“I would have enjoyed seeing it with you,” she admitted, “but I understand your reasoning. We must both get our rest so we can function inside this tack-see today.”
“Agreed. And lucky for us, we don’t have a tent to break down.” Last night, he’d pulled into the little KOA campground to save money, instead of getting a room in a motel. However, after he’d paid for a spot and driven the final fifty yards, he’d had no energy to get out and set up a tent, so they’d slept in the car.
“What time is it?” Lydia asked.
“A little after six in the morning. I guess I got an hour and a half of sleep.” He said it while hiding the disappointment he felt. If he was going to drive all day, which was his plan, he wasn’t sure ninety minutes of sleep was enough.
“Garth, we aren’t alone here.”
He peered out his empty window frame.
“Oh, shit. I pulled into the wrong space.”
It was easy to see what happened. He’d parked alongside another campsite instead of pulling into the one he’d been assigned. Now, a man and woman broke down their tent just a few feet outside his window.
The woman caught his eye. “Sorry, dear, we need you to move as soon as you can. We have to back out.”
He felt like an idiot. Not only had he parked outside his own spot, but he’d blocked the neighbor campers into theirs.
“Sorry,” he said in a low voice. “I was pretty tired last night when I got here.”
“We heard you come in,” she responded while pulling apart tent poles.
The couple were in their forties or fifties—older than his dad, but not old people. They were dressed in high-priced clothing like they had some money. He recognized the North Face windbreaker worn by the man as clothing the rich kids at school liked to wear.
“Where you heading?” he asked.
“Denver,” she replied. “It’s where the internet said to go, right?”
The man shushed his wife.
She shushed him back. “We have to be polite, babe.”
“I know, babe, but we don’t want the whole world to go there, you know?”
The woman turned back to Garth, apparently undeterred. “That man on the videos said the SNAKE lab was the only safe place in America, so that’s where we’re going. You should go there too.”
“Denver?” Garth responded. He recalled his dad telling him to avoid that city, but he didn’t volunteer the information, because he didn’t know if something had changed. “I’m not going that far, but I am driving out west to meet my dad. We’ll probably go back to New York once we link up. First, though, I need to find a phone and call him to find out where he is.”
The woman pulled out a phone. “You can use mine.”
He felt elated to have the opportunity, but that faded with the speed of a shooting star. “Thanks, but I don’t know his number. We’re going to the first mall we find to look up his information at my cell phone company.”
She tapped the phone and made like she was going to talk on it, but then she gave it an odd glance. “The network is down? It was working fine last night.”
The woman shrugged. “I was going to dial information for you. They might know his listing.”
“That only works for local numbers, babe,” her husband said from inside the deflating tent.
She looked at her partner for a few seconds, then put her phone away. “I guess we’ll never know. Going to the cell phone company sounds smart. I wish you the best of luck.” She continued in a quieter voice, so her husband wouldn’t hear. “And you should consider going to Denver. I bet most people in this campground are going there. You don’t want to be late.”
“Late?” he asked in the same tone. “Late for what?”
“The end of it all. End Times. The last page of human history. Aren’t you following in the news on the internet?”
Garth’s anxiety came roaring back. If she was right and everyone at the campground was going west, he felt a compulsion to get a head start on them.
“I am following it, yes. Thanks, and good luck.”
He started the car.
“Lydia, come on up to the front seat. I need you to keep me from falling asleep. We’re good on gas, but we’re going to make one unscheduled stop.”
She scrambled out of the car and got into the passenger seat.
“What do we need, Garth?”
“Lots and lots of Mountain Dew. We aren’t stopping until I reach my dad.”
Two
Search for Nuclear, Astrophysical, and Kronometric Extremes (SNAKE). Red Mesa, Colorado
Faith was roused from her fitful sleep by engine noises outside.
“What now?”
She’d spent the night across the hall from her old office. Now that General Smith was dead, she could probably take it over again, except that all the windows were broken. She had gone in there to get a look at the heavy machinery on the parking lot, although she thought twice about it when her feet crunched on glass.
The sunrise over the high plains of Colorado shone in through the empty window frames, and it reflected off millions of shards of glass on the floor, on her desk, and on all the shelves and cabinets. The car bomb had knocked down all her knickknacks, thrown her computer on the floor, and punched out most of the ceiling tiles.
The only thing missing from the crime scene was a long strand of yellow police tape.
While staying low to avoid being seen, she peeked outside.
“Is this the help you said was coming?” she muttered sadly, thinking again of Smith.
Several tanks scooted around the parking lot like roaches through the woodwork. These were real tanks, not the Humvees she had seen the day before. Huge guns poked out of the turrets of the tracked monsters making them appear far more menacing up close.
On the far side of the parking lot, beefy military tractors shoved civilian cars into the brush.
“Assholes!”
Her Jeep was somewhere on that side.
“There better be a damned good explanation for this!” she grumbled as she walked into the hallway.
