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Munday’s Hideaway - Friday
Rob asked everyone to meet in the large main gallery. The room doesn’t feel as big with twenty-one people filling it. Rob stands next to his desk.
“Welcome, everyone. Rodrigo and Eddie have built bunk beds in two of the rooms. These will be the boy’s and girl’s rooms, so everyone has a bed. The population in the hideaway is greater than we planned for during the build out. I hope you will all be comfortable. This is our home until the asteroid storms recede.”
Edgar raises his hand. “How long will the storms last?”
Rob scratches his chin. “I expect the storms will continue for a month, maybe two. We are in the beginning stages. I don’t believe the full force of the storm has arrived.”
“Last night was terrible. You’re saying it will get worse than that?” asks Eddie.
“Much worse, I’m afraid.”
“Thank god we have this place,” says Eddie.
“Yes, thank you, Uncle Rob,” everyone echoes in chorus.
“We are very fortunate to have the hideaway. Remember, this is a living, working environment. We must grow and harvest food to ensure we have enough to eat. We must monitor and maintain the water filtration system, so we have drinking water. We must all work together to ensure our survival. Everyone will have daily duties. I have created the first week of work schedules. I’ve posted the schedule on screens, here in the main gallery, in the galley, and on the barn. Duties will rotate so everyone will learn every job.” Rob announces.
George touches his singed eyebrows and asks, “When can we go outside? The asteroids only come in the afternoon and night. Can we go out during the day? It could get claustrophobic in here.”
“Nobody goes out. This is a hideaway. That means it's a secret place. That’s why Rodrigo, Eddie, and I told no one outside the people in this room about this place.”
Selina and Margo give each other anxious looks.
“People are likely to come up the canyon. This area is popular with hikers. Thousands of people know about the old mines in the canyons. If we’re spotted outside, it will give away our location. In a few days, people will be starving. You can see we’re already tight on space. We can’t risk discovery. Nobody goes out and nobody comes in. The only exception will be when my nephew, Courtney’s husband Rick, makes it back. Does everyone understand?”
Rob watches heads nod up and down, but then a hand shoots up. Selina has a question.
“Mr. Rob, my brother Hector went to get his wife, Jean. They would have come with us, but Jean was working. Hector went to get her last night. They’re the parents of Junior and Claudia. What about them, Mr. Rob?” Selina pulls Junior and Claudia to her and frowns.
“Eddie mentioned them when you arrived. If they arrive alone with no other people, we will make an exception for them. My greatest concern is to protect the people in this room. I hope you all understand that. The hideaway is a delicate environment. If we don’t control the number of people inside, none of us will survive. Do you all understand?”
Everyone seems to accept the rules and agrees. Margot pulls Selina aside. They speak with their heads down in hushed tones. Rob thinks they’re talking about Hector and Jean.
“I am glad everyone understands. Okay. Here are your work assignments for today. Alyssa and Claudia, you will attend to the sheep. Ethan and Carlos, composting. Courtney, Selina, Isabella, and Maria you will prepare the evening meal.” Rob continues to read out the assigned duties.
“Ants are flowing like a river of ah, ants into New Zion Colony. It looks like Team Lucid-Gaze might have this game clinched. They are close to winning the fifty million dollars,” announces Ceylon Junglefoul.
“Shocks and blows you just don’t know. What will this game bring next? It looked like the nippers were all jammed up with their crypto-cracklin’, then dingo-dango, a massive flood of ant’s swamped New Zion colony. It’s brilliant,” says Torpedo, excitedly.
Ceylon checks the other colony maps. Out the corner of his eye, he notices a team jumping and high fiving one another. “Something is going on over there. We may have another. What is the name of that team? It looks like they’ve busted open a colony that’s been out of the action, so far. They’ve breached Colony Nod.”
Torpedo has one of the team members on stream for an interview. “What’s the team name, Mate?”
