Goodbye, Cruel World
The newly assembled evacuees had barely enough time to offer prayers of thanks before they were met with a flurry of activity. One soldier ran over to the rescue convoy wearing the Screaming Chief's head that Alex immediately identified as Second Infantry Division. He poked his head into the lead HMMWV and started frantically pointing to a series of low mounds. Alex had seen something similar in Seal Beach on her way to visit friends in Huntington. She wondered why the column was directed to a weapons dump, when Shinohara spoke into his radio headset.
"Hai, Wakatta," he clipped into the throat mic.
He turned to his passengers.
"We are being taken to the bomb shelters," he said solemnly. "Some idiot decided that now would be a good time to play with nukes."
Alex, Misa and Asuka all froze in terror.
'Bloody perfect.' Alex thought. 'Not only had the world gone to hell with a zom-pocalypse, now nukes were going to make it all the worse. What's next? We already have pestilence and death, now we have war. All that's left is famine.'
Shinohara drove as fast as he safely could toward the nearest low mound. He quickly switched off the engine and proceeded to disconnect every electronic device from its power source, while Aikawa unfed the link ammo from the M2. The women were hustled into the shelter by a young soldier, not much older than the two students. They were told to take only what they could carry. Fortunately for the women, that's exactly all they had. The SDF men then assisted the 2ID soldier with crowd control.
The pregnant wife, rescued earlier that day, struggled against her own weight down the narrow and rather steep stair. Shinohara and Aikawa helped the woman descend as gently as they could while helping speed her progress.
'Obviously, the US Army does not take pregnancies into account when they design these bunkers,'' Alex thought to herself.
Outside, an air-raid siren began to wail, signaling the incoming warheads. Overhead, the blast doors slammed shut, startling everyone and causing some of the younger children to cry.
Within a few minutes, everyone found a place in the shelter and settled in.
"Nice," Alex said as she, Misa and Asuka settled into racks next to reach other. Shinohara and Aikawa took up residence two racks down.
The bunker was huge, 30 meters long, by 10 wide. It was well appointed, if spare, with rows of double tiered bunks neatly lined up in two columns down the middle and securely bolted to the floor, a row of sinks and lockers on one wall with private lavatories and showers along the other. At one end, the stairs leading back to the surface; at the other, oddly enough, bookcases filled with reading material. Misa did not care for the color scheme…egg shell white…and made no hesitation pointing that out. Still, she was safe with her new friends and that was all that mattered.
The soldier who ushered the crowd in followed last and secured the bottom blast door. He then introduced himself as Private First Class "Little" Joe Savalas, I Corps, Second Infantry Division, US Army. He instructed everyone that they were to remain here until given the okay. He apologized immediately for lack of any further information and suggested everyone get comfortable for the duration.
The air re-circulation system kicked over at once, and a cool breeze flowed through the bunker.
"What do you suppose will happen next?" Misa asked her circle.
"We form the Sisterhood of Steel," Alex began, her fist balled and a sly smirk playing on her lips. "Once the fallout has settled, we go forth and retake this blasted land."
"You and your ridiculous movie and game references," Misa rolled her eyes. Asuka giggled into her hands.
"Look on the bright side," Alex suggested. "The nukes take out the zombies-"
"We are not using the Z word," Misa interrupted sternly.
Alex roller her eyes in response and sighed loudly.
"Okay…the nukes take 'Them' out, or most of 'em, and what's left are easy to get rid of."
"What if they mutate because of radiation?" Asuka asked, genuinely concerned.
"Radiation only affects living things in that manner," Misa assured. "They won't mutate."
Placated for the moment, Asuka turned to the handbag and broke out the remaining onigiri. Misa walked over and invited Shinohara and Aikawa to join her and the others for supper. Gathering at the foot of Asuka's rack, they all tucked into her delicious offerings and gave thanks aloud for the rescue and prayers for their continued safety.
"Now, the world has truly ended, hasn't it?" Asuka asked sadly.
No one in the group said anything. Misa put an arm around her shoulder.
"We can hope that it's not as bad as we fear," she whispered into Asuka's ear.