Bob ran into the office where she’d spent the night.
“Hey, Bob. I’m over here.”
He popped his head back out and smiled a little when he saw her. “There you are. We have to get out of here. More soldiers are arriving, and they’re trying to round us up again.”
She took it in stride. “The military was already here. NORAD, remember?”
“Yeah, but these guys have lots of guns, and they aren’t fucking around like last time. Faith, they’re being rough with our people. I don’t think they’re going to let anyone leave. That’s why we have to go.” He waited for a second, as if unsure what she was going to do. “Right now!”
“Yeah, okay,” she allowed.
They jogged down the hallway toward one of the many emergency exits. Because the SNAKE facility was almost entirely underground, the designers had been overly cautious about providing exit routes. She’d used one of them last night to escape the collider tunnel after the explosion, and now they were going to save her again.
“Where will we go?” She thought of her Jeep being tossed around outside. “I don’t know what they’re thinking, but the first thing they did was shovel my Jeep off the parking lot.”
“My Audi is probably scrap now too. We’ll worry about that when we get outside. Come on!”
Screams echoed from other hallways, and she expected Army men to appear around every corner, but they made it to a metal door with the EXIT sign above it. Bob went through and held it open, but she stopped at the threshold.
“We have to help others escape,” she said urgently. There weren’t any other scientists close by, but there were some milling around down the hall.
“Faith, listen to me. The NORAD security guards are gone. They were chased away. I’ve been trying to tell you. These new guys aren’t going to be as accommodating as General Smith. They might even be here to punish us.”
&nbs
p; She squinted at him as if he’d just told a huge fib. “Come on, the military doesn’t do that. General Smith was very clear about their role.”
“Yeah, and you said he was bringing in the people responsible for the experiment. What if they couldn’t find them? What if the military got sick of the whole waiting game and they’re just going to eliminate the people who know mistakes were made?”
Faith saw beyond his words. “And since you were part of the group that started this whole disaster, you think they are out for you, right?”
“Believe me, I only knew what little I needed to run the experiment, but there are multiple levels of the military, Faith. The grunts who kick in doors and the generals who tell them what to do, and then there are the eggheads who design and test the superweapons.”
“That’s still not—”
He continued, “Then there are the bosses who decide which superweapons get made and which ones get scrapped. If they are scrapping this, we all might be collateral damage.”
“That’s a lot of ifs.”
Bob propped open the door as wide as it would go. “I’m leaving, Faith. I want you to go as well. They have tanks and guns. I want nothing to do with all that.”
She walked through the door as if she were in a dream. Deep down she didn’t believe any bad could come from having the military around, but she had to admit that General Smith might have spoiled her with his straightforward honesty. These new soldiers had tanks, guns, and bulldozers, and didn’t seem to have any problem flaunting them.
They killed my Jeep!
General Smith’s people never would have done that.
“Come on. Hurry!” He started up the stairwell, waited for a second to see if she would follow, and then kept going.
The main administration wing of SNAKE was built into solid rock, as was the rest of the facility, but there wasn’t much earth above it because it was near the surface. They had three or four flights before reaching the exterior door leading out into the forest.
Screams floated up from the lab below, like her people were being hurt as they were rounded up.
“This doesn’t feel right,” she said with uncertainty. “We could have gotten some of them out with us.”
Bob seemed to ignore her. “I’m leaving through this door and heading to freedom. You need to come with me right now.”
Faith took a step back. “I was able to negotiate with General Smith. I helped prevent a disaster by stopping him from shutting down the Four Arrows boxes at the same time. What if I leave and no one is there to stop the next calamity?”
“You can’t be sure that’s what will happen. There’s only one box left. Whatever they screw up, we have to be far away from here when it happens.”
“No, I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going.” She said it with all the bravado she was able to muster.
Bob pressed the latch of the fire door and chuckled. “I’m surprised I got you this close to freedom, actually. You care too much about your work. I can see now that you did deserve the lead role more than I did.”
He offered his hand, which she shook briefly.
“Take care of yourself, Faith, okay? I won’t go far, I promise. I might talk to some colleagues up in Boulder and get a better read on what’s going on outside of SNAKE. Sound good?”
“I suppose. Don’t think we’re done, though. You owe me an explanation for how you set up this illegal experiment in the first place, but for now, I hope you get to safety. It can’t hurt to have allies on the outside.”
He looked surprised. “You consider me an ally? After all I’ve done to you?”
She ran her fingers through her hair, surprised at herself for having used the word.
“For now, let’s just agree we have the same enemies, okay? Being my ally will depend on what you share with me, got it?”
“Deal,” he agreed with his usual smug look.
He pushed through the door, but when he turned to go outside, something slapped his face. Bob’s head was flung back, and blood splattered on the door, and on her blouse.
He crumpled to the concrete a second later.
