Reboot

Oliver had asked us to gather the mushrooms we all liked so much for the next meeting. So I went off with François on a sweaty afternoon for a mushroom hunt. I knew where to go, it was about one kilometer from the camp.

“How’s Evelyne doing, Franky?

“She’s fine. You know. Getting better. We all are. But did you know that some people

are getting restless. They’re talking about rebuilding one of the boats that are fixable.”

“Makes sense, I guess. I can’t blame…” We heard a gunshot. A gunshot? We both

looked at each other with alarmed expressions for a few seconds, wordlessly asking what it could mean, then simultaneously dropped everything and started running back faster and faster without having said a word.

As we were running through the bush, we heard another shot, which was really weird because we had decided to horde our bullets, to keep them for emergencies. And all guns were accounted for and controlled by the defense committee, so it wasn’t someone hunting. It was either a signal, or something bad was going on. And since our signal was the bell, there was only one last possibility.

Once we got there, we hid breathless behind a bush to see what was happening. François was very excited and made too much noise.

“Shhh.. Let’s try and figure this out before we rush in there.” I was holding him back.

“That’s my wife over there, Robert. I have to go get her,” he said.

“Of course, I know, but please, let’s check it out first.” And he calmed down a bit. I was trying to catch my breath, so was François. I could see three soldiers, guns up and ready, herding everyone in the new hall. Then two more appeared coming out of some of the huts. Then one more pushing Evelyn towards the hall. Our friends were obviously very scared. François almost jumped out, completely out of control. I held him back.

“Just wait a bit. Just wait…They won’t hurt her. Come on, look at these guys--”

“They”, were clearly professional soldiers, ours. Not pirates, which had been my first conclusion. This was an American SEAL team or marines. Either way, they dressed the part. Digital tropical camouflage, bulging pockets everywhere, sunglasses, rolled up sleeves showing steely muscles, tattoos, fancy guns and cute little hats. So for a minute I was relieved. I thought there must be a mistake and everything would be worked out. But something was off. Why would a SEAL team corral a bunch of regular people who were just trying to survive? What could they possibly think we had done? Especially now. The cost of such a mission now must be astronomical. So best to wait and see for a bit.

I could tell that many of our people were missing, probably working at the seed farm or on some rebuilding project all over the island.

The leader of the group took center stage in the middle of the camp just in front of the hall.

“I’ll go, ok? It’s obviously some misunderstanding. They must think we’re criminals or something,” I told François. He nodded, too shocked to argue.

I was just about to stand up when:

“Robert Morgan!!!”

“We are looking for Robert Morgan!” I looked at François, harried, suddenly completely confused, frozen.

“Me? Me? What??? Did he say my name? That was my name, right?”

François just nodded dully, lost.

I stopped dead in my tracks, utterly stunned. Why would anyone be looking for me? And anyway how did they find me? How did they know I was here? I was still trying to figure this out when the leader shot Mr. Bouvier who had just arrived a few days earlier.

Shot him in the back of the head.

The people in the hall froze, breathless. Two seconds later, women started to scream and panic was about to set in. A quick machine gun burst silenced them and just a few quiet squeals and soft crying remained. One of the SEAL’s went over to talk to the guy who had done the shooting. The shooter was the leader. It looked to me like the one doing the talking was trying to calm things down. The leader shrugged him off.

“I don’t have time for this shit,” he yelled at his subordinate.

“Robert Morgan! This is lieutenant Skinner of the US Navy. Come out now or I will shoot one more person every minute!”

I considered all options for about ten seconds. This was very wrong. What kind of SEAL team executed innocents like that? Even if I ran off, how long could I hide from them? Besides, it was clearly a mistake and they’d soon figure that out, right? It had to be. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Anyway, there was no other choice to make. I couldn’t risk any more lives no matter what.

I stood up and started making my way towards the hall when I was suddenly pulled back on the ground with a rough hand over my mouth. It was William.

