Part 3: Aftermath - Part 3.

Aftermath - Part 3.

23rd of October 2077 - On route to Jericho:

Kaidan didn’t know how long he was out, be he did know that he drifted in and out of consciousness for a while. He remembered a pilot pulling him away from the fire, hearing both Anna May and Heather calling his and Faye’s names. Telling them to stay with them, and don’t leave them.

Another thing was that when he regained consciousness before losing it again, he remembered that the sky was pitch black, and the only light he could see was the lights of the Vertibird that they were in. It would seem that the long night was finally upon the. Kaidan could only hope that those who served the bombings, could live through this and what is to come.

He also heard Faye calling for him, telling to come back, that she needed him. The last time he came into consciousness again, she injected something into his heart and a few moments later he started to come too. As he came to, Anna May hugged her master as Faye said, “Good, looks like you going to be okay. Hell, at this moment, you’re doing much better than I am.” It was true, she had a bandage on her right cheek, and a bandage around her head, and a bandage eye patch on her right eye.

“What the hell happened?” asked Kaidan.

“We’re not too sure, but from what I got told, someone used a rocket launcher to blow up all of the transport helicopters.” Anna May informed Faye and her Master.

“Do you know who did this?” Faye asked Anna May, hoping at least to know who did this to them.

“No, when I got to where the attack came from, the person was gone, and the rocket launcher was left behind.” Anna May told the female Spectre.

“What are the count of the casualties?” asked Kaidan.

“As far as we know all those who were on the transports were killed,” Anna May informed them, “as for the rest, they were either dead, dying or severely injured.”

“Who would do such a thing?” asked Heather, the young teen couldn’t believe someone could do such a thing, killing those who didn’t do anything wrong or won’t doing any harm.

“Who knows it could be anyone.” Faye told her sister, “Whilst the world has ended the way we know it, there still those who want to cause harm to others. Be it those who are against the USA, or it could be one of Doomsday Cults out there who want the world to end for one reason or another. Normally it’s because they believe that humanity is too dangerous to carry on, or they believe that it should return the animal kind. Or it could be a group that believes in survival of the fittest and only the strong should survive, and should they get help from anyone else but their own, shouldn’t live in the new world.”

Heather couldn’t believe that such madness could happen in the world, sure she knew that there were countries who hate the USA, China being one of them. And a country she thought could do something like this, if they thought they were going to lose. But she never thought that there would be those who wanted the world to end for silly reasons such as humanity was too dangerous or give it back to the animal kind. She knew that there were crazy people but hearing this takes the cake.

Before she could hear more, she heard Anna May say, “I have to tell you that one of the casualties was Spectre Commander Ironhide.”

The other two Spectres were shocked, they couldn’t believe that the leader of the Spectres was now dead. “Why would he be there for? I thought we were meeting at Jericho.”

“I think he came to see you,” Faye informed Kaidan, “I reported to him about your ideas, and he seemed to be very impressed with them and he wanted to talk you. So it could be possible that he came with the transport so that he could talk to you more.”

“But we were going to see him anyway, why didn’t he wait?” Kaidan wondered.

“Who knows?” admitted Faye, “He might have had something important to talk to you about. Or he might of wanted to reinsure the survivors, by being here, helping and talking to them.”

Kaidan sighed at this, whatever his reason, with Ironhide’s death, there could be problems with the other Spectres if there wasn’t someone lead them. So he had to ask, “So do you know who’s in charge now?”

“No idea, we should find out once we get to our new base at Jericho.” Faye told them.

Just then, the pilot said, “Landing in about one minute. You should be able to see it coming up on my right.”

Sure enough they saw farmland before a small town, where they saw a medical clinic, town hall, supermarket, a church and many other buildings. In the distance, the group could see mountains. In the town there were power generated lights, bonfires and metal barrel with fires in them.

