by Mike Kraus
Water mains and gas lines ruptured as the ground buckled, sending explosions of water and fire rocking through the city. The worst of the earthquakes were felt across the Strip and to its east. Buildings that had gone up seemingly overnight in an effort to capitalize on a virtual gold rush were the first to fall, crumbling like a gingerbread house set out in the rain. Shoddy construction and cut corners were revealed in the most horrifying of ways as roofs and walls collapsed inward on those seeking shelter from the heat and flames outside.
The larger, older buildings suffered immense structural damage, but most did not fall. Their interiors were left in shambles, their upper floors were unstable and they would have to be demolished and rebuilt, but people who took shelter inside were spared from the worst of the destruction.
Hours after the worst of the quakes are over, aftershocks still ripple through the city and surrounding areas. Most of the dead are buried or burned beyond all recognition. The survivors flee the center of the city for the edges, bartering with the gangs that have risen up and taken power. People sell the clothes off of their back—and more—for the promise of a warm place to sleep and a few scraps of food. The few vehicles that are left intact are used to flee the city for the hope of shelter elsewhere, though there is little to be found.
Small clusters of survivors band together in buildings around the city as they resist the gangs and try to find enough food and water to extend their lives for a few more days. Many who require medication or constant care die within hours. A lack of medical care, the overwhelming heat and stress kill many in the first twenty-four hours.
Some who are close enough to Nellis Air Force Base seek shelter inside. Only a few hundred are allowed inside before the base commander seals the gates and turns everyone else away until he can assess the situation. Fear runs rampant through the base as orders are given from the highest levels.
As groups of vehicles are cleared the base commander begins sending them out in groups to comb the city for survivors. Those who are found are searched, stripped of weapons and brought back to the base. Those who have traveled on foot to the base take longer to process and bring inside, and each new person that appears puts more of a strain on the base resources.
Tents and cots are set up across the base as emergency fuel stores and rations are brought out of storage. The worst contingency plans for the base included the possibility of short-term housing of civilians, but as more people walk and are brought to the base, the commander begins to feel the pressure of having too many mouths to feed.
Word filters down that the federal emergency service departments are establishing shelter cities in key locations across the country. As Nellis continues to clear their vehicles and aircraft of effects from Damocles they are ordered to deploy men and equipment to key locations of the country. Seeking to alleviate the strain on his base, the commander orders that all civilians in the base be questioned to find out which of the shelter cities they wish to relocate to. While not everyone gets to go where they want, more people than not begin to fly out, heading closer to their families and loved ones than they were before.
For the families and individuals who live in the area and don’t wish to leave, the commander has no answers. So long as the strain on the base’s resources is lightened by shipping off tourists or residents who have family or connections in other areas, those who wish to stay can do so. If, however, too many people wish to stay on base, the commander makes it clear that he will begin forcing people out.
Fear that was lessened by the relief offered by the base now explodes back into the forefront of the survivors’ minds. Every new bus that pulls in filled with survivors is another reminder that they may be kicked out at any moment. Every new family that walks to the front gates and requests aid is another set of mouths that may become the tipping point that causes everyone to leave. Tensions are rising as quickly as they were eased and there is little that can be done to alleviate them without causing harm to those most in need.
Chapter 13
Las Vegas, Nevada
It was dark when Rick started awake, catching himself in a half-snore and wondering for a few seconds where he was. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep but his exhaustion from the last couple of days had worn on him enough that he slept for a few hours. He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room, trying to figure out what would have woken him up.
The lantern was still beneath the table on its lowest setting, Jane was still lying in her bed and the door to the room was shut. Rick realized that what had woken him wasn’t what was in the room but what was outside instead. The once-distant roar of the twin diesel engines was far louder and more ferocious than before. In fact, the noise was growing so loud that Rick wondered if they really were on the third floor of the building.
“Th’ hell?” Rick whispered to himself as he stood up, holding the shotgun loosely in one hand as he walked over to the window. Outside, down on the street, was a convoy of six Humvees driving along. Each of them had a ring of bright lights around the edge of their roofs that illuminated their surroundings for a few hundred feet. The lights near the front and back of the second, third, fourth and fifth Humvees were angled downward to keep them from interfering with the lead and rear vehicles, but the lights on their sides were angled outward.
The lights made it easy for Rick to make out the shapes of gunners sitting in the turrets of each Humvee, swiveling them around quickly as they scanned their surroundings. They followed a well-defined pattern and ensured that there was always at least one gun pointed in any general direction at any one time.
As the vehicles cruised down the Strip, they suddenly broke their line formation and fanned out to block both sides of the road before shutting their lights off. They halted in the street below the building where Rick and Jane were and he pushed open the glass door leading out onto the balcony just outside. The night air was cold and the wind whipped dust into his eyes as he walked out onto the balcony. With the door open he could hear the engines more clearly and he saw, half a mile down from the Humvees, what they appeared to be waiting for.
