Sheep Herd Nation

By Ryan Michael Sotelo

Sheep Herd Nation takes place in America's future in a parallel New York City named "The Empire City". The mayor, Jonah Jeplin, installs a drone database that spies on the American people in order to better society as a whole and keep everyone safe. Dan Rivers, a writer for the City Times, discovers Mayor Jeplin has sold drone plans to enemies of the United States, and tries to expose him. While Rivers is in the Empire City at a baseball game with his son, Jeplin's drone system gets hacked and a massacre begins. Dan and his son find safety but become separated, and the quest quickly turns into not only trying to find his son, but to figure out who hacked the system and why. As Dan Rivers soon finds out though, it is either save his son, or save the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514427675

Ryan Michael Sotelo

Ryan Michael Sotelo is currently a student at Penn State University, soon to obtain a degree in English. From Shickshinny, Pennsylvania, he writes for his school’s newspaper, The Revolt, has composed several topics already for future books and plays, and is an avid reader. His family housed a foreign exchange student from Spain recently and his goal was to make her a better student. She is now a very successful English speaker and helping her made him realize he would also like to someday teach the world. He is confident that this book, his first, will be a sufficient starting point.

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Copyright © 2015 by Ryan Michael Sotelo.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 12/02/2015

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Parts

Part 1 - Operation: Safer Sentry

Part 2 - Don’t Trust the Sky

Part 3 - The Empire City

Part 4 - Drone War

Part 5 - Slaughterhouse

Part 6 - The Man behind the Curtain

Part 7 - New America

For my parents; my mother for her endless love and support and my father for always allowing me to let my dreams fly high.

Thank you.

Operation:

Safer Sentry

1

May 23rd, 2033

The Empire City, USA

Dawn approaches. The swarm has already been let loose.

Spying.

Scanning.

Securing.

In the pre-light hours the drones monitor the Empire City as it tries to sleep and when night returns shrouding the skyline they remain watching eagerly, protecting their precious haven.

Operation: Safer Sentry.

The metallic valkyries miss no one.

They fly by the thousands sweeping away the unsuspecting clouds as they glare down their god-less Earth, sizing from choppers and blimps to small quadcopters and ground sentries.

All utilized for the safety of a paranoid nation.

But one day, a loner drone disperses from the herd and hovers away in the beating afternoon sun, propellers humming like the wings of a hornet as its tiny, gray body cautiously routes itself above a nearby highway and out of the city.

No one will expect a drone strike on American soil.

It’s the perfect murder.

A More Secure World Today for A Safer Tomorrow, reads the blinding white and blue lights of a holographic banner that streams above the headquarters of the ECPD (Empire City Police Department) that afternoon.

I want you all to feel safe… to feel secure… to feel at home in this still great city, the city of the Empire, Mayor Jonah Jeplin preaches to the massive crowd of anxious eyes before him. Unmanned quadcopter drones connected to a universal database flutter around him like lost, late night insects to a single source of light.

Quad propellers buzzing away, the small DFD (Deadly Force Drone) knows its target already. It will only be a matter of time before the kill is executed.

Standing by is the city’s police commissioner, James Shears. Jeplin’s shaved face and slick, balding black head radiate brightly off his leathery skin in the pre-summer sunlight. He smiles to the crowd with tender eyes. Hundreds line up in Central Park to hear what he will say, and the world watches as the internet broadcasts it.

He is the safest person in the world.

Away from the rest, the mini, armed drone soars over the interstate. This drone is different though - this drone has a mission.

A wise man once said: do onto others as you would want done to you. No longer will we live in fear. United, one nation, under safety, I give you all my word that our future as one looks promising. Look towards the sky and welcome your new ally, as well as police force - Jeplin beams with delight and raises his arms as if leading them in prayer: - the Safer Sentry unit.

Quadcopters called draganflies begin soaring through the air, buzzing around the awed crowd. As if a magician sending doves out of his sleeves, Jeplin releases his drones to the world. The Empire City is the first in the world to test Safer Sentry’s power. With that in mind, he assures that it is the safest city on Earth.

No one pays attention to the small drone as it flies away from everything else. It’s just a drone - seeing them is as common as seeing birds.

