JAA Ch. 01: Aftermath

"Michelle," Jenny started.

"No, no don't," Michelle interrupted her.

"Yes, yes I do. He was already married to me by then."

"What?" Susan screamed.

"He and I had been married for fifteen years by then."

"And you're still with him after what he did?"

"Yes, because he told me exactly what was going to happen and why before we married."

Both women were shocked to silence. Both stared at Jenny as if she was the beast with two heads. Jenny smiled at both women as she let go of John's hand. She then leaned over and hugged Michelle who sat there stiffly. Jenny whispered something in her ear and she relaxed and hugged her back. Jenny then got up walking around to where Susan sat. Squatting she hugged Susan and whispered in her ear. Susan's arms came up and around Jenny as she began to sob.

John looked at Michelle who had tears streaming down her face. He mouthed 'I'm sorry' to her. The tears ran down her face even more. She leaned over to him and pulled him to her. Her embrace was strong yet gentle.

"I... I love you," she whispered.

John hugged her all the harder. "I love you too," John whispered in her ear.

Jenny was still holding Susan but looking at John. She jerked her head trying to indicate that he should take her place. John rose and was at Susan's side as Jenny slipped her arms from around her. John, kneeling, took her place pulling Susan to him. At first, she struggled but, not very hard. She then relaxed into his arms and hugged him back fiercely.

"I... "

"Don't," Sue stopped him, "say those words, not yet."

John kissed her cheek then held her tightly as she sobbed onto his collar. Michelle was wiping the tears from her eyes as Jenny and she talked quietly.

"Susan... please let me say this. I never meant to hurt you, honest. I knew you would become a friend of Michelle's and mine. But, I never saw me falling, falling for you the way I did. Michelle yes. My feelings for you... I never saw that coming."

"What do you mean you never saw that coming?"

"He can see the, no that's not what he told me... it was, he knows the future, his future. He can communicate with his future self and know what his future self, knows. Remember the bar the night before the dance? How he knew those men?" Michelle spoke as she thought back to that night.

"Yes."

"He knew their names and things because his future self knew them."

"What? What are you talking about?" Susan looked confused and disoriented.

"Susan, how do I put this? You now have two children, a boy, and a girl. Have you told me their names? Have you told me how old they are?"

"No."

"Bobby and Jackie, Bobby is three and Jackie is four."

"You could have found that out from Michelle or other places."

"I guess I could have. Okay then... you just found this out this morning. You're pregnant."

Michelle gasped as did Jenny and Sue.

"How... how did you find out?"

"You told my future self but, now you won't have too."

"When did I tell you?"

"Three days from now."

Susan just sat there looking at John. Her eyes were hard points of light that softened as he watched. Leaning forward she kissed his lips gently.

"Do you know if it's going to be a boy or a girl?"

"Yes I do, do you want to know? So far you don't and you're very surprised on the day of delivery."

"Oh. Then I guess I don't want to know. Just tell me it will be healthy."

"It will be healthy and normal and grow up to be a very nice young... almost spilled the beans there."

"Thank you. Why have you waited until now? Why? Why? Why?" Susan was starting to get angry again.

Michelle grabbed her friend's hand and pulled her around to face her.

"Just be glad that we know he's okay now and there will be no more worrying about him."

"I suppose you're right. But I still want to know why?"

John and Jenny then went on to explain what was going to happen in nine years. They explained everything, almost. They left out the very end but told the pair everything else about what would happen for the next nine years and the ten years after. Michelle and Susan's cell phones ringing at exactly the same time interrupted them.

"Hello," Michelle got hers out first.

"Hello," Susan answered hers.

Both listened intently. They looked at each other and smiled.

"Seeing as you two are together I'm going to have Michelle hang up," Susan smiled and nodded her head at Michelle who closed her phone. "We are at Micholo's. Yes, yes we have been here all afternoon. No, it's not going to cost you a fortune. Why don't you and George hop in the car and get up here if you don't believe me? Fine, see you then." Susan was quiet as she pushed her phone back into her purse.

