Surge Protection (The Sheffield Chronicles Book 1)

by Nate Castle

  “Yep. I will grab the phones and bring them in here. You assemble a team to answer the calls,”General Kaplan said, as he exited the room.

  President Taylor opened the doors behind the desk in the oval office so that he was now outside standing in front of few hundred people gathered on the White House lawn.

  “A few things. First, after I’m done talking, I need everyone to make their way to the main dining room inside. It is no longer safe for you to be outdoors. Second, raise your hand if you have worked for a phone company and know how to forward calls from one central phone line, to alternate receivers. Lastly, I need twenty five volunteers to answer phone calls,” President Taylor announced to the group.

  One gentleman raised his hand.

  “Are you the phone tech?” President Taylor said.

  The guy nodded.

  “Alright I need you to come with me. Sierra, please take the twenty five volunteers inside and have them wait outside my office until our setup is complete. Everyone else, please head to the dining room immediately.”

  Sierra looked thrilled that the President had begun to appointing her more responsibility after their little adult encounter in the bedroom the night before.By the time President Taylor and the phone tech had returned to the Oval Office, General Kaplan had brought in the twenty five landline phones as promised.

  “I don’t know the proper term for it, but we need all of these phones to be routed to this phone number so that when one phone is being used on an active call and someone else is trying to get through the phone line, one of the twenty five alternate phones will ring. Is that clear?” General Kaplan said to the the phone tech guy.

  “Crystal,” the phone tech guy said, and got to work.

  The President and the General moved to one corner of the room, to give the guy space and not hover over him.

  “Let’s get that announcement recorded,” President Taylor said.

  He opened the front door of the office and popped his head out into the hall where Sierra was waiting with the twenty five volunteers.

  “Sierra, I need you for something.”

  She entered the room and followed General Kaplan and the President through three doors into the Situation Room.

  “I’m going to have her make the announcement. If I were in the survivor’s shoes, I might be skeptical about the government. I might think that the government was in on the initial attack and they are not to be trusted. By having her make the announcement, maybe that will help cancel out some of the doubts people have,” President Taylor said.

  “Ok Sierra, when I push the record button I want you to introduce yourself, describe what happened when our own search party ran into a landmine, and then instruct the people to stay indoors and off of the roads if possible. Most important, instruct them to call any phone number from a landline telephone, no cell phones, so that we can schedule for them to be picked up and transported to our secure location here at the White House,” General Kaplan said.

  Sierra’s message sounded really sincere, like she was speaking from the heart, and not reading some teleprompter.

  ~~~

  From a loudspeaker inside the mall, Shelby and Noel heard Sierra’s message broadcasted.

  “Wow what coincidental timing! It looks like a solution for contacting the White House has just been provided to us,” Noel said.

  “I’m not going to jinx it, but things might start turning around for us,”Shelby said. “Look there’s a landline phone on the wall!”

  She picked up the phone and dialed the first number she could think of, 9-1-1.

  ~~~

  “Sir, it’s going to take hours, maybe days to reroute all US phone numbers to this one. Do you think maybe we should just route a few numbers and instruct the people to call specific numbers?” the tech guy said.

  The President, General Kaplan, and Sierra, were all back in the Oval office, watching the tech guy’s progress.

  “Idiot, what was I thinking! We should just use 911 and route all calls incoming calls from that number to ours,” President Taylor said. “Sierra, go with the General back into that room and record a follow-up announcement, telling people that they must call 9-1-1 to reach us.”

  ~~~

  “I’m getting a busy signal,” Shelby said.

  “Keep trying or try calling a different number,” Noel said.

  Shelby hung up the receiver to end the call. This time she tried dialing 4-1-1. A beeping sound followed that was the universal sound a phone would make when the number you dialed was no longer in service.

  “No luck. I’ll try 9-1-1 again,” Shelby said.

  She dialed the number and it began ringing, no longer a busy signal.

  “It’s still ringing, which is better than before, but no one is picking up,” Shelby said.

  “Stay on the line, don’t hang up,” Noel said.

  ~~~

  “Sir, I got 9-1-1 up and running,” the tech guy said after a few minutes of typing on a computer. “Someone should now be able to call 9-1-1 and be transferred to our phone line.”

  “Excellent work, Jonah,” the President said.

  “Sir, my name is Clark,” the tech guy said.

  “Well you look someone who would be named Jonah, so that’s what I’m going to call you. Now head the dining room to join the others, maybe grab a bite to eat,” President Taylor said.

  ‘Jonah’ left the room, and now President Taylor was in the Oval office alone. Maybe he could get a minute to clear his head before Kaplan and Sierra returned from the Situation Room.

  Beep-beep, beep-beep

  The phone on his desk began ringing, which startled the President. None of the twenty-five volunteers were in the room yet to answer phone calls. He gathered himself and picked up the receiver:

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, who is this” a female voice said.

  “This is President Taylor. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?”

  “My name is Shelby, and my friend Noel is here next to me.”

  “Thank you for calling Shelby, I’m assuming you just heard the loudspeaker announcement. Are you in a safe location?”