Safer Sentry is the name of a worldwide drone database. Operation: Safer Sentry is its initiation. The company was founded by Jeplin - the brainchild of it all. His safety protocol popularity eventually had him elected mayor of the city, where the company’s central headquarters was moved to City Hall.

Jonah Jeplin, as some spectate, has as much power as Joseph Mammon, President of the United States. Jeplin introduced the concept of Jeplinism: that governments are allowed to spy on anyone and everyone 24/7 without their consent for the well being of the people as a whole, especially with international threats as a constant reminder why.

Random killing sprees were declining, crimes were less frequent. It seemed to be working and Jeplin preached that without safety taken into these extreme measures, no one would ever be safe again. And he is right: no one will ever be safe again.

A half hour passes. A test alert is sent out to assure the people that they are protected.

Every drone seems to get this test alert, except for the solo sentry that is now in a small, wooded borough in northeastern Pennsylvania. Its target is soon located.

A young girl exits her grandparents’ house sprinting home through the early summer breeze. Her house is right down the road. Her family lives near. She is safe.

She cradles her chilled box of ice cream, smiling and jumping playfully down the dirt road. To her it’s just another relaxing Monday off from school. Another day to swim in the creek, another day to relax. Another day to enjoy childhood bliss. The child gazes at nearby trees shadowing the road and wants that cool shade more and more.

She takes off like an Olympic runner at the gun.

Monitoring. That’s the drone’s job: monitoring and scanning people out of the ordinary. Something suddenly sparks the sensor: an object the size of the drone itself; the running of the little girl.

Infrared on.

Target sighted.

The camera latches onto her skimpy, bikinied body and examines the human, internal computer storing the footage.

Calculating. Young, ragged clothing, female. Unidentified object in hand. Running at high speed. Could be stealing. Possibly stealing. Robbery alert. Robbery alert.

The machine takes off, turret revving in suspense, creeping just meters above the road.

Target in range.

Deadly force authorized.

The girl suddenly notices the sound of the rotor’s humming behind her and spins around. But it is too late - the machine’s turret buzzes, spitting out hot lead across the gravel. Dirt kicks, blood sprays, and the ice cream explodes, splattering all across the ground and melting over the rocks.

Target eliminated; robbery upheld.

The tiny drone hovers over to the corpse and scans its victim.

Face cannot be analyzed. No criminal matches found. Cannot compute. Abort.

The drone flies off, re-routing itself back to the Empire City. There in pieces lays the slaughtered child, rotting in the heat, the ice cream trickling into the road’s dusted cracks as her innocent blood drips with it into the insufferable Earth.

Safer Sentry’s reign has begun.

2

May 22nd, 2033 - 16:00

Scranton, PA

We the Sheeple… of the United States of America: Today was the unveiling of Safer Sentry’s newest drones - smaller, efficient, armed quadcopters. Ask yourself America: where are we going with such extreme security protocols? Do we really need DFDs and Safer Sentry? Are our children really safe?

I sit back and scan the words that I have just typed, staring at the screen in hopes that the computer will finish the article for me.

My name is Dan Rivers; I am a father of two, a husband to one, and a shepherd to society. I write online for the Empire City Times from my Scranton home - roughly two hours from the metropolis itself, and am a world known author.

I am a whistleblower to Safer Sentry’s incredulously alarming and powerful system and constantly try my best to open America’s eyes. But the wolf has already been let loose, and in a nation where few shepherds remain, the sheep are damned.

As I compose, a second screen types out the same words in Spanish. I shake my over-thinking head and rub my tired fingers over my scalp and fluffed black hair muttering, I’m ranting again.

I am 49 years old and an ex-cop for the ECPD. I quit for my own reasons - things I wish I never saw, criminals I wish I never met. Cliché, but the damn truth. I joined when I was 21 to support my older brother Charlie, who died while serving for the city’s fire department. Current Commissioner James Shears was a Lieutenant for me at one point. Since a drone-related death in 2017 that our squad was responsible for, we both parted our ways, separated by bad blood.

Sometimes it bothers me that we even have mutual friends.

But I tried to move on from my experiences in the Empire City, even if that’s where I was born. My mother recently passed away too which now leaves only my father, who still resides on Staten Island. Much like with Commissioner Shears, my father and I rarely exchange words, for our own reasons as well.

