Any Means Necessary

Chapter 1: The Blast

    It was the day after Independence Day. My sons James and Lucas were off playing with Jacob who was our neighbors kid. They were all in the woods playing soldier or some silly war game like that with their foam dart guns.  I was sitting out on our porch with my husband enjoying an iced tea when it happened. I was looking out over the trees and I saw a bright flash and then a huge cloud right where the flash had been.

I started to run for the woods screaming for James and Lucas. I guess Lucas was the closest to me and when he heard me, he ran to get his brother. By that time my husband Brett had run up to me. "Helen we have to get to the basement."

"I'm not leaving without the boys!" I yelled at him. "You go. I will wait for the boys."

So I ran towards the back of the house where our basement door was. I flung the door open and started to descend the stair. When I got halfway down I turned around and waited for my boys. A minute later I hear running. Brett stumbles onto the first step and pulled the door close.

"Where are the boys?” I ask with my hands shaking. "You can't just leave them out there!"

"I couldn't find them. I guess they ran to the Bishop's house." When this blows over I will go over there and get the boys I promise."

"Alright." About that time we hear what sounds like a heavy wind blowing over our basement door.

"Are you sure that we are safe in here?" I ask my husband.

"Yes. I fortified the doors to be heat resistant and to help keep out radiation."

"Okay." As we sit there huddled up together I can't help but worry about the boys. James was eight and Lucas was only seven. They were too young to have to deal with this without their parents, but at this point there isn't much I can do about it.

After it sounds like is has calmed down outside we go up and slowly crack open the door. "Does it look okay to get out?" I ask.

"Yeah, everything looks clear." We open the door the rest of the way and crawl out of our dark basement. "I'm going to go check on the boys" Brett says.

"I'll come with you. I want to see them." A look of worry crossed his face. "Okay but you have to stay right beside me. Who knows what all is out there now."

As we travel through the woods I stay right beside my husband and hold his had. I keep looking ahead afraid to look anywhere else and see something I don't want to see. Everywhere around us fires were raging. We were lucky that our path was as clear as it was. As we are nearing the edge of the woods towards the Bishop's house it takes everything in me not to run to their house and beg for my babies back.

We finally reach the door to their house and we knock. After a few minuets there was no answer so we knocked again. "No one is answering. Do you think they are okay? Should we break in?" I asked slightly in a panic.

"No. More than likely they are still in the cellar. Let's go check." We started heading to the back of the house to find the cellar door. When we got back there Brett went to the cellar door and flung the door open.

"Please don't hurt us we don't have anything of value down here." A female voice whimpered at us. "Anne is that you? It Helen and Brett."

"Helen? Brett? Oh I'm so glad to see you!"

"Where is David and the boys?"

"David was headed over to your house."

"Oh does he have Lucas and James with him?"

"No he was headed to your house to go get Jacob."

"No the boys ran back this way when we yelled for them. I know that they came here... Please, please tell me that they are here somewhere!"

"Helen, I'm sorry. The boys aren't here. Neither is Jacob. I guess... I guess we need to go search the woods." Anne said now nearly sobbing.

“The woods are all on fire. From the looks of it only the path that we took to get here was clear.” Brett said. “I will go find David and we will search the woods.”

“No I want to go with you!”  I say and Anne agreed with me. “Whatever happens I want to know.”

“Ok. But don’t wander too far from me. We don’t want to get separated in the fires. That would be dangerous.”

And with that we started to head back to our house to find David.