The Light that Blinds the day
Chapter 4: A Terrorist Attack
A loud blaring noise woke BeatMax from his sleep really early. He checked his watch as he got off of his car hood. "4:30 A.M.? What could be going on this early?" He wondered as he walked into the apartment. Andrew, Alex, and Max were up as well, watching the news. "Earlier this morning, about an hour ago, there was a terrorist attack on the City Hall of North Carolina." The news anchorman said, looking at the camera. "200 people were killed in an explosion, and 300 were wounded. What caused the explosion is unknown at this time. Authorities are investigating the cause at this moment." "So that was that loud blaring sound I heard...ambulance trucks…" BeatMax sleepily says, rubbing his eyes. "Yeah, looks like someone's out to kill the state itself." Max stated. "They started out at the City Hall, but who knows where they're gonna go next?" Andrew asked. We all shook our heads, unsure of the answer. "I'm intrigued...I wanna investigate the scene myself." BeatMax grins, rubbing his chin. "That wouldn't be a bad idea...it doesn't seem like the police have any leads anyways." Alex chuckled. "Then shall we?" BeatMax eagerly states. "We shall." Max grins.
They all grabbed what they needed and got into BeatMax's truck. BeatMax drove the party to where the City Hall was. Police were still swarming the area, and news reporters were everywhere, talking to the police who were investigating the area. The party got out of the truck and walked up to the general in charge of investigating. "Can I help you young lads?" The general asks in a stern, serious voice. "We've come to investigate what happened." BeatMax says in a more serious tone. "Wait...BeatMax, is that you!?" The general took off his sunglasses. It turned out to be Vince, one of Max and BeatMax's close friends. "Vince!? What are you doing here!?" Both BeatMax and Max had their jaws dropped. "Well I got called here for a very important...mission. I work with the police here, mostly helping with investigations. I make sure no one suspicious escapes as well." Vince says with a smile. "Interesting…" Max rubs his chin. "Is there anyway you can let us through?" BeatMax asked again. "Normally it's against the rules...but seeing as how we're friends, I can make an exception." Vince smiles and moves to the side. "Go right ahead, but don't tamper with anything. You know the rules." The party nodded and ran to the scene, looking around. "According to the news reporter, there were 5 explosions inside and 4 underground. Let's look inside and see what happened." Andrew suggested. The party nodded and went inside. There was rubble all over the place, and blood in some of the areas. "Wow...these must've been pretty big bombs. Or very destructive ones." BeatMax thought. He looked into one of the rooms where there was rubble and blood everywhere. "Here must've been where one of the bombs went off. Let's see if I can find some remaining fragments." BeatMax thought, looking high and low and underneath as much rubble as he could. To his surprise, underneath the table were bomb fragments. "I bet the police missed this during their investigation. I should hold on to these and give them to Vince when we're done." BeatMax says to himself, picking up the fragments and putting them in a bag, which he then put into his pocket.
Max looked down the main hallway where there was rubble everywhere, but mysteriously no blood. "That's strange...if this is where one of the explosions was, then why isn't there any blood?" Max thought, lifting up some pieces of rubble. He heard a muffled scream for help underneath the rock next to him. He looked down and saw a body, the face completely smashed against some rubble. "Hang on." Max says, lifting the piece of rubble off of the person. The person stood up, brushing himself off. "Phew...thanks...I never thought I would find anyone in here." The man states, and walks out of the Town Hall to head home. Max tilted his head and sighed. "Another poor soul almost died. It's a good thing I found him." He thought some more.
Andrew looked down every hallway in hopes of finding a clue, but he didn't find any. He shook his head, and as he started to head back, he accidentally slightly stepped on a cell phone. "Did someone lose this?" He thought as he picked it up. Fortunately, the cell phone had no password or fingerprint identification required, so he looked at what was on the phone. He first looked at who the phone belonged to. "David Jackson…" He thought as he continued looking through the phone. He found a voice mail message that was sent just moments after the explosion, so he put the phone to his ear to hear it. "Have you planted the bombs yet? Good. The explosions will happen at around 3:30, so you have to get out of there fast. If you leave any trace of things behind, I will personally rip your head off." The voice mail message ended there. Andrew gasped a bit. "So this guy was with the terrorists…" He thought, putting the phone in a bag and then into his pocket.
Moments later, everyone regrouped outside the City Hall. "Well that investigation was...unexpectedly revealing." BeatMax says, wiping the sweat from his forehead. It was humid inside the City Hall so everyone was sweaty. "Yeah. I found something interesting, but we have to talk to Vince first. He needs to know about what we found." Andrew turned to BeatMax. BeatMax nodded. "Right, let's go see him." The party walked over to where Vince was standing. "Ah, welcome back. Glad to see you made it out alive. So did you find anything new?" Vince asks in a hopeful but serious manner. "Actually...we did." BeatMax says, reaching into his pocket and pulling out some bomb fragments. "I found these underneath some rubble." He hands the bag of bomb fragments to Vince. Vince looked at the fragments, surprised. "No one else could find any...yet you managed to…" Vince shook his head. "Thank you. This will greatly help with our investigation." "I found something even more shocking." Andrew says, pulling out the bag with a cell phone in it. "Hm? A cell phone? What's so shocking about that?" Vince says with a chuckle. "There was a voice mail message recorded moments before the explosion." Andrew says, pulling out the phone and playing the voice mail message on speaker. "Have you planted the bombs yet? Good. The explosions will happen at around 3:30, so you have to get out of there fast. If you leave any trace of things behind, I will personally rip your head off." The voice mail message ended there and we stood and looked at each other for a long while. Vince took the cell phone and put it back in the bag moments later. "Thanks. This phone will potentially give us a lead on who did this." Vince bowed. "No problem. I just wish we could've found more." Andrew looked down, a little upset. "You all found plenty. In fact, by tomorrow, we should have a lead on who did this and why." Vince smiled. "Now go on, enjoy yourselves for the rest of the afternoon." "We will. Thanks Vince." Max and BeatMax said at the same time. The party waved bye at Vince and got into the truck. BeatMax drove everyone back to the apartment, and they got out, sweaty and exhausted. "I think I need a power nap…" Alex sleepily says, collapsing onto the couch. "Yeah...a nap is exactly what everyone needs." BeatMax says, yawning. "Later this evening, we're going to see a movie." BeatMax says before heading back outside and laying on his car hood. Max and Andrew went to their rooms and went to sleep.