  “Yes, for the time being, but we don’t feel safe leaving this location.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I’ll describe our last 24 hours in a nutshell. We were driving towards DC, we found a temporary solution to avoid the landmines on the road, until we saw three aliens, blocking the road. We veered off the road and ended up at a shopping mall where we tried to find a place to hide. The aliens followed us there. We tried to keep them distracted by emptying the sewage tank on them, but that didn’t work. They killed our dog. We took cover in the first store we could find which turned out to be a cell phone store. The aliens followed us to the store but for some reason couldn’t go inside. They watched us from outside the store for a few minutes and then appeared to leave.”

  “Slow down, so you’re saying by being in the store they can’t get to you?”

  “Yes, we think they are weakened by cell phones and since there are brand new phones in here that haven’t been disabled, they can’t get to us.”

  “That is vital information that you just provided us Shelby”

  “You believe us?”

  “Yes, you wouldn’t believe the crazy stuff I saw these past few hours”

  “Also, we got a few minutes of the alien encounter on video.”

  “Gosh, that’s incredible. Ok, here’s the deal. I’m sure we are going to get dozens of phone calls here over the next few hours. I am personally going to make you my number one priority though, especially since you have essential video footage that can help us. Hang on the line, and I will put together an extraction plan to get you two out of there and back to safety in DC.”

  “Thank you Mr. President.”

  “What I need you to do right now is figure out your exact location. Hold on the line, I’m going to put you on hold for a minute.”

  The phone went silent.


  “Noel, we need to figure out the address of where we are right now,” Shelby said.

  “Ok give me a minute,” Noel said.

  Shelby stood by the phone, she didn’t want to risk losing the President’s call.

  “I can’t find anything that has the store address on it,” Noel yelled from across the room.

  “Check that desk, look for a business card,” Shelby said as she pointed to a desk behind a glass door.

  Noel found a business card holder with cards in it on the desk. She picked up a card that read ‘Amy Garcia. Territory Manager. Verizon Wireless Comm. 2674 N. Briarwood Blvd. Suite #242. Canton, Ohio. 44701. P: (330) 518-6400.’

  “I got it!” Noel said as she raced the business card back to Shelby.

  Shelby took the card and began reading the information out loud, it appeared President Taylor was back on the line.

  “And here’s our phone number in case you need to call us for any reason” Shelby said to the President. She read him the phone number beginning with the 330 area code.

  “Here’s what’s going to happening Shelby. You two sit tight and wait for my call. I have instructed a guy named Carter to pick you up via helicopter. He’ll be on his way shortly. When he is getting close to your location, I will call you. You will then quickly make your way out of the building to the helicopter.”

  “How can we assure that we will make it safely to the helicopter”

  “There will be another guy riding with Carter. He will jump out and do a quick sweep of the mall to make the sure the aliens are gone before I give you the go ahead.”

  “Ok, and if the aliens are still here?”

  “We’ll deal with that problem if we have to. Not to worry Shelby. I look forward to meeting you. You are doing a great service to this country.”

  “Thank you sir.”

  “I’ll be in touch soon.”

  The phone went dead on Shelby’s end, signaling that the President had just hung up.

  14 THUNDERSTRUCK

  ..................

  “DO YOU THINK IT WOULD be safe for us to the fly the plane again? Given the fact that the aliens have to stay away from Logan?” Garrett said.

  “I think at this point, nothing we do is going to be safe,” Hank said. “But Garrett might be right. If we travel on foot or by the roads, we are like sitting ducks. If we risk taking the plane, we will be traveling for a shorter amount of time.”

  “Would we have enough fuel to make it to DC,” Logan said.

  “No, we would have to go find some before we took off,” Hank said.

  “We also have to make sure the aliens have left the racetrack before we go back to the plane,” Garrett said.

  “What if we take the plane to the nearest small airport and then refuel there?” Logan said.

  “That’s a better plan than finding fuel on foot,” Hank said. “Alright follow me.”

  Off in the distance they could see the Rocky Mountains. Hank led them up a hill in that direction.

  “Hank, I’m not here to hike,” Garrett said after it appeared that they would be climbing in elevation for a while longer.

  “Just keep your mouth shut, and let that brain of yours do a little thinking,” Hank said.

  “Woah calm down hoss,” Garrett said. This was the first time he had seen Hank get a bit angry.

  They walked in silence for a minute or so before Hank stopped and turned around so he could see the town. Garrett realized how dumb he had sounded earlier; Hank wasn’t taking them on a hike, he was getting to high enough ground so that they had a view of the racetrack and would be able to tell from afar if the aliens were still there.

  “Well, it looks like we’re gonna have to get that fuel on foot after all,” Logan said, after they all could clearly see that the alien craft was still parked in the middle of the racetrack.

  “I don’t see any of the aliens, but if their craft is still here, they must be close by. And judging by how much distance they can cover with one step, I don’t want to take any risks trying to fetch the plane right now,” Hank said.

  “If only we knew more about these things, maybe we could somehow disable their craft,” Logan said.