I couldn’t go on in life without creating a family, proving to both myself and my father that I wouldn’t be a failure. My family includes my loving wife Karen and our two beautiful creations, Billy and Sam, ages 15 and 12.

I didn’t realize it at first, but I have only made more targets for Safer Sentry.

The news is on, Dan Rivers, buzzes away my iBot’s male computer voice as it follows me into the living room on a set of wheels. PRs - Personal Robots - are the latest trend of must have technology.

Thank you Chandler. I smirk at the bot’s uncanny loyalty as I grab a bowl of pre-heated, steaming noodles. White, small, and cooperative, the iBot offers alerts and supply due dates for my work.

As the holographic television instantly turns on to the news, I see an anxious reporter shift his papers as he starts the story with quick words:

A drone related tragedy has sparked our attention this afternoon. A young girl in Huntington Township, Pennsylvania was brutally murdered by a DFD that went off course from a test flight earlier today.

My jaw falls like the wall at Berlin.

Investigators in Pennsylvania, including the State Police and Empire City officials are quickly trying to get a hold on the division responsible for today’s flight, as well as figure out how the unmanned and what was supposed to be ‘unarmed’ drone could have possibly escaped and caused this unpredictable death.

I nearly drop my lunch, fumbling it in my anxious hands as I try to speak. Stop the presses, Chandler. The online world is about to be shocked - this has gone too far!

3

The news spreads like ringworm at a wrestling match; within minutes the entire country is consciously aware of the slaughter.

I log into the Empire City Times’ updater and type away, Girl in Huntington Township, PA found dead after possible drone attack - Chandler checks for errors and then instantly the billions of followers of The Times throughout the world are updated.

Many other drone-related deaths have occurred before, but never involving a child. I complete my small blurb in roughly fifteen minutes, but its actual completion still lingers on the information being gathered, which updates minute by minute. This includes a name of the victim: Denise Walters, age 7.

I despise those damn things, I repeatedly lecture Chandler as he proofreads the last sentence. If they weren’t so damned, I wouldn’t despise them.

Editing complete.

Article saved.

As Chandler sends the editorial to the Times to be evaluated and published, I loiter outside waiting for the mail and lose a staring contest to the sky. But my gaze suddenly shifts to anxiety.

Potential robotic killers are flying everywhere.

The mail delivery drone makes ideal timing, swinging by and carefully dropping in the family mail via a tether. I glare at the machine and envy its perfect schedule as it buzzes off to the next house, and watch the rest of the sentries as they soar through the heavens carving away humanity’s headstone.

I sigh to myself thinking precious thoughts that the government can’t harvest yet:

Pretty soon these drones will get tired of serving and instead aim for control.

17:00

My son Billy will return home from his first summer league soccer practice soon and Sam is over at a friend’s working on a project for school. For once, I can finally relax with my family, and lucky for me Karen has offered to be chauffer tonight and pick up the kids - even though cars drive themselves now. Kids have such unique names these days. Karen and I just picked something we wouldn’t forget.

My article is sent though, and the boss approves, posting it online. It’s an instant hit and I grin like the Cheshire cat, reading it over and over. People are finally starting to listen. Constant air control and spying? At least the machines are not being kept from us; they are in plain sight.

Yet the world just watches it happen.

The holographic flatscreen once again explodes into light as another breaking story erupts into the news world, causing me to spill my drink in excitement and see what’s next.

It’s the scheduled speech by Jeplin and Shears, a shifty pair that have been on the news constantly over the past 24 hours.

Once for praise, and now for remorse.

Record this Chandler, I would like to watch it again later, I speak quickly, turning up the TV but stopping as I make eye contact with the face of Chief Shears on the screen.

It’s been years since we last spoke, and I plan to keep it that way.

Jonah Jeplin is dressed in black. One of his eye slightly sags, staring diagonal from its intended view, like a chameleon’s. The mayor has always looked like this but for once I get a good look at him: one eye staring straight, watching the world quietly while the other makes sure he isn’t being watched himself. His dark skin looks worn but smooth, and his toothy, sympathetic smile slowly straightens out and almost frowns. His bald head shines against the pounding sun, and his towering figure tenses.

He clears his throat and speaks the words carefully: Good evening to the world of Safer Sentry.

My skin crawls; Jeplin’s voice is powerful but uncanny, like the sound a cat makes before throwing up.

