Beyond Armageddon: Book 01 - Disintegration
Page 47
Once they had cleared the outer walls, the charges placed throughout the dead complex detonated. Explosions ripped one after another after another. Destruction came in a series of blasts. Burning debris spew into the air like a volcanic eruption. Walls crumbled.
Still more detonations followed. They would leave no piece of the place standing. No memory. No tribute. No clue. Nothing would be left of that nest of misery and torment.
The sound of the explosions roared like an angry, forlorn voice shouting toward the heavens. The flames consumed everything. Fireballs rolled skyward. Complete destruction. Total annihilation.
Disintegration.
---
Trevor did not fly home. He turned the ship over to another pilot and sat alone in the passenger area with only Tyr for company, curled in a ball by his Master’s side.
He had promised to remember, and remember he did. He remembered seeing her sleeping on the bed in the guestroom…only to have her nearly break his neck. He remembered the furl of her brow the time she had tried to outwit him with hand signals …and the shock on her face when he announced he could fly an Apache.
He remembered changing his morning habits to catch a glimpse of her at breakfast…he remembered her in the rain storm the night she tried to leave and how that scared him…then the overwhelming desire to bare his feelings to her and the joy of seeing those feeling returned.
The disaster of their initial date but she had laughed…the night they made love for the first time…finding comfort in her arms after the disaster at the gateway…the fantasy that was New Year’s Eve as they had stood on the balcony and felt the world belonged to them.
Memories of a dream…
…Trevor marched to the command center and shut the doors.
Nina Forest—the latest newcomer to the estate—had walked off with Shepherd after they landed. Shep had a lot of explaining to do. He had to tell her a lot of things. There were nearly as many things he could not tell her.
As the day went on, he picked at dinner but could not eat. He tried to nap in an empty bed but her scent remained on the pillow. Instead, he stood on the balcony as the sunset behind the mansion bringing the darkness of a new night.
---
Shepherd pushed open the door to Nina’s apartment. Odin darted inside and slumped into his favorite corner.
"This is your place; you’ve been living here since last fall."
Nina stepped in to a stranger’s living room with a stranger’s furniture.
"Here, huh? This is too much," she meant all the day’s revelations.
He rested his hands on her shoulders.
"I know. It’s going to take some time. You need to get a good night’s sleep. All your stuff is here. You know how to reach me."
Nina pointed toward the Elkhound.
"This dog is mine?"
"K9," Shep corrected. "He’s not so much yours as he is a friend. You can trust him."
She had so many more questions, even after Shep spent hours telling stories. Yet even she knew her mind could take only so much. The rest would have to wait.
"I ‘reckon I’ll be back in the morning. Everything is okay. You’re safe here. Just…just try and get some sleep."
He smiled one more time, nodded, and then descended the outside stairs toward the driveway. Nina watched him go then closed the door.
She had no idea where to begin or what to do, so she strolled around the living room snooping for signs: signs that this unfamiliar place could possibly be her home.
Nina found weapons and tactical outfits and other clothes in the closet; clothes in her size but she doubted she would ever wear anything like the black party dress hanging there.
Something caught her eye. A light from a cabinet on the far end of the living room. She stepped over there and leaned close. The light came from a button. She pushed it.
The speakers of the stereo came to life and played a melancholy melody.
I'm always walkin' after midnight, searchin' for you…
What is this? Is it…the least bit…familiar?
No. She had never heard this song before.
Still…nice. Sad but kind of sweet. It made her feel a little better but, at the same time, it gave her a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. She did not understand; she wasn’t hungry. Could she be getting sick?
She stood there…listening…wondering.
I go out walkin' after midnight,
Out in the moonlight,
Just hopin' you may be
Somewhere a-walkin' after midnight, searchin' for me…
36. Time
The Humvee sped along the Cross Valley Expressway. Two escort vehicles followed at a respectful distance.
Trevor sat in the passenger’s seat meandering through pages of reports, updates, and proposed plans attached to a clipboard. Jon Brewer drove the car and Tyr rode in the rear.
Jon did not typically serve as Trevor’s chauffeur, but they had been in the middle of a meeting when Dante’s urgent call had been piped through to the new meeting hall in the basement of the mansion.
Dante refused to explain the emergency, forcing Trevor to the road. With the new autumn offensive only two weeks away, Trevor and Jon could not afford to miss meeting time. Therefore, Jon volunteered to drive them from the estate to meet Dante in Kingston.
Trevor smiled and read from one of the reports.
"Yep. Omar’s got the coal plant one-hundred percent on line. That should put the lights on in Wilkes-Barre permanently. Told you he’d do it. You owe me five bucks."
"I’ll admit it, I was wrong. Still, would have been nice if he had gotten the power back when that heat wave tore through."
