by Steven Linde
A woman sat up slowly blurry eyed, rubbing the sleep from them, “Who are you?” she asked.
Specialist Irby responded, “US Army ma’am.”
“I’m sorry?” she said. “Seriously?”
“Yes ma’am.” said Specialist Irby. “Torres get the Chief of Staff. Tell him we have some live ones.”
PFC Torres hurried off and within two-to-three minutes Jake arrived, the woman recognizing the President’s Chief of Staff shook the man next to her, he woke up a bit groggy and stared at the men standing over him. The woman stood up as quick as she could which wasn’t really all that quick, It looked like she hadn’t had a bath or shower in weeks, her clothes were ratty and hair un-kept.
“Sir…” She was addressing Jake. “I’m Kathy Tolland the Directors Executive Assistant.”
Jake shook her hand and introduced himself. “Yes sir I know.”
By then the ten other people in the room started to stir, they glanced up at a civilian who they thought they recognized and two heavily armed Soldiers.
“Torres,” said Specialist Irby. “Hit the door make sure no one sneaks up on us while the Chief of Staff is in here. I’m going to take a look around the rest of the floor.”
PFC Torres moved to the door to keep guard as Specialist Irby left the room heading to check the last few remaining offices. He reasoned it must be somewhat safe because the people in the conference room were in there while it was unlocked and asleep. He let his M-4 hang-off of him while withdrawing his pistol which he kept at the ready as he went from office-to-office. The offices were empty, he then strolled through the cube farm that was near and didn’t find anything, he then headed back to the conference room.
Specialist Irby stopped to talk to PFC Torres, while talking to Torres he peeked inside the conference room and he could see that all of the occupants were now awake and sitting around the table speaking with the Chief of Staff.
“Can anyone tell me what’s going on here?” asked Jake.
The people in the room now seated around the table looked at each other, one of the men that that had on what looked like what had been a nice suit. He stood up, straightened his jacket like it mattered, “I’m assistant Director Vincent Medallion.”
“Well assistant Director, “said Jake looking at him squarely in the eye. “Will you answer my question?”
“Well – Sir it’s not that easy I don’t have the entire answer.” said a puzzled assistant Director.
“Explain please.”
“Sir may I call you Jake?”
“No.”
The assistant Director was shocked at the rebuke, “Alright sir it’s like this all of the agents are gone and have been gone for a while now. We stayed because we felt we were safer here.”
“Where’d they all go?” asked Jake.
“Many had families and left to find them, others felt the need to get out of the city that it was only going to get worse. Early one we were caught in the riots, lots of men with weapons showed up and attacked us in the building. Lots of people died.”
“Are there more people left in the building?”
“Yes on the upper floors conference rooms, there are about a hundred of us left here. We’re spread out in the event we’re attacked again. We felt it to be a bit more prudent at least some of us would survive.”
“Specialist Irby can you find SSG Rodeo and let him know, Torres stay here please.”
“Roger that sir.” said SPC Irby. Irby left the conference room heading for the stairwell and the sixth floor. He took two stairs at a time racing up to the sixth floor as fast as he could. He busted onto the floor, scaring the hell out of his fellow Soldiers that were still in the early stages of clearing it.
“Staff Sergeant!” said SPC Irby. “We found survivors in the second floor conference room. They say there’s more in the conference room up here and the other ‘s in the building.”
“Say again Specialist.”
“We found a dozen people on the second floor conference room. One of the men is the associate Director of the FBI and he said there are people in each of the large conference rooms on each floor.”
“Ok then let’s check it out.”
SSG Rodeo directed the Soldiers that were with him to find the conference rooms on the floor and search them. He also directed them to enter the rooms in a secure fashion. That he didn’t quite trust the information which of course he shouldn’t. There were a half dozen different conference rooms on the floor most of them fairly small and were all empty. They were now approaching one with double door, it looked large. SSG Rodeo lined up on the left side of the doors with the two other Soldiers on the right side. SSG Rodeo reached over and verified the door was unlocked, it was, he signaled to the two Soldiers they would be going in on the count of three.
SSG Rodeo mouthed to the Soldiers three, two, one – he quickly grabbed the door knob turned it forcefully and pushed the door open as hard as he could. The door swung open fast with the two other Soldiers following it open with weapons raised and ready to fire. The Soldiers yelled, “US ARMY, US ARMY!” as they entered the room. They quickly counted twenty people crammed into the room lying on the floor camped out, literally. To their surprise there were five children in the room ages five years old to ten huddled near a parent. People were startled to say the least, several jumped up, mostly the men, like they were going to be attacked. SSG Rodeo entered the room right after his two men did and immediately told them to stand down and lower their weapons.
The room was filthy and smelled of sweat, the people in it were dirty and unkept it was a sad sight to see. The people that were awake woke the ones that weren’t. The level of chatter in the room quickly picked up with questions being shot at the Soldiers like bullets. SSG Rodeo yelled, “Quiet!” and the room was silenced.
