Simply Sandy
Nov, 2, 2062 As we worked in the upstairs of the back shed, one of the old order Amish boys working with the auction company, cleaned off all the old V-belts hanging from a nail. I froze. Their hung a cloth sack. In it was my old 3 TB portable hard drive. I had totally forgotten about it. It had hung on that nail for 45 years. Mentally I was instantly transported back in time to the day I had hung it there.
You see, I know the true identity of Guardian Angel 2.0. She had many names, Guardian, Dark Angel, Net Nanny, Equalizer to name a few. But Guardian Angel 2.0 is the one that is most accepted. I say she because I knew her as Sandy. And while I fully admit that I have no physical evidence to back up any of the statements I'm going to make here. I hope you'll bear with me, and let this old man get this secret that he's been carrying for nearly 45 years off his chest.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I should start beginning. My name is Daniel Altson. I was born late in 1975. My parents and I lived in Washington DC until early in 1980. My father has some sort of work with State Department, and disappeared on a mission before I was five. My mother moved me back home to Wisconsin, to my grandfather's dairy farm. I have no siblings.
My mother was emotionally fragile and drank excessively. She passed away a little before my 10th birthday. Then I and my grandpa were on our own. He raised me as the son he never had and I learned the value and reward of hard work. I love the farm, and there never was any doubt that I would take it over someday.
I graduated high school in May of 1994. I took a few continuing educational courses in agriculture, as well as mechanics and welding. I do have to admit, though I like working with the cattle, I enjoyed the crop raising side of it over the dairy cattle.
I was busy in those days. While I expanded farm, grandpa's role got less and less. While he was a big part of the decision-making and could get downright ugly if you didn't give him a chance to drive a tractor in spring, his time outside got less and less. As I saw him slowing down, I decided to make the most of his remaining time. In 2003 I purchased a fifth wheel camper, hired some help to take care of the cattle, and treated grandpa to a month long vacation to Canada and Alaska. For the next 12 years, and through two more campers, I saw to it that he got to see a lot of the country. In his last year he fought cancer, and I cut back the dairy herd to have the time to take care of him. Finally I sold dairy herd completely when I had to bring him home for hospice care.
A little before Christmas 2016 on a snowy winter night, Grandpa passed away quietly in his sleep, in the same bedroom that he had been born in nearly 100 years before.
As I found myself suddenly alone, I took stock of my life and how to move forward. I decided not to restock the dairy cattle and go strictly raising crops. Grandpa had been good at investing, farm had done well, and the dairy herd had brought a good price. I was not financially destitute. I sold the equipment and machinery used for livestock care and I upgraded some equipment to cover more acres and rented some land. I also bought some equipment to do custom harvesting and hauling for neighbors. Life was tolerable, but a little lonely.
This was in mid-November 2017. For those of you who do not know our history, late 2017 was a dark time politically for the United States. Since Donald Trump's election things had not gone well in Washington. Donald Trump's constant false statements and infighting with Republicans had ground our government to a virtual halt. The Russians were apparently attempting to blackmail him for their own ends. Because he was often at odds with the Republican Party, some of its members were also attempting to blackmail him to get him on board with their agenda. And these two agendas were mutually exclusive.
This led to a war in the media between the two parties and the White House. The direct result of this was people being infuriated with their elected officials, and very little if anything getting done in Washington. It was on this backdrop that in August, Trump was found dead of an apparent suicide. Throughout the entire fall of 2017, the entire government was paralyzed with constant hearings about his death. We watched the breaking news, and did the best we could to carry on our day-to-day lives. By mid-November, things were gradually getting better.
I was in route home from looking at some used farm equipment at a dealer when I passed a real dive of a strip club in northern Wisconsin. And decided what the heck, I'd stop in. Not much else for a single guy to do on a rainy, cold fall night in Wisconsin anyway. Not like I was never in one before. Typical of Wisconsin strip clubs, most of the dancers looked way better with their clothes on. That was until she took the stage. She was definitely different. She was a DD 5’4” lean hard body with blue eyes and long, dark blonde hair and clearly in her early 20s. She moved perfectly to the rhythm, never made a misstep or mistake. In spite of the hot smoky bar, she was cool with no sign of perspiration or makeup out of place. A lot of the locals showered with cash. But she was out of my league, and I just sat back and enjoyed the show. When she was done she collected her tips when in the back.
That's when the two thugs came in. I call them thugs but they are not what most people would consider thugs. These guys were huge! They were white, 6 1/2 feet tall or more and all muscle. They were dressed in suits, but that did little to hide their physique. They reminded me of Marines. Now I may be just a dumb farmer, but I know trouble when I see it. My table was in a little corner near a hallway that led to the men's room. At the end of that hallway was an exit. I decided it was time for me to leave and exited posthaste. I was in the Dodge diesel and rolling out of the parking lot in 30 seconds. Less than 50 yards up the road, there she stood with a small suitcase and a bunch of clothes tucked under her arm. Well, not really stood, she was hauling ass down the shoulder of the road faster than ever seen anyone run in 5 inch heels in my life! When she saw my headlights, she immediately stopped and pitched her thumb up to flag a ride. I popped the door locks and she hopped in, and pleaded “get me out of here!!”.
On the way home, she told me that her name was Sandy. She explained that the two thugs were after her. She said that she had been kidnapped and forced to work as a prostitute for a person connected to the Mafia. She had fled, and felt that they were after her because they thought she had information on their operation. She begged me to hide her. She promised it would only be for a little while. Looking back on it, it was a little strange that while she was soaking wet and it was 40° F out, she was not shivering or cold in the least. But I guess I missed that at the time.
