(Just a quick note, there are 2 endings to this, video game style. You can choose whichever one you like the most to be real)
(Sorry if this is considered a repost, but I wanted to change a small detail and couldn't do it, or didn't know how. I deleted the original, so there's still only 1 copy of this story.)
The year is 20XX. A nuclear war has broken out on Earth. The cities are ruined, the skies are gray, and people are few and far between. Currently It's the calm before the storm.
A young boy is traversing the destroyed suburbs when he notices a little girl sitting alone on the porch of a house. He calls out to her and runs up to her removing a surgical mask he had on.
"What are you doing here alone? It's dangerous! A dust cloud could come by in the very least."
"I don't have anywhere to go" She replied "Everyone I knew is dead or...gone".
"Ummmf…" the boy thinks a bit nervously, looking around "Listen, why don't come with me. I found a bunker with some friends. We've been surviving together there for a while now."
"Are you sure? Won't they mind?" She asks, but she's hoping. She wanted to have some friends again, she's been alone since the last person she knew went insane.
"Of course not. Come on." He said as he helped her up. "What's your name?"
"Marceline" she answered.
"Good to meet you, Marceline. I'm Phil." After the introduction, they went on their way, and as they're going trough an open field Phil proceeds to explain his story
"We met about couple of months ago. Pretty much everyone we knew died in the war as well. We found a bunker and have been making the best of it ever since, surviving any way we could. Here we are." Phil crouches down and opens a hidden hatch with a ladder leading down "After you".
When they got down, Phil banged on a metal door.
"Guys, it's me. I brought someone with me. A girl."
Surprised, the voice behind the door answers
"What? Why'd you do that? We're having a hard time as it i-
Phil interrupts him, sounding a bit frustrated
"She's a kid just like us. I couldn't just leave her out there to die!
Sighing, the boy behind the door replies
"I guess you're right. But you can't do that again, we can't support more people"
"Whatever, it's just this once, now open up!" Phil shouts impatiently.
The door opens, Phil and Marceline are greeted with a salute. Phil salutes back, then from the salute they throw a high five. (or a mid-five. That's a thing now)
"Welcome back!" says the kid that opened the door "Did you find any supplies?"
Phil says with a smile "Yeah" as he takes his backpack off "This should last us for a while." Quickly after, he introduces Marceline, gesturing her. "This is the girl. Her name is Marceline" Then he introduces her to the rest of the group "Marceline, those are Kevin, Jack and Steve"
Smiling, they greet Marceline. While shaking hands with her, Kevin says: "Hey, just do what we do. We'll teach you the survival skills we picked up."
Marceline excitingly says: "Thanks. Don't worry, I won't just be along for the ride, I'll help anyway I can."
"Come" Phil says to Marceline as he puts his hand over her shoulder "Let me show you what we have so far" Then he glances at her old and ripped dress "And we'll find you some more practical clothes"
Marceline quickly fit in perfectly in the guys and it felt like she was there from the beginning. The group had some ups and downs but eventually they almost stopped caring that the world is ending. But all in due time.
About a year after Marceline joined all 5 of them went on a scavenging run. They found some small abandoned army outpost.
Steve opens a door of a building: "Jackpot!"
It's a storage hangar. Then he suggested they spread out and grab anything useful.
Phil says "Get all the rations you can find, those things last"
After a few minutes, the guys met up at the other side of the hangar. Jack says eagerly: "We should check the armory. Might be something left there"
When all of a sudden, a man shouts at them from behind "FREEZE! No sudden movements!" All of that's mine now! Take it outside! Slowly." He points a gun at them, holding it with 1 hand. (like a noob)
"Why?" Kevin asks .
The man looks at him with a confused face: "So I don't shoot you?!"
"Dude, shooting us is NOT in your best intress." he replies.
"Think about it. Ammo isn't that easy to come by these days. You wouldn't want to get stuck with an empty clip when your life's in imminent danger" Jack continues.