“Please folk’s one person at a time and I’ll try and answer your questions. Is there anyone in charge here?” asked SSG Rodeo.
A man that looked as though he had lost a lot of weight by the way his clothes hung off him, which wouldn’t surprise anyone since food was limited, stood up. He hitched up his pants the best he could, looking around the room, “Yeah…yeah I guess I’m in charge.” he said. “I’m Special Agent David Frost.”
“Well Special Agent Frost I’m Staff Sergeant Rodeo it’s my pleasure to meet you. We have your boss downstairs in the second floor executive conference room. He’s meeting with the President’s Chief of Staff right now.”
Special Agent Frost whistled to himself, “The Chief of Staff you say?”
One of the woman that was holding the young boy raised her hand, SSG Rodeo called on her, “Yes ma’am what can I do for you?”
“Wha..What’s happened? Do you know?” she asked.
“What’s your name ma’am?” asked SSG Rodeo.
“Elizabeth and this is Brandon my son.” said Elizabeth.
“May I call you Elizabeth?” asked the Staff Sergeant.
One of the Soldiers standing near Elizabeth reached deep into his cargo pocket and pulled out a Hersey Chocolate bar and handed it to Brandon, his eyes lit up like Christmas, “Mom can I?” Asked Brandon.
“Yes you may call me Elizabeth Sergeant and yes Brandon you can have the chocolate.”
“Alright Elizabeth the best information we have is that there was some sort of EMP event, we don’t know if it was nuclear or solar flare. We don’t know how far this reaches meaning if it’s local to the city or state, the nation or the entire world for that matter.”
“Can’t you call someone to ask?”
“No, all communication is out; anything with solid state circuitry was fried and will never work again.
“I don’t understand.” said Elizabeth clearly confused.
“The bottom line is this,” said SSG Rodeo. “Life as you knew it is over for the foreseeable future. You’re going to be responsible for your own security, get a gun and learn how to use it. Odds are you’re going to have to fight for food and water, then as far
as transportation goes those two things located at the end of your legs is all you got for now.”
“Wait, wait one moment!” said Special Agent Frost. “You have no right to go about scaring everyone. There’s still law enforcement and other agencies out there to help.”
SSG Rodeo laughed, “What FBI? What law enforcement? The FBI as far as I can tell is gone and I know for a fact that there is no more local law enforcement. They’ve been overrun by gangs and small militia’s, they have no communications or transportation just like everyone else. So, how’s that working for you Special Agent Frost?”
“Well….well …the President and Congress will take care of it.” said Frost.
“The President sent us and Congress is MIA.”
Chapter Seventeen
Congressmen Rick Grossman arrived at the White House on foot with a horrible attitude and demanded to speak with the President. Congress had been in session when the event happened, but were on a three day weekend. Many if not most has left town for the weekend and once the even hit they found themselves in distant places with no way to get back to DC.
It was taking many of them weeks to find their way back to the nation’s capital and once they did, they were furious to find out that things in D.C was as bad if not worse than where they came from. What they found was no law enforcement, no water, and no food, nothing that could help them and in many cases their constituents were hundreds if not thousands of miles away. They had no idea how they were, the real question was then who did they represent?
Out of the hundred senators there were seventy-five present and the rest no one knew where they were. Out of the four hundred or so congress men and woman about two-thirds of that was present, the others, like the senators, were MIA. It had taken weeks for all of them to get together and meet at the capital. However, to their dismay there was no electricity, so it was hard to do anything inside the building because most places required lights. The civilians that took care of the capital grounds had all disappeared and everything was overgrown, the building was old and needed constant maintenance. This presented its own problems such as how to light the building; thankfully the President came to the rescue and assigned an Army maintenance battalion to help. They were able to get electricity to the building at least for a few hours a day. This was because fuel was still a finite resource and was being rationed to everyone. Of course this didn’t sit well with many of the politicians that believed they should be the exception. The President pointed out quickly that he wasn’t even an exception and that they had better get used to not having things.
This set up a battle between parts of the Congress and the President, basically the way it was before the event. Many of the politicians blamed the President for not being able to do more, but when they were pressed on what more he could do they had no answers. Many of them brought in their own EMP experts and formed committees to study what could be done, they always came back with the same answers, ‘what could be done was being done’, which didn’t help them. Congress found themselves struggling to find relevance in the new world. Many of their younger colleagues started to turn to the history books to help them better understand what could be done. Remembering that the country was over two hundred years old and the forefathers had been through this before so they reasoned they could too.
Congressman Grossman was a democrat from California more specifically San Francisco. He was determined to return to his home state. He for some reason felt that the President and his administration had secret transportation hubs they were keeping from Congress and the public in general. Congressman Grossman was also bipolar and hadn’t had any medication in weeks, which meant that he was extra paranoid too. He had an appointment with the President to discuss transcontinental transportation issues. The President took the appointment request feeling that the Congressman might have some ideas on how it might be possible. The President wasn’t aware of the Congressman’s alternative agenda.
