“You did the best you could, Ted. I know it bothers you when you don’t get things perfect, but you should know by now, nothing gets done perfectly. We’re fumbling through this at the same time. There’s no manual. No one grading us. Not even your report can tell the real story.” She air-quoted the word report, which made them both crack up with stress-fueled laughter.
“Well, we know more than we did this morning, that’s for sure. I would love to text all that to Kyla so she could bump it up the chain of command. If there are allied forces defying orders and coming back to the mainland, they need to know how the enemy has spread out its forces. How they’re taking over airports. How they’re using the ports.”
“And how they’re killing anyone left alive. An activity I’m happy to say they’ve failed at several times today because of you.” She took his hand as they walked. “And thank you for being there inside my apartment. I didn’t know how much I needed to see him, and say good-bye, until I was up there.”
That made him cast his eyes to the pavement. “I only wanted to keep you on familiar territory. I’m sorry for your loss, like I said.”
“Cheer up,” she replied. “I’m the one who’s supposed to be sad, not you.”
He laughed a bit, realizing she was right. Things were bad, but they were alive and on the move. It could be worse. The people in the nearby cars never had a chance to fight back. He did. Unlike millions of his countrymen, he’d seen a member of his family today.
“Didn’t you say you have a house somewhere on Long Island?”
She looked forward. “Yes. My husband’s family has a house in Montauk. We went there in summer to play golf and take tours of the Long Island Sound in their boat. It’s a snobby area, but I think I can get you in as my plus-one.” She squeezed his hand, then let go.
“Remind me never to vote for you,” he joked.
“Ah, I’m hurt. Right now, you are the only voter in the city, too. I could have really used it.” She smiled at him, then strode forward like she’d gotten some more energy.
“Well, I can be persuaded, I guess. I’d need to know more about your plans for the future. Are you going to raise my taxes?”
They came off the bridge to the sounds of drones, jets, and explosions.
They were all behind them.
Chicago, IL
Tabby cried her eyes out for several minutes. All three kids gathered around to support her as she kneeled next to the couple on the bench. They all cried too, but she figured out they’d been grieving the whole time they’d been together. She’d whipped them through their parents’ houses to prove their parents were dead, even as she ignored the fate of her own.
“I’ve been a real jerk,” she admitted when she finally calmed down enough to speak. “I should have been more sensitive when we were at your houses yesterday. I guess I overlooked all of it because it meant I had to take care of you. My biggest fear has been that I’d let one of you get hurt since your parents weren’t around to take you back.”
Peter sniffled and laughed. “We wanted it to be true, Tabby. If your parents were alive somehow, then maybe ours were, too. Maybe what we saw back in our houses weren’t people after all, but just the clothes. Maybe the aliens took them to Canada or Mexico, and they’re all safe and snug.”
“That’s not what happened.” She forced herself to speak the words. “All of our parents died in this disaster, whatever caused it. It wiped out whole cities. Maybe the whole country.”
After giving each of them a friendly smile, she turned around and sat up against the bench, so she had a view out the window. The rain clouds were still hanging around, and there were drops on the glass, but it wasn’t raining anymore. Lake Michigan was far below, at the edge of the foggy visibility. “We have to decide what we’re going to do next. We have no parents. No family. No authorities. We’re totally on our own.”
Donovan drawled his answer. “As long as we don’t meet any of those drone people, or assholes like those sewer workers.”
“Yeah, they were underground when it happened. Maybe there are other people who were underground and also survived the attack. People in other mines like the one we were in. Workers inside coal mines, maybe. Do oil drillers go underground?” Tabby wasn’t sure who would be safe enough from whatever dropped out of the sky, but it was a place to start.
“I would be fine if we never met anyone else,” Peter said, sounding a bit more upbeat. “I’ve got my girlfriend, a good friend, and one cool adult.” He grinned at Tabby.
Audrey huffed. “That’s not fair to Tabby. Do you think she wants to spend the rest of her life with Donovan?” She leaned over to see him. “No offense, Donny. You’re a great guy, but she’s, like, ten years older than you.”
“Uh, more like five,” she brushed back, before realizing it was a conversation she needed to nip in the bud, not engage. “We can’t go hide. There are other survivors out there. Sister Rose was a nice woman. There must be others like her. We have a whole country to explore.”
Peter snapped his fingers. “What if we wanted to run the place? Who could stop us? We could make ourselves the kings and queens of Chicago. Take over the whole city and run it how we wanted. The first thing we should do is empty the banks. We could create a literal pile of gold.”
“Good use of the word literal,” Tabby said with encouragement.
Donovan shook his head. “I’m not living in any city where you’re the king. I’ll rule another one, thank you.”
Tabby got into it. “We could all have our own cities and do anything we wanted until we died of old age.”
“Except meet people,” Audrey complained. “I would hate to live alone for the rest of my life, even if I was in charge of things. We have to find someone else. Some other survivors, like Tabby said.”
