Midknight, p.6
Midknight, page 6
“What do they want? World power? Money?”
John D'Angelo shook his head. “No, just the opposite. They want chaos and anarchy. Death and destruction. These individuals want nothing more than to see the world burn.”
There was a collective gasp from the crowd.
“You are probably wondering why nothing was done to prevent this. The best answer that I can give you is that the people responsible were everywhere all around us, yet nowhere to be found. Certain individuals have been conditioned for years through your social media and other various outlets and when these groups felt the moment was right, they radicalized an army around the world that consists of everyday common people that have had their violent tendencies exploited. These radical groups seek to disrupt society with the power outages and communications blackouts. They wish to confuse and divide you all until you eventually turn on each other making their job easier. The least amount of resistance that they encounter makes it easier for them to achieve their goal of global annihilation. Divide and conquer until the way of life that you used to know is obliterated forever. The members of these groups consist of discontents who have become disenchanted with the world around us. They have been promised a new world order where they will not be considered outcasts or the bane of society as they have been led to believe. Many do not even realize that they are being manipulated and will probably never know what is happening to them. They are beyond reason, puppets on a string being controlled to do the bidding of those who masterminded the attacks.”
Beau could attest to this as he had witnessed firsthand what these people were capable when he encountered them in Southby.... the city maintenance worker, the man in his pajamas and even the man in the business suit. All had been aggressive in nature, acting beyond reason.
“What are the governments doing to stop these groups? Where’s the military?” someone asked from the crowd.
“I'm afraid that many governments in the underdeveloped countries are already on the verge of collapse. Our government is doing what it can, but they are having difficulty fighting a faceless enemy. They're doing their best to restore the power and order again, but with the lines of communication cut, they have their hands full. The military has been deployed, but they cannot be everywhere all at once. From what we have learned, these radical groups are targeting major cities and larger centres first. Their goal right now is to decimate the areas with the greatest population. With the military spread out so thin, the plan is to eventually overwhelm it until there is no more resistance.”
“If that happens, then what happens to.... us?”
“If the armies fail and the cities fall, these radical groups will not be content to stop there. They will continue to move forward across the country until they have achieved their ultimate goal.... the destruction of all mankind.”
“Why are they doing this? What do they have to gain by wiping out everyone? Where can we go for safety?”
“I don't know exactly why they're doing this. Their hearts are filled with hatred, I suppose. In regard to where you can find safety, there is nowhere else to go. From what I understand, several members of your community have gone to find loved ones or seek safety elsewhere and haven’t been heard from since. The best piece of advice that I can give you all is to stay here in Paradise Flats and prepare yourselves for the worst. If you go out on your own, you will be hunted down and slaughtered. There is strength in numbers here.
From what I understand, the officials here have already taken the necessary precautions in the event that something like this should ever happen. There are generators in place to provide temporary power on a schedule that will be determined here tonight. Your town also has the good fortune of having its own wells, so a shortage of clean water should not be an issue here. All in all, you are quite fortunate to have these amenities. Many other communities are not so lucky.
Despite this, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that everything will be a walk in the park. If you choose to stay here in Paradise Flats, it will be by no means easy, but you will have a better chance of survival here than you will out there. You must band together. What you're experiencing now may be just the beginning. Things could get much worse before they ever get any better.... if they ever do at all.”
“Surely, someone will come to help us, won't they?”
John D'Angelo shook his head. “I'm afraid not. There is no one else. You are on your own here. I'm not saying this just to frighten you.... I'm telling you this to prepare you for the inevitable. No one is going to come to your rescue. If you are to survive this, you will have to rely on one another. Your family, your friends, your neighbors. You will have to adapt to a new way of life and assume a simpler way to survive. It won't be easy.... but if you all come together to face the challenges before you, there's a better chance of surviving this. That being said, no one is going to stop you if you do want to try your luck elsewhere. However, if you do decide to stay, many preparations are going to be needed, so I will turn the podium back over to my colleagues here. They have a plan in place to help you...a brilliant strategy devised to protect you, but it's going to take your utmost cooperation and determination to make it succeed. Trust in these individuals. Trust in one other. I will be here to help and assist all of you for the foreseeable future as best as I can.”
When the meeting ended two hours later, many of those gathered remained inside the arena. Some wanted more information from the emergency planning committee. Others were hesitant to leave the safe, illuminated confines of the Civic Centre and enter out into the darkness of the night to the uncertainty that awaited them there. The majority of those gathered took it as an opportunity to visit one another after being confined to their homes for the past few days. It was a chance to socialize with one another in spite of what the future might bring.
As Beau and Lauren made their way through the crowd, they wandered past where John D'Angelo was answering questions from several concerned citizens. A group was gathered around him seeking information and whatever advice he had to offer. He was patiently providing what answers he could when Beau glanced over in his direction. John D'Angelo turned his attention momentarily away from a rant by Anita Schmidt and nodded at Beau. After nodding back, Beau concluded that it was fortunate that John D’Angelo was in attendance this evening.
