Doomsday By Design -- [STORY THREAD]

Alan's return cuddle was tentative at best but it seemed to Sue-Lin that it hid a need for Alan. She would have to find out what or who had hurt him. In the meanwhile, she relaxed completely, the cuddle working its magic as only a cuddle can.

She started the hard road back to regaining her emotional controls. She hated nightmares, always forcing her to regain control, making her vulnerable and unable to defend herself...

The commotion it seemed had woken almost everyone. They were all still laying still, but most were watching. Feeling self conscious Sue-Lin thanked Alan simply and returned to lay on her sleeping bag. Slowly her composure returned.

Alan's heart thumped.

Sue-Lin leaned into him, and he gulped, her hair swiftly nuzzling against his jaw as she lie on his shoulder. He'd never been in such a situation before... it sent a strange, fuzzy sensation throughout his blood, tingling his skin...

Feeling incredibly anxious, Alan slowly lifted an arm, wrapping it around her, silently and desperately praying he wouldn't offend her somehow.

After she calmed down, she gave Alan a 'thank you,' just before curling back into her blankets.

It seemed as though Jason had no sooner closed his eyes than Billy was poking his shoulder and saying, "Sir, it is 5 minutes before show time, rise and shine"!

"Thanks Billy I am on the way".

Jason with much effort removed his body from the drivers seat and headed towards the TOFC APC. His eyes felt like sand had been dripping into their sockets for the last couple of hours.

Upon arrival Billy gave him an update on what had been happening over the last couple of hours.
APC #5 had found no survivors and Rodrigues (what was left of him) had been found almost 30 feet away from the remains of the SUV. All the bodies and any remains of a decent size were body bag stuffed and APC #5 and crew had returned 45 minutes ago.

Chow had finished the pictures and paperwork for Armageddon and the finished product was laying in the 2d drawer of the C.I. cabinet for Jason's approval.

Captain John Stark was still asleep as were all the guys who were not working perimeter guard.

Billy had already replaced perimeter guards and LS teams.

Everything was normal Ops.

"Thanks Billy, you are relieved; get some shut eye..... we may all need to be sharp later today".

"Roger boss my cot is calling my name".

As Jason sat, out of the corner of his eye he caught the movement of steam coming off a hot cup of coffee Billy had made for him..." Benefits.... and see the world.... what a job".

Time passed and as of 12:16 no call from Ray. Jason had busied himself with going over Chow's latest handy work.

Jason figured Chow could work for any Hollywood special effects department for everything he did was first class. The last page of the docs had Ryujin's head attached to a dead crow laying on the ground... "Humor for John"?
Jason pulled that photo and placed it on the desk.

The paperwork had been redacted in a burned sort of way that without knowing anything about Armageddon.... upon reading the documents.... you would still not know anything you could tie together.... Not much left of the papers. There was one Computer Stick that was burned, twisted, and beyond anything even NSA could retrieve.

Jason had one of the tec rats package and attach everything to one of their quad drones; activate the transponder and confirm STU had a lock on... Then the quad was sent off for special delivery.

Jason's pre delivery report had said the papers were found in the bombed house along with a young Asian man "Pics included"

Besides the Armageddon paperwork and pics Jason also reported the loss of 4 more team members due to an IED and one APC as destroyed.
This was able to be done for (as usual) Hawkeye or the Little Bird in quadrant 4 had seen nothing of what happened.... only smoke and a destroyed vehicle still on fire.
Jason finalized his report with even though patrols were still in and around town no D.P.s had been found.

12:23 the call came..

"Sorry a little behind, Shorty".

"Ray I am really glad you are alive".

"Me too"!

"Do you have the assets to pull us out of here airborne"?

I have actually been working on that and knowing you would not risk all the teams in one bird so how about 7, V-22 F models.. or 3 CH-47s G models or two Sea Stallions from the swabbies "?

