American Mole
Hi. Welcome to my fourth novel, in progress. I invite you to come back often as I write this. Please feel free to email me and tell me what you think can improve it. Most of all, if you like it, consider posting a review of it for me.
Chapter 1
The First Day
South Lakes High School, Reston Virginia: 10:35 a.m.
The flash was etched on Jason's mind that Tuesday morning in cherry blossom time when his world stopped. It came through the window pure white and blinding--fusing permanent shadows on the back wall of his physics class. Without further warning he and his classmates knew instinctively what to do. They dove behind the lab tables, whimpering, and waited. They didn't have to wait long. With a mighty crash all of the windows blew out at once, throwing glass and debris over everyone, cutting some badly. Others were already burned from the flash. Smoke and dust filled the air. Everyone was choking and crying. Jason wasn't. Alert and unhurt, he checked himself out for wounds and rose from behind his hiding place.
"Mr. Collins!" He shouted. "Mr. Collins! Are you all right! We've got to get everybody into the hall. There's another one coming!"
Before Robert Collins could answer, students were scrambling for the door. Most of them made it, but the burned and bloody ones were still there when the second shock wave hit the building. At least this time there were no more windows to break, only dust and debris penetrating the sting of their wounds. Jason, seeing the crowd jamming the door, had dove back down behind the lab table again. His lungs were burning from the dust and his eyes were smarting as he rose a second time to see the wreckage of what had been their physics lab. Wiping the dirty tears from his eyes with his sleeve, he moved.
Robert Collins rose from behind his desk, dazed. He couldn't see anything. He had been looking out the window to the east as he described the concept of unstable uranium isotopes that morning when the flash blinded him. Now, he was fumbling around trying to find his way out. He felt a hand on his shoulder. "Mr. Collins, it's me, Jason. Here, let me help you get out of here. It was a nuclear blast, just like you just taught us... I can't, I can't believe this is happening." Guiding Collins gently toward the door, Jason soon had him out in the hall where many students were huddled in groups and in near panic, crying and whimpering with fear. He sat Mr. Collins on the floor with his back against the wall and told him not to worry. Nancy Shoemaker came from the side and knelt down to talk to Collins and comfort him. Jason looked around for help.
"Hey guys," Jason called to his friends, Jim, Hector, and Sean, talking animatedly to each other near the entry to the classroom, "Give me a hand. Let's get those guys in there out here in the hall." With that admonishment, his friends obediently followed Jason back into the physics lab where they found several students too dazed and bleeding to find their way out of the room. Jason couldn't believe all the blood. Judy Estes was lying in a pool of it. It was spurting from her arm where she had a really bad cut. Finding a lab towel in Judy's lab table, he wrapped it around her arm and tied it tightly. That seemed to stop the bleeding. She was burned on her neck and arm where they had faced the window. Jason gently picked her up, and stepping carefully over the broken glass, carried her out into the hall. By that time, some of the students and teachers were setting up a first-aid station in the gym with gymnastic and wrestling mats for the injured to lie on. There was plenty of water, soap and towels in the athletic supply room to use for the injured. Everyone talked in hushed tones and some were still so shocked they didn't talk at all. Principal Edith Warner was uninjured, and using a megaphone she got from the athletics department, moved about the building trying to get everyone organized and cared for.
Many students had pulled out their cell phones to call home or 911. Unfortunately, most of those calls didn't go through. It didn't look like any ambulances would be coming soon to take the injured to Inova Emergency Care Center or Fair Oaks Hospital. Sirens could be heard in the distance, but none came to South Lakes. Occasionally, the loud, "crack," of a jet fighter breaking the sound barrier would pierce the ceiling, or the lingering roar of low-flying jets or helicopters would drown out what people were saying. The sky was full of military aircraft. Jason wondered if they were at war.
