The New Reality

by Stephen Martino

  Hillel had unfortunately already made their acquaintance. With a butt of a machine gun to his chest as a hello, he lay on the dirt path while being frisked by the other soldiers.

  “Quick thinking, Jonathan,” Alex commented. “You saved us back there.”

  “We’re far from safety yet,” he responded, pointing out their painfully obvious predicament. “And I have no other tricks up my sleeve.”

  SattAr and the other soldiers began to slowly regain their composure. While the seven returned to their feet, the one soldier still lay motionless on the ground. Barely breathing, he made a few gurgling sounds, letting everyone know death had not yet claimed him.

  SattAr bent down and cracked in half a small fluorescent white cylinder. Taking one end of each half he placed them on both sides of the man’s neck. As the white liquid disappeared from the cylinders the soldier’s body became stiff and rigid. His core body temperature began to plummet and his lips and skin turned a discolored blue.

  SattAr threw the empty cylinders on the ground. The soldier had been cryopreserved for later treatment. Time did not allow for immediate medical management, but he certainly was not going to let another man die under his command.

  “They must have hidden amidst those stones over there,” SattAr pointed.

  Unlike Alex’s satellite capabilities, he brandished no such technology. Because much of the UAA’s spending for years was pilfered away in pork-barrel projects or wasteful government initiatives, the military forces had become grossly underequipped.

  The large rocks SattAr pointed to ahead of him would obviously be the only safe place for Alex and the group to hide. Unless they were crouching behind some rubble, they had no other course of action but to proceed as he determined.

  SattAr gestured to either side of the stone walls and signaled two of his men to flank the left side while another two took the right. The soldiers did as they were told and scampered into position while fully brandishing their weapons.

  “Let them know we’re here,” SattAr said.

  The soldier next to him understood his commander’s orders. Taking a small pistol from his belt with a cone-shaped projectile at the tip, he pointed it at an opening between the rocks.

  The pistol made a whooshing noise as it launched the projectile. Upon impact, it exploded with a thunderous boom and leveled the rocks around it into rubble. A large white dust cloud immediately plumed over the ruins, decreasing the visibility within the area.

  What took years of excavation had been pulverized in a matter of seconds. It was an archeologist’s nightmare. All the history was destroyed.

  Megiddo was once again under siege.

  SattAr hoped to flush out Alex and his companions from the rocks, not kill them. He assumed they would soon exit without further resistance.

  “Hold your fire!” he announced to the soldiers as the dust cloud settled.

  There was no response. SattAr and his men waited for Alex and his group to emerge, impatient to capture their prey.

  During this time, the soldiers congregated at the base of Megiddo had rounded up the entire tour group and the men and women wearing the tie-dyed shirts. All yielded to their demands and knelt in the dirt at gunpoint.

  Despite Hillel’s initial welcome with the butt of a rifle, the soldiers released him once they confirmed his identity. With a few cracked ribs and a large bruise to the chest, he stumbled away from Megiddo, praising God for his release.

  “We have waited long enough,” SattAr said. “Load up the Ampere-Projectile.”

  He relayed his plans to the other soldiers who had flanked the remaining stone walls and gave them their new instructions.

  Taking another cone-shaped shell from his belt, the soldier next to SattAr loaded his pistol once again and sent this projectile hurling into the center of the stony structure ahead of them.

  Instead of an explosion, it set off a burst of electrical activity. Sparks scattered throughout the rocks and made a buzzing noise in its wake. After a few seconds, the electrical bursts stopped, leaving the area silent and smoldering in fumes.

  Secured with the fact that this assault immobilized Alex and his group, SattAr and his cadre of soldiers slowly closed in on the stony ruins. With their guns poised, the assault commenced.

  Chapter 22

  The explosion had knocked Alex and the group to the ground and rattled all of their nerves. Without any military training, they were dazed and frightened by their predicament.

