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Chapter One
"This is your local network, Solace County news, bringing the sunrise to the start of your day."
I was having a nice lunch with a few of my long-time buddies at some sort of cafe place that Samantha had heard about. All of us were off for the summer, thank god for that, except for Sam who worked on her own schedule as an artist. We were all bright, young minds who were going for a doctrate in our different degrees. Samantha was a more artistic mind and already earned her Masters in Digital Art. I majored in Psychology, and I'm working on getting my Doctrates in Microbiology. It is mind-blowing at times how difficult it is, but I really enjoyed thinking about what kinds of things I could do with it. Cure diseases, win a nobel prize, be awesome at life, little over-the-top daydreams that I always thought up. Samuel (Samuel and Samantha, it frustrates me, too) was a product designer for Google. I was impressed as anyone could ever think of being when I heard the knews. Rita was going in a different direction with Samantha, and she recieved a Masters in Culinary. Come to think of it, I was the only person to go all science-y with my degrees. Sam technically counts, no pun intended. Life was difficult with our high goals, but that wasn't going to keep us from having a good time when it wasn't.
It was summer in the grandiose beauty of Northern Texas, the dead grass, the sweating trees, sidewalks that scalded any person who dared not wear shoes. We could've met in a nicer state, one with beautiful green and a mild eighty-three in the summer, but it was ninety-eight in Texas, and the birds were fighting over shade. Samuel was fidgiting with his jeans, wondering why he decided it was the best idea to wear them on such a day.
"Much nicer summers in most other states," he frowned while adjusting his jeans so they didn't melt to his hips. "We couldn't have become childhood friends in Hawaii, Paris, or even Missouri. You've been to Missouri, Luke, you know how amazing it is up there in the summers. I've grown used to cold and this heat is beating me up for my lunch money."
"I remember going there, stayed for a whole month. For about a whole week it rained like you wouldn't believe. Some days, it was cold enough for a jacket, but I do remember that the worst it got was about ninety degrees. It was lovely." I remembered the fun of hooking small little fish. "You wear shorts in Texas summer, Sam, you know that."
"I'd forgotten, sadly. I thought I would be more used to this," he defended, "but enough about heat, let's talk about how we've been doing."
"I've been trying to start up a source of income on the internet, but it's hard to be one of the 'cool guys' when the attention is already set on them," Samantha said. "When I work in retail, I just feel silly that I could do so much more."
"You realize that with a Masters you could probably go into a company," I suggested.
"Hard to find those, too. Like I said, all the big names have the focus. I suppose I could work harder with looking, but I guess another day of overweight ogres yelling at me for something they don't want to take the blame for wouldn't hurt."
"Too many people think they have the talent, not saying you don't, but there are so many out there that it's like how there are too many teachers," Rita reasoned.
We all nodded.
"You having fun with your job, Sam?" I inquired.
"It's amazing designing such amazing things. Sure, my ideas don't always hit the production line, but I hope one day I'll get a good one up there. How's your University life?"
"No where near as fun as college, but it will pay off very well."
I noticed Rita was staring off into space and looked over in her direction. The first reports were just coming in.
"-the Republic of Asia has launched an attack, I repeat, launched an attack on the United States. They are coming down in full force at the White House for a reason unknown, and it is an all-out warzone. Civilians are fleeing the scene and being shot down by the invasion forces. This is a declaration of war, the scene you are- oh my god, they just shot Paul, our camera man. Oh god, this is an all-out war," she put her hand on her chest and tried deep breathing to calm down. I was surprised as she was, the ROA had been in a peace treaty after the Carlson Treaty had been formed. "I'm not saying you should all panic, but you better respect your second amendment and prepare for war, because that is the only thing that they are going to do from the looks of the carnage you have just seen. This is your news anchor, Bailey Irons signing off." It was still 2:34. They didn't cut for their evening show until 4:00.
"I don't really know if I can muster an appropriate response, but... I can't, I just can't," Rita breathed.
"Where do you think they're deploying next?" a man a few tables away asked his friend.
"God forbid it's here," his friend and I said together and apart.
"Should we go- go home?" Samantha wondered with a slight quiver in her voice. "To your house, Luke?"
"Alright, it may be abrupt to leave lunch so early, but the kind of thing just happened isn't the usual. Get in the car, I hope there aren't any knuckleheads doing eighty in a twenty zone."
"Your house is a mile from here, isn't it? It would be better to do a quick run," Sam suggested.
"I think you're the only one thats stayed in shape all this time, Sam. We would all probably be wheezing at a hundred meters," I confessed.
