“I’ll take your word for it. I’m just a four-star general.” He laughed hesitantly, as if he were waiting to see if she’d laugh with him. When she kept her sour look, he went on. “But overnight I brought in more scientists on military transports. More will be here later today.”
“Someone to check my work?” she snapped.
“It was a risk to fly them in,” he added like it was important, “but they all made it.”
“I’m glad no one was hurt,” she allowed. “I’m sorry, sir. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but we could work a lot faster without your interference.”
“There are very few scientists in the world who can truly check your work. I tried to find them. Some of the top names are already here, and others were lost when CERN Switzerland went offline.”
An awkward pause settled over them both. She had no idea what had made him shut up, but her silence was for the American science team who died at CERN.
He continued reflectively, “Do you know what keeps me up at night?”
She looked away while rolling her eyes. “Nuclear attacks?”
“Ha! I never stop thinking about those during the day, but I’m not afraid of them. We can detect missiles launching, we can track them flying, and we know where they go. They are horrible, terrible weapons, but very easy to identify. No, my nightmares are made up of things that hit America like a knife in the small of her back. Things that don’t show up on radar or seismic equipment. Things that destroy us from the inside.”
“That sounds farfetched,” she said, drawn into his scenario despite herself. “Nothing can destroy America.”
“Farfetched? Last night I received communiques from all over the country that suggest to me the collapse has already begun. A giant storm left a path of destruction in the Central Valley of California. Looting has been extreme, as have evacuations. The governor declared an emergency from his car because Sacramento was flattened. That’s a nightmare.”
He looked into her eyes.
“Also last night, I heard about a prison in Idaho. The guards walked off the job. They left all the cages open and ran for it. Why would they do that?”
She shook her head because there was no logic to it.
“And this morning, five thousand Cubans showed up in boats in the Florida Keys. They all think it is 1980.” He sighed. “Where do you think they’ll go?”
He didn’t wait for her to answer.
“There are hundreds of these stories all across America. In the last twenty-four hours, the nation has come unglued. Three Mile Island went into meltdown yesterday, and if their containment efforts fail, it threatens God knows how many people on the East Coast. Worse, all the other nuke plants shut down for safety reasons. Whole states are now experiencing rolling blackouts like it’s the Third World. Do you know what all this adds up to?”
“Lots of people who need help?”
“Bingo,” he said. “And do you know where that help is going to come from?”
“You guys. The government.”
“Nice try. I told you—we have our own problems. Every plane in the world is grounded for reasons I can’t divulge. No, security now falls on local authorities, and they are already overloaded. My nightmare is going to come true unless you and I and both of our scientific groups can figure out how to fix it. That was why I kept your people locked up last night. I need them here, not out in the streets looting.”
“You think it is that bad already? It’s only been one day.”
“The old saying is that polite civilization has about three days before chaos takes over, but that was from a different era. Our fast-paced world depends on a lot more moving pieces to hold together. Most people don’t keep real food in their pantries, nor have they experienced actual hunger in their whole lives. You take away food for half a day and you’ll see some fireworks. You take away food, the internet, and their power at the same time for twenty-four hours with no hope of restoration, and you’ll have—”
“Chaos.” She nodded in agreement.
He nodded back grimly. “We can’t keep the role of this facility a secret for long, Dr. Sinclair. It was a calculated risk, but we let the reporters clear out of here so they wouldn’t become the story. They’ll be back today, I’m sure. Almost certainly, some of the staff warned family on the outside before we confiscated all the phones.”
She held his gaze while trying not to think of her text to Dez, explaining SNAKE’s role in the weirdness of the world. Her sister was in Australia, so she couldn’t possibly be a threat. Faith wasn’t even certain the warning message had gone through since there had been no reply before her phone was taken.
He continued, “There are thousands of potential vectors for the plague to get out into the wild.”
“Plague?” she asked. “You don’t mean that literally?”
“No, of course not.” He scooted farther into her personal space, almost to the point of discomfort. “But truth can spread in dangerous ways. We both have things we’re trying to hide.”
Not Dez, she thought.
“SNAKE blasted the world with the blue light and is responsible for all the crazy things that have resulted from it. That’s what you have to hope doesn’t get out. As for me, I’ve learned from multiple sources that the time dilation is getting worse by the hour. If anyone knew that, they might assume the world was on the brink of ending.”
He whispered, “If either of those things became common knowledge, my nightmare would become real. The plague of truth would infect everyone. America would unravel, and SNAKE would be the first body on the burn pile.”
Pole Line Motel, Mono Lake, CA
Buck and Mac headed for their room, but he stopped when Fred spotted them. The motel owner stood up against Buck’s door as if intending to prevent him from getting his stuff.
I slept for too long.
He had gotten up at six o’clock intending to clear out before Fred could give him any grief about the money, but now he figured he should have made it five.
“Come on,” he said to Mac. “Let’s go see what he wants.”
Cars and trucks swarmed the intersection where the road came down from Yosemite. Vehicles went both north and south, but a few came across the highway to the already-crowded motel parking area.
