Emperor of a Dead World (22 page)

“I designed it based on the MQ-9 Reaper. It is a hunter killer just like mine. What do you think?”

“Does it fly?” Brad asked.

“Of course it does,” Danny replied looking at Brad as if he was a fool.

“And the missiles fire?” he pressed.

“Sometimes they do,” Danny said a little less arrogantly. “They still need a little work but I have shot off a couple and I even hit one of those zombie things once,” he added with pride. “After I perfect the missiles I intend on making bombs.”

“Bombs,” Lisa exclaimed.

“Yeah,” he smiled. “I have been experimenting with a couple of the chemical engineers. One of my bombs uses gunpowder in a canister. The bomb lands nose first and the friction of the impact ignites the powder.

“Does that really work?” Brad asked.

“Like I said, I am still experimenting. The chemical boys are working out a couple of other solutions. Once we get it right, Dennis will follow in another UAV and video me blowing things up. It will be awesome.”

“Most likely, the thing will explode and blow off the wing before he even releases it,” a pudgy man of about twenty-two laughed as he approached. “But I will get great video of the crash. Hi, I’m Dennis,” he said as he shook Brad’s hand and checked out Lisa while Danny frowned at him.

“Nice to meet you,” Brad replied. “So you are the video guy?”

“Among other things,” Dennis shrugged.

“Do you have any video you can show me?”

“Do I have video,” Dennis laughed. “Come right this way.” He led them over to a thirty-two inch computer monitor and said, “Check this out.” He double clicked an icon and started a movie.

Lisa gasped and Brad stood with his mouth hanging open. Hundreds of creatures were walking around staring up into the sky.

Where is this?” Brad asked.

“Oakland, about a month ago,” Dennis replied.

“What are they all looking at?” Lisa asked.

“Us,” Dennis laughed. “Danny’s drone is a little noisy.”

“It was a prototype, give me a break. The new ones are a lot quieter.”

“Not really,” Dennis smirked.

“How many do you have?” Brad asked.

“Four,” Danny said.

“Three,” Dennis corrected him. “You crashed one.”

“I still have it and it is almost ready to fly again.”

“Do you have any video of Sacramento?” Brad interrupted.

Dennis looked over the icons then clicked one that said capital. When the movie started Brad’s heart sank. Thousands of creatures were milling around.

“How long ago,” Brad asked.

Dennis looked at the screen. “Almost three weeks.”

Brad reflected for a moment then asked, “Do you have to control the drones from here?”

“What do you mean?” Danny asked. “Where else would I control them from?”

“A vehicle,” Brad replied.

“Why would I want to do that? It is much safer here.”

“Just technically speaking,” Brad pressed.

“Sure,” Danny relented. “I control everything from either my laptop or my tablet. I prefer the laptop because the tablet is only good if you have line-of-sight on the drone. Other than that, I just need a power source and a good antenna. Why do you ask?”

“I want one,” Brad smiled.

Danny exchanged glances with Dennis and Dr. Moreau. “Why do you want one?”

“Like you just said, it is dangerous out there. I could use the drone for surveillance so I would know if an area is safe before I go there.”

“Where are you going?”

“Back to Long Beach,” Brad shrugged.

“You’re crazy man. Stay here where it is safe.”

“I have to go back. I have friends there.”

“I don’t know man. I have put a lot of hard work into these things.”

“Please,” Lisa begged.

Danny looked at her cute smile but did not relent.

“Give him one Danny,” Dennis prodded. “He can have the one you crashed.”

“I didn’t crash it. The battery ran out and it dropped.”

“You crashed it because you don’t know how to fly.”

“It was the battery,” Danny flashed.

“There was nothing wrong with the battery until you broke it when you crashed.”

“You can’t prove it was not the battery.”

“You can’t prove it was.”

“Gentlemen please, we have guests,” Dr. Moreau interrupted.

Danny looked at the floor and frowned.

“Danny,” Dr. Moreau insisted. “Fix the one that failed and give him that one. You still have three newer ones.”

Danny looked up and crossed his arms.

“We need to expand and we can use their help,” the Doctor pressed.

“Give it to him Danny,” Dennis joined in. “It is only a little over three hundred miles to Long Beach by air. If we increase the signal strength of the antenna, you can watch everything he does. You can even control it from here if you want. I would not try that though. You will probably just crash it again.”

“Forget the last part Danny,” Dr. Moreau said as he cast a glance at Dennis. “Think of the data you will collect from two aircraft in two separate locations.”

“Fine,” Danny sighed. “I will set you up with a laptop and an antenna. How do you intend on transporting it?”

“You need a truck,” Dennis said. “We have a few so you can take one. Danny will set up the electronics and I will show you how to R&R the wings.”

“R&R,” Lisa asked.

“Remove and replace. It is easy and you will need to do this to transport it.”

“I will give you a flight lesson,” Danny said.

“Better let me do that,” Dennis chuckled.

Danny cast Dennis a dirty look.

“You are going to be busy getting the drone ready,” Dennis shrugged.

Danny faced away and hit the spacebar on a laptop computer. A fifty-inch LCD monitor came to life. On the screen was a drone. Danny punched something into the laptop and the engine started. He then grabbed a joystick and the plane took off.

“Awesome,” Brad exclaimed.

Dennis went to another control and followed the plane with a camera on the roof. After circling the building and doing a loop, Danny brought the plane in for a perfect landing. He then smirked at Dennis.

“You got lucky,” Dennis chuckled.

