“This is where we brief the newbies,” Charlotte said. “It’s a pleasant spot. Puts people at ease.”
“You mean as opposed to a giant head that puts them on edge?”
“Exactly,” she said with a sly smile.
I liked Charlotte.
She led me through glass doors into a courtyard that looked like something out of a fairy tale. The ceiling was glass with a fancy steel frame that gave the place the feel of a greenhouse. The first thing I saw was a miniature carousel with four brightly painted horses. There was also a twenty-foot-high blue-and-white-striped lighthouse with a small sailboat circling its base. Up toward the high ceiling were miniature hot air balloons that were frozen in flight. Across from them was a floating flock of red and yellow umbrellas that would never stop rain or fall to the ground.
The floor was covered with flower-filled gardens of black-eyed Susans, white daffodils, and pink impatiens. I know my flowers. It was clear that the survivors who had taken over Las Vegas were keeping these gardens in good shape. The entire space was playful and inviting, like somebody’s idea of a storybook park. I didn’t understand what this had to do with gambling any more than the giant guitar and fake Statue of Liberty, but at least it was a pleasant enough place to hang out.
Others had arrived. There were maybe ten people who were checking out the indoor park, looking as dazed as I felt.
“Tucker!” came a familiar voice.
Olivia ran through the garden toward me with her arms open wide. When she hit me, she wrapped her arms around me and pressed her body square against mine. This time I didn’t mind. I was happy and relieved to see her.
“They said everyone would be here, but I didn’t believe them,” she said, holding back tears.
“You okay?” I asked.
“A little dizzy, but what else is new?”
I laughed and hugged her closer. Olivia may have been distraught, but she still had her sense of humor.
“Easy there, Tucker,” Kent said. “Don’t get too used to that.”
I almost didn’t believe it was him. Not because he was there, but because he called me Tucker. Good for him for remembering that I was ready to punch his lights out if he called me Rook again.
“Where’s Tori?” I asked.
“Right here,” Tori replied as she entered through the door opposite the one I had come through. “Still trying to process.”
I wanted to hug her out of pure relief, but I was too busy being hugged by Olivia.
“Is this place wild or what?” Kent asked. “It’s like a theme park for vampires. They all hang out in this underground maze and only come out at night.”
“I always wanted to see Vegas,” Olivia said. “It sounded so exciting. Now it’s just creepy.”
“What about Jon?” Tori asked.
We looked around, but there was no Jon to be seen.
“Charlotte?” I called. “Our friend Jon Purcell isn’t here.”
“He will be,” she assured me. “They’ve probably got him coming in with the next group. Don’t worry, he’s fine. I did his interrogation myself.”
“Attention, everybody!” came a booming voice.
A tall, broad-shouldered guy entered the garden quickly. He had a tight crew cut and an open, friendly face.
“Gather round,” he called out. “Sorry, we don’t have chairs. You can sit or stand. Whatever works.”
We exchanged looks, not sure of what to do.
“Go ahead,” Charlotte cajoled. “He won’t bite.”
We walked toward the man, as did the rest of the people. A few men had arrived with the big guy and stood next to him. I flashed back to Chris Campbell and his cowboys, but this group didn’t come across as intimidating, like those Retro scum. Body language is everything, and these guys were relaxed and smiling. They must have been the survivors who brought the others here, as Charlotte did with me. Charlotte, on the other hand, stayed with us. We all stood facing the man in the dead center of the garden.
“My name is Matt,” the guy announced. “In real life, I’m an EMT who works the Baywatch boat off of Catalina Island near Los Angeles. In this life, I’m one of the Chiefs who organized this little party.”
Matt seemed more like a camp counselor than a counter-revolutionary.
“I know you’ve all got a million questions, and I’ll do my best to answer them. But first let me say this: If you’re here right now, it means you heard our broadcast and you feel the same as we do. We’ve all lost our lives. We’ve lost friends and loved ones. We’re victims of a war that we never saw coming. We weren’t given a choice or a warning. What happened to us was an unprovoked, unexplained invasion by an unknown enemy. Make no mistake, our situation is grim, to say the least. But if you’re here, it means you don’t want to roll over and accept what happened. You want to fight back. We do too. It’s not just about getting by or survival; it’s about taking our lives back. If you agree with all that, welcome. We’re glad you’re here. If you don’t, then you should be moving on.”
He fell silent, giving us each a look and the opportunity to back out. After what Charlotte told me about their security, I didn’t think anybody who said, “You know, on second thought, I’d rather not” would live to see another day.
Nobody moved.
“Awesome,” Matt said with a satisfied smile. “I didn’t think so.”
I had a feeling I was going to like Matt too.
“Let me start by telling you what we know. Maybe some of you can add to this, and you’ll get the chance. We believe that the United States Air Force was behind the attack. As to why, and who is calling the shots, we don’t know. But there’s one thing that gives us hope. From what we’ve seen and what we’ve put together from the experiences of the survivors who have joined us, the Air Force seems to be heavy on firepower, but light on manpower. Those black drones don’t have pilots. They’re being controlled from a distance. There are plenty of them, let’s not forget that. They are deadly efficient. We’ve all seen what they can do. What we haven’t seen are people. Cities have not been occupied by any kind of invasion force . . . at least none that we’ve heard of. Nobody has claimed victory or declared that they’re in charge. It gives us hope that as powerful as they are, they don’t have the bodies to execute a true invasion.”
