CHAPTER 12
It’s been a few weeks now since John joined the group and they decide to take their first action against GAIA.
They actually don’t decide. The action imposes itself upon them.
They have been planning on going back to the village. The group needs a larger antenna to be able to cover a greater distance with their CB radio. John mentioned that they had a small fire station in the village as the first line of defense against a potential fire hazard in the forest. The station was connected to an antenna at the top of a nearby mountain. If they could somehow connect themselves to the antenna or try to move it to a mountain closer to their house, the resistance group could potentially be able to contact people far beyond the mountain range.
As they arrive at the village they realize they are not alone. Several robots are present and go from house to house. No one really understands what the robots are doing there. The group, hidden, observes from a distance.
After a few minutes, the robots seem to be about to leave the village. The group will be able to go soon and find out the reason of the robots’ presence. As the robots walk away from the main street, Pam, Jack, and John slowly stand up. They don’t stand for long. They are projected back on the ground, blown away by what seems to be a massive set of explosions.
After a few minutes spent on the ground, silently recovering from the blasts, the group decides to look carefully toward the village. But their eyes do not find anything to look at. Every single building or house has been blown up. The only thing left to look at is a pile of rumbles.
Without noticing at first what is happening next to them, Pam and Jack suddenly see John running and shouting in the direction of whatever is left of the village.
He is not himself anymore. Angry and frustrated, he screams at GAIA in general.
“Was it not enough to exterminate the population, you also need to destroy every evidence of the existence of a life here?” he shouts.
He now runs faster to the village. He is going after the robots. If he had to die, it would be right here and right now. But he certainly wouldn’t go alone. He would take with him as many of those who destroyed his life as possible.
Pam and Jack jump right after him, in a desperate attempt to stop him. But they are too late to catch him. Caught in the movement, they realize that they are following him straight to the robots that have now noticed their presence.
Armed with his shotgun, John shoots a few robots. They fall on the ground without pronouncing a sound of pain. Without showing any sign of suffering.
Pam and Jack have no other choice but to enter the battlefield as well. The fight does not last very long. There are not too many robots, and none of them seems to be armed or to be a robot-soldier. These robots are just programmed to clean the area and to return to their base.
After ensuring no one is injured, Pam orders to leave. There is nothing left of interest here. They run back straight to the forest and reach it a minute before an aircraft reaches what is left of the village.
The group stops and looks above. John says it was a similar ship that came to pick up the robots after the ‘genocide’.
They conclude that this one is probably here for the same reason; to recover the robots after their mission.
But the aircraft does not do anything. It hovers over the village. Waiting and probably observing.
After a few minutes during which nothing happens, the ship regains altitude and flies away.
Has the group been spotted? Has the ship realized the robots have been shot? Is there going to be some form of retaliation from GAIA? Many questions that leave the group in doubt as to what to expect next and, above all, what to do next.
They decide to leave. This area will be ‘hot’ soon. As a desperate attempt to try and conceal their real destination, the group takes the opposite direction to their house. They are constantly looking at the sky or behind them to ensure they are not followed. They take different paths, come back to where they come from. They are clearly worried about leading the robots to their hideout and, most importantly, to the kids.
After several hours of playing cat and mouse with an invisible threat, they conclude that if a reaction was to be expected from GAIA, it would have happened already. They decide it is safe and go back to the house.
At the house, everyone realizes that this is a defining moment. No more games. No more pretending they are resisting. This is for real now. They have engaged in a fight and they have won. There is no coming back. What started as an uncertain act of resistance is now moving to the next level. They don’t have any other choice but to start fighting for good. What they did to the robots will probably not stay unpunished. The likelihood of GAIA sending troops to investigate the incident is very high. And when troops are deployed, it will mean that the group’s own safety will be at stake.
“We need to get out of here,” Pam says, “I don’t think this place will be safe much longer.”
“Where can we go?” Henry asks.
“There might be a place but it’s quite far and I don’t really know what we will be able to find there,” John answers.
“What is that place?” Pam asks.
“A military base. Four hundred miles east. It’s supposed to be hidden. Embedded in a mountain. Few people know about it as it has always been a secret project. Part of the conspiracy theory if you will. Its existence has always been denied by the authorities. Officially, the place does not exist,” John explains.
“So how do you know about it, then?” Henry asks.
John begins to tell what he knows about the base. One of his old customers, a certain Albert, the kind of person that is suspicious of everything, started confiding after John showed him his weapons’ stash.
John believes that this is probably how he earned Albert’s trust.
The old man used to be an electrical engineer. According to what he said, he worked for a company that only handled government contracts. A few years after he started his career, he and a team of other specialized and highly-qualified coworkers were sent to the base. They had to fix a problem in an A/C system or something like that.
