River McIrishr: All in all, we spent a grand total of three weeks in this godforsaken pit until we managed to find out that what little radiation there was had died down to a tolerable level. Luckily for us, like Mom said, it was a low yield weapon and the person who was in charge went out first to see, so if he was wrong, he'd have gotten the full dose of the radiation still left. Luckily for us he was right. So we are going out periodically, to build shelter on the surface that we can reside in, but we're coming into the shelter to sleep at night. He says, it's better to be safe than sorry. I think I agree with him. When we peeked out topside, it was horrific. The grass was all brown and there were only green evergreens and radiation hardened deciduous trees that were around. Everything else were burnt and charred stumps. It seemed like a scene out of The Wasteland. But eventually we hope that it will clear up. If not...we're going to be in for a tough time of it.
Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie: Keeter and AJ are out right now. They've taken the two sniper rifles with them. We know that there are bandits out there who are raiding settlements and it's only a matter of time before they get to ours. Everyone's morals have gone down the drain and it's everyone for themselves except in here in this vault. But how soon till claustrophobia hits and people start going insane? We are going up to the surface in shifts of two and making sure that we try to see if there is anything that we can salvage to make our existence somewhat better than it is...which I personally think is much better than outside at the moment.
Sturgis Turner: We have heard rumors that a bandit squad has moved into the neighborhood about a week ago and have been rapidly amassing power. We have yet to run into any of their members, but it appears as though we may end up with a large scale war on our hands if they decide to come after our location. Considering that we have the high ground any attack from their cohorts will end up resulting in their being seen and tactically eliminated. We're planning on searching the area, but the area just below the epicenter was flattened and there appears to be no signs of life whatsoever.
Albert Jethro "AJ" Chegwidden: It appears that what few survivors there are are shell-shocked and suffering from acute radiation sickness. Even though the blast wasn't as big, the flash and resultant blast had sent out gamma rays in such intensity that it had fried every cell in their body. I found one such unfortunate one: she was talking about the party that she was going to have for her graduation while her her body was collapsing from the inside out. She won't last more than a day or two at most.
Jack Keeter: It's hell out there. I know we say it like it's actually supposed to mean somethin'. But this was hell... The skies were orange and the mist at the city hall ruins and the devastated Central Park were spooky. And what was the eeriest part of it all was there was no one...not even a rodent moving in any of this area. In fact my skin was crawling thinking of the Roentgen count in this area even though scientists will say that the radiation level is down to a level that the human body can tolerate. Luckily we were so isolated as a community that the Simsians only used one warhead to take us out. If they had used multiples, we'd still be back in our bunker waiting it out. I was getting so creeped out that when AJ suggested that we return to the bunker; it was the happiest piece of news I'd heard in a long time.
Fiona McIrish: It was hard to believe the situation however, it manifested itself in Tosh creating the equivalent of a finely trained militia considering that most of the members were high ranking servicemen who had served Simdonia with distinction, up to and including Tosh who had earned the Simdonia Medal of Honour ( :p I say Simdonia uses British spelling... so there. :p ) for valour above and beyond the call of duty. Former Admiral AJ Chegwidden was the Commander in Chief. The only man who refused to join in Admiral AJ Chegwidden's militia was Noel, who appeared to march to his own drummer. Well, even though the situation is dire, we have seven able-bodied men who are able to and willing to defend the bunker and all the inhabitants within it. Even the women had insisted that they were willing to gather up arms and fight, but the admiral forbade it, due to the fact that the women were needed desperately in the bunker and with access to the arms locker, and us locked in; the men could fight knowing that their women were safe from harm. Certainly it is a rather sexist way of putting it, but the men were more expendable than the women. The women would start the next generation of Simdonians.
Toshio "Animal" Nakamura: Gentlemen! ATTEN-HUT!!! (pause for a long moment of silence as Tosh glares at the men who are squirming; the squirming stops) AT EASE!!! You all know why you're here. Each and every one of you. Six weeks ago, Simdonia and every city and town including here in Sunset Valley was attacked by a nuclear weapon. Bridgeport was hit with a Simsian 2.2MT SS-18 and is nothing more than a crater in the ground. Everything around Bridgeport for a mile around is nothing but molten glass. Now we were lucky in that we were hit with a low-yield nuclear weapon whatever the plum that is. I have no plumming idea. It's above my pay-grade! But understand this...gentlemen. WE ARE BACK in the MILITARY AS OF NOW!!! Each and everyone of you will be expected to pick up a weapon and use it to defend our fortification. I expect you to rebuild the lookout towers and dig trenches inside the fence-line. I want clear line-of-sight from every corner of this location. No obstructions. A clear field of fire. In other words, this tree I'm standing next to, I want gone! We have decided on a clear rank structure. Rabb, you are Sergeant, the rest of you are all grunts and Rabb is your squad leader. I am your commander and RADM Chegwidden is now your Commander-in-Chief. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!
