by Mike Kraus
Resilient all the way up to and through watching Jacob being killed by Rick’s hand, the usually indefatigably resilient attitude of Dr. Evans broke. His forced smile faded, his shoulders slumped and the light went out of his eyes. His wound, still untended, was forgotten as he felt his soul empty out into the dark room.
Rick felt a chill run up his spine as he carefully watched Dr. Evans, seeing more of a lack of a reaction than anything else. Both he and Oles sensed the change that came over the man, and they glanced at each other before Rick approached Dr. Evans and sat down nearby.
“I’m… sorry, doc. I know she meant a lot to you.”
Dr. Evans looked up at Rick, his eyes clouded with tears. “She spoke to me like a person. Not a resource, or a tool, or something to be used.” He took a deep breath and let it out in a long, slow sigh. “She was the first one to talk to me like that in… ages. Before that it was all government suits and other socially low-functioners like myself. Do this, do that, solve this, figure out that. Not her. First thing she asked me when she arrived at Cheyenne was where was I from and if I was feeling okay.”
“She was a good person. There’s no doubt about that.” Rick glanced over at Oles. “Dr. Evans, we will remember her. But right now I need to know what’s been going on down here. What happened with Jacob and Ostap? Were you able to find the codes to Damocles?”
Dr. Evans closed his eyes, sending double trails of wetness down his cheeks. He leaned back in his chair, taking in yet another long breath before releasing it in a slow sigh. “Oles?” Dr. Evans spoke softly. “You fill him in.”
Chapter 4
Outside Ellisville, VA
To Dianne and Sarah, as they worked feverishly to save their friend’s life, it felt like hours had passed since Tina had been shot. For Mark and Jason, though, it had only been a couple of minutes since Nealson fired a round into Tina’s chest and taken off in his car. The pair had rained hellfire down upon the vehicle, but Nealson’s erratic driving and the pair’s amped up adrenaline meant the man was able to make good on his escape.
With the car fading into the distance, Mark and Jason turned to one another, suddenly remembering what had happened to Tina. They bolted for the entrance to the community center, skidding to a halt just inside the door as they looked down and saw Dianne and Sarah kneeling over Tina’s still form.
“Holy… Mom! Is she okay?”
“Jason!” Dianne ignored her son and barked at Sarah’s husband. “Where’s Nealson? Did you kill him?”
“We couldn’t get him, Dianne,” Jason shook his head. “He got away.”
“You sure he’s gone?” Dianne didn’t look away from Tina as she placed another strip of duct tape across the older woman’s chest.
“Very.”
“Good. We need to get Tina in the truck and get her home, to where we’ve got more than gauze and duct tape to work with.” She looked over at Mark. “I want you and Sarah to go through everything in this room. Get any supplies that look useful and throw them in the back of the truck. Jason, get it parked outside. We’ll have to slide her into the back seat.”
“Dianne, are you—”
“Just do it, Jason!” Dianne’s eyes burned white-hot and her lips curled, her voice taking on a new pitch as she shouted at him. “We don’t have time to discuss this!”
With a quick glance at Sarah and an exchange of nods, Jason ran outside, heading for Dianne’s truck that the group from the community center had stolen previously. Mark held out a hand, helping Sarah to her feet and they began hurrying through the room, calling out the names of things they found to Dianne who responded with a simple “yes” or “no” to indicate whether the items should be brought along.
Outside, the sound of the truck’s engine grew loud as Jason pulled it up in front of the community center, parked, then jumped out and threw open the doors to the rear section of the cab. Mark and Sarah began carrying supplies out while Jason ran over to Dianne’s side and dropped to one knee.
“How is she?”
“Bad. I’ve got the hole closed up but she’s lost a lot of blood and I have no idea what kind of internal damage there is.”
“You did… good.” Tina grabbed Dianne’s arm again, her grip feeling weaker than before but still stronger than it had a right to be. “Could use something… for the pain.”
