by Ricky Sides
Bill thought that was a good idea and told the man to put their gender, approximate age and that they had died in a remote place in Indiana on the markers.
They parked in sleep mode for the night. The ship automatically adjusted for drift if the prevailing winds moved the ship more than a few inches.
Late that night, Bill walked through the ship checking the crew. They all seemed extremely happy to be back aboard their vessel. They’d missed the ship as much as he had missed her. Bill found that pleasing. He found the strike team carefully putting the finishing touches on the four small, white crosses that they had constructed for markers. He was surprised at the craftsmanship that had gone into the effort. He’d expected something along the lines of crude markers, but he had found them well constructed and hand painted. The lettering had been carved into the markers, and was painted black. “Well done, men,” Bill complemented the crew and bid them a good night after reminding the sergeant to double-check the watch roster.
Stopping by the galley Bill saw the cook and inquired into the planned menu for the dinner at the factory the next day. The cook said that he thought a Thanksgiving dinner was in order, so he had drawn the supplies for that meal from stores. The captain complimented the cook on his choice, and thanked him.
Returning to the control room, Bill stayed through the first watch and then turned in for the night.
***
The next morning the ship landed briefly, and Bill exited with the strike force team. They placed the markers at the head of the appropriate graves, said a brief prayer, and then they returned to the ship for the trip to Saginaw.
Bill’s communications specialist, Holly had contacted Bob Reager the previous afternoon. He was pleased that the ship would be arriving in Saginaw, the next day, and promised to have the employees at the facility to see them when they arrived.
When the Constitution appeared beside the factory in Saginaw, as Bob had promised the employees were waiting. Bill spoke to the workers expressing his heartfelt thanks to the people, and then invited them to enter the ship via the cargo bay door. The workers were given a guided tour of the ship, and then they assembled in the mess hall for dinner.
Bob and the board of directors ate their dinner with Bill. When one of the board members asked Bill what their next mission might entail he said that they were planning to go to Washington, in order to see what had become of the city. Frowning, Bob had spoken quietly and informed Bill that his company had sent an expedition to Washington for that same purpose and the results had been very disappointing. They’d found the city devoid of inhabitants. He admitted that some might have hidden at the approach of the three-car convoy. Flying automobiles did startle those who’d never seen them or heard of their existence. But there were no masses of people in evidence. Nor were there a large number of dead bodies. It was as if the city had been evacuated.
Shrugging Bill explained that the mission must proceed, but he expressed his thanks for the information. He explained that the council wanted lots of video documentation of the city and that he might fly up to New York as well.
Bob informed him that New York had also appeared abandoned or evacuated, though there were many settlements with evidence of people between the capital and the city of New York. “It might be that the people in the big cities were forced to relocate, as the available supplies of food ran out,” Bill speculated.
Before the Constitution departed, Bob asked Bill to pass a message on to the peacekeeper council. He wanted them to know that they should arrange for almost double the usual shipment this month. The factory had recently undergone some upgrades, and as a result, production was up significantly. Bill assured the company president that this would be welcome news, as several states were clamoring for patrol ships.
Chapter 2
As the alloy had been removed from the outer hull of the Constitution, Pol had the material neatly sorted and stacked. There was a sheet metal fabrication factory in Athens to which the peacekeepers had access. There was no way that the peacekeepers were going to scrap the precious alloy when it could be salvaged. Though they had access to future shipments, those shipments could seldom keep up with the demand and Pol would not permit a single square foot of the valuable material to go to waste. The scrap pieces would be cut down into the biggest squares or rectangles possible and then it would be sorted by size. This sorted material would be shipped back to Pol’s workshop.
Pete had already requested that Pol have his assistants work on some simple guard shack platforms that could be tethered to the ground. He wanted them to have the ability to go to one hundred feet in altitude for the benefit of the view and just hover on a tether. The enclosure would protect the guards from the elements. Pete wanted the guard shacks armed with mini lasers such as those equipped by the drones. The peacekeepers inside the small three man units would be armed with their conventional weapons as well. The unit plans called for a simple radio for alerting the base to perceived threats, heating and cooling units, and just enough navigation control to go up to their ceiling cap, and return to a safe landing should wind cause them to drift. Pol spent a day working with his assistants on the first unit that they constructed utilizing the scrap from the Constitution. For men accustomed to building and designing ships, this was a very easy project. By the morning of the second day, they were ready to test the unit.
Tim climbed into the prototype to test its simple flight control system. At the end of the test, he said it should do just fine. It responded to the controls slowly and gently enough that it should be safe for the inexperienced guards to operate with a couple of hours training and the view it afforded was excellent.
Pete asked if the assistants could make an additional nine of the units from the scrap and have enough left for Pol’s experiments. Pol assured him that they would indeed be able to do so and voiced his opinion that Pete’s suggestion was an excellent addition to the security of the base. He further stated that one of his assistants had noted that they could use a similar platform, equipped with a safety rail instead of walls, and that such a unit could be used to work on ships, or perform maintenance. Realizing the usefulness of such platforms, Pol said that he would authorize the assistants to use the remainder of the scrap left once the sentry stands were built to construct four or five work platforms. That is he would unless the council didn’t like the plan.
