Begin log
April 2224
Kathy Jarvis, Mayor of Benton Harbor.
We finished the wall today. It's mostly made out of shattered hulks of cars and trucks. It's ugly but largely bullet-proof thanks to each car or truck being filled with rocks and concrete. I hate it, but it does get the job down. We've placed the wall in a semi-circle around the town center and the bunkers from the southern docks around to the lighthouse north of the fisherman's jetty. Cody put his arm around me and told me that we should be able to get enough concrete to cover the cars so that the wall will look better, maybe paint it blue or green.
We haven't had any more raiders but there have been reports of groups of them driving around the other towns- the few we have made contact with. Most people think these men and women have found leftover weapons and gear and are using it to steal supplies to survive on. At least, they don't seem to be organized yet.
end log.
Frank:
The cell is quite comfortable. I get three square meals a day. They gave me back some of my gear, today, the non-lethal stuff. Becky and another man, I didn't recognize, came in and asked me who President Drumpf was. They said that they had no records of an American President by that name. They also asked me several times for the key- since they had found no such device in my gear. I lied and told them it was attached to the bottom side of my boat's hull. They came back about two hours later, Becky looked like she wanted to take me out and shoot me. They stood at the door to the cell and argued about whether to kill me. Apparently, the decision to not to was reached. Becky looked at me a long time as I lay on the bunk, I asked her if they had any books. She shook her head and walked away.
Becky came back a while later and starred at me through the door.
"Sorry."
That surprised her. Her eyebrows went up.
"It just went from a moment of wow to this surreal nightmare where I stopped being able to tell dream from fiction."
"I don't understand," she said.
"Everything was tense, and I was fine. Then everything I accepted as real suddenly stopped being believable and all hell broke loose in my head when your boy shot me in the back. Instinct took over reason and rational thinking. I have been out there too long to suddenly take on your level of-"
"Stop it." Her voice sounds too far away.
When I look back at the door, she's gone.
I don't understand women, I decide.
Frank 22, Year 1.
Begin Log.
Frank has been gone too long.
I need to attract more humans to do my bidding.
There must be others out there that can be trusted.
I did try about 3 years before Frank came but they just sat there listening and then proceeded to loot the place until I was forced to gas them.
Truth is a liquid thing.
What one sees is not always what one finds to be true.
end log.
Frank:
I have eaten nine meals and slept six times before they return to the cell.
"Get dressed." the guard says.
I am dressed. The guard is annoyed by this. There are two guards, both men, both wearing army fatigues, not exact fits I note, recycled uniforms. they carry side arms. I measure my chances with them. They get nervous.
"Come on," the first one says "The Commander is waiting."
They lead me out of one bunker and passed the other two bunkers to a raised hatch apart from the others. We descend into a lit hallway, wrapped in exposed pipes and conduit. It goes down at a steep grade for 4 flights of steps, each flight turning a corner until it flattens out into a long corridor that ends in a door. There is a breach in one wall, the pipes and conduit have been repaired. Looking at it I try and fail to imagine what caused it.
"We dug our way into this corridor during the early years after the war," Commander Becky is standing to one side of a containment door at the far end of the corridor. She is flanked by 2 more men, well armed with submachine guns. They aren't taking any chances. "Since then, we have repaired the damaged and excavated the hatch you came through."
Before me above the massive steel containment door is a sign reading D39.
The commander steps to one side to reveal an access terminal set in the wall. It looks like they tried everything short of explosives to hack this port, there are scratches and scraps that show where they tried and failed to ply the keypad off the wall. The door itself has signs of faded explosive, welding, and other marks indicating failed breaches. I study the damage, while Commander Becky looks on. I can feel her impatience, it's almost palpable. Finally, she crossed her arms and cocks a hip. Two men come up the corridor to join the others.
"Can he open it?" The Mayor asks.
"I haven't asked yet," Becky answers him. "He's been inspecting the damage in minute detail."
She is angry and not trying to hide it. I wonder if she's ready to try torture me to get her desired results- although I suspect she mostly wants to inflict pain for all the waiting they've had to do for the last week or so.
"Can you open it or not?" Major Pain asks. This is the other man with the Mayor who hasn't identified himself as yet. "Would it help if I had Sergeant Hicks here shoot you in the foot?"
"Belay that!" Becky snaps.
The hallway gets cold and tense. I ignore it.
I return to the keypad to study it.
