by Nate Castle
“Yep, it’s an opportune time to get the ball rolling on a recovery plan. Follow me though, I have something to show you first,” said General Kaplan.
They walked through the White House until they reached a door that had placard which read ‘Centennial Room’.
“I appreciate you making this place look somewhat normal again General. It makes the grieving process easier.”
General Kaplan had removed all the corpses from the White House before he left for Vermont. He opened the door to the Centennial Room, and let the President walk in first. There were two caskets on a table, the lids closed.
“I’ll give you some privacy, while you pay your respects.”
President Taylor opened the casket on the left first. There he saw his wife, Denise. He thought of all the sacrifices she had made over the years to support his political aspirations. They took a weekend getaway trip to Cabo a week before he announced he would be running for President in 2034. Denise had tried to convince him not to because of her concern for the family’s safety. After all there had been assassination attempts on the two prior Presidents. Such a sweet woman Denise was and for it to end like this was just tragic. President Taylor had not kept his family safe, like he had promised Denise when he made the decision to run for office. He took the gold watch off of his left hand and put it on Denise’s wrist and said to her “Time is just an interpretation of our existence on this Earth. Whatever place you’re in now, I will accompany you one day, you just have to bear with me as it will take some time. Today is a sad day in this world, because today we not only lost a war, more importantly we lost an angel. See you soon Denise , I love you.”
He closed the casket, stared into space for a second and then walked up to the casket on the right. This one he was sure must contain his son, Duncan.
Duncan had only been a junior in high school. He was a stellar lacrosse player with scholarship offers on the table from Duke and Virginia. He was somewhat quiet and mild mannered but sure knew how to make others laugh and smile.
President Taylor thought back to a guy’s only fishing trip on Lake Michigan where he and Duncan entered a bass fishing contest with no prior experience, and son of a gun, Duncan came out in first place with a smallmouth weighing in at 4.5 lbs. Duncan was 14 at the time, and was by far the youngest one there by about 30 years. Out of all the trophies he had won playing youth sports, the one that become the centerpiece in his bedroom was Lake Michigan Bass Roundup. Something to be said for a father-son weekend getaway.
“Son, I’m sorry you had to go out like this. I wish it would have been me instead. You had so much potential and made us all become better people. You will give me the strength to persevere through this difficult time and find a way to protect what’s left of this land we call our home.”He then took the American flag pin, off of his collared shirt and pinned it onto Duncan’s shirt.
President Taylor walked out of the Centennial Room, wiping away tears with his handkerchief. No more time to grieve. It was game time, this is where he had to show his true colors.
“Let’s get to the Situation Room,” the President said to General Kaplan.
The room required the President’s fingerprint and retina scan to unlock. Once inside, there was a 20 foot wooden table with chairs on both sides, a large movie theater-esque projector screen and a computer workstation with three screens connected to one computer.They sat down at the workstation and booted up the computer. The President half expected it not to work because maybe the attack hit all electronics but the computer started right up.
“Hey, remember during the Mexican-American war of 2028, how the taxpayers funded a project to install loudspeakers throughout the country, roughly 5 miles apart from one another?” General Kaplan said.
“I do. Whatever materialized of that? I remember they were installed and someone tried to test them, but then the company that installed them went on strike because the Fed wasn’t providing them with paid lunch breaks. Anyway, I think if you go into my secure folder in the computer documents entitled ‘Presidential Access Only” we can figure out if that system is up and running or not.”
“Ok, what’s the password to access this folder?” said General Kaplan.
“556Manhattan1224RugerHwy17CoorsOrig86BroncoAngelina123321123421”
“Two questions: 1)how in the hell did you come up with that password and 2)why did you find the need to memorize it?”
President Taylor responded, “ 5:56 is the fastest time I ever ran the mile in high school. Manhattan Beach is where I used to vacation as a kid in the summers, we would body surf until my parents drug us out of the water. 12-24 is my birthdate which is unfortunate because that meant I got one set of presents growing up instead of two because my birthday presents would also double as Christmas presents. Ruger was the model of the first gun I owned. Highway 17 was the backroad we took when we wanted to be kids and do dumb things that our parents wouldn’t approve of. Coors Original is still to this day my beer of choice. An 86 Bronco was my first car, painted fire engine red. Angelina was the first girl I kissed on the tailgate of my Bronco on a dirt road pullout off of Highway 17. And finally, some hacker guy that worked for the White House told me that when making a password I should make sure to throw a bunch of numbers at the end that seem like they are in a sequence ,but they actually aren’t, just in case a hacker figured out the first 51 characters of my password, I can throw them an extra curve ball. So 1-2-3-3-2- and then I change it up and go 1-2-3 4-2-1.”
“Absolute insanity, I think I just lost all respect for you sir,” General Kaplan says as he fights back laughter.
General Kaplan typed in the password and a folder opened up. He browsed through the files until he found one that read ‘Emergency Notification System’. Inside the folder he clicked on a program called NotifyX2.0. A control panel popped up that listed options. He clicked on the option that read ‘Record Message’.
“It appears that the system is working, sir how would you advise we proceed?”
