SODIUM:2 Apocalypse (14 page)

Any violation of this would mean the swift death of the closest populous which would have been Savannah, Atlanta or Charleston. I finally knew why we had not heard a peep over our radio after the first few weeks.

They had knocked out all orbiting satellites just before entering the atmosphere, so the ground stations were all that had to be shut down. I shuddered at the thought of the entire populous being without TV and radio of any kind. The cell phone companies were completely shut down. Those were daily rituals that we were all addicted to and would be majorly inconvenienced without.

As it turned out the cable / internet infrastructure along with the still completely intact telephone land lines had allowed the government and military to continue to communicate with the majority of our citizens.

There were quite a few less channels to choose from without the satellites, but the local channels had all stayed running over the cable as no over the air broadcasts of any type were allowed, and according to the General "thank goodness for the internet".

Also disallowed were flights of any kind and no ships on the Atlantic seaboard or in the gulf after that first several weeks. Not a single aircraft of any type was allowed to fly anywhere. In the ensuing panic some cities had taken this literally and had also ordered all kites destroyed.

The paranoia and misinformation had run rampant in some towns and there was also the customary looting by those vile individuals who would try to capitalize on the situation. Several major cities had police battles where hundreds of armed looters and thugs had decided to try to take control for themselves. More than five thousand had died in these fights in the US alone. The military itself had to rely on couriers for much of their communications, until land lines had been sufficiently put to use.

The General stated that these same scenarios had played out in many cities around the globe. One small nation being run by a dictator had decided to defy the terms of surrender. A single fighter was dispatched and within a few hours another six hundred thousand unfortunate souls were lost to the concussion weapon. Compliance was 100 percent after that and there was no bickering by any nation’s representative at the UN.

The aliens had come to our planet in search of natural resources. From what we could tell they were looking for Sodium, which we had an abundance of in our oceans. I had wondered why they didn’t just mine the salt from elsewhere where it was much more concentrated and the General filled me in with the Military’s speculation that the mining equipment aboard the ships was specifically geared toward ocean mining, so that’s what they did.

As it turned out they could have loaded their ship with Sodium and not made a difference to us. If all the salt was removed from the oceans and stacked on land it would cover all the continents with a 500 foot thick layer. It was one resource we had plenty of. It was also a substance that was abundant in the universe, but I guessed again that they needed the water to mine it effectively and water was a tougher commodity to come by.

The General also revealed that not a single alien had been seen. He believed that all of the ships were autonomous and had been programmed to come in, establish order and take what they wanted. The mother ship had likely either moved to a safe distance where it could affect repairs on itself or it had just left and would make its repairs on its journey home, wherever that may be.

The Military had only been able to track its initial trajectory that was headed towards a star about 10 light years away. We had no way of knowing how long it had taken them to get here or how long it would take them to get home. We were just glad they were gone.

For more than three years the nations of the world had been adjusting to the new order of things. Food had been the biggest world problem with millions having starved or having been displaced to areas where food was available.

With the food supplies disrupted there had also been a number of military skirmishes with civilians who were just in search of food to feed their families. Many a man would turn to savagery on others if it meant the survival of himself or his family. According to the General, many a man had.

It had taken more than a year for our government and military to get our own society to a somewhat stable and sustainable state. Many in the Southeast had fled to the Western states to get as far away from the aliens as possible.

The historians would no doubt be having a field day with the recent events and the politicos would all be second guessing themselves and falling all over each other in search of who to blame. I for one was looking forward to living without the immediate threat of annihilation.

My first priority would be to see that my little family would be able to stay intact. Rachel and Janie had an Aunt and Uncle in Missouri and David’s grandparents lived on Long Island. We really had not had time to discuss this amongst ourselves with the events unfolding before us so quickly and our minds still occupied with our survival.

I was certain they all felt the same way as I as we had all become as close as family could be over the last few years. I briefly made mention of this to the General and he said he thought I would be granted just about anything I wanted at this point. I was eager to get back to civilization and all the comforts and conveniences that came with it.

We posed in front of the downed fighter for a final photo op. As we stood there for several pictures Janie decided to go over to the helper robot and pose with her foot on top of it in triumph. As the camera flashed I heard a metallic screech and I turned just in time to see the helper robot grab onto Janie’s shoe as she screamed and tried to jump away. I dove onto the robot and attempted to free her. Her shoe was released, but only because of the bigger prize now within the robot's reach.

Of the three multi-jointed legs on the robot only one seemed to be functioning. Using its one available claw the robot released Janie's shoe and then clamped down hard on my left arm severing it just below the shoulder and stripping it to the bone down to the elbow.

With a second effort it grabbed my left collar bone, immediately shattering it. The claw had pierced my skin and was digging in ever deeper when a Lieutenant who had been standing close by, pulled his weapon and fired repeated rounds into the dome. As soon as it had started it was all over, but the damage to my body had been done.

I passed out from the pain as shock set in and the medics got to work. It took them a full hour to separate the mechanical arm from my shoulder, to stabilize me and get us ready to med-evac to Savannah. David and the girls sat helplessly by, now only able to watch as my life was in peril. David and the girls later said the flight to Savannah had seemed to take an eternity.

Once at the Military hospital in Savannah it took 16 hours to patch me up. I was told later that it had been touch and go for me because of the extent of the damage, but the doctors had done a tremendous job of keeping me alive.

I was also told later that the damage to my arm was too severe to save and that I would be outfitted with a prosthetic one once I had healed enough. They let me know that I would likely need several more operations over the coming years to get back some use of what was left of my shoulder. We spent the next four months at the army hospital in Savannah where I began my rehab and recovery.

It had been six months since the alien craft had left. My life was filled from dawn until dusk with physical therapy, interviews, PR stunts and other meetings with world dignitaries. It seemed the population of the world felt they were in our debt.

