Chapter 5 Discovery

Andrew and his men were making strides tracking the Drone back to its location. When he took off he had about twelve men but now he was down to nine men thanks to the stupid predator. His evasion tactics were holding and the enemy was not to be seen in a couple of days. Andrew took caution not to let his guard down keeping men on watch during others slept or ate. The journey consisted coming down from the mountain lands to the low lands of the plains. Given the higher elevation Andrew’s men moved faster without the elevation restriction and they also packed the essentials to make the journey to Oklahoma. While on the trail of the drone they would only stop to hunt and eat their food. Their loved ones gave them biscuits and small fruits and vegetables to carry so they only lacked the meat in their diet. Each man was able to track and hunt small game or as a group they would hunt a deer or two to eat their fill plus smoke the remainder.

Given they had left the high country Andrew and his men went from sleeping in homemade shelters and dugouts to now finding abandoned buildings every twenty miles or so given the plains being more developed with farm homes and abandoned gas stations. Andrew directed his men to be ever so vigilant with the sky and with the land ahead of them so as though to be never to be caught off guard. He also instructed his point man to direct them to avoid major roads for that would be a possible ambush from marauders still in existence since the fall of the country. Eventually he would assign two of fastest men to scout ahead to find safe routes for them to follow. Those men would come back with horror stories how entire towns were wiped out with heads atop of spikes as an foreboding warning to all who enter. The scouts would account marauders turned cannibals in the area catching men, women, and children in wooden cages killing one and cooking them on a spigot for their flesh to rip eaten with delight. The cannibals had running vehicles and to Andrew amazement they were not killed by the predator drones in the recent attack to him and to his men or to his town.

Andrew had to find out why he solely was attack and not these demons who wander the plains. Or were they next to be attacked and the demons did not know the attack was imminent. He and his men past signs mentioning Guymon then Woodward and eventually Enid. They would always stop along the way to find more abandon homes to search for food. What they had in reserves were gone and now raiding parties needed to be the essential operation of the trip. Outside of Ponca City Andrew and his men were resting in a abandon farm house pilfering through a root cellar trying to find any remain food left behind from the farmer and his family. Upstairs he and his men would avoid of the remains of the farmer who took his life and the lives of his family from an apparent murder suicide from the falling of the country. One of his men reported finding the bodies all decayed and rotting in their beds. Another one of his men went to see the carnage only to throw from the horror. That man and others were fathers having wives and children.

Andrew ordered his men to bury the bodies for they deserve some sort of Christian burial. The farmer was a coward and Andrew did not remind his men what cowards do in a time like the falling of the United States. The sun was setting as the men buried the bodies when Andrew stood at the graves and gave the last right and prayer to mother and two children but he would spit on the father for being a spineless fool when all of the sudden the ground began to shake, clouds of dust showed a glimmer of metal and the sound of mechanical doors began to open. Andrew could not see it but he could hear it, that what he was looking for. About a mile out the roar of engine came out of the ground and to Andrews horror was a predator drone. He yelled to his men, Go to the root cellar and hide immediately! The root cellar should be deep enough to hide themselves from the infrared. Andrew lingered longer than he should have when he saw what he thought was exhaust coming out of the ground near him and the barn so he ran to join his men to hide out the coming danger. All the while the he watched the venting fumes the mechanical doors began to close. He was tempted to run towards to the field but risking exposure would most likely get him killed.

In the root cellar Andrew joined his men but he pondered on the exhaust coming near the barn. Could it possibly be a vent or some sort of access tunnel? The government was always hiding things in plain sight and the farm could be a cover? The family could have possibly been a cover as well and the government was always making deaths look like murder suicides to cover their real intentions. Questions flowed through Andrew and none could be answered at the moment. The roaring of the jet turbine engine died down within a few minutes of the initial sighting but Andrew wanted to cautious; any exposure would lead to certain death of him and his men. Just like sardines in a tin can their heat signatures would give them away in a heartbeat. A half hour had passed before Andrew gave the all clear but before letting them go top side he told them what he had saw near the barn. He explained to them that he wanted to investigate it right away. Half of his men would go to the field and the others would explore around the bar and look for what might be an access pipe or service tunnel. Once everyone had done their initial search meet up at the bar. All the men nodded and understood to be cautious no men would die from this endeavor.