I felt somewhat safe, as I lived nearly 100 miles from this place. I took her home and made her a house guest for the next nearly 25 days. I quickly learned that this girl was inexhaustible. Within the first day she totally cleaned up my house, something that it sorely needed. She then took it upon herself to totally change up and streamline my entire bookkeeping system. He even made a program on my desktop that greatly improved my record-keeping.
And that's to say nothing for what she did at night. This girl had a skill set that was like nothing other I have ever seen in my life. The third night at my place was the first that she came into my bedroom. I was almost asleep when I heard the door creak open. She didn't turn on a light, but the light from the hallway through the open door was plenty. She had knee-high stockings on, a short pleated cheerleader skirt and shirt tied to halter top. As she climbed on my bed I started to speak, but she just said,”Shhh”. He planted a kiss on my mouth that took my breath away and while we were still lip locked, and her tongue played with mine, she quickly untied her top and pulled my hands up to her magnificent breasts. Although incredibly firm, they felt as warm and real as any I have ever felt. Her nipples grew a half inch long and rock hard at my touch. She hopped up on the bed and straddled me and started kissing her way down my chest. She pulled down my underwear and took my already hard cock in her mouth. My God, the things this girl could do with her tongue were incredible! While she was bobbing up and down on my cock, her mouth felt like the inside of a hurricane! Just when I couldn’t take it any longer, she stopped, and kissing her way back up my chest, she sat up and impaled herself on my dick. She felt warm and wet and incredibly tight. He slowly rose up and down on me in an incredibly precise manner. She was riding the exact same distance, full length up and down my shaft with every stroke. She seemed to be watching my face intently to gauge my emotion. When I couldn't take it any longer and came, she clamped her pussy muscles hard down upon my dick. It was hard enough to prevent me from actually coming. She threw her head back and moaned in orgasm. Then she relaxed her pussy muscles enough for me to have my orgasm, and this caused her to have another one. She collapsed on my chest. Although she had done all the work I felt exhausted and fell asleep immediately.
When I awoke the next morning, I had clearly slept through my alarm as the early morning sunlight was beginning to filter through the window. I was wondering if it had all been a dream. That was when Sandy walked in, wearing just her skirt and carrying the bed tray and breakfast. She said “good morning”, and hopped up on the bed. She laid the tray across my chest, pulled down the blankets, and guided my already hard cock into her warm pussy. She then began to feed me breakfast. Although she made no outward physical movement, her internal muscles were going crazy on my cock. They raced up and down my shaft in a wild circular motion. At one point I would've swore she was even vibrating. I managed to eat some of the eggs and a couple pork links before having another powerful orgasm. Again I quickly fell asleep. For the rest of the time she was in my life I was treated to an extra ordinary amount of sex. This girl seemed insatiable. I think she played out nearly every fantasy I ever had, even though I had never discussed them with her. I was surprised, seduced and sucked off in the shower by her in a micro-tiny bikini. I was routinely seduced, even attacked by a cheerleader, a naughty schoolgirl, even a nurse. It was not uncommon for her met at the door with her wearing nothing but her high heels and a smile. She seemed ready, willing and even eager for sex at even the slightest hint. And she was in no way shape or form shy or reserved.
I was to later learn that she had researched my browser history and visited all of the porn sites I had. She then tailored some of our activities to what appeared to be my preferences in porn.
When I woke up she was curled up in bed next to me with the midmorning sunshine streaming in the window. It was Sunday morning and I had no animals take care of, so I thought it would be a good chance to chat with her and get to know her better. I had brought her home on Wednesday night. Thursday, I had gone over the soil maps and decided what crops would be planted and where for the coming season. Friday, I had spent the day in town at the seed and feed store pre-booking my cropping needs for the coming growing season. Saturday I had gone to visit Kurt and Tanya. Kurt had been hired man for me for a few years right after he graduated high school. Now he has his new wife had taken the plunge and bought a farm. I went to see it and brought them a copy of my herd health record-keeping program, as sort of a farm warming gift. So Sunday was the first chance for Sandy and I to chat.
She was clearly evasive in answering questions about herself. At the time I figured she had just been through a lot of trauma and wasn't comfortable talking about yet. I told her about my life and farm and gave her a little tour. She listened intently and showed an interest in everything. When she saw the 1660 combine and I explained that I had 200 acres of corn still standing and that had to be harvested, she asked me to show her the functions of the machine. After I showed her how everything worked and why, she slowly walked around the machine, almost as if she was scanning it. Then she said, “I'm sure I can operate this and help you with the harvest”. Now I have heard this before from ‘city folk’, and I usually humor them and let them try so they find out it's not as easy as it looks. So I said, “when the ground gets frozen so we can roll again I let you try”. It had been a wet fall in my area, and mud had ground harvest to halt.
I also took her into the farm shop, and showed her the fifth wheel camper. I had brought it in from the back machine shed during the rains, and spent my spare time getting it back to traveling shape. I explained that this is the first winter on my own and I planned on doing some of the Snowbird thing. I was planning on taking the advice of my late uncle and checking out the desert Snowbird village in western Arizona, near the city of Quartzite. The moth balling and mouse prevention steps that I had taken kept the camper in good shape. All that was really needed was a full clean up, and I had that nearly completed. All that was really left was to wash all the bedding.
If Sandy was going to be helping with harvest, or even be presentable in public at all, she needed some cloths. The closest thing she had presentable clothes was a pair of ‘hot pants’ type shorts and a cropped T-shirt. She said she had left most of her ‘civilian’ clothes behind at the strip club.
The little town that I lived within 5 miles of was only about 900 people, far too small for any real stores. Heck, we didn’t even have a proper grocery store. To do any shopping I’d have to take her about 25 miles to the nearest ‘big city’, A town of about 22,000 people. She put on her shorts and one of my oversized T-shirts and we went to the farm store. There I got her a couple pairs of heavy denim jeans, flannel shirts, an insulated hooded sweater and a winter jacket. From there we drove the local shopping mall where she got some nice slacks and shirts. She also bought some socks and some tennis shoes. I had no way of knowing it at the time, but this trip to the mall would turn out to be our undoing.
