The Last Invasion
Chapter Four
Martin was nervous as he walked along smoking his American Spirit. "Damn, I’m about out of these," he grumbled under his breath. "Two more cartons left. I’d better cut back." He constantly looked around and even behind at times. He and Bill had never actually talked about a short-wave. A short-wave radio had been in his own mind, but maybe Bill had other things going. He’d soon find out.
It was not a long walk from his cottage on Palmer to 2012 Oster but it certainly was a tense one. He kept thinking about what it must feel like to be disintegrated. Pretty instant apparently. He thought of the group-home and all the developmentally disabled and mentally retarded in America. Just... zap and it’s all over. His heart was aching so much it was almost unbearable... but then, Grace was there and she made things okay wherever she was.
When that beam hits them, does a person even know they’re dead? Martin exhaled smoke through his nose.
When he got over to Oster he easily found 2012. I’m here, he thought.
The Red Star was prominently displayed out front as it was everywhere else. He too had one. Everybody did. It was not an option.
Before he went up to the door, he looked around once again and decided that it might be best to step back and wait a bit just in case someone was following him.
He saw a grove of trees nearby and slipped inside. He lit up another cigarette and waited. I’ll give it five minutes. He checked his pocket watch. As he peered out from his hiding spot, the streets appeared to be totally clear. Everyone was inside. Curfew was an hour and a half away but no one was out on their porch.
I suppose everyone is like me, he mused, they are so dog tired and cold after a day of labor outside they probably just sit by the fire and try to rest.
He was burning with curiosity about what Bill might have had in mind by inviting him over. In some ways it was ominous because he did not want to get involved in any kind of truly dangerous subversive activity. What would Laura do without him? And the kids?
He thought about what Marci and Kenneth must be going through and silently said a prayer for them. He felt a stinging on his fingers and knew that the cigarette had burned down to the nubbin, so he flipped it down and stepped on it. He looked out from his hiding spot once again. No one around. So, he checked his pocket watch and seven minutes had gone by. Now he would go quickly.
He walked up the steps to Bill’s front door and tapped once. There was no response so he tapped a little louder three times. The door opened and Bill’s face was there.
“Get inside,” he said.
Martin entered and Bill carefully shut the door behind him after looking up and down the street.
“Whew,” breathed Martin, “I never imagined having to do this in my own neighborhood.”
“It’s okay now, Marty, you can relax. Want some coffee?”
“Sure, Bill, let’s get over by your fire.”
Bill poured them a cup of coffee and they sat down on small chairs before the fire.
“Do you happen to have a short-wave radio or know anyone who does?”
“No, Marty, but I do get some information.”
“How?”
Bill went over to a cabinet and opened a drawer. It had a false bottom which he removed. He pulled out a laptop. “Marty, I have this wireless connected with a satellite dish up on the side of that cell phone tower two blocks over. I run off batteries. I did have a bunch of them but the more I use this, the closer I get to having no more juice, so now I have to conserve.”
“Wow... I thought the internet was long gone.”
“It is mostly. But, there are apparently a few satellites still up and running and I have access to email. I guess the servers were not shut down, just the electricity. Of course, if the Reds ever suspect or find out...”
“No kidding,” said Martin. “Bill, tell me what you know that I don’t.”
“We are now complete slaves, Marty. The Reds used their scalar interferometers to set off the earthquake just to distract us and make us vulnerable for their sudden invasion. It was devastating beyond anything imaginable. Several U.S. cities are now gone forever along with most of their populations. The entire world is now reeling under complete financial collapse. Every country has pulled back from any international activity at all because everyone has such a local crisis on their hands. This crisis demands more than anyone can produce. Panic is widespread. Actually, right here in this part of Missouri things are far better than elsewhere. At least, plans for food production are being carried out.”
“Yeah... we sure know about that. I guess we are better off than most.”
“There was absolutely no help for the earthquake victims. None. The Reds just disintegrated the casualties as well as the fleeing homeless. The dead are in the millions. Mass murder.”
“My God. Anything else?”
“My connection, who is still nameless and most likely will always remain nameless, is somewhere completely unknown to me and his (or her) knowledge is also very limited. That party on the other end is as scared as I am. He or she has a windmill for electrical power, but communication is limited to a few minutes every few days and that’s all.”
“Well, at least that’s something. Is there any other news?”
“There is... something developing. A resistance... an underground. Literally.”
“Do you mean locally?”
Bill nodded.
“Are you a... participant?”
Bill nodded once again. “We have to do something, Marty, and we might as well be ready to die for it because we most likely will anyway.”
“Bill, do you mind if I smoke?”
“Go ahead.”
