Wastelands…
Prologue
As relations with other countries began to fall, the United States' economy also began to collapse…bringing with it the shortage of jobs, hospitals, police and other various important needs of the population…
It all began with President Malcolm's misunderstood statement in 2006…in which China thought was a threat. And then, in 2007, Japan left the United Nations for no known reason… Russia's military was suddenly in the numbers of the hundred millions, spotted by the US satellite Striker in late 2007, and throughout the years, assassinations had risen to an all time high all over the world… The United States slowly crumbled under the leadership of a new democratic president…
In a matter of years the United States, Canada, and many European nations began to fall. Slowly, as their economy dropped each day…
And then it all happened.
It happened in a matter of minutes…
The conquest of the Middle East, the nuclear war that destroyed not only all of Europe, it wiped out North America and more than half of Africa……
The radiation polluting the survivors' bodies to where they were ultimately strong and intelligent… The countries that weren't destroyed suddenly became plagued with a radiational disease theoretically caused by the nuclear weapons…
It took more than 50 for the radiation from the nuclear weapons to finally die out…and during that time, all the strongest militaries in the world rushed to the remains of North America, satellites revealing that there were thousands of small islands, most the size of Manhattan or a large metropolis…
The flocking to the wastelands caused a hesitant war between the five main countries…Russia, with its newly rebuilt Soviet Union, China with it's protonic-military, Japan with it's new naval warfare secrets, a fourth, unknown organization… It's country unknown, it's technology never seen before, and it's soldiers more overpowering than the four main countries put together… And the last country is the Remnants. The last of the U.S. that were in other countries had united in Hawaii and New Guinea…
Thus began the War of the Wastelands.
Part 1: The Past
Chapter 1
The Remnant's Project
"Listen, I don't have the time frames ready for it…Connor, listen to me!"
Lieutenant Connor paid no attention to her. As he walked the underground tunnels and hallways, trying to make his way to the under-harbor. Delia was following him, trying to get him to listen to a bunch of scientific things that would take him years to understand.
Seeing that she wasn't having any success with him, she stepped in front of him, putting her hands on his chest and telling him firmly, "Stop."
Having respect for women, Lt. Connor stopped and replied, "Only for a moment. I don't have much time."
"The time frame isn't ready. I found a glitch last night. If we send them there, they can't come back without the device and if they can't come back then what's the point of sending them…?" Delia was visibly desperate, a sweat bead streaming down the side of her face.
Connor had to somehow say it lightly…, "Delia, I'm sorry but…I'm not in charge. You told the General that things were ready and the General won't take anything else now. It's not your fault, it's not my fault, it's now his fault if they die. Such is life." Connor, knowing that he was wrong, looked into Delia's gentle brown eyes. "I can't do anything…I'm sorry." With that he walked around her and continued making his way to the under-harbor.
"It's no longer in my hands, Connor. It's your fault if you don't tell him," she called as he rounded a corner. Heaving a big sigh, Delia looked down at the floor. They wouldn't be able to come back…they would be committing suicide…
The Time Frame Project (TFP) was started over a year ago. Delia, put on the project because her father, the leader of it, wanted her to be on it, started a few weeks after it began. The TFP was made in hope that the Remnant's could send a group of two people back in time to prevent the nuclear war from happening. No one even knew who fired first or why but they at least had to try…
About a month ago, a device was finally configured and they constructed it…and they were now planning on using it to send people to the past to find anyway to stop the war from coming… They were to use whatever means necessary to stop it…even if it meant destroying one country with a nuke…
Whatever means necessary…
Delia turned and started to walk back to her quarters. Her father had died six months ago; some thought it was the stress of the TFP project and others thought it was from getting old…Delia thought it was both. As she walked down the hallway, she suddenly remembered something…
We don't have any volunteers for the TFP project…we still don't… No one had wanted to try it because they didn't know what was going to happen. They might be slowly ripped apart, they might die, they might go back to a place where one of the nukes hit, they might go into the future, they might…all sorts of crazy things were circulating around the Remnant's base.
The base she was on was 86, the military-enforced scientific community. This base had some of the strongest Remnant's soldiers there were and some of the smartest minds in the world. Bummer that the base was mostly underground.
Connor had been transferred here a few weeks ago, to recover from a proton wound in a war over the island '2T89'. The battle had been won but both sides had heavy casualties. China had lost over eight hundred men and the Remnant's lost half the island to fires and about five hundred men…
Why is everybody so violent about controlling islands in a radiational, lethal environment? Because the radiation in the air could be manufactured into the world's strongest energy source.
Once that was discovered, the countries came and took over the wastelands, developing suits and armor so people could go outside…but eventually, the wars began and everyone started fighting for the islands…
Every country had limited forces so the strategies involved were complicated and the value of human life in the military became much more important.
