The next few days passed by in a blur. Flights and deliveries into and out of the castle were diverted into the nearby town of Appleton. Daniel Locke, Sr. made every assurance to the people living in and around the castle that these were precautionary measures and only temporary. Both Mr. and Mrs. Locke urged voluntary compliance and even Doc Hocking spoke urgently to his science teams in order to prevent further incidents.
Still, after the barricades were raised on both roads into and out of the valley, people started to panic. Phone lines became jammed as people tried to contact their families and friends outside of the valley.
Daniel Locke was in constant contact with the sheriff's office in Appleton and other media sources. Sheriff McCloud organized similar checkpoints outside the barely visible shimmering aurora in order to help dissuade anyone else from entering the area. The castle's security forces stayed on top of the situation and even prevented several attempts to exit through the barricades. People were scared and frightened and the military type checkpoints around the grounds didn't help allay fears.
Some people felt the castle had become a prison while others agreed that the precautions were in place for their protection. The castle hallways soon became like a ghost town and the summer camp out back was even worse. Not a single solitary kid played on the courts or fields. Most had hidden themselves away in their rooms along with their parents.
It was a stroke of brilliance when James designed a system to get needed supplies into the valley without endangering any more lives. At the spot where the main road to Appleton met the aurora, he had a small team of workers to create a hands free method of bringing in food and supplies. The aurora of light only spanned a thickness of ten to fifteen feet so it was possible to push and pull long flatbed trailers through the area with bulldozers without the need for a person to cross into the curtain of lights.
The whole community was adjusting to the new situation when another wrench was thrown at them. The United States military forces began arriving later that day and started to raise their own barricades and support structures. Eventually a no-fly zone was initiated and maintained by a pair of f-14 jets.
Luckily, news sources were in place before any military blackouts could be instituted and a news conference was set for the following morning. The news agencies were assured that explanations and demonstrations would take place. The military warned against it but bowed to public pressure after several attempts to disrupt media access to the area inside the aurora resulted in several artifact experiment videos hitting the net.
It turned out that doctor Hocking, in great foresight had backed up all the video recordings of his findings so far to computers on an outside network. Along with the videos he had sent directions to upload select portions of it to YouTube should contact with his team be lost.
By then everyone had begun referring to the shimmering wall of air around the valley as the Aurora California. Since Indy's arrival the shimmering wall had grown much more visible at all times. It was a myriad of colors dancing and waving across the sky.
His father came to him in his rooms late that night as Indy lay trying to sleep. He told him that the next morning they were going to schedule a news conference and it was time that they share their discoveries with the world. His father was worried that even though they might not have all the answers yet, if they didn't say something soon the government might find a way to keep them all silent.
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Guardian (The Tower Saga, Book 1)
AdventureA magical tattoo. An ancient power. One seventeen year old boy. Indy is a normal kid. That is, as normal as the son of a billionaire can be. He has spent most of his life away from his family in elite private schools. But now that he has graduate...