It matches the diagnostic layout that DKM7 gave me back at the GIDG bunker. I type in the code I memorized. I see Becky scribbling down the code I typed into a notepad out of the corner of my eye.
I shrug and step back.
Nothing happens.
Major Pain curses under his breath.
The Mayor looks at Becky.
Becky puts away her notepad, she looks strangely relieved and a little sad. She looks at me apologetically before collapsing against the side wall next to the door.
"Take him outside and shoot him." Major Pain orders.
Well, that explains the tension.
I don't look at him, but I do smile as my guards check their weapons.
Before anyone can do anything, I reach out and press enter on the keypad.
The audible hiss fills the corridor.
Everyone freezes in place.
Becky looks up in surprise.
The Containment door sprays steam and gas into the hallway, I am enveloped in it as the doors part grinding open as the open outward into the corridor. I am standing directly in front of them but everyone else is off to either side. Thus, there are several moments of confusion as they scramble to get out of the way. I take the opportunity to step inside before anyone can stop me run down the gangplank beyond.
I hear their curses and the subsequent orders being yelled as I race into the interior hallway that leads into D39. As I run, I strip off my tunic until I am bare-chested, with practiced hands I pull off the false skin under my right arm to reveal the code card hidden there. 50 yards down the corridor, then I make the next containment door before my pursuers manage to get a bead on me. I snap the card into the scan slot and duck behind some storage boxes as the bullets slam into them. Some of the bullets go straight through the boxes, but I am lucky as each one misses me. The second containment door hisses open. I hazard a peek over the boxes to see Becky scowling as her men reload.
I sprint through the second containment door.
I find myself in a hub of six hallways with various markings. I find the one marked armory and charge all out down it. As I run, I claw out another pass card, praying to the dead gods that this door will be quicker than the containment doors. another 100 yards of darkened corridor ends in a reinforced door. the card slides through it, I put in the memorized code and the door snaps open, this time, I retrieve the card and step into the armor letting the door snap shut behind me.
The armory is fully stocked and finally I have some breathing room.
I also realize that the armory is sound proof.
I double check the door to make sure its locked and then drag a large tool chest to block it just in case.
Hitting the lights, I take stock of the inventory even as I start coming up with an escape plan.
April 2224
Kathy Jarvis, Mayor of Benton Harbor.
We finished the wall today. It's mostly made out of shattered hulks of cars and trucks. It's ugly but largely bullet-proof thanks to each car or truck being filled with rocks and concrete. I hate it, but it does get the job down. We've placed the wall in a semi-circle around the town center and the bunkers from the southern docks around to the lighthouse north of the fisherman's jetty. Cody put his arm around me and told me that we should be able to get enough concrete to cover the cars so that the wall will look better, maybe paint it blue or green.
We haven't had any more raiders but there have been reports of groups of them driving around the other towns- the few we have made contact with. Most people think these men and women have found leftover weapons and gear and are using it to steal supplies to survive on. At least, they don't seem to be organized yet.
end log.
Frank:
The cell is quite comfortable. I get three square meals a day. They gave me back some of my gear, today, the non-lethal stuff. Becky and another man, I didn't recognize, came in and asked me who President Drumpf was. They said that they had no records of an American President by that name. They also asked me several times for the key- since they had found no such device in my gear. I lied and told them it was attached to the bottom side of my boat's hull. They came back about two hours later, Becky looked like she wanted to take me out and shoot me. They stood at the door to the cell and argued about whether to kill me. Apparently, the decision to not to was reached. Becky looked at me a long time as I lay on the bunk, I asked her if they had any books. She shook her head and walked away.
Becky came back a while later and starred at me through the door.
"Sorry."
That surprised her. Her eyebrows went up.
"It just went from a moment of wow to this surreal nightmare where I stopped being able to tell dream from fiction."
"I don't understand," she said.
"Everything was tense, and I was fine. Then everything I accepted as real suddenly stopped being believable and all hell broke loose in my head when your boy shot me in the back. Instinct took over reason and rational thinking. I have been out there too long to suddenly take on your level of-"
"Stop it." Her voice sounds too far away.
When I look back at the door, she's gone.
I don't understand women, I decide.
Frank 22, Year 1.
Begin Log.
Frank has been gone too long.
I need to attract more humans to do my bidding.
There must be others out there that can be trusted.
I did try about 3 years before Frank came but they just sat there listening and then proceeded to loot the place until I was forced to gas them.
