by D. A. Hill
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“I can’t leave without Pop,” Danny added.
“Are you sure you won’t reconsider?” Tyra pleaded. “I hope the military won’t hold you accountable for what I’ve done, but I can’t guarantee what will happen if you stay here.”
“Tyra, you can’t guarantee what will happen if we come with you either. My mind is made up,” Clayton replied emphatically. “So enough talk. Let’s get you people moving.”
—o—
Cyrus and Manny sat by the window looking out over the plains. Watching the setting sun and enjoying a beer or three, it was possible, if only for a moment, to forget that the world was falling apart. Cyrus had no idea where Manny had obtained the beer but he had given up trying to understand his resourcefulness. Manny and Emmanuel Smith were not like any friends Cyrus had ever had, not that he ever had many friends. He really had nothing much in common with them, but they had a way of bringing Cyrus out of his shell, helping him enjoy life’s simple pleasures. Cyrus imagined that this was what it would be like if he had a father worthy of the title.
“Lots of excitement lately Cyrus,” Manny said. “Eric seems to have formed quite an attachment to you. Every night after you leave he asks Gina if he can go live with you.”
“I don’t understand why he wants to be with me of all people. I really don’t know what I should do.” Eric refused to go to sleep every night until Cyrus visited. At first it was just a quick goodnight and then reading him a story. The visits had grown longer but Cyrus had to admit he had also grown to enjoy them more. And the boy had begun visiting him during the day as well. Surprisingly Cyrus did not mind the intrusion, despite being so busy he resented every other interruption. “I really like him and obviously he likes me—at least more than he likes anyone else here—but taking on full time responsibility for him? Scary thought.”
“I can’t tell you what you should do Cyrus,” Manny replied. “Only you can decide if you’re ready to make that commitment. But I do know exactly how you’re feeling right now.”
“Unless you’ve been landed with a kid out of the blue, I somehow doubt that. Manny, it’s not something I’m prepared for. I don’t think I’ve ever been less prepared for anything in my entire life. I have exactly zero relevant experience.”
“Fact of the matter is Cyrus, I’ve been there.”
Cyrus looked at him disbelievingly. “Really? The President of the United States came down out of the sky and left you his kid to look after? Hmmm. Somehow I doubt that.”
“Not exactly, but something like that. Back when I was about twenty-one I was based at Beale Air Force Base outside Sacramento. That’s where I met Gina’s mother. It wasn’t anything serious, we dated a few times and it was fun. She was this exotic dark-haired Hispanic beauty and I was this testosterone filled, full of himself, fighter pilot. Don’t know what she saw in me. Anyway, I got posted overseas and it wasn’t exactly the sort of relationship you maintained via email. Next thing I know, it’s six years later and I get a message asking if I remember her and could she see me. So I fly out there and she introduces me to Gina—I could tell straight away she was mine...”
“She’s definitely got your eyes.”
“She does and the timing of her birth was right. So I decided on the spot that when her mother asked me to provide child support I would say yes. A man has to face his responsibilities head on or he’s not much of a man. But that’s not what she asked. She was dying of cancer. Six months they gave her. She lasted two. I stayed with her and Gina until the end. Gina has been with me ever since. So yes, I’ve been there. I know that right now you’re feeling like that asteroid has already come down and landed on your head.”
“Looks like I was wrong,” Cyrus conceded. “You do know exactly how I feel.” He had been feeling overwhelmed and if he was completely honest, just a little sorry for himself, wondering why of all people Eric had latched on to him. So he was very glad Manny told him this story. Very glad. It helped enormously to know that someone had been facing the same thing he was facing and had survived the experience. It gave him what he needed most—hope. He wanted to know more. “It must have been hard.”
“It sure was. There I was a twenty-seven year old Air Force pilot, I was a captain by then, and my life was chasing women and drinking and general hell raising when I wasn’t flying, which was its own form of hell raising. And then suddenly I’m the father of a six year old daughter and it’s all pigtails and pink dresses and fairies. You’ll find it hard to believe, but Gina was a real princess as a child.”
“You’re right, I do find that hard to believe,” Cyrus replied with a laugh. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure really. She got real tall and gangly when she was about thirteen and became very self-conscious of her body. Suddenly she wanted me to take her to ball games and hunting and riding dirt bikes. I didn’t complain since I never had a son to do those things with, but there were times I missed the princess. Still do.”
“Seriously, how did you cope?” Cyrus asked.
“I did the only thing there is to do; stepped up to the plate and took a swing and kept swinging. Tried not to worry about striking out. I’ll give you the same great advice my mother gave me at the time. There is no perfect game when you’re raising a kid. You’ve just got to keep fighting the good fight and hanging in there. Cyrus, ninety-nine percent of being a parent is simply being there when they need you. What a child needs more than anything else in the world is to know that, whatever happens, there is at least one person they can always count on. So your job would be to be that person for Eric.”
Cyrus thought about what Manny had said. He was actually good at learning by doing; that was how he had taught himself to program. As long as he could treat parenthood as a trial and error process that he did not need to get right the first time, he could see himself managing it. “I think I can do that,” Cyrus said.
