Fredric Shernoff - Atlantic Island

“Where are you guys?” he called out.

“Back by the vault, oh fearless leader.” Bill’s voice, solid and reassuring. All was well here, so far. Theo walked in the direction of the voice, his hands held out in front to ward off any unseen obstacles. The interior of the bank’s main room was not very large, and he made it to the wall containing the huge vault with ease. As he walked, his eyes adjusted to the limited light. He could see the guard, unconscious on the floor. The rebels stood around the entrance.

“Did you see me fly onto this poor dumbass?” asked Bill, beaming with pride.

Theo laughed. “Not gonna lie, it was awesome.”

“Yeah, that’s my guy!” said Jamie. “I got in one kick though!”

“You were all great,” Theo said. “Have we had any luck at finding a way into the vault?”

“Would you believe it’s unlocked?” asked Ryan. “Tiberius might not be a ‘hide in plain sight’ guy, be he was a little overconfident.”

“That, or our friend and host, Mr. Guard, got a little curious about what he was guarding and forgot to lock up after,” said Joseph.

“You’re probably right, Joseph,” said Theo. “Have you guys looked inside yet?”

“We wanted you to do the honors,” said Bill.

“I appreciate that,” said Theo. “Okay, people, this is the moment that we’ve been waiting for.” He stepped forward. Up close, he could see that the heavy vault door was open a few inches. He reached in with both hands and pulled, guiding the slow sweep of the door’s opening.

Inside the vault, some kind of dim, battery-powered lighting filled the room with a haunting blue glow. The vault had been carefully retrofitted from its previous life as storage for money and valuables. Very little of that had any purpose in Atlantic Island. What had replaced the money, however, would serve Theo’s purposes just fine.

“My God,” said Andrew. “No wonder there isn’t any crime on the island. They must have taken every weapon.”

The walls of the vault were filled with guns of all shapes and sizes. Tables erected down the middle of the room held more guns and boxes upon boxes of ammo. These were not the officially issued weapons of any police department that had existed here before the Event. This was a motley collection of arms taken from the people.

Theo was amazed by the varied weaponry the people of Atlantic Island had possessed, not to mention those who had not survived the Event. He saw handguns, knives, machine guns, rifles, a giant thing he had to assume was a bazooka, even a bow with a quiver full of arrows.

“Wow, a box of grenades!” said Bill in awe. “This is so cool!” Jamie elbowed him in the ribs. “Ow! Okay, cool, but also very important and serious. Happy?”

Theo turned to his band of rebels. “This is exactly what we needed. Okay, Jamie, this is the part I promised you could play. Run back to the safe house and tell Kylee to mobilize the team she and I discussed. We need some more people or it could take us a week to clear this place out. We need this done tonight, quickly and quietly.”

She gave Bill a kiss and sprinted to the exit. “What about the rest of us?” Bill asked. “Can I take the bazooka?”

“Joseph and Andrew, you guys grab what you can from here and take it back to the safe house. Listen, I understand if you don’t want to be running yourselves ragged through the night. You don’t have to come back.”

“Please, we aren’t so very old!” said Joseph. “We can almost keep pace with those ladies Jamie is going to bring back. You’ll see us later, do not worry!”

Theo smiled. “Okay, okay. Bill, Ry, you guys need to deal with the guard. No reason to beat him up any more but I think a trip to the beach would do him well, if you get me.”

“Gotcha, boss!” laughed Bill. Theo knew that Bill couldn’t be happier to be taking action after having been mistreated left and right since the Event. Truth be told, he felt the same way. He knew Tiberius was going to be furious when he heard about the raid, and that gave him a tremendous amount of pleasure.

Theo watched all his friends leave. He was going to need to remain to guard the vault. It was eerie being by himself in the pale, cold blue of the room. It might be wise to get a gun. He was looking around for which ammunition matched which type of weapon when he heard Bill’s voice.

“Hey, Theo, thought you might want this. Mr. Guard doesn’t need it anymore. Later, man.” The black semi-automatic, a staple of the Security Force, was on the floor by the front of the vault. Theo went over to the gun. He kneeled down next to it and touched it with a sense of caution and respect. His experience with guns did not go much beyond shooting BB’s from rifles at summer camp. Would a day come where he would have to fire this gun or one like it? He thought it very likely. He sighed, and sat on the floor, pulling the gun across his lap. What the hell kind of a world had this become? What kind of a twisted fantasy saw Theo Essex as the leader of a growing army of disenfranchised, angry rebels? Could he lead an uprising? How could he be expected to do all this and not crack to pieces under the pressure?

He allowed his thoughts to turn to Kylee. Beautiful, strong, capable. She believed in him and he believed in her. In all his friends, really. Together they could do anything. He thought of Sam Lucas. A good man who had seen so much potential in him. A man who had tried to do the best he could in unimaginable circumstances for which there was no guidebook. Theo promised himself he would do the same. He calmed then, and was still sitting calmly, practically meditating, when the first of Kylee’s women arrived to collect the weapons.

Under the cover of a moonless night, the rebels removed every piece of equipment from the bank vault. Every weapon and bit of ammo, from the largest, most elaborate guns to the quiver of arrows, was transported silently in an assembly line stretching from the bank to the safe house.

Theo was thrilled with the efficiency of the operation. Every step, from Bill’s drop onto the guard to the very last handgun being liberated from the bank had gone exactly as he had hoped. They now had more than enough weapons to arm every man and woman in the safe house with more to spare for new recruits, should they be so fortunate as to acquire them.

Of course, a little sacrifice had to be made. Having so much firepower in the house with children around was a disaster waiting to happen. Theo hated having to move people out of one of the upstairs bedrooms, as it meant more crowding in the others, but it had to be done. He set up a volunteer rotation to stand outside the door of the new rebel armory. He laughed every time he thought how they were storing that many weapons in a room with seashell wallpaper.

There wouldn’t be much time to rest on the laurels of their great accomplishment. Theo knew the rebels would be looking to him for the next plan. Tiberius was proceeding with his changes to the very fabric of Atlantic Island. Between the ongoing demolitions in the heart of Ventnor to the fights to the death that were reportedly still happening, there was a great deal of ugly corrupting the heart of the island.

He wasn’t sure what the next move should be. He had spent a good amount of time dwelling on the subject of the weapons stash. Now that they had cleaned out the one, he spent the next few days deciding how to proceed. Some of his “advisors” wanted to seek out the other stashes. True, there was a value in taking away Tiberius’s weapons, even if the rebels couldn’t possibly use that many guns. Still, there was far too much risk involved. Tiberius probably already knew about the raid. He would be increasing security at the other locations, which were likely far from the safe house. Theo just couldn’t see a scenario where he didn’t risk his people for relatively little gain.