The Awakening (Intro/Part 1)
Fan fiction based on Tom Clancy's computer game "The Division"
I have no affiliation with Ubisoft, Massive games or Tom Clancy. I am a fan of the game and chose to use it as the framework of a wholly fictional work based solely on my own imagination with no basis to anyone in reality.
By Gary Weinheimer (Corwin_McGee on PSN)
A man and a woman sit at a bar in what could be any watering hole in any small town in almost anywhere. They may look slightly out of place but then who is to say. There are three or four other patrons sitting around talking and chuckling at jokes carrying on as if all is right with the world. They all seem to be armed with some sort of side arm but maybe it's a dangerous part of the world or maybe it's just a custom here. Their gear is quite possibly military in origin but then, one or two have similar pieces so who really knows. They are both drinking what appears to be cold, frosty beer, light amber in color with a slight frothy head. The woman is eating some sort of stew with generous portions of meat and root vegetables while the man is finishing what appears to be a fillet of some kind with a potato and some sort of green vegetable. There are hand crafted chairs in the room with knitted or quilted throws tossed over their backs to keep the patrons warm from the snow that is falling outside the plate glass windows. A warm fire dances in a pit in the middle of the room and a wood fired brick oven is behind the bar with the smell of bread wafting from it's opening. There doesn't appear to be any eletricity in the place but even that could be explained away by location or other such thing. In this little pub everything seems normal, there is almost no sign that the world, as a whole, has been plunged into chaos by a manmade virus that has caused a world wide pandemic that was created by a man named Gorden Amherst all because he thought that mother nature needed a little help balancing the tables against humanity.
Dan and Cynthia had been recruited by an organization that they were told was part of Homeland Security called "The Division". They had been training as part of a four person squad for the last year with only vague answers to their questions regarding what they were training for and then "Black Friday" happened making everything clear. The day after Thanksgiving had always been one of the busiest shopping days of the year in the US. As Thanksgiving always happened on a Thursday the day after had become known as "Black Friday" partially because it was a time for businesses to make enough money for their books to run in the "black" but mostly due to the insanity that ensued from everyone rushing to get the best deals on everything from electronics to bath oils as Christmas would be fast approaching. Well, this year it acquired a whole new meaning. Gordon Amherst, who believed that humanity had become a blight on the earth decided to give Mother Nature a little "help" by concocting a super virus then infecting dollar bills with it that were then placed into circulation on the busiest shopping day of the year in arguably the busiest city in the United States, New York. His plan was elegantly simple, except for the actual making of the virus, and it seemed to be working to great effect. Large portions of the population around the world had already died off leaving chaos in it's wake as survivors either dug in or took advantage of the situation. For the later the Division was there to help maintain the balance by any means necessary.
As soon as word got out that the sickness that had became known as "The Green Poison" or the "Dollar Flu" as it was also known, was transmitted through money the people of Placerville California, the town in which the pub that Dan and Cynthia found themselves in now, burned all theirs. In no time a barter system quickly emerged with the good people barely missing a beat. Placerville was basically agrarian with a larger than normal group of craft people living in the area. It took about two and a half hours to get to by car, under normal conditions, from San Francisco. The fact that the snow fall was heavier than normal this year also helped keep any traffic that might be carrying the "Green Poison " out of town, after all, these were the mountains that swallowed the Donner party so many years before.
The Chief, as Dan was known, looked up from his cold beer, thanks to the snow outside, across the dark bar. Placerville really didn't seem that bad off as so many people had skills that were in short supply elsewhere. He was thinking about the butchers, farmers, brewers and other "artisans" that lived here before the power went out when the door to the pub swung open. The Chief's attention was drawn to the grey light of the winter day outside that framed the familiar form of Gabriel Burke. Gab was his and Mighty Mouse's, Cynthia's, handler. He looked in their direction "Get over to the Farm, Paul and Hank are already on their way, I need to pick up some things and I will meet you there." His face was pale and he looked concerned, at least to the Chief and Mouse but they knew better than to question him in public, they just stood up and nodded heading toward the door he had just entered as he was backing out.
Outside the air was crisp and cold, the sort of cold that could glue you to one spot but the SEALS (Sea, Air, and Land) had trained Dan to ignore it. As for Cynthia, Dan believed she just scared the cold away. He had sparred with the deceptively strong petite woman and she was just plan frightening in hand to hand combat. She was an expert in Krav Maga, Akido, and Kick Boxing with some other stuff thrown in for good measure. It was no wonder that the CIA picked her up straight out of college with her 4.0 in computer sciences and all those nice little extras. Now the Division had her, Dan never worried about her being able to handle herself after their first time on the mat even if she was only 5'1" which seemed dwarf like next to his six foot plus frame.
