Original Work The Bug Out - A short story

Joe woke up. He rolled over and looked at the clock. The red numbers glowed 2:35 in the darkness. He normally slept through the night, but knew once he woke up like this, it would usually take a while before he could fall back to sleep. Careful to not wake up his wife, he rolled out of bed and padded to the kitchen where the family’s computer was. The dull hum of the fan and the clicking of the hard drive greeted him as he plopped down in the chair and switched on the device. The flashing lights of the cable modem began and soon Joe was logged on and surfing the web. He was a regular at several of the bigger gun forums and he regularly checked in on a survival forum or two as well. He was paging through and reading some of the new posts on his favorite survival site when a new post appeared at the top.

“BREAKING RIGHT NOW – TERRORIST ATTACK IMMINENT”

Joe laughed to himself. The tin-foil-hat brigade was always posting something like this just because gas went up ten cents a gallon or some other meaningless event that they somehow twisted into The-End-Of-The-World-As-We-Know-It. He looked to see who the paranoid loser that posted this at almost 3:00 in the morning was. Joe was surprised to see the handle Ben Franklin next to the post.

Ben Franklin was a man that Joe admired. He had never met the man, but knew from his posts that he was no kook. Ben was a moderator on this message board and was highly thought of for his fairness and objectivity. Joe knew that he worked at a nuclear power plant, but didn’t know what his exact job was. It seemed that he was one of the top men at the facility, but Ben had never been real forthcoming about his exact title.

Joe nervously clicked the link and a message that appeared hurriedly written appeared on the screen.

“I just got a call from my boss. There are confirmed reports that terrorist have bombs with nuclear material that they plan to detonate during rush hour in the morning. They found a dirty bomb in Boston about two hours ago and the guys they arrested told them there were a lot more of them. Estimates are that they are in ten or twelve major cities. It’s possible that one or two of them could be full nuclear devices. Even if they are all just dirty bombs, the panic will be horrific. This is not a joke! My boss only found out because the NRC called and told him to shut down the plant. If you are in a major city, get out now! The information I got is a little sketchy, but New York and DC are sure to get it. I don’t know where else is going to be hit, but any big city will panic whether they get hit or not as soon as word gets out. This may take a few minutes to hit the mainstream media and maybe that will give the members here a few minutes head start. I’ve got to go load up the truck. I plan to be out of here in ten minutes. Good luck and God bless.”







Read the rest below:

 

It does leave a bigger impression though, as to what can happen when you make bad decisions.

 

Thanks for the story Halffast. Great work as always. Like usual, you have me thinking................. [shiftyeyes]

 

Good work. While I agree we all want the happy endings its good to also demonstrate how quick it can work out like this one did even if you do most things right or at least as close as you can in the situation.

 

Someone needs to pop in over at AR.com and tell Halffast to stop by.

 

What ever happened to Brokor?

 

He was quite entertaining.

 

Great read. Very possible, even likely, storyline. Well developed characters we can all relate to. Most importantly, a not so gentle reminder for the reader to get his/her/our collective sh!t together. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

The ending is harsh but helps to drive the point home. My wife read it also, hated the end, but will remember it forever. She's already said she'll be a little more forgiving regarding the money I spend.

I hope he copyrights his stuff ... that would make a kick a$$ TV movie. I just found and saved "Lights Out" which I look forward to reading.

 

The Moral of the Story is...

Hold the Fort and Be Prepared. Ric

 

Very good story. I like.

Chris

 

Brutally possible.

 

Great read! Makes me think traveling in a small group would be better. Or buy a winch.

 

They didn't read the rules for a gun fight...

21. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.