Glimmer of Hope (Land of Tomorrow Book 1)

Part I, Chapter 14

Reggie Philips was having the time of his life. He and his wife Janice were practically flying down the highway in their new horse-drawn buggy. It was a beautiful clear day and the cool wind in their faces was refreshing rather than uncomfortable.

The horse and buggy were a gift from the Jackson Purchase, which ordered twenty sets from the large Mennonite community in Graves County. The Mennonites were the only people around whose life did not seem to have changed in the least since N-Day…with the exception of getting more business. They conducted a steady trade in horses, blacksmithing, animal slaughtering, and various other tasks which they looked upon as normal while the rest of the world only saw such things in old movies or documentaries, if at all.

The buggy ride took longer than a car would have, but fuel was scarcer than ever. Reggie and Janice made the trip from Murray to Paducah for the regular JP County Cooperation Council in three leisurely days. Reggie grew up around horses, but had almost forgotten how temperamental they could be and Clipper presented quite a frisky personality. He thought a lot of people would have to learn about horses because they were here to stay. Besides horses, bikes now seemed to be the most practical means of transportation.

They were nearing the huge United States Enrichment Corporation, or USECO for short, which would be the new meeting site and presumably the impromptu governmental center for the JP as a whole. USECO began as a gaseous diffusion plant after World War II. The plant processed weapon grade uranium. The facilities were vast, solid, and most importantly made to withstand a direct nuclear strike.

During the Cold War, the U.S. Government knew that USECO was high on the list of Soviet nuclear targets, but for whatever reason, it was not struck during the N-Day attacks. The engineers who ran the plant followed protocol and responsibly placed all radioactive materials in huge specially built lead vaults several stories beneath the ground, and then thoroughly secured those vaults. Since then, the staff kept the facility in as good working order as possible. The Committee was now taking advantage of the site’s unique features.

It was set on several hundred wooded acres outside of Paducah and surrounded by layers of fences and ditches. The facility itself was not very impressive from the outside because most of it was underground. Inside, the work and living spaces were vast and sufficiently supplied to keep a large staff alive indefinitely following a nuclear holocaust. The Committee decided the USECO complex was perfect for their use.

The facility was also well stocked with Geiger counters and other radiation detection equipment. Reggie previously ordered these to be handed out to government officials throughout the JP, mainly to calm lingering fears of radiation poisoning. So far the Geiger counters had only picked up trace radiation amounts, mostly from dead fish in rivers flowing downstream from the destroyed cities of St. Louis, Louisville, Pittsburg, Nashville, and Huntsville.

As Reggie and his wife rolled through the front gate, he acknowledged and smiled to the two guards who responded with friendly waves of their own. They rode for several minutes up to the old parking lot near the front gate. There wasn’t a hitching post in sight, so Reggie stopped the buggy near an abandoned car, dismounted, and tied the horse’s reins to the front bumper. He then went around and helped Janice down.

General Clarence Anderson was outside smoking with several other people all of whom came over to greet them. Reggie noticed that the men smoked home-rolled cigarettes that looked rough, but tobacco was still in high demand and would probably continue to be one of the major cash crops for the JP…if they could grow enough food to survive the next winter.

“Afternoon. How was the trip?” Anderson asked, giving Janice a warm hug and then shaking Reggie’s hand.

“Wonderful,” replied Janice, who was still flushed and smiling.