by Judd Vowell
ΔΔΔ
The second ANTI- unit sent to the fiery wreckage a mile away reported back to the main gate before they came back. What they were seeing was too important to wait. The head guard’s intercom chirped with noise before a voice broke through.
“Gate 1, gate 1,” the soldier at the fire said with urgency. “Gate 1, can you hear me, over.”
The guard grabbed his intercom to respond, sensing the tension in the soldier’s voice. “Yes, I hear you, over.”
“Be advised, Gate 1, we’ve got dead Omegas out here. I repeat, dead Omegas, over.”
The guard was confused. He didn’t respond for a minute as he tried to understand what had happened. Then it came to him. Dread was his first emotion, anger came next.
“Gate 1!” the soldier at the fire screamed. “Did you hear what I said?!?”
“Yes, soldier,” the guard responded. “I heard you just fine. Now back to the base, double-time. We’ve got some imposters to catch. Over and out.”
He informed the other guards quickly, and they started to prepare themselves for the hunt. Then he clicked on his intercom to warn the base’s main control room. But instead of the typical delayed response from control, there was no response at all.
ΔΔΔ
The outdoor space throughout the base was lit, but not like it would have been before the Great Dark. The ANTs intentionally kept it dim, with just enough light to see the ground around you and the next building you were approaching. They had no desire to attract outsiders to the powered area, so they kept its nighttime setting to a dull glow, unnoticeable from even a short distance.
Even still, Archer wasn’t willing to take the risk of being seen, despite the fact that he and Jacob were still dressed like the Omega XT. “Attention is distraction, and distraction is disaster.” It was an axiom that Archer had learned early in his military career. And he had enough experience in battle to believe it.
He led Jacob from building to building, keeping his body as close to the brick and concrete walls as he could. They moved deliberately but with speed. They made it to the base’s main control building in six minutes, thirty seconds.
Archer gripped the steel doorknob on the building’s outer door. He twisted it halfway, to feel if it would stop moving, but it didn’t. He whispered over his shoulder to Jacob, “It’s unlocked. We’re goin’ in. You – On. My. Ass.”
The door creaked slightly as Archer opened it. Jacob cringed at the noise. Archer moved inside quietly and quickly. Jacob hurried in after him.
They were in the center of a hallway that spread evenly to their left and right. On each end, it appeared the hall took a ninety-degree turn and continued. It was hard to see much more because the hallway was illuminated by red security lights and nothing more.
“This way,” Archer said, nodding right. Then he pulled out his handgun and held it in front of him. Jacob followed closely.
They eased around the first corner, Archer leading with his gun as he went. The hallway continued further than they could see. They began to hear two voices coming from the darkness on the other end of the building. Archer kept walking, and Jacob stayed with him.
The end of the hall eventually appeared, and Jacob noticed that the wall there looked different. He couldn’t tell what it was at first, but soon he realized he was seeing the glare from a wall made of glass. Then, behind the glass, the electronics and computers that made up the base’s mainframe came into view. Jacob felt an excitement at the discovery.
Archer suddenly reached around and grabbed him, forcing him down into a crouched position. Archer put his forefinger to his lips. “Shhh,” he mimed.
It wasn’t until then that Jacob saw the two figures inside the glass-walled room. They were sitting behind one of the control desks, talking and relaxed. One of them must have said something funny, and they both began to laugh hysterically.
Archer holstered his gun and pulled out the knife he had used on the Omega XT at the infirmary. He motioned for Jacob to do the same. Jacob felt much calmer than before. He pulled out his own knife and followed Archer.
The two of them stayed low and crept to the control room’s doorway. The unconcerned ANTs had left the door open, and their conversation grew louder as Archer and Jacob got closer. Archer directed Jacob with his hand to stay left, then he went the other way. They were each behind an ANT within seconds. Archer made a motion slowly with his knife, moving its blade across the front of his neck. Jacob nodded that he understood, then he took a deep breath. Archer mouthed the word, “Now,” and they attacked.
13.
W hen Salvador returned to his penthouse from dinner, he was wide awake. He was still confounded by Quinn’s subtle transformation over the last few days. His friend and top advisor had a connection to one of the rebels, he knew it. But he couldn’t figure out who.
He had poured himself a second nightcap when his laptop’s message alert sounded. He went to it and saw the same flashing icon that had appeared earlier that evening: URGENT. He clicked on the message, expecting the Kansas base to have some news about the missing Omega XT units. But the message wasn’t from Kansas. It was from thirty-four floors below him, where ANTI-’s technology headquarters was housed.
TO: S.S.
FROM: Glenn Peters, Grid Control
Subject: URGENT – Kansas Base OFFLINE
Salvador,
Kansas went dark at 10:22 CST tonight without warning. Multiple attempts at contact with no success.
Combined with the reports of missing soldiers from this morning, I suspect outside interference is in play. Possible Lefty retaliation.
FtSoH
Glenn
Besides Jacob, Glenn Peters was the smartest technological mind Salvador had ever known. He trusted Glenn’s assessment without question. Something at the Kansas base was terribly wrong.
