by Nate Castle
“Type ‘command F6 and then hold down Shift, Alt F11. It will load an alphabetized directory. Once you are there scroll down and then click on the one you are looking for,” General Kaplan said.
“Oil supply,” JP said. “It shows a bar graph, and is ordered by date. Looking at today’s date, above the bar it says ’46%’. Any idea what that means?”
“It means that more than half of the oil reserve in the US has been drained,” General Kaplan said.
“How is that even possible,”JP said.
“There’s no other explanation except that the aliens have extracted it. I guess the only good news that can come from this is we have a better idea of why they are here now,” General Kaplan said.
“Do you know how many millions of gallons of oil we are talking? There’s no way humanly possible that they are taking it,” Hank said.
“No way humanly possible, but you gotta remember they aren’t human,” Christina said.
“You think I was ticked off before? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Not only am I not going to allow these aliens to take our lives, but they aren’t going to be taking our oil either. Just out of principle,” President Taylor said. “Get to work. I want you in teams of three. Figure out what we can do to stop this, and also how to exterminate them. We’ll come back to this table and share our ideas in one hour.”
~~~
Logan joined a team with Shelby and Noel.
“Do you have any potential solutions?” Noel said.
“We could put enough items together to climb over the sinkhole,” Shelby said, “Or we could fill the sinkhole to the top with something so that we can cross it. For example, we can take all of the furniture from the White House and throw it in a section of the hole, creating a stack high enough that will allow us to cross it.”
“I like where your head’s at Shelby. There are a few unknowns though. We won’t know how deep the sinkhole is until it’s light enough outside to see better. If it’s too deep, then your method won’t work unfortunately. Also, it’s only a temporary solution. The aliens are capable of creating another sinkhole, I’ve been a witness to it. Once we cross it, there’s a chance they might just create another one, and then we’d really be in a pickle; stranded in the middle of two sinkholes,” Logan said.
“Logan’s right, we need to think bigger picture. If a bigger picture solution involves crossing the sinkhole to obtain supplies, then your idea might come in handy though Shelby,” Noel said.
~~~
Hank, Garrett and General Kaplan were on another team.
“I think we should take a more military approach; go in the armory, get all of the explosives and heavy artillery we can find and start blasting them,” General Kaplan said.
“But it seems too easy, that’s what scares me. Back at the racetrack, Logan lit one of the crafts on fire and the flames didn’t appear to harm the craft at all,” Hank said. “Also, we shot the aliens a few times and yes the bullets left wound, but the wounds repaired themselves when another alien touched them.”
“Yeah I think it’s safe to say that these creatures are resistant to any firepower we throw at them. We have to find another way,” Garrett said.
“What if we distract them to buy us more time in order to manufacture enough cell phone chips for everyone to have?” Hank said.
“You’re talking about the oil?” General Kaplan said.
“Yeah, we could reroute the oil to a different pipeline or whatever you want to call it, and then set up an army at the new extraction point, armed with cell phone chips?” Hank said.
“You’re not making too much sense to me, but I think I got the gist of what you are saying. That might not be the worst idea,” General Kaplan said.
“Better yet, what if we ‘poison’ the oil supply so the aliens can’t extract the rest of it? We’ve started to figure out what materials in the cell phone chips are harmful to the aliens right? That being said, if we can dump a bunch of those materials into the pipeline, the aliens won’t be able to come near it,” Garrett said.
~~~
“Sierra, do we have the materials on site to manufacture the cell phone chips that contain boron and silicon?” President Taylor said. He was in a group with Sierra and Orlando, the motivation speaker.
“I think we do on a small scale. If we want to do mass production though, we will need to somehow get to the storage lab across the street and get more materials,” Sierra said.
“Ok, what’s your best ETA on producing chips,” President Taylor said.
“The 3D printer we have will take approximately two hours to produce a sheet of 100 chips,”Sierra said
“Guys, do we have any evidence that the aliens are violent beings?” Orlando spoke up.
“What are you talking about,” President Taylor said.
“Let me rephrase: has anyone witnessed the aliens initiate killing someone? Or was it provoked by that person?” Orlando said.
“Well the initial cell phone attack is all the evidence we need to show that they are violent,” President Taylor said.
“But what if they aren’t actually here to hurt us. Maybe they underestimated the strength of the attack; their goal was to disable our cell phones, but the shock that they sent was strong enough to kill us? I mean it’s not like they could have done a trial run of this mission on their home planet. All the evidence I’m seeing of the aliens killing people is only when someone has tried to attack them first,” Orlando said.
“Continue,” President Taylor said.
“This idea is going to sound ludicrous. Assuming the aliens aren’t violent in nature, what if we remove the cell phones from the barrier and send a few brave volunteers outside. When the aliens come out of the crafts, these volunteers put their hands up to surrender. Meanwhile, the rest of us are down inside the tunnel. Hopefully the aliens disregard the volunteers who surrendered and enter the White House. This will give the volunteers the time window to grab ‘superchips’ from a hidden location and plant them inside all of the alien crafts,” Orlando said.
