CHAPTER THIRTEEN
GOOD DEED FOR THE DAY
The sun rose on day twelve. This was the first light the world had seen in hours. Throughout the night, the Qadarians finished their mission and destroyed every generator in the world. Every human on the planet was without electricity.
Now, it was time for the Qadarians to set their sights on their next mission. They set out to destroy every means of communication. Electricity may be out, but people could still relay messages through cell phones and other battery powered means of communication.
Two of the Qadarian ships left the atmosphere to destroy all satellites in orbit. The rest proceeded to destroy all towers on earth.
President Sinclair was speaking with some of the other heads of state when the communication was cut. He called in the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We can’t penetrate their defenses. They are basically doing whatever they want to us. Any ideas on how we can defeat these creatures?”
“We could always do what they did in Independence Day. Upload a virus onto their main ship and disable all their shields.”
“And just how are we supposed to do that? Our communications are down, and we don’t have one of their ships.”
“What about the alien that was killed at Guantanamo? Haven’t we been studying it? Maybe there is a biological weakness.”
“Good thinking. Let’s get there to see how their research is coming along.”
Meanwhile, in one of the few places on the planet to have power, Chloe led the morning run with the rest of the group.
Most of the Qadarians were resting, preparing for their next assault. Levi, however, did not. He had set his biological clock to match that of those he was studying. After breakfast, he spoke to the twenty-six.
“Good day all. Our study is almost complete. Based on your responses, we will decide if your race deserves to live or die.
“For our study today, we would like to know about an act of kindness that you have either shown to another or have shown to you.”
“I know how hard it is to be a single parent,” Luisa said. “My mother raised me and my brothers by herself.
“So when someone brings a child in for me to watch, I don’t turn anyone down. Even if they cannot pay, I still take them in.
“Granted, I would prefer that they did, but I know how bad the economy is. I just tell them to pay me back when they can.”
“Winters in Portland can be bad at times,” Travis said. “And there are some people who can’t clear the snow when it gets bad enough.
“For the past few years, I have offered to shovel my neighbor’s sidewalks for free and clear off their cars. Some have offered to pay me, but I refuse to take it.”
“I can never thank my friend Tyler Phillips enough,” Wayne said. “When my wife left me, I had no idea how I would get to places like the supermarket.
“He told me to call him anytime I needed a ride. I always offer to give him gas money or buy him lunch. It’s the least I can do for the trouble I am putting him through.”
“Whenever I go shopping,” Helen said, “there’s always this one employee who goes out of his way to follow me to my car and load my groceries for me. He knows I can’t lift some of the heavier bags.
“I only wish he could follow me home to help me bring them into the house, but that’s what I have my son for.”
“Every year, I go to some of the high schools in the Chicago area,” Wyatt said. “I go mainly to explain about the dangers of drinking and driving.
“I know they are still a few years away from legally being able to purchase alcohol, but I also know that some will still obtain it. I tell them what alcohol can do to their bodies and mind.
“I discourage them from drinking altogether, but I also tell them that if they are going to drink, they need to appoint a designated driver. I lead by example. As a cop, I have to.”
“In jail, we participate in the Adopt a Highway program,” Quincy said. “Along a stretch of I-95, we pick up trash once a month.
“At first, I did it because the warden told me I had to. The more I did it, the more I realized I was making a difference. I tried to recruit other inmates.”
“There were several of us at work who lived with a mile of each other,” Benjamin said. “So, I came up with the idea of starting a carpool.
“With gas prices so high, we could take turns each week and save a bunch on gas money.”
“Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved animals,” Robin said. “So when I saw a report on the news about a local animal shelter, I knew I had to help.
“I take a couple hours every week and volunteer taking care of sick cats and dogs. I did what I could to keep those defenseless animals from being euthanized.”
“My niece asked me to coach her soccer team,” Chloe said. “Now, I don’t know much about soccer, but I watched some on ESPN and I figured, ‘How hard can it be?’
“You just kick the ball around and try to get it in the net. You just can’t use your hands.
“I came up with a few basic strategies. I mean, their only eight-year-olds. I didn’t want to get too complicated.
“We didn’t win too many games. At least I don’t think we did. No one kept score. Everyone was a winner.”
“What a bunch of hooey. Trying to spare the kid the feeling of being a loser just turns them into a wuss. When they finally do lose, they won’t be able to handle it,” Christian said.
“Before I was deployed on my first tour, I was a huge advocate of Toys for Tots,” Brody said. “I always bought a couple extra toys for kids whose parents couldn’t afford to.
“When I returned from my last tour, I became involved in a different way. Since it was the Marines that founded the program, I wanted to serve in some way for the Las Vegas chapter.
“I appeared on posters and other publicity where toys were collected, and I made personal appearances on toy drives.”
“As a senior in high school, a group of us heard about the Adopt a Soldier program,” Bella said. “A way to say thank you to our soldiers overseas.
“We were each given one soldier to adopt. We sent them letters and care packages, filled with stuff like toiletries, pillows, books and DVDs, and snack foods.”
“Yeah. I remember that,” Brody said. “I was adopted by Grace Merriman from Roswell, New Mexico. She baked me the best oatmeal raisin cookies.”
“One day, I got a call from the Make-A-Wish Foundation,” Jessica said. “There was a little girl from Montana who was dying from cancer. They granted her one wish. It was to spend the day with me.
“I was overwhelmed. Out of all the famous people in the world, she wanted to meet me. Of course I said yes.
“That Saturday, I flew out to spend the day with her. We had lunch at McDonalds. Then, I spent the rest of the day with her family. They told me about the treatments she has been through. I thought, ‘How could such a little girl go through so much and still have a big smile on her face?’
“That day was the greatest day of my life. I hope I get the chance to do that again once we are released from here.”