“You can’t go yet. We have to know why you’re so important that they’d travel all this way during this war to come after you. There is something very strange going on and if you go now, we may never know what it’s about,” he whispered. I struggled, but not very strongly. I didn’t want to be the cause of more deaths, but I also knew he was right.

“Trust me,” he said calmly. “How did they know your name, Robert? How do they know you’re even here?”

The air wooshed out of me. I crumpled to the ground, shaking like a leaf. This was all a bit much. He gave me three seconds to get my nerve back and then he led me and François back twenty meters to where Mack, Bob, and a couple of others were waiting.

“I need a diversion,” William said. “Actually, I need two. Mack and Bob, both of you go to the other side of the camp and make some noise. You must attract at least two of the soldiers and take them as far away from here as possible. OK?”

They both nodded.

“Go! Now, now, now. You have twenty seconds.” William was calm, spoke softly, but sternly.

We watched them head to the other side of the compound through the woods.

William then looked right at me. Very close. Right into my eyes. He wanted me to focus.

“When the soldiers have gone after them, you have to give yourself up. I think we’ll have a few seconds to surprise them, ok? Look at me Robert. Those guys are SEAL’s. They’re carrying FN SCAR rifles, very high-end stuff, but they appear to be a new team, untested together. We have to split them up. Then we have a chance. These guys want you bad and are very serious. Do you understand?” I nodded. Took a deep breath. Tried to keep it together. This was insane. We had to fight our way out. I could not be the reason for more deaths and William was my only hope. I trusted him completely. With my life.

William grabbed me by the neck and shook me a bit to get the circulation going again upwards. I suppose I must’ve looked pretty pale. He slapped me in the face - hard enough to make me angry - then he took off.

After twenty-five seconds, just as Skinner was about to start speaking again, we heard banging sounds and yelling “I’m here, I’m here..” from the far end of the camp. Mack and Bob were beating cookware together and screaming.

Skinner sent two guys after them. They disappeared into the forest. Everything went quiet for a few seconds. Skinner walked into the hall and grabbed Mrs. Berlin. I don’t think he was fooled. He knew it was probably a diversion. A seal team leader would know this.

“Ten seconds, Morgan! And I shoot this lady. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4…” I stood up. “ok, ok.. You.. you have the wrong guy you know. You can’t possibly be looking for me.” A relieved Mrs. Berlin was allowed to go back to the hall.

As I walked toward Skinner and his two SEAL’s with my hands up, I saw that there was one guy watching the hall. I didn’t know where William was, but more importantly, none of the men I had trusted with the weapons’ hiding places were in the hall. Our defense plan was doomed before it had even started. Didn’t matter anyway. I don’t think we could have beaten these guys. Pirates maybe, an organized seal team was something else altogether.

The afternoon didn’t bode well.

“You’re Robert Morgan?” He looked a bit disappointed, as if he’d been expecting someone more threatening. He looked at his lieutenant and said, “He’s just a kid”. The other one nodded.

“Yes. There must be some mistake.” I agreed while giving him my best straight kid look. And it was true anyway. I didn’t have to fake it. But there is a funny double bluff that goes on when you push a true story. You’re afraid of looking like a liar, so you end up looking like a liar.

“Well, son, we’ll see about that. ” He said with a stubbly smile. He holstered his gun, which I took as an insult, and then he came towards me. This guy had “mean” sweating out of him. A Comic book bad guy with a big chin, Klingon forehead, crew cut and a scar over his right eye, which was sleepy half-closed. This was a man who enjoyed the sounds of breaking bones and little girls screaming.

The people in the hall were milling around, scared. I squinted because he scared the crap out of me. It was hard to stare back at him, but I tried valiantly. I looked at his scar.

“Where’s your computer?” He grunted. Sounded like a bear with cigarette throat. Like my aunt actually. I had an aunt who sounded just like that. She had lots of cats.

“My computer? It’s on the boat. What’s left of it anyway. What do you want with my computer?” Then we heard a sound. We both turned towards it simultaneously. It was a sort of crack or dull thud, like the sound of a very large knuckle popping, followed by gurgling sound and a squeak. It came from the Hall. The people there were staring ahead, scared, not moving, not making a sound. It was normal of course to be afraid, but they were oddly immobile. Something had changed. What was… Then I saw it.

