William Dietz - Resistance - The Gathering Storm

Finally, as fresh air began to seep down into the tunnel, Burl was only one person away from freedom. Then number 22’s bloblike body was gone, it was his turn to count, and a light speared down out of the sky a quarter-mile in the distance. One of the escapees had been spotted. There was only one thing Burl could do, and that was to run .

Walker was about halfway up the tunnel when all the people who were still inside Tunnel I had no choice but to turn around and return to the pit. What ensued was a desperate scramble in which people swore at one another, a support beam was knocked out of place, and dirt rained down from above.

There were voices of reason however, including Walker’s, as he called on the people within earshot to slow down, and to be careful lest the entire tunnel cave in on them.

But most of the support beams held, which meant that it wasn’t long before people began to leave the tunnel and exit through the four-holer set up to hide it. And as they arrived, one after another, about two dozen Hybrids were on hand to receive them.

One of the stinks gave Walker a shove, and another growled at him as he was sent to join the others. All of the prisoners were huddled under the glare produced by three Patrol Drones. They hummed menacingly as they circled the crowd. “Do you think they’ll shoot us?” a woman wondered, her teeth chattering from both fear and the cold.

“Naw,” the man next to her replied dismissively. “We should be so lucky! It’s kinda like when some of my father’s chickens would find a way out of the coop. Pa didn’t kill ′em, not right away. That came later. When Ma had a hankering for fried chicken.”

Walker wasn’t so sure about that, but eventually the chicken analogy was proven to be correct, as the stinks left the prisoners unharmed but tore all of the four-holers apart looking for more tunnels. There were two additional shafts, both located on the other side of the pit, but went undiscovered because the Chimera couldn’t generalize beyond the example in front of them. Tunnels went with shitters, and vice versa, that was the extent of their reasoning.

The escape attempt did not go entirely unpunished, however. Once all the prisoners were out of the tunnel, and explosives had been used to seal it off, Walker heard a now familiar thrumming sound as a Chimeran shuttle drifted over the pit from the north. The wind generated by its flaring repellers blew snow, flimsy shelters, and bits of trash in every direction as the ship put down next to the poisonous-looking lake. Multicolored running lights strobed the entire area as the shuttle settled onto its skids.

That was when servos whined, a ramp came down, and roughly fifty prisoners were marched down onto the ground. They were newbies, all having been captured over the last few days, and completely unaware of the drama that was playing itself out around them. That wasn’t unusual, because newbies arrived every couple of days, though usually on foot. What caught Walker’s attention was the fact that rather than be allowed to take charge of the newcomers the way she usually did, Collins was being held in check, and judging from the expression on her normally impassive face she was terrified.

Then, once all the newbies were off the shuttle, two Hybrids took hold of the collaborator’s arms and dragged her up the ramp, where they forced her to turn around and face the crowd. And there she was, still standing on the ramp, as the shuttle lifted off.

The aircraft rose to a height of approximately one hundred feet, and all eyes were still on the ship as it began to hover.

That was when the Hybrids pushed Collins off.

The schoolteacher was expecting it by then, and screamed all the way down. The noise stopped when her body landed on top of a piece of rusty mining equipment, and blood splattered the ground all around it. The stinks were sending a message—and everyone understood it. Even if they didn’t feel any sorrow.

“Rot in hell, bitch,” someone said. It wasn’t much of an epitaph—but the only one that Collins was going to get.

Denver, Colorado

Friday, December 21, 1951

The Denver Federal Center had its own detention facility—and that was where maximum security prisoner Susan Farley had been held during the days immediately following the attempt on President Grace’s life.

The transfer area was a drab space with green walls, slit-style windows, and furniture that was bolted to the floor. Ironically enough, the only decoration in the room consisted of three pictures: one of the Federal Center’s head administrator, one of Vice President McCullen, and one of President Grace.

Before being allowed to enter the transfer center, Hale was searched, not just once, but twice . Two armed guards stood side by side with their backs to a cement wall as he waited for Susan to appear.

The chains on her wrists and ankles made a rattling sound, so he heard his sister before the steel door swung open and Susan shuffled into the brightly lit room. Her hair had been shaved off and the spot where Hale’s bullet had nicked the side of her skull was concealed by a white bandage. Had the projectile been one inch to the right, she would have been dead. Susan was dressed in gray prison garb, including a coat with a hood that hung down onto her shoulders.

“You’ve got five minutes,” the prison matron said sternly. “Don’t touch, don’t whisper, and don’t exchange physical objects without permission. The clock starts now.”

Susan nodded impassively as she looked into Hale’s golden yellow eyes.

“So you came.”

“Of course I came,” Hale replied. “You’re my sister. I hired a lawyer… He’ll visit you in the prison.”

“Why bother?” Susan replied bleakly. “I did it. Everyone knows that.”

“You sure as hell did,” Hale agreed soberly. “But who knows? Maybe we can get your sentence reduced.”

Susan smiled grimly.

“All of us are under a death sentence. You—of all people—should realize that. The so-called Liberty Defense Perimeter isn’t going to work, the Grace administration is more interested in holding on to power than winning the war, and anyone with the guts to oppose them winds up in a Protection Camp… or worse. The only thing I regret is the fact that I missed. That was your fault, Nathan… And you’re going to regret it, too,” she added bitterly.

“That will be enough of that,” the matron said grimly as she noticed the prisoner’s agitated state, and motioned to the guards. “Load her on the bus. And keep your eyes peeled. She belongs to Freedom First, and there are plenty of sympathizers in the area.”

Hale wanted to say something comforting, wanted to make peace somehow, but couldn’t find the words as the guards escorted Susan through the door, and into the cold light beyond. “Don’t worry, Lieutenant,” the matron said gruffly. “She’ll be all right.”

“Thank you,” he responded, but he wasn’t sure anything would be “all right” ever again.

After days spent worrying about Susan, and being questioned by law enforcement officers of every type, Hale was happy to return to work. Even if the first thing he had to do was attend a meeting.

It was being held at the Federal Center, but on the far side of the complex, and Hale no longer had the Lynx. So he set a brisk pace for himself, and after a ten-minute walk, he spotted his destination ahead.

SRPA headquarters-Denver was located in an unremarkable four-story brick building, which, according to the sign out front, was home to something called the “Federal Land Acquisitions Agency.” A very real organization that occupied half of the first floor. The rest of the structure served the needs of SRPA staff. They were an extremely hardworking group who were responsible for planning and coordinating SAR missions throughout the West.