The Burning Fields (Surviving the Fall 5)

The visual signal is acknowledged by a series of lights embedded in wide slab of concrete sitting in the middle of nowhere near the Seven Devils Mountains. The V-22 sets down on the pad and its rotors spin down. Two hundred feet in front of the pad, the face of the mountain cracks open as the visually camouflaged doors to one of the government’s top-secret continuity-of-government bunkers open.

Threat analysis conducted while Air Force One was still in the air indicated that well-known facilities—even those hardened against a strike—were not viable options for the President given the state of the world. After the crash the decision was made to fly him to the Devil’s Mountain Complex, one of the newest and least heard of facilities. Like Cheyenne Mountain, Mount Weather and Raven Rock, the Devil’s Mountain bunker is buried deep beneath the earth, hardened against an attack and designed to house senior members of the government for months or years if necessary.

Before the doors can open all the way a trio of small vehicles come racing out of the complex. One of them stops at the back of the Osprey and the President, the two medics and several Secret Service agents get on board and are whisked away. Marines and more Secret Service agents get on board one of the other vehicles which follows the first into the bunker.

The third vehicle is equipped with a tow arm that attaches to the front of the Osprey. It quickly brings the craft inside and the doors are shut again. The total time that the Osprey spends sitting out on the landing pad is eleven minutes. Once it is inside and the camouflaged doors are closed the bunker returns to a state of virtual nonexistence as far as the outside world is concerned.

Inside the bunker the V-22 Osprey is towed into a small space used for storing aircraft. Two helicopters and another V-22 sit in the space, each of them fueled up and ready to be towed out to the front pad at a moment’s notice.

A wide tunnel—larger than the main entrance to the Cheyenne Mountain bunker—slopes downward into the earth. The tunnel and complex took three years of round-the-clock work to complete and it is the most advanced bunker facility in the government’s arsenal. Two nuclear reactors provide power, a natural spring provides water and a limestone cavern carved over centuries by the spring provided several thousand square feet of open space that formed the initial backbone of the facility.

Excavation outward from the limestone cavern increased the facility to three square miles of floor space spread over twelve levels and housing a standard rotation of two hundred workers and government employees. The occupancy limit for the facility is in the thousands, though, and the Devil’s Mountain Complex is nearly at the seventy percent level.

A full hospital with imaging technology, an operating room and three permanent doctors quickly go to work on the President. Tests soon reveal that he has suffered damage to his kidneys and one of his lungs received a minor puncture due to multiple rib fractures from the force of the plane crash. All in all, though, his condition is stable and the doctors expect him to recover enough to return to his duties within a few days.

In the meantime, with no way of communicating with the outside world for fear of infecting more systems with Damocles, there is no one able to take the senior leadership role. Even when the President awakens he will be faced with the startling reality that there isn’t much left that he can do to change what is going on.

Chapter 14

The Water’s Homestead

Outside Ellisville, VA

Jason initially wanted to go see the remains of the Carson’s house before doing anything else but Dianne persuaded him that getting supplies was the first and most important priority. The drive to the Statler’s house didn’t take long and when they arrived Dianne was exceptionally relieved to see that the place was still intact and untouched.

“Pull around to the barn first. I’ve got some beans and rice double bagged and sealed in some airtight canisters.” Jason scratched his nose and beard. “I think it’s about a hundred pounds or so of both if I remember right.”

“Got it. You got the keys to the house handy?”

“Ha. I wish. We lost those days ago. I had to hotwire the damn truck. I’ll grab the spare key from up in the rafters on the back porch.”

“Excellent. Let’s get the rice and beans in along with whatever tools, then we’ll cover everything with a tarp if you’ve got a clean one sitting around. We can stack the stuff from inside the house on top of that and cram whatever else we need into the back cab.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

Dianne and Jason hopped out of the truck and immediately got to work. The full night’s sleep on a soft bed after a full meal had energized him like he hadn’t experienced since the event took place. He and Dianne moved quickly, loading the rice and beans first before getting hand tools, boxes of nails, a burlap sack filled with screws and other miscellaneous odds and ends. By the time they finished it had taken just over thirty minutes and half of the back of the truck was filled with supplies.

Dianne secured the tarp in place while Jason headed over to the house. He retrieved the key and opened the back door before quickly sweeping the darkened building for intruders. A thin layer of dust covered all of the horizontal surfaces and there was the distinct smell of rotting fruit in the house. Aside from that, though, everything in his home appeared untouched and unchanged.

Dianne pulled the truck around to the back of the house, hopped out and went inside to meet Jason in the kitchen. “Where should we start?” She looked around, suddenly wishing she had brought a flashlight with her.

“I know Sarah’s got a fair number of cans in these cabinets. How about you look for any more food that’s still good while I get clothes, toiletries, spare sheets and the like.” Jason frowned. “Well now wait a minute. I guess we can leave some stuff here, right? We’ll just come back for it if we need it.”

Dianne shook her head. “I wouldn’t leave anything here that you can’t live without. If somebody comes around and torches this place like they did the Carson’s house then there wouldn’t be anything to come back for.”

“Hm.” Jason gave a disappointed grunt. “You’re right. Give me twenty minutes or so. I’ll stack everything here on the table so we can carry it all out at once.”

Dianne nodded and started pulling back the shades from the windows, both to make it easier to see in the dark cabinets and so she could have a better view outside the house. Cans, jars and boxes of food went into cardboard boxes brought to her by Jason and before he was done Dianne had finished filling three of them with nonperishables or food that could last for at least a couple months before it would go bad.

While Dianne was cleaning out the cabinets Jason scoured the closets, prioritizing undergarments, socks and spare pairs of shoes. These were stuffed into duffel bags and spare suitcases along with shirts, jackets and long pants before the bags were carried to the kitchen and placed next to the suitcases.

He opened his closet-sized gun safe next, pulling out three long rifles, two shotguns and half a dozen pistols that he and his wife were the most comfortable with shooting. These—along with several thousand rounds of ammunition—were carried directly into the truck where they were tucked beneath the tarp. Dianne helped Jason finish up by gathering any and all toiletries from the bathrooms before they stood together to look at the pile of goods in the kitchen.

“Think we have room for some nonessentials?” Jason mused as he looked at the pile.

“Definitely. Grab any books or CDs you have. If you’ve got a laptop computer you should bring that, too.”

“I’m on it.” Jason hurried into the living room while Dianne started loading boxes and bags into the back of the truck. It didn’t take Jason long to gather several dozen books, a stack of CDs and his computer, all of which went into the rear cab of the truck. When he was done he helped Dianne load the rest of the boxes and bags into the truck before folding the tarp over everything and tying it tight.