by Blade, CG
“Holy crap.” he yelled smiling and fumbling around trying to get the cable plugged into the Vidscreen as fast as he could. His fat fingers were like odd fleshy stumps as he tried to work quickly. There was a ‘click’ as he held the Vidscreen up and said confidently “Power on”. The two-foot wide crystal Vidscreen illuminated a beautiful hazed over luminous powder blue as it booted up.
“You’re good for all kinds of stuff,” Nadine said smiling proudly at Petra.
“Thanks Nadine. Let’s see if that time capsule is worth checking out or not.” Petra told them as her cobalt processor core began supplying power to the only remaining working piece of electronic equipment the soldiers had.
Chapter 13
DISCOVERABLE
Thursday October 18th 4:00 PM
Petra stepped out of the mobile command center leading Rawbone by the thirty-foot cable attached to the Vidscreen he was clutching. Lieutenant Colonel Nadine Fabre and ten of her best soldiers armed to the hilt dressed in piercer gear followed closely behind her.
“Before we head out I would like to see how the doctors are doing.” Petra told them walking from the command headquarters to the MASH unit. Decked out in her cobalt camos, abruptly turning right, she surveyed the area pulling Rawbone as a child drags a toy on the ground by a string. Forced to exercise at her pace, he was sweating profusely yanked by the thirty-foot cable connected to Petra’s neck. Much to their dismay, the Vidscreen batteries were shot and the only way Rawbone could power the device was to stay ‘tethered’ to her.
The drones who had taken off to Fort Gordon camouflaged as an F-35B had returned fifty-five minutes later carrying doctors, nurses, medical equipment, food, and much needed supplies in the form of an S-64 Sikorsky ‘Tarhe’ Skycrane helicopter. The detachable medical unit of the cobalt masked helicopter was filled with staff that had been forced onboard by a couple of insistent drones that refused to take “no” for an answer. The flight to the war zone at Elberton was, to say the least, interesting for the doctors and their staff as they bitched, moaned, and complained about being “taken hostage” by the two drones that eventually made up the tail section of the helicopter.
“How are the troops?” Petra asked one of the doctors who had his glove covered hands in the air inspecting his work. They were coated in blood and body fluids. The soldier lying on the makeshift gurney was sliced open at the throat. Clamped to the skin tissue, surgical implements were holding the area open.
“Well as far as I can tell right now we’ve got half the major casualties taken care of. The rest will have to wait their turn.” Doctor Teknipp grunted as he asked one of his nurses to wipe his brow. “I took an oath but this is ridiculous. We don’t appreciate being manhandled by those—those—things and taken hostage! I am NOT a trauma doctor.” He was furious, venting as his nurses slowly backed away from him. His five-foot four-inch height made him seem more like a pissed off troll instead of a highly respected doctor.
“You are a doctor correct?” Petra asked him calmly.
“Yes, why of course I am! I am an orthopedic surgeon.”
“You went to medical school right?”
“Of course I did you fool!”
“Then please do your duty or I will have the engine and the front rotor of the helicopter you are standing in drop you off at the Pelagic Sargassum Habitat.” Petra told him, glaring at him. Nadine and the other soldiers snickered a little with contempt for a doctor whose sworn obligation it was to help the human race. He was furious now clenching his fists tighter. The drones that made up those particular parts of the helicopter chirped digitally in agreement with Petra.
“Where the hell is that?” he asked nose and brow wrinkled in anger, his face turning brighter shades of red as he pulled his surgical mask off.
“It’s in the middle of the Atlantic ocean Thomas.”
“Whatever.” he smugly stated as he put his mask back on. Yelling at nurses to assist him, he continued to work on the soldier lying on the gurney. He mumbled inaudible gibberish though his mask.
“Thanks doc,” she told him smiling, “keep up the great work.” Petra patted him on his shoulder and winked at the nurses in confidentiality. Their eyes smiled back at Petra as she turned around and started walking away from the mobile trauma unit. The soldiers stationed around the helicopter protecting the medical personnel nodded appreciatively to Petra.
