Author's note: Hello. I have published this story before, but I deleted it and re-posted it because it's been through a lot of editing. Please, bear with me. It's a crossover Mixing 24 characters with The Handmaid's tale. I'll try to write assuming some 24 fans reading this never watched The handmaid's Tale, so the story should be easy to follow for those who watched only 24. I'll keep the events happening in 24 unchanged until the end of Season 5.
This is what you need to know about the timeline I'll use: 24 DAY ONE (Super Tuesday): March 2, 2004- 24 DAY TWO: September/October 2005- 24 DAY THREE: September/October 2008 – 24 DAY FOUR: March/April 2010- 24 Day FIVE: September/October 2011/p
Also, only the prologue is in the first person... the following chapters will be in a different format.
I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think.
BLESSED BE THE FIGHT
PROLOGUE: AND NOW THE WORLD IS OURS
For the record, Gilead was never my intention. Neither my father's. At first, we were just a father and a son in search of money. Who doesn't want money?
The plan was to let some international terrorist group acquire twenty canisters of nerve gas. But then we would kill them in an "Accident" on the way to attacking Moscow. Just the fact that a terrorist group managed to acquire the nerve gas would give the US the excuse to increase its military presence and oil activity abroad. Nobody wants weapons of mass destruction in central Asia, after all. Alan Wilson and his associates, such as that nutcase Jonas Hobbes, would become disgustingly rich selling weapons and the services of their private military companies. Oil prices would inevitably soar, which is good when you sell oil. Everyone would be happy. Well, not everyone-everyone…. Just everyone who matters.
But then my brother had to come around, with his attitude, and fuck it all up. As he always does. Luckily, I managed to send him to rot to a Chinese prison. So, that problem was solved.
Too bad there was a much bigger problem in our hands. The world had a much bigger problem. Fertility rates were dropping fast… very fast. Something I was very familiar with. I discovered in the mid-'90s that I can't father a child. I had to beg my brother to donate healthy sperm. Through the magic of artificial insemination, my son Josh was born. (One would think that Jack donating his sperm to make me a dad would awake the deep brotherly love I should have always felt for my big brother. But, quite the contrary, I resented him more than ever). By 2010, infertility had become the most terrible pandemic in the world's history.
One day, I had a very secret meeting with Alan Wilson. He usually communicated through a computer, never showing his face. But he had a crucial issue in mind, needed to be discussed in person. In my office, he told me about a group of people called "The Sons Of Jacob"... a cult of Christian extremists. And I really do mean extremists. Their dream was to turn the USA into a totalitarian, theocentric, and neo-Puritanical regime. They wanted to clean the country, literally and figuratively. They wanted to ban abortion and birth control. They wanted to keep women in their houses, just serving their husbands. All that I could get on board with. Except they also wanted to reduce the pollution that's making people barren... by ending capitalism.
I know what you're thinking. Wow… no money? Just organic farms and tokens? Are they insane? And what about the oil? Oh, here's the thing…. A totally decarbonized economic model is impossible. Even the least industrialized nation on the planet needs oil. You definitely can't run any massive modern army without it. And those lunatics would need the biggest and most modern military in the world if they expected everyone to go along with their insanity. No doubt about that. So, Wilson would provide the army, I'd secure the oil to keep it running.
The only question was… Did we really want to help those lunatics end capitalism? Wilson, my father, and I had worked to become extremely rich our whole lives. I was not too eager to let that go, neither was Wilson. Of course, we wouldn't need money anymore, since we would just take whatever we wanted. (In fact, I ended up moving into a mansion much bigger and nicer than the one I had in LA. I think we took it from some gay CEO). And we would have all the free labor we needed. So, perhaps, it was worth considering.
We took time to think things through. I researched A LOT about The Sons Of Jacobs. I read a book called "A Woman's Place", written by one Serena-Joy Waterford, back then a key member of that group. Boy, she must be feeling very stupid now! Anyway, I found the reading very interesting. I also read the bible... Oh, dear. I never noticed it before, but if you take that book too literally, we are all committing a sin just by using the toilet.