The soldier who was watching them was gone. At first I’d thought he was behind them but no, it couldn’t be. He would have to be visible to his commander at all times.

Skinner sent his two boys over for a look. He kept looking at me but was getting a bit less cocky. His weight shifted from one leg to the other, his gun came back out, he licked his lips. There was an unknown element suddenly and he hadn’t been prepared for that. This was supposed to be a walk in the park.

As the two soldiers looked around in the hall, William sent a knife flying and hit Skinner in the neck. At first I was afraid it had bounced off. It was a thick neck. When Skinner’s eyes rolled back into his head as he was falling down, I figured it hadn’t bounced off. First, take out the guy in charge I guess, it gives you a couple of extra seconds while the others switch roles.

The two guys who had been investigating the hall ran back while taking aim at me; they thought I’d done it, but there was doubt. I hadn’t moved. My hands were up. They hesitated. William dropped right on top of them. He’d jumped on the roof of the new hall after taking out the guard. In one swooping motion on his way down, he hit one of them in the back of the neck so hard we heard a sound like a bat hitting a baseball. That man dropped to the ground. Twitched once, made a noise like when you cook a lobster and I was pretty sure he was dead. I hadn’t had much experience with that. Just movies. Yet, clearly, twitching is a sign that not all is well. The other man got an extra half-second to move out of the way and used it. He backed away while raising his rifle, but William dove at him in time to push the gun downward and deflect the shot that hit the ground. The noise was surprisingly loud. William took hold of the rifle by the dangerous end and very carefully used his momentum to hit the soldier with the butt of his own rifle under his chin. He hit him twice with it but it wasn’t enough. It was amazing. How could anyone take that and still be standing. The man was tough. He shook his head once and rebounded, seemingly unfazed. Quick and smooth, he made no sound, made no grimaces, just deadly serious. After a blur of punches, William was dazed by a direct uppercut and fell to his knees. He wasn’t out though. Somehow, the seal had taken two hits on the chin, quickly shaken that off, sidestepped and moved within William’s perimeter, then laid in with a horrible hook that would have killed a rhino. But William was still awake.

I’d never seen this kind of thing before. I was a statue, completely paralyzed. My life depended on William. If he failed, I died. That was clear. And I didn’t even know why. But I couldn’t move. I was in shock. This was all because of me somehow?

The SEAL went for the gun that had fallen down, but luckily, others weren’t as frozen as I was, ten people were on him immediately pounding away, biting, pulling his hair. Even Mrs. Berlin went at him. She grabbed the man by his feet and he fell down, hit his head on a rock and passed out. He’d forgotten that no one was watching the group in the hall and paid the price for it. I woke up finally and went to see William. He was a bit dazed, but five seconds later he was fine. He started to say something: “We have to hurry…”

“BANG!”

Another shot rang off. Everyone turned to see the other two soldiers who had come back from chasing after Bob and Francois. They’d figured out the diversion ploy too soon and come back. Probably when they heard the shots. Bad timing. One of them had shot at the sky, the other stood behind him, alert, looking everywhere.

“Everyone back in the hall…except you two,” said one of the soldiers as he pointed his berretta at William and me. They checked on the soldier on the ground. He was dead. The rock his head had hit was pointy and it had caved in his cranium just behind the ear. Our people went back into the hall. Only two SEAL’s left. But they had the upper hand and we were done. “Both of you kneel down.” It was clear that they were going to kill us. They’d come all this way, during a nuclear war just to get me. And it had something to do with my computer.

I looked at William and nodded my head to say thank you, I had tears in my eyes. I was angry more than anything. To die like this without knowing why.

He nodded back with a solemn smile and then we both looked at the soldier.

If you fall out of an airplane, you keep hoping for a miracle all the way down. There’s always hope. You might hit a tree just right. Some people have even fallen flat on the ground when their parachute failed to open and still managed to survive. So there’s always hope. I was looking around frantically for that miracle. Maybe François and Bob could do something. There were a few people in the forest. Maybe..