I-80, NE
Buck and his convoy were back on the interstate. Sparky had tipped over his truck last night, so he rode with Eve, the trucking recruiter. Mel “Monsignor” Tinker drove the third truck and stayed far at the back. He preferred to be alone with his flammable tanker because he was terrified he was going to blow up with it.
“Sure is pretty,” Connie remarked, looking forward. The sun crept up over the flat prairie of high plains Nebraska.
“Don’t let it fool you,” he shot back. “You’re going to get sick of this state before you know it.”
She chuckled. “I’m already sick of it, but I’m trying my best to pretend. Otherwise, I might start asking you if we’re there yet. My boy was a master at making trips like this seem like an eternity. It was murder getting him to be quiet and read a book.”
Buck turned her way. “You would like having a kid today. All you have to do is give them a digital tablet, and it babysits them for the entire trip. You have to struggle to get them to put it down so you can feed them.”
Connie expressed disgust. “That sounds horrible. I don’t want some gadget watching my son.”
“Amen, sister,” he replied, “but that’s the way of the world. Garth plays games on his phone all the time. Sometimes I think about taking it away from him so he has to talk to his friends with a standard telephone, but that’s a hard battle to wage when I’m always out on the road. I did manage to lay down the law so he can’t play games during the school week.”
He sighed.
“I should have been there more.”
Connie grabbed his phone out of the cradle. She’d tried to call both of their sons once since they hit the highway, but she hit redial on Garth again.
“Buck, I promise you we’ll get in touch with him, and eventually we’ll get you two back together. Then you can tell him whatever you want. In person.”
He waited while the phone rang. It went to voicemail, which he took as a good omen. At least it was connecting with something on the outside.
She handed him the phone.
“Hey, Garth. It’s Dad. We’re on our way to meet you, but we need to know where you are, like we discussed, so we can meet up. Call me as soon as you get this. Love you. Talk soon.”
He hung up, and she started to dial again.
“Phil?” he inquired.
She nodded. “I can’t stop trying. I’m sure he’s out there.”
“Come on, boys,” he said with determination. “Pick up for your parents.”
The phone rang over and over as he put more miles on his Peterbilt.
On the horizon far ahead, the sky went from light blue to thunderstorm green in a split second, but it wasn’t a typical weather front. It was as if a storm had been teleported into existence with the snap of a god’s fingers.
A strong gust of wind bashed against the front windshield like a shockwave from an explosion.
“Hang that up. We’ve got trouble.”
He didn’t want the distraction of a ringing phone.
The darkness of the storm spread out on both sides of the center point.
And it was getting closer.
Red Mesa, CO
Phil took charge of the three NORAD airmen because he outranked them, but they seemed anxious to have the leadership. They’d been run ragged since they drove to SNAKE from Peterson Air Force Base, and they didn’t have nearly enough guards to watch over the entire facility. That was how the terrorists with backpacks of C-4 had been able to walk in and push them out the door into the woods.
“Sir, it looks like every exit is being watched now. We saw some scientists try to escape, and one of the guards used the butt of his rifle to break the guy’s face.”
Overnight, Phil and the three airmen had crept through the hilly forest until they reached the main offices of SNAKE. From their vantage point above the facility, they
had a good view of the parking lot, the main office, and some of the concrete bunkers that served as exit doors.
For most of the night, Phil had been convinced he was part of an elaborate prank to make him think he’d been transported across the world in one second. However, when the sun came up and he saw the flat expanse of the city of Denver, he grudgingly admitted he wasn’t in Switzerland anymore.
“Why would they hurt the scientists?” he asked his men.
Private Sanchez replied. “I don’t know, sir, but if I did that to a civvy, I would expect to get court-martialed in half a second. The man wasn’t a threat. They struck him for the hell of it as he walked through a door.”
“I don’t suppose any of you have radios?” he asked without much hope.
“We left one in the tunnels,” Sanchez answered. “The terrorist wouldn’t let us take weapons or anything else.”
Phil’s radioman, Corporal Barry Grafton, had last been seen in Geneva, Switzerland. He had no idea if any of his men had come to Colorado with him, but he was beginning to think he was going to have to scour the forest looking for them.
He pulled out his disposable phone, intending to call the Ranger headquarters at Fort Benning, but the phone was completely dead. The LED screen was blank.
“Son of a bitch,” he groused. “I know this was charged when I left on our mission. Something depleted it.”
“Maybe it was the trip from Switzerland,” one of the men joked.
Phil didn’t bother arguing. It might have been true.
He was about to ask if any of the three airmen carried personal phones, but the sounds of footfalls and low voices came from behind them.
“Shit!” he hissed. “Find cover.” He was the only one with a weapon, so he tried to position himself between the voices and the unarmed guards. A tall pine provided a good hiding spot.
Phil caught glimpses of military uniforms through the pine saplings around the trail. Approximately four men, all armed.
He had about five seconds to decide if all of this was real. If this was America, the units had to be friendly. That meant pulling a gun on them could possibly be career-ending.
End Days Series Box Set [Books 1-4] Page 70