Blinding Fear

by Roland, Bruce

  As Claire, Herc and Kay hurried across the tarmac through the snow flurries she saw at least eight other private jets also in the midst of loading. Everywhere they’d flown recently, Kay’s Gulfstream had been the only aircraft moving near the corporate terminals when it arrived or took off.

  Within five minutes they were on-board as Herc and Kay went through their preflight check list. Claire strapped in and watched the beehive of jet activity around them. She saw most of them were taxiing much faster than normal and trying to weave around each other to get into the takeoff queue ahead of everyone else. She was beginning to wonder if a ground collision might occur.

  “Herc!” she yelled toward the cockpit. “You’d better be careful! These other pilots are maniacs! Somebody’s going to have an accident!”

  “Yeah! I see them. Thanks!”

  She looked out her window behind them just in time to see what she had feared. An older, smaller corporate jet tried to get around a larger model but the first pilot misjudged the distance between the two. One of the smaller jet’s wing tips sliced into the fuselage of the larger one. The damage was relatively minor but she knew both aircraft were now grounded. Within 30 seconds, both pilots, other crew and passengers had piled out to start arguing and yelling at each other. Within another 30 seconds a full-blown fistfight had erupted between several people from each plane. She watched in horror as one man drew a gun, started brandishing it then firing a shot into the air. Another man tackled him from behind and the two rolled around on the ground as other people rushed in to try to break it up, while others took the opportunity for a free kick or punch. She intuitively knew the tableau playing out before her was a microcosm of countless other conflicts both large and small breaking out worldwide.

  “Herc! Let’s get out of here!”

  “On our way!”

  Thankfully, Claire heard their engines spool up and the plane began to move. As she continued to look out her windows she could see they were fifth in line for takeoff behind a variety of private aircraft and commercial carriers. Normally, there would have been a considerable wait between each aircraft as the first one in line got airborne and away before the next began its takeoff roll. Not today. Each plane in front of them began its roll before the previous one was less than halfway down the runway. Herc was no different. As soon as he could he advanced the throttles to full power and the 150 accelerated rapidly toward takeoff. Within seconds they were airborne. Moments later she felt it violently bank and turn to the left, then Herc shout, “Damn! Where’d he come from!”

  “What happened?!” Claire yelled.

  “A United 767 came out of nowhere. We just missed him! He was climbing as steeply as I’ve ever seen a commercial jet try! Another degree or two and he’d have stalled for sure! I think he took off without clearance. Nobody on the airport ground traffic channel said anything about him. If this is what’s happening at airports near oceans there’s going to be a whole bunch of serious accidents.”

  As they banked and continued to climb away from New York, Claire looked down at the spiderweb of roads around the city. All were clogged with tens of thousands of vehicles of every description attempting to escape.

  Within 10 minutes Herc had pushed the 150 to its maximum cruising altitude of 45,000 feet trying to get above the chaos that was developing in the skies above America. He also accelerated to its maximum cruising speed of approximately 500 miles per hour.

  “I want to get us on the ground as quickly as possible in Texas,” Herc said. “There’s no telling how many lunatics will be at the controls of aircraft. We should be a lot safer there.”

  Once the plane was in cruise mode and on autopilot Kay came back into the cabin to use the satellite phone. She couldn’t help but hear his end of the call.

  “Rich. It’s Kay........Yes, things were very bad in New York. We nearly didn’t make it out of LaGuardia. Everybody’s pretty much panicking. How are things there?........ Good! I want to keep it that way. So effective right now I’m calling a Level Five security alert......You heard me right!........I don’t care who they are! Tell them I’m the one who cancelled it!........I want that place locked down tight as a drum!......I should be arriving in about four hours. We’ll review everything then, okay?........Good. And thanks, Rich. I know you can handle this. See you later.”

  Kay disconnected the call and replaced the phone in its cabinet. He turned to Claire with a troubled look.

  “Things bad in Texas?” she asked.

  “Somewhat. Once your article hit the news, quite a few local people started trying to get on the base. They must have thought they’d be safer there. Our guards have been turning them away since 8 a.m. local time. There’s also been several aircraft who wanted to land. We’ve also had some VIPs with standing appointments show up. Thankfully, our security people didn’t let them on. That’s all we’d need. Some Hollywood celebrity or industrial magnate making demands at a time like this.”

  “If you don’t mind my asking, what’s a ‘Level Five’ alert?”

  “Basically, we don’t let anyone on the base who doesn’t work there. We also start making 24-7 patrols with armed guards and dogs around the base perimeter fence. We also electrify the fence, among other things which I won’t go into.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding!”

  “Think about it, Claire. We’ve got hundreds of millions of dollars worth of irreplaceable aircraft and hardware. And of course, from time to time, we have clients of the highest level from this country and many others staying with us. In the future we’d planned on those individuals staying with us for two weeks at a time. There are lots of bad actors out there who would like nothing better than to see some of our guests either dead or thrown into some God-forsaken prison in a third-world country. We had to protect them at any cost! For what’s it worth, I’ve got standing agreements with the Texas and U.S. departments of justice that allow the measures. I’ve also......”

