As The World Burns (15 page)

"You're not telling her the whole story, Paul," Julie interrupted.

"There's no need to get into all that right now, Julie," Paul said back. "It's fair to say that we've all been through a very rough couple of weeks."

The truth was that there was much he didn't want Samantha to know. They were all in a very fragile state. If she had just a slight indication of what Julie had seen and done, he honestly didn't know how she would respond, or how things could ever go back to how they were. Perhaps those days were long gone.

"I knew I would find you both soon, but I would have never, in a million years, expected to see you at the airport. I thought I was going to have to go all the way back to Pennsylvania." 

"There was a massive evacuation and we had to leave. Colorado was our only option. It was our best chance of finding you."

"And it worked," Julie said, smiling.

"So Pennsylvania got hit? Are you sure? What did you see?" Samantha asked.

Paul cleared his throat, trying to choose his words carefully.

"I saw a mushroom cloud. It was huge, but pretty far away. They said the air had been contaminated."

Samantha covered her face, sobbing.

"I just can't believe it. All those people. All those lives. For what? We have to get back. We have to get back to our home."

"It's not safe right now," Paul said. "We need to lie low, especially during this curfew. I'll find a place to park. We’ll rest then do our best to find some fuel."

"Out here?" Samantha asked.

"Somewhere. We have to or else we'll be walking."

"What are they saying on the news?" Samantha asked.

"That it looks like nuclear war," Paul said, causing Samantha to gasp.

"But the worst is over. We need to put it out of our minds for now. Concentrate on each other and about getting somewhere safe," he added. 

"We could go back to New Haven," Julie said.

"What's New Haven?" Samantha asked.

"The place where Julie and I stayed. The protected neighborhood," Paul answered.

They continued up the winding road and reached a look-out spot to the side where tourists parked to stretch their legs or get pictures. The Malibu pulled to the side and stopped. Its headlights went off with the engine.

"This looks like as good a spot as any," Paul said.

Julie opened her door to observe the radiant night sky.

"It's beautiful," Julie said while walking to the guard rail overlooking the black forest below.

"Julie, get back here," Paul said.

"It's okay," Samantha said with a kiss to Paul's cheek. "She's never seen anything like this before."

Tiny bulbs of stars flickered along an endless ridge or mountains visible in dark shades of deep purple. The air was thick, cool, and refreshing. Julie took a moment to savor the silence, as Paul and Samantha approached her.

"Hopefully they don't send the cavalry after us," Paul said. "I'm surprised we don't see any helicopters yet."

"Let's not worry about any of that right now," Samantha said. She placed her hands on Julie's shoulders. In return, Julie moved her hand to touch her mother's. Paul put his arm around Samantha and squeezed her gently as they watched the still beauty of an untouched place where such peace was still possible.

After star gazing, the family headed back to the car where Paul said they would sleep for the night. Julie lied in the back and quickly fell asleep. It had been an exhausting day for her, more so than usual. Up front, Paul held Samantha in his arms as she told her story.

"I went to my hotel room after they evacuated the convention center. I met Senator Bryant sometime before. He gave me his card."

"That's the one we found in your hotel room. That's why we went to the airport," Paul said.

"I remember I had this panic attack, I called him for help, I didn't know what else to do. I didn't even think he would remember me, but he did. Next thing I knew, I woke in a place that had no windows or doors. It was like being in the inside of a vault. A place underground with all his strange people. He wouldn't let me leave."

"Did he ever hurt you?" Paul asked with a sickness growing in his stomach.

Samantha moved her head up from his chest to look up at his face.

"No. He never hurt me, or touched me or anything you might be thinking. The last night I was there, he was being very pushy. I..."

Samantha paused.

"I hit him over the head with a bottle of champagne and knocked him unconscious."

Paul was speechless.

"I had to escape. I couldn't spend another day down there. Not with you and Julie out here looking for me. On his desk, he had a laptop. I want you to take a look at it. A lot of the files appear encrypted, but there's serious evidence of Bryant's involvement with the bombs," Samantha continued.

Paul looked flush with shock. Who was this woman speaking to him?

"Samantha, that's absurd! You mean to tell me that you think Senator Bryant is going to come after us because you took his laptop?"

Samantha moved away from Paul, clutched the laptop with both hands, and held it up.

"
This
laptop has everything on it. This is the only leverage we have. These people helped murder millions of people already, what makes you think they're going to care about three more?"

Paul attempted to calm Samantha by placing his hand on her leg. She was still wearing the cocktail dress and in desperate need of normal clothes.

"I don't know where this is all coming from. This conspiracy of yours, but if it makes you feel better, I'll take a look at the files."

She rested the laptop down on the seat next to her and leaned in closer to Paul.

"They said there's supposed to be another attack, Paul. A bomb so big that it could wipe out what's left of the entire country--"

"Oh, honey, that's not even possible. No such bomb exists," Paul interrupted.

"Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but we can't risk it. We can't just let it happen. How can we even try to pick up the pieces knowing that something like that may happen?"

"There has to be an explanation of the files on Bryant's laptop. Maybe he's investigating it."

"The only thing he's investigating is where he can find the next bottle of champagne," Samantha said.