A skinny, pimple-faced, dark-haired teenage boy wearing a black turtleneck shirt with the words “Steve Jobs Lives” printed on it responds excitedly. “Team Elk Bucks”
Torpedo screws up his face questioningly. “What’s that you said? Elf Butts?”
The boy blinks twice with a look of horror on his face. “No! Elk Bucks You know the majestic male elk with huge antlers,” the boy says in a hurried encyclopedic tone.
Torpedo isn’t sure he understands. “OK. Elf Butts it is, mate. Your team just crackled your way into Colony Nod. How did you hack the encryption?”
“We didn’t exactly. We used a bot to smurf them. It’s like a denial of service attack where we swamp their servers with requests. While the bot slammed them, we found a vuln or a vulnerability that allowed us to insert a sniffer and snag a user’s credentials. That let us install a RAT and now their systems are at our mercy! They can’t even tell we’re in the system. We can change the encryption code ourselves and lock them out giving us complete control of the entire city system,” the Steve Jobs wannabe explains with a big smile on his pimpled face.
Torpedo looks stupefied. “Well, OK. Good on ya, then.”
“The Elk Bucks are now in the game, but they’d better get their ants moving if they want to catch up with New Zion colony. Once again, this game takes a surprising turn. Keep your streams on. Be sure to catch all the game highlights. You never know what will happen next with, Colony-Revolution Coup!” Ceylon screams with excitement. The number of concurrent viewers hits a record high.
Rick leads Jin and Becky with his flashlight as they run through the dark tunnel to the old subway station. When they burst through the double doors of the subway station, they see a dust-covered ancient-looking rectangular subway car with a faded blue stripe on its side, sitting where it’s waited decades for passengers. The station is dark and silent. Rick shines the flashlight around the car, the station, and down the dark track.
“OK, Curtis, we’re at the station. Let’s get moving. Where’s Kobalt?” Rick asks, catching his breath.
Curtis has his hand in a box of wheat crackers and talks with his mouth full. “Ah, mm. Good news, there. We have delayed Kobalt and the Black Guard. Aman gave our secure tunnel to the gamers. Twenty thousand people have entered the city, and more are pouring in. Kobalt got caught in rush hour traffic.” Curtis laughs.
“That’s great news guys. I don’t mean to be unappreciative, but I thought you were powering this station up. Where’s the light switch?” Seconds later, Rick hears crinkling sounds as lights in the old station flicker on and the electric motor of the subway car whines.
Aman laughs. “Your wish is my command, Dr. Munday!”
“How do you like that for service guys?” asks Curtis.
The door of the subway slides open with a gritty sticking sound. The trio jumps in the car and the door closes as the car moves into the dark tunnel. The subway car steadily gains speed, traveling in darkness.
Jin wraps his arm around Becky, pulling her close. They comfort each other in the calm darkness.
“Aman where is this car heading? Since your granting wishes, I am hoping to get a ride to Los Angeles and Jin is looking forward to introducing Becky to Curtis in Las Vegas.”
“You’ll–then after–.” The audio and video flicker, then the VUE lenses go dark. Rick pulls his VUE off. “What happened?” Rick asks.
“We lost signal. All the lenses and bands are down. This tunnel isn’t part of New Zion. They have no reason to provide signal coverage out here,” Jin explains as he removes his Black Guard VUE and replaces it with his VUE glasses.
“Great. We’re traveling down a dark tunnel with no idea where it’s going. We’ve lost all communication. We could run right into a trap or a dead end. What a great plan. I knew entering New Zion was a mistake,” Rick says apologetically.
“Rick, if it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have made it out of the aircraft catering building alive. It was a good plan. It just didn’t quite go as expected. Not a big surprise under the circumstances. We’ll get through this and we will help you get home. Honestly, we need your help to get to Curtis,” Jin confides.
Becky kisses Jin on the cheek. “I think we make a good team if you ask me. We did a lot of good today. The city now protects thousands more people from the asteroid storms.”
Jin chuckles. “And we gave the Arcadians some extra stress, didn’t we?”
