by Kenny Soward
Uncle Tex’s basement was unfinished. Just concrete floors, a bunch of old furniture, the HVAC unit and water heater, and a set of stairs that went up. Rita took the stairs and came out in a hallway. She checked the upstairs and downstairs thoroughly, always with her gun at the ready even though she had given up the element of surprise by breaking the basement glass.
When the house was clear, Rita went into the kitchen and opened the sliding glass door. She tucked the gun back into the belt line of her jeans and waved for Bobby Junior to come on out. The boy popped his door and stepped out carefully, hesitating before he allowed himself to come fully out of the vehicle.
“Come on.” Rita encouraged him with a wave. “You can come on out. Your sisters, too.”
“Awesome!” Bobby Junior shouted, and he leaned back into the Honda to tell his sisters.
What followed was a cacophony of hoots and hollers and happy yells. The girls leapt out and sprinted across the concrete to her, and Rita realized this was the first time since they’d left Missouri that the kids had been out of the Honda all at the same time. A tear traced her cheek as she embraced the girls and ushered them inside.
Bobby Junior shuffled in behind them and sat at the breakfast bar.
“I’m going to stretch out on the couch,” Lacy said. She ran to Uncle Rex’s monster green couch and launched herself into it with an “ahhh.”
Olivia followed her sister, climbing onto the couch near Lacy’s feet and falling back into the cushions.
“You can rest for a few minutes and use the bathroom,” Rita said, “then we need to move all our things inside, okay?”
“Okay,” came the girls’ dismal chorus.
Rita’s mind was already building a to-do list. They’d secure their supplies inside the house, check for any useful weapons—Tex was bound to have some guns around—and seal up the basement window. While breaking it had made it easier for her to get into the house, it would make it easier for someone else, too.
Then they’d hunker down until the world got closer to normal. She figured the MREs and canned goods would last them two weeks, plus whatever Tex had on hand.
As if on cue, Bobby Junior let out a happy cry, and Rita turned to see him grinning at her from where he stood next to the open pantry door. Rita walked over with her mouth hanging open. The shelves were stocked full of canned soups, iced teas, bread, and other provisions. While some of the goods would expire before the others, Rita was sure they had a few months’ worth of usable supplies on hand.
“Love you, Uncle Tex,” Rita murmured with a shake of her head.
Something buzzed in her pocket, and at first Rita tilted her head in confusion. Then she remembered she was carrying around her cell phone. She’d kept it charged to one hundred percent just in case her cellular service came back, and it appeared that forethought had paid off.
She put her flashlight and gun down on the breakfast bar and got her cell phone out of her pocket, holding it up so she could read the screen. She had full connectivity.
“Well, look at that,” she said, stunned to see thirty-five text messages and dozens of emails waiting for her. She clicked the text application and held the phone slightly farther away to read the texts clearly.
There was an assortment of messages waiting for her. Most were from her sister, although there were a few from her folks, too. The one that drew her eyes was a voicemail sent by her Uncle Tex several weeks ago. Considering she was standing in her uncle’s home and had driven hundreds of miles to see him, Rita thought her uncle’s messages should be the first ones she listened to. Maybe the messages would give her a clue to Tex’s whereabouts and tell her if he was okay.
Rita clicked the Play icon and put the phone to her ear.
Chapter 23
Sara, Gatlinburg, Tennessee | 10:15 p.m., Wednesday
Sara stared at her hands on the kitchen table, pointlessly grabbing her own fingers, twisting and kneading them gently. The exercise hid the resentment and anger that had been boiling up inside her since Captain Stern had taken Jake from her two hours ago
The chopper had set down on the flat turnaround at the top of the road. Stern had taken her troops, Jake, Spitz, Collier, Jenkins, and Ostrosky and lifted off into the sky. Sara had watched the helicopter fly south until it was just a speck in the sky, and then gone.
