Writer’s Note: The Jessica Price in this chapter is a real person, who works as an E-911 operator in my county. She’s a friend of mine, and I have included her (with some creative liberties taken, since her story takes place a dozen years in the future) into this story as a tribute to her, because she’s a damn good friend of mine.

Through The Looking Glass and Down The Rabbit Hole

Chapter Eleven

Jessica’s Price

The heat of the coming summer was apparent on this late May morning, and I knew that feeling all too well. Thanks to the treatment, however, I didn’t instantly break out into a sweat when I exited my Hippocratic Hill apartment on my way to work. Tana was at a symposium all this week, so I was by myself in the spacious apartment that I shared with her.

I grabbed some breakfast at a place on West Court Street called McMaster’s, and headed up North Washington Street to my office inside the Presidential Palace. As usual, I passed the statue dedicated to Jessica Price on my way to the office, and going by it is like walking by a ghost from my past every day.

I have been reading Jessica’s autobiography lately, and it’s something that seems so unlike the vivacious, lively person I knew. Frankly, if I sent this back in time had it placed on Jessica’s doorstep, she would think it was a work of fiction. However, from the video clips I have seen over the last few weeks of studying that time period, it was most definitely her.

It began on that fateful day when all hell broke loose on July 4, 2017. She had barely managed to get out of the E-911 center ahead of the troops coming to arrest her. As she stated in her book, she literally ran for her life, as bullets flew over her head. She managed to hook up with some people fleeing north towards Marion and escape the chaos erupting behind her.

The usually short trip took forever, as many people fled the Tri Cities either along this road, US221, or on US 64 heading towards Morganton. Cell phones were not working and radios were out, so they didn’t know what was going on. Rumors flew like locusts through the refugees as they arrived in Marion. People gassed up their cars and fled in all directions. Jessica and the people she had hooked up with decided to go east, then north, along Interstate 40 and then 77. They crammed every bit of supplies into the van and took off, not knowing where they would stop.

It’s important to note that, at this point, most everyone believed that this was an isolated incident and that things would be eventually return to some sort of normal. However, as they proceeded east towards Hickory, they came to a sudden checkpoint on the highway. Everyone in the van was nervous, but Jessica was relieved, thinking things were almost back to normal.

Or so she thought. After the officer checked the driver’s papers, he said, “Y’all might want to avoid Greensboro, because a lot of the same stuff that’s going on down in Rutherford County’s happening there!”

The driver, a husky young man named Jacob, asked, “What the hell’s going on? We just came from there and we’re lucky to have gotten out of there alive!”

“Really?” said the officer, “Things are bad down there, from what we’ve heard over the radio. Then again, all hell’s is breaking loose all over. Y’all best be careful out there, y’hear?” He tipped his cap and they went on their way. Jessica looked out and saw the officer, who was an attractive blond haired man in his late 20s or early 30s. If Jessica hadn’t been so frightened, she might have flirted with the guy, but the thought didn’t even occur to her as they made their way onto the on-ramp that took them onto I-77 North.

When they got out of North Carolina, the radio in the van was able to pick up radio stations again. All the stations were covering the chaos, and Jessica was shocked to hear that many of the major cities in the Carolinas were seeing the same kind of warfare as she saw in the Tri-Cities. “What the hell is going on?” said and exasperated Linda, who was Jacob’s wife.

“I dunno, sweetheart. It seems that everyone has started fighting everyone for some godforsaken reason!” Jacob replied.

“Where are we headed?” Jessica asked sleepily.

“Washington, DC! I have some family there and hopefully we can stay there and wait until things calm down back home.” Jacob answered as he checked a map. It was nighttime now, and traffic started to get thick as the headed further north. They pulled into a gas station in Blacksburg, and refueled the van. Jessica started to think things were going to be all right when the bandits struck out of nowhere.

They didn’t even have the dignity of saying ‘freeze’, as they shot everyone in sight. Jacob took a bullet to the chest and Linda’s head was smashed open by a wicked shot from a crowbar. Jessica collapsed onto the floor of the van and pretended to be dead, hoping the bandits wouldn’t notice her still alive in here. They almost got inside the van when bullets started flying from the other direction. “Beat it! It’s the cops!” cried out one voice, but it seemed as if he was in the minority as the rest started blazing away at the police. Jessica began to cry and got into the fetal position, praying that a bullet wouldn’t find her.

Some time later, the van door opened. The officer shined his flashlight inside and the light passed over Jessica. “Hey, there’s someone in here!” said the female officer. They came in and helped Jessica out of the van. She stood on shaky feet and looked around. “Oh my God!” she said as she saw all the bloodshed in the gas station parking lot.

