“How did you all get together? How did you all keep it a secret?” Jack asked.
“The group was formed mainly through the internet and word of mouth. We didn’t even try to keep it a secret. Genesis Alliance had a forum that required a username and password, but that was it. Anyone reading it would have thought we were insane. We were hidden in plain sight, just as the devices were.”
“Why did you join? Did you realise what the consequences of your actions would be?” I replied.
“Does it fucking matter? It’s done now and can’t be reversed. Can’t you see that I am only a tiny cog?”
“Well, you’ve certainly made an impact. You sound pathetic, Jerry,” Jack shouted.
“If it wasn’t for me and Genesis Alliance, humanity would have been completely wiped out. Now let me take you to Anthony, I’ll even fool him so you can take him by surprise.”
I felt uneasy about what we might now be facing. An unknown enemy, that had already shown itself to be technologically advanced, intent on taking over the world. A powerful force would easily sweep up the fragmented population that had managed to stay alive. Something didn’t quite fit though.
“I still don’t believe a small lunatic organisation could do all of this. Do you?” I asked.
“Well, we did, you’ve seen the evidence. We planted the devices and activated them. There are patrols on the ground, but the numbers are limited. Don’t you think this is a small price to pay for our on-going existence?”
“You really don’t have a clue what is going to happen, do you? The only thing that either of us know for sure, is that you have used this technology against your own people.” I pointed towards the corner of the barn at the device.
I walked over and looked at it again. A chill ran down my spine when I thought about the destructive intent of the designers.
“How did Genesis Alliance know this would work?” I called back towards Jerry.
“Some of our organisation volunteered to take part in tests.”
“What? Why? Where did these tests take place? Have you met anyone who actually made these devices?” Jack asked.
Jerry was still squinting in pain and I noticed his left hand had started to shake. He may have been going into shock.
“I don’t know, and I haven’t met them,” Jerry replied. “I only know certain members of the organisation, like Anthony. The anonymity protects us all to a certain extent – like in situations like this.”
“You really are stupid, Jerry. What if they decide that you are surplus to requirements?”
“Ron will make sure I am taken care of.”
“Yeah, sure he will,” Jack replied “You will be top priority. I don’t see the cavalry descending down on us now, do you? You’re not needed.”
“I’m not the only that knows what’s going on.”
A smug look crossed his face.
The purpose and scale of the activations had been explained, but I wanted to know about Genesis Alliance. Who exactly was Ron, and why was he approached to carry out this work. I could understand how a group of misfits could be created to carry out the required tasks with promises of salvation and a comfortable life ringing in their deluded ears. But none of that explained how it all came about and what was coming. If Jerry didn’t know, Hermitage was our next destination.
“What else do you know? What are the origins of Genesis Alliance and what is Ron’s history?” I pressed.
“I’ve told you, I wasn’t in it from the start. Some questions are not allowed to be asked. I was trusted to know part of the plan, but I am only a regional coordinator.”
“Regional coordinator?” Jack replied angrily. “You make it sound like you were setting up for the Olympics, not attempting to wipe out our race.”
“Unless you give us something more, Jerry, I’m going to leave you to the mercy of Jack,” I said.
It was another attempted bluff to see if we could get any more out of him.
“Control is in Monroe. That’s where the activation is triggered,” Jerry said hastily.
“I guessed that. What else?”
I moved towards him. Jack came to stand on the other side of the table with menace in his eyes.
“The activation failed in Northern England as we had two device errors. I heard it on the radio. We don’t have a mobile device that can be put in the area, as the south of the country is covered by the one in the Shard, which can’t be moved.”
Jack motioned towards the barn door and we walked outside to stand with Lea again.
“Lea, did you hear that?” Jack said.
“Yes, but what does one unaffected area in England mean for us over here?”
It was a good question, and we all pondered it for a minute. The problem we faced was that we didn’t know what the right questions were for Jerry. He was answering what we asked, but nothing more. We still didn’t fully know what he knew.
“I don’t think it means anything for us at the moment,” I said. “Our priority should be trying to stop this at the source, in Monroe. We’ll stop on the way to talk to Anthony.”
“Hang on a minute, since when did this become our problem?” Jack said.
“Jack, think about if we were standing here and another one of those activations went off. Besides that, we’ve killed four patrol members of Genesis Alliance and tortured a regional coordinator. Do you think they’re going to let us ride off into the sunset?”
“Why don’t we go back to and talk to Morgan and his group? We could put a small army together.”
“Jack, you’re not thinking. If we stop and turn back now, there’s probably more chance of us being caught up in another one of those things, on ground level this time. Plus, I reckon they’ll be expecting us to run away now, not be coming for them.”
“So we’re going for it?” Jack said, with excitement in his eyes.
“Yes. Let’s go and have a chat with Anthony.”
“A chat?” Lea asked, scornfully.
“You know what I mean. We can decide after that what our next moves are. At least he might be able to tell us what’s coming. If Jerry isn’t lying.”
“It’s going to be a long drive, but yeah, I agree,” Lea said.
“What about the captain who went to Long Island? He could fly us to England,” Jack said.