Albert didn’t know where they were but whatever he managed to see during the hours they spent there, and especially what happened after, left a big mark on him.
He originally thought of Cheyenne Mountain and asked his coworkers what they thought about it.
And as they all seemed interested in understanding what the place was, they began to investigate and to ask questions around, especially to their hierarchy. Their managers told them to stop right away or there would be consequences. All they knew about the location was that it was ‘classified’.
The technicians decided to ignore their bosses’ order or advice and to continue their investigation.
One day, one of the coworkers was found dead in the street in front of his house. Apparently hit by a car. The victim of a banal and stupid accident. Sad, but not alarming, except for the fact that it was a hit and run.
However, events took a whole new dimension during the funeral. A stranger started exchanging a few words with Albert.
He told him that no one should end up like that. That it was a shame to leave a family behind. And as he was leaving, he asked Albert to think about what his wife and kids would do without him. Creepy but again not alarming. The problem was that Albert did not know the man but he seemed to know him very well, along with the names of his wife and children.
The message suddenly became clear to Albert. He was being threatened by the stranger and the man in the coffin had been killed.
Albert resigned shortly after the funeral and moved out with his family. He discreetly continued his research about the location for many years until he finally believed he had found it.
After his kids became adults and left home and after his wife passed away, Albert moved to the village where he and John met.
It was a secluded place, a place where he could finally feel in relative safet
y. A place where he wouldn’t need to look behind his back anymore.
After long discussions with John, and knowing his health would not carry him much longer, Albert eventually told John the location of the base.
“That’s a bit far-fetched, John. Don’t you think?” Jack asks.
“Well, that’s what Albert told me,” John answers, “I did my research as well after Albert passed away. I even tried to go to the place. Look, I don’t know if he was right, but I know that as soon as I came close to the location, an armed vehicle with a couple of soldiers and their dogs asked for my ID and told me to go back to where I came from as I was in an unauthorized military practice zone. Strange, huh?”
“I can smell bullshit from a mile away, and I’m not sure I’m buying your story, John. Now, this place is compromised and an army base seems to be our best option, even if we don’t know if it really exists,” Pam says. “If it does, though, then that’s an opportunity we cannot afford to ignore. We should find shelter, weapons and communications, and if we are lucky, actual soldiers. What do you think?” Pam asks the team.
“This location is now at risk,” Henry says.
“This house cannot accommodate much more people if we happened to find some,” Jack adds.
“John?” Pam asks.
“I’d feel safer in a military bunker if we could find it,” John answers.
“Kids?” Pam asks.
“Do we have a choice? We’ll go wherever you go,” the boy answers on behalf of them both.
“Ok. So we are in agreement. We need to pack and leave ASAP,” Pam orders, “John, you’ll take the truck. Henry, your 4x4. Jack, the kids and I will take our van. Let’s load up the quads and then the cars. We need food, shelter, power cells, weapons …”
“Books and my documents,” Henry adds before Pam has a chance to finish her sentence.
“Books and documents …” Pam sighs, “we’ll meet here in 20 minutes with everything we take. It should take us one hour max after that to get back to the cars and transfer everything. We will leave at night. It should provide us with some cover. If we drive all night, we should be around the base at dawn.”
“So we’re going to John’s base?” Henry asks.
“I think this is our best alternative right now,” Pam says, “if it is so secret, it’s possible it has remained a secret for GAIA as well and we should be safe there … provided it really exists. Now let’s go! Pack up, everyone! We have 20 minutes!”
PART III
CHAPTER 13
The 20 minute deadline set by Pam is not even up, that everyone is already downstairs and ready. There are several boxes on the floor. They need to be loaded on the quads and then into the cars.
No one speaks. An eerie silence has filled the living room. They all think about the same thing. They moved here less than a month ago and they already have to leave. They have planned so much during this period, thinking they would be here for a long time. But every plan they built, every project they started is now obsolete. All of this work for nothing.
They all notice in each other’s eyes the same feeling of frustration. Pam says a few words before they go.
“I think this is a wake-up call,” she says.
No one reacts. Everyone wants to know what she is going to say next. In fact, everyone could use a pep talk right now.
“We are now officially resisting GAIA. I don’t believe we will be safe anywhere. We need to accept the fact that we will always be on the run or on the move. We need to realize that everything will be temporary now. It’s very unlikely that we will be able to settle in anywhere anymore,” she says in a calm voice.
She continues with a firmer tone.
“But you know what? I don’t want that. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life running away. I want to be free again. Free to go wherever I feel like going. I want the kids to be safe and to have a future. And the only way I see us achieving this is to fight back. There is no way I’m going to let a machine tell me how I should run my life. I know we are all sad to leave this place. But I also know we are going to a safer place and a place where we will find more people like us.”
Silence.
