Radioactive Omnibus- A Prepper Survival Story (21 page)

“Well, well, well. It’s a family reunion,” Chase said, his eyes still red with mourning tears for Derrick.

“You’ve come such a long way, Jim. Farther than I thought you could go, but I’m afraid it’s been in vain.”

Jim looked over at his sister, whose eyes fluttered open and closed. He sat up against the corner of the hallway wall with his left hand under his leg. He moved his fingers and felt something sharp. It was his blade.

Chase put the tip of his barrel under Samantha’s chin and raised it so he could look in her eyes.

“It’s a shame you won’t be able to see your daughter die.”

His face turned blood red while spit flew through his clenched teeth.

“It looks like that honor will fall to your brother.”

Jim fumbled his fingers into the pocket under his leg where he felt the blade. He couldn’t lift his leg to make it easier to grab the blade without exposing to Chase what he was trying to do.

When Samantha’s head went limp and didn’t come back up Chase turned his attention back to Jim, whose fingers almost had hold of the blade.

“You’ve failed again, Jim,” Chase said, walking closer to him. “You failed to save your country. You failed to save your brother-in-law from himself. You failed to save your friends. You failed to save your sister.”

Chase knelt down, eye to eye with Jim, “And now you’ve failed to save your niece.”

Jim frantically grabbed at the blade and worked it up into his fingertips. Chase put the pistol to Jim’s forehead and pressed the barrel down hard.

“Do you think I should hurt her before I kill her?” he asked. “Or should I make it quick and painless?”

The blade slowly moved into Jim’s hand. Chase pressed the gun further into Jim’s skull. In one swift motion Jim lifted his leg, bringing the blade into the side of Chase’s neck.

Blood spurted from Chase’s neck. Jim dug the blade in deeper and Chase gasped, coughing up blood before collapsing.

Jim grapsed his right shoulder as he stood and hobbled over to his sister, checking her pulse. He felt a slight beating. She was still alive. Jim whipped around and went into the room Chase had exited from to look for Annie. He saw her curled up in the corner. Jim’s whole body shook as Annie ran toward him. He knelt down, scooping her up.

“I love you,” he whispered in her ear.

“I love you too,” she responded.

Jim lowered Annie back down.

“Stay right by my side, okay? I have to go and take care of your mom.”

Annie nodded and grabbed hold of Jim’s leg. He pulled the girl outside and Jim scooped his sister up with all the strength he could muster and threw her over his shoulder. 

“Coyle,” Jim yelled into the radio. “I’ve got the girls. What’s your six?”

Coyle placed the last charge on the wall and clicked his radio on.

“All set, Jim,” he yelled and took off back toward the desert to meet Twink at the chopper.

“Twink,” Jim said, keeping an eye out for guards as he navigated the hallways, “Get the chopper and meet us on the roof.”

Dozens of empty shells surrounded Twink as he got up with his rifle.

“Roger that.”

“Brett, meet us at the flight deck,” Jim said. He waited for a response, but nothing came. “Brett, do you copy?”

Jim waited a bit longer.

“Brett?”

Twink stopped running, hoping to hear his teammates response. Jim’s voice was in his ear again,

“Twink, we need that chopper now. Like, ten minutes ago now.”

Twink snapped out of his daze and sprinted toward the chopper,

“Copy. Inbound in three minutes.”

Jim managed to make it to the stairwell but each flight of stairs he climbed shot daggers into his shoulder. Annie stayed right at his side, step by step.

They made it onto the flight deck and saw the chopper heading towards them. When Twink landed, Coyle appeared to help with Samantha. Jim rushed for the medical bag and grabbed as much gauze as he could to help staunch her bleeding. He strapped Annie in.
“Twink, get us to the nearest medical base. Tell them we have a priority. Gunshot wound to the abdomen with critical blood loss,” said Jim.

Twink complied, radioing the hospital to alert them of a priority one coming in with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Once they were air born and clear of the plant Jim looked at Twink.

“Blow it!” Jim ordered.

The chargers lined the walls of the plant warehouse. Small red lights flashed on each of them.