“We’ll be home in a jiffy.” Dianne looked up at Jason. “Can you get her in the car by yourself?”
Jason nodded and leaned down, scooping Tina up in a smooth motion. She groaned at the movement but didn’t cry out, and Jason carried her to the car and slipped her onto the back seat.
“Josie, Jacob!” The two younger children who had been huddled together in a corner of the community center’s main room hurried over next to their mother, looking wide-eyed and shell-shocked. “Get in the car; sit with Mrs. Carson and make sure she doesn’t fall off the seat, okay? She’s hurt pretty badly and we’re taking her back home.”
“Is she going to be okay?”
“What happened to her?”
“Are those bad men coming back?” Josie and Jacob both exploded with questions, but Dianne threw up her blood-soaked hands and shook her head.
“Do what I said, now. Questions later, after we get home. Got it?”
They both nodded and ran for the truck, hopping in and sitting on either side of Tina with Jason’s help. Dianne looked around the room for a few seconds to see if she noticed anything that Mark and Sarah might have missed. When things looked clear she ran for the door and began shouting more instructions.
“Sarah, in the front! Jason, you’re driving. Mark, in the back with me. Let’s go already, we need to get home now!”
Chapter 5
Low Earth Orbit
“Ready to cut burn?”
“Ready!”
“Three… two… one… now!”
The small module, shuddering under the force of the engine propelling it forward, suddenly grows still and quiet. The vibrations that rocked the three passengers all but vanish and an unnatural silence overtakes the craft.
“How long until reentry?” Jackie speaks to Commander Palmer without turning her head. Not by choice, but because the small craft is crammed to the gills with supplies and she’s physically unable to do so.
“Sixteen minutes.” He stretches out a hand and flips a trio of switches. “Ted, how’s our course?”
“We’re smack dab in the green. Couldn’t be better.”
“If that isn’t a miracle then I don’t know what is.” Commander Palmer gives a bemused snort. “Everybody take five to relax, then we’ll start the checklist for reentry. Not that it’ll do much good given how overweight and unbalanced we are.”
There is silence in the small capsule as it hurtles through the upper reaches of earth’s atmosphere, falling in a steadily decreasing arc in a direction that the crew hopes will get them home. White clouds and blue ocean that pass by underneath are marred by black smoke as they pass across populated areas, the fires from Damocles still burning across much of the planet.
“What’s going on down there?” Jackie whispers so softly that only Ted, sitting to her right, hears her. He shakes his head quietly, wondering the same thing. From so high above their home, the feeling of utter insignificance is normally overwhelming. Dubbed the overview effect, the three have become accustomed to the cognitive shift and range of emotions that come with seeing the Earth from the heavens. To see it burn, though, and be unable to lift a finger to help or even know why it is burning is enough to break down the mental walls constructed by even the toughest, most experienced astronauts.
“All right.” Commander Palmer’s voice is rougher than normal, and he clears his throat before continuing. “I don’t know what’s going on down there, but we’re going to go find out.”
Chapter 6
Washington, D.C.
“Jacob betrayed us all.”
“No kidding. I sort of figured that out when he had the gun on us. Why did
he do it, though?”
“When we first came down here, Ostap started acting… how do you say it? Funny? Off?”
“Squirrely?”
“Exactly.” Oles nodded. “He was squirrel. I tried to talk to Jacob, but he was different too. All he did was watch Ostap carefully, like he expected something to happen. I tried to warn Dr. Evans, but Ostap played his hand too quickly. Once we verified that these were the correct systems, Ostap shot Dr. Evans through the shoulder. He was about to shoot me when Jacob shot him—well, at him. Sent him running away, surprised that someone was shooting back, I guess.”
“Wait, so Ostap shot first? Why?”
“Dirty ruskie was working for the Russians.”
Rick looked confused. “Of course he was.”
