1The Fall of Washington
Terry Kolchak was in a good mood. It was New Year's Eve and that was always a good reason to be in a good mood, even if he was working late. He was getting double time for time for it and would be off by six. More than enough time to get to Ginny's Lounge and get totally shitfaced before midnight. Until then though, he was stuck sitting in his box truck just off New York Avenue a couple of blocks from the White House.
His bosses at Patriot Memorabilia were a bit funny at times. This was the third time he'd been sent down here to just sit around until six and then head home. Heard at least four other trucks were doing the same thing today. What did he care? He got paid good and it easy, so it was no skin off his nose.
Terry pulled the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and started to take one out before stopping. Then he shoved the pack back in his pocket. Marge had been on his back about quitting and truth be told, he wanted to quit too. But actually *doing it* was a major pain in the ass.
Terry picked up the newspaper on the empty seat beside him and glanced at the date to make sure it was today's. December 31, 1983. Good, he hated reading yesterday's news. He turned on the radio and settled back to start reading. Terry was halfway through a story on the Middle East when he felt the truck shift. It was only a small thing, but he'd been driving for over 10 years and knew his job. Cargo shifting was never a good thing.
He put down the paper and thought about his cargo. Usually he loaded his own truck or at least oversaw it. This time though it was all locked up when he arrived at the loading dock. Manifest said that they were some of those big assed statues of George Washington he'd seen and it'd be bad if one of them keeled over in the truck. Not only would the statue be damaged, the truck would be too. Those mothers were big and heavy.
Terry reached for the door handle, but before his fingers touched it there was a loud BANG from the back and the trucked rocked heavily.
"What the hell?" He asked himself as he jumped out of the truck. He ran around the front of the truck to avoid being run over and fumbled for the key to for the cargo door. As he half ran the back of the truck it swayed and he could hear loud banging sounds like something was hitting the walls of the truck from the inside.
Just as he got to the near to the back of the truck, the doors flew open, damn near smacking him in the face. What the fuck was going on? How did someone get into the back of his truck? Who opened the doors?
After the doors slammed opened the pounding stopped. Terry cautiously walked around the back of the truck, making sure to keep some distance and looked inside. Standing in the truck were eight statues. Six of them had frilly blue coats, gold trim and had faces that looked like George Washington. Hanging off their backs were red and white striped flags. They looked like something from a children's book. The two statues in back looked different than the Washington ones. One wore a purple coat and looked like Ben Franklin and the other one a green coat and might have been Thomas Jefferson.
Then the first statue of Washington turned its head to look at him.
Terry froze, his brain not understanding what his eyes told it.
Then the "statue" pointed something at him. Terry found himself looking straight down eight gun barrels and it snapped him out of his shock. He went to raise his hand and started to say "Don't shoot!"
Only the word "Don't" left his mouth before the "statue" fired. Terry didn't feel any pain, in fact he didn't feel anything as what was left of him fell to the pavement. As his vision faded Terry saw one of the statues jump out of the back of his truck and land on the ground with a heavy thud.
The last thing Terry Kolchak heard was the sound of guns firing and screams of terror and death.
Alice was happy. She and mommy were going to pick up daddy at work! And she got to sit in the front seat!
There were a lot of cars today so they stopped and started a lot. She was sure mommy would say a bad word, but she didn't. Darn. It was funny when mommy said a bad word.
They were stopped again waiting for the light to change color again and there was a strange sound, like thunder, but it wasn't raining. No, more like fireworks. She looked around and there were other sounds, like firecrackers. It wasn't firecracker day yet, that was in the summer when it was warm and sunny. It was cold and cloudy now.
She saw that mommy was looking around, she looked worried. Was something wrong?
Somebody ran past the car really fast.
The light changed to green, but the car in front of them didn't move. Mommy hocked the horn, but it still didn't move. There were more firecrackers, but they didn't sound right.
Mommy held down the horn and she could hear other car horns from behind them. Then a car came around the corner and hit the car ahead of them!
Mommy said something bad, but it wasn't funny now. Mommy quickly looked around, all over. What was she looking for?
There were more firecrackers, sounded louder now, they must be real big ones. Or were they getting close?
Mommy said something, she but couldn't hear it very good. Something about God. Mommy opened her seatbelt really fast. Then she tried to open her seatbelt while looking through the windshield, but it wouldn't open. "Come on, come on. Open damn it!" She was saying.
It had just come loose and hugged her close, covering her face.
There were more firecrackers and the glass breaking and sounds of rocks hitting the car. It seemed to go on forever and last only an instant. Then it was quiet. What was happening? She was scared and mommy was on top of her.
"Mommy?"
Mommy didn't move. She couldn't see anything and it was getting hard to breath.
"Mommy!" But mommy didn't move. She pushed and mommy made a strange sound, but didn't say anything or move. She could see now there was broken glass all over. Daddy would be mad about that. Why wasn't mommy moving?