Sizing up the situation, and seeing that some, like Mr. Collins and Judy Estes, needed more care than the school nurses and students could give, Jason caught up with Principal Warner in the hall. "Principal Warner! I've been helping the injured and I see that some of them need to get to a hospital. I'd like to volunteer to take them, either in one of the school buses, or in private cars to the emergency center over on Baron Cameron."
"That sounds like a good idea, Jason. I think we have about forty-five that need to go. Go get Mr. Jones and have him bring one of the big athletics buses around to the gym door. I think it will carry everyone."
It didn't take long for Jason to find Elroy Jones, head of school maintenance, in a mechanical room off the gym trying to get the emergency generator started with his assistant. "Mr. Jones, Principal Warner wants you to go get the big athletics bus to help us take the injured to the hospital. Can you do that?"
Quite dazed himself, stymied trying to figure out what he was going to do with the dead battery to the generator and with what was left of his buildings, Jason's request finally sprung Elroy Jones into action. He told his assistant, Juan Rodriguez, to get the damn thing started and followed Jason out the door. On their way to where the vehicle keys were kept, they ran into Coach Stevens. Stevens and Jones went to get the bus while Jason ran back to the gym and told those caring for the injured to get everyone who needed stitches or burns treated over to the exit door of the gym to be taken to the emergency center. Within ten minutes, Coach Stevens and Elroy Jones were on their way to the hospital with a load of injured students, Miss Williams, Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Collins.
As students found out that their calls weren't getting through and the enormity of what had happened started to set in, their anxiety increased. Some fell silent. Some cried openly. Some ranted about what was happening and why they weren't being helped. Principal Warner was helpless to help them and answer their questions. She got on the PA system, now operating under emergency power after Mr. Rodriguez finally got it started with a borrowed truck battery, and made an announcement. Her voice quivering as she spoke:
"My dear students and staff. Something most terrible has happened to us today. I feel fortunate that no one here at South Lakes High has died or been critically wounded. However, I know that many have died and I fear that many of your parents may be dead. I'm thinking about my family and I know you're thinking about yours. So, I have no other choice but to tell you to go home, pick up the pieces and be brave about what you're going to have to face. I will stay on here at the school and I've asked Mr. Watson and our nurses, Ms. Kelly and Ms.Tynan to stay on and help anyone who would need to stay. For the rest of you that have cars, please be kind enough to take the ones who do not have cars home. If necessary, we will make the school a shelter. Other than that, all I can say is that South Lakes High is closed and I don’t know when we will open again. Stay safe and Godspeed to you all." She broke down, crying.Students began talking in small groups, and then started to walk to the doors, unsure of what they would find once they left the relative safety of South Lakes. Jason spotted a group of girls he knew rode the bus in a corner and walked over to them. Putting on his best smile, he offered them a ride. They had been crying. One by one, Shauna, Karen, Waverly, and Kris nodded, "Okay," and followed.
There was still the taste of dust in the air and it covered everything with a soft gray coat two inches thick. Jason tried not to contemplate its composition or where it came from. He feared it may be radioactive, but he said nothing to the girls about it. The contrasting bright blue sky, crisscrossed with contrails, defied the way they felt. Otherwise, it seemed like a normal, warm April morning, indistinguishable from so many others during spring fever season, when they were still stuck in school. Jason's car, a 1969 classic Camaro and 16th birthday gift from his Uncle, Colonel James Forsythe, was waiting, undamaged, in the parking lot on the west side of the school. It was covered with the dust and debris that was everywhere, but the building had shielded it and the other cars there from shock of the blast. Jason was glad to see that it still had all its windows. Using a towel that he brought from the gym, he beat the dust off the windshield, side windows and back. The washer still worked, but he didn't want to create any mud on the windshield. He figured any wind or road movement would blow it off like snow. Inside, the car was as clean as the wipe down he'd given it on the weekend.