"The V-22s sound good to me Ray.. Where is the destination"

" A little place N.E. of Las Vegus... North of Groom Lake at one of our underground bases. It is the most secure and well protected place on the North American Continent."

"Ray I would rather take the teams and break them up by sending them to regular airports to be dropped off".

"And your reason why"?

"Ray at this stage you are the only one outside our teams in a position of authority I feel comfortable trusting. I have the Armageddon paperwork and computer sticks; copied and collated in several different locations and hands. The info contained will blow you socks off and it is my firm belief unless we are really good at CYA we are all gonna meet with untimely ends".

"I do not want to be disarmed by a bunch of spooks who live in a cave for we really want some payback for those who planned this and put my teams in this field of fire".

"O.K. I understand... Will it help if I tell you the ground time at the Spook cave, as you call it, will be only to deplane the V-22s and board 5 Gulfstreams.. It might be a little crowded on the G-9s but they are all decked out in civi colors and besides.... they are all I could get my hands on...What I want is for you and your teams to join me..... along with a few other assets I have now to take our f*ing country back".

Jason felt as though 10 years had been taken off his age clock.

"Thanks Ray.... you just hired a bunch of guys I have the highest respect for... let's make the Bad Guys Pay... together, like old times...Ray really thanks"!

"O.K. it's a done deal... the birds will arrive at YT 237768 at 18:00 hours on the west side of town.. They will approach from North to south if the winds continue out of the south.. These are special V-22s Jason so you may not hear or see them. I need you to pop smoke at exactly 17:58 and have your teams broken down to no more than 15 men with their firearms an a medium load 3 of ammo.. You will get all new uniforms and munitions when you guys get here".

"What about the APCs"?

"Drive them and park them at the P.Z. by the time the puzzle palace at STU figures out you are off plan we will be long gone"..

"We"?

"You really did not expect me to sit this one out did you"?

The transmission ended and for the first time in many hours Jason felt like he had happy molecules flowing through his veins.

Jason keyed the mike button and said, "Sargent Kenney Rogers to the TOFC please".

"Augh--!"

The voice echoed from the alleyway... weird... no one's ever in that alleyway...

Sandra was quite used to using the graffiti-covered alleyway behind her school as a short cut. It was perfect, because unlike the rest of the small town, this particular little alleyway was never filled with human traffic. There were no crowds of students, and no cars.

This time, however, she could have sworn she heard someone's muffled voice crying from the alley... something skidding on the concrete... someone yelling... someone grunting...

Sandra emerged from the corner, entirely unprepared for what she'd see.

A big, burly student was throwing punches... kicking... attacking another human being, someone on the ground, attempting desperately to shield himself... the hulky blonde continued attacking the other kid, who was considerably smaller... his blows were anything but merciful...

"STOP!" Sandra hollered down the alleyway without thinking.

The blonde guy looked up, startled to see another person in the alleyway. Then, his eyes narrowed, and he gave Sandra a deep, threatening look.

"You gonna make me?" He snarled, taking a step forward.

A zillion unpleasant memories flooded back into her mind as the bully advanced on her... her heart was hammering behind her ribs now...

Sandra reached into her pocket and flipped out her butterfly knife... that little weapon had been her best friend for years, ensuring she'd never be helpless again...

The bully froze, his eyes locked onto the blade.

The person on the ground peeked at them from behind his hands, sitting against the wall, his jacket torn, his face bruised, and blood oozing from the corner of his mouth...

"Come'ere asshole." Sandra snarled, her grip tightening around the handle of her blade... she could see it now... living in a prison for young adults for attempted murder... she didn't care... no more... no more of this... no more taking sh!t from tyrants... no more bullies... no more...

The blonde guy stared at her for a moment, his mouth hanging open, then he turned and disappeared down the opposite end of the alleyway. Sandra didn't move for almost a full minute after Church was out of sight.