“Hello, Fred,” Buck said as he neared his door.
“I called my brother in Reno, and he confirmed there have been no changes to hundred-dollar bills that would make Ben Franklin look so huge. Plus—”
“Sir, I told you last night, this is a bill fresh from my bank. I don’t appreciate the implication.” Buck stood in front of the window of the adjacent motel room since he didn’t want to get too close to the owner. The guy didn’t look like he was capable of physically restraining Buck, but there was no sense giving him a shot at it.
I left the gun in the room.
Buck shook his head, realizing he’d made another clumsy mistake. Even walking the dog was a dangerous adventure.
“But this is from 2019!” Fred shouted.
That caught Buck off guard. The man had complained about the date being twenty-some-odd years off last night, too, but he hadn’t picked up on it at the time.
“What year should it say?” Buck asked.
“Anything up to and including 1990.”
Buck cracked up. “That’s like thirty years ago. There’s been plenty of bills since then.”
The deadbolt spun on the door next to Buck. He stepped away from it, thinking he was talking too loudly.
Fred looked to the intersection and the numerous cars pulling into his lot. “Don’t joke around about this, sir. I can’t tell what game you’re playing, but if your money doesn’t say 1990, you tried to rip me off. That’s a crime.”
Mac tugged at his leash as if he wanted to go sniff Fred, but Buck held him back.
“All I can tell you is that it isn’t 1990. I wasn’t old enough to drive back then.”
Fred huffed. “If you don’t explain your con, I’m going to call
the police. I can’t stand around all day and watch you, but I did write down your license plate number. If you run, I’ll have something to identify you with.”
Buck rolled his eyes.
The door next to him opened about six inches. He saw a woman’s face in the crack, but nothing below her neck. She handed out a ten-dollar bill. “This is from 1999. It’s the oldest one I have.”
Fred’s eyes grew wide when he saw the date, and he looked at the lady. “You’re trying to rip me off too!”
“Sir, I don’t know this woman. What are the odds that two random strangers would come to your place with counterfeit bills? And who would counterfeit a ten?”
Fred scrunched his face like it took a lot of energy to think, but he pointed down at Mac before he could answer the question. “That piss puddle is your fault!”
The Retriever pup had watered on the sidewalk near Fred’s cowboy boots.
“I should make you hose that off,” Fred lashed out. “People are so impolite these days. I’m sure you two are working together about this money. That much is clear.”
Buck wanted to laugh in the guy’s face, but it wasn’t worth the risk to further anger the furious man. He pointed to the influx of cars. “I bet if you go ask any of those people what year their money was printed, they’ll say it was after 1990. Take a look at some of those cars. Have you ever seen any like them before? Hell, if they don’t back me up, I’ll call the cops myself.”
He laughed politely to suggest he was being jovial, but he didn’t feel that way inside. The cars had come out of the mountains because something had happened. The longer he spent dealing with fake money problems, the more danger he was in.
Fred took a couple of steps back. “Don’t either of you go anywhere. I’m going to check out some of these other people like you said. Should be easy to confirm that you are a liar.”
“Agreed,” Buck said without hesitation. He’d already planned to escape the guy, no matter what the outcome. He only needed to get his stuff out of the room, and he’d be on his way.
Fred scampered off to the gas station and motel lobby.
“Good dog, Mac. That was perfect timing.” He scratched under the dog’s chin.
“Did you train him to do that?” the woman in the doorway asked.
Buck turned to her, but she remained inside her dark room. A few locks of red hair hung like twisted vines over her ear and chin, but she made no effort to reveal herself. He assumed she’d been sleeping when he and Fred had woken her up.
“No, but I guess he’s a good judge of people. Thanks, by the way. I needed the backup on that one. The owner has been giving me grief about my money since last night. Now he says it’s 1990.”
“No problem,” she replied.
A long pause followed, so he kept on. “I’m sorry for the loud voices, ma’am. Feel free to go back to sleep.” More quietly, he added, “As for me, I’m getting out of here before he calls the police. I don’t have time for delays.”
“It’s no problem,” she replied softly. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to make a call.”
She shut the door without further explanation.
“Well, we’re on the clock, Wonder Dog. Let’s get our stuff and cruise. Garth is counting on us to make some distance today.”
He opened the door to his room, hurried inside, and started packing the few things he’d brought in.
Outside, cars kept piling into the lot like it was the last place on Earth.
Three
Sydney, Australia
Destiny watched the sleepy city of Sydney go by in a blur as she went south. Her taxi driver had a fifty-pound note on the line if he could get her to the Central railway station before 7:35 this morning.
The drive over the Sydney Harbor Bridge was surreal because its companion, the Sydney Opera House, wasn’t there.
“Did you see it disappear?” she asked the driver.
“No, not me. I heard from a guy who knows a driver who saw it disappear, though. He said it faded slowly, like someone brushed it out of the picture. Swears it was some kind of Department of Defence experiment, like advanced camouflage.”
“He thinks the opera house is still there?” she asked.
