“Yes sir.”
“Did they do this?” he said indicating the machines overhead.
“I don’t know sir. Anything is possible. They have black money projects that are more advanced than the governments. They have more money than our government. I would put nothing past them.”
“Alright. Would one of you get the General please,” the President asked.
A few seconds later Bobby came back with General Preston.
“I’ve been getting a rundown on the Rockford Committee.”
“I apologize for not telling you sooner Mr. President,” he said.
“I get it now. They would obviously have eliminated you if you had not followed orders. It galls me to think they have more authority than the President. The question I asked the others is, could they have caused this destruction?”
“I seriously doubt it. They are about power and that comes from money. No, I see this as a setback. They have no money coming in and that can’t be good.”
“So you think this was possibly caused by aliens?”
“That would be my best guess.”
“General, I want you to get three teams ready to send out. I have determined the three locations I want them to look at first. If they find nothing, they will have secondary locations to check out.”
“Yes sir. Do you want me to handle it or...”
“No I would like to talk to them personally,” the President said.
“I’ll select the teams. Sending three teams will mean that we will have to use a couple of the Secret Service men, is that alright with you?”
“Absolutely.”
**
The three teams stood in front of the President.
“Team One, I am sending you to the Mount Pony facility in Virginia. Your secondary target is the Plattsburg Air Force Base. If you find nothing at either site, come back here and we will regroup,” he told them.
“Team Two. I want you to head to Raven Rock in West Virginia. Your secondary target will be White Sulfur Springs. Now Team Three. You have the toughest assignment of all. You have a pretty good distance to travel. I need you to check out Maynard, Massachusetts and the New Jersey Picatinny Arsenal.”
“Sir, do you have exact coordinates?”
“General Preston will take care of that part. I wanted to express my gratitude to you for undertaking this risk. Gunny Baker reminded me that often men go off to war and never really know who sent them or why. I wanted each of you to meet me and ask me anything on your mind.”
“I have one question.”
“Go ahead son.”
“Do any of these facilities have something that can stop these damn, oops, sorry sir, things?”
“I’ve heard the word before. Go on.”
“Can we stop them with what is down in one of the DUMBs?” he asked.
“We don’t really know. We need help and it seems like a logical place to start. Can they come up with something? I don’t know for sure but the General said we had some of the best minds in the world working on projects there. Hopefully one of them will be effective,” the told the Marine.
“If we do find someone. Should we tell them to come back with us?’
“No. You come on back but give them a rundown on what we are looking for, a way to stop this invasion in its tracks.”
“Yes sir.”
“Any other questions?”
No one spoke up.
“Then go do the best you can. I want you all back here safe and sound. I know the risk you are taking but I see no other way to go about this at present. If you can find transportation, that would save you a lot of walking. Good luck gentlemen and may God bless and protect each of you,” he told them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Over here,” James yelled excitedly.
“You found something?” Alice asked.
“Maybe. I need some help.”
Barry, Joe, and James started picking up chucks of concrete and tossing them aside. Alice jumped in and started helping as best she could.
Soon they were all digging until James called a halt.
“I think this must be the entrance. It’s partially open. Do you think anyone is down there?” Barry asked.
“Only one way to find out,” James said getting down on his hands and knees.
“Hello. Is anyone down there?”
Nothing came back.
“Anyone alive? We are survivors and we are looking for others,” he yelled.
He waited a few seconds but nothing happened.
“Well crap. I was hoping someone was alive. At least I was right about it being here,” James said sitting down.
He was dirty, thirsty, hungry and now disheartened.
Alice came over and sat down beside him.
“James you did a great job of getting us here. I doubt anyone could have done better. I’m amazed that you even found the place after so long and with all the damage that has been done,” she said putting her hand on his arm.
“Thanks Alice but that doesn’t help us much with the thirst or hunger. We have to have food and water or we won’t make it.”
“You can’t do anything more than you have done. Ease up on yourself.”
Linda came over and sat down on the other side of him.
“She’s right you know. You were the only one with a plan. So it didn’t work out quite like we had hoped. At least you gave it a heck of a shot. I know I appreciate it,” she said.
“Thanks. Both of you. I guess sitting here brooding isn’t getting much done. The blast shield doesn’t look as heavy as I thought it would be. Maybe we can find a way to move it just enough to slip inside. Hopefully they will have food and water stored down there.”
For the next hour and a half all they did was try to find different ways to get enough leverage to pry the blast door open part way.
“Maybe that longer beam,” Barry suggested.
“If we can get it to sit stationary just long enough it might do the trick,” James agreed.
They worked the heavy beam on top the pile of broken blocks and stone and set the other end just under the lip of the blast shield.
