Federal Apocalypse Chapter 1 part 1

Next in line." The words I have always hated hearing, especially at this time of year. But unfortunately it was that time of year again, time to pay property taxes.

"Come on. Come on,” I mumbled, to myself looking down at my watch, checking the time.

"Looks like you like coming here as much as I do." The man behind me said. "
I chuckled a little bit," You have no idea. This is complete bullshit. The people that live across the bridge don't have to do this."

"Yeah I know, but sadly there isn't anything we can do about it."

"Well, there is but I don't think I should say it here. It's just complete and utter bullshit that we even have to pay this stuff. If you ask me it's just another way for them to make more money off of us."

"Next." The teller yelled out once again, I turned my head to look back in front of me, to see how far the line was moving along, then drew my attention back to the man I was talking to.
  
"That's exactly what it is. But hey, at least we're almost out of here. You got one more person left, then you're free to go."

"Yeah." I smiled.

"Next." The teller yelled out. I approached the booth, pulling a piece of paper out of my back pocket, and put it on the counter in front of me. The young woman with sand blonde hair and piercing green eyes started typing my information on the computer. I looked at her name tag, noticing her name was Tamera.

  This is probably the most attractive woman I've seen in a federal building in a long time. I thought to myself.

"Alright sir-"

"Please, call me Rob."
Tamera cleared her throat for a moment and continued," Okay, Rob. Did you own a vehicle in the year two thousand and nine?" She asked.

"Yes, but not the same one I own now.”

"Okay." She typed out more stuff on the computer. I was surprised she could type as fast as she did, with her fake nails, but somehow she managed to do it well.

"Okay, did you own your house back in two thousand and nine?"  She asked, looking up at me with her beautiful green eyes.

"Yes ma'am."

"Okay, well you don't owe anything on your car this time. But you need to go over to the next side, to see how much you owe for your house. Here, take this over there." She printed out a piece of paper and handed it to me.

I let out a sigh, sticking my chest out “Come on now, don't do that to me." I said in a flirty way.

"Sorry but I have to do what I got to do."

I grinned," I know I'm just messing with you…Thanks."
    I walked off toward the other side of the building and as I did I heard a big clash of thunder. I looked over at the guy I had been talking to.

"Was it supposed to rain?" I asked him.

"No, I don't think so." He shook his head.

"If you have your windows down you better go roll them up. It looks as though it's going to rain."

"That's odd."
I nodded and continued walking toward the other side of the building. This time there was no wait. I looked around both ways, making sure that I wasn't dreaming, but sure enough there was no line. I walked up to the booth and handed the woman my paper. Once again I looked down at the teller’s name, but this time it read Kyla.

"Okay so you just need to see how much you owe for your house?"

I nodded," Yes, ma'ma."

"Alrighty." She said, typing just as fast on her keyboard, if not faster than Tamera.

"So, Tamera…has she been working her for a long time?" I decided to strike up conversation while waiting for her to look up my information.

"Sir, I'm not classified to tell you that information.”
I raised an eyebrow," It's just a simple question. You can't tell me how long she's been working here?"

"Sir-" As she said Sir another big crash of thunder hit, but this time it shook the whole building. I looked up at the ceiling. Great. I thought to myself. Just where I want to be when a storm hits; in a freaking federal building. She cleared her throat," Sir, if you don't mind, I'm trying to do my job."
       
   Once again another clash of loud thunder hit and shook the building.
"Hold that thought.” I held up one finger and ran over toward the first part of the doors, looking up at the sky. Even though it was only two thirty in the evening it looked like it was ten –o-clock at night.  

"Uhhh does anyone have a smart phone or anything to check the weather?!" I yelled out.
     The crowd all looked among themselves looking like I just said some sort of gibberish. I was hoping the man I talked to a few minutes ago had one. I looked around for him in the crowd, but he was nowhere to be found. He must have paid his dues and got out.

"Why are you all looking at me like I'm stupid? Do any of you have a smart phone!?"  I yelled.

"Actually I do!," Tamera said from behind the counter.

"What's the weather say?" I asked as another clash of loud thunder came rolling through.

"Sir, you need to calm down! Don't make me call security it's just a storm coming in." Kyla said, trying to get me to come back to booth where I had been.
       
     Ignoring her I walked back over to the door waiting to hear what Tamera was going to say. I looked out the glass doors again, as another clash of thunder shook the building, and the sky grew darker.

"Well, that can't be right.” I heard Tamera say.

