The Armory - Western Conduit, Section G

White hot flames battered the wall as Gaius stumbled backwards and involuntarily fired the weapon. The WP round hit one of the secondary illumination rods as it burst out sparks of colorful light. The ape stumbled further falling over a rusted shelve and several old crates. He cursed himself for not killing the Prefect when he'd had the chance. He reached out, grabbed a random piece of junk and threw it indiscriminately forward. The object flew past the Prefect and crashed into the far wall.

Sullen leapt towards the corridor with as much energy as he could muster. The ape was approaching fifty but still possessed enough dexterity to land softly while protecting his broken limb. …well, almost, that is. The slight pressure instantly turned to immense pain as the injured appendage made contact with the floor. Sullen stumbled and instinctively pulled the swollen arm close to his chest. He shook his head trying to clear the dizziness and lunged towards the corridor.

Gaius wiped the dust and pebbles from his eyes that the Prefect had recently tossed in his face. The ape blindly fired the weapon and cussed in the process. When his vision finally returned the Prefect was almost out of sight …once again, the key was; almost

"Run you old fool" Gaius shouted as he pulled the trigger and fired the disruptor. The unseen energy blast clipped the orangutan in the hip. The weight and momentum of the ape toppled him forward into the dark hall beyond. The Prefect's body cramped from the mild hit he'd taken. He tucked his head, pulled in his arm and rolled as he hit the ground. His right leg was completely numb.

Gaius worked his way over to the Prefect and said. "I'll never see my unborn child and for what…" The ape's bitter anger wouldn't let him finish his thought. "Let's see what this setting does, Lord Prefect" The gorilla stated as he flipped the small switch on the side of the gun forward one notch. Gaius fired it at almost point blank range but Sullen had mustered enough strength to sloppily kick with his other leg. At the last second Gaius flinched.

The round hit, followed by a deafening ka-boom. The force threw the gorilla back and sending him into the wreckage left from the quake. His ears were ringing but that wasn't the worst of it. Rubble came crashing from all around. A massive chunk of steel fell, connecting with his shoulders and back. Gaius hit the deck with a thud. Rubble and dirt dropped and dropped, as he struggled for leverage.

Old New York State / Pennsylvania boarder

The tube jerked forward and abruptly stopped as it thrust itself into the safety apparatus. Magnetic traction guided the large cylinder along a conveyor to its final destination. The inside of the tube illuminated softly as the plastic nose and mouth piece released a cool mist. Captain Hayes awoke as the oxygen worked its way through his lungs and into his brain. His spine cracked as he arched it and stretched ever so slightly. He heard a hydraulic hissss as the huge container opened. The bright light of the room blinded the man for a moment. He squinted, trying to adjust to the radiance. He could see the silhouette of someone approaching.

"Welcome to …wherever here is." March said as he extended a hand to help the man out.

He led Hayes to a room that was dimly lit. In fact, the only light seemed to be coming from a fire in the corner. It was hot and slightly muggy with a stale, stuffy smell. There was nothing in the small space except useless waste. It was slowly falling apart under the onslaught it had suffered long ago. Skeletal remains littered the area. Rusted sentry guns hung limply from their exposed hiding places in the ceilings and walls. The burnt, melted remains of a computer consol took up space in the middle of the room. It was riddled with the blasts of gunfire and barely recognizable. March had cleared a spot and set up a simple campsite.

"How ya feelin', Jonny?" March asked.

"Tired, but a little better thanks to the tiny siesta I just had" Hayes answered with a yawn. "Hey do I smell food?"

"Well, take it easy. We're going to rest and regroup. And that's a 'yes', if you consider rat to be food." March answered. "We haven't eaten or slept in days and that's not to mention the obvious… We stink too. There's water coming from some kind of spring or waterway just down there." March said pointing. "I got here about twenty minutes ago. This place is beyond functional. It's all been severely damaged. There are rats everywhere and we have to eat so …"

Several minutes later the final cylinder, holding General Grazot, arrived. It initiated a process similar to what Hayes had just gone through. March laughed as he noticed Grazot sound asleep inside when the lid opened.

"Let him nap", March mumbled.

