Minus America Box Set | Books 1-5
Page 70
The white-haired man tisk-tisked and glanced over to the woman. “It looks like your neighbor is going through alcohol withdrawal. Such a nasty thing.”
She seemed disgusted and sympathetic at the same time. He vaguely recalled the same queasy glances from tourists back in San Francisco. Sometimes, rarely, he found genuine concern in the eyes of those people. That was when he knew he was going to get a large payday from them.
“Mister, all I want is my Poppy.”
The man came to his cell door, unafraid of Dwight. He spoke with a haughty better-than-you tone he also recognized from high-brow tourists. “My name is David. You should know, all I want is the six men you killed. You have committed the ultimate crime against the Legion, and you will suffer greatly for it. The sentencing is in a few hours…”
Mentally, he prepared a list of cuss words he was going to wield against the blurry man standing outside his door. After impressing and shocking him with his command of English language cursing, he’d stick his tongue out and blow spit at the guy. It would be glorious…
But the golden moment passed in a heartbeat. His stomach didn’t want to play nice, and it wouldn’t give him more than a few seconds to prepare for what was heading his way. Dwight did what came naturally to someone suffering withdrawals so soon after consuming too much liquor.
He puked.
CHAPTER 3
Westby, MT
It took ten minutes for Ted and Emily to clean out Mr. Patriot’s gun safe. As he suspected, the person who lived in the house took great pride in two things: his truck, which was a pristine late 80s lifted Ford 150, and his guns, which were a mix of well-treated rifles, automatic shotguns, and factory-fresh Beretta handguns. He also had a drawer full of knives.
“I told you this house would have what we needed,” he bragged, though Emily had already stated multiple times how impressed she was with his selection. By the time they stood there loading the guns into the back of the silver SUV, she feigned being tired of his playful crowing.
“You found something?” Meechum said as she walked up with Kyla, apparently ready to move out.
“He found the jackpot,” Emily said sarcastically. “Though he’s kind of shy about explaining how.”
The Marine’s eyes lit up. “These M9s are like the ones we use in the Corps. I trained Kyla on these…”
Ted cracked up, happy to let his guard down for five minutes and have some fun. More importantly, the discovery had done a little to soothe his pain at losing his own firearms. “I think this guy owned a gun store. These are expensive.” He picked up one of the ARs, which was somewhat similar to the Bushmasters he’d built, though they were of much higher quality. “This one is a Bravo Company with a Steiner Optics long-range scope. This glass might cost as much as the rifle!”
“Do we have ammo?” Meechum asked, always practical, liberating a couple of knives.
“Yeah, I was going back to grab it.”
It took all of them to collect the heavy boxes of ammunition. Each shipping carton said there were five hundred rounds inside, and though each box was only about the size of a toaster, they weighed twenty pounds, making them unwieldy to carry more than a couple. Meech grabbed two under her good arm, so he was compelled to match her. Emily and Kyla each took one.
“Do we need more than this?” Kyla asked when they had the first load in the truck.
“You can never have too much ammo,” Meechum replied, already headed back inside.
He shrugged and followed her. “We have the room in the back of the truck. We might as well take it all.” While he was inside, he snagged the man’s cleaning supplies, a couple of large rifle cases, earplugs and safety glasses, as well as a box filled with leather and nylon pistol holsters. The man truly had it all.
“Now we’ve got everything,” he said in a satisfied voice, closing the rear door of the truck. “Let’s get out of here.”
The four of them piled into the stolen SUV. He started it up, scanning his instruments. A GPS had been mounted on the dashboard, but it flashed an error code about no signal. His intention was to spend the day navigating old school. The sun would be their guide.
A buzzing sound came in on the wind, catching the attention of all three of them.
“Is that—” Emily began, holding her breath.
“A drone,” Kyla said with disappointment.
“We’re going west,” he exclaimed, hitting the accelerator. “I’m sure the drone is coming from Minot. They must be widening their search.” He could barely contain his anxiety at being spotted.
The women looked to the sky as if expecting a missile to come down on them, but he kept his eyes forward. Their only chance to avoid detection was to get out of the machine’s field of view before it could acquire them. He didn’t go easy on the gas pedal.
They had tree cover for a few hundred yards getting away from the houses, but the landscape soon opened up to treeless, grassy plains. Grain silos and farmhouses dotted the horizon; those would be the only places to hide. As it was, he sped over a small rise putting a bit of a barrier between them and the town of Westby. It wouldn’t save them from the eyes of the drone, if it was looking to the west of the town, but it would prevent them from being spotted by anyone on the ground back there. He assumed search parties were everywhere.
“How did they find us?” Emily asked, still craning her neck to the rear.
“Maybe they’re following a pattern,” Kyla suggested. “If they’re automated, like everything else, it would make sense for them to be on pre-planned routes.”
That settled his mind enough for him to suck in a calming breath. His heartbeat was dangerously fast, and he’d begun to think who would use which of the new rifles for a last stand if they’d been spotted.
Minutes later, with the truck’s speedometer up around one-ten, he figured they might be in the clear. “Nothing’s up there?”
