D. MacHale - Storm

“I don’t want to see another burning corpse,” Olivia said soberly.

We soon approached a scattering of structures that seemed to be the outer edges of the army base. Even more fires were burning, and we finally saw why as we drove around a bend in the road and—

“Look out!” I yelled.

Kent swerved and barely missed hitting a wreck that was sitting in the center of the road.

It was a black, ray-shaped Air Force plane.

Kent braked hard and stopped a few yards from it. This plane was in much worse shape than the one we had inspected in Portland. Its outer shell was torn open, probably by the missile that dropped it.

“It’s unmanned,” I declared.

“How can you tell that?” Tori asked.

“No cockpit. Where would a pilot sit?”

The plane’s roof had been peeled off as if a can opener had worked it over.

“Looks more like the inside of a computer than an aircraft,” I said. “It’s loaded with circuit boards.”

Tori said, “So they’re definitely being controlled from somewhere else.”

I got out of the car to get a closer look. This time the others joined me right away. The first thing I looked for, and saw, was the Air Force logo on the damaged wing.

“Building these must have been some top secret project,” Kent said. “I mean, it looks like a flying MacBook.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Except for that.”

I pointed to a short, silver canister that was fixed inside the wing area.

“Is that the weapon?” Tori asked.

“I think so,” I replied. “Man, talk about top secret development. When did the Air Force go all Star Wars?”

“They’ve been pretty good at keeping secrets,” Tori said. “This is just another one.”

“Guys?” Jon called. His voice was shaking. “You’re gonna want to see this.”

We joined him on the far side of the plane and looked out onto an expanse of empty farmland.

“I think we’re in the right place,” he said, his voice cracking.

Spread before us were the remains of dozens of downed black aircraft. Some were relatively intact; others were nothing more than mangled pieces of metal. None were functional. A few had hit buildings on the other side of the road, which is what started the fires. The entire stretch of buildings had been torched. There was nothing left but a half mile of charred, skeletal remains… and huge blast craters.

“Looks like some of them blew up when they hit,” Tori said. “There’s no wreckage whatsoever.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I guess if they get hit just right, the fuel—or whatever it is that powers these things—goes boom. It’s like what happened in Portland when you rammed that plane. There was nothing left of it.”

“This isn’t exactly my idea of a safe haven,” Olivia said, stunned.

“We’re not there yet,” I reminded them. “These planes could have been attacking the base.”

Tori said, “Let’s go see who won.”

We got back into the Explorer, and Kent drove on, rolling slowly past many more wrecks and smoldering craters. Once past the stretch of burning buildings, we found ourselves driving through the woods again.

“I see more wrecks in there,” Jon said, pointing.

“You know what I don’t see?” I said. “Navy fighters. The only planes on the ground are the black Air Force planes.”

“Looks like the Air Force got their butts kicked,” Tori said. “It’s a lot different than what happened out on the ocean when—”

“Whoa, wait,” Kent exclaimed. “What the hell is this?”

We rolled past another wreck and came upon a row of abandoned buildings that looked big enough to be airplane hangars. Beyond them was… nothing.

“Get closer,” I said.

The road went directly between two of the buildings… and ended. There was nothing to see beyond it but… nothing.

Kent pulled the Explorer up next to one of the structures and killed the engine. We got out of the car and walked forward, moving cautiously past the buildings, tuned for any movement that could mean trouble. Directly ahead of us the road ended at a wide dirt track that spread to the right and left as far as we could see. The road looked to have been cleanly cut off. I took a step off the asphalt onto soft, brown dirt.

An empty expanse stretched ahead of us for roughly two hundred yards. On the far side, there was a swirling white wall that could have been the leading edge of a fog bank or a thick wall of smoke. It was so dense there was no way to see through it.

“Smoke moves, right?” Kent asked, saying exactly what we were all thinking. “How can that just sit there?”

I ran back to the Explorer and grabbed the road map. I unfolded it as I rejoined the others and searched until I found the exact spot where we were standing.

“Tell me this dirt track is on the map,” Olivia said.

“No,” I said with certainty. “The end of the runway is maybe a half mile ahead of us. According to this map, the only thing between here and there are trees and roads. There’s no wide dirt track. This is new. Or at least it’s new since this map was made.”

Tori said, “It’s like something came through and cleared everything out. Buildings, trees, rocks, roads… everything.”

Olivia said, “Maybe the Air Force didn’t lose after all.”

On the map, Fort Knox was more than just an army base. It was a town. It was supposed to be directly in front of us, but there was nothing out there but a massive white wall. Was this the result of an air bombardment that wiped the whole place out?

“It doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Why would the Air Force use bombs here and nowhere else? If they wanted to wipe out the base, they could have come at night and used their light weapons.”

“I don’t think we’ve got the whole picture,” Tori agreed. “Let’s drive a little.”

We went back to the car and loaded in.

“I don’t want to go toward that smoke,” Olivia said. “It could be, like, poisonous or something.”

“Let’s drive along the edge of the dirt,” I suggested. “Maybe the smoke will thin out and we can see something.”

Kent drove forward and off the end of the road onto the dirt. He made a right turn, and we rolled along on the soft surface. To our right were a few more hangar-like buildings. When we passed the last one, we saw nothing but trees and more crashed black planes. To our left was the fog bank, or whatever it was, on the far side of the dirt track. We traveled parallel to the white wall, unable to see anything beyond it.

“Stop,” Tori suddenly ordered.

Kent slammed on the brakes.

“What?” he asked quickly.

“Ahead to the right. Something’s coming.”

I looked forward to see movement through the trees about a hundred yards ahead.

“Trucks!” Jon announced.

“Let’s get out of here!” Olivia cried.

“No, don’t move!” I countered. “If we move, they’ll see us. Right now we’re just another abandoned car.”

We crouched low and kept an eye on what turned out to be a convoy of green military trucks making its way toward the barren patch of dirt.

“Army trucks,” Kent said. “Lots of ’em.”

I was so used to living in desolation, seeing something as common as a line of trucks now felt like we were witnessing an alien invasion. My heart raced. Who were these people? Where were they coming from, and where were they going?

I couldn’t make out much detail until the first truck cleared the trees in front of us and rolled onto the stretch of dirt.

“There’s a road up there,” Kent said. “It cuts across the dirt.”

“Oh my god,” Tori said. “Look!”

Painted on the door of the first truck, and the second, and all those that followed was a large white logo that looked like a rising sun. There was no mistaking what it represented.