by G. Adler
“Just trust us.”
Chapter 37 - General Matthews
I furiously punch as many keys as I can, but the screen in front of me maintains its countdown. The dozen or so men in the room with me watch anxiously for something to happen. Each of them is white-knuckled and pale as the timer continues its downward spiral. The President wheels himself over to me and puts a hand on my shoulder.
“Stop it, Jack. You’ve been at it for over twenty hours with almost no breaks! You were in bad enough shape when we got down here. You’re going to work yourself to death. You need medical attention that we don’t have with us. Just relax and…”
“And what, Boss? Wait for the explosion that is going to vaporize us and the rest of the planet in the next ten minutes? What if my next keystroke is the one that stops all this? Do you really want me to give up? Would you?”
The President just hangs his head. “No, I suppose not. But you sound more like a gambling addict than a scientist. Sometimes we have to cut our losses and accept…”
“Accept what? That the world is going to end in the next few minutes? My kids are dead. That is on me. No matter how this plays out, whether we get vaporized or the hand of God comes down to save us, I am going to have to carry that guilt with me. I would just as soon not have seven billion other souls to add to my guilt and shame!”
The President opens his mouth to speak but nothing comes out. He just tightens his grip on my shoulder and sighs. From beside him, he pulls out two full bottles of scotch and removes his flask from inside his jacket. He places them down on the table beside me and becomes thin-lipped.
I roll my eyes and shake my head. I swivel my chair back to the keyboard in front of me and continue to work.
“Are you serious, General?”
“NO. Are YOU, Boss? A toast to the end of the world? Is that what you’re offering me?”
He slams his fist onto the table, making the bottles jump together like they are toasting already.
“Why the hell not, General? Jack, this is it. This is all that humanity has left!”
He then raises his voice and captures the attention of everyone in the room.
“Look at the screens, people! Here we are, the most powerful men in the world. We were supposed to guide the people. To show them a vision of America that would inspire them all. Well look at them now. This is how our children have decided to act. Jesus Christ this is our legacy! I for one am shaking in my boots. In about five minutes, I’m going to have to explain to God how all of this happened. I don’t think my maker is going to have much of a sense of humor about my help ending the world! LOOK AT THEM! The population has torn half of the country to shreds! The world itself has been ripped in half and not by some crazed machine… but by our hands! Here are the lessons we’ve given our children. Here are the evils WE will have to answer for and not in some courtroom! We’ve witnessed atrocities on those screens in the past twenty hours that haven’t been seen since Medieval times! If that is how most human beings want to spend their last days, then you know what? I’m going to toast to DANE!”
There is an audible gasp as the President uncorks his flask and takes a swig. I grab at his arm and push the steel container down.
“How could you?”
He stares me straight in the eyes and says, “Because I’m ashamed to be human at the moment, Jack. We all should be. We’ve wasted our lives alienating half of the world and for what? So we could have more? Really, Jack? I take nothing away from your crowning achievement. It knew us better than we knew ourselves!”
I glance at the timer and shrink back at the two-minute warning.
With tears forming in my eyes, I grab the President’s flask and hold it up to the sky.
“To whatever the future holds. May God have mercy on our souls.”
I drain the flask in its entirety, making sure to shake out the last few drops. The rest of the officers in the room all say “amen” in unison. The President uncorks the two bottles and says, “Drink up, people. It isn’t like I’m saving any for later!”
There is an uncomfortable laugh and a few sobs as the timer hits the sixty second mark.
A firm hand grabs one of mine and I look down at the President.
“Jack, if I have to die, I’m glad I get to do it with a friend.”
I smile in reply and squeeze his hand. In stark contrast, the monitors show the people outside going completely savage in the final few seconds, tearing one another limb from limb while bathing in the blood of their fallen prey. Some of them engage in acts of carnality reserved only for Japanese pornographic cartoons while others take sexual pleasure by force. My stomach turns as I watch the essence of humanity’s debauchery taken to the nth degree.
Three… two… one.
An explosion on one of the screens is so bright that I have to look away from it. My heart immediately leaps into my chest. Behind me I hear sobs and the sounds of at least two people throwing up. I don’t bother to check who it is. My eyes refuse to look away from the screen. I wait for the mushroom cloud that represents the searing heat of the bombs, the hellfire that will annihilate my planet and species.
The area around the explosion goes up in flames, sending dust and ash in all directions. The screen becomes obscured, but of one thing I am certain. I slam my fist down and a smile creeps over my face.
“Damn it, General, I see that grin! What is it?
“Boss, that was NOT nuclear!”
I rush over to the computer and tap a few keys. “HELL YES! We have operational control!”
I tap a few keys, and a map of our nuclear silos pops up. I select one of them and conduct a full diagnostic of the warhead. I jump out of my seat at the result.
“The warheads never detonated. Not a single one!”
McKelvy steps forward with shaking hands. The front of his uniform is drenched in vomit.
