It was Hannah’s goal to have the Reese Revolution march in every major city in the course of the next couple of years. Already, they had formed groups in almost every major city, they only needed more members.
That morning, everything seemed calm and Hannah Reese was ready. She knew it was going to be a long day, and she hoped an uneventful day as well.
Hannah was given a march route to take, and it was those streets that were set up for her peaceful march. Her group came in by the bus loads and it took an hour just to get everyone organized.
As they started out on their march, Hannah felt good that the police were there, and she felt safer. They marched and chanted and handed out flyers to anyone that would accept them.
The further she marched with her people, the bigger the march crowd grew. From out of nowhere, more joined in with her and helped hand out flyers.
The message on the signs they carried was clear, they would resist the lifetime appointment as president and would fight for democracy and freedom to the bitter end if necessary.
Several hours into the peaceful march, they were met by the Anderson Alliance Sympathizers group with full force. Not even the city nor the police department was prepared for what happened next.
Out of nowhere, Molotov cocktails were thrown at her march and chaos ensued. They were thrown in to store windows at some point when Hannah’s marchers turned back to run for safety.
The Anderson Alliance Sympathizers had gone all out to turn her peaceful march into the city’s nightmare.
Hannah’s marchers had several safe places to head to if there were any problems. But everyone was scattering so fast, she had no idea which way they went.
All she could do was try to help each person that was hit and call for help. Hannah had counted at least 50 marchers injured enough to require an ambulance and she was frantic.
It would be several hours before the police were able to arrest the ones throwing the Molotov cocktails at her marchers, and even longer to bring peace back to the streets.
Even when things looked like they had settled down, they had not. It was as if the Anderson Alliance Sympathizers kept coming out of nowhere and would appear somewhere else and they continued to throw anything they had at anyone that looked like they were part of Hannah’s march.
By nightfall, fires had been started in over 80 buildings and they were still burning by midnight. The fire department was battling the fires as fast as they could but the chaos trapped many firetrucks and kept them out of the area.
Hannah stayed by her marchers until the last one that was injured was flown out or picked up by ambulance. It was not until then that a paramedic asked her if she needed a ride the emergency room for her injuries.
She accepted the ride and her burns were taken care of on her back. The doctor informed her she would heal nicely and most likely not even scar from the burns. But the wounds in her heart would take much longer to heal.
Hannah was still single and 32 years old, had no children and was very political. She had dreams of leading a revolution one day and marching her way all the way to the White House.
She came from a long line of the Reese family and the very first one had come to America and fought in the American Revolution back in 1776.
Her Reese family had served in every war since, and she was a firm believer in preserving American history and following through on her family genealogy.
Hannah Reese would not allow President Anderson to destroy everything her Reese family had fought for, for nearly 250 years!
But back at the White House, President Anderson was getting up-to-date reports on the rioting in Manhattan. He watched as dozens and dozens of his sympathizers were being arrested. At last count, there was over 200.
That was the moment Hannah Reese got the presidents attention, and it was not of the good kind. Hannah had always wanted to meet the aliens and had missed it at every opportunity!
It was her hope one day to meet Syra! But she knew that opportunity had long since gone. Syra had always been Hannah’s role model but with the aliens now gone, she felt Earth and the United States were abandoned.
When CNN invited Hannah Reese for an interview, she quickly took advantage of it. It was the next morning, and Hannah still had her bandages on her back.
She was still in a lot of pain but told the man that was interviewing her she would not speak unless she could speak directly to Syra of Earth II at the end of the interview. To get that interview, he allowed it live, on CNN.
Hannah spoke about her cause and why she needed as many as possible who were willing to march against the crimes the current administration was committing, and no one was standing up to them.
She pleaded for new members to join her Reese Revolution because America’s freedom was worth fighting for.
The reporter helped her lift her shirt to show the burns she got last night, and how the Anderson Alliance Sympathizers took a peaceful march and killed innocent people who had a right to freedom of speech as much as they did.
She talked about how her march was legal and permitted in advance. She reminded everyone that the current administration had no regard for the law nor the taking of innocent lives.
And then she looked directly at the camera and said.
Syra, I hope you can hear me, and that you are listening. When all is said and done, I am sure I’ll be on the run. If I lose this battle, hold open the gates for me, I’m coming home!
Hannah got up and walked out of the interview without saying another word. She knew that statement alone, would really piss off the president and his cronies.
Then no sooner than Hannah got home, her cell phone started ringing, so she muted the sound and threw it in her purse. She needed to take her antibiotics and pain medication because her back was really starting to hurt now.
That was when Hannah knew she needed to just tune it all out and go to bed and get some rest. She had made reservations for the suite on the top floor of a hotel for a week, but that time was almost up.
Hannah took advantage of room service and planned on staying inside the room and not even poking her head out the door. She had put so much into that march which took nearly a year to organize it only to have it end in a disaster.
