The Shattered Earth (Surviving the Fall 3)
“Who’s that?”
“Colonel Leslie, head of the 99th Air Base Wing.”
“With me?” Rick blanched and shook his head. “There must be some mistake.”
“No mistake. This way, please.” The soldier took out a short pair of scissors and snipped the zip-tie off of Rick’s wrists. He placed a hand on Rick’s back and guided him forward, deeper into the hangar and through a door at the side. They descended a wide flight of stairs into the subterranean section of the base and the soldier pointed down a hall.
“Keep going that way. One of the airmen will pick you up and take you to the Colonel.” The soldier turned and hurried back up the stairs, eager to get back to his companions and off the Air Force base as soon as possible. A battalion of soldiers had been running cooperative drills with the Air Force when the event occurred and while the two areas of the military worked well together on the outside there were still plenty of sub-surface tensions that rubbed members of both branches the wrong way.
A few seconds after the soldier left, a man in a blue uniform came jogging up to Rick. “This way, please.” The young man was tall, wore wire-rimmed glasses and spoke quickly as he, too, put a hand on Rick’s back to guide him forward.
“You know, I think I can manage to walk without being shoved all over the place.” Rick shrugged off the airman’s hand and the young man smiled.
“Of course. Sorry about that. Just follow me.”
Rick thought briefly about trying to make a run for it, but he had no idea where Jane had been taken and he wasn’t about to try running off while in the middle of a military base. Something about that idea sounded positively suicidal.
After a few minutes of wandering through the underground labyrinth, Rick and his escort arrived outside a large door with tinted glass and a sign that read Conf Rm. 2. The airman stopped and nodded at the door. “The Colonel’s waiting for you inside.” With that, the airman was gone and Rick suddenly had to fight the urge to bolt again.
Rick raised his hand to knock on the door but someone inside pulled it open as he raised his hand. He took a timid step forward and was greeted by an outstretched hand that grabbed his and pumped it vigorously.
“Colonel Donald Leslie, but call me Don if you’d like. You’re Rick, is that right?” Of all the people Rick had imagined working in the upper echelons of the US military, Colonel Donald Leslie was as far from Rick’s expectations as it was possible to get. A portly man in his late forties, the Colonel had hair that was clearly bright red even with as short cropped as it was. His eyebrows were bushy and his face was flushed—either from exertion or excitement, though Rick couldn’t tell which.
“Yeah. Rick Waters.” Rick shook his head. “I’m sorry; how do you know who I am?”
“The girl you were running with, Jane. She mentioned your name a few times. From what I heard you’re the reason she’s still alive.” Leslie nodded approvingly. “Well done to you.”
“Thanks… I think. Colonel, listen, it’s been kind of a weird night. Why am I here, talking to you? And where is Jane anyway?”
“She’s safe. We have temporary shelters set up here at the base while we’re working on relocating civilians from the area.”
“Can I see her?”
“Not quite yet.” Colonel Leslie stepped back and waved at a chair across the conference table. “Sit down, please.”
“What’s this about?” Rick walked slowly around the table. “I don’t want to sound ungrateful but I was just handcuffed for a few hours in the back of one of your vehicles.”
“That was Army, actually, but you have my apologies anyway.” Leslie sat down opposite from Rick. The smile on the Colonel’s face faded as he glanced through a folder filled with pages and photographs. “I’ll cut to the chase, Rick. The grunts that brought you in let it slip that you asked a lot of questions. Questions about the cameras, our satellites and about the… incident that’s been going on.”
Rick couldn’t help but chuckle as he sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Is that what the feds are calling it now? An ‘incident?’”
“Sometimes we overstate things. Sometimes we understate things.” Leslie shrugged. “The point is, you’ve been asking a lot of questions that point to you being someone who may be able to shed some light on what’s going on.” The Colonel shifted some of his papers around and cleared his throat. “While you’re under no official obligation to conform to what I’m about to request, I do want to tell you up front that if you don’t agree to the request you’ll be held indefinitely until you agree.”
Rick’s eyes narrowed. “What is it you’re going to ask me to do?”
The Colonel slid a piece of paper across the table. Rick skimmed its contents and when he finished Leslie spoke. “This is a national emergency, Rick. The President has requested that anyone who may be able to assist in containing the current crisis be brought to Mount Weather, just outside Washington. There you’ll join others in a think tank of sorts to try and find a solution to whatever the hell is going on.”
“What’s really going on here, Colonel? I’ve heard rumors and whispers but I’ve been running for my life ever since this started and I haven’t had much time to sit down and watch the news.” Rick pushed the piece of paper back across the table and shook his head. “Besides, I have more important things to do than this.”
“More important things to do than helping to save your country?”
“Yeah. It’s called getting home to my family.”
“Rick, I’m sorry about your family, but what we’re facing here is slightly more serious than one man’s family.”
Rick clenched his jaw. “That’s easy for you to say.”
Colonel Leslie’s face darkened and all of the warmth and kindness that had been present since Rick met him completely vanished. It was as if a spirit took control of the man’s mind, the change was so dramatic. The Colonel stood up and planted both palms on the table, leaning forward until he was over halfway across the table. His nostrils flared and his teeth ground as he spoke. Not with a loud voice, but almost with a whisper.