“You have an escape route? Why don’t I know of it?”
“It was originally designed just for this one cave where most of the children lived. While you were gone, I used the machines and expanded the route.”
“Show me on this map.”
The engineer smiled and expanded the map on the tablet, “Sir, the route is what used to be an underground river which runs north south. The river has mostly dried up due to the frozen temperature outside. The snow isn’t melting and nothing is feeding the rivers so they’re drying out. I’ve widened some of the area so our vehicles can drive through the very shallow waters.”
“I like this. How far is the route? Where will it take us?”
“The river connects with others and with other caves. If we follow the route it will take us to Virginia just under the freeze line.”
“I like this, how long will it take us to get everyone packed and moving?”
“I thought you’d most likely give the order, so I spread the word to everyone to prepare to move. They can be ready to leave in an hour.”
“Excellent, you have served our master well, he is very proud of you. Let’s leave before our uninvited guests arrive. Do you have any explosives we can leave behind as a little surprise to those who would kill us?”
“Yes, sir. I need the hour to prepare the surprise.”
“Then go, don’t let me stop you.”
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General Spivey led his people to destroy all of the caves and mines on his map. His concern was he was running out of the thermobaric weapons. He asked his staff if they could make additional ones or could they figure out something to add to the C4, the engineers came up with a napalm mine that they thought would suck the oxygen out of the caves. The general smiled and gave his approval to go ahead. They tested it on a small cave, the explosion brought the ceiling down on top of the burning napalm. General Spivey shook his head, “I think you used a little too much C4.” He smiled and nodded at his engineering officer who responded, “Sir, we’ll try to change the mix…”
“Don’t bother, as long as the ceiling came down and trapped them inside it’s all good. Let’s keep it up. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can get out of this damn weather.”
Cave after cave was destroyed. In fact, any hole in the ground or hillside was exploded. The soldiers had plenty of C4 and to them this was like the fourth of July. They got to blow stuff up with others watching their sixes.
While the caves were being destroyed, the elder led one hundred and six of his people out of the area. He smiled hearing the explosions which he knew were harmless to him because he and his people were already deep underground in the old river moving south away from the explosions.
He turned to look over his shoulder and laughed, “One day we will meet and, on that day, you’ll either die or bow to my Lord and Master, Satan. I know where you’re going, but you don’t know where we’re going.” He laughed and drove further south, he planned to make his new base in the ruins of Savannah, Georgia. The riverbed was uneven and very rough, he didn’t care because every minute took them further away from the explosions. His people had taken the supplies they need to restart below the freeze line. The Elder smiled thinking, it will be easy to recruit new people along the damaged coast. Many are still hungry and looking for help. Once my army is trained, we will spread out and recruit additional people. People will accept the truth when they receive what they’ve secretly always desired. My Lord excels at giving them what they desire. He will bend them to his will.
General Spivey checked off each cave on his list as each was destroyed. He smiled to himself, Only a handful left and then I can report the success of my mission and then I can take my people south where God willing we’ll never have to put these arctic uniforms on again. I can’t wait to put on a set of normal BDUs. “General, only eighteen more!”
“Keep going, keep up the good work. Any resistance?”
“Sir, nothing. We’ve found evidence of people being here and documents from their Satanic Church, but no people so far.”
“Well, maybe we got them all in the years since this crap started.”
“Sir, where are we going after this?”
“The Redstone Arinsal in Huntsville.”
“Our people are going to like it anywhere below the freeze line.”
“Me too, me too. Now let’s see if we can finish the final eighteen within the next twenty-four hours and get our asses out of here before we’re trapped up here.”
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The convoy pulled into the FOB located at the intersection of interstates 81 and 77 in the town of Wytheville, Virginia. They were surprised at the size of the base. They learned the base had started as a truck stop and expanded, doubled, tripled, and tripled again in size until it had become one of the largest military, civil, and supply bases in Virginia. It sat at an important crossroad and wasn’t far from the Tennessee state line or from Interstate 40 which began on the North Carolina coast and ran all the way west to Barstow, California. Interstate 81 ended at I-40. Interstate 40 was the most important east/west route in the country and was heavily protected by the military.
Much of Interstate 80 was above the freeze line and hence useless. Half of Interstate 10 was destroyed, only the section between San Antonio to San Bernardino survived. President Lanoha
