Overrun: Project Hideaway

by Michael Rusch

  "Major Barnes, there is probably no one left alive on Earth who even knows who you are,” Parker spoke into his ear. His voice was soft, deep, and foreboding. "Or will ever know, or maybe even care, if I have to kill you right here. All you have is me."

  Parker pulled his thumb back slowly and readied the weapon to fire.

  Barnes responded with only quiet whimpers. And then he started to openly cry.

  "Major Barnes, do you understand?"

  Barnes carefully nodded his head as much as the crush of the door would allow.

  "When we came up here, our mission was, and has always been, to stay hidden. Period. Fly up here, establish an unidentifiable position from Earth and just wait. Wait to see if things down there started to become horribly bad. And then act appropriately when something finally happened. Well, something finally happened. And now our mission is to find out what ‘acting appropriately’ really is."

  The sirens throughout the ship finally ceased leaving the quiet labored breaths of both men and the hum of the gravitational generators as the only sounds in the corridor.

  Barnes looked up past his weapon towards him. His lips began to tremble, but he didn’t yet make a sound.

  "We have had no contact from Earth, and we have no idea who brought the ship back online,” Parker calmly continued. “We don’t even know why we were kept down in an extended sleep in the first place. We can only assume that danger exists. They may have kept us down, because the repercussions of our possible discovery were becoming just too great. Perhaps knowledge of our existence was no longer secure. There is also the possibility those that know of us are already gone. We have to act accordingly. Barnes, you have to understand this. You have to understand for me to allow you to live."

  Before Barnes could respond, a loud groan came from the steel door as it still tried to close completely shut. Barnes' body shifted roughly under its intense weight, and he let out another scream.

  His shrieks echoed throughout the ship’s empty corridors.

  The weight of the door continued to press down across Barnes’ shoulders. His lower body started to slip out to the side, which allowed the strength of the door to push him further down. His entire frame twisted into an even more painfully contorted position across the floor.

  Barnes’ body was soaking wet with sweat, and his breathing came in short scared gasps. Without warning, his legs shot forward causing Parker to take a startled step back. With his arms still straight out in front of him, Parker continued to press his weapon against Barnes’ forehead.

  "Jed!" Barnes begged in pathetic shrieks. "Get me out of here! Goddamn it! Get me out!"

  "Depending on when the war started, everyone you have probably ever known is dead or at least assumes you are. We must assume the world is enduring an ultimate crisis. The final door. And we are the salvation that is on the other side. Do you understand?"

  "Just get me out of here! Please. I'll do whatever you want!"

  "No, Jeff." Parker said folding his arms in and crouching to the floor next to him. He continued to press his sidearm into Barnes’ head just above his eyes. With a deliberate movement of his finger, he applied pressure across its trigger. The pin holding it stationary made a soft “click” when it released. The force of the spring made Parker's finger quiver slightly.

  "Major Barnes, you will do whatever is necessary to save the world. Do you understand? You will do what you were goddamn sent up here to do. What you agreed to do, when others begged to go in your place. When they pleaded for any way possible to leave Earth. You agree to do this, you agree right now, or I will end your life right here."

  Parker's voice did not raise in pitch or ferocity. His words were calm and quiet in the chaos of the tension-filled room. He crouched down again and leaned closer to the shaking figure slowly being crushed to death in front of him by the ship's emergency seal-off system.

  "I swear to God, you will die right here," Parker whispered closely to his ear.

  The steel of the door gave out another loud drawn out groan as it continued trying to slam shut to the floor. Still fighting against being pressed into the steel deck and not quite yet accepting the demands laid out before him, Barnes let one last howl escape his lips.

  Pushing so hard that Parker thought veins were going to explode in his neck, Barnes tried with every bit of energy and might left in his weakened body to move the door back up.

  The strength he had left was not enough against the massive weight of the door. His body slipped again, and it pounded him further down against the deck. There was a brief sound of bones cracking as it planted itself hard across his chest.

  After that, Barnes was still.

  Parker moved closer and stood over him. He still held his Sunszk pointed at the center of his head.

  With the door’s weight this time across his lungs, Barnes was not able to speak. His throat gurgled with short breaths, and his hands flailed in futile desperate attempts to relieve the pressure across his chest.

  "This will never happen again," Parker said evenly.

  He reached up and slammed a large green control switch that blinked wildly on the corridor wall near the emergency door. The door hissed upward into the ceiling leaving Barnes gasping on his back across the ground. Blood seeped from his shoulder, and he still struggled to breathe.

  Parker stepped over him while slowly tucking his weapon into his uniform at his side. He rubbed absently at the bruise that had started to form on the side of his head from where Barnes had slammed it against the cockpit wall.

  Giving one last long stare at his copilot, Parker dropped his eyes and turned around.

  He walked back towards the Hideaway's command center while Barnes cried quietly behind him on the floor.

  Chapter 6

  Capitol Square - Madison, Wisconsin

  Northern tip of Dome War theater

  “Check, check, radio check,” Vulture Buck Squad Captain Douglas Rosek whispered softly into his communication link. “Go, Buck Team.”

