Erica had apparently been involved in drama eight years ago when she graduated, so she still had a decent memory of the layout. A few bruised shins later, she had opened the costume closet. It was nearly impossible to see, but they were able to find enough clothing to lie on the floor and make that comfortable. They spread almost all pieces of soft clothing they could find and lie together on the floor of the backstage at the high school. The dark and the quiet were ideal for how tired the whole group was. It had taken them hours to travel maybe three or four miles. They secured the door on Cal’s orders and settled in for the night. In the absolute blackness of that night, he felt Jessica put her hand in his. He fell asleep with that comfort.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Eric stood for a while in deep thought. He was at his private dojo in the downtown area of Colorado Springs, but would need to make it back to base at some point in the next 24 hours. He could explain his absence in the short term by making something up about helping the townsfolk, but at some point, the Old Man would lose his shit if Major Fine wasn’t there to take care of things. He looked back to where his students were wrangling a family into the area that Eric had set up for them. He really needed to get this under control. In a strange way, the Middle East had been easier than this. He had been a part of a conquering force, the people knew to listen, to do what they were told. When the people did not, he sometimes had to take harsh measures to deal with it. But whatever was happening here, in his town, was different. This was partly due to the fact that they were all Americans, and partly due to the fact that Eric Fine was not officially in charge, and not in a position commanding troops with guns. What these people didn’t realize was that he was protecting them, they all looked at him the way villagers always looked at the man in charge, like he was some sort of oppressor.
In the cool light of peace and freedom, it is sometimes hard to see what needs to be done in war, or conflict, or stress. He had made a career out of taking charge, and smoothing out the situation, no matter the necessary action. Eric was quick to decide, trained by the U.S. Army and deadly combat, to control his surroundings. This was for the safety of all, but he needed to figure out how to convey this to the people he was rounding up. There was safety in numbers, anyone who could help would be added to the ranks. Anyone who could hurt, would be confined. Eric knew the power wouldn’t be on today, it was already almost completely dark. But he still had hope for tomorrow. If it didn’t come on tomorrow, then a new set of decisions would have to be made.
One of the students from his dojo called out, “Soldiers approaching!”
Eric ran over to the barricade he had his men make out of the cars on the road. It wasn’t too hard to create a barrier at each end of the street. This sort of power outage brought lawlessness, looting and bad actions. Eric had determined to keep this street safe, and he would not let anyone interfere.
He saw the men coming up, armed with rifles. The rifles had bayonets attached. He hadn’t seen that in years. As they came close, he was certain he recognized the man leading them. He called out.
“Lt. Rodriguez? Is that you?” He waved and told his men to move one of the cars out of the way and they began pushing.
“Major?” the Lieutenant saluted, then slung his rifle over his shoulder, “Well, holy shit!” A big grin crossed the man’s face. “There anywhere to get my men out of this rain?”
Eric smiled good-naturedly, but he also kept reminding himself internally that these soldiers were not his men, they might have a different purpose. He needed some info, so he invited them in. “What do you got? Ten, twelve? Yeah we got room in the dojo. No light though.”
“Yeah,” Rodriguez responded, “ain’t no light anywhere, Major.”
They all walked back to the dojo and Eric began to work a plan in his head to get info, not give much, and then get these guys on their way. Walking through the double-glass door of the dojo, Eric pointed to two of his students to guard the door and keep watch on both sides of the street. He looked across to where that hot, young yoga gal was holed up. He didn’t want to scare her, but he needed to know why she wasn’t coming to the door, he needed to categorize her as a friendly, or unfriendly. He had other needs at the moment.
“Your men here have good discipline,” Rodriguez started the conversation.
“Ah, some of them are ex-grunts is all. They are my students now, not my men.” Eric lied, every man here was practically sworn to him, he knew he could count on them. The ones he wasn’t sure about; he had pressured to check on their families. There was one problem case he had tied up on another floor with some rabble rousers from down the street. This was something he didn’t want getting back to General Stone, who they all called “the Old Man.”