The girls piled in and Jason started her up. The radio, usually blaring hard rock music or set on WHUR, 96.3 FM to get the best hip hop or jazz, was buzzing. Jason hit the seek button. Instead of the many stations before, there were only three or four. Every station had news. Commentators and DJs in hushed voices were recounting over and over the obvious fact that a nuclear bomb had hit Washington, DC. They were all trying to offer advice to those who were caught in the blast, near the blast, or had loved ones caught up in the blast. It was a kind of quiet desperation, a calm in the chaos of reality. No one knew anything, really. They were just trying to soothe a shaken nation.
"Who's first?” Jason broke the silence absorbing them as they listened to the radio.
"I guess I am, Jason. I'm the closest, down off Vale Road. Karen and Kris live near me, and you can drop Shauna on your way back to your house." Waverly was a big help because Jason only knew where Shauna lived. Jason knew the area though like the back of his hand and was already thinking about the route he would take as he backed out of his parking space. Other cars were leaving too. Unlike after school, no one seemed to be in a hurry.
As they rounded the corner of the building on their way out, they saw it. The massive mushroom cloud loomed in the east like a vision from an old movie. The edges of the cloud were pierced with contrails from jets that had crisscrossed the area in search of who knows what. Strangely, except for debris, the streets appeared lightly traveled. Jason was glad he had filled up on the weekend, because he instinctively knew that without power most gas stations wouldn't be able to pump gas. He knew that some of his classmates, always running on empty, wouldn't be so lucky and couldn’t make it home. Jason turned right on South Lakes Drive for the last time.
Stoplights were out, so that even with light traffic, some intersections were difficult to pass. There were a lot of tree limbs and lines down in the streets, making it slow going. Motorists that had gone before had pushed a lot of the debris to the center of the streets or off to the side, making it easier for them to get through. Jason imagined what it must've been like in the first ten minutes or so as dazed and anxious drivers in SUVs pushed obstacles aside or drove over them after the flash had blinded them and the shock waves had hit their cars and stalled their engines. There must have been a lot of panic to try to get to safety. There were tipped over and abandoned cars with broken windows everywhere--doors left open. Some motorists apparently had fled without even trying to restart. They were driving through an eerie landscape in a very real nightmare. The radio droned on and the girls in the back seat whimpered to each other their worst fears. Jason tried to block it all out and concentrate on where he had to go. Occasionally, a car would roar by, its driver abandoning all sense of safety. Jason was fully capable of driving like that, but he saw no purpose. He was grateful when each one disappeared without accident. Instead, he maneuvered the Camaro carefully and slowly; making the many turns it took through hilly terrain to Vale Road.
After about a half-hour of picking his way through abandoned cars and debris, Jason turned off Fox Mill Road onto Vale Road. A half-mile down, Waverly was tapping him on the shoulder to turn into the Knutson driveway past their mailbox and up the long drive to Waverly's house set back in the trees. Three times, Jason had to stop the car and they all got out to pull tree limbs off the drive. From the circle in front of the house, Jason could see that many of the windows in the house were broken. "Are you going to be all right?" Jason asked.
"My Dad works over at Dulles, and Mom is a nurse at the Bradford Clinic. I haven't been able to reach them on the cell. Dad will probably be home before too long. I expect that Mom will be very busy taking care of injured people and won't be home for a long time. Sis is in middle school, and I expect her home, too, soon. Got to stay here for her. Don't worry about me; Mom always keeps the house well stocked for emergencies just like this. I'll be okay."
Jason and the others waited and watched until after Waverly had unlocked the door and gone inside. They waited a little longer until they saw her come to the window and wave them on. "Okay, Kris, how do I get to your house?"
Kris began sobbing uncontrollably in the back seat. Shauna turned around in the front seat and tried to comfort her. Karen had a tight grip on her hands. "What's wrong, Kris. What's wrong?" Shauna implored.
