by Lee West
“I’ve been so worried about you,” he whispered into her neck.
“Same here,” she said. Breaking their embrace, she moved back from him slightly and added, “Actually, I slept for most of the time we were separated. I guess I didn’t realize how exhausted I was.”
“Same here. Let’s go and find Mike. He’s meeting us for lunch at the chow hall,” said Joe.
They walked hand and hand through the tent maze toward the chow hall.
“I’m starving,” she said.
“Me too. I hope the food is better than what I had when I was in the Navy.”
After walking a little more, Joe said, “This is it. Let’s see if Mike’s inside. Otherwise we should wait out here for him.”
“No need to wait. Here he comes.”
Mike seemed to be headed in their direction but then continued walking down a different tent row, obviously lost. He looked at the map in his hands more than his surroundings, making navigation difficult. If he had only looked up, he would have seen Joe and Meg waiting for him.
“I’ll grab him. Give me just one sec,” said Joe, kissing her cheek.
Joe sprinted off in the direction where he last saw his friend. Mike must have wandered into a different section, because he was no longer walking where Joe thought he should be. Frustrated, Joe decided to turn back toward Meg.
“BIRCH! HEY, BIRCH!” came a call from behind him.
Joe spun around to see Riley McSavage, a guy he went to basic training with.
“Hey, Savage! Last person I would have expected to see here!” said Joe. The old friends shook hands.
“Come on, I’ll introduce you to my wife, Meg.”
As they walked toward Meg, Mike emerged from one of the lines of tents, finally finding his way.
“There you are!” Joe said to Mike.
“This place is a maze. I don’t know how anyone finds their way around here!” said Mike, frustrated.
“Riley, meet Mike and Meg. We’re about to have some chow. Are you free to join us?” asked Joe.
“Sure. I’d love to!” Riley said.
— 32 —
A thick cold wall of air-conditioning hit Joe’s sweaty head as he walked into the chow hall. The heat of the day had only taken a few minutes to catch up to him, making him uncomfortable. The cold air felt amazing.
He handed Meg a tray and allowed her to walk in front of him through the food line. The hot food would never qualify as haute cuisine, but Joe’s mouth watered when the food line staff piled unidentifiable globs of hot food onto his tray. He could not recall the last time he’d had a hot meal. At the university they’d subsisted on cold canned food and vending machine snacks. Again he felt his mind and body relax into being at the camp. Suspicion over the government activities gave way to gratitude for the care they received.
“Come on. Let’s sit over here,” said Riley.
Riley navigated the long rows of metal tables to find one in the far corner of the room away from other diners.
“How long have you been at the camp, Riley?” asked Meg.
Joe heard the edge in her voice and knew Meg still viewed the soldiers as the enemy. Her attitude caused him to shake back into the mindset they’d had when they first arrived on dry land. He eyed Riley suspiciously, waiting for an answer.
After swallowing an impossibly large forkful of mashed potatoes, Riley finally answered, “I’ve been here from the beginning. I’m a lab worker on base. Once the shit hit the fan, the first thing they did was to set up the labs. We’ve been super busy. I tested your samples. It’s how I knew you were here. I was on my way to find you when we bumped into one another.”
“I hated allowing them to take my DNA. Last thing I want is to be part of some sort of DNA database,” said Mike.
“You know the government can then use our DNA to thwart our Fourth Amendment rights. Why would you want to be part of any of this?” demanded Meg.
“DNA database? What are you talking about?” asked Riley.
“We know the truth of what happened. The government orchestrated the entire EMP event in order to establish martial law and imprison innocent civilians. They want to use this so-called crisis to create a new normal where we become accustomed to the government being able to enter our home, seize our belongings and arrest innocent civilians!” said Meg, a little out of control.
“Whoa! What are you talking about? None of that’s what’s actually happening here. Why do you even believe any of that nonsense? We’re under attack,” said Riley.
“Sure we are,” retorted Meg.