"Let's hope you can catch up in that car, because after the thought of what you said, I'm not getting in a car."
"If somebody speeds through a pedestrian crossing..." Rita maintained.
"Alright, I'm less likely to die in a car crash than by getting slammed by a narcissistic teen driver," he gave in.
We walked calmy to my car, finding running to be a little inappropriate even in this kind of situation. It wasn't the end of society yet, so we had no reason to panic like little children. I turned on the ignition and was surprised that people were being as mannered as I was with treating everything like a normal day rather than being speed demons from hell. There was only one occasion were one well-cultured fellow nearly t-boned our car. A little stress was already building in me, so I let out every obscenity I could think of at the moment, and laid my head on the steering wheel. Sam tapped me on the shoulder to signal that there were drivers behind us that wanted out of here as much as we did.
We got home without further events and survived unscathed from the daring quest or returning home on the dawn of a crisis. I opened the door and entered the humble "break" home that we all pitched in to maintain. It was kind of an odd deal, because we all used whatever money we wanted to/could to pay off the house. It isn't fully paid off, we didn't pull $100,000 out of our pockets, but we all make an effort to make sure the payments are made. Since Rita has a nice job, she offers to take care of the payments but lives in an okay apartment so she still has a fun budget. She doesn't cover every past penny of the payments, though; she still expects us to help out, too. I feel kind of bad that in the end it will end up being my house unless I get a different one, but everybody feels that I'm somewhat of a group leader since I organized the whole "meet during summers and christmas" and deserve it. They've been amazing friends, as well as Natasha, but she wasn't able to come to the reunion this summer. She had a job to do, and we all will fairly soon. Rita has a job of her own as well, and she can only spend the two days she takes as vacation days to fully enjoy our company. Otherwise, she gets home at six-ish to chat and play around until we go to bed. She's a fun chica, as she likes to be called.
The furniture was modest, and everything was fine. It was an average home, but the fact that it could support our company and that it would probably be $180,000 in any other state was fine with us. We all play a share of video games; we're all "nerds". I keep a decent stock of what games I can with the money I scrape up from my "lemonade-stand errands". That's not all I buy, I get food and other things, but we enjoy a good four player shooter where we blaze through others like clockwork. To us it's clockwork, to others... it just represents how many times they've screwed our mothers in the past month.
We all just kind of stood in the entryway, not really sure what we should do. Sam took the initiative and we followed. He turned the television to the news station. It came to life after about what was an eternity, and granted us with... nothing. The station wasn't broadcasting at all. My guess was that either the news anchor was still rather distressed or my shorts will be ruined in the next minute.
"She's probably still spooked, wish she would be a little more dedicated. It's 2:53, they should be back on air," Rita scolded.
"Let's just watch Gateway to Mikroniter for now, maybe at 3:00 they'll be back up, if not, we can just check up at half-hour intervals," Samantha suggested.
The TV paused for a moment, and it seemed Serende and Ha'Stere were trying to solve a door that had been enchanted. A flood of relief filled my body; if it had been a blank screen again, I may have ruined my nice khakis. We settled down and watched the show with an air of ease around us. Just as the door clicked open, the screen cut to the president. Samantha threw her hands in the air in frustration before she realized that it was the president, and she was glued to the TV with her fullest attention that I'll ever know to this day.
"This is your president, Alexander Foderton. We apologize for any interrupted programs, I'll admit I was happily enjoying a good day in the United States just like you all were, but something of terrible repute has happened. The Republic of Asia has laid siege on the White House, and barely failed in executing me in the process, thank goodness for all of the drills that I have to go through monthly. We do not declare martial law, but we will declare a state of war. There is an invasion of the homeland, something that hasn't happened in a long, long time. We ask for cooperation for any military or police forces. Do not be snub and ignore their warnings. If what they have to say has to be public, it isn't just your duty to listen, but it should be instinct to if they ask you to jump in that lake, you jump in that lake to avoid whatever is coming your way. We have reports of attacks in Florida, Washington D.C, California, and Texas. Do not panic, as this will only make this worse than it can be. We are uncertain of how our response will be, but hear me America, we will not send diplomats over there to beg for a treaty. We will send troops. We will send their ground shaking. Bombing has been a thing that would attract the hostility of every country in the United Earth Union, so this will be a bloody war, I must disclose. With your cooperation, we will remind them who we are, and what we can do. For we are the United States of America."
With his final words, the screen cut to the credits of the show we had intended on watching. We sat in silence for a moment, letting it sink in. Texas had reports of attacks. They were almost certainly going for the Metroplex, maybe the Alamo and other places of historical significance.