  “You might be onto something Logan, keep thinking of ways that we can do that. It sure would be nice, if when we got the plane airborne again, we could disable the craft so that they couldn’t follow us,” Hank said.

  “We should keep walking to higher ground, to see if we can spot an airport or somewhere that would have jet fuel,” Garrett said.

  “I thought you didn’t wanna hike Garrett?” Hank said with a bit of sarcasm.

  They hiked a few hundreds yards more before stopping to examine their surroundings.

  “You guys see anything that resembles an airport?” Logan said.

  “Negative,” Hank said.

  The general consensus was that there were no airports close by because from where they were standing, they had a panoramic view a few miles in each direction.

  “Time for Plan B,” Hank said.

  They hiked back down to where they had entered the hill climb, and thats when they heard the President’s loudspeaker announcement. Well it wasn’t the President speaking, it was Sierra, but the message was an order of the President.

  “We gotta get closer, I can’t make out what she is saying,” Garrett said.

  They quickly ran across the street to a post office which had a loudspeaker mounted just below the roof.

  ‘…Dial 9-1-1 from any landline telephone and your call will be routed to the White House. We will arrange to have you picked up from your current location and transported back to DC.’

  The loudspeaker made a clicking sound and the message was over.

  “Well that might come in handy, then we don’t have to fly the plane again!” Garrett said.

  “Yeah but who knows how long it will take them to come pick us up? It could take days, do you think we’ll be able to survive that long?”

  Logan said.

  “He’s right, it could take them a while. I doubt they will be driving because of the landmine situation, they will probably fly. But even then, I’m sure there are hundreds of other people who just heard the same message and are calling the White House right now to be picked up,” Hank said.

  “What if when we call, we make it sound desperate, maybe they’ll put us to the top of the list and pick us up first? Tell them that there are aliens nearby and we don’t feel safe,” Garrett said.

  “That won’t do the trick, there are probably aliens scattered throughout the country right now, so other people will be calling with the same sob story. What we have to do is convince them of the benefit they will get by picking us up first,” Hank said.

  “And what is that benefit?” Garrett said.

  “Logan is that benefit. He is a huge asset because of his power to weaken the aliens. Once the White House hears that, they will make picking us up their number one priority because they won’t want to risk us dying first and losing such an incredible asset,” Hank said.

  “Ok who wants to make the call?” Logan said.

  “You should call Logan. But one more thing: do not agree to have them pick us up here. Tell them that we will meet them somewhere else. Give them our current location and say that we have enough fuel in a plane to make it about 800 miles,” Hank said.

  “I’m not sure how I feel about flying again,” Garrett said.

  “I’m sure as hell not gonna wait around here, you be my guest though. The longer we stay here, the more time the aliens will have to either figure out how to disable Logan’s chip, or kill us from a long distance,” Hank said.

  “I agree with Hank. The risk of staying here outweighs the risk of flying. I do think we should try to disable or at least cause some damage to the alien craft though before we leave,” Logan said.

  “Alright Logan, make the call,” Garrett said.

  It would have seemed logical that the post office they were standing outside
of would have a landline telephone inside, so that’s where they went.

  “God damnit, not a single phone in this place, where have you ever seen a government office with no phone?” Hank said.

  They left the post office in search of another option. There was a small strip mall to their left.

  “Brown Baggin’ It Liquors, great name,”Garrett said when he saw the sign for the liquor store.

  They walked in and located a landline telephone behind the cashier’s counter. Logan picked up the receiver to the phone and before he dialed said to the others said, “Grab a few gallons worth of liquor that is 80 proof or higher.”

  Logan dialed 9-1-1 and the line rang about 15 times before someone finally picked up. Garrett and Hank could overhear Logan’s conversation.

  ‘Yeah we are in Colorado and need to be picked up. There are at least three aliens close by. One of our friends didn’t make it, but we managed to escape’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Oh, well I have this medical chip in my knee, similar to the chips used in cell phones. We have reason to believe that the aliens can’t get within 100 yards of me or else they will lose their strength and ability to function. So yeah, that’s the main reason we were able to escape.’

  ‘15 hours? Yeah I can hold for a minute’

  The person on the other end of the call put Logan on hold to see if the rescue team could make it sooner than 15 hours.

  ‘But one thing. We don’t want to be picked up in Colorado. We have a plane that we plan to fly for another 800 miles or so before we run out of fuel and have to land. Can you tell us where we should land it?’

  ‘Oklahoma City? That seems like we’re backtracking though, don’t we want to fly due east, as close to DC as we can? Oh ok. Yeah, we’ll be there. I’ll set the plane’s radio to that frequency so we can stay in contact. Thank you.’

  He hung up the phone.

  “We have to fly to Oklahoma City, they will pick us up there in approximately 5 hours,” Logan said to Garrett and Hank, who had now returned to the cashier’s counter with the goods.

  “I got a few bottles of Southern Comfort, you mind explaining what we need these for?” Garrett said.

  “You’ll see. C’mon let’s get back to the plane,” Logan said.