by Nathan Combs
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Acknowledgements
About The Author
Enigma
A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller
By Nathan Combs
Copyright © 2016 by Nathan Combs
For more about this author please visit: nathancombsauthor.com
Cover and Formatting: Streetlight Graphics
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-0-9967477-2-1
LCCN: 2016901254
Main category—Fiction>Thriller>Apocalyptic
Other category—Fiction>Dystopian
First Edition
For warriors past, present and future
Chapter One
Aftershock
The newly minted Olympia flag flapped elegantly in the strengthening breeze. The blue star and alternating white and red bars rose and fell with each gust. Below the flag, on a wooden bench outside Fort Hope’s command center, Wade Coltrane stared at the menacing January sky pregnant with heavy black clouds, and braced against the tsunami of memories washing over him. He thought about how it began: Project Terminus, the collapse of the United States, the nuclear war… the horror of the plague and the decline of humanity. Shaking his head, he tried to shut them out, but the vivid reflections rolled on. Flashbacks to the discovery of the Northern Groups, the ORNL, Fort Hope, the colonies, and the formation of the Olympia Territories surged sequentially through his mind. When the battles with The Light and the recent meeting with Nina surged forward, it compelled him to pause. Clenching his sixty-five-year-old teeth in self-disgust, he regained control and stood.
Wade found Randal in the cafeteria, staring out the window at the threatening sky. Pulling a chair next to him, he clapped his shoulder, sighed heavily, and sat down.
Father and son stared at each other for a long moment. “I sent a Humvee to Fort-T to get Sara, Dad. She should be here by late afternoon. She’ll provide positive identification, but we both know that’s not Nina.”
Wade nodded in agreement. “Regardless of who she is, Son, I owe you my life. We all do.”
The meeting with Nina’s replica ended three hours ago and left them with more questions than answers. Under the guise of a white flag, she’d appeared at the gate, requested a meeting, and was taken to the command center. Two minutes after the talks began, Randal startled those in attendance by shooting her twice in the head, killing her instantly. Then he yelled “bomb” and ordered everyone out. Once outside, he told the stunned warriors that the girl had a bomb inside her. Two men went back inside and carried her body to a far corner of the parking lot, and within minutes, the device was found and deactivated.
Wade and Randal stood in the blustery January morning and watched as the corpse was covered with a blanket, then taken to the makeshift morgue. Without taking his eyes from the scene, Wade asked, “How did you know, Randal?”
“I saw the same thing in Iraq, Dad. Given the circumstances, she was too flippant and cocky. When she said her name was Olivia and that she was Nina’s twin, then grinned that evil grin… I just knew.”
Six long, anxious hours later, Sara arrived from Fort Terminus, and Wade and Randal escorted her through patches of dirty snow to the morgue. Just outside the door, she hesitated. “Can you give me a moment?”
Wade understood. “Take as much time as you need, Sara.”
She stared at the door for a full minute. Her lithe body shuddered once. Twice. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Okay, let’s go.”
The corpse was lying on an examination table, and Fort Hope’s “bones,” Robert McAlister, unzipped the body bag. Sara looked down at the face she had come to loathe. Even though it looked different in death than it did in life, especially with two bullet holes in the forehead, she trembled. Then she asked if they could roll her over so she could see the lower back. When it was exposed, she hung her head.
“That’s not Nina.”
“Are you sure?” asked Wade.
“Yes. Of course I’m sure. Nina has a birthmark on her back, just below the waistline, on the right side. It resembles an hourglass. There’s no birthmark on this body. I’m one hundred percent positive.”
Wade asked if there were other features she could use for corroboration. Sara thought for a moment.
“Open her mouth.”
The doctor pried the girl’s mouth open and Sara said, “Give me a flashlight.”
After looking in her mouth, she straightened. “Definitely not her. Nina has a silver filling on a bottom molar.”
She stared at the corpse for several seconds, put on a pair of surgical gloves, roughly pried the legs apart, and examined the vaginal area. She looked up at Wade and shook her head slowly from side to side.
“I guarantee you, Wade, I don’t know who this girl is—or was—but this is not Nina.”
Standing in silence with a far-away look in her eyes, she shuddered, then turned and looked at Wade with fear-filled eyes. “She’s still out there, Wade. She’s never going to stop unless you find her and kill her. And I tell you now, she’s going to go ballistic when she finds out this scheme failed. We need to prepare for the worst.”
Wade nodded. “Okay. Randal, set up a meeting in the cafeteria in thirty. Sara, I want you there. I need your input.”
Randal left for the cafeteria, and Sara and Wade went outside to the abnormally cold January dusk. Sitting on a frost-encrusted wooden bench just outside the morgue, Sara was quiet. A renegade gust of wind pushed her long, brown hair across her furrowed brow. With an annoyed expression, she swept the hair from her eyes and stared intently at the roiling black clouds as they danced across the twilight sky. The only sound was the distant slapping of the territorial flag. Without warning, she started to cry.
