Human Extinction Level Loss (Book 1): Nicole's Odyssey (35 page)

Ruby took her hand off Walt’s shoulder and stood straight up.  She fixed a stare on Nicole. 

“Nicole Bennett, you look at me now,” she said.

Nicole brought her eyes slowly up to Ruby’s.

“I am just an old country woman, who has seen a lot of days, good and bad.  Up until you came along with your friends, I thought I had seen the baddest days I was ever gonna see and I decided I wasn’t gonna see no more.  I cleared my land of those things with my harvester so they wouldn’t go to eating on me when I finished doing what I had set my mind to do.  I finished making those brownies cause they made the place smell like home, then I sat down on that porch and was gonna do a foolish thing.  I was gonna take that old police special, stick it in my mouth and blow my damn head clean off.  Yes I was.”

Emotion threatened to overtake Ruby, but she set her jaw and continued.

“About the time I had worked up the nerve to do it, who comes up my dirt road but you and these others, and all of a sudden I didn’t want to kill myself no more.  When you invited me to come with you, I said I had to think about it, but that was a lie.  I just figured I needed to spend the night thanking the good Lord for being so much wiser than me.  These others say you saved their lives, well you saved mine too.  I don’t know how many days I got left, sweetheart, but I’ll spend them helping you in any way I can for the way you helped me.”

Ruby nodded at the others, then went back and leaned on Walt.

Walt looked at all the others then at Nicole.

“I wasn’t gonna kill myself or nothing, man… but that doesn’t mean I ain’t grateful for you coming along.  I drove a bus, man.  I like driving a bus cause a bus is for people, to go places they want to go… places they need to go.  Busses take you on a journey, you know.  And… we’re all on a journey, man.  But it’s a journey we weren’t meant to take alone.  I was on my journey alone for awhile and it was a bummer.  You and Sam came along and it wasn’t a bummer anymore.  It was awesome!” 

Walt got excited and broke out into a big smile.  Nicole stared at him and laughed in spite of her tears.  The others laughed and looked at Walt.  Ruby rubbed Walt’s arm and smiled at him.

Nicole looked down at her lap and fidgeted with her hands.  Sam stepped up again.

“We just wanted to tell you that, Nicole.  When you’re ready, we’ll be downstairs, to do whatever you want to do,” Sam said. 

They all filed out of the room and left Nicole alone.

Fifty-Three

Fifteen minutes later, Nicole emerged from the office and slowly made her way down the stairs.  The others stood waiting.  She came up and stood before them.  She wiped her eyes and tried to gather herself together.  Nobody said anything, content to wait for Nicole, knowing she would speak when she was ready.  Finally, she looked up at them and gave a weak smile.  Taking a deep breath, she began to speak.

“My dad and I never got along… Seems like at times we weren’t even related, you know?”

The question hung in the air, unanswered, the others giving her the space to get her words out. 

“There’s a lot me and my dad didn’t understand about each other, and after awhile, I guess, that was reason enough to not even try.”

Hot tears filled Nicole’s eyes and she quickly wiped them away.  Ruby pulled a fresh tissue from the sleeve of her dress and tapped Sam on the hand, giving it to him.  Sam handed Nicole the tissue.  Nicole smiled through the tears, and with the tissue, dabbed her eyes before continuing.

“Just before all… this happened, he called me, wanted me to come out here.  He knew what was about to happen, and… he thought of me.  When he called… we argued.  The last words I spoke to my father were in anger.  Even when I  had no other choice but to come, all I could think was how it was just going to be a big drama, him being right… me being wrong.  I thought, maybe I should become more like him, when I got here, he would see that and… But the whole time I was trying to understand him, finally try to be like him, he was maybe starting to understand me a little, too.”

Nicole wiped her nose with the tissue and looked around at the group.

“My dad was a good man, he would’ve welcomed me and… would’ve welcomed you all too.  He’s gone now, but knowing that… is enough.”

Nicole looked up at the group; she let out a deep breath and smiled.  The group gathered in closer to her, their actions reflecting their hearts going out to her.

“What a long strange trip it’s been, huh?” she said.

Walt laughed.  “You got that right, man!” he said.

Nicole and the others laughed together, then grew silent waiting for Nicole to finish. 

“We made it this far together.  We are all in this together…  This is an empty place now, but it can be a good place.  I want to make it a good place… and I would like… I hope you guys will stay.”

Nicole looked down, her words again hanging in the air.  The others all looked at each other, unsure of who should speak first.  Finally, all eyes set on Ruby.  She nodded, accepting the unspoken request.  She folded her hands in her lap and looked at Nicole.  Sensing her, Nicole looked at Ruby.

“Whatever we do next, we should decide it together,” Ruby said.

Nicole looked from Ruby to the others.  They echoed her sentiment with nods, and Nicole received them with fresh tears and a smile. 

“Well… I guess the only thing to figure out is, what IS next?” Nicole said.

