seconds, pushing aside  the heavy oak and wrought-iron monster to survey the scene inside.

Because of preparedness training and planning, the damage was not as severe as it could have been.  Sure, the windows were all broken or at least cracked but the double and triple panes had kept most of them at least weather proof.

The smoke was coming from the huge, black  iron stove in the middle of the room.  The  pipe had burst loose from the top of the stove which was rapidly filling the room with the smell of burning pine.  The acrid, stinging vapors burned his eyes as he jammed the stovepipe back into place.

Starting to turn, he was again slammed hard but this time the cause was obvious and licking his face.  “Down!”  Once was all it took but the big Labrador couldn’t control his shivering and querulous  whining.

Bending at the knees and wrapping his arms around his big brown friend, he calmed the shaking, whining animal and himself as well. ” ‘s okay, Buddy, ‘s okay.”  “It’s all over, Buddy,” “Let’s go see what happened.”

He had the strangest feeling at that moment,  kind of a tingle or maybe a little buzz in his mind.  Sort of like the after-affects of a heavy mushroom  trip when reality isn’t quite screwed back into place yet.  He brushed it off, and got up, sliding his hands one more time over the panting dog.

This time the feeling was way more pronounced, almost like an electric shock, (we okay?). “Huh?”  He looked around the room searching for another person.  (okay now?)  He automatically replied to the question, “Sure, everything is okay now,” and stopped dead in his tracks.

He looked down into the pleading eyes of his Labrador friend and companion for over five years.  “Uh, uh, uh”  he couldn’t bring himself to say what he wanted to, just stuttered with the shocking realization of what had just taken place.

He knelt again, holding the big dog’s head cupped in his hands, staring into the large, liquid brown eyes.  “Buddy,  was that you?”  The answer, tickling his mind like a tiny feather, was the last thing he heard as waves of blackness engulfed him, (me!)

,,,,,The soft, velvety caress on his cheek brought Eddie back to the land of the living. Smiling, he opened his eyes expecting to see Lannie, his partner and best friend.

“Aw shit Buddy, stop it already!”    His other best friend and companion was standing over him, slobbering and happily licking Eddie’s face.   It wasn’t too often that the big Lab had a chance to get in his licks on Eddie and he seemed to be making up for it.

“Okay, okay, already!”   He started to get up but the world was spinning again, “Not another ‘quake”, he moaned. (no)  he jerked back into focus, remembering the events leading up to his fainting.

“Buddy”, “How do you do it?” (what?)   “Do this telepathy or whatever it is that you’re doing?” (always do it)   “Huh? Always? What do you mean, always?”(always do, man not listen)

The world was starting to spin again, “Must be in shock or something”, he thought.   Grimacing from the pain in his side and gingerly touching the new knot on the back of his head, he walked slowly to the bar set up under the window and crawled up onto one of his home-made bar stools.   Holding his aching head with one hand and groping for the water faucet with the other he soon had a glass of ice-cold spring water in front of him. Further groping in one of the drawers in the bar revealed a bottle of aspirin, which he quickly opened. Shaking out a half dozen of the white pastilles he hurriedly gulped them down with the cold water.

Eddie sat there for several minutes, not saying or thinking anything, just waiting for the aspirin to take hold. As he sat, the big Lab wandered off through the still-open front door. When he felt a little better, Eddie walked over to the door, shut it then took a couple steps to the T.V. and switched it on.

Nothing but the hiss of white noise on all stations. He switched it back off and went to the pantry door and slid it open. The racks and shelves of food and bottled water reassured him, as did the yellow glow of the emergency light that struggled to illuminate the recesses of the pantry.

Moving towards the rear of the little room he fumbled for a lever at the edge of the shelving. Grasping the wooden handle and pushing it down made the shelves move outwards a fraction of an inch. He got hold of the framework and pulled it the rest of the way open revealing a larger room inside.

It took the automatic light almost a minute to start flickering then glow, lighting up the hidden room.

Moving to one side he reached up and toggled a switch next to another light bulb. As this bulb came to life he toggled another, less noticeable switch that produced the purr of running machinery and in a few seconds a draft of cool air whispered around him.   He went to the workbench set against one of the granite walls and sat, opening the cabinet doors in a well-practiced, single motion.

Eddie flipped some more switches and the big short-wave radio sprang to life. As he searched for news he was also checking his tell-tale electronic bugs that kept track of his household power grid and the solar power set-up on the roof.  Surprisingly he was running 95% efficient which meant that no harm had been done by the quake.

Although he was on the battery system here in the pantry apparently his cabin’s back-up power system had withstood the monster quake better than he had expected.

Just about everyone in the mountain valley had an alternate power source like his, storms were too frequent and the power company was too far away for reliable service. The inhabitants of the valley were using alternate energy sources long before it became a popular in the rest of the country and were proud of their independence from the “grid”.

Most household systems weren’t quite as elaborate as his, but there were several that rivaled the power company’s own. The abundance of running water, the steady winds from the mountains surrounding them and even geo-thermal power from some of the many mine-shafts of the region that had been closed by hitting pockets of boiling water and steam, were all great sources of free power, not to mention the sun itself.

Puzzled, Eddie kept searching the bands for some signs of life but all he picked up was the hiss and chatter of emptiness. Once he thought he had heard a voice, sounding possibly Mexican but it was gone before he could pinpoint it.

Flipping the off switch and getting up, he walked over to another cabinet and opening it,  fished out a white case with a big red cross .   Cleaning the matted hair on the back of his head as best he could, and carefully probing for the edges of the gash, applied a 2nd Skin patch, then wrapped a length of gauze around his head turban-style and taped it off.

Starting to leave, he picked up the first aid kit again and walking back out the way he came, he shut the pantry and headed for the front door, meeting Buddy on the way.

“Hey Buddy!” and reached over to ruffle his neck fur. (eddie!) “Jeez” he thought, “when am I gonna get used to this?” “Hey Buddy,” he said out loud, “what was that you were saying about me not listening , or something?” He realized with a shock that Buddy conversing with him felt very natural, like it was meant to be.

(old ones say man listen before , no listen now) “Old Ones?” (sire’s sire’s,,,) and a seeming endless stream of sires and dams,,”Wait,  hold it, you mean to say you talk to these dogs from the past?” (no talk, listen) Eddie was just starting to understand a little, a very little.

“Okay Buddy, maybe we’ll talk about this later,”  shaking his head produced a flash of bright pain and Eddie had to gulp back nausea. Grabbing his big parka from the floor where it had landed, they headed for the door and the weak winter sunlight beyond.

“Jeeez  Buddy,” ” Look at all those fires.”  Eddie could see seven distinct columns of smoke rising from the direction of town.  Even as he spoke the eighth smoke column made an appearance, but not a dark gray, brownish one like the others, this one was jet black with angry streamers of red and orange shooting through it.

“Oh shit!” “Not the gas station!”  As he spoke the world suddenly brightened from that direction and there was a monstrous  thunder-like  “BOOM” and the black cloud was thrown outwards and upwards with an expanding ball of fire in it’s center.

After a few seconds the mushroom of the fireball started breaking up and the original, inky black smoke began rising again, with flames licking and crackling around it.

Eddie broke his open-mouthed stare with another “Oh shit” although this time it was almost a whisper.  Tugging on his parka, he started to break into a run but thought better of it and slowed to a trot, his head starting to pound and the smoke columns doubling and tripling in front of him.

Reaching his pickup truck he yanked the door open while chucking the first-aid kit behind the cab.  There was a whimper beside him as he slid into the front seat and he leaned back just in time to avoid being slammed by Buddy who was scrambling into his designated co-pilot’s position.

“Ow!” “Watch it, Bud!” Then grunted as one of the big dog’s feet found purchase on his groin when the Lab turned to get settled.  The bile was rising in his gorge again and a cold sweat broke on his brow.  He thought he might faint  but the waves of blackness receded as he squinted at his big friend.

“One of these days, Buddy” “You’re going to cripple me in your enthusiasm,” he rasped.  Buddy merely looked back, with his tongue hanging out, (go now), “Yes, we’re going” and turned the key in the ignition.

Nothing.  He tried it again and got just the faint click-click of a dead battery. Cursing under his breath, Eddie jumped out of the truck and nearly had his feet go out from under him as another quake rumbled around them.

“Hold on, Hold on,” he heard himself shouting, as if from a distance, and down he went. “Buddy, Buddy!”  The roller coaster waves slowed then stopped. The big Lab bounded out of the truck and looked expectantly at him. (hurt?)  “No, No, just scared I guess.”

He got up from the dirty packed snow of the driveway and opened the truck’s hood.  After a couple of minutes testing connections and jiggling wires he slammed down the hood and got inside to turn on the ignition.

A small sound alerted him to Buddy’s impending leap onto the front seat and just in time he shouted “No!” effectively canceling Buddy’s jumping up with him and also commanding  the big dog to sit.  There was a barely audible whine from that direction as Eddie turned the ignition key again.

Nothing, not even a click.  “Damn” he swore getting out of the truck and slamming the door.   “Well Bud,” he looked over at his brown friend, “Let’s go over to the Sisters’  place , maybe we can borrow one of their rigs to get into town.”  Knowing that charging the battery would take more time than walking the half mile to his nearest neighbors, he grabbed the first aid kit and without hesitation opened the truck door again.

Reaching under the seat he felt the familiar hand grips of his Ruger Blackhawk.   Slamming the door again, which got a jump out of Buddy, Eddie clipped the holstered six-shooter to his belt and searching in the utility box on the pickup bed came up with a full box of semi-jacketed shells for it.

With the shells in his pocket and the sidearm handy to touch , Eddie felt a little more secure and whistled to Buddy.  “Let’s go!”   The big dog bounded after him as he left the driveway towards his neighbor’s place.  (kammi?)

“Yeah, Kammi’s  place” he said as he kept a watchful eye for the inevitable leap from Buddy.  ” Hey!” he warned “Knock it off or we won’t go that way.”  With what could only be described as a ‘sheepish grin’  Buddy settled back down on all fours, and galloped to catch up.

It took less than ten minutes to walk to the Sister’s houses.  “More like a compound” he muttered under his breath as they walked up to the gate.  He looked up at the tell-tale so it could get the print from his retinas and spoke clearly, “Hey girls, Eddie and Buddy here, open up!”

With hardly a sound the big steel gate withdrew into the concrete abutment on the edge of the pavement.  Buddy, who had been barely controlling his eagerness, was off like a shot for the first house in a line of three.  All three were two storied, the second story overhanging the bottom floor.  All three also had buildings attached and outbuildings scattered behind them, no vehicles were visible.

A door opened in the blue-ish house on the end and he heard a muffled curse,  ” Gotta train that dog,” he mumbled to himself.  Prepared for the scolding he knew was coming, Eddie walked up to the door trying to exude innocence and little boy charm.

He was met with an exclamation of “Oh, are you  hurt?”  “Eddie what happened?” and all of a sudden the entry way was filled with the excited questions of three women and the slobbery greetings of three big dogs.  As he stumbled inside there were hands helping him, hands feeling the head wound and other hands brushing off the snow and road grime from his last meeting with the earthquake.

