82

Crackdown

“In the beginning, Lucifer was the most beautiful of the angels,” said Gretchen, from her makeshift pulpit on the hill of the shooting range. “They called him the Morning-Star, or Light-Bringer. Then Lucifer challenged God, and God cast him down into a pit of fire, where he became a demon, a monster. To most, this is just another Bible story, but our world holds many angelic people who are beautiful, powerful, and adored by all who look upon them...”

The three got out of the truck and joined the large audience. The audience was mostly men, but there were women and children as well. Gretchen spotted Leo and waved for him to join her. He walked through the audience, nervous, feeling everyone's stares as he walked up the hill, joining the pastor he'd met three weeks before. He had no idea what to say.

“This is Leo Edwards. He's the boy who came to us with a vision of the future. I didn't believe him in the beginning, but I can tell you that when he walked into my church three weeks ago, there was something different about him, and his predictions have been coming true. Leo, the aliens have informed us they have no intention of destroying the world. What do you think?” She handed Leo the microphone.

“Uh... Well,” Leo responded, aware of hundreds of people staring at him, mind blanking out for a second, “I can tell you that the alien announcement didn't happen in my vision of the future, and uh... I'd like to believe the aliens, but I don't.”

“Who's the Guardian?” someone shouted.

“You know as much about that person as I do,” Leo responded.

Gretchen took back the microphone. “A question a lot of people in this church were wondering about is, could this be the biblical Apocalypse? As in the end of times. Were people pulled up into the heavens? Or maybe vanishing and leaving their clothes behind?”

“How old are you?” someone shouted from the audience.

Leo took back the microphone. “I died fifty years after the Change, so I'm sixty-two years old. And I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if people were getting pulled into the sky or vanishing. There were clothes lying on the ground in the beginning because the afflicted would tear off their clothes when they changed into monsters, but nothing like what you're describing.”

In the twilight, Leo could see over twenty big police drones hovering above them, in addition to ten smaller government surveillance drones. No surprise they were being observed, but he noticed the police drones were losing altitude, approaching the group.

Uh, oh.

A police drone hovering twenty feet away from Leo and Gretchen flashed its lights and blared its siren at an ear-splitting volume.

Gretchen took back her microphone and shouted. “We have permission from the land's owner to congregate here. We're doing nothing illegal!”

More drones flashed their lights and blared their sirens.

Boom! Someone fired a shotgun, blasting apart the drone hovering over Leo and Gretchen, showering both of them with buckshot. A piece of drone the size of Leo's fist whizzed by his face.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

There were more gunshots. More drones fell from the sky amid cries of pain as people got hit with falling debris.

The surviving drones ejected their canisters and flew away. Clouds of tear gas formed. More screams. People started coughing.

“Shit,” Gretchen said in a suppressed voice. Then louder. “Everyone remain calm. Proceed quickly to your vehicles and leave the area. And please, stop shooting at those drones.”

Unfortunately, there was nothing careful or orderly about the mass exodus that ensued. The clouds of tear gas expanded, the wind blowing the gas up the hill. Leo supposed he'd soon level up in resisting the effects of tear gas. Coughing, he looked around for Trent and Mr. Osmond. He couldn't see them.

“Are you going to be okay, Gretchen?” Leo shouted.

“I'll be fine, Leo. Best look out for yourself.”

“Come on Leo, let's go.” A man Leo didn't recognize grabbed his arm and pulled him through the mass of people. “Give me your cellphone.” Leo handed it to him. Tear gas made Leo's eyes burn so he could barely see as the man handed him off to someone else. “Go with that guy; he'll get you out of here.”

A helmet was shoved over Leo's head, and a leather jacket thrown over his shoulders. The second man dragged him over to a motorcycle. “Get on the back.”

Not sure what else to do, Leo did so. “I hope you know what you're doing.”

“It'll be okay. I know a secret way out of here.” The man started up the motorcycle and gunned the engine, the rear wheel kicking up dirt as the motorcycle shot forward, forcing Leo to hang onto the man to avoid falling off.

Damn. Leo's eyes were burning from the tear gas.

Future Man 10/16: Mr. Osmond! Trent! Are you guys okay? I'm on this guy's motorcycle.

Teach: They slipped us a kid about your size wearing a gas mask. Myself, Trent, and this kid are trying to get the hell out of here. I think this is part of a plan to help you escape. Shank 66 tells me the agency may have nudged the local police to crack down on us, but officially the agency had nothing to do with it. Excellent news, if true. The local police are very bribe-able. Let us know if you run into trouble.

Leo soon lost track of all the twists and turns they made as they left the dirt roads to ride through gullies and old stream beds. Fortunately, the motorcycle had a suspension made for off-road as well as on-road use.

Imp informed him he'd leveled up on rough motorcycle ride tolerance and tear gas resistance.

Half an hour later, they were riding down a road Leo couldn't identify. They went through some tunnels, then entered a rundown neighborhood, before going down into a poorly lit parking garage and stopping in front of what looked like a large storage unit. The biker pulled the door open, rode inside, and parked. Several people rushed forward in the darkness to close the door again.

Leo got off the bike and removed his helmet, stiff and sore from the time he'd spent on the bike. His eyes burned from tear gas.

“Did you ditch the drones?” someone hissed.

“I think so,” the biker said.

“You think so?” the first person said, skeptical.

The biker shrugged. “If they're still following us, they're being really sneaky.”

The first person sighed. “That will have to do.” He flipped on the lights, revealing a storage unit that had been converted to a living area, with couches and chairs in one end, and a small refrigerator and eating area in the other. The speaker was a chubby bearded man standing in front of a “Don't Tread on Me” flag hanging on a wall that reminded Leo of the fictional prepper group in the VR game they'd just finished. In addition to the bearded man and the biker who'd brought him here, there were five others. Three men and two women, who were obviously waiting for Leo.

Leo stood up straight and faced the unknown group. “Somehow, I don't think you guys are with the church. Want to tell me who you are and what you want?”