Our Rights We Will Maintain
"In Nuclear War all men are cremated equal." - Dexter Gordon
February 21st, 1984
The Day
Jack Stevenson sat in his house in the Iowa country and looked upon the seemingly endless blanket of white. The snow had come early this year and killed his latest crop putting the future of his farm in question. He had inherited this farm from his father, who got it from his father and so on for 5 generations. Yet it only took one for Stevenson to ruin it. He was facing bankruptcy, the bank was preparing to take the farm because Stevenson didn’t know a damn thing about farming. He went to school to become a goddamn hedge fund manager. The soil had dried up and took his latest crop with it and because of that, Stevenson was going to have to go bankrupt if he didn’t get a sudden influx of cash; and soon. He pushed the thought of losing the farm out of his mind. Ever since Mary packed up and headed East Stevenson had been struggling to go on, and he has but it was not always easy. The song on the radio, Thriller by Michael Jackson, suddenly stopped. The silence caught Stevenson off guard but it was not long before it was replaced by the DJ talking in a shaky voice.
“Hello everybody. I have terrifying news for you today. It has just been confirmed that half an hour ago there was a nuclear attack by NATO forces on Soviet troops in Kassel, West Germany. Initial casualties are expected to be severe. Our worst fears have been realized. It is only a matter of time, at least in this DJ’s opinion, until the Soviet Union retaliates with atomic weapons of its own. Please stand by for a message from Governor Branstad.” There was a short but loud beep before another voice came on over the radio.
“My fellow Iowans I come to you in troubling times. As I speak our forces in Europe are fighting the Warsaw Pact with all the courage afforded to them by the grace of God. However, it cannot be denied that as of late things have become desperate on the Front. However, nobody could have imagined it to be this desperate. I hope, as do us all, that things do not escalate any more than they already have. However, as a precaution I hereby order all National Guard units to their stations to await further orders. May God bless us all.” the DJ then came back on air
“And that was the Governor addressing the State. If you are just joining us it was confirmed that…” the DJ’s voice trailed off as Stevenson ran upstairs.
“
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Stevenson thought. He grew up fearing this day. Now it’s apparently arrived.
He speed walked into the room at the end of the long hall but stopped at a room right next to it. He made a move like he was going to go in but instead he didn’t. He left it like it was when his son...left him. He still naively hoped that one day his son would knock on the door but he knew that was not happening. He was stationed in West Germany and was killed when the Soviets broke through Fulda. Stevenson shook his head and once again pushed away the dark thoughts and walked into his room. He walked past his small bed and into the walk-in closet on the left wall. Hanging there, neatly pressed and crisp was his National Guard uniform. On the sleeve was the chevrons indicating he was a Corporal. He quickly changed into his uniform, threw his rucksack over his shoulder and rushed out of the house.
He got into his old, black, ‘73 Suburban and quickly pulled out of the driveway onto his rough gravel road. He was to meet his squad in Iowa City. Then they were to move onto the muster point in Cedar Rapids. He turned on his radio to keep track of any recent developments and drove off down the road.
After a largely uneventful drive he was approaching Iowa City the local DJ took over the radio waves.
“Hello listeners this is KICR with another shocking development from the Western Front. The Soviet Union has launched SCUD missiles at NATO forces in Western Europe. We have confirmation of only one target, Hamburg, being hit. It’s no doubt other cities were but we do not know which ones at this time. I will keep you updated as the situation develops.” then the music came back
“
Shit. The Soviets used nerve gas?” Stevenson thought as he turned into town. “
Shit, the Soviets had
nerve gas?” Stevenson thought
He drove down main street into a McDonald's parking lot where his squad met relatively frequently. When he got there he saw that the rest of his squad had already arrived. They all lived in Cedar Rapids so they all simply piled into his truck to go. There was the 23 year old Fredrick Smith. He was a very average guy. About 5’10 with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. He was the youngest in the group so the rest of them simply referred to him as “The Kid”. Then there was the 29 year old Hank Thompson. He was the shortest of the group at 5’6 so he was known affectionately as “Squirt”. He had brown hair and green eyes. He also had a scar on his chest where he had surgery as a child. He never revealed what the surgery was for, but nobody really cared. Finally there was Tom Xin. Xin was the son of Chinese immigrants who fled after the Commies took over in the 40’s. He had black hair and dark brown, almost black eyes. He never talked much. The squad called him “Mime” due to his tendency not to talk. Finally there was Stevenson, the 30 year old 6 ft leader of the squad. He had red hair and freckles as he was a ginger which brought him much teasing in school. The squad lovingly referred to him as “Sarge” since Stevenson was their commander and it was what all commanders were called in the movies. When in place of an actual Sergeant he was Joker because of his tendency to crack a joke at every opportunity.
