36
The president addressed the funeral of the dead at Nationals Baseball Park. The huge stadium was filled with fans. The politicized ceremonies were publicly televised all over the world. This was an opportunity for the president to gain terrific political advantage for himself, his party, and his friends who paid to keep him in office.
“My friends, we are here to respect the lives and memories of the fallen. Today, our battles may well be in our schools and restaurants and even in our baseball parks because mad men never know an end to the evil their minds may conceive and carry out against us.
“So, today, we mourn twenty-eight year old Daniel Parker, a well trained computer programmer, who leaves behind his wife, Melanie, who is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and holds a Master of Business Administration. In addition, our hearts go out to their children, Bill Parker, who is eight years old and Melissa Parker who is six years old. Both of his children are bewildered as to why their father hasn’t come home. Both wonder why their father will never again take them to Nationals Park for a baseball game. Both also will wonder in their futures why their father did not live long enough to attend their college graduation ceremonies, their weddings, and the births of their children. Because of what happened here, that will never happen for them. My sympathies go out to them and their mother for his loss. This is a great loss for America, but even more of a personal loss for them.
“There are so many whom we respect here today including Maria Rodriguez who was a mother of three girls ages three, five, and eight years and who wonder why they will never see her at home again nor hear her reading them their bed time stories each night as she tucks them in. Maria can never do that again for them. Her husband, Jesus Rodriguez can never hold Maria in his arms again, as he stands in for Maria in caring for their wonderful children, but even though her husband is very good with his children, nothing he knows will ever replace the woman’s touch which the entire family must now live without and for all of time, because that is how long she will be gone from them. For all of time. Her loss will be borne by them, and she will be missed during the entire length of their lives. They cannot even conceive of this as yet, but in the following years they will form an interior knowledge of just how permanent their separation from their mother has become.
“What I can assure the American people is that you should not be afraid for your lives. This memorial we are having today at Nationals Park should show you that the United States is still perfectly safe despite what happened here a few days ago. We are not going to allow you to be hurt by these sociopaths who hide behind political platitudes, espouse terrorist acts against you, or talk down the absolute generosity and safety of our new federal medical system. I promise you this here and now that we shall leave no stone unturned in bringing this person or persons to justice.”
Suddenly on cue, explosions rocketed through the stadium, sending tons of electric stadium lights into the sky to float out and down onto the stands below in a stadium filled to the brim with fans. Tens of thousands of fans and funeral attendees were either hurt or killed by tons of crashing metal. The explosives James had placed on the poles hours before had done their work.
He had planned his demolition of Nationals Park well. After what was about to happen, many people would be afraid to leave their homes. Entire segments of the economy such as sports events, restaurants, shopping malls, parks, travel, tall hotels, and other assets would soon be seen by the heads of families all over the nation as places of grave danger to themselves and their children.
In one of the millions of homes, the occupants were yelling at the unfolding horror, shouting at their HDTV screens, “Oh, my God! The stadium is exploding! Look at that, honey!” The woman screaming was Ellie Williams. She lived with her family members in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was not alone. Ellie was accompanied by millions of others who were also on their feet inside their homes. Almost all of them were frightened and appalled at what they were seeing.
“They are going to kill us all,” her husband said.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” Ellie said. “I’m never attending anything in a stadium again! Period! I am staying away from those places from now on.”
Similar voices in one hundred million homes were dialing their cell phones and imparting the same message to their social networks.
“We are staying home from now on. All of us!”
“So are we!”
Soon attendance in public places would begin to rapidly wane.
Americans were sufficiently frightened now, so much so that they would restrict what they did in public places. The nation was about to switch from being constant consumers who visited malls for their shopping entertainment to nester's who tended to shop at home, play on the Internet, watch Netflix movies, and avoid crowded malls and 3D movie theaters where killers might be either placing similar bombs or buying rifles to shoot them where they sat.
America’s Obama Care Hell was in full swing. The lights on the white house phone boards lit up as did phones to police stations and FBI offices all over the world from those who were watching the funeral.