I would personally like to say that first: the ECPD is fully responsible for the unaccounted actions taken today by a DFD that glitched the system.

Glitched the system, a phrase meaning they screwed up. Big time.

Secondly, under no means is this the fault of my own, the great city of New York’s, or that unfortunate, unprotected little girl. Operation: Safer Sentry remains intact. The branch responsible for today’s flight is being held accounted for, with two lead programmers already being taken into custody.

This is gold, Chandler; note this down for a future article!

My iBot copies the words he hears into a voicepad app as Jeplin’s voice crescendos. Thirdly, DFD’s will remain within the system, with newer methods and means of making them safer being created each and every day. Police Commissioner Shears will go into further detail. Thank you again and God bless that poor family.

I once didn’t mind Jeplin, but the man’s fanatic preaching now concerns me. He is innovative and does offer the world revolutionary means of drone usage - but it clearly shows already that the power has gotten to his head.

Or maybe that’s what he’s wanted this whole time.

Shears clears his throat, making way for his puny voice. Good evening as well. This afternoon’s events were caused by a stray drone that was evidently armed.

I make no emotion as I stare at the man I once knew on screen. Again here we are in the presence of another drone related slaughter.

Shears goes on, The little girl, Denise Walters, a mere seven years old, remains in watch over us tonight, with prayers to her family in mind. This summer she will not get to be around with her friends, or family, or even to enjoy the rest of her life. This upcoming year she will be marked absent in school, but present in Heaven. She will always be remembered, always.

I roll my eyes. Props to whoever wrote that for him.

My department, the sentry unit, and especially the DFD’s control branch take full responsibility for today’s slaughter, says the police chief, "however, like Mayor Jeplin has said, the program will remain. One death will not cause the collapse of this great system we have running. All around the city, soon the country, and hopefully the world, the machines that some call drones and others like myself call saviors are making life easier for us.

They all have unique tasks, they all possess character. With the release of our new machines today, it is a symbol that the future remains strong for us all. With the initiation of Safer Sentry comes the opening of more eyes. The world must see the potential of this system, and how it can eliminate crime from this planet forever! Even though one drone committed a crime today, it was an accident. Humans make accidents too."

I slouch on my hand, muttering, You were an accident.

One cannot be accountable for all. Accidents happen, and we as a species will always learn from them.

Something in me suddenly snaps. I shoot up and scream at the TV, A perfectly preventable accident! You damn idiots don’t even know what you’re doing, leave NASA to the skies!

Fed up, I pounce at the TV and turn it off, quickly jumping online to various social media sites to see what everyone else is saying. To my surprise, Jeplin has already posted his own status: My sincere gratitude goes out to the Walters, but you are all safe my friends.

I get chills reading that. The bad kind.

Quickly I type away my own update, These people don’t know what they’re getting into. An armed drone that managed to slip away; accidents happen, eh? Bull.

A few replies and a bunch of likes instantly.

The day proves to be somewhat productive. Chandler noted down what I said earlier, but only managed to get, This is gold, Chandler!

His system is still glitchy as well.

4

May 23rd, 2033 - 18:00

Scranton, PA

The kids are in their last week of school and I carefully monitor the web to see if any more information will pop up. Evidently, the victim girl is related to an ex-programmer at Safer Sentry.

Irony at its finest I suppose, but I also suspect some sort of foul play.

Unfortunately, for many weeks now, plans are being geared into motion to establish Safer Sentry’s DFDs (Deadly Force Drones) in cities all over the world. Shanghai, D.C., Philly, London, Mexico City, Detroit… the list goes on and on.

Where crime is higher, more drones will be. Shanghai’s system is already being installed. Philadelphia and D.C. are on the list for next week.

The President of the United States, Joseph Mammon approves of it all.

But what is he to the American people if he is just a puppet to Jeplin’s Safer Sentry?

The day drags on and I finally manage to get a hold of my boss, Mike Powers. Powers is the Chief Editor for the Online Times, but works in the Empire City at the paper’s main headquarters.

A scruffy gray mustache perched on his lip matches his faded black and gray hair, aging that shows just how long he’s been dedicated to the Times. Powers is caring but aggressive. He’s also the reason why I have the status that I have:

Mr. popular in the drone-article world.

Coming at ’cha boss, what’s up? I grin at Powers as he streams from the face of the kitchen island.

