Day by Day Armageddon

  
Contents

  
I - In the beginning

  
II - "John"

  
III - "The Marriage of Figaro"

  
IV - "Blub Light Special, Aisle 13"

  
V - Hind sight is 20/20

  
VI - Proverbial Beans

  
VII - Nuclear Winter

  
VIII - Ground Zero

  
IX - Tower

  
X - Dark Knight

  
XI - Exodus of the Bahama Mama

  
XII - Stand

  
XIII - Quiet Time

  
XIV - Ides of March

  
XV - Refulgence of Claudia

  
XVI - Atlantis

  
XVII - Hotel 23

  
XVIII - A Picture is worth a Thousand words…

  
XIX - "Knock Knock"

  
XX - Amigos

  
XXI - Truth and Consequences

  
XXII - Trouble in paradise

  
XXIII - John's Deception

  
XXIV - Epilogue

  Happy New Year to me. After a drunken night of fun, I sobered up and headed back home. I am so tired and bored of being home on holiday. I'm thankful for the break in training but Arkansas gets old quick. All my good friends are still drinking the same beer and doing the same thing. I will be extremely happy to get back home to San Antonio. New Year's resolution, start keeping a journal.

  My hangover is finally gone. I like to watch the news when I am near a television, but out here at my parents house it seems that all they get are the local channels. I'm not going to attempt to try the dial up connection, as it will only frustrate me to the point of madness. I guess I will just check my e-mail when I get home. It seems that something is going on in China; the local news reported some type of influenza virus sweeping them over there. The flu season was bad here this year. I received my flu shot on base, avoiding the shortages of vaccine. I'm glad I get to go home tomorrow and get re-connected with my nice high speed Internet connection and digital cable.

  My damn cell phone doesn't even work in this desolate place. The worst thing about being here is knowing I'm going to have to do a lot of flying to get back up to speed. When I signed up for Naval aviation I didn't think it was going to involve constant work and studying just to stay competent.

  My grandmother called this morning to tell mom that we were going to war with China and to try to talk me into going to Canada to desert the military. 1 honestly think my grandmother has lost it. I turned on the news half expecting to see some kind of bullshit trade embargo deal with China. The news went on to say that President Bush has agreed to send medical military personnel over to China for
consultation
purposes only.

  Makes me wonder, what do we have in America that a big bad country like China would need? They have all the natural resources anyone would want. I keep thinking I may have kept a light on in my house back in San Antonio. I have two small solar cell panels on my roof but I am wired to the electric grid. I just use the panels to sell electricity back to the utility company. They have already paid for themselves.

  After a nice ten-hour drive from NW Arkansas, I made it home yesterday. I received a satellite radio for Christmas and activated it for my trip home. I listened to BUZZ, or FOX all the way home with some music from my IPOD thrown in every now and then. Wish I would have thought to hook the satellite radio up at my parent's house because I am almost certain that it would have worked out there even though it's in the middle of nowhere.

  This China situation is starling to heat up. The news reports that we have lost over ten medical personnel to this China "bug" other
"military
consultants"
that are still in China are going to have to be quarantined prior to getting back to the United States. Talk about a pain in the ass. You go over there to help someone out and all you get in return is a prison sentence.

  Today was not a bad Monday. Had to go fly a few sorties for training. The EP-3 is basically an airbus. It's somewhat non-manoeuvrable, but it can receive some nice data from 20,000 feet.

  My friend in Groton, CT called today. Bryce is a Navy submarine officer. He really helped me out on a great deal on salvage parts off the old diesel boats when I was installing those panels in my house a few years back. He said that he was finally getting a divorce, she admitted to cheating on him. I kind of had a feeling about this girl, but I never said anything. Don't think it would have mattered if I did. We talked about this China thing for a long time and he seems to think its some bad flu bug. I kind of think the same thing.

  TGIF. My mother called today on my cell worried asking me if I knew anything about what's going on overseas. 1 had to once again explain to my mother that just because I'm an officer in the Navy does not mean that I know who killed JFK or what happened in Roswell, NM. I love my mom, she just drives me nuts. I comforted her the best I could but something just isn't right. This nonsense is getting too much coverage in the news. I know the reporters smell a rat by the questions that they are asking FEMA and the Whitehouse and Homeland Defence.