Seeming to take comfort in that, Asuka's expression softened back to the young maternal look she wore when she was first introduced to the girls. She had taken a liking to them, each in her own way. She admired Alex's spunk and 'never say die' attitude; the incident in the bath that morning notwithstanding. Misa became the younger sister Asuka never had. Misa's brains and willingness to do what it took surprised Asuka, but gave her hope at the same time. Shinohara and Aikawa had stayed, despite the risk to their lives, to ensure the safety of the women and the security of the compound. Asuka thanked her lucky stars to have fallen in with people such as these. All around, the small group could hear the prayers and laments of those who already gave up. She silently prayed for the safety of Senior Sergeant Aono and Sergeant Phillips.
Presently, Misa grew restless. She took Asuka and Alex by the hands and led them to the book shelves.
"I assume," she said to Asuka, "that you can read English?"
"Of course," Asuka replied.
The reason for Misa's question became abundantly clear. Though packed with books, magazines and other reading material, 90% was in English.
Misa selected one that, upon inspection, proved to be scientific in nature. Alex grabbed a manual of some sort while Asuka picked up a history text.
"Get a load of this," Alex giggled softly while showing off the cover.
"You've survived the nuclear apocalypse, now what?" Misa read the cover aloud. "Honmah?"
Alex quickly replaced the book and retrieved 'Canterbury Tales', by Geoffrey Chaucer.
"Much better," Misa agreed.
The three women settled onto the floor by their bunks. A sort of privacy had been created using spare blankets tied between racks. Shinohara pulled a string of prayer beads and began his nightly prayers, albeit silently, while Aikawa disassembled and cleaned his service rifle.
PFC Savalas emerged from a room next to the showers that turned out to be an office. He called out for everyone's attention then asked for help in translation. Asuka stepped forward and volunteered.
"Okay, here's what's happening," he began. "Luckily, there was only one nuke and it struck north of Tokyo in Saitama Prefecture, between Saitama City and Misato."
A murmur went up as Asuka finished translating. One woman began crying audibly.
"It was an airburst, detonating far up in the stratosphere." PFC Savalas continued. "The blast caused minimal damage, according to satellite imaging, but all electronic devices were knocked out due to the electro-magnetic pulse released during the blast."
Further murmurs and whispers. The crying subsided, but did not cease. Alex and Misa looked at each other.
"What does this mean?" Asuka translated for one refugee.
"It means that everything that ran on electricity, including power generation, water pumps and the like, was disabled and rendered useless," Savalas explained.
"How come we still have power?" Another refugee asked.
"Camp Zama was designed to withstand such occurrences," Savalas tried to explain. He faltered because he did not have the technical knowhow to explain further. At this point, Misa stood up and cleared her throat.
"There is a process known as 'hardening' that ensures all electrical equipment continues to function after an EMP," she said.
Skeptical faces turned to regard the high school student. Some scoffs were heard, but Misa continued undeterred.
"What matters now is not 'why', but 'what's next,' she concluded. "Mister Savalas?"
"Right," he resumed. "Command has requested we all sit tight until the morning while the effects of the blast have been examined."
He then excused himself and returned to the office.
Misa sat back down next to Alex
"Is that true?" Alex asked. "What you said about EMPs?"
"Of course," Misa said without pride or snobbery. She then gestured into the bunker. "Most of these morons wouldn't know that because they don't care to know."
"Cool," Alex said. "I'm glad you're so smart, Misa."
Misa blushed and hid her face from Alex's gaze.
"I only read it in a science journal once," she explained. "I'm nothing special."
"Better'n me," Alex said, a hint of pride in her voice.
Asuka rejoined the circle.
"I almost lost the soldier with some of the technical terms he used."
"I think you did great," Alex said. Misa concurred as did Shinohara and Aikawa.
"Thank you," Asuka said, blushing in similar fashion to Misa. "I only did what I could."
"But, hey, check this," Alex pointed out. "At least now we won't have to be all Mad Max and shit. Odelay!"
Smiling their relief at that, the group agreed whole heartedly.
A/N: anyone who read my Gunslinger Girl fic will realize that I have fallen back to using song titles as chapter headings. This and the previous were taken from "The Wall", by Pink Floyd. Once Again, my sincere thanks to Draco38 and jm1681 for their help in editing and proofreading.
T/N: translations.
Hai, wakatta: familiar for of "Yes, Understood"
honma (hold the 'mm' sound thus homma) Kansai-ben: "really/truthfully/seriously?" used as a question. cf honto
Odelay: roughly means "Alright" or "Excellent!"