Sergeant Rabb and Grunts: YES SIR!!!
Tosh: Good, I wasn't sure if you were awake or the gaps in your mouth were actually sucking in valuable oxygen so your five braincells; one each, can stay alive. Now I'm not sure if we have residual radiation in the area or if we will come across mutations, but I want each and every one of you to be on your lookout when we go outside the wire. God knows, I don't want to deal with a plumming sixteen foot high hornet that mutated because of the radiation or any zombie outbreak if there is such a thing after this nuclear incident. But if you aren't the slightest bit awake or you feel like dozing off on our recon, that slight tickle in your perineum will be my boot up your rectal brain stem. AM I CLEAR!!!
Sergeant Rabb and Grunts: YES SIR!!!
Tosh: I don't know what we'll see beyond the wire, I'm no godplummed psychic. But make no mistake it ain't gonna be pretty. And I expect you to all keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious. IS THAT CLEAR?!"
Sergeant Rabb and Grunts: YES SIR!!!
Tosh: Commander in Chief, sir, they're all yours...
CIC Chegwidden: Morning, gentlemen. As I could hear from your Commander's exhortations, that you are expected to adhere to a high standard of alertness. The only thing I know about ground warfare is what I learned in War College and that was a few lectures on how squids were expected to deal with ground pounders. Now we're ground-pounders. Hopefully my SEAL training will come back to me and I can impart that knowledge to you and those who come after you. Now I won't take up much more of your time, but I want each and every one of you to understand that you are an integral part of this facility. If you are killed you are no longer a part of the rebuilding process and that is an eventuality that we do not wish to face. So you are to be on high alert as you exit this facility and be on high alert until you are safe within the confines of the bottom locked door of the staircase in our bunker. IS THAT CLEAR!?
Sergeant Rabb and Grunts: SIR!!! YES SIR!!!
CIC Chegwidden: That is all.
Tosh: ATTEN-HUT!!! RIGHT-FACE!!!
Tosh: PERIMETER GATE...ON THE DOUBLE. QUICK MARCH!!!
Tosh: It wasn't a pretty sight, but the rust shook right off when we hit the perimeter. Suddenly all our Spidey-senses were going bananas the moment we went through that gate and our fun-meter was pegged. This LEAPEX was going to be a royal pain in the posterior. We kept to the tree-line and out of sght. The sun, what we could see of it through the obscuring smoke that painted the sky orange, was going down and there were long shadows. The fires had all burnt out and we were lucky that there was no residual radiation. Our Roentgen counters only detected a slight elevation in background radiation, but not enough to cause us concern or make us don our protective gear. But the sight that met us when we came to what used to be our City Hall made us speechless. I had to stop for a moment to take in the whole situation and let it register on my mind. The City Hall's water-main had burst and had collapsed the foundation inwards so the entire building sat at a 35 degree angle. There was no one left alive, I was sure of it. And I wasn't about to risk my men's safety by going in there to do a futile search and rescue operation. Even if the blast hadn't killed them, they were too close to the epicenter of the explosion to survive.
Bud: "Sir, are you sure that we shouldn't check and see if anyone isn't trapped in there?"
Tosh: "Roberts, my priority is making sure that you and the rest of my men return home to the bunker safe. Considering the proximity to city hall to the nuclear blast, I doubt anyone survived and those who did died a slow death of radiation poisoning. I know you have aa humanitarian streak in you, but I don't think that it would be wise to go in there at this point. Under no circumstance will I allow it," I looked over at everyone in my squad. "Am I understood?" The quiet tone but steel underneath it, I think, got through to everyone. They wouldn't disobey a direct order whether hinted at or not. And Harm, my Top, knew darned well that I would enforce it too.
Tosh: We returned in the afternoon of the next day after our LRRP. The sights we saw were hellish, as Keeter said in regards to his last trip out. There wasn't a single person other than the Yakuza gang that had moved in and we were trying to make sure that we didn't cross paths with them. However Lady Luck was on our side this time around. When we got back, Commander in Chief Chegwidden met us personally at the gate and debriefed us, then we all headed back in the bunker to get some chow. and a personal belated welcome home from a beautiful lady.
Tosh: Well, helloooo, Meg
No comments:
Post a Comment