MAD NUTS

Two new theories dominated the debates within the political science department. With the concept of Brinkmanship securely ingrained, students were left arguing over the proper balance of MAD and NUTS. There were basically two camps, pro NUTS and anti NUTS. The pro NUTSgroup was lead by Bobby Beddit. The anti NUTS group was lead by Kevin… I can’t recall his last name. Anyhow Kevin was a total tool. MAD was bad, both groups agreed on that the question was NUTS, how much NUTS should be put in the American system? Too strong an emphasis on NUTS would likely push Russia to attack, but ignoring NUTS entirely would leave America wide open to MAD. Because of the debate, Dr. Irving decided an essay should be written to fully explain each student’s full opinion on the subject. There was a game tonight, MU against KU the game of the season. Of course he would pick today to assign something. Do professors even watch sports?

Holes

Sue watched as the big trucks dug through her yard.  They were digging a hole, a big and deep one.  Sue sat on the bench by her mother’s flowers.  They were red and purple and blue.  She did not know their rel names, but she did know the ones she gave them.  Sue waved at the men by the truck, they smiled and waved back. One of the men by the truck, Bill Rife, always read the comics on his breaks. His favorite was Snoopy, so was Sue’s. She liked Mr. Rife.  Dad was standing by the opening of the hole, he was arguing with another worker.  Dad wanted to put a door on the hole, the kind with the foam on the doors.  Sue could not hear Dad, but she saw him mouth an ugly word.  Mom would have had him if she knew, but she was out back swinging a chicken for dinner.

The Shelter

Sue had to step on the bottom rung of the wooden fence that stood between her land and the next to see over the peer over its top. Clara’s father was on the other side standing by his tornado house.  Tornadoes were fairly common in Sue’s area, she personally had seen two.  Some of the families around her had tornado houses, she did not but if she needed to Clara’s family would let her use theirs.  They were not really houses so much as a room behind their real house.  It had no windows, power, or bathrooms.  All that was inside was some food and mabe something to lay on until the tornado passed, which was normally only about a half hour, sometimes less.  Clara’s father had replaced the door with a new one.  The door had foam around its edges that looked like it would block out most of the air.  If he and his family were to survive in the shelter for an hour or so they would may be fine, but what would happen if they had to stay longer?  The hinges were what Sue’s dad called the “cheap kind” they would not hold up to a tornado.  Sue watched as Clara’s father carried in bags of food, a few guns, and a few masks with noses on them that looked like an elephant’s. 

Minutemen

There is an old road running the length of the boarder to Jefferson City Missouri.  The road is dotted with farms and barbed wire.  Rusted sings warn trespassers of dogs or guns or the law.  Tractors and Ford tucks tear ruts in the muddy road, kicking up rocks and sludge behind them.  Past the Greene’s and the Rife’s plots is the Minutemen’s plot.  Rusted signs warn trespassers of dogs or guns or the law.  Roaring transport trucks tear ruts in the muddy road.  Guards walk along the perimeter of its barbed wire fences with the slow, the measured steps of professional soldiers.  Some say that the Minutemen silos stand to protect America should she need it, some say it puts a bull’s-eye on the town.

 

 

Minutemen I Silos