Wade sat down next to her and gently put his arm around her shoulders. He said nothing.
When the sobs ceased, she regained her composure and wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands. She pulled away, tilted her head back, and said, “Thank you, Wade. I’m sorry. I was just hoping to God it was Nina and this would end. I can’t explain how much I hate her. How frightened I am of her.”
“It’s all right, Sara. We’ll get her.”
Wade stood and extended his hand. “We need to get to the meeting.”
She accepted his hand, but remained seated. “There’s something else I have to tell you.”
Eyebrows arched, he steeled himself and exhal
ed slowly. “Go ahead.”
She hesitated. Then, with a slight smile: “I’m pregnant, Wade. You’re going to be a grandfather again.”
Wade chuckled. Running a hand through his greying brown hair, he shook his head slowly from side to side and closed his eyes. With obvious relief, he looked up and smiled. “Sara, that’s the last thing I expected to hear you say. Congratulations. Is Chris happy?”
“Yes. Of course he is. We wanted to tell you together, but you had the emergency here at Fort Hope to deal with, and you wanted him to remain at Fort Terminus, so we never had the opportunity. When I realized Nina was still alive, I thought you should know right away. I’m worried about the future. For my baby.”
“Sara, I promise you Nina nor any of her clan of psychos will ever get anywhere near you or your baby. You have my word.”
Stuart Benjamin, the executive officer of Fort Hope; Captain Randal Coltrane, ex-Green Beret; Bill Scarlett, ex-Navy SEAL; Master Sergeant Donovan Cole, ex-Delta Force; Staff Sergeant Joe Wilkerson, ex-Ranger; and Tyler Little Soldier, formally of FPS/Homeland Security, were all present when Wade and Sara entered the cafeteria. The villages of Zion and Gateway had reps in attendance and an additional eighty-five grim-faced men and women stood two deep against the walls. The room was filled to capacity.
Wade pulled out a chair for Sara and, when she was seated, went to the podium.
He stood silently for several seconds, gazing at the assemblage. Noting there were two new men seated at the rear of the room, he said, “Good evening. For the benefit of you new people, my name is Wade Coltrane. I was a captain in the United States Navy. I am the commander of Fort Hope, Fort Terminus, and the colonies, and acting president of Olympia. My men are in the habit of calling me Captain, but since titles are meaningless to me, I also answer to Wade. I know everyone here except for you two men at the rear.” He nodded in their direction. “Please stand and introduce yourselves.”
The men looked at each other and stood simultaneously. The shortest one said, “My name is Doctor Walter Givens. I was a psychologist for the United States Army.”
He sat, and the other man said, “Doctor David Collins here. I’m a surgeon. I don’t know what I can do to help, but I was asked to attend the meeting. I’ll assist in any way I can.”
Wade nodded and said, “Doctor Givens, how much do you know about The Light and their leader, Nina?”
Doctor Givens stood. “Only rumors, I’m afraid. I’ve been living in a shack near Asheville and just learned about Fort Hope and Olympia last week. I arrived from Gateway yesterday.”
Wade nodded and looked around the crowded room. “Then, for your benefit, we’ll begin with a brief history lesson.”
He explained about King Jackson, how the Oak Ridge National Laboratory became Fort Hope, and how the area that included the villages of Gateway and Zion officially became the Olympia Territories. He explained that The Light was a group of cannibals and how they found Fort Terminus. He went into detail about the operation that destroyed The Light in Robbinsville, NC, though Nina escaped, and placed emphasis on their assumption that she hooked up with Horst Nagel, who was a demolitions expert. He told them about the bombs Nina planted at Fort Hope and of the attacks on Fort Hope and the villages. He finished by saying, “Nina has waged continuous guerrilla warfare against us for months. This morning she sent a clone of herself, waving a white flag, with a bomb lodged in her anus, to kill us. Thanks to Randal”—he nodded at his son—“the attempt failed. Unfortunately, at this moment she’s winning. Our mandate from this point forward is to find and eliminate her. Without Nina, we believe The Light will collapse. So far, she’s been one step ahead of us. The girl is good. No. Let me rephrase that. She’s not good… she’s exceptional.”
He drank from the glass of water on the podium, then nodded and said, “I know I don’t have to remind you, but I’m going to anyway. Do not make the mistake of underestimating her because she’s a young, attractive woman.”
