Def Con 0.13; Part III. Dedunking the Bunker

My name is Frank. I am probably 29 years old, maybe 33. It depends largely on nothing. I am outright guessing as the first part of my life was spent counting days and not paying the attention to weeks, months or even years. Truth be told, I asked others and then guessed based on my similarity to them. I have spent my life depending on myself, no one has survived with me long enough to become a friend or even an ally on my journey to this armory in this bunker.
I guess I am saying all this because I am probably going to die for a computer AI who lies to me about the past and the present and most likely my own future. It's funny how one realizes this as one considers how many guns he can carry and effectively shoot in a vainglorious attempt to escape this hellhole that is called civilization.
All the truths I've known and thought I knew have led me to this death trap. Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fucking computers. I would have really liked to have gotten to know Becky.
I've seen other women scrabbling around in the ruins but never one of her capability.
It's like living with sheep then meeting a deer.... except there are no more deer or sheep, for that matter. Well, at least, I haven't ever seen either just read about them. I find myself wishing I had found a library to lock myself in instead of this armory.
I carefully place the Assualt rifle next to the others I've laid out.
I have a SAW with 200 rounds. I have an HK 36 Assault Rifle with 136 rounds. 2 Glock 28's with 10 mags. An M-34 Assualt Rifle and something called a Razer 26A1 submachine pistol with 130 rounds.
There are rows of M-16A1 and crates of ammo.
I find a Tavor Ts12 Auto shotgun and 2 boxes of shells, adding that to the pile.
No grenades or claymores though, probably stored in a different location.
I am looking for a quick exit. Possibly a run and gun out of Benton on foot, since getting back to the launch is unlikely plus if any of the machinegun nests have bullets, I'd be swiss cheese anyway.
I pause to consider my haul then go looking for body armor.
one hour later, I come back with a single flack jacket. The fucking military did not provide ample protection for its grunts beyond a single jacket or vest. I have a helmet but it won't offer much.
I stare long and hard at this current plan of action and decide to abandon it. I don't stand a chance at run and gun or even a standoff. I have always done much better at hide and sneak.

Begin Log
August 2224
Kathy Jarvis, Benton Harbor Mayor

The first raids have begun. They just came in the night. We weren't ready for them, we lost Sgt Hyatt and half his team in the first barrage. We got pulled from our beds into a world of fire and gunfire. We lost so many good people. The raiders killed our people and grabbed everything they could haul off.
The end result, we lost almost half our harvest, about 40 gallons of clean water, 14 rifles, 20 gallons of fuel, and 2 of the kids. We had 14 casualties, 30 wounded and are running extremely low on ammo. Richard has gathered a group of volunteers to go after the raiders and get the kids back. I am against this but I was shouted down when I protested. Truth be told, if those were my kids I would have shouted me down as well.
end log.

Frank 22, Year 1.
I have brought in a new recruit.
He's puny.
"You will serve me" I tell him. "And I will give you food and shelter."
"Can you kill the others?" He says.
"The ones you were scavenging with?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"Aren't they your friends?"
"Fuck no."
"Ah" I gas the hallways. This man's companions die clawing at their throats. Afterward, he goes out to loot their bodies. Finishing he returns to me with a crazy assortment of junk. He sits down to sort through it. It turns out to all fit into a sort of uniform he must have been wearing at some time.
"What is your name?"
"Me? Oh, you can call me Kensington," he says. It's not his real name. The others had called him Ratshit and Creepshow. Humans often give out fake names to hide something, not Frank though, Frank is just Frank. I miss Frank.
"I need you to go find Frank."
"Frank?"
"Frank is in a place called Benton Harbor. Here is a map and a gun with some ammo."
"You want me to kill Frank?"
Tempting but I need Frank.
"No, bring Frank home."
"Home?"
"This is home."
end log.

