Background
The world has suffered an environmental catastrophe that is man made. Survivors try to build a life in Yosemite in spite of endless hardships.
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Previously, Johnny has quelled an uprising of sorts by preventing the departure of the entire compliment of American soldiers. They were following an implanted dream telling them that rescue was on the way. Johnny convinced them that it was a trick. Ma found four park rangers and took them into her camp by Half-Dome and also captured two soldiers. The soldiers had been running maintenence routines on an underground bunker that has proven to be of great interest to Johnny. We continue with the story as Christine confronts the two soldiers with the reality of their situation.
I spoke, "Of course, if there was some way that you could guarantee your silence, we could delay your execution. It would be a big disappointment to Christine here. She just loves archery. So, it works like this. She sees you engaged in conversation, she puts an arrow through your throat. Sound Good!" I threw my best military voice on to that last phrase.
"Sir, yes sir."
You can only imagine how Christine and I laughed at that response. You can imagine how much more fearful that made them as well.
The other four people turned out to be park rangers. They had a cabin that was fairly well stocked. They had been staying there for quite a while until displaced by "a bunch of crazy bug-infested lunatics". Barbara, she of coffee madness, gave us that description. She was under forty and the head ranger. The men were Roger 62 and looking 82, Hameed 19 and looking 12 and Agapito 31, which seemed about right.
Barbara knew about global warming. Well, she knew that there was no such thing according to her. She explained to the first truly interested ears she had probably ever encountered, "Look, global warming is a bunch of crap. I'm not saying that we aren't destroying the planet. I'm saying that what we're doing isn't affecting the temperature in a real way. This…" She waved her hand at the sky, "this is some insane thing that man has done. A chemical weapon that has burned the hell out of the atmosphere. I'm guessing that the ozone has holes in it big enough to fit a continent through. My guess is rapidly melting ice caps. That’s the beginning. All that water goes somewhere. It isn't even either. The whole shape of the planet changes. The way it spins changes and its angle. Longer days and nights. All that stress causes earthquakes. Earthquakes cause tsunamis. Parts of the earth are going to burn like hell and turn into a wasteland."
I stopped her and filled her in, "The Pacific Ocean is about twenty-five miles south of here."
"No shit? It's already happened. I'll be damned. The San Andrea's fault didn't move." She started laughing and then stopped. "The pressure most of neutralized or been cushioned by the water. Hell, who knows. It's all theory. This is all green here. Damn. We're okay. It's green. Roger, green as grass. The redwoods survived." She skipped over, gave Roger a big hug, and within seconds Agapito and Hameed joined in.
I saw no need to stop them at the moment. Actually, I was happy about the great news. I didn't know why, but it seemed like good news and I decided I would enjoy it. Christine and Ma had smiles on their faces, why the hell not? Someone was happy, might as well join em. All of this global warming talk or whatever it was had my mind spinning. What was the state of the world? It appears things hadn't gone as predicted right here in our little section of the world. Now that I thought about it, half of California was supposed to drop into the sea and that was without melted polar caps.
"Johnny." I turned to answer Christine's call. She wasn't there. "Over here". I looked over by the entrance to the cave. She waved to me with a smile on her face. She was almost a hundred yards away.
"Yes." I tried to answer her. "Yes." This time I pictured her in front of me with my eyes closed.
"Cool, huh?"
I kept my eyes closed and concentrated. "Why? How?"
"Amplified. Using it. Don't know. Practice. Love."
"Love." My head was spinning or felt like it was. The back of it felt like it had something inside of it spinning. Christine was on her way to me.
"Can you pick up thoughts? You know…read minds…you don't mind what I fantasize about you?"
Christine laughed. "No, I sense moods and character; I'd guess you'd call it. Like the two soldiers. They're terrified of me. The exact thoughts, I don't know. But, fear is what they feel when they look at me. With you, it's fear and resentment. A little different. You, on the other hand, I can catch words and pictures. Really, it's parts of things. I have to look hard and concentrate. But, when you tried to project something simple to me and I was trying to hear it, I did. You heard me, right?"
"Yes! Like you were standing by me. I couldn't believe it when I saw you way over by the cave. We can use this, right? We keep it to ourselves, of course. This means we can project something to the so-called "dream team" or who knows who else."
I couldn't say how this might benefit us. But, every little edge helped. The near exodus the day before showed me how easily things could fall apart. Control had to be maintained. Not power, control. Thank God, it did nothing for my ego being in charge. It was a position accepted with reluctance and resignation. My love for Christine and my affection and loyalty for some of the others compelled me. Dammit, I cared about them. What could I do?
Some quick plans were in order. These new people would have to stay right here. We couldn't risk news of the bunker leaking out. Nick and Mark were not going to intentionally spill the beans, but any off-hand remark could trigger a mind to thinking. "So, Nick, what were you doing here?" What a loaded question. How would he answer that? He'd have to come up with a pretty clever lie. He didn't seem clever and Mark, less so.
The forest brigade, as I called them, liked to talk, especially Barbara. She was an extremely intelligent version of Rhonda. There would be no chance that she could carry on a conversation without revealing a secret. Ma and the boys had everything completely under control here. Christine and Linda would be the only other people coming up here with me.
The bunker ran on electricity. That left us with few options. But, there was some solar equipment that might be utilized. It was worth a try. One look at that sun swimming in a sea of red and orange chemical soup didn't give me much confidence though.
The giant redwoods were bright green though and plant life and things edible were still in abundance. So, perhaps some luck had come our way. How wonderful some radio waves would sound right about now.
Gunfire, and a lot of it, interrupted my musings. They were coming from the camp. My first instinct was to run in that direction. Christine was already pulling me towards the lookout position on Half-Dome.
We all had binoculars, courtesy of the fully stocked bunker. Christine had shown great instinct. It would have been a run to certain death. The camp was surrounded by poorly armed but numerous individuals on the attack. Our highly organized and fully armed garrison were picking them off at will.
It was a slaughter. I wanted to stop it, but it couldn't be stopped. The attackers were determined to take over and it couldn't be allowed. I wanted to feel pride in the efficiency of our team, but the wholesale loss of life sickened me. I could hear the single word response from Christine, "No."
Finally, it reached an end. The sound of gunfire was replaced by the sound of voices shouting orders. The words weren't clear, but the intent was. Linda, Christine and myself headed back to the compound.
We were no more than fifty feet from the gate when Christine suddenly pulled me to the ground. As I crumpled down beside her, I heard a shot ring out. Shortly thereafter, another shot, followed by an anguished yelp. The gate swung open, Jen and Annie rushed out.
Jen dropped down by my side, "Johnny, are you hit? Are you okay?"
