The complex came alive and people moved about. As three of the technicians worked at fixing the generator, some people were packing up, preparing to leave once the power was up and running. Others were working at fixing their broken cars. Francis had a small group that were digging a grave for Matthew.
About half an hour later, the entire complex lit up as the power was suddenly restored. There was a cheer as people clapped in celebration. Donny joined in and let out a loud whistle.
The festive mood was cut short when the lights unexpectedly caught a trio of predators that were in the middle of stalking the complex. Once the lynxes knew that their presence was revealed, they gave up on stealth and rushed towards their target.
Bill—who was part of the group working at fixing their vehicles, looked up when someone called out in warning. Although he made an effort to run for it, the wildcats caught up with him in no time and pounced on him. Gunfire boomed shortly after, followed by gunfire from a second gun but Bill was already torn apart by the time the Canadian lynxes were dispatched.
After receiving a few words of thanks for taking down the attackers and while everyone was preoccupied dealing with the aftermath of the unexpected attack on another one of their coworkers, Will quietly slipped into the now empty building and headed towards the control room.
He soon found what he was looking for—a thick binder with a list of the satellites operated by this specific ground station, along with their identification keys and access codes.
Will quickly pulled out his phone and snapped pictures of each page. Once he was done, he returned outside just when everything was finished sorting out and with no one knowing what had just happened.
Will and Donny followed as Julie led a few people into the control room and accessed one of their communications satellite.
They soon got in contact with the government and after some back and forth were told to stay put for at least 10 days because the government couldn't spare any manpower. They were given the location of one of the closer military bases they could take refuge at if they had no choice but to make the trip.
"Dammit." With a sigh, Julie changed tack and had them access the earth observation satellites.
"How many satellites do you have?" Donny asked.
"We currently have 94 satellites in orbit." Julie said with a hint of pride. "In the past, we would've had to wait for a satellite to reposition for us to get the imagery we need, but nowadays, each satellite costs less than a million dollars to manufacture and we can pack them into a cube the size of a basketball or smaller. It's possible to send a hundred of them into orbit with each launch."
Because it was still nighttime, the satellite imagery they received only showed lights, but that was enough for them to find out what most of them wanted to know.
"Looks like there are still plenty of places with power." Julie commented as they scanned the pockets of civilization around the Greater Toronto Area.
"Feels like I'm peeping on someone when I'm not supposed to." Donny said.
"And it seems like most of the military bases are up and running too." She continued on, pointing at the larger clusters of light. "But we'll have to wait for daytime to get more information."
"Can you check other countries?" Will asked.
"Sure, where would you like to observe?"
"Hong Kong."
Soon, another satellite was accessed and the imagery was shown on screen. There were a few pockets of light here and there but compared to Toronto, most of Hong Kong was covered in darkness.
"Do you have family over there?" Julie asked when Will quietly stared at the screen.
"Yes."
"I hope they make it out of this mess." She said.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
"Thank you."
Donny gave Will a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry, your dad is one tough son of a bitch. Your cousin is there too."
"I know." Will said. "There's one more place I'd like to check."
"Of course."
"London."
London turned out to be much the same as Toronto. Will couldn't learn anything useful from the information and could only trust that things would turn out the way they had in his first life.
----------------------------------------
Everyone crowded into the control room in the morning to check up the satellite imagery before they headed out. They decided that they couldn't wait for help to come, especially with their families still out there. Many of them had decided to travel together as a group, even inviting Donny and Will to move with them but were declined by the two.
"Looks like they've set up camps around the military bases." Julie said, pointing at what looked like tents around the bases on the screen. "Each of them also have one large area that's been sectioned off."
"A quarantine area?" Francis guessed.
"You're probably right." Julie nodded. "They've set up a large perimeter around their area of influence and seem to be slowly making their way into the city."
"What's that over there." Someone pointed.
"It looks like a bunch of military vehicles at the stadium." Julie said.
"You think they're trying to secure the stadium and set up refuge over there?" Another person asked.
"Looks like it."
"It seems like the military has a certain handle on the situation, I'd say it's probably a safe bet for everyone to grab your families and evacuate to one of these locations, or you could head straight to the location they gave us." Francis said, telling one of the staff to print out a copy of the satellite imagery for everyone.
Will received a copy so that he could know which areas to evacuate to if something happened. Or to avoid if he was doing something that would get him in trouble. Once everyone received their copy, they all said their goodbyes and prepared to leave. Will and Donny hung back as almost everyone left the control room.
"Is there something else?" Julie asked as she was packing things up, including the binder with all the info on the satellites.
"Do you mind if I check things over on the satellite?" Will asked.
Her eyes softened, most likely thinking he wanted to check on his family again. "Sure, you can take your time. But I'll be back once I finish up to shut everything down." Julie finished packing up and left the room.
Will sat down at the computer station and operated the satellite to survey around the Greater Toronto Area. He was looking at parks, gardens, woods, and forests.
"What are you looking for?" Donny asked.
"Look for anything that stands out, anything unusual."
"Like that?" Donny pointed at a corner where one of the trees were twisting down on itself in a strange way.
"That might be it. Let's try to find more, just in case." Will said, marking down its location.
In the end, they found another one before Julie returned.
"Thank you for letting us use your resources." Will thanked her on their way out.
"No, thank the two of you for saving us. Who knows what may have happened if you two hadn't come along."
"It was nothing, haha." Donny scratched the back of his head awkwardly but it was obvious that he was proud.
"Our time together was short but I hope to see the two of you again on the other side of this. Hopefully, this isn't the end..."
"Of course it isn't, I guarantee it." Donny said with certainty as he secretly gave Will a pat on the back.
Julie smiled at Donny's "optimism".
As they headed towards the building's exit, Will suddenly turned around. "I need to go to the bathroom."
"I'll be outside, so let me know when you're done." Julie said and exited with Donny.
Instead of going to the bathroom, Will went to the security room. In there he found that the security station was still on. He accessed the CCTV software and found the log of today's recording. He deleted it and then shut everything down before returning outside.
Francis was still around, doing some last minute cleaning and locking up in the other buildings. After Julie shutdown the generator and locked everything up, they said their final goodbyes and parted ways.
"We going home?" Donny asked as they hit the road.
"We'll take a quick peek at the first location we found. It's not too far from here." Will said.
The ride was pleasantly uneventful along the way. They spotted some stray zeroes but easily lost them on the highway.
About two hours later, the two arrived at the closest point they could get to their destination without walking. They geared up and exited the vehicle, making their trek into the forest. Will held a compass as they navigated their way through and after a 45 minute hike, they finally found their target.
"What is that?" Donny looked up to the weirdly shaped tree. The tree was warping into itself and looked almost like a giant ball. The bark on the trunk was cracked and there was a strange organic growth coming out of it, almost like veins.
"It's mutating into a Metamorphosis Pod."
"And what is that?"
"Something that will speed up our evolution." Will said. "Scientists will come up with an improved lab version in a couple of years but we'll have to make do with this one for now."
"Then, how do we use it?"
"It's not finished mutating yet. This one probably has another week before it's done. We'll come back then. We'll also need to prepare some things to use it."
"Like fuel?" Donny laughed. "Do we need to grab a jerry can of gasoline?"
"Maybe if it was millions of years ago."
"Wait, what?" Donny turned to Will in confusion.
"Before it became oil, back when it was plant matter, dinosaurs, or some other organism."
"Then you're saying that..."
"The Metamorphosis Pod runs off of the corpses, or rather, the remains of organisms." Will explained. "So we're going to need to collect some, and the higher the Category the faster we can evolve."