“H… h… how is that possible? W… w… we saw the countdown….”
I call up the schematic of our nuclear silos and clap my hands together.
“The bombs did count down, but the wiring within the missiles overloaded somehow, frying every piece of electronic equipment inside. The primary charge never received a signal to fire, so the nuclear material was left untouched. That’s the good news.”
The room erupts into screams of joviality. Most of the soldiers in the room fall to their knees, thanking God for this opportunity. The rest start to weep and hug one another.
A hand shoots up and grabs me by the shoulder boards, pulling me down with enough force to yank me off my feet. Within seconds the President plants a kiss on each of my cheeks.
“I don’t know what you did, General, but you have saved us all!”
I wipe the sweat from my face and take a few deep breaths. “Boss, I don’t know how we were saved, but I can promise you one thing: I had nothing to do with it. The wiring in our projectiles is designed to withstand huge amounts of interference and energy. I can’t even begin to imagine the surge that melted all of that tech, let alone where it would have come from.”
“You worry too much, Jack!”
“And what about the one explosion? What was that all about?”
I call up the replay of that screen and feed the data into my GPS program. The computer places it somewhere in three possible cities.
“Can you narrow that down, General?”
“I’m working on it now, Boss.”
The computer narrows the search parameters and puts the first explosion right above my base.
“Get a live feed of the base, General.”
I tap a few keys and my eyes go wide. The screen is full of nothing but static.
“I’m sorry Boss, but we no longer have working satellites in orbit. The diagnostic tools on each of them sent back a message about a minute ago. The communications circuitry in all of them overloaded and fri
ed. Here is the bad news that I eluded to moments ago. Just like our nuclear missiles, our satellites are now nothing more than metallic paperweights. Repairing each of them will cost hundreds of trillions of dollars over multiple decades.”
“Then bounce our signal off another country’s satellite!”
I shake my head back and forth. “Every country is in the same boat as us.”
“Then send in a drone, General!”
I do an analysis of our inventory and laugh.
“All fried, Boss.”
“Dammit what DO we have then?”
I pick up my cell phone and notice that I have service once again. I hold it up to the President and show him.
“Full bars, Boss. Do we have anybody on the ground that we can call?”
That’s when McKelvy steps forward and passes me a slip of paper.
“I tasked one of our best covert marine operatives to keep an eye on you, Matthews. Here is his encrypted number. His name is Corporal Jordan.”
I run my hands through my hair and start to hyperventilate. Tears start to flow from my eyes and I feel like I am going to throw up.
“Jack? What is it? You’ve gone as white as a sheet!”
“His son, Tyrese, was one of Hayden’s friends. I had all five of them all locked up in the stockade because of a stupid prank that they played at school. They were on my base as it was destroyed. How do I call a man on the phone and ask him to report on the tomb of his son when he doesn’t even know yet?”
The room goes silent.
Then the President does something I will never forget. He puts his hand on either side of his wheelchair and stands on his mangled ankle. He takes a deep breath along with a step forward, followed by a second and a third until his arms are wrapped around me in a tight embrace.
“Make the call, Jack.”
I wipe the tears from my eyes and take the information from McKelvy. I dial the number and wait. Corporal Jordan picks up immediately and follows protocol.
“Name, code, and verification.”
“General Jack Matthews. Eight, nine, zero, zero, six, nine, five, eight, zero. Verification code tango, four, echo, charlie, three, hotel.”
There is a moment of silence as Jordan verifies my information.
“Verified. Line is secure. General, before you say anything, are the kids safe?”
I drop the phone on the floor and have to scramble to pick it up.
With a quiver in my voice and shaking hands I say, “S... s… status report.”
“Please, General, how is my boy? He wasn’t on the base when it blew, was he?”
“STATUS REPORT, CORPORAL!”
I can hear his teeth grating in the background.
“Sir, yes, Sir. Five minutes ago there were hundreds of military vehicles all over the remnants of your base. There must have been almost a thousand jets flying and at least fifty ground vehicles with more arriving by the hour. Moments ago they all stopped moving and just died, as if they ran out of batteries. The planes just dropped from the sky and collapsed on top of everything else like a freeway pileup. Eventually one of the vehicles began leaking fuel and ignited everything. That was the explosion that you saw.”
“Are your scanners still functioning, Corporal?”
“Yes, Sir. I had them turned off during most of the chaos. They seem to be working fine.
I swallow hard and in barely a whisper give my next order.
“Scan for survivors.”
“General, none of those vehicles had pilots in them. What would be…”
“Please, Corporal, just run the scan.”
“Yes, Sir.”
I wait a few moments with baited breath. Finally I hear a loud whooping sound followed by cries of pure ecstasy.
“I am reading five survivors, General. The bio-scans are faint because of the depth of the signals, but they are definitely there! They’re okay! They’re okay!”
I jump to my feet and snap to attention. The world immediately starts to swim and I drop back into my chair. My breaths come in deep rasps that only make my ribs hurt again.