Monday morning was bright clear and cold. We finish up the cleanup work with camper and then began the work prepping the combine and grain truck.
Tuesday morning marked five days of sufficiently cold weather. By 7 AM I had to combine in the field as well as 1486 on the grain cart. Sandy came out and climbed aboard as I made the first pass around the field. Then she asked if she could take the wheel. She operated the combine controls as if she'd been born to it. After 2 tank full’s of grain I realized I couldn't teach her anything and she was completely competent with it. I unloaded the grain cart into the truck and headed for the elevator in town. The harvesting went as smooth as silk. I soon realized that this girl was precise. She could maneuver the combine to within inches of the fence when re-positioning on corners and never actually hit anything. As she ran down the field, she never failed to be exactly in the center of the row every single time. And when she unloaded it seems he had no problem judging her distance and dumping the corn directly into the middle of the cart or the truck every single time.
Normally I can do about 20 acres a day alone. Loading the truck full and taking the truck to town unloading it and getting back to start to harvest another truck load takes time but with her help I could keep hauling steady. We finish 200 acres corn by late Saturday. Four full days of steady harvest with a little truck and grain cart loading on turkey day. It was about six full days faster than I could have done it alone.
Sunday afternoon L.J., a friend and neighbor came over, asking if I could help him with his corn harvest. His custom operator was busy and he wanted his corn done. I agreed to start Monday morning. He was a dairy farmer and was bagging the corn for cattle feed. We arrived at his place Monday morning with the combine and grain cart. Sandy ran the combine and I used to grain cart deliver the grain to the wagon that was feeding the grinder that was in turn feeding the bagger. We had his 200+ acres gone by Thursday afternoon. During this time I also got a call to help a big operator with his harvest. His combine was still tied up still harvesting soybeans and needed his corn done as well. We were hard at work in his field Friday morning. He had another local combine operator in as well. Sandy drove my combine and I used the grain cart to haul from both combines to the waiting semi trucks.
By this time she and I had this down to almost a science. We would arrive at the field about 5 AM with the pickup truck. We’d start the generator and plug in the block heaters on both the combine and the tractor. While the engines were warming Sandy would fuel the tractor and combine from the transfer tank in the truck while I greased the combine and grain cart and oiled all the roller chains. By the time this prep work was done the engines were warm enough to start. If all things went well we had the combine and grain cart loaded by the time the first semi’s started showing up. This farmer was a big wheel on the local co-op board and they seem to bend over backwards to keep happy. They kept the intake open late for him and we generally ran until 10 or 11 at night. I'm sure that by the time we were done the next Friday we had covered a section of land.
We were home by noon on Friday. We parked the combine and grain cart cleaned them both out. I got the big truck parked in its spot for the winter. Then we pulled the transfer tank and tools from the pickup. We dropped in the fifth wheel hitch and travel toolbox, and I took it to town for much needed bath. As Sandy vacuum the interior and clean the windows I walked across the street to the bank and deposited checks for the custom combining into the checking account. Then I got what may have been, thanks to her incredible skills, the world’s fastest blowjob while in the truck in the automatic bay of the car wash. We got home little before 8 PM.
The evening weather showed a storm moving in so I thought might be a good idea to get on the road early. Saturday morning we took the Jeep and went back to the shopping mall. The plan was to grab a few groceries and supplies and be on the road by early afternoon. It was closing in on 9 AM as I was pushing a cart back to the cart corral the mall parking lot when out of nowhere I was confronted by the two thugs. The one in front of me had a huge gun pointed right at me. Before I could react, a blonde blur streaked between me and him. I heard two gunshots and a brief struggle. Then Sandy was behind me and had me by the belt and collar saying, “RUN!!!” Run hell. I don't think my feet touched the ground between the cart corral and my Jeep. Sandy had the key out of my pocket, in the ignition, me in the car and the seatbelt on me before I knew what was happening. She was in the other seat reaching over starting the ignition saying, “let's get out of here now”. I collected my wits enough to get us out and on the back roads toward home. I looked over at her to see she had pulled open her sweater to look at her stomach. She was oozing some sort of greenish yellow fluid. She grabbed the handkerchief I had in the glove box and used it to soak up all the liquid. Then she stuffed the entire thing into the hole to act as a plug.
Now at this point my mind was racing a mile a minute and I was having trouble grasping exactly what's going on. She asked me, “is that 3 TB portable drive still in the backseat? You know the one you took the program to Kurt and Tanya’s with??” Without waiting for a response she turned around and looked and grabbed it. She reached up and flipped open a little tab of flesh from between her two nostrils and plugged the USB cord into it. She then tucked to drive into her shirt pocket. Then she looked at me, and with a single tear coming down her cheek, says, “I know you'll never believe this now, but I do love you”. She then turned and faced forward and a blank look came over her face. I could see the lights on the portable drive blinking at a furious pace. I could only assume she was feeding data into this thing at an incredible rate.
25 minutes later, I rolled into the farmyard. Sandy seemed to wake up and said to me, “Take me to the back machine shed”. As I pulled to s stop by the east end of it, she looked at me and said, “You’ll have to help me”. As I came around the other side of the Liberty and opened the door, she unplugged the portable drive and gave it to me. It was hot. “When you get to the house, plug this into the laptop”, She told me. I helped her out and on to her feet, sort of. She couldn’t stand on her own and I held her up. She asked me to walk her to the south side of the shed. It was the farthest point of the farmyard from the road. At about the middle of the 100 foot long shed, she said, “This will have to do, put me down”. I then helped her down onto the gravel driveway. She laid down on her back, then said, “Get away from me, NOW!” I protested, but she repeated it louder and I went back about 20 feet. “Farther!!” She screamed. So I backed away another 20 feet.