"I just know my Dad's dead. He works at the Smithsonian right off the Mall. There's nothing on the cell phone. He's gotta be dead!" She was blubbering and sobbing so much she couldn't even give Jason directions to her house.*
"Turn right Jason," Karen said when they got to the end of the driveway. "We both live on Brecknock about a mile down the road. I'll tell you when we get there." She was holding Kris in her arms now and rocking her gently. "My Dad works in DC, too. I'm praying for him. You can stay with me, Kris, until your Mom gets home." Her eyes were ablaze with fear, but she was trying to be brave for Kris.
The mile passed quickly with the omnipresent dust swirling in Jason's rearview mirror. He turned right on Brecknock and pulled to a stop in the drive of Kris's house. Her sobbing increased to hysteria. Karen intervened. "It's OK Jason, I'll take Kris to the house and watch over her until somebody comes. Shauna opened the door and let Karen and Kris out. Her arms around Kris to hold her up, Karen half walked and half dragged Kris to her front door. She reached in Kris's pocket and found the door key. She struggled to open the door and hold Kris up. Finally, she got her inside. Jason and Shauna waited and watched for her return to the door. When Karen returned and waved, Jason backed out of the drive and turned towards home.
He looked at Shauna, and she looked at him. Jason sensed that she was in trouble too. Although they lived very near each other, they had gone to different schools until high school and didn't really know each other. Jason was into girls, but he had no steady and hadn't thought of Shauna at all. Except for the radio and its endless recanting of the disaster, they drove on in silence up 609 past Navy. Shauna carefully unhooked her lap and chest belt. Jason felt her slide across the seat, snuggle up to him, and lay her head on his shoulder. Jason glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She was looking up at him, her eyes glistening with tears. She held him tighter.
The warmth of her body and the sweet smell of her perfume was little comfort to him. As he drove on through the nightmarish moon dust landscape left by this strange storm, he realized that he was going home to nothing. Jason's Dad worked at the State Department. His Mom was a headmistress of a Montessori School on K Street. His big Sister, Gail, was at Georgetown. He knew they were gone. He just had to keep his head, to try to think, and go home. He was unsure what his next move would be. Only that it was going to be very lonely in that house now. He fought back the tears trying to be strong for Shauna.
It seemed like a moment, he was so deep in his thoughts, but it took much longer for him to drive around the obstacles on the way to Shauna's house. He looked up and she was tugging on him to turn into her drive. He almost missed it. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. Do you want me to stay here until your mother comes home?" He looked into Shauna's tear-streaked eyes. She nodded, yes, and held him closer. She fumbled in her purse for her garage remote. When she found it, it didn't work. Jason pulled up to the garage door and turned off the Camaro. They both sat there for a moment, staring at the house. "You have the key, don't you?" Jason asked.
"No, I don't. Mom had me carrying one for a while, but I kept losing it. So now all I've got is this damn garage door opener that doesn't work." She broke down crying.
"Don't worry, Shauna, I'll get us in somehow. Let's go around back and see if we can find a way in there. Opening his door, he eased Shauna out that way, and, holding her hand, led her around the garage to the back of the house. As they rounded the garage, they heard vicious barking as the neighbor's Rottweiler running to the end of his chain, almost reached them. As the dog spun and shrieked when the choker tightened, Shauna practically jumped into his arms and squeezed him so hard that he thought he couldn't breathe. He dragged her away from the barking dog to the back of the house.
"I remember! Mom used to put a key under the flowerpot, she said, 'In case we get locked out.' I think it's that one over there." She rushed to one of the patio’s big pots, still not filled with spring flowers, turned it over, and revealed a key underneath. She held the key up like it was a prize, smiled brightly through her tears and sauntered over to the back door. The key looked like it hadn’t been used in years, but it opened the door anyway, and they both slid in. They were in the kitchen.
"Would you like something to eat? It's going to spoil anyway." Shauna opened the refrigerator door and fished around. She came up with some leftover chicken, a loaf of bread, and some peanut butter. While Jason sampled a chicken leg, Shauna slathered peanut butter thickly on a slice of bread. Jason went to the refrigerator and got a quart of milk. They took turns drinking from the carton. Their fingers got sticky from the chicken and they caught each other licking them. They shared a peanut butter sandwich. Shauna's eyes glowed with delight as she wiped peanut butter from the edge of his lip and licked it wickedly off her finger. So close now, Jason could feel her heat as their lips met and their eyes closed.
