Jericho: Beyond the Horizon
It was like reaching an oasis in the desert after a long, hard journey. Not to say his own journey had been fraught with danger. No, for Gray Anderson, the journey had been near horrendous. He'd originally been slated to travel north, towards Nebraska. That plan had been nixed about thirty minutes into the journey when Johnston Greene's son Jake had barely gotten through to him telling him to turn east. Something about commercial jets on the highway, or something.
He'd been halfway to Oberlin when that call had come in. Turning around had never been an option since filling stations were few and far between in their part of the state. Even so, the ones he had passed were in various states of destruction, some even burned completely to the ground. That was a testament to the dangers Jericho now faced.
At Oberlin he'd found a mess. The town was getting by, largely on emergency power, something Jericho barely had. Unfortunately they were located on a major US highway out of Denver, meaning the road coming from the west was clogged with refugees. This is where he'd learned the most of the Denver explosion. What he'd been told confused him, mostly. The blast had apparently not come from the downtown area, as one would expect. Some placed the explosion more to the east, near Aurora. Denver had still been destroyed by the blast, but Gray still made note of the location of the explosion.
After speaking with Oberlin's mayor, where he'd traded some goods for a few gallons of gas – money was largely nonexistent by this point – and started his journey east. He'd heard rumors that Topeka was still standing and thus decided to make that his destination. If anyone knew what was going on, it would be the state government.
Three days later, after having been forced to the shoulder numerous times by FEMA relief convoys heading west, plus and odd assortment of military units, he'd reached Norton. Here he'd learned some disturbing news. Just as Denver was being attacked, so too was the United States Strategic Command near Omaha. Apparently, according to rumors, a moving truck had crashed through the gates of Offutt Air Force Base where, despite heavy gunfire, the truck had detonated in a fireball visible across much of eastern Nebraska. Though Omaha had been spared, the city was already being evacuated.
The loss of Strategic Command hadn't stopped the nation from issuing some kind of response, however. At 9pm during his second day in Norton, everyone had watched in awe as several missiles soared into the air. Two minutes later, everything went dark as an electromagnetic pulse went off to the west. The missiles managed to continue on, however, their destination unknown. There had been a rumor of a broadcast from the federal government, but that was now just rumor.
Gray thought his journey would end in Norton, but one of the town's residents had been generous to give him a working automobile. Thus he had continued east, now in a 1963 Chevy Impala. Traveling had been easier past Norton. There were still FEMA trucks, as well as a few military units, but a large number of vehicles had been rendered useless and pushed to the side of the road.
Now, after a week of travel, he was in Topeka.
The city was in chaos. The Interstates and highways into the city were jammed with people trying to get out. Shortly after arriving on the outskirts of town, Gray had learned that a bomb had gone off in nearby Lawrence. This had puzzled Gray. Lawrence wasn't what one would consider a major city, at least not to the residents of tiny Jericho. It was only after getting a meeting with the local FEMA head that he'd learned the full story.
Apparently a Kansas Highway Patrolman had pulled over a suspicious rental truck heading east on I-70 towards Kansas City. The truck had been weaving in and out of traffic, and was exceeding the speed limit by over twenty miles and hour. Upon approaching the truck, he'd noticed the occupants acting nervous and radioed for backup. Gray noted that the men in the truck were reported as being average white males in their mid thirties.
The backup never arrived, of course, as the truck was detonated about a minute later. The patrolman's last words had been "My God, they've got a bom…" and then Eastern Kansas had lit up like the surface of the sun. Even then, Gray could look towards eastern Topeka and see the smoke from the numerous fires burning in the city. Topeka was being written up as a loss since the fires were uncontrollable and the water supply was already showing trace amounts of radiation. The plan was to evacuate Topeka's residents to Wichita, which had survived. Wichita was sealed off, of course, as the governor of Kansas had already been evacuated there.
"Look," Gray told the man, who's name badge identified him as Jenkins, "I've been sent by the residents of Jericho to find out what the hell's going on out here and you're telling me the governments been evacuated!"
"It was the first priority," Jenkins told him. "I'm sorry, but that's all we can tell you now."
"I need to know about other cities," Gray protested. "We know of Denver and Atlanta and…"
"Denver was hit?" Jenkins asked.
Gray took a step back. This guy didn't even know the extent of the attacks. He could only manage to shake his head to show what he said was true.
Jenkins sighed and motioned for Gray to follow him into a tent. Inside, the man motioned for Gray to sit in the one chair in the room while he stood.
"The truth is, Mr. Anderson, even we don't know the full extent of what happened. We've heard very little from the main FEMA body, especially since that damned EMP went off a few days ago. When the bombs first went off, we were just thrust into the field where they needed us. No briefings, no anything. I saw the mushroom cloud over Lawrence. I heard of Atlanta through channels."
"What about New York?" Gray asked.
"New York survived," Jenkins told him. "The police, um, the police stopped a truck much like the one they stopped in Lawrence. It being post-9/11 there, they didn't take their chances. Someone said it was a 20 kiloton device, but that's not certain. We haven't heard anything from there since the EMP."
"And Washington?" Gray asked, fearing the answer.
Jenkins was visibly shaken at this. He hung his head in what Gray could only take as despair.
"Sorry," he told him. "I've been trying to keep a strong face. The truth is, Washington's gone. We don't know how, but they managed to get a bomb close to the Capitol. At least that's where the reports say the bomb went off. All that security and whoever did this managed to drive right up to where the President and the whole government was and kill them."
"My God," Gray said in shock. "Who's in charge, then?"
"Secretary of Commerce," Jenkins told him. "Though we don't know if he's even still alive, not after the EMP. That's all I know, I'm sorry."
"Who did this?" Gray asked. "I have to know."
"We don't know. We may never know. Those missiles, someone said they were headed for Iran. Other people say North Korea. Who knows. The President did give a brief address, before the EMP, though I doubt anyone saw it."
This perked Gray's interest.
"There was an address? I heard something about that back in Norton."
"Yeah, he came out, said there'd been an attack and then walked off. No explanation, no finger pointing, not even a message of encouragement. Of course that's when the EMP hit so we don't know if there was another attack or what."
Jenkins looked towards the entrance to the tent, then lowered his voice.
"Now this is just between you and me, Mr. Anderson, but the rumor is this is all part of a larger attack. We've had a few rumors come up from the south that foreign troops were spotted in Texas."
Gray remembered the rumor of tanks headed west towards Denver.
A knock at the entrance broke up the conversation.
"Sir? Sorry, sir, but there's been a report of shooting to the west of the city."
"Refugees?" Jenkins asked.
"No, sir," the man told him. "It's that military group DHS hired to protect the governor of Nebraska. The report says they just shot up a transport of water heading towards some place called Rogue River."
"So it's finally started," Jenkins commented. "I'm sorry, Mr. Anderson, but we're going to have to cut this short."
"I need to start back towards Jericho anyway," Gray told him.
"I'll send you out with the next convoy then," Jenkins said. "You'll have a better chance of getting back anyway."
"Thank you, for everything."
"It's hell out there, Mr. Anderson. And my job is to help people as best I can. We'll try to get as far west as we can, but I can't make any guarantees. Just be careful out there, Mr. Anderson."
"I'll try," Gray said and left the tent.