The cab cruised along the single lane on the left side of the bridge, giving her a perfect view of the missing landmark. It was now a small point of land jutting out into Sydney Harbor filled with trees and rocks rather than a cultural icon.
Ahead, the tall skyscrapers of downtown Sydney remained as she remembered them, providing comfort that most things were still the same.
As fast as the driver sped over the bridge, still others passed them, including a pair of sports cars that looked like they had come right off the race track. The two blue-and-yellow vehicles zipped by with high-pitched engine noises that rattled the glass windows of the taxi.
“Whoa!” she exclaimed as they went into the downtown. “What’s the rush?”
“Everyone’s leaving town, miss. I figured that was what you’re doing, being in a hurry and all.”
“Leaving?” she said with surprise. “I’m not leaving. I’m only going to meet a friend at his game lodge. I won’t be gone permanently.”
The cab driver was an older man with gray hair. He half-turned to her in the back seat. “You haven’t heard the news? People are freaked.”
“About the opera house disappearing? Surely there has to be some logical explanation for that. Maybe it was the military like your friend said. Who knows? They just need some time to get scientists there or something.”
“It isn’t just that. News says it’s all over the world. Planes falling from the sky yesterday. Ships lost at sea. Some are calling it a secret doomsday weapon. Personally, I think it’s all overblown, but I’ve never made as much money as I have the last twenty hours.”
“This has been going on that long?”
“Oh, yeah. Ever since that blue light yesterday, the whole city has lost its soup.”
She’d spent yesterday fighting to survive a raging forest fire, and then she had passed out on her bed when she finally made it home. Except for one brief call to her friends at the Sydney Harbor Foundation to let them know she was alive and one brief text from her sister in America, she’d barely had contact with anyone in the world.
Faith said SNAKE caused all the wacky news, she recalled from her sister’s cryptic text message. It had also mentioned things coming back from the past. Faith told her to stay home and be safe, but sitting in a room wasn’t Dez’s style.
That was why she was trying to catch a train to Canberra.
Zandre Ford called her last night claiming he’d spotted a dromornis stirtoni, also known as a Demon Duck of Doom. It was one of the largest birds ever to walk the Earth, but it had gone extinct over thirty thousand years ago. She had run out the door first thing this morning because she had to see it.
As an animal lover, she didn’t like that Zandre ran a game preserve and hunting lodge. He was a big donor to the foundation she worked for, though, so she had learned to get along with him. He wouldn’t have bothered her if he hadn’t been telling the truth, and after seeing her Tasmanian Tiger, she was open to finding other rare creatures.
The cab driver weaved through traffic at over a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour as they went through a tunnel.
“Almost there, miss. Be ready to jump.” He laughed a little as if it had been a joke, but she sensed it wouldn’t be far from the truth.
She didn’t think he should do too much chuckling until she paid the fare. “I’ll get my bag out of the boot and run for it.” Dez looked at her watch. “I think I’m going to make it.”
The driver took a sharp turn, and the tires complained by squealing.
The old stone building appeared after one final curve. Dozens of cabs dumped people on the street next to the train station, so the driver had little choice of where to go. “Looks like I’m going to have to triple-park.”
He slid into an opening near the e
ntrance and jammed on the brake.
“And…go!” He jumped out to open the trunk.
She was overwhelmed by the petrol fumes and a sea of car horns. Everywhere she looked, people hopped out of cabs and ran for the train terminal. The cabbies sped off, but a few other drivers pulled their passenger cars into the grass and ran away as if they were abandoning their rides.
Destiny walked toward the back of her cab, feeling overwhelmed. “Why are people ditching their cars?”
“I don’t know,” the driver responded. He hefted her small suitcase out of the back, then held out his hand. “But I’d like to go.”
A white car honked a few feet behind them.
She handed him the fare plus the bonus note.
“Thanks for the lift,” she said.
“Good luck to ya!” the driver replied as he slid into the front seat. He slammed the door, then chirped the tires as he got out of the stopped traffic. She ducked behind another parked vehicle as the white car tore off after her cab.
It felt like she was seeing the fire climb the hillside behind her again. The rush of humanity intensified as if everyone in Sydney had decided to catch the 7:35.
When people started to run, she joined them.
Staten Island, NY
It was a short walk home for Garth because he lived almost next door to his best friend. Both of the homes were very nice, but Sam’s parents weren’t renting theirs like his dad was.
Once inside, he felt compelled to go to his dad’s study, which was a fancy word for the third bedroom where his old man sat at his desk, played on the computer, and watched movies on his flat-screen television.
Garth stood at the door as if waiting for his dad to invite him in. That was how things worked when they were both home at the same time.
He went into the room and fell into the black high-backed desk chair. Garth expected the computer to be on since his dad left it on all the time, but it sat in silence. The DVD player under the television blinked on and off, signifying that there had been a power outage recently. Probably yesterday.
Dad, I hope you’re wrong about it being bad outside, but I know you’re not. You’re right. I saw it for myself, but I don’t want to believe it.
End Days Series Box Set [Books 1-4] Page 27