John Miller watched as the cars pulled up to Plattsburgh family health. He could see through the camera the decay that was happening in this once semi-flourishing town. The Code Blue soldiers had passed a number of permanently closed businesses along the way. This made John feel quite sad.
Though there were many reasons John had wanted to become President, an important one in his view was in that position he could help reverse the rot that was happening in rural areas. The last time that rural areas had become sort of popular was after the 2020-2021 pandemic. People were afraid of living in the cities for a while, and small towns began to see a bit of a resurgence. But as the pandemic had grown more distant, the trends reverted and the mass movement to cities had again commenced.
Of course it is hard to pinpoint the exact start of such a trend typically, John himself had noticed this in the mid-2020's. People, especially young people, were once again finding cities attractive. And who could really blame them? Sure you were at more risk when things like a pandemic arose, but such an event was rare in history. The upside of city life, with all of its convenience and the access to good jobs, outweighed the downsides for many.
Of course this had led to a problem for rural communities. John himself had grown up in rural Kentucky and he had seen what happened to his hometown. The population of that town had aged much faster than the nation as a whole, simply because most of the kids left town to chase good jobs. John himself had been guilty of that in a sense, especially after his time in the military had ceased.
This trend killed many of the local businesses and created its own sort of vicious cycle. No business wanted to come to the town because there were no young people to support it, nor was there a readily accessible workforce to staff it. This of course meant that the young people would have to leave to get jobs and so on. It was its own brain drain of sorts, but instead of draining the talent from other countries it was draining the talent from the small towns toward the big cities.
John had truly believed he could reverse this trend with his powers as President. But thus far he had not succeeded. Not a single large company had agreed to move to a small town, or even build new in a small town. The problem is they knew that this would not be a good financial decision, at least in the short term and all that businesses seem to care about is the short term.
Seeing the Code Blue soldiers entering the building knocked John loose from his thoughts. Now it was action time, they were going to help the ragtag group that was led by Clayton, or was it led by the former terrorist group member? John wasn't sure but it didn't matter, the cavalry was there and he hoped the terrorists would be there soon too. John's plan was counting on it. They had discerned that this group was in a lot of trouble when they had discovered one of the people who had been working with Clayton dead.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
As the Code Blue soldiers entered the building they were stopped by the receptionist.
"Oh not again today, no way. No one is going to barge through that door again. You need to check in here first!" She said forcefully.
John chuckled a bit listening to this. It was an interesting thing, a business having a receptionist still. It was a reminder of times past. Also it was further evidence of how far small towns had fallen in the modern day. Most businesses in cities now used AI to handle the duties of a receptionist, and it made perfect sense. The AI didn't need to take a break, nor did it call in sick. And the modern day AI systems were so good, it was almost as if you were talking to a human. You could have very real seeming conversations with a computer. This was both interesting and frightening.
Small town businesses didn't have the luxury, however, to buy such systems. They were still prohibitively expensive for a small company, sure it would save you money in the long run, but you had to put up the money in the short term for the system purchase.
"Ma'am, we are here looking for some people that need our help. Have you seen an African American male and an Asian female here?" The Code Blue soldier asked. He of course knew the answer as they had picked up video from the building showing Clayton walking around.
"Yes I have seen those two, the man's girlfriend, or at least I am assuming it is his girlfriend, are back there. She was hurt pretty bad. Wait I hope you are with the government, I could lose my job giving that kind of information you know."
"Yes ma'am, we are with the government. We need to get back there ma'am, those people are in danger." The Code Blue soldier explained.
"Stop calling me ma'am! And fine, I will buzz you through."
The receptionist buzzed them through the door, she didn't mention that the lock no longer worked, which is how Clayton had gotten in there earlier. But she figured it was the last bit of control she had, buzzing people in. As the Code Blue soldiers entered they fanned out. They did not have their weapons drawn as they didn't want to startle anyone, but the full tactical gear certainly gave them away as soldiers.
They worked their way through the rooms, until they heard the screeching of tires in the parking lot. John switched cameras to watch the Code Blue soldier who happened to be closest to the back door. The soldier ran and opened the door and he could see a vehicle moving at high velocity, heading toward the heart of Plattsburgh.
"Damn, they don't know we are the good guys!" John said to general Howard.
"I doubt they even know that we have our own program sir. The terrorists didn't seem to know at all, and Clayton isn't someone who is associated with Code Blue, so we are probably going to have to proceed with caution." General Howard responded.
"How many men are there?" John asked.
"100."
"Ok I think we should split them. Twenty-five should stay at this facility, if we could track them here, we have to assume the terrorists can too. The other 75 should go in pursuit, but do their best not to frighten our little group." John ordered.
"Yes sir, consider it done."