Chapter Five

Prompts: Must contain the words glass, wood, metal, feather and rock.

Detonation minus four hours

In a commandeered lab at the University of San Francisco, Dr. Chuck Finley from the CDC couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He stepped back from the microscope to give his eyes a quick rest break before taking another look into the microscope.

It had been a relatively easy thing to round up a few of the pathogen carriers for examination. Insects were automatically assumed to be the culprits given how quickly the “virus” had spread. Suited teams from the Center for Disease Control had gone out amongst the populous of the Greater San Francisco area and gathered up every small insect they could find.

They did not expect to find this.

Dr. Finley double checked the sample on the glass slide before placing it back into the microscope. To the naked eye, this had seemed to be a mosquito. However, under magnification, it was clearly something else. Not only was it not a mosquito, it wasn’t even an animal. Its metal out layer was clearly artificial.

This thing had been built, not born.

In a near panic, he placed a call to CDC.

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Detonation minus forty-five minutes

In the small town of Salinas, about an hour south of San Jose, Sally Bennett was cleaning her house with one eye on her dusting, another on the television where her favorite soap opera was getting rather steamy.

The show cut away abruptly to be replaced by a news alert. At first, she was irritated at the interruption. The words that spread across the television screen caught her so off guard, she dropped her feather duster and collapsed into a chair.

“The government of the United States has been overthrown.”

“Bobby, turn that music down!” she shouted to her grown son who spent most of his time in his bedroom listening to Heavy Metal. He ignored his mom.

Sally grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

“The President of the United States has been removed from office by the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff. We are not sure what the circumstances were that caused this event to happen. Regardless of why this happened, it is an event that is certain to rock our faith in out country to its very core. Wait, I am just getting word that General Brock, the man that has replaced the president, is about to hold a news conference.”

The scene cut away to a podium in front of a wood paneled wall. After a few moments, the General walked out and took his place behind the podium. He looked like a man in charge. There was no fear or remorse. One could tell that he was a man that believed in what he was doing.

“People of the United States, I have assumed control of our country’s government.”

He paused to let that settle in.

“Many of you are aware of the strange disease that is spreading though Northern California. We now believe that this is not just a pandemic that we can solve with a little research and a few pills or shots. We have indisputable evidence that the “memory affliction” as most of you know it, is being caused by an intelligence of unknown origin.”

“The affliction is spreading so fast that the entire country will fall to its effect within a month if we do not deal with it now. That is what I intend to do. At this very moment, bombers are lifting off and heading towards the population centers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their cargo of nuclear bombs will be released within the next forty minutes. When they are done, the devastation will be massive. From Santa Rosa to the north, Yosemite to the east, Monterey to the south and the Pacific ocean to the west, nothing will survive. Within weeks, some of the surrounding states will suffer some casualties from radiation fallout.”

He looked at the reporters in the room. Some had begun to cry. All stayed put, either too dedicated to their job or too much in shock to move.

“This is our only hope. Let’s pray that it is enough. If we fail here, our days as a civilization are numbered. I will not be taking any questions.”

Word count 710
Running count 2,469