STRANGER WORLD Read online

  It wasn’t until he dropped the filled gunny sack on the hood of the WW II Jeep in front of him that he got the idea. The aisles between sections were certainly wide enough. It might take them a few hours to move everything blocking their way, but once they got the Jeep into the open causeway they could make a lot better time.

  As he walked around to the driver’s side, George ran a hand over the bright white star on the Jeep’s hood. The worn seat springs groaned in complaint as he sat down behind the wheel. He found himself smiling when he discovered the keys dangling from the ignition. Now if it only has a bit of gas, or even an engine for that matter.

  When Maddie bounded into the seat beside him, he grinned over at her. “Here goes nothing.”

  He turned the key and that’s exactly what they got. Nothing.

  “Aw, man,” Maddie complained.

  “Maybe the battery’s just dead.”

  They exited the vehicle and moved over to the front of the Jeep. As he was trying to figure out how to pop the hood he realized Maddie wasn’t wearing her jacket. “Hey, what happened to your coat?”

  “I took it off. I’m not cold.”

  She definitely should have been. There was a pretty good chill in the air, and the floor was concrete. Maddie was still in her bare feet. By all accounts, she should’ve been freezing.

  “You’re not?” He picked her up, sat her on the hood and felt her forehead. She was neither hot nor cold. Palm still on her forehead he asked, “Are you feeling okay?”

  “Uh-huh,” she said. “Why?”

  “Well, because I would’ve thought you would’ve felt cold or maybe even hot from a fever, but you’re neither.”

  Before Maddie could respond, loud alarm klaxons suddenly sounded and red spinning emergency lights dropped from hidden panels in the ceiling.

  Their luck had finally run out.

  Chapter 6

  “Hover Drone”

  “Maddie, grab your coat. We are leaving.”

  George quickly slung the rifle over his back again and grabbed their duffel bag of supplies. He had to shout to be heard over the deafening alarms but Maddie wasn’t even listening to him anyway. Instead her eyes had gone wide and she was leaning over so she could stare at something… behind him.

  Picking up on her cue, George spun around and saw it for the first time. The hovering drone was about the size and shape of a VW bug and ceramic white in coloring. It also had extremely thin and elongated forelimbs dangling from its body.

  At the moment it was about seventy-feet away, floating near the ceiling next to an enormous ventilation shaft. Its propulsion was a mystery to him, but George thought he could see vapors behind and below the craft indicating some sort of exhaust.

  Instead of a pilot, or even a cockpit, the hover drone had a black-paneled face with a single yellow eye darting around like a ping-pong ball in a pool of black liquid. Small panels opened up on its outer shell and an array of search lights, each moving independently of one another, began searching for something… searching for them.

  Instinctively, George crouched behind the Army Jeep. He then realized Maddie was still sitting on the hood, out in the open, transfixed. He yanked her down off the hood just as one of the search lights nearly detected her.

  Maddie leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Maybe it’s friendly, you know, like Buttercup.”

  As if on cue, Maddie’s robotic horse whinnied out loud.

  The drone’s yellow eye turned crimson. More panels flipped over to reveal numerous sleek-looking laser pistols.

  George felt his eyes widen and said, “Yeah… I don’t think that thing’s like Buttercup.”

  In a deft flying move, the hover drone descended sharply and began hovering in a slow circle around Buttercup, all of its weapons trained on the robotic horse. Like before, the horse stomped its foot at the ground and bobbed its head.

  They heard a strange computer sound from the hover drone. At this the horse abruptly picked up its head, its eyes flashed the same red as the drones, and then Buttercup stood stock still.

  “Buttercup!” Maddie cried.

  The hover drone had been moving off but when it heard Maddie’s cry, it spun around with uncanny speed and turned all its search lights on her. George heard the sound of the lasers warming up as if preparing to fire.

  In the split second allowed to him, George drove Maddie down to the ground. As they fell to the hard floor George flipped over in midair onto his back and took the brunt of the blow allowing Maddie to land on his chest.

