“I need more food! I’m hungry all the time!” The man shouted.
“Bob, you need to relax,” said the officer. “I know you’re hungry, but so is everyone and there’s only so much food. There’s a plan in place but you’ve gotta hang in there and play by the rules.”
“Screw you and screw the rules!” yelled Bob. He lunged forward and knocked the clipboards off the table. The survivors in line murmured to each other. The officer looked to his partner and nodded solemnly. The partner drew his gun, walked up behind Bob and cracked the butt of the weapon across the frail man’s skull. Bob dropped in a heap. Two more officers came from inside the store and dragged the unconscious man inside.
Theo looked at his friends. Their eyes were wide and nobody said a word.
“Next in line!” called the officer, resuming his business as if nothing had transpired.
As the line shambled along, Bill drew close to Theo’s ear. “Did you see that crap?” he asked.
“Yeah,” said Theo, “didn’t seem too fair to that guy.”
“Damn right it wasn’t fair,” said Bill. He looked heated. “I’m gonna tell that cop that they can’t treat people like that.”
“Don’t say anything!” said Theo. “You want to get your head caved in too?”
“Dude,” said Bill, “They can’t abuse people like that!”
“Just stay calm for now. You go rushing in and nothing’s going to happen but you getting hurt.”
“Fine.”
Theo breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t know why it was that his friends seemed to listen to him but if it meant he could keep Bill or any of them safe he was glad to have it be the case.
Sitting down with his food, Theo saw that printed fliers had been distributed with breakfast.
Kylee grabbed a flyer. “Well, I know where I’ll be Thursday night.”
Michelle looked unsure. “You think we should go to this?”
“Why not? Kylee asked. “It’s not like we’d be missing primetime TV. We should know what’s happening.”
Theo, a little reluctant to weigh in so obviously on Kylee’s side, encouraged a discussion. The teens decided it was best to attend, if not for the information, at least to break up the monotony.
As the week passed, Theo’s excitement for the meeting grew. He began to hope that maybe the mayor could tell them what happened, and maybe he even had a plan to get them home. Theo could tell the others were excited too. Even Bill, who had been a little sullen since the incident between the officers and the frail, angry man named Bob, looked optimistic.
Thursday evening, the teens walked off the boardwalk and joined the masses moving toward the entrance to Boardwalk Hall. The population was a wide-ranging sample of races, ages, shapes and sizes. The only constant was loose articles of clothing hanging on frames slightly sunken from the lack of nutrition.
They were ushered by what Theo assumed must be police officers out of uniform into the main hall. As the crowd filled the seats, the hum of excited conversation radiated around the arena. Clearly nobody knew exactly what to expect but all were here on the hopes that some information or plan would be revealed.
A small stage was erected in the center of the arena floor. A single podium was positioned in the middle. On its face were small renderings of the American flag and the blue and white stripes of Atlantic City. As Theo continued to observe the growing crowd, the lights began to dim. The murmurs of chatter were reduced to excited whispers. A spotlight shone brightly on the stage.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” boomed a voice over the arena sound system, “please welcome to the stage the honorable Mayor Samuel Lucas and Deputy Mayor Paul Tiberius!”
The crowd broke into applause as the mayor, a small African-American man, approached the podium and gave the crowd a warm smile. Paul Tiberius remained at the back corner of the stage. In contrast to the nationally recognized kind demeanor of the man affectionately called “Uncle Sam,” Tiberius was not known to appear at many public events and did not interact much with the locals. He was tall, pale and gaunt, with dark, sunken eyes. Theo, seeing Tiberius for the first time, felt a deep sensation of dislike toward the man that he could not explain.
“My friends,” Mayor Lucas began, “I am so happy that you are here tonight. We have all been through much together and I believe it is long past time that those of us who claim to be running the show tell you what we know.” At this, applause erupted again. Lucas smiled and raised a hand to silence the crowd. “Many of you are referring to the incident of three weeks ago as “the Event.” I think that’s as good a name as any. We were not fortunate enough to have many of America’s finest scientific minds on our island when the Event took place, but those who have some expertise tell us that we experienced an unprecedented bombardment of electromagnetic energy. The seismic activity you all surely felt was likely a result of this pulse of energy. Where it came from, we don’t know.” Murmured conversation rose in the audience at this.
“What the hell do you know?” Asked one angry male voice.
“Please,” said Lucas. “Let me tell you what I can.” He paused and waited as the noise died out. “Thank you. As I said, we do not know the source of the Event. We do not know if it was an attack or a natural disaster. We do not know because we have no communication with the outside world.” Theo fully expected the crowd to roar at this but was stunned by the shocked silence that followed the mayor’s words.
“As many of you undoubtedly know, there is no sign of anyone from the rest of the world. Nobody has been able to contact us, if we are to assume they have tried. We lost access to Bader Field in the Event, and we do not have any airplanes. We do, however have access to a few helicopters. We sent an exploratory mission a week ago. The helicopter went as far as it could before having to turn so it could make it back on the fuel we provided. The helicopter traveled over 100 miles west of our island. At no point did the pilot see anything but the ocean.”
Now the audience was outraged. Screams and accusations came from every direction. A woman rushed out of the crowd screaming, “You lie!” She attempted to climb the stage. Paul Tiberius turned his dark gaze to the Security Forces and pointed at the woman. A team of five officers surrounded the woman and moved her forcibly through the crowd. The attendees became noticeably quieter after that, and Lucas took the opportunity to once more sooth the crowd to near-silence.
“I apologize that my words are unsettling to you. How could they not be? I know we all look to those in authority at times like this. Well, though I cannot explain what happened to us, I would like, at your indulgence, to share with you what we do know and what we have been doing to preserve the well-being of those of us on this island.”
“There were quite a large number of visitors to the shore when the Event took place. Unfortunately, I must report that many lost their lives in the calamity that transpired. We suspect that some survivors are still missing, whether or not by their own choice. If we make some conservative estimates of the missing and combine that with what we do know from those of you who have made regular rounds to obtain rations, we can safely assume that the surviving population on this island is about twelve thousand people. About three quarters of that number are here tonight.”
“The first thing we have decided is to preserve the laws of the United States of America. We don’t know if the country has survived or what shape it is in, but it is the law we as citizens all pledged to obey and so we shall. Having said that, we believe that some organization is important. We have no access to the governments of Atlantic County, the state of New Jersey, or the United States. Therefore we, the elected officials of Atlantic City, and those of Ventnor and Margate, of which some land still remains, have chosen to join our governments together. Until which time the situation changes and we revoke these new orders, all the lands of this island shall be called… Atlantic Island.”