by Billy Dering
“How could a discovery like that lead to an attack?” Jess asked. “It’s not like they were building some crazy weaponry, or an army of terminator robots or something like that were they?”
“No, but maybe they initiated an attack because they were feeling the heat, and were afraid that their project was going to be shut down,” Brian offered. With nobody responding, he continued, “But even if it was being shut down, would that lead to an attack? I mean, last night we were talking about that CCP project from 2025—that was shut down after public pressure, and they didn’t turn around and attack anything.”
Sara got up and tended to the fire in the wood stove.
Kid again noticed her discomfort with the topic, just like the night before. After giving her a few moments alone, he came over and sat on the floor next to her. He gave her some more time before finally saying, “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, Kid. What is it?”
“You seem really uncomfortable whenever someone mentions that old CCP project,” he said. Sara turned her eyes down. Kid knew he was spot on but didn’t know if she wanted to talk about it.
She exhaled. “You noticed?”
“Of course. How couldn’t I?”
“Let’s just say I will forever have a connection to that horrible project,” she said.
Kid remained silent. She would talk when and if she was ready.
While slowly spinning a poker in her hand, she finally asked, “Do you remember what led to the CCP being shut down?”
“I was no ace in history, but I should at least know that.” He thought for a second. “An army wife, named Anna Delilah, fell off of a window ledge trying to get her kid and escape the CCP project. Her death became the rallying cry for the protesters who started the Civil Crisis of 2025. They marched on Washington and got the president to stop the CCP.”
“Exactly right. And Delilah’s kid became the infamous Baby Doe.”
“The baby they were forever trying to find, and couldn’t,” he recalled. He wondered where this was going.
Sara turned to him. “I know I’ve mentioned that I was born at the Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Georgia, but what I’ve never told anyone is that it was the same hospital, and even the same floor, as the CCP’s Baby Doe, just ten days after Anna Delilah gave birth.”
“Are you serious?” His eyes were open wide.
“Yes. Actually, my dad told me that I slept in the same bassinet that held Baby Doe. He had already been promoted to major in the Army at that time, and I would have been taken into that CCP program, but it was cancelled just days before I was born. He said my mother was so adamantly opposed to that awful project that if it hadn’t been cancelled, she was going to fight them tooth and nail and was not going to give me up.”
“Why was she so against it?”
“Remember what CCP stands for: Child Conditioning Program. They were taking the babies of military mothers for the first three months of life so the child could be ‘socially conditioned,’ aka, brainwashed while their brains were just developing so that they would behave a certain way for the rest of their lives. My mother told my dad that her baby was not going to be one of ‘Pavlov’s dogs.’ She was having no part of it.”
Sara’s revelation brought a deep silence, until Kid noted, “I never knew that you had such a close connection to one of the historic events in our lifetime. No wonder the topic makes you uncomfortable.”
“Nobody really knew. I’ve never shared that with anyone. But if you think the topic makes me uncomfortable, you should have seen my dad. It was really weighing on him, especially over the last week with the press regurgitating it so much. I know it bothered him a lot, because he was writing like mad in his diary.”
“The hauntings continue.” His reference to an inside joke was automatic, but he wasn’t trying to be funny at that moment.
“With a vengeance.” After a momentary pause, she asked while poking a log in the open door of the wood stove, “You know what was most sad?”
“What?”
“After having kids, most parents rehash stories over and over about the day their child was born, and talk about how amazed and proud they were, especially with their first child. But my dad could never talk about the day I was born.”
“Why not?” Kid knew he made a mistake the second he posed the question. He already knew the answer.
She said somberly, “Because he could never reflect on the day I was born without being haunted by how that day ended with mom passing away.”
Not wanting to stick his foot in his mouth again, Kid was silent as he watched her chip away at a log with a bronze-topped poker.