"Frank?" It's Becky's voice on the intercom. I look around for an interface. I find a call box on the wall. I consider my words.
"Yes?"
"Frank, please tell me that you aren't going to go down fighting."
"No, I am going set off the atomic bomb in the armory."
There is a long pause.
"Frank, there is no atomics in this bunker. I have the manifests."
Well damn. Bunker Debunked.
"It's was a longshot."
"Does that mean you're going to surrender?"
"Does that mean you're still going to shoot me?"
Another long silence. I can imagine them weighing the options.
"Why would you think we were planning to shoot you?" her voice is pained. she knows that Major Payne had said that.
"I'm going down shooting."
Silence.
"Frank, this is Captain Ross, I have to apologize for hasty words from before, I was just frus- look I give you my word that we will not shoot you....okay?"
This time I am silent.
"Frank?" Captain Ross.
"Swear on your mother's grave."
Silence.
"My mother's still alive."
"Frank, I swear that no one will harm you in any way. If you walk out of here, I give you my word that I will personally escort you out of Benton Harbor." Commander Becky says.
Silence.
"I swear on my great grandmother's grave." She adds.
I suspect that meant a lot more than I ever will know.
"Okay."
"You will not be allowed to take anything with you." Captain Ross adds.
There is an audible smack before the line goes dead.
Interesting.

Begin log
September 2224
Kathy Jarvis.
Richard is dead. He was killed in a firefight with the raiders. They brought back his body with the taken kids, both still alive, thankfully. They also brought back a small hoard of other kidnapped children and young people. Almost all our stolen goods, plus some more. My husband died for this. I don't know if I can go on. Cody has told me to take as much time as I need but I can feel their collective fear that I will quit. I want to but there are the children, my children to consider.
end log.

DefCon 0.13 Part 3: Maybe I overstated the last part a bit to much

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.

Defcon 0.13 Part 2. Things to do in Benton Harbor when you're dead.

"President who?"
Okay, that didn't work.
Guns up.
My hands itching for the flashbang on my belt.
Tackle the Mayor, drop the flashbang, run like hell for the bunker door.
"I am led to believe that this guy, I mean skeleton in this bunker-"
"What bunker?"
Safeties click off. I find it odd how time slows down and you hear the darndest things like metal clicks and sharp breaths as heart speed up in slow motion. Details, damn details.
Tackle the mayor, throw the flashbang, running like hell for-
"Frank?"
"What?"
"Stop calculating whether you can tackle my brother, throw that grenade and run to safety at the same time."
Becky is grinning at me. She stands calmly before me, one hand on her left hip cocked out, the other held loosely near her gun. The mayor eyes are trying to track me and the two other men and everyone behind me who has their guns out..
"It'd never work anyway. Robert, is a bit to heavy to haul around and beside grabbing him would push you away from the building rather than towards it. You'd be dead before the grenade went off."
Well, at least she doesn't know it's a short fuse flashbang.
"Besides I am your better target, no one likes shooting a woman and I am a lot lighter than Robert."
Robert to his credit only gapes at his sister as the weight of her words hit him like a series of face slaps one after another.
I try to relax, forcing tense muscles to ease, then I hear the audible click of a trigger pull.
The world freezes in place as I move, praying the flack armor can take the shot, right hand drops in an outward arc as the flashbang is snatched and flung backwards in release. my feet take up strides as the hammer explodes onto the shell and gunfire erupts in the space before the bunker. my left hand catches becky's right hand mid-draw pulling the pistol free from her hand.
Her eyes looks so calm as if she is saying oh, as I pass her right before the bullet catch my left shoulder guard shattering the ceramic plate and ricocheting upward while driving me forward and down. I roll with the impact onto my feet before she collides with me and we both go down onto the paving stones in a tangle of bodies.
Her eyes look into mine.
"Hi." I say as she comes out on top of the heap. I drop her pistol.
"Hey." She says as she breaths my air, so close that her smell fills my lungs and nostrils as the shouting begins.
Then the flashbang goes off 2 seconds later.
We are alone in the moment. Her face against the light, the deafening bang obliterating everything but her kiss, her lips pressing into mine- well that's what I imagine as she buries her head into my neck as all hell breaks loose above and beyond us.