Shauna had him by the hand, and was leading Jason out of the kitchen and down the hall. They slipped into her room and she locked him in a kiss as they slowly reclined on the bed. She was so soft and warm. Jason melted into her. She slipped her hand down the front of his pants and across his scrotum as he rose to the occasion, her tongue darting in and out of his mouth in wild abandon. He slid his hands up under her t-top and bra and was stroking the tips of her nipples as she began stroking his penis. There was a rush to get their clothes off and Jason found himself entering her almost without thinking. Their emotion was so tense it burst like an explosion. They both climaxed quickly and then relaxed in the glow of their released anxiety..
"I never..." Sean started to say.
"Me either." Shauna interrupted. "I'm a virgin, I mean, I never had sex before. Oh, I let guys touch me sometimes, and one time, you know, I even sucked a guy. He came in my mouth. It tasted awful. He laughed and it made me very embarrassed. I don't even talk to him anymore."
Jason kissed her gently on the lips. His fingers once again gently massaging her beautiful, soft breasts "That's terrible. I've always been afraid that I'd hurt a girl, so I was kind of... saving myself... for marriage. I always wanted to touch a girl like I'm touching you now, but I was afraid of AIDS and other diseases. That's why I’ve never been to a prostitute. Are you okay?"
"I think so, it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I was so excited, Jason, that the hurt didn't bother me. I'd do it again, but I think I'm bleeding." She began stroking his penis again. It grew large in her hand. They both heard the front door open.
"Shauna Baby! Are you all right! There's a strange car in the drive! Please, Baby, please be all right!" Shauna's mother screamed out in the living room. "The damn cell phone wouldn't work and I couldn't reach the school. Please Baby, be all right!" They could hear her banging around the living room in the dark.
Jason rolled off Shauna's bed and hid behind it. Shauna reached for a robe and slipped it on as she rushed out the door. Jason crawled around the bed and started picking up his clothes and putting them on as fast as he could.
"Oh Mama, I'm so glad you're all right! I thought you never were going to get home!" Shauna burst into the living room and leaped into her mother's arms. They both wept uncontrollably. It was the time the Jason needed to get his clothes on. They were still sobbing and hugging when he crept down the hall to the bathroom, closed the door gently, peed, washed his face and hands, ran a comb through his hair, checked his blood and dust-stained clothes, and then, after flushing the toilet, opened the door loudly. His heart was still beating wildly as he slowly walked back to the living room.
"Mom, this is Jason from school. He was so kind to give Kris, Karen, Waverley, and me a ride home. I gave him something to eat. He was waiting around for you to come home so that I wouldn't be alone. Mama, it is so terrible what happened. Everybody was crying at school. I went right to bed and Jason stayed here to guard over me. We think Jason's lost his parents and his sister. Can he stay here with us?"
"Now, now Child, I've been praying all the way coming home, ever since George told us we should go home and fend for ourselves and not come back until he called us. I'm so grateful that Jason got you home safely and looked after you, but don't you think the this young man has his own say in it?"
Caught off guard, Jason stammered. "Well... well, I think I'd better be heading home. I have to see if everything is okay there. Here... I'll give you my phone number so that when the phones are working again you can call me. I do want to help you out. So, please give me a call if you need me. We... I... don't live very far from here. Just around the corner"
Shauna gave him the look of someone who is just lost her puppy. Jason's mind was racing with thoughts of what had just happened and what he had to do next. He didn't want to leave the two of them like this. But he had to. He hugged them both, forcing himself not to kiss her inviting lips as he held her throbbing heart against his. And then he wrote down his phone number, said his goodbyes, and left. He didn't know if he’d be back.