INVASION USA (Book 1) - The End of Modern Civilization

Home > Other > INVASION USA (Book 1) - The End of Modern Civilization > Page 37
INVASION USA (Book 1) - The End of Modern Civilization Page 37

by T I WADE


  “Whoever did this did a kick-ass job,” replied the President, his face ashen. They both heard the helicopter returning. “Joe,” shouted the President to his main secret service agent standing outside the closed Oval Office door. The man entered. “Please be very polite and ask the two gentlemen in the helicopter to visit with me in the Oval Office.”

  General Allen heard the rotors cease turning and they waited for the Buck and Carlos to enter. Both General Allen and the President were deep in thought when the door opened and the agent returned.

  “There were seven in the chopper, Mr. President. Three are guarding the Huey, refusing to come in, and there are four men here to see you, as you asked.”

  “Bring them in, Joe,” ordered the President, and was quite surprised to recognize one of those who entered.

  * * *

  When Carlos and Buck left the White House in the Huey, Carlos guided Buck in the direction of the Colombian Embassy. It was a little difficult, as it all looked so different from the air and the clouds of smoke didn’t help. People waved at them from rooftops as they flew low overhead.

  “There it is!” shouted Carlos to Buck “The building used to be the Russian Embassy many years ago and they still have a helicopter landing pad on the grounds. It’s small but you can get her in.” Buck could see the cross on the asphalt. There were already men with guns on the landing pad looking up at them. The windsock above the three-story building showed a light breeze from the South so he came in to land from the North.

  “I hope they don’t shoot us,” replied Buck. “I’ll try not to fart for awhile.”

  “They won’t,” replied Carlos with a grin. “They are just as much in the dark as anybody else.” They landed lightly with automatic weapons pointed at them, and Carlos waved to his great uncle who stood looking down at them from a second story balcony. Orders were shouted and the troops backed off.

  The rotors ceased and Carlos got out. Buck said he needed a bathroom break, and he closed Baby Huey down and locked up. Carlos’ father came out to greet them, and they waited for Buck before walking back to the dark building.

  “We have an hour, Dad,” Carlos told his father. “This is my friend, Buck, and that’s the Huey I told you about. I’ve come to get you and Uncle Philippe out of here.”

  “Apart from here in Washington, is the rest of the world working?” his father asked. “We have nothing working here at the Embassy. Even the radios are down.”

  “I know Dad, it’s the same all over the United States, maybe even the whole world, and people are dying everywhere. We just left General Allen with the President at the White House. He’s briefing the President on what we know. After we pick him back up, we are headed to Norfolk to visit Vice Admiral Rogers on the way back to North Carolina. But first, Buck and I have got to hit the bathroom— we’ve been flying for hours!” They entered the building to find gas lamps and heaters working overtime.

  Uncle Philippe was briefed, as was Carlos’ father. They sat in silence while Carlos told them what had happened based on what Will Smart had reported from California. Carlos invited the Ambassador to join them in North Carolina. The older man gave orders for his overnight bag to be packed, and for Manuel and a couple of bodyguards to do the same.

  “How many can you fit into that Huey?” asked the Ambassador. “I flew in several around Colombia, and I think I sat with around a dozen troops.”

  “Ours is the extended version, Mr. Ambassador,” explained Buck. “If necessary we can squeeze 14 into her and two crew, but comfortably around nine. I don’t know if we will be taking the President anywhere, so I think I can probably only take seven or eight from here.”

  “We have a platoon of 30 men here and ten staff, so they will have to stay until I can help them. They’ll be all right—we have several gas heaters on. The Embassy is quite warm, and if we close down unnecessary areas, they will have food and warmth for at least two weeks or more here. Do they have gas at the White House? Knowing the staff there, I bet they don’t, so I will take a couple of heaters and several gas bottles for the President—a gift from the Colombian Embassy. I want to see the lay of the land, so Manuel and our three bodyguards should come with. We can pack a week’s supply of gear and a few automatic weapons for protection.”