They rested, ate and slowly recuperated for most of that day and the following. There was a medium sized passageway and stairs leading up to, what they presumably thought could only be the surface. It was littered with rubble and garbage. There was a sealed door that looked like it had been welded shut. The first thing that caught their eyes was a floor littered with bodies, most were dust piles that roughly resembled humans. They collapsed whenever one of the group stepped near them. The bones inside crumbled under the heavy weight of what appeared to be some type of odd body Kevlar. The weapons they carried were nothing more than useless junk from being dormant for so long. Hayes pulled a dagger out of the chest of one cadaver. The rusted steel snapped at the base. US Marine Corps was engraved in its side.

Others wore stranger suits around their bodies. They looked to be simian but were covered from head to toe. The apes were mummified inside the shriveled suits. They appeared to be some sort of bio-hazard outfits. They consisted of a dull faded yellow coloring and had an atomic symbol on the right chest. Now, they were little more than a cocoon. Burnt ash clung onto many of them. They easily broke as Grazot pushed down on their crusty carcasses. A hiss followed as gas entered to fill the suits vacuum. The features dissolved into dust, as the rush air wore away the fragile tissue. It released a foul smell that made the three, step back and, fan at the air.

"Cripes! If it didn't already smell bad enough in here! What is all of this?" the confused gorilla asked as he covered his nose with his sleeve.

"That's a good question Tom." Hayes added. "Look at the imprint on those chemical suits. That's our flag on the shoulder. American …apes?"

"This place could be infected …like those arrows you spoke of earlier", Grazot said in a slightly alarmed voice. His paw moved to the trigger of his rifle. There was nothing to fire at but the reflex action seemed to calm the gorilla a little.

"Loosen up General, whatever was here has long since crawled away and died in some dark corner of this forgotten place." March assured him.

"Look at this." Hayes said as he rapped his knuckles against the odd looking body armor. "It's like Kevlar … um only not. It's a lot lighter and seems more flexible too." Hayes swung an arm through the old dusty vest and latched it up. "How do I look?" he jokingly asked

"About as ugly as my wife." Grazot snidely remarked, "No… uglier now that I get a good look at you. And that's an accomplishment, trust me" He added with a laugh.

They worked for the next hour clearing rubble, garbage, and whatever else was blocking the stairwell and door. The door itself was welded from the reverse side. Whatever had been opposite of the door wanted to keep whatever was on this side out. Grazot tried to muscle his way through but to no avail. Its blemished, rusted face showed a will to resist even through the extremes it had suffered long ago.

"We're going to need a grenade to get through that thing." March concluded as he moved his hand across the surface of the massive door. "The access panel is burned beyond repair and it's welded tight all around. But the surrounding wall is weathered. If we chip away some of the stone and initiate a blast …right about here …we might be able to loosen it enough to knock it down"

"I don't think we need a grenade, Sir" Hayes said. These rifles we took have a rotating, interlocking magazine. A specific round is chambered by this switch on the side. …Very similar to ours, actually. Look here." Hayes tilted the rifle, held it up and rattled off, "See; WP, HE, STD, FLR, SMK, and SFTY".

"WP … Willy Pete?" March mumbled rhetorically. "Do you think HE is High Explosive?"

"Yes Sir and I think that STD is a standard round; whatever that might be. FLR might mean some kind of signal flair, while SMK is smoke, and SFTY puts the rifle in safety. Those are standard military acronyms, after all. I suggest that we fire a WP round there…" the man said pointing at the same worn out spot near the door. "…And then we follow it up with HE rounds here and …um … there. That should weaken it at the foundation. Deteriorating it at that angle should cause a significant shift. Its own weight should force it to move."

March has always been a little envious of the intelligence Hayes seemed to possess. The man could calculate out pi in his sleep, March always joked. He should be back home making the big money with that computer of a head he has, the man thought. It didn't make sense but he was glad to have him here now.

They constructed a crude barricade. The two men pulled their rifles in tight, sighted their targets, and fired on the Captain's signal. All three covered their ears as the blast echoed loudly down the corridor. The high-pressure atmosphere in the rest of the facility rushed into the vacuum of the newly opened region. It would have been quite soothing as the stale, muggy air vented its way though the area; but it kicked up pebbles and dirt as it whooshed past. March's ears popped as the pressure equalized. When it finally settled they could see that the door had buckled and wobbled inward. Part of it was actually still attached but there was now a space large enough for them to easily slip through. They waited as the last of the WP burned itself out before they entered the dark space just ahead.