  William became so scared he couldn’t talk, let alone turn on his soothing seventies music. Despite multiple attempts, his hands trembled too severely to manipulate the controls. Supertramp would have to wait… that is if they survived.

  Marissa tended to Guri’s breathing problems. The dust cloud created by the explosion had set off an asthma attack. His breathing had become labored. An audible wheeze could be heard even without a stethoscope.

  She still carried her black emergency medical bag around her left shoulder. Equipped with everything from treating the common cold to tending to trauma victims, it provided a quick fix for a simple asthma attack.

  Marissa grabbed a small syringe from the bag and administered a quick injection in the back of Guri’s neck.

  Within less than a minute his breathing normalized.

  “Thank you,” he gasped.

  She placed her hand on his chest. The wheezing had ceased. “You’ll be O.K. Just take a few more deep breaths.”

  Alex’s mind was racing while he pieced together an escape route. He noted the UAA soldiers attempting to flank them from both sides while SattAr and the others stood their ground without any other evasive actions. His satellite view of the area revealed their position to be in a labyrinth of rock. The site made him feel like a rat caught in a maze.

  Alex pointed at the others to get their attention. He did not want to utter a word as the UAA might be eavesdropping on their conversation. Follow me, he mouthed and turned his head towards an adjacent alley.

  The others followed in a bent position in order to ensure their heads would not be visible along any of the lower outcroppings of rocks. Alex had seen a possible escape route. After studying the satellite picture and remembering the reconnaissance material he read about Megiddo before arriving, he believed a hidden tunnel might provide the only means for escape.

  Two soldiers drew nearer to their position. In this area of the labyrinth, the rocks were thick and the walls tall. Despite their close proximity, Alex knew that unless the soldiers had another explosive charge or planned to scale the walls, they would be relatively safe.

  Alex held up his hand to the others. The soldiers next to them had made a particularly odd maneuver. Instead of their continued reconnoitering, they had backed away from the rocks and placed a small metal spike into the ground. Attached to it was a thin wire with a long metal tip, which each soldier held into the air as they kneeled.

  Electrical assault! He had read about this immobilizing weapon before but never expected it to be used on him. The words pain, coma, and possible cardiac death were the most pertinent things he could remember about it. The other details seemed to fall short at this moment.

  How do I ground all of us in less than one minute?

  Alex thought quickly of everything they had on them at that moment, down to the possible wiring in Marissa’s bra. Taking an additional second to visualize her bra, he once again attempted to devise a plan.

  Electrical attack, Alex mouthed to the others. Turning to Marissa, he gestured to have her medical bag, hoping to find what he needed.

  Before he had a chance to look in it, Jonathan handed him a five-foot long piece of wire he had taken from Guri’s apartment before they escaped.

  Astonished, Alex asked, “Was this in the Bible code?”

  Jonathan smiled. “No, but it was in my Boy Scout Manual. ‘Always be prepared.’”

  Alex grabbed the wire and with his teeth stripped the outer coating off one of its ends. He then wrapped that part a fe
w times around his pocketeer and dug a hole in the dirt underneath him to bury the other end of the wire.

  “Everyone, get down on one knee and grab my wrist,” Alex whispered with a hushed tone. “And whatever you do, don’t let go, no matter what.”

  “This does not look good,” William blurted. “THIS… DOES… NOT… LOOK…

  GOOD!”

  While William continued to give his vote of confidence, Alex extended a long metal piece out from his pocketeer. Originally designed for soldering, Alex had a different intention for it at the moment.

  He got down on both knees and held the pocketeer with the metal facing upward as high as he could reach. “Everyone hold on.”

  Alex could see the UAA soldier loading his pistol with a new shell and taking aim. Everyone around him grabbed his hand and knelt down just as he fired the projectile.

  A burst of electricity instantly enveloped their position. Sparks flew all around them, but fortunately, the pocketeer’s metal tip took the brunt of the attack. Like a lightning rod, it drew most of the electricity away from them and conducted it safely into the earth.

