Richard Stephenson - Collapse

Chairman Moody interjected, “Thank God we were already here when it happened.”

President Sterling nodded in agreement. “Carl, do we think the same submarine that launched the EMP carried out the assassination?”

“Mr. President, the truth of the matter is we may never know exactly what happened. Serenity Hills was destroyed while we were in complete blackout. Our investigation at President Powers’ ranch is still ongoing. I’ll keep you informed.”

“See that you do,” sneered President Sterling, “I owe it to the American people to rain down vengeance on those responsible. Roberto, who was still at the ranch when you left?”

“Admiral Mack and Secretary Decker.”

“Have we been able to locate them?”

“No, Mr. President, they are presumed dead along with the President and the First Lady.”

Simon Sterling walked over to the window, gazing out at the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains. “What troubles me now is that half of our country has no idea that President Powers is dead. They also have no idea that the Twenty-Fifth Amendment has transitioned the office of president to me. If we don’t take drastic measures to secure our borders, the Empire of Iran will push us over the Rocky Mountains and occupy half of the North American continent within the month.”

President Sterling continued to look out the window, and the room was filled with silence. A minute passed and Chairman Moody spoke. “Mr. President, what are your orders?”

Simon Sterling looked at his reflection in the window and straightened his tie. He fussed over his hair, making certain not a single strand was out of place. “Chairman Moody, I’ll tell you exactly what we’re going to do. We are going to withdraw all our forces from the Iranian Theater and secure our borders. Once that’s done, our troops will join the Unified National Guard and begin occupying every city, every street, every house if that’s what it takes. If anyone left in Washington wants to voice their opposition, they will not be imprisoned. No, that would be a waste of time. We will not waste a single soldier dealing with dissidents. Anyone who protests will be executed.”

Stacy Reid knew she was listening to a madman who was going to allow the Great Empire of Iran to end the world as they knew it. She also knew without question that the men in this room killed President Malcolm Powers.

The Silent Warriors of The Great Empire of Iran were engaging in sabotage all over the areas blacked out by the electromagnetic pulse. The good citizens of the United States were doing a fine job of helping the Silent Warriors with the battle. Without the rule of law watching over them, rioting and looting reached an all-time high. However, the Silent Warriors had bigger plans than just cleaning out liquor stores and Best Buys.

Under the cover of darkness, agents of the Empire unleashed the simplest and most effective means of destruction. Without the aid of emergency services or even simple lines of communication, raging infernos spread from city to city. Before The Pulse, the Silent Warriors considered arson to be a waste of time since local fire departments were able to quickly put out fires. Fires also meant arson investigations, and the risk outweighed the gains. The Pulse changed everything. Subdivisions, shopping malls, churches, schools, libraries, hospitals, and even fire stations burned to the ground. Millions of acres of forestland went up in flames. The wildfires in California that freed Richard Dupree from the Highland Valley State Prison paled in comparison. The only thing that prevented half of the United States from going up in flames was divine intervention. Several weather systems dumped torrential rains across the country and extinguished most of the flames in a couple weeks.

The Silent Warriors then moved on to their next target — one of the most critical and unguarded elements of the infrastructure of the United States of America. The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, better known as the Interstate Highway System, consisted of 47,447 miles of roads, keeping the United States alive like the blood vessels in the human body. While President Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces during World War II, he knew his home country needed a system of highways connecting every part of the country to each other. He championed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, not for reasons of commerce or prosperity, but rather for defense. Eisenhower knew that if a war were ever fought on his home soil, moving troops and supplies over vast distances would be the key to success.

One might have looked at the attacks as being coordinated and carefully planned, as if the Silent Warriors had held a convention at the local Holiday Inn to pass out orders. No such meeting took place. It was not necessary for them to coordinate anything. The Great Empire of Iran had trained the Silent Warriors to be the perfect saboteurs. Bringing down any structure, no matter the size, only required one thing — destroy its supporting frame. Every structure, from a house to a skyscraper to a bridge, was held together by a frame. Destroy the frame and the structure comes crashing down. What held the United States together as a country was not its economy, its government, or even the Internet. What held the United States together in one piece, what connected each state to the other, was the Interstate Highway System. The interstates funneled food, water and critical supplies to the masses. They brought fuel and building materials from one city to another and one state to another.

Across the darkness of The Pulse Zone, the Silent Warriors destroyed bridge after bridge using explosives they’d been saving for the Day of Judgment. The most valuable targets were the bridges that spanned rivers and lakes.

It would be some time before the American people felt the full weight of what The Silent Warriors had done because The Pulse had managed to disable every vehicle in its radius. Corporations frantically had replacement parts shipped from the unaffected west coast to repair disabled vehicles. Shipping companies diverted every spare eighteen-wheeler from to West Coast to The Pulse Zone, trying to keep their businesses from going bankrupt. Traffic and trade would soon come to a standstill.

In less than a week, the eastern half of the United States was crippled. Everyday citizens were not immediately affected since few traveled far from their homes, and practically no one had a working vehicle anymore. The Second Great Depression was very cruel to every market touched by transportation. With gasoline hovering around fifteen dollars a gallon, it rose sharply to twice that amount when fuel tankers from the West Coast ended up stranded on the interstates with nowhere to go. A few truckers were able to exit onto other highways and back roads but were quickly hijacked by bandits looking to score a resource now worth more than its weight in gold. Gas stations soon heard of the hijackings and stranded trucks and began to raise their prices. The storeowners knew they might not be able to sell gas for a long time and wanted to make what little money they could before it was too late. They also held onto a decent amount of gas for themselves.

From the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River Valley, state lines began to fade away, as state governments lost control. With power and control in the hands of the people, cities began to barricade themselves like medieval castles. With the interstates disabled in the most populated sections of the country and millions of acres on fire, The Silent Warriors prided themselves on a job well done.

The electromagnetic pulse that turned off the lights and sent the East Coast back in time to the pre-industrial age was devastating enough in itself. Now, the Silent Warriors ensured that recovery would be next to impossible.