Stone remembered that heat wave in July. Air-conditioned rooms had been at a premium during that second summer in the post-Armageddon world; a summer that had begun with him losing Nina, but also saw the addition of hundreds more people to the community after finding and destroying a line of Red Hand camps by the New York state border.
It seemed the more they accomplished the more the accomplishments rolled in. Trevor knew things changed at Five Armies, but he had not expected things to change so fast. The August census showed the community had grown to five hundred people. Just as Stonewall had said, there were pockets of humanity out there waiting for a leader.
Nonetheless, the overall survival rate appeared to be somewhere between a half percent and two percent of the pre-Armageddon population, meaning they still found many more dead bodies than live ones.
"Okay, so Prescott says Chamberlain Munitions is back on line, too" Trevor read from another page as the Humvee drove along.
Jon echoed what the report revealed: "Omar’s been able to crank out some of the raw materials with that matter-maker thingy, so we’ve started production on bullets and light artillery pieces at the Chamberlain plant."
"But Scranton isn’t secure yet."
"No, we turned the Chamberlain complex into a fortress. Besides, most of the baddies in Scranton are small stuff. Nothing that’s a big deal. We can clear it out in a week or two once we get enough bullets."
Trevor shook his head in disappointment. Still, he knew he should know better than to try and move too quickly. The last year—the first year—of the fight taught him that while bold moves would be necessary on occasion, patience would be necessary just as often.
"So you think we should clear Scranton before we launch the big push?" Trevor asked his lead General. "What does Shep say?"
"Shep says his folks are ready to go at any time."
Trevor knew one of Shep’s ‘folks’ was Nina. Shep oversaw what would soon be the ‘southern command.’ Nina fought at his side. They had built a base outside the mountain top city of Hazleton to the south. That meant Trevor did not see Nina around the estate much any more.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Trevor returned his focus to the important stuff.
"Does he have enough bullets to clear Hazleton? Can he do that?"
Trevor knew Carbondale to be a small town north of Scranton. He knew that the Gentex facility had also been turned into a fortress.
"I didn’t ask you about helmets and body armor. I asked you about bullets."
"Shep thinks he’s got enough."
"Do you think he’s got enough?"
"Um…not yet. Give it another week. Push the launch back to October."
Trevor sighed, nodded his head, and made a note on the report.
"Oh yeah," Jon thought of something. "Eva Rheimmer says she needs more human guards for the new farms."
"What? She’s already got, like, a hundred K9s."
"Yeah, well, she’s got like a dozen farms now."
That surprised Trevor.
"A dozen? I thought it was ten."
"She found two more outside of Center Moreland, both with big corn fields."
"Fully manned?"
"Yep. Families and farmhands. Of course they were happy to be a part of our big family when we gave them medicine and gasoline."
"But?" Trevor sensed a ‘but’.
"But they need protection, too. Lots of weird things out there in the countryside."
Trevor said, "Sure, because we’ve been chasing all the weird things out of the cities. Guess you can’t have everything. Hey, this exit."
Trevor pointed to the ‘Kingston’ ramp off the expressway.
"Where am I going again?"
"Rutter Ave. Just get off on Route Eleven, hang a right, then hang a left."
Trevor knew the way because he had traveled it often in the days before Armageddon. Ashley had lived in Kingston not far from Rutter Ave.
Dante had summoned them to what had been an optometrist's clinic in the old world. Why he had summoned them remained a mystery.
Trevor returned the conversation to their on-the-fly meeting.
"Stonewall still up in Honesdale?"
"Yeah, still working out the details with those people up there. Last time he checked in, he said there’s at least another two hundred people in and around there. They had rebuilt their town, a little. Still, not much in the way of resources. They’re itching to be a part of us."
"Gunna be tough. They’re sort of isolated up there."
Trevor knew Honesdale to be a tiny, remote town, a good forty miles as the crow flies to the northeast of Wilkes-Barre. However, as he mentally examined the map he realized that Scranton and Carbondale marked steps between the estate and Honesdale.
"Maybe we can clear some outposts between Gentex and them. Kind of make, I dunno, islands between us and them. Then start clearing everything out in-between as we get more manpower."
"Not a bad idea," Jon answered as they came to the end of the off-ramp and swerved onto Route 11. "We haven’t spotted any type of big, organized armies out there. So if we’re just worrying about the little stuff—like Mutants and predators—we can build up hard points and wait until we’ve got more strength."
"You’re a genius Jon."
"I thought I was an asshole."
"Yeah, that too."
Trevor paged through more reports. The council he had created to help guide planning and coordinate efforts started to create a bureaucracy. That, in turn, created more paperwork. Trevor feared the whole save-the-world thing was going to get a lot more complicated.
Jon pointed out: "Manpower could be tough. Not everyone wants to be a fighter."
Trevor recalled the rage that had carried his ragtag force to victory at Five Armies. Rage he had inspired. His gift, or so it seemed.