  “Whoa,” Maddie yelled instinctively.

  Beams of white hot laser energy zinged overhead and slammed into the truck behind them. Maddie, covering her ears, screamed, and tried to get up.

  George, desperately trying to reclaim air into his pancaked lungs, pulled her back down to the ground and rolled both of them under the big army truck behind them.

  George now heard the sound of a heavy duty machine gun cocking. Bullets--if they were bullets--soon ricocheted all around them a second time. Luckily none could pierce the truck’s thick engine block.

  As the hover drone circled the truck, either to locate them or get a better angle, he lunged out from his hiding place and grabbed the dropped duffle bag. He removed one of the pineapple-sized grenades and dove back underneath the truck. Facing Maddie, now on her hands and knees and holding her palms to her ears, he motioned with his finger and a stern face, ‘Stay here.’

  When she nodded back, George waited for the drone to fly past and counted how long each of its revolutions would take around the truck. Acting on pure instinct, he rolled out from beneath the truck, pulled the pin, and threw the grenade like a football. He was aiming at a place in the air where he calculated the drone would circle around the back of the truck again at any moment.

  George flung the grenade into the air, dove beneath the truck, and covered Maddie’s body with his own. The grenade didn’t hit the hover drone, but it was close enough. The explosion was so massive it completely engulfed the hover drone sending it streaking toward the western buildings like a falling star.

  They crawled out from underneath the big army truck and George could see where several fires had sprung up where the hover drone had crashed into the building labeled Funeral Parlor.

  “Baby-girl, you okay?”

  Maddie nodded that she was. No sooner had George picked up his duffel bag than they heard a commotion coming from across the aisle.

  Heavily damaged, struggling to maintain altitude, the hover drone rose from the ashes. Its hull was badly scorched and the housing above the eye-plate was so badly dented it gave the appearance its single red eye was now scowling at them.

  George wasn’t confident they’d be so lucky a second time. They were trapped.

  He felt tugging on his jacket. “Dad, over there. A door!”

  George saw where Maddie was pointing. She was right; about twenty yards away there was a metal door to a steel bunker. Where did that come from? He did not remember seeing it before.

  He wasn’t entirely sure, but the hover drone seemed to know exactly what they were thinking. He watched as it turned toward the door, held it long enough to puzzle out their plan, and then faced them once more.

  They’d never make it. The twenty yards might as well have been twenty thousand. The hover drone would cut them in half long before they reached safety.

  Fortunately, Buttercup thought otherwise. The robotic horse reactivated itself, lowered its head down, and plowed right into the back of the low-flying hover drone. In its weakened state, the hover drone spun around and out of control several times before careening into the hull of the pirate ship.

  George wasn’t confident that a head butt from a horse, even a robotic one, would keep the drone down for long--certainly not when a grenade couldn’t--but at least now they had a fighting chance to sprint for the door.

  “Run, baby-girl!”

  “What about Buttercup?” she started to ask.

  “I said
run!” he shot back in a voice that cut off any further argument.

  They ran. Every few feet or so, George risked a glance over his shoulder at the hole in the pirate ship. It wasn’t long before the red eye reappeared in the hull’s darkened interior.

  They reached the door. Maddie tried turning the knob. “It’s locked!”

  George scooted her out of the way. “Let me try.” He gave it only two good turns before confirming Maddie’s original assessment.

  “Dad, it’s coming back!”

  George didn’t waste any time looking back over his shoulder, instead he drew his firearm, yanked Maddie behind him, aimed at the lock, and fired three times. All three bullets struck their mark and the battered lock fell to the floor allowing the door to glide inward almost welcomingly.

  Still not looking back, George grabbed Maddie by the arm and dove through the doorway.

  They hadn’t even hit the floor inside when the hover drone crashed into the bunker’s steel entrance like a hateful missile.