“We have a national tragedy all right, ladies and gentlemen! This stadium has gone from a somber memorial to absolute horror and panic. People are fighting once again to get out of their seats. It is a repeat of several days before. Panic could not be more intense inside Nationals Baseball Park. Some are not moving but are attending to the thousands who are trapped and injured by the fallen debris that litters much of what was once a proud Nationals Park. You and I are witnessing a dead and blood soaked little girl being hugged by her mother and father. They are frightened, and many others in this stadium are in tears. These tragic scenes are unfortunately being repeated all over Nationals Park where the dead and dying are emitting a sea of moans that you probably hear right now on your television sets out there across our great nation. If you have children in the room, please send them to another room with neither television nor Internet access until this is over. Children should not be watching this horrible sight of injured and dying, and I should not be watching it either but it is my job to continue announcing this national tragedy.
“Look.
“The president is being hustled off the podium which was soon hit with huge pieces of falling metal any one of which could have killed him instantly. The president, as you can see, is surrounded by secret service guards who are making sure he does not stand up but remains crouched below them. The president is resisting them but to no avail. They will not let him stand or say anything. Instead they are rushing him away from the danger that threatens all of us in this stadium where we are not sure that everything we’ve witnessed is over.
“We see a military helicopter coming down for a landing deep inside the stadium now, and the secret service is rapidly escorting the president of the United States in its direction. They are keeping his head down and his entourage of protectors are five men deep. They are acting as human shields in case gunfire in his direction breaks out. We are not sure of our own safety here in the broadcasting booth high above home plate, and we all fear for the president and his men on the field below where they are an open invitation to an assassination attempt by whoever and whatever is orchestrating this horrible nightmare at Nationals Park. If you pray, please pray for all of us now at your home, for the president and the first lady who are now being placed in the helicopter. Now, the president is being helped up. He seems to be alright, at least for now.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this breaking news event is something so totally unbelievable to all of us. We never thought anything like this would ever happen.
“And now, the helicopter with the president and the first lady is lifting slowly into the air. The secret service is left down below probably waiting for another copter to pick them up. Military personnel fill the copter with the president using their own bodies to protect the first family. He is leaning out and waving to the stadium, and now they have literally jerked the president back an
d again have placed their bodies between him and the open door of the copter, to offer themselves as protection from any potential terrorist who might be in the stadium aiming a rifle in his direction. Now, the copter is rapidly moving over the top of the stadium and is seen heading toward some unknown place, with the first family inside it. Now, several additional military copters are entering the stadium. We can see members of the secret service waving to them. Evidently, this is where they are going to be taken away to protect the president of the United States of America who has had to flee Nationals Park in what can only be described as a scene of mayhem, destruction, and disgraceful chaos. This is something that we hope will never happen in our life times again.
“I am in such a state of shock. All of us are in shock. In fact, I and others in the booth are shaken to our core. There is so much death and madness in the twisted steel inside the stadium, in the seating and on the field where tons of steel were hurled from the exploding metal metal above us that used to house the huge lights for night games in this magnificent baseball venue and which forever after tonight will be a memorial stadium to commemorate the dead and dying who are screaming and crying out for help all around us down below.
“Many children in this baseball park are dead and dismembered. Their families are clustered about them in frightened circles, many of them covered in blood that splattered onto tens of thousands of persons from the bodies of fans whose lives were snuffed out like the tiniest of candles, their smallest of living flames no longer lit, their minds silenced forever. Whatever lives these people had before them exist no more. Hundreds if not thousands have been killed and many more injured by the tremendous burst of shrapnel from the exploding pilings which securely held the humongous lighting system above us, most of which have fallen like matchsticks upon the audience. There seems to be another problem, ladies and gentlemen.
“The roofing over left field has begun to sag. Huge sections of it are crumbling. It is coming down. The people below it are looking up at it. They are trying to save themselves now, scattering in all directions, but there are too many in front of them doing the same thing. This is madness. This huge stadium roof is actually crashing down atop them. People are being instantaneously crushed by the hundreds. But, sorry to say, that is not going to be the end of it.