“Well, I am not surprised they fall in line when under stress. Man, Major, it is good to see you. We could really use your leadership right now.” Rodriguez was holding something back.
“What’s up, Rodriguez?” Eric comforted the officer with a hand on his shoulder.
The Lieutenant walked away from ear shot to talk to him in a low voice, “The men don’t know about this. I would guess most officers don’t. Not sure why Colonel Mann sent me out, as most people who knew about it were kept in the command hut on base. Maybe they didn’t catch that I was on duty this morning.” Eric stood close to the Lieutenant, he wasn’t sure he wanted anyone else to hear what he was about to hear. “About 0700 this morning, comms went out in India. The Mountain was tracking this massive outage as it moved across the planet and we lost one station after another. We weren’t sure what it was, solar flare, nuclear, whatever at first. Not my area, so I still don’t know. But the bases had time to prepare, between six and seven hours. As it spread in a clean line around the earth, like the whole planet was slowly falling into a pit of darkness and silence, they closed the gates at the Academy, Carson, Petersen and shut the big door up at the Mountain. We knew that comms would be down and we could track the loss of power for a bit, but the satellites were going out in the same fashion as the rest of the planet. This is some kind of event, some kind of serious shit. I saw the panic on the civilian contractors faces, I mean the scientists. Before I had to move on to other duties, I heard one of them say he didn’t know if it was ever going to end.” Eric Fine was surprised for the first time in a long time. He knew this was a big deal, but had no idea. The whole world had changed, and in that moment, so had his priorities.
Eric leaned in close to Rodriguez, “You and your men can stay if you want. Remain for the night, longer maybe. Having soldiers around is always a good thing, keep things safe here.”
Rodriguez just shook his head, “We are just resting, it will take us much of the night to get back in this shit.” He pointed out to the rain. “Don’t worry Major, I will let them know you are here. General Stone is going to declare Martial Law; we could use a man like you to settle him down. We are just bringing recon back to the base.”
Eric nodded, “Sounds good. Did you guys find anyone else? Anything else that I need to know?”
“Just this: The medicine doesn’t work. People at hospitals are dying in droves. The south-side is in chaos, looting, and criminal activity, just what you would expect in an area more densely populated. Food and supplies are going to be a problem, but it seems people are just reacting to this right now, they haven’t figured out that what is there is all that is going to be there for a while. And these?” Rodrigues pointed to his weapon, “Useless. If the shit comes down, it will be tooth and nail, clubs and knives. The guns don’t work at all.” Rodriguez leaned against the wall.
“Well, I am glad we met up then. I think we can help each other. Are there more out there, more squads patrolling?” Eric looked genuinely concerned.
Rodriguez shook his head. “Most are just trying to protect the base. A bunch of enlisted ran off, wanted to find their family. The Old Man shut down the gates, said to shoot anyone who tried to leave. But like I said, Major, the guns don’t work anymore than the medicine.
Our job was to get to the Academy, tell them that Stone was in charge and we were going to act in concert. They told us to go fuck ourselves. The Commandant came out himself to the gate and told us to tell Stone to go fuck himself. It wasn’t great, and the Old Man isn’t going to be happy.”
Eric nodded again, and turned to one of his men and made a little motion behind the Lieutenant’s back. “Okay, here is the deal. We are telling you to fuck yourselves too.” He looked up at the officer and saw the shock on his face. “Now, I need to know, are you going to stay and join up this downtown group, bolster our defenses? Or, are you headed back to base to give Stone doubly bad news?”