“No, no,” Dr. Evans shook his head. “Not like that. Him and Carl and Jacob were all sent here with one goal—get the codes and give them to the Russians. Then the Russians would have the keys to the castle. They could take control over Damocles and be in total control of everything.”
“But, somewhere along the line, Ostap and Carl must have gotten greedy.” Oles continued. “And Jacob was the mole that was sent to take care of them if they deviated from their orders.”
Rick shook his head and let out a whistle. “Wow. How’d you figure that out?”
“Even with a gun on us Jacob couldn’t keep his fat mouth shut.” At that point Oles turned and hocked a loogie at Jacob’s body. “He told us that his family was in danger if he didn’t take the codes back. Said he’d kill us both if we didn’t help him get the codes.”
“And that’s where you came in.” Dr. Evans snorted. “Literally. Unfortunately, that was also the point where we were going to have to give him the bad news.”
“Which is?”
Oles turned and gestured at the servers sitting out on the desk on the table. “There’s a bullet hole right through the system we needed to access.”
Rick looked at where Oles was pointing, and even in the dim light he could see the shattered plastic and bent metal where a round had entered the front of a rackmount server that was sitting on the desk. “Did it hit the drives?”
“Unfortunately.” Dr. Evans nodded.
“How’d you all even get these systems up and running?” Rick looked around at the dim emergency lighting.
“There’s about a dozen backup power units in the corner, each one good for a few minutes of power to a monitor and one of these systems. It was janky, but it worked.”
“Well then,” Rick took a step forward and examined the machine, “since this system’s dead now, what’s the backup plan?”
“One of these other machines could have the codes, but it’ll take time to examine them. Time we don’t have.”
“Come again?” Rick had been distracted by the damaged server and looked up at Oles. “Time we don’t have how?”
Oles and Dr. Evans exchanged a glance, then Dr. Evans began to explain. “I’ve suspected that Damocles would reach its final stages of attacks soon. That’s always been in its programming. Escalation until it either receives a kill command, alternate commands or until it reaches its final stages.”
“It can’t possibly do much more harm than it’s already done.”
“There’s plenty left it can do.” Dr. Evans swallowed hard. “It’s designed to infect every system of the target. Civilian and military. Every system.”
“He’s talking about missiles,” Oles interjected. “Nuclear missiles.”
“I guess that would be the final stage, wouldn’t it? What are we supposed to do to stop it if the system with the codes is dead?”
Oles and Dr. Evans exchanged another glance. “Oh, no,” Oles said, “you misunderstand. We have the codes. They were the first things we pulled.”
“What?!” Rick shouted, louder than he had intended. “Then what’s the problem?”
“This system that was damaged was a clean system with authorization on the internal network to get into the outside world. This was supposed to be how we would broadcast the shutdown codes that Damocles would then self-propagate out. Without it… I don’t know how we’ll get the signal out.”
“How much time do we have before Damocles starts blowing more stuff up?”
Dr. Evans shook his head. “It’s impossible to know for certain. Hours, though. Maybe six or eight.”
“Good. That’s enough time.” Rick turned and started walking for the exit.
“For what?”
Rick stopped and looked back at the pair. “To bury our dead.”
Chapter 7
Outside Ellisville, VA
“Bitch!”
A pile of boxes toppled over, spilling their contents across the wood floor in response to Nealson’s swing of his leg. A few cans of food managed to roll their way across the entirety of the room, only coming to a rest when they hit the thin piles of bedding that had been put down for those whom Nealson and his group had captured. The room was empty, save for himself, though there were signs that the woman and her group had ransacked the place before departing.
Nealson gingerly removed his right hand from his left shoulder, grinding his teeth together as a fresh wave of pain went down his arm and across his chest. The pair that had been firing at him during his frantic escape had gotten off at least two full mags, and though several had plinked off the back of his car, only one had actually hit him.
