Mother of All the Gods

by R. P. Wolff

“What about the Freedom Chips? Can’t we see where Zelda’s at from the chips?”

  “No, the Freedom Chips work off of cellular, and the resistance has hacked into our cellular network.”

  “So is there any way we can communicate among ourselves?”

  “Not that we know of. People are working on it right now.”

  Max felt like he was getting into his groove with his questions and acting like he was in charge.

  Max spoke, “You need to get more people on our communications system. That is the key. If we can’t communicate effectively or at all, this will kill us. Get more people on that now.”

  Wade nodded to a man in a suit with an earpiece tangling from his ear. Wade sighed. “Yes sir, we will do that, but we can’t just call people. We have to physically drive to their houses or apartments and tell them.”

  “Damn it!” Max shouted. “We’re losing precious time. We have to strike back immediately before the infidels gain confidence.”

  “I agree. What specifically do you want to do?”

  Max pause, thinking about the next step. “Okay,” he began, “take me to the White House. Let’s hold an emergency cabinet meeting. Get a hold of everyone.”

  “Well, that’s not easy to do either. We can’t get a hold of anyone. We had to drive over here to inform you.”

  “I don’t care what you have to do. Get everyone together, especially Colin Grant.”

  Wade and his men glanced at each.

  Max said, “Why isn’t he here to inform me instead of you, Wade? You’re the Secretary of the Treasury. Why are you telling me this stuff?”

  Wade sighed. “Colin Grant is missing too. He was with the Mother in Dallas.”

  “Is he dead?” Max asked.

  “We don’t know, but we hope that he is with our Mother.”

  “Ah, shit!” Max said. He exhaled. “Take me to the White House and try to round up as much of the Cabinet that you can. In any event, we will be attacking the infidels tonight.”

  ◆◆◆

  It was about ten o’clock at night before Wade could gather enough of the Cabinet and Joint Chiefs of Staff for a meeting in the Situation Room. Max sat at the head of the table surrounded by about fifteen to twenty other high-level government officials including General Arnold Chandler, his Chief of Staff when he was president and he was also Zelda’s Chief of Staff; Wesley Tate, Secretary of State; and Bruce Wade, the Secretary of the Treasury.

  Max was pissed it took so long to gather everyone. He wanted to attack immediately, but now it looked like that would have to wait until later in the night or even the next day, considering that they have no effective way to communicate. He was glad that General Chandler was there because he somewhat trusted him.

  Max sighed and began, “General,” Max nodded to General Chandler, “what is the current status of the situation?”

  General Chandler exhaled. “It’s not good. We’re still working on our communication systems. We’ve dispatched a team to head to Verizon’s headquarters in Maryland to get the communications up, but we have no way of finding out how they are progressing. We’re constantly checking to see if we get a signal. I also have a team trying to recover our satellite communications.”

  “What exactly is the problem?” Max asked. “I mean how did the so-called ‘Establishment’ take over our whole cellular and satellite networks? Can’t we just turn it back on?”

  “We haven’t lost power,” General Chandler replied. “They have hacked into it remotely and are in complete control over it. They have hijacked it. But it’s worse than just our cellular system. They have hacked into our nationwide TV signals. They have control over the airwaves for all televisions across the country as far as we can tell.”

  “How the hell does something like this happen?” Max said as he slammed his hand on the table.

  “This resistance must have a bunch of hackers.”

  Max shook his head. “How about the military?” Max said. “Are they ready to attack?”

  General Chandler glanced down at the table and frowned. “Because we can’t easily communicate, we have been driving and individually notifying pilots and various commanders to get to the main base at Fort Myer.”

  “When do you think they will be able to attack?”

  General Chandler sighed again. “Well, we were thinking that they need to fly to Barksdale Air Force base in Bossier City, Louisiana.”

  “Why?” Max interrupted. “Why not fly directly to Dallas?”

  “Because they will need to refuel. We don’t know how long the battle is going to last in Dallas, and we don’t want them to run out of fuel. They fly into Barksdale, refuel, and then we fly in with about another fifteen fighter jets from Barksdale. The resistance won’t know what hit them.”

  “So what are our targets, and how many ground troops are we going to send?”

  “I’ll answer both of your questions. First, our targets are the military bases in Dallas that the so-called ‘Establishment’ claimed that they have captured. Second, we’ll have transport planes fly to all the bases surrounding Texas to inform them they need to immediately deploy themselves to Dallas for a major battle. We have to take back Texas.”

  General Chandler impressed Max. He was a battle-tested general who knew how to think on his feet, but Max had more questions. “What about our Mother? What’s your plan on finding her whereabouts?”

  “I’m glad you asked that,” General Chandler replied. “One of the transport planes is supposed to fly to McAlester Army Base in Oklahoma to notify a special forces’ unit whose sole goal will be to locate and extract our holy Mother.”

  “When will all this take place?” Max asked.

  General Chandler exhaled and frowned. “The fighter jets should be ready to engage in Dallas tomorrow morning at about 0800.” He paused and twitched his jaw. “The ground troops should be in Dallas the following day sometime if they don’t encounter any resistance. We don’t know what kind of resistance we’re going to encounter on the roads. If we encounter resistance, it could be much longer.”