He took a quick break to formulate his thoughts.
“One of two things will happen. Either the aliens will later return to their ship and be killed when they enter or two, if they can detect the superchips and don’t enter the crafts, the crafts will be useless to them and they will essentially be trapped on Earth with no means of returning home,” Orlando said.
“And if they are violent?” President Taylor said.
“It is a risk because if they are violent, they will kill our volunteers. But I’m confident that they aren’t violent unless you provoke them. In fact, I will be one of the volunteers. If they are violent, why haven’t they just blown us all up already?” Orlando said.
“Wow, Orlando’s ridiculous idea, just turned into the best idea I’ve heard all week,”Sierra said.
18 TOTAL CONTAINMENT
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“OPERATION FIRESTORM BEGINS NOW,” PRESIDENT Taylor said. “Sierra you start producing the chips. Orlando, you gather a team of volunteers. JP you need to take a head count of everyone in the White House. Christina your task is to find way to cross the sinkhole and obtain more supplies from the reserve lab for the chips. Carter you go with Christina. Hopefully you guys can fly a chopper back here on your return trip. The newest member of our team is Sumesh. Sumesh you go with Sierra and figure out how the nearest access point to the oil pipeline and how we are going to contaminate it. Garrett, Logan, and Hank you’re with me, performing miscellaneous tasks beginning with contacting the rest of the survivors in the US to brief them on how to stay safe and what to do if facing the aliens. Shelby, Noel, and Brett you’re on lookout; keep us updated on any movement by the aliens, and if they are able to disable or perimeter cell phone barrier before we are ready. General Kaplan, you are the project manager, you will move from station to station and ensure that all of the projects are making rapid progress. If there’s anyone else that I didn’t mention, you are to go with Sierra
down to the lab. The production of the chips is our number one priority right now. Get your warpaint on ladies and gentleman, it’s about to get real messy. Make me proud!”
Like a bomb had just gone off, everyone scattered in different directions to begin their individual missions. President Taylor, Garrett, Sal and Hank entered a door that led them to the workstation the President had used to make the loudspeaker announcement.
“I should have done this a long time ago, it might be too late now, but we should contact our ally nations to see if they are being attacked as well, and if not request assistance either in the form of supplies or at least air support,” President Taylor said.
~~~
JP got the head count done very efficiently. He started in the main dining hall.
“Listen up I need everyone to be in full cooperation for the next few minutes or so. I am doing a head count. When I have counted you I need you to have a seat on the floor so that I don’t recount you by mistake. You three, come up here with me,” JP said, and pointed at three random people in the crowd.
After everyone was seated, JP and the other three counters entered every other unlocked room in the White House to make sure they didn’t miss anyone. Adding together their four counts, they determined there were 10,478 people on the premises. The White House was roughly 55,000 square feet and could safely accommodate about 9130 people. So this was a stretch and JP hoped they didn’t end up in a situation where they quickly needed to evacuate.
~~~
Carter and Christina already had a somewhat achievable plan in place for how they were going to conquer the sinkhole obstacle. They had just gone and gathered all of the bed sheets they could find from the various rooms in the White House and were now tying them together to form a makeshift rope.
“There should be a ladder in this shed,”Carter said as he opened the door to maintenance shed.
He found twelve foot ladder, the type used for pruning fruit trees, and carried it out of the shed to the stretch of grass where they had been assembling the bedsheets.
There was a tall tree just before the cell phone barrier which was a major component of their plan. Carter guessed it was between fifty and seventy-five feet tall. Placing the ladder near the base, Carter was able to reach a large branch from the top rung of the ladder. He began climbing the tree. Christina tied the bed sheet rope around his waist so that he wouldn’t have to hold onto it.
“Once I get to the top, I will be able to determine how far the sinkhole extends and if we can clear the gap or not. I need you to grab a heavy object; something I can tie to the bottom of the rope. I’m going to do a test run of the rope before we put our lives on the line,” Carter said.
Christina left and came back soon after with a long metal device that looked like a manual post hole digger. She tied the bottom end of the ‘rope’ around the tool and yelled up to Carter who was now positioned just below the top branch of the tree, apparently with no fear of heights.
“Pull it up!” Christina yelled.
Carter had the top end of the rope tied around the center of the tree and began pulling up the rope. Christina walked backwards several paces so she could get a better view.
“It looks like we can clear the gap. I’m going to throw the rope to double check though,” Carter said.
He released the metal tool and it started falling forward, taking the bedsheet rope with it, as if it were a rope swing. Carter was right, the tool did clear the gap of the sinkhole. The rope swung like a pendulum until it slowed down enough so that Christina could grab ahold of it.
“Now we do it for real,” Carter said,” Start climbing.”
Carter began pulling the rope up to the top of the tree again. Christina was now on the ladder about to grab ahold of the lowest tree branch.
“Hey!” Christina turned her head and saw Brett jogging towards her.