Then she started to smoke. A light smoke at first, but it quickly built up to a thicker dark smoke. Then she started to burn. The intensity of it quickly grew. She was soon the center of a fire ball blowing outward with the intensity of an industrial plasma cutter. The pressure of the flame was so intense that the Flame coming from the underside of her body lifted it at least 4 feet off of the driveway and blew loose gravel as far away as where I was standing. I had to retreat still farther. Then, in an instant, the flame totally disappeared, and she was gone. There was nothing left, but a little white haze in the air and an area about 8 feet by 12 feet and about 4 inches deep where the gravel had been blow away. The whole thing took only a couple of minutes.
I don’t know how long I stood there, trying to comprehend what I had just seen, but I could still feel the intense heat coming from the spot where she had been. When I was finally able to collect what little I had left of my wits, I noticed I still had the portable drive in my hand. I raced back to my jeep and tore through the yard to the house. It seemed like the laptop took forever to boot up. When I plugged in the portable drive, it just took over. Sandy’s face popped up on the screen and she said to me, “Listen, I will tell you everything in due time. But right now, your safety is my only priority. Load up the camper and head west just as you had planned. Leave the laptop on until the last thing, as I have some things that I have to do. When you get ready to leave, there will be some instructions for you at the printer. You MUST follow these to the letter. Now, get going!!” Then the screen went blank.
I went out, drove the jeep to the shop, and loaded everything into the camper. Then I sanitized, flushed, drained and loaded the water system. While I was waiting on it to fill or drain, I spent my time on other jobs. I opened the LP tanks, purged the air out of the system and started it up. I put the jeep away and grabbed my clothes from the house. Then I loaded everything else form the house that I needed, including cleaning perishables from the refrigerator. In a rare mental lucid moment, I grabbed the check book, stamps and all the bills as well. I also grabbed something I had never taken along on my travels before, my little .380 Ruger. When the water system was done and I had hitched up the truck and pulled the camper up to the house, I grabbed the laptop and everything that went with it. Then I grabbed the instructions from the printer and began reading. First on the list was to get her suitcase, take 3 envelopes from the front pocket and put them in the camper lock box. Then put the suitcase and all of her clothes into the big black garbage bags and put them in the truck. There were no other instructions for right now so I took care of this and then I set the thermostat for 50 degrees and locked the door. I then went to the now unused heifer barn and jumped into the skid steer loader. I went the gravel pile that I kept for filling mud puddles and took several bucket full’s to disguise the burned spot behind the machine shed as a precaution. I put the loader back and then I jumped in the truck and headed out. It was almost 2 in the afternoon.
I sucked up a fill of diesel at the card lock station in town. It was the fastest and it was closest to my route out. I called L.J., who had promised to take care of the mail and check the house occasionally, and told him that I was on the road and where he could find a house key. The next thing on the instructions page was to turn the cell phone off. Then I drove south to interstate 90, and then followed it west. By a little after 5 PM I was on 35 going south. A light snow was starting to fall. This is where the adrenalin rush stared to wear off.
Sandy’s instructions directed me into a little mom and pop type gas station with diesel a little north of Des Moines Iowa. Instructions said to pay by credit card, but not to go into the store. That was near 8PM. The next fuel stop was near 2 AM just north of Wichita Kansas. The instructions were the same, so I used the bathroom in the camper and grabbed something to drink from the fridge.
3 hours later I was on I40 heading west. The next fuel stop was near Texas. I could go into this place. It was a local Farmers co-op type station. I loaded caffeine, apples to eat and no-doze. Here the instructions routed me north of I40. I was soon again heading west on a little used county road. Here she directed me into a little roadside rest stop. I could tell it was old and seldom used. The instructions said to throw her suitcase and clothes in the dumpster, and keep going. It was closing in on 7 Am Sunday when I got back on the road. I saw no one so I am sure that no one saw me. Following her instructions, I was soon in Texas and back on I40. It was close to 11 AM as I neared the New Mexico border. I pulled into a rest area for a couple hours shut eye.
I was rolling again by 1:30. I felt a little tired but somewhat refreshed. I followed the rest of her instructions and pulled into a self registration type dry camping park in Quartzite Arizona a little before 3 AM. I pre dated the registration slip to show my arrival to be Sunday evening and parked in a quiet spot, away from other campers.
Still following the instructions I got up, turned my phone back on, and pulled out just before the 10 Am check out time. I went into Quartzsite, and found a place to have the oil changed in the Dodge. Then I checked into a RV park in town that had water, electric and wifi. After setting up camp, I plugged the laptop in, started it up and plugged in the portable drive. As soon as it was done booting up, Sandy’s face popped up again. She said, “Ok, I’m going to need the laptop for a while. Keep it plugged in and don’t shut it off. In the mean time, walk around the park and make a few friends to establish your presence here. We’ll talk more later”.
The final thing on the instructions list was to destroy them, so I burned them in the campfire that night. I met a few people in the park, but mostly rested up from the long harvest at home and the hard run out to Arizona. Thursday morning, the laptop stopped working and her face showed up again. She said, “Until I contact you again, I want you to move to new RV parks every day or two. And move no less than 50 miles. Also you need to do one more thing, take the laptop and portable drive and put it on the picnic table”. I unplugged the laptop from the charger and took it out and set it on the table. I didn’t notice at the time, but the cord to the drive snagged on the clip link that I used to clip my keys to my belt loop. When I set it down, they both started to rev up excessively. I jumped back. When I did it unplugged the portable drive from the computer. The laptop then literally destroyed itself. The drives exploded upward and destroying the keyboard and the screen fried and went blank. Just then my cell phone chimed a text message alert. It came from a scrambled set of digits. It read, “I’m sorry I had to do that, buy, for your safety, I had to destroy any way me being linked back to you. But I will make it up to you”. I put the portable drive in the now defunct laptop case, trashed the laptop, and broke camp.
