Free Ozark Retreat by Jerry D. Young Page B

first stranded vehicle. A woman was out in the cold, coat clutched around her, staring the engine under the open hood of the car.
    “Brady…” Star started to say.
    He was already pulling over to stop. Star got out of the Suburban this time with Brady. “Come on, Lady,” Brady called. “We’ll take you in to Branson. You aren’t going to get it to start.”
    She didn’t ask why, just hurried to the back door of the car and backed out a few seconds later carrying a baby in a child carrier seat. Brady took the child from her when she slipped and almost fell. Star helped her to the passenger side of the Suburban while Brady went to the driver’s side rear passenger door and set the baby carrier on the seat. The mother leaned over and began to fasten the carrier into place with the seatbelt. Brady and Star climbed back into the Suburban and Brady got it moving again.
    He also stopped at the second vehicle. It was a man alone. Brady offered to give him a ride in, but the man refused, saying his brother-in-law was traveling behind him and would help him get the car going. His brother-in-law was a crackerjack mechanic, according to the man.
    Brady looked over at Star. She shrugged.
    “I feel bad,” Brady said when he got back into the truck. “But he really insisted on staying to wait for his brother.”
    “Can’t save people from themselves,” Star said.
    The mother asked from the back seat, “What’s going on? I just thought my car quit, though it just had a tune up, but with this other one at the same time…”
    “I think we’ve been attacked with an EMP weapon,” Brady said.
    “What’s that?” the mother asked. “What do you mean, attacked?”
    “It’s a nuclear device enhanced to knock out electronics in a wide area,” Brady said. “Did you notice your radio went dead at the same time the car died?”
    “Yes… I guess it did, but I didn’t really notice. Nuclear device? Do you mean atomic bombs? We were attacked with atomic bombs? That can’t be! That just can’t be!”
    Brady had to concentrate on his driving. Star twisted around in her seat and began trying to calm the mother as the baby slept peacefully, oblivious of what was going on. Whatever Star had said to the mother seemed to work. She was sitting quietly, cooing to the baby when they came up on another stopped vehicle.
    This time it was a man, woman, and child. Brady offered to take them the rest of the way to Branson and they accepted, the man saying, “Cell phone won’t work out here. They guaranteed it. I’ll be talking to them, believe you me!”
    Neither Brady nor Star tried to explain this time. Brady just made room in the back of the Suburban for the father and son. The mother rode beside the other woman. They didn’t see anyone else and were soon in Branson. It was cold and raining, but no more ice. Both families lived in Branson and Brady dropped them off, warning them that they should try to find a radio that would work and find out what was going on. He refused to explain further.
    Star took note of Brady’s still grim expression and repeated her earlier assertion. “You can’t save people from themselves.”
    “I know. But that baby…”
    “Try not to think about it,” Star said softly. She didn’t admit that the baby’s fate was in her thoughts, too.
    Another forty minutes and they were at the compound.
    “You have a castle!”
    “Not exactly,” Brady said.
    “Sure looks like a castle. Kind of short though.”
    “It’s not a castle.” Brady had already been kidded about being King of the Castle after the crenellated parapet wall had been installed. Brady drove up, past the gravel parking lot half full of vehicles, mostly cars, though with a mix of pickups and SUV’s, as well as two Class C motor homes.
    Brady was pleased to note that the compound had been secured. The main gate was closed and he assumed it was locked. The gate was in two parts that rolled open and closed on V-grooved steel wheels that