Free Final Dawn: Escape From Armageddon by Darrell Maloney

decorate to look like a food distribution business.
         “Any problems if we install a portable freezer and refrigerator unit, and a backup power supply?” Bryan asked.
         “I’ll have to check with the owner,” the commercial properties rep answered. “but normally there’s no problem as long as you restore the property to its original condition upon termination of the lease.”
         By the end of that week, the lease had been signed, Hannah had purchased a few desks and chairs and other “officey” looking stuff, and a new sign had been ordered for the building. “South Texas Distributing Co.” It was a generic enough name to mean just about anything, and remove suspicion when a large variety of delivery trucks came to visit. Or left.
         And it solved their problem of how to get large quantities of food and other items into the mine without anyone noticing.
     
     
     
    -16 -
     
         Hannah and Mark were sitting at a Subway restaurant in Junction. They’d left the mine half an hour before, and were starving. They wanted to have a meal before heading back to San Angelo.
         Hannah had been subdued all day. He’d tried several times to find out what was bothering her, but had no success at all.
         So he did what he always did when she was deep in thought. He pampered her, stayed close to her, and let her know that he loved her more than he’d ever loved anyone. And then he waited until she felt comfortable enough to share her thoughts.
         “Honey, I want to start having kids.” Hannah said out of the blue.
         Mark almost choked on his meatball sub.
         “Wow! Where’d that come from?” He was grinning from ear to ear.
         “I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. I know you’ve always wanted kids, because you grew up with brothers and sisters. To me, family always meant pain and loss, because everyone I ever cared about went away.
         “But something you said the other day, when we were walking in the park, has been coming back to me. You said ‘family doesn’t have to just represent sorrow. Family can also represent joy. And it’s the joy a family brings to life that make the losses a little less sorrowful.’
         “And you’re right. And I do want to have a family. And I do want to have children. I want to know when you think the time would be right.”
         Mark was ecstatic. But he was also realistic.
         “I want to wait until we’re safely in the mine. If something were to go wrong, I don’t want to watch my children die. Once we’re safely tucked away, with not much to do, I want to make love to you twenty times a day. And then, God willing, it’ll happen on its own.”
         Hannah understood his concern, and agreed. But she just had one more question.
         “How many shall we have?”
         “ I’m thinking twelve or thirteen. Thirteen is my lucky number, you know.”
         “Yeah, keep that up, and lucky is one thing you won’t be, sailor.”
     
     
     
    - 17-
     
             APR 17, 2014.       21 MONTHS UNTIL IMPACT
     
         As spring started to come to this part of south central Texas, there were a lot of things going on for the salt mine project.
         On this particular day, there was a late frost on Mark’s windshield as he headed out to the construction site to check its progress. But the morning sun was warm and helped melt it away within a few minutes.
         The steel frame for the dormitory building was virtually complete, and they’d start putting the exterior walls up in a few days.
         There was a security guard at the site now, twenty four hours a day, and he waved at Mark as Mark drove onto the property. It was still a bit early, and the crew hadn’t arrived yet, so Mark was able to wander freely around the site without one of the supers bugging him to put a hardhat on.
         The security guard was hired mainly