A New World Emerges

Drip drip drip.

I wake up in a state of panic, chills traveling down my spine. I press my hand to my forehead where cold beads of water have dampened my hair line. I look up at the stained ceiling above me and jump out of bed. The safe house is supposed to be water tight but clearly that is not the case. I grab a bucket and wish I was still sleeping. Still dreaming of the world as it used to be. We were so naive back then. Absorbed in our wants and needs completely blind to the evil gathering around us.

Funny to think I spent most of my life worried about climate change, meteors, disease and aliens. The only thing humans ever really had to fear was each other. Our own kind. We were our own destruction.

It all happened so quickly. It really began the morning of April 5th, 2022. We all woke up to blank screens on our phones. No computers, no tablets, no cell phones and no WiFi. The whole world went into a panic. Businesses shut down. People started scavenging the stores as panic spread with socialist news spreading rumors of terrorist attacks. They had been planning this for years. Military presence started monitoring the streets and strict curfews were put into place after countless riots erupted and innocent lives lost. We all started fighting each other over religion, over race and over political views. Most Americans went down easy. The sheep. They swiftly funneled their families out of their homes and into “safety camps”. In their defense no one could have imagined what was to come. Cities were burned. The police were helpless in responding to the rise in crime. Kidnappings happened on the daily parents panicked to try to protect their children. Life as we knew it was gone. The stores were empty. Food was scarce. Hunger changes even the purest of heart. Some people travelled into the country in search of safety and proper hunting grounds. Some gathered in groups. But we all eventually divided and we all lost.

Three weeks was all it took to put an entire country of people on their knees. Merciless at the newly instilled totalitarian government. Some people even happily complied just looking for the financial benefits. They sold their rights away at the first bidder. It’s sad really when I was growing up I really thought we were the greatest country in the world. Land of the free. Home of the brave. Now we are just home to enslavement and fear. The only survivors left have spent all of their time either in hiding or endlessly seeking a way out of the country. The government referred to the free folk as the wanderers.

I pace back and forth in the small metal walled room. I suddenly start to feel dizzy and force myself to sit down. I am anxious. I let my eyes linger on the thin mattress I’ve called home the last eight months. I press my hand down firmly into the foam. I memorize the feeling and shuffle the memory far back into my brain. This will be the last time I sit on this bed. I lay back down for a moment and feel the cold metal on my chest. My only prized possession left. A locket my mother gifted me for my tenth birthday. She was trying to save my life when she was killed. Three men had followed us into the woods after a food run. They were lurking a few yards behind us when she darted sideways dragging me into the thick tree line. It was dark underneath the green canopy and I could hear my heart racing. She gently pushed me behind an oak tree, kissed my forehead and whispered run. She sprinted forward towards where the men were gaining ground hidden in the trees. She was quiet on her feet and before you knew it was behind one of the men. She reached out quickly and slid his gun out that was clipped on his side. Bam bam bam. She fired three rounds immediately. Two headshots and the third clipped the last man’s shoulder. I saw her look over at me one last time as one last gun shot rang through the air. I’ll never forget watching her body slump down lifeless onto the leaves. I couldn’t even mourn her I had to escape. All this time later and I can still see that look on her face. Her very last look. I could tell she wasn’t ready to go but her death wouldn’t be in vain. This locket has kept me going. Determined to use my spared life for the greater good.

