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Thursday - Evening
Fires from heaven rain down on mankind turning the moon bloodred. The sky reverberates with explosions and the ground groans from thumping impacts. Fires scorch and mountains tumble as the hail of heavenly rocks spreads across all the land, leaving desolation in the storms wake.
Rick, Becky, and Jin crouch in front of the double glass doors at the entrance to the United building as Jin works on the access panel. Becky stares awestruck, witnessing the thunderous ruination of all that mankind has built. Rick is anxious as Jin works, his fingers turning and poking rapidly in midair, hacking his way past building security.
“What’s taking so long?” Rick asks.
Jin looks up momentarily. “Access to this building is tougher than the one across the street. Some custom encryption, but I’m getting close.”
Rick puts his hands to the tinted glass doors as if he is holding field glasses and presses his face to his hands to look inside. The lobby is dark and empty. No Black Guard.
A tremendous explosion rips through the night. Rick turns to face the direction of the blast. A scorching hot air burst smashes their bodies against the building. Rick’s back crushes against the glass door, cracking the glass. He covers his face to shield against flying dirt and small chunks of cement.
Becky’s shoulder slams into the cement wall of the building. She whimpers in pain, then cries out frantically, as she watches the LSG building blow apart.
“Jin, hurry. We were just in there. If we hadn’t gotten out... Oh, God.”
The force of the blast rips a handicapped parking sign out of the ground, sending it flying. Rick, unable to move, watches the sign fly toward him. He braces in anticipation of being wiped out by the flying sign and metal pole. The sign pole flies in an arch like a spear and sticks in the grass three feet from him. The sign end penetrates the grass with the pole and the cone-shaped cement base suspended in the air.
Rick runs to the sign hefts the heavy metal pole and yanks the sign out of the ground. He grips the pole like a lance and charges the double glass doors. The end of the pole covered in its cone of cement acts as a battering ram. Rick aims for the right side of the double doors, hitting it dead center just above the metal push bar. The glass door shatters, sending shards of glass across the lobby floor. The sign pole hangs awkwardly through the metal frame of the door. As the glass door shatters the access panel beeps, green lights blink, and the door unlocks.
Jin shouts, “Got it!” Raising his arms as if he scored a touchdown.
Rick sneers at Jin.
Jin, proud of himself, smiles and shrugs his shoulders.
Becky pushes past them and enters through the unlocked left door. “Great teamwork, boys. Let’s find the stairwell before we get plastered by a meteor.”
The door from the lobby to the main building is open. Behind the door is a vast warehouse with rows and rows of multi-level racks filled with suitcases of every shape and color. The team uses flashlights and Becky’s building layout to find the maintenance room. A sign; No Admittance–Maintenance Personnel Only, is on the door. The door has an access panel like the one at the entrance. It takes Jin only seconds to hack entry to the maintenance room door.
“Not much of a maintenance room. It’s just an elevator and a stairwell,” says Jin.
“But it’s our stairwell,” says Becky.
“Good job, Becky,” says Rick.
Halfway down the first flight of steps, Jin stops to dig in his backpack. He pulls out a small black box and switches it on. A red LED flashes. Seconds later, the LED changes to solid green and he sets the box on a step. “OK, all set,” he says. Becky moves down the steps. Rick and Jin follow.
“What was that?” Rick asks.
“It’s a satellite relay link. Terrestrial data is out. No data, no news, no communications. The transceiver will give us access to satellite data in the stairwell.”
They run down the stairs in search of safety from the raging storm above.
“Let’s not go down too low. I want to make sure we have a strong signal while we work,” says Jin.
The team settles in at the fourth level down, sitting on the steps in the dark stairwell. The sounds of the sky storm now a gentle rumble. Jin and Becky go to work on their VUE. Becky checks the news streams while Jin accesses Homeland Security systems. He scans for updates on FEMA emergency response, military orders, troop movements, and inter-agency transmissions, hoping to learn anything that will help them plan their move to Las Vegas.
Rick feels like a third wheel. He doesn’t have a VUE or a band. He is tired and bruised, but he won’t let physical pain keep him from reaching his family. He shines his flashlight down the stairwell. The stairs go down into blackness; a blackness that swallows the beam of his flashlight. A tinge of fear runs up his back as he stares into that darkness. Just hours ago, he escaped the underground city of New Arcadia now he stares at blackness that may lead to New Zion.