“We sure did,” Rick says. “But all we did is piss off Kobalt. Wherever this car is going, we need to keep moving and put as much distance between us and New Zion as possible.”
The subway car rolls down the track in darkness, destination unknown. Rick welcomes the dark rail car rocking and vibrating. It gives him a chance to rest and reflect. He hopes his family is with Uncle Rob in his old mine but knows they could be anywhere. They could be at home, somehow unaffected by the storms. They could have gone with other people. There is one possibility he will not allow himself to consider. He must find them. He won’t let Arcadians, Kobalt or asteroid storms get in his way.
Marine Command Center
An RQ-10B Shadow Hawk reconnaissance drone flies over the New Arcadian business complex streaming live video to screens in the Marine Comms Module. General Wilcox watches the video feed while a captain explains what they are viewing.
“The building rooftops have Laser Weapon Systems here, here and here,” the captain points to the weapon systems as he speaks. “We aren’t sure what’s behind the large dark windows on upper floors.”
Smoke briefly blocks the view of the video stream before going blank. “That would be their laser weapons systems or LaWS taking out our Shadow Hawk. It’s the third one they’ve burned out of the sky. The New Arcadians don’t appear to be the welcoming type,” the captain says in a frustrated tone.
General Wilcox stands. “Colonel Cruikshank spent years developing these cities created for his few and fortunate. I didn’t expect to walk up and have the doors flung open for us. We are intruders, interlopers. We’re here to crash Cruikshank’s party. Our mission is to secure shelter for the people out there to save a few more fortunate souls. I suppose we should knock on the door and make a proper introduction. What have you got lined up for a little hello, Captain?”
“They reached out to us with their LaWS. I’d like to respond with a nice drone swarm to take them out.”
“Sounds downright neighborly of you, captain. Make it happen.”
“We’ll give ‘em hell Senator Campbell you have my word.” Wilcox finishes a call and steps out of the Marine Comms Module. “Is that road cleared? We need a clear approach to the Parklands. I want to see this place close up with my own eyes.”
A staff officer walks next to the general. “The road is clear. I have an LTV waiting to drive us up to the complex.”
The Marines launch MQ-40 Raven smart ordinance drones. These are small, high-speed drones. When deployed, they have a two-foot wingspan and carry an explosive charge. The system can launch one hundred twenty drones in less than twenty seconds. Once in the air the drones fly as an intelligent swarm to their target.
The drones make a one-way trip. They seek, track and smash into a selected target kamikaze-style, exploding upon impact.
Three drone launching systems release three hundred sixty drones. A dark flock of drone’s flies toward the business complex. A Marine targets the LaWS placements on four of the buildings. An individual drone does not pack enough punch to take out a LaWS, but if ten or twenty drones survive to hit the target, game over.
The general’s LTV drives to the top of the grassy berm at the end of Christopher’s Crossing looking out over the Parklands. Two Lav35s flank the general’s vehicle and another LTV covers the rear.
General Wilcox steps from the LTV and walks along the ridge of the grassy berm. He looks across the Parklands to see a mass of humanity spread across the campus. If it were another day, the tree and grass covered Parklands would look like a summer festival teeming with people. Today, a drone swarm dives to attack the LaWS placements atop the New Arcadian buildings. The LaWS fire laser beams into the swarm. Crisscrossing beams of light traverse the sky. The lasers take out scores of the small drones with defensive fire but enough survive to accomplish their aim of destroying several LaWS systems.
The battle in the air sends people fleeing for safety. Wilcox feels fear sweep through the crowd.
General Mahon observes the drone attack. Colonel Cruikshank is pushing him to defend New Arcadia. His forces at New Zion suffered a humiliating defeat in a battle lasting less than five minutes. He knows Cruikshank expects decisive action to repel the Marines.
Screens inside an Army bunker three levels below the New Arcadian building complex display the image of General Wilcox walking on the berm at western edge of the Parklands.