Tabby took a deep breath, not sure what to do but resolved at the need to take charge again. “I vote we spend the night up here. There has to be food in this building. We can sleep on these benches. When tomorrow comes, we can decide which direction to go.”
She stood up and went to the glass. How many people should have been down there in the city? Millions, for sure. She watched to see if there was any evidence of moving vehicles on the road, or planes in the sky, or even boats on the giant lake.
Fires raged to the north, though they weren’t much more than orange smudges twinkling through the drizzly haze all around them.
The city was empty.
But she wondered if Chicago would soon see the same horse robots and floating drones they’d narrowly escaped in St. Louis. If that was the case, then they weren’t alone. The city wasn’t empty. And their future had never been as uncertain.
A million worries clouded her vision, but exhaustion overpowered them all.
“All right. It’s late. Let’s sleep on it. I’m sure we’ll have a new perspective in the morning.”
CHAPTER 28
USS John F. Kennedy
“Clear a path!” Meechum shouted.
Kyla felt important, though she had a hard time understanding why. When the helicopter landed on the deck of the carrier, the Marine said the captain needed to see her right away. Then she led Kyla up the ladder-wells until they made it to the bridge. Van Nuys was inside with a pair of binoculars aimed outside.
“Come in,” he said without breaking contact with the field glasses. He watched what looked like another aircraft carrier about a mile away. She’d seen it too, while on the helicopter flight back. “That’s the USS Iwo Jima. They disobeyed orders to be here, and I’m not sure if I want to give them a medal or send their captain to my brig. Their air assets pounded some militant targets in New Jersey and New York. They helped you too, as I understand it.”
Kyla was confused about what it all meant, and she snuck a look at Meechum, but she was faced toward the captain at full attention.
“At ease, Marine,” he said when he turned around. “I’ve heard good things about you two. Like how you got into the city despite being
hounded by enemy Predators. Then you fought off terrorists until our helo could swoop you back up. That was damned fine work going into the city when you didn’t have to, but I have to ask: were you trying to get yourselves killed?”
“No, sir,” the combat Marine replied without hesitation. “You sent us out there to find survivors. I, uh, we wanted to give those people a chance to come out for a rescue. Unfortunately, we didn’t see anyone left alive, so it was all for nothing. Well, except for at the very end. We did find two people…”
The captain strode closer. “I’m listening.”
Meechum gestured to Kyla. “My partner can tell you that part.”
Van Nuys turned his attention to her. She heard Uncle Ted warning her about operational security, but that was for people other than the captain of her ship. He needed to know everything.
“Sir, I’m pretty sure I saw Vice President Williams while we were in New York City. She was with my uncle, Ted MacInnis. They were in Central Park the same time the two of us were waiting for the helicopter, but we didn’t know it until we were already in the air.”
“And you couldn’t go back for them?” he asked, looking at Meechum.
The Marine spoke up. “The arrival of the Harriers made it dangerous to return to the ground. Just as we departed, the support planes ripped the bad guys some new ones, sir.”
Van Nuys tapped the binoculars and seemed to think about what he’d been told. Behind him, far out over the water, jet planes took off and landed like helicopters on the other ship. They were the same deadly aircraft she’d seen at the park.
Finally, he appeared to arrive at a conclusion. “This leaves us in a tight spot, ladies. The captain of the Iwo said there were no survivors in the entire presidential chain of command. General Worthington is the ranking member of the armed forces. He claims to be in charge of the remaining overseas forces of the United States military and he wants us out of here.”
“We can’t leave them behind!” Kyla insisted.
Van Nuys went on without any acknowledgement of her outburst. “Are you positive you saw the vice president? Maybe your dad was with a woman who looked like her?”
Kyla stood firm. “My uncle was the backup pilot on Air Force Two. I might not have recognized her in any other context, but if my uncle was still alive and fighting, I’m sure he wouldn’t abandon someone as important as her.”
The captain set the binoculars aside. “Lance Corporal Meechum, can you confirm what she saw?”
“No, sir. I was communicating with the pilot to ensure we got out of there. However, after spending the better part of the day with Ms. Justice, I believe what she says. She’s a straight shooter, sir.”
“That’s what I like to hear for my crew. I’ll have to think about what we need to do to find them. We struck a blow against whatever force has taken over the city, but it was all from the Iwo Jima. My boat is still floating blind and without defenses. That’s got to be my priority now.”
Kyla replied, “Sir, won’t there be other ships coming to the rescue? We have to keep hitting them. Whoever they are.”
Van Nuys sighed. “The Iwo’s captain gave me some more bad news. General Worthington has ordered every overseas American unit to stay where it is. He doesn’t want to risk losing more people by sending them to the mainland, where they might be subject to a second attack.”
“Sounds smart,” she thought, until remembering it could doom her uncle.
“Unfortunately, it means we’re on our own for a little while longer. The Iwo Jima disobeyed the order and came anyway—that’s why I said I might have to send their captain to the brig.” He paused. “Which I’m not going to do, by the way. But two ships running at less than half strength aren’t able to project much power. I sent the Seahawk out on reconnaissance today, and now I know what I needed to know. America is being taken over.”
