Grady couldn’t shake that feeling now in his stomach. There were a lot of emotions running through him. He had just killed several people, which was one of the reasons he felt nauseous. But there was something else gnawing at him too. Eleanor, he knew it was Eleanor. His conversation with Sabine had brought her back to the forefront of his mind. Those memories were something he felt he needed to forget. It was far too painful to think about, and yet here he was reliving those days as if a projector screen had been placed in front of him and was playing a movie of his life to him.

Grady had met Eleanor when they were both young, she was 18 and he was 22 to be exact and they met in college. Grady had decided to study civil engineering, since he had found he enjoyed engineering in the military. Eleanor was in the electrical engineering program, and they met because of overlapping classes. After a number of enjoyable discussions, Grady was pleasantly surprised to find that Eleanor also liked Ayn Rand, an author he had discovered during his active duty. Suddenly the two were talking about things other than engineering.

Eleanor’s parents were initially put off by the age gap, but eventually they came to accept what Eleanor and Grady already knew, marriage was inevitable. The two married the summer after graduating and both found good jobs right away. The two were happy partners, and between them the salary allowed them to start talking about buying a house before too long. It was a beautiful house in Maryland, Grady still lived there right up until the event. The marriage was a happy one by all accounts, and the two decided children would be a part of their future together. But after over a year of trying, they discovered that biology had intervened, and they would not be able to have biological children. This was devastating for both of them, but they carried on with their lives, trying to be happy with what they did have.

“Grady! Grady!” Grady heard an out of breath voice behind him, bringing him back out of his head.

Grady turned around to see Sabine moving quickly toward him.

“What do you want Sabine?” Grady asked in as gruff a voice as he could muster.

“Oh you old grump. We want you to join us, at least for a bit, so that we can properly thank you. You didn’t have to come and help us fight our battle, but you did so anyway.”

“No thanks. I really need to be getting back to the shelter.”

“For what? So you can sit around and brood in your loneliness?”

This struck Grady. Was it really that obvious that he was lonely? Or was she just saying it to get a rise out of him?

“No, now really I w--”

“Stop right there Grady. I won’t take no for an answer.”

“You never do woman, do you. All right, I’ll go, just to get you to shut up. I don’t need you yapping at me the whole way back to my shelter.”

Prior to the event, Grady wouldn’t have entertained the idea of being with a group of people, unless out of necessity. He was much too introverted for that. But, as it turned out, two years without human contact will actually make you feel the need to be with people. As much as Grady was putting on a show of disinterest, he really wanted someone other than himself to talk to, at least once in a while. And who knew, maybe someone in the group would be worth talking to.

“We have unfortunately gotten pretty good at tending to our wounded. The Archangels have made that a necessity for us. Most of the people we pick up in the group are professor types as I mentioned before, but we actually have managed to grab a few people who are a bit more warrior oriented, a couple of former police officers, like Joe. And a former secret service agent.” Sabine explained.

Grady shook his head as she spoke, but he was only half listening. At least until the part about a secret service agent.

“Hold on, you have a former secret service agent in the group?” Grady asked.

“Yes. Would you like to meet him?”

“Yes, Yes I would actually.”

“Hmm, I see the grumpiness is clearing.” Sabine chuckled.

Sabine walked slowly in front of Grady. She was certainly feeling better, but she was looking forward to sitting down, and perhaps a nap. It had been a long day and her recovery was not yet complete.

The two drew closer to the group. Joe was the first one to come and greet them, still with rifle in hand. Now a second person, a lady, with joined him. She was also clearly bearing her firearm.

“Grady, this is Judith Steinbaum. She is a former member of the capitol police, just like Joe, who you have already met. Judy, this is Grady Vance.”

“Hello Grady, nice to meet you, though I imagine we crossed paths before.” Judy said curtly.

“I am sure that is true.” Grady replied.

“So where is this secret service agent anyway?” Grady asked, turning to Sabine.

Sabine pointed ahead.

“He is up here, watching this side for the inevitable return of the Archangels.”

“How many of them are there?” Grady asked as they walked toward the other side of the group, slowly because Sabine wasn’t ready yet for a faster pace.

“We don’t have a clue, to be honest with you. It feels like a never-ending supply, because every time we escape one gang of them, it feels like the next time the gang that attacks us is 50 percent bigger. And it isn’t just the Archangels, there are other smaller gangs. We have been saved a couple of times by rival gangs busting on the scene to fight.” Sabine replied.

“Why do you think none of these gangs have found their way to my shelter? I certainly would have seen them by chance at this point.”

“It’s because of the radiation. No one has dared to come this close. Hell, I don’t know how you survived for two years over there. But we are desperate at this point, and the radiation levels have come down.”

“How do you know that?” Grady asked.

Sabine pointed to a person holding a device that looked like a portable radio from a distance.

“That is our Geiger counter. We have been monitoring this edge for a while, trying to work our way out of the most dangerous portions of Maryland. The gangs seem to leave this area alone out of fear, and we wanted to use that to our advantage, that is why you found me in the snow.”

