…SEARCHERS SCOURED THE SURROUNDING AREA MANY MONTHS, FINDING ONLY BLOOD-SOAKED CLOTHING WHICH HAS BEEN POSITIVELY SEQUENCED AS THE BLOOD OF PATRA JENNINGS. THE SEARCH GOES ON FOR THE ABDUCTORS, BUT NO ONE HAS CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY. FEDNET HAS SEVERAL SUSPECTS IN CUSTODY, AND IS INVESTIGATING SEVERAL LEADS. A MEMORIAL SERVICE WAS HELD TODAY IN COLUMBIA PARK. THE PRESIDENT WILL REMAIN IN WIND RIVER IN PREPARATION FOR THE PEACE ACCORDS…
….she had taken a shirt from her pack and used it to bind the gash on her palm she had suffered while sliding down a gravel embankment. she discarded the shirt on the roadside several miles from the school after the blood had stopped flowing. she walked on. three weeks later, sitting in a greasy spoon in rural Virginia, her hair cut short, dyed, dressed in jeans and T-shirt, she was shocked to learn from the weblink news that she had apparently been brutally kidnapped and murdered. the nation mourned for the tragic Jennings family drama. Patra smiled and ordered some cheesecake to celebrate her new life…
….MASSIVE CITIZEN RIOTS IN CHICAGO TODAY AFTER THE NATION OF ISLAM COMMUNITY CENTER WAS BOMBED ON THE SOUTH SIDE, KILLING THREE HUNDRED, WITH MORE DEATHS EXPECTED. THE NEW WHITE PARTY ACKNOWLEDGES ITS INVOLVEMENT IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PREDOMINANTLY-AFRICAN- AMERICAN CHURCH. THIS IS THE SEVENTH SUCH ATTACK THIS YEAR. FORTY THOUSAND LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS ARE CURRENTLY TRYING TO PUT DOWN THE RIOTS…
…she tried to create a sense of normalcy in her life. with the last of the money she had taken with her from the Rodham School, she bribed a hacker to establish a fake IDCOM number and file for her. with the IDCOM file, she was able to get a job in Roanoke. she was now a waitress. she knew someday she’d get a better job, but this was good enough. she rented an apartment, made friends, earned money and respect. the pain of the past faded gradually. by the time-
-DAVID JENNINGS REELECTED-
-she was eighteen.
the affairs of her father did not interest her. the nation looked upon the man with respect for his actions in the Quebec War and his New America program, but also with pity. he was the first American president with no family at all. some said his pained smile won him the election. she let her hair grow and let it go back to its original brunette color. it was a gamble, but in the end, no one made the connection between the president’s dead daughter and the new girl in town….
….THE WHITE HOUSE DENIES REPORTS THAT A COVERT MILITARY TEAM IS TO BLAME FOR THE AS-YET- UNEXPLAINED CHICAGO MASSACRE. PRESIDENT JENNINGS HIMSELF VEHEMENTLY DENIES THAT HIS GOVERNMENT HAS DEVELOPED A FORCE OF GENETICALLY-ALTERED “SUPERSOLDIERS” USING THE NOW- BANNED SCHRADER-KANE TECHNOLOGY THAT THE PACT USED IN WAR THREE…
…she was happy. she had a home, a small business on the side (she was a sculptor), a dog named Gromit, a boyfriend named Mark…
…NETNEWS EXCLUSIVE. A WHITE HOUSE SOURCE, SPEAKING ON STRICT CONDITIONS OF ANONYMITY, REVEALED TO NETNEWS REPORTERS THAT THE JENNINGS GOVERMENT DID IN FACT DEVELOP A COVERT OPERATIONS TEAM THAT ALMOST SINGLE-HANDEDLY TOOK MONTREAL DURING THE QUEBEC WAR. COULD THIS BE THE INFAMOUS EIGHTH ASSAULT GROUP, SO REKNOWNED FOR QUICKLY FINISHING OFF THE FRENCH FORCES AFTER THE SEVENTH WAS MASSACRED? OUR SOURCE ALSO REVEALED THAT THE TEAM WAS SENT TO CHICAGO DURING THE RIOTS, BUT WAS PULLED OUT AFTER SEVERAL RENEGADE MEMBERS BEGAN FIRING ON CIVILIANS. THE GROUP WAS APPARENTLY DISBANDED AFTER THE MASSACRE AND EXILED TO THE PACIFIC ATOLL OF SANTA FOSCA. FROM THE WIND RIVER COMPLEX, WHITE HOUSE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ANTONIA CERVERA DISMISSED THE CHARGES AS “COMPLETELY FABRICATED COVERUP-HUNGRY MEDIA LIES.” THAT MAY BE SO, SECRETARY CERVERA, BUT WHERE ARE THE SEVENTY-FIVE MEMBERS OF THE EIGHTH ASSAULT GROUP TODAY? NETNEWS COULD NOT FIND MILITARY OR CIVILIAN RECORDS FOR ANY OF THE MEN AND WOMEN ENLISTED UNDER ASSAULT EIGHT IN ANY OF THE SIXTY-SEVEN ALLIED STATES. WE HERE AT NETNEWS CHALLENGE THE JENNINGS GOVERNMENT TO ANSWER TO THESE CHARGES. WAS THE GOVERNMENT TO BLAME FOR THE MASSACRE OF THOUSANDS OF CIVILIANS?…
….Mark asked her to marry him. she said yes. two weeks later he was called back to Wind River for an urgent meeting of the Populace Council….
