Part 1 - May 22 - Tactical Plans

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After dropping Nancy and the children back off at the dorm for the evening, Carl, Frank, Sam, Don, and Tim drove back to the hospital. Carl pulled the bus up and parked directly in front of the main entrance to the building. The only light in the lobby came from the dim security lamps. They stepped off the bus and walked through the unguarded front doors—unobserved and unhindered. The lobby was deserted, and no one was at the front desk. Sam went one way to search the building while Frank went the other to find someone and gather key people to come to the conference room where they had met earlier that day.

Frank found Denise and told her they needed to speak to as many people as possible. He then returned to the lobby to lead the rest of the group to the conference room.

Dr. Jacob entered the room with six new people. “Good evening, folks. Let me start by introducing Gerald Fuller, our local sheriff, and Gus Alvarez and Jean Burns, his deputies. Then we have Max Willis, Dorothy Silva, and Jeremy Austin—three veterans back from the most recent skirmishes in the Middle East Peace Initiative.” Dr. Jacob waited while the group sat down, and Denise brought in coffee for everyone.

Carl started by asking, “How are the children doing?”

Dr. Jacob frowned. “They appear to be recovering. There weren’t any serious physical injuries, but the emotional trauma may take some time for them to recover from. I’m afraid they will suffer from nightmares and probably flashbacks for quite a while. We’re preparing staff to help the children with their emotional needs. They’ll accompany the children to the campus in a few days.”

Carl introduced his group to the new hospital members. “We didn’t have time to discuss what Sam and Tim found in South Bend when we brought the children in earlier today. I had no idea about this war game until Tim told me about it. For whatever reason, this game apparently is still running even though the WWN has crashed. Most of the members who play this game are teenagers. They have left the building where they were physically hooked up to the game and are wandering the streets destroying the town. They’ve killed at least one elderly person who had survived the internet crash.”

Sheriff Gerald Fuller spoke up. “We’ve had increasing calls around the area about these kids raising hell outside of that game room. We’ve tried to shut it down, but we shut one room down and another one pops up somewhere else. I’ve watched good kids get hooked on this game and transform into completely different personas.”

“Tim probably has more information than anyone else about this game and the kids who are hooked up on it,” Carl commented.

Tim looked around the table, then stammered, “I don’t know that much about the game, but I know the kids who get hooked on it can become violent. I’ve never had an implant,” Tim explained. “So I only know what I’ve heard from other kids at school. I told Sam that we call these kids ‘web-heads,’ and they can be extremely violent. Some of them seem to stay linked even after they leave the game room, and they go around at night searching for neighborhood pets to hunt down and kill. A couple of times they caught some kids who were out just minding their own business and beat the crap out of them. The neighborhood watch was trying to come up with a plan with the local police to stop these kids from terrorizing the whole town.” The group sat silently, digesting this information.

“Tim, I’m curious, why don’t you have implants?” Dr. Jacob asked.

“My mom didn’t like what she was seeing going on with some kids on the net and was convinced that all the violence and sex was because of the implants. I had planned to get an implant once I graduated. Let me tell you, not having one has made it hard to keep up with school. I couldn’t imagine going to college without one,” Tim explained. “But now, if it hadn’t been for my mom being so old-fashioned and ultra-careful, I’d be like everyone else in my class.”

When Sam and Tim had answered all the questions of the people gathered at the conference table, Carl spoke up. “There are three shopping carts full of firearms I brought here. I’d suggest that you put together a team that can protect this building and set up lookouts just in case some of those kids decide to come here.” He paused to let the idea register. “We just walked in the front door. No lookout, door wide open. You need to take this threat seriously—at least until we find out what is going on.”

Sheriff Gerald Fuller spoke up. “I’ll organize a security team for this building and post guards. We’ve already checked the rest of the stores in the area for guns and ammunition, and I’ve done what I can to prevent anyone from getting their hands on weapons here in town. We were planning to go out and check the towns around us to find children and anyone else who may have survived. I’m afraid we also need to create a safe buffer zone around us for our own survival.”

“I’d like to try to bring some of those teens into the hospital and see if we can disconnect them,” Dr. Jacob suggested.

“I’m not sure how we would do that,” Sam answered. “They’re running in a pack, like wolves. From what we observed, they can be extremely hostile. There seemed to be a leader, and as far as I could see, the rest of the group followed willingly.”

