Outside Looking in

Year 2042

To the outside world, looking in, it was much as the Governor said it would be. The local, national guard had secured the outer perimeter of the Compound. Not against the wire but about two kicks out, that is to say, two kilometers.

The Army out of Ft. Hood had sent brigades from the First Cav and the Third Armor Div. There was the usual shoving match as to who was in charge. The national guard was told it was to direct civilian traffic. No surprise there. The police were told to take a hike.

Then there was the FBI, CIA, NCI, heck, the whole alphabet soup. All clamoring saying, they were in charge. That is to say, nobody was, or else at least it hadn’t been determined yet.

That POTUS was supposedly in charge, but who was pulling his strings? For the time being, those within the Compound were safe. The last of the stragglers were making their way in, and by the time the Air Force was called in to stop that it was too late, they were all back.

Now there was the problem of the Army being used on US soil against American civilians. It was spun that we were all part of a terrorist organization.

Conspiracy theorists who had seemed to have taken over mainstream media were having a field day. Competing with each other to manufacture the most outlandish conspiracy about the Compound and the people within it.

The Kansas Governor had called it, and he had been arrested after warning me. Charged with aiding and abetting a terrorist organization.

The power plants I had installed in Puerto Rico and locally within the state were being requisitioned or simply confiscated in the name of National Security. As a result, those towns now found themselves without power, and the Co-Ops were holding them ransom until deposits were paid to reconnect power. People were angry and didn’t know who to blame.

The handwriting was on the wall.

Then in space, a large planetoid or some object appeared over the Compound. However, when cameras were put on it, it could be seen to be clearly artificial. The President and his advisers seeing this ordered an immediate attack on the Compound, believing it to be directly connected to it.

There was confusion as the object in the sky was clearly visible to anyone on the ground. Was it a doomsday weapon, was it going to attack? The President repeated his order, and the Army started to press in.

Before they had gotten very far, a vast dust storm formed over the Compound, obscuring everything. It was like a massive vortex, sucking whatever was loose into the air and the Compound’s area.

One of the air force jets that had been flying close was caught up in it. Its engines smothered with dust; the pilot was forced to bail out. The unmanned drones that had been observing were also sucked into the maelstrom. Those armored vehicles closest to the Compound were also buffeted by the incoming winds.

When the winds settled and the dust cleared, the Compex towers were gone. In fact, everything was gone. It was as if nothing had been there before. Drones and a helicopter were sent in to investigate. The helicopter wasn’t allowed to land. Reporting, well reporting that there was nothing to report. There was nothing there.

The attack was called off; an unmanned bomb unit was sent into the area. It was to examine what, if anything, was left behind.

It soon became apparent that the dust had covered everything, but as the dust was disturbed. It was lifeless grey earth that was revealed under it.

The air quality checked out, the was no radioactivity. A crew of men in hazmat suits was then sent in. They confirmed that it was a dull, lifeless grey earth under the dust. Samples were taken and sent to a lab.

The results took longer than anyone thought. They were examined multiple times. Finally, the President and his advisors were the first to be notified. ‘Moon Rock’ as impossible as it seemed, it was confirmed that it was moon rock, the entire area where the Compound once stood was moon rock. How deep? It was not known.

Core samples were taken, and everywhere it was the same. The video recordings were examined frame by frame. What was discovered was just before the dust storm appeared, there seemed to be a simmering dome formed over the Compound, then the whole thing vanished, and then the dust storm appeared, obscuring everything from that point on.

As pointless as it seemed, a world search was conducted with the hope that the Compound had simply moved. It wasn’t found.