"The depot is not deserted," he reported. "I note movement inside the building. Getting to them, however, may prove difficult."

  Stonewall referred to the six extraterrestrial monsters besieging the compound. They resembled armadillos the size of cement trucks with nasty snouts like crocodile jaws. A protective shell covered their bodies and spiked balls hung at the end of long tails.

  Kristy Kaufman said, "If I may quote the General, sir, you did say this would only be a 'quick ride' to the depot to 'set those idiots straight'. Therefore, sir, we failed to bring along any anti-armor weaponry."

  "Yes, Captain Kaufman, those words are mine," in a whisper he continued, "much to my regret." His voice rose again and he told her to, "consult our radio and see what assets might be lurking about."

  One of the creatures smashed yet another hole in another wall with its wrecking-ball like tail. A second stood on its hind legs and took several steps toward the building and tried to bite a second-floor window.

  Beyond the Armored Mammoths, Stonewall spotted several fatigue-wearing persons daring looks out the window. He then swept his binoculars across the parking lot, examining the vehicles crushed by the creatures. He shared an observation with everyone in earshot, "That explains how we came to this point. I do not discern a single Internal Security vehicle among the wreckage."

  Kaufman continued a radio conversation she had started a moment ago on the General's orders, "Understood, standing by," and then said to McAllister, "I.S. pull out?"

  "Apparently so," he responded. "No doubt absconding with their supply of heavy weapons, leaving behind clerical staff and accountants with small arms."

  "That's desertion, sir. They should be hung," Kaufman answered but a voice on the radio pulled her attention away.

  Stonewall spoke as much to himself as anyone else, "Desertion? That is a word nearly unheard of in recent years. But these are not normal circumstances. I fear a dangerous divide is growing between the military and Internal Security, given the current political climate."

  Kaufman broke in with good news, "Today must be our lucky day, General."

  Stonewall mused, "I was certain I had used up my allotment of lucky days in Georgia last year. Do tell, Captain."

  "T-A-C is directing an AC-130 our way. Puff is on his way back from knocking out a nest of Spider Ants outside of Roaring Spring."

  "Splendid! See if Puff the Magic Dragon would be so kind as to hunt down and blast our fleeing Internal Security agents. No doubt they are somewhere east of here on 71."

  "I assume that is a jest, General."

  "I would hope so, yes, but we will see how things develop in the days ahead."

  Fifteen minutes later, a large plane circled overhead, its engines creating a sound like thunder filling the sky and nearly shaking the ground. The AC-130 Specter Gunship banked hard and opened fire from the heavy cannon stationed in its side. The shells did to the Mammoths what they had done in the old world to tanks and armored vehicles; ripped them to shreds, while leaving the building untouched.

  When the nasty work completed and the gunship flew away, Stonewall led his group forward much to the delight of the besieged staffers who had endured hours of virtual captivity. Their radios and radio operators, it was learned, had been destroyed by the initial charge of the over sized hostiles.

  General McAllister noted that while this may have seemed as if it were merely another battle in the post-Armageddon world, the negligence that had forced the fight may have made it something more ominous.

  A sign of things to come.

  – General William Hoth stood outside of the Union Terminal building, a 1930’s vintage art deco railway station converted into the Cincinnati Museum Center back in the days when history and social studies held enough interest to draw nearly a million annual visitors.

  Of course the goodies inside had long ago been looted or destroyed. Instead, the museum now hosted technicians and maps and communications gear, having undergone yet another transformation, this time into a hastily-constructed command post.

  This newly-opened post and the old structure it occupied stood on the southern stretch of Cincinnati with the Ohio River and the Kentucky border a short distance away. In other words, near the heart of what had once been the third-most populated city in the state of Ohio.

  As recently as twenty-four hours ago, reconnaissance assured that Cincinnati remained a well-populated metropolis, but populated by Mutants, Rollers, and Goat-Walkers. Furthermore, three more Roachbot slaughterhouses existed within the city limits.