“Now it is letting go again, and it is moving over the seats toward the edge of the stands. Oh, no! Now the stands are crumbling and buckling. Bodies are falling under the broken stands to the stands down below them. The second level is now sliding and is now falling down upon the first level. Oh, my God! This is horrible! These people are also being crushed to death by the weight of tons of metal.
“The red we see everywhere has to be from the fans who have been taken away inside this collapse. Oh, the humanity! This is awful.
“I don’t think I can take too much more of this. I am so saddened by the horror that is taking place.
“Another set of these huge stands is now crumbling and falling over into the stadium itself. I can see bodies literally floating down through the air. They tumble in front of me like tiny dolls onto the field. It is so surreal. Oh, the horror of it! Everything around me seems to be in slow motion, yet it is all happening so quickly. The horror. The absolute horror. I cannot tell you what I am seeing.
“I know that you can see it at home in HD, and I wish that you couldn’t. There are things happening here that we should never have witnessed in our lives. This is one of those terrible things that none of us should have to see. I don’t know about you out there in your homes and office buildings, but this will haunt me forever. As long as I live, I will be looking down onto this sea of blood in the stands, the aisles, and on what was once a beautiful baseball field.
“Now, more stands are bending over. We fear the worst is about to happen. Our own part of this building is beginning to shudder. I have no idea what that means, but there’s nowhere for me to go to get away from it. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure, all of us in this studio are doomed to suffer the fate that awaits us, whatever it is. In a way, I feel it would be merciful if I were to perish here right now with thousands of fans, those who have died in front of me. Why should I outlive them? I shouldn’t. I have no right to survive them. I’m not as good a person as many of them are, and I will be the first to confess that to you.
“No. There is yet another huge wrenching motion and a loud noise. The stands above and to the left of me are now buckling. The radio room where I am broadcasting is now beginning to twist slightly. I am trapped. The door behind me no longer is connected to the outer rim of the stadium beneath which my broadcast booth was once securely suspended. This may be the end. I am not sure of anything at this point. What happens to me is of no consequence now. I am ready to accept whatever cards have been dealt to me and my co-workers in this approaching calamity. Another great movement of the floor. The ceiling above me has torn away. Metal is coming down inside this place. I will continue broadcasting as long as I can. The studio is moving downward now. Something seems to have broken. We are almost afloat. Our box is moving with the side stands down onto the seats below us, just as others have done and just as I feared would happen.
“God help those who might be down there below us. I hope they are going to be able to escape this falling debris that I and my radio colleagues are rapidly becoming a part of. I have changed over to a cell phone that has been handed to me. I have been told by staff to run for it now that we have stopped moving and are at fan level and forty-five feet below where we once were. I am climbing onto the stands that used to be way below us but which are now right at our front wall.
“You can hear the screams down below me. People are hurting down there. Some have been crushed by what just happened. I was just now able to extricate myself from the booth. I am at the aisle, making my way down, trying to get out as best as I can. I see a stair that still leads down to other seats below us. I will soon be trying get there before this entire facade comes down once again and slides into the baseball field taking thousands of mourners with it including myself and my staff. I am moving as fast as I can. Now I am reaching those stairs leading down to the stands below me and eventually to the baseball field. Mam, can I help?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I am helping her up. Run, mam. Try to get into the middle of the field. I fear this might collapse very soon.”
“I’ll try.”
“She is running. I do not know who the lady is. I’d say she looks like someone’s grand mother. I hope that doesn’t offend her, my saying that. I am just trying to bring you this story as best as I can, and I say this only because she looks like a grandmother that I have and whom I love very much. She just made it to the grass. As I say, she is running. I have now stepped onto the grass. I am hurrying as best I can.
“I am out of breath, and you can probably hear me panting. This has been very hard on all of us in a physical sense. I am trying to get as far away from the stands as I can. So many of them have collapsed and slid down onto the grassy areas. Several new ones are sliding onto the field right now, and people are attempting to scramble as fast as they can to escape them. Some got away. Some did not. Like myself, many are exhausted.