Everyone understands the gravity of the situation. The appearance of a daily routine and relative comfort they’ve attempted to build for the past few weeks are now making room for a future filled with uncertainties.
Jack takes Pam on the side and whispers a ‘thank you’ in her ear. She looks in his eyes and replies that she has no idea what tomorrow is going to look like and that she only made this little speech to reassure the kids.
For the first time, Jack stands in front of a confused Pam. A woman who doesn’t know if their next step may not take them in harm’s way. He feels sad for her and promises to himself that, at least for the next few days, he will take a more important role in the group so Pam can rest.
“Alright everyone, let’s go!” says Jack while gently stroking Pam’s back. She is receptive to Jack’s gesture and understands she can let go and rely on her husband to make decisions for a little while.
It takes the group three trips to bring everything to the cars. It makes them realize that while the house is deeply hidden in the woods and provides a sense of safety, it is also totally inefficient in the event of a quick escape.
It’s very late when they are finally ready to leave. Jack takes the wheel of the minivan while Pam takes a seat on the passenger’s side. She falls asleep almost immediately.
The group agrees that John will go first with the truck as he knows the route.
He will be followed by Jack and his family.
And finally Henry will bring up the rear with his 4x4.
They will drive slowly as they cannot turn their lights on. If they did, they would easily be spotted by drones or aircraft that are probably patrolling the area. They know it is not the best strategy as it is dangerous and drones are likely to have night-vision cameras. But it’s the best they can do now. Thankfully, the night is not totally dark as the moon is full and brings enough light to give the group visibility to their surroundings.
The road trip’s first couple of hours are uneventful. The group is driving down the mountain and is kept invisible from above thanks to the thick layer of trees covering the road.
John and Jack are both quite familiar with the road and the very limited moonlight piercing through the trees does not pose a major problem for them. They remain extremely careful, though.
Before they reach the valley and are no longer covered by the trees, John decides to mark a stop and to discuss the itinerary with the rest of the group.
From now on, they will be driving in the open. Their cars can easily be spotted and they need to limit the risks as much as possible.
John proposes he goes first. Jack will follow after fifteen minutes, and then Henry another fifteen minutes later.
This way, in case John is spotted, the rest of the group still has a chance to avoid the enemy and to find cover.
They spend a few minutes looking at the maps so everyone has a clear understanding of the itinerary. They cannot afford to get lost and force the rest of the group to go back and look for whoever is no longer on the right path. And by whoever, Jack and John clearly mean Henry.
For that reason, Henry will actually leave in the second position. If he believes he is lost, then he should just stop. Jack should normally arrive shortly near his position and bring him back on the right path. The only question mark is Jack and his family. If something happens to them, there will not be anyone to help them, unless either John or Henry go back for them, which, again, raises the risk question. A vicious circle.
Now that Jack is more or less in charge, at least for his family, he understands how simple decisions are difficult to make and how it must have drained Pam’s energy lately.
Everything they do now requires heavy planning. They need to try and foresee every possible outcome and have a contingency plan in place. More often than not, the more t
hey think about what can happen, the more they put themselves in a corner from where it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to decide anything.
Thinking about all the planning they’ve done so far and where it has taken them, Jack tells the others not to worry about him. If something happens, he will just react and do his best to bring his family to safety. No need to try and cover all their bases as this is simply impossible. And again, if something happens, Jack is sure it will be something they didn’t think of in the first place. The only thing the group agrees on is John’s original idea to leave with fifteen minutes between each vehicle and then to meet wherever they find cover.
As decided, John is the first to go and is followed later by Henry. Pam is still sleeping and has finally been joined by the kids when Jack starts the minivan’s engine. He takes one look at his wife and kids, making sure they are comfortable, and he slowly starts driving.
The road is straight and travels across a vast plain now. There is nowhere to hide and the group drives completely in the open. It is dangerous, but at the same time the visibility is good and the road does not require to be extremely concentrated. That gives the drivers plenty of opportunities to look at the sky and ensure there isn’t any threat on the horizon.
There is nothing.
The group is alone. GAIA doesn’t seem to have troops patrolling in these vast empty areas. That makes sense. GAIA and the robots are probably fully focused on inhabited areas. Those are the places that require work as the robots are relocating the populations. This is why the robots came to the village in the first place and why they came back.
As long as the group stays away from cities they should not have too much to worry about.
After three hours of driving, the landscape slowly begins to change. It is no longer flat as Jack can clearly feel that he needs to press the gas pedal a little more to maintain his speed. It means that they are ascending. Jack can soon see the first hills that put an end to the long straight and flat road. He is slowing down now as he reaches a portion of road requiring more attention and also because he is no longer in the open. Large rocks appear on the side of the road and provide some cover.
ACTIVATION Page 11