Phil, following their lead says "Yeah, you might not see it now, but when you're being mutilated by some knife-wielding maniac, you'll look back at this moment and think "You know… I REALLY wish I hadn't wasted those 4 bullets to kill those kids"
Getting angry, the man yells while shaking the gun at them "HOW 'BOUT I JUST SHOOT YOU RIGHT NOW?!"
Jack replies laughing "Well, if you're that eager to speed up your death why not just put the gun to your temple and pull the trigger?"
At that point, Marceline, who sneaked up on the man while the boys were distracting him, managed to grab the man's arm and point it away. The rest then charged at him, Jack picked up a pipe of the floor and knocked him out.
"Nice job sneaking up on him, Marcy" Phil says as he gives her a high five.
Steve looks at the man lying unconscious on the ground "Wow Jack, one hit?
Jack looks at him "You sound surprised" and he drops the pipe.
"Let's tie him up, we don't want him bothering us again while we scavenge" Kevin says.
After that, they walk away with Steve subtly laughing "What an idiot, he didn't even turn the safety off."
After that incident the group decided they should train more in combat and other skills just in case and to pass the time. In a few months they made the so far unused parts of the bunker into training rooms and eventually larger training courses.
...
Phil is going thru a hallway avoiding a camera by sticking to the walls and running while the camera is looking the other way. He's slowly running into another room, but as soon as he runs out of a corner, he sees a guard and quickly presses against the wall not to get noticed. He waits a few seconds to make sure the guard's not going to look his way then he moves behind cover across of him, and continuing to move low and as quietly as possible. After that he enters the next room approaching another guard, who's watching the other side of the entrance, from behind. He pours something into a handkerchief, sneaks up behind him, and presses it against his mouth and nose, making him lose consciousness after a few seconds. He moves on, coming up on another guard, this time guarding a door from the front. Phil uses a hand mirror to look at him around the corner and takes a few seconds to plan his move. He pours the liquid into the handkerchief again, knocks on the wall attracting the guard, who starts to approach, weapon at the ready. When he comes around the corner, Phil moves his gun away, manages to get behind him and press the handkerchief against his face enough to make him pass out. Then Phil takes out his pistol, and holds it pointing in front of him while he's walking into the next room. When he gets in he quickly looks left and right, fallowing with the gun making sure no one's there. At that point, a hand comes from above pointing a gun at the top of his head.
"Bang. You're dead" Marceline says casually with a gloomy smile.
Phil looks up, sees her above the door frame and says trough his teeth "Dammit!" while raising his hands in the air and dropping them like he's throwing something on the ground. He pulls out his radio and says into it "Exercise over guys. I died" sounding a bit disappointed as Marceline jumps down. The others come in.
Kevin starts the conversation "Really, Phil? You get to the end and let yourself lose?"
"She was waiting for me above the door frame, I didn't expect that" Phil replies, and turns to Marceline "How'd you even know I was coming? You weren't cheating and just been waiting there since the beginning, did you?"
"Give me some credit. You made too much noise when you took out Kev, so I looked out and saw you. That's when I prepared." Marceline answers.
Steve, patting her on the shoulder adds "That's our Marcy. Eye of the hawk, ear of the bat."
"Oh, come on. It was pretty loud" She says
Jack says "Well anyway, I think you're ready for us to call for back-up if we see you. Maybe even add 2 guards in some rooms.
Phil says, smiling and shaking his head "Tomorrow. I need a drink right now"
Two years since then, the group decided to celebrate them surviving together. They're sitting at a table having the best meal they could get their hands on.
Phil starts off "it's been 5 years since we got together. And you know what? We're still alive. Humanity killed most everything in several giant mushroom clouds. But WE are still alive."
"And we're even enjoying ourselves sometimes" Kev continues.
Steve says "Yeah. It doesn't matter that the world is coming to an end. Because now and forever, we will be together"
Marceline looks at him "Oh my God, don't be so melodramatic, we didn't get to where we are by writing screenplays."
"I'm just saying it like it is. Also I heard that somewhere".