Mahon calls Wilcox. “Jack Mahon, you old bastard. I would have called but didn’t think you’d answer. You are AWOL. I believe Sec. Def. Tug Grimes has been looking for you.”
“Wilcox stop this nonsense immediately. You are firing on the government of Arcadia the legitimate government of the land. You are firing on your government,” declares General Mahon.
“The United States of America does not recognize the folly of Arcadia. President Baker has ordered me to breach your city and aid American citizens to enter the underground city.”
Steeling himself, Mahon stands at attention. “My orders are to secure New Arcadia at all costs. This is not New Zion. Our superior arsenal will wipe you from the field if you do not immediately withdraw.”
Charlie Wilcox is red, white, and blue through and through. “My duty is to our commander-in-chief. Stand down Mahon. Have some compassion. You can save lives today. We are the United States Marines. If you do not allow the people gathered here entrance to your city, we will force our way in. We do not retreat,” Wilcox shouts.
As the general shouts his pledge, Two Marine MQ-8C Fire Scouts, unmanned rotary aircraft swoop in letting loose a volley of 70 mm laser-guided Hydra Rockets blasting positions on the New Arcadian buildings.
Mahon closes his eyes and nods to his staff. The darkened windows on the third floor of the buildings roll down, exposing artillery placements. Artillery rounds rain down on the Marine positions in Millie’s Delight blasting the defensive positions and mobile Comms Module to pieces.
Two more Fire Scouts circling at eight thousand feet over the New Arcadia business complex dive to the Parklands. The Fire Scouts are thirty-five feet long with a twenty-five-foot rotor span capable of staying aloft for twelve hours or more conducting surveillance but today they come packed with firepower.
Explosions rock the New Arcadian buildings. Flames and dark smoke roil out the windows of multiple buildings. A surviving LaWS placement fires on the Scouts. Seconds later, Fire Scouts are falling to the Parklands below.
Humans on the ground run as the aircraft fall from the sky. One of the Fire Scouts slams to the ground, severing the rotor and sending it cartwheeling across the parkland tearing up the ground and slicing through bodies before coming to a stop.
People run to escape the escalating skirmish as another dark flock of raven drone’s speed to the buildings.
The sky is hot with laser beams and bullets firing at drones while artillery from the buildings aims for Marine positions. UAS command sends in more Fire Scouts as the smaller Raven drone’s dive for the rooftops and explode.
A thick cluster of meteors burn across the sky exploding over the city of Fredrick sending rocks and melted metal spherules to Earth at 28,000 miles per hour cutting through machines, buildings, and flesh.
The exploding meteors destroy the drone launchers. Fire Scouts explode and fall to Earth. Meteors blast into buildings wiping out Army bunkers and Marine positions without discrimination.
Thousands of people in the parklands run for their lives attempting to hide, desperate to escape the torrent of fire raining from the sky. Hundreds find refuge in the ramp that leads to the underground parking structure. The high cement walls of the descending ramp offer some protection from the battle and the storms. Desperate survivors bang on the tall metal doors pleading for them to open.
Wilcox does not move from his position on the berm as the battle between men becomes a farce compared to the assault sent from God. He calls Mahon. “You’ve got to let these people in.” Wilcox sees Mahon staring at a screen displaying the horror in the Parklands. “How can you sit in your bunker watching this?” Mahon looks morose and says nothing.
Marines, civilians, and army soldiers defending new Arcadia are being wiped out by exploding meteors. The fast-moving hot spherules pass through the flesh and bone of one person and continue passing through the body of its brother, daughter, or wife. Men, women, and children die before feeling the pain of death.
A member of Mahon’s staff urgently reports. “Sir, topsiders have broken through the new perimeter fence. Thousands of survivors are rushing the buildings. We must fire on them now. They will overrun our troops.”
Mahon is unmoved as he watches the melee in the Parklands.
“Do you give the order to fire, sir?” General Mahon’s staff warily observes their leader.
“Order our troops to fall back. I will not fire on our own citizens.” Relief sweeps through the bunker.
