Protocol One

by Jacqueline Druga

  Tony replied. “We’re taking it. We’re heading out.”

  “And you are?”

  “The guy that’s taking your vehicle. I heard from your guys it’s pretty sweet.”

  “And exactly, why do you need to take it?”

  Tony smiled. “Anna wanted it. See ya, Gil. We have miles to cover.”

  Her mouth dropped open and if her eyes were fire, I would have been burned.

  Quickly, Tony took my arm and escorted me out of the bay and to the Humvee. He opened the door.

  “Why would you tell her that?” I asked.

  “Get in.”

  I did. “Oh, wow.” I sunk down in the thick and soft leather seat. “I swear this is the most comfortable seat.”

  “Yeah,” Tony closed his door. “This thing is decked out. When I saw it, I claimed it as our survivor vehicle.”

  “Good choice.”

  “It may not be gas efficient for long trips but for this one it’s fine.” He reached up. “Do you need your seat warmed?”

  “No, I’m good.”

  He placed the truck in gear. “Man, how about that evil look she gave you?”

  “Thank you for that.”

  “No, no, Anna, she was shooting daggers at you long before the Humvee comment.”

  “She certainly is going to make things interesting.”

  “Yeah she is. Now, just wait until those last botox treatments really wear off then it will get visually interesting.”

  “You’re so mean.”

  “She’s a princess in an apocalypse world. For example, this ride. Look... music. Country or Oldies?”

  “Country,” I replied.

  “You ready for this?”

  “I’m ready.”

  Tony took a second, looked at me and then pulled the truck forward. We passed through the gates and turned.

  I lifted the clipboard with the map and agenda. “Do we want to hit the communities first or last?”

  “Last,” Tony said. “Let’s do Pittsburgh first.”

  “I’ve never been to Pittsburgh,”

  “Neither have I. I’m sure it’s seen better days, though. Either way, it will be interesting to see.”

  “Gil has us going back there four times this week.”

  “It’s a big town, and it could very well can be a dead town. You are ready, Anna, right, for the possibility of a dead world? It’s been six months.”

  “I know. I’m ready.” I glanced out the window. The road was slightly snow covered with the trees bent over us in some places like a tunnel formed by nature. It wasn’t an overcast day, in fact, the sun was out. It glistened against the snow, shining in my mind as a ray of hope.

  There was a lot of uncertainty of what would lie ahead. We hadn’t been beyond Elwood City. We just didn’t know what was out there. It had been some time since the comet hit. I was certain we wouldn’t see a picture perfect world, that things would be destroyed and void of life. Empty cities, empty towns. An old way of living buried beneath snow, ice and burnt ruins. I knew there would be things that would bother me and make me cry. Mentally, I tried to prepare myself. But deep inside, I also knew that out there the human race had prevailed.

  We weren’t mean to be extinct, not yet. It wasn’t our time. As a race, we are resilient. Like Project Protocol One, the human race would rise from the ashes. It would rise up and start again.

  There were survivors, I was sure of that.

  We just had to find them.

  And we would.

  50 – Cold Stop Reality

  The first snowflake fell with a hard ‘plop’ to the windshield just as we hit the end of Elwood City.

  It was a single flake and huge, causing both Tony and I to lean forward to peer at the sky.

  “That was odd,” Tony said, “Sky is darkening.”

  “Should we worry?” I asked.

  “Peter said it would just be cloudy, no snow, right?”

  “That’s what he said. Want me to double check?”

  Tony hummed out in debate. “Nah, I mean, he’s pretty anal about the weather. If he even suspected it was going to get bad, he would have said something. Besides, we had very little snow, so I highly doubt it would wait until this day to come.”

  “What do you think?” I asked. “I mean, you’re from Chicago.”

  He shrugged. “It looks like it’s gonna snow.”

  “Maybe we should stop and go back.”

  “Radio in, have him double check.”

  Tony slowed down just before getting on to the main highway to head to Pittsburgh. I radioed in and Peter confirmed with some annoyance, as if we doubted him, that it wasn’t showing snow clouds. He had rarely been wrong before.

  “No, snow,” I said.

  “Uh, Anna, I heard. It’s a radio.”

  I smiled and removed my coat. The comfy and cozy Humvee was warm. In fact it was surround sound warm. Removing my coat, I took another look at Elwood City as we left. It truly was void of any life. It had an aura that no one was left.

  We pulled onto the main road, the first time venturing there. The four lane highway was barren and white. Nothing but slick, covered concrete untouched by vehicles. It had a virgin like look about it. In fact, even though it hadn’t really snowed much, there was a blanket of white and ice for as far as the eye could see. A few cars were on the road abandoned. Some had a glaze of ice over them. Most had no windows.