  “I don’t think coming in armed to the teeth will do us any good at the White House,” grinned Carlos. “We were nearly blown out of the sky on our last visit.”

  “We will hide them under cloaks and winter clothing,” replied Manuel’s father, leaving the room to pack.

  “So, you think this problem is a big deal?” the Ambassador asked Carlos, while they were waiting for the others to return.

  “Preston Strong, Martie Roebels, Maggie Smart, Buck and I all have various advanced degrees in engineering, mostly in electrical engineering, and I specialize in communications. We chatted on the way up. Uncle Philippe, the whole country is down. The whole world could be down. Nothing in our industry works. Buck just hotwired the fuel depot at Andrews Air Force Base to get gas. The whole base has only one or two mobile back-up generators from the 1970s. Everything newer—and boy they have back-up on back-up on back-up—is all dead.”

  “We had to top the Huey’s tanks with a 5,000 watt old Army-issue camouflaged generator that Buck was able to start, and use it to hotwire and start the motors of a truck’s fuel pumps. There no way that we could start up the truck or its pumps until we used the generator to get it going. The tanker has seven thousand gallons in it. We used 100 of that and the rest is going into the C-130 the General is using to fly up to Andrews. Once that truck is empty, they might have one or two more hanging around, or they can drain the tanks of all the dead aircraft sitting around. Air Force One is always fully fuelled, and that will last them a while, but they are going to need a miracle to get the fuel out of the underground and big storage tanks. That needs big power to get the fuel moving. The electrical engineers at Andrews are working on that now.”

  The others arrived. Buck was introduced to Manuela, Mannie, and Dani—the three guards accompanying them. The Ambassador gave orders to defend the walls of the Embassy at all costs, and said he would return within the week.

  * * *

  “Mr. Ambassador, I never thought the Colombian government would be a part of my rescue,” the American President stated, shaking hands with the four who entered.

  “Unfortunately, it looks like we are in this together and I’m here to help. This is my nephew, Chief Aid Manuel Rodriquez. You have met him before, and this is his son Carlos—the co-pilot of our transportation. Last is Buck McKinnon, a fellow American of yours and the co-owner and pilot of the helicopter. General Allen, good to see you again.”

  The General came up and shook hands with his old friends and held the Ambassador’s hand with both hands warmly.

  “May I quickly intervene?” Carlos asked. “Mr. President, Ambassador, General, we have about three hours of daylight left. I don’t think flying at night is a wise choice with the only safe airfield with runway lights we know of being located in North Carolina, three hours to our south.”

  “Well said Carlos,” stated the General. “Buck, we need to be out of here in 15 minutes.

  “You have no heat here, Mr. President?” asked the Ambassador.

  “Not yet,”

  “Buck, Carlos, please go and fetch the gas heaters and gas lamps we brought from the Embassy. It will help until the electricians get something working here.” The President thanked the Ambassador and invited them to sit down.

  They discussed the situation until one of the heaters and gas lamps was brought into the Oval Office. Then, General Allen got down to a quick situation report.

  “At the moment, gentlemen, I’m temporary Chief of Staff under the Commander in Chief, who is going to stay here at the White House as long as h. I’m going to get fresh troops in here tomorrow. The distance is about 11 miles. I know we have one old jeep and by tomorrow maybe a troop carrier and truck or two, but we are co
ming in with the best fire power we can muster. I think the best defense around the White House would be old ground-to-air missiles. I’m bringing in a company of 100 men with field tents and gas heaters, if we can find them. We have tons of rations at Andrews, so food is not a problem—only heat and electricity.”

  “I’m going to get a ride with you guys back to Andrews and then fly into Virginia to see Vice Admiral Rogers in Norfolk and see what the Navy can muster for a defensive perimeter. Buck, Carlos—you fly down to North Carolina, stay the night, and then find out what you can. I need you to visit that nuclear power station in Newel, or New Hill, I think it’s called, just down the road from Preston’s place. Get in there and get me a report. I want to know ASAP if there are problems, or if the whole system is shutting down by itself automatically. Here’s what the President and I have discussed…” and he told the room what they had theorized about in the last couple of hours. “Carlos we have no eyes to protect us. Remember you told me about a satellite, what was it called?”