He slowly raised his gun in my direction, smiled, and “BANG!” I blinked. Kept my eyes closed. Strange, it didn’t hurt. It’s supposed to hurt, surely.

The seal looked perplexed for a moment, looked at his gun as if wondering why there had been a shot when he hadn’t fired. And then he dropped to the ground. He was dead before his knees buckled.

Standing behind him was the last soldier, my miracle, his gun smoking. He was the one who had talked to the leader after he’d shot Mr. Bouvier. He walked towards me with a serious look on his face and I flinched. This was all just a bit much for me. Then he changed completely. His face brightened up.

“Hi, my name’s Dutch,” he said happily. “Master chief petty officer on the USS Independence. Nice to meet you Mr. Morgan,” he said with a big smile as he helped me up. I was very relieved that I hadn’t stained my pants, which was a miracle in itself. I wobbled.

“Woa there son, you’ll be fine. Just take a few deep breaths.” Then he did the same to William. What the hell was he smiling about…

“Lieutenant William Hawksworth. Pleasantly surprised to meet you Dutch.” That’s when I fainted I think. I woke up a few moments later staring into William’s face. Dutch was behind him.

“You ok?” asked William.

“Do I look ok?”

“Not really.”

“He’s fine,” said Dutch.

“No. No. I don’t think so,” I replied thickly. My mouth was dry and gummy. I tasted metal.

“Aah. Look, the color’s coming back,” said Dutch. William pulled me up, smiled and gently slapped me in the face again. That one didn’t hurt one bit though. Felt very nice actually. I got my wits back.

“Lieutenant?” I asked William? William smiled and nodded.

Dutch continued, “I’ve been waiting for a chance to get out of this bit o’ nonsense. Thanks for providing it. As you can guess, I wasn’t privy to the details of the mission, but I think they were going to kill you and your friend here. At least.” He had a lilting singsong way of talking. Up and down. He was obviously Irish, with a twinge of Boston tossed in.

“WHAT? Why?” I asked. I could not believe or understand what was happening.

“Because of you Robert. Because of what you know,” said Dutch. William was studying me very closely.

I twitched and looked back and forth between William and Dutch nervously. Dutch even seemed to be enjoying himself.

“You don’t think I... Hey, I don’t know anything about anything. What am I supposed to know Dutch?” He shrugged.

“They didn’t tell me, Robert. All I know is this: they sent a valuable team supported by one of our last available ships half way around the world to take you out. They made it clear that you were a threat. You had information that was deadly. You know something. I realized soon enough that it was a lie. You’re about as threatening as a.. well as this guy here is (pointing to the dead guy). Um, nothing personal.” I crinkled my eyes. Frowned. Nodded.

“Did you go to the other island? Where I was before? The vacation village in Tahiti? I asked, worried. “You didn’t …”

“No,” he said. “We went there, but it was clear that they weren’t a problem. They barely remembered you, so Skinner here (he pointed to the dead guy with a knife in his neck) decided to just keep looking for you. Which took a while by the way. You were supposed to go to the Philippines.” He said with mock anger.

“I know, I know.. the bombs went off, and I thought this would make a better choice.” I said. “What do you mean they barely remembered me?” I was hurt.

“That’s what we figured. This was the only reasonable choice after the inhabited places, but we didn’t find your schooner, so we kept looking. We did quite a few islands. That’s why it took us so damn long,” he said. I raised my eyebrows and felt really sad. Didn’t know what else to say.

William defused. “All right, let’s move on, we have more important things to take care of now, we’ll take care of Mrs. Berlin, she’s hurt, we’ll take a break and then we’ll figure this out. Dutch, will they send someone else? He pointed at one of the dead soldiers as he said this.

“Probably. Certainly. But we have time. Resources are scarce, communications sketchy. A few weeks at least.” He answered.

“I mean from your ship. Will someone else come for us from your ship?” William sighed.

