The Chardon Chronicles: Season Two --- The Winter

by Kevin Kimmich

  Chapter One

  Daniel Jackson was whistling Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and heading up the sidewalk toward home. The dusky evening was unseasonably warm. He had a bag of groceries in one hand and had his sketchpad under his other arm. He noticed flashing lights of police cars on his street close to his house. He crossed the road and went into the cemetery to get a better look from a safe distance. Police, two black SUVs with United States Coast Guard insignia, and one white car with Department of Homeland Security were pulled onto the sidewalk in front of his house.

  “What the fuck?” he whispered. He could see they were carrying out materials from his house, journals, notebooks, his computer, sketch pads. He walked briskly away across the cemetery. He felt a flash of anger and frustration. He pulled a pear out of the grocery bag and dumped the rest in the garbage. He flipped through the sketch pad and tore out pictures that showed real world people, like Amy and Robbie. He shredded them and tossed the strips into different garbage cans. He ducked into a thrift shop and bought a black hoodie and a hat and sunglasses. He sat down on a table in front of a cafe and copied a list of his contacts onto a sheet of paper.

  He gave the cell phone to a young man, then walked away down the block, not exactly sure what he’d do next. His feet and a couple of bus trips carried him back to the National Mall. The festive atmosphere continued. He saw the bright lights of TV cameras near the reflecting pool. A stage had been set up and a band was playing. He could just hear the amplified voice of the singer and an occasional crash of a cymbal.

  Daniel smiled and sat down on a park bench and took in the whole scene. Young men and women were lounging around all over the grass. Things were still good, but the sense of a turned tide, of a revolution in the making was gone.

  He noticed men in twos and threes were walking briskly along the sidewalk toward the TV lights. Daniel took note of their shoes, all dark black lugged soled shoes. The men were all physically fit, clean cut, and wore black shirts and a black baseball cap. If he were able to see infra-red, he would have seen a shiny diamond on the front and back of the ballcaps and on their black shirts.

  He watched the men work their way through the crowd. Two of the men closest to him approached two girls laying on a blanket. One of the girls was a blonde, the other was African American. They were both wearing shorts and T-shirts and were barefoot, enjoying the evening air and the music. The girls were complaining that the men were getting their blanket dirty. One of the men grabbed the blond girl under the armpits, and the other man ripped off her shorts and started to rape her.

  Screams erupted around them, then all over on the Mall. A group of men and women ran to help the blonde, but a couple of the would be helpers dropped to the ground. Their heads exploded into a cloud of red mist as an unseen sniper began picking people off. Chaos erupted and people ran in all directions. The cameras caught the scene live. Daniel ran away from the park.