The Watcher II: The Time of Suppression Read online

  The Watcher

  The Time of Suppression

  Saxon Andrew

  Copyright © 2020 Saxon Andrew

  All rights reserved.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, organisations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please go to any online ebook store and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter One • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five • Chapter Six • Chapter Seven • Chapter Eight • Chapter Nine • Chapter Ten • Chapter Eleven • Chapter Twelve • Chapter Thirteen • Chapter Fourteen • Chapter Fifteen

  Epilogue

  Books by Saxon Andrew

  About Saxon Andrew

  Introduction

  The Watcher has been observing humans since the time their early ancestors lived in the trees in Africa. His ship had a catastrophic failure of the star drive and he was stranded on Earth. He spent most of those centuries just observing humans, but he was responsible for the arrival of Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals by manipulating the DNA of several tribes of early hominids; he learned after the fact that he made a mistake. He intended to stop humans from attacking other humans and his experiment failed dismally. Instead, they were more highly intelligent and learned how to kill other humans more effectively. From that point on, he stayed out of human development.

  Until humans planned a massive thermonuclear war. He intended to just let it happen and allow some other species to evolve to rule Earth. However, he discovered that a young human woman was pregnant with his child; that changed everything. He stopped the nuclear attack and placed a suppression field around earth preventing any weapons from operating. If humans intended to kill each other in the future, they would be forced to do it the old-fashioned way; spears, swords, bows and arrows and all the ancient weapons. He notified Earth that humans would be quarantined to their planet and not allowed to enter the billions of civilizations out in the universe until they quit killing each other. He knew that this change wouldn’t happen quickly and that millions were going to die before things turned for the better.

  This is the story of what it was like to live in the Age of Suppression.

  Chapter One

  Nicole sat on the bridge of the giant starship orbiting Earth staring at three monitors. Charles walked in carrying Merry and the baby held out her arms to Nicole. Charles smiled and handed her to Nicole. Nicole kissed Merry on the forehead and said, “It’s dreadful what’s happening on Earth. I don’t think anyone listened to you about stopping the killing of other humans.”

  “Oh, they heard alright.”

  “But look at the monitors! Death is everywhere!”

  Charles sat down in the chair next to Nicole and turned to her, “Humanity has just had a major shock delivered to their system. They’ve discovered they’re not alone in the universe and their behavior is now being controlled. All weapons capable of killing high numbers of humans have been taken away and they are afraid of what that means. They’re fearful of not being able to defend themselves.”

  Nicole fed Merry her bottle and snorted, “They should be! Just look at the monitors!”

  “I told you that millions are going to die early on, and it will get worse before it gets better.”

  “And just how long will that take?!”

  Charles sighed, “It may never happen. Humans have aggressive traits baked into their DNA. Those traits show up big time whenever they feel threatened. Those traits won’t be easily removed or controlled.”

  Nicole glanced at the monitor and saw a man run another man through with a long sword. He was in turn impaled by a pike by a woman standing behind him. She shook her head and Charles turned off the monitors. “Why did you do that?”

  “Nicole, we cannot intervene in what’s going on and watching the monitors will only pressure you to want to jump in. Humanity must handle this themselves and we cannot participate in making them do it.” Charles bit his lip slightly and suggested, “You should ask the computer to show you places that are peaceful.”

  “IS THERE ANY SUCH PLACE ON THE PLANET?!”

  Charles shrugged, “A few and hopefully there will be many more as time passes. Watching all the death taking place doesn’t make it easy to have a good day.” Nicole sighed and turned to Merry. Charles continued, “This is not the first-time humans have had to survive in these circumstances. All of the ancient cities had walls built around them to keep invaders out. Babylonia, Jerusalem, Jericho, Ur, Nineveh all had walls around them. Even China built a giant wall a thousand miles long to keep the Mongols out of China. And that process continued all the way up through classical Greece until the rise of the Roman Empire. Even Rome and Carthage had huge walls surrounding them in the early empire.”

  “What changed it?” Nicole asked.

  “Romans were engineers extraordinaire and they learned how to bring down walls around cities. Once they conquered the known world, there was no longer a need for walls and they slowly disappeared. Rome brought an enforced peace to humanity and it was said that a traveler could walk from one end of the Roman Empire to the other safely. The Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, is what allowed civilization to flourish and develop in the Mediterranean. However, that all changed with the fall of Rome; no one was prepared for that and once again walls were used again for defense. The Feudal System emerged with Lords living in giant castles with peasants farming their lands. But Europe wasn’t the only place where a feudal system was established. Japan had a caste system where everyone was born into a caste. Samurai were a class along with peasants and royalty. The same was true in China and India.”

  “That’s no longer the case in modern times,” Nicole remarked.