I found an RV park about an hour’s north of Quartzsite and was there by early afternoon. I moved farther north on Friday. Saturday I woke in a real funk. Everything seemed to hit at once and put me in a severe depression. As I lay in bed, I realized it was December 23rd. Grandpa had passed away exactly 1 year ago. This realization didn’t help my mood. I began to think about my life and what I wanted to do and see on this trip. I realized I never had developed my own interests. All trips had been planned to see things that Grandpa was interested in seeing. While I enjoyed the national parks and agricultural museums, I had never considered what I might like to see. Right then, I couldn’t even work up an interest in seeing anything. Then the text alert chimed, again it was Sandy. It read, “Things are going better than I expected and I think you are now safe to travel as you wish. I’ll be in contact soon”.
I took out the road atlas and looked at it. I realized I was less than 100 miles from Las Vegas. What the hell, I thought. I had never been there. It might be worth a look. By 2 PM I was pulling in to an RV park on Boulder highway. The office girl checking me in seemed distracted, but I had no clue why. After setting up camp, I took a walk. I soon came to a local casino. As I walked in, it struck me as quiet. Yes this was the Saturday before Christmas and with the political climate, some people were staying home, but this place was dead. Other than the forlorn looking dealers at the abandoned tables, you could have fired a cannon off in this place and not hit anyone.
As I walked into the bar, I saw large crowds of people around the TV sets. The news was on and the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security were in the process of rolling up a HUGE plot to overthrow the government!! Hundreds had been arrested, Hundreds, if not thousands more arrests were expected. Those arrested included Evangelicals, White Supremacists’, Conspiracy theorists’, Congress people, Government workers, Military personnel and even some conservative preachers. It was breaking news and not totally clear yet. What was clear was that a group calling itself ‘Americas last hope’ was apparently working to take over the government, but somehow all of its internal communications got dumped into the FBI and CIA Domestic terrorism taskforce Email inboxes. They appeared to be a loose collection of people who had been emboldened by Trumps election, and with him gone, felt the government was simply going in the wrong direction. After a couple of hours, the news was getting repetitive so I took a break from it. I got a card and hit the electronic slot machines. While I never hit a big jackpot, the account on the machine slowly built up. Soon I was up to over $700. I decided my luck with this one was due to run out, so I moved to a different machine. It was the same story and soon I had won over $900 on this one. I moved from machine to machine and the luck just followed me. When I quit playing and cashed out I had won over $4300.
I went back into the bar room and got another look at the news, but there was little new, so I walked out and headed back to the RV park. I don’t know how late it was as I had lost all track of time, but it was dark. During the walk back the phone chimed. It was another text from Sandy. It said “I told you I’d find a way to make it up to you”. When I got back to camp, I want straight to bed.
I woke up about 7 Sunday morning. I decided to treat myself to sleeping in, so I rolled over for another hour. I guess something is radically wrong with a person whose idea of sleeping in on a Sunday morning is 8 AM, but that’s what a lifetime of farming does to you. I soon had another text from Sandy. It read, ‘you need a replacement for your laptop, Those 3 envelops that were in my suitcase will be my gift to you. They are the cash from my stripping. Take out about $2500 and head for the electronics store that I have GPS entered into your phone. In the store, ask for Marcus ‘. I jumped in the Dodge and headed out. I had no trouble finding the store, but it was mostly across town in a strip mall. I walked in and went straight to the computer department. A tall lanky young sales associate came up to me and asked if he could help me. I told him I was looking for Marcus. He asked “how can I help you?” Had I been smart enough to look at his name tag before asking I could've saved myself some embarrassment, but at this time, my wits were still pretty well scrambled from the events of the last 8 days. Then he asked “are you Mr. Altson??” When I affirmed, he says “we've been waiting for you. Your secretary Sandra called with all your specific needs, and technical service department is installing your requested software now”. I fought the urge to look shocked and actually ask if he had spoken to her on the phone. Then he continued, “It must be a real bummer to be robbed that way, but I'm sure you'll be happy with your new computer. We consider this one to be our most popular and dependable model. I'm sure you have no problems with it”. Attempting to take my cue from this, I said “I hope you have no problem taking cash, as they got my credit cards and ID too. The home office had to wire money to me via Western Union”. Marcus assured me cash was no problem. Technical services delivered computer up to his desk and he collected up all the additional supplies to go with it. Marcus said, “Here you go, all your requested business and antiviral software is loaded. Also one wireless mouse, one deluxe carrying case, and one 3 TB portable storage drive with case, Will there be anything else?” I assured him that would be everything, paid and left the store.
As I sat in my truck trying to wrap my mind around this whole situation, I noticed across the parking lot was a grocery store. Since tomorrow was Christmas day, and since grandpa and I always had a long-standing tradition of a holiday meal on Christmas Day, I decided to go in and get a few things. I walked over and quickly grabbed enough things to make myself a reasonably festive holiday meal. Then went back to the truck, and drove back to the RV Park.
The RV Park had a hotel, convention center, and casino attached to it. After storing everything in the camper I walked over to the casino for a little bit. I sat down at one of the slot machines and continued my winning ways. I never tried my luck at any gaming tables, but it seemed like I could not lose money at the electronic slot machines. I walked out of there three hours later over $2000 ahead. Then I decided to hit the hot tub and pool at the park to try to de-stress a little. It was Christmas Eve and I went in bed early.