Someone is crying.
There are moans.
They go in and out of my hearing.
I carefully sit up to find Becky crouching next to me, inspecting her pistol while blinking furiously as tears flood her eyes.
I speak but there is no sound only silence.
I check the scene.
The Mayor is a few yards away with the two other men... Sparks and Ander-something. They all look dazed. My escort is decimated. Several of them lying curled up holding their eyes or ears making moaning gestures while a young woman is being held by a new person. She is the one crying.
I guess this was their first flashbang.

Begin log
March 2222
Kathy Jarvis, Mayor of Benton Harbor.
The raiders came today.
That's all we can call them. They came and they shot bullets and took away a fair amount of Jim and Lana's food supplies before killing them. They were the nicest people. Cody, our sheriff, thinks that Jim and Lana had welcomed them in not suspecting their evil intentions until it was too late. The rest of us caught the five of them as they tried to make a run for the outskirts. We ended up killing three of them as they shot at us while fleeing. The last two escaped out into the wastes carrying a small amount of the foods that they had killed for. Bill Wyatts said that those might have been some boys who ran with a some survivors that he had seen last year. He said that they looked liked some biker gang from before the war. He said they were surprisingly well armed.
I am afraid.
Richard said we would need to pull everyone back into the main town and build a barricade- a wall.
A wall around Benton Harbor.
end log.

I think I am dead.
or soon will be.
I made it into the bunker, at least.
I am in a small cell, stripped down to my shorts, all my gear stacked outside on a table as they debate on whether to shoot me and go through my stuff for the keys to their bunker or let me go and ask me to explain why I would suddenly provoke an attack like that.
I am 22 years old. I have spent the better part of 10 years learning to survive the hard way. The only thing I have never lost is my will to survive. My body bears the scars and marks of all my mistakes and bad decisions.
If they think I will be led out like a lamb to the slaughter, then they are sadly mistaken.
I have enough plastic explosive in the waistband of my shorts to blow a hole through their cell wall, the detonator wires are in my ponytail, the blasting caps and matches are in my crotch, as well as a few other things squirrelled away for escaping cells like these.
I will survive
if I can.

Quick Note

Been offline for a weekend and out of town before that.
But major news
The planned rewrite is underway AND we are looking at publishing it in Seasons once I decide on a number on the website.
Once I have finished the first book (which most likely contain 3-4 seasons) that will be published in pdf form on the website (for sale) and as a formal ebook in Amazon and Ibook formats to be sold on those platforms.
I get that some of you won't buy the very reasonably priced books but you will miss on all the content that is being added as I flesh out the story line (benefits of editing)
so there is that.
more DefCon Benton Harbor soon.

Bonus post and some news

This poem was written for the Prologue of the DefCon Novel.
Which I started writing/rewriting today.
I am moving the blog (from the beginning) to pdf/book format and rewriting it as I go, there will be a fair amount of new content add and some removed to be used later in the book.
It's a promising beginning.
The PDF version of the book will be available on the DefCon page on the accordingtomike.space website sometime later this summer.

DefCon 0.13 Benton Harbor Sights

Log begins
May 7th, 2208.
Kathy R. Jarvis, Mayor of Benton Harbor.


We've been underground for 2 years, mostly, a few of the men have been out to check on the other shelters from time to time. A few of them have not come back. We assume that they have just walked out into the nuclear storm to die. Jerry and a core of determined men and women started digging tunnels to connect the bunkers. A year later, they had 2 completed. So now we don't have to brave the harsh weathers above to check on each other. Food is running short. No contact with the outside world.
This morning some of the diggers discovered a previously missed bunker about 150 feet from ours. They came back to tell Richard and me the news.  It's labeled D39. Richard went through all the records he had and there is no mention what it's for or how to get in it. We don't have the codes. No one who is living was briefed on it. Richard said it must have been top secret, since he knew nothing about it or how to get in. We are still doing a thorough search of the records in hopes that something will eventually turn up.
end log.