“My daughter came home in tears one day,” Akiko said. “She said her best friend told her she had leukemia and was given less than a year to live unless she got a bone marrow transplant.
“My daughter asked me what we could do to help. Bless her heart; she wanted to give her friend some of her own marrow. I told her it wasn’t that simple. The donor has to match her or her body will reject it.
“‘Is there anything we can do?’ she asked me. I said we can look into starting a drive to collect names for the National Bone Marrow Registry. From there, maybe they could find a match.
“She organized a marrow drive at her school and got about thirty people to sign up. She didn’t stop there. She took her case to the local mall and set up a drive there. There, she got a few hundred people to sign up.
“The best news out of it was that one of them was a match and agre
ed to donate. That person saved her friend’s life.”
That story brought tears to a few of the group.
“As an English professor, I do a lot of reading,” Scott said. “As a result, I have a lot of books in my library.
“Sometimes, my library gets a bit full. Rather than selling the books, I donate them to the school’s library. That way, if I ever wanted to read them again, I could check them out. Plus, other would get to enjoy the books, too.”
“As my kids were growing up, I loved reading stories to them at night,” Tracy said. “When they grew up, I had no one to read to.
“I asked at the local library if they had any kind of story time for kids. They said they did, but only in the summer months.
“I asked if I could start a story time hour during the other nine months. They were more than pleased to say yes.
“Every Wednesday at 4:30, I went to the library to read to the kids. I didn’t ask to be paid; I just wanted to see the smiles on their faces.”
“Winters in Toronto get to be very cold,” Cassidy said. “Some people don’t have the means to get a quality winter coat to keep them warm.
“Our high school started a drive to collect gently used or new coats for kids. I took it a step further and started a drive to collect coats for anyone who needed one.
“My senior year, we managed to collect eighty-two coats. That meant eighty-two people wouldn’t have to struggle with the cold Toronto winter.”
“Years ago, I was preparing my weekly sermon,” Dennis said. “My secretary told me I had a phone call from Tim Tebow, who was then the quarterback of the Denver Broncos.”
“Yeah. I remember Tebow,” Quincy said. “A mediocre quarterback who got traded to the Jets and later Tampa Bay. The media made him out to be the second coming of Jesus. At least until my boy Ndamukong Suh ended his pathetic career.”
“Anyway,” Dennis said, “I had asked him if he could speak at our church and tell the congregation about his journey to righteousness. He called to say he could come that Sunday.
“After he had spoken to the congregation, he surprised me with a check, a donation of twenty-five thousand dollars to the church. I was caught complete off-guard.
“We used that money to help our missionaries overseas. God Bless Tim Tebow.”
“About a month ago, some nice old lady dropped off some quilts she had made,” Barbara said. “She was cleaning out her attic and found a bunch of old clothes from her late husband and their children.
“Rather than throwing them out, she used them to make squares and hand-sewed them together to make quilts.
“She saw on the news how our homeless shelter was running short on blankets and graciously donated her quilts so we could keep warm.”
“In eighth grade, our science teacher gave us a sapling to plant,” Marc said. “I saw how my tree grew over the years.
“In Canada, lumberjacks cut down trees so fast, they can’t be replanted fast enough. So, I raised enough money in my neighborhood to plant twenty trees. Just doing my part to help the environment.
“Trees are not only a great source of shade in the summertime, but the carbon dioxide they produce helps keep the circle of life in balance.”
“I agree. We have to keep Mother Nature happy,” Michael said. “It is a critical part of my culture.
“In Arizona, hiking trails are few and far between. And those we do have are destroyed by those who do not care for it.
“My people work to preserve these trails. Primarily, I work on the Little Saddle Mountain Trail, a seven-mile trail just outside of Phoenix.”
“There was a kid in my neighborhood, Miguel Perez,” Neveah said. “He was always getting into trouble, and his parents were afraid he was considering joining a gang.
“They asked me to step in and become a mentor to him. They wanted me to share my story with him of how I came from a hard life as a child to become the successful judge.
“I talked with him. At first I couldn’t get through to him, but I wasn’t giving up on him. I kept on him, telling him about the dangerous road he was traveling unless he changed his ways.
“Several months later, he was an honor roll student and a model citizen. I was so proud of him.”
That night they were treated to a fried chicken dinner, complete with hash brown casserole, coleslaw, macaroni salad, and baked beans.
In Guantanamo Bay, President Sinclair and President-elect Wheeler arrived to see the progress that was made on the anatomy of the Qadarians. Like us, they breathed in oxygen. However, theirs was a six-chambered heart, and their blood was a navy bluish color.
The worst-case scenario was that no weakness could be found and we would be helpless to stop them. The best case was a simple virus or bacteria would be found to stop them.
Unfortunately, without a living guinea pig, the worst-case scenario came to fruition. Priority one now was to restore communication and power to certain areas.
Meanwhile, the Qadarians targeted what would be their final objective. They started to attack oil refineries and any place that produced or supplied fuel. Without a moving Army, Navy, or Air Force, victory was inevitable.
And Howard was helpless to stop them. He remained incarcerated and was put under a gag order. He had escalated this issue to its current level, and he needed to be silenced.
Inside the cube, Michael had become the father the twins needed so bad. Twyla knew the real father would never step up. He was also becoming the man she needed so bad.
Wayne and Barbara had also been spending a lot of time getting to know each other better. Wayne had been alone for the past few years, and Barbara only had those in the shelter to talk to. They desperately needed companionship and found it with each other.
Jessica and Travis were traveling along that thin line between friendship and relationship. He wanted to pursue it further; she didn’t. He had put Fiona out of his mind. He knew he would never see her again; even if he did, his time with Jessica had made him forget her.