“What is it?”
“Just take them because you will need them. If you’ll excuse me, I have other people to see. The staff will take good care of you. They’ll fit your inflatable cast and get you up.”
“What then?”
“Not my area, I only patch them and go where the Colonel says. Right now, he’s got his hands full figuring out how many vehicles we have left and how many have been injured. Last I heard we’re going to be here for a while because we can’t go forward because there’s a huge crater in the interstate ahead of us which is why we stopped here.”
The doctor shook Jon’s hand and left to check on a wounded soldier. A medical aide began to slip the inflatable cast over Jon’s leg. “We’ll be here a while so don’t worry.”
“Does anyone know what caused the crater?”
“I heard the Colonel say it was most likely a splinter form the rock.”
“Large one?”
“The interstate is gone, what I understand is there’s a large hole where the road used to be, and a bridge fell into the road further blocking us. I heard the Colonel order the recon patrols to locate an alternate route.”
“Was the Colonel wounded?”
“Yeah, I helped clean his burns and patch him up, but he never stopped talking to people. I don’t know how badly we’ve been hurt, but I do know we’ve lost a lot of equipment. Thank God our MASH unit trucks were able to slide and miss the fires.”
“Have you seen my family?”
The soldier asked, “Coats, right?”
“Yes!”
“Yup, two girls and your wife, they’ve been treated and are in the pending tent. I’ll take you to them when we’re done.”
“What’s a pending tent?”
“A place we put people who are pending a new vehicle or are too wounded to work or people we just don’t know where else to put them.”
“Thank you.”
Twenty minutes later Jon was reunited with his family who cried when they saw him. He had tears running down his face too.
Chapter 16
President Lanoha spent what he thought might be his last eight hours with his wife, and six sleeping before he was called back to the command center. The Secretary of Defense said, “Sir, sorry to bother you, but we’re getting splinter hits…”
“I thought we knocked down all of the splinters. How did we miss some?”
“I don’t know but one just hit upstate New York, dug a hell of a hole in Interstate 81 and another just struck Lake Michigan about four miles from Chicago. The resulting wave is rushing towards the city, it will wipe Chicago off the map.”
“Is there anything we can do for them?”
“Pray. The wave is moving at over seventy miles per hour. None of us have a number on how many were still remaining in Chicago, our latest projections said most remained, they didn’t believe there was really a risk and when we and the Russians knocked down most of the splinters they and a lot of others in the north thought they were now safe.”
“Didn’t we make it very clear those were splinters and the main rock was still coming?”
“Yes, sir, we did but many choose to ignore the warnings, not much different than those who refuse to leave when a hurricane warning is issued. Many stay along the coast thinking they can ride it out.”
“They’re not going to ride this out,” said an angry President. “I want to know how many are still above the freeze line.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll get FEMA on it.”
“Do we have eyes on Chicago?”
“Yes, sir, various drones…”
“Show me. I want to see what hell on Earth looks like.”
Since the President had entered the command room, the large center monitor showed the images of Chicago from four drones that were over the city. The President asked, “How did we manage to have four drones up?”
“We have a naval base north of Chicago, they tracked the splinter and put up the drones.”
“Someone had their Wheaties this morning. Shit, look at that wall of water. That’s not a wave, it looks like the entire damn lake rose up and is rushing towards the city.”
A Colonel said, “Sir, the wave is pulling the water from the coast. In a moment, you’ll see the water sucked away from all of the marinas, all of those multi-million dollar yachts will be sitting on the bottom of the lake before they are washed into the city.”
As the Colonel said, the water was sucked away from the shore, over a thousand boats were either pulled away from their moorings or had their cleats tore out as the water under them left and they fell to the sandy bottom. The wave built in height as it drew closer to the city. It also carried the boats with the water. The wave struck the row of expensive hotels, and apartments along the lake shore. The Bears’ stadium was washed away, the famous aquarium was torn apart, the cases cracked open spilling the fish into the water filling the streets.
The racing water destroyed everything it touched. The forgotten tunnels under the city quickly filled with water, the manhole covers shot into the air, the water then shot out of the sewers like it was being fired from high pressure fire hoses. Skyscrapers and high-rise buildings fell into the wave, which was followed up by three smaller waves, if fifty-foot waves could be called smaller.
When the waves stopped flowing into Chicago, there was nothing left of Chicago. The city was now part of the lake. Millions had perished
