second instalment

Powder Keg

Saunders and Cpl. Hernandez sifted through the wreckage of what had been a high school gymnasium after a short ten mile hike through ruined city. “So the Iranians nuked us good?” “That’s what they’re saying sir, but supposedly we nuked them back just as hard. Some top brass general saw fit to remember mutually assured destruction from the McCarthy era.” “Great, just what the world needs, two more parking lots and a few million more refugees.” “Yeah, I know, right? Anyway, you didn’t miss too much hiding down in your shelter; people were called in a few hours after, but told not to come out of any safe area they were in till at least a few days had passed. Then LTC. Bates got the ball rolling on casualty reports and the like, and inventorying the hospital and food stores. Good man, Bates.” “I don’t know Corporal; he doesn’t give me a good feeling, not sure he’s still all there.” “Sir?” “Well, the first thing you want to do in a situation like this is get everyone rounded up, get them all together so they know other people are alive, find out who isn’t, and get food, water, and medical help to those in need. We don’t get them rounded up, they’re going to drink the irradiated water, or eat something toxic, and if it’s ingested, even those fancy little orange pills can’t help. Once radiation poisoning sets in, all hell will break loose; people will see their friends and loved ones dying slowly after fighting like hell to survive the bombing itself.” Saunders picked up a slightly singed doll from the shattered gym floor and continued “of course, that all requires there to be much of a civilian population left. Far as I know there were very few personal bomb shelters, and if they followed the idea of an air raid, thinking that’s what the siren was for, then they’d have all ended up in large public facilities where they could be kept calm and quiet. Like this gym here.”
Every now and then while sifting through the destroyed gym, they’d come across a charred bone, or a tooth. Not much was left, the people had probably been knocked out by the concussive force of the blast, some killed outright by falling debris, and the rest had been burned alive while they were unconscious by the conflagration that had consumed most of the building. “Ok, Corporal, I don’t think we’re going to find much in the way of survivors here. How about you check out the lower communities, and I’ll make a jog up the hill to search the gated one and try and gain a visual of the area, see if any big public buildings are still standing, then we can find a building in decent enough condition to pass the night in. Meet me in the front office of the Northern Hills community at 1900.”