“C… c… corporal, I want you to…”
The President reaches up and grabs the phone out of my hand.
“Corporal, this is the President. I hereby order you to commandeer any and all construction equipment and personnel in the area. Head into as many hardware stores as you can and grab shovels and pickaxes. Tell every able-bodied person that they were just drafted… for the next week or so at least. I assume that there are radiation suits on the base. Take what you need from any hospital as well. Arrange a schedule so that nobody spends too much time in the area in one shot.”
“Sir?”
“You heard me, Corporal. The General and I will be along as soon as we can find a working aircraft. We will be there to assist as soon as we can. If those kids are not close to being out of there by the time we get there, heads are going to roll, starting with yours. Do I make myself clear, Corporal?”
“Perfectly, Sir.”
Chapter 38 - Hayden
A dull white light appears before my eyes and I squeeze them tight to try and block it out. I turn my head away but wince in pain. I lift my arms into the air and feel wires dangling off me like tassels on a stripper. I bring my hands up to rub my throbbing temples and gasp when they meet hard plastic. I quickly run my fingers over the rest of my face and can only find the skin around my eyes, nostrils and mouth. I try to call out, but there is something preventing me from speaking.
Panic wells up in my chest and I try to sit up but I am unable to move. I reach down to my chest and feel a thick steel bar going across it. I kick up with my legs but feel the cold steel rubbing against my ankles. A persistent beeping sound meets my ears and my eyes dart in every direction at once to try and find the source. My hands start to shake and flail spastically. The sound of static meets my ears and I can practically see the barcodes vibrating across my field of view. I thrash my body around violently to try and escape but it is no use. I turn my head to the left and puke but nothing comes out of my mouth.
An alarm sounds and I feel multiple tentacles pressing against my chest. I snap my eyes shut and scream soundlessly while twisting this way and that.
“Just relax, Hayden. It’s me, Dr. Kim. You’re fine.”
I begin to hyperventilate and thrash even more. My body goes stiff and rigid.
“He’s seizing again. Give me one milligram of Midazolam, STAT!”
I feel a pinprick in my side and the world swims in front of me.
“That’s better. He’s leveling off. Hayden, just listen to me. You are in a maximum security military hospital under my care. You and the gang were buried in the rubble of your father’s base for over a week. Quite frankly, it’s a medical miracle that you survived that long without any fluids. Your body is very weak. We have you intubated to assist in your breathing and there is a feeding tube going directly to your stomach. We’ve had to restrain you across your chest due to the numerous seizures you have experienced. You’re lucky to be alive, young man. You all are. I’ll undo the restraint now that you are gaining consciousness but you have to take it easy.”
My eyes go wide at her last statement but I snap them shut once more. I shake my head back and forth as tears start to form in the corners of my eyes. I point repeatedly to the tube going down my throat.
“No, that tube has to stay in for another few…”
I reach up with my hand and start to pull on it, causing me to gag and sputter as I pull.
Multiple sets of hands grab at mine, but I continue to resist.
“Dear Lord! He is worse than his father! Okay Hayden, you win. I’ll remove the tube. Just stop doing it yourself before you cause any damage.”
I feel another needle entering my arm and my throat goes numb. Moments later and I feel the tub
e being removed. I cough and gag repeatedly, sounding like a three-pack-a-day smoker.
“Just let it all out. Your lungs know what they want.”
I finally manage to get in a deep breath and I gasp.
“W… w… water…”
A straw enters my mouth and I slowly sip. The cold liquid runs down my throat and I swallow hard to get down as much relief as I can.
“Easy, Hayden. Not too much. You’ll throw up again.”
“W... w… what’s wrong with my face?”
Dr. Kim starts to laugh and says, “Absolutely nothing. You are wearing a biological scanning mask that I designed for the military. It monitors your vital signs and scans your brain in real time. It then sends all of the information to a computer…”
“Take it off.”
“As your doctor, I don’t think that it is advisable.”
“TAKE IT OFF.”
I bring my hands up and start to explore the back of my head.
“All right, all right! You are just like your father, I swear! I had to reset his ribs four times and have him strapped down to a gurney to stop him from trying to get in here! Give me a minute to hook up the standard monitors before I remove the Neuromask.”
I hear her walk away a few steps and say, “Bring me the military Tempus and a crash cart.”
Seconds later and I hear wheels scraping against the floor along with multiple footsteps. A hand reaches behind my head and I hear a snap along with a steady flat line. Seconds later and I am staring up at Dr. Kim and a bunch of other medical staff.
“How long have I been out for?” I ask.
“Three days. Your brain seemed to need a restart after your ordeal. It was touch and go there for a little while. We weren’t sure your mind would be able to recover from the surge of neural energy that you experienced in the lab. I guess youth really isn’t wasted on the young after all because your last f-MRI shows normal levels of brain activity.”