  “Hey, you two!” Herc shouted from the cockpit. “I just heard some chatter from other pilots that the president is about to speak to the nation. Turn on the satellite TV!”

  Kay quickly stood up and opened another cabinet revealing a 32” TV. He pulled out the remote and hit the power button. The official seal of the office of the president was on screen.

  .”.......and now, from the Oval Office in the White House, here is the President of the United States.”

  Claire and Herc watched as the on-screen image of the seal was replaced with an upper-body shot of the president sitting at what presidential historians referred to as the “Resolute Desk.” Claire knew from her history trivia files that England’s Queen Victoria had given the desk to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1879.

  As she watched him about to speak, Claire was struck by how tired the President looked. Although it was common knowledge the rigors of the office took a terrible toll on many of those who held it, this president appeared to have aged rapidly in recent days. All things considered, she was not surprised.

  “Good afternoon, my fellow Americans. I am compelled to speak to you today about a crisis that is unequalled in the history of our country or for that matter, the world. As you have undoubtably heard by now, an asteroid over six miles in diameter is rapidly approaching the Earth. According to NASA scientists, if it continues on its present trajectory, it will hit in the Atlantic ocean between Africa and South America on January 16th. If it does, the resulting explosion will create global changes in our climate and ecosphere that will catastrophically affect us all. However, I say ‘if’ because your government, in close cooperation with many other governments, has been working around the clock since the asteroid’s discovery to find a way of either destroying the asteroid or deflecting it away from us. We believe we have found that way. When the asteroid is three days away we will launch a rocket that has been specifically designed and modified for this mission. It will have a payload of two, large nuclear bombs. Our scientists will attempt to hit the asteroid with both bombs
at the same moment to blow it into many pieces. We are confident that most, if not all, of those pieces will be deflected away from the Earth. I regret to say there may be some which will hit the Earth and cause local or regional damage. We have no way of knowing how big those pieces may be or where they might hit. However, we believe the damage caused by these smaller pieces would far less than the whole asteroid impacting our planet. We are forced to wait until the asteroid is three days away because of its very high speed and highly unusual orbit. This launch window will ensure we hit it exactly where we need to. Launching earlier would have sharply reduced accuracy and subsequent effectiveness.

  This has been a very trying time for your representatives. There was a great deal of vigorous debate within American scientific and governmental circles as well as with our international partners. These discussions centered on the right technology to use and the appropriate time to employ it. We have carefully studied every option available to us. All the rest had severe drawbacks that precluded their use. I am now convinced we have chosen the correct path forward.

  Since initial discovery we were forced to limit public knowledge of the asteroid. This to ensure our efforts to deal with the emergency were not compromised by civil unrest and the loss of critical personnel. We took a variety of appropriate actions, unanimously authorized by Congressional legislation and international treaty, to safeguard our endeavors. Regrettably, there were some individuals within this country and elsewhere, who in spite of specific warnings, acted recklessly and attempted to illegally reveal the asteroid’s existence. We had no choice but to act immediately. In response to a relatively tiny number of cases, our legal system, and those of our international partners, imposed their highest sanctions against those individuals. Let me repeat, we had no choice given the magnitude of the threat and the very short timeframes.

  One thing is absolutely vital in all of this: Stay calm. We are all in this together. There is no place we can hide from the potential destruction. No mountain is high enough, no cave deep enough. Running to hide in those places will not make any difference in the long run and will surely cause widespread chaos and anguish in the short term.

  Naturally, we will keep you informed of any new developments as the asteroid approaches and the results of our efforts to destroy it.

  Finally, my friends and fellow citizens, join us as we pray for our country, for our scientists and technicians and of course, for our world.

  Thank you and good day.”

  Kay muted the TV as an anchor appeared on-screen to begin discussing and debating the speech with a panel of journalists and commentators.

  “Normally, I’d’ve ripped into everything he just said,” Claire pointed out. “But now I’ve got to admit things aren’t working out the way I’d hoped. People are behaving in ways I simply don’t understand.”

  “I know what you mean. Let’s see what’s on the other channels. Maybe there’s some sanity out there someplace.” He pushed a few buttons on the remote. “This should be channel 10, the CBS affiliate in L.A..”

  A distinguished-looking male anchor was apparently in the midst of “throwing” to a field reporter. He looked and sounded harried. “Okay!....... Ummmm, .......Alright! Why don’t we go to Zundaya Pierson. What can you tell us, Zundaya?”

  A young, very attractive black woman—microphone in hand—appeared on screen. She was standing in front of a large, grand, but traditional-looking church. Behind her, standing on the street, sidewalk and grass, were hundreds of primarily black men, women and children—although there were many more whites and Latinos than Claire would have expected normally. They were listening to what sounded like a sermon coming from the building being broadcast on an outside PA system.