“Go ahead and teach him,” Danny said as he walked off, “I have things to do.”

“Have a seat,” Dennis said to Brad. “On the laptop screen you can see the view from the camera mounted under the nose of the aircraft. On the large screen, I have set the camera for wide-angle viewing. As long as you stay out front, you can see everything as if you were outside. If I hit this button,” Dennis explained,” the screen shows four views from cameras around the building. This button shows twelve views but that can be a little confusing. After a while, you will fly using only the view from the aircraft. It will almost feel like you are actually inside the thing.”

He went on to explain how to control the UAV. Once he had shown Brad how everything worked, he took the drone up and played with it for about twenty-five minutes before he landed and let Brad take the controls. To be safe, Dennis hooked up a secondary control so he could take over if necessary.

Brad grabbed the control with excitement then took a deep breath, revved up the engine and pushed the control forward. The plane took off, missed a tree by two inches and headed straight for a building. Dennis took over.

“Did Danny already show you how to fly,” he laughed as he banked around sharply and missed the wall.

“Let me have it,” Brad said. “Now that it is up I will fly around and get used to it for a while.”

Dennis reluctantly gave up control.

Brad flew around for several minutes practicing turns and going up and down before he felt ready to land.

“Give it a try over there where there aren’t any buildings or trees,” Dennis suggested. “Just go down easy and don’t worry, I have the other control.”

The landing was a little ruff but successful.

“You did it,” Lisa shrieked.

“Do you want to try,” Dennis asked.

“No way, Danny would kill me if I crashed,” she replied as she backed away.

“I need to do this a few more times,” Brad insisted. “I cannot afford to crash when I am out on my own.”

“Take her up,” Dennis shrugged.

About two hours later Brad was still practicing when something flew past his drone. “What was that,” he exclaimed.

“Danny has the other drone working,” Dennis yawned. He was barely paying attention to Brad anymore. “Don’t be surprised if he tries to shoot you down.”

“Do you think he will?”

“I think he will try but I don’t think he will succeed.”

Danny came back into view on the large screen and held his drone about a foot over Brad’s plane.

“Not bad,” Brad said with admiration.

“That’s easy to do,” Dennis replied.

Brad shook his head and kept his eye on the planes.

Suddenly Danny veered sharply to the right. Dennis grabbed the camera control and followed him as he brought the drone down to about twenty feet and fired a shot that struck a creature in the head. The thing dropped.

“Awesome,” Brad exclaimed.

“Watch out,” Dennis cried as he grabbed the control and pulled up just before Brad crashed. “Better bring her home buddy.”

Brad took control then circled around and did an adequate landing.

After they shut down the drone, Danny walked in with a big smile. “Did you see that? I got him right in the head.”

“What are you talking about?” Dennis asked, feigning ignorance.

“We saw it,” Brad spoke up. “It was awesome.”

“Yeah, you are a really good shot,” Lisa agreed.

Danny smiled and soaked up the praise.

“That plane is going to be mine, right?” Brad asked, hoping to cash in on Danny’s high spirits.

Danny looked into the faces of the others as they anxiously waited for his reply and merely shrugged. He was not anxious to give up his plane after having just repaired it and having it shoot so accurately.

“Can I give it a try?” Brad pressed.

“Sure,” Danny relented, “I guess I can teach you how to shoot.”

“Awesome,” Brad said as he rubbed his hands together.

This drone handled similar to the other with the exception that Danny had made a program change and now you could push Ctrl M and crosshairs would pop up on the screen. The missile would fire with the trigger on the joystick only after first pressing Ctrl M. After doing a couple of flybys, Brad took a shot and hit a creature in the shoulder.

“Not bad,” Danny congratulated him. “A little more practice and you will be pretty good at this.”

“How many missiles do I have left?”

“Bottom left,” Danny replied.

“It says two.”

“Then you better make them count.”

After three more passes, Brad shot one in the face.

“Excellent,” Danny cheered.

The next shot missed completely because Brad was over confident.

“Take your time with every shot,” Danny said. “You will get better.”

“You guys need to wind it up,” Dr. Moreau said as he entered the room. He had left a couple of hours earlier. “You are starting to attract attention to yourselves.”

Dennis scanned the area with the roof-cam and saw several creatures approaching. “That’s it for today,” he agreed.

Brad brought the drone in for a landing and powered it down.

“Are you enjoying yourself,” Dr. Moreau asked Brad.

“Yes, I love these drones. They will come in very handy.

“I think you should stay here for a while,” the doctor suggested. “You need more practice with the drones and you should rest before you begin the dangerous drive home.

“If he keeps practicing wont that attract more monsters,” Lisa asked.

“We will practice further from the building,” Danny assured her. ”Dennis can follow with the drone-cam so we will be able to watch his progress.”

“What do you say?” the doctor pressed.

“Maybe for a few days,” Brad relented. “I would like to talk to the people that have been to Sacramento.”

Dr. Moreau gave Brad and Lisa a tour and showed everyone the picture of Brad’s parents. Unfortunately, no one had seen them. After this, he set them up in a couple of rooms.

Over the next few months, they stayed at the campus while Brad practiced flying the drone. He also helped on the supply runs and showed everyone his secret of how to walk amongst the creatures. Once they knew how to blend in, he showed them his fighting techniques. Though there were over four hundred people at the campus, he only found about sixty men that he considered able-bodied fighters. Of course, he warned them that they should avoid, rather than fight, the faster creatures.