Pete said he’d bring the matter to the attention of the other council members but he was sure that would be fine. He then cautioned Pol not to get tied down in projects, because Jim was getting anxious to take the Peacekeeper out on a mission, unless of course Pol wanted to skip one. Laughing Pol had countered that he too was ready for another adventure in the ship.
“Then this next run will probably bore you to death,” Pete replied. He explained, “Jim thinks it’s time that we make a run up to Alaska, so we can see what’s happening up there. He thinks the Peacekeeper should be the ship to make that run because we can replenish our water supplies, whereas the other ships cannot.”
“Now that sounds like an interesting mission,” Pol said. “I’ve never been to Alaska.”
***
The Constitution flew into Washington, at a leisurely speed. The fighters were flying ahead of the ship filming everything below in great detail, but so far they hadn’t seen a single human inside the city. Bill had the ship flown slowly toward the Washington monument. As the monument came within his view, Bill got to his feet and stared in awe. He’d never seen the monument in person. It was much larger than the photographs had made it seem. He permitted the pilot to take them a bit closer but then ordered the ship stopped and put into parking mode to prevent them from accidentally drifting closer. He was terrified that they would bump into the monument and damage that historic icon. He noted that the pilot seemed relieved as well. They were still several ship lengths from the monument, but neither man was inclined to fly closer.
“Holly, let the fighters know I want them to separate into two groups
and go into the residential areas. They are to look for signs of yards being maintained. If they see grocery stores, have them try to look inside the windows to see if the shelves are empty, but under no circumstances are they to land and exit their fighters,” Bill ordered.
“Yes, Captain,” said Holly, and then she radioed Melissa and gave her the orders.
Bill heard Holly speaking, but he wasn’t listening as she relayed his orders. He was staring sadly at the once well manicured grounds he’d seen in so many pictures of the monument. The grounds were now littered with weeds and tall grass. Here and there, bits of human generated litter had become entangled with the tall weeds. One such item caught his attention and he said, “Holly, pull up everything we have on plastic shopping bags. I thought they were biodegradable.”
“A few were, Captain, but most weren’t,” Holly said. A moment later she had a file pulled up and said, “I have a file for you, sir.”
“Alright, Holly, see if you can find out how long the bags should last, when exposed to the elements,” Bill said.
“Eighteen months for biodegradable bags, sir. There was controversy concerning the traditional polyethylene bags. Some claimed it would take five hundred years for them to break down while others say one thousand years,” Holly explained.
Bill nodded his thanks and stepped closer to the windshield. “Pilot, turn us toward the White House,” Bill ordered and the ship slowly rotated on its axis until it faced the building that had represented the heart of America in the minds of countless Americans for generations. Bill shook his head in sorrow at the site that met his eyes. The once immaculate lawn was now overgrown, and littered with debris.
“Sir, Melissa is reporting all the lawns are overgrown and her squadron is reporting the same condition. She is dropping down to check a grocery store right now,” Holly stated.
“Still no sign of people?” Bill asked.
“Sorry, Captain. She said not a soul in sight. Not even smoke from potential cooking fires, as you’d expect this late in the day,” Holly efficiently reported.
Noting the growing shadows outside, Bill said, “Tell them to search for another twenty minutes and then join us here. It’s getting late, and I want them back aboard before dark. They can resume their search tomorrow morning.”
“Aye, sir,” Holly acknowledged.
Bill issued one other order of importance that afternoon. Summoning Sergeant Carter to the control room, he said, “Sergeant, the flag on the capital building is in disgraceful condition. I’d like you to see if you can get some men to volunteer to go bring down those colors and replace them with a new flag. This is strictly volunteer, Sergeant,” Bill explained and handed the sergeant a replacement flag.
“Full armor for the volunteers, but so far the city seems deserted,” Bill explained. We’ll fly as close as possible. Let me know when the volunteers are ready.”
The sergeant saluted and departed with the flag. A short time later, the sergeant radioed that the volunteers were ready. He requested two drone operators to cover the cargo bay door. Bill was watching when all eleven men of the strike force team walked past the nose of the ship toward the capital building. But all attempts to get inside the building proved futile. The White House security people had secured the building well. No one had gotten inside it since the night of the quakes.
The team returned to the ship, feeling sad that they hadn’t been able to accomplish their mission. Bill met them in the cargo bay and thanked them for their effort. “We’ll return one day and see that it gets done,” he promised the men. He’d said that with such a quiet assurance that they believed him.
Chapter 3
The convoy transporting forty men and women drove north toward Athens, into the late afternoon hours. They stopped just south of Birmingham, an hour before sundown to set up camp for the night. While they were setting up their camp, they noticed an old truck slow down to a crawl as it drove past on its way north toward Birmingham. One of the peacekeeper guards waved sociably to the young man who was staring at them as he slowly drove past their location. The driver flashed a big smile, waved, and then increased his speed.