Everyone looked at each other, then Sam spoke up.

“Well… while we were waiting, Walt found something interesting.  Walt, you want to show her?”

“Yeah, man.  It’s over here,” he said. 

Walt trotted over to the end of the closest row of terminals and pointed at a large red button.  The others gathered around and looked at it.

“What is it?” Nicole asked. 

Walt ran his fingers through his hair. 

“Oh, man.  That’s the off button of all off buttons.  That turns off the internet, man,” Walt said.

Nicole leaned over and looked at the button.  Underneath were the words “Internet Shutdown”.  The button was about four inches in diameter and was covered by a square clear plastic box on a hinge.  Next to it was a similar button under a similar box.  Under it were the words, “Telecommunications/Television Shutdown”.

“I always knew the government had a button like this, man,” Walt said.

“What does it do?” Nicole asked. 

Walt acted surprised.  “Dude! It shuts the whole Web down.  It’s why there ain’t no World Wide Web up right now.  Big Brother cut it off, man!”

Paul looked at Nicole. 

“What Walt is trying to say is, we think that if they hit these buttons once to cut off all communication… hitting them again should start them up.”

Nicole looked at the others.  Then back at the buttons. 

“What the hell, right?  It’s worth a try,” she said. 

Nicole reached out, and with both hands flipped up the covers on both buttons. 

“Walt, you want to do the honors?  Be the one to kick Big Brother off the line?” 

Walt beamed.  “Hell yeah, I do!” he said, then with both thumbs pressed down on the buttons.

There was an audible hum from deep inside the base, then a female computer voice began to announce.

“
Worldwide
Web and telecommunications re-established
.”

The voice repeated, as every terminal in the room began to beep, as high speed servers synced back up.  All the screens sprang to life with connectivity messages.  Along the line of terminals, cell phones left in chargers, and wireless devices sprang to life as they too re-connected.

“Hello, World,” Paul said as he watched the huge screen on the wall at the other end of the room lose its map of the infected, a browser window taking its place.

“We’ll be the first people back on the web, man!  I bet if there are any others out there, they are freaking out, now!” Walt said.

Nicole looked at Walt, knowingly.  “You’re right, Walt.  There may be others out there.  We should let them know we are here, that we have a place,” Nicole said. 

Paul looked at the browser on the huge screen, then down at the console with the two huge buttons.  Mounted to the console was a webcam.  A green power light indicated its ready status.  Paul looked at the console again.  Two smaller buttons were below the larger ones.  One read “Transmit pages all sites/channels”.  The other read “Transmit video all sites/channels”. 

“I think this means we can basically broadcast a message across the whole web and on every T.V. channel.  If anybody notices we just turned it all back on, maybe they are listening,” he said.

Nicole thought for a second.  “We need something to get people’s attention, let them know we turned it back on,” she said.

Before anyone else decided, Billy stepped up to the keyboard and began to type.  Seconds later, a website flashed across the screen. 

“Hey, that’s my music video!” Jordan shouted. 

They all stood there as Jordan’s video began to play on the huge screen.  Billy reached down and hit “Transmit pages all sites/channels”.  The same female computer voice began to announce.  “
Transmitting web address across all sites and channels
.”

Jordan’s mouth fell open.  “Is my video playing over the whole internet?” she asked.

“And on every T.V. channel, too, I think, honey,” Paul said.

Billy went over to one of the other terminals and brought up a browser.  He typed “Amazon.com” in the address bar.  Jordan’s video was playing where the Amazon home page should have been.  He went to another terminal and typed “CNN.com.” On another he typed, “Foxnews.com.”  On both, rather than the news pages, Jordan’s video played.

They all stood there marveling as Jordan danced and sung along with her video. 

As it ended, Paul turned on the camera mounted on the console above the buttons.  Nicole looked at him and the others.  They all smiled at her.

Nicole stepped in front of the camera as Paul hit the button marked “Transmit video all pages/channels”

On the monitors and on the large screen across the room, Nicole’s face appeared.  She cleared her throat and began.

“This is Nicole Bennett.  We are survivors.  To anybody that can hear us, and can get here, we offer you refuge…”

About The Author

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This particular offering is a prequel to the entire H.E.L.L. series. It is the story of how it all began, of Nicole’s father, Col. Steven Bennett. You will meet and learn more about Francis Delroney (you won’t like him any better). There is a scientist, Dr. Wilhelm Crenner, and I am pretty sure he is [email protected]#$ crazy. I will let you decide that for yourselves. If you already have a healthy mistrust of those in power, then I am sorry, this story will not make you change your mind. It was fun to write and I hope you enjoy it. It is not terribly long, maybe thirty pages or so.

It is yours for free if you sign up for my newsletter. When you do, you will be asked to confirm that it is something you really want to do (I really hope it is). You will receive a final automated email response welcoming you to my newsletter. In that email will be a link that will allow you to get your free copy of H.E.L.L Test Subject.

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