by Nathan Ward
Sasha stared at him in shock.
“Why did he say that? Why would they not want freedom?”
The Captain looked down at her.
“Because they were still under Houghton’s control. You see, I removed all technology they provided us with months ago. A completely free man, free of forceful persuasion yet they still managed to control them. Those men were riddled with UNA inhibitors, there was nothing we could have done. Come on, lets get upstairs.”
Sasha and the Captain hurried up the stair well and entered the control room. Josh was about to explain his plan of action when his eyes were drawn to the Captain.
“Good of you to join us.”
“Pleasure, thank you for having me,” the Captain replied.
And then Josh explained his plan:
“It's as simple as this. We cannot surrender, but at the same time, we cannot immobilize the detonation of the nuclear missile down there, for all we know right now the entire planet's UNA outposts have nuclear missiles primed for detonation - which will no doubt be our extinction, but something tells me they never anticipated us taking control - and now we can use their own plan against them.”
Sasha looked at him in confusion.
“What plan?”
“The part where they began to harvest our families and stored them in what seems to be a modern air raid shelter?” he replied, “We don’t know the scale of this, but whatever happens, we will see the sun rise one last time and I promise every single one of you that for sure!
Before we move, we need to make one rapid dash for as many supplies we can lay our hands on, priorities are food and water, the radiation levels are going to make everything in consumable if left out here. Soldier…”
The captain nodded and then spoke up.
“Captain Murdock, sir.”
“Josh Levett,” he replied, “So Captain, can you lay your hands on any more military grade suits?”
“I imagine so,” he replied, “ Sasha - with me.”
The Captain and Sasha left the room through the hole in the wall, while what was left of the freedom fighters made use of the final seconds on the countdown to grab what they could, making a mad dash, filling whatever containers they could lay their hands on.
Finally, they began to converge on the underground entrance, pulling the bags and containers behind them, the Captain and Sasha were dragging five suits and helmets each, it was a slow and heavy task, but they kept on going, aware that time was ticking...
Josh pushed through the crowd and with the help of Enrique, they pulled open the blast doors. Making every second count, they squeezed through the small gap, then finally they sealed the doors.
The control room countdown struck zero as the doors met and the nuclear weapon in the courtyard erupted like a volcano, sending entire surroundings for miles become a radiation ridden wasteland, all signs of life exterminated from the immense power of the blast. The UNA facility was torn apart leaving only rubble in the blast's wake.
The freedom fighters continued their journey in to the deep underground tunnels as the blast hit. Many were knocked off their feet, falling face first or sent forward, slamming against metal walls. The vibration of the explosion droned inside the tunnel, Josh covered his ears with his hands to try and block out the painful sound. As he did so, he began to wonder if he had led his people to somewhere that would be far more painful than remaining on the control deck to die....
And with that terrible thought, there was blackness and a constant ringing in his ears. Then slowly the sound faded away, and calm descended on those who had lived through the blast, as hearts stopped racing and breathing slowed to an even pace once more:
They had survived.
72 hours later: Captains log – Nathan Murdock:
Josh reunited the people who were taken prisoner with other human beings, us. I had never seen anyone so thankful to see life again.
We all hugged and reassured them that we were going to be okay, we drank as much water as we could and ate what to us was a luxury banquet fit for a king - but in reality is was just hundreds of almost out of date cereal bars.
It seemed like it had been forever since I had seen anyone genuinely smile out of happiness. The world had become so bleak and led by war.
I had taken a moment to thank Josh for believing in humanity and making a stand against the almost godly figure in which we had perceived commander Houghton, when out of the crowds ran a small child, straight towards Josh, you would of thought they knew each other... But how could they?
The child grasped on to his leg with a tight hold which was then followed by an Asian lady who had already pulled his face towards her by his beard and slapped a kiss on his lips. I don’t even think Josh knew how to process what was going on until he realized he had just returned home to his family, his wife and daughter.
He didn’t know where to begin; they just stumbled over each others words until they gave up and just engaged in a never ending hug and I’d bet they’d still be at it right now if it wasn’t for what had to happen next.
Twenty four hours had past and we had already began to realize that the supplies we had wouldn’t last anywhere near as long as we had hoped, in fact we didn’t have time to hope we just grabbed what we could in the little time we had left.
We knew that water wouldn’t appear out of thin air, we all realized rather quickly that we would have to leave in search of clean water - which for all we know even to this day of me recording this, may never exist.
We still have no idea of the scale of the UNA operations, or how far the radiation has expanded. I took it upon myself to make the next move for the greater good of those we had recently been fortunate enough to be able to call our friends and family. I issued myself, Sasha, Thomas, Enrique, Gary, Henry, Josh and his wife our protective suits. We then became the only hope of survival, we had no choice but to leave the underground facility to begin an expedition to the surface, the apocalypse, in hope of finding what may not exist.
I’m recording this now as we make our way across what seems like a never ending rail road, we have three hours of oxygen remaining and we don’t know where the border lies between the irradiated and radiated land, or if such borders are a thing of this new world. So all I can say is this, if the tape happens to end then you can assume we are all dead. Or on the other hand, if you hear my sweet ass voice again, you’ll know that there’s plenty more to this story. Captain Nathan Murdock, signing out for what might be the last time -
Before the recording had a chance to end, the Captain’s suit informed him that the group’s oxygen was now depleted. Then all that could be heard was the sound of a breathless struggle for air.
The recording terminated.
END.