Two more Humvees drove along, heading for the line that was waiting for them. The pair of vehicles drove erratically as they swerved around in the road and jumped the median more than once. One of them fired a few bursts from its machine gun at something behind them, but whoever was driving the vehicles seemed more concerned with escaping than anything else.
When the two fleeing Humvees got within a few hundred feet of the six lying in wait, the six turned on their lights and a loudspeaker flared to life.
“Halt the vehicles immediately or we will fire upon you!” The time between the warning and the first burst of fire from the six vehicles seemed improbably short to Rick, though he imagined it seemed shorter than it actually was. The pair of fleeing vehicles showed no signs of halting their advance, though they did turn on the road as they sought somewhere else to flee from their unseen pursuers and the vehicles that had surprised them on the road ahead.
Fire belched from the end of three M2 machine guns as they dispensed fifty-caliber rounds into their targets. Though the Humvees being shot were armored, they stood little chance against the intensity and immensity of the fire. The tires were the first to go on both vehicles and they swerved wildly as their inexperienced drivers fought to keep them under control. Rounds punctured through into the engine and passenger compartments next, spilling vital fluids from both the vehicles and their drivers.
One of the Humvees came to a halt by smashing into a large palm tree in the median of the Strip. The other flipped over as the mortally wounded driver tried to turn into the blocked entrance to a casino across the road. When the vehicle finally skidded to a halt the fire from three of the six Humvees halted and the back doors on each vehicle opened. Soldiers poured out, heading towards the two damaged vehicles with their weapons raised, ready to put down anyone who showed any signs of resistance.
Rick was so absorbed in watching the events unfold b
ehind him that he nearly missed hearing the clatter of the hotel room door opening and slamming shut again. He whirled around, raising his shotgun, but no one was there. His eyes flicked to the bed and, despite the darkness of the room, he could see that the place where Jane had been sleeping was empty. Rick charged back into the room and threw open the door to see Jane jogging down the hall, one of the lanterns in hand.
“Jane!” Rick yelled at her. “Where are you going?”
“To get help from them!” She looked back at Rick and motioned with her hand. “Come on!”
“We don’t know who they are for certain! That’s a really bad idea!” Rick shouted back at her but she didn’t stop. He cursed under his breath before running back and grabbing his backpack from the bed. He tossed the shotgun into the gun bag, looped it over his back, grabbed the other lantern and ran out of the room and down the hall.
Jane was already at the bottom of the stairs and near the front door to the hotel by the time Rick caught up with her. In her hand he could see she was carrying a piece of white cloth, likely one of the pillowcases from the room. “What are you doing?” He shouted at her, but she continued running for the front entrance. She burst out of the door waving the pillowcase and lantern above her head and started shouting at the people outside.
“Hey! Help us! Help!”
The soldiers were busy pulling bodies from the wreckage of the two Humvees when Jane ran out. They turned around, drawing down on her and moving to surround her.
“Drop your weapon!” One of the soldiers screamed at her and she looked at them, confused. Rick slowed down at the entrance to the building, not wanting to further complicate the situation by bursting out after her.
“Please, help us! We’ve been running for days now!”
“Drop everything in your hands and lay face-down on the ground now!” The lead soldier screamed at her and Jane suddenly closed her mouth. The color drained from her face as she realized the magnitude of the situation she was in and she slowly lowered the sheet and lantern to the ground.
“Get down!” The soldier took a step forward and shouted at her again. Jane held her hands up as she dropped to her knees. The lead soldier motioned for his companions to move forward. Two more soldiers stepped forward and grabbed her by the arms and began pulling her toward one of the six Humvees still parked in a row across both lanes of the Strip.
“Hey!” Rick stepped out of the front entrance of the hotel and raised his hands into the air, holding a lantern in his right hand. “Take it easy with her!”
The soldiers turned to Rick and raised their rifles, but he was already dropping down to his knees. “Yeah, yeah.” Rick shook his head. “I know, get down on the ground.”
Chapter 14
Five Days Before the Event
“Now I know most folks think the undercoating is a giant scam, but before you say no, let me just show you some pictures of the difference between a vehicle that’s had undercoating versus one that hasn’t.”
Cold air blows from massive vents inside the Troy Baker Premium Car Lot in Dallas Texas. With three massive walls comprised almost entirely of lightly tinted glass, the autumn heat wave forces the dealership to crank the air conditioning up to high or else risk sweating out all of their customers.
As the salesman pulls out photos showing a car with huge amounts of rust on the undercarriage in an attempt to scare his customer into purchasing the coating, a commotion from the parking lot catches his eye.
Outside, another customer sits in a brand-new SUV. The engine is on and running and the customer and saleswoman helping him are both talking as they look under the hood. A moment after the car turns on, though, the saleswoman and the man looking at the car start coughing. They back up from the vehicle, waving their hands in front of their faces. It doesn’t take more than a few seconds for the pair to realize what the smell is.