A Hispanic-looking guy called out, “So why did they attack? Just to kill millions of people for the sake of it?”
“Billions,” Matt corrected. “And, no, that doesn’t make sense. There has to be some other purpose to what they’ve done, we just don’t know it yet.”
“What about SYLO?” I called out.
“What about it?” Matt replied. “It’s a branch of the Navy.”
“Yeah,” Kent said. “Another branch that’s at war with the Retros.”
Matt looked back and forth between his friends who stood next to him as if confused. “What are these kids doing here?” he asked nobody in particular. He didn’t sound annoyed; it was more like he genuinely didn’t understand.
“We picked them up yesterday evening,” one of his friends answered.
“Uh, I’m sorry, guys,” Matt said, speaking directly to us. “You’re welcome here, but we’ve set up some parameters. We all agreed that we’re not letting kids get involved. Young people are way too valuable to the future of—”
“Whoa, whoa,” Charlotte called out and pushed her way to the front of the group to face Matt. “Let’s take a beat. First off, these aren’t babies. When we talked about protecting kids, we were talking about real youngsters.”
“Uh, yeah. Like them.”
Charlotte looked back, made direct eye contact with me, and smiled.
“I don’t care how old they are,” she said. “These young people have been through far more than any of us. They’ve had contact with the Air Force, or Retros, as they call ’em. They’ve been in the middle of huge battles between SYLO and these Retros. Turns out, this isn’t a one-sided war after all. The Navy is in on it too
. It’s not just one rogue bunch causing trouble, it’s a flat-out civil war.”
She had Matt’s attention.
Charlotte reached into her pocket and pulled out a plastic baggie full of red crystals. Ruby-red crystals. I heard Olivia gasp with surprise.
“Remember this stuff we took off of that fella who was snooping around here a week or so back? We had no idea what it was . . . but now we do, because of them. The Retros are feeding it to survivors. It gives folks impossible strength and speed and stamina. It’s like a steroid on steroids. And you know why they’re doing it? They’re making slaves out of survivors to help them rebuild. Trouble is, it eventually kills anybody who takes too much. So the way I see it, this confirms what you just said, Matt. These Retros don’t have a lot of manpower. They’re looking to their victims to do their grunt work. That’s good news, and we got it from these young people.”
I felt the eyes of the others on us, and it was making me uncomfortable.
“Let me put it to y’all simply,” Charlotte said. “They know a hell of a lot more about what’s going on than we do, so I’d say we’d be smart to let them do whatever it is they came here to do, because they may end up being the difference between us doing some good or getting slaughtered.”
Charlotte smiled at me, then looked back at Matt and added, “Now you go on with your little speech.”
Charlotte melted back into the crowd and stood next to me.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“No problem,” she replied under her breath. “Just don’t screw up.”
“I love you, Charlotte,” Matt said. “You’re a pain in my butt, but I love you.”
“I love you too, Matty,” Charlotte replied.
A nervous chuckle went through the crowd. It helped take some of the pressure off.
“All right,” Matt announced. “We’ll see what you guys can offer. If everything Charlotte says is true, you’re definitely going to be an asset to this operation.”
“What exactly is this operation?” Tori demanded. “We came a long way because you said you were going to fight back. It looks like you’ve got maybe six hundred survivors here.”
“Six hundred and fifty-two,” Charlotte called out.
“Sorry. Six hundred and fifty-two,” Tori repeated, shaking her head. “You have no idea what you’re up against. There are armies battling out there. Powerful, mechanized armies. We’ve been through an air-to-sea battle that dropped hundreds of planes and sank dozens of warships. These two forces are huge, they’re determined, and there’s nothing that six hundred and fifty-two people can do to stop them, no matter how angry or dedicated they are. We came here to fight. To make a difference. From what I’ve seen so far, you’re just setting yourself up for a noble suicide.”
The room fell deathly quiet.
Matt nodded thoughtfully.
“I hear you,” he said without a trace of defensiveness. If anything, his smile was even more sincere. “You’re right. There’s no way we could go toe-to-toe in the kind of battles you’re talking about. But you’re assuming we’re talking about going to war.”
“So then what’s the point?” Kent asked.
“Like I said before, the Air Force—the Retros, as you call them—don’t have manpower. They have firepower. And we know where that firepower is coming from.”
“Where?” I blurted out.
“We know where they’re staging their raids from. It’s where the black fighter planes gather before taking off on their missions. The thing is, there are incredible numbers of planes, but not a whole lot of people. They may be able to swarm entire cities, but we think they’ll have trouble protecting their own backs.”
“So you do want to attack the Retros?” I asked.
“There are only a few ways to damage an operation like that. It could be bombed from the air. We don’t have that ability. It could be invaded by an army. As you pointed out, we don’t have an army that’s capable of that. But there’s a third option.”
