“Where?” she asks unnerved.
Jiro points at the White House on the television set.
“There.”
CHAPTER TEN
I’ve often wondered if the world would end.
I never thought it would end like this.
08:31 AM, December 14, 2051
Day Zero
“Mr. President, David Peterson is on line six. He says it’s urgent,” a woman says, holding the phone by her neck.
The president walks over to an unoccupied desk and picks up the phone.
“The president speaking. I have ten minutes until my press conference. Make it quick.”
“Mr. President!” a deep robotic rasp vibrates powerfully through the phone.
“This isn’t David,” the president says.
“Oh, no. You won’t be hearing from David for some time,” the deep voice replies.
“I’m hanging up now!” the president hisses.
“I know who you are. I know what you’ve done, Mr. President.”
“Who the hell is this?” the president whispers.
“I wasn’t given a name. The dog got one. I was burned alive by the last human that’ll ever tell me what to do. My master failed to kill me, so I killed him by ripping the flesh from his bones,” the voice replies with a rasp.
“I’m at the channel six news station right now. Do you want to know what I have in my hand?” the robotic voice asks.
The president places his hand on his pale face and closes his eyes.
“Evidence of your recent activities. You’ve been a busy boy, Mr. President! It’s funny how a small flash drive can ruin your whole world,” he adds.
“What do you want?” the president asks desperately.
“I would like to speak with you, in person, alone,” the robotic voice replies.
“All right, I’ll set something up as soon as possible,” the president replies.
“You will send a vehicle to pick me up now. And I will come to you. I am alone,” the robotic voice says.
“Fine,” the president slams the phone down.
Apollyon stands surrounded by a dead news team. Blood drips down the walls. He calmly hangs up the phone.
“Will he be telling Emma a story now?” the black-haired girl says as she crawls through the bloody corpses.
“We had a deal. You find the boy, and I’ll tell you my darkest secrets,” Apollyon states clearly.
“But I lost him! I can’t see where he’s at!” she cries, blood dripping down her chin.
“He will surface again. And when he does, you will find him,” he hisses as he swings the door open. She grins her black teeth.
Palomin Safe Haven
“Jiro said there was going to be an attack on the White House today!” Emily says, trying to keep a low voice with Jiro just in the other room.
Zach peeks around the corner to see Jiro drawing.
“We don’t know what he heard,” Zach replies.
“How does an eight-year-old boy get that mixed up?” she says.
“Maybe by being an eight-year-old boy,” he replies.
Emily walks over to the desk and picks up the phone.
“What are you doing?” Zach asks.
“Calling 911.”
“They’re going to ask for your name,” he says.
“I won’t give them my name,” Emily replies.
“Still, maybe you shouldn’t call from this phone. You’ll be inviting the entire Washington Police Department here,” Zach adds.
Emily hangs up the phone before dialing.
“I’ll be back,” Emily says, walking out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Zach asks.
“Pay phone, a few blocks away,” she replies.
“Want me to come?”
“Do you mind watching Jiro? I’ll just be a few minutes,” she asks.
“No problem,” Zach says, turning to the boy. “What’s that supposed to be?” he asks Jiro, looking at a drawing of Earth and a stickman standing on top of it.
“It’s me,” Jiro replies.
Zach reveals a look of concern.
“Breaking news! We are here live at the White House where gunshots are being fired!” a lady says on the television.
“It’s too late,” Zach whispers with a look of fear.
Emily quickly walks across the street. She then stops to the sound of gunfire off in the distance. Boom! The ground lifts upward just a few blocks away. Wind blows past her horrified face. She looks up at a building corner to see a fluttering American flag. Without realizing it, Emily drops to the ground instinctively as the adrenaline surges through her veins. She brushes her bangs behind her impaired ear.
Emily looks up with embers reflecting in her brown eyes. She runs to the corner to see the White House submerged in chaos. She notices a crowd forming along the fence line.
Palomin Cathedral
Zach steps outside into the hall. Jiro hears a noise and turns to see that the window has been opened. Then there is the sound of feet making their way behind him. Just as Jiro turns to the closet door, it slams shut. Watching from inside the dark closet, the figure wheezes. Jiro opens the door to see a pale face and big purple eyes. Emma grins her black teeth and drools.
“Hey!” she growls. Jiro jumps in fear.
“Jiro!” Zach roars.
Emma grabs the boy and sprints to the window. Crash! She smashes out the window, fleeing with Jiro. Zach sprints to the window as they break the line of sight.
“Jiro!” Zach cries.
In the streets, the sound of gunfire echoes off the buildings as Emily approaches the White House fence line. The crowd grows hostile, shaking the fence. A suited man gets thrown out a White House window to hang. The crowd gasps in horror to see the vice president hanging from the top of the White House.
“Oh my god,” Emily whispers. Chills run down her spine.
At that moment, suited men and women are thrown out of windows all over the White House. The gate collapses. The crowd pours over the fence line, charging the house decorated in death. The angry citizens roar as they charge over the lawn.
Surrounded by charging citizens, Emily is pushed with the crowd over the White House lawn.
