Part 4

Surviving the Cataclysm

Part 4

River: When I pulled up to the base in our truck, I found one of the reasons why my husband wanted to secure the base sitting right out in the open. Two AH-1Z Twin Cobras as well as an SH-60B Seahawk and a MV-22 Osprey, all parked as though they were ready to be manned at a moment's notice. Neither my husband nor I knew how to fly and we weren't about to try to learn how to fly by ourselves. I want to live a long life and so did hubby. If we could find someone who was able to fly these things and was rated on them, perhaps he could instruct us, but as of right now, they were all grounded.

The main operations building was a small building, but when we entered we realized that there were floors beneath us. And my husband was talking about expanding the underground portion of the base after reinforcing ground above the flightline so that it wouldn't cave in when an Osprey or any other helo came in to land. After all there were plenty of things that needed to be done and well...much of what needed to be done was to make sure that we could secure the building and the rest of the floors. This meant that we were going to have to call in a friend or two...to help us out.

One of the things that we did was strip the M1A1s - there were several on the base; of all the desert camouflage that they were painted in. In this section of island, desert camo would stick out like a sore thumb. We opted to go with the standard digital camo which disrupted the pattern of the tank enough so that it would blend in with the surroundings.

Evidently there were a few criminal elements that tried to match our firepower toe to toe but you don't bring a machine gun to a cannon-fight. Let's just say that they didn't last very long.

I never knew that hubby was that good with 120mm cannons.

Samson was now joined by a stray cat. I had to keep my husband from naming the poor thing Gollum. He said that the cat looked like the creature from the Lord of the Rings. Poor thing. I told him that he was NOT to name the cat; that I would...she ended up being named Sassy, since she had an attitude.

Let's just say she fit right into the family.

Part 3

Surviving the Cataclysm

Part 3

River: Morning involved a hasty meal. The longer that we were not in our combat gear the more vulnerable we felt. After realizing that the military wasn’t about to make use of the gear any longer, we felt justified in utilizing what was left behind. My husband was rather quiet and ate his meal. As his wife, I could sense that there was something weighing heavily on his mind.

“We can’t stay here, honey…” He said finally with a deep sigh. "We’re too exposed here. Yeah, sure we can see everything coming at us, but that big expanse of flat terrain gives the opposing side a big target to shoot at, as much as it gives us the opportunity to target them.“ And I could see why. When you looked out at the surrounding terrain, there were many angles that the enemy could potentially come at you from. In essence we were there with our backs against the wall: a prime example of a sitting target.

We knew we had to find cover, but topographically, this was a flattened island, no defining topographical markers, just a flat expanse of plain on an island in the middle of the bay. I knew my husband was keeping something quiet. That he’d seen something on the base that we’d ransacked trying to get some items that we could potentially use. We’d seen what had happened to Sunset Valley through the survivor’s grape-line, something about 1.2 megatons and a horrific explosion which flattened Sunset Valley and left it a radioactive wasteland. But something in my husband’s eyes showed that he was thinking about something else, that he’d seen something that we weren’t meant to see, that the government had been keeping something from us. "You know the island that the research facility is on?” he said quietly. I remembered it all too well, we’d just come from there after looking through the military base right next to the research facility. "We need to go back…and secure what I found. If anyone else gets their hands on it, there won’t be a next time.“

I was trying to slice vegetables to make autumn salad and when my husband said those six final words, the knife nearly slipped from my hands as a chill ran up my spine. When I turned around to see if he was actually kidding or not, his sombre expression told me that he wasn’t. There was only one thing that he could have found that would have caused him to react the way he had. When the ramifications of what he’d stated had sunk in, I quickly finished up the autumn salad and made preparations that we would have to vacate this bunker that we’d created for ourselves.

While my husband went off to see what he could do about securing the military base with a show of 120mm main gun to let them know that he wasn’t kidding about utilizing it if the base was not within his hands within the hour. I knew he’d secured the base when I heard some explosions going off. Evidently he was letting them know that they needed to retreat. I received the call within the hour and we made plans to move what we had back over to the base.

If there was anyone planning to mount an attack on the base or trying to make it their own, my husband had discouraged them with the Abrams and a few well-timed shots from the main gun. The M1A1 wasn’t designed to be sent into battle with only one crewmember but somehow, he’d made it work. After all, necessity is the mother of all inventions. The base was ours.

Part 2

Surviving the Cataclysm

Part 2

When we weren’t topside, we were down in the bunker that we’d built. Subterranean is the best way to go if you don’t want to be seen…and well, aside from that small concrete structure that hid the entrance-way, it was nearly invisible when hid behind the large HQ tent that we had. We viewed it only as a temporary location until we picked a better location for our necessity.

Things were bad and there was no clue left as to what happened here, only a few large divots in the ground, broken pavement and a whole lot of busted up cars. A police car had embedded itself into the side of city hall and there were piles of debris everywhere.

Something was still smoldering at the old-mill and it looked as though it hadn’t been adequately extinguished because it was still throwing black smoke up into the air.

Where the asphalt had been broken up, another police car with significant damage to the fender and axle lay half embedded into the ground beside the remains of a truck that had been in flame. Something devastating had happened here.

As darkness fell, we considered ourselves lucky that we had shelter and that we were able to get out of the elements. For the moments that we spent underground, we were unseen. And being unseen was a good thing because it didn’t attract any attention. In the situation that we were in…any attention was considered bad. The less the locals knew about us, the better bet that we had to stay un-accosted.

It was a restless sleep that night; both of us starting at any noise that we heard ever watchful of the sound of footsteps. We slept with our freehands near our weapons.

Part 1

Surviving the Cataclysm

Part 1

River: We have yet to find out what happened on this island. Hubby and I were unprotected while topside to set up our fortified encampment - no idea of whether there was something in air; but everything seemed normal. Who knows what this day will bring. All we’ve seen so far is a criminal hideout and the lab that they were running experiments at when everything went wrong

In the distance we can see that there is a bit of infrastructure - several shops clustered together. Who knows what’s going on here. Samson, our Rottweiler, has been our constant companion since we left Sunset Valley after the cataclysm.

The military has inexplicably vanished. There is no order. The criminals run rampant and we are at a loss as to how to proceed from here. Whoever was military, according to my husband, has integrated back into the community. The only one with a sense of pride in his service, that we can identify, was one Lance Corporal Seth Irvin, USMC, still wearing his desert MARPAT, who was running the elixir shop.

During our travels we managed to come across an abandoned military base. Luckily my husband, who is mechanically inclined, managed to get an Abrams Main Battle Tank and a troop transport truck working and we managed to appropriate enough munitions and heavy weapons that the truck could transport over to where we set up our encampment.

We’re not military, let’s make that clear right now. All we are is a couple that isn’t about to let any criminals run roughshod over us in this new lawless world that we’re in.