  The President made a speech (only available on AM band radio, probably to avoid to much publicity) and told the people that there is nothing to worry about and that the Army/Navy medical team in China had to send one of our doctors home because he was too ill to be left with the inadequate care/facilities in the location he was in. Another strange thing is that my squadron was scheduled to go to Atsugi, Japan next month for training in the Pacific and it was cancelled.

  I asked my skipper (commanding officer) about it, he just told me that they were trying not to take any chances with anything, and that there were rumours of "sick persons" in Honshu, Japan area. He gave me the nod, and told me not to worry. Something doesn't sound right about this whole thing and it's starting to mess with my mind. I have a feeling I might want to go to the store and get some bottled water and things of that nature.

  Not much sleep for me last night. I kept the news on all night just in case I missed anything. "I can assure the American people that we are taking every effort to contain this epidemic within the borders of China." Go ahead, say it in your best Texas accent. I went to Wal-Mart today and bought a few things just in case I had to stay indoors to Avoid getting sick. I bought some bottled water, some canned beef slew, and went by the base to chat with my supply friend at the warehouse. He told me that he could part with a few cases of MREs for a new nomex flight suit. Didn't bother me, I have a couple dozen of them. I picked out one of my lesser-worn flight suits and brought it to him. At least I will have a little variety in my diet if I need to stay home.

  Vance (my supply connection) informed me he saw on an online government invoice, that a few thousand cases of MRE food were shipped to NORAD and a few other locations in the northwest. I asked him if it were normal, and he told me that these facilities haven't requested this much of a food supply since the Cuban missile crisis. I am thinking that if this is serious enough for the big wigs to want to lock themselves up for a few months that it's more serious than I thought.

  I unloaded my "meals ready to eat" and noticed that one of the packages was busted. The smell of "Case A" MRE filled the air and reminded me of all of them that I had eaten when on station in the Arabian Gulf on a ridiculous ground assignment. I hated it over there. It was so damn hot all the time. And being on the ship didn't make it any better. That was when I was an enlisted man. I checked my battery bank and all six batteries were in the green. Made me think of Bryce, and the "steal" I got on those old submarine batteries.

  Back when submarines were diesel and not nuclear, they ran on batteries when under the water and when they surfaced they charged the batteries with a diesel generator. Some countries still use the old diesel boats. I thought this was a good idea, however, charging them with solar panels takes considerably longer, ten hours instead of three. Oh well at least the sun is free.

  I miss my sisters, Jenny and Mandy. I haven't seen much of them since I have been in the service, they have sort of grown up on me. I called my dad's house and spoke to Jenny, the youngest. She was still half asleep when I called. I used to pick on her badly when she was little. Oh well, I love the little shit, and it builds character. Mandy is living back home, until she can get back on her feet again. Mandy has never been one to open up and talk to me about anything. I wish things would have been different, or that we would have been closer in our childhood.

  I really need to clean my guns. Especially my CAR-15, she is really dirty. Might as well clean my pistols while I'm at it. While I'm on the subject, a few hundred rounds for the carbine is not a bad idea since it's so cheap. I don't exactly like looters, and if any of this quarantine shit comes this way, I want to be on the ball.

  Ok, I'm starting to worry, the Atlanta centre for disease control has reported a case of this "disease" at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Since there are no communists here to hush the news, the report got out. Apparently this disease causes the victim to lose some motor function, and also makes the victim seem to act erratic. I called in to the squadron to ask some questions. They told me that it's possible we might get Monday off so the Department of defence can assess the threat to Armed forces personnel inside the United States.

  My mother also called about the news report and told me that The Bethesda Naval Hospital was the same hospital that they took Kennedy to when he was shot. I laughed at my mom's conspiracy theory attitude and (Told her to look after her husband (my stepfather) find try to avoid town if they already have enough supplies to slay put.

  I'm off to the local H.E.B. grocery store to get some stores, oh yeah, bought a thousand rounds for the carbine. Had to go to a few different stores to get them all. No one wanted to sell me that much all at once. It was probably some kind of liberal law that I didn't know about causing the red tape, or it could be a worried gun shop owner conserving some for himself.