Then Came War (19 page)

“What happened to her father?” Foster asked. “I didn’t mention him in case he had died.”

“Oh, no. He left me when Linda was twelve for some twenty-one year old dancer. Hot shot lived in a huge apartment in Manhattan, the bastard.” She exhaled. “God rest his soul because he’s more than likely dead.”

Foster laughed. “You’re funny, Judith.”

“And you’re an incredible young man. Someone missed the boat on you and I’m not gonna miss that boat. Jimmy, I was hurt and scared. You helped me as best your knowledge allowed and some. You cleaned me, fed me, and kept me safe. I can’t see, Jimmy, and you made sure I got through a war zone.”

“You don’t owe me anything, Judith, really. I wanted to help you,” Foster said.

“I know. And I do owe you my life. But that is not why I want to take care of you. I have grown quite fond of you and want to try to give you a good life. So what do you say? Vegas?”

“Will you stop calling me Jimmy?”

“Not on your life.” Judith shook her head. “That foster business of going from one home to another, that stuff you told me, it ends with me. You hear? Vegas?”

“Vegas it is.” Foster sighed and embraced Judith. He did so suddenly and she was taken by surprise and grunted as they hugged. But it was a good grunt, and she held on to Foster.

***

“Well, look at what the cat dragged in,” Harry said as he and Tyler stepped into the library.

Ben and Lana went from looking irritated to happy when they turned and spotted Harry.

“Harry!” Lana walked to him. “And I knew that was you, Tyler. Why did you run?”

“Cause I didn’t know if Harry was mad and I didn’t want him to get mad at me if I was nice to you. Harry’s my friend, my new best friend,” Tyler said.

Lana crinkled her brow. “Mad?” Ben had approached her from behind and Lana inched into him.

Before Harry could say anything Tyler did. “Mad. Yeah. You left us.”

Harry cringed. “Ain’t you just the motor mouth anymore? First met you, you didn’t say a word and now I need duct tape.”

Lana stepped back with a sincere look on her face. “I am so sorry. I didn’t think you were upset.”

“Well I …”

Tyler interrupted again. “How didn’t you know? He stood there on the bridge yelling at you to not go. He asked you stay, to not leave, to stick together. You just waved your hand and left.”

“Oh, you’re exaggerating,” Harry said. “And you been hanging about with Slick Rick too much.”

Ben quietly asked, “Were you mad, Harry?”

“A little, yeah.” Harry nodded and then put his hand over Tyler’s mouth. “That teenage boy and English gal, they were going in the opposite direction. But you two were going the same way we were. I’m an old man and this is a boy. We were a weak team. You two were …. Well, never mind. It doesn’t matter now. Not that I couldn’t take care of us, I did.”

“No doubt.” Ben shook his hand. “Something tells me you would have given John Wayne a run for his money.”

“I would have.” Harry smiled. “So how has it been for you two?”

Ben shook his head. “Not good. Our families are gone. We were nearly killed when a huge wave of planes came over and shot at us. They destroyed our beach house.”

“Shame,” Harry said.

“Ha!” Tyler added. “We weren’t shot at once. Harry knew what to do. Harry kept us safe. He got us here nearly a week ago.”

Harry closed one eye. “Why’d I let go of that mouth.”

Ben smiled. “I’m glad you made it here safe.”

“And you did, too,” Harry said. “Glad to have you with us.” He gave a hug to Lana. “And this is a good place. It’s safe for now. We’ll get you a place to stay.”

“Thank you,” Lana said. “I’m really tired.”

“Well, we sleep during the day, except for our roof watchers. You came on a good day. We’re having a strategy meeting tonight at the fire hall over spaghetti.”

Ben said, “Spaghetti sounds good. What’s the strategy meeting?”

Harry lifted a waving hand. “Now don’t take my word as Gospel. I’m not running this meeting. Just attending and helping. But we got about twenty kids in this town and we need a game plan for them. We’re safe here now, but eventually the war will arrive. But don’t you worry.” Harry winked. “There’s not a soul here who won’t be standing up and fighting for our land.”