And whilst the pilot was reporting in, Faye said, “I know we just met, and usually we would need time to know if you count on someone. But the problem is that we’re out of time, so after saving my sister and the help you have given so far, my bet is on you two. It has to be. I hope to god I’m right.”

“You don’t have to worry about us,” Kaidan told her, as they landed just outside of the town, “me and Anna May are loyal to the Spectres and protecting the survivors.”

“Good, I hope I can.” said Faye, as Kaidan and Anna May helped her out of the Vertibird, where medics came for her. As they did, middle aged man of an average height walked up to him.

The man looked like he was in his fifties, and looked like he had a rough life, which showed by his rapidly greying hair and beard and mustache, which was well groomed. His cobalt blue eyes however, were the most telling things about it. They had seen much in their time but somehow retained a gleam of compassion and good-humour. He was wore a blue flannel shirt, with a green fleece vest and a grey overcoat made that looked that it kept him warm on a winter night, and he had beige trousers. Above all, a keen confidence permeated his mien, leaving them to wonder whether any external aspect revealed the genuine measure of the man.

The man said as he got to them, “Welcome to Jericho, my name is Johnston Green and I’m the Mayor of this town. I don’t know what you’re hoping to get from this town, but if there’s anything you need, just ask and I’ll try and make it happen.”

“Thank you, Mayor Green,” thanked Kaidan, “names Kaidan Alenko. Are there any Spectres here yet?”

“There’s a few of them here,” admitted Johnston, “they’re all in the Town Hall at the moment.”

“So who’s in command here?” Faye asked medic taking care of her.

“It was Commander Ironhide before he left to get you,” the medic informed Faye and Kaidan, “but he left Spectre Grimm in command. You should speak to hear about it, as she would know more.” Spectre Grimm was one of the higher ups, she had the power of a Grim Reaper, power over life and death.

“Go and see her, Heather and I will catch up with you when the medics are done with me.” Faye told Kaidan, after hearing this.

Kaidan nodded at this before he turned to Anna May and told her, “Anna May, stay with them. Whilst I don’t think anything will happen to them here, I’m not taking any chances. Not after what has happened so far today.”

“Understood Master.” Anna May said with a bow, as Johnston lead Kaidan to the Town Hall.

o0OoO0o

23rd of October 2077 - Jericho, Town Hall:

As Johnston was leading Kaidan to the Town Hall, the Mayor informed the Spectre about what was going on in town. How there was a bus load of children returning from a school trip was missing but had the sheriff department looking for them. Although there were a few people riled up about it, not knowing what was going on, and about the missing kids. It didn’t help that the main power supply was gone. He was worried that it would be matter of time before things went out of hand.

Here Kaidan asked the Mayor if he wanted any help from the Spectres, he could see what he could do about it. Johnston thanked the man, but told him that it was alright, the sheriff department should be able to deal with it. By this time they got to the town centre to where the town hall was, and they saw that a riot was starting up. Where a bald man was on a fire engine, calling out about them stealing from friends and family, and how they were acting, over the loudspeaker.

As Johnston and Kaidan pushed their way through the crowd, they heard the man say, “All I’m saying, is that we should need to get organised.” As Mayor and Spectre were getting closer, the bald man got off the fire engine, as he was having problems with the loudspeaker. “I don’t know where the Mayor is, but maybe we should make a plan ourselves.”

“What’s going on here Gray, making speeches, are we?” Mayor Green asked the bald man, who Kaidan saw was wearing a suit. Kaidan could tell from one look that this man could be trouble, he had met such men before. Arrogant, impulsive and a person who can incite a riot with a few words and would undermine everyone’s authority because he wants the power and control for himself.

“With all due respect Mr. Mayor,” Gray began, “we have a missing bus full of children, no police and fireman doing police work.”

“How dare you politicalized this.” began a man from the crowd, but Johnston shook his head as he said, “Eric, Eric.” that was enough for the man to back down.