Rick turns away from the dark to see Becky and Jin sitting shoulder to shoulder, light escaping the edges of their VUE illuminating their faces as they sweep their fingers over invisible screens.
“You whiz kids come up with anything?”
Becky looks at Rick through her lens with the VUE glow lighting her smiling face. Jin keeps working. “I’ve been reading news streams,” she says. “The asteroid storm is moving east to west in a wide path covering the northern hemisphere. Some places are getting hit hard while other towns are untouched. There are reports of destruction across Europe and Asia. No news on how far south the storm goes, but since Perth got hit, I guess it’s the entire planet.”
Jin jumps in. “Great update, Beck. Here’s what I have. President Baker held a video conference with all fifty state governors this morning, telling them it's every man for himself. The states are pretty much on their own.”
“So basically, he told the governors, ‘Sorry about no warning and by the way we have no plan so bend over and kiss your asses goodbye,’” Rick says, facetiously.
“I bet the president and his staff are well-protected. Just think of all the people who are dying because of our incompetent government,” says Becky.
“It seems the new president knows about your Arcadian friends and doesn’t like them much. I’m picking up chatter from military sources... hold on a sec,” Jin says.
Jin types and swipes the air while Becky and Rick wait. Jin talks to himself, or maybe it’s a conversation with his Lens. “Oh, really? This is good. Is there more detail? That helps. Brilliant.”
Rick doesn’t like being left out of the conversation. “What is it? What’s so brilliant?”
Becky adds, “Share, share.”
Jin smiles. “I like this new president. You told us the Arcadians have several underground cities. Apparently, admittance to the Arcadian party is strictly by special invitation. President Baker wants to crash the party. He intends to swarm the underground cities with as many people as he can.”
“That would save thousands of lives,” Becky says.
Rick considers the idea. “Uninvited guests will mess up the colonel’s plans. His few and fortunate be damned.”
“See, it’s brilliant. Screw with the Arcadians and save people at the same time,” says Jin.
Rick’s mind is scheming. “Maybe we can help the new president with his plan. Have they located all the cities? I saw some maps. I might help fill in the blanks.”
Jin checks his VUE. “They have two underground cities located. They’ve been trying to locate the Arcadian servers to learn more, but no luck. They’re planning to attack the cities with the US Marines, but it will take several days for them to deploy.”
“That’ll be too late. People are dying. This needs to happen now!” Becky pleads.
“Becky’s right. Another night of impacts and all communication systems will be down. There’ll be no way to get a message to people. It might be too late, already.”
Jin swipes his finger through the air, then presses an invisible button. “OK, desperate times call for desperate measures. We got a message out, once, maybe we can do it again.”
“I just hope people react this time,” says Becky.
Curtis answers Jin’s call. “Hey, Jin. Where are you guys? I hope you’re safe. I think the asteroid I discovered just landed in my backyard.”
“We’re hunkered down in a stairwell below the building you recommended. Thanks for that tip man. It saved us. Are you safe?”
“Yeah, I’m in my old man’s bug-out shelter. I hope this is over soon. I’m not sure my soda supply will last.” Curtis raises his Gulp cup, shaking it to show it’s empty.
He tries to scoot along the floor of the shelter like he does in his house, but the chair doesn’t roll. “Damn, oof.” Curtis hefts himself out of his chair, walks to a shelf stocked with Coca-Cola, grabs a big bottle, and strolls back to his desk.
“Curtis, we need your help. We need to get another message out.”
“OK, sure. What do you need me to do? Oops, I mean, chay' jIQaHlaH,” Curtis asks how he can help in Klingon.
“No need for that, Curtman. I installed an extra layer of encryption to our VPN. Nobody will listen in on our calls.”
“Thank god. Speaking Klingon is rough on the old larynx,” Curtis says, then hacks a cough.
Jin swipes to display the call on the projected display of his band, so Rick can see and interact.
“Curtman, we believe the rumors of the Denver airport having an underground base are true.”
Curtis is smug. “I knew it. I’ve been giving you the evidence for years.”
“But not a base. A city. This is our new friend, Rick Munday. He escaped from a city named New Arcadia. We think this stairwell leads to a city complex, deep below the Denver airport.”
Curtis sucks on the straw of his Gulp cup, as if it’s a pacifier, then exclaims, “Are you shitting me? I told you! Didn’t I tell you? You thought it was all a bunch of conspiracy theories. Oh, my oh, God. I need pizza. The conspiracy nuts had it right all along. Bazinga!”