  “Oh it’s still around, but you have to know how to recognize it.”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Humans are not the only species that is ruled by the strong. Mammals have what’s called an Alpha to lead them. Lions have an Alpha male, whales have an Alpha to lead the pod, Gorillas have an Alpha leader, and even wolves have an Alpha to lead the pack. Humans have always had the strongest perceived person to lead them and that’s been going on since before humanity became intelligent. And there are humans that are driven to control others around them. They are normally the most ruthless and will attack anyone they see as a possible threat. There are still those in human society that rule humanity that are very dangerous. You need look no further back than the leaders of the nations that attempted to start the nuclear war. Even today there are humans driven to control others around them.” Charles paused and raised a shoulder, “Look at the system of ranks used in most militaries which clearly delineate those that are in command. Every soldier is taught to follow the orders from superior officers and most do it without questioning them.”

  “It’s the former soldiers that are causing the most deaths,” Nicole commented.

  Charles nodded, “And that is going to continue until the rest of humanity finds ways to remove them from control. Progress is happening but that change will not happen quickly.” Nicole nodded and sighed as she turned to the monitor
.

  Second year of the Suppression

  The City in the Valley

  The elected leaders of five communities sat at a table and Chase McFadden began speaking, “I know I’ve not said much about why I asked you to come to this meeting.”

  “I assume it’s about the increasing number of attacks from the bands of killers,” a leader suggested. “Their numbers are growing, and they are out of control as it is.”

  Chase nodded, “Most of them are former soldiers that lost their jobs when the suppression field was put in place. Other former soldiers in the East have heard about how easy it is to survive out here on the plains and are moving this way. As it is, they’ve only been taking as much food as they can transport, but I expect that to get worse quickly.”

  “But what can we do? We’re not trained to defend ourselves and those killers are professional soldiers,” Wayne Allen interjected.

  Chase nodded, “The issue we’re faced with is do we stay or do we leave.”

  “My family has farmed my land for five generations; I won’t be going anywhere!” Amos Thomas said firmly.

  Chase shook his head slightly, “And what happens to you and your family when the Killers drive up and tell you to surrender all your crops? If you refuse, you and your family will die. What good is land if you can’t use it to feed your family.” Amos’s eyes narrowed and Allen said, “Don’t think it’s not going to happen Amos! I was threatened and they took most of my corn.”

  Amos stared at them and then blew out a breath, “What do you mean by leaving?”

  “We load up everything and get out of the plains. We head west and look for a place we can farm in the mountains and build a city there that can be defended.”

  “The Killers will stop us,” Judd remarked.

  “We just have to make our escape when they won’t be looking.” The four leaders stared at Chase and he raised his hands, “Once the first freeze hits, the Killers will settle down for the winter in the towns they’ve captured. We have to leave when the temperature is low enough to keep them there.”

  “It’ll be January before it gets that cold.”

  “I know that Amos. But that gives us time to get ready. They’ve already come and taken food from us and we have to gather all our crops and load them up to be transported. We also have to take all the canned goods in the grocery stores along with anything that’s not perishable.” Chase paused, “We also need trucks to carry our farm machinery, heavy construction equipment, and gas. We’ll gather the trucks needed to do this in the forests to keep them hidden. Once the freeze hits, we load up and make a run to the west.”

  “Just how many people are we talking about doing this?”

  Chase shrugged, “I think not everyone will go but I estimate there will be about eight thousand or so if every community decides to leave.” Chase paused and added, “And most every one of them will learn how to drive a truck.”

  “Where are we going to get that many trucks?”

  Chase turned to Gillum, “There’s hundreds of them abandoned at every truck stop between here and Omaha. We’ll collect all the fuel in our communities into some tankers and go out to collect as many other sources as possible; we’re looking primarily for tankers and flatbeds.”

  Allen’s eyebrows came together, and he stated, “We haven’t agreed to do this Chase.”

  “And you aren’t being forced to do it. I had a town meeting last week and we discussed our options and what came out of the meeting was that the Killer’s camps have swelled in numbers with the new soldiers moving in from the East which means they are going to take more of our crops this year and they will also kill anyone that stands in their way. They decided that to stay was suicide and to leave was dangerous. They decided that dangerous was better than suicide. Whether you decide to stay or leave, my community is leaving at the first freeze. I felt I should tell you what we’re doing.”

  “Why?” Amos asked.

  “With my community gone, you will have to give them more of your crops. As it is, I know all of us are barely getting by now. I also suspect that once we make a break for it, they will post Killers in your towns to make sure you don’t leave. I also think they will force you to farm next year and you’ll be little more than slaves.” The four leaders stared at Chase and he added, “We had a rather thorough discussion and we looked at everything that could come out of this. I think if you take the time to consider it, you’ll reach the same conclusions.”

  Allen stared at Chase and said, “I’ll let you know as quickly as possible.” The other leaders nodded and left the meeting. Chase felt certain they would join him in running. There were some possibilities that he didn’t bring up that were horrific. What was going to happen to their daughters if the Killers took full control of their towns? Most of those new soldiers coming from the East weren’t coming with families.