“Is that… gas?” The saleswoman turns around, looking for one of the service bay technicians. She manages to get a full two steps away from the car in her search before a ball of flames erupts from beneath the vehicle.
Nine minutes later, as the saleswoman and the customer are loaded into an ambulance, a cluster of firefighters, police officers and the owners of the car lot are clustered around the still-smoldering wreckage. A few of the other customers in the lot and inside the building are standing nearby, watching what’s going on, but most of the customers have already left.
As technicians examine the wreckage of the car over the next few days, a curious tale emerges. Seals around the fuel lines and related components appear to be the first parts that failed. This allowed for a slow leak of fuel that quickly turned to vapor in the afternoon heat. A few moments after the leak began a short-circuit in a computer control chip on the underside of the car caused a spark which ignited the vapors.
As the saleswoman and the customer both survived—albeit with grievous injuries—the story quickly vanishes from the collective consciousness of the area over the next few days. The only people who remain concerned and puzzled by the incident are technicians from both the car dealership and from the manufacturer. Such a dangerous incident should have never happened. Computer control systems are in place in the vehicles to prevent any such situation from occurring.
And yet, somehow, in all of the vehicle’s logs, there is no trace to be found of any type of control system malfunction. Everything appears as normal up until the time of the incident when the logs fail to update as though something turned them off.
Chapter 15
Las Vegas, Nevada
The ride to Nellis Air Force Base was uncomfortably long. The stuffy conditions of the Humvees, the menacing looks of the soldiers and the uneasy silence inside the vehicles made Rick wonder if he had made the right decision in going out to try and reason with the soldiers who had been taking Jane away.
After relieving Rick of his weapons and gear, rifling through everything and then throwing it into the back of one of their vehicles, the soldiers had him loaded into a separate vehicle from Jane. He wasn’t sure why they were being split up, but his nervousness only increased the longer they took going through the city.
On more than one occasion Rick had tried to strike up a conversation with the pair of soldiers who sat on either side of him in the back seat, but each time he spoke the soldiers either ignored him or gave him a blank stare. With his hands zip-tied in front of him and no idea where he was being taken, all he could do was sit tight and hope for the best.
While Rick had initially guessed that the soldiers had been sent out to retrieve—or destroy—the pair of Humvees that had fallen into the hands of the men who attacked the convoy, he realized halfway through the ride to Nellis that they were doing more than just a retrieval of their assets. The vehicles stopped every quarter mile and each time they did a pair of soldiers jumped out with a small black box in their hands. The soldiers carried the boxes to a nearby building and disappeared inside for fifteen to twenty minutes before returning. While the men were inside the buildings a brief radio conversation went on between them and the vehicles before they returned and the convoy began moving again.
“Package is set. Lights are green. Confirm, over.”
“Showing green lights on remote. Data link secure. NVG is solid. FLIR is solid. Confirmed, over.”
“Copy, returning. Out.”
This curious series of events occurred a total of thirty times in between when the vehicles picked up Jane and Rick and when they began their final approach to the base. It only took Rick listening to the conversation and watching where the men placed the black box in and on the buildings they entered for him to realize that they were planting surveillance cameras around the city. He had no idea what they were for, but the more he thought about it, the more worried he became.
“You guys not have eyes in the sky anymore?” Rick tried striking up yet another conversation with the soldiers in the car, but they merely stared mutely back at him. He had tried several times to talk to
them about their work but all he received in response were a bunch of blank stares. “Come on, fellas. This is one hell of a long ride.” Rick smiled, but the soldiers didn’t return it.
Why the hell would they need cameras on the streets? The prevalence of civilian and military drones in all roles had been overwhelming during the best of times and while Rick knew very little about satellite imaging, he was certain the military could see virtually anything they wanted with a few clicks of a mouse. Setting up cameras along streets in a city seemed not only downright primitive but somewhat frightening. If they need cameras set up on streets to keep an eye on what’s going on, that can’t bode well for whatever’s happening.
Dawn was beginning to break over the city when the convoy rolled up to the entrance to Nellis. Extra fortifications and guards had been deployed and the walls were topped with large bundles of razor wire that had been hastily tacked on. Crowds of people stood near the fence off of the road leading into the base, all of them staring wide-eyed as a man in uniform paced the top of the wall, talking to them through a bullhorn.
The road into the base itself was lined with sandbags, razor wire and HESCO barriers for a few hundred feet out. Three guard towers were positioned on each side of the barriers and there were two Humvees parked at the end with soldiers on the guns and standing nearby wielding rifles. The convoy slowed to a stop at the makeshift entrance to the base and one of the soldiers standing guard walked up to the lead vehicle. Being crunched up in the middle back of the Humvee where the seat was mostly in his imagination, Rick couldn’t hear or see any of what was going on. A moment after stopping, though, the convoy sped up again and roared through to the main gate of the base proper.