William Johnstone - The Doomsday Bunker

Reports were that they were readying for another missile test.

The death toll in Ohio rose to fourteen as authorities continued to recover remains from the backyard of Lorenzo Stanwick. Forensic tests revealed that some of the recovered bones bore teeth marks, as if from gnawing… by human teeth.

The death toll from the Hydra virus climbed to eighty with more patients in Texas and Florida succumbing. The surviving patients were under strict quarantine, but it was still uncertain how long the virus was communicable before symptoms began to appear. Spokespersons for the Centers for Disease Control were always grim-faced when the subject of vectors came up at news conferences.

In the aftermath of the mall attack and explosion in Florida, more bodies were discovered during the cleanup. Other, smaller attacks by young, Middle Eastern men followed in the wake of that tragedy, taking place in Boston, Atlanta, and Denver, and in each case the attackers had posted material on their social-media pages linking them to Islamic terrorist groups. The administration and news media barely acknowledged this fact.

A ship in a French port was sunk by a suicide bomb carried next to it in a motorboat by a pair of Syrian brothers.

Russian troops massed on the border of one of the former satellite states of the Soviet Union. Officials of that government appealed for help but received no reply.

Rocket attacks were carried out on Israel. The American President blamed the Israelis for bringing it on themselves.

Iranian troops advanced on the Turkish border. Missile batteries were moved into position, and satellite surveillance appeared to show increased activity around Iranian facilities supposedly involved in producing fuel for nuclear power plants. The United Nations issued a request for clarifications from the Iranians regarding their actions. The Iranians ignored the request.

Earthquakes rattled the Midwest, causing extensive damage but few casualties. An outbreak of violent tornadoes a week later produced more damage and a dozen fatalities.

A large hurricane made landfall in Mississippi, and two more were percolating out in the Atlantic, taking aim at the East Coast. Rioters began looting in several coastal cities, laughingly declaring in videos posted online that they were just getting a jump on the storm.

Students at a college in New England attacked a writer and historian invited to the campus to give a lecture, claiming that his racist, sexist, ableist, cisgender-normative views of history—he had once written a book about the causes of the Civil War and raised the possibility that other things were involved in addition to slavery—were intolerant and a violation of the safe space the students were owed by the university. The writer was left in a coma, and the student union building suffered heavy damage in a protest prompted by the university’s failure to issue a trigger warning about the lecture. The university president immediately issued an apology to the protesting students and filed a lawsuit against the writer, who could try to defend himself when and if he came out of his coma.

Email hacks uncovered a plan by one of the major political parties to create as many as ten million entirely fictional voters before the next presidential election, since steps had been taken in many of the states to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants and dead people to vote. The news media mentioned the story briefly, then ignored it.

The governor of a northeastern state announced that police would soon begin confiscating legally owned firearms, and that if anyone didn’t like it, they could sue him.

Russian troops moved into the neighboring country, which put up a bloody resistance for two weeks before collapsing. The U.S. adminstration expressed grave concern over this reckless action. The Russians moved in a large occupation force, then began shifting their troops to another border.

Turkish planes bombed the Iranian missile batteries, destroying them but not before several missiles were launched into Ankara. Those missiles carried conventional warheads, not nukes, but still caused widespread destruction. The United States decried this destruction, then blamed Turkey for provoking the Iranians with the bombing raid.

Rockets landed on Tel Aviv again. There was no comment from the administration.

The turmoil caused the stock market to plummet. Chinese interests moved in, buying up huge blocks of American companies and real estate. By executive order, the President committed trillions of dollars to propping up failing banks. To finance this, an emergency tax would be levied on the “wealthy,” with the bottom cutoff for such tax being a $40,000 annual income. The legality of these executive orders was widely debated, with most pundits agreeing that the President had no authority to do such things. But the orders were carried out anyway, as Congress debated but took no action.

The North Koreans prepared for another missile test…

September 17

“Don’t put your hand like that,” Jill said. “Slide it up a little. Now move your thumb over… Ah, right there. Perfect.”

“You’re sure?” Trevor said.

“Yes. You’re good to go. Just… gently. Don’t rush it. No, wait—Keep both eyes open. Take a breath… squeeze…”

The Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mm boomed as Trevor fired. Jill had him standing and holding the gun correctly, so the recoil wasn’t bad. She could tell that he was a little surprised.

“That was loud,” he said, his voice muffled some by the ear protectors she wore. “But it didn’t kick as much as I thought it would. What do I do now?”

“You’ve got six more rounds in the magazine,” she told him. “That one hit a little low and to the left.” Actually, it was quite a bit low and left, but it wouldn’t do any good to tell him that. “Adjust your aim a little.”

“Okay.” He started to line up the second shot.

“Your arms are too stiff. Bend your elbows slightly.”

“How’s that?”

“Better. Go ahead.”

It had been so long since Trevor had been on the range that this was almost like the first time for him. He’d never practiced enough to have any sort of muscle memory for it. He didn’t seem to have any natural aptitude for it, either, so Jill had always figured it was better not to push him.

Since they had taken the big step of committing to the Hercules Project, though, she had started thinking that maybe it would be a good idea to get him a little more familiar with firearms. The fact that the situation in the country, and in the world beyond the U.S., had gotten steadily worse over the past few months made her more determined than ever to be prepared if something terrible happened. At her father’s suggestion, she had prepared bug-out bags containing nonperishable food, first-aid supplies, extra clothing, blankets, water, and weapons for her and Trevor: a pistol, ammunition, and a multifunction knife/tool.

She wasn’t going to arm her children. A part of her thought she needed to teach Bailey and Chris how to shoot, too, but at this point, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it. Maybe that was stupid—well, no maybe about it, she realized when she thought about it coldly and intellectually, but right now that was where her head—and her heart—were.

Trevor fired out the magazine. His shots were so widely scattered that Jill couldn’t even think of them in terms of a grouping. He would get better, though, with practice… she hoped.

“Okay, push that button right there,” she told him. “That releases the magazine. Now you can reload.”

“How’s that work again?”

She picked up the loader and showed him. “The top of the magazine goes in there… push down… the bullet goes there… release… Now do that six more times.”