The women scanned everywhere, searching for eyes in the sky. “I don’t see any, Unk. I think we made it.” Kyla sat in the back seat directly behind him. He saw her smile in his rearview mirror.
Emily exhaled with relief.
Only Meechum seemed unconvinced they’d gotten away. She had her window open and hung out like a puppy dog, always watching behind them.
Ted gripped the wheel, wishing he had the black Camaro he and Emily abused while getting into New York City. Without a speed limit, or police anywhere along the route, he was certain he could cross the state of Montana in record time.
A low roar reverberated in his lungs. He and Emily shared a confused look.
“Damn!” Meechum exclaimed. “Look back there.”
Emily bumped her head on the window trying to see behind them. “My God. They blew up the whole town…”
Ted slowed a tiny bit, so it was safe for him to look over his shoulder. Ten miles back, on the smooth plains of Montana, a black plume of smoke rose as if a nuke had wiped out the city of Westby. Given the small size of the town, a nuke wasn’t even necessary. It was more likely a heavy gravity bomb dropped from some enemy bomber in the stratosphere.
The three women alternately cussed or spoke in awe of the rising cloud, but he could only speed up and keep them on the road. He wanted to believe Kyla’s theory about automated search patterns and luck, but he thought things through with an eye toward the new style of warfare surrounding them. If the enemy was smart, and he always assumed they were, maybe they tapped into the computer systems of the water company this morning. Since the entire nation was gone, any unusual water consumption would stand out on their computer screens. Their showers might have tipped off the enemy as to where they’d spent the night.
He’d need to be a lot more cautious going forward. They would jump in a lake to get clean, if necessary.
“Belt in everyone. We’re not dropping below a hundred until this thing is out of gas…”
NORAD Black Site Sierra 7, CO
“Tabitha, I’m sorry I couldn’t get you before lunchtime. As you
can imagine, I’m very busy with the invasion of the old America.”
“I bet,” she snarked.
David took her from the cell but stopped at the door of the crazy man. “Hey, I have a special delivery coming for you. A present that’s going to blow your warped little mind.”
“Bah!” the man yelled from deep inside his office cell.
David seemed unconcerned. He waved her forward, out of the prison area.
Tabby was glad to be out of the cramped quarters and away from the rude guy in the other cell. However, other than location, her situation didn’t improve. David made her uneasy in a way she found hard to put to words. When she’d first met him, she’d found him not the worst-looking guy in the world. He brandished a charming smile and friendly demeanor that made you want to talk to him. He was a little older than her dad, maybe in his late forties, but he had the long white hair of an elderly man, which gave him an unusual, almost elfish quality. In any other situation those unique features might have made him an interesting character. However, once she learned who he was, and what he’d done to her parents, she only saw a monster. A monster with malevolent, dead eyes.
Yet, he talked like a pleasant librarian as they strolled the halls. “I understand your confusion. You dislike I found you attractive enough to save, but you hate yourself for being flattered by it. You’re glad to be alive, while at the same time crushed your family didn’t make it. You feel rebellious and vindictive, yet you hate knowing you lost a war you didn’t even know was coming to your shores.”
She wouldn’t ever give him the satisfaction of knowing her pain. “I’m not confused at all. You killed everyone I loved. What more do I need to know?”
He waved her through another door, guiding her forward as if it were a chivalrous act. “That’s why I set aside some time for you. I know I can’t make you want to be here, but I think I can make the case you should accept this as your destiny. Maybe you’d even see it as an opportunity.”
“You want me as your wife, don’t you?” She’d been fearing this moment since she first saw the other women in the gym-like chamber. If she and the others were to be the mothers of a new generation of Americans, and he’d gone out of his way to capture her after seeing her on the unauthorized broadcast in St. Louis, it stood to reason he’d try to get her to like him.
No freaking way that will ever happen.
He laughed politely and brushed some of his long locks out of his face. “Oh my, you’re a wonderful young lady with a gift for straight talk. However, you’re half my age. Do you believe I’d really do such a horrible thing?”
“Isn’t it why I’m dressed like a prostitute from Star Wars?” She swooshed her hands down her sides, showing off her blue spandex attire, along with the added skirt.
“You don’t like it?” he asked with what seemed like real surprise. “The other girls love their outfits.”
She snorted. “I’m sure they’ll tell a male dictator holding them captive deep inside the earth what they really think about their spandex school uniforms…”
They traveled deeper into the hallways of the underground facility. She knew nothing about NORAD besides it was a military bunker in the mountains. As best she could tell, based on where she’d spent the night, part of the facility was reserved for office space. They walked down another nice hallway but came to a set of double-doors which seemed to hold back darkness on the other side. David leaned against the door as if to open it, but then stopped abruptly, almost making her bump into him.
“Tell me. What would you have done if I’d forced you to be my wife?” His dead brown eyes searched her for the answer before she could voice it. She immediately wondered if the whole thing was a test. Maybe she was supposed to want to be his wife, rather than be forced. He could then feel good about not being an ass, and she could presumably feel her new career path was worthwhile. Mom and Dad might tell her to take the deal, if only to give herself time to figure a way out of it. She however…
“I’d find a way to kill myself,” she said in a I’m-empty-inside tone of voice.