Jack says "He's got a point though. We would have probably died or gotten murdered after a few weeks if we were each on our own. Well, we would, not sure how Marceline survived."
She just looks at him and smiles "Guess I'm lucky"
Phil, nods, raises his glass and says "Well. Here's to not dying"
The others raise their glass too and drink up.
Oh the irony. Fifteen months later...
Phil woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. While returning with his eyes half closed to the sleeping quarters he hits his elbow on the door, letting out a loud "OW". This wakes Steve up. Still sleepy, he asks: "What're you yelling about?"
"Mff I hit my elbow…" That woke him up a little, so he noticed: "Where did
Marceline go?
"She probably went to the toilet or something."
"I just came back from there."
"Ah, she's here somewhere, just wait a minute."
"I'll look around anyway"
Just over 10 minutes later, Phil came back to the room. He didn't see Marceline and she didn't come back. Phil talks to Steve again
"Dude, you still awake?"
"Ugh, well I am now…"
"Marceline's still not here."
"Did you look around a bit?"
"Yeah, and didn't find her."
By now they woke up Kevin and Jack. They complain: "Oh, what are you 2 going on about?"
Phil says: "Marceline's missing."
"WHAT?!"
Steve tries to calm them down: "Now let's not jump to conclusions, she's probably still in the bunker somewhere. Let's spread out and search the place"
25 minutes later, they meet up back at the bedroom. No one found anything. They were perplexed to what happened. They knew that if anyone came from the outside they would have almost certainly trigger the alarm and that Marceline wouldn't just leave on her own like that. Phil, Kev and Jack decided to go outside to search for her while Steve stayed behind to see if he can find any trace.
After a few hours they came back.
"Steve, it's us. Open up"
Steve's thinking "I do not like the way he said that". He opens the door. "Anything?"
Phil just walked past him and rested his head on the wall. Jack asks sarcastically:
"What do you think? We even checked the eradiated areas"
Steve tells them "I took a look the cameras. It's really strange." He goes to show them. "See? Every other camera is fine, but out of nowhere, static just starts on the bedroom camera. We can't even hear anything. Here it reaches its peak, and then it starts to return to normal slowly. Marcy's gone by then. It's like there was some… I dunno, electro-magnetic interference, maybe? Not sure how it works, but It's not like someone meddled with the camera physically. And if they did it on purpose, they knew what they were doing.
Kevin notices: "But the other cameras… They didn't catch anything and they were working. So no one came in or out?"
Phil says: "And yet Marcy's still gone…" He's pissed by now "There are FOUR people left in the world I could ever care about and one of them seems to literally disappears into thin air… I'll be in the training room if anyone needs me"
They were sad and clueless to what happened, but they had to keep going.
But what happened to Marceline? It was just like any other night when she went missing. Until something not of this world visited them. It scrambled their camera simply by being present and took Marceline away. It was like they were never there. Next thing Marceline knew, she woke up in a strange alien place. She screamed in surprise when she saw a strange character sitting next to her bed.
"Who the hell are you?!" Then she looked around "And where am I?!
"Don't worry, no one's gonna hurt you. I'm Hunson Abadeer. You're safe now." He tries to calm her down.
"What did you do?!"
"I did this to protect you."
"DID WHAT?! Marceline's tone slowly starts to change.
"I brought you to my realm. That and you're a vampire now.
"What?!"
"If you don't believe me just relax. You'll start to float."
Marceline tries it because she strangely thought that he might not be lying. She's surprised that she really did start to levitate.
"Why did you do all this?!"
"Because I care about you, Marceline."
"Bullshit!"
"Just hear me out. I'm your dad."
"You're full of it!"
"It's true! I'm your real dad. I was always with your mother. And then she married that stupid chump who you were told was your father and I couldn't be around as often. If she wasn't so fond of him I would probably have killed hi-"
"What gives you the right to talk like that"! Marceline starts to get angry, but she wasn't as afraid anymore. She felt like he really wasn't going to hurt her.