“Hey, one at a time, please” he said to the women, “Need to borrow a rig to get to town.”  Eddie plumped down into the chair offered and accepted the cup of hot wine while Andy, the eldest, unwound his turban wound dressing and examined his Buddy trophy.

She circled  a finger in front of his face and commanded,”Track this.”  He did and then a light was shining in one eye, something wet touched inside one ear, then the other. “Earthquake?”  “No,”  he answered, “Just Buddy playing Dogzilla.”  There were a couple of chuckles at this. “Damn near knocked me off my feet when I opened the door.”  That came from a slightly chunky gal dressed in tie-dyed tee-shirt and blue jeans.

“Eddie, you gotta start training that dog.”  This was from the other twin, ‘Agatha’, dressed like Arabelle, the chunky  one.  All three were tall, blonde, blue-eyed, good looking women in their early thirties.  “Viking Queens” he used to call them in college, where they all met.

“Uh, speaking of dogs,”,,,,he began, but was interrupted by (no, no, not now) sounding as if it were echoing in his mind.  “There are four of them now”, he thought as his gaze swept the room.  All four Labs were sitting as if at attention, in an orderly straight row,  staring at him.

“Hey, look at that” Aggie was pointing at the dogs.  “Ever see them sit like that?”  As this got the girls in a heated discussion, Eddie took a drink of wine before looking back at the dogs.  (listen old one ,  tell shes) he got the impression that this sending was from  the first dog, a bitch, and mother of Buddy.  There was a surprising sense of command in the thought and even more surprising was the agreement he read in Buddy’s eyes and those of the others. (not now)

 

Eddie turned his attention to Andy, who was preparing a new bandage for his head.  Before he could say anything she stated “You know you have a concussion, don’t you?”  “There will be no going anywhere for you for twenty-four hours, or so.”

“B-b-but my gas station!”  “I saw it explode, and I gotta get down there to inspect the damage!”  then it all came pouring out, the first quake and Buddy  knocking him down, the lack of results from his shortwave, the dead battery in his truck and the walk to their place.

He had to keep talking, stiff-arming the girls’ attempts to interrupt, to get to the goal-line of explanation over.  “Whew!” he exclaimed when finished .  Reaching over to the table he snagged his wine cup and drained it in a thirsty swallow.

“Well, be-that-as-it-may mister tough guy,”  “You’re in my house, and I’m a doctor.”  She paused as if waiting for another outburst from Eddie.  “You got a pretty good knock on your noggin, Eddie, I’d like to keep you under our sight for awhile to make sure there’s no further complications.”  This was said in an obviously caring tone and she put her hand on his shoulder, comrade-like.  “It’ll still be there tomorrow, besides, it’s almost dark you know.  Shortest day of the year, and all that.”

He mumbled a curse under his breath that drew a sharp look from Andy, then she broke out laughing.  It took her a couple of minutes to wind back down and then explained, “Dude, in about fifteen minutes you won’t want to go anywhere,” and pointed at his glass.  “You’ve been doped, you dope!”

“It won’t put you to sleep, but it will relax you and your bones will feel like rubber.”  The other girls were exchanging glances and chuckling lightly.  “And you two,  let him rest, he needs it.”  This was said in her matronly, doctor voice.

“Now you just get comfortable in that chair and we’ll try to figure out what’s going on here today.”  She began by telling him she had been on the internet that morning and there had been a rash of warnings and threats from N. Korea overnight and that mainland China had backed them up.

The warnings were obviously a test of the new president’s strength and will, even though he had not yet taken office.  The massive changes in the legislature and senate wrought by the latest election had created confusion in the ranks and halls of Washington and it was clearly the Asian Block’s idea to take advantage and gain some kind of political leverage from it.

The turbulence in the capitol was matched by the violence which had been erupting steadily for the last ten or eleven months.  In the U.S. there were ongoing strikes and rallies by the unemployed.  Being forced into a universal health plan which turned out to be a thinly disguised taxing agenda had made the American people finally unite on something and rise in force for change.

The  staggering news earlier in the year about the major pharmaceutical companies being in bed with the FDA and the White House in a wide-ranging scheme  involving  population control, chemical dependence, actual intentional poisoning, and the massive profits reaped from the American populace had served as a spark .  The implementation of the health care bill that no one wanted fed the fire, and the fascist tactics of the augmented Federal agencies that ‘disappeared’ hundreds of people, fanned the flame.

Andy paused in her narrative, obviously enjoying her captive audience.  “How you feeling, Ed?”  Eddie realized he had only been listening with one ear, the other catching the mind tickling conversation of the dogs.  He shook himself out of his reverie and responded with a thick voice, “All right, I guess,” “How do you feel?”  He was about to reach for her but stopped  as he realized how messed up he was.  ” Good dope, Andy, thanks.”

She smiled and turned to stoke the fire. “Just a muscle relaxer is all.”  “That and the wine should have you flying.”  ” Just try not to sleep for a little while yet, I don’t see any pronounced swelling but you never know.”  “If you feel like you can’t keep your eyes open any longer, let me know, okay?”

“Not sleepy,” he mumbled through thick feeling lips. “Not sleepy.”

He was in a room with Buddy and the sisters’ dogs.  They were all sitting at attention like the dogs had earlier, ramrod straight and unmoving.  Without moving his head he found that he could see everything in the room, if that was what it was.  It could have been just as easily a pasture on a cloudy day, everything was not exactly blurred but not well-defined either, his senses were unable to cope with the surroundings.

There must have been hundreds, if not thousands of dogs seated around him and Buddy, all waiting expectantly for something, he felt.  “That’s it!” A flash of understanding  as he thought to himself, “I’m not just seeing, I’m feeling everything too.”  The wonderment of this was cut short as a voice touched his awareness, (welcome) and there was a response, not quite words that conveyed respect, humbleness, and a feeling of wholeness that left Eddie breathless.

He was now watching or participating in a series of scenes or scenarios that frightened him at first but soon became natural or a part of him.  He felt detached from his body and more and more part of the script playing out around him.  This was a historical presentation of some kind, he felt.  Although he couldn’t speak or move any part of his body he could interact with the vision taking place around him by just willing it.

He experienced times that were obviously from mankind’s distant past, there were a succession of cold nights on the prairie, huddling with others in fear of the darkness, then campfires, huts, shacks and then there were rooms and buildings, all with the dogs next to him.

Again came fear and bewilderment, huddling in the cold he felt hunger and deep despair.  Then things turned bright again and the transition of the buildings went through it’s cycle, ending the same way in fear, ignorance and despair.  This happened uncountable times, Eddie felt, and there was only one factor that kept him sane and observant, the dogs all around him.  Through all this, through every-this, the dogs were there.

There was a brief flash of a scene, an image of something round, spherical, he decided, settling to the ground from the bight blue sky.  There were scenes of great feasts and banquets, games olympiad  style, hunting parties, great buildings, Stonehenge?

Then there was sadness again, but a different kind he realized, the sadness of saying goodbye, of losing something dear, the sadness and uncertainty of parting with security and striking out on one’s own.  But it was a racial sadness, shared with the dogs as everything was.

There was more, Eddie caught bits  and pieces of the narrative flowing around him, but not totally in tune anymore as his thoughts were still on the  beings he had seen, the fathers and mothers of humankind, he extrapolated, feeling a sense of great achievement and wonder.

Suddenly darkness again, or rather that cloudy indistinct zone they started out in. (man) A statement and a question at once.  Eddie felt himself reply but not in words. (man, man, man,,,,,,,,,) about seventy or eighty times he heard the refrain, not as in an echo but rather as in counting, another flash of insight brought him to the conclusion that he was not the only man to be experiencing this.

“Eddie!” “Eddie!” His world was shaking again and his head hurt. “Stop!” he tried to shout but could tell it was only in his mind. “Eddie!” “Wake up!” It sounded like a foghorn in the fog. (man wake up now) The commanding tone of the alpha bitch jerked him into awareness.  He opened his eyes to the worried faces of all three sisters, leaning over him.

“Hi,” he said weakly.  “Got any more of that wine?”

5)

“No more wine for you, Bucko!” Andy replied.  We thought you were dead!”  “Huh?” Feeling sluggish, weak, and more than a little confused, Eddie did manage a lopsided grin.  Then he fell asleep.

Waking, Eddie looked around him, searching for a clock.  He was now laying in bed, a soft, female scented comfort that he did not want to leave.  Dozing again he was awakened by the barking of dogs and cursing of the women.

Buddy came barreling in, closely followed by Aggie holding a broken piece of chain.  “That big, dumb son-of-a-bitch broke this chain to come see you!”  Of course by now Buddy had leaped onto the bed,  licking and slobbering all over the protesting patient.

“AAAGGGHHH!”  “That’s enough already, Buddy,” he managed. “No!”  That did it, Buddy lay down with his head on Eddie’s chest, whimpering his greetings. (okay?)  “Yeah, I’m okay, Bud.”   (listen kammi) “Huh?” Then, forgetting who else was in the room, he asked, “Want me to talk to Kammi, eh?”  “What’s your mom got to say that you can’t tell me?”

He caught Buddy’s sideways look and remembered Aggie, who had come to stand by the side of the bed after opening the curtains of the room’s only window.  She had a puzzled look on her face and appeared to be about to say something when her two sisters came in, followed by the dogs.

They had his clothes, apparently cleaned, and a tray of food that made his mouth water.  “Uh, before I eat, I really gotta,,,, Arabelle blushed, but the other two merely set down their loads and sat down in the various chairs scattered around the room.

It was at this point that the urgency to piss almost overwhelmed him which certainly would have been embarrassing in the company of others but he had known the sisters for many years in many different circumstances.  It didn’t bother him at all to skip naked to the bathroom to perform his duty.

Upon returning, feeling much better but way hungrier, he slipped into his jeans and flannel shirt and began chowing down.  The women were looking at him in shocked disbelief as he polished off a breakfast big enough for all of them.  Nobody had said a word, either.  Apparently all were waiting for him to say something around mouthfuls of sausage and eggs.

From the dogs he got just a little tickle, a feel good tickle. A kind of ‘We’re glad you’re back‘ thought, not words.  Which made him finally ask, ” So, what’s up?”  Their  stares of open-mouthed astonishment confused him for a second as he looked back and forth between them. “Well?”

Andy was the first to put words to her conflicting emotions, “Why you ungrateful son-of-a-bitch, you were dead!”  Then she got up and rushed over to him, sobbing,” Eddie, you had no pulse!”  “No heartbeat I could find!”  Then almost accusingly, “The dogs were just as bad!”  “What happened to you?”

“Uh”,,,,,”Well, it was kinda like”,,,.(tell shes) and a feeling of warmth and security swept over him. (tell shes, now) “Uh, Okay Kammi” he mumbled.  “Why can’t you tell them?”  This got a perplexed look from the girls. (listen man, no listen kammi)  “You mean they can’t hear you?” (yes)  “Oh, wow.”

Andy, who had moved back to her chair, returned and put a hand on his forehead, “Are you sure you’re all right?”  If looks could talk what he got from the other two would have said the same thing, “Are you nuts?”   He grinned and said, ” First of all, what happened while I was out of it?”  “It seemed like only a couple of hours to me.”

Now they were all tripping all over each other trying to hold him and talk and fend off the dogs at the same time.  “You fell asleep right after I talked with you and in about ten minutes you stiffened up like a board.”  Andy continued, “After about a half hour or so, I realized something was wrong and got up to check.”