When Twink squeezed the trigger on the detonator the sounds of blasts went off one by one. Firey explosions lit up the darkening sky. The pallets and storage tanks of VX gas incinerated into nothing.

The blasts took out more than just the warehouse. Jeeps, guards, surrounding structures, anything within a one hundred yard radius were leveled. Smoke rose into the air as the chopper increased its distance destruction behind it.

Jim’s arm was in a sling as he sat in the waiting room of the hospital. Annie was on the floor playing with Tigs, oblivious to the stares that she received. A hospital wasn’t the typical place to see a cat, but Coyle had convinced the nurse that Tigs was a therapy cat, then disappeared into the break room with said nurse.

The doctor came out of the operating room with blood on his scrubs, smiling.

“She’s gonna be fine,” he said.

“Can we talk to her?” Jim asked.

“She’s sleeping right now, but you can go and see her,” he responded.

Samantha was hooked up to a breathing machine, heart monitors, and IV bags. Annie climbed in bed with her and curled up next to her side. Jim put his hand on his sister’s forehead, breathing a sigh of relief.

***

Samantha was finally discharged from the hospital a week later and the doctor told that she could go home as long as she didn’t do any heavy lifting. She and Annie stayed with Jim at his home in San Diego. Jim never thought he’d see that house again, let alone have his sister and niece’s laughter filling it.

Brett’s funeral was held a few days after Samantha was released. He received full military honors for his service and was also awarded the Navy Cross. Each of them tossed an item into the ground with Brett’s coffin.

Jim gave him his purple heart, Samantha dropped in rose, Annie drew him a picture of the two of them, Coyle tossed in a playboy magazine, and Twink dropped his dog tags in the whole with his friend.

Once it was over, Twink headed back to his Naval base in Arizona and Coyle decided to take a little furlough since Jim still couldn’t get back to his marine mechanics business with his arm in a sling.

“We can talk about my raise when I get back,” Coyle smirked.

When Jim and Samantha returned home from the funeral there was a car parked on the street in front of his house. Jim opened the glove box, removing his pistol. His shoulder was still in a sling, but he was pretty good with his left arm.

“Stay in the truck,” Jim told Samantha.

As he moved closer to his home, he noticed that the front door was ajar. He slowly pushed the door open and went in, pistol first. A man in the chair in his living room put his hands in the air.

“Don’t shoot,” he said.

Captain Terry Streak, Fleet Commander of the San Diego Naval base, sat in Jim’s living room chairs.

A smile spread across both men’s faces as the captain walked over and they embraced each other. Jim leaned out the door and waved for the girls to come in.

“What are you doing here? I didn’t even know you were alive!” exclaimed Jim.

“Yeah, well after the attacks on the base five months ago I was in a coma for about a month,” he said. “I just got out of rehab a few days ago. I’ll start command duty again in a couple of weeks after they catch me up on what I’ve missed.”

Jim placed his hand over the captain’s shoulder and smiled.

“It’s good to see you, Terry, but what are you doing here? I’m not exactly in any shape to fix any of your boats right now.”

Jim had seen the look the Captain was giving him plenty of times before. It was the same look General Locke had when he asked him to come back and work missions for the military.

“No,” Jim said flatly.

“You don’t even know what I’m going to say!” Terry replied.

“I’ve given enough service to my country for a dozen soldiers. I’m out,” said Jim.

“We’ll be out back,” said Samantha. She pushed Annie and Tigs out the back door and left Jim and Terry alone.

“Jim, what you’ve been able to do has been incredible. I’m just here on behalf of the Defense Department as a messenger. I’m not here to have you sign any papers. They do want you back though. They’re willing to meet whatever demands you want.”

All of a sudden Jim’s shoulder started to ache a little more than it had over the past few days. After a moment of silence Terry continued.

“Just think about it. If you change your mind phone me at the base.”

After Captain Streak left, Jim wandered toward the back of the house, stopping at the screen door. Annie chased butterflies as Tigs chased after her. Samantha sat in a chair, laughing as her daughter strolled around the backyard with her net. The sun was shining outside and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Jim wasn’t sure how long this would last, but with the view he was looking at right now, he didn’t want to fill his mind with ‘what ifs.’

Streak could wait.