"They'll be here in thirty minutes."

"I do hope you are not in any trouble," Jenny said to Susan.

"No," Susan laughed, "none at all."

Thirty minutes to the second two men, George and Mark, sat down at their table. Michelle and Susan introduced John and Jenny to their respective husbands. John raised his hand in the air and Tony, the proprietor was by his side.

"Tony, we'll order dinner now."

"Yes, Mister Abernathy."

"John Tony, it is John to you."

"Of course my friend, what is everyone having tonight?"

Three waiters appeared as if out of thin air and started taking the orders of each couple. They were alone after drinks for Mark and George along with refills for everyone else appeared on the table.

As expected by John dinner went well. John and Jenny went through everything with Mark and George that they had gone through with Michelle and Susan. After dinner, John invited them all to their hotel for drinks and conversation in the lounge. The women accepted. The men begrudgingly gave into their wives demands. Both men were surprised when John and Jenny just walked past the owner with a wave and a smile. Tony yelled goodbye with a big grin on his face.

"Don't worry he knows to send me the bill and it will be paid promptly," John said to George and Mark as they walked to their cars.

For the next four hours, Mark and George grilled John about the coming events. Each, in their own words, asked him about the safety of their wives and children. John answered as best as he could, that as far as he could tell, they lived long and happy lives with their families. They both seemed happy with his answers and their eyes sparkled as they gazed at their wives.

John had already reserved rooms as none of them was in any condition to drive. The children were together at Susan's parents so there was no real worry about them. Everyone said goodnight.

John had other close friends and those who were not so close, although John considered them friends just the same. After that night at the restaurant and the hotel lounge, Mark and George felt better about the man their wives had known as Mike Sullivan and who they had both fallen in love with so long ago.

In turn, Susan and Michelle brought on board, other doctors. A few refused at first but as the days drew near, they signed up. It was not a hard sell.

More enlisted over the next few years. Some turned down the offer, others joined wholeheartedly. Soon the ranks filled and preparations began.

Chapter 3

"We need to set up compounds here, here and here. I want them all stocked with enough food, water, and fuel, gasoline, and diesel, for a large group of people to stay there for up to a year at each. At the last one, I want the underground caverns we found filled with hydroponics. I want to be able to grow enough plants, fruits, and vegetables, to sustain a large, one thousand or more, population indefinitely. There are also underground aquifers there that I want them isolated from the surrounding aquifers. There is a natural spring at the end of the valley that I want to be preserved.

"I also want cabins, the old log kind, built there. Here are the specs for them. There are eighteen in all. The biggest will be built first as it will sever as a mess hall, meeting hall and community room. It will have twenty-two bedrooms upstairs for guests of the community. The other seventeen cabins will range in use from an infirmary to offices to homes.

"There will be two tunnels from the community house to these points here and here in the forest just inside the mouth of the valley. You can all read so take a copy of the plans and make it happen."

"Right, sir."

"Bill, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me 'sir'?"

"Sorry John. All right everyone let's get out of his way, there are others waiting to see him. Move, move, move," Bill said loudly.

John sat there holding his head as the next group filed into the conference room. This was the third group he had to speak to today. It was also the most important group. John looked around the room. He knew every one of them personally. He had made sure of that.

"I want to thank you all for coming I know how busy you all are, now, down to business. I...we will need stockpiles of weapons in the three places you now see on your monitors. Each one will have to be hidden in such a way that no one will be able to find them unless they know they're there. In addition, the government can't know about this.

"Now just wait, let me explain why. The weapons will be used to defend ourselves in what is to be the most catastrophic event that will ever occur to mankind. You have all heard me speak about the Yellowstone super-volcano?"

John pauses looking around the table, everyone was nodding.

"That event will cause...untold suffering to many millions of people. Everything that I do, from this point forward, is to protect you and your families as best as I...we can from the fallout of that event.