***
“Please—please can we stop for just a minute?” Rawbone begged Petra panting. His sweaty fingers were smudging the Vidscreen he held in front of him. They had walked 500-feet.
“He has walked 201 steps Petra. He might need a nap—or a defibrillator.”
“Now that’s funny Ter.”
“Thank you Petra.”
The massive shiny pileup of commercial, farming, and military equipment loomed over the horizon like a steel plated mountain range. Passing by and stepping over decaying bodies and shrapnel left over from the collisions the small group of soldiers kept a watchful eye out in all directions with guns at their hips, safeties off. Eerily silent for 5:00 p.m., there were only the sounds of birds and other small creatures that were already starting to make their homes out of the rubble. Vultures and other assorted scavengers had torn pieces of rotting flesh from the remains of the victims of this horrific catastrophe. The group came to a halt for a moment.
“This goes on for miles—to the surrounding states,” Nadine said pointing to the mounds of trashed and twisted metal, trying to keep her composure. She unhooked a canister from her waist and taking a small sip of water. “We are currently standing on what was once Route 77. If we head northeast another three miles or so we’re there, right Rawbone?”
“Uh yea—I need to check the coordinates and then we're off.” Taking her question as a chance to sit and rest, he plunked to the ground ‘Indian style’. Rawbone set the Vidscreen across his lap. He was punching numbers into the display while talking to it. “Since we obviously can’t go through that,” He was pointing north straight ahead to the 200-foot high pile of wreckage in front of them, “we’re going to have to go east to Sanders road up to Ridge road. Hopefully that’s not blocked either.”
“Let’s get moving then we’ve only got about two hours of daylight left.” Petra yanked on the network cable hard. Rawbone tried to compensate and fell over keeping the Vidscreen upright as he tumbled. A couple of the soldiers laughed shaking their heads, bending down to assist him in his horizontal situation.
“Aw come on guys that ain’t funny.” He said finally making his way vertical and brushing himself off.
The trek around the mountainous shining ridges was uneventful as they approached the surrounding Guidestone point less than an hour later. Nadine stopped for a moment. “Gristle, Tonka, take point!” She quickly pointed forward with two fingers.
“Yes ma’am!” They both shouted out simultaneously as they trotted up front passing Petra. Their automatic weapons were at their cheeks, their right eyes plastered to the scopes.
Petra looked back at Nadine with a grin. “I get the Tonka,” he was about six-foot-four and 300 pounds of man, stocky and athletic, “I just don’t get the Gristle.” She was small in stature five-foot-five, tattooed from head to toe, and very energetic.
“Well”, Nadine said smiling while they marched onward, “she’s a southern girl biscuits and gravy type. When she was little her mom used to give her meat and she wouldn’t actually eat the meat. She would suck and chew on the gristle, for hours. She still does it so they call her that. It sorta stuck.”
Petra knew that a leader who knew their soldiers so well was a good sign. They were in tune with each other. “What do they call you? You gotta nickname?”
“Tight Ass,” Gristle yelled from the front, “Ma’am!”
“Really?” Petra asked snickering a little.
“Yes, not from a financial standpoint, more of an “I obsess about working out, and you can kinda guess the rest.”
“Very tight ass ma’am!�
� Gristle yelled from the front of the pack.
Nadine rolled her eyes as she shook her head slightly embarrassed at the nickname.
“I’ve got movement—,” Tonka said lowering his gruff voice to a whisper. He pointed towards the epicenter of the crash site with two forefingers. “—thirty yards up.”
“I confirm.” Gristle told them looking through her riflescope pointing in the direction of what used to be a monument.
“Let me go up there. You guys stay here.” Petra told them. They stood down as Petra morphed into her Cobalt armor, “Guns Ter”. She unhooked the Vidscreen cable from the back of her head.
“Yes Petra.”
“Finally.” Rawbone said sighing as he looked to the heavens. Sweat stained, his shirt was soaked as well as his pants.
