"I'm getting too old for this shit," I moaned and plopped into one of the Situation Room's ergonomically designed conference chairs. I massaged the sore spot on my shoulder and shifted and squirmed and as I searched for a less uncomfortable position. Nothing worked. I hurt in places I didn't even know I had. The steaming mug of fresh brewed Colombian laced with the Sisterhood's brandy warmed my hands and took the edge awa...

"Okay, my turn," I chuckled as I picked up the fat cigar-sized joint of the Sisterhood's weed. Possession of the Canibus talking stick authorized the owner to speak without interruption. I took a heavy hit and passed the blunt to Sheila and took my place in our naked Truth or Dare fireside chat. "Please be honest. What do you believe?" The commander's theology drifted all over the map from Pagan to Puritan, seasoned with...

"That should do it. Time check," Belinda wiped sweat from her brow with her t-shirt as she braced her entrenching tool against the entrance of the newly constructed "bunker-in-a-bag."  Unless you were part Mountain Goat, the winding ridgeline trail was the only drivable and walkable unbroken overland route from town to our base. Prior to SkyFire, arrays of remote sensors and wireless cameras guarded the pathway to the Soc...

"Thank you, what’s the deal?" I asked as I took the offered towel from Sheila’s hands and fluff-dried my thinning mane. Hair loss among men is a myth. It’s not so much that our locks leave as that they change location. The stuff that had lived on my head now grew out of my ears. "Jen thinks the ionosphere has settled enough for shortwave. At her suggestion, I’ve decided it time we start a twenty-four-seven radio watch.  Y...

"With all due respect, do we have any idea how ridiculous we look?" I stepped over the long picnic bench next to the community dining table as I stood to speak. My rear end protested. After several long hours of note taking, my fanny was in no mood for a new session. My flat ass had a bad case of meeting butt. My hand was cramped, and after a day of biking thru the mountains, I hurt in places the sun didn't shine. "This d...

"Super glue? Really?" I chuckled as I focused my field glasses on the bonded band of mutually masturbating men crab-walking westward."Your punishment is diabolical," I shook my head in puzzled amazement.  "Intruders were killed in the past for less, so why the sudden mercy?"  "Not compassion. Karma. What goes around, comes around." Sheila trained her spyglass on the retreating men."They might make town by sundown. If they...

With flying gravel and a sandy whoosh, Frosty's motorbike cleared the crest of the granite ridge in an airborne glide before skidding to a wobbly stop about a dozen yards down the slope.  "It's Alice and Darlene with five guys wearing uniforms from the sheriff's department." Belinda took my hand and pulled herself up to the top of the incline. "They are under guard, wearing handcuffs. Did they see me?" She lifted her bino...

I peeked past Sheila's shoulder as she looked over the semicircle of women from the Science Team gathered around Jennifer as the dark lady of data studied the computer screen in front of her workstation. Her fingers flew across the keyboard while she scanned hundreds of files, crunching numbers and extracting the data she needed. The thirty-four-year-old Boston descendant of Zulu warriors became a legend within the Societ...

"We need to talk" is usually the two slices of sweet bread covering a shit sandwich. I have yet to hear those innocent sounding words when they weren't followed by news to which I didn't want to listen. The last time a boss called me into the office using that invitation, I left with a security escort to the front door with a severance check in my back pocket. "Have a seat," Sheila patted the empty cushion and motioned fo...

My sleep was shattered by three sharp raps which crashed through my slumber like gunshots in a nightmare on the morning of the third day. "What the hell!" I hurled myself from my bed, stomped across the floor and jerked open the door. "Do you have any idea of the time?" My growl faded to a reluctant sigh as Sheila pushed past me into the quarters Darlene and I had shared since our arrival at the compound last fall. "Good...

Sheila had the soul of a cavalry commander and lived the warrior's code of old. Feed your horses, your troops, and yourself. In that order. Her declaration of a banquet of gratitude was a brazen departure from the typical bullshit command response to a crisis which was: when in doubt, run in circles, scream, and shout.  With the generous help of brandy and buds, Martha's magnificent meal of thanksgiving had brought everyo...

Like sailors clinging to a raft on tempest-tossed seas, Sheila and I held tight to each other as an ocean of rainbows flooded the sky. "Oh, my God! What is it?" she cried as glowing waves of light thundered silently across the firmament. The heavens blazed with a kaleidoscope of color. "I don't know," I said as I watched the glowing pastel streamers of brilliance slither along invisible magnetic lines of force like undula...

"Shit!" Sheila swore as she angrily flipped the turn signal and slowed our Ford Super Duty truck to a crawl and searched for a safe place to pull off the road. "Sky, I need my license and registration, they're in the glove compartment," she instructed as she rolled down her window with her left arm pointed over the roof of our vehicle. She waved toward the side of the road, a visual indication to the following patrol car...

  "Okay, listen up!" Sheila knocked her knuckles on the conference table and brought the final briefing to order. "We've got an outstanding weather report, vehicles and crews are ready. We are good to go at daybreak..." she smiled as she waved at the huge flat screen display we had installed several days ago and checked her watch for the time, "which means we're in luck. We have thirty-minutes for one last run-through." "...

The days melted into weeks and the weeks flowed into months as winter searched for spring. For the first couple dozen wake-ups, I started each morning with the unreal feeling that I was at the bottom of a rabbit hole. By the end of the second month, the sense of strangeness decreased, and I was able to open my eyes without breaking into a cold sweat. I was still on the wrong side of the looking glass, but Wonderland had b...