Chapter 22: FBI

We took off and circled for a while as the girls were talking and arguing in the back. We were flying for about an hour when Patricia spoke up.

"She is stubborn, she won't believe," Patricia said.

"Ok, Jenny switch with her, I want to talk to her," I said, so they swapped seats, moving Maxine up front.

"You can't say anything to make me believe this crazy story," she said.

"Oh, I'm not going to say anything except to buckle up, that goes for you in the back too," I said loudly.

After everyone was buckled up, I pulled back on the yoke and headed straight up. These flyers weren't really good for space travel but they worked. They were much to slow for space but would work for show and tell. Maxine was holding her breath as we exited the atmosphere; I headed to the area of the last battle and stopped.

"OK, tell me what you see?" I asked.

"This can't be true, it makes no sense. Why would they do this to us?" she asked.

"Like Pat told you it was pretty much an accident. But everything she told you was true. Ok, we're heading back and we will fly by HQ on the way back."

We re-entered the atmosphere and overflew our HQ; Maxine was pretty amazed at the building and the re-building of the city. We met a few other flyers in the area on patrol and waved to them.

"Ok, I will take the implant if you promise me it in no way controls my actions," she said.

"No, we will not do anything like that to you, it will just monitor you."

"Ok, I'll take one because I'm going to want to know much more."

"Ok, we can take care of that after we land, now I don't want to be crude but there might be another matter that's needs addressing. Do you need to be checked out by a doctor while we here near HQ?" I said looking at her.

She looked curious for a moment then smiled and said, "No I'm fine thanks to you, it never got that far."

"Good, glad to hear it." I said and headed back to the park in Kingman. We arrived a few minutes later and landed in the parking lot. Well, we appeared to have some business; there must be about 40 people here now. After we exited the flyer, it took back off again to circle the city again.

"Jessica, it looks like we have some company," I said.

"Yes, some of these people saw what happened at the house we raided and figured we were good people, so they came on over. Word just seemed to spread from there," she said.

"Well then, I guess we need to raid houses everywhere we go, why don't you gather them up so I can talk to them." I said.

"Ok," Jessica said and went off to gather everyone.

"Ok, everyone thanks for joining us, if all you're interested in is some free food then you are more than welcome to it. We are also looking for citizens for our city and members for our security force. Both of these things are optional and we only take volunteers, if you do volunteer you and your family will be protected. You will also get electricity and other utilities along with food and water. If you just want to move to our city that is fine to but you will be expected to do something. Even if it's going to school to just learn, if you have kids they will of course be taken into consideration, any questions?"

"You said joining is optional right?"

"Yes if you prefer to stay here and live without electricity and run out of food eventually then you may do so."

"How can you be the only one with electricity?"

"That is not important but we are, or I'm at least 99% sure we are."

"How would we get there if we want to go?"

"We would send a plane to the airport for everyone and your belongings."

I finished the discussion with who we were and what we were trying to do. Some people seemed ready to go, some not so much. I know some of them would have done anything for a warm shower and a good meal. I left them and said anyone that wanted to go should be at the airport in two days at noon, the plane would arrive then. Most people started leaving after that, they all took along a supply of rations and each got a book.

"You know we have four more people now traveling with us maybe we should get another vehicle, maybe a big motor home," I said.

"Good idea, why don't you have a flyer and a few drones meet us at our next stop, they could have one ready when we arrive," Patricia said.

"Yes I like that," I said and notified HQ on the com.

"Good, sleeping will be much better now," Patricia said.

We spent the night in Kingman and made a good quantity of supplies to leave behind.

The next morning we were up early for breakfast, I was going to take a dip in the pool but the water looked pretty bad. I guess I will just wait until we get the RV, then we'll get showers from now on.

We took off a bit later and headed east again. I didn't figure on finding much in Williams, it was pretty small. We arrived in Williams about 11:00 and set up camp under the overpass, but I was not sure where the drones were. I called them and they were in Flagstaff. Apparently there were no good RV's in Williams; they were bringing one down when it was ready. We set up camp and sent out the flyer to scout the city, and get us some attention.