"What, what is it?" I asked, quickly walking back over to her so I could hear her better.
"My phone it's not-"

"Not working." A man answered in the line for her. At this point everyone took out their cell phones and looked at their signal; nobody in line had service. 
    
     Out of nowhere I heard a loud bang the ground everyone was standing on started to shake, lights started to flicker, and I heard loud clashes of metal from outside. Everyone in line had crouched down putting their hands over their head, hoping that the building wasn't coming down. I probably should have done the same thing, but I ran back over to the doors, going through the first set, and looking out the second set. I looked to the right, seeing parked cars being flipped upside down and being thrown in the air. Across the street I thought I saw what looked like a person lying on the sidewalk but I wasn't sure.
"What the hell?" I mumbled to myself, as I continued to watch cars fly up in the air, and being destroyed.
    
   Shortly after the man that I was talking to earlier interrupted my focused I was talking to before in the line. He quickly opened up the door next to me and fell through. He had a huge gash on the side of his head.

"What the hell!?" I yelled, grabbing him by the arms, pulling him back into the main room.
    Now I was starting to hear sirens in the distance going off. Not just rescue sirens, either. This was the evacuation sirens.  Everyone that was in line was now gathering around to see what was going on. Most of them were trying to use their cell phones, but couldn't get any service. I knew they were trying to call their families to see what was going on.

"What the hell is going on out there?" I asked.

"I..I.." The man stuttered, trying to get the rest out. Not only was he losing a lot of blood, but he was also in shock.

"Is there a medical supply kit in here?"

"Here." Tamera handed me one. I looked up to see her and the rest of the tellers out of their booths too.
      
     I quickly opened the medical kit and cleaned the wound on his head the best I could," Could someone let me borrow their jacket, or their shirt, or something to help with the bleeding. This blood is going to go right through the gauze." A man from behind me handed me his jacket. I tried the best I could to calm the man down.
"Okay, first off I need you to tell me your name."
"It's-"

"Take your time if you need to."

"It's Dave."

I smiled," Its nice meeting you Dave. My name is Rob. Now whenever you can I need you to tell me what you saw out there, and feel free to start from the beginning."

"I was walking back to my car when I started to hear sirens in the distance...I thought it was just because it was raining in the distance and that there had been wrecks. But that's not what it was at all...No I was wrong. So I ignored it and started to get into my car that's when the loud clashes of thunder started. So I started my car, looking into my rear-view mirror noticing that cars behind me were flying up in the air. Before I could even put my car in to drive my car started to lift up in the air. So I quickly opened up the door and got out."

"Okay, how did you get the gash on your head?"
"I...don't remember
"That's okay, just take your time but it's important that you tell us all the details."
        
      Outside I heard more crashes and booms, followed by a mixture of metal grinding together. I stood back up wrapping my arms in front of my chest. As I did someone out of the group grabbed me by my shoulder.

"Sir, what in the hell is going on?"

"I don't know that's what I'm trying to figure out. “I said, making my way over to one of the chairs, in the waiting room, and hoping up onto it.

"Everyone listen up!" I yelled out and as I did the sounds of crashing metal got louder.

"I know it's hard, but focus your attention on me for just a second. As bad as I hate to admit and as bad as it sounds, we probably aren't going to be able to leave here anytime soon. So all of us should just go ahead and get acquainted with one another. We need to go around the room and introduce all of us to one another. I know that sounds very childish, but I think it's for the best. As you all know my name is Rob. However, you all don't know what I do for a living, or my last name. I think it's important to know our last names, and what we do for a living. My last name is Lockhart. I'm a full-time mechanic. I work on cars at Fred's Auto Shop down town. In my free time I work on cars at my house too. I have my own garage that I take customers in and work on their cars. It's something I love doing. Who knows maybe I have worked on some of your cars before. That's all you really need to do. But before we go on I'm going to add one more little thing. I'm sure all of you are wondering why I'm keeping my cool in this situation, and that's because I'm an ex-Navy seal. I have been trained to keep my calm in situations like this. So whenever I step down off this chair, I want the person closest to me to come up and do the same thing." I stepped off the chair and went to stand beside of Dave.
     
    The person that was closets to me whom was a heavy set man stood up on the chair," My name is Ben Altman. I work in a factory as a fork lift driver." Ben stepped down and the next person stepped up on the chair. This man was a taller skinner looking guy. He has short brown hair and a weird looking smile.

