Ever Hayes - Emergency Exit

Only a few dozen officers and operatives in NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain bunker, and in Hawaii’s underground defense center remained. Unsure who exactly the enemy was, they carried out the programmed “global” response. Thousands of nuclear missiles positioned around the world and at various space stations rained down on military bases and installations of any country that had, at one point or another, been a threat to American security. As a result, America wasn’t the only country to suffer a crippling hit. The American volley destroyed virtually every missile silo, military base, intelligence center, port, airport, power plant and communications hub, and government building in ninety-four other countries. Though the American targets were mostly military specific, civilian casualties were just as significant, with so many of those targets in or near urban areas. Their cumulative devastation was severe, but nowhere near that of North America’s. Most of the other countries would be able to repopulate and rebuild within the next decade or so. Mainland America might never recover.

Many of our remaining military forces around the globe scrambled towards Hawaii, the only surviving American base, and the only place remotely capable (thanks to a decade of Department of Defense fortification) of standing up to the collective world’s remaining arsenals. Hawaii’s population had been equally wiped out by the first two waves. The chemically packed airplane placed at the Honolulu airport eradicated a million lives on its own. Fortunately, the handful of Navy intelligence officers sealed in the Hawaiian bunker, were able to raise the shields, and keep the enemy military out. Those intelligence officers remained in control of those systems and shields, using them as needed to protect the one to two percent of citizens who remained there.

In five devastating days, nearly four hundred million people from the United States, Canada, and those living just across the Mexican border perished in the staged chemical attack. America’s reciprocal launch, sadly even exceeded that, wiping out nearly a billion equally innocent lives in Africa, Asia, Europe and Central and South America. The catastrophic loss of life was unimaginable.

Nearly a hundred nations, including all of The Seven, were now powerless, their militaries and governments eliminated, their economies bankrupt. And it wasn’t close to being over. Few countries were able to maintain their security or operational powers. Any militant group had free rein to take them over. The ones who did still have governments and militaries intact, the countries America was never remotely worried about (like Australia, New Zealand, France, and the United Kingdom), were now targets of neighboring countries.

They had no choice but to fortify and isolate themselves from hordes of militant groups wanting a piece of their security and power. The world, in a week, had reversed course by centuries, reentering a modern medieval or holy war period, the fall of many Romes. Riots, revolutions, coups and mini-wars began on every continent overnight. In North America, everyone wanted a piece of the United States.

No one was better positioned to take what they wanted from America than The Seven. They had organized an eager and impatient army of a million terrorists, criminals, and mercenaries south of the U.S.-Mexico border months ago. They called their military force “Qi Jia” (Chinese for “Seven Homes”).

America’s southern neighbor was never suspected, and emerged from the firestorm largely unscathed, primed to expand into and conquer the riches of the land to their north. The race was about to begin. The commanders waited for the chemical dust to settle then passed out the directions. Ready. Set. Go.

The Seven wasted little time in scattering their million-man army across the American landscape. Hundreds of aircraft dispersed uniformed troops and mercenaries to every American city that used to have one hundred thousand or more residents. Made aware of a radio transmission circulating the continent promoting Hawaii’s “safe haven” status, a particularly strong presence was established in the Southwest—a roadblock, for all intents and purposes. Troops sat and waited for the Americans to come to them. And they did. Wave after wave of survivors rolled towards the ocean and fell before reaching the western shore. Few made it through.

Elsewhere, the troops were on the move, beginning the process of extinguishing all remaining human life they encountered, regardless of age, gender or race. Anyone not wearing the appropriate red and black uniform.

Their orders were to “Preserve the infrastructure. Destroy the products.” They were given a couple days to burn all local homes, retail stores and businesses, and collect all the weapons and munitions they could find. Leave all the gas stations, power plants, and transportation hubs, tracks, bridges and roads alone. In the following week, those troops would sweep across their assigned states in specifically designated strips, and then boomerang back, wiping out all farms, individual homes, and smaller communities that may have somehow survived the chemical and air-strike waves. When they completed the full loop, they were to regroup in the primary cities and await further instructions.

It was a take no prisoners policy. Plain and simple. These ground troops were heavily armed, and most of their vehicles carried the advanced thermal (THIRST) technology. If that wasn’t enough of an advantage, they were aided by airplanes and drones with the same technology.

While the Mexican government and military leaders worked closely together throughout the closing stages of the plan and attacks, the general population was largely unaware of what was taking place to the north. Mexico City had been America’s only retaliatory target in Mexico—it was completely wiped out—but a great deal of the border towns had been in chemical impact zones. They suffered extensive loss. The rest of the nation was kept out of the loop.

After the attacks the General moved an army of Mexican soldiers to form a quarantine zone around Mexico City and an additional force to the US- Mexico border. Those soldiers were to keep Mexican citizens in Mexico and out of the Qi Jia line of fire. They were also to kill any Americans trying to come in.

In the creation of The Seven’s alliance Mexico had been promised the states of California and Texas when everything settled. It was only logical their proximity would allow them to be the first to move in, but even that migration was over a year away. Questions had begun to pour in regarding Mexico City, the border towns, and all American radio and TV stations having gone dark. It wouldn’t be long before government officials would have to address the events in detail.

While the clean sweep operation began, the leaders of The Seven flew to Washington, D.C., where the U.S. flag was lowered from the Capitol and burnt, and a new black flag was raised with seven red stars in a circle surrounding the words Qi Jia. The Capitol building was left standing as a monument, but the rest of the city was demolished.

Qi Jia’s capital city would be Denver. The Seven set up their operational command center there and began to build a twenty-by-twenty-foot wall around the entire state. There would eventually be no way in or out of Colorado undetected. The world’s largest standing fortress, it would also be the primary intersection for every important route through the new America.

They began the process of dividing the United States and Canada into new territories. Each of The Seven commanders had their own secret ambitions, their own master plan, and their own best interests in mind. Like bank robbers in a vault with billions, they agreed to equally split the abundant profits. For now.