Gab was already halfway down the street as the two found their horses where they left them, no one bothered other peoples things around here, Dan was going to miss this place. He knew they were headed out even if he didn't know where or what for, their stay in this little town was over.
As they trotted their horses down the driveway leading to the farmhouse that had only recently grown grapes for various wineries the two of them saw Hank step out from behind a corner, his .357 Smith and Wesson in his hand, it seemed as though Gabe had gotten him a little worked up . "Phew" he exclaimed with that signature smirk on his face. "Gabe was all excited when he found me and Doc, you guys know what the hell is up?" The Chief shook his head and Mouse shrugged her shoulders and spoke up "He came running into the pub and just told us to get our asses over here, so we did, didn't say much else." Hank holstered his hand cannon as Doc, Paul Chin, came into view and thats when Dan decided to put the team in motion. "We better prep the gear and load up the horses, I have a feeling we're headed to the safe house."
Paul Chin had been a Navy Corpman during Afghanistan stationed with the first Marine Recon Battalion in Trek Nawa and afterward, with the Division's finical help, got his Nursing degree at Fresno State University although at the time he was told that he had been awarded a full ride scholarship that had something to do with his military service. Paul had first met Dan while they were both waiting to be shipped back to the states but neither one knew that they would meet again in the not too distant future. Paul was checking his Scar-S and placing it in the horse scabbard when Gabe came around the corner. Everyone except Dan drew handguns in his direction. The team was a little too tense for the Chief's liking but a day or two on the road would fix that, if they managed to stay alive. The Vineyard had been their training ground for the last year but they all seemed to sense that this was it.
Gabriel nodded past his shoulder either not noticing or not caring that he had three firearms trained on him "There's provisions in the cart" Hank, Henry Bozzman, moved to get them. Hank was a big man, wide like a linebacker or olympic wrestler and was the mechanic and all around handy man of the team. Henry just seemed to understand how things worked and while he had a degree in mechanical engineering his understanding went deeper than that, the team had taken to calling him "MacGyver" which he didn't mind at all. Hank had served with the 75th Ranger Regiment in Afghanistan on crew served weapons and met the Chief on a C130 flight into Germany, in fact, the Chief seemed to be the central pillar to this whole squad. Mouse had met the Chief on a couple of field briefings to advice on computer systems that were criticle to mission success.
There was never an official leader assigned to the unit but as their training progressed it became obvious that Daniel MacAllister took over that role. Chief had a degree in structural engineering and while he knew what made a building strong he also knew how to bring one down pretty quickly too. Like so many snipers Dan was a quiet man, only spoke when the situation called for it. The Chief was closer to 50 than 40 but he could still outrun most of his team and while he wasn't the strongest or maybe even the smartest no one knew small team tactics better than he did and he seemed to understand people better than they did themselves most of the time. Over the years Dan also taught himself blacksmithing, he loved to play with metal and making things with his hands, in this new age that was something he could barter with.
Hank came back in with armfuls of dry goods and things they would need on a trip then motioned to Paul to give him a hand. Gabe started in "The ISAC (Intelligent System Analytic Computer) relay station for the northern coast has been taken offline. That's why we haven't heard from it and nothing seems to be working. I was able to make contact with the relay station in Utah via short wave radio and assured them that we were still operational and would move to check out the situation, hopefully putting it back in operation . They are afraid that a contingent of LMB (Last Man Battalion) has moved into the area and found it taking out the operator and disabling the system but they don't really know. We need to find out." At that point Gabe handed over a black leather pouch similar to a currier's pouch to Chief. "Maps, schematics, blueprints, everything is in there that you might need, destroy it if shit hits the fan. You're headed to the Presidio, ISAC is in a bunker there. Any Questions?" The team had all gathered around by now to hear what needed to be done.
This is what the group had been assembled for and besides the normal questions about weigh stations and safe house locations there really wasn't anything more that needed to be covered. ISAC was offline, nobody knew why and they needed to figure it out and fix it. They finished loading their gear onto their horses and Gabe wished them luck as they departed for their first stop in Folsom at a safe house there where they could bed down for the night. The team had been activated, quietly, without any fanfare, no Rocket propelled grenades or exploding helicopters but Dan knew that this was not going to be an easy task and as he turned his horse down the mountain behind his team he was certain he had the right people for the job and only hoped they were all ready for what lay ahead of them.