Bubble Energy Taken by Force

Return

Inside the ruined office, everyone kept busy sweeping the wreckage to piles to dump into trash bags. Corin long ago dismantled the holed panels to be melted down and recycled into a more futuristic styled computer facade that was in its design stage.

"Mac, again, I appreciate your ride. That was quite a journey. It saved me a lot of trouble."

The man replied, "Glad to help. Hacker Jack should get half the credit for rescuing you. He alerted me of their emergency using a brilliant device."

Jack clarified, "An hour after I warned Stephen about the afternoon thunderstorm, old college memories of summer break surfaced. The vacation experience was enjoyable, but the trip home went badly. I waited in Tampa's International Airport for four hours because a massive thunderstorm wrecked havoc with the flight schedules. Obviously. Florida is the lightning capital of the US. Each lightning strike caused interference to the radio station piping music to the terminal. While memories kept coming, I began to wonder, 'What if we could create the same type of interference on Mac's radio to alert him?' He always listens to the truckers' music station. After a lot of effort, we managed to set up our best Tesla Coil on our roof and had the sucker fire off four meter electric bolts."

Mac continued, "My AM radio, CB, and TV immediately freaked out. Never had I experienced so much static. They promised me not to use that monstrosity while I'm at home. I tried calling Corin to complained. When the operator told me that his line was disconnected, I became suspicious of something sinister at play. After realizing that the statics were carefully spaced out in timed pulses, I quickly deciphered their SOS. Something was definitely very wrong. I drove over as fast as I could. Thankfully, I arrived in time to offer my assistance in bringing you over."

Jack emphasized, "He lent us his satellite phone and routed our toll-free phone number to it. That's how Stephen was able to connect to us so quickly. The phone company will need a few days to repair our line."

"It was just a small repayment for your kindness. Your weather trend reports had already saved me thousands of dollars in gardening expenses. Good neighbors always bring smiles to all involved. Luckily, I happened to be home when hell broke loose. Lately, I've been very busy giving lectures at survivalist conferences. Ever since Hurricane Katrina and Afghanistan, an increasing number of Americans are losing faith in the government's ability to protect the private citizen. In the past five years, my National Survivalist Organization membership increased by one hundred and sixty percent. As always, my offer still stands. Any time you're interested in stockpiling guns, I'll get you set up, training included."

Jim responded, "We don't really want the guns; they're not allowed in our homes or offices. They demand many hard hours at the shooting range to master the deadly art of hitting targets. We rather have fun together in the aerial bungee dance studio. As a close-knit group, we build beautiful crafts to decorate our houses and office. Survivalists make do subsisting in their primitive shacks, needing to spend all their money buying weapons, anxiously waiting for the world to collapse. We prefer sharing our home-cooked meals and recreational experiences, not dwelling on bad news. Preparing for doomsday is a mentally and physically demanding task manager."

"Your 'No guns allowed' sign made no difference to the Topheth's Sword."

Stephen replied, "It did. For breaking our law we sentenced them, and everybody they associated with, to death."

"Can't argue with that."

Corin, wearing a broad smile, existed the stairways. "The results from your blood examination, MRI, CAT, PET scans, and the rest just came in. I like my guinea pigs to have the finest medical attention. All tests had returned negative. You'll live a long and normal life. Congratulation!"