“It will take all of us to make this work. Ladies, If you don’t mind, I would ask you to get on the beam and straddle it like a see-saw. We will pull down at the same time. All we have to do is get it to open maybe ten or twelve inches. I think we could slip in then,” James said.
They all took their places.
“Ready? Now,” he said and the three men pulled.
The women were bouncing up and down.
“Don’t stop. It moved,” James said through clinched teeth.
They struggled until the men’s strength gave out. James went over and looked at the door. It had definitely moved. Perhaps seven or eight inches. He looked at Beatrice. She was the smallest of the women.
“Bea, you want to see if you can squeeze in there?”
“I’ll give it a try,” she said.
Her skirt was torn and tattered so she just hiked it up and slipped her legs in the hole.
“It’s tight but I think I can make it.”
“Okay. Come on back out. Let’s give it one more try. If we can move it a few more inches she should be able to make it with no problems.
They took up their places again and started to pull down of the lever. They all heard a snap and a creaking sound.
“Keep going,” James yelled and they all strained even harder.
A large popping noise and the lever went to the ground. The all ran over and sure enough, one side was bent open at least a foot and a half.
They were ecstatic, jumping around and hugging.
“Now for the moment of truth,” James said as he led them to the opening. He squeezed in and found the ladder going down.
“Talk about dark. Alice, hand me my light out of the backpack.”
He started down the ladder. After a few minutes of descending he called up.
“I don’t know how deep it goes but
a long damn way,” he yelled.
They could only make out part of what he had said but ‘deep’ they all caught. They waited by the opening for twenty minutes before James stuck his head back out.
“We were getting worried about you,” Linda said.
“It is a hell of a long way down. I counted 780 steps to a platform then it goes down another fifty feet or so. The bottoms of your feet start objecting at about 500 steps down. I have good news and bad as they say. The good news is that there is food, water, and of course shelter,” he told them.
“And the bad?” Alice asked.
“No separate rooms. Just one big room so privacy is not going to happen.”
“Hell, that’s the least of our problems,” Joe said.
“Anyway, we will still essentially have to eat cold food. No way to vent any fumes,” he told them.
“Cold food is better than no food,” Bea said.
“Can’t argue with that. If everyone is ready, we can go down.
“Uh, James,” Linda said.
“Problem?"
“I’m not much good with ladders. I mean I’ll go but I have a fear of falling. Would you mind letting me follow you down?”
“Sure no...” he stopped and scratched his head.
She had on a pretty tight skirt and that was going to be a problem.
“Yeah, I know,” she said as if reading his mind.
“I guess its okay with me if you can handle it,” he told her.
“I’m sorry. I know this is awkward.”
“Honestly, I think we will have other awkward situations as time goes by. Might as well get this one out of the way,” he said trying to ease the situation.
“Then lead the way,” Linda said.
**
“Wow, this is great,” Linda said once they were down in the bunker, “I wonder what it was used for?”
“Some kind of experimentation from what I read while I was looking around.”
“What kind of experiment?”
“I don’t really know. Something called Bluebolt. Anyway, it will give us reading material if nothing else,” James said.
Looking around they could see twenty-five beds. They were only two feet apart and nothing separated them. There was a foot locker at the end of each bed. Other than that, the room was essentially bare except for a desk at the front of the room and two filing cabinets. A second door said bathroom. Evidently, they only had one, James had surmised.
“Where is the food and water?” Joe asked.
“Ah, that took me a minute to find,” he said pushing on a sliding door.
It was stacked with MRE’s (Meals, Ready to Eat), water and a large medical kit.
“Damn, not much down here for twenty-five people. Did you look in the desk drawers or filing cabinets?” Linda asked.
“Not yet. I just took a quick look and came back up to get you guys. I figured we could all check it out together. See what’s in the footlockers and such,” James replied.
“I hope they have some flashlights and batteries,” Barry said starting to rummage around in the filing cabinet.
“Well, we won’t be cramped for space, that’s for sure. Six of us and twenty-five beds. It’s a lot better than the other way around,” James quipped.
“So do we just pick a spot?” Bea asked.
“Sure, why not?”
James took a spot close to the corner of the room. He was somewhat taken aback when Linda took the bed just one over from him. He didn’t say anything but he saw Alice watching. Linda was a pretty good looking woman even in her present condition and Alice wasn’t bad either. The last thing he needed was problems. The thought about getting up and changing beds but decided that could also cause some problems down the road. He would just have to watch what he did and said.
“Does this bother you?” Linda asked, rolling over on her side and facing him.
“Hey, that’s the beauty of having more beds than people; you can sleep any place you like.”
“What I mean is, should I pick a bed a little further from where yours?”
“Linda, you pick where you want to be. No one is going to tell you where you can and can’t sleep.”
“Okay. I like it here. I feel safer with you around. By the way, thank you for helping me get down. I know you had to keep looking up to see how I was doing but you were a gentleman about it,” she told him.