Ben looked at Lana and then back at Harry. “We won’t be staying, Harry. Not that long.”

“What do you mean? Where are you going?” Harry asked.

“Canada,” Ben replied.

“Canada!” Harry was aghast. “What for?”

“Escape Get out,” Ben answered.

“Don’t you want to defend your country?”

“They have people for that,” Ben said.

“Yeah, they’re called soldiers, marines and seamen,” Harry retorted. “And in war time, homeland invasion, just like the war of 1812, revolutionary war, everyone takes arms and defends their freedom.”

Ben shook his head and grabbed Lana’s hand. “We just want to be safe and away from this all.”

“Huh.” Harry nodded knowingly. “So you’ll leave your country.”

“If that’s what we need to do,” Ben replied.

Tyler tugged on Harry’s hand. “You aren’t gonna ask them to stay, are you? You aren’t gonna try to reason with them again, like you did on the bridge, are you?”

“No, son,” Harry laid his hand on top of Tyler’s head. “Not on this one.” He kept his eyes steady, shifting between Lana and Ben as he spoke. “These two lived a good life here in America. Well, they got what they could, the good life’s over and it’s time to bail. If they feel that way, then I’m pretty sure I don’t want to ask them to stay. Come on.” He turned Tyler around and started to walk out. “I’ll let you watch us make those explosives, from a distance.”

Lana slipped a little from her husband and turned to him. “Ben? Going to Canada, is it really the right thing?”

“Yes,” Ben said assuredly. “Yes it is. There is no other choice.”

Lana nodded, but her eyes stayed fixed on Harry and Tyler as they walked away.

***

There was a very nice woman named Angeline who gave Judith little things to do to help her learn to use her hands without her eyes. Angeline’s mother was blind. Actually her mother became blind when her diabetes took a turn for the worse and she recalled her mother had to learn to do things all over again.

Judith was pretty confident that her sight would return. At first it was dark and light, then shadows, and as evening rolled around and she hit her third dose of medication, she could see silhouettes.

She wasn’t tired, but she felt she should be since she had slept until noon. Of course, sleeping until noon was normal underground; the place came alive at dark.

Packs of men would go out to search for things, items that were needed.

She was worried. It was the first night in nearly a week that she would be without Jimmy. Such a young man and he was going out doing a grown up thing and to her it was too dangerous.

Manny assured her that he would watch out for the young man. He assured her that they weren’t going to gather items but to scout. They needed food and some more medications. There were people in the shelter who had long term medical problems and they needed things.

They were just going to scout out things, just that. He promised Judith he would do his best to bring Jimmy, or Foster, as Manny called him, back safely.

Judith accepted that. What choice did she have? And while she waited for his return, she would pray.

Pray for the teenage boy who so quickly had come to mean so much to her.

***

Ten million people.

That was the estimate George threw out as to the loss of American’s lives so far, but, in truth, he believed the number to be much higher. It had to be.

Ten million. More Americans lost their lives in one day than in all the wars combined. Fewer Americans had died during the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918.

Using a computer and PowerPoint, George projected a map for everyone to see.

Two days earlier he had sent scouts out on horseback to the north, south, east and west.

Based on what the scouts had reported Massachusetts had not been touched yet.

The war was being fought, at minimal levels, with minimal American troops, farther west and to the north.

It was clear cut that Agabarn was deep within occupied territory.

They could only assume the east was secured by the enemy because they controlled the beaches.

One person asked why the fighting and number of troops was minimal. George could only give a guess and suggested it was because something big had to be on the horizon. There had to be. He hoped there’d be.

Were there allied forces helping out?

Their allies, like the UK, were dealing with their own destruction. Although by what was being picked up, they weren’t invaded.

Only the United States had been.

Then the big question came to George, “Do we know who invaded?”

The media blackout and coded radio transmissions made that question hard to respond to.

Hating to just say ‘No.’ George informed everyone that one of the scouts had spoken to an American soldier and the soldier referred to the enemy as the ‘Ranuelans.’

