Reboot

The next day, I was awakened by people screaming. I looked out my window, wiped my eyes and saw people running around in all directions. I got dressed fast and rushed out. William and Dutch were running towards my house and stopped in front of me, barring my way. They didn’t look happy. William put his hand on my shoulder.

“A bomb exploded in Harrisburg,” said Dutch, “Twenty-seven people were killed. Sixty-two wounded.”

And there it was. What I had been dreading. The first casualties. Caused by me. It hit me like a fist in the stomach. I bent over and retched.

“Oh no,” was all I could muster. My knees buckled. Dutch and William looked at each other with worried faces. They knew I’d take this hard.

“This was inevitable, Robert. You know this. Mooney will cause more deaths and devastation and he must be stopped. People will die, now, or later,” said William.

“Listen to him Robert. It’s the truth, I’m sure of it also,” added Dutch. It made me feel a bit better; able to walk anyway. So I picked myself up and we headed to the town center, where we knew we’d find the two mayors. There was a crowd there. Stevens and Rather were trying to calm the people down, unsuccessfully. I immediately tried to go up to them. I wanted to speak. I wanted to make it better. But William restrained me.

“You can’t. Not now. If you out yourself now, everyone will know your face and this will all have been for nothing because you’ll be tossed in jail before we can even leave this place.”

Damn, damn, damn….

“And Colby might be there,” added William.

“No. I told Colby everything yesterday. He even predicted something like this. He’s on our side.”

“Well, that’s going to come in handy at some point,” said Dutch.

“Yes.”

Almost immediately a news bulletin came in over the government radio channel saying that Robert Morgan had caused it. It was a terrorist act.