Oh dear, James thought, this could get even more complicated than he originally thought. Maybe he was just reading too much into it, he finally decided.
He was glad when Barry said he was getting pretty darn hungry. It broke the tension and they all started going through the MREs. They found several cases of sterno to prepare the meals. Once they had finished some of them turned in for the night. It was the first night since the attack that they had felt safe, had a real roof over their heads, and a full belly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
JD and Fingers saw it before the other two did. They froze immediately.
“Stop,” JD whispered.
Vivian froze in place but Ben seemed to panic.
“Oh my God. They see us,” he yelled and started running toward a large pile of rocks that was once the Empire State Building.
The pods immediately changed directions and came racing across the flattened earth and zeroed in on Ben as he tried to get back to the underground base. Within seconds they were honing in on him. He tried to hide but they were tracking him and as he jumped to clear a pile of rocks a bolt of plasma shot out and Ben was reduced to nothing more than a red mist.
The pods searched around the area for several minutes before moving on.
“Okay,” JD said quietly.
“My God, did you see that? Poor Ben,” Vivian said sobbing.
“He shouldn’t have run,” Fingers said shrugging his shoulders.
“He just panicked,” JD replied.
“That may be but he could have gotten us killed as well. I don’t think I’m going to come up for a breath of fresh air for quite some time,” Fingers said, heading back to the underground shelter.
“There isn’t even enough to bury,” Vivian sniffled.
“It was quick if that is any consolation. I doubt he felt a thing,” JD replied.
“Still,” she said letting it trail off.
“We should go back. They could return. We need to stay closer to the underground shelter. I guess we just got too far away,” JD said.
They walked back in silence. Every once in a while Vivian would sniffle.
“Did you know him well?”
“Not really. We talked some and have been together every minute since the attack. I know he lost his family just like the rest of us. He was pretty broke up about his kids. His baby was just a week old. He feels like he should have been there to protect them,” she told him.
“Every man feels that way I would venture to guess. Somehow we feel if something happens to the ones we love, we failed. No one could have done anything in a situation like this but the doubt stills lingers.”
“It sounds like you know firsthand.”
“Absolutely.”
When they got to the bunker, JD looked around, said a silent prayer for Ben and all of those who had died.
**
“You’re sure they didn’t see you?” Lieutenant Carlson asked.
“No. I doubt they would have seen Ben if he hadn’t run. The instant he bolted they zeroed in on him. I don’t know if it is movement or the noise he made but they tracked him and caught up in less than a minute. They shot one of those energy beams and...well, that was the end of Ben. He was there jumping one second then just a red mist. There was nothing left.”
“I don’t want to seem like a prick but I don’t want you people going more than a few feet from the entrance if you are going up for air. I can’t have them locating the opening and trapping us down here. I want your word on that,” Carlson said.
“No problem. I think we all learned a lesson. We got to thinking
it was safe. It won’t happen again. I’ll tell the others,” JD replied.
“Good. Now I’m sending out a patrol to see if we can locate other deep facilities,” he said, not calling them DUMBs.
“There are more?”
“Yes,” was all he was willing to say.
“In New York?”
“That’s classified.”
“Classified? From whom? Look around you Lieutenant. Just how many spies do you think are down here? For that matter, how many do you think are even alive anyplace on the planet? Classified! What a joke!” JD said disgustedly.
“Look JD. I know it’s a bad situation for all of us. You say that a man you knew, even if it was just recently, was vaporized. I understand, really I do but right now I still have to do what I think is right. Yeah, there may be no military to speak of but if there is, I have an obligation to follow my orders. Try to look at it from my perspective,” Carlson said.
JD’s shoulders slumped. He let out a sigh.
“You’re right. I didn’t know Ben from Adam but doggone, just seeing him explode and me standing right there doing nothing. Somehow that just rubs me wrong.”
“I’m sure I would have felt exactly the same way if it had been one of my men. I admire your courage to try to keep the others safe. You have to look at it from the standpoint that you saved the lives of three others.”
“I didn’t do a damn thing.”
“Yes you did. You made them stop and not move. That’s why they are still here,” Carlson said slapping him on the back.
“Thanks. I guess that helps some,” JD finally said.
“Make no mistake; it totally sucks all the way around. Now if you will excuse me, I need to get my teams out. I shouldn’t tell you this but there is a facility in Virginia. It was an experimental training center. I don’t know what they did there but we are hoping to make contact and bring them back here. By the way, I never had this conversation with you,” Carlson said.
“What conversation?”
“What are you talking about?” Carlson replied.
“The Cubs?”
“Right,” he said and headed off to talk to his men. It wasn’t something he wanted to do but it had to be done.
WORLDS END Page 9