A Peacemaker in both her hands, Petra began walking towards the area that showed the most intense heat. Her HUD and thermal imaging was giving her information on the movement up ahead. It seemed there were a couple of ‘warm’ bodies inside the center of the wreckage, above it, and all around it. The monstrous 500-foot pyramid of jumbled collisions would be hard to get to without it going Jenga on her. She signaled for the group to follow her as she walked up to the site putting her guns back on her hips. No one was going to fire back at them, not now. Petra scanned the behemoth in front of her looking at it as if it were an ancient wonder put there by the Gods themselves. Smoke still flowed out of cracks and crevices. The top of it seem to touch the puffy clouds going by.
“Holy shit.” Nadine commented as she stood next to Petra staring straight up the apex of this catastrophe.
“Exactly.” Petra replied. “Look there.” she pointed to a smashed Cruiser on its back about thirty-feet up, crushed slightly in the middle of the pile. There was a bloody arm hanging out of it. It was moving. It was—waving, barely. “There’s your movement.” It was everywhere. Small glimmers of mankind trapped in monumental heaps of technology.
Petra looked straight into Nadine’s eyes turning her head towards the center of the abyss. Darkness loomed inside the structure. “Hello!” Petra yelled towards the center where more heat signatures were coming from. Her word bounced around the structures for a second. She cupped her hands together in front of her mouth, “Hello!” the soldiers tilted their heads like the RCA Victor dog listening for a sound, anything. “Hello?” Petra yelled again.
“He—ll—o.”
“Did you hear it?” Petra asked them.
“No—don’t think so” Nadine said. Everyone shook their heads, “no”.
“Can you tap or bang something?” Petra yelled into the darkness.
Silence answered back.
“Bang on something!” Petra yelled trying to get a response out of someone.
“Clank—clank—ding!” the sound of something metallic dropped from a short height, bouncing off something else followed. Echoes. Silence followed the sounds.
“Oh my God—my God” Nadine whispered aloud turning to her stunned soldiers as the sun started to set over the Hartwell highway somewhere under ‘Mt. Guidestone’ in Elbert County Georgia.
“Ironic, simply ironic.” Petra said shaking her head in disbelief.
“What’s that?” Nadine asked her.
“Something a friend was trying to tell me.”
Chapter 14
IMPERCEIVABLE
Thursday October 18th 11:00 PM
“Ter I need to talk to Jackie.”
“Yes Petra. It is currently 11:00 p.m. in New York.”
“Yes I know Ter. I think I’m experiencing Déjà vu.”
“You cannot experience Déjà vu Petra. It has been removed.”
The Orange cellphone Ray had given her became a formed device slowly squeezing out of her right palm. It had been stored and tucked safely away for future use inside her cell structure. Petra slid the bottom portion of it open with her finger and pressed the green ‘on’ button. It chimed out a playful tune as it booted up. A screen showing a striped spinning globe logo with some lettering appeared. “Please wait.” it spoke as it continued to play the melody. “People actually used these?” Petra asked becoming frustrated at the length of time it took to speak with someone using this form of communication.
“Ter what is Jackie’s calling number?”
“I believe it is 867-555-5309 Petra.”
That sequence of numbers sure sounds familiar Petra thought to herself.
Petra pushed the appropriate buttons and waited. The sound of a number dialing came out of the slit in the end of the phone. She stood there in her dark blue camos tapping her foot on the ground staring at the lights pointed up at what used to be a monument. The small LCD screen lit up her face in the darkness as she waited for a response. The scene was noisy as several hundred people slowly dismantled the debris pile dubbed Mt. Elbert. It was like reading ‘War and Peace’, tedious and time consuming. There were several solar trucks with spotlights attached to the top of them lighting up the area. The doctors, staff, and personnel who previously were attending to soldiers were now on the scene attending to the wounded and the dying. The locals and displaced people, who previously climbed out of Para Pods, the ones who had been hiding, taking cover around the county, were now helping in any way they could. Curious of the bright lights reflecting off the metallic objects, they appeared out of nowhere to lend a hand. “Welcome to the human race.” Petra muttered to herself watching these inhabitants climb all over the mound like ants scurrying around their hill. Demolition machinery sounds, banging, and grinding were cutting though the clear crisp night from the rescue efforts.