My escort brings me up from the wharf to what turns out to the main street of the market section. It's like something out of a post-apocalyptic fantasy novel like Shannara where a medieval market squats between the skeletons of burnout buildings. Vendors of various degrees are setting up shop in stalls around and in these shells. Their wares are vegetables, some grains, scrap, and clothing. We wind our way through the vendors, some form of paper currency is being passed for goods when the people aren’t just trading physical goods instead. It appears to be handwritten notes, some kind of promissory notes, perhaps,
After a fairly long walk down through the maze of stalls and at least a few hundred people of all ages- which is remarkable since this is the largest community I have seen in a very long time. We break out in to a park area surround a squat building that must have once be partially or completely buried but now is exposed. The building squats below a crown of ruins that appears to be the burnout remains of a capital style building.
The park area is the first real signs of cultivation I have ever seen. I stop in shock looking at the trimmed lawns, pruned trees, rose bushes! Freaking rose bushes! stone benches that look new, untouched by the ravages of time and war. There are people walking in the park, they stop to stare at me the gawking stranger. I have seen a lot since I came up from the ships but not something like this. For a moment, it is as if the world has been dialed back to a time before the madness came upon it. When the world was green and somewhat more innocent than it is now.
Some kind of statue carving stands around a thicket of small green trees. I feel my escort standing around me, surrounding me.
Two guards standing near the entrance take notice of me and begin to approach, the same young woman who approached back at the lighthouse jogs by them to reach me first. She does not look like she had just run from the lighthouse however.
She comes to a stop in front of me.
I remain in shock. There is so- much- green.
The world is burnt.
The world is brown.
I realize, somewhere in the back of my brain that there would be places that would, could recover, but almost everywhere I have roamed since leaving the ships, humanity has not concerned itself with restoring the green as much as taking and controlling what little has been left to take. Instead of a bombed out ruin of a town where I had expected-even planned to fight my way into to steal the necessary parts for K-74, I find a place of hope, civilization, a dream of green. I am overwhelmed.
“I guess this is a bit much to take in?” The woman says.
I’d say yup, but I don’t, settling for nodding instead.

Log begins.
May 12th, 2220.
Kathy Jarvis, Mayor of Benton Harbor.

The discovery of the other bunkers have led to a new hope for survival. The survivors have rebuilt our collective communities below ground and sub-divided life into “towns.” Collections of rooms interconnected with one another. We trade food stuff creations giving them whacky names to fit each of the towns. BR-Town specializes in cooking the Basic Rations into goulashes and such. There is laughter and music in the Towns.
I am pregnant with out first child, Richard has come back to life with the concerns of future parentage and fussing over me. I found myself smiling for the first time in days as he made our daily meal and insisted I drink the warmed instant milk- which tastes atrocious. I have noticed that several other women in the towns are also showing with expected children.

July 15th, 2220.

A major discovery was announced today by Alan Atkinson, our resident environmental engineer.
There is little to no radiation left above ground. No one can explain why other than seeing it as a miracle. Alan just looked at me and shrugged. “We never blew up the world, before. So who knows.”
This means that soon we can leave our bunkers and see about rebuilding our beloved town. There is a strong group of people who are rightly afraid that there will be another war. Chad Parks, our communication officer has reported total radio, radar, and cell silence though, so I feel that this madness has passed along with the madmen that caused it.

February 5th, 2221.

Rebecca and Samuel Jarvis came into the world today. We have twins. Who could believe it. Safely arrived and even healthier than expected. They are among the first to be born since the world ended and above ground to boot. I am so pleased. Alan Atkinson has announced that not only can we grow our own food but also that we have radiation free soil to grow it in. To think that this brown world will one day become green again….
End log.

“I am Becky Jarvis, Commander of the Benton Harbor Watch,” She says by way of formal greeting, even as the other two soldiers join her. I notice that another man has emerged from the building and is walking over.