Sandra's eyes drifted to the kid sitting against the heavily painted wall, bloodied and battered, then noticed a pair of rectangular glasses lying on the concrete feet away from him. After slipping the knife back into her pocket, Sandra came closer, lifting the glasses off the ground, then knelt beside the kid, examining him.

"You alright?" She asked, giving his shoulder a gentle shake.

Alan removed his hands from his face, staring at her as though he'd never seen anything quite like her before. Sandra handed his glasses to him, and for some reason, she wasn't able to make out his response... everything went dark... the environment seemed to change...

"Sandra, pay attention." Came another voice.

Suddenly, Sandra was standing in the bunker, side by side with Dorian as he tried to explain how to use a radiation detector. Sandra looked up at him, appearing as bored as ever.

"Listen, kiddo. This is important." He said, holding up a small, long device.

"Can I go inside?" Sandra asked irritably.

Dorian sighed.

"Sandra, just let me finish this one thing--"

"Oh my God, I DON'T CARE! JUST LET ME--"

BANG.

Mr. Knowles fell... blood covered his shirt... Sandra cradled him as the lights left his eyes...



SLAM.

The noise jarred her thoughts, and Sandra blinked herself awake, releasing a huge breath.

Alan was in the kitchen, and he'd slammed a cabinet shut, startling her awake. As she sat upright, she peered around, wondering where her uncle had gone...

Everything came back to her... right... he isn't here...

Wearing an exasperated face, Sandra reached her feet, straightening out her hair, then glimpsing at her bag, remembering the documents Ryujin had given her.

Now's as good a time as any, I guess.

After cooking a huge, delicious breakfast consisting mostly of seasoned scrambled eggs and pancakes, Sandra and Alan both set up the folding table, then pulled a bunch of folding chairs out from behind the food storage area. When the table and chairs were set up, they both placed the food on the table, complete with a jug of imitation orange juice and paper dishes, so that everyone might help themselves.

When everyone was at the table, filling their plates with food and passing the jug of juice around, Sandra returned to the room with the documents at hand. Sue-Lin was the first to notice.

"I don't know how to break this to you guys, so I'll just let you read it." Sandra told them, handing the papers to Sue-Lin, who skimmed over it, then passed it to Alan. Everyone took turns reading the document, then it returned to Sandra, who looked particularly anxious.

Alan was staring heatedly at her.

"Sandra. Are those the people who--"

Sandra nodded.

"Don't ask." She replied. "I have no idea where their sudden change of heart came from. And honestly, it doesn't matter. We're here, we're safe, and we have nothing to worry about now."

Then, Sandra left the room, entering the main corridor and leaning on her uncle's counter again. She wasn't alone in the main room.

"You wanted to talk?" Angus asked, leaning on the wall beside the bunker's door.

"Yeah." Sandra said, turning her head. "Lock the door."

"What? The door's already locked--"

"No, I mean, lock it." Sandra said.

Angus gave her a confused face.

"The wheel-shaped thing is on the inside too." Sandra said, pointing at the contraption on the door's handle. "Which means that the password can be entered from inside or outside, which means it can be locked from the inside. Right?"

"Yeah." Angus said, nodding. "Your uncle and I designed it that way, yeah..."

Sandra stood upright, approaching him.

"I need you to change the password." She whispered, so no one else could hope to hear her.

Angus raised his brows. "Why?"

"Because I don't want anyone leaving again. Not for a while." Sandra informed him. "Dorian left me a message... said not to leave the bunker under any circumstances. So... we're staying put for as long as possible."

Angus took a moment of thought, seeming distant.

"Alright." He finally said, turning to the door, fiddling with Dorian's wheel-shaped lock. "What password do you want on here?"

Sandra was quiet for a few seconds.

"1993." She told him so quietly he barely heard her.

"Why 1993?" Angus wondered, turning the wheel, and popping it off.

Sandra's eyes were soft, staring at the posters, her mind a million miles away now.

"Its the year Dorian was born."


Time passed.