“I am now behind third base, and I am inside a group of people who are very wary of what is going to happen to us next. Like me, they are afraid some of the stands may come down and wipe them away, and that would not be good. It would probably mean our end. There are bodies all around us down here. The scene is ghastly, to say the least.”
“Sir, would you care to speak with Americans out there about what has happened here today?”
“It is terrible. That’s all. I’ll never come to another game. I’ll tell you that right now. I have never been so frightened in my life.”
“Would you like to identify yourself to let your family know that you are okay?”
“I’m Phil Gains of Silver Springs, Maryland. I’ll be home tonight, if I get out of here alive. So far,
I’ve been lucky. Luckier than many others in here today. That’s for sure.”
“Are you serious about never coming to a stadium again, Mr. Gains?”
“I’m as serious as a heart attack. This is my last one. Period. End of the story. After being here during the shootings and now for this, I’m not placing myself at risk in a public place ever again, and I’m going to be very wary at malls and wherever I park. That’s the God’s honest truth, sir.”
“Well, thank you for speaking with me, and I’m glad that you are alive and safe, Mr. Gains. Our prayers go out for your continued safety, sir.”
“Thank you.”
“I have a family of four here, who would like to say something. Can you identify yourself for your families and for the audience out there. I think the cameras are rolling, so they can see you as you speak.”
“I am Bob Lockstead with my wife, Windy, and my son Rick who is fifteen years old and my daughter Regina who is sixteen years old. We are from Reston, Virginia and were here for the funeral service. We had no idea of the dangers involved in coming here. Don’t they have security here twenty-four hours a day to stop people from blowing these things up and killing thousands of people? That’s what I want to know. This is an outrage. My family has been attacked, and thousands of kids and dads are dead right up there and everywhere else in here.” He started to cry, then, said, “I have to stop. This has been to much for me. I’m going to have be alone a bit. Sorry, I have been doing my best trying to save my family. You know how it is.”
“Yes, sir. I do know how it is. Unfortunately, a lot of people are trying to save their families here today. It is very stressful to be here and wondering if the entire stadium is about to collapse on top of us. It’s the luck of the draw whether we who are still alive will live or die here, today. Even the president had to be taken out of Nationals Stadium with the first lady and their two children in a special military helicopter. I assume they were afraid to use the president’s copter for fear someone out there might target it and shoot it down.
“I am just surmising this. No one said that was true. However, the president’s copter was nearby just outside this building, but they did not put the president inside his own copter, and I take it there was a security reason behind that decision. He may be heading for the white house, or they might take him to a military base for protection considering the liquidity of the present situation.
“If you thought that terrorism was over, then both you and I were given a heads up this week at Nationals Park where hundreds were killed starting right here just a few days ago, and it may be thousands more are being killed here today. I will make no conjectures about who is behind the mayhem and death. I will leave that to the authorities to decide, and when they do, our networks will bring that information to you.
“I see another part of the stadium has started to come down, same as the other parts. The stands and roofs seem to be literally pulling themselves down one upon the other. The pattern seems to be going that way and repeating itself over and over. Something in the overall infrastructure of this stadium has been tragically damaged by these explosions. First one section is hit with the massive release of metal from above, then a piece of it eventually fails. After that, an entire section begins to pull away and eventually falls down upon the section just below it. Then, a little bit later, the adjoining section, already damaged when the one next to it fell and bent part of it, that next section starts to fall. First it bends toward the one that damaged it, then it seems to pull forward and bend down onto the stands below before literally breaking free and falling more rapidly. All of the layers of these stands are compromised and damaged beyond repair. People standing below them are crushed as they fall upon them. Then, the stand that fell on them starts to slide down onto the field. It seems to literally fall off the stand below it and slide onto the baseball field killing more fans along the way. Some of these huge sections of stands have even flipped head over heels on their way to the grassy playing field. This is exceedingly dangerous business. I have been told that we are still transmitting, so I will continue with my reporting using this cell phone. At least a few television cameras are still working, and I must say that the fact these cameras are remotely controlled is the only reason you are seeing me as well as the parts of the stadium from which we are transmitting live to you. When you saw those stadium levels coming down, those were real people dying beneath them as the tons of stands and debris crushed them where they stood. So many have died here, and it may not be over. The architecture of Nationals Park still seems to be in flux as I speak. There have been sounds of bending metal, parts falling into the street from the outer walls, and other indications of things happening that I don’t even wish to think about.