  “Buck S1, check.”

  “Buck S2, check.”

  “Buck S3, check.”

  Rosek listened half interestedly as the whispered confirmations of the Vulture Buck Squad commanders slowly trickled into the small communication piece lodged in his ear. He stretched out on his stomach across the rooftop. His extended range glasses rested on the roof ledge and pointed out into the night towards the road leading into the decayed town.

  Vulture Buck Squad 27 Commander Brian Haase leaned in next to him. He gazed through his own set of glasses towards what approached from the east on the other side of the crumbling former state capitol building.

  The rooftop ledge they propped themselves against was atop the tallest building in what was left of downtown Madison, Wisconsin, a city for many long years decaying and slowing falling beneath the pressure of the battering sun.

  This particular rooftop offered the best vantage point available to monitor the J.G.U. land advance slowly making its way into the city. The progression of transports, jeeps, and trucks was still about twenty miles out. The thick beams of their headlights pierced ominously through the night.

  Haase glanced up at the dilapidated domed structure of the old state of Wisconsin capitol building standing in front of them slightly to their right. Only half of the building remained upright. The other half had collapsed many years earlier leaving a gaping wound of shredded brick and building exposed to the uncomfortable warmth of the night sky.

  Pieces of ripped framework flaked and tumbled lazily to the ground. A lightly heated wind pushed itself across the town.

  Behind the capitol building, the ground sloped gently into a small canyon. It had once been the location of a good-sized lake that had long since dried up and disappeared into the crusty terrain.

  “Buck 14, check,” Haase listened to the Buck Squad commanders report in on the radio feed. “On schedule and proceeding. Things look good, Captain.”

  Rosek commanded the Vulture Buck Team. T
he VBT was made up of thirty explosive squads and more than five hundred Vulture soldier demolition technicians. They had been dispatched to make the outside city of Madison, Wisconsin the next target of the plan.

  Haase was in charge of Vulture Buck Squad 27 working the buildings along the four streets that formed a perfect square around the capitol building. The roads leading into the area were the flattest and easiest to travel when heading through the city as opposed to the cavernous dried-up land of the two former lakes on either side.

  The capitol square was located on a thin isthmus of navigable terrain between the two large empty lakebeds. It was a perfect place to start the ambush.

  Once a sizeable portion of the coming force reached the area, the Vulture Buck squads would initiate their attack. A synchronized blast blanket of explosions would spread both forward and backward through the J.G.U. force. The blast most likely would completely decimate most of the coming ground advance. It would also level what was left of the sun-ruined city.

  Ten members of Haase’s squad worked briskly behind them setting the last of the charges for this particular building along the rooftop. Additional Vulture demolition techs from his squad worked on some lower rooftops a few buildings over. The remainder of his men were wiring ground level explosives on the far side of the capitol building.

  It was there that the VBT captain trained his gaze.

  Monitoring the land advance through his own extended range glasses, Haase became more and more uncomfortable with his demolition team’s pace.

  Plan Zero called for fully wiring target cities with strategically set high intensity explosives mostly at the bases and along the rooftops of its tallest buildings. A full explosive set was done as a precursor move to a J.G.U. advance into a city. It was by no means a task that was meant to be rushed.

  In a perfect world, all Vulture demolition teams would evacuate a wired city long before the vehicles of any enemy ground force first entered its outer perimeters.

  But judging by the nature of their mission and what they were here to accomplish, a perfect world was not the place they lived.

  Once the force was fully in and all the Vulture teams were safely out, then the command to fully detonate was given.

  This was how it was supposed to happen. But as more and more reports trickled in from other demolition teams, this was not how it was happening.

  Vulture squads were getting less and less time to prepare a city. Targets were being chosen within hours of when the first enemy troops were projected to arrive.

  The most serious problem was the existence of the demolition squads was no longer a secret from the J.G.U. forces.

  As a result of the rush and often-used strategic countermoves designed to flush out and neutralize the demolition teams, final detonations were not always successful at containing J.G.U. advancements. More times than not a city would be detonated and enough of the land force was still left able and intact enough to make its way through.

  And as was becoming quite common, the specialized Vulture demolition teams were finding it harder and harder to get out. Demolition leaders such as VBT Captain Rosek were being forced to detonate cities before evacuations could be confirmed or completed. They were losing a great number of men.

  It made the mission that much more difficult to accomplish. Setting the explosives was hard enough. Convincing the men not to ponder any moral reservations for their acts was almost impossible. And now the time they were given to pull it all off…. it just wasn’t enough.

  The escalating failure rate of the missions as well as the mounting casualty numbers suffered by the detonation crews were starting to take a toll on his men. Many of them, including himself, were starting to fear and doubt what is was exactly they were out here to do.

  “Check, and clear,” the last Buck Squad commander reported in softly.

  With that their earpieces became quiet. But only for a few brief seconds.

  “Check that, Captain,” the last voice transmitted again.