Sara had started picking up around the cabin after that. The floor was dirty from all the traffic, and she was behind on a million other things. Barbara and Todd had helped until there was nothing left to do, leaving them all twiddling their thumbs.
“Mom, we’re going to head back down to Squirrel’s Nest,” Todd said with a bored sigh. “Are you and Zoe going to be okay up here?”
“We can come with you,” Sara said, starting to get up. “I can work as a nurse or guard shift.”
“No, Mom.” Todd gestured for her to sit down. Then he scooted back from his chair and stood with Barbara at his side. “Stay here and get some rest. Take care of Zoe, and keep the dogs for the night. They only get in the way down there.”
Sara stood anyway and put her hands on her hips, giving her son a doubtful look. Part of her wanted to go with them to Squirrel’s Nest just to stay busy. Another part of her wanted to stay at the cabin and be alone. “Well, okay. Yeah, we’ll be fine.”
She walked Barbara and Todd to the door before turning to give them each a brief hug.
“See ya soon, Sara,” Barbara said. Then she opened the door and left the cabin, leaving Todd with Sara for a moment.
Todd fixed his mother with a hard look. “Seriously, are you going to be okay?”
Sara didn’t feel okay at all. “That’s cute,” she said, hiding her emotions behind a smirk. “Trying to comfort good old Mom.”
Her son stared at her for a moment, then he reached for her hand and gently lifted it. “Dad’s going to be okay, Mom. They’re going to find those crawlers and take them out. I’ll bet Dad won’t have to go anywhere near the fighting. I mean, he’s in the best possible hands.”
Sara heard her son’s words, but her heart wouldn’t listen. A few tears escaped before she clamped down on her emotions again. “I’m just being petty and resentful. They took your father away just when I got him back.”
“Yeah, but you heard what Stern said. Dad’s been messing around with crawler hardware for a few days now. And he’s good with all that wiring and tech stuff.”
“I know, but I still don’t like it.” Sara wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt and started to compose herself. She sighed and touched her heart with both hands. “Consider this a brief moment of weakness. Your mother has now returned.”
Todd chuckled. “It’s okay, Mom. Just don’t let it happen again.”
Sara gave her son a playful slap on the arm before showing him outside. Then she turned back to her nearly empty cabin. Zoe was passed out upstairs, and Astro was asleep on the dog pad in front of the fireplace. Rex sat on his haunches with his tail swishing back and forth in a casual yet expectant manner. His ears were perked up quizzically as if waiting for his next command. Or, as if asking, “What are the possibilities of me getting a treat?”
“It’s just you and me, kid,” Sara gently clapped her hands together. “What do you think? A movie? Some solitaire? Oh, I know. We can check Cosmic Link and see if we have the internet back. It would be good to check on current events, but do I really want to know?”
Rex tilted his head back and forth each time Sara asked a question, yet he offered no answers.
Chapter 24
Yi, Atlanta Georgia
“Exit here, Chen,” Yi said, pointing to the sign that read E. Ponce de Leon Avenue. The map on his tablet said this would take them directly into Midtown Atlanta, or at least close enough.
“Yes, Captain,” Chen said, guiding the white cargo van off the I-285 loop and onto a tree-lined road that went due west. They had already avoided two United States military patrols, and Yi was surprised at the sudden uptick in outbound traffic a
s they entered the city. It seemed like a flood of people were trying to get out, although they weren’t having much luck. The chaos of the financial collapse had left city services in disarray. The city had sporadic power, and the roads were clogged with abandoned vehicles and traffic jams.
The amount of people trying to leave the city nagged at Yi’s brain, so he reached up and turned on the cargo van’s radio to garner some news. He scanned through several static-laced channels until he came to one that sounded halfway decent. The sound of a news report burst through the van speakers loud and clear.
“…United States government has received information regarding a credible threat to the city of Atlanta, and they are asking residents to get as far away from the center of the city as possible.”