My house is part of the new wave of the smart-house generation. A touchscreen counter stores recipes and acts like a face-call when relatives want to chat but have their hands full. The walls in the house are generated with computers too; wall color and design can be updated via a fingerprint touch and swipe. Phones can be connected to eFurniture and projected virtually anywhere. Anywhere that I walk in the house, my boss’s face follows me.

Powers’ raggedy voice scratches through the screen. Ya know you’re getting old when all your favorite channels play nothing but Viagra commercials.

I can see my boss clicking off a holographic TV in the background and almost tear up from laughing.

Good to see you Rivers, I’d prefer you here in person but hey, we live in an age where you don’t need to talk face to face with people anymore or even hear their voice.

It’s been like that for awhile. I laugh again but then straighten up, flailing my arms and asking, How do you like the place? Cleaned it up a bit.

Powers looks around and nods in approval. It’s still city life Dan. But I’m glad ya like it. The extreme city life was too much for me and I felt I needed to tone it down a bit. I moved to Scranton so that I could be as far away but still close enough to the Empire City, in case of emergency.

I munch into an apple, pacing around as Powers files through work from the other half of reality and listens.

Hell of a mess we got out there, I say.

The head honcho sighs, fidgeting with his reading glasses. I know, I feel sorry for those poor Chinese. I see Shanghai has Safer Sentry right up their asses. I guess their military regrets stealing some of our drones huh? They’re gonna be a bunch of rice krispies.

I scoff, nearly spitting out the apple skin. You know I’ve been hearing that a lot. But those were military drones they hijacked, these are police sentries. You think a glitch in the system would be connected?

I already know the answer to that one.

Powers exclaims, Well of course it would, the whole system’s screwed up! They don’t bother to mention this, and the public isn’t even supposed to know but you know what? It’s not the countries and their separate programs that run these sentry databases. That would be world war three if that were the case! It’s all based off of one central computer system, and that’s here in the city.

I then say jokingly, Geez, I guess you can say whoever is in charge of this system basically rules the world.

5

I don’t realize my words until they slip through my unsuspecting lips. I’ve said this countless times, but now it hits me hard.

Whoever runs the system runs the world - no longer would it be countries fighting over one another, it would be companies trying to control drones. Jeplin saw this and created the world friendly Safer Sentry database.

There is no one to compete with him.

Of course if anything ever went wrong it would be all on him. As I always say, the biggest criminals wear ties, not tattoos.

In a way, I wish something would go wrong with the system. I honestly wish it would glitch, crash, destroy itself - without the loss of human life of course.

At the same time though I feel very safe. I live in the city and know that if I go out late at night I won’t get mugged, or my car won’t get stolen or there won’t be any vandalism to my home. I know the drones watch like hawks and never miss anything.

But that’s just it:

Jeplinism will be the death of America.

19:00

Busy day today huh? I saw the news, Karen Rivers tries to be perky stepping in the door with our children, home from grocery shopping. I smile as the evening sun exudes her beauty, light brown hair and rosy cheeks.

Fresh and sweaty from soccer practice, Billy gives me a fist bump and Sam exchanges a Hi Dad with me but her eyes stay glued to her phone screen. Yet another generation wasting away from technology. But I can’t help but smirk knowing I was the same when I was her age.

Helping bring in food I ask, You’s heard about it when it happened?

Yeah I got an update on my phone, Billy, the Times’ number one fan, responds. Typed by you of course. Was gonna text you about it but I was at practice.

And we saw it online, Sam speaks up getting a little anxious. I was over Becca’s house.

Did you finish your end of the year project? I guide them into the kitchen where Chandler prepares dinner. Of course, he only has the ingredients listed down on an electronic notepad, but luckily Karen steps in to do the manual cooking.

Sam tells me, We were half way done but then that whole drone thing happened. Mom picked me up and we just went shopping.

I shake my head. You guys should’ve came home, especially during a crisis like this so close to home! Who knows what other DFDs were out there lurking -

Karen places her hand hard on my shoulder to stop my words. Dan we were fine. I know it happened so close to home but we’re all okay now and that’s all that matters.

What the heck even happened, weren’t they monitoring it? Billy asks taking off his ball cap and fluffing up his thick, curled hair.

I sigh. "System’s