And, regardless of the monumental character differences the group of misfits seemed to have, they all seemed to get along better than they ever had in school... and while they'd be left to their own devices, Sandra would usually be cooking or cleaning, and the others would be teaching one another about the use of certain firearms, or the rules of football, or even how to play a good hand of Texas Hold 'Em... the days began to fade into one another, and ignoring the growing discomfort Sandra experienced with every passing hour, during which her uncle was still missing in action, Sandra continued to cook for everyone, listening to their conversations from the main room... and if Sandra wasn't mistaken, she even heard them laugh a couple of times... until she plugged her earphones into her ears, tuning them out, her mp3 player selecting a song at random for her... Its the end of the world, as we know it... Its the end of the world, as we know it... and I feel fine...




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END OF CHAPTER 1

September 16, 2027


Although the Red Flu had been debunked as a hoax by many conspiracy researchers, it became apparent that a similar disease was spreading and taking a toll on the population of the North American Union. The inhabitants of the other continents thought they were safe, and that the disease was contained in the North American Union, but they were soon proven wrong when the last of their importation arrived, bringing the disease to the European Union, and spreading it to the United Asian Colonies. A lot of confusion surrounded the Red Flu, but now that most of the powerful governments seemed to have disappeared from the map, there was no one to reject accusations of the flu's unnatural origin and spreading, no one to keep track of its death toll, and no one to assure the people of the world would be unharmed.

All vehicles were sputtering along with what little gasoline was left, and what few survivors were scraping by in old residential areas were using other means of transportation, like bicycles, skateboards, horses, or hoofing it on foot. More than 50% of the world's population had been killed, by disease, the shortage of food, or the attacking of raiders and rioters.


September 18, 2027


As many conspirators had feared for decades, the collapse of the world economy finally succumbed to the use of bombs as a solution. Washington DC had been hit with atomic bombs, though no one was sure which neighboring continent had launched the attack... The Russians, the Japanese, and the Irish were rebelling against all the United Colonies surrounding, and soon, what was left of those societies began to wage war with one another.

The North American Union had no such enemy neighbors, but nevertheless, they couldn't be considered lucky by any standards. DC crumbled, as well as every other major city throughout the continent. Three more atomic bombs descended within two days, destroying Los Angelus, New York City, and the Pentagon. The rest of the continent shriveled into a dark, horrible cluster of starving rioters and ordinary citizens who'd been driven mad by the collapse of their once normal world. As the people continued to kill one another outside, many places simply ran out of people, and some residential areas in the continent, once hustling and bustling with life, died... littered with blood, and inhabited now only with endless, terrible silence.


September 19, 2027


Very few societies of people remained on the outside, some of them being prepper families who'd spent generations preparing for such a life-changing event, and some of them being petty raider tribes who'd huddled into survival groups, getting by killing lonely survivors and attacking the small, endangered communities of independent survivors. There was no government, and the special ops teams--most of them, anyway--had fallen apart. Their leaders had vanished, leaving them for dead in the terrible fallout of the new world, much like they had their own citizens, the ones remaining after the massacre they'd ordered...

Chapter 2



The Week The World Died

"You've been such a good friend...
I've known ya' since I don't know when...
We've got lots of friends, but they...
Come and go...
Even though we've never said it...
There's something that the two of us both know...
Together forever, no matter how long...
Now, until the end--"

"Sandra?"

Sandra pulled one of the earphones from her ear, turning to Alan, who was giving her a strange face.

"Are... are you listening to Pokemon music?" Alan asked.

"No." Sandra said at once, quickly yanking the cord out of her mp3 player.

Alan looked bemused.

"The hell do you want?" Sandra questioned, her cheeks fading pink.

Alan's expression darkened a little.

"Sue-Lin is..." He began, speaking softly. "She asked me about that room... the-the one you told me not to talk about."

Sandra nodded. I see where this is going...

"Do you think maybe its time to tell them about it?" Alan asked, glancing over his shoulder, making sure no one was listening. "They're going to get anxious if you keep it secret for much longer."

