End of Days | Book 5 | Beyond Alpha

by Isherwood, E. E.

  In any other context, he would have pulled those men aside and given them a dressing down they would never forget, but he didn’t want to raise his profile with the officers until he knew what was going on. If they found out he wasn’t officially a part of the unit, it might endanger the two kids he was supposed to protect.

  When the group finally stopped, he took some time to lean against a tree and watch the operation. The same two officers wove around the crowd and pulled out a number of people to form a second group. Since he couldn’t talk to anyone, he wasn’t sure which group the two kids needed to join, but he was relieved when the officers left Garth and Lydia together. If the kids were split up, his job would get a lot more difficult than it already was.

  Once the people were divided, one of the officers marched the smaller group down a pathway in the woods. Many of those left behind became agitated as if they were being abandoned, but they got reassurances from the other lieutenant.

  “People, settle down! They are going to a different relocation center. There isn’t enough room for everyone at the one you are heading for, okay?”

  A woman’s voice came back at him. “We need restrooms.”

  “Soon,” he replied with sympathy. “I promise we are almost where we are going, which is the good news. The bad news is we have to stay here for the night, so we’ll have to set up private areas for your needs.”

  “You mean we have to use the woods?” the same woman replied.

  Phil laughed at the typical worries of those civilians. It made the odd situation almost feel normal. They could have running water and flush toilets, and someone would still gripe.

  He enjoyed the orange glow of sunset coming through the trees for a bit, but he was interrupted by footfalls in the pine needles behind him, which made him spin around in haste.

  A female soldier approached.

  “Don’t shoot,” she joked.

  His rifle hung low since he hadn’t been expecting trouble from outside their circle, but he had it positioned on its sling so he could fire it in an instant, if necessary. The woman, however, was outfitted in the digital camo worn by the guards of the 130th. She was not an enemy.

  Still, he expressed surprise, if only because she spoke to him.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t think of it…” he searched for the rank on the dark-haired woman’s blouse, “Specialist.”

  She halted where she was as if she’d almost stepped on a land mine, then quickly saluted and came to attention. “Sorry, Colonel.”

  “At ease,” he replied.

  The soldier relaxed but didn’t come closer than about ten feet.

  “They told me this topside op was being led by a pair of lieutenants. I didn’t expect anyone higher up on the outside.”

  “That’s all right, soldier. I’m not really in charge here. I’ve been tagging along as kind of a review of how things are going.” The last thing he wanted was to have the specialist think he was leading things. Not only did he not know the names of the other soldiers in the unit, but he also didn’t even know where they were going. All he knew was the unusual nature of the people being escorted. “These folks are some of the strangest people I’ve ever seen. I guess the brass wanted my eyes on them from a distance.”

  “Makes sense, sir,” she replied.

  “Where did you come from?” he asked as he checked out the forest behind her.

  “One of the exit hatches. That place is huge, by the way. Not sure if you’ve been down there. I had to hump a backpack loaded with MREs along the supercollider thing until I got to the right exit.”

  “By yourself?” he asked.

  “Yep. I couldn’t get anyone else to go with me.”

  He resisted the urge to comment on unit discipline and leadership by her superiors inside. It was nice of her to show up at all.

  “I don’t see any MREs,” he said in a less formal voice.

  She chuckled. “I left them at the bottom of the steps until I could come out here and confirm where they were going. I figured it was smarter than walking all over the forest not knowing where to take them. It’s going to be dark soon.”

  “That’s true. Before I let you get to it, can you tell me why most of the soldiers in the 130th don’t respond to simple questions? I tried talking to some of them, but they wouldn’t even look at me.”

  “Are you serious, sir? Surely you know most of these guys are with the UN force. The 130th is just a paper designation labeled as US Army to keep us all on the same team while on American soil. God only knows what languages they speak. And if you don’t mind me saying, they leave a lot to be desired in the work ethic department. Why do you think I’m by myself?”

  “Of course,” he said to smooth over his mistake. “I’ve been out here in the forest longer than I should have been, I guess. It’s only the officers who speak English, correct?”

  “Affirmative. I guess that means I should coordinate the food drop for the time nomads with you then?”

  “Time nomads” was a term he still had trouble processing.

  “No. I’m still only an observer of these, uh, nomads. You’ll want to make contact with the lieutenant.” He pointed over his shoulder at the main group, guessing the leader she sought was still there. He didn’t know his name, so he didn’t want to add any details. “But before you do, I’d like to know how you ended up here. Where were you before you came to the Alpha Site?”

  “I was with the real United States Army doing supply runs in the Iraqi Green Zone before the world started going to shit. My dad called me and told me to get on a plane to Denver right away, so I did as he asked. Lucky I did, too, because I heard things went downhill fast overseas.”

  “I was in Afghanistan. You don’t have to tell me.”

  “Then you know what I’m talking about. The world went crazy as I flew home. I do wish I knew if the rest of my unit made it out.”

  “Wait, you just up and left your unit?”