“Our best move is to get as many survivors as possible to DC. Once that happens then we can move forward with Operation Firestorm,” said the President.
“What is Operation Firestorm?”
“Not a clue, that is to be determined, I just thought the name sounded cool. Also, by mentioning this to the American people, it will come across as a sign of confidence that I have a large scale plan already in place.”
“I like your style, tell the people what they want to hear, and worry about the details later, “said General Kaplan.
“I’m going to record a message that we should play over the loudspeaker system every ten minutes for the next 48 hours.”
“Ok, I’m starting the recording in 5-4-3-2-1,” said the General.
“This is the President of the United States, Thomas J. Taylor, speaking. We are aware of the catastrophic event that has occurred nationwide. We need everyone’s full cooperation at this time to ensure the safety and preservation of what’s left of this great nation. Please report to the White House immediately. We will begin Operation Firestorm one week from today at 0800 hours. In order to do so, we need all Americans to be present at the White House safe zone. I repeat, please report the White House immediately. Thank you in advance, and if we all work together in this brutally tough time, everything will turn out okay.”
General Kaplan pressed the red circle button to end the recording. He answered a few more prompts and then clicked submit. Instantly the recorded message began playing on every loudspeaker in the nation.
They knew the system was working because they could hear the message being played from a loudspeaker on the outside of the White House.
“Operation Firestorm has been initiated,” the President said the General Kaplan.
3 WORLD OF HURT
..................
48 HOURS EARLIER
SHELBY MCNAMARA AND NOEL FERGUSON woke up to the sound of rap music blasting in the kitchen downstairs. It must be their roomm
ate, cooking breakfast. Shelby struggled to open her eyes, and when she tried to sit up on her bed, the excruciating headache hit her. Noel had mustered up the courage to overpower her migraine and she walked into Shelby’s bedroom, which was adjacent to her own.
“I don’t remember a thing from last night, how much did we drink?” Noel said.
“About the usual amount, but those Fireball shots were what put us over the top. Last thing I remembered, I was escorting you to the bathroom in that bar because you were feeling sick. Then we somehow managed to hail a cab in that monstrous rain storm,” Shelby said.
Of the two girls, Shelby was the life of the party. She had natural bleach blonde hair, green eyes. She had played volleyball during her undergrad and still looked the part. She had gone through a phase of dressing promiscuous to grab the catch the attention of the guys when they went out; dresses that were too short and tops that showed a lot of skin. Recently, though she realized that if she dressed more modest, she still got the same amount of attention, she was naturally beautiful.
Noel was quiet and a bit more reserved than Shelby. They were a good fit to be best friends. Noel had short mocha colored hair, some would call it a boy’s haircut, but it was fitting for her. She wore glasses and typically donned those tight bright colored jean shorts that rode high on the waist and looked like something from the 80s. Noel had been a swimmer in her undergrad, and was very muscular as a result. She was also quite attractive.
They were now doctoral students at Michigan State University, hoping to one day be Emergency Room doctors. The night before they had been out at a bar called the Landshark in East Lansing. Too many drinks combined with their flirtatious personalities made for an interesting night. By 1:30am, they managed to make it back to their apartment across the street from Spartan Stadium. They shared the 3 bedroom apartment with a master’s student named Brittany. Brittany was friendly but kind of kept to herself, so whenever Noel and Shelby would go out, Brittany would stay home.
“Do you have your phone, I’m not sure where mine is, maybe you can use that app called “Locate My Iphone to figure out where mine is?” Noel said.
“The problem is, I’m not sure where my phone or my purse are either.”
“Isn’t that just our luck. Maybe this is a sign that we need to start drinking less,” Noel said, followed by a chuckle.
“Let’s go see what Brittany is up to,” said Shelby.
The two girls walked downstairs towards the sound of rap music, but saw no one in the kitchen.
“Brittany,” Noel yelled.
No answer.
Shelby walked down the hall past the kitchen to Brittany’s bedroom and knocked on the door.
No answer, so she opened the door. Noel ran into to the bedroom after hearing Shelby let out a horrifying scream.There was no explanation needed. the two girls stood over the bed where Brittany lay dead with a hole burned all the way through her stomach.
“Oh my god. What do we do?” Shelby said.
“Call the police?”
Shelby picked up the house phone that the internet tv company had included with their subscription and dialed 9-1-1.
The line kept ringing, no one picked up, so Shelby pressed End on the call.
“When a 9-1-1 operator doesn’t answer, that’s a bad sign. Maybe there is something bigger going on here than just Brittany,” Shelby said.
“We should at least call her parents to let them know what happened.”
Noel walked back into the bedroom, found Brittany’s cell phone and then returned with it to the kitchen where Shelby was. Noel pressed the power button to turn the phone on and a cryptic message appeared.
“This message looks like it’s in a different language, but I can’t bypass it to access her contacts. I guess we can’t call Brittany’s parents if I can’t figure out the phone number,” Noel said.
“Let’s call Helen, she always seems to have the best ideas,”Shelby said.
Helen was Noel’s mother. She lived in Kansas City. Noel dialed her mother’s number on the house phone, which she knew by heart. The line kept ringing and ringing, with not even the option to leave a message. Noel thought that was odd, so she hung up and tried dialing again. Same result.