Meanwhile, back on Earth II Syra was called into the Central Command Center to watch the video clip of the Manhattan March as well as the CNN interview of a Hannah Reese.
Zach had done some research before his mother Syra walked into the room and handed her the file to read through.
“We must do something mother!” Zach stated.
“Yes, I realized that. Give me a moment to decide the best way to proceed,” Syra replied.
“Well, I’m afraid if we take too long, this Hannah Reese person is going to end up dead!” Zach said, with a great deal of concern.
It did not take either one of them long to realize Hannah Reese’s life was on the line. She had made some powerful enemies in Washington fighting for the same cause Syra and her people had also fought for.
James walked into the room and was briefed on the situation and was asked for his comments and thoughts on how best to proceed with helping Hannah Reese.
It took only a few moments and James said, “Syra honey, we need to send her a private message to head straight for the ranch, now!”
All three agreed, and the message was sent. It would be a while before they could get a reply back from their messenger and all they could do was pace the floor.
Back on Earth, Hannah was having trouble sleeping and took a sleeping pill to help her rest. The pain pills did nothing her, and she was beat-up tired.
She would need to check out of her suite tomorrow and would have a long drive back to Florida to her parent’s home in Sarasota. The Siesta Key beach always made her feel surreal.
Both Hannah’s parents had passed on, but Hannah loved the beach at the beach house and that would be a great place to chill out for a while. Then just as she was about to doze off from th
e effect of the sleeping pill, the doorbell rang!
At some point, it got ridiculous how many times someone was ringing that stupid doorbell thought Hannah. She bolted out of bed and peeked through the peephole to see a man standing there with a frantic look on his face.
“Who is it? Stop ringing my doorbell!” Hannah whispered.
“It’s me, I have a message for you from Syra!” The man said.
“How can I trust you?” Hannah replied.
“Well, you’ll have to take a chance on me, won’t you? your life depends on it!” The man said.
After a pause, the man said, “My name is Charles Cooper, I work for Syra. I can put you in contact with her!”
Hannah opened the door but did not remove the door chain lock. “Show me proof!” Hannah said.
Charles slipped a communications device through the doorway and that was enough proof for Hannah! She quickly closed the door, removed the chain. She said, “Hurry up and get inside, how long have you been out there?” Hannah asked.
“It doesn’t matter, no one saw me. I made sure of that!” Charles answered. He also went on to say, “What took you so long to answer the door for God’s sake!”
Hannah closed the door and she and Charles sat down, and he showed her how the device worked, and it was clear to Hannah that technology was not of this Earth!
“You’ll need to pack your bags and follow me, now!” Charles said, and added, “We cannot call Syra from here, you are in danger and we are running out of time!”
Hannah had not brought much with her but a backpack of things. The posters and signs that were used in the march were in a different room several floors down with some of her march organizers, so it took her only a few minutes and they slipped out the door and down the stairwell.
Charles explained that agents could be in the elevator right now coming for you. This is the safest way out of here. They do not know of me, nor that you have been given a heads up on their arrival!
He gave her a scarf to tie around her head to hide her hair, his jacket and one heck of an ugly pair of glasses so she would not be so recognizable.
Hannah was stumbling every step because of the sleeping pills, and this was one time she wished she could feel wide awake. But between the pain pills relaxing her and then a sleeping pill, she had intended on sleeping all night!
They had finally made it out of the building and Charles’ van was parked just down the street. No sooner than they got to the crosswalk, they saw a dozen men in dark suits, and they looked official whoever they were, entered her hotel building.
When they got to his van, both jumped in and headed back to his headquarters as fast and safely as Charles could get them there!
It was a relatively short trip, but Hannah had fallen asleep while Charles was explaining things to her on the way back to his office, and so he just let her sleep.
Charles pulled up at the Market Street Donut Shoppe that had been there for over 75 years, he parked his van in the alleyway and woke Hannah up.
“Wake up Hannah, we need to get inside as soon as possible!” Charles demanded.
“Oh my God, where in the hell are we?” Hannah asked.
“Your temporary home until I can get you to the ranch, my dear!” Charlies replied and also said, “Hurry girl, don’t you have any step in that walk of yours?”
Once inside the building, it didn’t take Hannah long to figure out that building was not what it appeared to be.
The secret door behind the donut counter led them to an elevator that took them deep underground to Charles’ headquarters.
Charles offered to give Hannah a tour, but she was so sleepy from those sleeping pills she had taken early, she declined, laid down on the sofa and was sound asleep in just a few minutes.
Suddenly he realized he had not sent the return message that Hannah was safe and did so immediately!
The next morning, Hannah woke up to the smell of coffee and found a blanket over her and a very soft pillow under her head.
But it was the bacon and eggs that got her up on her feet in a flash. Charles had to remind her to slow down and chew or she would choke to death right then and there!