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Aftershocks

Saunders picked his way up the hill slowly. The street was broken asphalt and burned out cars, explosions showed where some had exploded, and others were lodged in the walls and roofs of houses. At the houses that looked to be in the best condition he’d stop and check for survivors. Usually he’d just find corpses or charred remains. The most disturbing thing he found was a doorway, blocked by a bullet ridden table. It wasn’t disturbing because of the dead body behind it and the blood smeared around the doorway, but because it was a herald of the fact that there was a violent side to survivors, and he couldn’t be sure that whoever he found wasn’t going to shot first. After such a catastrophe looting was inevitable, and all the more reason, in Saunders’ mind, that the survivors should be herded into the relative safety of military protection.
The sun began to set at around six, and almost instantly Saunders regretted not bringing the BDU shirt he’d left behind in the bases bomb shelter, taking only a tactical combat vest, a pair of worn in combat boots, a pair of BDU pants, and a boonie hat. A chill wind began to blow from the West as he reached the top of the hill and started into the Northern Hills complex. The front gate was blown outward, not giving him much hope for the structures that should have been blocking the force of the shockwave, but the area beyond luckily diverged from standard box street gated community construction, and had a cross intersection at its center, meaning the shockwave that blasted the gate and guard booth had been taking the path of least resistance. Most of the houses were brick, the few nearest the hillside had been effectively destroyed, but their empty shells and strong walls had lessened the blow against the rest of the houses, making most of them take only minor damage to the roof. The fact that it had been on the Northern outskirts of town, as the name implied, also helped it take less damage, being about twenty something miles from the epicenter of the blast. Saunders made his way to one of the more intact buildings and dropped his pack in what had been the corner of a living room and set out to check the surrounding houses in the thirty minutes before Henderson was due to arrive at the front gate.
Halfway through his search for survivors, Saunders came upon a small hatch in the floor of one of the houses, and he could faintly hear voices from down below. He rapped lightly on the hatch, a metallic pinging noise filling the room, and listened intently for a reply. A feeble scratching was all he heard from within. Quickly kneeling next to the hatch, he gripped the small wheel set in a depression and twisted it counter clockwise. It popped open with a little prying; making a decompressing hiss as air escaped and a small child was thrust into his arms. The arms passing the child up were pale and shaking. Saunders put hastily put the child in the ripped up remains of a cushion, turning back to the still extended arms he gripped them and pulled the owner from the small confines of a miniature bomb shelter. A pale and shaking female figure in tattered clothes crumpled to the ground next to the child. They were both mal-nourished to some extent, the woman more so then the child, who she had obviously given whatever food they had crammed into the shelter. The child was a small boy, no older than 6 and tiny for his age, even if he hadn’t been in a glorified hole for a week, he had blonde hair and green eyes. The woman was about five foot eight with a tangled mess of light brown hair that was obviously supposed to be about shoulder length, but now hung down from her head, obscuring her face from Saunders’ gaze. She was no older than twenty five, but her shaking frame made her look as if she’d seen too many lives already. Saunders knelt down beside her and lightly touched her arm, her head snapped around at him and a grey eye with shots of gold in it peered out at him. At first, it was harsh and glaring, but a few moments into the warning look, they became soft and sad and tears began to form at the corners of her eyes. She collapsed sobbing to the ground and Saunders slowly pulled her to him, attempting to give her what comfort he could offer, as he looked to see if the child was ok. The child had collapsed from weariness in the tatters of the cushion where Saunders had laid him, as the woman’s crying started to turn into a quiet tear filled melancholy, Saunders slowly shrugged her off, and after, promising to be right back, he went and quickly retrieved his pack from the room he had started in and removed a small blanket, which he covered the child with. He then pulled out an MRE, slit it open, and poured in a half cup of water from one of the canteens in his pack, after propping it up on a rock he handed the remains of the canteen to the woman. Her shaking hand grasped for it and she looked cautiously at the child. “Don’t worry, he’s just asleep. I’ll wake him up when there’s food to eat. If you feel like you can talk, go ahead and do so, otherwise it’d be best if you just relaxed, I think you’re in a mild state of shock, but there’s not a whole lot to do about that.” The woman stared at him for a second, then seemed to nod and poured the canteen into her mouth.
Saunders had started a fire and had already given his MRE to the two survivors by the time Hernandez arrived at the gatehouse. Saunders was there to meet him, and quickly guided him back to the camp that he’d set up in the room with the survivors. The woman was feeding the food from the MRE to the child, and from the looks of it, hadn’t taken any herself. Saunders took a seat next to her “You know, those babies pack a little over twelve hundred calories, give a little to yourself too, or we’re going to have him bouncing off the walls soon.” She seemed not to hear him and finished feeding the MRE to the child, dropped the package, and stared blankly at the fire. Saunders turned to Hernandez “Corporal, break out your MRE, this lady needs a decent meal.” Hernandez nodded soberly and the survivor looked at Saunders with grateful eyes, as if, with the knowledge of more food, she would have fed herself some of the first MRE. Once Hernandez had given up his MRE, Saunders called him outside. “Lieutenant, Bates is surely expecting us back tonight, we can’t just pass the night here, we need to get our scouting information back to him so he can take some action.” “Hernandez, how many corpses did you see today?” “Sir, I don’t see how that’s important to this situation.” “Son, you’re green, so I’ll let this pass. I saw more corpses today then I’ve seen in my seven years in the army, and more than I ever care to see again. If we go back tonight, we’re be going back to tell Bates that this city is dead. That there is nothing left. If we stay here tonight, and bring these two survivors back with us, at least we’ve pulled someone back from the brink of oblivion.” “I wasn’t saying we shouldn’t look after these two, sir, I was just pointing out what Bates expected from us.” “Noted, now, what did you find on your side of the expedition?” “Well, most the major buildings I came across were destroyed, no surprise there, I came across a second crater from a missile around the edge of the hill that’s fronted by the cliff, blocked most of this area from its blast, but the space between that crater and the main strike in the city center looks completely decimated, I didn’t get to scout out that way though because I had to bust if back to the rendezvous point.” “Ok, did you run across anything of note? Evidence of survivors? Activity after the strike?” “No sir, nothing really. I did see a few scattered bullet holes that I didn’t expect. I don’t know if it’s the fact that this is such a ghost town, or something else, sir, but I did get the feeling that I was being followed while I was making my way here.” “For how long?” “I’m not sure when it started, but I ended up climbing on top of a gas station and waiting for a good half hour to see if anything passed by or moved, after that I didn’t feel it anymore.” “Probably just nerves then, regardless, we’re going to set a watch for tonight, I’ll take first shift, then I’ll wake you up at about 0100 for you to take over, and you wake me up again at 0500 and grab a few more hours of shut eye before we head out. Sound good?” “Yes sir.” “Good, go back and set up the bed rolls, mines in my pack, I’m going to scout out the perimeter a little and see if I can find anything for our guests to sleep on.”