Joe trusted Riley. The man had always been a straight shooter for as long as Joe knew him. He had no reason to believe Riley would lie to them.
“Who attacked us? What do you mean? What’s happening?” asked Joe. He grabbed Meg’s hand and gave it a squeeze, trying to calm her.
She reciprocated the squeeze, indicating she would relax and listen.
“Don’t you know?” asked Riley incredulously.
“Know what?” asked Mike.
“China attacked the U.S. We’ve been defending our homeland from a full-scale invasion. All of this, the troops, the camp—all of it is part of the war effort. How did you miss the news coverage or the emergency broadcasts? The emergency broadcast system blared out its message nearly continually until they hit us with the EMP,” said Riley, shaking his head.
Riley looked at the three of them as though they were the most clueless people he had ever encountered. Joe began to wonder if they had gotten everything wrong since escaping the cruise ship.
“We were on a cruise when the EMP occurred. All we know is that after escaping the ship, we got to land to find all the citizens gone and soldiers actively grabbing people out of their homes,” said Meg.
“My family vanished. I have no idea what happened to them. My house was the first place we went when we got to the mainland. It was like they just walked out. They didn’t even leave a note.”
“Of course they vanished without leaving a note. They were hastily evacuated for their own safety. Wow. I can’t get over how far off you guys are. That’s incredible. This whole time you’ve been thinking our government had a hand in this?”
Joe nodded and said, “Start from the beginning. We need to hear the entire story of what’s been going on.”
Riley put his fork down and looked at them with detached seriousness. “The week before the EMP, China managed to launch a full-scale land attack on the U.S. west coast. They came in hard and fast, landing one battalion of soldiers after another on U.S. soil. We were completely unprepared. No one thought the U.S. would be hit like that, with conventional warfare techniques. Their sheer numbers simply overran our defenses. They even stole U.S. technology used to harden electronics against an EMP. Up until this point, U.S. war planning always involved fighting in a foreign land. Even though we have domestic defenses, we always counted on early warning of any invasion. The powers that be never really planned for a surprise attack of this magnitude. It’s just not something anyone thought would happen. We’ve become complacent with regard to the vulnerability of our shores. Up until this happened, everyone prepared for long-distance fighting.”
“Holy shit. How the hell did they get within striking distance of our mainland without anyone knowing it? It makes no sense. You’d think someone in the fleet would have seen massive carrier groups moving in our direction,” said Joe.
“You’d think that would be the case. However, the sneaky bastards were more prepared than we could have imagined. Years ago they installed the world’s largest antenna in the mountains of Argentina. They claimed the antenna had been erected for nonmilitary purposes. Then they flooded the Argentine economy with money, infrastructure improvements and lavish loans. For our part, the U.S. refused to loan Argentina any money, which basically pushed them into the waiting arms of the Reds.”
“I heard about that years ago. I remember reading about the antenna and wondering why Argentina would allow China to set up like that in the
ir country,” said Meg.
“Yeah, they set up all right. While the U.S. focused on blowing up yet another Middle Eastern country, the Reds moved into our backyard. Then the sneaky fucks used the antenna and their 5G networks to scramble our intelligence. Suddenly the U.S. couldn’t communicate within branches of the military, nor could it see what was actually happening in the water right off our shores. They had been planning this attack for years. Slowly laying the groundwork a little at a time right under our noses, and none of us were the wiser.”
“So we were just sitting here doing nothing when they invaded?” asked Mike.
“Basically, yes. From our side, all looked the same on radar, through satellites and via communications. They even rerouted all voice and email traffic to China. They set up huge intel farms, with the help of the Russians, of course. When we thought we were talking to another American, we were actually talking to a Red and had no idea. The best part was that between the Reds and the Russians, they flooded our social media with so much divisive crap that regular Americans no longer trusted one another. If I didn’t hate them so much, I’d say the plan was brilliant. They really did a number on us,” said Riley.