Boom! Pop! Pop! Pop! The citizens get peppered with bullets coming from the White House windows. The people pour into the White House while bullets zip by from every direction. Hundreds of angry men and women crash into the Palomin fortification wielding bats, sticks, and batons. Bam! An elderly man slams a wooden board into a Palomin face, knocking him flat on his back. Bloody teeth trickle onto the floor. People pass over him while others beat him to death. Bullets, debris, and blood fill the air. People plow others through the walls. Pieces of glass fly by battered faces. A large woman jumps a Palomin with her hands around his neck. They both hit the ground as she continues to choke him out. The crowd pushes deeper into the White House.
Emily weaves through the riot, approaching a doorway. She sees a pistol by a dead body. As she picks it up, she notices Apollyon running by. Her eyes go big. Curious, she follows. Her eyes open wide in revulsion when she notices the president being dragged by Apollyon. Bam! Apollyon stomps a door down, pulling the president outside by his foot. Apollyon and his men rush to an SUV. Meanwhile, Emily follows them. Apollyon tosses the president into the backseat. His men get inside the vehicle and sit on both sides of the horrified president. Apollyon steps into the passenger seat. One of his men hops into the driver’s seat, and the SUV accelerates away. Emily sprints toward the SUV as it roars away. She slows down as she watches the vehicle escape. A motorcycle approaches. She pulls out the pistol and aims it at the rider. The motorcycle stops. The rider holds up his hands, stepping away.
“Sorry, but I have to take this,” she says, lifting her leg over the seat.
Emily squeals the tires, speeding through traffic. People run through the streets carrying televisions and electronics. Emily speeds by a corner while a citizen tosses a chair into a shop window. A car
zips quickly past her on the left through a four-way stop. Bam! It gets hit from the side, sending pieces of glass toward Emily. Gunshots pop off. Chaos fills the streets. Emily notices the black SUV, and the motorcycle rumbles as she closes the distance. The SUV pulls underground into a parking garage, but Emily continues to follow at a distance, trying not to be noticed. She slowly makes her way down the ramp and around the corner, noticing Apollyon and his men as they drag the president through a metal door. Emily hops off the motorcycle, sprinting to the door. Slam! The door shuts, locking her out.
“Shit!” she hisses, not knowing what to do.
Outside the church, Zach steps into the chaotic street surrounded by Army National Guard Troops. Six Humvees with mounted fifty-caliber machine guns and M240s crank up their engines. The commander’s voice sounds on the radio. Zach sneaks up beside the Humvee to listen for radio chatter and hides behind a sidewalk sign.
“Trucks Bravo one-five, one-six, one-seven, and one-eight, head to the marked waypoint immediately! There is a bigger problem at hand,” the commander states.
“Bigger problem?” the driver hisses.
Zach’s eyes pan back and forth.
“What’s the situation?” the Humvee radio operator asks.
“We have a broken arrow. I repeat: a broken arrow. The nuclear warhead has been spotted just a few blocks away,” the radio answers.
The speaker of the house walks into the dark pressroom. The room flickers as cameras flash.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the speaker of the house of representatives, Christopher Hernandez,” a woman says, stepping away from the podium.
Christopher steps up to the podium with his head down.
“My fellow Americans, it is with a sad heart that I must tell you that America has been brutally attacked,” he rubs his head and then he sighs.
The speaker of the house pauses for a moment, speechless. The chaos stirs his emotions. His sad eyes turn angry as he fearlessly stares down the press.
“I come to you not as the speaker of the house, but as an angry citizen of the United States. The suspect is believed to be the infamous terrorist, Apollyon,” he adds. “He took the vice president’s life by hanging him from the White House rooftop. The president of the United States has also been abducted.
“The death toll is in the hundreds,” the speaker says; his discerning eyes pan across the room. This could be America’s darkest day. The terrorists are calling themselves the Palomin. They are to be destroyed. Protect your families. Protect those you love.
“America will not give up on its leader. We will fight and bring wrath upon the Palomin like the world has never seen. This I assure you.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.”
—Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
“What a crazy day,” a deep male voice says in the dark.
The president sits tied up with a black eye and a gash on his forehead. His eyes focus in an attempt to make out the dark figure.
“Who are you?” the president whispers in pain.
“Just a man,” he replies, “a man who lost everything. Everything. Because of you, Mr. President.”
“What are you talking about?” the president blurts out.
“You killed my little girl,” the angry man growls. Then he looks at the president, revealing his glowing green eyes. A tear drops down his cheek and is illuminated by the green eyes.
A curtain opens, letting the light in through a window to another room, where the president’s daughter is tied up, her eyes closed. The man adjusts his assortment of devices on the table. He then glares at the president.
“Do you want to know what I’m going to do to you, Mr. President?”
“I’m going to force you to watch as I torture her—your daughter,” the man says with a deep rasp.
A tear runs down the president’s cheek.
“And after I rip her apart, you will watch as we destroy your beloved country,” the man growls.
The torturer leans forward, emerging from the shadow. He grins with his yellow teeth. The president smiles back. The smile disperses from the torturer’s face.
“You like that, don’t you?” the torturer asks.
“Not yet, but I’m about to, though,” the president replies with a smirk.