“I was well liked on that island. Had tons o friends. I did them all kinds of favors...” I mumbled. Pissed off. Dutch ignored me. “Ah yes. Um, no. Don’t think so. We came on the USS Independence as I said. Minimal complement of fifteen plus mission team, and helos. Usually a hundred or so, but they stripped it down to the bare minimum because there’s so few of us left. So, no, not enough personnel for extra missions. Just enough people to keep the boat moving. So you have fourteen more guys to deal with,” continued Dutch.

“Fourteen?” I asked. “Why not fifteen less this bunch?”

“I belong with the ship. This (he pointed at the dead guys) is the extra team, on a classified mission, which we now know all about. They needed an extra guy so that was me. I know three on the boat who will stick with me no matter what. The others I don’t know. But they won’t come here; it’s not in their job description. I think that after we tell them what the actual plan was here, they’ll listen to reason. We have a radio check in thirty minutes. I’ll tell them mission’s accomplished and that we need twenty-four hours to check out the island. How’s that?”

“Sounds good. Better make it forty-eight hours though. We need some time,” said William. Then, after a breath or two,“Helos?”

“Yes. MH-60 Seahawks. Only one though. I’m the pilot.” He said happily, both hands pointing to his chest. Then he got more serious.

“We have very little left. All ports were hit, many groups were hit with tacticals in the water. Navy’s destroyed. All navies. Because of those new robot-torpedoes. Those damn things can be launched from anywhere. Only boats left are the smaller craft that could hide in shallow waters. But soon we’ll run out of fuel anyway.”

“That’s what happened to me,” said William. Stupefied expressions all around. We waited for it.

“Our ship was destroyed,” he continued.

“Your ship was destroyed? What kind of ship was it? How…?” I asked.

“USS Bunker Hill. A Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser.”

“Yep. I know that boat. Um very well actually,” said Dutch. He looked distraught suddenly, as if something pained him.

“Don’t’ tell me. It was you?” William was angry.

“No, but I heard about it. There was an all out alert for the Bunker Hill. It was said to be renegade and was to be hunted down and destroyed. You were probably hit by one of our own robot-torpedoes. They can be sent from any port back home, as you know. I’m sorry William.”

“I know. A crew of two hundred. All lost except for me.” He paused. This was difficult for him. I immediately understood why he’d been so cagey. He Hadn’t wanted to talk about it. It was too painful. “We were hit by one of our own? Torpedoed. It made no sense. It’s impossible. Right, Dutch? Our torpedoes are programmed to avoid US Navy boats. They’re supposed to self-destruct before causing harm to our own. That means someone had to reprogram the things to hunt us down. Damn. We were targeted for assassination. Quite a few of us managed to jump off, but I guess the others drowned.”

Dutch moved closer to him and patted him on the back. He took a few seconds. The he stood up and faced the crowd of people in the hall as Mack and Jameson came back.

“PEOPLE! Calm down, we’re safe now. Please take two hours to get yourselves together and come back for an emergency meeting. We’ll explain everything.”

I said, “We’ll explain what?”

“Get your computer!” he answered.

“Ah. Of course.” I went off to get it from my tree house.

I took Mack with me. Didn’t want to be alone and I wanted to make sure I didn’t drop the computer. It was suddenly much more important than I’d thought and I was still very shaky. On the way there I said: “Mack we gotta go. We have to leave this place.”

“I know you have to go,” he said sadly, “but I think many of the others will stay, don’t you? They’re used to this life by now. They know how to survive out here.”

“But it might be dangerous. Other soldiers might come,” I said.

“Well, let’s see what William says. He’s very sensible. I’m curious to see what we’ll find in that computer of yours though.”

“Yeah. No kidding.” He patted me on the back because he saw the pained expression on my face. I felt awful. This was somehow all my fault.

When I got back, Dutch was talking to William.

“We have to leave,” said Dutch. “All of us. If these people come back, everyone here is in danger. They’ve clearly shown that they are willing to do anything to get their hands on you, Robert.”

“I guess we’ll find the answer in here,” I said, pointing at my computer.