Hunson continues "But I was still around! I watched you grow and I cared for you like you were my own."
"Then where were you when I was alone in the ruins of the world?!"
"I was still watching over you."
"Yeah right! You were nowhere to be found!"
"Oh come on, don't you think it's strange you never ran into any marauders while you were on your own?! Or that there was always enough fresh supplies? Even your body! The skin, the ears, the teeth! You're half demon!
Marceline was going to say something, but then suddenly remembers "Wait a minute, what did you do with my friends?!"
"Nothing, they are none of my concern. They don't even know I was there."
"Let me go back to them!"
"I can't."
"Those are my buddies out there! They must be worried sick about me!"
"That world is no place for you anymore."
"Well then bring them here too!"
"I can't, I told you they are none of my concern. Besides, they wouldn't even last long here."
"I thought you said you care about me!"
"I do."
"Then let me see my friends!"
"I can't!"
"Ah, to hell with you!" Marceline yells in anger as she walks away.
"You'll come around eventually, Marceline! You'll see!"
Over the next few months she kind of, not really accepted what happened and started to learn more about her new abilities and the place she ended up in. Eight months after she was abducted she heard from Hunson that nukes are going to be exchanged on Earth again.
"Those stupid humans. Looks like they decided to kill whatever was left alive."
She was shocked when she heard the news. She knew she had to see the guys again and warn them. She spent enough time there that she found out how to open a portal back to Earth so she sneaked away and went to look for her friends.
The guys were preparing for a mission. They found out that another nuclear exchange was going to happen. They knew they had get out and they intercepted some information that they thought could help them survive trough the war and beyond.
It's night, close to dawn. Jack is putting a bag in a jeep Steve and Kevin are sitting in. Phil is a few meters away crouching doing something.
"Is this everything" Jack asks?
Phil says not taking his eyes of his business "Almost, I just need to double-check these pipe-bombs. Wouldn't want them to blow up in the backpack"
Kev, exhaling says "So it's back to this. Just the 4 of us, lives in imminent danger…"
Jack: "Yup…Just like the crappy ol' days."
Steve says "Wish we didn't have to do this, but there's nothing left we can use around here"
Phil interrupts him "And in about a day there'll be nothing left here, period." Then he turns around as he stands up amd throws the backpack into the jeep. "OK let's move out."
Immediately after that, a female voice says from the dark "Guys, wait"
The moment he hears that, Phil, in one fluent motion, pulls out his pistol, turns around, lowers his stance a little and points the gun at the voice, holding it with both hands.
"Phil, lower your weapon. It's me" She says as she steps out of the dark.
In disbelief, Phil utters "Marceline…?" Jack says, just as surprised "No way…"
Phil goes to Marceline, throwing his gun to the side and runs straight into a hug. The others also run to them. Few seconds later Phil says after the hug "We thought you might have died!"
Marceline says "Don't you think you were jumping to conclusions a bit too fast?"
Kevin shouts "You've been gone for 8 months!"
"Has it really been that long?"
Kev: "Where were you anyway? What happened?"
Phil: "And you seem kind of…different?"
Marceline hesitates "I don't know how you'll take this. I couldn't believe it myself…I don't even know how to tell this to you…"
Steve: "Then just say it."
"… I've been turned into a vampire…" and she starts to float to proove it.
The guys are speechless
Jack brakes the silence "Vampires exist?!"
Marceline says "Apparently. Seems parents had some kind of relationship with a demon. Guess he wanted me to live trough the war and still be around when society is rebuilt"
Phil: "But why didn't you come back? Or at least contact us?"
"I wanted to, I really did, but I couldn't. It's complicated, I was actually in anotherworld… Then I found out that the nukes are gonna drop again and I thought I have to see you even if it means I die."
"We heard. And we have a plan. With a little luck, we'll be alive after the war blows over."
"Looks like you're going to war yourselves. Let me help! I can do more now than anyone you're going up against"
"Except not die in sunlight. What we're going for should arrive at sunrise. Assuming, of course, vampires are like in the stories.
