The Population

Chapter Eighteen - The Dispatching

We landed early morning, about 6:00. After getting just a couple hours of sleep Liam and I tried to waken ourselves with coffee. We met with his troops at the airport and Liam dispersed directions to different groups and sent them off to awaken the citizens of Lincoln. They were told to keep everyone calm and to avoid panic. The citizens were instructed to meet in the town square of their city at 10:00. We were in the capital of Lincoln and we would be shown on the holographic screens of every other town in the division. 

Once 10:00 came around Liam and I placed ourselves in front of the people on the balcony of The Lincoln Capital Building. "I am your Military Director Liam Parker and this is your Director of Genealogy Carmen Parker. We have called you here today to tell you that you face a threat from a rogue director. For the safety of your families we are going to evacuate as much of the division as we can. Those who stay we cannot guarantee the safety of. We have already confirmed that medical staff will stay in the hospitals and soldiers will be stationed all around the hospital to protect those to ill to be transported. After the attack is over everyone will be allowed to return. 

Those who wish to stay may leave but we encourage you to evacuate for your own safety if you still decide not to evacuate please stay in your homes away from doors and windows." Many single men and women left the square and a few families. As much as I wanted to protect them I knew it was their choice. "Those that wish to be evacuated please line up in an orderly fashion in front of the planes and hovercrafts and we will check you into the evacuation list. Do not rush or stampede we have plenty of time before the attack is scheduled."

Families moved to the lines outside the air transportation vehicles that surrounded the square. Everyone was orderly and most people were calm. Liam was a very trusted leader and the citizens adored him. Liam went inside the hall to conference with his lower military leaders and I was sent to ensure that the soldiers had everything they needed to evacuate the citizens. It wasn't long until planes and crafts started lifting off and flying to drop the citizens off in Eisenhower division, which was selected so that Bane and his people would not notice the air traffic as it was the opposite direction of council.

By noon the city was a ghost town and I had moved into the meeting room with Liam and his lowers. About 1000 soldiers would dress as civilians and act as them to hide the fact that the division had been evacuated. All held concealed weapons and safety gear. Liam would be staying in the capital hidden in the capital hall as that was where it was most likely that Bane would monitor his plan from. 

I was nervous for him. It was guaranteed that Bane's people would do a walk through of the building and he would have guards all around him. After convincing Liam to let me participate and reasoning with all the training I had he agreed that I would go to a smaller town on the far side of Lincoln with some of the soldiers and I would act as commander. Liam specified that after commands were given I should go to the bunker beneath an warehouse he had given me the location of but I disregarded his statement and knew I would stay for the fight. 

Right now we were still stationed in the conference room,waiting to start dispatching people to the different cities at 8:30 to give them time to prepare for the 11:00 p.m. strike. I sat and listened to Liam relaying commands to his commanding officers as well as myself. We were all given our gear that included a helmet with a holographic screen that could only be seen from inside the helmet. We could communicate through this silently.

 When wearing the helmet electrical sensors wear touched to your temples. When a certain frequency of neurotransmitters are secreted from your brain's synapses it reads the command and registers other brain activity and types three messages that you might intend to send. Tap your finger on the message need from the outside of the helmet and tap it again to send. This was something I thought was really cool. 

At 7:30 the commanders were excused giving them time to address their personal needs as well as relax and prepare for the operation. I stayed in the conference room with Liam. Once everyone but us cleared the room I went and straddled his lap. He gave me a kiss and pulled away. He had a worried look on his face that was previously hidden from his commanders and I. "What's wrong baby?" I said looking at him. He looked back at me and opened his mouth to speak.

 "I have never been scared or worried about an operation. But now I'm scared, a grown man, Director of the Military. I'm scared because I am fighting my own people, I'm scared because I am running a last minute defense, I'm scared because this time I have a lot to lose. Before, giving up my life to protect the commonwealth was something I would willingly do without question. I would still do it in a heartbeat because I made a promise to the commonwealth but now I have you, and the decision is a hell of a lot harder. I want you and our families and the whole commonwealth to be safe but I also want to come home and spend the rest of my life with you."

I looked at him. He had so much love in his eyes. "I want to spend my life with you to and we both promised yesterday that we would love each other till death do us part, weather that be today or in one hundred years. But I can also tell you that I won't stop loving you even after death has torn us apart. Maybe one of us will pass away and decided to receive a new life partner and that's ok, we both deserve to find happiness, that doesn't mean we will stop loving each other. No matter what happens I know we will be ok. When the whole world crumbles there will still be an us and I'm thankful for every minute we have together no matter how few."

I wiped the lone tear on his cheek and pulled him into a kiss. For the next hour we stayed there, Liam sitting in the chair while I was curled in his lap, kissing and talking. When the clock hit 8:30 we left the room's confines and walked out to the street in front of the capital. The soldier's were boarding hover aircrafts and planes with their commanders following the rear. I quickly headed to my soldiers and boarded. I waved to Liam as the doors were shutting. He waved back and headed to his place inside the capital. I hoped that this wouldn't be the last time we saw each other but it felt like it just might be.