Next, Noel dialed her fatherJack’s number in an attempt to reach him. Jack wasn’t a big believer in cell phones and usually had his turned off. His routine was that he would turn it on 3 or 4 times a day to see if there were any important missed calls and if not he would turn it back off. This meant that about 95% of the time Noel called, it would go directly to voicemail and she would leave a message.This time was different, however. Noel dialed the number and it kept ringing just like when she had dialed Helen’s phone.
Shelby’s turn now. She took the phone from Noel and dialed her parent’s numbers. Same result again, just continuous ringing.
Noel, trying to keep calm, said to Shelby, “I think we should go see if our parents are okay. Let’s go to Kansas City first and then we can stop by your parent’s house in Indianapolis on the way back. Does that work for you?”
“Yes, I would like to go to my parent’s place right away but I think we should stick together rather than split up, especially since all phones seem to be down at the moment.”
They hustled to their rooms and put together minimal travel bags and were in Shelby’s Subaru Outback within 15 minutes.They took turns driving while the other one slept, and made it to Kansas City in just over 10 hours. Noel’s worst fear had become a reality when they arrived at her parent’s house.
Shelby left Noel and went back to sit in the car, knowing that it would be best to give Noel some alone time to deal with the devastating realization that her parents had perished.
Thirty minutes seemed like forever. Noel came back to the car, didn’t say a word to Shelby and hopped in the passenger seat. Her eye makeup looked terrible, it was obvious that she had been crying.
“I’m going to stop by Indianapolis if that’s okay with you,” Shelby said.
“Of course, you need closure knowing whether or not your parents made it.”
The next seven hours of driving were very uneventful. Normally Shelby and Noel lived for road trips. They made mix tape CDs that they sang every word to and kept each other laughing the whole time. The circumstances were now different.When they arrived at Shelby’s parents’ house, there was no one home, except for the family Golden Retriever, Milo. Shelby loaded Milo into the Subaru and they spent the next hour driving around looking for a sign of her parents. That was around the same time that they heard President Taylor give his loudspeaker emergency address.
“The good news is that we know there are other survivors. Do you think we should follow the President’s instructions and head to DC?” Shelby said.
“What about your parents though?”
“If they are alive, then I’m sure they will head to DC too and we can find them there. I don’t think there we have too much of a choice. We can spend who knows how long trying to find them in a city of 1.5 million people without the help of the police or anyone else, or we can go to DC and hopefully be out of danger and most of all start to find some answers as to what happened,” Shelby said.
Shelby started the car and got back on to the Interstate. She took a right turn to exit 3 miles later, another right turn led her into a Wal-Mart parking lot.
“We need supplies if we are going to make it DC,”Shelby said.
“Let’s make it quick though, all these abandoned cars and dead bodies we keep seeing are starting to freak me out,” Noel said.
They quickly hustled into the Wal-Mart, grabbed two shopping carts and started throwing items off the shelves into the shopping carts, without putting too much thought into it.Lays and Doritos potato chips, Oreo cookies, 24-packs of bottled waters, Slim Jim beef jerky sticks, pistachio nuts, and bananas.They weren’t the types to indulge in junk food; they were both active and paid attention to staying in shape and living a healthy lifestyle, but this was a differe
nt circumstance.
They moved on to the electronics section.Shelby tossed two prepaid cell phones into the cart. Noel grabbed a 4 pack of walkie-talkies.The outdoors section of the store is where they spent the most time. A flare gun seemed practical, along with pepper spray. They each grabbed Remington pocket knifes. A heavy duty tow rope, 2 fire extinguishers, and a BB gun were the final items they threw in the carts.
“I don’t think it’s the end of the world if we are missing a few things. The has to be a WalMart about every twenty miles along the highway,” Noel said.
They pushed the shopping carts back to the car. Across the street in an adjacent parking lot, Shelby saw a large white neon sign that read ‘Altamont Jeep Dodge Ram’.
“Shelby, we need to upgrade to a bigger car, maybe something with 4- wheel drive too. What if we come across a section of the highway that is completely blocked with abandoned cars and the only way to pass through is by driving on untamed ground?”
“My car has 4 wheel drive,” Shelby said.
“I know that. I’m sure there is still justification though for getting a bigger car or truck. Like maybe we might have to tow something, we did after all get a tow rope at WalMart. Or maybe we will have to push something out of the way using our car.”Noel said.
“Remember when we used to go to the Lakeview Rodeo our freshman year at State? I always wanted to be the one driving that huge Dodge truck around the arena, setting up the barrels for the barrel racing event.” Shelby said.
“It’s settled then, that is what we will get.”
Noel grabbed a fire extinguisher from the shopping cart and ran towards the Dodge dealership. She proceeded to smash the window on the front door with the butt of the extinguisher. An alarm sounded and Noel began sprinting away from the scene back towards the Subaru. She realized how foolish she had just looked to Shelby.
“I know, I’m planning on stealing a car, yet I get spooked by a burglar alarm. Also, there is no chance that a cop will show up here to investigate an alarm,” said Noel.