“Every time I saw an article, or heard a newscaster mention anything about the CCP, it was a reminder of losing my mom, and of growing up without a mother. It always hit home. I went through that when the Civil Crisis of 2025 was covered in my history class in school. It bothered me so much that I spent half of the class period in the bathroom.”
“That’s awful. And it really is, or was, all over the news in the last week. You couldn’t avoid it,” he added as he pulled her close. He again wished he could take away her pain as his protectiveness kicked in. Sara leaned into him and latched onto his arm.
Jess stood up in Old Man Drexer’s living room and announced, “We need to go look for other survivors. I refuse to believe we are the only ones. We just need to travel further than the first run me and Kid made.”
Maria nodded. “I agree, but can we eat some real food first? I took my meds but I’m still feeling weak and from what you guys said you saw out there, it may be a long trip.”
“Alright,” Jess agreed. “Before we do anything, me and Kid can quickly hit the nearby supermarket and grab some food.”
“Isn’t that place closed for the winter?” Mike Norris asked.
“Yes, but I’m sure they still have a decent inventory of nonperishables.” Nonperishables. Kid was amused by the choice of words. Jess sounded like the supermarket night crew chief he was.
Turning to Sara, Kid kissed her on the head. “Be back soon.” He turned. “Are we driving over Jess?”
“I was thinking we could walk. It’s pretty close, and honestly I could use the fresh air. I’ve felt queasy ever since we saw the guts of that clerk this morning.”
“Wait, we’re coming too,” Mike said as he jumped to his feet.
Chatty Cathy finally spoke and said simply, “I’ll stay. Take Mark.”
“Come on Mark.”
Kid, Jess, and the Norris brothers left the shack and strolled a few blocks west before turning north.
“I don’t get it. How are we still alive?” Kid pondered. “Why would they wipe out everything around here except for a small section of the beach?”
“Maybe they just missed the sliver of land along the shore?” Jess suggested.
Kid thought for a moment. “It still doesn’t make any sense to me. You heard Sara. That weapon system was supposed to be foolproof, with no chance of survival from an attack.”
Mike Norris said off the cuff, “Then obviously they weren’t trying to hit us.”
They were so immersed in conversation that none of them looked around while walking. Kid stopped short and glanced up at the supermarket façade. “We’re already here.” He picked up a large rock in the parking lot and hurled it at the door, shattering a large section of the glass. He kicked out the remaining shards, climbed in, and unlocked it. They grabbed two shopping carts and loaded them with canned goods, spring water, soap, paper towels, toilet paper, and assorted other items.”
Walking back, Kid and Jess struggled as they pushed full shopping carts along the snowy roadway. The Norris brothers followed behind.
Kid muttered, “I knew we should have driven over.”
“Head for boardwalk,” Jess said and pointed. “That will get us out of the snow.”
On the boardwalk they passed an arcade, and the low whistle of the wind found every crevasse in the building’s struc
ture. Kid paused and peered through the window. In the eerie dim light, he could see rows of Skee-Ball lanes and a hockey game encased in a plastic bubble. The games seemed dusty and decaying, as if they had already accepted a fate that he could never bring himself to accept. In a large painting on a near wall, even the seagulls seemed to be wailing in despair, forlorn. Despite the short time in actuality, the inside appeared as if it had not been touched for 50 years. A pang of nostalgic sadness tingled within Kid when he realized that 50 years from now, if someone was to peer through this same window, they would probably see things exactly as he was seeing them now.
Making their way along the boardwalk, Jess stopped short.
“What is it?” Kid asked.
He pointed and yelled, “Ships!”
Leaving the shopping carts behind, they all ran to the end of Casino Pier and stood next to a little booth tucked away in the corner. Kid gazed out to sea and sure enough, a few miles out were three huge gray ships. There were others alive on the planet, which was an overwhelming relief. “How did we not see three enormous ships approaching?” he muttered aloud, recalling their oblivion as they walked to the supermarket.
“What are they doing down there?” Mark Norris pointed.