  “What about the special forces? When will they be deployed?”

  “They will be able to move more quickly with a team of only six soldiers. Nevertheless, the earliest that they will be in Dallas would be in two days.”

  Bruce Wade spoke. “Are the fighter jets just going to bomb the military bases? I mean, we don’t even know for sure whether the resistance has taken over the bases. We could be bombing our own people.”

  “Yes,” interjected Wesley Tate, the Secretary of State, “who knows whether they are holding our guys prisoners at the bases. Like, Secretary Wade said, we could be bombing our own people.”

  Max replied, “Hmm, those are good points.” He turned to General Chandler, “General, what’s your thoughts?”

  General Chandler sat silent momentarily.

  Wade interrupted before General Chandler could speak. “Even if we bomb the bases and are successful at it, the planes couldn’t land at the bases. The remaining resistance troops would bombard our pilots. We would need the ground troops there to support them.”

  Max needed to assert his authority and make the call and remind everyone at the table that he was in charge. “Enough!” Max snarled. “We need to make a statement to these filthy infidels. The longer they think they’re in charge, the more confidence that they will accumulate. Plus, who knows what evil acts they are doing to our faithful Maters.” Max paused for effect. “We bomb all the bases as soon as we are able to.”

  “But what if our troops or other Maters are being held prisoners at the bases?” Wade asked.

  “That’s the chance we have to take,” Max replied glaring at Wade. “We need to let the resistance know that we will get back what is ours at all costs.”

  “What if they are holding the holy Mother at one of the bases?” Tate asked.

  Tate and Wade perturbed Max because they didn’t seem intimidated by him. Normally, he would have Zelda zap people who d
isrespected him, but she wasn’t there. “Look,” Max replied, “if they had our Mother hostage, they would have certainly shown her as a prisoner. I’m confident that they don’t have her, and I’m confident that she’s alive. If she was dead or captured, they would show her. They’re bluffing. Once she emerges and notifies the country, the resistance will be crushed.” Max paused and glared at Wade and Tate, “Do y’all have a problem with that?”

  “No,” they both said in unison while shaking their heads.

  Chapter 43

  Lance couldn’t stop yawning. It was 11:00 P.M. on the day that the Establishment took back Texas. He was standing in a tent, among other Establishment leaders, at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base otherwise known as the NASJRB. The NASJRB was located near Fort Worth, Texas and was the unofficial headquarters of the Establishment. Lance realized that he hadn’t really slept for well over twenty-four hours, and the fatigue was catching up to him. There was non-stop action and seeing his daughter had exhilarated him. He continued on an emotional roller coaster that seemed never to end.

  Establishees safely guarded his daughter at the hospital, and a doctor assured him that she would have a full recovery but needed to rest. Lance wanted to stay, but the Establishment needed him to do more TV appearances and to advise them on the politics of the current affairs.

  Since the attacks, tensions were building all through Texas. Establishment forces were dragging loyal Maters into the streets and beating them up by kicking and punching them. There were some reports of Establishment forces publicly hanging known evil Mater policemen. Very few businesses were opened as the Maters hunkered down in their homes too scared to come out.

  Lance hated this outcome because Texas was on the verge of anarchy. He wanted to return to a normal government with freedom of speech, religion, and the press. He didn’t want to live in a land that was worse than Materism. He needed to exert his influence and stop the madness. It was less than twenty-four hours since his broadcast, and Texas was already on the cusp of a civil war. He needed to do another broadcast.

  There were eight men and five women standing around a wooden table. Lance, being the acting President, began the meeting. “I’m concerned with the reports that Establishees are hanging Mater policemen without a trial. We need to go back to being the United States. We can’t have anarchy. Everything we risked will be for nothing if we don’t have law and order.”

  “I agree, Mr. President,” General Cook replied, “but we have picked out the most vicious Mater policemen who have tormented Mater non-believers. They deserve to be hung.”

  Lance clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. “General, and to all of you,” Lance said as he glanced at everyone, “if you continue with this behavior, I will immediately ask you to resign. You can and should arrest them, but they must get a fair trial.”

  “A fair trial, my ass,” said General Joyce Acker, an Army two-star general. “Where was our fair trials when they fucking branded us?” she said this while pointing to her “B” branded on her forehead. “Mr. President, we need to punish these assholes with a taste of their own medicine.”

  Lance shook his head. “Do you want me to quit because I will—right now? If I find out that any more Maters were hung without a fair trial, I am done. Now, come on guys. We have much bigger problems. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours yet. Certainly, they will counterattack us soon. In fact, I’m surprise that they haven’t already. General, have your forces detected any action on the Maters’ part?”

  “No, our radar and other detection systems haven’t discovered any activity yet, but I agree with you that they will definitely be coming.”

  “Are we ready for them?” Lance asked.

