DISCONTINUED

Chapter 18

Garreth sat on the couch twirling a little dog toy around his finger. Mack had grown tired of playing some time ago and was sleeping peacefully on his doggy bed in the other room.

He'd given Luna the "good news" about her blood test when she'd gotten home from school, conveniently leaving out the parts about, you know... the fact that he had absolutely no idea what it was she'd been inoculated with and that Mom's nice young intern's car had driven head on into a transport truck last night right after leaving their house.

Right now there were two certainties for him. That he had to do something and that he had no clue what that was.

He was still sitting there some time later when the "click" of the viewer switching on pulled him from his thoughts. He looked up expecting to see Luna, assuming she'd switched it on, but she wasn't there. That was weird. He waved his hand at the screen to turn it off, but nothing happened. He tried again. Nothing. Weird.

Just then his phone beeped to notify him of an incoming message at the same time as he noticed text appear on the viewer saying to stay tuned for an important message. He looked at his phone. It showed a message received from "The Republic of Oregon" that said the same thing.

He heard Luna coming down the stairs. She walked into the room looking at her phone.

"Hey Dad, look at this. I just got this weird message. Do you think it's just some kind of SPAM or a wrong number or something?" She handed her phone to Garreth.

"I don't know Lu. I just got the same thing."

"You did?"

"Yea, just a few minutes ago."

"That's weird, isn't it?"

"Yea, it is. And the viewer's showing the same thing. It came on by itself and now it's stuck... I can't turn it off." He waved his hand at the sensor again a couple of times.

"What? What do you mean?" Luna turned and looked at the message on the viewer and similarly waved her hand at it to no effect.

"I was just sitting here, and it came on all by itself. Then that message appeared on my phone. And on yours apparently."

Luna looked equal parts confused and annoyed. "That's so weird. I'm going to call Olivia and see if she got the message too." She clicked on Olivia's image in her list of favorites and put the phone to her ear. Nothing, not even a ring. She took the phone from her ear and looked at it. She tried again. Still nothing.

"What the... Dad, I can't seem to call Olivia. Let me try Bo."

Same thing.

"Here Lu, try my phone. Yours must be glitching somehow." He handed Luna his phone and she punched in Olivia's number. She pursed her lips together and raised her eyebrows, shrugging her shoulders and raising her hands in mock defeat.

"What? Seriously?" Garreth reached for his phone and tried calling his own work number.

Nothing.

"Dad, what's up?"

Garreth nervously fidgeted with his phone, biting his lip. "I don't know Lu. I guess we'll just have to wait and find out. By the looks of it we won't have to wait long." He motioned to the viewer where the on-screen message had now been replaced by the live image of a bunch of somber, self-important looking men surrounding a podium that was decorated with the official emblem of The Republic. One of them stepped forward to speak.

"Citizens of The Republic of Oregon, this is an important day in the history or our young nation, one that will be remembered for years to come."

The man at the podium glanced to his left and to his right. His colleagues each solemnly nodded their heads in agreement.