  Their hair stood on end during the incident while only a fraction of the electrical charge ran through their bodies. Guri’s teeth chattered while William mumbled that he hoped his dead body would be recognizable when someone found it.

  After a few seconds, the last of the sparks crackled as a light, smoky film covered the air. No one was injured, just a little shaken up.

  “Let’s get going,” Alex said. “They’re moving in on our position.”

  Upon standing, they found their footing to be more unstable than they anticipated. The electrical shock must have slightly offset their equilibrium. They stumbled and veered to the sides at first but picked up more confidence the farther they walked.

  Alex knew an escape route was close. Just ahead lay a 120-foot pit that attached to an underground tunnel, leading out of the city. Unfortunately, one of the UAA soldiers knelt directly in their path.

  Taking another route would be too risky, Alex thought.

  The UAA soldier stood after stowing away the metal spike and wire and then slowly began to walk towards their position. Only a stone wall separated them and if Alex continued moving in his current direction, he would be facing the wrong end of a rifle in about a second.

  Alex reached his hand around the bend in the rocks and lobbed one of his mini-grenades. Before the soldier had a chance to respond, it exploded, knocking him to the ground in the concussive blast.

  “Move towards the pit!” Alex yelled as he pushed them in the correct direction.

  Once they all passed, Alex set off at full pace. Bullets ricocheted all around him. He could feel the zip of at least two as they passed.

  The soldier who fired was closer than Alex expected. Luckily, as he ran farther, a large stone blocked any further attempts at his life.

  Alex reached the rest of the group at the edge of the pit. Originally in the ninth century B.C., it was an ancient means by which Megiddo’s inhabitants could safely access the city’s outside water supply in times of siege.

  They all ran down the stairs along the sides of the pit without hesitation. Never had they traversed 183 steps with such quickness and dexterity in their lives. Even Guri made the decent without incident.

  Upon reaching the bottom, a few more unfriendly volleys of gunfire greeted them. “Down the tunnel!” Alex shouted.

  The 300-foot long tunnel at the bottom of the pit was well lit. Flanked by lights on either side and with a long wooden plank down its center, it definitely proved easier to traverse than in ancient times. Though admittedly, the ancient citizens of Megiddo weren’t escaping UAA soldiers with machine guns.

  “That was too close for me!” William said. “Too close.”

  The sound of their shoes hitting the wooden planks echoed throughout the tunnel. While the light-footed Marissa barely made a noise, William created a racket indistinguishable from an elephant stampeding.

  Alex pushed Guri from the rear. He had no time to wait for any laggards. The soldiers were already descending into the pit while others ran to join them.

  Jonathan reached the end of the tunnel first. Instead of daylight, the remnants of a dried-up old well greeted their approach. An earthen embankment above them buttressed by a wall of stone blocked their exit.

  “Dead end,” he turned to inform the group.

  “What do you mean it’s a dead end?” blurted William.

  Jonathan looked down to see if there were any other exit points. Maybe an old stream could have carved out a natural tunnel, or maybe the ancient inhabitants could have created another offshoot tunnel. He found nothing.

  Marissa jumped down from the wooden plank and into the well with her flashlight. Still, she found nothing. Only dirt and more dirt appeared in the flashlight’s beam.

  “We’re trapped!” William announced upon Alex’s arrival. “There’s no place for us to go now except six feet under!”

  Alex was not going to let that happen. He threw Jonathan his spare pocketeer and ran back down the tunnel without another word. Time did not allow for any discussion. New footsteps echoed towards their position and grew louder by the second.

  Jonathan needed no instruction. He guessed what Alex was thinking and immediately began thumbing through the pocketeer’s gadgets.

  “William,” he politely and calmly asked, “could you please give me a boost?”

  “Hell,” he sputtered, “I’d give you anything you asked for right about now.”

  William grabbed Jonathan’s foot and lifted the man so that he stood on his shoulders. Fortunately, a good portion of William’s size consisted of muscle. The other part, however, was comprised of Chinese take-outs, French fries and late night trips to the local diner.