“Good,” Manny replied, pleased that Cyrus had made the decision to take care of Eric. In his opinion, which was based solely on what he had learned and the blessings he had reaped raising a daughter on his own, it was the best solution. For both of them. “So long as you don’t give up, before you know it he’ll be all grown up and making you as proud as any man can be.”
Cyrus watched the sun beginning to drop below the mountains to their west, the light refracting through the layer of snow on the ground making the snowflakes sparkle like diamonds. He wondered if he would be able to duplicate that sort of beauty in his virtual environment. Of course he would; it was just elementary physics. Sublime nevertheless. “Well if I could do half as good a job as you did raising your daughter, I’d be happy.”
“Thank you Cyrus. I’m very proud of her. Very proud. I’d like to think I had something to do with molding her into the woman she is today, but I have to tell you her best qualities come from her mother—in those last two months I fell completely in love with the most wonderful woman—I can take no credit for those.”
“Like the ability to kill a man with her bare hands?” Cyrus wasn’t much of a comedian, but in the circumstances—the world falling apart and deciding to become an instant father—a little levity seemed called for.
Manny laughed heartily. “No, I think she got that one from the Army.” Manny paused and took a swig of his beer. He had seen the way Cyrus looked at his daughter when he thought no one was watching. And he knew his daughter would not have stuck her neck out for Cyrus if there had not been at least respect there, and his daughter did not grant respect lightly. He liked Cyrus. He was a lot tougher than he looked, at least in terms of the sort of courage that really mattered. Manny thought they would be a good match, if his daughter was not so good at scaring men away. He knew Regina would have his hide if she felt he was interfering, but he figured he could at least give the poor guy a little encouragement. “You know, her bark really is worse than her bite. Don’t let her intimidate you Cyrus.”
“I’ll try not to,�
� was all Cyrus could say, not sure that what Manny was suggesting was at all possible.
—o—
As he watched the news report James Newton felt disbelief and at the same time a sense that these events were inevitable, if not in this exact form then at least in a general sense. The elected President of the United States overthrown in a military coup was not something he could ever have imagined seeing in his lifetime. That sort of thing just did not happen in America, yet there it was. Given how badly things were going, and the size of Harry Branston’s ego, it was not that surprising, at least now that it had happened.
Newton’s first concern was to ensure the news was kept from the children. It also meant that they would need to accelerate their timetable once again. Things could only get worse from here. He needed to tell the others immediately.
He found Lopez and her father in what was originally a storage area but was now set aside as a playroom for Elizabeth and Eric.
“What’s happened?” Lopez asked, seeing the grim look on his face.
“Something bad,” he replied softly enough that the children could not hear. “We need to get everybody together. Without the children.”
“You go, I’ll watch the kids,” Manny said to his daughter. “Fill me in later.”
“Thanks Dad,” she said as she left with Newton. They gathered the remainder of the team on their way to the meeting room.
“Graham, bring Emmanuel in please,” Newton said.
Graham Blake switched on the holo-projectors. “Where’s Manny?” his doppelganger asked looking around the room for him.
“Manny is watching the children. What I have to say must be kept from them,” Newton answered. “There’s been a military coup in Washington. Harry Branston is now in charge,” Newton began.
“Oh great,” Lopez said sarcastically. “Putting that buffoon in the White House will really improve things.” Now she knew for sure she had done the right thing defying the administration and allying herself with Newton and the others. The country she had sworn to defend no longer existed in any meaningful way.
“It gets worse. The President and First Lady are unaccounted for.” Newton hesitated before continuing. “Several reports are saying they’ve been executed along with the Vice-President.”
“Oh my God,” Regina Lopez said in shock. As if Eric and Elizabeth did not have enough to deal with. Newton was right to keep this from them. Eric was old enough to understand that they were never going to see their parents again, but Elizabeth was not ready for that.
“He must have suspected something like this was coming,” Cyrus said. “President Carlson. He must have known. That’s why he brought us the children when he did.”
“I think you’re right Cyrus. Hopefully that means he covered his tracks when he brought them here. You can be sure Branston will not want to leave any loose ends. If he finds out Carlson’s children are here we could be in really serious trouble.”
“So we need to fly even further under the radar now,” Lopez observed. “He may want to shut us down anyway. I think he saw you as a rival James.”
“I’m afraid you’re right Major,” Newton replied. “So we must accelerate our schedule once again. As much as we can. Which I know is asking a lot, because staying out of sight only makes our preparations that much harder to complete.”
“I don’t see that we have much choice,” Graham Blake responded. “Not to mention that at the rate we’re going, we’ll all die of starvation before we launch anyway. Either that or I’ll have to get new pants,” he added with a laugh as he stuck his thumbs in the waistband to indicate how much weight he had lost.
He was not alone. Even Regina, who barely had an ounce of fat on her to begin with, had lost weight. That meant she was losing muscle now. She knew this could not go on much longer.
“How long do you think we have. Realistically?” Manny asked.
“We can only hope Branston is too busy with more important things to worry about us. If we’re lucky we might have two months,” Newton answered. “But we haven’t had much luck so far, so realistically maybe just a few weeks...”
