Hearts For Heros

Hearts For Heroes

Mayor Joie Jones of Seversville, Tennessee sits in her darkened office anxiously awaiting Admiral “Tony” Lamonte and building inspector, Joey Kennedy only hours after a barrage of EMPs going off over 10 of America’s largest cities leaves the country in devastation as it’s 3 grids go down and the country experiences an almost apocalyptic blow to its infrastructure. The State sponsored attack claimed by I.S.I.S. is a masterstroke of synchronized destruction.

Severesville remains without lights, communication, and water. Jones is nearly frantic with worry and the sight of a heart-shaped locket on her desk momentarily distracts her from her near-paralyzing fear. Opening the locket, she sees what appears to be tiny map. She is confused by this strange locket’s appearance and its equally cryptic message.

Rear Admiral Lamonte home from the U.S. Northern Command enters the room and immediately pulls a similar locket from his starched khakis as the affably Joey Kennedy enters the room. He too fingers a heart-shaped locket.

Jones asks, “Where did you get those? Why were these left for us and who did this?”

Lamonte answers, “I suspect you two both found these just now?”

Jones and Kennedy looking shaken reply, “Yes. Me too. I can’t figure this out? What does it mean?”

Lamonte motions Kennedy to a chair.

He explains, “I don’t know how they were delivered to us and whether or not others have gotten them but mine appears to have instructions on the water supply.”

He reaches out his hand for the other two.

As Kennedy and Jones stare, he opens the two additional lockets.

Kennedy asks, “For gods sake we are in the middle of a national crisis. Who knows how many tens of millions of people are dead in the wake of these attacks and now some silly jewelry is supposed to direct us to what? Who is playing tricks?”

Lamonte still studying the 3 lockets replies, “These are codes. They are directing us to critical information.”

Jones swivels in her chair anger apparent on her usually serene face.

She says, “Let me see. I don t believe it. How could anyone have known that this would happen and if they knew then why are they directing us? And to what?”

Kennedy weighs in, “Shit Admiral-I can’t make heads or tails of it and I’ve got a city that is shut down. Hell, the Hospital is barely operating on its lone generator, and we’ve got damn little equipment functioning. We are gonna start losing patients. And the rest of the town has gone crazy. No streetlights, no phones and all the new cars are blocking the roads.”

Lamonte in a calming voice interjects, “Let’s just accept for the time being that these lockets are directing us to find as many remedies as possible. It’s only a matter of time before the city people who survived the EMP’s are going to descend on rural towns like ours. When their grocery stores are fully looted. When they run out of water. So, let’s do an assessment. How many homes have generators? How many cars and particularly Jeeps do we have that were either built before 1980 or can be jerry-rigged? Can we get some men out there and manually control the water? It’s a damn groundwater-supply but we have the lake.”

Jones faces the two men, “so my map? Could that be the key to the water system? It’s definitely a map. And what are yours?”

Kennedy looks like a light has gone on and exclaims, “ My locket is I think directing us to places below the old mine where we can store food and hopefully water. Those mines still have rail cars and hell they probably even have smaller cisterns. Walmart and the grocery store are going to be decimated and we need to protect the food supply and we need to get the water flowing ASAP.”

Joie adds, “Thank God the silos are all so close. We need to start thinking about protecting them and the town.”

Lamonte carefully examines his locket and exclaims, “I’ll be damned but this looks like a map of the city center and a list of fertlizers stores. We need to protect the town.”

Kenndy says “Hell Madam Mayor, I know all the town’s preppers. They may have been a joke before but we need them now. They all have CB radios and walkie talkies though those lines aren’t secure they should be Ok for now. They all know how to make I.E.D.’s. And they all have serious weapons stores.”

Kennedy interjects, “Thank God we have the gas from Walmart and the chevron-we can pump that gas out by hand.”

Jones interjects, “We need a town meeting and we need every CB Radio and Walkie Talkie. Yea and all the older cars. Ronnie has all kinds of vintage cars in his shop and he can rig motorcycles if what we are all thinking is true I’m going to go to Walmart and then see Ronnie.”

Lamonte adds, “Before it gets dark let me start looking for the access points to the water supply and see if we can get all the valves open and get the word out and about the town meeting. Let’s calm everyone down and we need those preppers.”

Kennedy says, “we only have a handful, but I know those boys and I can go round them up. Ronnie will know how to bypass those motorcycles that have electronic ignitions so maybe he can get a few working.

Jones adds, “Alright, let’s get to it and I will spread the word that the town meeting is at 9 o’clock. We’ll have a better sense of what we are up against then. Y’all tell everyone. OK?”