“Petra?”
“Jackie?”
“Yes Petra its me. I can hardly hear you. Are you in a tunnel? Ow, I just stubbed my toe, damn that hurts. Let me turn on a light. “Lights”
“No I’m not in a tunnel. There is a lot of demolition going on here.” Petra was still holding the phone in her palm, in front of her face. “How are you doing? Are you okay?”
“Yes I’m fine Petra. We’re all okay here I’m just a bit shaken over the news and the events of course but other than that we’re okay. This is all so shocking. It’s a horrible chain of events. The American people seem to be going crazy now. What is going on in Georgia?”
“Well that’s why I’m calling. We need help here, probably on a large military scale. There are thousands of people here in need of assistance. Some people are still trapped inside the epicenter of the pile-up. It is bad Jackie. It has to be the worst catastrophe this nation has ever seen. The troops and doctors here on the scene need a break. They haven’t slept in days. I can only provide them with provisions for so long.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Can you get in touch with President Harrison and see what his plan of action is? I am not quite sure how you will be able to do that. Maybe Ray can help.”
“I can sure try Petra. Let me see what I can do. By the way, we are not receiving Stephanie’s vital monitor information through Eagle 1 as of tonight and we are not sure if it’s a glitch or not.”
“That sounds suspicious. If I can get things moving here, I will head to Hawaii. I can be there in…”
“Three-hours and twenty-seven minutes,” Ter told her calculating the trip using the F-35B’s flight history and maximum speed as a reference.
“The trip is about three and half hours Jackie. Let me find out how the troops are doing here and I will head out.”
“Do you have any idea what happened yet? What caused this?” Jackie asked yawning. She sounded exhausted from lack of sleep.
“No. We have no theories or leads other than a supposed time capsule buried under the Guidestones at the moment.”
“I kind of remember reading about that a long time ago. What’s in it?”
“We don’t know but they’re trying to get to it now.”
“Okay good luck down there and take care of yourself Petra. Your vital monitor showed a little spike a while ago. Are you okay?”
�
�Have you ever tried to make a phone call on one of these things?” Petra stared at the cellphone annoyed at its primitive technology.
“Yes Petra I have.” Jackie chuckled aloud. There was a smile in her voice. “I’ll try to get ahold of the White House. Hang in there.”
“Thanks Jackie you too,” Petra heard a click and then silence, “well Ter, let’s see how Nadine is holding up.”
“Yes Petra. Would you like me to tell you what the meaning of the numbers 867-5309 is?”
“No Ter. I would like to know more about the time capsule buried under the center of this mess.”
***
“I think you are going to find this very interesting Petra.” Nadine had a pair of thin black night vision glasses hanging over the tip of her nose. Her sidearm was in front of her pointed at the ground in her left hand. Blue camouflage tactical gear covered her entire body with the exception of her head. Her hair tightly tucked up under a Kevlar helmet that resembled see-through chainmail with transparent webbing. A freshly glued scar was visible through the helmet, running along her hairline down to her ear.
“What is it?” Petra asked inquisitively while they pushed through several hundred people milling around the tables set up under tents for the distribution of supplies. A dozen solar trucks that lit up the area were anchored to the ground, their large spotlights pointed in various directions around the camp. Cables ran along the ground to stations set up to purify the water, heat food, and power temporary operating rooms. Over a thousand people had made this home now and more were on their way, coming from all directions. It was an American refugee camp. Rawbone was sitting on a crate used for transporting supplies staring at his Vidscreen plugged into a solar truck. Petra nodded to him as she walked by. He tossed her a Twinkie and she caught it over her right shoulder without turning her head or stopping to calculate the grab. She unwrapped it following Nadine as they entered the hole that had been cut out of the center of the pile of Mt. Elbert. The opening looked more like a cave entrance than a manmade disaster run amok.