“Curtis, these cities are new. A secret part of the government built them. They call themselves Arcadians,” Rick explains.
“Oh wow. Arcadia... that’s a Greek reference to a civilization living in harmony with nature, a utopian ideal. Arcadians. That’s so sick!”
“The guy in charge is sick, if you ask me. He, and his followers, knew the storm was coming and built the cities to survive,” says Rick.
“A secret sect of the government working to protect a selected few. Who would believe this could actually happen? It does sound like one of your conspiracy theories,” adds Jin.
“The best conspiracy theory I ever heard.” Curtis hums the melody of the X-Files theme song.
“Curtman, I’m sending you code keys for access to secure Homeland servers. We need to locate all the access points in every underground city. We’ll hack the security at every location so people can enter. Then we broadcast a message advising people to move underground for protection from the storm.”
Becky jumps in. “We need to work fast, so we can save as many lives as possible.”
“Hey, you know me. I’m always up for a challenge, but that’s a huge ask. I know you have super-high-level access. Won’t these Arcadians have servers, separate from the servers where you have spook-level access? How do we find them, let alone, hack them? We don’t even know their locations. It could take weeks,” Curtis says. His hand trembles as he refills his Gulp cup.
“We’ve got to try,” Becky pleads.
Jin types in the air. “Curtis, I’ve sent you the key codes. You have a faster, more stable connection than I do. Gain access and link me to the government systems, and we’ll work together. Rick will work with Becky to build a list of cities. We’ll confirm the locations and points of entry. Let’s get busy!”
“I’ve scoured every server, in every data center I can think of, but I can’t find anything that leads us to the Arcadian servers. We’re stuck,” Jin says in frustration.
“I can remember four of the cities and one they said was under construction, but I know there were more,” says Rick.
“Even if we knew all the city locations and accessed their systems, we’ve got to be careful how we do this. If we hack their security before people are at the doors, they’ll have time to change the codes and lock us out indefinitely. This will never work guys. We need help and I need brain food,” says Curtis. He pushes himself out of his chair and goes in search of snacks.
“We’ve got to do something. I’m sure there’s a clue. We just need to think. We know some city names. We know the general locations. Do a search, maybe there are data centers near the city locations? Search for major construction projects over the past five years? Come on boys, think! There must be a way to find the Arcadian systems,” Becky says.
“I’m checking for data centers. Good idea, Beck,” says Jin.
“I’ll run a search for construction projects,” Curtis reports.
“What else? What else? Rick is there anything more you can remember about the cities?” asks Becky.
Rick stares at Becky until she becomes uneasy. “What is it? You’re starting to creep me out.”
Rick slowly verbalizes his thoughts. “A friend helped me get time on a restricted system to conduct research for my grant. He gave me an access code. I didn’t know it then, but he was working with the Arcadians. In fact, he lived in New Arcadia. Maybe...”
“How did you communicate with him?” Asks Becky.
“By e-mail, we—”
Jin interrupts Rick. “Did you save the e-mail?”
“Do you remember the code?” asks Curtis.
“I save all my e-mails. The code should be there.”
“OK, give me your cloud credentials,” says Jin.
“You got it... let’s see you get spooky,” Rick says.
Jin types in the air so fast, his fingers blur in the dim light. After minutes of fierce finger blur, Jin slows his typing. “Curtman, do you see this? We’re in the Arcadian network.”
Curtis crunches on a stack of crackers, crumbs falling on his desk. “That wasn’t just an access code. That was the golden key to a big-ass backdoor,” Curtis says, with dry cracker mouth. He grabs his Gulp cup to wash down the dry, crumbly mess.
Rick thinks of his friend. “Thanks, Karl. You saved the day again.”
Jin and Curtis work incredibly fast. It’s as if they anticipate each other's thoughts.
“I have the city list,” says Jin, displaying the list on his band.
Functioning Occupied Cities
New Arcadia–near Washington, DC
New Zion–below Denver airport
Edendale–Los Angeles
Halcyon–Las Vegas
Ambrosia–Sacramento
Nod–Seattle
Cities Under Construction–semi-operational
New Dakota–near Sheridan, Wyoming
New Elysian–White Mountain National Forest, Maine
Empyrean–Atlanta
New Atlantis–near Mobile, Alabama
“Confirming geo-locations, building a quick database,” mumbles Curtis.