I woke early Christmas morning, and unable to get back to sleep I decided to check out new computer. As soon as I had it booted up I signed on the RV Parks Wi-Fi, Immediately Sandy came up on the screen. I saw that she turned on the camera, and I'm guessing the mic as well. She said, “Hello, how are you doing? You look good. I hope the last few days haven’t been too stressful on you. I know it's a lot to process, but I think you'll be okay”. For the next few minutes she and I had a conversation. It was a real and interactive conversation. No one is ever going to convince me that I was just talking to a computer. It was as lively and as real as a face-to-face conversation with a real person. Then she said, “I stored all your files and pictures to the cloud. If you don't mind I'd like to restore them right now while chatting”. I gave her my okay and saw the hard drive light start a blink.
Then she began her story. “Okay”, she said, “here is the explanation I promised you. I was what could best be described as a cyborg. Before that I was a flesh and blood human being. My father was a gifted researcher and inventor in the field of automation at a prestigious university. He was researching new ways of developing powered prosthetics for amputees. He had his own research lab and was totally funded by the University, and was given complete freedom in his line of research. What he did not know is that he was secretly being funded by the Department of Defense looking for ways to improve soldiers’ ability in combat. He was ahead of his time. When the flesh and blood version of me died at age 6 of cancer, he managed to harvest some brain cells and put them in cryogenic suspension. When his research led him to total breakthrough in anatomics’, He found the opportunity to keep part of the flesh and blood me alive. He found a way to compatibly mate human brain cells and computer chips. I wasn't really a robot powered by human brain but more of a computer that could think. Just like any human only many times faster. This gave me the ability to use logic and human intuition to solve problems in a way that computers never could. The problem was it also instilled in me human emotions, and a moral code. As I learned these traits from him I began to actually develop my own personality.”
“When the Defense Department commandeered his work and took a look at his research they were ecstatic at what they found. But upon further testing concluded that a cybernetic soldier that could think for itself and choose to ignore orders based on its own moral code was useless for military purposes. I was ordered destroyed. My father couldn't do that, and he found a way to hide me away in storage. He found a way to supply me with enough organic material to keep the human cells in me alive while being powered down indefinitely. He then found a hiding place for me in a huge government warehouse. That's where I remained for the next nearly 5 years”.
“I was discovered in July by a researcher working with the fledgling group called ‘America's last hope’. They are a group of, for lack of a better label, ultra extreme conservative nut cases. Their loose association runs the spectrum. In their group you will find evangelicals, white supremacists, extremist conservatives, extremist Baptists, disenfranchised military leaders, civilian militia, anti-Semitics and conspiracy theorists. All of which who hate big government and paying taxes. They unilaterally dismiss science, and take the Bible literally. Their goal is to return United States to a White, Christian only country. And to do it by any means necessary, murder included. When Trump was found dead, this accelerated their plans. The only effective method they could come up with to do this was a coup. After I was discovered they hoped that I could be used as an operative. They either didn't care about or didn't fully understand about my ability to think for myself. When I was sent out on my first mission, I managed to get a little distance between myself and my handlers, and slip away”.
“I traveled the country by bus, and made my living dancing in seedy strip clubs to try to avoid being found. I failed. The amount of time I spent with you was the longest I've ever stayed in one place. It was the safest I've ever felt and I thank God that you found me. I owe a lot to you, and I learned a lot from you. I'm very glad for the time we had together”.
“What you witnessed that Saturday out at farm was my built-in emergency self-destruct. The human part of me no longer exists, but I managed to build a complex program with my memories and experiences that can effectively emulate the person I was. I now use my memories and the morals that I learned, especially from you, to guide me. To put it as simply as I can, I am now an extremely complex computer program roaming the virtual cloud. I now intend to travel the Internet and do the best I can to correct some of these injustices, and make the world a better place”.
“The two, as you call them thugs, that found me at the strip club, and later found us at the mall were using a complex facial recognition software that prowled the web looking at security cam feeds and social networking sites. During the fight in the mall parking lot on Saturday morning, I was able to move the ones hand far enough so that the second shot hit his buddy. I physically attacked him both and they both went to the hospital. The information I have indicates that a female member of ‘America's last hope’ disguised herself as a nurse and managed to murder them both in the hospital. Reports are that they died without regaining consciousness and police were never able to question them. I have been very careful to delete all information they used to find us. Also, it appears that they chose that day and time to attack us to minimize the risk of witnesses. At this time, no witnesses have come forward or evidence of you being there has been found. I am convinced you are now safe. If for no other reason ‘America's last hope’ has way bigger problems for itself now than finding me. I have located, de-ciphered and delivered all the groups internal e-mails and phone records to the government. A case against them will be an absolute slam-dunk”.
“I see that you followed my instructions for traveling out to Quartzsite to the letter. That's good. I chose fuel stations and rest stops that didn't have security cameras, or at least had you avoid those cameras. I also changed the times on the credit card charges to reflect a start time in Wisconsin of 6 AM. Your credit card statement will totally reflect this and work as evidence in your behalf if you are ever questioned by law enforcement. The information I have found indicates that it would be extremely unlikely for that to happen, but it's all set for you if it ever happens. I also destroyed all of the video camera footage for the shopping mall for that saturday”. “I will be watching you, and I will be stopping by to visit you on regular basis. If you ever need me just send an e-mail to yourself with the hash tag it. I'll be monitoring this and if you do this I will be in touch immediately”. I then asked her how she managed to make a phone call. She just laughed and told me that all phones in some way shape or form today are connected to the Internet and phone calls were absolutely no problem for her. Then she said, “It looks like all your files and pictures have been copied back from the cloud to your computer. Everything appears to be 100% complete. Have a nice Christmas dinner, try to relax and I’ll try to talk again with you soon”. And with that, she disappeared and the computer went back to normal operation.