Five men went to the fields and five men to the barn including Andrew. He assigned his most senior man, Kyle, to do the patrol into the field and would lead the barn search. Kyle was former Army Ranger and he took his job more serious than others, but this day in age who wouldn’t.  Andrew led the remaining men to the old barn that still had faded red paint. Two men stacked on either side of the barn door and the other three stayed in a mounted stacked fashion to breach the building. At a nod of Andrew the two men swung the barn doors open and the remaining three charged in, one barrel to the front, another barrel to the right, and Andrew coming up the rear with left and overhead coverage. In sequence all three men broke off and took their own sectors of fire with arriving at each corner. Andrew in the year coming up to this had train these men for all terrains with multiple scenarios for the world was unknown to them so to train was to survive.

In the barn the light from the day’s sun was leaking through but was the sun was almost finish setting in the west so everyone turned on their flashlights, whether by hand held or rifles mount. The remaining two men who held the door came inside to join Andrew. Within twenty minutes of searching high and low of the structure the five men found vent grates and within the stone coble and concrete structure they found an elevator hidden behind a false wall near the horse stalls. The other men came in from the fields, Kyle reporting that there was a large metallic door exposed from the field but there was no entry from what they had surveyed.  With all nine men staring at the elevator, Andrew went up and found a key pad, hit it with his butt stock exposing the wires. Within minutes of tinkering Andrew hotwired the key pad and the door made an audible, Ding, and then opened to the nine men. The sun was fully set with the light from the elevator temporally blinded the eighteen pairs of eyes. Andrew not waiting for his corneas adjusted to the light charged into the elevator. Without a moments noticed the elevator slammed shut on him and the mechanics began operating on its own. Someone or something did appreciate Andrews mishandling of the elevator like he did. As he felt the elevator come to a halt at the bottom the door chimed again then proceeded to open. To Andrew’s amazement he saw what he was looking for.

Topside the men were pounding on the metallic door and were shocked to see their leader kidnapped in front of their eyes. Kyle took his pistol and shot one round into the door and nearly was hit with a ricochet. Shit, he said, the door is probably bullet proof. Kyle looked at the remaining men and spoke, we need to find anything you can use as a tool and start hacking at the door. We need to create gashes to attach hooks into and use that tractor over there to rip the door out of it moorings. All men agreed on the task and went their separate ways’; Kyle went over to the tractor and found the keys in the ignition. Once on board he turned the keys to turn the beast over, but it went like; a rom, rom, click, click, click, and click. Kyle knew the battery was dead, so he went about finding if other vehicles or of another way to jump start the tractor. All the while the other men were found axes and pick axes began chopping away the door.

Down below Andrew was all alone; he had already left the elevator and was walking around the underground structure. One minute he was in a hall way and another door was opening for him as if he were being led to his final destination. A voice over head sounded to him, Andrew Skelton, welcome to my humble home, said the unknown host. Andrew was beginning to become frustrated for he was separated from his men who were probably working on blowing up the door by now. The voice rang throughout the hall ways, I have been watching you, and I know everything about you Andrew and I must say you are one person I never thought that would survive my attacks. Overhead old flat screens turned on showing images of old news footage of Andrew protesting the destruction of El Paso. Other screens showed him in leading riots against police and then National Guard troops. You have been very busy all this time; I have your entire profile loaded on my data base. You are forty-two, you were married, with two kids, but all them died in the fires preceding the attack. You suffered third degree burns from ninety percent of your body which I have also access to your medical records. In the military you worked on the drone program and were a program annalist for the CIA. You have masters in computer programing and wrote, but was not finished your doctorate in artificial intelligence. At this point Andrew had enough seeing the images of his dead children, his wife, and his old life. He began shooting each TV screen he came across till he emptied his rifle magazine.

Quit mocking me you bastard! Andrew screamed! But the voice only laughed more at his grief. Why stop now? The Artificial intelligence asked. You have seven more magazines for the rifle and three for the pistol. I scanned you as you came in and I verified with my air detection system. I ran read the gun powder from what you have used and what you have remaining, the AI exclaimed. The government was good to me when they installed all these items in protection of this base. I can read your pulse rate, your pheromone levels, everything in your biometrics, to what you ate last. Andrew was about to snap even more than before, he must find this culprit that intends to drive him over the edge. As he walked more doors opened he followed he one till he could see several windows showing out to an air plane hangar stretching over a mile and half long. The sight was horrifying with predator drones all lined up and ready to launch. At least five drones were lined up and others from what he could see were being built one by one in an adjacent bay next to the hanger. Andrew forced himself to walk farther and farther the hallway seemed endless to him. When he came to a single door which slowly. Eerily, opened by itself. He entered into the room to see it well lit but what stood out to him was a bright glowing orb so he presumed to be an eye.