“Sending blueprints.”
“Scanning blueprint entry points.”
“Entering entry points into your database,” says Jin.
“Wow, these guys have a lot of dirt on government officials. There are hundreds of folders here,” exclaims Curtis.
“Check security system,” directs Jin.
“Right. On it. But look at this collection of photos and documents. They could black-mail almost every politician with this stuff,” says an amazed Curtis.
“Won’t matter who screwed what, if they’re all dead.”
“Right. Oh man, each facility has its own unique encryption key for city security. This will be tough to pull off,” Curtis observes.
The Curtis and Jin continue to work at a rapid pace. Rick and Becky watch.
“Are they always like this?” Rick asks.
“They’re practically brothers, but I’ve never seen them mind meld before.”
“I think we’d better let them work. I’ll explore the stairwell. I need to feel useful,” Rick says as he stands.
“Wait,” Becky calls out.
Rick pauses. Becky digs through her bag and pulls out a small plastic box. She opens the lid, exposing an Ear Dot. She hands it to Rick. “Ear Dot remote. Sorry, I don’t have an extra VUE for you, but at least we can communicate. I’ll link the audio to my lens while you explore.”
Rick puts the small device in his ear. “Thanks,” he says before disappearing down the dark stairwell.
Jin’s moves index finger; a long slow press. “OK, here’s a summary. We have—”
“Wait, let me patch in Rick,” says Becky.
“Huh? Where did he go?” Jin asks, looking up from his VUE.
“He went to explore. He’s linked to our comms,” Becky explains.
“Hey, glad this thing works. I’m down twenty-five floors. I think I’m getting close to the bottom,” says Rick.
“We have good data on ten facilities, six are fully functioning and habitable. The other four are under construction but can protect people. We have the entry locations, maps, and system schematics for all the cities,” states Jin.
“And we have confirmed locations of other government underground facilities at Cheyenne Mountain, Weather Mountain, Dulce Base, and other military bases. All the usual suspects,” says Curtis.
Rick hustles down the stairs working up a sweat in the stagnant air of the stairwell. “Great job, guys. Let’s focus on the six functioning cities. We need to overwhelm the Arcadians with thousands of people.”
“Why are you so keen on overwhelming the Arcadians?” Curtis asks.
“Cruikshank is a control freak. Those few and fortunate, the people in the new cities. The colonel lied to them and drugged them into submission. If we swarm the cities, it will mess up his plan to control the future of humanity.”
“Besides, the six cities are closest to large population areas and our best hope to save the greatest number of people,” Becky adds.
“OK, but we still have a huge problem. There’s no way we can control all the entry points, secured doors, and elevators at six facilities simultaneously. Once we mess with their systems, they will change the encryption codes and according to the schematics, they can drop blast doors all over the place to secure themselves, keeping intruders out, meaning us,” Curtis explains.
“Is there a way you can hack the doors without them noticing?” asks Rick.
“One or two doors might not get noticed. Multiply that by hundreds when you count all the elevators, stairwell doors, and blast doors. We’ll set off a bunch of alerts. Curtis is right. This is a huge task. We need a lot more people than Curtis and me to pull this off,” Jin explains.
Becky elbows Jin. “Oh, and Becky! Sorry, babe. Even with Becky, we can’t manage it. We need a team of people for each city, especially once they know we’re inside. We need to monitor their system changes when they try to lock us out so we can trace our way back in. Not to mention, it will take hours to get thousands of people into the cities. It will be tough, no impossible to keep control for that long.” Jin takes a breath. “It would take a full-fledged hack-a-thon to get people inside,” Jin finishes.
“Hack-a-thon? Hmm,” Curtis muses.
Becky leans against the stairwell wall. “We need a gang of people solving puzzles, opening doors, fighting off an enemy who is defending their fort. It sounds like a multi-player role-playing game.”
“Unfortunately, this isn’t a game. We’re talking about life and death for hundreds of thousands of people,” says Rick.
“Wait, a minute. What are you thinking, Beck?” asks Jin.
“If there were hundreds of people playing a game, opening doors to underground cities, saving the world or rescuing a princess they could give us access to the cities without knowing what they were doing.”
“Forget saving the world. I would do it for a fifty-million-dollar prize,” says Curtis, swirling a half-filled Gulp cup.
“You’d do it for a few liters of soda,” Jin laughs.
