Radio message from Dad
From Torg Adventure
Now that Dad's gone, you're the man of the house, er, bomb shelter. You take over his duties, including monitoring the radio. The main radio is a powerful HAM base station in the shelter -- the antenna is hidden in the woods behind the house. Dad took a handheld transceiver with him. He also went over the codes he invented for this trip with you before he left.
Your dad sends a message every hour as he walks to the meeting point. At the end of every message, he says, 'The geese are flying south' to indicate that everything is okay. You never reply, your father worried that someone would triangulate on your signal and find you.
It's only about a two hour walk to the meeting place, but your father made sure he took a circuitous route through streams and on concrete that would be hard to track back. He left eight hours before the meeting.
Before the first check in, your mother and sisters comes to sit with you. Mom is very tense until she hears him say 'The geese are flying south'. Then she kisses you in her excitement -- a full-on French kiss. She stops and pulls back. "I'm sorry. I got carried away." Your sister are relieved as well. They drift away.
You sit in silence for a bit with your mom, until she clears her throat, and says, "There's a reason he left us alone to do this. He's expendable as far as he's concerned."
"What do you mean, Mom?" you ask, your head still reeling from the wonderful kiss.
"Your father is sick and won't last long without constant medical attention. He has diabetes. He's stored up three months of insulin, but after that, he's a dead man in pretty short order."
You look at her shocked. You knew he wasn't well, being as overweight and out of shape as he is, but you never knew he was diabetic.
"He has a weeks worth with him, just in case it takes longer than he hopes."
"I'm so sorry, Mom," you say as you reach out to hug her. She hugs you back, sniffling into your shoulder a bit before regaining her composure.
"If he doesn't come back, then you've got to keep us protected, keep us going. I know it's a lot to ask of you, being so young, but there's no other choice but giving up."
"I'll do whatever it takes, Mom. Don't worry. I actually paid attention to Dad most of the time, even though I thought he was crazy about survival. You and the girls will be in good hands." She kisses your cheek this time and walks away to take a shower.
Dad checks in twice more. The next time he checks in, he should be at the meeting place. You wait pensively.
What now?