“My god. Are they still in our country?” asked Meg, shaken.
A strong chill moved through Joe’s body. He moved closer to Meg for comfort.
“Oh yes. They now control over two-thirds of the U.S. mainland. They’ve managed to push the attack east. So far we’ve been able to hold the line against them, but it hasn’t been easy, and our human losses are staggering. They’re outmaneuvering us at every turn because we haven’t been able to properly communicate with one another to coordinate our defenses. We’ve had to set up a secondary set of communications, which took time that we didn’t have. Also, even with a so-called secure line, we have really no way to confirm that we’re actually talking to another American. They’ve managed to infiltrate our ranks to the point that they discover code words as fast as we can think them up. It’s really insane. One of the worst parts of this is that we have an entire nuclear arsenal at our disposal, but no one will use it. Who would want to kill their own citizens like that?”
“What about our allies? Are any other countries helping us?” asked Mike, the strain in his voice evident.
“Yes. But just our neighbors. I’ve heard talk that the Brits might come, but that’s it. After pulling out of NATO, it seems like our allies are too busy to come to our aid. NATO required all of our allies to come to defend us if we were ever attacked. Without the treaty, we’re on our own and no one cares. On the other hand, Mexico and Canada stepped up and are helping considerably.”
“Why did we see soldiers grabbing Americans? The whole thing looked like our government was actively rounding up regular U.S. citizens. None of this makes sense,” said Meg.
“We had no choice but to round everyone up and make sure they are who they appear to be.”
“What do you mean? Were Chinese soldiers hiding out on U.S. soil?”
“Oh no. They did one better. They worked with several universities to create a drug that would numb us out. They call it Wondra. The university right here in the mountains managed to crack the research nut and develop a safe usable drug. Once our government figured out what the Chinese were doing, they yanked the project, forcing the university to shut down the entire lab, but the damage had been done. The Reds already had a usable compound in their greedy little hands. Somehow they managed to push the drug to millions of Americans.”
“What the hell? How?” asked Joe.
“We aren’t entirely sure yet. The latest theory is that they slipped it into vape compounds. The smoker gets a full dose, but those around the smoker also get dosed. Eventually, with enough out there, the mind-altering agent spread around.”
“Why would they do that? None of this makes sense,” said Meg.
“They had to do it. The Reds know that Americans are the fiercest, bravest m’fers on the planet. Every one of us would defend our country to the death. Without Wondra, they would’ve had to fight every last person, not just our scrambling military. Door-to-door combat would have been necessary to win. They knew that would never work because we’re an armed citizenry with a long history of using local militia for defense. We would’ve been a little disorganized in the beginning, but eventually we would’ve caught on and given them the fight of their lives. Even with their superior numbers, we could’ve beaten them back. They needed Wondra to make us all numb. Once they gave us Wondra, we simply turned to social media and got fed a bunch of lies, which made us hate one another and tune out. They numbed us and manipulated us. Like I said, it was brilliant.”
“Why the DNA tests? What’s up with that? And these markings on our arms? What is all of that?” asked Joe.
“The feds decided that testing for Wondra would be the best way to discover the Reds. We’re looking for Wondra in the system through testing saliva. We’re also looking for molecular compounds bonding to the basic DNA strand. We think persistent use of Wondra shows up as lesions or even nodules on otherwise healthy DNA strands. We’ve been able to yank people presenting in this way from the general population in order to isolate them. They’re too vulnerable to misinformation and suspicion to be left alone out there.”
Joe looked at Riley, stunned. Throughout the entire ordeal they’d suspected the government of harming its citizens. Everything they believed had been false. Suddenly his mind turned back to something Riley said.
“You mentioned the final work on Wondra happened here? At the university?” said Joe.
“Yes. A researcher named Ed Camp worked almost exclusively on the project. Why?”
“Shit! We know Ed. We’ve been hiding out at the university from the soldiers. We thought we were doing the right thing!” said Meg, a little panicked.