“That’s when we came in,” piped up Arabelle.  “You were stiff and so were the dogs, we thought it was maybe something to do with the Chinese attack on the west coast, you know, like a nerve gas or something.”  “Huh?” “Attack!” began Eddie.

“Now don’t get ahead of the story, ‘Belle.”  Aggie was winding up with her two cent’s worth, ” You were like that for three days, Eddie, no heartbeat, no breath, but your pupils were spinning around like crazy!”  Things were starting to click when Eddie asked, “So what made you try to wake me up?” “You were shaking the shit out of me!”

“That wasn’t us, Eddie,” began Arabelle.  Then Andy took over again, “We thought we might have to evacuate, the earthquake was that bad.”  “Look at the ceiling” and she pointed to three or four long, zig-zagging cracks in the painted drywall.  “It felt like the end of the world!”  “Even with all the heavy engineering put into this place by Dad, it was still shaking apart.”

Their father had been an internationally renowned engineer and architect who had made a bundle designing earthquake-proof buildings all over the world.  “That bad, eh?”

“Yes it was!”  Andy was almost shouting now, “And then Aggie noticed the dogs were moving a little and sure enough, so were you.”  “I had tried an IV drip to get some kind of fluid into you, but the quake ripped it out of your arm, and the ceiling was falling in,,,then it stopped, all of a sudden , just stopped.”

“We hauled the dogs outside to the backyard and when we came back you were thrashing around , your ears were bleeding again and we didn’t know what to do, but you woke up!”  “Yeah and then he went right back to sleep!” This was from Aggie who was sitting next to Kammi, her pet and the first Labrador in the area, found wandering,  starving and lost, out by the old highway.

“Jeeez, no wonder I had to pee so bad!”  This brought a gale of laughter  from the assembled people and the dogs looked like they understood too.

“So tell us what happened to you, do you remember?”  Eddie looked at Aggie and in a small voice said, “It was something impossible to forget” he paused  then continued, “from what I could gather, I think I was shown the history of humankind!”

The silence in the room was thick with expectancy. “But what was really cool was, I found out the secret of our creation!” They were on the edges of their seats now.  “What we are here for, and what the dogs are here for.”  “I talked with GOD!”

6)

The look of dumbfounded amazement on the sisters’ faces almost made Eddie break out in laughter of his own. (tell ) urgently.   “Huh?” “Oh yeah” and he began a brief synopsis of what had appeared to him, or with him as the case may be.

He could tell that they were all waiting for the big “show-stopper” and contrarily he put off the best for last.  “It seems,” he continued “That somewhere around two-hundred thousand years ago our planet was visited by beings from another planet.”  He drew out a long pause and looked at each woman in turn.  They were all staring at him, not uttering a word, breathlessly waiting for what he had to say.

“Come to find out, they look just like we do now, as a matter of fact, any of you girls would have fit right in with them, no questions asked.”  This brought a babble of comments which Eddie was glad to hear, it meant they were still breathing, at least.

“Of course, we didn’t look like us back then, we were smaller with proportionately smaller brain pans and even though we had built civilization after civilization, we couldn’t keep from warring on each other and ultimately destroying every complex society we achieved. ”

“At the time the Others arrived we were just creeping slowly back up the social ladder and were starting to farm again and make pottery.”  “The Others, for lack of a better term, recognized in our earliest ancestors a racial similarity and decided to step in with a little evolutionary help to pull us out of the never-ending loop or cycle of  civilization to savagery that we were in.”

He paused again, and took a pull off his mug of tea sitting at his elbow. “At least that is what they wanted us to believe,” and then softly he added, “I don’t think that was really their reason for altering us genetically, from what I could gather, now this is just what I think, it might be wrong,,, you know,,” and he trailed off, looking questioningly at Kammi, the alpha bitch.

Not receiving any encouragement, or discouragement, he started again, “I think they need allies in a war or something.”(?)  It seemed to Eddie that Kammi and the other dogs were waiting for him to come to his own conclusions about his experience, he could sense their expectancy too.

“But what about the dogs?”  This was Aggie, with her arm around Kammi. ” What do they have to do with all this?”  “Well,” he began, “they were not engineered right along with us.”  ” However, they are our hunting companions, and they are our protectors from that which we do not have the senses to understand.”  “They can see and smell stuff we can’t, mostly smell, it’s something to do with our enemies or something, I guess.” (good)

(more)Now he started to tie the loose pieces together mentally, adding them up and coming to an astounding conclusion.  “They are our consciences, our fail-safe in case we destroy our civilization.” (more) it was almost pleading in tone.

“They are our guards, our wardens.”  Relief was tangible from Kammi(enough)  “But,,,” and then he added in a rush “They were here before the Others,” they must be,,,,” a jolt of mental force almost blacked him out.  Shaking his head, Eddie was contrite, “Sorry, I still don’t understand it all, I guess.”

Now there was pandemonium in the room, everyone was trying to ask questions or arguing with one another.  The dogs, the four of them, seemed to pick up on the excitement and began playfully nipping at one another and wrestling around.  In the hubbub, out of nowhere it seemed, came a new mental touch in Eddie’s mind, and he felt it was not any of the dogs.

(Come to me by mid-day tomorrow, we have much to discuss.)  Now it was Eddie’s turn to drop his jaw in amazement.  He knew immediately who it was who had just contacted him, the tone though was commanding, brooking no argument, as if it were stating a fact.  “Wow.”  It was all he could say, that mental touch had carried with it a certain alien-ness, a feeling of supreme strength beyond that of humanity. “Wow.”

Slowly things calmed down and they were just preparing to find something for dinner when another quake hit.  “Ooohhh, shit.” Andy began. Then they were all stumbling around like puppets on strings as the shaking intensified, bringing showers of drywall dust down on them.

There were a couple of screams and someone shouting at him, but Eddie had no idea what was said, he had his arms full of 160 lbs of terrified Buddy.  Just as the shaking and pitching of the room started to quiet down Buddy raised his head suddenly, cracking Eddies’ jaws together with a sound like a shot.

“Ooww!” ” Oh,uh,uh,”  Then came a fountain of blood from Eddies’ bitten tongue, which mixed messily with the drywall dust covering him. Finding a napkin from the remains of breakfast, he  wiped his mouth off and clamped it between his teeth.  Blood was still leaking from one corner of his mouth as he surveyed the damage to the room.

The dogs and the woman had managed to get out of the room somehow, but he noticed that the room was still in pretty sound shape except for the spiderweb of cracks in the ceiling and the only window whose slider had fallen out.  As the dust settled he found the slider and replaced it, still swabbing his swollen mouth and casting murderous glances at Buddy, who seemed unaware of anything wrong.

Hearing the sounds of voices in another room he ventured into the hallway in time to see someone he didn’t know being ushered into the living area.  Wandering nonchalantly down the hallway to where everyone was, he grabbed Buddy by the collar as the big dog tried to pass.  “Ah, Hah!” “Got you, you rat!”  Of course Buddy thought this was just more fun and games  and dashed off, pulling loose from Eddie’s grasp and out through the open front door.

Reaching the living room with no sign of Buddy, Eddie waited to be introduced to the stranger who was in a deep conversation with Andy and Arabelle.  Aggie came over and asked him how bad he was hurt, thinking that all that blood must mean something major. He assured her it wasn’t, but to keep an eye out for Buddy, wanting to even the score even if he needed a baseball bat to do it.

Their guest turned out to be a passerby who had been looking for directions  to town when the quake hit.  This sounded pretty fishy to Eddie and Aggie agreed.  Apparently so did her sisters as Andy had a pistol stuck in the back of her jeans while Arabelle was holding a fireplace poker.  The visitor seemed oblivious to this though and kept up a barrage of questions to the girls while he looked around the room.

Eddie calmly walked over to the hallway closet and searching for a moment pulled out his Ruger Blackhawk, checking the loads.  The stranger didn’t miss any of this and his eyes widened as Eddie walked up to him.  “Okay friend,”  “Suppose you tell us who you are and why you’re here,” with an audible click the BlackHawk was ready for action.

“As I was telling these two ladies,,,” he began. Eddie had seen the man’s eyes shift towards the picture window and he threw himself to one side just in time as a shot rang out accompanied by the crashing of glass.  Before his knees hit the carpet he pulled off a shot, striking the stranger just above the groin.  With the next round in the chamber he tracked around behind him towards the sounds of fighting and the snarling, low-throated growls of the dogs.

It was over as soon as it began, almost.  The shot from Andy’s 9mm had punched a hole in the safety glass of the window and also into the chest of the man sprawled across the jagged remnants of the window.  Another man, screaming for all he was worth was held by the two dogs, Jack and Ellie who were playing tug-of-war with an arm in each of their mouths.

As he watched, with a sickening ripping sound the arm held by Jack was  pulled from it’s socket, splattering blood across the deck.  The screaming stopped.

Turning  the full circle he saw Andy standing over the man he had shot in the groin, trying to pull Buddy off of him.   With the help of Arabelle they disengaged Buddy just as Eddie stood up to help. (okay?) “Yeah, I’m okay, how about you?”  He could swear he saw a grin on the big dog’s bloodied muzzle. (okay)

It turned out that there were only three of the raiders, the man that Buddy munched on survived long enough to tell them of seeing the big steel gate get jammed by the earthquake as they had been looking for a way in.  “Looking for food and water” were the man’s last words.

Eddie looked over all three of them as they were dumped in the septic tank behind the first house.  “Sure don’t look like they had missed many meals.” He told Aggie. “Yeah” she replied. “They were looking for something else, I’ll bet.”  “Any ideas?” “Not a clue,”  she said.

7)

(wake)”mmmnnnuhHuh?”  Rubbing the sleep from his grainy feeling eyes, Eddie looked over at the clock.  “Good boy, Buddy” he turned over and tried to cover his head with the pillow but his dog  had other ideas. (wake) This little tickle was followed by Buddy, all hundred and sixty-odd pounds of him, leaping onto the blanket and pillow covered form on the bed.

Striking while the iron was hot, so-to-speak, Buddy grabbed the pillow in powerful chocolate-colored jaws and pulled it out of Eddie’s grasp.  Eddie, wide awake now and in a state of considerable pain from the big dog landing on his stomach, was in no shape to resist.

Feebly swatting at the big brown dog, Eddie cursed and turned on the electric light switch next to the bed.  Nothing.  He rolled over and reached out to the lamp on a nearby end table. Twisting the switch, nothing again.  “Well, shit, no electric!”   He wondered about the sisters’ backup electrical system, not ever really asking about it, just assuming they had one.

Everyone in   Bentwood Valley and surrounding area had backup lighting and heating of some kind, they were just too far from the main lines  not to.

While Eddie was dragging on his jeans and boots he was listening to a faint sound.  Not really audible, it was like a low rumble that a person can feel in their bones, not really hear. He could see that Buddy could hear something too, by the way he kept cocking his head towards the door.

“What is it, boy?” But Buddy just padded over to the door and looked back at him. “Okay, okay, let’s go.”  They walked out into the hallway that was just barely navigable in the darkness, Eddie with one hand on Buddy’s haunch, letting the dog lead the way.