  “We think so. If they come with fighter jets, which we suspect they will, we have our own fighter jets, from the bases we seized, to defend ourselves plus our ground-to-air-missile systems. We are quickly accumulating additional forces from volunteers who have been victims of the cruelty of Materism. Any branded person is a potential soldier for us. Anyone not branded is a potential prisoner. We have set up blockades on all the major roads from the neighboring states.”

  “How long are we going to have my tape being broadcast?” Lance asked. “I mean, I think people got the message. We need to have news broadcasts like we used to have with legitimate journalists, but they need to show law and order not chaos.”

  Lance stopped speaking because a soldier barged into the tent holding a radio and breathing heavily. The person spoke, “We have a problem. The Mother is speaking on a local radio station.”

  “Shit!” General Cook shouted.

  ◆◆◆

  Lance gaped as he listened to the Mother, who was broadcasting on local radio station 106.1.

  Hello, my fellow Maters. This is your holy Mother. As you can hear, I am not dead. Lance Hampton, or prisoner 88715 as I like to call him, is the one that is a fraud. I am alive and well. For those of you listening to this important message, pass this information to other loyal Maters.

  “God damn it!” Lance yelled. “We have to stop this broadcast. General Cook, get someone over there to stop her and capture her.”

  General Cook squinted and glared at Lance, not used to being ordered around.

  The Mother continued.

  Yes, the infidels tried to kill me last night at the house where I was staying at in Dallas, but the Gods were there to save me. The Gods guided my escape. I am safe and in an undisclosed location. I have dispatched a mighty military force that will annihilate the infidels that tried to take over Texas. They will never succeed.

  Again, this is your holy Mother. I am alive and doing well. Justice will soon be served.

  The message played again, so she probably wasn’t at the radio station. Lance figured that Zelda must have pre-recorded it.

  General Cook yelled to the person who brought in the radio, “Someone find an Establishee that works there and try to get a hold of them.”

  “Okay,” the person replied sheepishly and darted out of the tent.

  “We have to stop this broadcast,” Lance exclaimed.

  General Cook asked, “Where is 106.1?”

  Lance knew because his daughter listened to the station, “It’s downtown by the big green skyscraper. I think on Main Street.”

  The General grabbed his cell phone, dial a number, and spoke, “Zelda has a tape recording coming out of radio station 106.1. Get in there and stop it right away before more people hear it. Get on it right away, okay?”

  The General nodded his head.

  Lance hated this new development. She was alive and well, apparently. People would rally around her now that they knew that she was alive, but the people still hadn’t seen her—only heard her voice. Lance figured that he could spin it, but he needed to make his own broadcast—and soon.

  The person who previously brought in the radio rushed into the room again. He panted, “Someone is going to call the speakerphone in a minute. I gave them the number. You will want to hear what they have to say.”

  Within seconds, the speakerphone rang. General Cook click a button and a female voice spoke while gasping, “Hello, this is Karen Waiter. I’m here with Joyce Smelt, we are in a car chasing a white SUV that raided the 106.1 radio station.”

  “How far away are you from them?” the General asked.

  “About a block, but they keep turning and zigzagging. It’s hard to keep up with them.”

  Lance put his hand up. He had an idea. “Hey, can’t we get a drone to follow the car from high above without them knowing?”

  General Cook said to the women, “Hang on. Stay with them. We’re going to see if we can get a drone to take over.”

  General Cook nodded to Lance. “Great idea.”

  “Yes,” Lance replied, “hopefully this SUV will lead us to Zelda but not if he thinks he’s being followed.” Lance moved and spoke right over the speakerphone. “Ladies, you’re doing a great job. Once we have the drone in place, you can temporarily st
op your pursuit. We’ll direct you on where to drive.”

  Lance turned his attention to the General. “How long will it take to get the drone?”

  “We already have a bunch flying all over the place. What’s your location?” the General asked the women.

  They gave him the location and the General was able to order the drone within minutes.

  The Establishment impressed Lance. They had a tail on the SUV, which they hoped would lead them to the evil Mother. The General had broadcasted to all Establishees to ignore the SUV and not to arrest them. With all the harm that Zelda caused to him and his family, he wanted to be the first one to confront her if they ever found her.

  Chapter 44

  Zelda woke up at 8 a.m. on the following morning. Zelda could smell the delicious scent of bacon that Sheri was cooking. She smiled to herself because her taped message had made the radio broadcast, though it only lasted for about thirty minutes. She figured that enough people heard it to spread the word that their Mother was alive. She anxiously waited to see what other sabotage her guard would do. She wanted him to retake control over a military base or for him to drive to another non-captured base and alert the forces to come pick her up.

  Colin knocked on the door gently and walked in without asking. How dare he do that, thought Zelda. She let it go, though. There were more pressing matters.

  “Any updates?” she asked.

  He shook his head, “No. We scanned the other radio stations, but they’re not playing your message. In fact, some of them are playing a message from the resistance claiming that you are dead.”

  “Really, I want to hear that.”

  “Sure, let’s go to their family room.”

  They walked over to the family room where both the TV and radio were located. The TV had a different message on the screen: “Please stand by for a message from President Hampton.”

  Zelda yelled, “He’s not the president!”