—o—
Clayton and Danny heard the vehicle approach. They knew what it meant. They ignored it and continued moving the hay on to the trailer. It was time to take another load out to feed the cattle.
“Where is Corporal Martin?” the woman in uniform demanded as she entered the barn.
Clayton didn’t recognize her rank and she did not bother to introduce herself, but she carried herself like an officer of some sort. “She left,” he answered as he spat on the ground in contempt. “Along with the other two.”
“When?”
“Two nights ago.”
“What were they driving?” The officer would have seen the Humvee parked outside and known they had taken another vehicle.
“F350. Brown,” Danny said. No point in lying. The officer could easily retrieve a list of vehicles registered to the ranch and see which one was missing.
“Where did they go?”
“They didn’t tell us,” Clayton answered. “Why would they? Sons of bitches took all our food.”
The officer looked at the two men. Healthy and well fed. Just as she expected. Martin had been stealing extra food, not only for herself and her team, but even for these farm workers. No wonder they were protecting her. She pulled out her service pistol and held it to the older man’s head. She knew she had to deal with this decisively; as it was she was going to take a lot of heat from her superiors. “I’ll ask you for the last time, where did they go?”
Danny had vowed to himself that he would not talk, no matter what. Tyra Martin and the others had been good to him and his father. He owed them that. But confronted by the reality of the pistol held to his father’s head he found he could not do it. “Stop!” he yelled. “Newton’s Ark,” he said desperately. “They’ve gone to Colorado looking for it.”
“And what the hell is Newton’s Ark?” the officer asked angrily.
“That’s all we know,” Danny replied. “Please, we’ve told you everything we can,” he pleaded.
The officer pulled the trigger.
“Why did you do that?” Danny screamed as his father slumped lifeless to the ground. “We told you everything we know!”
“I had to be sure,” the woman replied coldly. “I’ll let you live for now,” she added as Danny crouched over the body of his father sobbing. “I’ll even let you have the old man’s rations since you’ll be doing his work as well as your own.”
—o—
Cyrus drove the pickup north on the long, straight road across the featureless plain. It was easy driving and quickly became boring even though he had deliberately chosen to drive the truck the old fashioned way—without the auto-pilot. Despite the boredom he did not regret taking this chance to finally get out of the bunker. The Branston administration was preoccupied with trying to maintain a semblance of law and order and wiping out the last pockets of resistance to their coup d’etat, so the consensus was that hunting down him and his sister would be the last thing the administration would have time for now.
The downside was that this trip to Denver was becoming quite dangerous, but until their preparations were complete it was unavoidable. They needed equipment in the Denver facility to manufacture the final components for the orbital vehicle—equipment that was simply too large and too sensitive to move out to the bunker. That was why they were making this trip despite the dangers. Fortunately Regina Lopez and Manny Smith were literally riding shotgun. Cyrus had no doubt they both knew how to use their weapons—both were armed to the teeth—and that they would not hesitate to do so. Fortunately that had not been necessary. The journey had been surprisingly uneventful. At least so far he reminded himself. But they were nearly home, if you could call an underground bunker home.
“That’s a strange place to be parked out here in the middle of nowhere,” Manny said pointing to a vehicle in the distance that was parked on the shoulde
r of the road. “Cyrus slow down.”
Cyrus slowed the pickup. About a hundred yards from the parked car Manny ordered him to stop. Cyrus watched as Manny and his daughter climbed down out of the truck, both with their weapons at the ready. Cyrus knew just enough about guns to know that Manny was carrying a shotgun and Major Lopez some sort of rifle, but not enough to know what type of rifle.
Regina and Manny walked slowly towards the vehicle. It was as if they had an unspoken understanding; each seemed to know what the other one was going to do and how they should react. At least that was what Cyrus assumed because at no point did he see them stop to discuss tactics. They did not make that assumption about him. “Stay behind me,” Lopez said with all of her military authority.
Cyrus watched Lopez take a covering position about twenty yards from the parked car while Manny continued to approach, his shotgun to his shoulder ready to fire. Cyrus saw Manny look inside the vehicle and moments later lower his weapon, look towards them and shake his head.
“Cyrus don’t,” Lopez said, grabbing his arm as he proceeded towards the vehicle. She did not know what her father had seen but she could guess from the look on his face it was not pretty. She did not need to see that and neither did Cyrus.
Cyrus pulled away and continued. He needed to know what Manny had seen. Afterward he wished he had not. The images haunted him for weeks. He always saw the same thing. Blood. Blood everywhere. Not the pretty crimson liquid you see in the holo-movies but the awful brown stain of dried blood mixed with flesh and bone and other awful things. Spattered on the insides of the windows, the upholstery and dashboard. Blood from the bodies of a man and woman and three small children. Each the victim of a single shot to the head. Cyrus lost his balance as he staggered backwards, recoiling in horror at what he had seen. Somehow Major Lopez was there to catch him.
“Murder-suicide,” Manny said despondently.
“How could they?” Cyrus wailed. “How could they kill their own children like that?”
“Out of love,” Regina Lopez answered.