Surge Protection (The Sheffield Chronicles Book 1)

by Nate Castle

  “What?” Garret said.

  “That took us thirty-nine minutes, instead of thirty-seven.” Sal said.

  “I thought we killed it out there Sal, there were no bottlenecks in our system that slowed us down,”Logan said.

  “Yeah, but I’m competitor, I don’t enjoy losing, even if it’s a matter of losing in a race against a clock,” Sal said.

  They rode in silence for the next 30 minutes or so. Sal, who was driving the car carrier truck eastbound on I-80 spoke up. This time Logan and Garrett rode in the cab, because they had made enough room by transferring all of the gear to a truck that was loaded on the trailer.

  “I used to listen to UFO files on the radio. The host Brett Bell would moderate the conversations, but callers would call in to tell stories of UFO sightings or weird events. Most of it was probably B.S.; guys who just wanted to call in to get attention, but there were a few callers that seemed pretty believable,” Sal said.

  “Let’s hear it,” Garrett said.

  “Well, there was an ex-pilot who got the whole encounter recorded on the black box in the plane. Basically he radioed to air traffic control because he saw an object flying pretty close to him. Air traffic control responded by saying there were no planes in his airspace. The object was flying dangerously close to the pilot’s commercial plane and then after a little while it just disappeared. You gotta hear the guy’s recording, you can’t make this stuff up! “ Sal said.

  “What got us on the topic of aliens?” Logan chimed in.

  “My point is that if there are aliens, I bet they are thousands of years more advanced than us in terms of technology. I don’t think humans are advanced enough to initiate an attack of this magnitude.” Sal said.

  “I don’t know though, there are a lot of secrets that the government keeps from us. Technological advancements are made, but the majority of the population doesn’t hear about them for years. I had a buddy who I went to college with, he was working for the Department of Homeland Security, in the Cybersecurity Division. He said that it is possible now for a single hacker with one computer to wipe out the power in a whole country. Let that settle in for a minute. We’re talking one guy wipes out the power of the country using the WiFi from a computer at Starbucks, and then his terrorist organization swoops in while our power is down and eliminates us. This doesn’t seem that different than what just happened.” Logan said.

  “Don’t you think that whoever or whatever did the attack wants something that we have? Meaning their goal wasn’t to simply wipe out as many people as possible, but to wipe us out and in the process take a resource that we have?” Garrett said.

  “So what you’re inferring is there is more to come, the attack wasn’t just an isolated incident?” Sal said.

  “Yeah, like they weakened us in Phase 1, and now that we are weak, they can now take whatever resource they want from us in Phase 2 of their plan.” Garrett said.

  “I think that makes sense Garrett. Let’s hope we make it to DC before Phase 2 of their attack begins. What do you think Logan?” Sal said.

  “I don’t have enough information yet to form an opinion” Logan said.

  “SLOW DOWN!” Garrett yelled.

  Sal did his best to slow down, but it took a good deal of time to bring the 80,000 pound semi to a complete stop. They all saw what Garrett was talking about. A man riding a bicycle on the shoulder about 300 yards back, but on the westbound side of the interstate. The guy had on a yellow reflective vest, and blinking red reflector lights but didn’t appear to be one of those ‘hardcore- wannabe -in the -Tour de France- type bikers’ that always piss you off when they ride too close to the white line.

  “Turn this rig around, I say we go back and get him,” Logan said.

  Sal and Garrett nodded in agreement. There was no carved out turnaround spot, but there was a patch of grass that led to the westbound side of the interstate, that lacked a guardrail for some reason.

  “Hold on tight boys,” Sal said as he gained speed in hopes of making it up the slight inclined grassy patch onto the westbound side.

  He was unsuccessful in his first attempt and was about to try again when Garrett yelled “Stop, just pull ‘er in reverse back onto the eastbound side. We don’t wanna get ‘er stuck in that grassy patch, that would be a nightmare. Instead of that I’ll just unhitch the pickup on the end of the trailer and chase after the bicycle maniac with that.”

  Logan rode shotgun with Garrett in a tan colored Chevy Silverado that they had offloaded from the car carrier. This truck made it up the grassy patch no problem, and within about three minutes, they had caught up to the biker and slowed to a 5mph pace driving alongside him, while Logan rolled down the window to speak.

  “Hell of a day to be riding a bike, especially given the circumstances of the attack, don’t ya think,”Logan said to the biker.

  The man said, “Yeah well I’m getting as far away from DC as possible. I don’t trust that damn government and I sure as hell don’t trust any of that modern technology, like cars with built in GPS units or electric roll down windows. If they attacked our cell phones, they surely could attack the cars we drive also given that they have the newest technology installed.”

  “You do have a point. How about this, you look like you could use a meal, some company, and a shower. Why don’t you ride with us, and if you can convince us by the time we get to Nebraska that our government is not trying to protect us but instead harm us, then we will turn around and head west until we are considered ‘off the grid’.” Logan said. “Oh, and the truck we are driving is a classic cabover Peterbilt, with none of that new fancy technology, so I think we’ll be in the clear.

