by JK Franks
Tahir had worked for the government, not his choice, but more like his only option. He had been part of a very elite group for many years, doing his part to keep America safe, but more importantly, seeking out the hidden puzzles that held clues of threats to the nation. On that fateful day last August, it had all fallen apart. Now, somehow, it was continuing to do so, in ever more shitty ways.
The folder file had an innocuous sounding name, Operation Homefront. The Navy—the fucking US Navy!—was bringing home soldiers and expats from overseas. The idiots! What were they thinking? The first of the ships had docked in Baltimore several days ago, and more were on the way.
It sounded good and noble on the surface, but among those returning were any number of people infected by the Chimera Pox: the pandemic that had wiped out Europe and much of Asia and now had been delivered to American shores by the US fucking Navy.
Tahir was moving fast now, stowing the tablet and securing the servers for remote connections only. His location for most of the last twelve months had been an abandoned, and very covert server farm owned by one if his previous employers, the NSA. Most of the complex was located underground. He looked at the darkened rows of towering server racks and the metal cage that was his modest living quarters. The setup had been nearly ideal for him, and he was one of the few people to know of its existence and location.
But it was time to go. The infected were only hours away. It seemed that the US would now follow the rest of the world into total annihilation.
He shut down the lights and everything that was unnecessary. He would dearly miss having these eyes and ears on the world, so close at hand. This server farm had been an integral part of America’s and his own intelligence gathering apparatus. He prayed that the systems would survive here in their hidden hole in the ground. He picked up the last bag and walked the length of the cavernous hole in the ground, equivalent to two football fields, and then up the metal steps to the access door.
He had no real plan and only one friend who might help: Scott. He had felt bad sharing the sensitive Catalyst files with him when the CME hit, but someone else had needed to know. Scott was a good man, and he possessed more common sense than most people Tahir knew.
He had mapped out Scott’s location but knew it would be a nearly impossible trip even assuming the Messengers, the Navy, the Guard or whoever was throwing their weight around now would let him pass. And who knew what other obstacles he might have to face. Regardless, he had to leave the east coast behind and he had to do it now.
The access door to the outside world opened silently, and he pushed the hinged shelving unit aside. The exit was from a small metal building on the side of a private runway. It was actually a power junction: a maintenance shed for the runway lights. He pushed the shelves back again to conceal the hidden door. On the opposite side of the runway was a golf course and country club, now overgrown and deeply trivial looking. Few ever realized that beneath the once exquisitely manicured greens lay one of the most sophisticated intelligence gathering operations in the world.
He opened the tablet to check his drone feeds once more. All clear. With that, he dashed across the runway to the hangar with the keys to the small Honda HA-420 turbojet gripped tightly in his hands. Getting his pilot’s license many years earlier had been the one activity in the real world that he enjoyed immensely. He now held an A type ratings license for private jets. The rating was not even two years old, but he was a competent pilot. It had taken him a great deal of time to find a jet that was still operational and fly it here to this hangar without being discovered. The prototype jet had been at a DC area FAA hangar undergoing testing for final approval. The jet’s main computer had been located in a testing lab and some of the jet’s other systems seemed to have been hardened against the effects of the CME. Reinstalling the computer was all he had had to do to get the bird operational.
He pushed the large hangar doors clear and tossed the bags into the beautiful machine. He prayed to Allah that there would be a suitable runway somewhere near Harris Springs, Mississippi, for him to land. Despite his anxiety, he did a quick, but thorough, preflight check. He paid close attention to the fuel sample he extracted from the tank. Seeing no contamination, he tossed it aside and climbed in. Strapping the harness securely, he plugged in a course on the flight computer to Biloxi, Mississippi, and began the ignition sequence.
The engines started as a whisper but quickly gained in volume. The sleek, red and white jet moved slowly out of the open hangar and onto the runway. Tahir paused to look at the golf course once more, and the black smoke billowing in the distance. He pushed the throttle to full and released the brakes. The jet seemed to leap into the air, and he climbed quickly as he went into the turn required to take him south.
The ruins of DC were below him now, and to the east, nearer the Baltimore waterfront, the landscape burned, engulfed in flame. He saw planes making attack runs and remembered to stay below radar until he was well out of the area. He would be flying relatively low until he was over Kentucky—not the safest flight plan since the Appalachian Mountains were just ahead, but the jet was equipped with excellent maneuverability and radar. If he could just avoid detection, he would be on the Gulf Coast in under three hours. That was about all the fuel he had anyway. One way or another, it would be his destination.
About the Author
Best Selling author, JK Franks world is shaped by his love of history, science and all things sci-fi. His work is most often filled with vivid characters set in dire situations only a step or so away from our normal world. His focus on gritty realism and attention to meticulous detail help transport his readers into his stories.
The first novel of his apocalyptic Catalyst series: Downward Cycle, was published in 2016. The follow-up to that, Kingdoms of Sorrow, continued the tale of a near-future apocalyptic event and a group of survivors’ efforts to hang on to the remnants of a collapsing civilization. The novella American Exodus published late in 2017 takes a look at the disaster from a fresh and more personal perspective. Look for at least one more book in the series.
Always writing, JK Franks now lives in West Point, Georgia, with his wife and family. No matter where he is or what's going on, he tries his best to set aside time every day to answer emails and messages from readers. You can also visit him on the web at www.jkfranks.com. Please subscribe to his newsletter for updates, sneak peeks, promotions, and giveaways. You can also find the author on Facebook and Twitter or email him directly at [email protected].
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Other books by JK Franks:
The Catalyst Series
Book 1: Downward Cycle
Life in a remote oceanfront town spirals downward after a massive solar flare causes a global blackout. But the loss of electrical power is just the first of the problems facing the survivors in the chaos that follows. Is this how the world ends?
Book 2:Kingdoms of Sorrow
With civilization in ruins, individuals band together to survive and build a new society. The threats are both grave and numerous—surely too many for a small group to weather. This is a harrowing story of survival following the collapse of the planet’s electric grids.
Book 2.5: American Exodus Novella
This Amazon best selling companion story to the Catalyst series follows one man’s struggle to get back home after the collapse. No supplies, no idea of the hardships to come; how can he possibly survive the journey? Even if he survives, can he adapt to this new reality?
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