“Heh, turns out everyone has a bit of survivalist in them, even you dumb professors.” Grady replied, in a heckling tone.

“I am truly amazed that you still have hair, at least at the beginning you must have been absorbing large doses of radiation.”

“In the beginning I wasn’t leaving the shelter much after I built it. I grabbed as much as I could food and water wise and stayed underground until the water was gone. Then I worked on filtering the rainwater. I figure that must have been a month after the event.”

“How long did it take you to build your shelter?” Sabine asked.

“You would be surprised how fast you can work when you know time is of the essence. The initial shelter wasn’t much, it is practically a mansion now compared to what it was, but in its initial phases it took about 18 hours to throw together, working as fast as I could the whole time.”

“I am glad you are opening up, you old grump. But let me introduce you to Jonah now.” Sabine said, pointing at a young man.

“Jonah, this is Grady.” Sabine said, getting Jonah’s attention.

The young man turned and reached out his hand and then looked into Grady’s eyes. Grady examined Jonah and instantly recognized him. Jonah had certainly lost weight, mostly in the form of muscle mass, his cheeks were more sunken, but Grady would recognize that face anywhere. When Jonah’s eyes reached Grady’s face, it was clear he recognized Grady too.  

“’Don’t let this one back in. He has been relieved of duty.’ I remember that line as clear as day.” Grady said, without any salutation.

“And I am sorry about that, I was just doing my job.” Jonah responded.

“I know kid, I am not holding a grudge, I am just saying I remember you.”

“Well, I sure am not a kid anymore, this life turns you into an adult real fast.”

“How old are you, Jonah?”

“I am 23 now. I was only about two months into the job when—”

“Yeah, you definitely had to grow up quick kid. Don’t take this the wrong way, but when I heard there was a secret service agent, I was excited that I might get some answers, but I am sure you don’t have any.”

“That is what you wanted to meet Jonah for? We should be asking you what you know.” Sabine asked.

“Look Sabine, I don’t know anything, like I told you. Hell, I don’t even know if the president survived –”

“He did. At least initially, I don’t know after that.” Jonah said, butting back into the conversation.

“And Grady is probably not lying either Sabine. I was there the night he was fired and—”

“Quit.” Grady interjected.

“If you want to call it that.” Jonah snapped back.

“So, when exactly did you lose contact? And how exactly did you survive? You were at the White House”

“I will start with the survival part first. My shift ended at the same time I kicked you out. You didn’t see me, but I was behind you in the parking lot. You were looking off into the world, and I am pretty sure you were hiding a gun in your back seat. I had my gun drawn, but then you got into your car and left.”

“How the hell did you know it was a gun? I had it covered.” Grady asked.

“You think we don’t notice things as agents? We must notice things, to protect the president.” Jonah replied.

“You would have made a fine senior agent it seems. Anyway, when did you lose contact?”

“If you mean radio contact, immediately after the bomb went off. The electro-magnetic pulse killed essentially all communications. But we had a contingent in place, in case we ever had to go radio silent. We replied via a messenger. Agents went back and forth the first couple of days. But after that silence. I don’t know whether they were killed or decided to take the president elsewhere without letting us know, or really what happened. The leftover agents went our separate ways after that. “Jonah explained.

“Well, you got your information, Grady, why don’t you spill what you know?” Sabine asked.

“I have been trying to tell you, I don’t really know anything. The only thing I know, is that across the government, strange things were happening with the AI, a friend of mine confirmed that just before the event.”  Grady replied.

“Yeah, I heard whispers of AI too among the agents, but it seems the White House was convinced the bombing was done by Russia.” Jonah chipped in.

“Kid, I hope you don’t believe that crap, it sure as hell wasn’t Russia.” Grady replied.

“Why not? They were a mortal enemy, or did you think Trenholm was right on that too, kissing up to Russia?” Sabine asked.

“Listen lady, you can try and do your textbook analysis all you want. Russia was an enemy, sure I can agree with that, bunch of commies over there. But –”

“You really think Russia was communist? That is nuts, they were horrible, but not communist.”

“We aren’t going to agree on that, but as I was saying, I knew the Russian leadership. Trenholm had them running around here all the time. They wouldn’t have blown us to smithereens and then just left things alone. There would have been a tactical force here soon after. And no, they wouldn’t have batted an eye at sending their soldiers into the fallout.”

“What if they didn’t have time Grady? What if we bombed them back?” Sabine asked.

“I can’t imagine we didn’t bomb them back Sabine. What I am saying they surely would have had a landing force here ready to go –”

“That doesn’t make sense though. Who else could have bombed us like this? They must have bombed outside just D.C., we would have been pulled out of here by rescue crews years ago unless the whole country was bombed.” Sabine said interrupting Grady.

Grady knew Sabine was right, there really was only one country with the capacity to bomb the whole U.S. in this way. But this realization just deepened the mystery.

“Alright then, what is your theory?” Grady asked.