That was all the scout had learned before he was told he had to leave the area.

The scout told the soldier about their town and people there, and then returned. He could have taken a ride with the American forces to a safe camp. It was offered to him, but he had declined.

“Ranuelans?” a man asked. “What the hell are Ranuelans?”

“Has to be a combination of names,” said another. “You know, like the tabloids do for celebrity romances.”

Harry started thinking about it and breaking it down. It was as much a puzzle to him as the rock was to Tyler.

Then her voice emerged from the back of the room. “I don’t know who the second party is,” Lana stated. “But think about it. I was in the media, though fashion. When we gave code names, the first two or three letters belonged to the first party, in this instance that would be R…A…N. My guess would be Iran. We put those harsh sanctions on them. Someone said that the invaders want our president to step down. We tried to get their president to step down. The second half of the name, I’m clueless, but I’m guessing the bigger part is Iran. You realize their army is almost twice the size of ours.”

Someone else spelled the last portion and with the letters guessed it could possibly be Venezuela.

Everyone laughed.

The man who made the suggestion didn’t think it was funny. “They have two million soldiers. I saw that on the news a few weeks ago. All are rebels. We tried to oust their dictator. They claimed we incited a war there, too.”

“Wait a second!” An older guy called out, “Venezuela and Iran? What the hell is taking us so long to kick their asses?”

“Seven million soldiers,” Lana stated. “A combined force and my guess is they have North Korea helping them, would give them over 9 million soldiers. That’s a lot of manpower. Have we thought of that? If the combined forces send only one third of their forces here, they will have matched our army man for man.”

George added, “We don’t own the air yet. But when we do, I believe that’s when we’ll have the advantage. It’ll still be tough. They marched in and took three states.”

The meeting continued on. The identity of the invading enemy was still only a guess. Those in Agabarn were deep in a media blackout.

Once the meeting was over and the pudding had been served as desert, two of the women took the children to
The Tap
for arts and crafts and some karaoke.

One hundred and thirty-three people remained in the fire hall.

Each one of them was waiting to learn the tactical plan.

And that’s just what they were about to develop.

They wanted a plan in place in case the enemy invaded or struck Agabarn. Everyone felt that once the US started fighting back and pushing the enemy from the front lines, the front lines would move east.

It was inevitable.

The citizens and refugees in Agabarn could run or they could stay and fight.

There was no question about what they would choose to do.

An escape route was planned for the children.

Each person would have a post, be issued a weapon and told where go.

Some would have explosives.

It was an army of farmers, just like the revolutionary war.

Harry was on distribution, should fighting break out. His eyesight wasn’t the best anymore. He probably couldn’t fire a weapon accurately, and he certainly couldn’t toss a homemade grenade, but he could pass out things and dictate where people went.

Folks were lining up to register for duties based on their strengths. Harry was one of those people registering strengths and deciding if they were better on a gun, grenade or explosives. Or would they be better at just helping evacuate those who couldn’t fight.

After they had registered strengths, people were going to stick around, clean weapons, and work on separating ammo.

A full fight was planned.

Harry was surprised to see Lana in the line. She was three down the line when he noticed her. When she arrived at his desk, she smiled. It was a tired smile.

“This is a surprise,” Harry said. “Are you registering a strength?”

Lana nodded and sat down across from Harry.

“Where’s Ben?”

“He went to
The Tap
. He opted out of dinner and the meeting.”

“But he was okay with you being here?”

“I told him I was dying for spaghetti.”

Harry laughed. “And you stayed for the meeting.”

“Yes. He believed I was going back to the school to rest.”

Harry leaned back in the chair. “What’s going on?”

Lana folded her hands. “I come from a very rich family. When I was ten I had been shooting for a year. I took highest shooting marks in the junior competition. I was the youngest ever to hold that title. I held the championship for six years until Liam Wayne snatched it from me.”

“Wow,” Harry said. “Rifle? Shotgun?”

“You name it, I’m good with it. My father was president of the local NRA.”