"Ok, it's probably overkill but get your weapons ready." March said. "Move out nice and slow, keep together, and watch your backs. If you see any kind of automated defenses fall back. Jonny, keep your rifle set at HE …just in case."

Hayes nodded and gave a final check of his weapon. They walked into the area in a protective formation; each one overlapped another's field of fire so that it made a full 360 degrees around them. The area was massive, a gargantuan cavern reaching far up into the darkness which their lights barely illuminated. There was some sort of automated machine at the base of the door that had been used when the structure was originally welded tight. It had been slightly preserved in the vacuum but the fluids it once housed had hardened while others had simply dried out. Rows upon rows of large pyramid shapes, with their tips snipped off so they were flat-topped were along the walls. Grazot grabbed at a crate flung it open.

"Easy General! That could be anything!" March said. "…Curiosity killed the gorilla, ya know!"

"Huh?" Grazot replied as March ignored him and fanned his light 360 degrees.

"So? What is it" March asked.

"It's food, Tom. Or it was, anyway" Hayes answered for the gorilla. "I wouldn't eat it though. The plastic and metal containers are still sealed but this stuff is older than Moses. If I know the military this junk probably did come from Moses." Hayes poured a package on the ground and stepped on the almost petrified rations. "We're in a supply depot probably." He added.

A few minutes later Hayes came across a crate labeled; Nuclear Cell. "Look Tom," Hayes stated shining a flash light on the crate. "They look like that battery gadget that powers the diary." Hayes removed a small container of the items and put them in his rucksack. He then went back to poking around the boxes.

They looked through several of the other crates, as well. Mostly out of curiosity but partially out of necessity. There was simply too much that could be missed. Most contained old machine and computer parts, weathered musty uniforms, technical manuals and the decomposed rations.

"Hey, look at this …" March said as he held up some of the body Kevlar. "…and it isn't in bad shape. We ought to take some of it."

"Oh and I suppose I'm to carry that as well" Grazot chimed in. "I'm not without limits. It's bad enough I have to haul these supplies around without you adding extra weight every time I turn around."

"Fine" March replied. "I see your point. We'll wear it. But trust me; this will stop a musket ball as easily as that leather uniform would stop a crumbled piece of paper."

They rummaged through the crates until they found a suitable fit. After a few minutes March reached in the field gear and pulled a set of NVG. He scanned the area briefly until he located an exit on the far side of the room.

"Come on" he said as they all advanced his way.

They moved out casually but remained alert for any threats. None appeared. The row of containers led them to a cracked door. It was weathered and had been shattered in some type of skirmish. Beyond was a circular expanse. It looked similar to the check point they'd hit when they'd first entered the complex. This one had been to hell and back. The walls were littered with holes and area that housed the sentry guns were nothing more than molten rock and steel. In fact, ninety percent of the place was charred. On the far side of the room was a bombed out elevator. It wasn't easy but the group was able to shimmy up the remains and work their way back to the surface.

The hot sun was beating down and seemed very bright as Hayes slung the equipment pack over his head and on to the ground. He pulled himself up and out of the hole that had once been the entrance to a bunker. He'd been underground for some time and his eyes took a second to adjust to the surface glare. He rummaged though his pack, pulled out a pair of sunglasses and slipped them on.

"What are we …a mile from the sun?" Hayes mumbled as the dry heat beat down on his face. The man brought a hand to his brow as he shielded his eyes and looked around. It was some kind of desert. Dirt, sand, and rocks were all that he could see no matter what direction he looked. It went on for miles. This was the Eastern United States? It reminded him of the old Bugs Bunny cartoon where the rabbit popped out in a desert, thinking it was Miami, Beach. He scanned the region quickly and concluded it was safe. He called down to the others and the two of them joined the man on the surface.

"This is Pennsylvania? Looks more like the Sierra" March noted as he sifted the hot sand and gravel through his fingers.