“If you are religious, please say prayers for me and for these people all around me. We are in deep trouble here, and it won’t take a lot for other pieces of this huge edifice to come down right here where I am standing and wipe all of us away. This is still very much possible. We just don’t know. I’d like to run under the stand and reach the outside, but as you have probably seen from mobile cameras outside, there are things going on out there as pieces from the roof roll off and plummet to what used to be a wide expanse of sidewalk down below. Now, the souvenir salesmen and the cotton candy hawkers have fled the scene. Most of them even abandoned their entire stache of souvenirs and treats in their attempts to flee the scene. That’s something I never thought I would ever see. Everyone who can get out has gotten out and have run as far from the stadium as their legs can carry them. Those who can go home to their warm beds and their loving families tonight have started to do that. But thousands of us are stranded in here as emergency crews continue to arrive, as engineers assess the situation, and as we await our fates, whatever our fates may turn out to be. That is the situation. It is not a good one.
“We have seen things and felt things and heard things that will stay with us for a long while. Many of the people here will replay this nightmare over and over, and many who have witnessed this on their new HD television sets are undoubtedly seeing horrible things that will fester forever inside their souls. I am certain that many of these fans will be seeking counseling help in the days to come whether they were here with me in the crumbling parts of this magnificent stadium or whether they were at home and transported here on their HD television sets, seeking far crisper pictures of the dead as they died, just watching it right there inside their living rooms, witnessing all of this carnage.
“This is why we asked you to remove all young people from the vicinity of these broadcasts, because young minds are so easily hurt by pictures of people struggling to live but who cannot even hope to escape their fates.
“Can I bother you for a moment, sir? I see you are wearing a uniform. What is your name, and what can you tell us about what you know concerning what has happened and is happening here today.”
“My name is Sergeant Lance Carroll, and I’m with the 82nd airborne. I was here today with my family.”
“Are they okay? Your family, I mean.”
“No. They are not okay. At least, I’m not sure. I was not with them when the stand fell upon the place where they had been sitting.”
“Have you been over there since then?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Can you describe what you found there?”
“Chaos. People moaning, people bleeding out under tons of concrete, and no way to get to them. I could see parts of my children through the cracks in the concrete, including their faces, but there was no way I could reach them. No one could reach them. Since then, the building moved, and I cannot locate them.”
“And your family?”
“I dunno. They are down there, sir.”
“Are they okay?”
“I don’t know, sir. I wish I knew. It's not looking good for them, sir. I just can no longer find exactly where they even were when the roof and seating collapsed on them. Since then, everything on top of them has moved
down onto the field leaving piles of heavy debris in its wake.”
“What do you think happened?”
“I’m afraid.”
“Of what.”
“Of you know what. I just can’t say it. I have to go now. I’ll start to cry soon. I have to get out of here. I’ve said too much already.”
“Thank you, sergeant. I’m afraid my questions have upset the husband and father whose family members are still unaccounted for. They are now beneath the sandwich of steel and concrete which used to be the floor just above them. But now it is not above them. It is resting right on top of them and has even slid down onto the field, and most likely it might have carried them with it. He had found where they were trapped, then the building shifted again, and he has no idea where they are down there in the mess of concrete.
“This is not good. I hope and pray that they are still alive and well under that massive mess that has entrapped them in its collapsing web of indifferent stadium chairs. Hopefully they are in an air pocket safe and sound right now, that rescuers will find them, and that they will be reunited with their very worried father whom you have just met.
“I see a policeman standing next to me. Who are you, sir, and what can you tell me concerning the present situation as you know it?”