If he hadn't been here, this whole emergency meeting might have fallen off the rails before it even started. There was a lot of work to be done and careful planning to consider, but there was still some optimism despite what the government representative had told them all. It was quite frightening what he had relayed to them about what was taking place around the world, but he seemed honest and forthcoming with his answers. John D’Angelo was a calming and reassuring presence despite everything that was taking place and he gave the people of Paradise Flats a small glimmer of hope that they might survive the coming storm.
For a moment, Beau wondered how John D’Angelo knew so much about what was taking place around the world right now. Perhaps the government had their own emergency power and communication system, but of all the different places that he might have been assigned to, why was D’Angelo here in Paradise Flats? Before he could give it any more thought, Bruce Williams intentionally bumped into Beau.
“You look way better than you did the last time that I saw you, Boo. Not that you were anything special to look at before you got the hell beat out of you.”
“Hey Bruise!” Beau grinned and shook his hand. “Anything exciting been happening lately around here with work?”
“Just the usual end of the world shit. You know.... just another day in Paradise Flats.”
“Damn jaywalkers causing trouble again?”
“Seriously though, it's been chaotic. Scott's got us working longer shifts and putting in extra time to try and keep things half assed sane around here.” Bruce was in street clothes, but he looked tired and dishevelled. “We've been doing more patrols, trying to maintain some kind of law and order, but it's like people have lost their minds. More break and enters, property damage and physical assaults. We have men set up at each end of town trying to monitor everyone coming and going, but we can't be everywhere at once. It's only been what.... four days, so far and we're at our wits end. If what this D'Angelo says is true, we haven't seen anything yet. Scott's even talking about deputising citizens to help us out.”
“What do you think of that?”
“I'm not sure. We're already stretched beyond our limits, but I don't know if bringing in citizens to help us out is such a good idea. Could be dangerous and might lead to even more conflicts. Did you hear what vigilante justice delivered us on the front lawn of the police station the other night?”
“No. Vigilante justice?”
“Yeah. Someone parked an SUV with five guys tied up inside of it on our doorstep. They looked like they were up to no good. All dressed in black, but their weapons were all smashed to shit in the back of the SUV. Some of the locals must have got the jump on them, but there could have been a real bloodbath if there would have been any kind of shooting. These guys were packing some serious shit.... at least what was left of it. Semi-automatic rifles, silencers, military grade issue weapons.... not your everyday run-of-the-mill stuff.”
“How many of these guys did you say there were?”
“Five. Never seen any of them before.”
“And all dressed in black?”
“Yeah, look like some kind of ex militia...why, did you hear something?”
“No... nothing like that.” Beau muttered as he recalled his dream. Kind of a strange coincidence. “Pretty scary that there are guys like that running around Paradise Flats.”
“Well.... not anymore.” Bruce said and shook his head in disgust. “They were released and escorted out of town yesterday.”
“What? Why?”
“They were interrogated but didn't give up anything. Our jail cells are overflowing already and we had nothing to hold them here other than possessing a bunch of smashed weapons and parking on the station's front lawn, but I don't think they had anything to do with that. Scott says that we have enough problems here to deal with already, so he let them go and warned them to not ever show their faces in Paradise Flats again.”
“I don't find that very reassuring and I doubt that we've seen the last of them.”
“No, I don't either. Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. Doesn't get much more desperate than what's going on around the world apparently.”
“How are you holding up with all of this?”
“Okay...considering. I'm tired. Worried. Scared. This isn't supposed to happen here. I'm still waiting for the alarm clock to go off and wake me up from this bad dream. Hey, it was good to see you. Scott wants me to sit in on some of these meetings and offer some input from the long arm of the law. Take care, Boo. Let's catch up soon.”
“Sounds good. Be safe, Bruce.” Beau’s thoughts turned momentarily back to the dream that he had of the five prowlers, but he was interrupted by Stella Jones, the principal of the elementary school where Beau worked. She was trying to gather all the teachers together and come up with a plan for when the school reopened on Monday.
“Do you think this plan to reopen businesses on Monday will work?” Beau asked Lauren later after the meeting had concluded and they were driving back out to Argyll Estates.
“I don't know... I hope so. We need some kind of normal around here with what's going on. I just wonder how long it will last if things are as bad as they say they are.”
“Yeah, I'm curious as to how everything is going to work. Jobs. Food. Money. How long can we survive without any real power if they don't get it restored? I know that we have generators, but it sounds like they’re only going to run for so long each day. What happens when we run out of fuel for them?”
“What about when winter hits?” Lauren asked. “How are we going to survive then?”
That was still several months away and Beau wondered if any of them would even be still alive by then but kept his thoughts to himself. “It sounds like we're going to have to make this up as we go along.”