Our main concern was how the group's extremist religious views would affect us personally. Dad and I like young women, alcohol, cigars, etc… But Wilson was certain that the most powerful men in the country would get away with pretty much anything. (Indeed, we have secret brothels to satisfy our more, eh, earthly needs).
In the end, it was my father who said: "Money is like the Mc-mansion that starts falling apart after 10 years. Power is the old stone building that stands for centuries. That's what I always wanted to build. That'll be our legacy"
Just like that, everyone was on board.
Around August 2012, Wayne Palmer officially accepted the Democratic party's nomination for President of The United States, challenging republican Hal Gardner. The Sons Of Jacob were livid. They had suffered through David Palmer's administration in silence. They wouldn't put up with anything like it, ever again. A fierce online campaign attacking Wayne Palmer began. Fake news blaming the entire Palmer family for everything that was wrong in the world was planted (My favourite was the rumour that the Palmers run a child-trafficking ring from a pizza place). Religious zealots threw all their money at old white Hal Gardner. But it was a futile effort. After the mess made by Charles Logan, no republican would win again anytime soon. No way. No how. As expected, in November 2012 Wayne Palmer won by a landslide.
It was time to get serious.
Abu Fayed was just the type of sucker we needed to get everything started. One of those Islamic extremists who actually believe in their cause and despise America deeply. And he hated my brother almost as much as I do, which felt like a plus. Turned out, we weren't the only ones trying to use Fayed as a pawn. Some Russian bastard had the same idea. But we got Fayed on our side too. We had to supply Fayed with what he needed, and then just sit and watch our TVs.
Thanksgiving Day was when Fayed began his part. A random bus was blown off in New York City, causing four deaths. Just a few hours before the parade. Starting with Manhattan was the perfect way to create fear. After the weekend, two more buses were blown off, this time in Chicago. Seven people were dead. The number of victims was low. But that didn't matter. People were scared. The attacks kept happening almost every day. And everyone was blaming Islamic Extremists. Fayed was smart enough, though, to frame another Muslim prick called Hamri Al-Assad.
On January 20th, 2013, Wayne Palmer took office in a private ceremony. He was hardly seen in public anymore, which didn't help make anyone feel any safer. By February, around 1000 Americans had been killed. Wayne Palmer was under an enormous amount of pressure. His administration was divided over a plan to create detention centers for every Muslim in the US.
The Son of Jacob felt like they were seeing the face of God.
I provided Fayed with nuclear weapons, only so he would get caught with them and cause mass panic. Those weapons were useless without the detonators anyway, so there wouldn't be any real harm. Right? A nuclear attack was the last thing any of us wanted. But then Fayed went rogue. He promised Palmer to turn in Hamri Al-Assad… in exchange for Jack Bauer. Fayed wanted to torture and kill my brother himself. And Wayne was actually considering getting Jack out of the Chinese prison, just to let Fayed kill him. I felt it was a terrible idea. While I was happy to see my brother die, no matter how, it was too risky for us to get Jack out of Shanghai. The best course of action was to keep my brother locked up there, where he couldn't cause any problems. An anonymous tip (Wink, wink) gave CTU, the FBI, and the CIA, evidence of Fayed's involvement in the attacks, clearing Hamri- Al-Assad of wrongdoing. Hence, keeping my brother in China.
The authorities found Fayed soon. Just not soon enough. On February 10th, he detonated all five nuclear weapons on American soil, as near as possible to the biggest nuclear plants on the west coast. Around 40.000 people died instantly. The Midwest and Southwest became inhabitable. I was horrified and livid. That was NOT supposed to happen! The CIA, the FBI, and CTU were supposed to find him BEFORE he could detonate the bombs. Can't they function without my brother? Honestly… they have nobody but themselves to blame. It was not my fault. It was not my fault. It really wasn't.