Marty was shaking and could barely retrieve a cigarette from his shirt pocket but finally got it lit, after wasting five matches, and then inhaled deeply blowing the smoke through his nose.
Bill walked over to the door, opened it a crack and carefully looked out checking the street.
“Are you alone here in the house?” Martin asked.
Bill nodded as he sat back down. “Yes I am. My dear wife of thirty years couldn’t take all this. She had a heart attack... and, of course, there was no help. None. The Reds just dumped her body into the back of an open truck and drove off. That’s the last I will ever see of her.”
“I’m so sorry,” Marty said.
“Sorry doesn’t cut it anymore.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“Okay, Marty, now you know that I am in the resistance. Do you understand what that means?”
Martin just stared at Bill without saying anything. Oh, he knew what it meant all right. It meant that he too was now involved whether he liked it or not. If he was to be captured... “I’m in, Bill. I didn’t want to be but I have to. There is just no other way.”
Bill nodded. “Good decision. If you hadn’t said that, I would have killed you right here.”
Martin was stunned and just stared at him for a moment. “What’s happening Bill? Are we going to become like them?”
“It is very hard my friend. But... yes... we are gradually beginning to act just like them, and that’s the really horrible part. I am becoming... numb.”
Martin couldn’t say anything. He wondered if Bill would really have murdered him if he had said that he didn’t want to participate. It seemed unbelievable but after thinking about it for a few moments he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that, yes, Bill would have killed him, or at least tried. He had just stumbled upon some very dangerous knowledge. Resistance at this early point must be very tenuous, barely able to do anything at all and having to struggle constantly just to hang on and not be caught. If what he knew now was to be tortured out of him, Bill would be killed and probably the entire local resistance. Somewhere along the line, these people had decided that it was necessary to leave their humanity and morality at the door. I’ll bet the same thing happened in World War Two, he thought. War is just plain evil in every way. Everyone looses.
After a few moments, Martin got up and went over to the front window. He carefully parted the curtain and looked out. There was no one in sight. “I’d better go for now.”
“Yes. It would probably be best,” said Bill, “come back over at the same time day after tomorrow and I’ll show you some things. Meantime, at work, it would be best if we didn’t talk and stayed as far apart as possible.”
Martin nodded in agreement. “See you day after tomorrow.”
Bill nodded.
Walking back home, Martin was beside himself. He dared not tell Laura anything. It would put her in too much danger. He did not like lying nor did he like covert secrets. But, in this case, he could see no other way.
“What happened?” Laura was anxious to hear.
“Actually, very little, sweet. He doesn’t have a short-wave but does get some bits of information from time to time... very sparse. In fact, most of what he told me we already know. The invasion was horrible beyond imagination. The Reds even murdered the casualties from the earthquake as well as the fleeing homeless. A huge world-wide economic collapse is underway. There is no doubt but that we are in a very serious situation. Laura, we are now complete slaves to these Red masters.”
“What else? Isn’t there anything else?”
“No that’s it for now. I will be seeing him again day after tomorrow. Maybe I will find out more. I was scared as hell and kept my eye out for any Red patrols the whole time.”
“Did you see any?”
“No. I never saw anyone at all, except Bill. Even all the residents were inside. Trying to stay warm I guess.”
“This is really disappointing. Didn’t he have anything? Any small word of hope? Anything?”
Martin shook his head. He dared not mention what was now burning in his guts.
The next day followed the usual routine. It was Thursday which meant it was a re-education day in the afternoon. The motor cart came to pick them up from work and they were taken to the government building on the Riverview town square. It was more of the same. Four hours of indoctrination. It went from 2 to 6p.m. Afterwards, the motor cart dropped them off back home. They enjoyed an hour of intimacy before falling asleep in front of the coals.
The following morning when the call horn sounded, neither one of them wanted to get up.
“Just a little longer,” Martin groaned.
“That damned horn, I knew what they were up to when we saw them installing it.”
“You were right, as usual.”
Laura winced and almost cried out, “Oh Marty, my feet feel like they're on fire. If I don’t get up and put some weight on them right now, I might not be able to.”
“I’m so sorry, hon. I’ve just got to catch a couple more winks.”
“Okay, I’ll be up. I won’t let you oversleep.” Then, under her breath she said, “I sure don’t want to loose you.”
Laura painfully finished getting dressed and managed to put on the teapot. The pain in both feet was excruciating this morning, so she carefully put her left foot up on a chair and tried to message it starting with the toes. They were so tender that she had to stifle a cry so as not to wake Martin. The shooting pains triggered those old memories. It was that forced march through the snow, daddy. I... nearly lost both these feet. It’s so ironic.
