Given the opportunity, we could sleep anywhere at any time, especially when it came down to us not knowing when we would sleep next. I figured I'd let him rest for an hour or so, and we still had, by my count, 2 hours before the sun would come up.
Once Renton was out cold, I pulled out my smartphone and double-checked sunrise was at 7:20 am.
'Plenty of time to scout what's happening outside, now where the hell did I put that thing.' I thought while standing up and slinging my rifle over my shoulder.
We hadn't looked out since the barricade was constructed, so I figured now would be as good a time as ever.
I quietly left Renton and the sleeping trio in the living room before heading to my bedroom, where all my favorite toys awaited me.
However, I first set up my laptop with the camera on to watch over everyone's sleep, and with a few taps, my phone was connected, forming a pseudo-baby monitor.
Renton and I had positioned the other computers in the house at each door so we could have a camera on everything at once, surveillance at its finest. I had eyes and ears on the two main entrances and my family and friends.
Making my way to the second floor, I grumbled and shook my head at the lack of security measures.
We hadn't done much to the upstairs windows except put up blackout shades to keep peering eyes from somehow looking in, and we weren't worried about someone breaking in from the second floor.
The only way to get in would be climbing up and smashing the window, which we would hear instantly.
Making my way to my room, I dimmed the light on my phone, put it on the desk next to my window, and began shuffling through my closet to find my prized toy, my hand-built remote-controlled drone.
I had disassembled it before I shipped it out for boot camp, so it took me twenty minutes to reassemble it and get the device into flight condition.
It had taken me two years and way more money than I was willing to admit to build this drone, the bulk of which was eaten up by the bulky control's onboard LED screen dead center. This screen was linked to the mounted swivel cam on the nose of the drone, giving me eyes in the sky.
I had boosted the range on the transceiver to allow a flight of 10 miles, so I was going to be able to scout quite a distance around the apartment to see what had happened since the message from Niklaus had gone live.
After talking it over with Renton, we decided this to be a better plan than leaving the building to do reconnaissance. Upon getting my drone operational, I locked my phone, closed my door, and double-checked no light was coming from the room. Only then did I remove the blackout shade from the window.
However, what I saw made my heart drop because as much as I expected the scene to be what it was, it still tore at me; my home, the block I grew up on, was in shambles.
My street looked utterly unrecognizable; in only five hours, the road had been littered with broken glass and debris from other apartments, and it looked as if ours was the only one left untouched. If I had to guess, they knew damn well that they would lose if they tried attacking our place.
Cars were overturned, and there were small patches of fire everywhere. Then there were the people I could see nearby, dragging families out their front doors and beating them for no reason. Everything had gone to shit.
Gritting my teeth and going through the pre-flight boot-up on the drone, I linked the two cameras, opened my window, and placed the drone down on the ledge. Once I was sure it was clear of harm, I locked the window and replaced the blackout shade.
My block looked like a warzone; nearly every apartment had been broken into; as I eased the Drone around the block, I gained altitude and swiveled the camera to get a wider shot of the surrounding area.
Soon enough caught sight of a group of looters who had dragged a family out of their home and had them kneeling in the street as they tore through their belongings.
The mother, a brown-haired middle-aged woman with her clothes disheveled and torn in places, had her young Son in her arms, and both were in tears.
The father, an older man with salt and pepper hair near my Dad's age, was visually angry, and with a simple glance to read his body language, I knew what he planned on doing.
"Don't do it," I muttered quietly, but he couldn't hear me. Unable to contain himself any longer, the man jumped to his feet and rushed the looters, but the fight was over quickly. Four men grabbed him and knelt him down in front of his family, put the barrel of a rifle to the back of his head, and executed him.
I watched as the Son pulled away from his mother, rushed to his Dad, and looked at his father's murderers with a mixture of sorrow and rage before shouting something at them. They responded by grabbing his mother and executing her in front of him as well; I then watched as they turned their weapon on the boy.
But I had seen enough and did the only thing I could. I dipped the Drone and aimed it at the man holding the rifle.
They heard the Drone long before they could see it, and it took their attention from the boy long enough, allowing him to break free to run away.
Meanwhile, I expertly maneuvered the Drone so that it pulled up just before it crashed into the looters sending them all jumping to the ground.
Then, swiveling the camera in the direction the kid ran, I noticed him stop at an alleyway and look back at his slain parents with tears in his eyes.
Releasing a sigh, I could only shake my head and push the emotions I was feeling down. It tore at me because I knew that might very well be me.
As I struggled to do so, the boy turned away from the crime scene and fled into the night, never seeing his parents again.
When the looters realized the boy was gone, I had the Drone up and out of range.
"Small victories," I said quietly; I couldn't do much given how things were looking outside. If I had chosen to go out guns blazing to save the family, all I would have succeeded in was leaving my post and putting my loved ones in harm's way.
Flying the Drone over our building and continuing my survey of the surroundings, my eyes flicked down to my phone after seeing movement; luckily, it was only Renton changing positions and getting comfortable.
Still, that caused my eyes to shift toward the countdown timer on the TV; I had been questioning what would happen when that timer hit zero since it first popped up. That was the question the entire world was hanging on. Hell, it was enough to drive people to Loot and Riot in the streets; even Murder wasn't off the table for some.
Yet here I was, flying a remote-controlled drone, watching all the devastation while the others slept downstairs. It felt wrong. What if all this crap was happening because of a threat? What if a big GOTCHA appeared on the screen when the clock ran out of time?
In my frustration, I angled the Drone towards Dad's precinct. Thankfully I didn't have to go too far because there was a massive crowd in the streets in front of city hall. Police were holding the crowd back in riot gear; their commanding officer, my father, Lawrence Fairaday, was in the center.
Catching sight of my Dad, I pulled the Drone down about 100 feet above the crowd, and no one paid attention to it, so I circled City Hall, observing the crowd and the riot police.
"Why didn't I install a microphone on this stupid thing?" I cursed to myself. Maybe then I could hear what the mob was shouting at the Police, but my thoughts were soon cut off by the sight of people throwing rocks and bottles.
This small act started an all-out brawl between the officers and the citizens. I watched as my Dad was hit in the helmet by a bottle of liquid; it exploded across his face shield, and he barked orders at his officers.
Watching helplessly from the sky as he ordered people to fight back against the rioters, I had to fight the urge to wake up Renton, gear up, and head over there.
However, there was nothing I could do, I was too far, and all I would be was in the way. The Police wouldn't see me as Dean Fairaday, Sargent Fairaday's Son; they would see me as another citizen trying to enter city hall.