“That’s a bit of a long shot isn’t it?” I replied. “We don’t even know if he has survived up to this point.”
“I was just thinking of options, if there is an area that has managed to avoid all of this, then I’d want to be there. The fact that it is home is an added bonus.”
“Do you think the area would have been overrun by killers from elsewhere?” Lea asked.
I didn’t think so. An area that didn’t suffer an activation might be damaged around the edges but not completely wiped out. The ‘kill one then kill yourself’ mentality was chilling and effective, but only with complete coverage. Perhaps if the brainwashing had convinced everyone just to carry on murdering, then it might have provided a little more of a contingency for failure. I explained my train of thought to Lea and Jack.
“The plan is still good if one of those transmitters can be dropped into Northern England. If not, it’s only one small area compared to the damage that has already been done,” Jack said.
There was no point speculating about what would happen in England. The best chance we had was to find out if any more activations were coming, and possibly stop them.
“Is there any way of trying to contact Northern England?” Lea asked. “Will the radio work at that distance? We could at least try to warn them.”
I hadn’t thought of that.
“Yes, it will. We can try and use some of the maritime distress frequencies and hope that somebody is listening.”
Jack and I hurried back in to the barn and went straight to the radio. Neither of us could remember the exact distress frequencies, but knew they were around the early four, six, and eight kHz range. I started turning the dial.
“What are you doing? Get off my radio,” Jerry shouted.
“Shut the fuck up,” Jack replied.
We listened in on various frequencies but were unable to hear anything that sounded promising. It quickly became apparent that this would be an incredibly time consuming process unless we had the right information at hand.
We kept searching for a few minutes but began to give up hope. It was now getting towards early evening and I wanted to leave the barn.
Lea poked her head through the barn door.
“Any luck, you two?”
“Nothing,” Jack replied. “It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”
“Let’s just go back to the house and bury Bernie, and then get on the road to Hermitage,” I said.
As we grabbed supplies from Jerry’s stockpile, he asked, “What are you going to do with me? You can’t leave me here.”
“You’re coming with us, if you don’t give us the addresses, I’ll shoot you,” I replied.
I was guessing that Jerry would go for option one, but he had another card to play.
“There’s something else you should know.”
Lea was still looking through the doors.
“Let’s just leave him here, I’m not sure I can stand being in the same vehicle as him on a long trip,” she said.
“He’s coming with us,” I replied and leaned over Jerry, “Spit it out then, this better be good.”
He looked up at me and smiled.
“Oh, it is, but I can’t tell you all of it. You’ll have to ask that fucking dyke by the door,” he said, looking towards Lea.
She stepped inside the barn and raised her Beretta towards Jerry.
Chapter 9 – Trip
Jerry’s revelation left me stunned. Jack, on the other hand, swung his rifle around towards Lea almost immediately.
“Drop your weapon, now,” he shouted.
Regaining control, I crouched down, picked up my weapon, and did the same. Lea lowered her Beretta and looked at the floor.
“Start talking, Lea,” I said firmly.
“He’s lying. Can’t you see he’s trying to get us to turn against each other?”
“No, I’m not. Let’s just say she’s in with Ron’s family.”
Jack still had his rifle pointing at Lea’s head.
“What’s he talking about?” Jack asked.
“I’ve no idea. Let’s get out of here and leave him.”
Lea had flown from Detroit on Friday, led us to the farm, and Jerry had been asking for her during the standoff outside the house. This started to feel like too much of a coincidence.
“They were asking for you at the house. Jerry said he would leave us alone if we handed you over,” I said.
“They were probably perverts. You’ve seen what Jerry is like, he-”
“That bitch was here at the farm last year. How did you find your way here?”
“You pinpointed this specific farm, Lea,” Jack said. “Are we supposed to believe that was a simple coincidence?”
“Hand over your Beretta now. We want to know everything,” I added.
“I haven’t been a danger to you so far, have I?”
“Bernie might not agree with that – if he were alive. Now hand it over.”
“Don’t trust that dyke an inch, she’s in this as deep as me,” Jerry said, almost triumphantly.
“If you call her that one more time, I’m going to blow your brains out. Why didn’t you say anything before?” I replied.
“She dates Ron’s niece. I didn’t want it getting back to him that I’d talked. If I gave her a pass, then she might have returned the favour. It seems I’ve nothing to lose now.”
“Why would I talk to Ron about an insignificant shit like you?” Lea hissed.
I turned and stared intently at her; Jack lowered his rifle and did the same.
“Guys, I can explain. I never meant for Bernie to get killed. I’ll tell you what I know; it’s not what you think.”
Lea placed her Beretta on the floor and kicked it towards me. I picked it up and put it on the table next to Jerry’s head.
“Don’t trust her, she’ll get us all killed,” he shouted.
“Shut up, you don’t get a say in anything,” Jack grunted.
“Do you know Ron?” I asked.
“She does, I’ve already told you…”
“Will you shut the fuck up for a minute? She can speak for herself,” I bellowed.
It was starting to feel like this situation was getting out of control.