"Marceline agrees:"Yeah, the stories are surprisingly accurate..." disappointed that she can't come along.
Jack says "Speakin' of the shipment, we should move out" and he hands Phil his pistol.
"Wait, one more thing, Phil. I want you to have this bandanna. I thought it suits you" Marceline says as she smiles.
Phil takes the bandanna and nods. "Thanks…That reminds me. Your teddy bear is still in the bunker. You can go pick it up. For now, bye Marcy. Try to find us later if you get the chance." Saying that he and the other 3 go in the jeep.
"Don't you guys die on me!" Marceline shouts before they go.
Jack says "Don't worry about it, Marcy. We'll see you later". He salutes, the jeep starts and they drive away.
Marceline stands saluting them until they get out of her line of sight. The dark thought that she might never see them again was still in her mind, and it felt like it was there to stay.
Not long after the boys arrived to an army base. They're looking at it from the tall grass on a hill. Kevin is scouting it with binoculars.
"Pretty much what we expected. Brick wall, guarded front gate… I see 5 soldiers, could be a few more inside and the guys transporting the shipment might be trained as well. Hopefully, they're not" He then puts them down. "ETA 13 minutes."
Steve shares his thoughts "You know it would have been a lot easier and less dangerous to just ask Marceline to turn us, too."
Phil looks at him: "We just found out vampires exist and you're already thinking of that? I don't feel any different towards her now that she's a vampire, still can't believe it, but I'm not becoming one myself. Drinking blood forever is not on my to-do list. I'll admit, though, I'm not eager to get into one of those pods once we're safe."
Jack comforts him: "We just need them as a last resort"
Phil: "Well the last resort might turn out to be the only one."
Kevin says "Anyway, in a few minutes, there's no turning back. We have to be realistic, guys. This might be the last hour we see each other."
Jack: "We need to stay positive, Kev. It's what got us this far.
Phil: "Yeah, we can make it trough this. Just don't get overconfident. Training is one thing, this is the real deal. These guys probably have some actual experience." He gets up "Almost time. I'm gonna get in position"
The other 3 stand up in front of him. They salute, and then Phil mid-fives them one after another in one movement from the salute.
Steve says: "Try not to kill unless you have to. We don't need these guys' deaths on our conscious."
Jack: "What's the point? They're gonna die in a mushroom cloud anyway."
"Fine, do whatever you want, just don't die."
Phil runs of, but then turns around and points at them while still walking backwards "You guys better be on that plane in the end" then continues. He went down to the back corner of the base and started to place explosives on the wall, and waits for them to put the plan into motion.
The other 3 stayed on the hill. By now the sun is already out. They see 2 trucks and a jeep leading them are coming.
"This is it. Get ready." Kev says and raises his right hand while holding the binoculars with his left. Steve takes out a detonator and hands it to him. Once the trucks are in the base and the gate closed behind them Kevin presses the button and distraction explosives go off on the other side with a loud boom and a massive fireball.
"What a waste" Jack says looking at the show and they move down to the base near the front gate.
In synch with the explosions Phil detonates his pipe-bombs, making a hole in the wall. The loud boom made his pipe-bombs a lot less noticeable. He enters the base, sneaking trough it and taking 2 guards he came across out quietly with an injection. Then he hides and throws another bomb in an attempt to lure the soldiers away from the front of the base.
It works.
"God, they're predictable" Steve says. He takes out a motorized circular saw and cuts a hole in the gate."
A few seconds later they hear gunshots.
"Heard that? Crap, we need to find Phil fast."
Seeing the enemies in the back, they run for cover and continue to move between the buildings and the wall. They see Phil running towards them.
Jack's releved:
"Dude, made it. Nice job!" Then he notices that Phil's holding on to his left shoulder. "You've been shot, you alright?"
Phil's breathing heavily trough his teeth, but manages to say "Only a flesh wound…I'm fine…Where's the shipment?"