Placing a hand on Sara’s shoulder, he said, “This is my daughter-in-law, Sara. For those of you who don’t know, she was a captive of The Light for nine months. She spent time with Nina nearly every day and knows her better than anyone. Sara is going to tell you what Nina is like, how she thinks, and how she acts and reacts. Then we’re going to put our thinking caps on and come up with a game plan. Doctor Givens, feel free to interject with questions. When Sara’s done, even though you won’t have had the time to analyze it, I want your immediate initial assessment of Nina’s personality. Doctor Collins, you’re here for informational purposes. If you can contribute in any way, it will be appreciated. The same applies to everyone else in this room. I’m open to any suggestions.”
Returning to his seat, he nodded for Sara to begin.
Sara stood. She was visibly nervous and fiddled with her hair, twisting it around her forefinger. She slumped slightly, making herself appear much shorter than her five feet seven inches. Her mouth was dry and, as she mounted the podium, she licked her lips. In a halting voice, she began. “I—I was captured by The Light in Chattanooga just after the plague abated. At that time, they… they were just beginning to organize, and for whatever reason, Paul Justice, who was their military genius, didn’t trust me. But Nina liked me, so in a weird way, she protected me from him. Justice countered by assigning an armed guard to me everywhere I went. During my nine months of captivity, I constantly looked for a way to escape, but… it wasn’t possible.”
She looked down at her hands, then raised her head and continued. “Nina is bisexual, but she prefers females to males. For whatever reason, she… well, she was obsessed with me, and forced me to have sex with her nearly every day. She knew I was straight and knew I hated every second of it, but that just made it more enjoyable for her. She never acknowledged I was straight, but I know she knew. And, for your information, it was the only way I could stay alive.”
Gaining confidence from their rapt attention, her narrative took on a more confident tone, and she became more animated. “The Light averaged about eight hundred people, and every one of them was a sociopath. They were all willing cannibals. During the time I was a captive, I never once ate human flesh. Nor did I do the drugs Nina provided. I pretended to, but they were always so high they never noticed that I didn’t eat my fellow man or take the pills. I’m sure things have changed since I was there, and although Nina may have changed the way she does things, she will never change who she is. I would never pretend to be a psychologist, but in my opinion, Nina is a combination of every psychological definition that ever existed and makes every psycho that ever lived look harmless.”
She stared intently at the audience. They were totally immersed in her narrative, and as one they leaned toward her, their collective gaze focused on her face. Other than Sara’s voice, the only sound in the room was the ticking of the clock on the wall behind her. She took a deep breath, exhaled heavily, and asked Wade if she could have a glass of water.
Tyler Little Soldier brought it to her, and Wade took advantage of the momentary break to ask, “Doctor Givens, do you have any questions or want to make any comments at this point?”
Doctor Givens, who was now intrigued and fully engaged, came to the front of the room and said, “Sara, is it okay if I just sit next to you?”
Sara looked at him and said, “That’s fine, Doctor. But don’t even think about psychoanalyzing me. I won’t tolerate it. And don’t patronize me, either. I’m not in the mood.”
He assured her he had no intention of analyzing anything other than the information she provided. “You did what you had to do to stay alive. I promise you, Sara, no one looks down on you. May I make a suggestion?”
Sara stared at him, deciding she didn’t like him. “Go ahead.”
“I think it would be beneficial, at least it would be to me, if you would tell us what you think she thinks, how she reacts,
or your opinion of the things she does or doesn’t do. Then later on, I may have specific questions. Okay?”
Sara stood in silence while her eyes drilled a neat little hole in Doctor Given’s forehead. Ultimately, she nodded. “All right. That’s fair enough.”
Turning back to the mesmerized assembly with newfound confidence, she said, “To begin with, although I hate to admit it, Nina really is quite beautiful. But her beauty is superficial. She has no conscience. I don’t believe she ever feels guilt or sorrow. I know she doesn’t feel remorse. Nina is anti-social and a loner. She’s not capable of feeling genuine emotion, and that includes love and jealousy. I don’t think she’s even capable of hate. However, she is vengeful. To the tenth power! Anyone who crosses her is toast. She’s not self-destructive and she has no bad or unhealthy habits. She has pride; she’s ultra clean and takes good care of herself. She’s also addicted to sex, or at least has a sex drive that’s off the charts. She’s multi-orgasmic and they’re earth-shattering. She comes close to passing out when she’s in their grip. I contemplated killing her when she was having one, but I’m sorry to say, I always chickened out. Nina is also ruthless and, as most of you know, extremely cunning and creative. No offense to any of you, but she is one of the most intelligent and talented persons I have ever seen. Nina is an enigma. Strange as it may sound, she has a great sense of humor. There were times she would talk to me like we were BFFs. She’d sit giggling and laughing like a college girl. However, those moments were rare. She only slipped once and told me something about herself. She was born in Russia and was orphaned at an early age. Her father was an American and he murdered her mother, then committed suicide. She came to the US when she was eighteen. Before the collapse, she was the lead pianist for the Philadelphia Orchestra. She never once asked me a personal question.”