"Here is the list of weapons and vehicles I...we need to be in place within the next year. There is a general fund set aside just for this expenditure, Mary has the account numbers. All of these transactions must be hidden from the government so there is no investigation started prior to October three years from now, is that clear? I don't care if they find out about it after that date, as it won't matter. Just have everything in place next year at this time."

John looked around the table again. The look on everyone's face was somber but determined. John caught the eye of the head of the weapons division and nodded. Carl nodded back and stood, waving all the rest out of the room. Once the room was empty, Carl turned to John.

"I'll make it happen just as you want. What latitude do I have with problem people?"

"As much as you need, of course, just no deaths, we are not killers."

"That's all I needed to know, thanks." Carl turned and left the room.

"That," a female voice said from behind the partition that hid the sitting room at the other end of the conference room, "went well."

"Yes, it did, about as I expected." A feminine laugh issued from behind the partition again.

"I bet it did, I just bet it did."

The helicopters floated down out of the sky as the large trucks pulled up and off the lone dirt road in the scrub. Four hours later, foundations laid for five cabins, the second set of cement mixers were backing up to offload their contents, when a police car bearing the emblem of the county sheriff's department pulled up. As the deputy got out of the car, the site foreman strode confidently up to him.

"What can I do you for Sheriff?"

"You can tell me what you think you're doing here. This is state land and nobody has permission to build on it."

"You weren't notified? Crap. The state sold this land to J. Abernathy, LLC. Old John wanted a faraway place to hold his executive retreats. This is about as far away as you can get and still be able to drive in, which is what he wanted."

"Do you have the required permits to build here?"

"Sure do Sheriff," the foreman said handing him a sheaf of papers as thick as a book. The top one was a permit stamped just that morning by the county judge who just happened to be the deputy's brother.

"I guess you do or my brother wouldn't have signed this," he said handing back the packet. "So how many cabins you building for this Mister Abernathy?"

"Eighteen in all."

"Eighteen! How many executives does he have?"

"Counting all divisions, about a hundred."

"Holy shit. How come I never heard of this Abernathy guy or his company?"

"Well the company is privately owned by Mister Abernathy and he is a very private man."

"I see. Well, have fun. And tell your drivers they better obey the speed limit."

"I will Sheriff."

By nightfall, with all eighteen foundations completed and the start of the tunnel system begun, another team was at the back of the valley expanding the way into the caverns in the hills above. For what had to be done, there was no permit and had to be done in the strictest secrecy.

"These are the craziest plans I have ever seen."

"I know but everything in them is off the shelf stuff. It's just put together in a new way."

"You bet it is. When this door here closes, you won't be able to see it anymore. And this stairway just continues on down through the floor if your hand touches the right spot on the banister."

"Well, ours is not to reason why we just build things. So let's get building."

The two men went to work building the door exactly as the plans specified. When the call for dinner occurred, they had just finished.

"Crap, if I didn't know it was there..."

"I know, uncanny isn't it?"

"How are they going to get in there?"

"There is a receiver in the door when it receives the proper signal it will pop the seal and the door will spring out a quarter inch. Or if you press right here...presto."

"Let's go eat, I'm starved."

"You bet."

"This is a Federal Park you just can't come in here and build whatever you want too!"

"I have work orders and permits, all in order and signed by the Secretary of the Interior and the Director of Parks and Recreation."

"Give me those," the ranger said as he snatched the paperwork out of the foreman's hand. "I'll make a few phone calls and be right back."

The foreman twirled his finger in the air and everyone got back to work. The ranger frowned as he climbed into his truck and picked up his sat-phone.

Fifteen minutes later the foreman was tapped on the shoulder.

"Did you get what you needed?"

"Yes. Your paperwork is in order."

"We'll be as environmentally friendly as we can."

"Who would have thought that anyone would want to build an exact duplicate of Fort Illinois? It was only in commission for one year here before they moved it down closer to the Ohio River."