  “Navistar P was its data output,” Carlos replied.

  “The Navistar program, I’m sure you know Mr. President, is the entire world’s GPS system that we put up in the 1970s. Carlos here has been doing research in the mountains above Salt Lake City, in the observatory NASA and the Air Force use to track the space programs as well as do space communications research. A couple of weeks ago, he found a project we had lost several years ago. It was a secret project—a complete Navistar satellite built as a prototype to send photo data instead of location data for our flying aircraft—a giant ‘eye in the sky,’ if you wish. It is the only one we have left up there. Its older than 1980, and it could still be made operational. The other early satellites have been replaced, are out of commission, or burned in re-entry, or as Navistar P did when we lost her, went off course, closed down her transmissions and lost contact.”

  “That was way back in 1981, and since then the program has been deemed a failure. We really packed this one full of solar gear to power itself up from the radiant heat of the sun and send back digital photographs to Earth. Remember, this was back in the 70s and all more modern space craft are much more powerful than this old girl. Navistar ‘P’ was the only one of its type. She was designed for research and one of the first ever solar and super-powered units of its day. We might be able to power her up. Given a generator, we might even be able to get the Salt Lake City Observatory up and running, which might give us very basic eyes to see.”

  “Get it done, Pete,” ordered the President. “Carlos, once I have a radio, we should be able to communicate. As soon as that happens, I want a report from you on a daily basis.”

  “Hold on,” suggested Buck, and Pete Allen knew exactly what was going on in Buck’s head and spoke the words for him.

  “Its two hour’s flying time from Andrews to your house. You pick up your radio and with five minutes to pack your essentials, you can get back to Andrews before dark. You are flying in daylight, so fill your tanks to the last drop. You will also need to take 50 gallons in 5-gallon canisters with you. Fill the tank with them when you land and that will get you back to Andrews with just enough fuel. Great idea Buck. By midnight, Andrews Air Force Base will be able to communicate with North Carolina.” Buck smiled at everybody. It was exactly what he had been thinking.

  “Mr. Ambassador, Manuel” continued the General. “You guys will stay with me at Andrews tonight. Buck, you get Baby Huey lit up, take us back to Andrews so you can top off your tanks and then you and Carlos head north. The weather looks clear, so you should be able to pick up your radio and stuff and get back to Andrews. I’ll leave the light on for you.”

  “Mr. President” asked Buck “it’s going to be a long flight. May I use your Oval Office bathroom?” The President laughed for the first time that day.

  They took off ten minutes later, the Ambassador staying with the President, and Manuel going back to Andrews. They touched down close to the truck where they had filled up hours earlier and the General and Manuel got out. Orders were shouted, and men arrived with ten steel gas containers. A fresh Carlos took over the left seat for the flight up to Buck’s house, with the three bodyguards as protection. Buck had been flying all day and needed a break. They were quickly refueled, every drop possible squeezed into the Huey’s tanks, and then Carlos took off to the north.

  The ground below was bleak and still, and the clouds were low, but Buck knew the layout of the land. Without the helicopter’s GPS, flying was more difficult, but all pilots had trained without it. Buck had asked for flight maps at Andrews, and with Carlos flying and Buck navigating, they followed the coast all the way up. The weather grew colder outside and twice they flew over snowstorms several miles across.

  An hour or so later, they flew in close to New York at 13,000 feet and the devastation over large areas could be seen. They all sat in silence as they saw miles and miles of blackened smoldering ruins— so bad that smoke was becoming a problem for Carlos to see, even at their high altitude. Most of the blackened areas ended at rivers and waterways. Many large fires were still burning everywhere and Manhattan looked very different. Smoke covered everything. Only a few dark grey buildings were recognizable above the smoke, a couple on fire and spewing out more smoke. Carlos turned slightly eastwards at Buck’s instruction and they lost altitude fast, getting closer to the area in which Buck lived.