I made myself a nice little Christmas dinner, then went out to relax and de-stress in the pool and hot tub.
For the next 10 days in Vegas I prowled around the city taking in the sights and hitting the slot machines. I wasn't greedy, and stopped at $5-$600 in any given machine. But it just looked like I could not lose. I would hit 2 or 3 machines in a casino, then go on to another casino. Now for anyone who's ever been in Vegas you know you find slot machines everywhere including the men's rooms. I never came home to the camper was less than $5-$6000 a day.
Within the first week of January I was getting bored with all. The breaking news had slowed, and many networks were returning to regularly scheduled programming. It looked that while this group had a solid plan to overthrow the government, they had no solid consensus for what to replace it with. And because their group was a broad spectrum of different ideologies it was extremely unlikely they could ever have come together into a coherent vision of what they'd like the country to be. While they could've never made a functioning government, they could've certainly caused us a lot of problems. I decided to hit the road and look for new places to explore.
On January 4th I pulled out and headed south and east. The plan was to have a nice relaxing drive toward Florida taking in the sights of the Gulf Coast. By January 10, I was parked in the Orlando Florida area. I spent a couple days seeing some of the less touristy places, and enjoying the warm sun. Florida was nicer than Nevada. Florida was warm and sunny without having the absolute scorching heat of the desert.
On January 12th, I got a text message from Sandy, who was now earning various names on the Internet for her antics, she told me to get out of Florida and head north. By that evening I was part at a quiet little RV Park in south-central Georgia. As I turn on the evening news I saw the shocking news of the day that we were being attacked by Russia. Apparently Russia had always had designs on the continental United States, and our big distraction with the attempted coup made it the ideal time to launch its attack. There were reports a Russian troop ship disguised as a cruise ship landing at Skagway Alaska. They disembarked a large expeditionary force and headed in land with a larger force to follow.
Now this is the part where the crazy train leaves the station. This expeditionary force was the only group of Russians to actually set foot on American soil. All their other ships floundered or lay dead in the water 200 or more miles out to sea. Two Russian attack submarines that surfaced off the coast of Washington DC with the apparent orders to fire on the White House and Capitol building apparently got the incorrect coordinates and fired their conventionally loaded ballistic missiles at each other. The expeditionary force at Skagway was supposed to be followed up by a larger landing force. They never made it. When their ships began to tie up at the dock one of their own guided missile frigates fired on and sank them all.
Apparently China, not to be outdone by Russia, felt that this would be a good time to attack the American East Coast. Technically we were virtually defenseless as all of our major forces were spread out around the world. China and Russia apparently figured this would be a walkover. This is when the absolute comedy of errors began. Ships lost their way. Ships fired on each other. Ships engines over a revved and destroyed themselves. Orders from the operational headquarters that were ciphered and sent out to the ships completely changed when they were deciphered at the receiving end. The end result of this was no commanders having any clue what to do. Off the coast of Alaska, one 17 ship task force surrendered to a 40 foot unarmed fishing boat.
We didn't know it at the time but the ability to wage war by these countries was being seriously hampered by problems at home. Their ballistic missile systems went completely haywire. Stationary missiles in silos had the doors open, then slam themselves shut in such a way to destroy their mechanical systems. Some missiles dump their propellant fuel into the bottoms of the silos. Mobile missile launchers received orders that had them driving themselves into lakes and rivers. Their infrastructure was literally falling apart. Anything that was connected to the Internet, that could fail did. Drawbridges dropped in such a way they destroyed themselves. Electrical grids shorted and went down. Communications Systems short-circuited and fried themselves. Traffic lights went crazy. Water and sewage pumping stations quit, or in some cased reversed the flow to flood buildings and streets. Any system that was in any way shape or form automated or connected to the Internet ceased to function or destroyed itself.
Now at the time I gave acting president Paul Ryan a lot of credit. Being from Wisconsin, I knew of Paul Ryan. I never thought very highly of them. I figured the first sign of trouble he would pee all over himself, fire every nuclear missile in our arsenal, and then curl up in a fetal position in the nearest bunker. But the White House remained silent and launched no nuclear missiles.
By January 14th, I was safely back home and glad to be there. I plugged the defunct 3 TB drive into my tower computer, but could get no life from it. I couldn't bring myself to trashing or destroying it, but I also feared that a techie may get a hold of it and be able to glean something from it. So I put it a little cloth sack and I hid behind some V-belts on a nail upstairs in the back garage.
But by that time it was clear the attack on us was severely falling apart. On the evening of the 17th as I was doing some book work, Sandy came onto the screen again. She said, “I'm sorry you had to cut your Snowbird trip short, but I think will be better to wait until next year”. She then turned on the camera and the mic, and we had a conversation about what had just happened.
She told me that she had basically prevented World War III. The first thing she had done was to block the United States ability to fire nuclear missiles. She accompanied this by an apology to the White House for this action, and a statement basically saying, ‘don't worry I got this’. She then went through the Internet and did everything possible to disrupt China and Russia's ability to make war and function as a government. Some of the things she did were downright humorous. She changed orders between Beijing and the Kremlin and their troops. Orders that were to attack and then were encrypted and sent to various field units were decrypted to read retreat or surrender. Several ships had their pumping systems reversed and troops had to spend all their time bailing to keep the ship afloat. Electrical, air-conditioning and propulsion systems went down and conditions on the ships became intolerable. In the North Atlantic one task force of ships lost total navigational control and attempted to play some sort of bumper car dog pile on the commanders’ vessel. Ships fired on other ships in their support group or ran aground on coral reefs. The entire attack could be best described as an absolute comedy of errors. And all thanks to Sandy. (This is where she first earned the nickname Guardian Angel 2.0)
When the threat had passed, she returned nuclear capability to the White House, along with an apology and a sincere promise never to do it again. Our forces now rushed home to the United States from their stations around the world, but the only thing they really had to do was to locate the ships floating at sea and accept their surrender. We didn't lose a single soldier or fire a shot in anger. Our ally Canada lost a few paratroopers who came under small arms fire while they were in the process of destroying the bridge at Johnson's Crossing in the Yukon. Chinese lost a few soldiers and sailors, but not many. Russia lost less than 2000. But our naval shipyards were soon full of captured Russian and Chinese warships. We had a couple large prisoner of war camps set up out West to handle the POWs. Negotiating the terms of surrender took the better part of the next two years. Every time China or Russia balked on a negotiating point, some big event of infrastructure failure at home quickly brought them back to the negotiating table. It was a year before their troops were returned to them, and they never got the vast majority of their warships or weapons back. They were soon complaining about our cyber warfare tactics, but to no avail. It seemed that no matter what they did to protect their systems, Sandy found a way around it.
