One round was all it needed, with the man going down, hard but silently. Dan felt nothing. He had ended the man’s life without remorse, but he had done so clinically and as a professional soldier, not as a gangster or criminal seeking either profit, pleasure and benefit from another’s pain. Dan was still US Army and he was here to achieve his mission. He stepped over to the row of equipment that was linked to a stack of car-batteries on the floor. There was a laptop in front of him, rigged to both the batteries and to a large series of boxes behind the desk that in turn were connected to cables running out the window and onto the roof above them. Dan pulled off his helmet and head-set and placed on a set of ear-muffs that were connected to the computer. He heard a voice, droning and steady, through the system.
“...and this is our test, our way to survival and life and, if we make it, redemption. We are uniting and continuing our struggle in Boulder. The country that we knew as the United States of America is no longer. There is no Army, no Air Force and no Navy to save us. They, along with our government, created this curse and they now have fallen to its evils. It is now us, the survivors, who have to reshape this world, in the image that we choose. Everyone has a duty to continue the struggle, everyone has a duty to unite. Make your way to the safe-zone of Boulder. Move on the road, marking yourself as part of the redeemed, and we will receive and shelter you. Mark yourself...”
Dan nudged the mouse on the desk and the screen-saver vanished, the desktop of the laptop flickering into life. Dan was listening to an audio-track on repeat. He hit the pause icon on the screen. The voice in his ear stopped abruptly. He stared at the laptop and realized that there was a microphone port on the top of the screen, next to the web-cam camera. He cleared his throat into it. Nothing. His eyes scanned the screen and he clicked “Accept,” to a box that popped up. Yes, he would like to start using the laptop’s microphone, thank you. He tried again, and this time the noise carried, faintly, into his headset. He was broadcasting. He considered his options, and then began to speak, slowly and deliberately.
“This is Captain Daniel Martin, United Stated Army. You may have heard that the world as we knew it has ended, and that a new order had come into effect. You may have heard that the United States Army no longer existed. You may have been told that the United States of America had fallen. I am here to tell you that we, that the United States Army, is still in existence, and that we are still fighting. I am also here to tell you that the United States will only fall when her people stop believing in and stop fighting for her, and I can tell you that here today, right now, that is not the case. We have all been hit, and hit hard, by the recent virus. The whole world has. But don’t mistake the last few days with the end of America. We are still standing, and we are still fighting.
“If we want to pull through, and survive, then we can only do so if we are united. Those who are currently in positions of leadership, we need to work together and to regroup. Those of you who are using the current chaos for your own ends, and who are working against the laws of America and her constitution and her people, you will be held accountable. You will face justice. The greatest crime we could commit is to turn our back on our common legacy and, in doing so, welcome in a new dark age. I know that, around this country, right now, there are thousands upon thousands of people struggling to ensure that does not happen. We are, instead, fighting for the one idea that can be our salvation. The same idea that has held this land together in the past, and the same idea will continue to hold it together into the future. The fact that we are one people under one nation.
“If you choose to help us hold and rebuild this country under the same ideals and laws we have lived, worked and served in, then there will be a future for us yet.”
Dan paused, and looked out the window. He pulled off the headset and stepped back from the laptop. He didn’t know if his final words would be caught by the microphone, and he didn’t care either way. Helmet and rifle in hand, he looked at the laptop for a final time.
“And Drake, we’re coming for you.”
END OF BOOK ONE
Thank you for reading the first book in the APEX FALLEN series.
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Book Two of the APEX FALLEN series will be out shortly – please check or subscribe to the author’s page (C.A. Michaels) at Amazon.com so you don’t miss it.
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