"I sure hope it cools off soon, this heat is for the birds," Jenny said.

"Ya, I know but you get used to it," I said.

"Ya-Ya I know, I just hope the RV has a good AC Unit," she said.

We hadn't seen any people yet, but the town was pretty small so I wouldn't be surprised if anyone who had been here ran out of food a while ago. It was going to be a wasted day with no survivors and now it's started to rain, as if we weren't already wet enough. Well free showers I thought as I stripped down to my boxers and stepped from under the overpass. Everyone was just staring at me.

"Well, I need a shower," I said. Unfortunately, the women didn't join me.

I finished my rain shower and jumped in the truck to change. Even after a shower I still felt dirty. I finished getting dressed and went back outside.

"Well, you look much better now," Jenny said.

"I don't feel any better; the shower in the RV is going to be really popular."

I decided to take one of the Strykers on a small patrol and of course, the women joined me. We were gone for a few hours, but we didn't see anything. Every store we passed looked totally ransacked, I guess they just ran out of food. Well, we were not going to have any luck here so we just headed back. I wanted to head to Flagstaff. After we got back, I told everyone to get ready to move out and that everyone here is dead.

"You want to leave anything?" Jessica asked.

"If you have stuff unloaded yes, if not don't worry about it, I want to get there before dark. We can have Buddy hook up the Skydome to our power generator, which should draw attention at night."

After loading a few items we took off, I called ahead to the drones and told them to meet us at the Skydome. It was less than 50 miles to Flagstaff so we made it in just under an hour to the Skydome. I had Jessica run a perimeter check, and we opened the large doors and drove inside. Jessica said there were several doors and gates that had been opened by force.

"Buddy, check the inside, and make sure were alone, if we are; secure all the entrances except the two doors over there. When you're done with that please see to the generator and make sure the external spot lights work," I said. We started unloading food and books, I was pretty sure we would find people here. We unloaded and replicated supplies for the next hour; we had quite a stockpile when Buddy got back. He reported everything was secure and the power was hooked up, I asked him to find the control room and turn on the lights and set the temperature at 75 degrees. It was just before dark when the other drones arrived with our new RV. We all took a tour; it was pretty nice and had been converted like all our other vehicles. There was one good size bed in the back and two smaller ones up front; I was not the one to make sleeping arrangements. After it started to get dark we went outside to check out the lights, well it was lit that's for sure. Anyone miles around would have to see the light. Then there were the spotlights that went up and hit the clouds. Now I was glad it was raining, you could see that from anywhere.

"Well, if there is anyone here and they look outside they won't miss us," I said.

I had hoped there would be enough people to hang out for a few days, I hoped some would go back to our city but that was just my hope. It wasn't more than an hour before the first group showed up, it was being led by the mayor a few city council members and some reserve soldiers. I walked up to them and shook their hands.

"Welcome, I guess you saw our signal. We figured getting the lights on would get attention," I said.

"Who exactly are you?" the mayor asked.

"My name is Justin Lake, since the collapse we have started a new city in California. We have plenty of food and full time electricity; we are on a trip to Washington DC to see what's left or who's left."

"Can you tell us exactly what happened?" a soldier asked.

"Well for now let's just assume the entire power grid collapsed, one of the reactors in California had a meltdown maybe others have too. There was also some type of interference from space that acted like an 'EMP' and fried everything."

"What could have caused that?" the same soldier asked.

"Look son, you are not ready for that answer, let's just say it was nobody on this planet and was not an act of war. It was more an act of stupidity."

"Well in any case, how do we go about getting power back here?" the mayor asked.

"That won't be easy, we don't have enough excess right now to run lines all the way here. My first thought would be to tell you all to move to our city in California. That would be a job, but you would have all the niceties there."

"Son, we have over 900 people here staying at the college in the dorms, how could we possibly move that many?"