  Like an angry dog, the hover drone kept slamming into the bunker’s entrance again and again, desperately trying to get at them. Maddie screamed as loud as she had on the day of her birth. They backpedaled on the floor on their butts and moved as far away from the entrance as possible. Fortunately, the bunker was made of solid steel and the doorway was too narrow for the angry hover drone’s girth, nor did it allow it room for the drone to aim its side guns at them. No matter how hard it tried, the drone could not follow.

  After a time, it ceased its relentless attack.

  The hover drone lowered itself down in front of the open doorway. The huge dent over its faceplate only furthered the appearance of it glowering at them as it trained its narrowed blood-red eye on George.

  George swore he could feel the hate coming off the thing and had to remind himself it was just a machine.

  Inside the bunker, on the other side of the room, he spied a hatch, like one might find on a submarine. He wasn’t sure where it led to, but anywhere was better than here. He got to his feet and helped Maddie to hers.

  “C’mon, baby-girl, down the hatch.”

  Maddie didn’t have to be told twice. She spun the wheel and yanked open the lid in the floor. George took a quick peek down and saw at the bottom of the ladder well lay a narrow concrete corridor much like the ones that had first brought them here. “Go.”

  Before stepping down the hatch she gazed up at him and said, “Buttercup saved us, did you see that, Dad?”

  He nodded and gently guided her down the hatch.

  George had seen Buttercup save them, as did the drone. Before following Maddie, George could only watch as the hover drone returned to the horse, which had gone motionless again. The drone opened up all its panels and trained its weapons on the robotic horse. The hover drone spun to face him one last time before firing, as if to say, ‘See? This is your fault,’ then it turned back toward Buttercup and fired all of its weapons at once.

  “Buttercup, no!” Maddie screamed. She had climbed back up out of the hatch and in a few seconds she was on her feet, running over to her horse.

  George caught her up by her waist before she could run back outside the safety of the bunker. He pulled her back to the hatch and pushed her down the ladder. He then ducked down and slammed the hatch sealed behind them.

  After a short climb down, in a panic he realized he was no longer wearing his firearm. He must’ve dropped it when they dove through the door. The duffel bag of supplies, the rifle, and now his pistol were all left behind. How could he have been so careless, especially when Maddie’s life was at stake? All they had left to them now was his army coat and belt with an empty canteen on it.

  When he finally managed to lift his gaze, he saw Maddie standing in the middle of the narrow corridor. She had her arms raised to be lifted up, which of course he immediately did.

  Burying her face in his neck she sobbed, “He killed him. Buttercup saved our lives and that stupid flying egg killed him for it.”

  “I know, baby-girl, I know.” He stroked her hair, rocking her gently back and forth as he carried her down the passageway.

  But Maddie was right.

  One murderous robot tried to kill them while the other gave its life so they could escape.

  Where the heck are we?

  Chapter 7

  “The Tunnel”

  “We’ve been walking for hours.”

  “I know, baby-girl.”

  “I’m thirsty.”

  “I know.”

  “I’m hungry.”

  “I know, baby-girl.”

  “I’m going to have to go to the bathroom soon.”

  He was glad she was talking again. Maddie hadn’t said anything since watching that stupid fake horse get vaporized right in front of her eyes. As they walked down the seemingly endless concrete tunnel, she held his hand; something she did less and less as she grew older.

  For the moment, they seemed to have eluded the angry hover drone, and any faceless, jack-booted patrols. This was especially good because the tunnel offered nothing in the way of cover; nor did they have any weapons. He silently cursed himself again for leaving the duffle bag and rifle back in the hangar. But, it wasn’t like he had much of a choice. In all his years in the military he had never seen the hover drone’s equal. He’d never even heard about anything on the drawing boards. And fully-functioning lasers?

  Focusing on something he could understand he calculated their average foot speed at about three mph, and guessing the amount of time that had transpired since they entered the dimly-lit tunnel, he estimated they were nearing nine miles. In that distance they hadn’t seen so much as a door, window, or even a piece of garbage. On the plus side, the tunnel sloped gently upward toward the surface, but that also made the nine-mile trek all the harder.