“The last place anyone should want to be is at that university. It’s a stronghold for the Reds. They’ve been using the university’s facilities throughout the entire ordeal. We think most of the Chinese students and faculty are actually agents. We believe the entire campus acted as a testing ground for Wondra.”
Piecing together the information Riley provided, Joe recalled watching the soldiers grab a particularly bold Chinese student. He’d watched the men drag the Chinese woman away kicking and screaming. At the time, Joe thought the student acted out in order to fight back against an overstepping government. Now he realized she was an enemy combatant on U.S. soil.
“Ed’s in charge of the people at the university. He’s a great guy, from what we can tell. Do you think he knew what his research was being used for?” asked Joe.
“We don’t think so. Whatever they were doing to test the drug on campus was done without his or his staff’s knowledge. As far as we can tell, he’s a mere bystander to all of the madness.”
“Why not pull him and the other innocent people off the campus? We saw plenty of soldiers coming and going. No one would think it’s odd if the soldiers’ presence on campus increased. We might be able to save some Americans’ lives. Unless there’s a different strategy to get them out,” said Mike.
“We think the entire campus has been contaminated with the drug and has been for quite a while. Since we know what they’re doing now, we’ve been watching the campus and trying to turn the tables on them. From what I hear, our intelligence services are trying to thwart a major attack by using the university to pass along misinformation. Soldiers came and went on campus so that it didn’t look as though the campus was off-limits. If we had done that, the Reds might have gotten suspicious. We really didn’t want to give anything away that they could use.”
“We need to get them out of there! They aren’t safe! We left our friends up there. They have no idea what’s happening!” said Meg.
Joe worried about Nancy and Brett’s safety. Now their paranoia made sense. The entire time, their minds had been warped by the use of Wondra.
“Crap! That’s why Brett and Nancy immediately suspected the U.S. government of
orchestrating the entire event. Throughout our entire ordeal those two kept filling our heads with notions of a government takedown. My god. How could I have been so blind?” said Mike.
“Don’t blame yourself or them. They’re under the influence of Wondra. They really have no idea what they’re doing. And, Meg, you can’t get them out of there. It’s far too dangerous. Besides, within the next week the entire mountain will be lit up,” said Riley.
“It seems like the pushback has already begun. We were at a survivalist camp in the mountains when the troops came in. It looked like a full-scale military operation. That’s where they grabbed us,” said Joe.
“The attack that took place this past week was just the beginning. The entire side of the mountain will be hit hard by our guys. They want to put an end to the Red stronghold at the university. Sorry to say it, but your friends are as good as dead.”
Riley’s words hit Joe hard. He cared deeply for Brett and Nancy, even if their drug-induced paranoia had led them to all the decisions they’d made leading up to this moment. He agreed with Meg. They needed to figure out a way to at least warn them and the others.
“How long do you think we have before the attack?” asked Joe.
Riley ran a hand over his head and said, “I don’t know. I’m really not in the planning side of things. I just hear talk. All I know is that the entire mountainside will be leveled. It’s the only way to stop the Red advancement.”
“Crap. We need to warn them. We can’t just let our friends get killed,” said Meg again.
“You go to warn them and you’ll either get court-martialed for treason or killed in the crossfire. Your pick. If it were me, I’d say a prayer for them and leave it alone. You guys are safe here on base for as long as you want to stay. The clean lab tests mean you have been cleared to leave anytime. Staying here any longer is your choice.”
“Seriously? Where would we go?” asked Mike.
“Go home. We’ve secured most areas on the eastern side of the mountains. You should be fine to return home unless you live in a designated hot zone like the area around the university. Your other option is to stay and fight. We’ve had plenty of people volunteering for the Home Army. Frankly, we need every able-bodied person we can get to join the fight. Like I said, the Reds outnumber us. Every one of our fighters is important to winning this thing.”