“I knew it,” Yi said, snapping the radio off. He didn’t need to hear any more, knowing that their mission had been compromised.
“How do they know?” Chen asked, his voice rising.
“They likely monitored our communications with central command,” Yi stated with narrowed eyes. They must have another Box and deciphered our communications protocol.”
“They know we are here.” Chen’s voice was quiet, with a note of finality. Some of the soldiers in the back began to murmur. “The mission is over then.”
“It is not over until the last of us is dead,” Yi shouted in a voice like lightning, silencing the murmuring. “We only need to go a few more miles for the weapon to have maximum effect. It won’t take us long to—”
The sound of a helicopter swooped in close overhead, and Yi faced forward just as a line of .50 caliber rounds cut across the street in front of them, chewing up concrete like butter.
“Turn left here,” Yi shouted. “And kill the lights.”
Chen jerked the wheel to the left and turned down a dark side street before switching the headlights of the vehicle off. Yi rolled down his window and listened for the sound of the helicopter as it circled back around.
“Use evasive maneuvers,” Yi told Chen, “but continue to go west into the city.”
Chen nodded. The streetlamps were dead, and with their headlights out it would be almost impossible to tell where they were. All they could do was drive toward the skyline, focusing on the dashboard compass to get a heading.
“Captain Yi Peng,” a woman’s voice came through on their communications line. “This is Captain Stern of the United States military.”
Yi froze in his seat for a moment, then he reached up to turn on his helmet’s microphone.
“My hunch was correct, Captain Stern,” Yi said. “You have hacked our communication lines. Very clever.”
“It wasn’t me,” Stern said with a casual tone. “Just our crack team of communication experts, one of whom is the husband of the woman you met on Pine Bluff Mountain.”
“Ah, Sara’s husband,” Yi said with a smile, recalling the family pictures on the mantle. “Is he there with you?”
“He is.”
“And where are you, Captain?” Yi asked, though at the same time he indicated for Chen to pull into a side street and stop the van.
“I’m up in the sky, far out of your reach, Captain Peng.”
Chen pulled them into a heavily wooded street where the trees stretched above their heads and blocked all line of sight from above. Yi looked up past the trees and saw the shadows of at least four helicopters in the general vicinity, directing their spotlights toward the ground, crisscrossing back and forth as they searched for the van. Yi guessed that Captain Stern and her crew were in one of them.
“How did you know we were in the white van?” Yi asked.
“We were looking for suspicious vehicles entering the city,” Stern said. “We spotted your unmarked vehicle moving toward the city center when everyone else was trying to get out. Then we noted the Tennessee plates and used advanced, long-distance imaging to identify you as the passenger of the vehicle.”
“Very clever,” Yi stated with an impressed nod. “And to what do I owe this great honor?”
Yi hit a button on his helmet to mute the conversation, then he turned and hissed for everyone to get out. He gave the honor of carrying the bomb to his three remaining dragon warriors and asked Chen to carry their Box device in the event they received a message from central command. They could also use it to remotely start the bomb’s timer, if necessary. Yi ordered the whole group to head due west into the center of the city.
Yi walked slowly behind the group, letting them get out in front of him before he unmuted his microphone. “It was not very wise of you to shoot at us,” Yi said. “One of those .50 caliber bullets could penetrate the weapon case of the bomb we’re carrying and expose the high explosives. One breath of air on those and the entire thing could go up.”
“So, you confirm that you are carrying a nuclear weapon,” Stern said, her voice sounding flat.
“I can confirm it.” Yi walked down the middle of the street while his dragon warriors carried the weapon along the right side, keeping close to homes where they could duck into the shadows at the first signs of a spotlight headed their way.
“Can you tell us the nuclear yield?”
“I cannot.”
“You can’t, or you won’t?”
“I simply do not know, Captain,” Yi stated, rather enjoying the back and forth, though he wasn’t normally big on conversation. He simply wanted to buy his troops time to get the weapon into the best possible position. “But I assume the yield is quite high.”
