THE DAY: A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series) by John Price

razor blades wear out, every man will be bearded. The
school is about ten minutes away for most of us, so we’ll possibly be
able to make a second, maybe a third trip back home, but that’s it . Then, once everyone’s in the school, we lock
it down and get ready for all hel ….heck….to
break loose."
                   Hannah,
the practical member of the small group, asked, "But, Scott, we can pack
our trunks full now, but we’re not going to drive over and move into the
school before the nukes go off, are
we? How does the timing work?"
                   "Good
question, Hannah. We wrestled with that for some time. What we decided was that
everyone needs to keep their cell phones with them. Not in the car. Not in the
bedroom. But, with us . Once anyone in our group hears of the attack, even if it’s a sketchy
early report, call my cell. I’ll send a group text and alert the other
small group leaders. The plan is to get our family members gathered up,
wherever they may be, quickly. Loaded up. Then get over to the school. We can park behind
the school and wait while we listen to the radio reports. Once we know for sure
that the U.S. has been attacked, we start unloading our stuff in the school.
One of the other leaders who was an administrator at
the school has keys to the school. Then we’ll try for a second load and
pray the roads aren’t clogged yet. We should be okay at that stage
because most folks will be in initial shock before full panic sets in."
                     "But Scott," Beau asked,
"What about our cars and trucks, we can’t leave them there , they would
be a huge sign saying ‘there are
people in here’ ."
                   "Correct.
Our plan is to drive to and scatter park the cars in a small sub-division,
about a mile away. Then walk back to the school. They’ll be close if we
need to get to them, but they won’t tip off our location."
                   "It
sounds like you fellows have thought of everything," Audrey said " Have you? Are we forgetting
anything?"
                   Beau
responded, "In war and in similar situations like we are about to face,
the one rule is that planning is always faulty. You can’t know what you don’t know, but I agree with you,
Audrey, Scott’s group has put a lot of thought into how we survive the
train wreck headed our way."
                   "I
don’t want to be too negative," Scott said, "but what we have
planned is for short term survival only . Medium and long term? Well, that’s another story that we can talk and pray
about when we have a lot of time at the school. On that somber note, I think
it’s time that we pray."

22
    The
Moshe and Sophia Guttman Home
    Petah Tikva , Israel
                   Several
hours had passed since the President’s White House Press Room news
conference in which he had announced that America would not get involved in the
invasion of Israel by Russia, Iran and Libya. During ten of those hours the Guttman family inhabited their flat’s safe room. Though they didn’t have cable in the safe room, a small radio
kept them apprised of the latest news. They were temporarily cheered
when the radio newscaster announced that Israel’s PM was making what he
called "one last attempt" to change the President’s mind and
obtain American military help against the forces invading their country. That
good news allowed the four family members to finally get some sleep on their
cots, which were none too comfortable.
                   Just
after 6 AM Moshe awoke and turned the radio on at a low volume so as not to
awake the others. He listened carefully to reports of the location of the
invading forces. He heard a reporter who was located at Israeli Defense Forces
headquarters in downtown Tel Aviv confirm that the lead units of the invading
force were still traveling south on Highway 6, Yitzhak Rabin Highway, and were
just now