After spending a few hours on the other side of Ellisville with his hand clamped to the through-and-through wound, he decided to risk heading back to the community center. He would need food, water, bandages and more if he wanted to stay alive for more than a few days. Unfortunately, Mark and Sarah’s searching for supplies left him lacking when it came to most of what he immediately needed.
“Looks like she bled out good.” Nealson kicked at a pile of bloody bandages near the front door as he walked around the room, smirking with satisfaction. He had never been one to show mercy to anyone, no matter what their age, but he had taken a large amount of pleasure in shooting Tina in particular. Remembering how much trouble she had been back at the gas station and then again at the farm during the attack made him hope that she was still alive, suffering horribly as she slowly died.
Digging through the boxes with one hand, Nealson finally found what he was looking for. He pulled one of the whisky bottles out and unscrewed the top before tilting it back and drinking deep. The burning in his throat and stomach soon turned to warmth that spread through his whole body, lessening the pain in his shoulder and dulling some of the effects of the cold weather.
With a bit of liquid courage resting in his belly, Nealson once again turned his attention to his wound. The bullet had passed through cleanly, tearing apart muscle and ligament but missing bone entirely. The blood flow had mostly stopped, too, and he gently prodded the wound to see if he could feel any fragments of the bullet at either side. A fresh dribble of blood and another wave of pain made him pull back sharply and he sighed, turning his attention back to the boxes.
“She couldn’t have used up all the bandages.” Nealson mumbled to himself while digging through the boxes, growing more impatient until he finally found a sealed package of gauze. He tore it open with his teeth and divided it across both sides of the wound before taking the remnants of a roll of duct tape from the floor and taping it down to keep it in place. A long, thin towel was quickly fashioned into a makeshift sling and within half an hour of arriving back at the community center he was sitting on a stool, eating cold canned corn with the edge of a knife blade while wondering what to do next.
“Boss?” A voice called from outside, and Nealson froze up for half a second before recognizing the voice and relaxing.
“Get in here.” He answered back before taking another bite. A moment later a pair of faces peeked through the front door.
“Boss? What… what happened here?” The pair entered the community center, eyes wide at the sight of the bloody pile of bandages, the general state of disarray and a
t Nealson sitting with his arm in a sling.
“She happened. Her and that family of hers.”
“Where’s everyone else?”
“Dead. All of ‘em.”
One of the pair shook his head. “We saw a couple bodies out front but didn’t think… how’d you stay alive, boss?”
“Luck and skill.” Nealson took a last bite before tossing the can to the floor. He wiped the knife clean on his pant leg before standing up and slipping it back into his pocket. “Where’s the truck?”
“Down the road. Things looked off so the boys stayed with it while we came up to take a look.”
“Good thinking. Signal them; tell ‘em to get up here.” One of the pair nodded and ran out the front of the building while Nealson addressed the other. “What’d you bring back?”
“Couple bags of meds—the good stuff—more ammo, a few guns, a couple water purifiers and a bunch of boxes of food. Mostly canned stuff. Oh, and seeds. Enough to start growing some food…” he paused. “I guess we’ll need to find some new labor to work on that, huh?”
“Nah.” Nealson shook his head. “We don’t need new ones. There’s still a few perfectly good ones. They just up and ran off is all.” The sound of a truck engine came from down the road, and the other man walked back through the door.
“They’re coming up, boss.”
“Good. As soon as they’re here I want something to deal with the pain from this, then I want a full stock of our weapons and ammo.”
“Boss,” the first man replied, “you want to go after them again?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?” Nealson nearly growled at the pair.
“Because they nearly killed you, and took out everyone else. Maybe we should just leave them alone.”
The pain all but vanished as Nealson felt the rage rising up in his gut. Even in his weakened and wounded state he was still a force to be reckoned with, and he demonstrated that for the man who was talked to him. Two steps forward were followed by a powerful right hook, catching the man in the jaw and sending him spinning around as he toppled to the floor. Nealson towered over the man while the other one slowly backed up, silently wishing he could somehow melt into a wall and disappear.
