Garcia nodded and looked up at the people around him.
“Ok.” The crowd drew in expectantly, so they could hear what he had to say. “You are going to have to work together. Rely on each other. My advice is that you find out what people’s skills are. Elect a leader or leaders. And above all else – lock this shit down as soon as we’re gone.”
Almost as if on cue, a couple of shots could be heard outside. Rachel Collins gasped out loud and grabbed her kids. Everybody froze for several seconds. But there were no other shots, so the group relaxed slightly. The soldiers shook hands and offered words of encouragement here and there for the next minute. Another shot could be heard outside, at which point Garcia made a circle motion with his hand, and the three soldiers started making their way out of the lunchroom.
Everybody followed them.
It was twilight. The sun had crept just behind the houses across the street. It was quiet. Then the silence was broken as several vehicles started up. They were arranged in a convoy, ready to head out. The heavy armoured vehicle was already outside of the school grounds. The two light tactical vehicles were out there too. Two trucks and one Humvee completed the convoy. A quick look into the parking lot told Jack that they were leaving one truck and one Humvee behind.
Those could come in handy. He thought to himself as he continued to scan the surroundings.
He took it all in for a moment. In the fading light it appeared to Jack like all the colour had been drained from the world. Everything around him was displayed in various tones of grey. A glance over his shoulder at the lit-up entrance of the school told him that colour still existed – just not outside. Turning back to face the open air, the contrast was not lost on him. Even those around him looked grey.
It’s almost like life itself is being drained out here... Jack shuddered at the thought.
The group stopped just outside the door, while the soldiers continued walking. The three men walked down the concrete steps and turned around at the bottom for one last time. Garcia’s stern countenance softened when he saw the fear and desperation of his former charges.
“It will be ok. Just make sure that you shut this door tight as soon as we’re gone. Also, it would be a good idea to make sure all other doors and windows are shut and secured. You folks all need to hunker down. Try to get a handle on all the stuff that you’ve got.”
He said that latest with a wave to the pallets and containers sitting in the parking lot.
“There is a shit-ton of stuff in the gym too. Check it out and use what you can. But stay undetected. Don’t make noise or attract attention. Stay safe.”
It looked like he was going to say more, but one of the soldiers whistled just then and called out that they were rolling.
“Good luck.” Jack’s dad called to Garcia and his men. Several others repeated this sentiment.
“And to you.” Garcia nodded. With that, and a wave from Collins, they were off. They hopped in the back of the last truck and the convoy started moving seconds later.
The civilians stood there in a stunned silence, as the convoy rolled out, took a left out of the parking lot, and was out of sight within a minute.
The noise of the convoy faded away into the unnatural silence. Everybody suddenly felt very vulnerable, and unconsciously started backing into the building.
Emily and Bill Moyers were the first to recover. They each took hold of one of the school doors and motioned for people to get inside.
“Ok folks, let’s do as they said and get this door closed.” Jack’s dad said as he helped the handicapped Bill handle one of the doors.
The group stepped inside the doors. Nobody noted that the gate into the parking lot had been left open.
The doors were shut quickly behind them, and with an audible ‘clack’ and a feeling of finality, the bolts were engaged.
People were left wondering what had happened, to bring the world to this?
Chapter Four
October 11, 9:05 P.M.
Mogadishu, Somalia
The black computer screen had an electric glare to it, that somehow still made it stand out in the dark room. The only thing that was visible on the screen was a caret. The text cursor. The vertical line blinked white on the dark grey screen. The slight glare of the screen dimly outlined the frowning face of a man and the tops of his hands on the keyboard.
The man entered a string of text. The screen indicated that a server connection is being established. Several logins and verifications were required to get to the next step.
The next line simply stated: “Enter Command”. The text cursor blinked as if impatient with the operator.
“neurax112 wake up”. The operator depressed the ‘enter’ button on his keyboard and waited.
Nothing happened for several minutes. The person behind the keyboard did not panic though. He knew that this command would take some time. It was contacting many recipients. Many millions of recipients. The tiny units within radio range were brought out of a state of hibernation.
“neurax112 awake” Was the reply. “Enter Command” appeared on the next line.
“arm kill switch 211”
Another set of authorizations was required at that point. The operator entered the proper passwords. Several minutes passed after the last authorization check. The operator started to perspire.
“kill switch armed 211neurax112”
The next line appeared on the screen.
This is it.
“Execute kill switch 211? y/n” The operator sat in silence for a minute. All he had to do was depress the “y” or “n” key.
Push the n key and all this goes away...
“God forgive me.” The man uttered as his finger hovered above the y key and slowly descended.
Chapter Five
October 14, 6:00 P.M.
Just another day in the rat race for most people. They kissed their partners goodbye that morning, jumped