Kid turned to see Sara, Maria, Heidi, Cathy and Brian on the beach. The group was far to the south, and were ant-size from such a distance, but he could tell they were waving their hands in the air. The only one not waving was Brian. He was standing still and seemed uncertain. They were so far away that even if Kid yelled they would never hear him. And it was no use trying to get their attention as they were fixated on the ships.
“What is that?” Jess pointed at a white speck in the distance.
After staring for a moment, Kid stated the obvious. “A boat.”
The small vessel was motoring toward the shore, and heading for Sara and the others. As it grounded on the beach, seven men jumped out and walked in the direction of the group. Everyone on the beach seemed to freeze with apprehension. The newcomers looked like soldiers as they marched in a militant fashion, all wearing the same gray uniforms. They even seemed to have the same hairstyle. An eighth person walked behind the others, and seemed to be directing them. He had gray hair and appeared to be a much older man.
“What do they have in their hands?” After staring closely, Kid gasped as he realized that they were all holding a weapon.
“I don’t know, but we better get down there,” Jess replied and went to run off of the pier. He stopped as the older soldier fired a weapon, unprovoked, at Brian from point blank range.
Kid cringed, but there was no concussive blast. Rather it quietly emitted some kind of bright bolt, which caught Brian right in the chest. His friend fell over sideways and appeared to be frozen in the same position as the very second he was shot. Heidi went to run over to him, but one of the soldiers grabbed her and wrestled her into the waiting boat.
From behind the small booth at the end of the pier, the guys watched in horror as the soldiers grabbed Sara, Maria and Cathy and put them in the boat with Heidi. Kid wanted to run down after them, but they would be greatly outnumbered on a wide-open beach, and with the weapons these people were carrying, he thought the better of it. The Norris brothers were frozen in place, but Jess was ready to attack.
“Stay here!” Kid said as he held Jess’s arm with a firm grip. “We’d have no chance! It would be a suicide mission!”
“Alright!” Jess snapped and stopped trying to pull away.
They stood at the rail and watched as the older man spoke to four of the soldiers. He seemed to be giving them orders and suddenly, he pointed to the pier. Kid ducked back behind the booth and pulled Jess with him. “Shit, he looked right at us!”
A minute later, Kid peeked around the corner enough to see the boat speeding toward the three large ships. He squinted and was able to discern who the passengers were. “The girls are in the boat, heading out to those ships!” Kid had a sudden chill as he watched the girls being taken away by an obviously hostile group. His heart skipped a beat and his mind took an involuntary snapshot. He hoped it would not be the last time he would ever see any of them alive.
“We need to see which of those three ships they’re taking them to,” Jess said. “Who is in the boat with them?”
“Some old dude, and three of those… soldiers.” It then hit Kid. Three soldiers? Where are the other four? He extended his head out further, and gasped as he noticed that the four soldiers left behind were running on the boardwalk and heading toward the pier.
Jess turned to say, “They went to the middle…”
Kid put his hand over his friend’s mouth and pulled him to the ground behind the booth at the end of the pier. “Get down,” he hissed and waved down the Norris brothers.
The soldiers had made the turn and were now searching the pier.
On the middle of the three ships, the girls were escorted by armed soldiers down to the 29th floor. They were separated and directed into their own rooms. Sara and Maria’s rooms were next to each other, while Heidi and Cathy were across the hall.
Sara stepped in and turned as the door quickly, but smoothly, slid across and closed behind her. In the top half of the closed door was a large, square piece of glass. While she was looking out, she stepped back as a uniformed soldier sprayed her window with a substance that made the glass frosted, and opaque. Through it, Sara could only see shadows and light, but no details.
Turning back around, she cased out her holding cell. She had a bed, a small round table with four plush chairs, and a large flat screen monitor. Although the monitor was not on, a fluorescent digital clock in the top right corner displayed the time. In the back of the room, not hidden in any way, was a toilet and sink. “The deluxe jail cell,” she muttered and sat down in a chair.
