Jacqueline Druga - Protocol One

“She certainly is going to make things interesting.”

“Yeah she is. Now, just wait until those last botox treatments really wear off then it will get visually interesting.”

“You’re so mean.”

“She’s a princess in an apocalypse world. For example, this ride. Look… music. Country or Oldies?”

“Country,” I replied.

“You ready for this?”

“I’m ready.”

Tony took a second, looked at me and then pulled the truck forward. We passed through the gates and turned.

I lifted the clipboard with the map and agenda. “Do we want to hit the communities first or last?”

“Last,” Tony said. “Let’s do Pittsburgh first.”

“I’ve never been to Pittsburgh,”

“Neither have I. I’m sure it’s seen better days, though. Either way, it will be interesting to see.”

“Gil has us going back there four times this week.”

“It’s a big town, and it could very well can be a dead town. You are ready, Anna, right, for the possibility of a dead world? It’s been six months.”

“I know. I’m ready.” I glanced out the window. The road was slightly snow covered with the trees bent over us in some places like a tunnel formed by nature. It wasn’t an overcast day, in fact, the sun was out. It glistened against the snow, shining in my mind as a ray of hope.

There was a lot of uncertainty of what would lie ahead. We hadn’t been beyond Elwood City. We just didn’t know what was out there. It had been some time since the comet hit. I was certain we wouldn’t see a picture perfect world, that things would be destroyed and void of life. Empty cities, empty towns. An old way of living buried beneath snow, ice and burnt ruins. I knew there would be things that would bother me and make me cry. Mentally, I tried to prepare myself. But deep inside, I also knew that out there the human race had prevailed.

We weren’t mean to be extinct, not yet. It wasn’t our time. As a race, we are resilient. Like Project Protocol One, the human race would rise from the ashes. It would rise up and start again.

There were survivors, I was sure of that.

We just had to find them.

And we would.

The first snowflake fell with a hard ‘plop’ to the windshield just as we hit the end of Elwood City.

It was a single flake and huge, causing both Tony and I to lean forward to peer at the sky.

“That was odd,” Tony said, “Sky is darkening.”

“Should we worry?” I asked.

“Peter said it would just be cloudy, no snow, right?”

“That’s what he said. Want me to double check?”

Tony hummed out in debate. “Nah, I mean, he’s pretty anal about the weather. If he even suspected it was going to get bad, he would have said something. Besides, we had very little snow, so I highly doubt it would wait until this day to come.”

“What do you think?” I asked. “I mean, you’re from Chicago.”

He shrugged. “It looks like it’s gonna snow.”

“Maybe we should stop and go back.”

“Radio in, have him double check.”

Tony slowed down just before getting on to the main highway to head to Pittsburgh. I radioed in and Peter confirmed with some annoyance, as if we doubted him, that it wasn’t showing snow clouds. He had rarely been wrong before.

“No, snow,” I said.

“Uh, Anna, I heard. It’s a radio.”

I smiled and removed my coat. The comfy and cozy Humvee was warm. In fact it was surround sound warm. Removing my coat, I took another look at Elwood City as we left. It truly was void of any life. It had an aura that no one was left.

We pulled onto the main road, the first time venturing there. The four lane highway was barren and white. Nothing but slick, covered concrete untouched by vehicles. It had a virgin like look about it. In fact, even though it hadn’t really snowed much, there was a blanket of white and ice for as far as the eye could see. A few cars were on the road abandoned. Some had a glaze of ice over them. Most had no windows.

I supposed we’d see more as we neared Pittsburgh.

Gil had broken the city into sections. Four per week. It would take us three weeks to get through the entire city.

I folded the map and set down the clip board.

“How long until we get there?” I asked.

“Forty minutes,” Tony replied. “I’m not taking a chance on flying. Not on these roads. We’ll just take our time and get there. Scan the first area and head back. I’m not in a hurry. I’m enjoying the break from the Giltator.

“The… the what?” I asked with a stutter. “Giltator?”

“Yeah, the Caesar incarnate.”

“Oh my God, Tony, he is far from that!”

“Maybe right now.”

“And for good. I know Gil.”

“Yes, Anna,” he said. “We’re all aware of how well you know Gil. And we’re also all well aware of how easily you just let him take over and implement his ‘rule the world’ scheme.”

“Stop.” I shook my head. “You’re being silly. He’s helping. Plus, I think you’re joking because you are going along with it.”

“Silently, until I can implement my own plan. Hence why I want to run the security aspect. I need to know what’s going on.”

“Your own plan?”

“Yeah, trust me. I have no plans to stay under the Giltatorship. I eventually would like to take you and Joie and head south. So, until that time comes, I’m just biting my tongue.”

“How do you know I’ll leave with you?” I asked.

“One word. Gwen. Speaking of which…. I have something for you.” He reached out his arm, but stopped. “I can’t get it. Reach behind your seat. There’s a small black bag.”

After undoing my belt, I reached around. On the floor was a soft black leather bag, about the size of a large purse or small gym bag. I sniffed. “It smells pretty.”

“It’s Gwen’s. They left it in here. Have fun. Snoop.”

“Is it right?” I unsnapped the bag.

“Well, seeing as how you are already opening it, I’d say it’s fine.”

“You didn’t look?”

“Nope. Thought it would be an early Christmas gift for you.”

I laughed a “Ha”, and dove in. There was a silk scarf that I realized was the source of the perfume smell.

“What’s in there?”

“Scarf, ibuprofen. Ha-ha.” I withdrew my hand and pulled out four tiny bottles of booze. “There’s more, too. And… oh!”

“What?’

“Tampons. I’ll take those. Good Lord, what all did this woman shove in here? It’s like her road emergency bag, she even has…”

I paused.

“What?”

From the bag, I lifted a Blackberry style device.

“Well, that’s old.” Tony said.

“A car charger. Why would she have an old Blackberry? I would think she’d have state of the art.” I said as I turned on the Blackberry.

“Actually, their security technology can’t be beat. Extremely hard to hack.”

“Well she wasn’t worried about password protecting this.” Using the car charger, I hooked up the unit and started charging it. It ‘beeped’ and I began being nosy. There wasn’t much on it. Two previous calls. But oddly, they were from two days earlier. “Tony why and how would she get phone calls on this thing?”

“Satellite maybe.” He said.

“Weird, who would she call? And only two incoming calls from the same number.”

“Maybe she used it more as a pocket desk.”

After saying, “Maybe’ I went into her documents and immediately froze. “Tony. Why would Gil share all his schematics and info with her?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean. All the documents in here are work orders, information… and here is a list of locations of every one of his facilities.”