EMP: Heading Home by Harp Wilson

Author:Harp, Wilson [Harp, Wilson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-08-22T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 12

We were given nice quarters to stay in for a few days; two rooms in what had been officer housing on base before the event. The windows of both rooms looked out toward the flight line and main hangars of the base. I was amazed at how busy the airstrip was considering we were supposed to have been turned back into stone-age men. The lack of lights kept planes from taking off or landing at night, but there was a flurry of activity in the morning as three or four planes left on their missions and by the time the sun was setting, most of those planes were being put back in the hangars.

It was odd to see progress at this level. I wouldn’t have imagined flight would be re-accomplished within a year of the event, and yet here it was. It was also odd to hear some of the responses to progress. We learned in addition to weather, lack of radar, lack of radio, and lack of lights, the pilots of these little planes had to deal with gunfire as well. More than once, a plane had returned with several bullet holes which needed to be patched. Several times, planes had not returned at all.

I couldn’t imagine the thought process which would lead a man to fire on a plane during this time. Probably the same thought process that led four hundred men to charge the gates of a military base.

The next morning we were taken to a map room. The officer in charge, a Captain Ruffin, asked where we were headed and helped us plot the quickest route.

“We can go straight up Route 4 until we hit Interstate 55. That will take us right through Springfield,” Ted said as he drew a line with his finger on the map.

“Correct,” said Ruffin. “And that’s where Colonel Miller is based. You’ll want to avoid Springfield at all cost.”

“How would we have to go to avoid his area?” I asked. “I don’t want to lose two or three days heading east just to head back west.”

“That’s the problem. Colonel Miller controls everything within forty miles of Springfield, so you’re going to have to go around. Even skirting the edge is dangerous because he has fairly aggressive patrols.”

“Then we head west to the river and follow it north,” said Ted. “We angle to hit north of the Saint Louis area and keep going until we get to the quad cities.”

“It might work except for the radiation,” Ruffin said. “A couple of nuke sites had full melt downs near the quad cities, and both sides of the river are in pretty bad shape for close to a hundred miles.”

“And there were some plants in Northern Illinois,” I said. “I remember seeing stories about them on the news.”

“Near Champaign and Bloomington,” he said. “Reports indicate they suffered major melt-downs as well.”

Ted looked at the map. “We’ll have to figure out a clear path.”

“And not take too much time,” I said. “We need to get there as quickly as possible.

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