Storm

SIXTEEN

“Why is there a big bank vault in the middle-of-nowhere Kentucky?” Olivia asked.

“It’s not really a bank vault,” Jon answered. “It’s a structure that was built to hold the gold reserves of the United States government.”

“So they’ve got piles of gold coins lying around like some kind of pirate’s lair?” Kent asked.

“Not coins, bars,” Jon said. “Tons of them. Literally. The government has used the vault to secure other valuable items as well, like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. They were stored there during World War II.”

“How do you know so much about it?” Kent asked with skepticism.

Jon shrugged, “History is a passion of mine.”

“You are so odd,” Kent said.

“I don’t know that much about the place,” I said. “But look at the map. It’s a big freakin’ vault in the middle of an army base near a small town.”

Everyone took turns looking at the detailed map.

“The vault itself is a whole building. If I were looking to keep things safe, that would definitely be on my list.”

“We’re looking for a place that’s a safe haven for people,” Tori said. “Not gold.”

“I know,” I said. “But there’s plenty of other valuable stuff in the world. The Air Force attack didn’t just happen. Even the president of the United States knew it was coming. He’s the one who ordered SYLO to set up on Pemberwick Island. If he knew war was coming, don’t you think he’d do exactly what Jon just described? Wouldn’t he want some things to be protected? Like the Declaration of Independence? Or the Constitution? Or the Mona Lisa, for all I know? He could be protecting stuff from the Air Force.”

“Or from whomever is controlling the Air Force,” Tori pointed out.

“Exactly,” I said. “This might be the safest place in the country right now.”

“Then let’s go!” Jon declared.

Kent and Tori stared at me, waiting for an answer. Again, I was the one who had to make the call.

“What have we got to lose?” I said with a shrug. “Let’s go check it out.”

I scoped the map and gave Kent directions on how to get there. It looked about thirty miles southwest of the airport on local roads. We followed the course and had traveled for no more than ten minutes when we began to see proof that we were on the right track. It started out as smoke on the horizon. Several fires were burning, spewing huge, black plumes into the air.

“At least there’s some life here,” Tori said.

“Look,” Olivia said, pointing to the side of the road. “Here we go again.”

There was a big ditch surrounded by a scattering of rocks. It looked like the deep craters we had seen outside of Portland.

“Those are missile craters,” Tori said. “There was a battle here.”

“Yeah, and not long ago,” Jon added. “The fires are still burning.”

None of the fires were near the road, so we couldn’t tell what was in flames. We were traveling through a wooded area, and our views were blocked by dense stretches of trees.

“I don’t want to see another burning corpse,” Olivia said soberly.

We soon approached a scattering of structures that seemed to be the outer edges of the army base. Even more fires were burning, and we finally saw why as we drove around a bend in the road and—

“Look out!” I yelled.

Kent swerved and barely missed hitting a wreck that was sitting in the center of the road.

It was a black, ray-shaped Air Force plane.

Kent braked hard and stopped a few yards from it. This plane was in much worse shape than the one we had inspected in Portland. Its outer shell was torn open, probably by the missile that dropped it.

“It’s unmanned,” I declared.

“How can you tell that?” Tori asked.

“No cockpit. Where would a pilot sit?”

The plane’s roof had been peeled off as if a can opener had worked it over.

“Looks more like the inside of a computer than an aircraft,” I said. “It’s loaded with circuit boards.”

Tori said, “So they’re definitely being controlled from somewhere else.”

I got out of the car to get a closer look. This time the others joined me right away. The first thing I looked for, and saw, was the Air Force logo on the damaged wing.

“Building these must have been some top secret project,” Kent said. “I mean, it looks like a flying MacBook.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Except for that.”

I pointed to a short, silver canister that was fixed inside the wing area.

“Is that the weapon?” Tori asked.

“I think so,” I replied. “Man, talk about top secret development. When did the Air Force go all Star Wars?”

“They’ve been pretty good at keeping secrets,” Tori said. “This is just another one.”

“Guys?” Jon called. His voice was shaking. “You’re gonna want to see this.”

We joined him on the far side of the plane and looked out onto an expanse of empty farmland.

“I think we’re in the right place,” he said, his voice cracking.

Spread before us were the remains of dozens of downed black aircraft. Some were relatively intact; others were nothing more than mangled pieces of metal. None were functional. A few had hit buildings on the other side of the road, which is what started the fires. The entire stretch of buildings had been torched. There was nothing left but a half mile of charred, skeletal remains… and huge blast craters.

“Looks like some of them blew up when they hit,” Tori said. “There’s no wreckage whatsoever.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I guess if they get hit just right, the fuel—or whatever it is that powers these things—goes boom. It’s like what happened in Portland when you rammed that plane. There was nothing left of it.”