"They moved it into a hangar. Let's go"
(From this point the alternate ending can be read. It's gonna be on the bottom)
They manage to find to the trucks without getting seen. Kev checks to make sure what they're looking for, then he goes to try to start one of the trucks while the others watch the entrance. When he starts it, he calls the others and tells Phil to keep the engine running while he gets the other one running. However, while heading for it, Jack get's shot in the back twice and falls to the ground
The others get behind cover and start to shoot back. They kill the soldiers and Steve rushes to Jack who's moaning in pain on ground and starts to pull him to behind the trucks. Then out of nowhere another soldier shows up and shoots Steve. Kevin takes him out and pulls their hurt friends behind safe cover.
"Kev, keep starting that thing!" Phil shouts and turns his attention to Jack and Steve. "Crap…you're both bleeding heavily… Ah, nevermind, we'll improvise something, get up!" Phil says trying to help them up.
Jack screams in pain, clenching his teeth "I can't feel my freakin' legs! Did he get me in the spine?!"
Steve looks at the pools of blood next to them. "Ummmf… If we're bleeding like this it's probably internal...Nothing we can do, especially in the field… Maybe you two should go without us"
"No, don't you give up, you'll be fine, get up and let's go!" Phil says.
Jack pulls out his sidearm and points it at Phil "Listen to the man!"
Phil reluctantly gets up "Imma punch you when I see you in the afterlife"
"It's on! Get in!" Kev yells and Phil goes to the passenger side door and looks at Steve and Jack one more time. Kevin continues "Thanks for everything, guys. You'll be celebrated forever if we survive."
They get in the truck and drive away. When they get to the gate Kevin get's out and opens it real quick, but another soldier shows up and shoots him. Phil empties a clip into him and Kev manages to get back into the truck, seriously hurt. Phil gets out and goes to the driver's seat. "No no no no no, not again! Move over, I'm driving". Before they continue Phil takes some bandages out of his pack and wraps his wound.
"We'll be at the finish line soon, you'll be fine!"
Meanwhile, Steve and Jack agreed that they might as well go out in style, so when they stopped hearing the truck's engine they took out their pipe-bombs and threw them and nearby fuel tanks, going out with a bang (because as you know, by movie logic, any explosion plus any fuel thank, full or empty, results in an explosion). Phil sees that in the rear-view mirror and his jaw simply drops. He continues to drive to their extraction point.
After a while they arrived to a big carrier plane. It's back was open and Phil drove the truck in and closed the opening. Then he helped Kev out of the truck and put him on a stretcher, but notices that he's still bleeding. He nervously walks back and forth wondering what to do and starts panicking putting his right arm on his head
"Hang in there, I'll think of something! Medical supplies, medical supplies, FUCK! WHY DIDN'T WE TRY TO FIND MORE MEDICAL SUPPLIES!?" He yells as he slams the hood of the truck.
Kev tries to talk "I think I'm dying, man… I must have lost too much blood…"
"No, don't you give up, you're gonna lie there, and you're gonna live!
"I don't think I am, sadly… I'm disappointed…I should have been more careful."
"Dude, you got us out of there, Steve and Jack died for this!"
"I know… Don't worry, you'll be fine, the plane has…has a pretty advanced auto pilot…It can take off and land on it's own…"
"That's not the freakin' point!"
"…There're some things you have to do… I think I'm about to die any minute… Once we're over the ocean…"
"NO! No, don't say it!"
"Phil!… Once we're over the ocean... send my body out of the plane… At least it's some kinda funeral… Two: Use that pod only if it's absolutely necessary to survival… from what we heard it's still just a prototype… Three… Try to find Marceline… chances are she'll still be around… And most importantly… DON'T DIE…! Be careful out there… Got that?"
Phil looks at him with a sad face. Feels like a part of him is dying with his friends. But he nods.
Kev says "I will not say "do not weep"…Not all tears are evil…"
Phil starts to smile a little "You copied that from a movie!"
"That's better" Kev says seeing that.
