Age of Mystics (Saga of Mystics Book 1) (2 page)

Emma drove up the long winding road to what euphemistically was just called “the Mountain”, but was known throughout the world as the military base NORAD, built inside Cheyenne Mountain on the southwest side of Colorado Springs. The heat was a bit much right now, and it hit her as she rolled down her window to give the guard her ID.

“Good afternoon, Dr. Pare,” the guard said. Though she had worked here for two years and had come just about every day, they were a secure base in the truest sense and the guards went through protocol to check her in. They knew her well, but these were professionals and they did their job. After receiving her ID back, she pulled into the parking spot she had pulled in to so many times before, got out and began to unload some plants from her trunk.

“What kind of greens you got today, Doc?” said a tech that walked by. “You stocking up on weed for the end of time?”

Dr. Emma Pare just laughed. “That is something I should consider, I guess. Right now, I just need to make sure we have every plant in the lab.”

Emma was a renowned botanist. She was a government contractor and most people assumed she was doing genetic experiments with the plants, but her job was much simpler and much more serious than that. Dr. Pare’s top secret job was to repopulate the earth with plants in the case of a thermonuclear war, or a meteor strike, or any other extinction level event. As such, she had to continually check on plants and replace those that refused to grow in the conditions provided. Most people heard Dr. Pare and confused her with her deceased husband Mark Pare, a geneticist who was best known for his work on the human genome project. Since they were both Dr. Pare, she understood the confusion. It had been three years since he passed and Emma’s thoughts drifted to him at least every hour or so. Their love had been a deep and lasting one, unchecked by the stumbles that many marriages suffered. She wouldn’t have liked anyone to find out, but when it was just her and her plants, she sometimes talked to Mark as if he were there. She missed him greatly.

Emma had to present her ID again to get past the huge door and into the facility, then down two floors, across an entire floor and up three floors into the Mountain to her lab. She was well-liked and was greeted by a steady flow of acquaintances as she made her way through the maze of passages to her place within the giant facility. She had two labs really, one was the main lab, a huge room with watering features, misters, UV lamps and every conceivable plant and the other was up another two floors into an exterior concrete section with two one foot holes that allowed air and light into a medium-sized garden. It was to this area that she brought her plants today.

The nature of the extinction level event could not be known, since it was hypothetical, so they had allowed her to maintain the two different environments. However, due to the nature of the facility, the “outdoor” garden had two solid feet of concrete on all sides, as well as the top and the bottom. The air/light openings also had steel bars that ran through them that would not allow anything larger than a mouse through. Emma had once mused that it would take years for someone to break through, but the truth is that she didn’t really even know where on the mountain this garden came out. One could not make heads nor tails of location by looking out the holes, and talking about such things was a red flag to base security, so she never asked. After planting the specimens she had brought for the day, she did what she always did. She pulled out her tools, began her work in the middle of the garden, and thought of Mark. Then she began her conversation with him by telling him about her day.

Ronnie Jones had been everything. He had been a thief, a scammer, an outlaw biker, and now he was a drug dealer. Ronnie supplied the entirety of Southern Colorado with Meth. From his house on the south of town, he oversaw the production and distribution of product for a cartel that included his biker brothers, but was mostly a subordinate enterprise of the Mexican drug lords. Ronnie was good at what he did, and his life showed it. He did what, and who, he wanted. He was sanctioned to kill anyone that got in his way, but Ronnie was smart enough to not pull the trigger himself. He had more than thirty people who worked directly for him, and he was feared throughout the southern part of the state. Ronnie sold the best shit available, pure high, and he worked it like the multi-million-dollar business that it was.

On this blistering hot day, he had just come from a meeting with his supplier. This new batch was supposed to be amazing, but Ronnie had never used, and would never use, any of his product. He was careful and checked to be sure no one was watching as he opened a panel in his dining room that hid a storage spot for his dope. He packed pounds of it into the wall before locking it up. Ronnie didn’t like having product on hand. For one thing, it did him no good in his wall, instead of being sold on the street. Secondly, it was the time he was most vulnerable to the cops or someone coming to rip him off. It was also the only time he carried a loaded firearm on his person. Ronnie made sure his Glock was ready to go when he heard the sound of someone walking up his steps. A moment later, there was a light tap on the door.

Ronnie opened the front door to see Charlene, a local girl from down the street. She was a case that proved all too well why Ronnie’s product was bad. She had been a gorgeous High School cheerleader the year before and had been to a party that Ronnie’s boys had provided the product for. After bad choices, and progressive use, Char was a far too skinny girl with bad teeth and aggressive acne, who was known for her willingness to put out for a hit. Ronnie knew why she was there.

“Not tonight, Charlene,” he said as he started to close the door.

She blocked it with her foot. “No wait,” she pleaded, “my friend here is looking to score.”

Ronnie opened the door a little bit more and saw the young girl standing behind Char, she had to be barely eighteen, and she was hot. Ronnie opened the door wide and talked directly to the girl. “You better have cash, because I don’t take layaway.”

The girl looked at Charlene and then back at Ronnie. “Do you take barter?” she asked and pulled her top up to show her perky little breasts with no bra on.

Ronnie thought for a quick minute, stepped out and looked up and down the street, but no cops were there. He walked back and grabbed the girl by the hair. “If you do well, you will get the shit for free” and he shoved her into the house. Charlene smiled, showing her messed up teeth and ran inside also. Ronnie took one more look around and walked into his house, locking the door behind him. He knew the way this night would play out; it would be like all the other nights played out with all the other girls. He would make sure she was hooked, and then get her to do things she never thought she would do. It was the power that got him off, and he planned to work that power tonight.

DAY ONE

“People are bright, but when push comes to shove, people will look out for themselves. It is the natural order of things.”