I wrack my brain for a formal greeting, but nothing seems to fit the occasion. Becky Jarvis gives me a quizzical look and looks to her companions who shrug as well. The other man arrives, he is quite a bit older than Becky and the two soldiers who for their part are a bit nondescript in their fatigues. The older man wears a white coat over a blue shirt, neatly pressed and what appears to be slacks, something unheard of in the wasteland. He is even more clean that Becky and the other men.
Becky nods to him respectfully.
“I am Commander Rebecca Jarvis of Benton Harbor,” She repeats and signals to the other three men. “This is Mayor Robert Atkinson.”
I nod to him
“And this is Commander TJ Sparks and Lieutenant Leo Anderson,” She finished.
“I call myself Frank.”
“Just Frank?”
“Never needed more than that.”
“So, you are not with an army or another town?” Mayor Atkinson asks.
“It’s complicated,” I reply, I mean I am not going to say that the last supercomputer AI has sent me here for spare parts.
They look confused. I don’t blame them. I’d be confused.
“Let me try this again,” I say. Just make something up but make it sound plausible. “I am special operative Frank here on behalf of the GIDF- Global Initiative Defense Force.”
It’s close to a certain kind of truth.
They look stunned. Becky glances from me to the Mayor who looks nervous. The two soldiers hands have dropped to their holsters.
“It’s usually easier to just call myself Frank,” I say, slowly measuring the distance to cover.
My escort have gone rigid. I can feel the sudden rush of fear.
Becky looks back at me, there’s some suspicion but also a slight quirky smile tugs at her mouth.

“What does the GDIF want in Benton Harbor?” the Mayor asks.
If I was paranoid- I’d swear he’s measuring the distance to cover.
“I am here to retrieve parts for repairs to our defense systems,” To far to the park bench, at least 50 feet to the closest wall.
“And you can get into D39?” The Mayor says suddenly.
And then I know why D39 is a trigger point.
Also Becky gives the Mayor a “What the hell are you doing!” look.
Well, I have a bargaining chip after all.
The Mayor notices her look, realizes his mistake, gives me a terrified look then shrugs helplessly.
“This is why I wanted to handle this,” Becky says, exasperation written on her face.
“Sorry sis,” the Mayor says, then claps his hand to his mouth in horror.
The other two men chuckle.
“Yes, I have the access codes and the passkey,” I say.
They stop chuckling.
“There is only one way you have that key.” Becky says.
The guns are up, the safety’s off.
“I took it from President Drumpf’s skeleton,” I answer calmly.

























DefCon 0.12 White Flags.

log begins.
June 12th, 2205.
Kathy R. Jarvis, Mayor of Benton Harbor.
I haven't written much since the marriage. Commander Jarvis and I spent much of our time underground bumping into each other until we stopped making excuses. A few months later, he came to my tiny room and asked me to marry him. Once, the all clear was given we returned to our burnt out city. It looked like a flash fire had hit from the west. There was so much fog, but the air had a dry acrid taste. We walked around stunned by the number of our neighbors who had failed to find shelter in time. There was much weeping from the women. The men did better, but I suspect they cried a lot in secret although when we gathered to bury over half the town in the graveyard, there wasn't a dry eye. So many, many people dead.
end log.