“Sabotage,” Charlotte declared. “We’re going to be like silent hunters. Snakes. They’ll never see us coming.”
“Small groups,” Matt said. “Demolition teams. No fanfare. No warning. We’ll enter and be gone before they know we were there.”
“And take out hundreds of those damn planes at a time,” Charlotte said with relish. “By the time the fires are put out, we’ll have disappeared back into the desert, invisible until the next time we come calling.”
There were positive murmurs throughout the crowd. These people had all lost something, and if they had made this trek into the desert, they were ready for some payback.
Tori said, “Will it be enough to stop them for good?”
Matt shrugged. “Who knows? But it will hurt them, and it’s what we can do. That’s good enough reason to give it a try.”
“I like it,” Kent said with glee. “Where is this place?”
“Close enough for us to strike and far enough for us to stay hidden.”
Tori asked, “How soon do you plan on—”
“Cover!” came a terrified cry from a woman who ran into the courtyard. “Now!”
Charlotte, Matt, and their friends all tensed up.
“What? Why? We’re not doing a drill now,” Matt said, confused.
The mood had suddenly changed.
Did I sense true fear in his voice?
“No!” the woman yelled. “It’s real. They’re minutes away.”
She backed out of the courtyard and took off running.
“What’s going on?” I demanded.
Matt and the others looked stunned. There was a painfully long moment when it seemed as if they didn’t know what to do.
“Talk to me, Matt,” Charlotte demanded.
Matt snapped into focus. He had gone from a jovial big brother to a man with a mission.
“Bring them below,” he said without a hint of panic. “We’ll take cover with the other Chiefs.”
“How is this possible?” Charlotte asked, though I don’t think she expected an answer.
“Let’s hope we get the chance to find out,” Matt said. “Go, now!”
Matt and his friends took off running. Most of the others followed.
The rest of us gathered together in confusion. We all looked to Charlotte for answers.
“What’s happening, Charlotte?” I asked.
“They’ve found us,” she said soberly. “The Air Force is attacking.”
TWENTY-FOUR
The panic was on. Everyone scattered to find shelter.
Tori, Kent, Olivia, and I stayed with Charlotte.
“We’ve gotta find Jon,” I said.
“He’s with his escort. He’ll be okay,” Charlotte said. “We’ve got to get as deep below ground as possible.”
She led us out of the indoor park, through the lobby, and straight into the darkened casino. I’d only seen casinos on TV. They were lively places full of color and light and excitement. Slot machines rang, people gathered around roulette or blackjack tables, and everybody would be having a great time, except for those who were losing, I guess. Bottom line was that they were places loaded with energy.
This casino couldn’t have been further from that. It was dark and quiet. There were long rows of dust-covered slot machines that would never again play their electronic tunes, empty tables with no gamers, and restaurants that had the sour smell of putrid food.
Charlotte wove her way through the islands of slot machines as if she knew exactly where she was going. The rest of us followed, trusting that she wasn’t just winging it.
“We can access the underground behind the cashier’s window,” she announced.
There was a far-off rumble that made Charlotte stop and listen.
“They’re here,” she said, barely above a whisper. “I can’t believe they found us.”
“Believe it, Sarge,” Kent said sarcastically. “This is old news to us.”
“It’s daytime,” I said. “They can??
?t penetrate the buildings with their light weapons.”
More rumbles were heard. It sounded like fast-moving thunder, but we knew what it really was. Thunder didn’t make the floor shudder.
“Those planes have plenty of firepower during the day,” I cautioned. “They can easily—”
The roof over our heads exploded, sending a shower of splintered wood and shattered plaster down on us. We all dove for cover as heavy beams plummeted to the floor.
I ducked under a large roulette table, for whatever good that would do. The massive steel beams crashed to the ground all around me, hitting the metal slot machines and crushing them under their weight. The blast ripped open a hole in the ceiling, allowing sunlight to shine in. The casino was alive again, but not in a good way.
“Keep moving!” Charlotte commanded from somewhere.
I peered out from beneath the table to look for the others. It was nearly impossible to see. The air was filled with dust and debris that reflected the sunlight to create a white haze.
“Tori!” I shouted.
“Right here,” she said calmly.
I jumped when I realized she was directly behind me.
“Let’s get outta here,” I said and grabbed her hand.
We scrambled out from beneath the table and ran in the same direction we had been headed when the bomb hit.
The first bomb.
The second struck the instant we were on our feet. The pulse of energy must have traveled directly through the hole in the roof, for it made a direct hit on a row of slot machines. The heavy metal machines blew into the air like toys. I pulled Tori behind a pillar as two machines tumbled past, banging and clanging as their metal skins tore each time they hit the floor. The machines bounced across the casino floor, spewing coins and bashing others before coming to rest in a pile of twisted steel beams.
“There’s Olivia,” Tori shouted.
Olivia was sprinting along another row of slot machines. She was headed for a heavy gaming table where I thought she would try to take cover. Instead, she leaned down and reached out her hand.