  “Keith, I’m at the First African-Methodist-Episcopal Church, on South Harvard Street in Los Angeles. Bishop Ray Allen, the senior pastor, has been speaking for nearly an hour to what you can see is an enormous, overflow crowd. Seated inside the sanctuary are well over a thousand parishioners. And from what I’ve heard there are many more standing in the aisles and on every available open space. Ever since news of the asteroid broke early this morning, this church and countless others just like it, have been overflowing as members and non-members alike have come to pray. Why don’t we just listen in for a few moments to hear what the bishop is saying.”

  .”...........in the second epistle of Saint Peter, the third chapter, verses ten and eleven. ‘But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?’” He paused for a second, then thundered, “There it is my friends! Nothing could be clearer! Some say this giant asteroid is nothing more than a natural, although terrible, event! I say it is no......such.......thing!! It is without a doubt the beginning of the Day of the Lord that we have waited for expectantly for generations! And it is finally, gloriously, positively at hand!”

  Claire could hear and see the crowd roar its approval with raucous choruses of “Amen,” “Hallelujah” and “Praise the Lord.”

  The bishop continued but now almost to a whisper. “But.....as the Lord prepares for his return how are we preparing for him? The scripture asks, ‘what kind of people should we be?’” He paused for dramatic effect then continued with ever increasing volume. “Should we be the kind of people who no more than two miles from here are rioting, looting and killing just because they can?!” The crowd roared back ‘No!’ “Should we be the kind of people who in many countries around the globe are grotesquely ‘celebrating’ what they think is the end of the world in wild, evil debauchery?” Again the crowd responded with a near-deafening ‘No!!.’ “You are right, my friends. Let us, at this moment, on bended knee, ask our almighty Father for forgiveness for our multitudinous sins. Let us seek forgiveness from our brothers and sisters for what we have said or done to them. Let us prepare for the day of the lord with shouts of praise and mighty hallelujahs knowing his kingdom is nigh!”

  The crowd virtually exploded in applause and ecstatic “Amens.”

  The female reporter turned back to the camera. “From what we’ve heard from houses of worship throughout every corner of the Los Angeles basin, from the desert to the sea, it is just like what we see here: massive, overflow crowds. Their pastors, priests and rabbis calling for repentance in the belief that God is about to establish his long-expected new kingdom on Earth, but only after a cataclysm of literally Biblical proportions! Back to you, Keith.”

  In the studio, the anchorman was looking around, desperately trying to decide where to go next from what was probably a deluge of reports coming in from around the world.

  “Uh.......why don’t we......okay, let’s go live to Jim Armstrong who is in Compton. What’s happening there, Jim?”

  The camera’s view changed to an older, black, male reporter crouched down behind his station’s mobile news van. There were almost constant, automatic and single gunshots and other explosions coming from all around.

  “Keith, I hope you can hear me! We’re on South Central Avenue in Compton, trying to stay out of the line of all the gunfire! It’s a war zone out here! As best we can make out, the two main gangs in the area, the Bloods and Crips, are in the middle of a giant shootout that encompasses block after block in every direction! From what informants have told us, each side is determined to exact some sort of final revenge on the other for decades of bloodshed they blame on each other. They’re also having running gun battles with several Mexican gangs like MS-13 and White Fence. The LAPD tried to come in and quell the violence an hour or so ago but were driven off by volley after volley from all the gangs! There’s now a rumor some of the Aryan and Asian gangs want to join in as well! The final, awful piece of this horrific picture is some local residents are now apparently settling old scores with neighbors and business owners by burning their homes and stores! There hasn’t been
violence and destruction like this since the Rodney King riots in 1992 and before that the Watts riots in 1965!”

  Suddenly, Kay and Claire could hear several metallic “clangs” that could only be bullets ripping through metal.

  “Keith, we’ve got to get out of here! We’re taking gunfire now!”

  The scene suddenly switched back to the studio where the anchor was looking off-camera, a look of confusion mixed with fear on his face. “We’re getting feeds and reports from all over the world that are just like what we’ve heard from Sandy and Jim. Religious fervor mixed with barbarous acts of mayhem. Why don’t we watch and listen in for a moment to our sister affiliate in New York City—WCBS—where this all started several hours ago with the release of the article detailing the.......okay.....right. Yeah, just go ahead.”

  Again the scene shifted. Claire and Kay saw a telephoto image of a huge throng of people milling around on one of the city’s streets. There didn’t seem to be any organization or leadership. A thick row of NYPD police officers in riot gear, and some on horseback, were lined up in front of a building evidently trying to protect it and those inside. An off-camera male voice described the scene.

  .”...........just down the block from the Sentinel building where thousands of protestors are gathering in front of the iconic city landmark. There are two groups. One is furious the paper prematurely revealed the existence of the asteroid and government coverup. They claim it would have been far better for everyone not to have known it was coming. The other group is a counter-demonstration to the first. They say every citizen has an absolute right to face their future and supports what the Sentinel did. Hang on! Something’s happening!”