They stood there for a few moments. He watched to see if she’d been serious. She, in turn, searched her feelings to decide if she’d really go through with such a scenario. Seconds later, she thought maybe she could. She’d rather die than have to be a slave to him. Right?
He laughed out loud. “I knew it. You’re truly a wonderful addition to our team.” He held up a finger. “Not as my wife. Goodness, no. I don’t want you to hurt yourself. But I do have some young men I’d like you to meet.”
“Calgon, take me away,” she mumbled. It was a phrase her mom often said when tourists at the mine were being difficult. She had no idea who Calgon was, or where she’d take her mother, but saying it reminded her of the feisty attitude she wanted to emulate.
David threw her a sideways glance, bemused at her word choice, then pushed through the doors. “Follow me.”
The underground facility changed in an instant. They entered a tunnel chiseled from raw stone. It was about ten feet tall and wide, with an organized bundle of wires running along the base of the wall on the right side. A row of bulbs hung in a line about every twenty feet on the ceiling.
“What is this place?” she said in a wonder-filled voice, despite herself.
“Have you ever heard of the word antipode?” he asked mysteriously.
“No,” she barked, anxious to cancel out the sound of being interested.
“Well, you will. Down this hallway is the weapon which has made it so easy for me to be here, deep inside your country, without a scratch on me.”
David walked a few paces ahead, obviously excited to show it to her. She followed at a slower pace, wary of what she would find. It wasn’t so much the weapon that worried her, but his cagey questions and wandering eyes. Whatever else he said to her, she was convinced a power-mad invader like him would have no qualms about making her be his wife.
The problem, despite the bravado she displayed on the outside, and the half-hearted attempts to convince herself otherwise on the inside, was she didn’t really want to die today.
CHAPTER 4
Devils Tower, WY
They escaped Westby and headed south, away from the explosion and search drones. They made it through the entire state of Montana without sighting any additional enemy patrols or aircraft. When they saw the dark shape of Devils Tower on the horizon of northeastern Wyoming, it gave them a place to aim for a quick stop.
“You’ve got sixty seconds to enjoy Devils Tower,” Uncle Ted remarked, sounding like Clarke W. Griswold of Vacation fame. She was well aware they had no time to sight-see. The only reason they’d stopped was the prospect of finding a place to eat and gas up in a state scarce on towns or gas stations, even before the reboot. As they all expected, the gift shop had a snack bar attached to it.
“I’m buying some new clothes,” Emily replied, walking inside. “I’ll not wear the uniform of my mortal enemy a second longer than necessary.”
“I can’t stop you,” her uncle replied to her, “but don’t throw them out. The uniforms might come in handy again.”
“I never thought I’d see this place,” Kyla admitted, still hanging out on the front porch. She pointed to the nearby natural wonder, which was a mile or two away, and spoke to her uncle. “Mom always wished she could take me to National Parks out here.”
Above them, the monolith stood about a thousand feet tall with a flat top. The black obsidian structure had distinctive lines down the side, as if a volcano’s lava had cooled inside the mountain, all the outer rock and dirt had been stripped away, and then a giant used a trowel to cut grooves from top to bottom.
“Your mom would have loved places like this, no doubt about it. She’d probably beat bongos as she hiked around the trails up there.”
Kyla laughed, openly acknowledging her mom’s eccentric side.
“What’s the big whoop? Looks like the world’s biggest tree stump,” Meechum said, unimpressed.
“I’m going over this way,” she stated.
Uncle Ted popped back around the corner. “Make sure you have your rifle, Kye.”
She tugged on the rifle strap and smiled, glad to have it. The attack in Westby after they’d left had spooked her thoroughly, and the lonely drive had given her several hours to think about whether she’d been the cause of it. There were a million ways to look at it, but in the end, she judged it dumb luck the enemy drone appeared when it did. She’d been quick on the tablet and disassembled it immediately. There was no way a drone could have been on top of them so fast.
However, no matter what it was, she desperately wanted to check at least one more time to see if the people at Rammstein had received her call for assistance. While the others were inside, or scouting vehicles for gasoline, she snuck to the rear of the building and pulled the tablet from its hiding spot under her black shirt.
Kyla studied the tablet for a long time, going back and forth in her head about whether to take the risk of firing it up one last time. If she did, and got confirmation the military knew where to attack, she was going to break it to bits, to ensure it couldn’t give away their position. If she didn’t fire it up now, well, they might be driving into a warzone…
I have to know if my message went through.
Without realizing it, her hand was wrapped around the battery. Was it a sign? Did she instinctively know what was necessary? This was the time to be bold and save her friends, and the country.
“Just a peek…”
Devils Tower, WY
It had been a long several-hour drive from Westby to Wyoming. They’d exited the truck in Montana only once, at a hardware store, giving Ted a chance to ensure the weapons were properly slung over their shoulders, safeties on, and were the models each person wanted. After grabbing a length of hose to use as a syphon, and a gas can, he let each of them practice firing while he got fuel.