The lights sprang on just as they reached the living area and the scene of all the action the day before.  The plywood-covered bay window was now brightly lit by two rows of those little nano lights that had just come out this last year.  The battery-less  spheres were about the size of a marble and would stick to anything once.  If they were loosened or knocked off they wouldn’t stick again without re-polarizing.

Spotting the door to the kitchen and catching the faintest aroma of coffee got Eddie headed in that direction, fast.  Reaching for the handle, the door opened suddenly bumping Buddy hard on the nose and eliciting a chuckle from his partner. “Hah!” Eddie crowed, “Paybacks, Bud!”  he couldn’t resist the dig.

Eddie held the door for Aggie as she came through, loaded down with plates of steak and eggs and hashbrowns.  Following her came her sister, Arabelle, with a pot of coffee and three mugs.  Just about to poke his head into the doorway to see who else was coming, a couple of the dogs pushed through almost smacking him in the face this time.

Grabbing the door to keep it from swinging, he was just in time to hold it for Andy, the eldest sister, who had a daypack and some odd boxes in her arms.  “Come on,” she grunted, and headed for the low table by the couch.   He grabbed a couple of the boxes from her and found out why she had grunted with effort.

“Ammo, huh?” he said.  She gave him a look like , Duh! and set the pack down next to him .  “There you go,”  and while he looked through it she explained between mouthfuls of rare steak and over-easy eggs.  “You said something about going to Biddle’s place last night so I figured you’ld need a possibles bag for the trip.”  “Well, yeah,,” he began , but she interrupted with an accusing finger poking him in the chest repeatedly, “Don’t,” {poke} “know,” {poke} “what’s” {poke} “out,” {poke} “there.”{poke}.  “Okay, okay. I get the idea already!”

He had finished looking through the survival kit, seeing what he needed.  He looked over at the girls in dismay a second later as he realized they had eaten all the food while he was checking out his equipment.  All he got was an egg-spotted grin from Aggie and a belch from the normally polite ‘Belle.

“You gotta get going, Ed.” said Andy. “There’s protein bars and fruit in the pack,” she looked towards the kitchen door as it swung open again. “Buddy’s already eaten, and here’s the keys to the truck.”  Buddy came through the door, wagging his tail as he heard his name.(ready?) “Yeah, let’s go.”

The big dog led the way to the door, waiting while Eddie rummaged in the closet again for his pistol.  He turned towards the door, almost colliding with Aggie who was holding out a rifle to him. “Hey!”  “That looks like,,” before he could finish Aggie said, “Yes it is.”  ” I had it cleaned up and re-blued after losing it on that fishing trip.”  She was holding an old saddle gun, a .30-.30 made by Winchester.

“Aw, gee Ag, thanks.” Eddie had thought the old gun had been lost for good when their raft had flipped in mid-river. Taking the rifle in one hand he reached out and hooked the other around Aggie’s shoulder, pulling her close for a warm hug.  “Really, thanks, this is my favorite, you know.”  Aggie just nodded and opened the front door.

They stepped out into the chill December morning and were struck motionless by what they saw. “Wow” was all Eddie could say, the sky was an amazing quilt of red and orange streamers with spots and patches of green and blue  appearing, then fading as the whole thing swirled and rushed away from the rising sun.

They stood there in shocked awe for several minutes until ‘Belle walked up behind them, saying something about “born in a barn?”  “Belle stepped through the door and shut it, zipping up her parka at the same time.  Then she looked up and froze, mouth wide open, staring.

The earthquake jolted all of them out of their reverie, and getting away from the house they held the dogs for the five or six minutes of tremors , still catching glimpses of the sky when they could.  After it died away, Eddie got up and wiped snow from his knees  and butt from when he fell  then rolled with the shaking of the earth.  The girls were wiping each other off but the dogs were quiet, for a change, as if expecting something.

“What’re you guys waiting for? Let’s go!”  Eddie walked over to the garage and stooping over grabbed the handle/latch.  Twisting it and pulling up at the same time, the door slid up and into the building revealing an oil tainted darkness  with the faint outlines of a vehicle barely discernible.  Aggie tossed a couple of nanolights at him that he caught and held in front as he walked inside.

Getting into the foreign-made truck was no problem for Eddie, he’d driven it before.  When he twisted the key, though, there was a problem. Nothing.  He was getting pretty tired of this dead battery trip that seemed to be haunting him lately and cursing, got out and walked to the front of the little truck. Unlatching the hood he pulled it up and stuck the little rod in the hole to hold it.

He was busy hooking up the battery charger that he had found when the sisters, all of them and their dogs, crowded in around him, chattering about the sky and the possible reasons for it. Someone asked what he was doing,which brought a gruff, “What does it look like?”  Then he softened a little and explained about his truck’s dead battery, again as it turned out.

“So the sky is colored funny and all the batteries are dead,” Aggie  was by the door looking skyward. “So what?’  “How about the ‘quakes?” someone else added.  “And the spooky shit that happened to Eddie and the dogs,” that was Andy who was holding a light bulb so Eddie could find the positive terminal on the battery.  “Yeah,” he said. “And our mysterious visitors, how about them?”

Aggie turned back inside, wiping a stray blond hair out of her eyes, “Do you guys smell something funny?”   Eddie looked up and grinned, “I figured you just farted or something.” Then they were all talking and laughing again, getting the dogs all excited even though they stayed just inside the doorway, peering out at the weird, Peter Max  sky.

While waiting for the battery to charge they all stood around the truck’s tailgate and looked through a couple of maps that Aggie found  in the glove compartment.  At first, everyone had wanted to go along with Eddie and Buddy but when thinking it over had decided to wait for his report back.

One thing they could all agree on was that in the five days since the first quake something major  must have happened to black out all radio signals and pretty much cut their community off from the rest of the world.  The electric being off was no surprise and the girls had just not gotten around to checking their back-up electric system yet.

Besides working on the electric, Eddie made it very clear that they should get their security system back in place and if necessary go to the neighbors place to get some physical if not mental aid from the two dozen or so that made up the extended Longbridge clan.

Very good at mechanics and sheer brute labor, the two teenage boys that did odd jobs in the neighborhood had such teenage crushes on  the sisters that  they’d do anything the girls asked, even without pay.

The girls were busy making plans when Eddie got in the truck and started it up.  The little four cylinder engine coughed once then roared to life in it’s own fashion, more like a sewing machine than a lion.

Buddy really wanted to sit in the cab with his partner but Eddie wouldn’t allow it, knowing that the little cab just would not hold both of them and also not wanting to get stepped on again.  Buddy jumped up into the truckbed, not bothering with the open tailgate and stuck his big head through the slider in the rear window.

Someone slammed the tailgate shut and the two were off  towards the rising sun, grinding a gear or two as they navigated out through the frozen front gate.

As Eddie and Buddy navigated the obstacle course that the dirt road had become, Eddie couldn’t help thinking about the disaster that had occurred and it’s implications to life as he knew it.  Were there already desperate people because of the emergency conditions or was it all centered around him for some reason?  Whatever was going on Eddie knew that his survival and Buddy’s too, depended on finding some answers.

They had to get to Biddle’s and find out what was going on!  The old man had top-notch electronics, a direct satellite link,  and an EMP resistant electrical system, if anybody knew what had happened, he would.

Rounding the corner to pull into his driveway, Eddie looked around the immediate area.  Having slowed momentarily, Buddy took the opportunity to jump out and was off, galloping towards the open doorway of the cabin.  “Didn’t I close that door?” thought Eddie.

Not waiting for the little truck to come to a full stop he bailed out of the driver’s door, rolling with the .30-.30 tucked in to shield the rifle from the slush and old snow of the front drive.  He came up behind a stump and cautiously poked his head around it.

Seeing a brief flash of movement through the open doorway, he levered a shell into the chamber and ran towards the cabin.  Flattening against the log wall outside the door Eddie could hear the sounds of a scuffle inside.  Actually not much of a scuffle, more like the sounds of someone painfully  trying to catch their breath, almost sobbing.   The sound of Buddy’s warning growl was followed by a shriek then more sobbing.

Eddie slid through the door in time to keep Buddy from the stranger’s throat, forcing the big dog off of the guy’s chest.  Thumbing back the hammer of the short rifle, Eddie laid the barrel on the guy’s  forehead and asked, “Who are you?”

(bad man) Buddy was still growling, a steady rumble that sent sent shivers up Eddie’s spine.  Apparently the stranger wasn’t real happy with his situation and pretty much gave up hope of fighting free.  Eddie could see the tension drain out of him and felt somehow that the guy was considering the truth.

Gagging a little, he began “Hey, please call off the dog,”  then coughed, “think he broke a couple of ribs.”  “Tough shit, what are you doing in my house?”  This was punctuated with a jab from the rifle barrel.

“Mister, if you could just let me up for a second, I’ll tell you everything I know, ” pleading now and looking very wretched, he continued, “Look, here’s my gun.”  Pulling an automatic from his waistband with his only free hand (Buddy was sitting on the other) it was sent skittering across the hardwood floor by a kick from Eddie’s boot.

“Okay, better be good.”  was all that Eddie said as he backed away, never taking the barrel too far from the man’s forehead.  “Sit in that chair” pointing to an old lounger by the stove.  The man did so, sinking suddenly in the broken springs with a yelp of pain.

“Aggghh, ribs are broke for sure.”  then he went on to say that he had been hired by a group of businessmen out of L.A. to come up to Idaho and find Eddie Sanders. Pausing, he looked up at Eddie and said, “You must be Eddie Sanders?”  “What if I am?” “I’m supposed to give you a message.”

Eddie wasn’t letting his guard down , but he did feel the man was being sincere.  Buddy had quit growling but was poised to spring and the man knew it.  “Well, what’s the message?”

In reply, the stranger held up his open palm, there was a triangle tattooed there with what looked like an eye in the center.  “So?” Eddie had no idea what it was supposed to mean.  The man looked bewildered, “You don’t know what this is?”  “No, should I?”

Gulping audibly the man sunk back in the chair,”Just not my day,” he grumped.  “Okay mister, err,,,Eddie, that’s it.”  “Huh?” “Yeah, you’re supposed to be part of the  group and welcome me with open arms.”  He went on, “And what I get is broken ribs and a rifle between my eyes!”

“What’s this group? And while we’re at it, what’s your name?”  “Dan, Dan Workman, and I really don’t know much about these guys except that they are all pretty important business-wise, know what I mean?”  “No, I don’t” grunted Eddie.

“Well, I wouldn’t say they were the Family or anything, but maybe even bigger in some ways.”   Eddie felt stupid, “Uh, Family?”  “Yeah, you know, Mafia.”  “Oh, sure.”  Eddie’s mind was racing trying to figure out what the Mafia might want with him.

Dan took this as affirmation and continued, “These guys made me get this tattoo and just told me to show it to you.”  “You’re supposed to fill in the blanks, or something, I guess.”  “When your dog knocked me on my ass I was just looking for something to eat, no one answered when I knocked on the door so I just came in.” Now the words were tumbling out, “Mister, it’s been two days since I ate last, You got something?”

The sincerity in the man’s voice was obvious and he did look a little frayed at the edges, like maybe he was hungry.  “What do you think, Buddy?” (hungry) came the thought.  Dan  replied, thinking Eddie had meant him, “I think a ham sandwich and a can of beer would hit the spot!”