“I am Officer Brent Higgenbaum, and I am here with my family. I was here when this started. I wanted my kids to see the president.”
“And did your kids see the president?”
“Yes, they did see the president.”
“And are they okay, Mr. Higgenbaum?”
“Yes. Fortunately they are alive and well. They are standing over there.” He pointed to his right.
“Have you heard anything at all from the police department about how and why this happened here today? What caused the explosions? How was someone able to get in here and set up bombs when the security was all over the place, and they must have known the president would be here and all? I’m just wondering how these explosives got in here with all of this going on?”
“I can’t say. You’ll have to ask those who were in charge.”
“Have you been in contact with the police?”
“Yes.”
“What can you tell us about that?”
“I can tell you that there are hundreds of police outside this building.”
“But not inside?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It is too dangerous inside for the police to come in. The situation is fluid and highly deadly. Their first assignment is to stay alive and assist in getting everyone out safely. Many are going to have to be dug out. That will take time and construction expertise. That is way above our pay grade. We’d do more harm than good. Their rescue is the job of emergency crews trained to work in building collapse situations. The police are clearing the area outside to bring those people and their equipment into the building so they can get busy saving people. They are trained in this, but we are not. We’d probably do more harm than good, sir.”
“Is there anything else you wish to say.”
“I want to express the police department’s sorrow over the great loss of lives here in Washington. If you have lost a loved one, I’d just like to say that we are very sorry for your loss in our capitol and in our Nationals Park. This is a terrible time for us as well as for you. We do feel your pain. I feel your pain. I am with you. We are all with you.”
“Thank you, officer. We appreciate your service to our capitol city, and we also appreciate the depth of feeling expressed by you in the name of the department.
“I have just received word that the stadium must be evacuated as soon as possible. Special ushers wearing orange arm bands will be escorting people to exits which have been determined to be safe. I will stay here as long as possible to report what is happening, although to be honest I really want to flee the scene as rapidly as possible. However, I am going to stay with you all night long if I am allowed to, because all of the people watching this catastrophe deserve to be informed on a moment by moment basis.
“I have also been told that there are many television vans parked outside. They are recording the evacuation of the stadium which you are probably seeing on your screens. In addition, they are interviewing officials concerning the situation inside. As far as I know, I am the only reporter inside with direct television capabilities. Our cameras are being operated remotely, without live cameramen on the spot. These cameras have been placed in this stadium and in many others in order to bring to bring you live baseball games from various angles. These are the cameras now being used to report this ongoing tragedy, at least those that have not been damaged by the collapse, and they are the very cameras that are being remotely activated to bring my image to you.
“I have not been given any estimate of injuries and deaths. It is far too early for that. The memorial for the deaths of those fans who were shot to death by a stadium sniper has been answered by additionally far worse killings when the stadium was attacked by bombs more than an hour ago. Among other places, we know the bombs were used to bring down the lighting fixtures which are massive. These structures when built were large and very heavy. Their collapse led to the bending of walls, seating areas, ceilings, halls, floors, and everything else in this stadium which seems to be attached throughout. I say they seem to be attached, because I noticed during the collapse of sections of this building that one section fell and in doing so caused tremendous bending and damage in the next section, and, when it fell, that brought the next section into question. I am not an architect. I am just reporting what I honestly saw. Later, after review of video tapes, the experts will likely meet to assess the information and determine in more scientific terms exactly what happened here today.
“This event is the most significant domestic bombing since jet aircraft plowed into the world trade center and caused the two tall towers to collapse. That incident triggered what has been called The War on Terror which has cost the United States government an estimated $3 to $5 trillion in military expenditures and which, as you can see from this devastation, has brought very little security to anyone. In fact, that train of events precipitated the disastrous occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which were failures in their attempts to bring a greater democracy to those nations. Both nations are now left in ruins, and they are worse off than if we had not acted in the first place. In addition, NATO has now become a military arm of the United States as it participates in overseas occupations of one nation after another including the direct overthrow of nationally and democratically elected officials.”