Countdown to Armageddon (14 page)

-23
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     Jordan walked into the back bedroom to find his father sitting at a desk in front of a ham radio.

     “Ten-four, good buddy. You got a copy on that, Pig Pen? You got that convoy in motion, stayin’ ahead of that old Smokey the Bear?”

     Scott took the headphones off his ears and laid them on the desk in front of him. He turned around and looked his oldest son in the eye.

     “Have you been smoking crack?”

     Jordan laughed.

     “Isn’t that the way you old timers talked back in the CB radio days? You know, back when those things were popular and all?”

     Now it was Scott’s turn to laugh.

     “Oh, the ignorance of youth. Sit down, my boy, and let me educate you.”

     Jordan sat down.

     “First of all, this is not a CB radio. It’s a ham radio.”

     “Okay. So what’s the difference?”

     “CB radios are mobile. Portable. Made for vehicles to communicate with each other and with their base stations. Like walkie talkies on steroids. They have a range of just a few miles. This, on the other hand, can reach around the world. I was just carrying on a conversation with a man in
Sydney, Australia.”

     “Wow, no shit?”

     Scott raised an eyebrow.

     “Sorry, Dad. No kidding?”

     “No kidding, son. The radio waves bounce off satellites just like overseas phone calls. So you can talk to anyone, anywhere.”

     “Cool. So why do we have one?”

     “Once the power goes out and we move up here, we won’t venture out. There won’t be any more TV or radio to tell us what’s going on out there. The only way we’ll be able to communicate is by ham radio. And that’s also the only way we’ll know what’s going on in the world.”

     “And that’s important why, again?”

     “Because I’m hoping that after a few years the world can find ways to recover. I personally think it’ll take generations. But since it’ll really be the only thing the world is working on, maybe they can put their heads together and find ways of restoring the electrical grids and replacing all the shorted out electronics.”

     “So we’ll know if it’s ever safe to come out and rejoin the rest of the world?”

     “Exactly.”

     “Okay, Dad. I know I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but…”

     Scott smiled and asked, “Ya think?”

    
Jordan playfully punched his father on the arm and continued.

     “If everything else in the world that runs on electricity gets ruined by the EMPs, then isn’t it true that this thing won’t work either?”

     “Actually, Jordan, that’s a very good question. It shows you’re using your head. That’s good. And you’re right. This would be ruined like everything else. If it was unprotected. But it’ll be in the Faraday box like all the other things we need to protect. So will the transceiver at the top of the antenna tower. I just pulled this out to test it, and to spread the word to a few other ham operators around the country.”

     “What did you tell them?”

     “I told them that I had an excellent and very qualified scientific source who believes that the world will be bombarded by EMPs in the very near future. I told them that when it happens, the only way to spread news around the country and world is by using ham radios that were protected from the EMPs. And I encouraged them to protect their equipment so that it wouldn’t be ruined.”

     “How many of them thought you were crazy?”

     “A few did. But I was surprised at how many didn’t.”

     “Really?”

     “Yep. You have to remember that ham radio users are kind of a rebellious bunch. A good portion of them do not trust governments, and think that society will eventually fall into chaos. Some of them are what are called preppers. People who believe the world, or society, is going to collapse in various ways, and are preparing for when that happens.”

     “Like us.”

     “Yes. Just like us. And also not like us. You see, most of them have never heard of EMPs. They think the breakdown of society is coming because terrorists get their hands on
Russia’s nuclear bombs and start using them on us. Or because the economy collapses into chaos. Or because global warming causes a series of really bad natural disasters. Or any one of a number of other things.

     “And it doesn’t really matter what their beliefs are, as long as they are taking measures to survive. All I want to do is talk them into taking measures to preserve their radios and a power source so we can communicate and share information after the shit hits the fan.”

     “How come you can say shit and I can’t?”

     “Because I’m an adult. You’re still a snotty nosed kid.”

     “Dad, can I ask you something that’s completely unrelated to ham radios and the end of the world and stuff?”

     “Sure. What is it?”

     “Mom is getting pretty serious about this Tom guy. They’ve gone out like six or eight times this month. Do you think she’s getting serious enough to marry him or something?”

     “Would it bother you if she did?”

     “I don’t know. I mean, he seems like a nice guy and all. And they really seem to like each other. It’s just that, I don’t know. I’m tired of seeing her getting beaten up and stuff. And she has terrible taste when it comes to picking out men.”

     Scott feigned anger.

     “Hey, boy! She chose me, you know.”

     “You know what I mean, Dad. Men since you. Nearly every one of the men she’s dated has taken advantage of her or beaten her or stolen from her. And sometimes all three.”

     “I wouldn’t worry about it, son, for several reasons. First of all, I met Tom before she did. And I’m an excellent judge of character. Tom struck me as a good and honorable man. He’s a protector, not an abuser. I felt that from the beginning and I still believe it. And I wouldn’t have introduced him to your mother if I hadn’t believed that.