Benton Harbor looms ahead of me as I cruise in slow between the machine gun nests. Anxious eyes watch me. The man in the lighthouse, who signaled me comes down to the dock edge as I coast in next to him. He is quite old, wears an old uniform that looks sewn back together several times over.
The launch drifts to a stop.
We consider each other.
For me, he is the first civilized person I have ever seen. I mean, he's not trying to kill me at the moment and he's actually clean shaven.
"Ahoy, there!" He calls out. I wave back. Check the auto switch on the assault rifle strapped to my chest. Check on the machine guns which haven't moved, hold up my white flag and step out and away from the wheelhouse.
"Hello," I reply. I notice several men in the shadows relax and shift their own weapons downward.
"What brings you to Benton Harbor, stranger."
"I came to trade for parts."
"Oho, parts?" The man says as the grin redraws his weathered face. "What would that be exactly?'
I frown, always the question is how much do you reveal to anyone.
"I need to fetch 3 Asus X987 Motherboards, a box of K45 Ram, 4 Quad Core I-9's, and 3 Mach Ten hard drives."
The man gives me a blank look. Reluctantly he looks over at his compatriots. They all shrug.
"Why do you think they are here?" He asks.
"They are in the D39 Bunker under the City Hall building....unless someone has removed them."
Almost as one, all hands return to their weapons. Many of which are military grade submachine guns.
Silence.
"How, how do you know about the D39?' The lead man calls back. He is trying hard not to grasp the gun hanging at his side, but his hands keep straying for it.
Now I lie.
"Found a report in The City of Steel that listed them being brought here before the war."
Silence.
Slowly the weapons are raised towards me. Chances of being shot before I can duck into the wheelhouse or dive overboard run through my head.
"Wait!" A voice calls somewhere behind the man. A woman's voice.
"Hold your fire!" It repeats.
The guns stay pointed in my direction as a woman comes into view, she is dressed in urban camo and has the bearing of someone who is in charge. She is also the most attractive woman, I have ever seen. I haven't seen many women and all of them were dirty and terrified. She is not.
"Where exactly in The City of Steel would one find anything about D39 or Benton Harbor?" She asks.
I must be staring at her. She gives me a hard look and crosses her arms. The woman is trim, well built, I'd daresay muscular even, no fat showing, sharp face, bright looking eyes, her lips are redder than anything I can imagine. In fact, I have never seen anyone with lips that red. Even in the poor light, the lips stand out. I just cannot take my eyes from those lips.
My mind has gone blank.
I was expecting this place to be like the other places, burnt out ruins with scavengers.
Now I am presented with an idea of civilization that for me has only existed in books all wrapped up in a single beautiful woman glaring down at me.
"We could just shoot him, Ma'am," One of the Machine Gunners remarks adjust his assault rifle on my left.
She considers this before shaking her head slightly.
I glance at him, he looks disappointed.
When I look at her, she has one hip cocked and her right hand is resting on it.
I try to swallow but feel only the sandpaper thickness that comes with a dry throat.
I feel the grin spreading across my face even as I try, unsuccessfully, to stop it.
One eyebrow goes up on her face.
There is always the truth, a voice says in my head.
"I am not sure you will believe me," I say, my voice sounding foreign.
"Try me."
"I got the info from a secured bunker about 250 feet under the City of Steel."
"You're right, I don't believe you."
"Alrighty then," I say as I walk back to the wheel house. "I'll be on my way then."
I can feel the guns going back up.
She takes her damn sweet time, though. I even have the launch in a tight turn.
"What are you trading?"
I look back at her. She smiling a slight quirk to her lips.
I am tempted to lean against the wheel house and shrug. I suspect this might be what the books call flirting.
"We could just shoot him and take it." One of the gunners says.
I make a mental note to kill him first.
She shakes her head slowly.
There is new tension and it's between her and the men.
"We will not.....be savages." She says softly, but everyone hears her just fine. The man hangs his head.
"Sorry Ma'am."
She looks back at me. The moment has passed.
"You'll dock in town, look for wharf 9, it's clearly marked?"
I nod.
She hesitates for a moment and I think she must be considering joining me on the launch. Again, the moment passes. Instead, she turns on her heel and marches off into the darkness as the sun continues its climb into the morning sky.
I shift the SPC forward and cruise in at 15 knots. Leaving the Lighthouse behind

log begins.
November 14th, 2205.
Kathy R. Jarvis, Mayor of Benton Harbor.
Many of us are sick. Rick says it's some kind of radiation sickness. More people have died.
I am saddened to say, several of them found guns and shot themselves. Others succumbed to despair and just faded away. I watched them go. All in all, there's less than 500 people left in a town that once had over 15000 people. People I grew up with. I have run out of tears, I think we all have.
end log.