The man turned to tell his men to rise, but Eric reached out, pulled Rodriguez’ chin with four fingers and pushed against the back of his head with the palm of his hand, snapping the younger officer’s neck. Rodriguez fell dead where he was. Men reached for their rifles, just realizing that the students had already grabbed ahold of them. “Men, men, I am sorry you had to see that. What the LT just told me is something you need to hear. The world has changed, and we aren’t going to get orders from Washington, ever. Now, as I see it, you have two options. One, you can join us, I will train you in expert hand-to-hand and close quarter combat, and you can bolster our ranks. Option two is we confine you. If anyone tries to escape, we will track you down and kill you. This shit is real. The Old Man is looking to seize a little kingdom here, and I can’t let that happen.”
One of the men, an overweight sergeant in his early forties, rose up. “He is right. I wasn’t supposed to hear it, but I overheard what Loo was saying to the guards at the Academy gate. This is the new thing, Stone ordered martial law and told the academy they had to comply. The academy told him to go fuck himself. I heard it.” The pudgy non-com turned toward Eric, “The name is Meyer. I, for one, will join you.” Eric saw what Meyer was doing. There were no men in the unit who knew they had served together, so there was no way for them to know they were being played. Meyer was showing his loyalty to his old commander.
Eric walked over and shook the man’s hand. The rest of the men agreed also. Suddenly Eric’s group had gone from sixteen to twenty-seven. He walked to the front of the room, the last dim light of dusk escaping. “Form ranks. Help the new men find their place. Men, this is a new existence. Something serious has happened, and there is no longer a civil or military authority. We will create our own. You all know your rifles don’t work, I just found out that medicine doesn’t work. It is imperative you learn to protect yourself. We are the beginnings of a new order, a new life. There are few of us and we control this block. Tomorrow we begin to build, to train, to gather resources and to take more area. Welcome to the new order.”
The men responded with “Hua!” in unison. He looked into the eyes of what of the students, a man recently drummed out of the Army named Miles Damiano. He had been an unfit soldier, but he had his value. Eric knew that he was the one man in the room who knew that Meyer had served with him before, because they had all served together in the sand. Eric would have a talk with him, and motioned him toward the back. But at that moment, Eric saw movement out of the corner of his eye. The men at the door turned toward him, and past them, he saw the yoga girl dart out of the door of her studio and sprint up the street. “Go get her,” he said and the two of them ran in the direction she had just run.
Eric walked off to a private training room in the back. Damiano followed. In the doorway, he made it clear to the man what the situation was. “You know who that is?” He said, pointing at Meyer.
“Of course, sir.” Damiano replied.
“No, you don’t. This is the first time you have ever seen him.” Eric said, staring hard at the man’s eyes.
A moment’s pause was all it took, then the reply from Damiano, “I misspoke, sir. That is what I meant, I have never seen that man before.”
Eric smiled, “Good man. Why don’t you take charge of our original group? Acclimate the new men to their surroundings. And, Miles...” Damiano looked up, “We are in a predicament, do not hesitate to use force if anyone gets out of hand.” Miles smiled, and bowed in the martial arts way, before turning and acting on his new authority.
Eric walked into the private training room and pulled the door shut to where only a centimeter of the door was still open. It was hot, and pitch black in the room. But he knew its size and he knelt to begin his own training. His meditation, katas and sets gave him strength, focus and calm. He would need all of these to do what needed to be done.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The Craven abode had sunk into the same pitch black they had experienced the night before. After caring for the new addition, Kim Pile, Kate had returned to her worry. There was nothing to see outside, so she had settled down at the dining table, a deep sadness and loneliness covering her. Her sister walked in, bumping into another chair.
“It is going to be okay, Kate,” Kayla had offered, “you will see. Besides, Kim prayed for you.” They both chuckled at this. Their mother was a believer, but neither of the younger women still bought into the beliefs of their youth. They could hear the soft playing of Rich on his guitar. He played well even in the dark. It was what her mother would have called “a blessing” to have him there, playing his soft melodies. It really calmed the nerves.
Kate smiled, though she doubted her sister could see it. “Is it weird that I find that guitar super comforting?”
