Two trucks and two commandeered buses filled the street making a makeshift road-block, a humvee and a tank defended it. The troops had had an easy time as folk had either given up trying to escape, or had died. “Say again, Bravo-William One, a what is heading our way? Over.”
But before his comrade could reply he heard the roar of the engine and his eyes popped out on stalks, shocked beyond belief to see a civilian jet hurtling along the street towards him at great speed, smashing through the road-block with a screech of twisted metal and a cloud of sparks, knocked aside the buses with ease.
The soldiers were caught off guard, and slowly recovering from the shock, drew their weapons and fired at the retreating metal monster.
The tank commander barked an order to the gunner, whose military training kicked in, never questioning the order to fire, aimed at the departing airplane trundling down the street ahead making a bizarre target in his view finder; it would be hours later that the oddity of it would make him shudder.
“Fire!” ordered the commander, and the tank recoiled with the blast and a split second later the projectile blew the Citation’s starboard wing clean off, fragments flew into the air and hit the cockpit. The remaining portion of the wing caught fire.
“Man, that ain’t cool,” said Luke.
Sophie stared at him incredulously for a long moment, and then asked. “Now what?”
“I’ve had another brilliant idea…”
“Go on.”
“We’ll use the airplane as a decoy—” A huge chunk of masonry from the building ahead exploded as the tank’s next shot missed. Large chunks of stone hit the windshield cracking it.
Sophie watched mesmerized as the building teetered, and wobbled in front of them, but thankfully, the Citation XLS passed by before it tumbled over in a massive cloud of dust, blocking the pursuing tank and troops.
Luke told Sophie how to initiate the escape door that automatically engaged the escape chute, and he lined up the aircraft, or mobile bomb as it had now become in his plan. The passengers crossed their arms over their chests as instructed and slid down the chute to the street, where they rolled over with momentum.
“Go!” said Luke to Sophie, as he used his belt to tie on the throttle at maximum, the jet engines spooled up, responding immediately and the airplane picked up speed.
No, I’ll wait for you…” she replied, then her eyes widened when she saw his intended target. “…Oh no…”
CHAPTER 22
07:45 AM
On the roof of the Four Points Hotel General Malloy scanned the district on all four sides with his German-made field glasses. In each and every direction he saw the insurgents being chased by his men, sure they were being caught and shot, but it was time consuming and inconvenient and not economically viable. He had formulated a strategy with President Hamilton Parker, who’d agreed that their plan needed to be bold, courageous, and fearless. They had to make sure no one remained in the southern part of Florida and that no one would ever desire entry into the area ever again.
He knew it was going to be a hard sell for the President. Most of the chiefs of staff were soft when it came to a battle. They were desk jockeys who’d never been up the sharp-end in combat, not like him. He’d killed the enemy with his bare hands and wouldn’t have any qualms about doing it again.
That’s how he thought of the population of Florida, as the enemy, and enemies needed destroying by whatever means were at his disposal, however distasteful most American’s would find it. In time, they would know that they’d made the right decision, and that he and Hamilton’s quick thinking had saved millions of lives.
“Gen… General, you might wanna see this…,” said a timid soldier, pointing over the safety wall and downward.
The general peered over the wall and his jaw hit the ground. “What in god’s name is that?” He looked again expecting the vision to have been a mirage. “Is that a—”
07:48 AM
Luke pushed Sophie from the open doorway, following her as the engines spooled up to maximum power. She hit the chute half way down and bounced onto the pavement, he followed a moment later, hitting the street headfirst. Luke and Sophie sat on the ground and rubbed their scrapes. “There goes ten million bucks,” he said as they watched in awe as the Citation passenger jet loaded with over six thousand pounds of kerosene jet fuel hit the foyer of the Four Points Hotel at over one hundred miles an hour.
07:49 AM
The hotel shook from the explosion and the general fell to the deck. A fireball shot up into the sky and a plume of thick, black smoke added to the confusion. The antenna masts tipped over, as did the satellite dishes. The general got onto his knees, and stood, then wobbled and toppled back over.
“General!” shouted a soldier, waving at him frantically. “Follow me, sir. The stairs, while there’s still time.” The building shook once more and the general lost his footing again, falling onto his back. “General, this way!” The general took a moment, glanced around at the devastation, stood, cursed, and limped to the stairwell.
08:10 AM
Vice Admiral Reed gulped; he and the chiefs of staff at the Pentagon heard the news in shocked disbelief. He addressed the empty video-link screen, connecting them to the White House. “Mister President? Sir?”
“I’m here,” replied Hamilton Parker, his face filling the screen. “What can I do for you, Admiral?” he looked tired and drawn.
“We’ve, erm, we’ve lost all communication with General Malloy, Mister President. Everything, sir, radio, sat-links, the lot.”
08:20 AM
Luke and Sophie watched the flaming hotel in silence. The aircraft was firmly wedged into the foyer of the hotel and burned fiercely. Black smoke billowed up into the sky. Soldiers operated fire trucks valiantly, but losing the battle to extinguish the flames. The fire had gotten a hold and the structure of the forty-floor hotel was in danger.
While the fire distracted the soldiers, Luke and Sophie ran up behind a slow moving open-topped truck. They jumped on the footplate, climbed the ladder, then Luke helped Sophie hop over into the back of the cargo hold, where to their utter horror, discovered it was full of dead plague victims.
Sophie screamed and landed heavily on the bodies, slipping down amongst them. The smell made her retch and gag, as sore-covered limbs appeared to suck her down to the bottom of the heap. Luke got a grip of her arm and yanked her up out of the rotting corpses. She spluttered and choked at the stench.
He stared in horror at the victims’ wounds, at their weeping, oozing sores, the congealed blood from the eyes, ears, and nostrils, their blackened, torn skin. Each face had their agonizing death etched deeply upon it and he shuddered. He peeked over the top of the cab as it trundled towards the coast. He watched grimly as groups of soldiers shot civilians in execution squads. Seemingly having little regard for whether they carried the Bubonic Plague or not. The truck stopped abruptly with a squeal of airbrakes and Luke wondered if they'd been caught.
Luke listened to the distorted voices of the truck-crew talking through the radio mikes of their hazmat suits, but couldn’t hear clearly. Suddenly a body flew over the side of the truck and Luke just managed to duck in time, as the carcass passed over his head to land in a crumpled heap.
A second body sailed over the side of the truck. Luke yelled as he was half-covered by the woman and splattered with the blood pumping from her stomach wound.