Then she said softly, "oh daddy... way back then you thought this was about to happen... I was only six years old... forty years ago. Oh, if you could only be here now... totally ironic.”
She barely whispered to herself as she poured the tea. “It finally did happen dad. Yes it did. You weren’t so far off after all. Just a little out of date.”
“I’ve just got to get up,” Martin moaned.
“Yes, unless you’re ready to get disintegrated.”
“That wasn’t funny.”
“No... but true.”
“Okay, I’m rolling, I’m rolling.”
It took Martin a long time to finally get into his overalls and even longer before he could get both boots on.
Laura stuck some cornbread into his mouth as he finally tied his boots. They barely made it in time for the motor cart to pick them up, but they didn’t get left behind.
That day was a horror. Early on, Cathy got severely injured when a dump truck ran over her foot and crushed it. The Cadre just disintegrated her right there. Pooof. She was completely gone. Turned into steam as she lay writhing on the ground desperately needing medical attention. Murdered right before everyone’s eyes. Not even a brown spot on the ground where she had fallen when the truck got her.
Laura was raking leaves in a different area but found out what happened to Cathy when a crew arrived back from there. Laura could just barely get through the day. She was not only in physical agony but now completely depressed.
When they got home, they were both exhausted. Still, Martin knew he had to see Bill. So, Laura heated some leftover beans and they ate in front of the fireplace. Then Martin gave her a kiss and headed out the door.
As he was walking, a Red neighborhood patrol whizzed by in a truck but seemed to not noticed him. Nevertheless, he took the same precautions as before and hid for five minutes in the grove of trees before knocking on Bill’s door.
Bill quickly pushed him inside and closed the door.
”Let’s sit and have some coffee first,” he said, “lt was a really awful day huh?”
“Terrible. What are we going to do?”
Bill poured the coffee and they sat in front of the fire. “You see how brutal they are, Marty. Do you have any suggestions?”
“We need to get inside somehow.”
“Oh sure,” Bill scorned.
“Okay then... we need to find a traitor that is already inside.”
“Now that’s a possibility,” said Bill, “but apparently they are all in the same groove.”
“Apparently... yes.”
“So, probably the best thing to do is keep our eyes open for some sign,” Bill said. He sounded very thoughtful. “Maybe there is someone who has a different taste and doesn’t agree with murdering other human beings so easily. Maybe there is someone among them who still remembers human mercy and compassion.”
“It’s possible,” said Martin. “First, before anything else, we have to watch carefully.”
“I think you have a good idea, Marty,” he agreed.
Bill went over and opened his door to check out the street. “We’re still okay. Marty, I must tell you about today’s email from the other party.”
“Yeah, what is it?"
“The Reds are going to declare Sunday a holiday and give everyone a day off.”
“What? What’s going on?”
“Apparently they saw that their harshness was starting to be counterproductive, especially after what happened to Cathy today, and they think offering a pleasant surprise will help alleviate the growing fear and despair among the disgruntled workers who are now more fearful than ever.”
“How did your email correspondent know about that, being somewhere else entirely?”
“I really have no idea where that person is actually located and they might be closer than I think. Somehow they heard about it through their intelligence sources.”
“Well, I can tell you that if Laura doesn’t get a day to rest, she is not going to make it very much longer.”
“They’re going to announce it tomorrow as if they are graciously giving a gift for good work and productivity.”
“Is this what your email friend tells you?”
“Yes. He (or she) found out about it somehow. I don’t know how.”
“It’s probably better that you don’t know,” said Martin.
“Right.” Bill sat just looking Martin in the face for a moment and then said, “Come with me downstairs. I want to show you something.”
Bill picked up an oil lantern off its hook, lit it and then led them through the kitchen and down some stairs. When they got to the basement, Bill set the lantern on a large table, got six other lanterns off shelves and placed them on the table lighting up each one. “I want you to see this.” He opened a closet door. It was piled four feet high with all kinds of old clothes and shoes. He dug through the pile throwing stuff out onto the basement floor. Then he found a case, carried it over to the table next to the lanterns and unzipped it.
Martin couldn’t believe his eyes. It was one of the Red Chinese beam weapons.
“How the hell did you get this?” Martin demanded.
“Never mind about that... but here it is.”
“Do you know how to... “
“Fire it? No, not yet.”
“Well, what good is it then?”
“None now.”
Martin picked it up and began to look it over. It was smaller than a conventional assault rifle. It was basically a pistol grip attached to an oblong flat oval box with a cylinder on top and a smaller diameter barrel protruding a little ways out the front. It had a fold up metal stock and a wide military strap.