As the squad clambered in the truck Hank spoke first “You all hear about the gas attack on Hamburg?” he asked
“Of course we did Squirt. It’s all over the news. You’d have to be deaf not to know about it. Hey Sarge, you hear about it.” Squirt asked.
“Of course I did, but it can’t be worse than what comes outta your ass.” Jack said as he put the truck in reverse. That brought a few chuckles from the men in the truck.”That was pretty morbid Sarge.” Squirt said. As they backed up the squad walkie talkie crackled to life.
“Squad Foxtrot, how are you doing?” the voice on the other end asked
Hank, the squad radioman, handed the talkie to Jack “We are doing good, orders still the same?” Jack asked.
“Affirmative. Head to Cedar Rapids to receive further orders. Out” the voice on the other side said.
Jack handed back the walkie talkie as he pulled into the street and headed North. The ride was quiet, only the faint crooning of The Ink Spot’s I Don’t Want (To Set the World On Fire) broke the silence. Finally Tim spoke up.
“We all know how this is going to end right?” he said
“Yeah, we do Tim. We just don’t want to talk about it.” Fredrick said.
“Yeah. I had my wife take the kids to the family farm near Thayer, near the Missouri border.” Tom said
“My wife left for my mother's house in Kentucky.” Hank said
“My family left for California after the KAL Incident. They were always a paranoid bunch.” Fredrick said. Nobody wondered about Jack’s family, they knew what happened to them. As they got to the edge of town they hit bumper to bumper traffic that police tried in vain to decongest. People were probably trying to flee the cities. Jack expected this, but not so fast after stuff started to go down. After almost an hour of getting next to nowhere the DJ once again took over the radio. The men in the car let out an audible groan as they knew that could only mean things were getting worse.
“Hello people, I bring you more bad news from Europe. It appears that NATO and Warsaw Pact forces have begun flinging chemical weapons like candy. Exact casualties are unknown but they are suspected to be major, both military and civilian. I….oh my god. I don’t even know what to say to this people. Things are going to shit so-”
He was cut off when Jack turned off the radio. The rest of the squad looked at him judgingly for a moment before Jack turned around.
“Hey guys. What, you wanna hear the world go to shit? Look, if anything world shattering happens then we will be notified by Camp Dodge.” Jack said.
“We aren’t annoyed about that. We wanted music. Helped pass the time ya know?” Hank said. The rest of the squad nodded in agreement.
“Ugh, fine.” Jack relented. He turned the radio on again just to hear the tail end of the DJ’s speech.
“-and if we can come together now then maybe we can stop this. Anyway, lets get back to the music. Keep your family close and pray we see tomorrow.” he said before the music started again. It was more somber than usual. Really fit the mood of overarching dread and doom the looming nuclear war brought about.
Jack started to idly philosophize on the nature of war when a man ahead of him got out of his car and started shouting at the man ahead of him. He got out of his car and a fight looked imminent. Jack and the squad looked at each other knowingly and got out of their cars to stop the fight from breaking out. By the time they walked the few steps to the two men they had already started punching. One man was burly and fairly muscular, hairy to. He was the stereotypical man’s man. The other was less so, he looked more akin to working in a store than throwing down. The squad intervened and quickly broke up the fight as Jack stepped in the middle of the two.
“Okay! Okay! Okay! Everybody calm the hell down! What in the hell is going on here?” he asked while switching his view from each of the men.
The man on the right, the nerdy one, spoke first “This jackass flipped me off!” he yelled
“But you deserved it pipsqueak! Riding my ass like that you would’ve hit me!” the other man retorted.
“Oh i’ll fucking hit you!” the nerdy man said before struggling and failing to escape Tims grip. He quickly calmed when Tim tightened his arm around the man’s neck.
“Okay everybody calm the hell down. You, skinny boy, don’t ride that guys ass. And you, meathead, calm down.” Jack said
“Who are you to boss me around?” Meathead asked
“National Guard. Did you even see the uniforms?” Jack asked, surprised. Meathead suddenly looked real sheepish.
“Now, if I have my boys let you go will you two get in your cars and stay there?” Jack asked. Both men gave curt nods and were released. Like they said they both glared at each other but got into their cars and traffic once again could move forward at the snail’s pace it was. Jack and the squad got back into Jack’s truck and traffic continued moving forward for the next two and a half hours until they got through and sped down the highway.
They were just able to see Cedar Rapids in the distance when there was a sudden flash of light. “FUCK!” Jack screamed as he dove down and closed his eyes.
*
CRASH!*