He picked up his cell phone and scrolled through his contacts until he got to the Qs. Then he pressed the entry that read “Quinn.” He didn’t have any more time to decipher what had caused Quinn to act so strangely. Salvador needed his lingering questions answered immediately.
But by then Quinn was unconscious in a hospital bed, his head badly injured from his fall to the concrete earlier that day. And Salvador’s questions would have to remain unanswered. At least until the Cuban mastermind was able to figure it all out on his own.
14.
T he infirmary had two sets of windows on its front wall, one on either side of the large entrance doors. Laz crouched below one of them, Simpson and Houser below the other. Every minute, Laz would check the watch on his wrist. Ten minutes, eleven, twelve. The lights throughout the base remained lit. Thirteen, fourteen. Still light. Then in an instant, it was black outside the windows.
“That’s it,” Laz said. “Let’s get to it.”
He exited the infirmary first and ran left around the building on a direct line to the base’s rear gate. Simpson and Houser came through the doors after him, but went straight to the humvee they had left parked outside instead.
Houser opened up the rear hatch on the vehicle. The compartment’s interior light came on, revealing twelve canisters, each filled with a homemade mixture of gasoline and industrial-strength detergent the Leftys had found in the Kansas City restaurant that afternoon. Submerged in the explosive liquid compounds were twelve separate grenades. A long rope snaked across the tops of the canisters, sections of it knotted and dipped into each one. A two-foot length of the rope twisted out of the container nearest to Houser and coiled in the back of the humvee’s trunk. He picked it up and felt its soaked oily texture in his hand. He uncoiled it from the trunk and closed the hatch. Then he pulled a lighter from his pocket.
“Ready?” he said to Simpson, who had gone to the driver seat of the vehicle.
“Ready,” Simpson replied. He turned on the ignition, and the humvee’s engine came to life. He double-checked the headlights, making sure they were shining brightly.
Houser rolled his thumb across th
e lighter, igniting it a few inches from the end of the rope. “Here goes nothin’,” he said, moving the flame to the improvised bomb’s makeshift fuse and setting the next phase of the mission in motion.
ΔΔΔ
The Omega XT guards traveling from the main gate were halfway to the North Infirmary when the light inside the base’s perimeter disappeared. The driver in the first of the two humvees slammed on his brakes when it happened, leaving the driver of the second little time to react. He was barely able to stop his vehicle before it crashed into the other.
The soldiers looked around frantically into the sudden blackness. Then a set of headlights appeared in the distance, shining on a large white building.
“There,” the Omega XT in the passenger seat of the lead vehicle said as he pointed at the lights. “It’s the infirmary. Go!”
With the visual of his destination restored, the driver slammed the gas pedal to the floor of his humvee. The second driver did the same. As they got closer to the infirmary and the humvee parked in front of it, they could see other Omega XT pouring out of the nearby barracks. They were all running toward the stationary vehicle in the parking lot, the only illuminated object in sight. By the time the main gate’s guard units reached the area, there were already a hundred ANTs gathered there, confused by the sudden blackout. And none of them foresaw what was coming.
The massive explosion started with a white flash of light, exposed when the parked humvee’s rear hatch blew thirty feet into the air. Fragments from the grenades flew outward at first, followed almost instantly by shrapnel from the exploding vehicle. Omega XT soldiers within a few feet were ripped to pieces. Those behind them suffered less violence but were killed just the same.
The two humvees from the main gate were pushed backwards and up into the air, their occupants thrown around inside the vehicles like rag dolls. They landed with a crash into each other. None of the Omega XT gate guards lived through the brutal demolition.
The few soldiers who did survive the bomb’s blast were blown through the air just like those who died. They lay scattered in the darkness, with limbs blown off and pieces of metal impaling their bodies. Those not yet in shock then heard something through the ringing in their ears. It was the sound of a speeding vehicle, followed by the gunfire of a high-caliber machine gun. Then came the silence of the ultimate darkness, as the bomb’s survivors were finished off by the second wave of Lefty’s attack.
15.
L az didn’t worry about running across the base’s open ground when he left the infirmary. The fresh darkness would keep him invisible. He wore a pair of the night-vision goggles that they had pulled from the Omega XT that day in the city, giving him clear vision. If he came across any Omega XT, he knew how to handle them. One of the benefits of guerilla warfare is sight when the enemy is blind. Laz was well aware of his advantage in the dark.
He reached the rear gate in five minutes’ time, sprinting the entire way. He stopped thirty feet short of it to gauge the Omega XT guards who were most likely stationed there. He leaned his body against a building nearby, just in case they had night-vision, too.
The rear gate was a simple and separate chain link section of the fence, positioned on wheels and wide enough to create an opening for a large truck to pass through. There were only four guards that Laz could see. They were fidgety and standing close together in the dark, their vision limited because they weren’t wearing any night-vision goggles. Advantage Laz.
He looked at his watch and saw that six minutes had passed since he left the infirmary. It wouldn’t be long before the humvee bomb would go off and the guards at the gate in front of him would become more defensive. He had to take care of them quickly.
