by Sean Liscom
“You have always had a flare for the dramatic, Jack. Now, you’re just stalling. Open the damn door!” Blair nearly shouted in anticipation. Jack tapped the “Enter” key and grabbed a hold of the drawer that held the computer.
At the far end of the room, where the tram tracks ended, the concrete wall seemingly split down the center. As Jack had said, when the seal between the two huge slabs was broken, the earsplitting sound of rushing air filled the room. The doors continued to slide apart, ever so slowly.
By the time the gap was two inches wide, it felt as if the rushing wind was going to knock Melissa down. She could see everyone else bracing themselves against the onslaught. When the gap reached four inches, she and nearly everyone else was on the smooth concrete floor. They were clinging to each other and anything else they could to keep from being sucked into the maw.
Blair was still on her feet, clinging to the same ledge as Jack. Jerrod was holding tight to one of Melissa’s legs. She in turn, was being held in place by Captain Boone who had wrapped himself around one of the light posts. When it felt as if the suction from the open door couldn’t get any worse, it did.
With the gap now at six inches, the door stopped moving. The screaming of the wind was drowning out all other noise. Both Blair and Jack were still clinging to the drawer with both hands. Their bodies suspended in the air by the wind. Blair was beginning to lose her grip. She was screaming something at Jack, but Melissa couldn’t make out the words. Jack stared into her terrified eyes, the menace behind his eyes was like nothing she’d ever seen.
Blair’s grip slipped and she flew toward the six-inch-wide gap with astonishing speed. When her body hit the space between the two doors, it crumpled like a tin can being run over by a bus. In another instant, she was sucked between the doors and was gone leaving behind nothing but a red stain where she hit.
Melissa felt the Captains grip on her wrists begin to slip and her pounding heart nearly leapt out of her chest. She knew what she had to do if she didn’t want to join Blair. She could feel Jerrod’s grip on her own leg beginning to weaken as he slipped down to her ankle. Kicking hard with her other foot, her boot heel caught him in the wrist. His hold on her faltered and he too was sucked through the too narrow opening.
Jack struggled to pull himself closer to the drawer until he could wrap one arm around the ledge. Sure that he was secure, he let go with one hand and used it to type on the keypad. The door began to move again, much faster this time. Inside of 15 seconds the suction began to weaken. A minute later, it was nothing more than a slight breeze and then was still again.
When Captain Boone released Melissa’s wrists, she rolled onto her back, nearly exhausted. He was on his feet in an instant doing a headcount of his people. Satisfied they had all survived, he turned his attention to helping Jack to his feet.
“I warned her,” Jack said with a chuckle as he took the offered hand.
“Yeah, you did,” Captain Boone replied.
“Your people good?” Jack looked around and then helped Melissa to her feet.
“All accounted for. Sorry about the punch to the gut my friend, but I had to make it look good and it was the only way I could slip you the key.”
“Don’t worry about it, Nate! You did well!” Jack said as he slipped his hand into his pocket and produced a handcuff key. “With all the shit me and you been through, I probably had gut punch coming anyway,” he laughed.
“Wait.... You two?” Melissa pointed first at Jack then at Captain Nate Boone.
“Jack and I go way back. He’s the one that got me the gig with ARK security. He’s also the one that warned me to have my people outside of the ARK the night of the EMP. Saved our asses for sure,” Nate replied.
“Son-of-a……” she muttered, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Give me a little credit, Mel. When I play the game, I play every angle before I ever take a seat at the table,” Jack said with a chuckle as he removed her cuffs.
“I guess you do. What the hell happened to the door? You said it might suck in some air, you didn’t say it would be tornado force winds!” Melissa remarked.
“Simple, Mel. I booby trapped the place by reversing the ventilation fans. With most of the interior blast doors locked open and the computer system locked out, they couldn’t shut the generators off. Those went off by themselves when the oxygen ran too low, but battery power finished the job,” Jack explained.
“Why didn’t they just smash the batteries or the generators?”
“Those were the only two blast doors that were locked down and they didn’t have the firepower to get through them.”
“So, that was kind of like what would happen in space? Right? Like if a spaceship had a hole in it….”
“Nailed it on the head, Mel.”
“How many people were in there, Jack?” her demeanor suddenly shifted as the dark thought entered her mind.
“Somewhere in the neighborhood of 200, maybe 250.”
“Families?”
“Yes,” the steel in his voice matched the steel in his eyes.
“You.... You murdered them?” she thought she was going to choke on the words.
“Don’t get all sanctimonious on me Melissa! Yes, I killed them, but you have NO idea of how many good people I saved! Those people,” he pointed toward the open door. “Those people chose their fate! I just helped deliver it!”
Monday, September 4th, 2017
The Ranch.
“Jason?” Tara asked quietly from beside Jill. All of us were sitting at the table and I explained everything that I knew about what was coming.
“Yes?”
“Are we gonna die?” her green eyes glistened when she asked.
“Tara, do you remember when I first met you?”
“Yes.”
“Where you scared then?”
“Yes.”
“You wanna know something?” I asked. She replied with a nod. “I was scared too. You wanna know something else?” again with the nod. “I’m scared now but it’s okay to be scared.”