  • • •

  The 1st blizzard of the season blew through the plains on January first. The temperatures dropped close to zero and the forecast was for them to remain there for another eight days before another blizzard blew out of the west. The five communities all gathered on Interstate 80 and the long line of tractor trailers was impressive. The communities found more trucks than there were things to transport. More than eight hundred tankers were loaded with diesel and gasoline and they were scattered among the long line of trucks to refuel them as they moved west. The first four trucks all had snowplows to clear the road ahead and Chase fired up the first truck. He waited for the engine to warm up and then pulled out. More than twenty four-wheel drive vehicles with an additional fuel tank installed were behind the first truck and they would leave to search for a suitable location to settle once they arrived closer to the mountains in Montana.

  Chase was highly stressed for the first three days of the run but then started to relax. The bands of killers had not shown up and he figured that they were in the clear, for the moment. He looked at a map of the road ahead and saw that the communities ahead of them were few and far between. There were fewer bands of killers roaming this part of the plains because there was limited prey for them. His stress rose each time the convoy passed the small communities but so far, no one had come out of them. The trip to the mountains in Montana would normally have taken just two days but with the snow on the road it turned out to take much longer. The convoy made one stop at a small city along the interstate that appeared desolate. Cade went into the town on one of the jeeps and found that everyone in the city was dead; bodies were lying naked in the streets. The killers had come in and taken everything edible out of the city but canned goods in the grocery stores; they were too heavy and bulky for them to carry off. They also took the clothes off the people they killed.

  Chase sent trucks out into the community to gather the canned goods. He stopped at the local hospital and found people were lying dead on the floors. But no damage had been done to the operating rooms and other equipment. He ordered the trucks without a load to come in and the priceless equipment was moved out on to the trucks. Gillum shook his head, “Just how are we going to use this stuff? Do you think we’re going to have electricity to run them?”

  Chase shrugged, “Maybe not today but one day we’ll need these things. It’s easier to have them available for that day than have to build them. Besides, we have room for them.”

  The CB radio suddenly said, “Chase, the sporting goods store has a huge stock of long bows, compound bows and hunting arrows.”

  “What else do they have, John?”

  “Well, there’s a lot of hunting rifles but they serve no purpose now. There’s also a lot of old camping gear.”

  “What about tents?”

  “Hold on.” A few moments later, John said, “Yes, there are a number of tents.”

  “Load all the bows and arrows along with the tents. Are there any other sporting goods stores?”

  “No, this is the only one and I suspect that’s why it has such a large inventory.”

  Gather a
ll the cold weather hunting clothes they have as well John.”

  “Will do.”

  They collected everything that could be used and started moving again. The convoy arrived at interstate 25 and turned north. They drove until interstate 25 ended in interstate 90. They stopped at an abandoned truck stop and discovered the underground fuel tanks were still filled with fuel.

  Chase called the drivers of the four-wheel drive vehicles together and said, “We’re stopping here for a while to take a break. It’s going to take a while to pump all the gas out of the tanks so you should leave now and start looking for a place for us to settle. Keep in mind that we need a place where there is a good supply of water and land that can be farmed. It also needs to have land where we can build a city with walls around it. Make sure your tanks are full!”

  Thirty minutes later, the twenty-four trucks and jeeps pulled out and roared ahead on interstate 90. Chase knew finding what they needed wasn’t going to be easy. As they moved up into the mountains, finding level land to farm would be hard to find.

  Allen looked at Chase, “We’ll be arriving at Billings in another day or so.”

  “If the drivers don’t find a place for us before we arrive at Billings, we’re taking a route around it.”

  “Why? You don’t think we would be safe there?”

  Chase shook his head, “Allen, we’re farmers and we would represent more mouths for them to feed. I suspect they’ll take all our food and send us on our way. With the breakdown of society and distribution networks, we need to avoid large groups of people.” Allen blew out a breath and nodded.

  • • •

  Billy Carter drove behind the other scouts and felt this was a huge waste of his time. They were moving up into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and everyone knew that wherever they looked, there needed to be a road large enough for the trucks to follow; there weren’t that many roads. Billy finally stopped and pulled off on the shoulder of the road. He shook his head and looked out to the right; there was a small dirt road leading into the trees. He looked at the map and determined that he was now across the Montana state line, but not by much. The mountains were going to get a lot taller from this point on. He got out of the truck and looked at the land the road disappeared into. It was a steep slope…but…the trees didn’t appear to show large changes in elevation. He turned the Jeep off road and went into the tree line. He kept expecting the small road to come to a stop, but it didn’t. After a two mile climb into the trees, he broke out of the tree line and looked out over a shallow valley in the mountains. The valley extended about half a mile to the base of a mountain that towered over the valley. He looked to the left and right and saw the valley went about five miles in each direction.