“Yeah, I guess it would.  Would you settle for Spam?”  “You bet!” came the immediate response.  “Watch him, Buddy!”  and Eddie walked around the bar into the kitchen area.

“Man, if you feed me you’ve got a friend for life.”  Dan was feeling better as he watched Eddie build a couple of Spam and cheese sandwiches.  “Seriously, my car broke down outside of Spokane and I’ve been walking since.”

Eddie walked up, handing Dan a sandwich and a bottle of draft, “No shit?”  “that’s over 120 miles.”  His disbelief must have been obvious because Dan quickly added, “Got a couple of rides with folks running from the fires.”  “Got into Idaho with a nice couple that  told me to get out about fifteen-twenty miles from here, some place called Doon’s Pass, I think.”  “I didn’t want to argue, they had been nice up to that point but when I saw that shotgun the old gal had, I hit the road.”  “Been walking ever since, just lucky that I took this way into town, could have come in by the highway but there were too many roadblocks.”  Taking a couple of bites off his sandwich, Dan washed  it down with a long swallow of beer, belched, then explained further.

“Had to hop some fences and spent last night in an abandoned van, but made it here just a little before you did.”  They both finished eating, Eddie  swallowing his beer in three gulps, threw the rest of the Spam to Buddy and went to the bathroom.  Coming out momentarily with a big roll of elastic and another of athletic tape he suggested that Dan stand up and take off his jacket and shirt.

Doing so, Dan kept a wary eye on Buddy who had eased up closer, whining just a little.  “Okay, hey your dog sure is smart, I’ve got a hideout under my shirttail. Honest, I just forgot all about it.”  Eddie had known something was up when Buddy wouldn’t stand down earlier.

Waiting to see Dan’s true  character, Eddie had just kept quiet, feeling the bandage was perfect for flushing out the true agenda of Dan.  He either agreed and gave up his other gun or made a play for it.   Eddie was relieved that he hadn’t made a play, he was starting to like this stranger.

“Man if I had a partner like him, I wouldn’t be afraid of nothing!”  Buddy seemed to sense Eddie’s relief and good feelings towards Dan and quit growling but didn’t take his eyes off him for a second.  (okay) this was almost questioning, tenuous, like a wish almost.

“Yeah, I think he’s okay, Buddy.”  This brought Dan around for a second, looking like he wanted to ask a question, but was stopped short as Eddie wrapped the bandage tightly around his chest.  Sucking in his breath, turning a little white with the pain, Dan didn’t say anything until Eddie finished taping him up.

“You get along pretty good with that big guy, huh?”  “Yeah, I do, we’re partners.”  Eddie picked up the rest of the tape and the empty bottles while Dan eased back into his shirt and jacket.  “How long you had him?”  “I really don’t “have him”, he picked me when I went visiting a friend’s house.”

“Oh,” this last was as if Dan was coming to some kind of inward decision. ” I always wanted a dog, my parents wouldn’t let me have one.  Said they were too dirty and I wasn’t responsible enough.”  “Think he’d let me pet him?”

Shooting a glance at Buddy, Eddie couldn’t really say so he just grunted, waiting for the outcome.  Dan’s outstretched hand touched Buddy’s shoulder and very lightly rubbed up and down.  Seeing no threat from the big brown dog, Dan stroked the glossy back, smiling. ” I think he likes me.”

Eddie really didn’t want to tell Dan that being liked by Buddy meant broken noses and ribs, black eyes, sprained limbs, and all sorts of other bruises and contusions.  “Yeah well, maybe.”  was all he could think of.  “So what are you going to do now, Dan?  Got plans?”

“Hadn’t really thought about it, things were supposed to be different, I think.”  As he said this a window shattered and the far away crack of a rifle was heard.

“Oh shit!” “UH!” jerking backwards, it looked like Dan had been hit.  Yelling at Buddy to stay, Eddie snatched up his rifle and jumped towards the wall.  Another window shattered and the whine of the bullet was loud off of the big wood stove.

He looked over at Dan, seeing real fear in the other man’s face. “You hit?” “No, just tripped over the dog, look, let me have my pistol back and I’ll cover the door.”  Splat!  a bullet sank into the log next to him, showering him with splinters. Splat! Splat! All Eddie could do was watch helplessly as the bullets walked their way across the wall towards Buddy and Dan.

He tossed the little hide-out gun to Dan, “Your automatic is on the bar stool over there,” pointing with his rifle.  They were both talking loudly, almost shouting, trying to be heard over the steady barking of the rifle outside and the sounds of bullets striking  inside.

“Damn, there goes the last window!”  With that Eddie rose far enough to sight out the window with his Winchester.  Just in time he caught the movement of someone behind the little truck and someone else running for the door.  “Coming your way!” he shouted. Looking back outside in time to see another man starting to sprint towards the door he shot then levered in another round to knock the man off his feet.

Blam! Blam! the sharp report of the little automatic sounded tiny after the resounding Kerbam! Kerbam! of the .30-.30,.  Then two more shots and Buddy was up, running for the door.  The man framed in the doorway had already been hit at least twice by Dan’s pistol and then was bowled over by Buddy who had literally leaped from where he had been told to stay, almost ten feet away.

Eddie couldn’t see the man in the yard and certainly wasn’t going to stick his head out the window looking, either.  He crouched, taking a quick glance as he listened to Buddy making short work of the first assailant.  Dan was shouting at him to call off Buddy as he looked again outside this time seeing the rifleman trying to drag himself back behind the truck.

Without a bit of conscience, Eddie sighted down the barrel and squeezed off a round that hit the wounded man between the shoulder blades, plowing his face into the snow bank with the force of it.  “That it?” he called out to Dan.

“Think so, Jesus, this guy’s a mess.”  Looking down at what was left of the raider he had shot, Dan was struck cold by the utter power and viciousness of Buddy.  “Gawd, I hope he never takes to disliking me.”

Eddie walked over, being careful not to step into the open.  “Looks like he’s had better days, huh?”  Dan just stared back at him.  Eddie realized suddenly that Dan was probably in shock from all the recent events and reached out just in time to catch the younger man as he feinted.

(okay?) Buddy was walking through the door.  “Yeah, I think it’s just been too much on him, he needs to rest.”  As he said this he drug Dan over to the couch.  The pain from his ribs woke him up somewhat and he flopped onto the  old couch with a whimper. “Tell me if you need any help”  his eyes closed with a grimace of pain but he didn’t pass out.

“Are there any more, Buddy?”  The big brown dog cocked his head, one way then another(man?)  “Yeah, can you tell if there are any more?”  The dog padded to the front door and peered out(no man).

Wiping his forehead with his sleeve, Eddie strode over to the doorway to stand next to his partner looking out at the winter scene of destruction and death.  Casting a quick glance over at the couch to check on Dan,  Eddie bent over and grabbed the dead man by the heel with one hand, still holding the saddle gun with the other.

Grunting with the effort Eddie pulled the corpse a couple of feet then turned around and leaned the rifle against the doorjamb, going back to the corpse he pulled his pistol out of his pocket and stuck it into the front of his jeans.

With his parka open he felt that the pistol was handy enough so he stooped and snagged the corpse’s feet with both hands and drug it out by the other deader laying face-down by the truck.  Buddy followed, his head lifted, intent on the world of smell around them that Eddie had no idea of.

Off in the distance, around the stand of red firs that formed the edge of his property, Eddie thought he heard the sound of a car engine starting up, but he couldn’t tell.  That faint rumbling sound was more noticeable out here though, and the smell of sulfur was quite distinct.

The sky was still going through it’s kaleidoscope of swirling colors although the blues and greens were now more pronounced.  Briefly checking out the little truck for damage and finding none,  Eddie turned back towards the cabin.

Calling for Buddy who had disappeared around back, Eddie grabbed his rifle and strode inside. Dan was sitting up, another bottle of beer in his hand and smoking a cigarette.  “Feeling better?”  Eddie went to the kitchen and got himself another beer, tossing the cap towards the sink.

Stopping in front of the big wood stove, Eddie opened the door and put kindling and some bigger chunks of dry wood inside.  Finding a wood match in the wood box, he soon had a cheerfully crackling fire going.  Shutting the stove’s  door, he crouched there for a moment warming his hands and sucking on the beer.

Buddy pushed through the half-opened front door and padded into the room  glancing at the two men, Dan was cleaning his little pistol and Eddie was warming up,finishing his beer (go now).  “Huh?”  then catching his partner’s meaning, Eddie slapped his forehead with a palm and groaned,”Gotta go, Dan, you be all right here by yourself for awhile?”

Shocked by the trust that Eddie was showing in him, Dan just spluttered, “Uh, uh, yeah, I guess so.”  Then he set his pistol down and grimacing with the pain, got up off the couch.  Holding out his hand, Dan shook with Eddie. “Man, you don’t know me that well.”  There was the glistening of incipient tears in the younger man’s eyes and his voice grew a little husky as the two shook hands.

“Guess I know you well enough,” then continued “Anyways, Buddy thinks you’re all right.”  This was a statement, so matter-of-fact and assured that Dan was taken aback a little.  Buddy was staring up at him with an affirming look in his liquid chocolate eyes.

“Yeah, thanks, how long you gonna be gone?”  “No idea,” Eddie replied.  Turning towards the backroom pantry, Eddie motioned for Dan to follow. He quickly showed his new friend the stored food and water and the circuit breaker for the electric.  Eddie didn’t , however, explain the workings of the secret doorway to the back workshop.

Reaching up to the top of a shelf holding canned vegetables, Eddie pulled out a sawed-off 12 gauge shotgun with pistol grips and handed it to Dan.  Groping around on the top shelf some more he produced two boxes of shells for the deadly tool, noting that there were several more boxes still up there.

“Here’s something with a little more poop to it, in case our friends come back,” handing the boxes of shells, one OO buckshot, the other BB shot , to Dan.  “If you get a chance, drag those two creeps off the property or bury them, I don’t care.”

“I’m not sure what the situation is like out there so I’m not gonna say when we’ll be back, but it shouldn’t be too long.”  Striding back through the kitchen then towards the front door, Eddie kept up his instructions.  “If you get into real trouble, try to make it down the road to the place with the big steel gate.  Tell the women there that you’re my friend, and Buddy’s too.”

Then thinking quickly he added, “Ask for Kammi, with a ‘K’.”  “Okay, Kammi, huh?”  Eddie looked at him and answered, “Yeah, that’s Buddy’s mom.”  This made Dan look again at Eddie, as if he thought that Eddie might be pulling his leg.  “Don’t worry, we’re only going across the valley, should be back in three or four days, with luck.”  “Normally, we would be back tomorrow, but now, who can tell?”

With this, the stubble-jawed Eddie picked up his favorite rifle and making sure his partner was with him, went out the door into the strange winter landscape towards his truck and an appointment with destiny.

9)

“Finally we get to see what happened in town, Bud.”  Eddie’s mind had been occupied by so much lately that he’d completely forgotten the ominous looking smoke clouds they’d seen the first day of the earthquakes.  His partner, Buddy, his head stuck through the sliding rear window of the little pick-up, drooled his agreement.