Sandra took a moment.

"Alan..." She said. "If any of them have anything against me... if any of them get a corn-kob up their asses, they might consider taking my guns and stabbing us in the back... more food for them."

Alan gave her an appalled face.

"You don't really think they'd do that--"

"Of course I don't. I just don't wanna risk it."

They stared at one another for a few seconds.

"Its about time for me to cook some supper." Sandra told him. "Its getting late. Do you want anything in particular tonight...?"

Alan shook his head.

When Sandra began to cook, Alan sat in his corner, leaning on the wall, watching all the posters, lost in his boredom. Apart from playing poker and throwing darts at Dorian's dart board, there was almost nothing to do...

A beeping filled the Bunker as it had done once a day for the past week. Sue-Lin made the very short trek to answer her radio. She read the message and sent back an acknowledgement. As she had every other time she started to walk back to her corner. Every one was used to it by now. But this time it was different. She stopped by Sandra and in a voice meant to carry she said, "Sandra, it is time, either you tell them or I will. I don't know how much information you get on the ham radio but my information is as up to date as we can get. You want to lead, so lead!"

Sue-Lin returned to her corner and sat, waiting expectantly. All eyes turned to Sandra's direction.

A general call was made for all teams to be at the TOFC APC for a briefing at 13:15 hours. Those who could not attend due to guard or LS duty would listen in via their headsets.

Sargent Rogers had already completed a brief tape of the teams intentions along with the time and place of the extraction. There was an apology in the tape for giving such short notice but the teams were not in control of the time or place.

The tape further relayed that the 9 remaining APCs would be left in good working order at the P.Z. with ammo and food supplies intact. However, a stern warning was issued about a possible drone attack by some very bad people to destroy all APCs and anyone around them... It was a known plan the teams were aware of..so get what you want and 'LEAVE THE AREA'!

By the teams best estimate 'with no guarantees' anyone who wanted the supplies from the APCs or the APCs themselves should have a safe window of opportunity until at least 06:00 to get what they wanted. Another very serious recommended was made, "Be no where near the P.Z. or an APC (unless well hidden) by 06:00".

It was not Sargent Rogers best work. The lack of sleep and stress these last few days was clouding everyone's thinking, but it was good enough..... and would have to do.

By 15:30 Jason had dispatched 4 APCs to all points in the city with the new message from Sargent Rogers blaring. He had originally thought to man the APCs with a skeleton crew and have them return to base but John had suggested it would be better to load them up with full teams and instruct them to be at the P.Z. no later than 17:30 ... "No show No go".

"That's a better idea, John... glad you're not just another pretty face after all".

"I hope this new outfit gives me some respect", was all John could manage to reply with.

John had one of the tec guys write a small program that sent "Ops Normal, or Ops normal no contact" every 4 hours which was required by STU protocol..

"That should buy a bit of extra time", was John's thinking.

One of the many things that Jason had to do was sanitize the C.I. file (classified information) so that in the event the TOFC APC was not destroyed there would be nothing for anyone to use against the teams or the town's folk.

A small fire was set by the court house steps in a rather handy concrete cigarette butt trash bin and all C.I. material was burned after shredding.

Jason had ran many different scenarios through his mind while prepping his own stuff and insuring the team leaders had their teams all ready to go. One very disturbing day dream had crossed his mind about the extraction.

'What if' the V-22s showed up on time and as the teams were doing their bag drag to get on board the V-22 crews opened up with their mini-guns and tried to kill all the team members ?

"Now that would piss him off"

Jason ordered each team to have one man that would be the first to board and would be carrying the latest shoulder fired heavy weapon the teams had a small supply of.... If hostilities broke out.... the heavy weapon guys were to protect the teams and blow all birds either before boarding or in an S.T.U. version of Kamikaze attack once aboard. There was no lack of volunteers for everyone knew if the extraction did not work they were all screwed.

