Eliot Strange and the Prince of the Apocalypse

24) The Rebel Editor

When I get to the newspaper office, Mr. Johnson is doing his part for the Resistance he doesn't even know he is a part of now. He is struggling to carry a large piece of equipment out.

"It's the printing cylinder for the big press. It is an older model, so even if they try to get my press up and running, they will have a lot of trouble finding a replacement."

The cylinder must weigh eighty pounds. 

"Why not just break it, smash it?" I ask. "What if they find it?"

"They won't," he says with confidence. "Only I will know where it is." I guess he hasn't heard about the terror tactics of the One Nation Army.

"Mr. Johnson, why hide it at all, if they are surely coming here?"

"Hope," he says, "No matter how bad it gets, people got to have hope. And besides, I'll still have this small press. At least until I print that last paper today. And, call me Ned. My name is Ned."

"Ok, Ned, why hope?"

"Because I have a wife. She's expecting our first child. It's a boy. I sent her away to Tennessee to be safe. I can't afford not to hope."

"Oh," I say. "Well, I am somewhat of a pessimist. And I choose truth over something like hope."

"They are one and the same, hope, truth, faith, love. All things to live for."

"Maybe, but I sense you are not telling the whole truth and that you know more than you're telling your readers."

"Maybe," says Ned, "I haven't told the whole truth because I am trying to keep hope alive." He takes me to the back room and shows me a ham radio. " I have been talking to my friends since the night of the EMP. There's been a lot of bad news. A lot of them have quit broadcasting."

I look at his radio surrounded by notepads and pencils and a stack of scribbled notes. Ned knows more than he has been reporting. "What do you know about the One Nation Army?"

"What do you know?"

I tell him about the Resistance. I tell him what Leia said about the babies.

"Worse," he says.

"What's worse than throwing babies off a bridge? How do you get that out of your head?"

"Mothers jumping to their deaths to save them."

I pause. "Yeah, that's worse."

"Who are they? Who is the One Nation Army?"

"Terrorists. Homegrown. They have been operating for years. Sometimes caught, but mostly not. Causing chaos, fear, doubt, scaring people into thinking we need change. The school shootings, the assassinations, the riots, the fires, all of it was them. Either them or groups just like them looking to destroy our country. Some groups from within, some from outside our borders. All working together."

"That is terrifying. Not random acts at all. Organized."

"Yes, yes it is. "

I tell him about Steven and Nana and Officer Simpson.

"It has begun here then," he says, and then he looks like he is in more of a rush than before. "I got to hurry, got to head out."

"What has begun?" I ask.

"They send patrols into towns before they arrive. They round up some citizens, collect recruits, kill authority figures. Kill what they call  - the unworthy. This is how they operate. They are coming. One Nation is coming."

And then it is like he can't stop once he begins to tell the whole truth. "They are winning. The west coast is burning. New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston - they're all gone. The north has been defeated. Washington fell weeks ago. The president and his staff are missing. Our troops have been sent to protect our borders and our nuclear weapons. That is why they are all gone. We are expecting an invasion from other countries - Russia, China, maybe even Korea. The One Nation Army has aligned with our enemies - they are offering to divide the spoils."

"Spoils?" I ask.

"Yeah, you know, what's left. After we are done fighting. After our defeat."

"No one will help us? No other countries?"

"I don't know, maybe Europe, Canada, maybe Israel? Canada, maybe not, I heard the EMP did a lot of damage there too.""

"Why do they want the prince?" I ask. I show him a copy of the paper/wanted poster he printed.

He does not ask me "What prince?" so I know he knows.

"Ah, there it is. Hope. He is hope."

"What?" I ask, "What are you talking about?"

"The Prince. He is our hope, but he is their hope too."

"Huh, what?"

"The prince of England was in America the day of the EMP. He is probably dead, but if he is not, his mother wants him back. One Nation wants him to hold as collateral, as a hostage."

"Why?"

"So England and her allies will not fight to preserve our union. So they will not send aid, soldiers, food. So England will stand by and watch."

"I have seen this man," I say as I point to his picture.

"Here?"

I nod. "You believe Prince Torin is our only hope?"

"He is," says Ned.

"Well, maybe we need to save him."

"How?" asks Ned.

I point to the small printing press and then the ham radio. "Give the people something to fight for. Truth, we must tell them the truth."

I spend the next two hours helping the editor of the News with his last edition. The photo of Steven and me is no longer on the front and only page. Instead there is a photo of Prince Torin with the heading "Save the Prince". This photo shows the prince in his Royal Navy uniform. I must admit, he looks quite handsome. Underneath the photo, it says:

Wanted by The One Nation Army. If you still believe in the United States of America, you will help protect this man, his Royal Highness, Prince Torin of England. We must protect him, or One Nation will win, and our country will be destroyed.

The article goes on to explain the atrocities of The One Nation Army. This time Ned does not hold anything back. The article tells of how they plan to use the prince as a pawn to keep his country from helping ours. Finally, the article says - If you want to help us protect our country, protect the prince and prepare to fight.

It ends with - Save Prince Torin and God Bless America!

On the way back home, there is no time to tack the papers to telephone poles so I scatter them in public places and hand them to anyone I see. I ask people to spread the word. I notice that some of the people read the article and ask me questions like - "There's a real live prince in Mount Airy?" Or they make comments like - "Damn baby killing sons-of-bitches" or "Oh my, he is handsome". One older army veteran says - "I won't surrender until they pry this gun from my cold, dead hands. I'm gonna go to the VA and talk to who's left. We'll bring some firepower."

The people I run into have questions and comments all along my route, but what I mostly see is a glint in their eyes that looks like anger or fear, or maybe it is hope.

My final stop before I go home is the high school. I stop to talk to Leia and the Resistance to let them know about saving the prince. They say some of them can take the rest of the papers around town early tomorrow. Leia says they will look for Steven and Nana too.

"I think they are somewhere alive," she says. She confirms what Ned told me - that scouts for One Nation are usually ahead of the army and capture locals to "set examples of".

"Don't worry," she says. "We'll find them before that happens."

It doesn't matter what she says. I am worried.