The Alpha Chronicles by Joe Nobody Read Free Book Online Page A

or why she was there. Something about a whistle. Something about that was important.
    Her neck was stiff, one arm was asleep, and she was still wearing yesterday’s clothes. Commanding her body to shift for relief, the stack of papers on her chest fell to the floor and scattered. It all instantly came back - she had been reviewing the endless volume of paperwork when exhaustion had overcome her determination to clean out her inbox.
    Sitting up on the office couch, she rubbed her eyes and threw a disgusted look at the chaotic mass of forms, requests, and status reports strewn about the floor. No rest for the wicked , she thought.
    As she bent to rearrange the clutter, the distant whistle sounded again. The signal caused her head to snap up, energy suddenly surging through her veins. The whistle was a call for help… an emergency… a rudimentary alarm system for a community that didn’t possess working telephones.
    Half-stumbling toward the office door, she was relieved to discover Nick snoring away on the reception area’s couch. With only a minor pang of guilt about waking someone who needed rest as much as she, Diana gently called out, “Nick…. Nick…. Someone’s blowing a whistle.”
    Being a professional military man instills many small, hardly noticeable habits in a person. Long-time soldiers learn to eat quickly, sleep anywhere, and store their personal items in a regimented, efficient way. One such attribute developed over many campaigns in hostile lands is the capability to awaken quickly – to transform from a deep slumber to alert and ready faster than most.
    While the question of “Whistle?” was rolling off his tongue, Nick’s legs were already sweeping off the sofa, heading for the carpeted floor. Before Diana could react, his right hand had touched the rifle leaning nearby while his left was reaching for socks and boots.
    “I heard a whistle, twice I think. I’m sure of the second signal.”
    Nick was tying off his boot when the third screech of alarm reached the couple’s ears.
    “Something’s very wrong,” Diana announced as she pulled on her flats.
    Two minutes later, the couple bounded down the church steps, unsure of what they were facing. While Nick and some of the men carried handheld radios for communication, the vast majority of Alpha’s citizens did not. No telephone service meant no calling 9-1-1. It had become common practice for the townsfolk to use whistles when an emergency required quick response.
    The handy, little noisemakers provided a first-rate solution. The flat desert terrain, coupled by the still Texas air, provided an excellent environment for their effective use. Plentiful, cheap, and easy to use, anyone of any age could call for help with a single, strong exhalation - the only shortcoming being that the responders didn’t have any idea about the nature of the crisis. An elderly person may have fallen. Looters might be trying to break into a home. A child may have gone missing, or someone could be too sick to get out of bed.
    The cause of tonight’s alarm became obvious moments after the couple pushed through the church’s front doors. A red glow on the horizon announced something was on fire, and it wasn’t a trash barrel. A telltale whiff of smoke, scorching plastic, and toxic fumes provided a confirmation that whatever was burning, it wasn’t inconsequential.
    Nick glanced down at his rifle and chest rig, sure he wouldn’t be needing the firepower, but not wanting to take the time to return the equipment to the church. He and Diana ran to the nearby golf cart and were soon speeding toward the firestorm.
    On the way to the blaze, Nick pondered the cause of these random fires. Without the expertise and training of a professional investigator, there was really no way to be sure. Alpha’s entire fire department had succumbed to the toxic cloud of gas released that fateful Sunday morning when the chemical plant exploded. 
    There had been a rash of small blazes