Retreaters – Chapter 8

Chapter 8–Rude Awakening

Wednesday, 6:14 am

Unit 2

CMMR Complex Building 1

Matt awoke, somewhat startled and groggy to the Mission Impossible theme song on his cell phone. He was tired after all the physical labor and moving stuff, and then after all that he had logged into his work account in the evening to try and catch up on emails from work and anything that needed to be done, and was up past midnight. Thank goodness for remote access.

In reaching for his ringing cell phone on the bed stand, he all at once, he realized how much had happened in the mere 24 hours since the last time he had heard that in Ma Kaye’s. But for all this, he would have been there for breakfast as usual now.

He checked the screen for the text and started scrolling down:

10/3/12 7:12 EST
SurComINT.net

ALERT LEVEL 5 issued to all subscribers.
Confidence factor: 99%
Believed outbreak of SMALL POX – strain unconfirmed

Source in CDC confirmed small pox diagnosis, confirmed by test a few hours ago on Boston. Symptoms match in other cities, testing commencing.

Isolate from human contact immediately.
Pattern: high concentrations of health care workers, first responders, elderly, and pregnant women.

REPEAT

ALERT LEVEL 5 OFFICIALLY ISSUED TO SUBSCRIBERS

“Holy crap” said Matt, in a state of shock and disbelief, and then the realization that this was for real. This was really going to happen.

Matt sat himself up on the side of his bed and hit the speed dial for his sister, 4 rings, and to voicemail.

“Hey this is Matt, get your butt out of there now, there’s a serious medical outbreak happening and you need to get yourself home to Mom’s place…. Now! Call me later for details, but you need to get home. Now. Never mind your classes, just get home. This is a serious emergency.” Matt said, hoping his sister for once would just do as he said.

Matt then called Larry, 2nd ring he picked up.

“Matt, I’m on the way, just have to swing through Lomira here and pick up something special from an old buddy, and I’ll pick up your ammo order too. Then I’ll be heading across on Hwy 10. What’s up there?”. said Larry.

“Small pox, that’s what they say it is now, Small pox”, said Matt.

There was silence, and a pause.

Larry said slowly, “How do they know that, did they say?”.

“SurComINT.net just gave an official Level 5 alert, and claimed a CDC confirmation source in Boston.” Matt said.

“From any other source or anywhere else?” asked Larry.

“No”. said Matt.

“Well that’s bad, and we better presume that’s right, and that all this is smallpox. In fact, all this so fast can’t be natural, or some sort of accident. Biological warfare is the poor man’s nuke, and with this flu thing on the news as wide spread as it is, this could be catastrophic. We just got hit far worse than 911. I think the government has some contingencies for small pox, especially back when Tommy Thompson was head of health and human services. But this is so wide spread, so fast. They are going to be overwhelmed. Wow…, I guess I better get my mask out of my bug out bag. Look, I’ll turn on AM news and listen for anything new, hopefully we have time before this goes public. My guess, the government keeps a lid on it until they are positioned to handle it, and then they make the announcement. That gives us some time. I should be there by noon Matt. Get your game face on, we are going to have some long days, and this is going to get bad, really bad. Again, it take the government some time to get ready, but time is short, and whatever members are not up there now, better get going soon. Your buddy Paul should get on the horn, he does that best. You’ve got a lot to today, talk to you later Matt, over and out”. Larry said and hung up.

Matt got himself up and into the bathroom. Once dressed for the day, he ran went downstairs for a quick breakfast, and popped 4 waffles into the toaster. He then logged on to the computer just off the kitchen.

He tried to sign on to SurComINT.net, but there was an internet error message.

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

What your can try:

Diagnose Connection Problems

More information

“The hell?” he murmured.

He went to news sites, all were working, but no mention of the outbreak. He got up and grabbed the remove and then tuned in CNN, and the FOX NEWS. Nothing about it.

His cell phone rang, it was Paul.

“Matt, did you get that page that it’s Small Pox?” Paul just about yelled in his ear.

“Yeah, but only that text, the site is down or something, I can’t log into their internet site, and I have been looking for more news, but there’s nothing” said Matt.

“Well, not sure what to make about that, but at least we know to treat this seriously. We have to presume that text is right, and that this is all smallpox so get ready to go into lockdown there Matt. I don’t think we take any more time on wait and see, we need to move into lockdown protocol now. You’ll probably have to stand by to open the gate for everyone who now doubt didn’t bring their remotes, since we never use that gate. I think we advise people not to go shopping, but I fear a lot of people are going to show up to an empty fridge, thought their pantries should be stocked with the non-perishables if they followed the guidelines. Well, I was just about to leave a little later than I wanted, so I think I’m going to time it a little later and pack a little more stuff since I know I’m going to be up there for a long time now. I’ll start calling everyone once we are on the road. Hold own down the fort Matt, it’s going to be a long couple days for you. See you soon.” and Paul hung up.