  “You’re asking me to travel back to where I started riding the bike from, that doesn’t seem sane, but what the heck, you guys seem like you have your heads on straight, I’ll take a chance on one condition: we strap my bicycle to the trailer, so that if I change my mind at any point, I can ride away once again,” the man said.

  “Done,” Garrett said.

  “I’m Hank,” said the man.

  Hank appeared in his mid-60s and had the tired look of someone who spent his career working a blue-collar job. He had a few tattoos on his forearms, the kind you might get if you were in the military. His receding hair was half-blond, half-gray and a bald spot was forming in the middle of his scalp. He stood 6’1” on a good day, and carried some extra weight in his gut.

  By this time, Garrett had brought the truck to a complete stop. Logan shook Hank’s hand, and had to fight back letting out a yelp at how hard of a grip he had. Hank hopped in the bed of the Silverado with his bicycle and the three of them drove back to the car carrier truck, which Sal had now positioned in the forward direction.

  6 HERDING SHEEP

  ..................

  “PLEASE FORM TWO SINGLE FILE lines. It doesn’t matter which line you end up in. Please remove all electronic devices and items that contain metal and place them in the plastic bins.”

  There was a group of 300 people now standing on the White House lawn.

  The President and General Kaplan had set up a workstation that consisted of two large desks in the hallway of the front entrance to the White House. Their plan was to briefly interview everyone that was present, so that a ‘Dream Team’ could be formed. The Dream Team from that moment on would be in charge of making the decisions on how to proceed with Operation Firestorm.It was now 36 hours after the President had recorded the loudspeaker address telling survivors to report the White House. Not everyone had made it to the White House yet depending on their travel distance, but they could make up for that by allocating a set number of ‘empty seats’ on the Dream Team for when others survivors showed up.

  “Attention, if there are any news reporters or anyone working in a similar field present, please report the front of the line immediately. Your assistance is requested.” President Taylor said over a megaphone.

  Within three minutes two ladies fitting the journalistic descript
ion had come to the front of the line.

  “Great, I need each of you to grab one of these laptops and paraphrase each interview General Kaplan and I conduct. This will greatly speed up the interview process. The United States of America thanks you two fine ladies for your service.”

  This time General Kaplan addressed the people.“Ladies and Gentleman, the interview process is about to begin. If you have not ditched your electronic devices, please do so now. The first attack was on cell phones and so we have to be extremely cautious with any device capable of connecting to a cell network. Now, when you get to the interview table, you will be asked five simple questions. We will use the answers you provide to these questions to hand-pick six individuals to be on what we call the Dream Team. The Dream Team will be like the House and the Senate combined into one. The team will be in charge of all decision making moving forward. If you would like to be taken out of consideration to be on the Dream Team, please raise your hand now, and you will be excused from the interview process.”

  Roughly twenty-five people raised their hands. General Kaplan walked through the crowd to gather these twenty-five and escorted them to the main waiting area inside the White House where they would remain until the interview process was complete.

  The interview process was now underway. The questions asked to the participants were as follows:

  1) Have you made a positive impact on a large number of people in your lifetime? Describe.

  2) What was the scariest experience you have ever been through and how did you handle it? Or, have you ever been involved in a crisis and how did you avert the situation?

  3) Do you have expertise in one the following disciplines and if so please elaborate: leadership, management, science, engineering, security, medicine, negotiations, foreign affairs, aeronautics, transportation (air, land, or sea)?

  4) Do you believe there is hope for the US? Why or why not?

  5) If you could choose any person alive or dead to have a beer with, who would it be and why?

  Each interview took between five and ten minutes, so the whole process took quite a while as you can imagine.Some of the responses were pretty entertaining:

  “Well, I was backpacking with a group of college exchange students in Venezuela, when we all got kidnapped by a group of masked men in a van. They took us to a so-called “safe house” and demanded ransom money. One of the kidnappers turned out to be the cousin of a guy I knew in graduate school. So we got to talking and I was able to catch him off guard just enough that the group was able to bull rush him, disarm him, and then escape the safe house.”

  “I believe there is hope for the US, but not as we know it. The times have changed and so the strong will adapt, the weak will perish. The country will become more reminiscent of the Wild West.”

  “I have made a positive impact on a large number of people. I developed an app that teaches kids everything they need to know to be a successful adult. It’s a virtual video game where they must provide for themselves and make decisions that directly affect whether they have a prosperous life in the game. Critics have said that this app can serve as a replacement for school education.”

  “I like to think that I’m an expert in science, engineering, management, aeronautics, medicine, and security. A year ago I tore my ACL and so I was out of commission for about 6 months. I spent every hour of the day watching informative shows on the History Channel, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, A&E, you name it.”

  After the interview process was over, the President made an announcement that General Kaplan and him would now need a few minutes to deliberate. The deliberation lasted about twenty minutes.

  “Ladies and Gentleman, please direct your attention to the front of the room. We have chosen six individuals to represent us on the Dream Team. If I call your name please make your way to the front and be seated. I will give a brief description of each person’s skill set when I call their name,” the President said. “Brett W. is a wall street broker. Christina A. is a nuclear engineer. JP F. is a detective with the NYPD. Sierra J. is a high school science teacher. Orlando C. is a motivational speaker/comedian. Carter L. is a NASA pilot.”