“Aw Jeez, Buddy,” ” Would you stop that shit!”  Eddie could see the rivulet of slobber coursing down the front of his parka, but had to keep both hands on the steering wheel, the road was that bad.

“Man, I don’t need that, Buddy!”  His partner had licked him with his big pink tongue, leaving a trail of slobber dripping from Eddie’s earlobe.   “Gaahhkk!” Now Eddie could feel the viscous fluid running down his neck under his collar.  “Would you quit goofing around and pay attention, you’re s’posed to be on watch while I drive, you know.” (watch you)

Eddie could feel the amusement in Buddy’s reply, but just as he was about to say something more the truck bounced over a small crevice and his  head bounced off the roof of the cab.  “Yeoooww!”  Eddie briefly saw stars and had to gun the motor to keep from stalling . (again)

He spun the wheel to hit the crack at as near a right angle as possible, hoping his rear tires would handle the rough treatment he floored the gas pedal, braced for the bump this time.(again)

Seeing the crack had turned into a series of fissures with chunks of old pavement sticking up at crazy angles,  Eddie kept his speed up, swerved twice to avoid upthrust pavement and skidded sideways into a county highway signpost.  His momentum and the racing engine carried the little truck on two wheels through the last of the fissures and when it flopped back down on all fours he slid to a stop next to a sign welcoming him to “BentWood, population 490″

Unclenching his deathgrip on the steering wheel, Eddie let out the breath he had been holding and turned to check on Buddy. (again?)  His partner was running up to the truck with what could only be called a beacon of fun and childish joy emanating from him.

“You okay, boy?”  Eddie was climbing out of the little truck looking for damages. (okay)  The big dog padded around the truck towards Eddie who had just knelt down to check the suspension.(again?)  Eddie couldn’t help grinning, “You couldn’t hold on that time, why would you want to do it again?”  He’d noticed the slight limp that Buddy was almost concealing, but decided not to mention it.

With a shake of his head and the resulting shower of saliva, Buddy jumped back into the truck bed and laid down.  Eddie continued his tour around the little truck, not finding much damage except for the divot on the passenger rear quarter-panel from the county sign post.  He’d been casually looking around at the town as he walked around the truck and didn’t like what he saw.

Although the little town of BentWood officially counted it’s population in the high four-hundreds, Eddie knew for a fact that in the winter there could be easily twice that on account  of the visitors to the hot springs/spa attraction that drew a good winter crowd from  the ski slopes in the surrounding mountains.

Normally, the four paved city streets  were jammed with groups of loud, ski tog wearing college students, wandering between the three taverns, the spa, the motel and the many shops lining the streets of the quaint little village.  Not today.  There wasn’t a whole lot left of downtown BentWood that Eddie could see.  City Hall was a smoking mass of charcoaled timbers and tumbled bricks, the line of shops on that street were gutted, smoking ruins.

Further along he could see that the motel was still standing, though obviously not much longer by the crazy angle of the leaning, two-storey wooden structure. The town’s mom and pop grocery store had survived looking reasonably solid except for the broken windows.  There were a couple more standing buildings that he could see through the piles of rubble and smoking frame-built shops and residences, but no people, anywhere.

No sounds except for the hissing of steam from the still-hot rubble and the occasional call of a bird.  The town’s destruction alarmed Eddie who could see no way of driving through the twisted, smoking ruins to the highway entrance on the other end.  He was saddened too, besides the fact that his gas station/garage was part of the unidentifiable mass, the town had been his home for over a decade and the destruction was  a blow to his way of life, the absence of his friends and neighbors plus their obvious woes, a crippling of his extended family, so-to-speak.

A scream yanked him out of his reverie and Buddy out of the back of the truck.  “Where was it, boy?”  Buddy had his nose in the air but only a sense of confusion emanated from him.(?) Eddie jumped in the truck and switched it on, slamming his door and backing away from the Chamber of Commerce welcome sign.

He felt the truck shift and heard the springs protest when Buddy jumped into the back ,  so checking his mirrors, he popped the clutch into second  while making a one-point turn into a side street that looked open for a ways.  It was more open than the main drag and almost free from cracks and bumps in the pavement so he kicked it into third and raced towards the far end of town.  The scream had come from the highway entrance ramp, he thought.  “What do you think, Buddy?”(?)

Just a sense of confusion or maybe being lost, Eddie couldn’t tell. He’d never gotten that feeling from Buddy before.  The roadway was starting to break up, forcing him to shift into second and wind around a bus and a couple of burned-out cars.  After fifteen minutes of stop and go maneuvering around stalled vehicles and jumbled-up pavement they broke into the clear and headed for the entrance to the state highway.

He couldn’t believe it had taken them that long to go the six blocks to the end of town.  He hadn’t heard anything more and Buddy had offered no clues either.  Eddie was hoping to find  someone to ask about what had happened in town, the total destruction of the little village seemed to be way more damage than what could be accounted for by the earthquakes alone.

Something else had happened, he thought.  And there were no people.  There should have been someone picking up the pieces, he figured.  Someone to watch for looters, or just people dousing the fires and salvaging what they could from the ruins.  But, there had been no one except for that one, brief scream coming from this direction.

They passed the last house, a fallen down, twisted mass of two by fours and plywood when they heard the scream again, much closer.  Buddy’s nose was up and pointing to the fallen-in house as Eddie grabbed his rifle and jumped out of the truck.

Before either of them could get started, a ragged, bloody man came sprinting out of the ruins of the house, acting like he was being chased. Eddie shouted and waved him over but the man took no notice, just looked behind him and screaming again was lost in the rubble of a building across the street. (?)

“Just hold on, boy,  stay here until we see what’s chasing him, okay?” Eddie didn’t know what could provoke such terror in a grown man, but he was prepared to deal with it.  He didn’t want Buddy running into unknown danger or after the screaming man until they had more information.  Tense minutes went by as Eddie’s heart pounded  and the sweat of the “flight or fight” reaction took over.

“What do you think, Buddy?”  By the clock on the dashboard of the truck, they had been waiting for the unknown to appear for five minutes, giving  Eddie  time to get his little hunting monocular out of the go-bag and scope the area.

Nothing in sight but the twisted wreckage of the houses, no movement, and,,, “Hey Bud!”  he called.  The big dog was sniffing along the roadway getting further and further away.(?) “Stay close, boy,” then he thought of something else. “Any people anywhere, Buddy?”  “Do you smell people, boy?” (?)(No people,,,,) the thought faded as if Buddy couldn’t make up his mind.

“What do you smell, boy?”  The answer was a bark, then a howl, ululating like a yodeler on some old western movie.  It was Eddie’s turn to be confused now.  “Huh?” Buddy quit the long howl in mid-chord, abruptly.  Eddie could see the dog’s ears twitching and in the next split second Buddy was off, a streak of brown lightening, racing towards the highway entrance.

“Shit,”  Eddie sputtered as he jumped back into the truck, nicking his shin on the open door.  Buddy was just about out of sight, loping off into the distance, as Eddie got onto the highway to follow.  Fortunately, there were few stalled vehicles and the roadway itself was drivable if he kept an eye out for the occasional pothole or crevice.

“Odd” he mumbled to himself. He was seeing lots of stalled vehicles but they were all off to either side, none in the right lane that was his open route to Buddy who hadn’t slowed down yet.  Then he was gone, off the highway apparently, at least 200 yards down the road.  Eddie was now in fourth gear and starting to wind up the engine in hopes of not losing where he saw Buddy disappear .

The seconds seemed endless but he found the spot or close enough and screeched to a stop, jumping out before the truck had stopped rolling.  Trotting over to the guardrail, he had his monocular out again scanning the downhill side of the highway.  He caught the movement before he had the little scope up to his eye and looked right at Buddy, frantically trying to get into a sedan that had gone off the road and flipped, landing on it’s roof about a hundred feet or so away.

“Hold on Bud, I’m coming,” he called.  Racing back to the truck, he snatched a tire iron out of the back and headed to the sedan and Buddy as fast as he could.(safe) “Yeah, Buddy, safe now!”  Eddie had jumped over the guardrail and landed sliding through old, crusty snow down the short incline to the bottom.  Whew! he thought, getting too old for this crap, “Hey, boy, what ya got?”

All of a sudden, in a quick fade-in sort of way,  he was looking out the driver’s side window!  What was even stranger, he was watching some scruffy looking guy with a tire iron in one hand and a rifle in the other, running right towards him!  And he was back, looking at the face of golden retriever through the window, scratching frantically try to get out.

The rapid changes in perception made him stagger dizzily as he approached the car.  He stopped, caught his breath, then reached over and yanked on the door handle.  The dog and a person came tumbling out, as if they had been packed in there by a spring.  Buddy immediately was all over the dog, a beautiful golden retriever in prime shape , apparently nothing wrong with it that a good brushing wouldn’t cure.

The person turned out to be a middle-aged lady, dressed fashionably in pink and white ski togs. As he bent to help her up he looked in the vehicle and saw the predicament that the two had been in.  Apparently, in the roll-over coming down the little hill, baggage that might have been in the back seat was pushed forward into the front.  The lady and her dog had been sharing just the driver’s side seat for who knew how long.

“Hey, it’s okay, you’re safe now” he continued, “are you hurt?”  There was no response, she huddled there in a fetus position, her breathing was hoarse and ragged and Eddie was sure she was hyper-ventilating.  “Lady, look, I’m a friend,” and as he reached towards her she turned to face him, her eyes wide with fright and she opened her mouth to scream.

“Jesus, lady, would you quit that!”  Her scream had started as a low, almost bubbling in her throat, then wound up and became the fire-siren of all screams, hurting his ears.  He held up his hands, then realizing he still held on to the rifle, he set it down.  “Lady, please stop that!”  “I’m not going to hurt you, I just saved you!”  He covered his ears as she wound up for another.  But she didn’t move, she didn’t back away, shift position or anything, just looked at him and let loose another air shattering blast.

“Hey, lady are you on something?”  Eddie could see her pupils were so dilated as to fill the entire iris.  “Shit, you’re freaking stoned to the gills, huh?”  No response, the build up for another wail was taking place, apparently she was catching her breath after the last ripper.

Eddie quickly walked up to her and yanked her upright, “Now just cool down,” he soothed. “It’s all right, nothing to fear, just me and my dog, we’re your friends, see, friends.”  It worked, she didn’t scream again, instead she kicked him square in the balls and swung a wide punch at his face.  Doubling over in agony, the punch missed him, as she recovered from her hay-maker he straightened up and threw a solid right fist to her jaw that knocked her head back and buckled her knees.

As she crumpled he caught her and lay her down gently in the snow.  Searching hastily in the car he found some pantyhose and tied her hands behind her back.  He slipped the fancy belt from around her waist and hobbled her kicking ability and as an afterthought took the pink cotton scarf she had around her neck and stuffed it into her mouth.

He sat down hard, groaning from reaction and the nutbuster she’d laid on him. ” God, I hope I’m not ruptured!”  He lay curled there, much as she had been, for a couple of minutes as the agony slowly leaked out of his groin.  Looking up finally, he noticed she was staring at him, her eyes impossibly large and red veined, rimmed with deep, dark circles.

