Where's the Kaboom?

 

“Jess, I’m standing near the site now. At the moment, this is as close as the police are letting us get. It’s still unsure exactly whether this was something intentional or if it was an infrastructure failure of some kind. We can however report that there have been a number of deaths. The exact figure though at the moment will not be known for some time. All we can say with certainty right now is that everyone here is praying for those injured to pull through. Jess -.”

Jessica Halbert stood behind the news desk, being fed information coming through the teleprompter. It had now been several hours since the explosion at Children’s Montessori School in Lompoc, California. And in just a few moments, more information would be coming through, confirming the final figure at 23 – 17 students and 5 teachers. The explosion that ripped through the school that afternoon at precisely 12pm had spawned a massive fireball that all but destroyed the school and damaged nearby homes.

It was the first school bombing on U.S. soil since the 1927 Bath School Massacre that killed 38 children. During the following hours and covering the evening news that night, cause of the explosion and the final death count would be the only talking points on any channel.

The public had, it seemed, little time to mourn the loss of those children and teachers, as at precisely 12pm the following day, another incident occurred in a completely unrelated area. The explosion at the Stratosphere Casino restaurant, arguably made for much grandeur television exposure. Amongst the Las Vegas skyline, in a tower almost twice as high as the Seattle Space Needle, smoke billowed from the ‘Top of the World’ restaurant.

Fire crews would soon discover the inside of the restaurant completely gutted from the explosion, with a final death toll of 72. Most of these people were restaurant goers, enjoying the midday Vegas skyline in the comfort of a chilled midair castle.

That afternoon and all through the night, an inescapable detail couldn’t leave the minds of the police, news presenters and the general public. Two explosions, on consecutive days, and both occuring at precisely midday. Everyone knew the acts were intentional, which is why that wasn’t the issue for discussion. The question on everyone’s lips was ‘where was tomorrow’s explosion going to happen?’.

The problem was that the locations were completely different. The first was a modern school for teaching children, located in a small Californian city. The second was a high class restaurant overlooking Las Vegas, 300 miles away. If the point of the bombs was to cause confusion, the perpetrators certainly succeeded. The next explosion however, for there surely would be one, would end up clarifying both the location and possibly endgame to these attacks.

The following day, with the sun held high in the sky, news of the next attack was being slowly spread. Located further inland, 600 miles from Las Vegas, a generating station just south of the city of Pueblo, Colorado was being engulfed in flames. Comanche Generating Station was the largest power plant in the state, generating almost 1.5GW of electricity, and with it shut down, much of the surrounding cities were being knocked offline and left in the dark. The death toll from this attack however, was only five, thanks to a bare-bones staff.

The information that came from this attack though, was invaluable, and anyone could have seen the pattern. With a ruler, you could draw a single straight line through all three attack points. Even though the distance between the three events didn’t offer any substantial clues, the fact that they had direction meant everything. The attacks were travelling east, across the country.

This was not the only important detail, however. The issue that people eventually realised was something the news channels echoed throughout the night, and sent the nation into a panic. If you followed the line further east, eventually you would intersect Washington DC. Not only would you reach Washington, but if you used the exact location of the attacks, down to the foot, the line would perfectly intersect The White House. No one knew what to say, so they said everything.

On the news that night, the head of the FBI, Christopher Wray would report that they were taking all measures to circumvent any plans against the nation’s capital. He assured the public at home that The White House had been declared safe and secure by highly trained bomb squads and sniffer dogs. This didn’t help the people at home.

The next day was the worst up to that point. Leading up to noon, people didn’t know if Washington was today’s target or if it was something closer along the line. News channels reported a sharp decrease in traffic along and crossing that imaginary line. People were actually avoiding the area’s it crossed for fear of being targeted; after all, there didn’t seem to be any particular points the attackers targeted. If it was on the line, it was fair game.

Against pressure from parents and employees, all schools and businesses that stood on the line remained open. Despite this, many people refused to come to work, and many parents kept their children home.

That day, as the minutes ticked closer to noon, the hustle and bustle of regions along that line slowed down. By the time the second hand made it’s way across the 12, many cars stopped in midday traffic to avoid the line, and life had all but stopped. People were listening, hoping not to hear a boom, or a bang. And as if to taunt the faith most people had that day to still go about their lives, the attack struck the Kansas City Missouri Temple, during congregation.

Images that day of the huge collapsed building, and the steeple laying on the front lawn, made it’s way across the world. The body count had settled at 54, and the country didn’t know what to do.

That night, the president decided that the nation deserved a public address to stop the fear that had gripped the country.

Today we mourn the loss of 54 human souls from this great nation. Despite the tragedy which has taken place today, I think it is important to heed the victims’ advice through their actions. They chose to spend today with faith, faith that we will continue with our lives no matter what some cowardly group thinks they can do to us. Tonight I wish to instil faith in the people of this great country that our nations capital is safe and will continue to stand, to spread the idea of freedom and faith throughout the world. We will not be shaken by these acts, and we will continue our way of life. Thank you.

And that was it. A sixty second speech, and the president was done. As he turned around and walked down the carpet, out of sight, yelling from the public and news interviewers could be heard behind the camera. But maybe that was the message in itself; that the government didn’t know how to respond to such a threat. It was something that they couldn’t see, but could still anticipate down to the second. These attacks would continue, and if the next one happened to be Washington, then it would be just that.

After the attack that day, the next brought confusion and absolute fear. Each attack seemed to be roughly spaced, and the last location before reaching Washington seemed to be somewhere above Cincinnati. Along this line stood churches, schools, businesses and homes. Thousands worked and played on this line, and just like the previous attacks, most went on as normal.

At 12pm, as the lunch bell rang at Endeavour Elementary School, 312 children and staff would pay victim to their virtue. The country mourned. The country readied.

It had now been five days since the bombing of the Californian School. Even though the next target was undoubtedly Washington, cities, towns, townships, and roads across the line between Cincinnati and Washington all but came to a halt. False alarms, and prank threats abounded that day, shutting down major airports and causing overall chaos. Even though the public knew this was exactly what the terrorist wanted, it wasn’t in the public’s power to do anything about it. They couldn’t stop the human instinct to fear a threat, and they couldn’t stop how people acted in large groups.

By far the worst affected leading up to noon was Washington. Both Dulles and Reagan International Airport had closed that day due to the influx of dozens of bomb tips or threats. Roads were closed for use by public officials only, and all non essential business had no choice but to close. The president kept his word that day and was nowhere near the city. It would later be found that he was held up in a secure bunker several hundred miles away.

The clock ticked closer to twelve. Washington’s streets laid empty and quiet. Along them were sparse groups of soldiers standing silently, ready to engage a target, or simply redirect errant traffic; it wasn’t certain.

The public waited for a bang. The public waited for a bang.

12 o’clock came and went. Nothing happened. The soldiers on the ground did nothing, and the news presenters close by had nothing to report. It got to be 5 in the evening and nothing happened in the state of Washington. There were a few threats made and false reporting from around the area, but nothing substantial. Nothing came about from the entire day, and the country thought.

Maybe that was the whole point. Over the past 20 years, the country had slowly been more and more desensitised to shootings and bombings. People knew all the likely well known targets, so the terrorists needed something new. What if instead of a place and no time, you had a time with no place. What if being kept in waiting, in fear, was the terrorism? The people involved in these attacks, however few there were, managed to shut down an entire city without ever setting foot in it. They used our expectations against us. They did this and they won.