The First Reconnoiter

Most of the bunker residents were gratified to have all survived the nuclear blast. Evidently the Soviets had ignored the fact that there was a big square building and bombed the town and the military base, not realizing that there was a bunker square in the middle of Sunset Heights. And it seemed as though the tenets of Mutual Assured Destruction had played out, because there were no more missiles. What the world situation was, VADM Nakamura and RADM Chegwidden did not know. Whether they would emerge to find Sunset Valley invaded by Russian and Chinese troops, they didn't know, but they knew for a fact that they would not like what they would face when they did stick their heads out of their burrow.

For now, they would wait it out...and see how the situation was before emerging. At least the monitors had started working again after that EMP blast. And thank goodness that VADM Nakamura had Faraday-caged the entire complex which meant that a lot of their electronics had survived the EMP blast.

One of the main things was making sure that every man, woman and child was in fighting shape...when it came to finally emerging from the bunker because they didn't know what they were up against. Tosh "Animal" Nakamura was already a Level 9 Martial Artist before they even came to the bunker, so what he was doing was making sure that he mastered Martial Arts. He wanted to make sure that he was unchallenged for his and AJ's authority. They were the de facto leaders in the complex and as such, they needed to be able to lead without people second-guessing their leadership.

Post-Apocalypse was a harsh situation and they were going to have to pair up or look at some very unique situations if they were going to rebuild the human race. From what was coming in, only a few pockets of humanity had survived the nuclear exchange and what pockets did were protected in bunkers like what the survivors were currently in. Considering that Meg and Animal were in a relationship already, they didn't have to worry about who they were going to be matched up with and of course they took advantage of that. It was nice being the Leader.

The next morning, saw Harm and Animal don exposure suits to head out and see what the environment was like. When they emerged, it made their jaw drop. The sky had cleared of smoke and soot, but the UV reading were off the charts. Any prolonged length of unprotected exposure and they would pay for it in increased risk of cancer and tumor growth. They stood in dead silence for a long moment...

Harm whispered, "Mom...Frank..." he blinked furiously because he couldn't raise his protective visor to wipe away the tears. He didn't know how long it would take for the atmosphere to repair itself or whether it would be the same again. But he snapped out of it when Animal snapped harshly, "Follow me!"

There was no time for breaking down emotionally. Their goal was survival and only the fittest would in this new harsh world. Their goal for this mission was to reconnoiter the area and see what they could find.

Both their Glocks were out...and at the ready. "Keep your eyes peeled for any hostiles..." Animal cautioned as they paused beside what was the burnt hulk of Citizen's Warehouse.

"Follow me..." Animal commanded as he headed off towards the south of the town.

A man ran by them, "HALT!" commanded Animal and the man turned towards him, his face covered with burns and abrasions. To his utter shock, it was Xander Clavell, one of the town's miscreants. He looked as though he was suffering from radiation exposure and his skin was cracked and bleeding.

"You survived the blast? Right near the epicenter?" Animal interrogated him in shock not believing that someone could have survived the apocalyptic explosion.

"I was down in the parkade...when the bomb went off. I managed to dig myself out of the rubble, but..." he coughed, a watery sounding cough...there really wasn't anything that Harm or Animal could do for him. It seemed as though his lungs were already failing and it was only a matter of time. "it's been h*ll ever since." He mentioned a few other distinct bits of information and then headed off...

Animal looked over at Harm, "There's no way that he's going to last the week. You heard how watery his breathing was...there's fluid build-up in his lungs...and his organs are failing. When he coughed there was blood on his hands..."

It certainly appeared as though Grim was being kept busy because one of the survivors, Gobias Koffi collapsed and died and Grim was sent to collect his soul.

...which pretty much caused one of the other townie survivors to faint. Survival especially with the increased UV radiation and the ambient fall-out that had contaminated the area, it was going to make recovery a heck of a lot more difficult and time-consuming. It was with heavy hearts that Harm and Animal returned to the bunker.