“I’m not talking to my opponent, but to my Mayor,” Gray told Eric, “I don’t care about the elections, all I care about is survival, as we might be alone here. And so I want to know what my Mayor intends to do about this.” Here many in the crowd started to agree with the man.

“I know we have been through a lot today,” acknowledge Johnston, “but I wanna tell you something. I’ve been to big cities, and been to foreign countries, but I will take the good people...”

“Take the good people of Jericho over any other city, we know Mr. Mayor we’ve heard the speech.” someone in the crowd finished the speech for the Mayor. It would seem that Johnston used this speech often.

“Well, Shep, I hope you don’t think I’ve been asleep at the switch.” the Mayor told the man, “We all know that we’ve been at war since early today, and we have been lucky that we haven’t been attacked. And since we came out of the settlers, I’ve been busy trying to contact the governor or anyone else in power to see what is going on.”

At this the crowd began to murmur, about this and one of them asked, “Yeah, well what if the governor is dead?”

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but it is highly likely that they are.” this came from Kaidan, “The truth is that the government that you know it has been dead for a few months, if not longer, as they went into hiding for one reason or another.”

“Who are you?” asked Gray, as the crowd murmured about the government they had been dead as they knew it for months.

“I’m a Spectre,” Kaidan told him and the rest of the crowd, “and as you know some of my people are already here.”

“Why are you here?” someone in the crowd called out.

“That I don’t know,” Kaidan informed them, “as me and other Spectres been told to come here. When I find out what is going on, and if I’m able to tell you I will.”

“What about the government being dead as we know it?” asked another member of the crowd.

“I just found out today, so I don’t know everything, but the White House has been empty for the last six months or so.” Kaidan informed them all, making them outraged at this, “They only had a few people in there to make it as if everything is alright. So if they went into hiding months ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if others of government done the same, even your governor. So we have no ideas what is going on with the government. So by all rights other than the Spectres here, and the few small towns and villages that weren’t attacked, you are alone. So please calm down, we’ll be doing everything that we can to make sure you and any of the survivors we might find are safe and stay like that.”

“Calm down?” called out a man, “The world has ended as we know it, we just found out that we haven’t had a government for months. And worse of all my boy is still out there, and I don’t know what has happened to him.”

“The Sheriff is out there not only looking for your boy, and the other children, but also MY boy.” Johnston told the man darkly, not liking to be printed that he wasn’t doing anything. There was only so much he could do at the moment. And people began to murmur and begun to ask Kaidan and Johnston.

Before Johnston could clam his town people down, there was a honk of a horn coming from an incoming bus. It was a school bus, and as it pulled up the door opened to reveal an injured man in the driving seat. And the man said, “Help them! Help em’! Get Stacy.”

At this people came in running to the bus, to make sure the children were safe. As this was happening, Kaidan said, “Listen take care of your people, and I’ll see what is happening with mine.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later Spectre.” Johnston said as he went to check on his people.

And with that Kaidan walked to the town hall, and as he got to the doors, the Spectre heard Johnston say, “Hey Shep! You said earlier that you had heard that speech before. Have you ever asked yourself why I say it?” Here Shep shook his head as the Mayor went on to say, “It’s because I happen to trust you people. Cause I love my town. Now sure our world as ended the way we know it, and many of the major towns and cities have been destroyed, and we might be alone. But we’re alive and will, and there might be a few towns and villages still going.

“Now whilst we don’t know what’s what, are we going to use our imaginations to solve problems or cause em? Now we can find a way to get the power back on, we can find out who has survived. If we have to we can fight, we can fight anybody, we can fight all enemies. The only way that’s going to happen is if we work together. Now go on home. We’ll meet ... tomorrow. Town hall.” here the group started to break up, taking their family home, but the Mayor wasn’t finished, as the last thing he said was this, “And folks? Don’t you break my heart again.” And with that the group parted and with a smile, Kaidan entered the Town Hall.