Codename Alpha

Chapter 19

"Nach einem bestätigten Terroranschlag auf ein Chemielager in Neuburg an der Donau wurde eine föderale Fahndung eingeleitet. Zum Glück wurde niemand verletzt, aber das Austreten von Chemikalien hat zu einer Erweiterung der Quarantänezone geführt."

"Man, talk about idyllic," Jack said. "This entire planet feels like a national park so far."

We were going downhill now, and were surrounded on both sides by thick forest. He definitely wasn't wrong- combined with the orange sunlight, it really did make for a rather idyllic scene.

"Die Behörden haben die gesamte Gemeinde Oberhausen evakuiert. Zusätzlich wird der Bundesgrenzschutz in und um Oberhausen sowie der Metropolregion Stuttgart anwesend sein und an der Fahndung teilnehmen. Erneut werden alle Bürger aufgefordert, verdächtige Personen der Polizei zu melden. Arbeiten Sie mit Mitgliedern des Bundesgrenzschutzes und Polizeibeamten zusammen, die dies möglicherweise benötigen."

The monotone rambling of the radio was getting a bit grating, so I decided to shut it off. If I knew what was being said, it would likely be a different story.

"I'm gonna go ahead and sleep a bit," Max announced. "Wake me up if the apocalypse descends upon us or something like that."

"Will do," I said. I watched the calm forest outside pass by while listening to the truck's engine. After a couple minutes, we came into the outskirts of a town, with houses going up the side of the hill to our left.

"I'll see if I can get us back onto the highway," Jack said.

"Actually, I think it might be best if you found somewhere to stop entirely. The sun is starting to set, and we'd be far easier to pick out from both the ground and the air if we're out at night."

"Yeah, fair point. Seeing as they're deploying helicopters to this region, they're probably gonna start patrolling," he said.

"Well, it's entirely possible that they were returning to base or something. I mean, for all we know, they're participating in a military exercise. Still, though..." I could still feel the sound of the helicopters flying overhead in my chest, even though it had been hours and they were nowhere near.

"Eh, better safe than sorry. I've been thinking more about what you said earlier, too. It's just that... well, there's no guarantee that there actually is a shuttle in orbit. I just feel like we'd be taking too much of a risk based on something that could potentially be true, not even factoring in the variables that could be in play."

"Well, again, I think it'd be easier to at some point just try and call them, before things are escalated any further. If they're not there, and we're caught, then... well, the inevitable results of this whole ordeal happen. It'd just be getting us there sooner."

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, that makes sense. A bit grim, but... it makes sense."

"Damned if you, do damned if you don't," Max commented.

I nodded in agreement. "Aren't you sleeping?" I asked, turning around in my chair.

"I'll get around to it," he answered, laughing slightly.

He continued driving through this town, until eventually arriving at an intersection. He had inadvertently gotten us into the turning lane, so no matter what, we'd be going left. Since we had no set destination in mind, though, it wasn't that much of a problem. The bus we were behind started moving once the light turned green, and so did we. My heart skipped a beat when I saw an odd-looking hatchback behind us, positioned at the other side of the intersection.

Normally, I'd just write it off as any other car, but this one had the definite look of a police car to it- with the doors and hood colored green, and two very notable blue lights on opposite sides of a box that was likely the siren. White text reading 'POLIZEI' was on the doors, but for all I knew it meant 'food delivery' or something like that.

"I think we've got police right behind us," I warned, while turning off the radio.

"Oh, no..." Jack said. "Just stay calm. If we've played our cards right, they're still looking for..."