  “Wait a minute,” a man from the crowd interrupted, “How is a motivational speaker/comedian going to help put this country back on track?”

  “I’ll ignore that fact that you just interrupted me because you do make a valid point,” the President said. “To answer your question, times like these can take a toll on our wellbeing; I feel it’s important to have someone around to lighten up the mood a bit, to take our mind off of things we can’t control, and put us in a positive mindset going forward. If you’ve ever watched a great sports movie such as Hoosiers, Invincible, the Mighty Ducks, Rocky, Rudy, or Miracle, to name a few, the team or individual athlete was always an underdog. You can think of the United States of America being an underdog right now, that is trying to bounce back from a major setback, and each and every one of you is a player on this team. Sure, in all of these movies, hard work was paramount, but what really got each team or player over the top was the motivational speech that the coach gave before the competition. Had it not been for his or her wise words, the underdog story wouldn’t have ended in the victorious manner that it did.”

  It was apparent that the crowd was pretty fired up and moved by the President’s response.

  One guy near the front of the room decided to build on that positive energy and began chanting the opening to the ACDC song “Thunderstruck”

  “Oh-uh oh-oh, oh-uh uh-uh”

  “TAYLOR”

  “Oh-uh oh-oh, oh-uh uh-uh”

  “TAYLOR”

  By the third repetition, everyone in the crowd was on their feet belting out the chant at the top of their lungs. In the ACDC song, the band says “THUNDER”, but this guy had cleverly replaced that word with “TAYLOR” to show that they stood behind President Taylor.

  “Thank you all for your participation. The Dream Team and I will now meet in the Oval office.” The President said.

  The Dream Team, General Kaplan, and the President made their way to the Oval. Once inside the President said, “Let’s try to make this meeting quick, I need everyone to bring their ‘A’ game.”

  General Kaplan said, “Let’s go around the room and give a brief opinion on 1)was this attack orchestrated by aliens and 2)was it an isolated incident or is there more to come?”

  Brett, the wall street broker said, “Yes, it had to have been a being more advanced than humans that orchestrated the attack. And no, I don’t believe it was a one time deal. Why would they spend all the time and energy to travel to Earth, just to wipe us out? Or if they wanted to wipe us out so they can inhabit our planet, they are bound to come back and finish off those of us who survived.”

  Christina, the nuclear engineer, “I agree with Brett. When a country launches a missile, it shows up on radar. When they launch a cyberattack, it leaves a paper trail on the world wide web. But here, there was no sign of the any kind. This leads me to believe that it wasn’t humans who attacked us.”

  JP, the NYPD detective, “Yes definitely aliens. Does anyone here know if there are any natural resources on Earth that don’t naturally occur on other planets?”

  “I’m not sure, why?” Christina chimed in.

  JP said, “My theory is the aliens want a certain resource that we have on Earth, and so they first wiped many of us out, making it easier to come steal that resource in phase 2 of their mission. If we find out what the resource is, we can put together a counter attack plan.”

  “I like where your head is at JP, the President said.

  Sierra, the high school science teacher said, “One resource that seems to be abundant on Earth but not other planets in our solar system is oil.”

  “Thanks Sierra, let’s look into that a bit more, you might be on to something,” the President said. “Now we must shift gears and talk about the immediate future. General Kaplan and I have decided that it is essential to get all
survivors back to DC, so that Operation Firestorm can be a group effort. Does anyone here oppose?”

  Orlando, the motivational speaker said “I don’t oppose, but it might not be wise to have all Americans in ONE location. If that one location gets hits by another attack, the whole population will get wiped out.”

  General Kaplan responded, “This is assuming that it’s a physical attack, not a cell phone attack.”

  Orlando, “Yes, since they hit our cell phones once, they will have to attack with a different method this time, because we don’t have cell phones, which is why we survived. “

  “Good point, Orlando. I wish I had people like you to help me run the country all the time, instead of the buffoon politicians that always have ulterior motives. By a show of hands, who agrees with Orlando, that it is better to have people spread out, then all in one central location?” President Taylor said.

  All of the hands in the room shot up except Kaplan’s, who was not yet ready to shift away from his military tactics.

  “Ok, the majority takes it. By a show of hands again, who believes that in order to make Orlando’s idea happen, that we first need to get all survivors to DC?” President Taylor said.

  All hands, including Kaplan’s were raised.

  “That’s settled. Here’s the plan. We will send 100-person search parties out to find survivors and bring them back here. Carter, the NASA pilot will be on standby, and when enough survivors are located in a geographic area, Carter will fly the Air Force Two jet to pick them up. Each search party member will be equipped with a body camera, and those who are comfortable handling guns will be issued one. It is mandatory that every survivor obeys the search party’s orders and comes back to DC, no exceptions. When we leave this room, we will go outside and get 100 volunteers for the first search party. They will be deployed at 16:00 hours, after a quick briefing session. Any questions?”

  “Yeah, what happened to Air Force One?” Brett, the wall street guy said.

  “You don’t want to know, it’s a truly embarrassing story,” the President replied.