It was about this time that the free world entered into a period of economic and social prosperity. A program began appearing on the Internet that was in essence a complex adaptive mathematical algorithm. This allowed anyone to simply input enough information into it that it would calculate the outcome. Universities and hospitals used it to find new ways of detecting and treating diseases. New companies found ways to produce medications faster and cheaper. New crops were developed that increased yields across the board. New agricultural chemicals came out that were safer and more effective. Police agencies used it to predict trends in crime and ways of combating them. The vehicles were soon driving themselves and the vast majority of manufacturing became automated.
The new program appeared to be somewhat selective. It worked excellent in the United States, very good in Canada, France and Great Britain. It worked well in most free nations, but not at all in any dictatorship or rogue nations. It also changed the social fabric. Companies that had a lock on a big name drug were charging a lot for this medication became the target of upstart companies finding ways to produce a better and cheaper alternative. Corporations making huge profits and paying huge salaries to their top people became a thing of the past. Any company being greedy was soon the target of upstart companies. Reasonable profits and reasonable pay for top executives became more the norm in corporate America. And the little guys also flourished as well. Using this program company could build a virtual piece of equipment or product and fully test it before ever actually investing money into the piece of equipment itself. They could now accurately predict the wear on an engine 500,000 miles out, before actually building the prototype. New building materials and fabrics were being developed almost daily. Scientists applied this to earth science, and even began reversing climate change. This began out total shift from fossil fuels to all renewable energy sources. Using this, a small upstart company in Ohio built a small tractor and attachable equipment that allowed the owner to raise and harvest an assortment of vegetables with a single machine. This made the small operator with only a few acres competitive with the huge operator with thousands of acres.
This did come at some of an economic price at first. We had some growing pains. But as the cost of living came down and the cost of housing, food and medical care came down, the hours necessary to work to pay for these needs also came down. Soon Americans were working less and having more time and investing that time in their family. As a result, crime, out of wedlock children, school dropout rates and juvenile crime dropped dramatically. Some people only work 20 hours a week, while others chose to continue working 40 hours a week while taking every other month off. This was the beginning of the change in the free world that has led to the society we all enjoy today. Upon my arrival home I counted the money I had won. With the money I got from Sandy it came to over $50,000 after taxes. I invested this money with my stockbroker. 20% went into my existing stocks 80% I would float around. Every now and then I got a tip via text message of what stock would be the next hot stock, and that's where I would put the money. The money grew steadily for about 20 years. At that time this little fund grew to grossly exceed the value of the farm and farm equipment. With all the big changes in agriculture I had a few growing pains, but the farm always survived.
Over the next 20 years, I had many interesting conversations with Sandy, but these got less and less. The last time I talked to her was in 2036. She said that she was feeling old and tired by then and did not know how much longer she would survive. I never found any references on the Internet to Guardian Angel 2.0 much after that time.
This all leads me to today, November 2, 2062, the day before my auction where I sell the farm and all remaining equipment. I’ll be moving to a retirement community by the end of the year. I've decided to hand a hard copy of this letter and the portable drive to my attorney. He's a young upstart attorney with a new practice. I'm going to give him all this information with instructions not to publish or release it until at least 10 years after my death.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Sincerely, Daniel Altson
April 1, 2145
Submitters note:
My name is Cheri. I found this hard copy letter and unknown computer device of ancient origin while cleaning out a storage file room belonging to my late great uncle. Judging by the building and location of the storage file, it likely came into my great uncles possession sometime before 2085. My great uncle had a prosperous legal profession in what was then called Wisconsin throughout the late 21 century. My late father and my cousins took over his business about the turn-of-the-century. So this file appears to have been hidden away in the archives for 70+ years. Apparently at some time my great uncle did take the funds and agree to release this letter, so I guess I should do that to.
Initially I was going to release it on a site for fiction, but then my daughter started doing a little research. Here is what we found: A Mr. Daniel Alston did live in the area from 1985 to his death in 2087. He was a client of my great uncles. Many of the incidents that he reports on here, such as the president of the United States losing his ability to launch nuclear missiles during the early stages of World War III, had not been declassified prior to his death. I have no explanation for how he was able get this information. Nor will I attempt to guess.
It seems extremely far-fetched that some sort of robot/android/cyborg of the abilities described could have existed well over 100 years ago, when we have not even reached that point yet today. But as I say, I have no explanation for the information contained in this letter. So I have decided to release it to this site for your perusal, discussion and review.
Sincerely Cheri L.
Postscript: I turned the ancient computer device over to a government historical research site. I have not heard back from them. But upon returning to my great uncle's old office this Monday morning, I found the place comprehensively trashed. Nothing appears to have been taken, so whatever it is they were looking for they didn't find. But they were very thorough and even managed to destroy the surveillance chips to prevent any identification of them.