Slowly rising, Eddie looked around for Buddy and his new friend.  The last he’d noticed, they were busy sniffing and doing doggie greetings, he thought.  He couldn’t see them anywhere.   Fumbling in his pockets he found his monocular and scoped the edge of the forest, about forty yards off.  Still nothing, “Buddy!” he yelled, thinking that he’d at least get that mental tickle of Buddy’s thoughts.

Eddie really had no idea what to do, here he was with this stoned-out, crazy old lady, his balls hurt and his dog was gone.  The day just wasn’t going too well for him at this point.  To top it off, it was growing dark, the strange psychedelic-colored sky had turned to dark, forest green and navy blues with brick-red streamers shooting through it.

He wasn’t sure he could carry the crazy lady up the embankment, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to free her legs.  She still looked way out of it, unable to focus, but staring at him.  “Lady, what’s your name?”  “I didn’t mean to hurt you, but you sure hurt me.”  “Will you talk to me quietly if I take that scarf out of your mouth?”  “Honest, I’m not going to hurt you, give me a break, please,” he pleaded.

She just lay there on her side staring at him, her jaw muscles were moving, he noticed. ” Can you understand me?”  He thought he saw a nod, very faint in the growing darkness. ” I’m going to take that gag out and I’ll untie you.”  “We need to walk up that hill to my truck.”  He pointed towards the highway and continued, “We can’t stay here all night, we’ll freeze to death.”

He thought he could sense a faint glimmering of understanding as he approached her, knelt and took the gag out of her mouth.  “Better, huh?”  he said.  “I’m sorry about that, really, but I just couldn’t take any more of that howl of yours.”  “Here, roll this way a little.”  Eddie carefully undid her belt from around her ankles and stuffed it into his pocket.  “Okay, up we go,” and helped he to her feet.

“You all right now?” Eddie asked cautiously.  He was watching her for a sign of that nutbuster kick of her’s again.  She looked very frightened but not as terrified as before, so he took a chance and untied her wrists.  He realized that he had done such a poor job of tying that anybody could have wriggled loose in minutes, but she hadn’t.

Holding onto one of her hands he started for the truck, stooping smoothly as they passed his rifle, he pointed with it towards the highway, “We just need to get up this little hill, my truck is there and we’ll go over to a friend’s place.”  He looked back at her and she nodded briefly as she followed meekly behind him.

“He lives just a couple of miles away, down the road a bit,” Eddie explained.  As they topped the embankment and started over the guardrail Eddie heard the rapid beat of running feet coming towards them, spying Buddy and bracing himself before he could be “greeted”.  Buddy’s new friend, the golden was there, running towards them.  Eddie grinned as he saw the look of recognition fill the lady’s eyes, “Maybe she’s not in too bad of shape after all,” he mused.  Then something made Eddie look up, someone else was here!  A tall, shadowed figure was striding towards them!

10)

(Sanders, you’re late) stopped in the act of raising his rifle by the weight of authority  that flooded his mind, Eddie had let his guard down for that split-second necessary for Buddy to “greet” him.  “AAAAHH!” was all he could manage as 160+ pounds of  happy Labrador jumped into his arms.

The tall stranger reached out and deftly caught Eddie before the big dog bore him to the ground.  “Need to train your dog, Sanders,”  before he could say anything, Eddie was surprised to see both dogs settling down on the roadbed, the crazy lady in between them.  They all looked serene, peaceful and even content, as if nothing at all was the matter.

“Geeez  Doc, how long you been able to do that?”  Eddie was taking stock of the tall man looking down at him.   He had known immediately that this was his friend,  “Doc Biddle” by the authority in his greeting and should have had a clue when he’d first seen him as there was no one else around  that was almost seven feet tall.

“We will have plenty of time to talk later, Sanders.”  “Right now we have to  get somewhere safe before nightfall.”  “Can’t take your truck, sorry.”   With that said the tall man turned and strode towards a large vehicle in the roadway, the dogs and the crazy lady following like iron particles drawn by a magnet.

Patting his pockets quickly, Eddie dashed to the little truck and snagged his go-bag, survival kit out of the front seat.  Fumbling in the growing darkness, he located his good binoculars, the first-aid kit and two more boxes of shells.  Grabbing up all this extra booty along with the go-bag, he raced towards the big vehicle.

With a muted roar the vehicle’s engine came to  life and the myriad running lights revealed the biggest tow-truck that Eddie had ever seen, dwarfing his own one-ton tow package that was now somewhere in the ruins of BentWood.  His breath was coming hard as he made it to the passenger door.  His arms full, he couldn’t reach up and grab the assist on the door to get up the steps.

In the seconds that it took to breathe in and out five or six times to catch his breath, he felt, rather than distinctly heard, the rushing of something coming towards them, something terrifying, unknown,  and damn fast! (Get in here now!) he was lifted bodily with all his gear into the cab five feet off the road.  The door was  slammed shut by something outside, hitting it hard.

More lights came on revealing  what looked like a pack of giant ferrets looking for some entrance to the big truck.  “See why we needed to be somewhere safe by nightfall?”   Shock was settling in on Eddie, who just mumbled and stared out at the terrors sniffing around the truck.  It looked like there was only five, maybe six of the beasts, but they were bigger than any ferrets he’d ever seen.

“Weasels, GMO weasels,”  genetically engineered for size and training purposes.” He looked over at Doc Biddel to see if he was joking and could detect no sign of mirth.  Biddle went on, ” First I’d seen them up close, nasty boogers, eh?”  ” Watch this,” he instructed Eddie.  Pushing a large yellow and black striped button on the dash, Doc Biddel then did a slow count-down starting at 10,,,,,,,9,,,,,,,,8, don’t touch the door handle, Sanders,7,,,,,,,,6,,,,,,,,5,,,,,,,4,,,,,,,,3  all clear?,,,,,2,,,,1 , POW!  there was a flash like a million light bulbs then nothing.

As his vision cleared Eddie could see smoking lumps of black out on the pavement where the weasels had been only seconds before.  “Wanted to see if my new defenses worked ,”  Doc Biddel pushed a couple more buttons then grabbed the big steering wheel.  Almost noiseless in the cab, the big truck slowly gained momentum  on the broken roadway and was soon moving steadily as if totally unaffected by the poor condition of the road.

“Proud of my little toy, don’t mind telling you all about it.”  Doc Biddel began,,”Errr, hey Doc, how about everything ELSE  that’s going on!”   Biddel must have heard the rising note of  hysteria in Eddie’s voice.  He looked over at Eddie, who calmed instantly, and said, “Please don’t interrupt me Sanders, you’ll get a chance for questions later on.”

Then  the tall, totally calm and collected  Doc Biddel started on a long and winding story about Nikola Tesla, Oreo Cookies, and the unified field theory. Several times Eddie was almost lulled to sleep by the stentorian drone of the big man, but always managed to perk up in time to catch something important.

“,,,and so when Albert bet the patent on Oreo Cookies, I  couldn’t pass him up, now could I?”  Eddie had gotten lost somewhere in the last ten minutes of the story but figured it was safe to agree, “No. you couldn’t” and was relieved to see the other man nodding.

Then they were there, Doc Biddel’s place.  The big truck squeezed through the gates of  a six-foot brick wall and slowly came to a rest another hundred yards on, next to an open, sheet-metal quonset hut.  Everybody disembarked, all seemingly the better for the trip.   The dogs immediately began sniffing around and were soon greeted by a couple of other dogs, both beagles.

Even the crazy lady seemed calm, maybe less terrified, Eddie thought.  He could tell she was still high on something and wondered why.  “You know, Sanders,,” Doc Biddel began, “you really should learn to shield your thoughts, you’ll scare the dogs.”  This hit Eddie as extremely funny for some reason and as he laughed Doc Biddel just stood and watched.

“If you’ve got that out of your system, maybe I’ll let you know what’s been happening these last five days.”  The big man was neither reprimanding nor indulgent, he knew that Eddie had to release the pressure of the last day somehow and laughing seemed to work.  Eddie nodded, feeling a little foolish but a lot better.

“It was made to look like China was invading the Pacific coast at several different points after a series of tactical nuclear strikes and several large EMP detonations, and believe it or not this was part of the plan that China and  the USA had come up with to depopulate the West coast.  The same was being done to China in a controlled and bloodthirsty effort to cut our populations by half.  We were, in effect, bombing ourselves.   It was to appear to the rest of the world as if the two major powers had just crippled each other  and were now easy prey for the lesser nations to plunder at will.”

“Got that so far, Sanders?” Biddel asked.  At Eddie’s thoughtful nod, Biddel went on, “When the rest of the world’s guard was down, when their populations were desperate from starvation because of the climactic changes the US has geo-engineered over the past twenty-odd years,  when the people were begging for the consumer goods and military supplies that only China had the means to produce since the USA had virtually taxed-out the industry at home, that was when the globalist agenda of the New World Order was to take over. ”

“When people are rioting and starving and begging for help they would be rounded up and shipped to “residence centers” which is just a different way of saying concentration camp, “for their own good.”  “Yeah, the NWO psy-op guys were saying something like 80% attrition of the populace in one year.”

“This  New World Order was supposed to even the playing field, so-to-speak.  The USA and it’s territories had been using two thirds of the world’s resources and having less than one third of the population for most of a century, something that pissed-off the less-fortunate nations to no end.”    Here the tall professor paused as they had reached a brick-faced cottage and were about to enter.

(NO DOGS) this command almost hurt, it was so powerful.  The three entered, walking just a few short steps before a young woman appeared, taking the crazy lady by one arm, steering her off into the kitchen area.  The two men found their favorite chairs and settled in, ordering refreshments when the servant came back.  (Sanders!) and the professor continued normally,”Don’t ever let Sandy catch you thinking of her as a “servant”.  She’s head of the Human Resources Department.”   “Er, thanks Doc, I won’t.” Eddie  grinned. “Please go on.”

“Where was I? Oh,  when the Chinese  set off the first nuke in San Diego the San Andreas let loose and  spelled the end for the West Coast of America, from Seattle to El Cabo San Lucus the west coast just disappeared under water.”  Since the fail-safes that had been set up to keep our military from using full force retaliation in the false flag attack were nullified by this unexpected event, our retaliation was swift and merciless.  The EMP’s delivered with neutron bombs assured no possible response from the mainland while keeping much of the industrial capacity intact.  There were a few retaliatory strikes from nuclear subs roaming the Pacific and there probably will be for years to come,,,Doc Biddel paused as a tremor shook the house.

“Hold on!” he shouted, “A good one!”.   The quake lessened, leaving no damage except his nerves.  Even Sandy walked back in with a couple bottles of beer and some snacks, totally unperturbed by the experience.

They had reached the point where they were getting used to the earthquakes, which was good, but sure as hell wasn’t supposed to be normal, Eddie thought.  “But how about the sky?”  Eddie finally managed to get a word in.

“Sky?”,,, “Huh?” The tall man just turned and  looked down, “Sky?”  “Yeah, Doc, the sky.”  “You know, how come it’s all psychedelic like some Peter Maxx poster?”  Eddie really didn’t think there was anyone that hadn’t noticed the weird colors and shapes that made up the new skyline, it just wasn’t possible.

“Sanders, whatever in the hell are you babbling about?”  “Are you all right?”  It was Eddie’s turn to be dumbfounded.  “You mean to say, you don’t see all those colors?”  How could you miss them?  “I assure you, Sanders, there are no colors in the sky.” The doctor sounded a little miffed that someone doubted his word.