….CHAOS IN WIND RIVER: PRESIDENT ORDERS NUCLEAR STRIKES IN MICHIGAN, PACIFIC TRENCH…
reality shattered.
the shit hit the fan.
….Mark called. he couldn’t come home yet. something big was going down in Wind River. something huge. it might be a coup, no one was sure yet, but Jennings had disappeared…
….she stared in abject terror and disbelief at the weblink as it showed the massive black THINGS falling to earth all over the globe. then the power went out…
….the fighting had been centered around the major cities. Roanoke was safe, for now. but to the east in the night sky she could see the glow over Richmond…
….Wind River. Mark. she mourned…
….she went to the church when the black ships began to swarm over Roanoke. she prayed for forgiveness. she prayed that it was all a dream. then the doors blew open and soldiers stormed in, human soldiers, shouting “GET DOWN! IT’S COMING! Everybody GET DOWN!!”…
….memories.
The tunnel that led into the vessel opened into an impossible expanse of austere white light. Patra spun around, sure she would see a pinpoint of light where they had entered, sure she had been walking forever. The entrance doors cycled shut only a few yards behind her. She shielded her eyes from the glare.
The light came from the center of the huge room, where a white form floated. A sphere. An orb.
There were stars in the orb.
Patra was so mesmerized by the impossible sight that she did not feel the webs of metal as they leapt forward and implanted themselves into the temples of her skull or the tendrils of blackness steal her soul.
The orb of stars reached out for her, and she fell.
Patra Jennings was no more.
There was no pain.
Hayes knew that they were too late.
The others had scattered down the tunnel when the aliens found them. Flynn dealt with those troops, but a crash down the tunnel signaled the arrival of a second wave.
He ran with the Styx down the tunnel and barely missed being hit by a shimmering silver field of light as they rounded a bend in the sewer.
This time, the aliens were not out for prisoners.
The black creatures stood within a mass of what had been the refugees Flynn and Hayes had been with. No one had been spared.
Hayes faltered, stopped in shock.
Flynn charged past him.
Her form flickered as she ran through one of the aliens. Her arms, outstretched, cleanly sheared off the upper torsos of the other two.
Their bodies joined the bodies of the humans.
Ember Flynn flickered back into existence, unscathed.
She noted with some dismay the look of utter anguish on Hayes’ face as he knelt and picked up a small form from the grisly scene of carnage. It was a baby, gasping its last breaths, eyes blinking in confusion and pain from the massive head trauma it had suffered when his father had been cut down by the aliens.
A disgusting tendril of silver wound its way around the baby’s neck, replacing flesh with metal. Hayes struggled to pull the liquid mesh off of the infant’s face, but it slipped through his fingers and embedded itself into the baby’s eyes.
Hayes held the child close, helpless. There was nothing he could do to save the infant. The tiny body shuddered with agony, and then fell still, dead. Hayes placed the baby on the floor, in the arms of his dead father, and watched with disgusted amazement as both bodies were consumed by the liquid metal until nothing remained but a silvery husk.
When he looked back up at Flynn, she saw for an instant the chaos of emotion within the man who was Hayes.