  Yet General Hoth now stood on the southwestern side of the city, having gained control of the entire metropolis at the expense of one Bradley vehicle crew incinerated when a rookie Apache pilot mistook them for a Roachbot.

  Somehow, the entire population of Hostiles within the city limits of Cincinnati had disappeared in a matter of hours, without a trace. When his tanks rolled into town, they faced no opposition.

  Just…gone. Poof.

  The General had never seen anything like it.

  No…he corrected himself. In point of fact, not only had he seen something just like it long ago, he had experienced a similar disappearing act himself.

  The hostile forces of Cincinnati had been plucked from the Earth in the same fashion that the human ark riders of early Armageddon had been snatched from highways and baseball parks.

  In the years since the invasion, those missing humans began showing up, just as Hoth himself had reappeared on the grounds of West Point.

  "So the question is," Hoth spoke aloud to no one. "Where-or perhaps even 'when'-have these things gone?"

  – Dante Jones-Chief of Internal Security-sat alone in the conference room in the basement of the estate. Brewer had left mere moments before after asking-actually shouting-a series of questions and accusations.

  Why are we having these problems with Internal Security? Get your people in line. Stonewall nearly got killed out there yesterday! This isn’t the first incident!

  Dante's responses?

  It’s not just I.S., everyone is confused. I can’t control every last station commander. This won’t be the last incident, either, unless you start telling people who is in charge around here because it sure as Hell isn't Trevor Stone!

  In truth, Dante was not sure what he could do, or even what he should do. After all, could he blame the people for wanting answers? Did Brewer and Knox actually believe the whole 'secret mission' story would work indefinitely?

  With Trevor gone, Dante felt his loyalties pulled in several directions. Yes, he felt obligated to maintain the cover story due to his membership on the military council. Yet he felt a responsibility to the Senate, the body to whom Trevor himself had given oversight of I.S.

  He placed a hand over his eyes and sighed.

  "You okay, boss?"

  The voice startled Dante.

  "Oh, man, Ray, shit you scared me."

  Ray Roos-Chief of the I.S. detachment for the estate grounds-joined his superior officer in the conference room.

  "Sorry ‘bout that. You a little jumpy? Sure you are. Heck, we all are these days."

  Ray stood alongside the table and waited for an invitation. Dante motioned to one of the empty chairs. Roos placed his Mp5 machine gun on the table top and relaxed.

  Dante said, "We had another security unit abandon a post yesterday. They walked away from a supply depot in Tennessee. Some people got killed because of it."

  Roos said, "Well, if I can speak my mind, I don’t like the idea of our boys holding sway over some of them depots that are further out. That’s the army’s job don’t you think? I think so."

  "You know the drill, Ray. Internal Security gets whatever shit jobs the military doesn’t want. But we never had guys walk away from posts like this before. You know what I mean."

  Roos nodded. "I know. But a lot of our guys haven’t been doing policing for a long time. You know that. Of course you do. With the big fella…" Roos hesitated as he tried to pick the right words. "With the big fella…off somewhere, well, you probably noticed that things are slipping up real good like. Yessir. You have noticed that."

  "Hard not to notice, Ray. Trevor went running off and now we got to clean up the mess."

  Roos cocked a finger toward Dante but in a friendly, casual way.

  "Say, weren’t you and Trevor buddies before ‘all this’? You were, right?"

  Jones answered ‘yes’ with the nod of his head.

  "What was he like before the whole shootin' match got turned downside-up?"

  Jones grew a hint of a smile. "Trevor? He was a good guy. He always treated people pretty much the same. He was the type of guy you could count on to keep his word and all."

  "So, you could see this whole thing coming with him being the big leader and all? Sort of natural-born?"

  Dante laughed. "Are you kidding? He was a care salesman, man. Look, he was definitely not mister take-charge. I mean, when we were in high school I had to lead him around or the guy was like socially, lost. See, couldn’t really even talk to girls. Didn’t know what he was going to do with his life. I mean, he was a good guy but he was lost half the time."

  Jones snickered as he remembered. Ray joined in with a polite chuckle of his own.