Out of the darkness, Kayla said, “No. I do too. I think he has a gift. I feel hope, and a little emotional strength just listening to it.”
“Me, too” came her brother-in-law’s voice out of the dark somewhere behind her.
His wife was the first to respond, “Damn it, Ted, make some noise. That was creepy as hell.”
They all chuckled. “Kim and Mom in our room?” Ted asked quietly. There was a long pause. “I can’t hear you nodding honey.” They laughed a little louder.
Kate was actually beginning to feel that everything was actually going to be okay. “Did you talk to Max again?”
“Yeah, a little. She is just the same sweet little girl. This is just bizarre. You know there are seven dogs on the porch now?” Ted’s voice had a hint of pride in it. “They can all stay. Can you imagine if those bastards had got to my little girl? I would have torn them apart also. The dogs are fine in my book.”
Kate felt Ted’s hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be too lovey, that isn’t Kayla you are touching.” They laughed again. “Well, if we are going to all sleep in the living room, I guess we better go find our places so we don’t trip over each other in this dark.”
They all walked into the other room, each with a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them. “Hey, Rich,” Ted said, “We are going to get situated for the night.”
“Oh, alright,” the pastor said, “You all want me to stop playing so you can get some sleep? I can go back to the kitchen to sleep.”
Kate spoke up, “No, Rich. You can have the loveseat, if you are still sitting on it. I like the recliner over here and Ted and Kayla can take the big couch.” She sat down and everyone heard the foot rest kick out. “Please don’t stop playing. It is really wonderful.”
“You got it, ma’am. I will play for a while longer.” Rich began a beautiful classical piece; he really was a gifted player.
Kate fell asleep pretty quickly. They all fell asleep quickly, and had the most restful sleep. Natalee and Max in Max’s room, Beth and Kim in the master bedroom, and the rest of them in the living room. There was an added feeling of safety with those dogs on the porch. As Kate drifted off, her thoughts slipped into a hope that tomorrow would be a change, that they would learn something, anything.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Loud yelling broke the silence of the night, muffled by the steady patter of rain on everything. Those jerks from across the street had come running after Jenny moments after she darted out of the door of her studio. She was super hungry and didn’t have a lot of energy, and she needed to hide. Sh
e lived in a little house on the west-side, even with the weather and the darkness, she thought she could get home in less than two hours. But, right now, she was hiding in the park. She didn’t think they had seen her and she was behind the restrooms, so she hoped they wouldn’t come this way. She waited for a very long time before poking her head around the corner to look for them. She wasn’t really dressed for this. Light shoes and yoga clothes were not really heavy weather clothes, even in late July.
Worse than that, though, in her haste to get away, she had run the wrong way. She needed to cross the street and there was a chance the karate guys would see her when she did that. Her only chance was to go north for a bit through the park, and then head west toward the freeway. She glanced around the corner and quickly dipped her head back behind the structure. The men were across the street, maybe thirty yards away. Or she thought it was them. It was so dark that they were just outlines. She closed her eyes and centered herself and opened them again to see auras. The two men were surrounded with dark brown and the occasional flash of red. She had not found any books or magazines with helpful info on the colors, so she still had no idea what they meant. However, she could see the outlines, which allowed her to track them and was just the kind of thing that would get her out of this.
She tracked their movements, and saw others near the barricade of cars. The first two headed back toward the others, and she snuck out from behind the structure and began to move her way back through the park until she came to the corner of the street her dojo was on and the far end of the park. She turned to look for followers, but there were none. She could make out little flashes of auras at this point, but nothing discernible. I guess distance is a factor, she thought to herself. She needed to avoid people, so she kept her aura-awareness up for her walk. There was a pretty good chance she would see someone coming before they saw her. Keeping low she crossed the street. She decided at two blocks to turn west. The pouring rain was still a bit much, but it wasn’t that cold in the summer night, even here at high altitude.
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