Truth is a liquid thing.
What one sees is not always what one finds to be true.
end log.
Frank:
I have eaten nine meals and slept six times before they return to the cell.
"Get dressed." the guard says.
I am dressed. The guard is annoyed by this. There are two guards, both men, both wearing army fatigues, not exact fits I note, recycled uniforms. they carry side arms. I measure my chances with them. They get nervous.
"Come on," the first one says "The Commander is waiting."
They lead me out of one bunker and passed the other two bunkers to a raised hatch apart from the others. We descend into a lit hallway, wrapped in exposed pipes and conduit. It goes down at a steep grade for 4 flights of steps, each flight turning a corner until it flattens out into a long corridor that ends in a door. There is a breach in one wall, the pipes and conduit have been repaired. Looking at it I try and fail to imagine what caused it.
"We dug our way into this corridor during the early years after the war," Commander Becky is standing to one side of a containment door at the far end of the corridor. She is flanked by 2 more men, well armed with submachine guns. They aren't taking any chances. "Since then, we have repaired the damaged and excavated the hatch you came through."
Before me above the massive steel containment door is a sign reading D39.
The commander steps to one side to reveal an access terminal set in the wall. It looks like they tried everything short of explosives to hack this port, there are scratches and scraps that show where they tried and failed to ply the keypad off the wall. The door itself has signs of faded explosive, welding, and other marks indicating failed breaches. I study the damage, while Commander Becky looks on. I can feel her impatience, it's almost palpable. Finally, she crossed her arms and cocks a hip. Two men come up the corridor to join the others.
"Can he open it?" The Mayor asks.
"I haven't asked yet," Becky answers him. "He's been inspecting the damage in minute detail."
She is angry and not trying to hide it. I wonder if she's ready to try torture me to get her desired results- although I suspect she mostly wants to inflict pain for all the waiting they've had to do for the last week or so.
"Can you open it or not?" Major Pain asks. This is the other man with the Mayor who hasn't identified himself as yet. "Would it help if I had Sergeant Hicks here shoot you in the foot?"
"Belay that!" Becky snaps.
The hallway gets cold and tense. I ignore it.
I return to the keypad to study it.
It matches the diagnostic layout that DKM7 gave me back at the GIDG bunker. I type in the code I memorized. I see Becky scribbling down the code I typed into a notepad out of the corner of my eye.
I shrug and step back.
Nothing happens.
Major Pain curses under his breath.
The Mayor looks at Becky.
Becky puts away her notepad, she looks strangely relieved and a little sad. She looks at me apologetically before collapsing against the side wall next to the door.
"Take him outside and shoot him." Major Pain orders.
Well, that explains the tension.
I don't look at him, but I do smile as my guards check their weapons.
Before anyone can do anything, I reach out and press enter on the keypad.
The audible hiss fills the corridor.
Everyone freezes in place.
Becky looks up in surprise.
The Containment door sprays steam and gas into the hallway, I am enveloped in it as the doors part grinding open as the open outward into the corridor. I am standing directly in front of them but everyone else is off to either side. Thus, there are several moments of confusion as they scramble to get out of the way. I take the opportunity to step inside before anyone can stop me run down the gangplank beyond.
I hear their curses and the subsequent orders being yelled as I race into the interior hallway that leads into D39. As I run, I strip off my tunic until I am bare-chested, with practiced hands I pull off the false skin under my right arm to reveal the code card hidden there. 50 yards down the corridor, then I make the next containment door before my pursuers manage to get a bead on me. I snap the card into the scan slot and duck behind some storage boxes as the bullets slam into them. Some of the bullets go straight through the boxes, but I am lucky as each one misses me. The second containment door hisses open. I hazard a peek over the boxes to see Becky scowling as her men reload.
I sprint through the second containment door.
I find myself in a hub of six hallways with various markings. I find the one marked armory and charge all out down it. As I run, I claw out another pass card, praying to the dead gods that this door will be quicker than the containment doors. another 100 yards of darkened corridor ends in a reinforced door. the card slides through it, I put in the memorized code and the door snaps open, this time, I retrieve the card and step into the armor letting the door snap shut behind me.
The armory is fully stocked and finally I have some breathing room.
I also realize that the armory is sound proof.
I double check the door to make sure its locked and then drag a large tool chest to block it just in case.
Hitting the lights, I take stock of the inventory even as I start coming up with an escape plan.