I buttoned up the military cammies I had recently acquired. This was the find of my life and gave me a real shot at being able to travel unseen. I grabbed my green duffel bag and packed the last of my ramen noodles and all I had left in this world. One pair of socks, one pair of sneakers, a well worn pair of jeans, a small radio, a compass and a not so white t-shirt. I laced up my mud ridden combat boots and looked around one last time clutching the locket tightly between my fingers. She would be proud of me I thought as I wrapped my long hair into a bun atop my head. Two days ago on a food run I had found something that would change everything. It was a small black book. It was under a bed in an apartment deep in the heart of the city. It belonged to a long lost general who had intelligence on the disaster that hadn't even taken place yet at the point of the journal entries. It outlined the members of the one world order and the home base of the operation. The home base of the operation was where all the drones were kept as well as access to all of the satellites and radios that aired government warnings to the general population. It held all the hidden locations of the “safety camps” where all that was left of those not killed in this war were being held captive. But it also held one key piece of pertinent information that could change everything. On the last three pages of the journal listed underground bases with equipment and secret tunnels leading to Canada. Mexico had already been dominated in a totalitarian government as well and Canada was the only place left to flee with any sort of promise of safe haven. It was my mission to infiltrate the home base to send a message of hope to the last of the survivors and expose the locations of the safety camps. If I could reach enough of the survivors we could free our families from enslavement and I could relay the location of the secret bases along the border holding our only hope of survival and a new life. The list of hidden military bases also would give us an arsenal of weaponry we would desperately need at a real chance of surviving. This apartment was also where I found the military cammies with a built in signature that didn’t send alarms out to the drones classifying me as a member of the one world order and granting me safe passage. As long as I could avoid face to face contact with any personnel because I was still missing the microchip implanted in all one world order members.

The chances of this mission being successful is knowingly slim but I would risk my life to bring hope and salvation to the wanderers. The last part of the mission would be to blow up the drones. They made it impossible to travel safely and using heat signatures it didn’t matter if it was day or night. We would always be hunted. If I could blow up the home base of the operation I could deplete the drones and give the wanderers a real chance of traveling safely to free their enslaved families.

149 miles away deep in the ravines of Elaria was home base. It was past the suburbs of Boston, through the forest and behind a construction operation that the military had started to create the first safety camp. Each safety camp had man made ravines around the outside. The military has used large amounts of water to erode the ravines which would help in exposing any wanderers attempting to break in. With my new cammies though I could walk right through the ravine without causing alarm.

The rungs of the metal ladder shook as I travelled upwards towards the outside world. I took a deep breath and opened the hatch. This old safe house belonged to a cult back in the day, they were considered to be crazy conspiracy theorists yet single handedly led the first revolution against the dystopian order. Although it wasn’t successful it sparked hope in the wanderers and their abandoned bases provided refuge for those who were still left.

I exited the small cave and proceeded cautiously through the trees. The smell of melting plastic filled the air and a subtle sound of chirping birds could be heard in the distance. Eventually I found myself on the path in the heart of the forest. Ezekiel, the man who had saved me, God rest his soul, had left me a small key and whispered in his last breaths the location of the dirt bike I had used all these months to keep me and the wanderers alive left at the safe house. I knew this would most likely be my last ride. I unburied the bike covered in branches and leaves and started her up. I poured the very last of the gas we had stashed into the tank. This ride was different than the rest. My hands tightly gripped the handlebars as I leaned back and felt the wind on my face. I pulled out the page of the atlas I had mapped and referred to my compass for guidance in search of a place that didn’t exist on any map. I occasionally would turn off the bike and disappear into the foliage as the hum of drones filled the airspace above me. The echo of the same radio message blaring around me. “Wanderers there is still hope for a new life. Turn yourselves in and we will unharmed return you to your families in our safety camps. With new order a new world emerges.”

Hours later a small dip in the horizon before me showed signs of the start of the ravine. I parked the bike in the tree line and scrambled to hide any trace of the vehicle in the hopes there was a chance I would return for it. I strapped my bag tightly against my back as a looked up at the setting sun. My boots scraped against the hard packed dirt as I slowly slid towards the bottom of the ravine. A small stream lay below. As I encountered the bottom a faint flashing red light could be seen in the distance. I knew this was a suicide mission, but I kissed the locket and continued forward. As I got closer to the compound I could see large metal panels around the buildings. Vines and overgrowth covering the outside. I walked along the perimeter quietly in search of any signs of life. Surprisingly, a stillness lay around me. I prayed a miracle might happen as I approached a set of doors. I grabbed the large metal handle and pulled. The door slowly creaked open. I took one last look at the outside world and slid inside.