Every movie company was hounding us, every news network covered whether we were having lunch with the Queen of England or breaking wind with some pro wrestler. And the gifts and "Thank You"s just kept coming in an endless stream.

By vote and generosity of the nations of the world I and my little family were the newest multimillionaires on the planet with each being granted one hundred million Dollars, tax free of course.

We were invited to every corner of the world and received a king’s welcome at the few we had time to attend. I had promised our president to keep the good citizen of the world tour going for at least six months in the hopes of bringing the world a little bit closer together. It was almost like an endless vacation with our every need and whim being catered to. Whatever we asked for was provided with the utmost of speed, respect and courtesy.

With my new bankroll and popularity the ladies were also out in force, throwing themselves before my feet. Ladies may not have been the proper term, but I was flattered none the less. My heart still belonged to one person. I had wondered how Renee was doing, if she was single and if she still had feelings for me.

On a trip back through the States I sent out an assistant to gather info. My eyes lit up when he returned and told me that she was still in Detroit and had never remarried. I was on the phone to her that evening and asked if I could see her. She accepted and I had my schedule changed for a meeting the following day.

I didn’t sleep much that night with the nervousness I was experiencing. On one hand I argued with myself that she would want me back because I had just saved the planet, while on the other I was wondering if she would want me back at all after the way I had treated her before our split.

My heart and my happiness were still heavily invested in her. And what would she think of my new family? My head was swirling with all the thoughts of once again seeing her.

She and her father had continued to roll in the money for the years after she and I divorced. Her mother had passed just before the invasion and she and her father had turned their vast wealth and resources towards helping those who had been displaced.

Their worth was now only a pittance of what it had been, but their lives had been greatly enriched by all the giving. It was funny that I now had all this new found wealth that I had so desired when younger, but I would be willing to give it all away in an instant to get her back.

Fortunes would be made and lost on our road back to normalcy. Politicians and even whole nations would no doubt rise and fall as they had throughout civilization. There was already bickering between our government and others over access to whatever technology the aliens had left behind and to whatever weapons we had used to defeat them. Except for the one fighter left on the beach there was no alien technology remaining. And that had been quickly skirted away to be studied before anyone else would know of its existence.

From the governments point of view the nations of the world were immediately invited to survey the area of the battle to see for themselves that the aliens had cleaned up after their losses. As far as our coil guns went they were not acknowledged. They were all now heavily guarded state secrets and would not make their way into anyone else's hands for a long, long time.

It would likely take our military scientists years to uncover the secrets of their technology, let alone being able to gain any advantage from it. I for one was glad it was in the hands of a free democracy, however imperfect it sometimes was. We had the same story to tell everywhere we went and that story included the robot sprayers doing a thorough job of tidying up.

David was set up for admission to MIT the coming fall. Not because of any need of an income in the future as each of the kids were now worth a hundred million all on their own, but because he was truly fascinated by engineering and wanted to make a contribution to society that was of his own making.

I had no doubt he would once again make his mark at some future venture. It also put him close enough to his grandparents where there would be frequent visits. We of course would be visiting with him every chance we had.

Rachel and Janie chose to stay with me and the adoption papers were already in the works. I couldn’t have been a prouder father of those two and I knew I would enjoy the closeness that we shared for the rest of my life.

Even though they really had no need of it, they were both eager to start back to school in the fall as well. Their lives from here on would no doubt be anything but normal, so any little bit of normalcy they felt they could get they would welcome.

My driver pulled up to Renee’s home on a Tuesday afternoon. She still lived in the same place Frank had purchased for us as our wedding gift. She had just returned from a morning of coordinating help for those less fortunate and was still standing in the drive.

Janie, Rachel and Heinz stayed in the limo. When I got out it took every ounce of my strength to keep myself from running to her. I walked nervously toward her, took her hand and stared into her beautiful blue eyes. There were a million "Sorry"s I was ready to say, but nothing came out and I just stood there staring at her. She then pulled me close for a long tight hug and as the tears came I knew I would be a happy man for the rest of my life.

Even with all my earlier transgressions, I had somehow been blessed. The world was alive and I was surrounded by people that I loved who also loved me. My depression of being alone was over.

Our bunker and farm complex had been designated as a national historical site and would no doubt one day be a popular travel destination for vacationers. It had served us well those few years and I knew that we would each miss it in one way or another. Janie with her chickens and cows, Rachel with her garden and David with his tinkering, they would all be missed, but never forgotten.

I had tracked down Pete's parents who were still in good health and made a generous sum of money available to them. Even though I had only known Pete for a short time he had still been my best friend and had accounted for much of our success against the invaders. His parents would be well cared for in their final years.

With all my happiness, with all my fame and popularity and with my new found wealth, I still had the fact buried deep down in the back of my mind that our alien foes would one day return. Would we be ready for them? Would they come in larger numbers? Would they have newer and more powerful ships, weapons and shields? These were all questions that could drive a man crazy if he were to dwell on them for long.

So that day I decided, since I had no control over those events, I was just going to tuck those thoughts neatly away in the back of my mind, they were no longer going to bother me. I would spend the next few years funding Renee and Frank’s humanitarian efforts before we turned it all over to a foundation. I looked forward to spending time with Renee and keeping tabs on David, Rachel and Janie who were all now young adults and were thriving.

The rest of the world would obsess over the aliens for years to come and I was all too happy to turn the reins of that obsession over too them. As I write these last thoughts, my feet are propped up on the railing of our houseboat, with a fishing line in the water.

As the Sun begins to set, Renee is sitting beside me reading with Heinz lying beside us on the deck, the girls are out riding their jet skis. The world still has its problems and probably forever will, but for Renee, the girls and I, it has just been the beginning of the eve of another perfect peaceful day.