The vehicles slowed down once they spotted Victor and their encampment. There was no place to hide from their sights, and their cars surrounded them from all sides. Victor ordered the kids to the back, away from the Ford Interceptor that had parked in front of them.

The other cars around them shut down, and the Wielders on top of them glared at Victor and his group like vultures around a corpse. When the doors of the Ford opened, Victor saw an old man and a Chinese woman walk out.

The man was wrinkled with age, but had a strong chin and was built like a tank under his suit. He had black hair speckled with white strands and emerald eyes that were hardened from age. The woman, in contrast, looked like she was in her twenties and had high cheekbones. She had glasses on that were immaculately polished.

As soon as the pair had stepped out, Victor was dumbfounded.

“Mr. President?” he blurted out.

“Hello there, son,” he, said in a thick southern accent, clasping his hands behind his back as he took a look around. President Jeffords walked across the camp as if he owned the place, making Victor cautious of the man. He seemed interested in every nook of the place and every person they had among them.

“there’re mostly children around, Mr. President, but they do have a lot of Wielders among them,” the girl, his secretary most likely, told them.

“Oh, I must’ve scared the kids then, didn’t I? You have my apologies for that, Mister…”

“Amadi. Victor Amadi.”

“Mr. Amadi, then. I didn’t mean to cause a ruckus. We were just passing on through when we noticed your little camp.”

“T-thanks,” Amadeus replied with a stutter. The President seemed to find it amusing, and he laughed in reply.

“And the injured?” President Jeffords suddenly asked him.

“We had to take down a Vintaric,” Victor replied.

The President took a performative glance around the camp.

“Well…. Where is it?”

Victor pointed behind him, to the half-filled hole in the ground. The president and his entourage followed him to the corpse, and Victor’s group came along.

“Well, I’ll be damned…. you all did that?” he asked, impressed.

“Yes, sir,” Victor replied curtly.

“Their cars are electric, sir,” his assistant told him as she came close to his ear.

“’preciate it, Mei. That settles it, then.”

The president turned to address Victor head-on. He was head-to-head with the man and held out his hand towards him.

“Your injured could use some looking after, and you all don’t seem to be in the best shape yourself. We’ll take you back to our camps and get yourselves looked after. In turn, all I ask is that you spill a couple secrets for me. Deal?”

Victor considered for a moment. He’d known little about President Jeffords’ group back in the previous loop. They were a large coalition, and grew larger by the day, but even they couldn’t stand up to the invading monsters. He’d met a few of their scouts once, and they even did that mission in Miami together,

“My hand’s gonna grow sore hanging there, son, if I don’t get an answer soon,” Jeffords told him.

Victor needed to unite them. He knew that. And what better banner to do it under than the former President’s? At least then, more people might listen.

Victor clasped the man’s hands and shook it.

“Deal.”

****

Jeffords ordered his assistant, Mei Li, to move their Wielders throughout the camp. Victor was in awe of the group and their efficiency. They seemed to work as a single unit, finding, patching and taking care of the people who were supposed to be under his care.

It even made him jealous. He was the one responsible for them, yet Jeffords had done a better job taking care.

When they were done, they went back to their cars. Amadeus moved among the EVs and charged them, all the while Jeffords looked on in awe.

“Amazing… Mei Li, we got anyone like this boy here?” he patted Amadeus on the back so hard he recoiled.

“Some new ones, Mr. President, but they’re not on his level,” she shook her head.

“Well, that’s some power you got there then, son,” Jeffords told Amadeus.

“Aha, it’s nothing…”

They packed up and revved up their engines as well. Victor didn’t bother to stand on his car. there was no need when they were protected on all sides by Jeffords’ men. It seemed the president didn’t intend for any harm to come to his guests.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

When they took off, Victor felt a bit of apprehension. He was sat in the same car as Jeffords, along with Lillie. There wasn’t enough space for Amadeus, however, so he’d ridden in one of the other cars.

A dust storm kicked up around the group of cars, allowing them to see each other but not let anyone look inside. It covered the entire group, made possible by the many Wielders they had.

The Interceptor they were in was driven by the president himself. From the look of it, he enjoyed driving by himself, even though his assistant had insisted on otherwise.

“You shouldn’t be doing these things yourself, Mr. President,” she said. It was a suggestion, but Victor could hear the annoyance behind it. Jeffords understood it as well, laughing it off.

“Oh come now, Mei. Can’t be having everything fed to me by a silver spoon anymore, can I?”

Mei sighed and turned her gaze back to her tablet. A solar charger was attached to the end of it. Some cute stickers dotted it, and Victor wondered how someone so serious could own something so… adorable.

“What about you, Victor? Want anything to drink?” Jeffords asked.

“We have coke, sprite, root beer, whiskey-”

Mei listed off a dozen more drinks before Victor stopped her.

“I-I’m good, thanks.”

“And you, girlie? Mind my manners, but I don’t think I asked for your name yet, did I?” Jeffords asked.

“Oh… I’m just Lillie…”

“Pretty name. Would you like anything, Ms. Lillie?”

“Thank you, Mr. President, but no… But I would like to ask a favour.”

Lillie gulped down the lump in her throat and continued.

“My parents worked for the government. Would you… happen to know anything about what happened to them?” she asked.

