Demon Tide Chapter One

The noise was thunderous as the screaming drones raced past the cheering crowd. Neon and black lights bathed the track in a futuristic glow, while electronic music thumped feverishly through the expansive space.

Matt stood in the dimly lit bullpen with his friend Luca, watching his hands work the controls of the remote with expert skill. Antennas sprung out from all sides of Luca’s goggles like alien tentacles.

Matt clenched his teeth as the screaming drones raced past once again. Luca was in second place, and closing in on the leader—the legendary drone racer Ambrose Walker. Up for grabs of a new Husher Maxx Air drone with all the accessories one could wish for, and Luca wasn’t about to let it get away from him.

The crowd roared louder as the last lap was announced, the drone pilots pushing their glowing aircraft to their limits.

“Do it, Luca!” Matt yelled into the communication bud in his ear.

Luca’s muscles tensed, his fingers twitching near a lone button in the corner of his controls.

“You’re going to miss the window! Do it now!” Matt repeated, watching Ambrose’s drone race past the halfway mark. His was now almost a full two seconds in front of Luca’s drone.

Luca’s hand trembled as he flipped the switch. The drone, as if fueled by an impossible power, screamed forward, leaving the other trailing racers in its wake. With the finish line seconds away, Luca took the last turn with clumsy but incredible speed, now inches behind Ambrose.

Confused, Ambrose gritted his teeth, slamming the throttle forward. Overheat sensors blared in Luca’s goggles as the drone was pushed to its brink. 

Neck and neck, the two drones fought for first place, 

The crowd crescendoed into hysterical elation as Luca’s drone nosed passed Ambrose’s right at the finish line. 

Luca had won his first championship drone race. 

Stands emptied as Ambrose’s well-manned drone team threw down their headsets and stomped out of the booth. Track guards did their best to hold back the crowds as they pushed their way into the door, but eventually they relented and let them through. 

“CONGRATULATIONS TO LUCAS RENALDO SALVARO! THE NEWEST W.W.L. DRONE RACING LEAGUE CHAMPION!”

The loudspeaker crackled. The crowd surrounded Luca and Matt, almost toppling both boys to the floor.

“Luca! Luca!” They chanted, lifting the new drone champion above their heads.

Matt stumbled as a thick boy with foggy glasses shoved into him. Fighting to regain his balance with the crowd, he considered ducking under the lot of them and sneaking toward the door. But he couldn’t leave Luca to face the stale-smelling crowd alone.

An alarm sounded on his communicator watch, followed by a buzz by the device up his arm. He had missed four other alarms because he had been preoccupied with the race. He glanced at the display, expecting to see instructions for yet another drill. It would be the third one this week.

PREP FULL EVAC

The display read. He looked twice to make sure he had read it right. Then a third just to be sure. But this one was not a drill. 

It was the real thing. He had to get Luca and get out of there.

————————————————————————

“LUCA!” He called into the crowd.

Luca wiggled through the stale bodies. “I saw it. Let’s go.” He hollered, snatching up his goggles and controller and headed for the door.

The cheering crowd followed the boys out of the pilot booth to the track, where Luca retrieved his spent drone.

“THANK YOU FOR JOINING US AT THE W.W.L. CHAMPIONSHIP! DON’T FORGET TO VISIT OUR PRO SHOP FOR CONCESSIONS, T-SHIRTS, AND THE LATEST DRONE GEAR!”

“I forgot the drone!” Luca grabbed Matt by the arm. The crowd was spilling into the lobby behind them. 

“Forget it! We gotta go!” Matt yelled to him. 

“Are you crazy? No way I’m leaving that behind!” Luca exclaimed, turning and running back toward the registration booth. Some of the crowd parted and followed him, while the announcement from the loudspeaker drew others to the Pro Shop in search of overpriced merchandise.

Matt ran after him, catching up with Luca just as the sandy-haired announcer was handing him his prize.

“I got it, Maps!” Luca turned around, his arms clutching the Husher Maxx Air drone and a box of accessories. “It’s really mine!”

‘Maps’ was the name his friends called him, ever since he had taken an affinity to studying old treasure maps.