“This isn’t exactly my idea of a safe haven,” Olivia said, stunned.

“We’re not there yet,” I reminded them. “These planes could have been attacking the base.”

Tori said, “Let’s go see who won.”

We got back into the Explorer, and Kent drove on, rolling slowly past many more wrecks and smoldering craters. Once past the stretch of burning buildings, we found ourselves driving through the woods again.

“I see more wrecks in there,” Jon said, pointing.

“You know what I don’t see?” I said. “Navy fighters. The only planes on the ground are the black Air Force planes.”

“Looks like the Air Force got their butts kicked,” Tori said. “It’s a lot different than what happened out on the ocean when—”

“Whoa, wait,” Kent exclaimed. “What the hell is this?”

We rolled past another wreck and came upon a row of abandoned buildings that looked big enough to be airplane hangars. Beyond them was… nothing.

“Get closer,” I said.

The road went directly between two of the buildings… and ended. There was nothing to see beyond it but… nothing.

Kent pulled the Explorer up next to one of the structures and killed the engine. We got out of the car and walked forward, moving cautiously past the buildings, tuned for any movement that could mean trouble. Directly ahead of us the road ended at a wide dirt track that spread to the right and left as far as we could see. The road looked to have been cleanly cut off. I took a step off the asphalt onto soft, brown dirt.

An empty expanse stretched ahead of us for roughly two hundred yards. On the far side, there was a swirling white wall that could have been the leading edge of a fog bank or a thick wall of smoke. It was so dense there was no way to see through it.

“Smoke moves, right?” Kent asked, saying exactly what we were all thinking. “How can that just sit there?”

I ran back to the Explorer and grabbed the road map. I unfolded it as I rejoined the others and searched until I found the exact spot where we were standing.

“Tell me this dirt track is on the map,” Olivia said.

“No,” I said with certainty. “The end of the runway is maybe a half mile ahead of us. According to this map, the only thing between here and there are trees and roads. There’s no wide dirt track. This is new. Or at least it’s new since this map was made.”

Tori said, “It’s like something came through and cleared everything out. Buildings, trees, rocks, roads… everything.”

Olivia said, “Maybe the Air Force didn’t lose after all.”

On the map, Fort Knox was more than just an army base. It was a town. It was supposed to be directly in front of us, but there was nothing out there but a massive white wall. Was this the result of an air bombardment that wiped the whole place out?

“It doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Why would the Air Force use bombs here and nowhere else? If they wanted to wipe out the base, they could have come at night and used their light weapons.”

“I don’t think we’ve got the whole picture,” Tori agreed. “Let’s drive a little.”

We went back to the car and loaded in.

“I don’t want to go toward that smoke,” Olivia said. “It could be, like, poisonous or something.”

“Let’s drive along the edge of the dirt,” I suggested. “Maybe the smoke will thin out and we can see something.”

Kent drove forward and off the end of the road onto the dirt. He made a right turn, and we rolled along on the soft surface. To our right were a few more hangar-like buildings. When we passed the last one, we saw nothing but trees and more crashed black planes. To our left was the fog bank, or whatever it was, on the far side of the dirt track. We traveled parallel to the white wall, unable to see anything beyond it.

“Stop,” Tori suddenly ordered.

Kent slammed on the brakes.

“What?” he asked quickly.

“Ahead to the right. Something’s coming.”

I looked forward to see movement through the trees about a hundred yards ahead.

“Trucks!” Jon announced.

“Let’s get out of here!” Olivia cried.

“No, don’t move!” I countered. “If we move, they’ll see us. Right now we’re just another abandoned car.”

We crouched low and kept an eye on what turned out to be a convoy of green military trucks making its way toward the barren patch of dirt.

“Army trucks,” Kent said. “Lots of ’em.”

I was so used to living in desolation, seeing something as common as a line of trucks now felt like we were witnessing an alien invasion. My heart raced. Who were these people? Where were they coming from, and where were they going?

I couldn’t make out much detail until the first truck cleared the trees in front of us and rolled onto the stretch of dirt.

“There’s a road up there,” Kent said. “It cuts across the dirt.”

“Oh my god,” Tori said. “Look!”

Painted on the door of the first truck, and the second, and all those that followed was a large white logo that looked like a rising sun. There was no mistaking what it represented.

“SYLO,” Kent said in a soft whisper.

The trucks rumbled slowly along the road that crossed the dirt track headed toward… what? A white wall of fog? They were definitely military transport trucks, but there was no way to know what they were carrying. People? Weapons? The Ruby?