     “Second, she’s a good woman and she’s got a good head on her shoulders. When she went looking for men before, it was because she was lonely. But since she’s been up here I’ve noticed a change in her. With all of us sharing the same house, she’s not lonely anymore. And I don’t want to use the word desperate, but I’ll say this. I don’t see her in such a hurry to need a man anymore. I think it finally dawned on her that she can do just fine without a man.

     “And I think it changed her whole perspective on things. Yes, she went after Tom. But I think she knows now that she doesn’t have to settle for just any man who comes along just because she’s lonely. I think she realizes now that if Tom is flawed, that she can just tell him to get lost. That she’s okay without him. And that puts her in a way more powerful position than she ever was in before.”

     “I suppose. I just hope you’re right.”

     “Of course I’m right.”

    
Jordan laughed.

     “But how do you know?”

     “Because I’m a father. And fathers are always right.”

-24-

     By the end of the summer, everything was coming along quite nicely. The compound was about ninety percent complete, everyone was getting along famously, and all things were running smoothly.

     There were only two projects still to be done. And one was nearing its final stages.

     Jordan had been digging out the deep end of the pond for five months, eight hours each Saturday and eight hours each Sunday. When school let out for the summer, he worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday too.

     Scott wasn’t a total slave driver, though. He paid his son well, and with that pay,
Jordan was able to entertain his new girlfriend Sara in grand style.

     The work on the pond was monotonous, and
Jordan had become bored with it months before.

     There was nothing hard about it either. He drove to the pond site in the Bobcat and dropped the bucket so that it scraped along the ground as he drove forward.

     Once the bucket was filled, he drove to the perimeter of the property and dumped his load, alongside the load he’d dumped just twelve minutes before. By doing so, he was killing two birds with one stone. He was greatly increasing the size of the pond and making the new half much deeper to allow the fish to grow in numbers and to grow to larger sizes. And the berm he was building would be grown over with grass and become a permanent feature of the land. During rainstorms it would prevent runoff, keeping all the water that fell on their property from running elsewhere. Instead, it would soak into the ground or run into their fishing pond.

     Day by day, load by load,
Jordan slowly accomplished his mission. He was looking forward to the day his dad said “enough” and they started filling the pond. That’s when he’d feel the pride of ownership for the project, and get to stand back and admire what he’d accomplished.

     Scott’s younger son Zachary was helping his dad with the other unfinished project. It was grunt work, pure and simple, but Zach was strong for his age and wanting to grow stronger. And Scott was certainly willing to help him attain that particular goal.

     The pair carried plywood into the house and up the stairs, a single sheet at a time. They started at the northeast corner of the house, laying down four sheets of half inch plywood in a stack. Then they lifted up all four sheets, and installed wooden stops in the floor and the ceiling to hold them into place.

     Joyce and Linda, out of curiosity, went up the stairs to see what they were doing.

     “I’m bulletproofing the house,” Scott answered.

     “You’re doing
what
?”

     “I’m bulletproofing the house.”

     He explained his logic.

     “There may well come a time when we have to defend what’s ours. And it could get pretty ugly.”

     “What do you mean?”

     “I mean that even in the best of times, there’s a certain type of man who finds it easier to just take from someone else instead of work for what he needs. In the worst of times, when the whole world is scrambling to survive, I expect there’ll be a lot more of that type of men out there.

     “That’s one of the main reasons we’re so isolated. Without vehicles, we’ll be a lot harder to get to than, say, if we were closer to town.

     “There aren’t a lot of people who will walk seventy miles in search of safety and to find food and shelter.”

     His next sentence bore an ominous tone.

     “But some will.”

     “And you think they’ll attack us?”

     “I think some might. I think it’ll depend on how curious they are.”

     He went on to explain.

     “I think there will be some men, and maybe their families too, who leave
San Antonio in search of someplace safer, where maybe they can hunt deer and rabbits for food, and maybe even grow a garden. Most of them will find a place to settle before they get to this point. But gradually, I think some will have to come this far because the closer places are taken.

     “And if they happen to be looking for a place to settle, and see our big black fence off in the distance, some might be curious enough to want to see what’s inside our fence. And if they can see what’s inside our fence, they’re surely going to want it.

     “And some of them might even be bold enough to try to take it.”

     “But we’ve got the high ground here, Scott. There aren’t any hills close enough to see into our compound, and there’s too many trees in the way.”

     Scott shook his head.

     “They don’t need any hills.”

     He took the women to the window of the upstairs bedroom they were in. They looked out the window to the east.

     The women had forgotten about the string of high tension power lines that ran past the compound two hundred yards to the east, and continued up north to the power plant outside of
Kerrville. Each tower stood as tall as a twenty story building, and were spaced exactly one hundred fifty yards apart.