She squirmed out from under her mother and that was when she realized there was red all over. There was red on mommy and red on her too. Where did all of it come from? Mommy, it was coming from mommy! She shook mommy, but mommy didn't move. "Mommy!" She cried. "Mommy, wake up!"
Mommy wasn't waking up, she was hurt! She looked out the broken windows. Mommy needed help! Somebody had to help! Where was daddy?
Then she heard heavy thumping sounds, getting closer. Footsteps, but they sounded big and heavy. Maybe it was someone who could help mommy!
"Help!" she called. "My mommy's hurt!"
The big footsteps came closer and she saw what was making them. He was really big and wore a blue coat with frilly stuff all over. She saw his face and knew who it was. It was Mr. Washington! Mr. Washington was a good guy! He would help mommy!
"Here!" she called and waved at him.
Mr. Washington had something big and long in his hands and he pointed it at her. Was he trying to help mommy with it?
Mr. Washington said "We hold these truths to be self-evident." In a deep loud voice, but his mouth didn't move. Was something was wrong with Mr. Washington?
A moment later fire flashed from the thing in Mr. Washington's hands and Alice's world ended in an explosion of red.
Uncaring of the young life it just destroyed, the Motorized Patriot turned and searched for more targets to eliminate.
Joseph "Hot Joe" Alison was on vacation. He'd already spent a day and a half at the Smithsonian and loved every minute of it. One of his buddies had told him to make sure to hit this place called The National Archives Building. He thought "Sure. Go visit a place full of filing cabinets and old paper."
But he went anyway. It was only a short walk back to the Smithsonian if this place was as boring as he thought it would be. People that lived here might think it was a long cold back walk, but compared to Chicago in winter? It was nuthin'.
When he first saw the place he was surprised. The place was big, all granite and had a bunch of big columns out front with a lot of steps. Looked more like a museum or maybe a bank. Not what he had expected. He'd climbed up the steps and went into the lobby.
Weren't a lot of people around, but no surprise since it was New Year's Eve. One of the reasons he was here in now, not a lot of other tourists muckin' about. There was a group of teenagers though over on the left side. One of them had a radio and they were all listening to it. Seemed worried. Well, nothin' to do with him.
He looked around and started reading the signs. What? They had the Constitution here? THE Constitution? Bill of Rights? Declaration of Independence? Huh! Guess there was something here after all.
He started trying to follow the signs to where the Constitution was and quickly turn a wrong turn. Retracing his step he was soon back in the lobby and he heard a weird sound comin' from outside. Couple of the other people had noticed it too and were looking out through the windows in the doors. "What is that?" one of them asked. Seemed nervous. One of the security guards started walking towards the doors. He couldn't see much, but he could tell that there was something big and blue out front. Whatever it was it hadn't been there a few minutes ago and it looked like it was floating a couple feet off the ground. He started following the guard towards the doors. What was going on?
The people at the doors suddenly backed away from them and he heard yelling outside. Moments later a group of men burst through the doors. They were all dressed in grey and had some weird looking helmets on. Like something from World War I.
And they all had guns.
One of the guards yelled "Freeze! Put your hands up!" Other guards went for their guns. He had to get out. Whatever was going down was bad, bad, bad. He hadn't taken two steps before the men in grey opened fire. He saw one the guards go down. Musta been hit ten times. But the shooting didn't stop and he heard screams.
His right leg exploded in pain and he crashed to the floor. Dimly he heard the gunfire trail off and a voice yell "Squads A and B secure the Sacred Documents! All other squads clear the building! Just as the Prophet has foretold!"
"Blessed be the Prophet!" a chorus of voices responded.
He got an elbow beneath him and raised up a little to look back to the doors. The men in grey were running in all different directions. The people that had been near the doors were on the floor, he could see blood, a lot of blood. He had to get out. His leg was on fire, knew he couldn't walk. He started to crawl as fast as he could. Had to get away!
Hadn't gotten far when something slammed into his back. A moment later something hit him in the gut, half flipping him over.
He looked up to see one of the men in grey looking down on him with a face full of hatred and disgust.
"Death to those who reject the Prophet's teachings." He said as he raised the pistol in his hand.
"No! Please! Do…"
Joseph Alison didn't hear the gunshot that killed him.
Secret Service agent Todd Mallow was having the worst day of his life. And he had a bad feeling it might be his last day of his life as well. He didn't know what the hell was going on, didn't think anybody did. He had heard a few things over the radio and fragments of conversations. None of what he heard made sense. Blimps heading up the Chesapeake and sinking any ship they saw? No contact with Andrews Airforce Base and Air Force One? He'd even heard someone say that Baltimore had ben nuked. It all sounded crazy.
But crazy was the order of the day. The White House was being attacked by a bunch of robots that looked like George Washington.
And the robots were winning.
They were walking up the driveway from Pennsylvania Avenue firing some kind of heavy machine guns. Secret Service agents and the Marine Guards were firing back, but the damn things took a lot to put down. He'd seen one take a 40mm grenade in the chest and still keep coming. It did eventually go down, but it had killed two agents and a Marine before it did.