  "Seems like you were taking care of him back then, huh?"

  "Yeah, well then he met Ashley. Then the two of us took care of him, I guess."

  Roos said, "Must’ve been strange reversing roles and all. Yeah, that had to be strange."

  "What’s that mean?"

  "I mean, in the old days you were leading the way. Then all of a sudden the world goes topsy-turvy and he’s the one leading the way, and you’re following."

  Jones scratched his head and admitted, "Yeah. That was kind of weird. I guess I got used to it. I figure we all had to get use to a lot of different stuff."

  Dante drifted into memories. Roos remained quiet for a few moments but opened a new line of thinking, one that brought Jones to the edge of his chair.

  "You got to know, sure you know, that all of us in I.S., we follow you, Mr. Jones. No doubt about it. You’re a good guy and you always do right by us. You’ve got our loyalty. I think I can say that matter-a-fact on behalf of most of the guys."

  Dante's eyes narrowed, a little. "Oh, well, so what does that mean to me?"

  "Well, it means a lot of people out there trust your judgment. Maybe you don’t realize that. Maybe you’re too humble to let yourself see it. But I.S., folk, we trust you. After that stuff went down at New Winnabow, we all saw how you helped smooth things out. None of us wanted to be firing water cannons on protestors, you know that. Sure you do. That’s why you worked so hard to find a solution. You and that guy, that Senator guy."

  "Evan Godfrey."

  Roos waved a hand. "Yep. That’s right. Evan Godfrey. Why the two of you did right by everyone. If you ask me-and I know you haven’t but I’ll tell you anyway-if you ask me you pulled Trevor Stone’s bacon out of the barbecue. Now that’s what I call leadership."

  Jones closed his eyes as he remembered those scary times after New Winnabow.

  "Can I say something, Mr. Jones, without getting my own bacon in the barbecue? I can understand if you’d rather I just went about my business and kept my mouth shut."

  Dante nodded an approval for Roos to speak freely.

  "I know Trevor is your friend, but allow me to set that aside for one moment. Let’s forget who he is and see him for what he is. Just for a moment. I don’t want you taking offense at this."

  "Go ahead, Ray."

  "I have to figure you know more about what’s going on with Trevor being disappeared than little old me. But the story is that he’s off on some mission. Hey, I ain’t asking for the skinny, that’s not my department. But my point is that maybe it’s a good thing this is happening right now. Now hold off now, I’m not saying it’s good that he’s gone. I’m saying it’s good it’s happening now when things are kind of quiet. You see? You see my point?"

  Dante listened.

  "If he comes back, fine and dandy. Or maybe not. I mean, sooner or later Trevor Stone ain’t going to be steering the ship. He’s not immortal. At least, I expect not. So maybe we need to find this stuff out now. I mean the stuff about how things could fall apart without him."

  Dante said, "I think I see your point. It’s pretty bad now. Just think of how bad it would be if we were in the middle of the full-scale Hivvan war or something."

  "We’re getting taught a lesson, yes we are. A lesson that maybe we’re too dependent on Trevor Stone. Even with the Senate, he's still the guy in charge of just about everything."

  Dante said, "Yes. He is. But I get your point. Let's just hope he gets back, soon."

  "Oh yeah, that's what we're all hoping, Mr. Jones."

  The conversation paused.

  After a second of reflection, Roos chuckled and said, "Man, that must be funny from your point of view. A real gasser. I mean, here you are watching all of us be so dependent on Trevor Stone but in the old days you had to lead him around by the nose to keep him going in the right direction. I got to hand it to you, Mr. Jones. Sure I do. There are guys out there who I just know that type of thing wouldn’t sit well in their belly. But you, you've done one heck of a job putting that aside and working for Trevor nowadays. Still, that’s got to be kind of, oh, kind of ironic. Funny, like I said. A real gasser."

  24. Shattered

  After faltering at Erie Coast, Trevor wanted to re-organize and hit the Duass again. Instead, Director Snowe convinced Thebes' new Emperor to target the Chaktaw, who posed the larger threat; the Duass showed no signs of retaliating.