Anyway, what was done was done… time for the final blow. Presidents' Day was the day we chose. February 17th 2013. One-hundredth brown men with machine guns stormed into the Capitol Building killing everything in sight, while another heavily-armed large group did the same in the White House and the Supreme Court Building. Troops needed to be deployed. The shooters were all killed, but so were over 5000 innocents. More importantly, there was nobody left to govern. Quite literally. Wayne Palmer died in the hospital. Noah Daniels was also killed. Everyone in the Presidential Line of Succession was dead. The army declared a state of emergency.
As owners of all the biggest Private Military companies in America, Alan Wilson and Jonas Hodges formed what they called "Committee For National restoration", supposedly a temporary government until the nation got back on its feet. They included my father and me. We also included the most prominent members of The Sons Of Jacob: George Winslow and B. Frederick Judd, who brought in other members of their group. So, there we were. A bunch of old white men in charge.
The first thing we did was to declare martial law and suspend the constitution, claiming it'd be temporary. "National security". We sent all the Muslims to detention camps. We installed security checkpoints all over our cities. All money was replaced with cards. Nobody could spend one cent without the committee knowing what you bought, and where. Understandable security measures. You can't be too careful after five nuclear bombs and a massacre. Right? Just like deporting everyone not born in the USA, regardless of their citizenship status. It was done so quickly; everyone was too stunned to react.
Other measures were justified by the low fertility rates: Abortion, tube-ligations and vasectomies had long been banned. (Thanks, Hal Gardner). But now birth control pills required a husband's signature (the first step towards a total ban). All women were banned from working and their accounts were frozen, accessible only by their husbands or any male relative. Their role was to reproduce and raise children. That's when the protests started, and The Sons of Jacob dropped the charade. The troops patrolling the streets were ordered to shoot the protesters.
The CIA, FBI and CTU were all shut down. The agents who hadn't broken any law were given the chance to serve the country as "Angels" (that's how the military is called now) or "Guardians Of the faith" (regular law-enforcers). But agents who were guilty of adultery or 'gender treachery' were executed. (Thank God I learned about Josh's inclinations and managed to send him to New Zealand just before they started to shoot all the gay down).
By then, Wilson, Hodges my dad, and I were starting to lose control over the republic we helped create. George Winslow and Fred Judd took over, naming themselves "High Commanders of the Faith". Dad, Alan, Jonas, and I were sent to New York with the title of "Commanders".
Things got even wackier. Fertile women caught breaking the law were forced to become Handmaids. What's a Handmaid? Some slut forced to bear a child for her commander and his wife. I have no use for mine since I can't father a child. I know that. My wife Marilyn knows it. And my dad and my brother know it. But Jack's trapped in China, and anyone here would lose their tongues if they even dared to suggest a man is sterile. Yeah, that's the best part. Legally, a man can't be sterile. So, I get to enjoy pretending to get a woman knocked up every month.
If a woman commits a serious crime, such as adultery or 'gender treachery', but can't bear children, she gets sent to The Colonies.
Oh, yeah… the colonies. Remember how the Midwest and Southwest became inhabitable after the nuclear attacks? We are sending the criminals to clean it up and make it habitable again. The women there die of radiation poisoning after a while. I suggested giving them some sort of protective equipment to make them last longer, so we wouldn't run out of slaves too soon. We want that place clean after all, right? The Committee didn't go with it. But that's fine. As it turns out, you never run out of criminals when you get to decide what's a crime.
And if you are thinking "They can't do that! This is America!"... Well, we can, because it's not. This is The Republic of Gilead.
It's not like nobody is trying to stop us.
Alaska and Hawaii are in control of a so-called 'American government-in-exile', with James Heller as President-in-exile. But their troops are pathetic. They haven't gathered enough international support for an invasion, and they probably never will. We are cleaning the environment and populating our republic. Who can disagree with that?
An 'American militia' controls, unofficially, the entire West Coast and the Gulf Coast, and northern Michigan along with a few enclaves in Vermont, New Hampshire, and some parts of Maine and New York. But they barely holding. They don't have the resources to beat our army. So, we are not worried.
My father was right. Power is so much better than money.
Gilead will be our legacy, and it will last for centuries.