“See how these sights fold up,” Bill said as he reached over and flipped them open.
“That is an amazing piece of engineering,” said Martin, “what do you plan to do with it?”
“First, find out how it works.”
Martin examined it closely. It was smooth on the left side but the right side had a recessed row of five buttons. “What are these?”
“A complete mystery right now.” Bill carefully put the weapon back into its case, zipped it and set it aside up against the wall. He extinguished five of the lanterns and put them back on their shelves leaving one on the table and holding one by its handle. He handed it to Martin. “Here, hold this a second and give me some light over here by the closet.”
Martin took the lantern and followed him over to the closet where, to Martin’s surprise he began digging out more of the clothes and shoes and then tossing them outside the closet. After everything was removed, he began to slide out a large box. “Marty, hold the light up a little please.” Bill reached down and found a ring. He opened a trap door. Martin could see a flight of very steep stairs going down. “Follow me,” Bill said, and took back the lantern from Martin. He led them down the flight of stairs which ended in another room. It was pitch dark and Martin had no idea how big it was until Bill rolled over a rack of metal steps, climbed them and lit up a huge overhead chandelier with many flames that illuminated the entire room. Underneath the chandelier was a large round table with at least a dozen chairs.
“What’s this, Bill?”
“It’s where we are going to meet Sunday, on the day off.”
“Wow, when you said the ‘underground’ you really meant it.”
“This is the place we meet. However, meetings are usually very sporadic and very short. But, Sunday will be different for the very first time. Everyone will be here and we will gather as soon as we get up Sunday morning.”
“That’s going to be very dangerous isn’t it? I mean with all those people coming up to your front door?”
“No. They won’t be coming up to my front door nor to my back door.” He motioned Marty toward a very large mirror at the back of the room. “Help me with this,” said Bill. Martin took one side of the mirror as Bill took the other and they lifted it off its hooks. Bill carefully directed them over to the side where they set it down and tilted it up against the wall. When Martin looked where the mirror had been, he could see the mouth of a tunnel going off into the blackness.
“You have a tunnel?”
“Oh yes. The resistance crawls here from various points where hidden openings exist. Marty, this leads to a labyrinth of tunnels and caves. You know good old Missouri, caves everywhere. Many of them natural. Some... not natural. If anyone happens to find any of the entrances and try’s to follow them, they will get completely lost without knowing how to negotiate the underground maze.”
“Bill, this must have been here longer than six weeks.”
“Oh yes. Some of us have been expecting national tragedy for a long time and have been preparing little by little. For several years actually. There is more but that’s for another time.”
“That’s incredible,” said Martin. He was dumbfounded. Finally, he said, “I... I see you’ve been busy.”
“Not just me, there are ten of us at the moment and now with you, eleven. Let’s get the room back together and go back upstairs.”
When they arrived at the kitchen, Bill poured them another cup of coffee and they went into the living room once again. They sat down in front of the fire. Bill remembered something he should do and went over to the front door, opened it and looked up and down the street once again. He seemed satisfied, closed the door and came back to sit down.
Martin was very surprised that such activity had been going on so close by without him knowing anything at all about it. This was really starting to get dangerous. “I don’t know what to say, Bill, I’m on overload at the moment.”
“Don’t say anything, just be here Sunday morning. You will find out a lot. A young physicist will be here. He will disassemble the beam weapon and try to figure out how it works. Should be exciting.”
“If you figure it out... who are you going to disintegrate to test it out?”
Bill chuckled. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“How the hell would you test a powerful weapon like that? I mean, to be sure you know how it works and how to operate it properly?”
“Very carefully. Very carefully, Marty. We do have something in mind, but you don’t need to know about it right now.”
“Three guesses.” Martin said.
“Suffice it to say that we do not plan to disintegrate anyone to test it out, only conduct a safe field test.”
“I guess you have the way to do that?”
“Yes. We’re pretty sure.”
“Okay, Bill, I’d better get back to Laura. Today almost defeated her.”
“Yes. Go on home. I’ll see you here on Sunday.”
“Okay. I guess they’ll make that announcement tomorrow?”
“That’s what I am told.”
Martin didn’t say anything more but only nodded. Then he went out the door, carefully looked around and walked home.
Chapter Five
Chp. 1 : Chp. 2 : Chp. 3 : Chp. 4 : Chp. 5 : Chp. 6 : Chp. 7 : Chp. 8 : Chp. 9 : Chp. 10 :
Chp. 11 : Chp. 12 : Chp. 13 : Chp. 14 : Chp. 15 : Chp. 16 : Chp. 17 : Chp. 18 : Chp. 19 :