  Then Trevor suggested he might find ways to improve supply and manufacturing, hinting that munitions and weapons-not his tactics-bore responsibility for the defeat.

  Nina insisted his attention was best focused on training and planning. Eventually he agreed. In fact, he appreciated how everyone on this world tended to tell him what he wanted to hear, and took care of the details leaving him free to tackle the more interesting tasks.

  With the coming of mid-March, the weather showed signs of changing. Temperatures remained cold at night, but not quite as cold. Drizzle replaced snow flurries and afternoon temperatures grew far more comfortable.

  One additional benefit of the change came in the form of more daylight, a point he noticed riding home from the Operations Center one evening in twilight instead of pitch dark. The extra sun added to his sense of optimism.

  Well, not optimism. A sense of opportunity. Yes, that was the better word. "Optimism" did not describe any of Trevor’s moods or attitudes any more. In fact, he exchanged happiness, contentment, and satisfaction for enthusiasm, aggressiveness, and determination.

  In any case, the longer days told Trevor that the opportunity for expansion approached. Soon he would launch a proper offensive, one meant to acquire territory.

  Despite what Nina and Snowe thought, Trevor remained convinced he could find more survivors. His experiences on that other world taught him about the resilience of humanity.

  Stone’s taxi halted at his skyscraper hostel. He stepped out of the car as did the two bodyguards Snowe had selected to keep Trevor safe or, more likely, to keep watch on him.

  Whether Snowe would prove to be a long-term friend or a short-term ally of convenience would depend on the Director's attitude.

  The car sped away. Trevor took a moment to crane his neck up at the tall, green structure stretching toward gray clouds where a few streaks of dying, orange sun flickered.

  Home.

  "Trevor."

  The voice came from a slender figure in technician’s coveralls. She wore a cap and a light windbreaker. Even from a distance, Trevor understood he should recognize her.

  "It’s okay," he warded off his bodyguards with a wave.

  Hmm…is that Jolene? It’d be nice to see her again.

  "Yes, I’m Trevor. Do I know you?"

  The woman removed her cap revealing dark hair.

  He moved closer to see her more clearly. A sharp jolt of fear shot along his spine. His legs wobbled, his heart pounded, and he stumbled back a step.

  Ashley.

  In that first split second of recognition, his mind screamed she came across dimensions to find me! And I’m not going back!

  In the next moment, he regained control, realizing that this Ashley wore shorter hair and a scar. These markings meant she came from this world, not the one he had left behind.

  "You know me," she said. "Maybe not here. Do you remember who I am?"

  "You…you’re Ashley Trump. I once knew someone…someone like you."

  He noticed her trembling yet noticed something else, too: determination. Obviously this confrontation scared her a great deal, too, but she found the strength to see it through.

  She held a small package to him. He retreated again.

  "Reverend Johnny told me about your life at home, and they killed him."

  "This…this is my home," the guards stepped to either flank of their charge as they realized Trevor wanted no more of this woman’s company.

  "No. Your home, Trevor. Where you have a wife and a son. Do you remember them?"

  "Stop it. Shut up."

  The guards grabbed for the woman. She avoided them long enough to shove her package in Trevor’s stomach, he had not choice but to clutch it.

  "For your son, Trevor! For your son!"

  He alternated his eyes from the package to the woman his guards pushed away.

  Get her out of here! Get her away!

  Then he hurried into the hostel. A moment later-after they had successful warded off the specter that had come to haunt the Emperor-the guards joined him inside. Trevor moved through the lobby then to the elevator then to his penthouse in an emotionless, zombie-like gait.

  Both guards followed him inside and then he slammed the door shut behind, bolting it.

  Get a hold of yourself, Emperor.

  While the bodyguards made themselves comfortable in the living room with a deck of cards and a pitcher of beer (or what passed for beer in Thebes), Trevor went into the bedroom and sat on the mattress, staring at the small wrapped box Ashley's doppelganger had shoved into his hands. He eyed it warily, as if it might be a bomb.