Beyond the Horizon: New Dawn

13) Anthony

Anthony shot out of his sleep after feeling something land on him. He picked up the piece of fabric off his face and saw it was a UN jumpsuit. Standing in the doorway of his room was Captain Boyd. "Get up," he ordered. "Mila's got somethin' for us."

Anthony looked at the time and saw that it was seven in the morning. He put on his jumpsuit then left his bedroom. He could hear Mila on the phone with Captain Boyd as he entered the common area. Adah was already in the room sitting next to him.

"Alright Mila," Captain Boyd began as Anthony sat down with them. "Anthony's here, what'd you find?"

"Matt's hunch was right," Mila announced. "The hospitals are indeed empty, and by the looks of it, Leslie was telling the truth. There are no doctors either. I'm sending each of you footage we pulled from the cameras last night."

Anthony took out his phone and took a look at the footage Mila was alluding to. The hospitals were deserted and from the looks of what was on the cameras, the only other people in the sector were Venusian guards. It was possible that if there were doctors in Atlas, they were wherever the infected were. But as far as Anthony and the others knew, the infected were not even in the sector.

"We have to find the people that were taken," Adah announced. "Any ideas?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say Obelisk Stadium."

"What makes you say that?"

"It's large enough to hold the Atlas population. I don't see anywhere else those people could have been moved to."

"Unless they were spaced," Anthony pointed out.

"That is also a possibility," Mila admitted.

Captain Boyd shook his head. "Can't be that. Someone would have had to have seen it. Would have been reported."

Adah turned to Captain Boyd. "Maybe we should tell President Ying."

"We could end up in prison," Anthony responded in protest.

Adah curled her eyebrows together. "For telling him that his people aren't being treated? That they're probably dead or dying?"

"No, for hacking into their cameras and breaking into a quarantine zone."

"Daydreamer has a point," Captain Boyd said, putting an end to the argument. "Telling the man who warned us directly to follow his laws sounds like a bad idea. But we've no weapons and no real way to investigate the situation here. So we need to get help from Venusians we could trust." He turned to Anthony. "Governor Leonard, is she someone we could trust?"

"Absolutely," Anthony answered in a convincing fashion. "Ashley would come through for us."

Captain Boyd nodded. "Mila, you still there?"

"Yea Captain," Mila responded.

"Alright here's the plan. I want you to find Azarov and tell him everything that we've uncovered about Atlas. He should have a way to bypass whatever security systems are in place that're blocking our access to the Atlas cameras. Anthony I want you to get in contact with Governor Leonard and like with Azarov you're going to tell her everything. We're going to go back into Atlas and find out where those people are, so we'll need weapons."

Anthony shot him an apprehensive look. "You're not planning on attacking Venusian guards are you?"

Captain Boyd shrugged. "I'm not sure yet. Depends if they attack us. But if we do see them, we will assess the situation and act accordingly. Everyone got that? Good, now let's do this."

Anthony returned to his room and gave Ashley a call. She sounded surprised that Anthony had called her, but knew right away that it was not a personal call. He followed Captain Boyd's instructions and informed her about what they had discovered in Atlas. Ashley struggled to believe what he had told her since she and Governor Conrad had a close relationship. She found it hard to believe that he would deceive the rest of the governors and jeopardize the lives of the hundreds of Venusians in Atlas. She wanted evidence to support the bold claim he was making. Anthony shared how he and the others were contacting Azarov to gain access to all of the cameras in Atlas to confirm their suspicions. Ashley wanted to be there when they gained said access and told Anthony that she was on her way over to them. Before he could ask her where they could get some weapons, she hung up the phone. All he could do now was wait for her arrival.