“Attention!” came an amplified voice. “Stay clear of the convoy.”

The hair went up on the back of my neck. I looked at Tori.

Was I hearing right?

She looked as shocked as I felt.

“No way,” Kent said, equally stunned.

“Who is that?” Olivia cried. “Where is he? Is he talking to us?”

I went into brain lock. I couldn’t accept what was happening or begin to try to understand it.

“Where did that come from?” Jon asked, near panic.

His answer came quickly. A flying plane that didn’t look large enough to carry a pilot appeared in the sky beyond the convoy. It skimmed the treetops, headed our way.

“Repeat. Do not approach the convoy,” the amplified voice warned.

“What do I do?” Kent asked, looking very much like a deer caught in the headlights.

I couldn’t think. I was useless.

“Don’t move,” Tori demanded. “That thing could be armed.”

“So we just sit and wait to be wasted?” Kent whined.

“If that thing wants to waste us,” Tori said, “driving away now won’t stop it.”

The drone plane had a bulbous nose, stubby wings, and twin propellers. Fixed beneath the wings were machine guns.

It was headed straight for us.

“It’s got us,” Kent whined. “We’re going to die right here.”

“Don’t move!” Tori demanded. “Or we’re definitely dead.”

The drone cleared the trees and swooped down into the airspace over the dirt track. Its nose was lined up directly with our grill.

“This is your last warning,” the voice boomed. “Do not approach the convoy.”

“We’re not!” Kent screamed.

The drone was nearly on us. Tori leaned forward and grabbed my shoulder. At any second it was going to fire its machine guns.

“I can’t believe it,” Olivia said with resignation. “We’ve come so far.”

The drone fired. The clatter of its guns was deafening. I tensed up—but it wasn’t necessary. The drone wasn’t targeting us. It continued firing as it passed overhead. We all spun to see the real target.

A black Air Force plane was hovering a few hundred yards behind us.

It had been flying in total silence, like a silent snake stalking its prey. We hadn’t even heard the music of its engines. The plane was no more than three feet off of the ground. Seeing it was a shock that made my stomach fall. Was it headed for the convoy? Or had it been after us?

Either way, its journey was over. The heavy machine gun fire from the drone craft ripped into the black skin of the plane, tearing it apart. The plane must have been crippled quickly, because there was no attempt to fire back.

Olivia covered her ears, and the rest of us followed. It was that loud.

The drone hovered over the doomed black plane, relentlessly pulverizing it with a steady stream of bullets. The black plane shuddered, as if trying its best to stay in the air. Its last gasp of life was to dip one wing to the dirt, then bank as if trying to get away. The drone would have none of that. The attack continued until the black plane dropped to the ground and crashed, kicking up a cloud of brown dirt.

That didn’t stop the drone. It continued to fire, shredding the plane. The black predator was long dead, but the drone continued pounding it with a vengeance. As it hovered in place, it drifted into a turn to reveal a SYLO logo on its belly.

Tori said, “If it hits the fuel tank it’ll—”

Boom!

The black plane exploded into a massive fireball, just like the plane back in Portland that Kent and Olivia rammed.

“Get down!” I screamed.

We ducked down for whatever protection the seats could provide. The burning cloud of debris spread quickly, and the orange flames licked past us. I winced, hoping that our own fuel tank wouldn’t ignite. Though we were inside the Explorer I could feel the wave of heat surge by above us.

It was over as quickly as it began.

I cautiously peeked back over the seat to see the drone circling over its kill, or at least over the crater where the plane had been. Satisfied that its prey had been obliterated, it lifted into the air.

I held my breath, fearing that it would come for us next, but the drone flew skyward and took off after the convoy. The last of the trucks had rolled onto the road that crossed the dirt track as the first in line reached the fog bank and was swallowed up by the smoke. The rest of the convoy followed, each truck disappearing in turn as it entered the mysterious, swirling curtain.

Something was definitely in there, beyond the fog.

The echo of the machine guns rang in my ears. We had just witnessed something shocking. Fort Knox was alive. There was no way to know whether it was the kind of safe haven Mr. Hartman’s son told him about, but the army base was definitely occupied… and protected.

But that wasn’t what shocked us.

It was the voice that came from the drone.

I looked to Tori and asked, “Am I wrong?”

Tori looked pale. “I don’t think so.”

“Wrong about what?” Jon asked, confused. “What do you think is in there?”

“It can’t be,” Kent said. He was thinking the same thing we were.

“Can’t be what?” Jon demanded to know. “What are you all talking about?”

“The voice,” Olivia said, sounding sick. “Either it was a recording… or Captain Granger is alive.”