“Amazing, let’s go.” Matt urged him frantically, pulling on his shirt.

Luca was behind him as Matt turned and broke into a sprint, but beat him to the entrance to the race complex’s front door. Even carrying his backpack full of equipment and his new drone gear, he was faster than Matt. He was, in fact, the fastest kid Matt had ever seen.

“Maybe if you could run faster, we wouldn’t always get busted.” Luca scowled at him, his gear bouncing around in his arms.

“This is real, Luca! They are going to kill us!” Matt huffed, stretching his stride to keep up.

“Don’t be so dramatic. It’s just another drill and they are testing us.” Luca rolled his eyes and sped up, his voice cracking as they rounded Nico Street to Payton Avenue. 

Matt’s house came into view. Luca’s parents, who lived directly across the street from Matt were already loaded up and climbing into their SUV. A small silver box trailer was hitched behind it.

“Oh scrag! It’s no drill! Hurry up Matt!” Luca yelled behind him, stumbling and nearly spraying his drone gear all over the street. 

Matt didn’t answer him. His parent’s SUV was backing up the driveway at his own house, his mom directing the driver toward the black box trailer behind it.

Matt’s sister, Jenna, ran out of the front door just in time to see her brother puffing up the sidewalk.

“He’s here! Mom!” She yelled, climbing into the SUV as Matt’s dad jumped out to hook up the trailer.

Matt opened the rear passenger door and tossed his backpack in, then sprinted for the house.

“Matthew! We don’t have time! Get in the car!” His mom yelled at him, closing the door to the box trailer. 

“I’ll just be a second!” Matt yelled, bounding the stairs two at a time up to his room. There was no way he was leaving his maps and supplies behind.

The old suitcase full of his supplies were gone. So were the maps he kept in the closet. Turning, he spotted Meeko, his stuffed raccoon between the pillows on his bed. Scooping him up, he took a last-minute look around his room.

This was the last time he would see it—any of it.

“MATT!” His mom’s voice screamed from the bottom of the stairs.

He snapped to and ran down the hall, meeting his mom halfway up the stairs. Without a word, she turned and hurried down the stairs as Matt followed her back to the SUV.

Dad had the trailer ready to go and was securing the straps of the luggage rack when they arrived. “Let’s move.” He said, voice calm. Matt could tell, however, by the sound of his voice he was more than flustered.

Matt rounded the SUV and hopped into the rear seat, just as his mom and dad climbed in and situated themselves in the front seat. Dad put the SUV in drive and pulled out of the driveway and onto the street. Luca’s parent’s were already gone.

“E-R-Four-Two,” The radio sounded. Dad picked up the small microphone attached to the dash. “E-R-Seven-One,” He responded, “See you soon.”

“Godspeed.” Came the reply.

‘E-R’ was the term they used to say they were ‘en route.’ ‘Four-Two’ was the identification over the radio for Luca’s family. ‘Seven-One’ was for Matt’s.

“You are in deep this time, Matt.” His sister Jenna said under her breath, scowling at him. He rolled his eyes at her, ignoring the comment.

He already knew he was in trouble. She didn’t need to rub it in.

Mom’s lips pursed as Dad whipped the SUV and trailer down the suburban streets of the small town of Post Falls. They had practiced this before, minus the trailer, so Dad knew the layout of the roads. What stoplights were more predictable, which routes had the least traffic no matter the time of day, and which streets were the most often patrolled.

“Your turn is coming up.” Mom did her best to say in a calm voice.

“I know—Bren,” Dad said with frustration, then added, “Sorry, hun, thanks for letting me know.”

Dad took the turn onto Mullan Street hard. Jenna grabbed seat below her, gritting her teeth. At one point, Matt believed the trailer behind them would tip over and spill its contents onto the street. Several cars honked as the SUV completed the turn. 

Dad pushed the gas pedal, and the SUV continued forward, zipping around cars until they reached the next turn. There was only one more turn after that, and from there, it was a straight shot out of town and into the mountains.