Jeffords’ eyes hardened into a stare.

“I’m sorry, I don’t keep track of every agent. Mei, could you run a check?” he asked. Mei nodded and went to work on her tablet. She pulled up a database that showed several names along with faces.

“Full name?” she asked.

“Lillie Aster. My parents were John and Kim Aster.”

“Got it… Sorry, but we haven’t heard from them,” Mei looked up from her tablet. “We’re always on the lookout for any people left over, but they were last seen on a base and…”

“Most of the bases were destroyed within the hour.” Jeffords finished. “Whatever demons came from those Gates have a real hankerin’ for us. We can’t even contact what’s left of the military through normal means,” Jeffords finished.

He must’ve realized how he sounded, because the President cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry, girl, but you should make peace with that. I know I have…”

Mei gave him a sad sort of look, and Victor wondered what it meant. He couldn’t ponder it for long though, because Lillie was tearing up beside him.

She tried her best, but Victor wrapped an arm around her. She grasped it and looked up at him. But the way she stared; it was almost as if she was looking through him.

“They knew… I need to find them….” Lillie spoke softly into his arms.

Victor kept that way for the rest of the ride, until she fell asleep in his arms. Even he grew drowsy by the end, but kept himself alert for her sake.

“We’re here,” Jeffords spoke like a kindly grandfather, gentle but forceful enough to wake them. Victor blinked his eyes to get the tiredness out and looked out through the window.

What he saw looked like a military base from the outside. There were searchlights and watchtowers along a large wall made from rough stone surrounded by soldiers. Tanks were placed along the perimeter of the base along with barbed wire and pickets. Finally, a large Gate was visible on the horizon in the distance.

A road led up to the centre of the wall, but it looked no different from any other area.

“Where’s the entrance?” Victor asked.

“It’ll open up, just you wait,” Jeffords answered.

When they got closer to the base the searchlights focused on them. Jeffords’ car stopped in the middle of the road and he tapped his finger on the steering wheel for a few moments. Even after that the wall didn’t open up, so the President poked his head out of the car window.

“Just open the damn door!” he shouted.

An awkward pause followed, after which the wall split apart in the middle. It slowly ground against the road and opened enough for five cars to travel side by side.

Jeffords took his vehicle in. When Victor saw the inside of the base, his jaw dropped open.

It was bigger than anything he’d done over the previous year. The buildings weren’t as tall, but their sheer numbers dwarfed them. They were spread out so far Victor found it hard to see the other end of the wall.

And there were so many people! Hundreds upon hundreds that he could see walking through the streets and working odd jobs here and there. When they drove past them, Victor found themselves in another area where they’d somehow made the soil farmable.

There were Wielders working across the fields. A tree grew from a sprout to a full grown oak in a matter of moments before Victor’s eyes.

“This is…”

“It’s what we’ve tried to preserve of the states,” Jeffords told him.

“Amazing…” Victor said. And he’d done it without the liberal use of Timewalking that Victor employed.

“You’ve our scientists to thank for most of it. Education’s a strong tool, son, and made sure that we’re never in the dark about our enemies,” Jeffords said.

Lillie was stirred awake by the commotion and looked outside. She sobered up immediately and her and Victor watched for the rest of the trip.

****

When they stopped, it was in a wide open field manned by soldiers and civilians alike. Many wore the uniform of the army, and bore guns in their hands. Victor had thought the Gate he’d glimpsed to be outside the range of the base, but when he got closer he realized it was smack dab in the middle instead.

Everyone departed from the cars and Victor stuck around the President. He kept glimpsing the area around him in awe, and wondered how everything worked.

“Most all is done by the Wielders. We’re lucky we happened to get the best of ‘em. The water ones help with plumbing and thirst, the farmers get the Seeds best for the field, and so on,” Jeffords explained.

“What about the Gate? Why did you make the base around it?” Victor asked.

“Not just around, son. Come here.”

Jeffords took him to the front. There were soldiers and tanks placed around The Gate, and a small building surrounded it for visit. Jeffords passed through it and brought Victor along to the other side, where he saw something truly unreal.

There were soldiers on the other side as well. They’d set up a base here, and the buildings seemed to be in better shape than the ones back on earth.

“Cut off their point of entry and they’ve got nothing. We protect the Gate twenty-four-seven. Not a single minute is spent without it manned. And as a bonus, it makes for easy pickings for Seeds,” Jeffords explained.

“And you set it all up in a year?” Victor asked.

“Sure, with a lot of helping hands all around. We’ve got to stick together in times like these, don’t we, son?” Jeffords asked.

“I’m just amazed you could accomplish it at all, Mr. President. You look around the world and everyone’s barely scraping by. You’ve managed to create something instead,” Victor said, letting out his real thoughts.

He looked down to his chest, wondering. Why me?

Why hadn’t the Timewalker’s Origin picked someone like Jeffords instead? He had the power to change that Victor lacked. The authority to back up his claims and the wisdom to go along with his age. The man seemed well within his mind and healthy enough to lead for the next few years.

Jeffords patted him on the back a bit hard and smiled.

“We’re not just gonna stop at this, Victor. The whole country’s in peril, and I’ll need every hand I can get to bring it back together as a whole,” Jeffords told him.

“You, son, are another hand in a link of many. Help me, and we’ll bring America back together.”