  I supposed we’d see more as we neared Pittsburgh.

  Gil had broken the city into sections. Four per week. It would take us three weeks to get through the entire city.

  I folded the map and set down the clip board.

  “How long until we get there?” I asked.

  “Forty minutes,” Tony replied. “I’m not taking a chance on flying. Not on these roads. We’ll just take our time and get there. Scan the first area and head back. I’m not in a hurry. I’m enjoying the break from the Giltator.

  “The ... the what?” I asked with a stutter. “Giltator?”

  “Yeah, the Caesar incarnate.”

  “Oh my God, Tony, he is far from that!”

  “Maybe right now.”

  “And for good. I know Gil.”

  “Yes, Anna,” he said. “We’re all aware of how well you know Gil. And we’re also all well aware of how easily you just let him take over and implement his ‘rule the world’ scheme.”

  “Stop.” I shook my head. “You’re being silly. He’s helping. Plus, I think you’re joking because you are going along with it.”

  “Silently, until I can implement my own plan. Hence why I want to run the security aspect. I need to know what’s going on.”

  “Your own plan?”

  “Yeah, trust me. I have no plans to stay under the Giltatorship. I eventually would like to take you and Joie and head south. So, until that time comes, I’m just biting my tongue.”

  “How do you know I’ll leave with you?” I asked.

  “One word. Gwen. Speaking of which …. I have something for you.” He reached out his arm, but stopped. “I can’t get it. Reach behind your seat. There’s a small black bag.”

  After undoing my belt, I reached around. On the floor was a soft black leather bag, about the size of a large purse or small gym bag. I sniffed. “It smells pretty.”

  “It’s Gwen’s. They left it in here. Have fun. Snoop.”

  “Is it right?” I unsnapped the bag.

  “Well, seeing as how you are already opening it, I’d say it’s fine.”

  “You didn’t look?”

  “Nope. Thought it would be an early Christmas gift for you.”

  I laughed a “Ha”, and dove in. There was a silk scarf that I realized was the source of the perfume smell.

  “What’s in there?”

  “Scarf, ibuprofen. Ha-ha.” I withdrew my hand and pulled out four tiny bottles of booze. “There’s more, too. And … oh!”

  “What?’

  “Tampons. I’ll take those. Good Lord, what all did
this woman shove in here? It’s like her road emergency bag, she even has …”

  I paused.

  “What?”

  From the bag, I lifted a Blackberry style device.

  “Well, that’s old.” Tony said.

  “A car charger. Why would she have an old Blackberry? I would think she’d have state of the art.” I said as I turned on the Blackberry.

  “Actually, their security technology can’t be beat. Extremely hard to hack.”

  “Well she wasn’t worried about password protecting this.” Using the car charger, I hooked up the unit and started charging it. It ‘beeped’ and I began being nosy. There wasn’t much on it. Two previous calls. But oddly, they were from two days earlier. “Tony why and how would she get phone calls on this thing?”

  “Satellite maybe.” He said.

  “Weird, who would she call? And only two incoming calls from the same number.”

  “Maybe she used it more as a pocket desk.”

  After saying, “Maybe’ I went into her documents and immediately froze. “Tony. Why would Gil share all his schematics and info with her?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean. All the documents in here are work orders, information … and here is a list of locations of every one of his facilities.”

  Even though it wasn’t safe, Tony took the unit, looked at it and drove. “The fuel one is missing. Maybe he emailed them to her as a safeguard.”

  I searched the unit. “There’s no email attached. These were downloaded.” Then I saw the message folder and opened it. “Whoa, she had quite the text conversation happening just before she arrived with a contact named ‘D’.”

  “Read them.”

  “Just back and forth. She didn’t want to talk in front of the driver. ‘D’ said understandable. She said she will send them over as fast as she could. It was barbaric. She hates him.” I lowered the unit. “Who does she hate?”

  “Maybe the driver?”

  I shrugged. “Then ‘D’ said to bide her time. It won’t be long. Soften the sources and find SJN135. Then it is over.”

  “SJN135?” Tony asked.

  “Soften the sources. What does that mean?”

  “It means …. Damn it!” He slammed his hand against the wheel. “She hates him. The Giltator. She is here to get information and break down our barriers, soften the sources, get in, get trusted. SJN135 is the fuel location. The biggest asset he has. Somebody wants the fuel depot!”

  “Who knows the location?”

  “Gil, me, and who ever drove the first run out there.”