“You’re scared?”
“Yes, I am.”
“You don’t look scared.”
“Well, I am. The thing is, I have to be brave now too. I have to be brave just like you were brave when you were on the mountain and your mommy didn’t come back.”
“But I was very afraid….”
“That’s right, you were afraid, but you did what you had to do to keep Luke safe, didn’t you? You kept the fire going so you would have it at night. You gave your brother some of your food because he was hungry, even though you didn’t have much. You shared your water with him, and you kept him alive until help arrived. Right?”
“Yeah, but how’s that brave?”
“You were scared but didn’t run away. You stayed with Luke and you did what needed to be done, even though you were scared. That’s what it’s like to be brave,” I explained. She looked thoughtfully at her little brother for a moment, then back to me. She slipped out of her chair and walked to where I was seated. Taking my hand in hers, she locked eyes with me and spoke.
“Jason, I’ll be brave again and if you need help being brave, I’ll help you too.”
“Thank you, Tara. I really appreciate that,” I said, nearly choking on the words. She let go of my hand and gave me a big hug before returning to her seat. Jill and I locked eyes, hers were just as glossy as I’m sure mine were. The corner of her lip was quivering.
There was a full minute of silence at the table before either of us spoke. Braden and Megan seemed content to let us have that moment. I could see the two of them exchanging glances and small smiles from the corner of my eye.
“What....” Jill’s voice cracked and she cleared her throat to cover it. “What do we do now? What’s our plan?”
“Right now, your dad is meeting with the staff and team leaders. He’s giving them a full briefing and when he’s done, I need to go into Elko. I need to bring the President and Governor Calvert up
to speed. I’d call on the radio, but I don’t want this getting out right away. None of us need panicked civilians.”
“Word will get out, one way or the other,” she said.
“I know. By 8:30 tomorrow morning, everyone here will know. I’m sure Jim will be as forthcoming with his citizens. The wildcard will be President Dixon.”
“You think she’ll sit on it?”
“Not intentionally. I think the wheels in her government will turn too slowly. We’ll be in the middle of a pandemic before they manage some sort of organized response. That’s my fear anyway.”
“Jane might surprise you, Jason. Remember, she’s a bit of a maverick.”
“I know that too, problem is, her people will want to verify the information BEFORE they decide to panic everyone. It’ll be too late by then.”
“Then, you do it. Go talk to Jane and Jim. When you’re done, come back here and get on the HAM radio and get the word out!” she urged.
“I can’t, not yet anyway.”
“Why not?”
“If I do that, people will immediately shit the bed. They will be out looting, stealing and killing before....”
“Before? Before what?”
“Hon, my first responsibility is to the people of this ranch, to my family.... Part of the reason I’m going to town tonight is so that I can forge a deal with Jim and Jane to secure the supplies WE need to survive. We are going to be locked down for a good long time and I’ll be damned if I will let anyone here die because we ran out of shit!” I said quietly. The look on her face was a mixture of anger and relief. It was hard to tell which emotion was winning. She slowly looked at each face around the table before she came back to me.
“You realize, you’re putting supplies, material things, over your humanity? Over your compassion for those that are weaker? Tell me that’s NOT what you’re doing.”
“It’s more than that, babe. Yes, I am putting the needs of this ranch first. Yes, we are going to hide behind our walls while the world finishes burning to the ground. In the end though, we will survive. WE will be the ones helping out once the firestorm has blown over. There is NOTHING we can do to stop what is about to happen. NOTHING!”
“This isn’t something I can shoot or punch in the face. I can’t fight this with a gun or a fist. We have to be smart if we want to live. Tara asked me if we were going to die; not if I can help it! Now, once we have what we need and no more than that, I’ll be on the radio blasting it all over the globe, just so others have a chance too.”
“I know....” she paused “It just seems so callous. When we dealt with Marvin, we put the people of Elko first. When we dealt with Judge, we sacrificed so Elko and Vegas could survive. Now, all of a sudden, we’re putting ourselves first.... It just seems wrong,” she replied quietly.
“I know, hon. Trust me, I know. If I had just gone after Jack and stopped him when he escaped……”
CHAPTER 18
Monday, September 4th, 2017
Elko, Nevada.
My original plan had been to drive into Elko by myself, but Jill saw to it that I had an escort. She reminded me of getting blown up in the Jeep a few weeks earlier and she also reminded me that protocol dictated; no one travels alone. Especially if your last name was Sterling. Begrudgingly, I allowed her to send Isabella and her Wraith team as escort.
After kissing my wife good night, I loaded up in the Hummer and we headed to Elko. I guess the good thing about riding with my sister was that I got to ride in the lead rig. She may not have let me drive but I still got to sit in the front seat. There was an awkward silence until the convoy of three Hummers and single MRAP got up to speed. When the speedometer settled on 60mph, she finally spoke.
“Do you really think he will launch the missiles?”
“I keep praying that this is all a mistake. Maybe you got the coding wrong or something stupid like that.... But, well, I keep going back to some of his rants about society needing a reset and all of the doubt fades away. To answer your question; Yes, I think he’ll pull the trigger,” I replied. She stared out the front window for another mile or two.
