The Green Flash

I rowed back across the strait from Joanne’s Island and thankfully further away from her guard bull, Henry. However, I wasn’t leaving for a better conversation. John is going to be extremely upset that I’ve been lying to him just so I could go see Joanne. Hopefully, he’ll understand.

John was sitting on the perimeter fence when I walked up to the barn. “Hi, John. What have you been up to?”

“Oh, I was just thinking about that spot you told me about. You know the one where you could see the entire valley?”

“Yeah, the vista. Are you going to watch the sunset tonight?”

“Well, I might do that, but I was up there this morning. It is awfully dark before the sun crests the mountains.” John said in an eerie, monotone voice.

“Um, OK…why…why were you up there before sunrise?” I can’t believe I’m stammering. Why I am so nervous around John.

“Well, I heard something and got up, but you weren’t there. I checked outside to see if you were patrolling or getting a breath of air. I was worried when I didn’t find you. I thought you might be in trouble so to get a better view of the area; I went up to the vista. Without sunlight, it is useless…unless you use your mech suit and its sensors. It helped to ensure I was safe from any predators but also allowed me to scan the valley.”

“Um OK. Anything interesting up there at night?” John was freaking me out.

“A lot of owls and other nocturnal creatures. I did detect a couple of things in the lake. One small and one very large. What was interesting was that at some point, the small one emitted a very bright light. It was a sniper’s dream target. But when the small source emitted that bright light, the larger source moved away from the small source.” I realized that the large source must have been the beast that Joanne had spoken of over breakfast. Was I lucky that I turned my flashlight on at the right moment? Did that scare away the beast? “You know, unless Joanne, Pete, or Alice have some tech we don’t know about, there is only one other source in the community that could make that light.” John stated, interrupting my thoughts.

“Ok, it was me. I went over to see Joanne. Ever since we met at the Ice House, I’ve been in love with her. Wait, you knew I was going to be away early this morning. Why would you be worried about me being gone?” Well, that’s one way to change the subject. Maybe he’ll gloss over the Joanne thing.

“You’re right. You said you were going to going to find a morning vista. So did you find one?” John said giving a smirk that meant he was referring to Joanne.

“Well, in a way. Guarded by an angry bull though. I don’t think it would be a good place to watch the morning sunrise. I was pretty much running away the whole time.”

“Running away? Your mech suit could have handled it!”

“First, you know mech suits and animals don’t mix. The animals always seem to find a weakness. Second, Henry was Joanne’s bull and that wouldn’t have worked well for me now, would it?”

“You’re right. You are right. Animals do seem to find mech suits weaknesses and a bull would have just destroyed everything. So was Joanne receptive of your approach?” John asked

“At first no. After I jumped a fence to get away from Henry, she was behind me with a weapon. I didn’t know they had the modern weapons, but I knew to put my hands up.”

“Smart move and then?” John was really pushing for the blow by blow of my morning with Joanne. Fine! I’ll tell him.

“Well, she made me work for breakfast. I had to learn to milk a cow. I also had to do the dishes afterwards. We did have an interesting conversation about growing the community. Bottom line is she likes me.” I gloated a little with that last statement. I didn’t want to tell John what Joanne had said about him.

“Ok. So, what are the next steps?” John responded flatly.

“Well, Joanne said that we would have to discuss it with Alice, Pete, and…and you.” I stated dejectedly. I realized that John could put a monkey wrench in my relationship with Joanne. Alice would be fine, and I think I could easily win over Pete but John? I’ve been with him a long time and I know him. He holds grudges and has never been lucky when it came to women.

“Ok. When do we meet to discuss this?” John asked surprisingly upbeat and way out of character.

“Um, I guess at the next community meeting. I don’t know anything else except she said she wanted to get to know me and get the community approval.”

“Well, the next scheduled meeting would be the next Friday. They said they have a meeting once a month on Fridays. We can go into town then and enjoy some company.” John was beaming. Why was he so enthused suddenly? What angle was he working? “Come on, let’s get back to the mine.” John led the way to the underground storage of the Pickfords gold stash. The Pickfords had built an elaborate tunnel system under the old barn and every tunnel had gold stacked up. They had created gold coins to be able to carry and use them easier but now, to avoid detection from other treasure hunters, John and I had to smelt the gold back down so no one would know that the legendary treasure had been found. I think John was losing his grip on reality under the influence of the gold. Technically it was half mine, but I’d trade it away if I started to act like John. While the gold was great, John and I were looking for paperwork describing the process that the Pickfords had used to get all this gold. They had been able to recycle electronic equipment and other parts that had precious metals and generate the gold, platinum, silver, etc. If we could find that process, it would allow us to harvest any of the old electronics and other equipment before the start of the never-ending war.