“Where are you taking it?”
“Does it matter?”
“Maybe not,” Stern conceded, “but can you tell me why this is necessary? You’ve lost the fight. We’re weeding out your operatives all across the country. It’s over.”
“I don’t have time to give you a history lesson, Captain. Your country is a great fire that consumes the world, using it and tossing it away like an old rag. We’re here to snuff you out, by the will of the people.”
“The will of your people,” Stern growled.
Yi gave a mental shrug. “The will of the world.”
Stern paused for a moment and then changed the subject in a way Yi did not expect. “Sara told us you were honorable when you made a deal to retrieve your equipment.”
“I am a man of my word,” Yi said, as if that explained everything.
“Yes, but you shot at your team’s original leader, Katrya Rusak, and Sara told us it was because she would not honor the agreement you had made on behalf of your soldiers. I think there is more inside you than honor. You care about doing the right thing.”
All of Yi’s troops could hear the conversation, and he wanted to show them that he would not be goaded by the American’s tricks.
“I want to do the right thing,” Yi agreed with a confident smile. “Exactly what I’m doing right now. Delivering a gift from the world to your doorstep. And that is all the time I have for you at the moment, Captain. But I will be in touch soon. Your education may continue then.”
With that, Yi pressed a button to terminate the communications link on all the helmets. Then he jogged down the street, heading toward his warriors carrying the bomb. He whistled and snapped his fingers, gathering everyone between two houses.
“I assume you all heard the conversation?” Yi asked them.
Some nodded in the affirmative while others grunted.
“Then you know there is no doubt about the mission. There is no doubt about who we are dealing with and why we are here. The American says we have lost, but I say we are just beginning to fight.” Yi looked up into the night sky as helicopters chopped the air with their rotors.
“The enemy is pouring into the city, looking for us,” the soldier named Elsa said.
“We should arm the weapon and dig in here,” Edet added. Yi could not blame him. The man’s leg would no doubt give him a great amount of trouble if forced to walk the rest of the way.
Yi shook his head as he looked westward at the shadows of skyscrapers against the horizo
n. The two tallest ones had lights working. It was a beacon of hope for the city’s residents, and Yi planned on extinguishing it. “No, we still have a mile or two to go. We must carry the weapon into the heart of the enemy, as high as possible. Gather around. Here are your orders.”
Chapter 25
Jake, Atlanta, Georgia
Jake sat clutching the arms of his seat as the helicopter searched the streets of Atlanta. He was positioned with his back to the pilots, and Captain Stern was in the cockpit with them as they continued to sweep the streets for any sign of the crawlers.
Looking down, Jake saw a spattering of lights where power had been returned to parts of the city, although most of it was still shrouded in darkness. Only two of the downtown buildings had lights, and Jake used them to mentally track their position to the center of the city.
Spitz sat next to him, belted in by a thick harness with the crawler transmitter under his seat and the laptop clutched tightly in his hands. His face was pale in the white glow of the screen as he monitored crawler communications. There had been nothing since the last transmission, and Jake didn’t expect any more.
Spitz tapped some commands on the keyboard. Jake recognized them as standard commands, so he leaned closer and spoke in a loud voice. “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to find some way to pinpoint their location,” Spitz shouted over the wind and rotor noise.
“Good call,” Jake said, impressed at the kid’s proactiveness.
Allowing Spitz to get back to work, Jake leaned forward and watched as the other three helicopter spotlights swept back and forth across the ground. Glancing left, he saw Jenkins waiting for a target behind Clara as Collier pointed a spotlight at the ground.
Jake looked across at Ostrosky where he scanned the area from his seat with infrared goggles. Jake wasn’t sure those would be helpful. Atlanta was a big place full of a lot of people, and even the suburbs were covered with patches of forest and parks. It would be almost impossible to find the white van again until more boots arrived on the ground.