"What should we do?" Rita asked. "Do we wait and see which military gets here first?"
"We should head to another state," Samantha offered.
"Which one?" I asked. "We're not close to any state that we're familiar with."
"We can't stay here, though. We aren't waiting for what Rita said."
"We're far from the Metroplex, we'll be alright," I reasoned.
"For how long?" she countered. "You don't pull off a thing like that without having the intent of finishing it. If we stay, we get lucky and our military drives us off to Candyland, or their military gets here first and we die a rather lame deqath to a firing squad." Her sarcasm in that "Candyland" bit was as potent as poison.
"Where should we go, then?" I repeated.
"To Arizona," Rita said. "I just remembered that I have amigas who live there it won't be a lon-"
"Wait, hold on," Sam interrupted. "Let's just settle down for a moment. All of us have jobs except for Luke. We all have families wondering if we're okay. We need to make some calls so we don't worry our mothers into travelling into this soon-to-be warzone to find us. If Samantha is right, our jobs won't matter soon, but we need to tell them we'll take off a second week. Chances are that they've probably let employees go to their families until the end of the crisis. We've never really dealt with something to this scale, so a sensible manager would understand. Get on your phones and start making calls."
We obeyed his command and began to contact our parents and bosses. I was successful in contacting my mother.
"Are you okay, Luke?" she said with an uncharacterized calm. "I saw the news and I was just about to call you."
"I'm alright," I assured. "Are you getting out of Texas to safety?"
"I was wondering if you were going to come home so we can leave together."
I pondered it for a moment. They weren't far away, they probably have a better plan than we did, and it wasn't the worst idea.
"One of my friends was going to head to Arizona because she knew some people there," I divulged.
"We're going to head to Kansas and then travel to Minnesota," she explained.
Both of our plans involved getting away from Texas, but hers involved going north rather than going to the coast towards another state that had reported attacks. I thought for a moment and realized my friends were probably hearing the same words, but instead of to Minnesota, to Montana, Arkansas, Wyoming, whatever landlocked state there is.
I explained that to her: "Mom, my friends are probably getting the same words from their parents, and they're all bright enough to realize the same thing I am. Just stick close and be ready to give me the biggest hug you've ever delivered when you see me again. I will see you again, don't doubt it."
I heard a small sniff on the other line. "Alright. Be safe."
I realized something, "Wait! Before you hang up, is Dad going with you?"
"Yes."
"Tell him what you've heard, and that we will all get through this."
"Alright."
"See you later, Luke."
"You know you will, bye."
"Bye."
I'll admit, even I was feeling a bit teary at having to go without them, but I had faith that we would all get through this. We forgot a "when you're done go to this room" room, so I drifted back into the living room. I saw a slightly sad Sam standing there, hovering over his phone in some kind of trance. I tapped him on the shoulder, but he already knew I was there.
"You alright?"
"Yeah, I hope my family can get by without me."
"Me too, buddy," I said. "This is something no American has faced before. Small terroristic attacks, even large scale ones that we still remember today, they're but dust in a hurricane compared to this. Panic is probably high, and it will only get higher. This will probably last a long time, and we have to be sure we all make it through as Americans."
"Never thought you were a patriot, Luke," he looked a little surprised.
"Just the mood."
"Alright."
Rita walked in, she seemed at peace. She had the same situation, but she didn't take it very hard at all. Maybe they weren't a closely knit family, but it didn't matter. Samantha walked in soon after, and, same as Rita, she was at an odd peace. Whatever the reason for their ease, we had an unspoken "it's go time" and left the room and went out the door.
I got into the car and started it up. A few thoughts hit my mind, but they didn't matter to me at the moment. At that moment, I was essentially incapable of any deep thought. Things were rushing in at every avenue and it was hard to dodge every one. Some hit full force, others narrowly clipped me. One thing that hit my mind was a very unsettling thought. At two, we had been meeting as good friends to eat a good lunch. At two thirty-one, we recieved the news of what was happening. At two thirty-nine, we got into the car and high-tailed it out of there. At two fifty-six, we recieved the address from the president himself about the seriousness of the matter. He finished at three zero-two. In such a short time, all of this had happened. It was almost mindblowing how sudden this whole "oh my god they're invading us" thing had begun. My mind pondered everything a second time, reviewing the details. We were visiting a nice new café that Samantha had heard about. We were enjoying a nice little reunion talk before Rita noticed what was going on. We were nearly obliterated by someone with themselves on a higher rung than everyone else around them when it came to driving. We got home and tried to settle in with a normal show, but were interrupted by the reality of what was going on.
All of this had happened so quickly.
It's 3:10.