  Shuffling alongside him, Maddie asked, “Do you think we’ll ever find Mom?”

  George thought about this before answering. He could tell by her tone she was feeling downcast and melancholy. As a former survival instructor he knew the number one rule of survival was never-ever lose hope. “We don’t even know if she’s here. But if she is, you can bet we’ll find her,” he said reassuringly.

  And the Academy Award goes to…

  “I worry about her, ya know.”

  George tousled Maddie’s hair, much to her displeasure. “I know you do, kiddo.”

  “Dad…” she complained, immediately fixing her hair.

  This seemed to placate her for now. The reality was the underground complex was so huge, it was beyond comprehension. George knew what Tessa would want him to do first. Tessa would want him to get their daughter out alive. They had discussed the subject before; once when hiking through the Alaskan interior, and another time while navigating the inner streets of New York. If they ever got separated or one of them went missing, Maddie’s survival always came first. All other concerns were secondary.

  Maddie stumbled and George kept her from falling. “You want me to carry you?”

  She shook her head. “No, I’m alright. I can go on a little longer.”

  But George wasn’t so sure. The canteens on their belts were still empty, they had no food, and the tunnel seemed endless. It was getting harder and harder not to lose what little hope they did have. An image of their clothed skeletons sitting side-by-side with their backs to the tunnel wall flashed through his mind.

  “Dad, is it alright that I’m a little scared?”

  He nearly said, ‘Of what’, but then remembered the angry hover drone back in the hangar and didn’t want to bring it up again. No. He needed to bolster her confidence somehow.

  “Do you remember what my job was in the Air Force?”

  “You were an instructor, right?”

  George nodded. “Uh-huh, but before you were born I was a P.J.”

  She gave him a quizzical look, followed by a knowing smile. “You were pajamas?”

  George smiled. “No honey, I was a Search-n-Rescue pilot with the
Para Rescue Rangers. It means my job was to fly into the worst combat situations and environments, rescue people… and bring them back alive. We were trained how to fight, scuba dive, treat all manner of injuries, and survive under the worst possible situations.”

  Maddie sniffed, wiped away a tear on the back of her forearm, and asked, “And were you good at your job?”

  George grinned. “Well, they made me a Captain, and after dozens of missions, I got promoted and taught others how to do the job, so yeah, I’d guess you could say I was pretty good.”

  “Mommy once told me you got a medal for saving a whole bunch of people in,” she thought a moment, “Acka-bara-stand.”

  George squinted as he smiled. “I think you mean Afghanistan.”

  Maddie pursed out her bottom lip in thought. “No… I’m pretty sure she said Acka-bara-stand. I remember because it was the same place some Genie named Aladdin comes from.”

  George suppressed a laugh, failed miserably. And when he saw Maddie didn’t appreciate this he quickly added, “My point is, if I can rescue all those people, do you think I’m going to let anything happen to my baby-girl?”

  Maddie shook her head.

  “So what do you say we get the heck out of this tunnel and go find Mom?”

  “Okay, Dad.”

  With that said, he draped his arm over her shoulders, careful to keep his weight off her tiny body, and they walked onward in silence.

  After a time she asked, “Dad? Did you rescue Aladdin?”

  He didn’t respond because he spied something up ahead. Something wonderful.

  A door.

  The tunnel continued onward out of sight, but in a shallow alcove on their left they had finally stumbled across a door. It was made of steel and far more sophisticated than any of the others.

  Maddie sighed wearily. “How do we get in?” she asked, echoing his thoughts for he couldn’t see any signs of a handle or apparent doorknob.

  His fingertips probed the metal surface for a trigger or hidden switch. After checking the entire door twice and finding nothing, he cursed and pounded it with his fist in frustration. His pounding reverberated up and down the tunnel. He froze for a second, and then quickly checked around to see if anyone, or anything, had heard. Still nothing for miles.