Once the Congressman was in the White House he was led to the Oval Office where he was served refreshments, basically water, and asked to take a seat that the President would be with him soon. Congressman Grossman was furious because the President wasn’t there to meet him who did he think he was after all, he was a Congressman from California and he was only the President. Again, the Congressman without his medication wasn’t thinking quite right. The Congressman was pacing back-and-forth in the office he couldn’t sit still. After what seemed like a lifetime to the Congressman, ten minutes after being let into the office, the President walked-in. He extended his hand to the Congressman, both men shook hands, “It’s very nice of you to meet with me today Congressman.” President Washington said.
“No, thank you, Mister President for meeting with me on such short notice.” replied the Congressman.
“What can I do for you Congressman? Your aide made it seem very urgent that we meet as soon as possible.”
“Yes sir, I want to urge you to release the aircraft and trains that you’re using to cross the country with.”
President Washington was simply stunned and at a total loss for words, “Well…..Congressman…what..aircraft and trains are you referring too?”
“Please don’t play games with us Mr. President, we’re fully aware that you have aircraft traversing from coast-to-coast as well as trains.”
“Where exactly did you get this information Congressman?” asked a perturbed President.
The Congressman stumbled over the question for a moment, “Please don’t play games with us Mr. President we all know the truth!”
“Who is we?” asked President Washington.
“You know who ‘we is’ Mister President?”
“Congress?” The President was totally perplexed.
“No sir! My friends from Alpha Centauri have reported this to me time and again! NO games Mr. President, please!”
The President’s eyes opened wide as saucers and thinking to himself, ‘Alpha Centauri? What the hell is he talking about?’ “Congressman I assure you that your alien friends are wrong, the EMP pulse knocked out all aircraft as well as the train system. Are you sure they were referring to this planet?”
“Do you think me and my friends are idiots Mr. President? I can assure you they meant this planet!” replied the Congressman visibly angry.
“Alright ….alright Congressman let me get our Ambassador to Alpha Centauri and find out what’s going on and I’ll get back to you on the subject. Will that suffice for now?”
The Congressman stood there in thought for a moment, “Why yes Mr. President that will be fine for now but I’ll expect a response from you within the next forty-eight hours.”
“I’ll get right on it! You will have your answer in the next forty-eight hours I promise.” The President said as he was escorting the Congressman out of his office. Once the Congressman was out he waved in his administrative secretary. “I don’t want that loon ever allowed back here is that clear? Did you know about this?”
“Yes sir its well known on the hill that the Congressman is off his med’s we thought..Well Jake and the rest that you would find it entertaining.” At that she started laughing.
The President stared at her for a moment and joined in with the laughter. “Ok, ok it was funny but please let’s keep the Congressman away from the nuclear weapons.”
“Although,” the President said. “He may have hit on an idea, trains. When Jake gets back, please tell him I would like to speak with him at his earliest convenience.”
Chapter Eighteen
Captain O’Hara was struggling with the situation at NAS Oceana, he was a military commander and all of his training dealt with the military complex which was order. Now he was charged with policing the civilian community that had been popping up around the base. It wasn’t only this base, but the others bases close-by were dealing with the same issues. They estimated the civilian numbers around the base to be close to three thousand people. They lived mostly in squalor and there were food riots a
bout every other day. There was very little law and order in the camps and Captain O’Hara was at a loss at what to do. Civilian law enforcement had all but disappeared weeks after the event. They were now in the third month and things had gotten exponentially worse in the civilian communities in Virginia, he assumed as well as other communities outside of the state too.
There had been refugees from Maryland and Pennsylvania that had made their way south telling stories of large gangs being formed that were robbing, looting, murdering and raping there was across a city such as Pittsburgh and Baltimore as examples. His hands were tied outside of the SEALs they didn’t really have a serious combat force that could attack and hold ground. Certainly there were the Marines and they would fight, in fact, they were itching for one. Yet, there were only a few hundred of them in and around Oceana. Their numbers were finite and they would need three or four times that force to re-take those cities if the scuttlebutt was believed by the people coming south.
He believed in his Sailors and they had a lot of them sitting around doing nothing these days. Hundreds had gone AWOL feeling that the US Navy was all but dead. Fort Story was a joint operation base with Naval Amphibious Base Battle Creek. The Navy there was deeply embedded with Army and recently were deployed along with the Soldiers. The Army command there had set up a crash course in combat survival for the Sailors, they were re-trained by the Army to patrol and fight along with the Soldiers. That’s what he needed, then it hit him, ‘why couldn’t the Marines do the same thing here? Granted they were all aviation Marines, but weren’t all Marines combat riflemen first?’ Then there was the company of Marines that was on one of the ships in port that were now being used to provide security.
He called in his XO Commander Avery Hardy, a twenty year Navy veteran, “Avery, can you find the Marine Company commander and ask him to report to me?”
“Yes sir I’m sure I can, what’s up?” asked the Commander.
“I think I may have come up with a plan to help with our civilian security problems. Can you get him in here ASAP please?”
