Chapter 11: Mike's Dream

Mike dreamt

"Hey Mike," Captain Smyth said as I was on my way out for patrol duty. "I'm sorry about Linda and the pilot. I know she was a friend of yours, and to die because of a mechanical problem is just shocking. We're planning a service for them next week; I'll let you know the details," he said.

"Thanks Charles, you have always been a good friend," I said. "Like Linda was," I added.

I got in my car, put my head in my hands, and cried as I remembered.

-- Last month --

"Well this sucks! My number's never get close to this damn lotto machine. At least I can get one or two numbers once in a while," I said to myself as I was sitting on my normal patrol route on the I-15. "And what is up with Linda never giving me a firm answer on if she wants to go out or not? Putting me off is worse than saying 'no'."

I was still looking down at his lotto ticket, reading the numbers 3 14 30 44 56 and thinking I should of chosen the winning numbers 10 18 28 40 47. With I sigh I consoled myself, "Well I'll get it one of these days; I bet Linda would go out with me then!"

-- Present Day --

"That was just two days before she died in that horrible crash, if only I could have done something," I thought aloud. "Well, off to convoy duty I go."

I was currently working for the Highway Patrol after a long career in the Special Forces. Life has been hell — and I have sure been to hell and back — but life is much simpler now and I'm pretty happy. All I could use in life is a good woman to settle down with and raise a family but hey, that will happen in time. Currently I'm on convoy duty escorting some marines and their equipment to Fort Irwin. We were heading up I-15 when my vehicle quit and my radio died.

I said, "Well shit, what the hell is going on?" So I quickly pull over to the side of the freeway noticing the rest of the convoy doing the same thing, thinking to myself, "God do I feel stupid holding up the damn convoy."

Getting out of the car, I walked back to the lead Humvee to talk to Captain Rigs who was leading the convoy.

Rigs got out of the car. "What the hell is going on?"

"I'm not sure. My car just gave out on me and my radios are dead — both of them," I said.

"Well you're not the only one with problems. From the looks of things all the vehicles are out of commission," Rigs said.

Looking up and down the freeway at all the dead cars and people wondering around gave us a very sick feeling, one thing coming to all our minds — 'EMP'.

I said, "If this was an 'EMP', I think we know what could be next; we need to get the hell out here and get underground."

Rigs took out his cell phone — dead — then looked at his watch — also dead — and shook his head. "We may already be dead," he said.

"There is a mine not three miles to the east from here. Let's grab what we can and head that way, then we can decide what the hell is going on," I said.

"Shit," Rigs yelled holding his head. "Ok people listen up! Grab all the weapons and supplies you can; we're heading out on foot." Then, looking at the civilians he said, "Ok listen up! If you don't understand what's going on that's ok, we're not sure either, but it appears that we have been subjected to the effects of an 'EMP'. That usually means that there has been a nuclear explosion close by, more than likely in the atmosphere. We don't know any more than that, but I would guess this means war so we need to take shelter NOW and figure this out later. Anyone wanting to go with us, grab as much of the supplies out of the third convoy truck as you can carry — use backpacks, bags or anything else you have — we're heading out in fifteen minutes. Let's Move It People!!"

About twenty minutes later, just as we were walking off the freeway, there was a brilliant flash of light to the north, but absolutely no sound.

Rigs started yelling. "Damn! Hurry up people! No question now, we're under attack! Let's move it, double time!!"

There was another brilliant flash of light off to the south-west, but much further away. Well, that got everyone's attention and we're pretty much running to a mine shaft nearby.

It was just a few minutes later that we got lucky. Up on the hill we spotted two 4x4 trucks heading our way, one of them was even hauling a rather large toy hauler. They stopped as they approached and a man jumped out of the lead truck and yelled, "What the hell is going on? We can't get in touch with anyone and the radio is dead."

Rigs said, "We believe we're under attack. It must have been an 'EMP' that disabled everything, but I see you have working vehicles."

"'EMP'? Damn! The vehicles have been modified — I removed all the smog stuff and the electronics a long time ago, much easier to repair. What should we do?"

"We're heading to an old mine, Officer Monahan knows one to the east of here. We're going to wait it out there; it's probably going to get much worse. We could use a ride," Rigs said.

"Sure. Everyone throw your supplies in the back of the trailer, and then get in the back of the trucks," the driver said.

So that was that. We loaded and headed to the mine with our new friends the Duke family. I was sitting in the front with Martin Duke with his wife Jamie, talking about their kids, Jeff and Daisy. Martin was a retired electrical engineer. He said it was pretty much dumb luck his vehicles still worked, but good luck for us. We arrived at the mine about twenty minutes later and moved all the supplies inside, hoping for the best.

It was about an hour later when the ground started to shake and we heard a thunderous noise in the distance.

I said to no one in particular, "I wish we knew what the hell is going on."

Just then a brilliant white light lit up the entire area just to the west, the ground shook and an incredible wind started. Everyone hit the ground, grabbing their ears to keep them from exploding because of the noise and the pressure change then ... nothing.

Everything went black. The shaking stopped. No lights. No noise. Just silence. Whatever that was, it appeared to be over for the moment anyway.

A few hours later we started to come round. I went around checking everyone inside the mine, seeing if they were alive. Everyone seemed ok, but the medic with the convoy checked everyone anyway; he also decided to go outside and check on things.

As we exited the mine we noticed nothing out of the ordinary; everything seemed normal with the exception of a slight haze in the air.

It was only after about thirty minutes of looking around that we noticed it, a small craft of some sort, looking like it was damaged and heading into the mountains to the south. We watched until it was gone.

Martin stated the obvious, "Um guys, I think E.T. has landed in our backyard."

"Well I guess whatever has happened is worldwide then if we were attacked from space," I said.

Rigs said, "Well we're sure on our own now. I'd like to know who managed to shoot that ship down though."

As we got ourselves organized over the next few hours I got to know everyone a bit better, including Frank Mays. I found he was a stock broker and had done extremely well in the market. With his money made, he was pretty much a free spirit now. There were quite a few good people in the pack with us now; I hoped we lived long enough to become friends.

The attack went on for two nights, and during this time there were more light explosions, the sounds of distant thunder, even a few more small ship crashes. We appeared to be safe in the mine, but the heat in there was almost unbearable.

We spent the next two weeks trying to fight for survival, and were doing pretty good!

Then I woke up!

Dreaming End

The next morning I woke up and was still snuggling up to Kristy when I opened my eyes and noticed Kristy standing next to the bed. I quick pulled the covers down and I was looking at a smiling Jenny.

"I knew it! You are all working together on this," I said.