“Ok, John, we’ve smelted enough today. I’m going to sunset vista and watch the sun go down. You can come if you want.”

“Ok, that sounds like a good idea. It would be nice to just relax.” Hmmm, a relaxed John. I don’t think I’ve ever seen John truly relaxed. We gathered up some chow since it would be dark when we returned. We locked everything up and headed out. The vista wasn’t that far away, and we settled into the little lea, John was truly relaxing as we ate our meal and took in the natural beauty of this area. It was so green, the air was pure, and the lake was shimmering in golden light from the setting sun. We watched the sun sink below the horizon and just before it dipped behind the last mountain, there was a green flash of light. We were packing up our dinner when suddenly I was enveloped in my mech suit. Red alert lights and blaring tones warned of an incoming foe. I looked over to see John was wrapped as well. I checked the scanners and found what set the suits off. A large force was moving towards the town. “How do you want to proceed?” John asked over the comm.

“Let’s check their weapons!” I yelled as we scanned the incoming force. Modern weapons but no mech suits or heavier units. “Should we just see what they want?”

“That sounds good. We don’t want to slaughter people just moving through. My scans don’t show any thing other than hand weapons.”

“Yeah, my scans concur. What if this is a scouting force though? Let’s switch to camouflage mode and listen as they go by.”

“Agreed.” John stated as our suits blended into the surrounding area. We moved to quickly intercept the force and to try to gain some intel.

“Why are we out here?” Grumbled one of the soldiers.

“Because we are trying to flush out their security and see what they have.” Barked the guy that seemed to be in charge.

“So, we’re bait.” Complained the first solider.

“Look, if they attack, our guys will fly over and take them out.” Comforted the sergeant…yeah sergeant is what I’m going to call him.

“Take them out with what? Our air support is a couple of guys in hang gliders with guns. If we run into a survivalist army or worse a warlord, we’re done for.”

“John, you getting this? Should we go airborne and check for anything else?” I asked

“Good idea. You stay with these guys. I’ll take flight. Jam their communications so they can’t warn anyone or be warned.” John ordered as his mech suit flew into the air. Well, the suits don’t fly but they can jump very high and hover long enough for the sensors to scan a bigger area. I hit a couple of buttons and jammed all radio traffic except for the one channel John and I were using. “Mike, hang out here. I spotted more troops. I’ll be right back.”

“Roger.” I responded as I kept watch over the scouting troops. Their radioman was noticing that he couldn’t use his equipment.

“Hey! This equipment isn’t working. I haven’t heard from the others.”

“Just keep trying. We don’t have the best equipment, so it probably needs a smack or two to start working again.” Advised the sergeant. Well, I knew these guys weren’t elite military. They didn’t even suspect jamming.

“Take them out Mike.” The comm crackled with John’s voice.

“Roger that.” I acknowledge as I initiated a wide area shock wave. The troops were instantly incapacitated, dropping their weapons as their hearts were stopped by the electricity. John arrived on scene just as the last one gasped his last breath. “What did you find?” I asked John.

“Well, there was a much larger force behind them. About triple in size. But behind them was a real force. They had mechs, artillery, and tanks. They had heard of the legendary gold and were going to scorch the entire area to find it. I heard one of the leaders said they lived in this area before. Joseph was his name. We’ll ask the community about him. None of them were real soldiers and it showed when I attacked the hardware. We’ll have to clear out all of that. The wolves should have a good meal tonight.” The lights in our suits turned from red to green. There were no immediate threats in the area. We moved the mech suits, the artillery units, and tanks over to the Pickfords’ mansion. It was remote and hidden so a good place that wouldn’t arouse suspicion.

I hope Joanne doesn’t frown upon this. I think Pete will be OK, but Alice will be worried and she’s Joanne’s best friend. Well, I will have to see when we all meet again…next Friday. “Mike, we need to report this to the community asap.” John said over the comm, “Let’s get over to the Ice House and let them know.” Ok, not next Friday, today! I had butterflies in my stomach at the thought of informing Joanne that I just took out a patrol and John took out an even bigger force. We stayed in our mech suits as we approached the Ice House. Alice and Pete came out along with Joanne. Alice had the look of fear as we approached. Pete looked worried that we were there in our suits at night. I looked at Joanne. She seemed…nonchalant? How is she so cool with this? I guess I’ll find out when we talk.