Other than policing the area (military jargon for picking up any trash) they departed on time and at 17:33 Jason's group of APCs arrived at the P.Z.

There were no towns folk in attendance.

At 17:34 the last of the Psyops speaker APCs rolled to a stop next to the farm equipment building which the team's APCs were using as a parking lot for assembly..

At 17:58 green smoke was popped and at 17:59 the first V-22 came to a rolling stop... it was almost concealed in a huge dust cloud as the other birds were when they touched down.

The dust settled a bit and Jason saw Ray Hendrix standing outside the lead bird which was his teams assigned aircraft; so that was where he and his team headed.

Other than a brief hand shake (talking and being heard was impossible due to noise) all the teams boarded their assigned aircraft and when "Tail End Charley" (last aircraft in line) Radioed "Flights Up" all seven V-22s departed the area.

From touch down until departure 2.8 minutes has transpired.

Sandra looked between everyone, then met eyes with Sue-Lin.

"I already gave you guys the document." She muttered. "Nothing else matters. It has nothing to do with us. Not as long as we're in here."

a reply to: XxNightAngelusxX

Sue-Lin looked at Sandra with a little pity. She did not want to be in Sandra's shoes but she would jump in and help. She said, "Sandra, they need to know what has happened in the past week. I will help, I may have more information than you do. They have a right to know. Our governments have been keeping secrets and now we pay the penalty. Do you really want to follow in the Governments footsteps. Tell them. No more bloody secrets."

"Dorian's got people coming here." Sandra told her. "They're all probably just as paranoid as he is, so whoever they are, they'll make sure we can survive. I know what's going on outside. It doesn't matter. We'll get through it."

The week previous began to play through her mind... the worried expressions on her friends's faces... there wasn't any reason to scare anyone anymore... they'd been through enough already...

Sandra glared coldly at Sue-Lin, trying to determine her motive. For some reason, Sue-Lin seemed to think everyone needed to know every detail about the world falling apart... and sooner or later, sure, they would need to know... but after watching their teacher and their fellow peers get shot to death, Sandra figured that was enough trauma for a while... she'd tell them eventually, but not now... not with that horrible day still fresh on their minds...

Sue-Lin waited. When it was obvious that Sandra was not going to say anything more Sue-Lin shrugged her shoulders and started what was in effect a briefing.

"The Bio Weapon was released on the heels of denials by most governments and as such was well timed. It may have worked even better than its designers intended. The world's population is likely down to below 1 Billion humans."

My Dad was and still is an active asset of Australian Military Intelligence. His job is to report back on conditions in this part of this country. I guess you could say he is or was a spy. As soon as this started, Australia closed its borders quickly and effectively. They also stopped all travel by road, everything! The whole country stopped. The only deliveries were food and that was mostly by airdrop.

Even with all of those draconian measures, they still lost the entire Eastern seaboard and about half their population. They are the only country to come out of it that well. The likely, best guess estimate for the world's population is, as I said, under 1 Billion.

When Sandra locked us in, there were around 4 hundred survivors in our town. The Bio Weapon has come and gone and Dad has seen no movement whatsoever. That does not mean that there are no survivors, but that there are not many. A limited Nuclear Exchange took place. Los Angeles has ceased to exist along with a few other cities. Sadly though, all of our cities are gone, there were few survivors of the Bio-Weapon and now many other diseases run rampant due to the huge numbers of decaying bodies.

The next step in someones master plan should be to round up all of the survivors, people just like us. They need workers and they expect that we will go willingly on the promise of food. Make no mistake, if you take that path you walk right in to what is slavery. You will have no rights and no way to fight back.

This is not the end of the human race, it is a beginning. Choose your path with care.

Sandra does not seem to think you can handle this information, I don't know how you will handle it either, but I do know this, you need time to either mentally prepare for what is ahead or you choose to simply give up because it is all too hard. Your choice, so choose."