Although still alive, Sara did not know what was in store for her. She thought through the possibilities and a full body spasm as chills ran down her spine. Torture? Abuse? Death? She jumped up from the chair and started pacing around the room.
Chapter 7
December 27, 2044
Tuesday, Late Afternoon
New Jersey coast
The day after the event
Lying down on the pier, Jess’s eyes opened wide as Kid whispered, “They’re coming this way! We’re trapped!”
The pier was long and relatively wide, but Kid knew that with four soldiers searching it would be hard to sneak past them. He raised his head enough to see a young soldier, maybe 18 years old, wearing a gray uniform with a number embroidered on it. The guy had what appeared to be a gun, but based on what Kid had seen hit Brian on the beach, it didn’t shoot ordinary bullets. The soldier was only about 50 feet away and the gap was closing.
Mike Norris suddenly jumped to his feet and rushed the closest soldier. Kid remembered that Mike was a four-year starting linebacker on the football team in high school, and the guy could put a serious hit on someone. The soldier crouched and braced. The Norris brother bounced off of the soldier as if he had charged into a telephone pole. Mike grabbed for his shoulder as he hit the ground. The soldier raised his weapon and shot the Norris brother in the chest. Just like Brian on the beach, Mike was instantly frozen. He had an expression of pain and surprise stuck on his face.
“Jesus! Let’s get out of here!” Mark Norris uttered. As he bolted, he pulled off his coat and threw it over the soldier’s head before the enemy could turn fully around.
Weaving around the rides and booths, it looked like Mark might actually make it off the pier. But then Kid’s stomach soured when he realized that the soldiers obviously had a plan. One of the four soldiers had been left at the entrance, to ensure nobody could get behind the other three who were searching. It dawned on him that when the older soldier had directed the soldiers on the beach and pointed to the pier, he had likely laid out this plan.
Mark ducked and a shot whizzed past him. He charged and threw an elbow, which caught the soldier’s chin. Kid thought the soldier wo
uld crumble, as any human rightfully should, but the enemy seemed unfazed as he lunged and tackled the Norris brother. Mark was drilled in the midsection and lifted like he was a cardboard cut-out, not the 220 pound man he was. The soldier threw him hard to the ground as a second soldier came over and shot Mark in the neck, freezing him. Seemingly unaffected by the taking of lives, the soldiers turned and continued their search.
Seeing no other means of escape, Kid whispered to Jess, “Jump, but its shallow so do a big-time belly flop!”
Jess rolled over the top of the rail and dropped to the water. A sharp splashing sound followed. Peeking around the corner of the booth, Kid watched for a reaction. The soldiers heard the noise and came running toward the end of the pier, weapons aimed forward.
Kid took a running headfirst leap over the rail. As he flew through the air, a bolt flashed by his hand, barely missing him. Although trying to belly flop, his outstretched arms swiftly touched bottom. He knew by the force of the impact that the partial belly flop likely saved him from a broken neck. As soon as his head emerged from the icy Atlantic, he could hear Jess yelling, “Come on Kid!”
He came ashore and sprinted with heavy clothes. From the pier above, they could hear the hurried footsteps of running soldiers. Kid didn’t know if they should make a break for it to the north or south side of the pier, so they went further underneath and hid behind pilings. While they were watching the steps down to the beach, waiting for the soldiers to come down, he said, “If they split up and come down both sides, we split up too.”
A second later they heard a splash. They turned to each other in scared bewilderment, and then peered behind at the shallow surf. Between the rows of pilings, they saw two more soldiers hit the water. The first soldier had surfaced, and was holding his grotesquely fractured arm. “What are they doing?” Kid stared in disbelief.
As the fourth and final soldier plunged into the ocean, his arms didn’t break his fall. His head hit the bottom hard and fast, and the rest of his body went limp, like a rag-doll. Face down in the water the soldier couldn’t help himself. His three comrades ignored him and kept up the pursuit.