Then he went on, “That could explain a lot of things, though.”  With that the big man crossed his legs and leaned back with his hands cupping the back of his head.  He sat like this for all of five minutes or so, eyes closed, not saying a word.  Eddie knew that the old guy was just “putting his thinking cap on”, a type of meditation to organize his thoughts.

Sure enough, the next minute, Biddel straightened up and stretched, then yawned and cracked his big knuckles once, announcing the coming revelation.  “Is that all you see?”  “No true hallucinations?” “No audio?”  This struck Eddie as reasonably funny and it took several minutes before he could answer.

As he wiped the tears from his eyes, he caught his breath and said, “You wish you could see them, huh?”   “Errr,,,that’s beside the point, Sanders, but listen up.”  The big doctor shifted position on the couch and began slowly, ” There has been some kind of slow contamination of the environment with something that has put almost all humans in an LSD-like stupor.”

He continued, “It was brought to my attention early Tuesday morning by Sandy who had walked over from her place with a couple of friends.  They were all going to use the bakery that day and had big plans.”

Biddel was eyeing Eddie now, as if looking for something different, something  to focus on. “Sandy is the only one that even made it here that day, the other girls just disappeared,  poof!”  “Poof?” Eddie wondered.   “Well not poof, but they got lost somehow in less than a block!”  Doc Biddel was up now, leaning over Eddie and looking into his eyes.  “Of the eighteen people who are part of this co-op, only three of you so far have been immune to this “event.”  “Or perhaps it’s an application, I’m not sure.”

“You wouldn’t mind giving up some blood for research, would you Sanders?”  As if on que, Sandy walked in with a tray, setting it down next to the doctor.  “Do I have a choice?”  Eddie replied.  It was over in seconds and Eddie relaxed with another beer.  “We’ll have the preliminaries in about half an hour,” Biddel said.  Then turning to a wall monitor he tapped it on and also sat back.

“You won’t believe what’s been happening out there in the real world, Sanders.”  They watched as missile strikes were noted across the globe, turning cities from green to red to black.  It was an Australian TV station on the air, apparently recorded  Tuesday evening, and was totally fascinating, if not totally gruesome.  “You’re seeing the death of Red China, Sanders.”  Biddel continued, “If those blacked-out cities look healthy from the satellite’s perspective it’s because they were hit with neutron weapons, killing only animal life that wasn’t shielded.”  Indeed, it looked like there was nothing at all wrong with some of the cities.

The satellite coverage showed four major targeted cities and all but one were peacefully silent with no detectable motion for the camera to zoom in on.  There were bodies everywhere, though.  These cities were caught off-guard and the populace had no time to run for shelter.  Eddie remembered that the Chinese government had wanted to reduce the population and one way to do it was to not sound the air raid alert!

The fourth city was a striking contrast of the others, an alarming pictorial of what hellish weapons human-kind was capable of producing.  The camera had difficulty penetrating the dense cloud cover over the city, which had once been Beijing, a regional and national capitol.  Once the  camera made it through the layers they could faintly see the melted, scorched and almost unrecognizable outlines of buildings.  There were massive craters, some that were yawning holes deep into the earth, and some that were shallow and glassy looking.  As they watched several more flashes of missile strikes showed where the “Bunker Buster” hardened missiles were seeking human targets deep underground.

11)

“Jeez Doc,  if that’s China, how bad did we get it?”  Eddie was fascinated by the destruction shown on the big monitor and didn’t  look away until  Maria walked back into the room with a folder that she handed to Doc Biddel.

The good doctor though, was reading the contents of the folder and apparently didn’t hear.  Noting the scowl on the doctor’s face,  Eddie quietly sat back in his chair and finished his beer.

The monitor was now showing an interview with an Asian businessman, the audio just barely loud enough to hear.  The interview went on and Eddie lost interest, slowly sliding into the welcome blackness of sleep.

(Sanders!)  He must have literally jumped a foot off the lounge ch

air he was taking advantage of, instantly awake and splashing the backwash of his beer down the front of his pants.  “Shit, Doc!”  he exclaimed.  “What is it?”

Without taking his eyes off the papers spread out in front of him on the coffee table, Doc Biddel shook his head then began, ” I was correct in assuming some contaminant has been introduced into the environment, but what is amazing is I have no idea how.”

“However, I can tell you what it’s doing to people,,,although I’m not entirely certain why you’re only partially affected while some others are driven insane by the intensity of the experience.”  At Eddie’s look of bewilderment the doctor continued, “That’s right, Sanders, some of the good people here in the co-op are stark-staring mad.”  “I can only assume that they will eventually recover because others have been coming out of it slowly, almost every day.”

“And then we have you and the other three who have varying degrees of  toxicity, all with one common experience in their past.”  Doc Biddel finished shuffling the papers around in front of him and looked squarely into Eddie’s eyes.

“Ever experimented with LSD, Sanders?” Before Eddie could reply the doctor went on, “Mescaline?  psylocibin? DMT? “  Eddie was looking a little sheepish when he replied , “Yes.”  “Well, which one?”  Eddie could normally look the doctor in the eyes and speak without incrimination of any kind, but now he felt like a little kid again, caught doing something he shouldn’t be doing.

“Uh, all of them and some others, too.”  The doctor raised his eyebrows in surprise momentarily then grinned, “Don’t worry Sanders, I’m not going to turn you in, as a matter of fact, your previous use of hallucinogens seems to be what saved your sanity.”

“The contaminant is not a physical substance like a gas or dust,  it’s some kind of field, that is the only thing I’ve been able to come up with.”

“Field?”  Eddie was confused again. ” You mean like a magnetic field?”  “Well, sort of,”  the doctor answered.  “It seems to be ubiquitous, though, that’s what I can’t understand.”  At  Eddie’s puzzled frown, Doc Biddel went on, “So far as I have been able to discern, the Earth itself has entered a field of force that I am unfamiliar with.”

“A field that releases the natural DMT locked in all human’s nervous systems, passing through the barrier between the cell walls and blood stream and directly affecting the nervous system.  Normally, this natural hallucinogen upon release never makes it to the brain, but instead is filtered out by the liver and eliminated.”

“Now this blood-brain barrier no longer exists and people with no tolerance or experience with entheogens can’t cope with the intensity of the event.”

“They freak out?” Eddie was starting to understand a little bit of what might be happening to the survivors of the earthquakes and why the only ones he had seen on this end of town were all acting crazy.

“Wait a minute, Doc,” he said.  Then Eddie explained about the incidents with the men who had tried to kill him the last  week.  He finished by adding, “Those guys were shooting pretty well for being stoned, Doc, how do you explain that?”

“Very easily, Sanders.” “They were the only ones that had some previous experience with entheogens, whether on purpose or by accident.”

“I mean, why?” “Why were they trying to kill us? Eddie was starting to get a glimpse of possibilities and decided to tell the doctor about the shoot-out at his place and what Dan said he’d been sent there for.

After finishing his story, Eddie looked at Doc Biddel with a large question in his eyes. “Any ideas about them and the ones that attacked us at the sisters’ place?”

The doctor got up and fiddled with the monitor, producing lots of static and wh

“Sanders, don’t you ever watch the news?” “No, no, don’t answer that, I know you do,”the doc went on, “we were hit with a series of M and X sized solar disturbances for the last two months, but a real whopper occurred Monday night and is actually still registering as active right now.”

“Many already overloaded hubs and networks, simply fried. Transformers exploded and started fires that couldn’t be called in because of communications satellites getting fried in orbit.” Eddie could tell that Doc Biddel was really getting warmed up, ready to go into lecture mode, so he got comfortable and listened.

The lecture wasn’t too bad this time, Eddie had no problem staying awake, even though it had been almost twenty hours of stress-filled action before they came here, to the compound.

Twice he perked up and asked a question, the first when Doc mentioned something about the monster caldera at Yellowstone erupting and blowing little piec

es of Yellowstone National Park all over the Pacific Northwest.

“Questions when I’m done, Sanders,” was the reply he got. The Doc was at his best when lecturing, especially with a captive audience. He did go into some of the underlying political reasons for the food riots in 2011 as well as the New World Order’s role in the bloody “false flag” events staged by the CIA and NSA to give the government
“emergency” powers that circumvented the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

When Doc Biddel mentioned the anti-population plans of the powers that be for the fourth time, Eddie couldn’t help himself and abruptly blurted, ” The government can’t just kill us off, people will really rebel!”

“I suppose that you are referring to Black Monday, Sanders?”  Doc Biddel had hit the nail on the head.  ”Yes I am, those politicos were shown a thing or two about the will of the American people”  Eddie was referring, of course, to the Monday in July when a group protesting the squandering of their tax dollars on foreign aid went berserk, dragging more than two dozen

lobbyists and congressmen to the nearest trees and lynching them.

“Ah, Sanders,” the doctor sighed. “and here I was under the impression that you, of all people, wouldn’t believe the news media’s propaganda.”  ”Huh?”  ”But I saw them on YouTube videos, fighting the guards and hanging those people.”

“Oh yes, they did that, but the question is,,, why did they target those particular victims and why was it so easy to do it?”  ”Easy?”  Eddie was remembering those bloody, chaotic scenes where protesters were getting shot, guards were overwhelmed and beaten to death, and the victims, screaming and crying were hauled up by their necks in those famous cherry trees, to die kicking and shitting to the applause of thousands of protesters.

“Sanders, you’ve got to look at the victims and what they meant to the New World Order.”  With that statement the doctor picked up his remote controller and switched on the big monitor, scrolling through several pages until he stopped at one.  ”Congressional Profiles.”

“Now look at those first sixteen on the list, Sanders.”    After a moment Eddie nodded and said, “Okay Doc, but I don’t,,,” Doc Biddel interrupted him by changing the page to one of many names, all cross-referenced with lines and arrows.  ”Can you see the relationships, Sanders?”

Eddie was stunned.  ”Holy shit Doc, you mean they gave them up?”  ”Yes, of course that’s what I am implying, Sanders.”  ”Now look at these lists,”  another page came up with more cross-referencing and the name New World Order displayed prominently to one side.  The other side held names of various organizations and political parties.

Eddie just stared in amazement, unable to speak.  Doc Biddell changed the page again and explained,” You see Sanders, this was the perfect opportunity to get rid of the opposition to their plans and the globalists never waste an opportunity, eh?”

Eddie could see it, see it all now.  All those “terrorist” bombings and hijackings, 9/11, Oklahoma City, Waco and too many others to remember  that were blamed on “terrorists”.  The whole reason for the Department of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act was to make war on the terrorists and now he’s finding out that the terrorists were the ‘powers that be’.

“All fabricated?” he asked in a small voice.  ”As far as I can tell, about ninety-five percent of terrorist attacks in the USA were staged, false-flag events to dupe the American people.”  The doctor went on to start listing the international terrorism events that were part of the globalist’s agenda, but Eddie was almost in shock from what he’d already heard to pay much attention.

His state of numbness was  shattered with the loud howling of a siren and shouted orders coming from right outside.  Suddenly, automatic gunfire went ripping through the night and the shouts intensified to screams of agony.  Hitting the floor heavily, Eddie tried to remember where he’d left his rifle.