"My name is Andrew. I currently don't work…I go to college as a full time student. I'm just in town visiting for the summer." Andrew stepped down for the chair as the other woman that works in the office stepped up.

"My name is Tamera. I work here full-time Monday through Friday." She stepped down off of the chair as the next person behind her stood up on the chair.

"Hello, everyone my name is Jeff. I wor-" Jeff was quickly cut off by the lights going out. For a second everything went quiet, then Tamera let out a blood curling scream, which caused everyone to jump out of their skin.

"What what's going on?" I asked, trying to reach out to the Tamera.

"I..I saw something move outside." She said looking out the doors. I don't know how she was able to see anything, considering how dark it was outside, or inside for that matter. I placed my hand on her shoulder.

"Did you see what it was?"
      
    She shook her head," I wasn't able to make out what it was, it was a real shadowy like figure." As she said this I noticed the building shook a little bit.

"Did anybody else feel that?" I looked around trying to see if anyone else felt the building shake.

"I did." Dave said rocking back and forth, cradling himself like a little child would," They've found a way into the building."
     
I quickly walked over to Dave, crouching down on one knee, putting my hand on his shoulder," What do you mean they?"

"Them or whatever this thing is? Don't you see!? A simple storm couldn't just do this to me. This has to be some sort of alien invasion or something. None of our cell phones are working. Don't you see this isn't some type of storm!?"
      
   I quickly grabbed Dave by his shoulders looking him in the face," You have suffered a severe blow to the temple, you're a little bit delusional right now."

"No!" He swatted my hands off of his shoulder," I'm not crazy I'm completely sane! Listen to me damn it! If we don't do something soon they are going to come after all of us!"

"No you listen to me! If you don't calm down you are going to cause all these people to panic and in a situation like this we don't need that right now. So you're going to have to calm down, or I'm going to have to calm you down, and trust me you don't want me doing that. Do you understand?"
Dave nodded.

"Good. Now I'm going to need you to keep pressure on that and sit here, and remain calm." I stood back up making my way back over toward the group.

"So dude, what’s the plan?" Jeff asked.

"We're going to need to try some sort of light source. Kyla, Tamera  where are the main power sources located?"

"I'm still kind of new to the place, but Tamera might know."

"If you take the stairs all the way down to the basement the main breaker should be down there somewhere. I have had to close this place for a good time now. Not by myself of course. Jim is usually here."

"Jim?" I raised an eyebrow.

"He's on vacation."

"Just making sure he's not in the group, I'd have him go with me. Do you have any emergency flashlights anywhere throughout the building?" I asked.

"I'm sure one of the offices upstairs has to have some somewhere. I've never been there though. I mainly stay down here. Only the big wigs are allowed to go up there, or the sheriff. His office is on the very top floor."
     
    The building shook again, but this time more violently.
"Okay I defiantly felt that this time." Kyla said.

"We need to hurry up and find a light source so we can scope the place out and see how bad the damage is. My guess is that that's the reason why it's shaking, but we can't do anything without a light source. Hold on one more second. "       
          
I made my way from the group and went back over to the chair.
"I'm going to need three male volunteers from the group. I won't force anyone to do anything. I'm only going to take volunteers."
            Now that my eyes were starting to adjust, I could see a little bit better. I couldn't believe that the first person to volunteer was Jeff. Out of all people I personally didn't think he'd be the one to volunteer so quickly, considering he looked like stoner and all. I looked around the party, so far only seeing one hand out from the group.

"Only one person?" I asked scanning the group for one more person. As I did Ben the forklift driver held his hand up," I'll go with you but I have a question first."

"Okay, go ahead."

"Why don't we just walk outside the building and see what's causing it to shake, without having to go through all this shit?"

"If you want to go out there and get hit in the head like Dave did go ahead. My guess is we're probably safer in here than out there, considering there are a bunch of cars flipped over out there."

"Okay and one more question. Who made you the leader of the group?"
          
      I clenched my teeth together, holding back the words I really wanted to say. I wanted to call him a complete asshole. I wanted to yell out at him and tell him that if he felt like dying, then by all needs feel free to go ahead out there. But I knew if I said any of those things it would cause an uproar in the group. Being careful with what I said I just said," I just figured seems how I have military experience that I could take control of the situation."

Ben slowly approached me, giving me a nasty look out of the side of his eye," Okay then what's your grandmaster plan?"

"Seems how you're a bigger guy I was going to have you stay