“I’m coming with you guys, I need to get some supplies from across the street too,” Brett said.
“The more the merrier,” Christina said. Brett started climbing the ladder behind her. All three were in the tree now; Carter at the top with Christina and Brett a few branches below.
“I’m going for it. Christina you go second, Brett you go last. Two things to make sure of: first, after someone goes be sure to catch the rope when it swings back, and most important, when the you are swinging on the rope, let go of the rope at the highest point on the other side. You don’t want to wait too long and have the rope start flying back towards the tree before you jump off. Good luck see you on the other side,” Carter said.
It was a thing of beauty. Carter, using bear hug technique, held on tight to the metal tool at the end of the rope as he pushed off the branch with his feet. He began free falling towards the ground until the rope was taught and its momentum swung Carter through the air. Just as promised, at the height of apex of the swing, Carter released the bear hug grip and landed safely on the grass, clearing the sinkhole by fifteen yards.
Christina moved to the top branch where Carter had jumped from and together her and Brett were able to catch the rope that was swinging back towards the tree. Christina pulled up with enough force to raise the metal tool to the top.
“One down, two to go,” Christina said to Brett.
Christina began her swing, which wasn’t quite as graceful as Brett’s but she got the job done. She let go of the swing but landed awkwardly on one foot which led her into a somersault to brace the the impact. Now standing next to Carter, the two watched as Brett prepared for his turn. He pushed off from the tree branch and started swinging just like the others had. When it seemed like the opportune time to let go of the rope swing though, Brett did not. It looked as if piece of his clothing got caught up in the rope contraption and when he let go with his hands, he was still attached.
“Jump, jump, jump!” Carter yelled at the top of his lungs. The swing had reached its apex and was about to start its descent back towards the tree.
Brett was moving frantically trying to wiggle free, and he finally did so, but the force of the rope swinging backwards sent Brett’s falling momentum backwards.
“Noooooo!” Christina screamed as Brett fell hard on his back right on the ledge of the sinkhole. He no longer had control over his body, and the initial impact spiraled him backwards again into the sinkhole, falling to what Carter and Christin imagined was a very painful death.
They ran over to the edge of the sinkhole and could see Brett laying on his back at the bottom of hole; a massive pile of blood was forming. They estimated the hole was at least fifty feet deep. They stood there in silence; tears began streaming down both of their faces. Eventually Carter put his hand on Christina’s back and redirected her in the forward direction.
“C’mon there’s nothing we can do now, we have to keep going,” Carter said. The motor pool building and reserve supply lab building were now in their sights.
19 TRANSFORMATION
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“Where are at we at with production,” General Kaplan said to Sierra.
She was standing next to a large device that General Kaplan assumed was the 3D printer. It was making a series of beeping noises.
“We’re on schedule with the first batch of chips, they should be done within the hour. After that we’ll have to wait for Christina to bring back more supplies in order to start a second batch,” Sierra said.
“And the probability of the chips being created the proper way is?” General Kaplan said.
“Well, the machine is quite advanced; all I had to do was put materials in the loading chambers, set a few control limits and it will build the chip exactly as described. The only thing that could potentially go wrong is if the proportions are off. For example if I put too much boron and not enough silicon, maybe these chips won’t have the same effect on the aliens,” Sierra said.
“Alright we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” General Kaplan said, “Come find me when the first batch is ready.
He walked out of the room and went to look for Orlando. He located Orlando in an office with twenty other ‘volunteers’. It appeared he was briefing them on their mission. He walked up to Orlando and started to whisper in his ear, so the others couldn’t hear what he was saying.
“The chips will be ready within the hour. We have to strategically hide them and not let the aliens see that we are hiding something before your crew goes out on the lawn to draw the aliens in,” General Kaplan said. “I’ll be back soon, don’t let anyone get cold feet, keep them fired up.”
He walked out the room and located the President, along with Garrett, Logan, and Hank in the basement room adjacent to the Situation Room.
“Give me an update General,” President Taylor said.
“Everything is going as planned so far. I have yet to check on Sumesh to see the progress on the oil pipeline contamination project. Also, I have no idea what Christina and Carter are up to since I can’t cross the sinkhole. The alien crafts still haven’t moved. We should be ready to send the volunteers outside within the hour,” General Kaplan said.
“Excellent. We just made a loudspeaker announcement to the rest of the country with instructions on how to remain safe. We also have made contact with England and they have agreed to provide us assistance if needed, however I don’t any ideas yet as to what type of assistance they can provide us. Let me know if you come up with anything,” President Taylor said.
“Alright I will check back in a bit, I’m going to track down Sumesh,” General Kaplan said.
He was able to find Sumesh in a room with a placard on the door that read ‘Mechanical Override’. Inside it resembled the engine room of a large ship, with huge floor to ceiling units each with their own control panels. Some of the units had large vats attached to them at the top as if they were storing some type of liquid or gas.Sumesh had found what looked like a heavy duty fire hose and had attached it to one of the valves he had opened.
