“Yes, sir.”
Colonel Spivey was amazed at the matrix of caves and mines the families had constructed together. His mouth hung open when he saw the mountain of supplies they had accumulated. The families hugged the rear wall of the cave to keep as much distance between them and the soldiers as possible. Word had quickly reached them the soldiers had killed Bear’s sons and had their elder in custody. The families were surprised when two soldiers led a handcuffed Bear into the caves followed by a family with two teenage girls. Four of the family’s daughters asked if they could talk to the Coats’ girls, Colonel Spivey smiled and nodded.
The six moved to another room in the cave to chat under the watchful eyes of three female soldiers. Colonel Spivey smiled, “See, we have civilians with us, we’re not bad people. We’d be happy to take you with us. You have to know the weather conditions outside are going to continue to deteriorate. In less than a year you might not even be able to venture outside. I’m willing to forgive the attack on my convoy and take all of you south.”
Bear laughed, “I see right through you. You brought some prisoners here to fool my people. You expect to trick us and then steal our supplies.”
“I don’t need your supplies. The Coats are from Canada, ask them to show you their IDs. Ask them about their trip and how we’ve treated them. Ask them anything you’d like. You can ask them without any of my people with them.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I have nothing to hide. My mission is to save people’s lives. We’re moving south to our next FOB, that’s forward operating base to you. Before you think we left a lot of supplies behind you’ll be able to take, we didn’t leave one matchbook behind. We’re offering to escort you south as we are taking the Coats to our next base where they will be handed off to the next.”
“What about my sons you killed…”
“They attacked us and caused some damage. Anyone who attacks us is our enemy. I’m willing to let you go if you agree to follow my instructions.”
“What about our supplies?”
“We don’t have the trucks to take them with us. Whatever you can carry, is yours.”
“Since you killed my sons, will your people help us load our supplies?”
Colonel Spivey thought to himself, my scout team didn’t report any trucks so how much could they carry in our cramped vehicles? “Sure, I’ll detail some of my people to help you load your supplies, but listen to me, you’ll have to supply your own vehicles, I don’t have any to spare.”
“Agreed, come with me. I want to show you something. Colonel Spivey followed Bear into a large mine where Spivey stopped short. There sitting in the cave were a row of trucks and snowmobiles. There were also six National Guard trucks that had been modified to enclose their cargo areas. Bear smiled, “The Guard modified these trucks. They piped in some heat so their people or supplies wouldn’t freeze. Then they left them behind. You know the old saying, ‘finders’ keepers.’ So, I took them.”
“With this you could have left at any time…”
“Where would we go? This area has been our home for our entire lives. The caves and mines are a steady 48 degrees, not summer but warm enough we don’t need to wear fur inside. There are places that are colder which meant we didn’t need refrigerators. We have fresh meat from some bears we’ve killed. We had everything we needed right here, and we have room to grow.”
“Then why did you agree to leave?”
Bear kicked the dirt with his boots, he looked at the trucks, “I thought the ice age as the press called it was BS. I thought we’d have a few years of constant winter and then things would begin to return to normal, but it isn’t improving, it’s getting worse. The snow is coming down heavier, the temps are still dropping. I think I made a huge mistake. I may have condemned my friends and family to a life inside these caves. That’s not a life for the little ones. They deserve to be able to play outside to be with kids their own age.” Bear held out his hand, “I’m sorry about the attack on your convoy.”
Colonel Spivey shook Bear’s hand and smiled.
It took five days to load the supplies into Bear’s trucks and load the snowmobiles into trucks and they discovered another Suburban, a white one that had gray tape applied to it in ragged stripes to make it blend in with the background. The Coats were overjoyed to be out of the Bradley.
Everyone in the convoy got to spend some time in the caves while the convoy was rearranged. They were about to leave when a massive blizzard struck. The winds reached 80 Mph, snow fell at a rate of 2 inches an hour, there was a total white out, no one could see anything so Colonel Spivey asked his weather officer, “Is the snow carrying any radiation from the bombs?”
“No, sir. Almost all of it got washed out of the atmosphere or it’s still circling the northern hemisphere in the winds, by the time it falls it has already lost most of its deadliness due to the half-live. It’s been years since the last Russian nuke exploded here and I guess the same goes for our counter strike. Most of the strikes were air bursts which didn’t generate a lot of fallout. Those that targeted the silos did throw fallout into the atmosphere, but most of it landed across the Midwest so we were safe over here.”
“Good. I hate nukes. They don’t discriminate between friend and foe.”
“Yes, sir. I don’t think