Kennedy leaves Ronnie’s automobile repair shop atop an ancient Harley and drives over to Tommy Thompson’ house, the towns leading prepper. After some quick talk the two turn to the CB Radio which is blasting the news into Thompson’s tiny cabin. They sit aghast and discover that with tens of millions dead the cities have become scenes of carnage and anarchy, with survivors desperate to find much-needed provisions and protection from marauding gangs. Gas and food have quickly become scarcities that people will murder for. Tommy promises to alert the town about the meeting.

The three reconvene at the town’s major traffic stop as all of the residents gather. Each speaks with measured calm outlining the situation with the food and water supply, the interlinking tunnels of the old mine that run through the town and the need for outlying families to move closer in. The town is galvanized.

Jones knows that they will be attacked. It is only a question of when. Even with the crowd exhausted by the day’s events they calmly outline their first plan for defense.

Lamonte grabs the klaxon and tells the towns residents that they must cordon off the city center. He enlists volunteers to create a fence composed of wire, discarded furniture, abandoned cars by tomorrow night.

The following day, Lamonte has rigged the city center and he has the town electrician direct the crowd on how to electrify this makeshift ring of metal that snakes through the city center.

The entire city is mobilized by carefully chosen teams to protect and defend Seversville on a rotating schedule that gives all of the towns inhabitants rations and schedules that will give them both sustenance and sleep in preparation for an assault. Still deviled by the question of who if anyone to let in, the three soon see patterns, heart-shaped patterns appear.

People show up bearing mysterious Heart-Shaped tattoos and other heart related jewelry and even pets with strange heart-shaped carvings in their fur. This heart imagery becomes a secret byword that allows strangers to be admitted into the community. The Hearts brings together almost magically the locals and highly trained scientists, agronomists, military personnel and specialists in a number of fields. All of their hearts contain only one word. SEVERSVILLE.

The three capable leaders gain the support of even the most vocal critics as news travels that other communities are being overwhelmed by the last of the city dwellers. Being near self-reliance, they struggle to balance compassion and pragmatism. Letting in not just the talented but also the desperate mothers and children. Adding to the already-beleaguered population.

Soon the hunters become the hunted. The men and women of Seversville get wind of an assault that will be hundreds strong and the little town races to shore up their battlements.

With Kennedy, Jones and Lamonte at the three corners that comprise the compound the night goes dark. No longer are the attackers using flashlights and torches. No, they have learned that they must attack with a force that is covert and deadly. Soon a line of men and women appear approaching the town with guns and torches.

This is the moment of attack, and the three leaders call out to one another, “Hearts are you there?” From earlier erected platforms the three use klaxons to call to the entire town as even small children wield bows and arrows and sling shots. The town quickly assumes a battle-position, ringing the town with hastily prepared fires from which they answer three calls.

Jones, “Light ‘em up.”

Lamonte, “Light ‘em up.”

Kennedy, “Light them up.”

Fire lands on the old timber and leaves that litter the towns forest. Now outside the arranged perimeter, the forest blazes as the town has gathered an ample ready water supply to extinguish any counter measures by the horde.

Lamonte addresses the crowd, “They are coming back and this time they will be better prepared. Get some sleep because we must add new defenses. Don’t worry. We will be prepared.”

Without unnecessary drama the three leaders convene at Tommy’s shop.

Jones,” Well Admiral what are they going to come at us with? I know they are coming but with what?”

Kennedy, “I think they will come hoping to take us down with water and rush the town.”

Lamonte. “We will need more fire-what can we gather and burn? Let’s get the word out that we need another line of defense, and everyone should bring anything that we can ignite. Beds. Sofas.”

The three pour over maps of the city, the local forest and the mines.

Jones, “I think this is outrageous, but it may work.”

Lamonte, “Fortune favors the bold.”

Kennedy, “Well, it’s time to think outside the box.”

Jones almost laughing, “We’ve gone so far from the box that we may just make it.”

The next morning dawns and Kennedy leads a band of hunters deep in the nearby forest and returns with the city’s Veterinary leading the way. They have over a dozen anaesthetized wolves. These wolves will be unleashed and will protect the area between the fires and the fencing. The day is taken up by drilling and welding as the auto mechanics and the just plain handy work to secure the fencing.

As day turns to night the town lays in wait. As they are attacked by a mob armed with fire extinguishers and ladders the wolves are unleashed. The night is pierced with screams and gunshots.

The next day the three leaders gather. The three hammer out yet a new plan as they ring the outer most “fire” fence with cars. Cars that have been prepped. Full of gas, these electricity-dependent newer cars now will be arraigned around the town and rigged to blow with everything from torn sheets to bolts of Christmas fabric.

Again, the town is spared.

Realizing that this is one town that will not fall the town is spared for one night and then two and then an entire week as the three leaders learn that help is finally on the way. The US military is now on the move. Short wave radios talk of the Hearts for Heroes secret war. Jones, Lamonte and Kennedy alone know the secret. They embrace.

The End