"I think you’ll be surprised. People are sick of hiding and running. If we keep cranking out fatigues, army boots, and Kevlar we’ll find people to wear em’."
"I hope you’re right ‘cause like wow, you’ve got some big plans, Trev. We’re going to need a shitload of people. And guns. And tanks. And planes. And--"
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Watch where you’re going. Turn left here."
"Speaking of which, Prescott has put together a proposal for standardized training and we’re making a big list of places that might have supplies to be scavenged. You know, armories, army bases, shit like that. A lot of them are pretty far out and who knows what’ll be left there."
"We’ll find what we need," Trevor guessed. "When it started the US Military got surprised. I think there’s a lot of shit out there just waiting to be found because no one got a chance to use it."
The Humvee drove through a residential neighborhood where trees lined the streets. Trevor knew that in less than a month the leaves on those trees would change colors and die. Another winter loomed but this time they would weather it much easier.
"So where am I—hold on, I see."
They both saw the commotion ahead. Several police vehicles—now a part of Dante Jones’ Internal Security apparatus—and a crowd of K9s loitered in the parking lot of what had once been a large eye care clinic. Before that, the building had been a new car dealership; hence, the big glass windows in front and fashionable skylights visible on the roof.
The lead Humvee pulled near the front door and stopped. The escorts did the same.
Trevor and Jon made to leave the vehicle, but the crackle of Jon’s radio stopped Brewer.
"Mister Brewer…this is Omar and I am needing to discuss a matter with you promptly."
Jon rolled his eyes and waved Trevor to go ahead without him.
Stone did just that, hearing the start of the radio communication as he walked away: "Yes, Omar?"
"It is so very nice for you to tell me what to make with my machines because most certainly you are the only one who needs anything. I just sit around all the time doing nothing waiting for you to give me something to do…"
Omar’s sarcasm faded from earshot as Dante hurried from the building to meet Trevor.
"You better have dragged me out here for a good reason," Trevor said.
"Trev, look, first thing you got to know, this wasn’t here a few days ago."
"What?"
"I think I just better show you."
He followed his friend inside. Light filled the interior from both the big atrium-like windows set along the roof and a series of portable lights arranged by Dante’s men, most of whom dressed in policemen’s garb.
Trevor noted that both Reverend Johnny and Dr. Maple walked through the building, too. However, before he could speak to either of them, another sight grabbed Trevor’s eyes: big blobs of green goo. Blobs nearly as big as and shaped similar to coffins laying in a chaotic manner throughout the building.
A sort of left over burning smell filled the place, as if something had been overcooked an hour before.
"What—what in God’s name?"
Trevor stopped and peered close at one, then another. He saw people inside each. Naked people lying still with their eyes shut.
"Trevor, we patrol this area real good. These weren’t here until—I dunno—yesterday?"
Trevor’s head swiveled side-to-side examining the encased bodies.
Dante told him, "There’s more in other buildings nearby. We’re looking at something like three thousand and we’re still counting."
"My God, these poor people. What kind of creature does this?"
"I don’t know what kind of creature does this," Dante dropped a bombshell, "but they’re still alive."
"What? Still alive?"
Dante nodded his head and touched one of the sarcophagi.
"Johnny has already pulled two people out. We just get them out of this goo shit and they’re fine."
Trevor shook his head, puzzled.
"You’re sure none of this was here until today?"
"Look, man, K9s sweep this area every few days and I’ve got guys who live in this neighborhood. No. None of this was here."
Trevor
chewed on that answer.
"But there’s something else you got to see. I’m not sure how to do this, so I’m just going to show you."
Dante grabbed his friend’s hand and pulled him through the office building. Everywhere they walked, they saw more of the things. They rounded a corner and moved behind a partition that had once separated the billing department from the front counter.
Dante led his friend to one of the green things and pointed.
Trevor leaned over, squinted, and inspected the contents of the container.
His eyes widened. His heart raced.
It was Ashley.
Ashley Trump.
END BOOK ONE
Tony DeCosmo, July 22, 2004
Next: Beyond Armageddon Book II: Empire
Table of Contents
BEYOND ARMAGEDDON
Book I: Disintegration
1. Best Plans
2. Shadows
3. Chaos
4. The Old Man
5. Night
6. Fugitive
7. Paradigm Shift
8. The South Side Suicide Club
9. Nina Forest
10. Stonewall
11. Reconnaissance
12. Raid
13. Fury
14. Red Rain
15. Revelations
16. Betrayal
17. The Order
18. Torment
19. Release
20. Storm
21. Redcoats
22. The Battle of Wilkes-Barre
23. Counter Attack
24. Farewell
25. Walking After Midnight
26. Round Trip
27. Destruction
28. Sweet Dreams
29. Gathering Thunderheads