  “You O.K.?” William asked.

  “Just keep it steady.”

  Marissa held onto William’s waist to keep him from swaying. Without skipping a beat, he looked over to her and said, “They’ll be time for that later.”

  “Please,” she scoffed.

  As gunshots echoed down the tunnel, he certainly did need the support. With each new volley he did his best not to flinch or throw Jonathan off his shoulders.

  Although William’s concentration was focused on not moving, his primary focus was on Alex. Marissa also shared his concern. She clenched onto William’s waist a little stronger, both for his support and hers. With Alex alone and under gunfire, she feared for his safety and found herself thinking of little else but seeing him again.

  “Let me down!” Jonathan requested.

  William rapidly complied and almost threw the man to the ground.

  “Quickly,” Jonathan said, pointing slightly down the tunnel. “We need to get under those wooden planks.”

  The four of them expeditiously dashed down the tunnel and crammed under the wooden walkway. There was not much room underneath, but the gap proved adequate even for William’s girth.

  The earthen embankment where Jonathan had placed the pocketeer suddenly exploded, covering the area with dirt, rocks, and an impenetrable cloud of dust. A second loud explosion echoed down the tunnel.

  The lights immediately went out, leaving them in complete darkness.

  A lone voice rang out amongst the commotion. “Are we dead?” William asked.

  Within a few seconds as the dust cloud began to settle, beams of sunlight started to filter into the tunnel. They were like little rays of hope, leading them out of danger.

  “What are you doing lying around here?” Alex asked lightheartedly. “We need to get out.”

  “Alex!” Marissa greeted him with joy.

  “You made it!” William added.

  Alex took Guri and Marissa by the arms and helped them to their feet. William slowly got his footing while Jonathan stumbled to his feet.

  “There’s an archeological dig site next to us with a metal roof,” Alex said. “I can hide us all there safely.”

  “Wh
at about the Stratoskimmer?” Marissa asked.

  “It’s too far away, and this place is bustling with UAA soldiers.”

  Alex led the way as he climbed the stone walls out of the ancient well and into the daylight. Gunfire began to erupt above them in the old city. Shouting in different languages accompanied the scuffle while screams of anguish signaled the mounting casualties.

  Because of The Disease, the Israeli police were on high alert and had immediately swarmed the area once informed of the trouble. More reinforcements flew in while two attack helicopters hovered overhead.

  The archeological site was not far away but, at the moment, its distance seemed insurmountable. They all ran in ducked positions as the gunfight continued relentlessly next to them.

  One of the helicopters burst into flames and crashed adjacent to the ancient city as an all-too-familiar plane descended upon Megiddo. The same XR-2 that had attempted to bring down their Stratoskimmer now undertook a daring rescue operation to liberate the UAA soldiers.

  More gunfire erupted but despite the Israeli’s best attempts, the plane soared off into the distance. Isolated skirmishes continued as the Israelis subdued the last of the UAA militants. SattAr had escaped. But would they?

  Chapter 23

  Samantha attempted to work in the bunker but could not help watching the events occurring aboveground. The large screens captured vividly the attack on the policeman and the subsequent firefight that ensued.

  Since the skirmish, dozens of new fire, police, and military vehicles began to pour into Neurono-Tek. Though Samantha stopped counting at fifty, more continued to arrive.

  “I told them,” she would say aloud each time a new truck or car would arrive. “If they would have only listened to me in the first place, this might never have happened.”

  Not that she wanted to pat herself on the back, but she surely wished the proper authorities had taken her warnings more seriously.

  Spotlights lit up Neurono-Tek brighter than if it were high noon on a clear day.Despite the distractions, Samantha continued to work on her experiments. She was like a machine. Running on almost no sleep and little food, she labored nonstop. In fact, it was the longest she had ever gone without sleep since pulling all-nighters in college.