  “Sir, I was ordered to leave.” She straightened her back. “When a US senator calls your CO on a sat phone in the middle of the night, there isn’t much you can do to stop the transfer from happening. I didn’t want to leave—”

  “Your father’s a senator?”

  “Yours isn’t?” The young woman chuckled. “I thought that’s how we all got here. Every soldier you see is either the son or daughter of someone important or was hand-picked by someone important. Government people. Foreign leaders. Oil Sheiks. I’m sure you’ve seen all their kids.”

  He nodded.

  “Well, I’m Specialist Hana Blazkowitz. My father is Billy Blazkowitz, senior senator from the great state of Illinois.” She lost some of her excitement. “Former state.”

  “Where is he?” he asked. “In the complex?”

  She nodded. “The old people get to relax inside. You and I have to earn our spots by keeping things running out here. Small price to pay, though, just to be here, right?”

  “Sure,” he said.

  “What about you?” she went on. “Who got you into the project?”

  He thought about his mom. She wasn’t a senator or anyone important to the political system, yet she’d come through time and back into his life, like the people in Garth’s group behind him. He’d trade all one hundred senators to keep her safe. The thought process reminded him why he was there.

  “Sorry, Specialist. The 130th might be a fake unit full of important sons and daughters, but we’re still in the United States Army. As your superior, that means I get to ask you all the questions.” He spoke in a light-hearted way, hoping to brush off her question yet retain a good relationship with her.

  Phil had to dance around the outer edges of the operation. He wore a different uniform. Literally didn’t speak the same language. He wasn’t in tune with procedure.

  If he had any hope of completing his mission, he would need a few friends.

  “How about I help you carry those MREs, Specialist, while I ask a few more questions?”

  It wasn�
��t a request.

  Seven

  Above Alpha Site

  Garth enjoyed a rare moment of peace while lying next to Lydia. They’d shared a single MRE between them, which served as their dinner, but they’d been given no instructions in the hours since. Lydia seemed content to have even that little bit, and she’d fallen asleep on the bed of pine needles. He, however, needed more time to unwind and think through his situation. He couldn’t decide if they were being kept safe from larger threats or if they were being put in harm’s way deep in the forest.

  Dad would have told him to assume the latter.

  It was a clear night. The canvas of stars blazed brightly in the patches of sky visible through the pine boughs high above. There wasn’t a speck of artificial light in any direction, nor were any of the guards using flashlights on the ground. These were the perfect conditions to see the Milky Way in all its glory, but his heart wasn’t interested in stuff light-years away. Instead, he turned to Lydia. He could see her face and a few locks of hair falling from her bonnet in the starlight.

  So lucky.

  He thought how great it was to have a girl like her who would soon become his wife. He tried to imagine his dad proposing to his mom back in the day, but he realized how hard it was to remember what his mother looked like. It had been a couple of years already. Before he could get too far down into that pit, a flash of blue light caught his eyes out in the woods.

  Garth sat up, careful not to disturb his friend. When he looked around, the other time nomads were all lying down, though he didn’t know if they were awake. Farther away, the dark shapes of the guards stood sentinel among the trees.

  “I’ll be right back,” he whispered to Lydia on the off chance she was awake.

  She didn’t stir.

  It made it easier for him to get up and creep over to the nearest big tree trunk. He looked back, content that she was safely resting where he’d left her.

  Again a spark of blue light beamed from deep in the woods. He had no idea if the light had come from back toward his dad and the people they’d saved or from the opposite way. With all the walking under tree cover and no visible landmarks, he was completely turned around. The only thing he knew for sure was the light kept coming from one direction.

  It was the same blue color as the energy wave that had consumed the world around him when he’d barely made it back to the fence line with Lydia. That threw up a giant red flag for him. It also didn’t sit well that none of the guards seemed interested in the light. Even when it burned brightest, the guards remained stationed where they were, barely giving it a passing glance.

  I have to know what that is.

  He needed a distraction, like in the movies.

  But it wasn’t the movies. He knew there wouldn’t be an explosion or someone screaming anytime soon. It was up to him.

  After a final glance at Lydia, he snuck by some sleepers as he headed for another large tree. His sneakers seemed to clomp on the parched soil and crunch on the dry pine needles, but he chalked it up to his imagination. No one stirred at his passing, so he figured it wasn’t as loud as he thought.

  Crickets chirped far away, making it seem unnaturally quiet.

  One guard stood between him and the path to the light.

  He crouched as he planned his next moves. There were enough trunks and brush to cover most of his path to the outside, but he thought about movies and the books he’d read again. It almost seemed too easy to escape, which made him consider where he was going so he didn’t blow the opportunity.

  Once he’d made up his mind and taken a few steps to the next hiding spot, the light blared from the forest ahead. Vivid blue pops flashed over and over, and he saw it clearly this time. After a few seconds, the light dimmed and disappeared like before.

  Whatever it was, it wasn’t natural. Since it was happening at midnight deep in a forest, he was certain it was a threat, which ironically made him want to see it even more.

  The last guard had taken a position on the far side of a giant old tree relative to his position, so it was easy to stay low and sneak between him and the next trunk twenty yards away. He didn’t stop until he’d crawled about a hundred yards.