  “Duke and Spencer.”

  “Yep.” Tony said. “We make sure we take that directly to Gil, no one else... as soon as we get back.”

  I wanted to radio him, but I didn’t. It would be too risky. I should have known Gwen had other reasons for coming to the bunker than just to be with her husband.

  We also knew we had to save our conversation for later, because we saw the skyline of Pittsburgh come into focus.

  Get in, get out, but it was starting to snow much harder.

  It was hard to see against the densely cloudy sky, especially with the snow falling. But there wasn’t a speck of light in the sky, and most of the tall buildings, from what could see, had been damaged heavily by fire.

  Sector One was right off the main highway, up a slippery ramp. We were on the north side of the downtown area. Tony’s plan was to drive around the circumference of Sector One and see if we found anything. There was a lot of traffic consisting only of parked and abandoned cars. We tried taking three different roads shown on the map and each one was a dead end.

  We pulled out along a smaller river road. The river was frozen over with chunks of debris frozen solid in the surface.

  It was evident that the first sector was a barren wasteland. No signs of life.

  Tony turned on the windshield wipers. “So much for Peter’s weatherman skills.”

  “It’s getting bad. We should turn around and head back.”

  “Yeah,” Tony said. He paused and I saw him looking at the buildings around him. A football stadium was a block away. A frozen flag remained, oddly unscathed.

  “There was supposed to be an underground shelter around here,” Tony said. His window was fogged and he rolled it down. When he did we heard the call.

  “Help! Over here!” A female voice called out. “Please.”

  “That’s odd.” Tony commented.

  “Should we help?”

  “Wonder if that’s the shelter?” He asked, as he pointed to a woman about fifty feet away standing in the doorway of the city’s casino.

  “Why is she standing there?”

  “I don’t know.” Tony opened his door.

  “Please. We have an injured man. We need help!” She cried out. “In here!”

  She then disappeared inside the doors.

  Tony walked to the back of the Humvee.

  I put on my coat and gear, and stepped out. “Tony.” I walked over to him. He handed me bags. “This is gonna sound odd coming from me, but I don’t trust this.”

  “Yeah, me either.” He checked his revolver, placed it under his coat, zipped up, then shouldered a rifle.

  “Why are we bringing everything?”

  “Grab Gwen’s party bag.”

  “Why?”

  “Never leave anything in the vehicle. Just in case.” He shut the hatch. “We check. We look. We leave. Look in only, at first.”

  I nodded in agreement and walked toward the building. With each step I was troubled more. If there was someone injured, why wasn’t there any smoke for heat? There was no light emerging at all.

  Just about there, I stopped. “Okay, this isn’t good.”

  Tony looked at the doors ten feet away. “Yeah, I’m getting that eerie feeling as well. Like why didn’t she wait for us?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Head back?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  No sooner did I say that, and we turned when I heard the scariest thing of all. The sound of an engine revving.

  Just as we realized what it meant, we watched as the Humvee slid, back end first and then turned and peeled away.

  “Fuck!” Tony raced toward the Humvee.

  “Oh my God.” I closed my eyes.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  “How … how?” I asked. “You were worried about our stuff being stolen. Did you even think it would be the Humvee? Why did we leave it running?”

  “So it wouldn’t freeze and would start again. But I locked it. I locked my door and the hatch. I don’t know.” Tony flung out his hand. “Gwen is gonna be so pissed.”

  “You think?” I exhaled and immediately I was hit with a panic feeling in my chest. I peered around the dark, empty north side. Snow was falling hard, piling up fast and furiously. “So we’re stuck.”

  “For now.”

  “What do we do?”

  Tony peered up to the sky as the snow smacked him hard in the face. “Right now.” He swiped it away. “We find shelter. We’ll figure this out.”

  We both looked at the casino.

  After walking the few remaining feet back to the entrance, Tony opened the door.

  I looked back hoping to see the Humvee return, but it was gone. We were stuck. Even though we were only forty miles from the bunker, it might as well have been a thousand. We left the bunker fully prepared to help survivors. Little did I realize, we would end up the ones needing help. The entire situation was an instant motivation to rethink my plan to be the Good Samaritan.

  We had a lot of time to think.

  It didn’t turn out as expected. A massive snow storm, no transportation. Tony and I were stranded. We were now trapped in the world that we had diligently planned to avoid.

  We had three goals... be safe, be smart, and eventually make it home.

  <><><><>

  THE END

  Thank you so much for taking time to read this book. I invite you to visit my w
ebsite, and as always feel free to contact me at any time.

  www.jacquelinedruga.com