The next morning found Beau up early again. He had been having trouble sleeping ever since the incident in Southby last Tuesday. The first thing that he did was check his phone for service and see if the power had been restored. He was disappointed to find that he was still without either. After leaving a note for Lauren, Beau drove into town to check up on his parents. He never had an opportunity to visit with them last night at the arena and thought that it might be wise to see how they were doing.
His worry was for not as several of their neighbors were already looking out for one another. A couple of them had generators and were sharing their power and others were sharing food. There were already a few people out front visiting with each other when Beau pulled up. His dad was shooting the breeze with Mark Brody from a few houses down and Hector Garcia from across the street. The three of them had their Yeti mugs full of coffee and were huddled together on the Sittler’s driveway.
“Hey Beau, pull up a stump and tell us some lies!” Mark Brody laughed and shook Beau’s hand. After exchanging pleasantries with Mark and Hector, Beau gave his dad a quick hug.
“Everyone's doing okay, so far?”
“No complaints here considering Armageddon is upon us.” Mark joked and everyone had a quick laugh. It had some nervous energy to it, but Beau found it good to laugh out loud again.
“That's good. The neighborhood's doing alright then?”
“For the most part.... yeah. Everyone has been chipping in and doing their best to help each other out. We were just about to go and check on April Sanderson to see if she needs help with anything.”
“Dale’s not back from Southby yet?” Beau had forgot about Dale Sanderson and his brother, Derek, going up there to try and find Dale’s boys.
“No, there's been no sign of them yet.” Hector shook his head and frowned. “April’s pretty upset.”
Beau didn't like their chances of ever making it back here now if they hadn't already showed up. The four men visited with each other for another ten minutes before Beau went into his parent’s house to say hello to his mom. After a quick visit with her and his sisters, who had also stopped by, Beau returned home. Lauren and Michael were just finishing their breakfast when he arrived and ten minutes later Beau and Michael were out playing hockey in the driveway. Two hours later, Lauren called them in for lunch and when they were finished, Beau decided that it might be a good idea to get some more firewood split. It turned into a family event as Lauren and Michael came out and helped stack the split pieces of wood. After an hour, Lauren took Michael inside for his nap, leaving Beau on his own to finish up.
He had just finished stacking the last of the wood and was quite impressed with himself when Beau caught his reflection in the patio window. It jarred memories of his dream and he looked slowly around his backyard. It was a mirror image of what he had seen in his dream and Beau retraced his footsteps from what he could remember of it. As he did so, it felt like he was experiencing some kind of deja vu.
There had been other occasions when Beau had dreams where he had experienced a similar feeling like this, but they were brief moments or glimpses where he felt something similar had occurred after it had happened. Those dreams didn't have the same clarity that he was experiencing now as he moved through the bushes bordering his backyard. Everything was exactly the same as what he had dreamt, even the branches that jutted out forcing Beau to sidestep past them. He moved by the tree limbs to where he saw himself take out the second and third prowler. It was here where he was standing when the fourth man opened fire on Beau, but the attacker was at least twenty feet away before Beau had suddenly found himself standing directly behind the shooter.
After moving over to where he stood in the dream, Beau was surprised when he saw out of the corner of his eye something on the ground glinting in the afternoon sun. He bent down to pick it up and discovered that there were another six objects like it scattered around in the grass. Shell casings from bullets that had been fired. It couldn’t be possible, Beau thought to himself. It was just a dream.
Beau stuck the shell casings in his pocket and would dispose of them later. Lauren didn't need to know that someone had been shooting this close to the house. It had to be one of the neighbors shooting at a coyote, but why were they on his property? There had to be a reasonable explanation for his findings. Judging the distance from the house to where he was standing, Beau estimated that it was about a hundred feet. In his dream, he had covered that distance in a heartbeat when he intercepted the last of the trespassers. He made his way back to the house and stood in front of the patio door after counting his steps to confirm his estimation. It was here that he took down the last member of the group and Beau studied the ground for any signs of struggle. When he found nothing, Beau replayed the skirmish in his mind and remembered having two knives thrown at him which had somehow missed him.
They had both struck the house and buried themselves into the vinyl siding from what he remembered in his dream. Any doubt or confusion that Beau was feeling could be erased now. There would be nothing indicating any kind of damage like that.... would there? As he stepped closer to the house, Beau was shocked to see two puncture marks in the siding the size of a knife blade. He ran his fingers over the two perforations and shook his head in disbelief.
“There's no way that really happened.... did it?”
CHAPTER FOUR
The streets of Southby looked like something out of a war movie. Vehicles were overturned, damaged beyond repair and set on fire. Garbage and debris littered the streets. Houses and buildings sat empty with their windows smashed out and fires burning brightly within. A thick black haze hung over the city, choking those who were either fighting or fleeing for their lives. Gunshots and screams could be heard in the distance. Just a few days ago, it had been a vibrant city teeming with promise and potential. Now, it looked like something out of an apocalyptic movie.