  “Go, Commander,” Rosek answered quietly into the transmitter pressed snugly into the side of his face.

  Haase lowered his glasses to the ledge and pressed his own earpiece tighter against his head.

  “First sign of scouts,” the leader of Buck Squad 23 reported. “Repeat that. J.G.U. scouts sighted within the blast perimeter.”

  “Hold your men steady, S23,” Rosek ordered calmly. “Continue the explosive set.”

  Haase glanced back at his own squad working in a silent haste to wire the remaining explosives across the building’s rooftop.

  “Their advance is too fast,” Haase said briskly to Rosek while raising his extended range glasses back to his eyes. “Our teams got here too late. Judging by their movement in just this last hour, we’re not going to have enough set time, much less enough time to evacuate before detonation. Not before they’re here.”

  “No one gets what they want for set time, Haase,” Rosek responded curtly back. “They’ve been dropping down from Canada all week and pressing all over the outer-domed perimeter.

  “They’re coming up from Mexico and Texas, and they’ve already broken through on both coasts. I don’t care what we’ve got for time. We can’t give up the city just yet. Keep your men working.”

  The first vehicles at the head of the J.G.U. progression were now only about ten miles away.

  Haase turned around and with short stabbing thrusts of his hands and fingers signaled additional information and orders to his squad. Their pace had noticeably increased by the time he was through.

  Haase rotated back around and leaned against the rooftop next to VBT Captain Rosek. With his heart starting to beat slightly faster and his breathing coming in shorter gasps, he raised his glasses again to monitor the land procession.

  “More signs of scouts,” another hushed voice transmitted through their earpieces. “Quadrant 4, north side. We’ve got a few troops on foot and about twice as many jeeps.”

  Haase refocused his glasses towards the rows of headlights that still approached. Through the dark he was able to make out the shapes of jeeps, trucks and the larger attack transports. The increasing sound of their engines drifted through the still hot air.

  The advance was less than five miles away.

  “Keep your men working,” Rosek answered composedly back. “Continue the explosive set.”

  The rumble of a single truck engine resonated lightly through the darkness.

  “Captain, we have to give this up,” Haase’s struggled to keep the anxiousness that was quickly consuming his body from entering his voice. “There really was never enough time to start… and there’s been a lot of outsiders in the streets. It’s really affected the men.”

  Rosek lowered his glasses and turned to Haase.

  “That can’t be a concern,” Rosek said facing him. “It can’t affect the schedule. They will go underground.”

  “I know they’ll go underground,” Haase said staring into his captain’s face. “They are going underground. But there’s so many of them this time. They’re flooding the streets, in some sections right below and in full view of the demolition teams. Some men and whole squads are breaking way to help them escape.”

  Rosek was silent for a moment holding his stare on Haase before continuing.

  “Then these men should be pulled from demolition duty and sent to the war front.”

  Haase lowered his eyes and looked over the ledge to the streets below.

  “Or they should be shot,” Rosek continued. “For aiding and abetting in an unauthorized and unlawful outside citizen evacuation.”

  Haase turned slightly at this but did not raise his eyes.

  “It’s treason, Commander.”

  Haase looked back away.

  “If they get out, they get out,” Rosek said. “We didn’t see them. But, we can’t divert manpower to assist. We’re here to eliminate them too if the opportunity exists. But like I said, we don’t have the men to dedicate to this task.
<
br />   “They are supposed to die with the town regardless of what we think of it. We are here to eliminate this J.G.U. advance and keep it from going further into the country. We are here to clear the city. And the outsiders with it.

  “We are not here to think or to sympathize. We’re here to get it done.”

  Haase felt his conscience stirring sickeningly in his stomach and fought the urge to retch over the side of the building.

  “Now get your goddamn men working and get it done,” Rosek finished softly.

  The racket of truck engines, tanks, transports, and jeeps now filtered up to them more loudly through the thin heated air.

  “What about the time?” Haase struggled to make words come from his throat. “It’s getting close.”

  “I guarantee set up times in future cities are not going to increase,” Rosek answered solemnly. “As for this one, we’re not going to give it up yet.”

  With that, Rosek pulled his glasses back to his eyes and leveled them towards the formation of vehicles now within the city. Three small jeeps led the procession. They were less than four blocks away.

  Haase stepped away from the ledge to the center of the rooftop to relay some additional orders to his men. The light claps of small arms fire reverberated faintly from the empty streets below.

  Haase glanced apprehensively back at Rosek. Faintly though the communication link in his ear, he could hear him order another status check from the demolition squads.

  “Check. Check. Report in, check,” Captain Rosek’s voice was slightly louder this time over the comlink. “Squad Leaders, status check. Small arms within the perimeter. Report in and check…”

  Before he was able to complete his last order, a blinding flash pierced the air from somewhere behind them in the night. The sonic pound of a high intensity explosive followed close behind.

  Rosek didn’t react. He kept his extended range glasses trained at the coming ground force. Haase whirled around to look at the flames bellowing from the opposite side of the city.