  A small branch snapped in the night. To him, it sounded as if it came from six feet away, but when he heard nothing else, even after a minute of straining to listen in the darkness, he reasoned it must have been farther away than he thought. One surprising thing he’d learned from his time in the dense forest was that twigs, needles, and even big branches fell from above with surprising regularity.

  After waiting for a few extra minutes, he resumed scrambling from tree to tree, trying to keep that last guard on the opposite side of whatever trunk he passed. It seemed as if it had taken him an hour to get there, but when he was far enough from the camp, he could finally focus all his attention on the blue.

  “Let’s see what you are,” he whispered.

  Garth didn’t tromp through the forest, but he did move a lot faster when he wasn’t trying to be overly quiet about it. The light came and went like an intermittent lighthouse, but always from the same relative position ahead of him. When he reached the crest of a small rise, the trees thinned out considerably, and he was able to see for at least half a mile.

  “Holy crap,” he gushed.

  It was a giant parking lot filled with row upon row of giant tractor-trailers. He was about fifty feet above the gravel lot, which gave him an excellent view. The trucks were parked side by side down the length of the lot and placed in three rows: two on the edges and one down the middle. It was too dark to do an accurate count, but he figured there were hundreds of trailers sitting out there.

  Yet the thing that really got his attention was the swatch of blue energy burning over in row three. Two dozen trucks were lit up with the otherworldly blue light as if they were glowing from the inside. Another ten were in various states of being crushed if his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. The one farthest to his left had a front half almost flat on the ground. Or it was missing. It was hard to tell from so far away.

  “I have got to see this,” he whispered with glee.

  “Garth?” a man called out from close by.

  “Shit!” he blurted, jumping a foot off the ground.

  “Sorry, kid,” Phil said as he came out of the darkness. “I took a chance it was you sneaking around, but I wasn’t sure until you were backlit by that blue. What the hell are you doing out here by yourself?”

  Garth dramatically pointed behind him.

  “I see that now,” Phil replied, “but I have to get you back before you’re missing. Don’t you know you’re putting Lydia in danger?”

  That gave him pause. “How? She’s sleeping back where I left her.”

  “And what happens if they catch you out here and take you away?”

  “Why would they? I’m just a dumb teenager sleepwalking.” He lifted his arms in front of him to pose as if he’d been shuffling around while asleep.

  “You really think these people are that stupid?” Phil chuckled.

  “Yes,” he deadpanned.

  “They’re not,” the soldier corrected. “You shouldn’t underestimate them. I talked to one of them earlier. These people are all politically connected at levels you can’t even imagine. A bunch of them come from the old Soviet ‘stans, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. Anyone with black money and connections. I’m beginning to think they won’t even return you to camp. They’d just as soon off you.”

  “That’s why you’re here.” He sobered. “To fight them.”

  “Not really,” Phil said in the darkness. “I’m only here to keep you safe, which you are making more difficult by sneaking away from me.”

  “But the light?”

  “Forget about it. Right now, there isn’t anything I like about them taking you into the forest like they did, and going out to find more trouble isn’t in my mission plan.” Phil took a deep breath. “Though I’ve got to admit, if you’d have snuck Lydia out
with you, we might be hauling ass into the woods right now.”

  “I can go get her,” Garth responded immediately.

  “No,” Phil said with a touch of sadness. “You got lucky. There’s no way to get to her, wake her up, and get you both back out here without being seen. Hell, if they see me out here, they might ask a lot of questions. It’s way too risky.”

  “But—” he started.

  “I’m here to protect you, kid, but I won’t go looking to cause trouble. Once we go down that path, things get really messy. People could get hurt, even you. Even Lydia. I promised your dad I would keep watch over you, so he would be pretty pissed if I let you endanger yourself out here. C’mon, let’s get back to camp.”

  Phil took a couple of steps away from the cusp of the hill.

  “Wait.” He turned back to the blue light. “I get it. I do. But don’t you want to know what that is? If we can get a good look, maybe we’ll be able to protect Lydia from going near it. I’m assuming they brought us up here because of it.”

  “We don’t know that,” Phil answered.

  “Dude. Look how close we are. It has to be connected to bringing us all the way out here in the forest.”

  Phil studied the light. As he did, the blue glow reflected off his face. Garth was sure the man was thinking the same thing as he was.

  “Well?” Garth whispered.

  “Nope. That’s not my job right this second. I have to get you back and in bed so they don’t ask any questions. Your job, kid, is to lay low and not get yourself on their radar. Leave whatever this is…” he pointed at the light, “to me.”

  Garth hesitated.

  “Think it through, buddy. If your dad was standing right here, do you think he’d advise you and me to go off snooping in a truck parking lot to find a blue glow, or would he say your job is to stay close to your girl?”

  He reasoned that he’d gone out to help protect Lydia from whatever it was, but he had to admit Phil’s logic made sense. Dad had said to play it smart and keep close to Lydia, so maybe it was reckless to leave her behind, even to snoop on her behalf.

  Still, that light beckoned him.