Matt tried again to log on to SurComINT.net. Same thing. He Googled “smallpox”. Page looked usual, Google Health, Wiki, CDC, WHO…. the he looked up. Then he tried searching “smallpox news”, same exact results, same order. Then he tried searching “smallpox Boston”, and same exact results came up. Then he looked to the top of the page. “10 results”. Matt gasped as he realized. He went to yahoo.com and searched “smallpox”, same thing. He went to bing.com and searched “smallpox”, same exact results. Matt sat back in his chair, and speed dialed Paul.

4 rings and Paul picked up. “Yes Matt.” Paul said.

“Paul, I think they are manipulating the internet. I searched smallpox on Google and gave 10 results, and I mean only ten. I’ve never seen so few hits. There should be well over 10 million for that. I tried Yahoo, and Bing, same exact thing”. said Matt.

“My God, this must be bad. Matt, full lock down procedures, and I mean live ammo. Get what else you can delivered while we still can, food in particular. Call Jack Benny too and have him order some feed and fill the bins and tanks too. My God, this is really for real right now. I’ll be leaving shortly. We are now all counting on you Matt. See you later”. and Paul hung up.

Matt proceeded to call his mom, and the sister again, leaving messages for both as it was 2 hours earlier.

Matt logged on to the group site, and without reading anything new typed:

[SR2Thompson] ATTENTION. Per Paul, we are going into full lockdown procedures here. Bring your opener for the gate, and call me on my extension here on your cell as you pull up if you forgot it. Remember, you are supposed to have at least two weeks of food and supplies for the lock-in. Email me if you can’t get that. Remember to wear masks and gloves in public, and don’t let the younger children mingle in public, keep them contained. If you are not here or one your way, leave now. Seriously, get up here.

And Matt signed off. Curious, he logged into yahoo groups. He checked over the five largest survivalist groups. The largest with public achieves didn’t have any new postings, but the private groups he was a member of, were abuzz about small pox. He started reading, and there were claims of National Guard call-ups under way, and plans for martial law. Copies of certain executive orders were being posted, some dating back to JFK, and black ops procedures set up under Reagan. One posting said he was a manager, and one employee who was National Guard had to leave work right then, and immediate call-up he said, but couldn’t talk about it.

Matt logged off and stood up. His neglected waffles were getting cold, but he wasn’t hungry and walked downstairs. As several other members had done, he finished off his basement with a third bedroom and extra bathroom. He walked back past the utility room to the back door, which lead to the underground tunnel. The concrete hallway was 4 feet wide and ran the length of the 6 units. On the side next to Unit 1, the Paulson unit, it had an underground access into the concrete silo, on the other side it provided underground access to the Monolithic dome swimming pool and community kitchen structure, and then to the other complex building. Members could walk to the swimming pool underground in the winter, but the real purpose was to be able to get to the bunker. Complex had this feature, a 3,000 square foot underground bunker that was under the garages of complex building 1 (units 1-6), extending out under the blacktop parking lot too. Matt remembered Paul had also wanted to build another one in complex 2, but the members had deemed that too expensive and unnecessary. He hoped they wouldn’t regret that now.

Matt walked up to the Fort Knox Vault Door, and slowly turned the combination clockwise to the first number, 3 times back to the second, twice back to the third, then to zero. He spun the heavy 5 spoke wheel and pushed the inward opening door. He flicked on the light switch and went over to the gun locker. Opening the combination lock he opened the door to the caged armory and stepped in. He grabbed his Remington 700 BDL in .300 Win Mag, his Mossberg 590 12 gauge, and AR15 with 20” SS heavy barrel. He grabbed an AR 15 black bag, which he knew had 6 magazines and 300 rounds of SS109 62 grain boat tail rounds, and 200 rounds of 55 grain hollow points, and 12 gauge bag, and a smaller black back with 200 rounds of CT 180 grain Winchester .300 Win Mag. Each bag had been set up, grab and go, with ammo and accessories for each weapon. He closed the gun locker, and walked over the main central control station, and turned on the monitor. Video cameras were all working, all 14 of them. All was quiet, no one in sight, for now. He switched on the main feed switch over to the server, so anyone on the system, could now watch all the monitors.