 It was seven-thirty in the evening in late July, so the sun was just beginning to make its way toward the horizon behind them. The SUV zoomed on, traveling well beyond the posted speed limits. Ahead, the last turn came into view. They passed the Dairy Queen, which had shuttered its doors only a month ago, with no explanation. Already it looked like ghosts had taken up residence in the abandoned building.

The Dairy Queen had been one of the last holdouts in town, as other restaurants had shut down long before. What had once been a thriving suburb town, now looked like a remnant of the past. Aside from a few gas stations, some poorly stocked grocery stores, and a single school, there were no other businesses left in town.

Many residents of Post Falls had left long ago in search of larger towns that may still hold a functioning Starbucks, but quite a few residents remained hoping better days were to follow. One thing was certain for those that remained, however, and that was they had grown weary of the situation.

Some blamed bad laws and corrupt lawmakers, and others blamed the pandemic that had dragged on for five years, but most knew the recent nationwide downturn had been because of the rise of the New Liberation Reformation—otherwise known as the ‘Purple Army.’

No one knew where they started or how they grew so large, but they quickly became the greatest threat the government had ever faced. They weren’t enemies from the outside, but from within—from their own people.

They had few demands, and they rarely issued idle threats. Give them control of a city, or face the consequences. Entire towns were burned, police and government buildings were destroyed, and businesses were looted. Usually after the Purple Army rioted, a town didn’t survive.

The government had no choice but to take lethal force against the rising force. But where were they to start? Members of the army could be anywhere, in any town, planning the next takeover. The only thing the government could do was take over the town first.

It began as a goodwill gesture from the government, establish a military presence in town to protect citizens. But when towns became cesspools of violence anyway, the government unleashed its fury. Detain, interrogate, harass citizens to get information. Unless you could prove it, you were already designated as an army insurgent and were considered a threat to the American public.

Both Matt’s dad and Luca’s dad were employed by the government. Matt’s father Tam worked as an accountant for the State Department, and Luca’s father Thiago was a contract recruiter for multiple agencies—although Luca let it slip to Matt one day that he was sure his dad was a spy.

It didn’t matter if he was or not, because both men had been preparing their families for the worst yet to come. The recent outbursts of violence had brought about a new program within the government to ‘tag’ all citizens in order to track them. A small implant, designed to track movements, provide vitals and identifying information about an individual, and even deliver vaccines was the technology being implemented. The ‘tag,’ would allow an AI central mainframe to process and analyze about any citizen over the age of fifteen.

While most readily accepted the new program, many did not. The government responded, and either imprisoned or killed those who resisted. Some fought back and were gunned down. Prisoners who were caught were forced to accept the tag. 

Matt and Luca’s parents were coerced early on into taking the tag since they worked for the government, and they regretted it ever since. All of their movements, all purchases, and all social media posts were tracked. With some help from Luca’s father they were able to temporarily block the tag’s transmission, but it could only be done for a few days before the AI got suspicious.

After the government began arrests, Matt and Luca’s parents decided they would need to be ready to retreat together to the hills to avoid their children being tagged. Matt’s grandfather owned a curious property somewhere in the northern Idaho mountains, rumored to comprise several thousand acres of wilderness with an old abandoned mansion in the middle of it. 

Matt had never been to the property, but his father had. When Matt was very young, Tam’s father showed up and gave him the keys to the place without so much as a word about it. Then he disappeared.

Matt didn’t know his grandfather, only that he was a very mysterious person who was gone a lot. Tam didn’t like to talk much about him, not that there was much to talk about. It was almost as if he knew as much about his father as Matt did. 

   “They are going to set up the blocks, Tam. You have to drive faster.” His mom said, leaned forward into the dash peering out the windshield. 

Several armored vehicles were approaching from both directions, their flat green and black shells looking like giant square beetles marching in a line.

“I knew we should have left sooner—” His mom started.

“One more turn left—and it’s going to be a doozy!” His dad interrupted, gripping the steering wheel as the turn rushed toward them. 

Jenna grabbed Matt’s hand. Her face was white as a ghost. Matt suddenly felt incredibly guilty for putting them all in danger.