They look at each other for a few seconds, then they do a bro handshake. Soon after, Kevin starts to lose consciousness and pass away.
Phil is devastated, but refuses to cry even tho his getting the chokes. He straps the truck and the stretcher down goes to the ****pit and takes off. Once he's above the water he decides to do as Kev asked, so he put on some safety harnesses, opens the plane and pushes the his dead friend out. And as the stretcher slowly accelerates towards the exit, Phil just stands there saluting, not quite sure what to feel.
Eventually he arrived at a long open field far from any city. There was no proper runway so it was a rough landing, but everything stayed intact. Not wanting to waste fuel, he went on foot to scout the area. He came across a cave that slowly goes underground and it was possible to drive down. So he went back to the plane and took the truck and some tools including a camera down the tunnels. Once he felt that he found a good spot to hide he took the pod out of the truck. Before continuing he sat down to extract the bullet from his shoulder. He looked over what he had left. It wasn't much, probably only for a day or two. He used up all of his ammo, the only weapon he had left was a knife, never before used, but he decided to sleep in the truck until next morning to see what happens.
However, he's woken up in the middle of the night by a huge tremor. He ran out in fear of a cave in. What he saw was shocking, even though he expected it. The sky lit up and there was a mushroom cloud in the distance. He was unsure about the best course of action, stay there and risk exposure to a closer explosion or go back inside and risk having the cave collapse in on him. Eventually he just decided to get in the pod. Before he did he took the camera and recorded a message for himself, starting with a long sigh:
"If you're hearing this message I'm either with you or still in that pod. On the off chance that I am in there and not dead please open the it to wake me and play this message for me provided that the planet is still habitable for humans….OK, now… My name's Phil, and I'm recording this for myself because there's a warning on that thing. Conveniently says right there on the side 'warning: may cause amnesia'. I'm not going to tell myself everything even tho I should, I'm not sure how much I'll want to remember. If I really need to remember something, I should be able to, the human mind's interesting like that. But basically, a nuclear war has broken out on Earth. I managed to survive for a few years with some people. We got lucky, no nukes fell directly on our town and we found an underground bunker to hide out in and managed to get our hands on military tech, most of which was already in there, just needed a little fixing. Then we found out another nuclear exchange was coming so we had to get away. We intercepted information that a shipment of prototype Life Preserver Units would be stopping at some army base. We thought that would be the best time to strike. One of these is supposedly gonna put me in suspended animation and keep me alive for an indefinite period of time. So here I am right now. Armageddon just happened. Now, there are 3 things I have to tell my future self. One: there's a picture in your pocket. Those 3 are the reason you're alive. Don't lose it! There's also someone missing from that photo, she wasn't around when we took it. Two: This bandanna is important! I won't tell why, just trust yourself on that. And three: this one should be obvious, but I don't know what kind of mindset I'll be in so: Don't try to kill yourself! However bad it is, you've been trough worse! Just don't do it! I actually have serious doubts that the pod will be able to keep me alive for long or at all, but seems like there are no chances for me to survive otherwise, so I'll take my chances. That's it. I don't know how to finish this recording, so I'm just gonna switch the camera off."
He then loaded the message into the pod's built-in player, and got in himself. How long will it be before someone finds him? One year? Ten? A few centuries? That's for me to know and for you to try and read my mind, because I'm (99% surely) not doing anything like this ever again.
(Well, that would be the "bad"(as in not good for the character) ending, now for the alternative)
The group made it to the hangar without being seen. After confirming what they're going for is there Kev went to hot-wire the trucks while the others watch the entrance, in case any soldiers find them. He manages to start one of the trucks and tells Phil to keep it running while he starts the other one. All of a sudden some guards show up and a shootout starts, but since the Jack and Steve kept watch managed to take out the soldiers without getting shot. Soon the other truck was running as well and it was time to get the hell outta dodge, but 2 more soldiers showed up. Jack, crouching behind cover took out his IED, activated it and threw it at them. Took them a second to realize what it was, but then one shouted
"GRANADE! RU-" His panicked scream was interrupted by an explosion.