He'd been pulled off the line to meet Marine One which was coming to land on the South Lawn. At least something was going right. He ran past the President and First Lady guarded by two agents in the Blue Room, then to the South Portico and outside to the South Lawn.
His duty was to help get eyeballs on Marine One as it came in, help it land if needed and give it a quick, very quick check inside to make sure it was safe. Then he was to help escort the President and First Lady to Marine One so they could be transported to safety. Usually there was a whole team who did this job, but right now there was only him.
He wouldn't be leaving on Marine One with the President and First Lady. It was his job to provide cover and make sure Marine One got away safely even if he died doing it. And he figured the chances of dying were real high. It was a risk every Secret Service Agent took and took willingly.
Just never thought that he would get killed by a bunch of robots.
And there was Marine One. The big white and green Sikorsky helicopter was already heading in for a landing on the grass. It was thirty feet off the ground when something smashed through trees over by 17th Avenue.
What the hell was that thing? It looked like a big metal ape!
Whatever it was, it was heading right for Marine One at high speed. He quickly emptied his pistol into it and he didn't think the thing even noticed. The pilot of Marine One saw the thing and tried to abort, but it was far too late. The thing jumped up and smashed into the big helicopter. It skewed sideways as the pilot fought for control and the thing outside hung on with one oversized hand. The thing rammed its other hand into the helicopter's cockpit.
Marine One dived into the ground, hitting with a resounding crash before exploding.
He turned and ran back into the White House. He hoped the crash had killed that thing, but he doubted it would. They had to get the President out of here some other way and do it now! He was at the doors to the Blue Room when he heard gunfire from inside. An Uzi. Had the robots gotten inside already?
He ran through the doors and stopped in his tracks. On the floor were the President, the First Lady and the two agents. There was another Secret Service Agent, Robert Parkstone, halfway across into the room, but no one else.
Parkstone looked up at him with a smile and finished reloading the Uzi.
The smile said it all. Todd brought his pistol up and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. He hadn't had the chance to reload after emptying the clip into the thing that had destroyed Marine One.
Parkstone calmly said "For the Prophet." before opening fire.
Just outside the city of Washington and 5,000 feet in the air was a massive zeppelin bristling with weapons. On board it three men looked down upon a map of the city ahead of them. These three men were dressed in grey uniforms and wore insignia that proclaimed them to be an admiral, a general and a commander. Around the three officers men and woman of lesser ranks performed all sorts of duties such as receiving messages, giving orders or pushing around markers with the name and status of different units of the Columbia military on them.
"Status report!" The admiral demanded.
A middle aged woman with pale skin and even paler blond hair spoke first. "Sir, the building containing the Sacred Documents has been taken with no casualties. They believe it will take at least an hour to recover the Sacred Documents and prepare them for transport."
A young man was next. "The Corrupted House has been taken and the Sodom President is dead. They reported that he might have escaped if not for the Prophets warning of his cowardly attempt to escape judgment. It will take many hours to find all our Holy Relics and transport them, Sir."
An older man with no hair stood to give his report. "Sir! The Second and Third companies have report minimal resistance at the False Capital building, but there are still many people hiding from our righteous wrath there. They estimate it will be two hours before the building have been cleared. They gave no estimate on the recovery of the Relics stolen from us."
The status report went on for another two minutes and men and women reported the seizure of different important or scared locations and the disposal of the heretics and traitors in them. When they were done with their reports the admiral nodded and asked "Are there any requests for reinforcement?"
There were none.
"It goes just as the Prophet said it would." The general told the admiral.
"It is God's Will." The admiral responded. This was a great day. The great fire was burning away the corrupt Sodom Below. But he felt… unsatisfied. That was the only thing he could think of putting it. He commanded a fleet of 32 combat ready zeppelins with more than enough firepower to level the city below them. His own flagship, the 700 foot "Wrath of the Prophet", could do the job almost by itself. Until the corrupted city below his ship had been put to the torch he wouldn't be satisfied. For only when the Sodom below had been cleansed could the true capital of the United States be set upon the Earth.
But not yet. The Holy Relics stolen from the Founders and Columbia most be found and brought to safety first. That was his duty to the Prophet and God and he would not fail in it.
He wondered briefly how the Second and Third Columbia Battle Fleets were fairing. The Second was purging Philadelphia to keep the relics and holy sites safe and the Third had been sent to Boston to recover a small number of Holy Relics and punish the heretics there who had rejected Father Comstock's teachings.
"Message from Columbia Command Sir!" The senior communications officer called, interrupting his thoughts.
"Give it to me." He told the man who quickly ran over and handed him a paper. He looked down at it and smiled.
"Attention!" He called out. Everyone turned to look at him. "I have just received word that Columbia has arrived over New York City and that the Lamb has taken personal command!"
Around the room people praised the Father Comstock and recited prayers.
"The seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the mountains of man!" he intoned loudly.
And the room was filled of cheers at the death of the human race.