666 My Summer Vacation, page 1

My knuckles grew white as I held on for dear life. My shoulders burned with pain and my jaw ached through clenched teeth. All I could see was deep blue spotted with cottony white clouds. It was as if the world had disappeared underneath me.

“Hon, You’re gonna have to get out and direct me.” my husband said with a sigh. I relaxed my grip and extricated myself from the jeep. Gravel crunched under the rubber soles of my shoes as I walked up the incline and around the front of the jeep. Three feet from the path, the ground dropped away about four thousand feet. I continued around to the driver’s side and directed him through the sharp hairpin turn to the left between the boulder and the drop off.

The jeep rolled another few feet before stopping. I stood in awe gazing at the valley below. The soft rolling brown hills were dotted with varying shades of green. The dark asphalt road, snaking lazily up to the mountains, glistened in the early morning sunlight. I walked back to the jeep and rode the rest of the way lost in thought.

I had been warned! I knew I would miss the internet up here. My friends had sounded the alarm and although many scoffers laughed at them, here I was in the mountains of northern Nevada praying the scoffers were right. My husband thought we were just camping. I knew better.

A cool wind whispered through the trees on each side of the path, teased stands of hair from my barrette, and tickled them against my cheek. I pushed the hair back and drank deeply from the crisp mountain air. The jeep rolled out of the trees and into the warm sunlight. We had reached our destination. The grassy acreage shimmered with a bright yellow blanket of flowers. As the wind blew across the expanse, the flowers nodded their heads in approval of our visit.

I pulled my camera from my backpack while my husband retrieved Titan from the back of the jeep. Titan is our favorite kite. With a wingspan of fifteen feet, his soaring figure is visible for miles. We rolled Titan out on the ground and began assembling the skeleton when a new cloud caught my attention. “Oh my God!” I exclaimed, as the colorful windsock slipped from my fingers and fluttered to the ground. We stared in horror at the small mushroom cloud in the distance.

Suddenly, I was lying on the ground with my face shoved in the soft wet grass while my husband covered my body with his. “Stay down.” he whispered. Warm air wafted over us as the ground shivered below. “Reno or Fallon?” I groaned. “Probably Fallon.” he responded, gently sliding off of me. “Who do you think it was?” I asked, rolling on my side. “Does it matter?” he answered. “Guess not.” I sighed. “Think 200 miles is far enough away?” “I hope so.” was his only reply.

We packed the jeep and drove back down to our campsite in silence. “What do you think of my friends on ATS now?” I asked when we stopped. He answered me with a sad smile. The wish that the conspiracy theorist were wrong was in that smile. I returned his smile and walked to the tent, opened the flap of our new home and picked up my survival harness. After fastening the belt, I dropped to my knees and pulled the box from under my cot. My journal lay closed under my 9mm. Placing the gun in my holster, I sighed again and picked up the small cloth covered book. I began writing, June 06, 2006. Today it begins. . .