They set up camp in an open grassy section, bordered by the interstate on the left and a thick stand of forest on right. These peacekeepers had been an element of the ground forces who’d been sent south to guard the temporary airbase in Mobile Alabama. The last of the fighters had been recalled to the main Alabama base because the council was hoping to be able to acquire a spray with which they could coat the fighters. That spray would hopefully make the fighters more fifty caliber resistant. These forty guards were the last to leave and they were transporting their equipment back to Base 1. One of their vehicles had broken down just an hour into their return trip and they had lost several hours while it was being repaired, therefore they would not be able to reach the base for another several hours. That would mean having to navigate several of the worst obstacles on the trip in full darkness, and the lieutenant in charge of the unit thought that too unsafe with the heavy loads that they were transporting.
They had a hearty meal of stew, and then, as darkness fell they settled in for a quiet restful night. In the pre-quake days, a night spent there would have been anything but quiet, as the busy interstate traffic roared north and south on I-65. But now only four vehicles had passed their location since they had set up camp. Lieutenant Sawyer was in charge of this group of peacekeepers. He opted for a three-man guard detail with one at the north end of their camp, one at the south end, and the third near the center. The guards would be rotated every hour so that everyone could get plenty of rest.
The peacekeepers had set up ten large cabin tents. Each was capable of accommodating four personnel. However, it was a hot and humid night, so as they entered the tents to sleep they tied open their tent flaps.
It was just past 2:30 A.M when the southernmost guard thought he heard a noise behind him. He was tuning toward the sound when something slammed into the back of his leg. As he fell, he felt a burning sensation in his leg and he opened his mouth to scream in pain. He felt something grab his throat in a viselike grip, and though he tried to scream, all that emerged was a soft gurgling sound.
At 2:32 A.M., the northernmost guard thought he saw a furtive movement in the deep shadows just beyond the little light being provided by the remnants of their campfire. He stepped toward the shadows as he worked the sling of his rifle off his right shoulder. He was just bringing the rifle to the combat ready position when he felt something slam into the back of his right leg. He felt a deep burning sensation in that leg and tried to turn his rifle toward the source of his pain as he fell. A pair of hands caught his shoulders and lowered him to the ground gently. The guard was opening his mouth to thank the man who had assisted him when he saw the glint of a knife flashing. Too late, the peacekeeper tried to bring his weapon up to shoot the shadowy figure. A booted foot trapped the rifle against the peacekeeper’s leg as the shadowy figure cut his throat. The two attackers then faded into the darkness behind the tents.
The guard in the central area of the campsite was sleepy. Glancing at his watch he noted that it was 2:40 A.M. Twenty more minutes till he was relieved and could go back to sleep. He hated mid-watches. He preferred first or last watch. That way he could sleep uninterrupted. A curious sound caught his attention and the private took three steps toward the road. He saw something out there in the darkness, but couldn’t be sure what it was. Taking three more steps the man left the circle of light, and entered the deep shadows of the night. But as he moved away from the light, his night vision improved. He saw a naked woman standing on the far side of the interstate. The woman glanced at him and then she seemed to collapse. The peacekeeper darted across the highway to assist her.
Kneeling beside the naked woman the peacekeeper took his canteen from his belt and screwed open the cap. He was about to pour a bit of water into her open mouth in an attempt to revive her when he felt someone grab his hair and something slid rapidly a
cross his throat. The peacekeeper’s blood sprayed from his throat splashing the naked woman who seemed to revel in the experience. Her body writhing as if she were in the throes of ecstasy, the woman softly moaned and caught a bit of the peacekeeper’s blood in the palm of her hand. Bringing the palm quickly to her mouth she drank the blood as she stared into the glazing eyes of the dead peacekeeper.
Lieutenant Sawyer awoke to screaming and thrashing sounds all about him. Shaking himself awake, he grabbed his rifle. Glancing to where his three tent mates should be, he found that they were not inside the tent, and assumed that they had the current watch. The lieutenant grabbed his pistol and jammed it in his belt. Grabbing his rifle, he darted outside the tent. He saw shadowy forms moving about near the tents of the other peacekeepers, but couldn’t tell what was going on. A shrill scream beside the tent to his left caught his attention. Turning in that direction, he saw a female peacekeeper on the ground. The woman was being dragged back toward the woods by a dark shadowy form. Estimating his shots as he fired from the hip the lieutenant fired two quick rounds at that shadowy form. The female peacekeeper leapt to her feet but staggered and the lieutenant reached out to steady her with his free hand. “Get inside my tent and radio Base One!” he ordered and pushed her toward the entrance to his tent as he snapped a shot at a dark figure moving about near the woods.
Moving rapidly the lieutenant shot a man trying to strangle a peacekeeper. He helped that peacekeeper to his feet. The lieutenant spotted the man’s weapon where he’d dropped it during the struggle. He picked it up off the ground and handed the man his weapon. The peacekeeper nodded his thanks and snapped off a shot at another dark form rushing another peacekeeper fifteen feet away.