He lowered himself to one knee. He wanted to keep his body as steady as he could. Then he calculated the distance between each guard. He raised his assault rifle and put the first of the soldiers he would kill into the crosshairs of his scope. The shots would have to be rapid but precise for him to take down all four. He inhaled and held the breath, then began his sniping.
ΔΔΔ
The access road that led to the rear gate turned more primitive closer to the base, transitioning from pavement to dirt with dug-in ruts from the heavy equipment trucks that had driven it in the years of America’s vast military armament. The dirt portion of the road was surrounded by thick woods that ran all the way to the fence that lined the base’s northern border. The chain-link gate sat at the end of the road.
When the van’s driver reached the woods, he stopped. The Leftys were still a long way from the gate, but they didn’t want the noise of their vehicles to alert the Omega XT guards stationed there. Anna got out of the van and walked to the driver’s window.
“How far are we?” she asked him.
“Hard to tell,” he said. “These goggles have got my depth perception all screwed up. Maybe a couple thousand feet?”
“Let me see those,” she said, reaching her hand into the van’s cab. The driver took off his goggles and handed them to her.
Anna surveyed the scene at the gate, limited in what she could see by the dense woods in front of her. She needed to get closer, so she could watch Laz’s part of the mission unfold. Otherwise, they could waste precious seconds waiting for him to get to the gate and then open it. If she could see better, she could direct the Leftys to start their entry as soon as the guards had been eliminated. She needed to get closer.
“How many pair of these goggles do we have?” she asked the van’s driver.
“Just two more, not counting those and the ones with the pickup.”
“Hand them to me, and take these back,” she instructed. “You’ll need them when I signal you.”
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To get a better look at things. Can’t afford to waste a second. Hand me a flare.” The driver reached into the van’s glove compartment and pulled out a road flare, then gave it to her. “When you see this, you go, as fast as you can. Understand?”
“Yes ma’am.”
Anna moved back to the rear of the van. She opened the door, where Jessica and the other three Leftys sat waiting with a nervous excitement.
“Need a volunteer,” Anna said simply. She was focused on the three male soldiers, but Jessica spoke first.
“I’ll go,” Jessica said.
“I don’t think so, Jess,” Anna said. “We’ve gotta keep you out of harm’s way, as much as we can. You’re better off in here than out there.”
Jessica jumped out of the van and grabbed the second pair of night-vision goggles from Anna’s hand. “I’m the best soldier you’ve got right now, and you know it,” she said. “Let’s go.”
ΔΔΔ
The lights inside the base went out just as Anna and Jessica found a spot in the woods to hide. They were less than fifty feet from the fence, where they could see four Omega XT guards gathered on the inside of the gate. The guards reacted to the sudden darkness with obvious confusion. They looked to the sky for an explanation, then huddled around each other, waiting for the lights to come back on.
After a few minutes, Jessica noticed a figure in the distance, running toward them. She pointed him out to Anna. Then he disappeared against the building closest to the gate.
“Laz,” Anna whispered.
“Yep,” Jessica said.
They knew what was about to happen, so they looked back to the guards. The action occurred almost instantaneously. In their peripheral vision, there were four short bursts of fire from Laz’s assault rifle. In almost the same moment, the Omega XT guards fell like dominos. One, two, three. But not the fourth. Instead, he was running, away from the gate and out of Laz’s line of sight. Laz had missed his last target.
Instinctually, Jessica removed the rifle she always carried with her from her shoulder. She raised its scope to her right eye’s night-vision goggle. She led the running guard with the rifle’s barrel just enough, then fired two successive shots. She knew she was shooting through a chain-l
ink fence, so she fired the extra shot as a safety. But both bullets avoided deflection, traveling through the gaps in the fence faster than the speed of sound. The first hit the Omega XT in his upper arm, turning him slightly so that the second entered the back of his head. He fell to the ground in a heap.
Laz reappeared, running from the side of the building to the gate. Anna lit the road flare and tossed it onto the dirt road next to her. They heard the engines rev from the woods behind them.
“C’mon,” Anna said. “Let’s give Laz a hand.”
She and Jessica took off toward the gate. They were almost there before Anna acknowledged what Jessica had just done. She looked over her shoulder as she ran. “Nice shot, by the way.”
They got to the outside of the gate just as Laz had unlocked it. The three of them dragged the large chain-link fencing sideways as fast as they could. The two Lefty vehicles from the woods were moving at full-speed by then. Just as they finished pushing the gate completely open, the van and pickup came speeding through, and the harsh sound of a homemade car bomb pierced the black night air.
16.
T he Lefty driving the cargo van stopped before he reached the infirmary and let the pickup pass him. The pickup continued at full speed into the mass of ANTI- bodies on the ground surrounding the exploded humvee and the crater it had created. The truck’s gunner squeezed the two-handled machine gun and began to fire, making sure he hit anyone who appeared to be moving.
More soldiers had come out of the barracks by the time the pickup was making its second pass. That gave the Lefty gunner new targets, and he fired at will. The Omega XT reinforcements were leveled without a fight.