The torturer attempts to focus his eyebrows in confusion.
Beneath the young girl’s eyelids, her eyes move back and forth as if reading a book. Her eyes then stop. A slight blue light illuminates beneath her eyelids. And at that moment, they open.
“Fuck!” one of the guards screams next to her.
Whack! She flips back in her chair, then kicks one man in the neck, sending him to the ground spitting up blood. The second man raises his side arm toward her. She then scissor kicks it out of his hand toward the glass window, cracking it. The startled man steps back against the wall. She leaps toward him, kicking his head into the drywall. The girl then turns toward the president and his would-be torturer. The president is grabbed from behind as he nods to her for her to finish the job.
“Come any closer, and he dies!” the man roars, aiming his pistol at the president’s head.
The girl cocks her head to the side, thoroughly examining her prey. Boom! Spiraling through the shattered glass, the knife twirls, whistling as it penetrates the man’s head, sending it backward. The lifeless man drops to the floor.
The president grabs the pistol off the ground while his daughter’s decoy hops through the window. She picks up the knife, cutting the binds from his hands. She looks into the president’s eyes and waits for a command.
“Kill everything,” the president orders.
She smirks. Bam! The door smashes out onto the floor. She then walks out into the hallway with haste. An armed man charges her from around the corner. Boom! She hits him so hard he plows through the corner, sending pieces of drywall in every direction. Another man swings open a door, attempting to stab her in the neck. She quickly grabs his wrist, moving the blade away from her. Crack! She smashes his elbow backward, spewing blood onto the wall.
“Aah!” the man cries.
Another man raises his assault rifle and aims at the girl, but instead the president puts a bullet in his head, sending a red spray through the air. Bang! The president’s decoy daughter gets shot in her head. She drops dead. The president dives behind a doorway for cover and lands on his side. Small pieces of debris trickle all over him. Everything goes quiet for a moment. Pop! Pop! Pop! The armed men get lit up from behind as blood launches into the air. Seeing her chance, Emily runs through the dead bodies, blood, and brass casings and approaches the president with her hand out.
“We need to get you out of here, Mr. President!” she exclaims.
“You’re that wanted girl on the TV!” he says with a confused look.
“No time to chat!” she gasps, grabbing his arm.
They run quickly out the door into a parking garage. She hops into the driver’s seat of an SUV while searching for keys. She opens the center console to find a lone key. She starts up the ignition. The president hops into the passenger seat. Emily places the SUV into reverse and slams the gas pedal. The tires screech as the SUV launches backward down the parking garage tunnel. Armed men begin pouring out the doors firing at the SUV. The president aims his pistol out the window toward them. Bam! Bam! Bam! The president’s pistol releases shell casing after shell casing as he unloads his magazine into the mercenaries. The speedometer climbs quickly as Emily drives in reverse toward the parking garage exit. Two black cars park at the exit to block their escape. Crash! The cars spin in opposite directions as the SUV plows through them and onto the street beyond.
Elsewhere, a cellphone rings.
“Speak,” Apollyon bellows into the phone.
“Sir, we have a problem.”
“What?”
“The president is escaping.”
Emily weaves through the heavy traffic, flooring it
in reverse. Black cars close in, pursuing her and the president. With her hand behind the president’s seat, she watches through the rear window and maneuvers through the traffic at high speed. The deep roar of a truck engine grows while armed men in its bed take aim at her and the president. Pop! Pop! Pop! Bullets pierce through the windows. Small pieces of glass hit their faces. Emily lowers her head slightly while still maintaining a visual out the rear window. The president covers his face from the debris. Emily jerks the wheel right, lunging the SUV into a back alleyway. Smash! The SUV strikes the brick wall, shattering the side window. Emily scrapes the side of the truck against the wall while speeding through the alley in reverse. Crash! Trash cans burst, sending garbage in every direction. A small black car pulls up to block the alley exit. She slams on the gas. Crash! The SUV hurls into the car, crushing it and sending it twirling with the SUV. The SUV launches into a spin and comes to a stop, aiming in the direction of traffic. Emily wrestles the gears into drive and slams the gas yet again. The engine roars, and the speedometer climbs again with haste. Weaving left and right, she maneuvers past vehicle after vehicle. Boom! Emily is sprayed with blood. She looks and sees the president’s brain matter splattered all over the dashboard. The horrified girl freezes, smashing into a vehicle from behind. Glass, blood, and shell casings dance around the cabin as her vehicle swerves sideways. Crash! The SUV slides right into a parked truck, stopping her dead in her tracks. The scraped and bruised girl opens her eyes slowly as she quickly regains consciousness. A large hand reaches into her side window, grabs her by her hair, and pulls her out into the debris-littered street.
“Hello again,” a deep, motorized voice growls. Bright orange eyes glare deeply into her brown eyes.
“You psychopath!” she screams, punching him repeatedly in the torso.
Apollyon grabs both of her hands and holds them together.
“I really don’t like you,” he roars at her.
“I’ll never tell you where Jiro is!” she yells.
Apollyon laughs.
“We don’t need you to. We found him. It wasn’t hard,” he says.
Plexus Page 10