After breakfast and a tour of his headquarters, he made contact with Syra on Earth II. Hannah was thrilled to see Syra over the Telecom unit, but it was a brief call, they had lots to do and fast.
Charles was asked to remove all Zhian technologies from his headquarters out of fear that he may have been followed after picking up Hannah. That is when they both packed everything as fast as they could.
Once the van was loaded, Charles pulled out a wad of cash and told Hannah to not use any credit cards again, ever. He then set up his portable shroud device and had it ready to turn on in a moment’s notice.
Charles warned Hannah that this was going to be a very long drive so just settle in. The ranch was over 2,575 miles from where they were. They would stay on I-80 going west and Charles knew of a few motels he’d stayed at before that would never mention he was ever there.
This was one time that Charles wished he had one of the Zhian pods to travel in. He could have arrived at the ranch in a matter of minutes, but he said nothing to Hannah.
The greatest concern Charles had was that Hannah had already mentioned the ranch and called upon Syra that she may need refuge. He knew without the shroud there would be no chance of not being seen.
“Here, put this on!” Charles demanded.
“What is it?” Hannah asked.
“It’s an EST! Put it on now!” Charles spoke firmly.
When he saw the look on her face, he explained that it was an emergency safety transport wristband. It should only be used under dire circumstances and as a last resort.
Charles had a bag of tricks and ask Hannah to pick something out of it and he would explain what it was and how it worked.
This caused a great deal of conversation and Charles knew it would. Even when they made rest stops, or to gas up his van, Hannah continued to ask questions and learn.
The whole back of the van was full of Zhian technologies and the last thing either of them needed was to get caught. It was critical to get the equipment to the ranch as quickly and safely as they could.
Charles knew that every time they stopped to gas up was risky and so were the rest stops, but the motels he had set up for them were as safe a place as they would ever be able to find. But the trip was wearing the both of them down and fast.
It had been four days and they were now in Nevada and all Hannah could think about was getting out and kissing the Nevada State Line sign!
They had only slept about six hours each night and then got back on the road again, day after day.
Charles listened to the radio and Hannah was mentioned on just about every channel. He chose most of the time to keep it turned off and they had plenty to talk about besides the trouble she had gotten herself into.
It was time to turn on the shrouding device but from inside the van, it was impossible to tell it was on. Charles finally had to drive by a store with all windows so Hannah could see that there was no reflection of his van in the windows!
It was around 2 p.m. and they had arrived at the ranch. All up and down the road was a car here or there with dead batteries. Folks were still trying to breach the shields to get inside and search for any Zhian technologies.
“But how are we going to get inside, won’t our battery die too?” Hannah asked.
“No, the shields are programmed to recognize Zhian technology and to create an opening just for us,” Charles replied.
Just as they pulled up, they had noticed several government officials and agents ready to arrest anyone that tried to enter the gates to the ranch.
Charles stepped on the gas and charged at the gates, then they opened immediately, and a hole was created in the shield for them to pass through. If anyone was watching, they would have only seen a brief opening of the gates which quickly closed.
Their EST’s would not be needed and
that, Charles was grateful for. He had never used one and really wasn’t sure where it would take him if he did. All he understood was that Syra demanded they wear them on the way to the ranch.
The ranch house was far back from the main gate and once they got to the large garage, Charles pulled the van inside and quickly started unloading the equipment and with Hannah’s help, they loaded all of it in carts and moved everything inside the ranch house.
Charles had visited the ranch many years ago when he first went to work for Syra. He explained to Hannah that there were more people out there that report back to Syra at all times.
“But aren’t you people worried about someone getting their hands on the Zhian technology?” Hannah asked.
“Yes, it is a concern. But everything has a locator built on the inside and can be transported back to the ranch in an instant!” Charles explained.
Luckily for Hannah, she and Syra wore the same size clothing and shoes. She had brought barely anything with her. Charles had to fire up the generator to power the ranch and gave Hannah a tour of every room.
“You know, you could live inside this 5,000-acre bubble and never need to go anywhere!” Charles bragged.
“Really?” Hannah asked.
“Yes, this place is like a fortress!” Charles also explained, “It’s a link between us to Earth II and the monument at the White House!”
“I’m amazed!” Hannah said.
“Do you realize you can run the Reese Revolution all across the United States right from here!” Charles informed Hannah.
That was the moment Hannah realized she had an opportunity no other human being on Earth had. She could set up her revolution and fight the current administration and never have to leave or want for anything!
Syra’s old command center room was accessed and activated and Hannah was all but overwhelmed. With every news channel live on large screen televisions, Internet access around the world and anything she needed at her fingertips she was ready to rock-and-roll!
There would be no way for anyone to trace her back to the ranch and she could run her revolution in the safety of the ranch and not fall into harm’s way.
The Chronicles of Syra Omnibus Page 26