Kyla suspected as much.
“You don’t seem surprised,” the captain remarked.
She shook her head. “My uncle called me when this first happened. At the outset, I thought it was aliens or something similarly out of this world, but someone was on your ship, trying to take it over. When I saw more of those bad guys out in New York City, I knew they had to be working together. There are strange people landing at the airport over in Newark. That’s what started our whole diversion into New York City. Sir, I would never tell you how to do your job, but if the vice president is alive, it means she’s now the president. You have to save her.”
“And your uncle,” he said dryly.
“If possible,” she allowed.
He shared a look with Meechum, then fixed his eyes on her.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
San Francisco, CA
Dwight picked at the turkey sandwiches on the table and grabbed one of the bottled waters to be polite, but then he tried to walk over to the same door where he’d come inside the warehouse. Before he could get there, Jacob came out of nowhere.
“Dwight! I hope you found the food satisfactory?”
“We did,” he replied. “I mean, I did.” Poppy wasn’t visible to anyone but him, so he didn’t want to give her away.
“Well, it’s almost time. The cycles are parked on the far side of the warehouse, but we’re all waiting for the announcement. It should be any minute now.”
“Great,” he lied. “I’m going to step outside and water the lawn, if you catch my drift?”
“Eww, gross. No need for that, my friend. We have running water. I’m sure you’re sick of using those buckets for the two-week ride over here, huh? Go, enjoy modern plumbing. It’s all we’re going to have from here on out.”
Poppy screamed in his ear for him to leave, but he couldn’t with Jacob watching him as he was. If he went into the bathroom, perhaps another opportunity would present itself.
Jacob walked with him for a short way, but then the other people in the building became excited. It reminded him of how normal people acted when they found out a San Francisco sports team did something incredible, like win the big game. Everyone, no matter what else they were doing, suddenly broke out in cheers. That usually was good for him, as they donated readily to his cause. When the teams lost, donations went way down.
“It’s starting!” Jacob cried out with excitement. He looked at Dwight. “The bathroom is over there. Meet me by the radio when you get out. Hurry, though, because this is it! He’s going to talk to us, finally!”
Dwight experienced a sense of being lost the second the man walked away. He was pleased as could be to have a new ensemble to wear around the city, and the free food was already appreciated, but these weirdos reminded him of cult members rather than normals. It made him wonder if they knew what was going on outside. Where did everyone go?
“Just my luck. The world of normal people disappears, and I’m left with the nutjobs.”
Poppy reminded him of his own mental health issues.
“I’m not crazy like them,” he reassured his bird.
He didn’t go to the bathroom. Instead, he got as close to the small crowd as he dared, while doing his best to avoid Jacob. The radio played a popular song for half a minute, then everyone got pin-drop silent as it ended.
“Greetings, fellow human beings.” A deep, calm, male voice resonated from the speakers inside the warehouse. “I was once known as Dr. Jayden Phillips—a college professor, Nobel-prize-winning physicist, multi-million selling self-help author, industrialist, and, my personal favorite, Time magazine’s person of the year. You, my friends, know me as your leader and spiritual guide through this existence we call life, but today and ever forward I will be called David. The David of Biblical times—the young boy who slayed Goliath with his sling and stone. Our present-era Goliath was America—the country most responsible for Earth’s current ecological disasters. My sling was modern science. My stone was the atom, and even smaller particles of creation. For you, I have wiped the decadent Americans from our world, so we may restore this land to its rightf
ul place as the Garden of Eden.”
He paused dramatically, and many of the people in the building seemed to lean forward to see what he would say next.
“I have done the heavy lifting. Now, you must carry the torch across this once-great land. Dip it into the fires of righteousness and set alight all that remains of the people who lived in this land. Then, once you have destroyed every first-world mansion, snuffed out every smoke-belching power plant, and felled every heaven-blocking office tower, this land will be yours to rebuild.”
Dwight heard the words, but sensed the man was a bullshit artist. He lived on the streets and knew the type well. Hell, he was a bit of a shyster himself, though he only did it to make money, not drive people to genocide.
Strangely, no one else seemed to share his misgivings. They all hugged and cheered at hearing the words of their leader.
The man went on after another long pause. “To those Americans living in foreign lands, take heed of my words. I say to your hosts: You have one week to kick them out. Throw them to the curb. Be forever free of their imperialist shackles. If you do not, David will throw his next stone at your nation, just as he did to this one.”
Poppy whispered in his ear.
“Yes, it looks that way,” Dwight replied. “These people killed all our friends.” As a vagrant living on the streets, he had few friends, but he did have some. The leader of Jacob’s people had up and killed them.
“My fellow humans. America is now free for the taking. Make sure what rises from the ashes is nothing like what you burn to the ground, or it too shall be consumed by fire.”
Dwight backpedaled toward the door.
The guy on the radio said Americans were gone. That answered his question about why everyone’s clothes were still lying all over the streets. These bastards had killed them.
Minus America Box Set | Books 1-5 Page 42