They regrouped and walked forward. There was no vegetation; not even a small weed or a patch of wild grass. Grazot made note that they were, ok for now, but still limited on water. The device they'd taken from the Prefect, as well as the field pad, confirmed their location as it linked with the GPS satellites still orbiting the bleak planet. It might not look like it but this was definitely Northern Pennsylvania.

They camped that night and traveled another full day, heading southeast on a path towards Maryland. The terrain and surrounding area looked the same; Sand, dirt, rocks with more sand, dirt and rocks. On the third day they saw something odd. It was remnants of road; a long forgotten highway of some kind. The weathered rusted sign was inscribed with; I-80. The shell of rusted vehicle was charred and mangled off in the distance; a relic of the nuclear bombardment that had struck the area centuries earlier. This once pristine forest region was now a desert wasteland.

The three mirrored the freeway for about two miles when Grazot noticed something else that was odd. Smoke was rising off in the distance. The gorilla claimed that he could smell something cooking. Whatever it was, March and Hayes, smelled nothing.

"We have to check that out. We're just about out of food and water. If whatever's there won't share, we'll have to take it." March stated.

** Fifteen Minutes Later …**

March peered through the binoculars from the large boulder he'd just mounted. He adjusted the site as he looked around. The man was a good ways away and it was hard to see but there was someone who looked to be human moving about. It was some sort of small bivouac, possibly military.

As the man looked around he noticed tracks of some kind. March's mind screamed out from deep inside; we're being flanked. He dropped down to warn the others who were mysteriously gone.

"Guys…?" He said quietly as he quickly swung the rifle off his shoulder. He clung closely to the boulder and peered out ever so slightly. As if out of nowhere, a chimpanzee and gorilla appeared. Their weapons were drawn and they were dressed in some sort of military outfits.

They have automatic weapons, March thought as he eyed the odd looking military hardware.

"Don't even breathe or so help me…" The Chimp said with all the seriousness of a trained combatant. "Corporal, take his firearm and gear and tie him up. We'll take him back to Major Polk"

The gorilla Corporal ordered March to drop his rifle and gear. He tied the man snugly and hoisted him over his shoulder.

Fifty feet away Hayes stepped forward as Grazot gently pulled him back and stated. "We could take them now but then we'd risk bringing more here. It's obvious that he's in no danger. If we follow them to their camp we can get a good idea on exactly what we're dealing with."

"Ok General, I don't like the idea of using Tom as bait but he's already been captured and they're on the move so let's do this." Hayes replied.

They stowed away their gear and took only what was necessary.

"Follow my lead. If we get too close they may pick up our scent. We can work our way to those rocks there. The terrain is elevated and should provide enough cover. We'll be able get a good look at the route they're traveling." Grazot said.

The Armory - Western Conduit, Section G

Gaius coughed and snorted. He braced his paws on whatever he could and pushed with all his strength. Beams, rocks and wreckage were pressing down on his body. He grunted in frustration as he tried to work his way free. Despite the apes youth and strength he could not move. He was pinned under tons of earth and steel. The ape was slightly turned and could not seem to get the necessary leverage he needed to work his way free.

The rifle! Where's the rife? His mind called out. The weapon had been thrown clear just after Gaius fired it. The Lieutenant groped at the ground coughing as the movement cause too much pain.

"Looking for this?" the bloody Prefect said pointing the rife at the pinned gorilla. Gaius clenched his neck and struggled to look up.

"You might as well kill me now beca…" were the last words Gaius spoke as Sullen coldly pulled the trigger and sent the ape into the afterlife. The bullet hit the primate in the face, decapitating half of his head.

"Spare me the speech, murder." Sullen said as he sat on a hunk of stone contemplating his options. The armory was completely cut off. The round that Gaius fired had impacted too close to the unstable wall and ceiling. The force of the blast had brought down half the structure.

The ape wailed out as he did his best to set his broken forearm. He constructed a crude splint and sling with the various junk in the room. It wasn't easy but where there was will there was a way. Once that was complete he slowly moved the debris aside so he could move forward.

Sullen thanked the great ape that his grandfather had been wise enough to make all of them memorize the authorization codes. He'd probably need it somewhere down the line. He was alone and without food or water. He couldn't go back. So the only thing to do was move on.