Paul gave her a perplexed look, then stared ahead.

"I--" he began.

"Julie's asleep, we have plenty of time. Just give the files a look, it's all I ask," Samantha said. She grabbed the machine and placed it onto Paul's lap. He looked up at her, confused

"Please," she said.

"Anything for you, baby," Paul said. 

He flipped the laptop screen up and turned it on.

"I'll take a look real quick, and then we'll get some rest."

One he started, Paul was up for hours opening file after file of incriminating evidence against Senator Bryant. He bypassed many of the document encryptions using his most basic knowledge of computer hacking from his college days. He said very little, as Samantha stared at the screen with him. Senator Bryant involvement in the conspiracy seemed indisputable. After reading through his documents and emails, Samantha asked him if taking the laptop had been worth it.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't know if there's anything that we can do to stop this thing."

With such information, there was no doubt that Senator Bryant was going to come after them. They had to keep moving, but where?

"No, we need to rest," Paul said. "Bryant's not going to find us out here."

"Can we give it to the media? Someone? We have to let everyone know about this," Samantha said.

"It's hard to say, it looks as if the state is running the media now. Those are Bryant's people. I know a guy who does a radio show. Or at least he did before. Maybe he can help us. He's the one who told us to go to the airport. Said a secret society was living underground. He also made claims about Bryant’s involvement in this conspiracy," Paul said.

"Well, sounds like he wasn't that much off," Samantha replied.

Paul rubbed the sides of his head.

"This is just too much to take in. If Bryant gets his way we're talking a worldwide nuclear genocide. My God, think about Julie. Think about her future. Either these documents hold the key to who's behind this or they're just wild ambitions on part of the Senator."

"What are we going to do with it? I'm so scared," Samantha said, tightly wrapping her arms around Paul.

Paul shut the laptop and held Samantha just as tight.

"We're going to stay just like this, for as long as we have left," he said.

There was so much to wrap his head around that Paul wasn't even sure where to start.

For starters, he read several communication transcripts between Bryant and unnamed sources throughout the entire world. He read documents that listed times, dates, and sizes of impact. He read time lines that stretched for weeks, each step meticulously crafted by Bryant and those in his organization. They weren't all American, and the conspiracy stretched to persons of several nations. They had no national sponsorship, but they were supposedly among some of the most powerful people around the world.

Their plan was to trigger a series of nuclear attacks, thus creating enough death, destruction, pandemonium, and chaos to destabilize every nation of the world into collapse. That was their plan. In Bryant's notes, they were simply referred to as "The Masterminds," an elite group of conspirators that looked to establish a one-world order. It sounded very conspiracy theorist minded to Paul. He had no idea whether to believe what he was reading, to actually consider a group of people capable of doing such a thing. The mushroom cloud he saw was no theory, nor was the massive looting, lack of fuel, and sudden collapse of infrastructures in many neighboring states. If these occurrences weren't linked to the Bryant's group, then it was an amazing coincidence.

Paul read documents that laid out the plan in very simple fashion. One graph gave steps in establishing a new civilization based off their principles of destabilization to a powerful one-world government.

Before the Bomb:

Phase One: Assist in arming rogue elements with tools needed to send initial "shock wave."

Phase Two: Identify strategic areas that indicate a certain missile range from an adversary country across Atlantic.

Phase Three: Heavily monitor rogue element and ensure bombs are detonated. After mission is complete, capture, detain, and dispose of terrorist group, allowing one single cell unit to remain with mega-bomb. *Mega-bomb is only deployed as last defense measure.

After the Bomb:

Phase One: Eliminate means to purchase necessities through currency

Phase Two: Eliminate the very availability of necessities i.e. food, water, fuel 

Phase Three: Disable power systems, electronic grids, mobility, and self-sufficiency   

Phase Four: Relocate and re-populate areas under martial law

Phase Five: Bring back minimum amount of power functionality to establish normalcy.

Phase Six: Infiltrate all media signals, military, law enforcement personnel. Begin gradual push from: all states, all nations to one state, one nation.

Phase Seven: Prospects of mega-bomb threat keeps population fearful, dependent, under control.  

Phase Eight: Once all pieces in place, intercept mega-bomb from rouge group, sparing humanity. Declare victory in the age of a new order. 

The steps had been broken down as if they were a Power Point slide show. From what Paul could gather Bryant had been an agent. He had been groomed for politics at a very young age for the express purpose of assisting with the conspiracy plot explained in detail on his laptop. The documents read like madness. It gave the specific locations of the attacks, staring with the Wall Street Bombing. The plan was to take no less than a year to establish a new order of government. A new society. Something that didn't mirror the old ways in any type of fashion.

"What kind of nightmare are they dreaming of here?" Paul asked confoundedly.

"How can they think something like this would work? How could anyone break down mass murder into little Power Point steps?" Samantha asked.

"They're insane," Paul said after a thought. "They're insane, but they've got the power to do something like this."

It looked as though the plan was nearing completion despite any interception of a megabomb. By Paul's estimates, they were at phase seven of the plan. Or at least getting close. 

"I don't know what else we can do," Paul said.