Temporary what? Hospital?
He squinted to focus and turned his stiff neck. Beside every door—and there were a dozen or so—beside each one was a national guardsman in green uniform, helmeted, and carrying an assault rifle.
Some hospital.
He fumbled for his phone, but he was in a hospital robe, underpants and socks, which meant his street clothes and phone were back at whatever hospital had done whatever they’d done . . .
“What is going on?” he muttered, getting no response. So he looked left and right and decided the best target for conversation would be the woman seated in the row behind and left.
“Excuse me,” he said through a parched mouth. “Do you know what’s going on?”
The woman had gray hair cut short, was small, compact, and full of nervous energy, like a clever sparrow. “The explosion,” the woman said.
“What explosion?”
The woman glanced over her shoulder like they were in fifth grade and she was worried the teacher might hear her gossiping. “One of those meteors. The alien ones. I heard the major—I think he’s in charge here—talking about it. One of those alien rocks was heading for the city, so they nuked it. I guess they saved the city by breaking it up, maybe, but we still got hit by a lot of stuff. Smaller pieces. I live on West Forty-Ninth and it’s burning.”
Markovic nodded. “Thanks.”
“They said we’re here for our own safety,” the woman said, reluctant to relapse into silence.
But Markovic was already on to considering the possibilities. He could just get up and walk out. He was in pain, but the serious wound in his chest had been sutured and, well, whatever had been done with his hand. Presumably he was not in imminent danger of death. And he’d be a lot more comfortable at home than here.
But could he leave? That was the question. He took a moment to observe, twisting painfully this way and that. He saw two different people attempt to exit, and both times be sent back to their seat by a guardsman.
So, not a hospital: a holding cell, a temporary jail. They were prisoners. More importantly, he was a prisoner.
“Why hold us prisoner?” he wondered aloud.
The answer was not long in coming to him. They had all been struck by shrapnel from the meteorite. And by now everyone knew the possible consequences of exposure to the rock.
“They’re isolating us,” he muttered under his breath.
“Dad?”
“Simone?” There she was, standing right before him. “Oh God, baby, I’m so glad you’re okay.” The word “okay” died on his lips as he realized that she had been peppered with shrapnel as well, that her body was a series of leaking bandages. Her face looked like she’d tried to shave during an earthquake.
Simone made a half-hearted effort to hug him, but stopped when she realized the pain it would cause them both. She lowered herself gingerly into the seat beside him.
“What are they going to do with us?” Simone demanded.
Markovic shrugged and winced at the movement, which sent pain stabbing up his neck. “I don’t know, but I’m calling Cowan.” Cowan was Markovic’s lawyer.
“They took everyone’s phones. I don’t think they’ll let you call,” Simone said.
“The hell they won’t,” Markovic snapped. He stood up, fighting crashing waves of headache and nausea, and steadied himself with a hand on Simone’s shoulder. He looked around imperiously, decided he should go straight to the top, and weaved his tottering way up the aisle to the main doors where a National Guard major stood, surrounded by junior officers.
Simone followed him. She didn’t approve of her father, but he was still her father, and the truth was he generally got his way: no one was better at bullying underlings than Bob Markovic.
“Major, a word,” Markovic said.
The major was a middle-aged man with blond hair cut so short he appeared bald from a distance, a fleshy nose, and a body as fit as a fifty-year-old man whose real full-time job was managing a branch office for a mortgage broker was likely to be.
“Sir, you need to take a seat,” the major said.
“Actually, major, I don’t take orders from you. See, you’re a National Guard toy soldier, and I’m Bob Markovic. If that name doesn’t mean anything to you, I assure you it means a great deal to the mayor, the governor, and all the congresspeople and senators you could name. So—”
“Sir. I’m very busy. We have an emergency situation here. So please take your seat.”
“I will not take my seat, you jumped-up doorman.” Markovic stabbed a finger at the major’s chest.
The major turned away, a look of distaste on his face. “Lieutenant, have this gentleman escorted back to his seat.”
The lieutenant reached for Markovic’s intact arm.
“Don’t you lay hands on me!” Markovic yelled, and slapped the lieutenant’s hand away, and that was when a military police sergeant stepped in and jabbed a black rectangular object into Markovic’s side.
Markovic heard the sparking of the stun gun. He jerked wildly, staggered back, and was saved from falling by the lieutenant and a sergeant.
“This man with you?” the lieutenant demanded of Simone.
“He’s my father.”
“Then you need to get him to calm down.”
Simone said nothing but stepped in to wrap her stunned and quivering father’s arm over her shoulder. He had been barely ambulatory. Now he was not just weak but confused, unable to control what direction he was going, and Simone led him back and deposited him in his seat.
“Fascist bastards!” Markovic said when the effects of the stun gun’s charge had diminished.
“You got the rich-white-guy treatment,” Simone said pitilessly. “I saw a black guy try it and he got handcuffs.”
“Spare me your libtard crap, Simone!” Markovic raged. “This is illegal. It’s unconstitutional! I have rights!”
There was a flurry of activity around the major. Civilians in suits had come in from outside and were arguing with the major. Evidently the major lost the argument, because one of the men in suits walked down the aisle and climbed nimbly onto the stage.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am Carlos Malina from the Department of Homeland Security. An emergency has been declared, and an emergency decree has been issued.”
All in passive voice, Markovic noted. Like he was just the messenger.
The audience erupted in shouted questions and demands.
Malina ignored the questions until the volume died down. “I know you all have questions. And they will all be answered. But first we have to transport you to a secure location. Buses are pulling up outside.”
It was then that the worm of doubt woke within Markovic. A secure location? Buses?
“It’s all about the rock. They think we’re going to become mutants,” Simone said. Then, slowly, dreamily, as if marveling at the craziness of the words she was uttering, Simone said, “They’re going to kill us. Dad? I think they’re going to kill us.”
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