Jacqueline Druga - Fallout

“What do you need from me? I’m not soldier.”

“What do you… did you do for a living back home?”

“Basically projects, buildings, concrete.”

“Construction?”

“I was a project manager.”

Troy nodded. “Can you pull off saying you’re an architect?”

Cal laughed. “Why would I say that?”

“Because we need someone they are going to trust and right now, our other inside person says they are looking for someone to design and build, change a small town in Ohio into pretty much a fortified internment camp.”

Cal lifted his hand and let it drop to the table. “I don’t understand what you need.”

“There is a small town south of Cleveland. Right now, they have about eight thousand detainees there. We want to liberate that camp. In order to do so, we need someone on the inside who can help us do that.”

“You already have someone on the inside,” Cal said.

“Not trusted. He’s American. You are not. They are having job recruitments just outside of there. You go under the guise you want to go back home and that you’ll help out where needed. You have the passport to prove you aren’t from here. You have no obligations to this country.”

Cal sat back with an exhale. “How am I supposed to communicate with you?”

“Our person on the inside will be in touch. There are more details. He has a military direct phone, he sends us messages. I’m not going to say more until you give your agreement.”

“Why, Captain, would I want to help?”

Troy hesitated before answering. “Everything that happens here affects your country. It already has. The UK is in chaos, it’s a matter of time before World War Three breaks out and we don’t want that. We get this country back, we take it back, we may avoid global catastrophe.”

“How do you know my country is in chaos?”

“We were in communication before our outpost was hit. Will you do it? Will you help us?”

Cal looked down to his folded hands and raised his eyes. “Can I have tonight to think about it? I need to check with a friend who is ill.”

Troy nodded. “Yes. I’ll be here until tomorrow. Helen can take you back now.”

Cal stood and extended his hand to Troy. “I’ll let you know my decision shortly, I promise.”

“Thank you.”

Cal stepped back, paused, reached down, and grabbed his passport. He placed it in his pocket and turned to leave. What was being asked of him wasn’t some minor thing. It was a big undertaking, serious spy stuff and wasn’t a one shot, one day deal.

It was dangerous.

He had Louise to think about and that was priority. Not that Cal didn’t want to help, but if he was going to be honest, he wasn’t sure he wanted to put his life on a line for a country he wasn’t that vested in.

Helen drove Cal back to Louise’s little house. Turning the bend, he caught a glimpse of her in the window.

“They really need you,” Helen said as she stopped the truck. “We need you.”

“I understand that,” Cal replied. “Is it going to make a difference? You said there are hundreds of thousand Chinese soldiers. Can we defeat them?”

“There are still two hundred million Americans. Yes, we can.”

“I will think about it.” Cal opened the door and stepped out. He walked to the house imagining what Louise would say. She’d be for it. If she were well enough, she would take up arms and fight. That was who she was. Fiery and full of life.

He knocked once on the main door to announce his arrival and stepped in. “Louise,” he called out, walking in.

After closing the door, he took in the silence.

“Hey,” he said walking into the living room. “I met with them. They want me to go in there and try to get information. I know what you’ll say, but I hate to leave you.” He stepped to the chair. “Look they had my passport and…” He paused. “Shit. You’re sleeping.”

Louise had her head propped on her hand and tilted to the side.

“I’m sorry.” He lowered his voice then grabbed for the blanket that had fallen a little from her. The moment he lifted it… he froze.

Louise wasn’t sleeping.

She had passed away some time while he was gone, in that short span of time.

Cal’s heart sank to the pit of his stomach as he dropped to his knees at her chair side. How did it happen? She had been such a big part of his life, through such a huge ordeal, yet, she slipped quietly away after her body had taken such a beating from the radiation poisoning. He felt horrible he wasn’t there. Not there to hold her, say goodbye or even his feelings. He placed his hand over her wrist, lowered his head to her arm, and stayed there. He just couldn’t move.

“Glad you made it back before sundown,” Gus said to Troy. He was seated on the front porch of Bear’s house, sipping a cup of coffee relaxing, when he saw Troy pull up in the pick-up truck and step up.

“I still have a few hours before dark.”

“Any trouble?” Gus asked.

“Nothing. No Procs. I took the back ways. What are you doing here?” Troy asked

“Thought I would take a long shift here to monitor the radio, and any other coded transmissions that come in. Plus, I want to double check all the Morse code that has come in so far,” Gus said. “That was kind of my specialty for a while.”

“You know we have the decoder, right?”

“Yep. But, I’m old-school. Don’t trust those things. I’d rather give it a once over myself.”

“Makes sense.”

“So, any word?” Gus asked.

“You mean about the Englishman?” Troy shook his head. “No. I got the feeling from him that it wasn’t his fight.”

“But it is his flight. Did you tell him that?”

“I did. But it is up to him. When I left them, Helen was riding him back. She was going to get him all the details. Hopefully we’ll find out soon what he does. He knows where to find the means of communication and how to locate our inside guy. That’s all we could do, the rest is up to him.”

Gus nodded. “Thank you for trying. I just know that we have to do something and we have got to get done soon. We have the diversions in place that we want to execute before we start camp liberation.”

“When will the diversion hits begin?”

“Few days. I’m worried. There’s another whole line of fleet coming over across the Pacific. It’s not gonna be long before they hit us with another invasion. If that happens, I don’t know where we will stand on this,” Gus said.

“I wonder why they haven’t hit us again yet.”

“My guess, they’re waiting for the official surrender. Since they have the president.”

“Surrender?”

“Yeah, you spent a little time with her. What do you think? Do you think she will surrender? If she does, then it’s done.”

“I don’t know.” Troy shrugged and shook his head. “She’s hard to read. She really is. She wants to do well, but she’s in over her head.”

“Hopefully, she’ll hold off enough for us to get this rolling.”

“Gus, really, I understand what we are doing. And I am a part one hundred percent. But…” Troy said. “How are we going to do this? There’s not that many of us. How are we going to pull this off when we’re on our own?”

“My friend,” Gus said, “how do you think I got the information? We are far from being on our own.”

General Welch was at the right place at the right time. He wasn’t supposed to be in Colorado, but when another member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff took ill, he filled in for the war games exercise at the Cheyenne Mountain Military base. He was there when everything went down