“It’s true what he said about Martina,” Lea said.
“We want to know about Ron and the part you have played. Fuck Martina.”
“She does,” Jerry cackled.
I picked up the Beretta that was on the table, and smashed the grip into the side of Jerry’s head.
“I didn’t know any of this was going to happen. Please, hear me out for fucks sake.”
“If that Range Rover we shot up still drives,” I said to Jack, “can you bring it around to the barn doors so we can load it up with supplies? We can transfer them to the undamaged one still at the house.”
Jack grunted and disappeared out of the side door of the barn. I kept my eyes firmly on Lea who had sat down with her head in her hands.
“I just want to find out if Martina’s alive,” she quietly murmured.
“Wait for Jack. We both deserve to hear this.”
I was annoyed at how easily we had been led by Lea, and how much we had overlooked. We should have suspected Lea’s involvement as soon as we saw Jerry talking to the patrol. But we had been swept along with events and hadn’t stopped to question anything.
I had felt guilty because of white lies around our trap at the Elmhurst parking lot, even though our actions had been well intentioned. I had even apologised to her. Anger rose up inside me again so I guessed that Jack would be fuming. I wanted to know how much she had really manipulated us.
I heard the bullet ridden Range Rover rumble up towards the barn doors and stop. Jack walked back into the barn.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said, “that first patrol may not have been the clowns we thought they were. They didn’t shoot first, because they were trying to take her alive.”
“When I saw her at the Watson’s, I recognised her as Martina’s dyke partner who came here for a meeting. I thought it might get me some credit with Ron if we captured her.”
I slapped Jerry across the head, “Stop calling her that, I mean it.”
Lea looked up.
“Guys, don’t jump to any conclusions.”
“Don’t worry,” I replied, “you’ll get your chance to tell us everything on the long road trip to Hermitage. But first we’re going to load the vehicle and bury Bernie.”
Jack and I could pass judgment after we heard her story. If she turned out to be a part of all this, we could always use her as a pawn at an appropriate time in the future.
Jack kept his rifle aimed at Lea while she and I loaded the Range Rover with bottles of water, cans of food, the respirators, and the ear defenders. Between us now, we had two rifles with full magazines, two pistols with six rounds, and a bolt-action rifle with seven loose rounds. I had left the flare gun behind the barn when I fired it to warn Bernie and Lea about Jerry, but we decided not to waste time looking for it.
“Right, Jerry, I’m going to cut you free, and then tie your hands behind your back. If you try anything funny, you’ll get a bullet to the head. Do you understand?”
“You don’t have to tie me up; you can trust me more than you can trust her. I’ve given you information.”
“Don’t be stupid, Jerry, it’s your only option. Lea hasn’t tried to kill us.”
“Yet,” Jerry groaned.
“You only talked after we made you,” Jack replied.
I cut Jerry’s hands free with a hunting knife that I found by the radio, he rubbed his wrists and sat up.
“Put your hands behind your back,” I
ordered.
He complied and I bound his wrists tightly together. I was expecting a struggle, but perhaps most of the fight had left him. We had put Jerry through a bit of an ordeal.
After I cut his feet free, he swung his legs around to the side of the table and jumped to the ground. He winced as he landed and looked down at his own blood stained foot.
“Jack, you get into the back with Jerry, I’ll drive.”
I wanted to sort the situation out with Lea sooner, rather than later. Controlling two prisoners would be a logistical nightmare; I considered putting Jerry in the trunk but decided against it for now.
I passed my rifle to Jack and kept Lea’s Beretta in my left hand. We drove back to the house in silence. Jack held his rifle to Jerry’s head; Lea was silent in the front, probably deciding how to frame her story.
I pulled up level with the undamaged Range Rover.
“Right, Lea, help me move the supplies to the other vehicle.”
She nodded and we completed the task in a few minutes. I looked at Jack in the back seat.
“Everything still okay?”
“Yeah, he’s been as good as gold,” Jack replied, he leaned over and flicked Jerry’s ear.
Jerry shook his head, then dived towards Jack and head-butted him. I saw Jerry disappear below the seat as Jack started swinging his fist repeatedly downwards.
I ran to the back door on the right hand side of the Range Rover, opened it up, and dragged Jack out of the vehicle.
“Leave him, he’s not worth it. I’ll sit with him from now on.”
“He provoked me,” Jerry shouted from the car.
“Be my guest, I’d probably end up choking him,” Jack replied, then passed my rifle back.
“Okay, take the other Range Rover around to the side of the house. I’ll bring these two around.”
Jack jumped into the other vehicle, started the engine, and pulled away.
“Alright you two, get out, and lead the way,” I said.
Lea exited first, and then made her way towards Bernie’s body. Jerry followed, cursing as he limped along.
Bernie was still lying on his side on the lawn; his eyes and mouth were wide open. Jack joined us and leaned down, closed Bernie’s eyes, and then dragged him round to the back of the house by his arms. I gestured to Lea and Jerry with my rifle and they slowly followed Jack until we reached the fresh graves of the Watson couple.
First Activation: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller Page 18