“Yeah, it was real bad here. C’mon, get your stuff and we’ll take you to the station. It’s not safe here.”, another Virginia highway patrol officer said. They took her to a nearby highway patrol station and got her information, then they took her to a nearby hotel, which was near Virginia Tech. She would worry later about being able to afford a room, because she needed to sleep.

However, she didn’t get much sleep that night as bandits raided the hotel. She had a room on the top floor, so they didn’t make it that far, which she was grateful as she watched as women were dragged away screaming by masked bandits, and men beaten up and shot in the parking lot. It seemed so surreal to her, but the bullet that hit above her and sprayed her with shards of concrete reminded her that it was all too real.

Since she was the only person inside the van to survive, they released the van into her custody. Luckily for her, there was no blood inside the van, and the engine was intact. She took off north and headed to Washington, DC, not knowing where else to go. She put a pistol inside the door so she could reach it if she needed to, and set out the other firearms that Jacob had inside the van. It was a stroke of luck that she had hooked up with some gun collectors, because she had enough weapons and ammunition to help her out should the worst take place.

She barely got into the capital before some soldiers diverted her around the city. She had picked up some people along the way whose cars had broken down, so the van was once again packed. The soldiers detained her briefly as they checked her papers, but cleared her when the people she’d met in the Virginia Highway Patrol confirmed what had happened. They were making their way towards Baltimore to see her friend Erin via Bethesda when two massive explosions took place. The man riding shotgun beside her, a older man named Martin from Toronto, said, “Holy crap! They just got the Capitol building, and I think they got the White House too!” One of the people she’d picked up had a CB radio, and that was confirmed moments later over the police frequency as the terrorists had managed to blow up a chunk of the Capitol building and the White House. She prayed to God that she would be able to get through too see Erin.

I put down the book and put my head in my hands on the desk. It wasn’t easy to read about these frightening scenes, especially with one of my friends as the central character in the description of what was going on. I walked over to get some water when a knock on the door woke me from my thoughts.

“Madam President!” I said as President de Soto entered the room. “What can I do for you this evening?”

“I was going to ask you the same question. I’ve been so busy lately that I’ve not had a chance to see how you were doing.”, said the president.

“Well, about as good as expected. It’s still a little overwhelming at times, but I think I am settling in, slowly but surely.”

“Good! I’m glad to hear it, Jason!” replied the president, who looked over at my desk and saw the book I had been reading. “That’s a very tough book to read, isn’t it?”

I nodded and said, “Yeah. It would be if I didn’t know the author. Since I do, it’s even more difficult.”

“I can imagine so. She went though a lot during the war. All the pain she went though, the death and destruction, it’s like reading someone’s darkest nightmares.”

I sighed and said, “You know, I always said that the scariest horror films were documentaries, because reality was always scarier than anything that Hollywood could cook up. After reading only a small part of that book, I wonder how anyone got through it all.”

“We humans are a stubborn lot, that’s for sure! We’re also our worst enemies at times. It makes what we’ve accomplished after the war all the more momentous.”, remarked the president. She then changed the subject, “So have you had any more thoughts of going back?”

“Not for a while, but after reading this, it’s hard not to want to go back and at least try to stop what happened. I know, I’m only one person, but it’s hard not to be tempted to go back and try.”

The president said, “Well, the physicists say that you should decide before the end of the year if you’re going back or not, because the further away we get from the time that you were pulled to this time, the less likely we’ll be able to send you back as close as we can to your own time. If it’s all the same to you, I wish you’d stay.”

I nodded and said, “Thanks, Madam President. I’ll let you know when I’ve decided. I still think it’ll be a while before I know for sure what I’ll do.”

She came up to me and hugged me, thanking me for all I had done so far for her. I said, “Madam President, I’ve just been working here for a couple of weeks.”

“Well, you’ve done quite a lot in those weeks. You’ve found video and audio footage of a time that had seemed lost to us. That find in Atlanta last week where Cable News Network used to be has the academic community buzzing like busy bees.”

“Well, it does help that I know how to operate the equipment, after a fashion. A lot of it was initially beyond my comprehension, but I’ve been able to figure most of the recovered equipment out. Now we just have to piece together all the footage and figure out what goes where in the timeline.”

The president left shortly thereafter and I soon left the office for the night. As I strode up towards my apartment building, I looked around me at what was once Maple Street and stared in wonder at what was around me. It looked so different than what I had known in the past, and I wonder just how many lives were destroyed to bring about this future. I walked into the apartment building and made my way to my flat. Once there, I walked out onto the balcony and stared out into the lit-up skyline of the city at night. In a way, it still seemed like a dream, but as each day passed, it became more real. I still had trouble knowing how I fit into the scheme of things here, despite the best efforts of the president and her staff, and those of Dr. Chronenberg and his colleagues at Rutherford Tech, and especially those of Tana.

I somehow got to sleep that night, but I did not sleep well, as remembrances of the past came up to haunt my dreams.