"I know, kind of a waste of money, but it's not taxpayer money paying for it. It's some bigwig," the foreman shuffled through his papers, "in Chicago who's got a thing for the fort. I just build things I don't question why I'm building them."

"Well at least it's someone else's money and not ours," the ranger said walking away from the job foreman shaking his head.

The foreman smiled as he pulled out his phone dialing the office.

"Are you sure you have permission to do this?"

"Yep, it's all right there in front of you, work orders, permits, a letter from the new owner, a letter from the old owners and a copy of the bill of sale to my employer."

"Okay, well I guess you can do whatever it is you need to do then."

The desk clerk shook his head as twenty men tramped through the lobby of the hotel and headed into the basement. The only thing down there was the machinery that kept the hotel cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Within days, there was a hole in the side of the building and through the floor, through which all the new equipment was lowered into the basement. First, there were the backup generators. Then the backup to the backup generators, with large fuel tanks for each. Then several large trucks backed up to the hole and unload god only knows what into the basement.

All in all the construction went on for fifteen days. Although it was the slow season, there was still some disruption in the daily activities in the hotel. The curtains came down on the fifteenth day and you could not even tell there had been a hole in the wall or floor.

"Okay, we're all finished. Remember, no one is to fiddle with the things down there. If something happens you have the number to call."

"There's nothing dangerous down there is there?"

"No. It's just those generators are a little tricky to set up, so don't monkey with them. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good." The foreman turned and walked out of the hotel.

Chapter 4

Today was the day. Today would start a winter so long that not very many would survive. Today the supervolcano erupts that John's company has been warning governments around the world about. For fifteen years, John has been warning them. How many took him seriously? Not a single country.

John has also been converting those individuals he could, to believe. Some have. Some have joined in his endeavor to prepare for what is to come. The initial devastation will be tremendous. Especially in the United States, for you see it is the supervolcano, which is, Yellowstone National park, that will erupt. The initial death toll will be incomprehensible as the mid-section of the United States is destroyed. Portions of states vaporized are Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Molten rock will cover the rest of the states around Yellowstone.

Meters of ash will cover all points east. Pyroclastic flows will cover South Dakota and Nebraska from their western borders to the middle of the state. Grey ash, six to seven meters deep, will cover most of the Midwest farm belt. A blanket of ash six feet thick will cover the southeast. The north and northeast will be the least damaged by the ash along with all the states to the west of Idaho and Utah and south of Colorado.

Although not touched by the cataclysmic event itself, they will, however, feel the nuclear winter that follows. The state of Texas will be the only state that heeds John's warning. For up to a year, an ash cloud will circle the earth preventing any air traffic. Ground transportation too will be dubious. Crops will be impossible.

So, it was on the night of the end of the world as it was known, not many people knew. Knew that tomorrow would bring a dark new world to their pitiful lives. John personally sat in a chair in a hotel conference room in suburban Chicago waiting for the reports. Reports he knew were coming for fifteen years. With him were several people who were important to him and people who were important to them. Michelle and Susan, along with their families, John's wife Jenny, Rudy, Sunshine, and Jaz his dogs and a group of people who didn't even know what was about to happen. John and Jenny's grandchildren were, along with their parents, tucked away in Texas. Those people here at the hotel, their children were safe in the care of professionals downstairs.

As soon as the event occurred, the parents would be told their families were safe. Those who knew, were here to help those that did not, with the trauma and shock they would experience. Only ten minutes to go, then another ten before the news broke on the television. Jenny sat by John's side holding his hand as he watched the news channels on the five TV's they had in the room.

Not twenty minutes ago, John had taken four of them from other rooms to set up here. Michelle was sitting with her husband, as was Susan. The other's that knew sat with their significant other waiting as John was. Those who did not know suspected something but were too scared to ask. Several of John's prediction had come true in the past, well all his predictions had come true, and they figured John had predicted something but did not know what. They would know very soon now.