“If we get a team together and corner them in a building, maybe we could tranquilize them,” Gerald suggested.

Carl spoke up. “First, I think we need to send in a team to survey the situation and get an accurate count of how large that group is and how organized they are.” He looked at Sheriff Fuller for agreement.

“We only saw this group from a distance of about two blocks away, and we didn’t stick around any longer than necessary,” Sam told the group. “I don’t know how many, or if there are multiple groups. The girl Emily would be our best source for information at the moment; then we might be able to get a handle on what we would face going in there.”

Dr. Jacob turned to one of the others. “Have Denise bring the young lady here.” He glanced at Sam. “Did you say Emily?” he asked. Sam nodded. “Ask Emily if she feels up to coming down and telling us anything she can.” Denise nodded and left the room.

“I can get tranquilizer rifles from the bio-center on campus,” Sam stated. “I’ll need you to prescribe the type of tranquilizer to be used and the dosage needed per pound,” he said to Dr. Jacob. “I don’t want to go in there alone, though.”

“You won’t go in alone,” Carl stated. “We’ll put together a team to reconnoiter the situation. I would suggest we send in a small group first, just to gather information before we make any further plans.” Carl looked at Sam. “I know how you feel about killing anything, but you may not have time to calculate dosage to take someone down.”

Denise returned with Emily and introduced her to everyone. Dr. Jacob stood and protectively led the girl to a seat next to him. He patted her hand. “Emily, we need to ask you some questions about the situation in South Bend. The group here is considering sending a security team in to assess what can be done about those teenagers and maybe capture and disconnect them from that game.”

“I’ll tell you everything I can,” she stated flatly. “Will I have to go back with the team?” Fright was etched on her face.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Dr. Jacob assured her. “But we do need to know as much as possible. We’re very concerned about those teens leaving that town and coming here or going to the campus.”

Emily looked shyly around the table at the adults. Then, gathering her courage, she raised her chin and, in a shaking voice, said, “What do you need to know?”

Carl stated, “As much information as you can. Anything. First, how many kids are hooked up to that game? Do they stay in one specific building? Is there a leader? Anything you can tell us could be helpful.”

“They usually stayed mostly in the Game Room—that’s a store where they purchase the apps and play that game,” she said. “They hook up directly to the game ports. But now they are coming out and running around town. This week was a big deal because there was a big competition. The game room was full. I think they even turned up the signal.”

“How do they hook up to a game if the entire net is down?” Gerald asked.

“The game runs off its own separate line, I think,” Emily explained. “They all have an extra port to plug into the game. I think some of the stuff that goes on isn’t exactly legal.”

“Humph!” Gerald grunted. “I can guarantee that quite a bit of what goes on in there is not quite legal.”

“That might explain why they were not affected by the net crash,” one of the others said. “If that game runs off a dedicated signal, they may not have been linked to the WWN when it went down.”

“That’s why Amy and I didn’t crash. We were linked into our DCIR when the net went down,” Geoff said.

“I have to wonder what is going on in other towns and cities. Is South Bend the only town where this game is located?” Dr. Jacob asked.

“I was planning to go down to Stone Ridge next, to find survivors,” Sam stated. “I think it’s even more important now to get out as fast as possible. If this is going on in other towns, we have to get out there soon and find the children and get them out of there.”

“If you go to Stone Ridge, I’ll go with you,” Emily said. “My grandmother…” Emily paused. “…lived there.” She stared at the tabletop.

Carl broke the silence finally. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” he said, not wanting to get into an argument with the emotionally unsettled girl at this time.

“We were planning to set up medical satellite stations in Pine Ridge and South Bend to attempt to revive people. I’m afraid we have a very slim window of time left—about another 24 hours before the victims reach the point of no return,” Dr. Jacob stated. “If we’re to have any chance of reviving anyone, we need to get in there soon.”

Carl turned to Gerald Fuller and Gus Alvarez and asked, “Besides you two, does anyone else have any police or military training?”

“I’ll have a list made up,” Gerald said.

Carl stood up from the table. “I’d like to go to the police station to organize the equipment we just brought in. I’ll need to train someone besides me to fuel and drive the bus. And if anyone has any ideas on how to get those damn solar cars running, we could use any additional transportation we can get.” He stood to leave, and Sam followed his lead. “Bring any other volunteers to the station as soon as they are identified.