2 hours later, there were more sirens going off. BeatMax woke up and yawned, sighing. "More sirens? What happened this time?" BeatMax says as he walks into the apartment. Once again, there was a newscast. "Just now, bombs went off in over 20 schools, causing them to collapse. Over 10,000 people, students and teachers alike, have been reported dead, and 1,000 missing." The newscaster says. We all looked at each other and shook our heads. "Two terrorist attacks in one day. And both were bomb related. I think someone's out to kill the state." BeatMax says with his arms crossed. "That seems to be the case, huh?" Max sighs. A loud banging sound arose on the door, which startled us all. BeatMax goes to answer it, finding the police there. They hold up a search warrant and immediately rush into the house, looking around for anything terrorist related. Vince was standing at the door, guarding and making sure no one got in or out. "Vince, what's going on?" Max asks him. "We received an order to check every house here in this area, by order of the President himself." Vince stood in a serious manner. "Because of what happened just now?" BeatMax rubs his chin. "Yeah. The President said this was very serious, so we can't leave anyone out in this search." Vince says, shaking his head. "It's a shame, really. We have an idea of who's doing it, but we don't know where they came from, nor how they got here." "They probably have underground bases or something. It may sound insane, but it's possible." Andrew crosses his arms. The police rush out of the door, nodding at Vince. "Looks like you guys are clear, though I never really had a doubt." Vince waved. "I'll catch up with you all later." "Alright, later Vince." BeatMax says, closing the door. "Things have begun to get serious here. If anything, we need the cell phone Andrew found to track the terrorists." Alex says while looking out the window. "Admittedly, he's right. Without that cell phone, we can't get any leads of our own. Maybe later we can talk to Vince about borrowing that cell phone." Andrew says, sitting on the couch. "Possibly. It'd only take me a second to track where these guys are." BeatMax nonchalantly states. "Don't get too cocky. We can't just run right at them, they'll have a plan." Max snapped. "I know. Which is why we're gonna do some training!" BeatMax grins, his arms behind his head. "Training? Meh...fine. I guess it can't be that bad." Alex sighs. So the party trained that day, taking breaks occasionally to prevent easy tiring. By the time they were done training, it was dark out. "Phew...what a workout!" Andrew says, throwing himself on the couch. The rest just sat on the floor to rest, when a small knock came to the door. BeatMax stood up and answered the door. To their surprise, it was Vince, and he was holding the cell phone too. "Guys. I have a lead." Vince looked at everyone, noticing they were sweaty and drenched in sweat. "Have you guys been training this whole time?" Vince says with a chuckle. "Yeah. Gotta keep our blood flowing, you know." BeatMax says with a grin. Vince walks in and sits on the floor with the rest of us. Andrew joined us on the floor as we gathered in a mini circle.
"So we traced the voice mail back to its original sender, and needless to say, he's way out of our reach. He's in Germany." Vince says, the cell phone in his hand. "Germany, huh? Wait a second...I think I know something…" BeatMax says, closing his eyes and thinking. He opens his eyes in a flash, grinning. "I just remembered, there have been reports of a terrorist group forming, and they planned to attack America." "If that's true, then they've already started. We have to stop them from hurting America any further." Vince looks at us all. "I...I mean we, need your help. We need you to fly to Germany undercover, find the terrorist group, and take them out." "What's in it for us?" Alex asks, his arms crossed. "Riches beyond what you can imagine." Vince chuckled. "And you'll become best friends with the President." "Eh...well I have to go to Germany anyways. To pick up a friend." BeatMax lays back on the floor. "Perfect. You can pick up your friend and take out the terrorists at the same time." Vince nods. "It's time to start packing, boys. We're going to Germany." BeatMax grins. "Awesome." Andrew responds. "I hope we don't get killed." Max says with a worry sounding tone. "We'll be fine. As long as we're together, we can do anything." Alex smiles. "Right then. Be sure to stay in touch while you're there. I'll have arrangements made for you to stay in a hotel." Vince nods, and leaves the apartment. "Let's get packing fellas." BeatMax says.
So that night was spent packing things they needed up. Max found a way to keep his Monado blade invisible, and Alex found a way to keep his Power Suit in his pocket. Once everyone was done packing, they loaded their things into the truck and got in. BeatMax drove to the airport and sat in the car while everyone was asleep. "So...we're off to Germany. I hope things don't go bad there." He thought as he lay his seat back. He, too, fell asleep, thus ending a rather stressful day. With a big mission on the party's hands, there's no way they can mess this up.
END OF CHAPTER 4