About the Author: Stephen Cheshire studied his Foundation Degree in Aviation at New College Nottingham in the U.K. Then went onto to do a BA Top Up in Travel and Tourism. He loves to travel and uses all his travel experiences to put together his novels. His life goal is to fly for a commercial airline.
Here is a scene from The Day Trip below. My scifi / adventure novel. Amazon link at the bottom. 99p / $1.28 from my publishers Black Rose Writing.
Chapter 11
Washington, D.C. is under martial law. US troops and National Guard were everywhere. William Synder, the president’s chief of staff, never would have imagined that his career would take such as drastic turn when he woke up that morning.
He stood on the front lawns of the White House, waiting for the president’s helicopter to land. People were clambering outside the high, wrought-iron fence, desperate for answers on the invasion in New York. Police struggled to keep the people back. He squinted his eyes, looking into the distance as the blue Sea King helicopter thrummed over the city, slowly descending toward him. The huge blades began slowing down, and a military pilot stepped out of the helicopter and ran to swing the back door open. First-term president Christopher Henderson stepped out and walked briskly toward Synder.
“Good morning sir, shall I bring you up to date with the situation in New York?” Synder yelled over the engine as it shut down.
“Yes. What the hell is going on?” President Christopher Henderson asked. “Have our generals mobilized the troops in the city as I ordered? Have they set up a perimeter around the main police headquarters? What news from the mayor?”
“Yes sir, the troops are mobilized and a perimeter is set up,” Synder replied. “But apparently the roads are jammed with trashed vehicles so they are clearing a one-way route to the Queensboro Bridge where a command post has been set up to aid survivors.” He hesitated. “We’ve lost contact with the mayor’s office.”
“Dear God,” Henderson muttered.
“Sir” Synder said “We think its best if we discuss the crisis in the emergency bunker, I have the vice president down there as well, currently we are on Def Con Three”
The two of them walked into the White House, Synder led the president to the elevator that would descend to the protected underground bunker. Synder swiped his ID card and the elevator quickly dropped.
“Have any other nations reported these creatures?” Henderson asked.
“No sir, just Manhattan is infested with these things so far as we know of.”
The elevator came to a stop. Henderson and Synder entered the emergency briefing room, lined with glowing screens. Some TVs were tuned to the news and were showing the Queen’s command center, the background smoky from the destruction around it.
Henderson sat at the head of the table and looked out at General Reeves and the Vice President Karen Hayes.
“Okay, bring me up to speed,” President Henderson demanded.
Reeves walked to a digital board that showed Manhattan.
“Sir, my men have set up a unit around the main police headquarters here, and at the hospital just down the road here. People are turning up left, right and center. The only way out is across the Queensboro Bridge, here,” the general said, pointing.
President Henderson rubbed his face. “Is that the only way out of the city? What about the New Jersey tunnel?”
“We have had to seal the tunnel off in case the alien invaders tried to get through to New Jersey or Newark,” he replied. “We have set up a ton of Semtex on the Queensboro Bridge, ready to blow it up if the invaders try and break through the barricade we have on it.”
“What about any of the other bridges?” President Henderson asked.
“No, sir. All the other bridges have been destroyed to prevent invasions of any other town. We have only one way out for evacuation: The Queensboro Bridge.”
“What about JFK airport?” President Henderson asked.
“The airports—JFK, La Guardia, and Newark—have been closed,” Hayes said. “In fact, all US airspace above the area has been closed, and all incoming flights have been redirected away from the New York and the Washington area.”
“Have we heard from any alien leader?” President Henderson asked.
“Not yet, sir,” General Reeves replied. “Nothing at all from these things.”
“Well, we have to plan for the worst. We don’t know how many more of these things there are, so I want your people ready for immediate action,” President Henderson ordered. “I understand we are on DEFCON three.”
“Yes sir,” General Reeves stated “That is why…” He hesitated
“Why what?” Henderson demanded.
The general took a deep breath. “Currently on standby at Edwards Air Force Base, I have six F-16s ready to go to New York and drop Hades bombs on the island General Reeves said.
“Any chance of a nuclear strike on Manhattan?” Henderson then asked.
“We have discussed that,” Hayes said, standing up. She walked over to another screen and brought up a map of New York state. A red dot indicted the position of Manhattan.
“If we hit Manhattan with a nuclear strike,” she said, “the casualties would be in the hundreds of thousands.”
She drew a red circle around Manhattan that encompassed half the state and a lot of the Atlantic Ocean. “Then we have the nuclear fallout,” Hayes said. “The death toll would probably rise to the millions.”
“So nuclear is the last means of defense,” Henderson concluded.
“Yes sir,” Hayes replied.
“Ok, have the F-16s ready for immediate deployment on my order,” President Henderson said. “Things are going to get nasty down there.”
General Reeves stood up. “Yes, sir.”
The president stayed seated, head in hands. “What am I going to say? The whole world is waiting for me,” the president said.
“We have your speech prepared, sir,” Synder reassured him.
“Okay. I’m going to my office. Let me know if any of their leaders make contact with us,” he instructed. He walked out of the briefing room, miserably resolved to bomb Manhattan and tell his people that the nation was in peril.
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