“Hey, that hurts. If this storm goes on for too long, I might run out of soda. That would truly be a sad day. But maybe Becky is right. If I had more time, I could write a game using the maps we downloaded. If enough people played, it might work. But it would take me a month to get a game demo running.”
“I can get the prize money,” Jin offers.
“You can get fifty million dollars?” Curtis asks.
“I can grab funds from a government asset forfeiture account. You know, funds seized from drug smugglers, illegal arms traders, and money launderers. I don’t think the government will miss it,” Jin says.
“You can do that? Why didn’t you tell me this five years ago?” Curtis asks.
“Money will have no meaning by the end of the week. That video game is a great idea, but we’re in the middle of an asteroid storm. Do you think people will play a game with the sky dropping on them?“ asks Rick.
“They will. The gamers I know, as long as their net doesn’t go down, will watch streams and play games while their house is collapsing around them,” says Curtis.
“He’s right, Rick. Gamers live for this stuff. Don’t worry, they’ll play,” adds Jin.
“Fellas, I’m at the bottom of the stairwell. Thirty-five floors down. The door here looks more like a bank vault than an entry door. The panel says Amradyne 176G. Better program the hack for this door into your game.”
“I can pull up schematics on that door. Hold on,” says Jin.
Jin shares the schematics with Curtis. “Oh, geeez. We’re gonna need a few thousand players if all the doors are like this.”
“Get on it, boys,” Rick says, examining the door with his flashlight.
“Curtis, what are you thinking? How do we handle this?” asks Jin.
“Maybe instead of writing a new game, we modify an old game. You remember my friend Aman. His brother Raj and I were friends when you were away at college.”
“The guy that died when he fell into Grand Canyon?”
“That’s horrible,” says Becky.
“Yeah. It was sad. But since then his older brother, Aman and I have become great friends. We’ve been messing with an old indie game called Colony Revolution. I don’t think it ever got launched. I doubt anyone has ever heard of it, but I like it.”
“Can we use that game to control the cities?” asks Jin.
“I think it will work. I’ll ask Aman to help. He’s an ace programmer, and he manages a company with hundreds of software engineers,” says Curtis.
“Hey! Maybe he can get his programmers to help,” says Jin excitedly.
“Do it!” exclaims Becky. The rumble from above grows louder causing the stairwell to vibrate.
“It’s getting nasty outside. I’m not sure people will make it through another night of this,” says Jin. He looks up the stairwell as dust fills the air. Becky reaches for him and they hold each other tightly.
Darkness surrounds him; his thoughts wrestling. Instead of hitchhiking across the country or stealing a car to drive home, he stands at the entrance of New Zion, staring numbly at the door. It beckons him, daring him to enter.
He wills himself to turn away and launches himself up the stairwell. He touches the Ear Dot. “Becky?” he whispers.
“Rick, are you OK? Are you coming back up?”
“Yeah, I’m on my way. Hey, can I make a call with this thing?”
“I can make a call and patch the audio through.”
“Please search Courtney Munday.”
“Of course, on it. I talked to my Mom and Dad. They’re safe. They’ll try to get to New Zion in the morning.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine, Becky.”
“Checking for the number. Connecting.”
“You’ve reached Courtney Monday. Did I miss your call? I am so sorry—.”
“The line dropped. I’ll try again.”
Becky tries again. Rick hears silence followed by a series of beeps, then a recorded voice saying, “All circuits are busy. Please try again.”
“Can you try Robert Munday?” Once again, he hears the all circuits’ busy message.
“I’m sorry, Rick. If they’re like you, I’m sure they’ve found someplace safe.”
“Becky?” Rick asks solemnly as he walks up the blackness of the stairwell.
“Yes.”
“I know you want to save everyone. I’ll help if I can but come daylight I need to be moving towards home.”
“I understand. I’m sure your family misses you terribly.”
It’s almost 9:00 p.m. in Henderson, Nevada when Curtis calls Aman.
“Curt-tis, buddy. How’s it happening, bro?”
“Sorry if it’s too early, but I need your help.”
“Hey, no problem. Any seven days, twenty-four-seven you are family. For anyone else I would say I haven’t had my cha and marmalade. But for Curt-tis, you were a brother to Raj. You are family to me any seven days. What’s up?”
Curtis takes a deep breath. “OK, one hundred percent of everything I’m gonna tell you is real.”