  “The road outside my house is not wide enough to land, Carlos, and there’s electrical wires everywhere. My area looks like it’s not on fire,” he observed, looking forward into the smoky air a couple of miles in front of them. It was starting to get dark as the sun was setting early behind the high layer of smoke to the west. “I think we will have more daylight once we get closer. There’s my street. My road crosses another at an intersection one house away from mine. There! You can put her down on the cross streets. There’s no cars in the intersection. Carlos, shut her down quickly. I’ll take Dani to help me, Manuela can keep guard and Mannie can help you refuel. Don’t let anybody close guys. If anybody shoots at us, you shoot back, fast and hard.” The guards nodded.

  Carlos put her down close to two stationary cars that looked like they had tangled in the intersection and then cannoned into a building, leaving the complete square of intersection clear. He did as Buck had asked, shutting her down quickly as everybody cleared out in different directions. Buck and Dani ran for a beige-colored house, and Carlos watched as Buck unlocked the front door and they went in. Carlos got out and showed Mannie how to open the containers, and one by one, they poured the 50 gallons of fuel into the main tank as fast as they could—it took less than 15 minutes.

  By that time, several people were already running up to the helicopter and Manuela fired warning shots to keep everyone away. They were not the rescue squad everyone was expecting, and Carlos knew they couldn’t help the dozens of people in any way.

  Carlos ordered Mannie to pile the empty canisters away from the rotors; they were not taking them back since they had just enough to get back without the extra weight. He jumped back into the seat to begin his take-off checks, noticing that the fuel tanks registered just over half full. It was going to be close, but they had 50 gallons less weight on the way back. He looked across his instruments, and surveyed the outside at the same time. There was a dead body on the ground past Buck’s house on his left several houses away. It looked like another car accident and the car had hit a telephone pole. The intersection accident directly in front of him had two broken and badly damaged cars sticking out of a corner store, one a sedan in the window and one, a Dodge Caravan sticking out of the store’s corner doorway.

  A swinging sign above the store said Marcy’s Designs, and he suddenly saw movement in the back of the Dodge Caravan. A face had appeared and then quickly disappeared. There was a body—it looked like the body of a young woman—lying on the ground beside the car on the driver’s side. the passenger side was in the darkness of the store and he couldn’t see anyone else. He checked the c
ompass reading. He was facing west and he realized that the light was fading fast. Carlos checked his instruments again and looked outside for a second time, the rotor beginning its first turn. There it was again, a face starting at him from the back of the Dodge, a little face with what looked like a teddy bear. A couple of people were attempting to get closer to the helicopter, and further down the street to his left, Manuela fired several more warning shots.

  He caught Manuela glancing around and then at him. He caught her attention with his free hand, pointed to his eyes with two of his fingers and pointed in the direction of the Dodge. Manuela signaled back, looked around 360 degrees, and made a run for the corner of the store. Carlos again checked his instruments, noticed Mannie glance quickly in the direction of Buck’s house, and saw the two men exiting. Buck had the radio and mass of wires in his arms, and Dani had a bundle of items that looked like bags. He immediately looked back to Manuela and heard Mannie fire off several more rounds. Manuela was reaching into the back of the Dodge and when she came back out, she had a little girl holding a puppy and a teddy bear in her arms.

  Everyone arrived back at both open side-doors at exactly the same moment. Mannie fired off a long burst and Carlos got a pat on the back from someone, heard both doors slide shut at the same time. He increased the engine revs and the spinning rotors lifted the Huey vertically into the air. He had to go straight up to get out of the way of the street wires, and once clear of the building level; he leaned the helicopter towards the sea a hundred yards in front and went straight out over the water. Staying low, he turned the Huey southwards, thinking that this would be the safest move in the increasing twilight around them. He got on a direct course to Andrews, then climbed rapidly and relaxed slightly. He heard whimpering in the back.

 

‹ Prev