My first view of Benton Harbor proper is impressive from a survival point of view. Much of the downtown has survived intact. no bombs would have fallen here or anywhere nearer than the City of Steel. Still, some of the taller buildings of 7 and 8 stories still show signs of the Burning. Blackened, cooked stone facades face the lake. I see the Wharfs, all four of them that are still intact. There are others but little remains of them other then their posts jutting up out of the waters. Wharf 9 is readily apparent with a small collection of trawlers and fishing vessels moored at them. Wharves 10-15 stand silently beyond that. 14 and 15 have container ships docked at them that appear to have not moved in 200 years. This is readily apparent by the impromptu housing that has collected along their decks plus the new structures that cover those 2 wharfs.

log begins.
December 7th, 2205
Kathy R. Jarvis, Mayor of Benton Harbor.
We have begun to rebuild, the good news is that almost everyone has adapted to the new air, which is exceedingly dry. The lake has become an ocean of thick mud which clings to everything. No one has tried to take a boat out. Rick says that we might have to dredge it or even dig it out. Most everyone survived the radiation sickness except Jenny Parsley who overdosed on radiation pills and was dead before anyone noticed. I was elected Mayor mostly since Rick refused to take the role. I think he hated having to be the one to make life and death decisions. At least we managed to restock out food stores from the container ships which has at least 200 containers that had shield food stuff that escaped being cooked to ash or irradiated.
Rick has just come into my office looking sick and grave. Oh my god, he says there is a civil war that has broken out across the US and that the military has been ordered to storm the Whitehouse bunker!
I have called everyone to return to the bunker, I am afraid, so afraid.
log ends.

The town itself looks inhabited, some of the inner city seems to be intact and rebuilt. This translates to what appears to be 9-10 blocks of buildings along the river/harbor front. Beyond that is empty space, that from the little I can see has been cleared, probably for farming purposes. Still, this is civilization, unlike anything I found in my wandering through the southeast country until I cam north to the City of Steel. There were some fortified "towns" but they didn't amount to much more than a couple of blocks of walled off burnt out buildings with survivors clinging to the remains and chasing everyone else away.
There is a small squad of armed men and women waiting for me as I pull the launch into a mooring. One of the women throws me a rope and I tie off as several of them sneer and my paltry knot skills.
I look straight at them and shrug.
"It's my first boat," I say to their surprise "I've only had it two days."
One of the men laughs before hopping down to the launch to re-tie my knot. He suddenly straightens, looks back at me looking back at him and relaxes. I guess he just realized he had turned his back on the enemy.

log begins.
May 4th, 2206
Kathy R. Jarvis, Mayor of Benton Harbor.
The insanity will never end. I had thought I could never cry again. I guess we all thought that. We have been holed up back in the bunker. We managed not only to get everyone back into the bunker and the other 3 fallout shelters in town in time but also a handful of refugees from a few nearby towns. Why?
Because the world has gone mad again.
Richard sat at his desk in the bunker and told me with a straight face that the US President ordered a class one nuclear missile attack on his own people for the uprising, then his beautiful face crumpled and he sobbed into my arms.
The nuclear fire returned and so many more Americans are now dead, Richard is fairly sure that the majority of his fellow soldiers are now ash. There had been a last ditch attempt to disable the missiles. It had almost succeeded. President Drumpf had somehow gotten the missile strike to go forward, though.
We will survive but there will be no more U.S. We will truly be on our own when it's safe to return to our beloved Benton Harbor.
Colonel Henson has assured us that we have enough provisions to last up to 4 years in each of the bunkers and shelters.
Sargeant Williams informed me that they have found another bunker under this one. Several of the men are trying to find a way in as no one has the codes.
Richard is broken. That last order proved to be too much for him. They all look to me now to lead. Who'd have thought this girl with a community college degree in business would be the last leader of the free world?
end log.