“I should have shot him. If I had, this wouldn’t be happening,” she finally said.
“Yeah? Well, if I’d have gone after him, we might not be here either. I think the best we can hope for now is that the Special Forces guys catch up to him or Melissa can do something to stop him.”
“I’m sorry, Jason. I don’t have a lot of faith in either of those things happening.”
“Me neither. That’s why we’re headed into town. I think it’s safe to say; we lost the battle, but we can still win the war.... Or at least not die in the process. Honestly, I’d take that as a win right now.”
“This is frustrating for you, yes? You don’t like to lose, do you?” she asked.
“I don’t know anybody that likes to lose, Isabella.”
“Sometimes, it’s inevitable. You fight enough battles and sooner or later, it will happen. Certainly, you understand that, right?”
“Have you ever lost? Have you ever been defeated like this?” I looked across the center console at her. Her face was illuminated by the lights from the dash. Her eyes never leaving the road. She took so long to answer, I was beginning to think she hadn’t heard me.
“You and Braden are very different. Your personalities, the way you look, the way you carry yourselves, all different. There are some strong family traits that could reveal you as brothers to a trained eye though. You asked me if I’d ever been defeated, right?” I nodded, failing to see where this was going.
“I am defeated every time Kari and I are in the same room. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember. She has always been the stronger, faster and more outspoken one. By default, she was our fathers’ right hand. I’ve always been the quieter, weaker version of her. So, yes. I deal with defeat every day.”
“How so?”
“Jason, our father drilled us constantly. Things like self-defense, weapons training, wilderness survival…. All of it. He told us one time that he was grooming us for the day he was no longer with us. He wanted someone to take the reins after he passed away. He also made it perfectly clear that there could only be one leader. Two leaders were, what did he say, a conflict of interests waiting to happen.”
“And he chose Kari over you?”
“Yes. Ever since, I’ve felt like I was holding the second-place medal in a competition I never chose to be in. Don’t get me wrong. I’m very grateful for everything I’ve been taught, but this is a life I never chose. It was chosen for me. I never had a say in the matter,” she finished. I had to take a minute to think about what she had just said. It was a story that sounded very familiar. She slowed the Hummer and led the convoy up the freeway on-ramp.
“We’re not that different, Isabella. I spent my childhood living in Braden’s shadow. He had it all and I was content to be a geek, the loner. I was always compared to him. That’s why I left home and never looked back. I had to get away from all of that. I had to be me and not Braden’s little brother.”
“When I learned of the ranch, when I came here to live, I’d thought I finally found a place where I could just exist. No pressure from daily life. No pressure to drive my blood pressure up at a job I didn’t really want. No people judging me, just close friends who accepted me.”
“Then the world fell apart and so did all of that. Someway, somehow, I ended up as their leader. I never asked for it, never really wanted it. It just happened. I can tell you this; being the supreme leader ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
“Well, I for one, don’t see anyone else that could have done what you’ve done. It’s a role that you fill very well,” she began to slow the truck again as we approached the checkpoint into the city. She pulled up to the guard shack and I recognized the man who was on duty tonight.
“Hey, Sam,” I said as he stepped up to Isabella’s door.
“Jason, good to see you, sir. It’s kinda late, everything okay?
” the young man asked.
“Yeah, I just needed to catch up with Jim and the President. She’s still here, right?”
“They’re at the Governor's office,” he smiled and stepped back. “Have a good night, see you on the way out,” he waved us through the gate. Isabella urged the Hummer forward. Once the last rig was through the checkpoint, I spoke again.
“Ya know, maybe it’s time for both of us to stop living in Jack’s shadow. Maybe that’s what both of us are struggling with.”
“Maybe you’re right, big brother. Maybe you’re right,” she smiled when she said it.
When we pulled onto the street that would take us to the back entrance of the Governors building, I immediately sensed something was wrong. This was the single most guarded building in the entire city of Elko, and I didn’t see a single guard about. When we rolled up to the guard shack at the rear parking lot, my mind began to race. There was no guard in the shack.
“Kill the lights and shut the truck off!” I ordered and threw my door open. I drew my sidearm and approached the shack. Still no one to challenge me. Taking a quick peek through the open door, I saw the body on the floor. I crept closer and knelt by the woman’s head. I quickly felt her neck and found no pulse.
By now, the rest of Wraith team had disembarked their vehicles and had taken up defensive positions. Isabella stood in the doorway with her suppressed M-4 rifle to her shoulder.
“Dead?” she asked quietly.”
“Yeah. Me, you and first squad are going for the back door, we’ll make entry. Keep a squad at the back of the building and send another to the front, quiet like. Have fourth squad cover the grounds and look for hostiles,” I moved to join her at the doorway. She pressed her throat mic to her vocal cords so that she could speak quietly and still be heard. After her orders were given, she and the other four members of the first squad formed up at the front of the Hummer.
I leaned in and grabbed my rifle from the center console and then gave the hand signal to move out. We worked our way through the nearly empty parking lot and found one more body between two vehicles. This one had been shot in the head.