-
Social Chaos
, Kimberly Evanston

Adam saw Calvin walk in and was instantly happy to have his old leader around. He hurried to the front of the restaurant and, grabbing a menu for him, seated him in a small booth away from the rest of the patrons, where he felt they could talk without being bothered. They hadn’t even begun to chat when one of the servers, a gal in her mid-twenties named Erica, came over to get them started with a meal. After she left to put their order in, it was time to catch up.

“How have you been, kid?” Cal started, “Are you liking the job? The civilian life?”

Adam just grinned, no one but Calvin Ward called him kid. He was in his mid-thirties. “The job is okay, though probably not for me long term. The civilian life is definitely for me long term.” They both laughed at this. “What about you? How are Kate and the kids?”

“Well, Kyle moved in with some friends, and he is at the community college. Natalee is in her senior year, and whatever you would normally expect from a girl of that age, that is pretty much who she is. Ted and Kayla just moved to town, he helped me with the opening of a dojo in the forest. You should go see him, he would love to catch up. He is finishing up his career at Carson.”

Adam smiled. “I hope your dojo is better than the shit show that the Major runs on base. I stopped in there on accident and thought I was going to lose it. I heard he opened one downtown as well.” The Major was their former Executive Officer of the battalion in Iraq. He had been directly responsible for Cal’s leaving the army, and was the type of person who was scary when in power. Fiercely territorial, full of himself and a bigot as well, Major Eric Fine was everyone’s least favorite person they had ever served with. Most people knew it was worse for Cal and Ted, because they were known martial artists. Somehow, this brought on the Major’s disdain. The Major treated their accomplishments, their training, their martial art and their leadership with the upmost disdain. He did so in front of everyone, all of the time. While Cal was the best leader Adam had ever seen, The Major was the worst, except possibly for Sergeant Meyer. He also insisted everyone call him “The Major” which was obnoxious in the extreme.

Cal did not take the bait to talk shit about the man though. “I had heard he was still at Fort Carson, and still a Major, but hadn’t had the pleasure of crossing paths with him.”

Adam was about to say something snarky about the use of the word pleasure, but the power in the building suddenly went out. Adam looked around. He had been trained in what to do with power outages, as there were some things that became fairly dangerous in a restaurant with no power. “I guess I better go deal with that. Be right back.”

There were standard procedures to follow in the case of a power outage, thinking back on that training, Adam went to begin those procedures. “Hey guys,” he yelled back to the kitchen, “Let’s turn the gas off and stay clear of the hot oil. Actually, as soon as you turn it off, let’s just sit out front and wait for the power to come back on.” He opened the office door, but it was pitch dark inside. “Does anyone have one of those flashlight apps on their phones? I can’t see shit in here.”

One of the waiters said, “Hey, my phone isn’t working.” This was followed by a cascade of exclamations as each person realized that their phone was also not working. It is an amazing thing how much faith society places in the constant stability of technology. A minute without their cell phones and people lose all semblance of composure.

A bartender screamed out about accidents at the intersection right outside. Adam looked out the front windows at pile ups on the road.
Wow,
he thought,
the power must be out at the lights too.
Adam checked with a few people then grabbed his phone out of the office and found that it also was not working at all. He had been without worse things than a cell phone in his life, and adaptability was an asset. He walked back out to where his friend was. Calvin was standing up, his dead phone in his hand.

Calvin turned toward him. “Adam, you need to get everyone out of here. The only thing I know that can cause widespread loss of electronic use is an electromagnetic pulse. I don’t think even the largest pulse would cause that though.” He pointed out the window.

Adam turned to look and saw the cars stopped out on the street and people getting out of them with looks of confusion, and some injuries. Adam looked up and down the usually busy street and nothing was moving, no car, no truck, no motor vehicle of any kind. The traffic lights seemed completely off. He heard Calvin say in a low voice behind him, “This won’t be fixed today. These people need to start heading home.”

Adam nodded and headed back into the employee area. He trusted Cal implicitly and acted on his friend’s suggestion. “Okay guys, I don’t think this is going to end soon. It looks like a major power outage. Let’s get everyone out and you can all go home.” The staff loved that idea so much that they jumped right in to get everyone out. Within ten minutes, all of the patrons except Cal, and all of the staff had left. As Adam locked the front door, Cal walked up.

“Kyle works not far from here at that big sporting goods store,” he said, talking about his oldest child, “I am going to see if he is working and then make sure that Kate and Nat are okay.”

Adam nodded. “How are you going to get there, it doesn’t look like cars are working.”

Cal smiled a warm and reassuring smile. “I am going to walk, kid. I seem to remember doing a lot of walking back in the day. Once a soldier, always a soldier. You want to join?”

Adam thought about it for a minute and had no real reason not to. “Sure, Sergeant, I am on your six.” They both smiled and left the building. Just outside, they were confronted with the staff and the customers who had just left. Everyone was pretty upset, and some were heading back like they wanted to get back in the restaurant.

Ellen Harris, one of the servers, trotted toward them and Erica was right behind her. “Our cars don’t work. How are we supposed to get home?”

Adam surveyed the parking lot. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but walk. We are going north, walking, if anyone wants to join. I have always found that there is something about walking in a group that makes it easier. Any of you need to head north?” The only ones that were headed north were Ellen and Erica. Some people headed off in different directions, some just stayed put, hoping for a change of circumstances. The two servers, as well as Adam and Cal, walked north to go to the sporting store. It was only about two long blocks up the road. The girls stuck together, and Adam walked next to Cal. They took it slow, like they had learned in the sand. Don’t overexert yourself in the heat, it saps your energy and slows you down anyway. You might as well take it easy and get to your destination with a little energy left.