Steve and Jack rushed for the truck and Kev got into the driver's seat of the first one. They stormed out of the hangar running over 1 soldier. When they got to the front gate Jack jumped out real quick to open it and managed to get back in the truck just before another guard started shooting at them.
After a while they arrived to a runway with a big plane they found and fixed up for the getaway. They drive the trucks in, then they step out. They're thrilled.
"We made it! We freakin' made it!" Jack yells happily.
"Sure as hell did! We're awesome!" Steve says then he looks over at Phil "How's your bullet wound, man?"
"Uh, fine, I guess…But do you have any idea how much getting shot hurts?"
"Dude, don't complain, that was like 10 centimeters away from your heart."
"Yeah, I know, I'm lucky, now let's get outta here. They might call for back-up."
Jack confirms: "Yeah, the army boys are gonna be pretty pissed if they find out we stole their crap and killed their men."
Kevin says heading for the cockpit "Yeah, well we weren't gonna let them take away our shot at life twice. Why would they start a NUKE war, anyway?"
Steve tell him "Head for that field I told you about. That's probably gonna be the safest place." Then he corrects himself "Well... the least dangerous."
Jack looks at Phil "We need to extract that bullet out of your shoulder"
"Wait until we land, I don't want you to mess this up."
Eventually they arrived at their destination. The lack of a proper runway meant that they were in for a rough landing, but the plane stayed intact. Kev and Steve went scouting for a good place to hide out while Jack stayed in the plane to tend to Phil's wound.
Jack picks up some tools "The doctor is in."
"Just be careful with this" Phil says nervously.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
"You never extracted a bullet before!"
"Well, that book we found offers some insight. Speaking of which, this is probably gonna hurt" he says before taking Phil's knife out and cuts his shirt
Phil clenches his teeth as Jack pulls the bullet out. "Looks like it's the whole thing. Good, at least you shouldn't get lead poisoning. Now to disinfect it and patch you up. I think Steve stashed a little bit of alcohol for something like this."
He finds it and cleans the wound up a little.
"Oh, God, that stings!" Phil yells out.
"It's either that or an infection."
Once he patched him up and sewed his shirt back together by Phil's request, they sat down to rest a little waiting for their buddies to come back. After a while they returned and said they found a cave that they could drive the trucks down. They thought that might be the best place for now.
So they went. Once they arrived they checked what supplies they had left. It wasn't much and they had about a clip and a half of ammo left. Still, they decided to wait for the next morning and see what happens. When night fell Jack volunteered to take the first shift. In the middle of the night they were disturbed by a quake. They instinctively ran outside in case the cave starts to collapse. They immediately was 2 mushroom clouds outside and they knew more were coming.
"Guess It's officially Armageddon."
Unsure where it's safer, they just went back underground. Regardless of what happened, they decided to wait until morning so they're not just sitting ducks. They made it 'till morning, but chances of survival seemed even more miniscule, so they agreed to risk it with the LPU pods.
Kev says "Hey guys, I just noticed, it conveniently says on the side of these things that they could cause amnesia."
"Well, that can't be good. Provided that they actually manage to keep us alive like they're supposed to" Phil says. "Does that camera we brought work?"
"Yeah, I think it does"
"Well we should leave a message for ourselves just in case. We need to explain real quick what happened and who we are. And we're definitely gonna have to remember to try and find Marceline."
After they recorded the message Steve noticed something else.
"These things have an auto-open function. If they work, maybe we can set it to open up every, say, ten years? That's the minimum time limit."
"Alright, we have a plan. Kinda"
They all got in their pods. The LPUs did the suspended animation function like they needed, however, the auto-open function wasn't functional, so they would only awaken if someone from the outside opened them. It will be at least a few hundred years before they come alive again.
THE FREAKIN' END!
(EDIT: Just to clarify, since I've been asked. No, Phil is not the Phil Face that's used to open a portal to the Nightosphere. Why would you make an assumption like that? :| )