Connor had taken a proton wound from a Japanese soldier that he thought was dead as he walked by him. The Chinese man could've finished him off but due to the gun already being damaged, it exploded, killing him and blowing Connor away.
Connor had survived and thanks to technology at this base, Delia thought, he was completely healed in a few days. They decided to transfer him here, to serve the General of 86 and basically be his messenger until there was another war over an island.
Delia was average height, about 5'6", her dark hair and soft skin creating a quite beautiful teenager. She was nineteen years old, soon to be twenty…
She reached her quarters and sighed, opening the door and stepping inside a small room. Living quarters weren't that great because of how small island 86 was. There was a bathroom to the left, a kitchen built along the wall on one side of the room and the rest of the room was pretty much barren. There was a nice, queen size bed in one corner, a sofa in another corner, and chairs nicely placed throughout the room…it wasn't very nice but it was home to her.
She walked over to the bed, looked at her watch and thought no…the day is over…just…let them deal with it if they want to… She lied down on the bed and sleep quickly, quietly came to her…
§
BANG BANG BANG!
Delia awoke to someone banging on her door.
"Delia Redden, please come out immediately," called a low voice from outside the door.
Delia slowly got up, muttering about it being four in the morning. She whipped the door open, her frizzled hair and heavy eyes glaring at the officer.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry to disturb you but I was told to inform you that at noon today, that's about eight-and-a-half hours, you are to report to the TFP room."
"Why?"
"You've been volunteered along with Connor O'Hail and Dare Blaine to be the subjects in the TFP project, which will begin today at noon. You will be briefed at noon, and after the briefing, they plan on sending you back in time, ma'am."
"WHAT?!"
§
A few hours later, Delia awoke from a restless sleep, unable to comprehend the fact that the day she was in was the last day of her life. She had found a glitch in the Time Frame but because of Connor, the twenty-two year old bum from war wouldn't do what he knew he should do, he, Delia, and Dare would die today… At least I know when I'm going to die…
She started to wonder what it would be like…will I see a light? Will there be angels? Or will there be…nothing…? The thought gave her shivers.
She got up, took a nice warm shower and slowly prepared herself for the day ahead. Why me? Why did they choose me? Why do I have to do some stupid experiment that I know won't go right? It doesn't make sense.
She got out of the shower, fixing her hair and doing what she did every morning.
She planned on having a talk with the General, just to make sure that what she had been told at four A.M. this morning was true…it couldn't be…and yet it seemed to make sense.
You've been wanting adventure for a long time…here's your chance, she told herself. Hopefully it'll work right and it won't kill us…hopefully…
She left her quarters, wearing a black trench coat, nice blue plants and a white shirt underneath the trench coat. It was her favorite outfit… As she walked down the halls, she noticed that everyone was congratulating her on her 'volunteering' for the TFP project…I'm a scientist, not a time traveler…I help time travel get possible, not do it myself…
It was insane. Why her? Why? Because you're the father of the project's daughter, something seemed to say to her. Yeah, just my luck.
They're just picking on me…, she decided, making her way to the General's quarters. It was eight in the morning and that was time for the General to face the day…Delia reached his door and banged on it. "General, open up! We need to talk!" A weary-eyed, gray-haired face opened the door and said, "Good morning Delia…" He was obviously not happy that she was there…her being there meant trouble, especially considering the fact that he had said that she had volunteered.
§
Delia saw the swarms of green light begin to circle around her. She squeezed Connor's hand and closed her eyes as the lights seemed to get faster and faster. Don't let me die, don't let me die, don't let me die, don't let me die… She didn't know who she was thinking that too but she hoped somebody would get it…
Suddenly she felt a tug on her leg. She looked down and saw that she was sinking into the metal floor…no…sinking through it like quicksand…oh no! The TFP went wrong! I'm gonna die!
Connor's thoughts were too different. I hope that's normal because if it's not, we're gonna be in a world of pain… He felt Delia's already death grip on his arm get tighter. Heck, don't let her kill me.
Something was going wrong with Dare. He had a metal plate in his leg and it was beginning to twist inside his leg. He cried out in pain but couldn't feel anything but it…his eyes were blinking in and out of dizziness… Suddenly the metal plate reached the floor and, as if there was a magnet, the plate in his leg shot out across the room, toward scientists that were watching from a distance. Dare screamed in pain but the next thing he knew, the bones in his body following the same path as the metal plate and…he screamed again, just before his vertebrae was ripped out…
The waves of blue light that were swirling around her suddenly began to slow down and quite suddenly, Delia wasn't there anymore…she was in a pitch black place, the only color was the blue swirls going around her. The science had said that something like that might happen, that hallucinations were bound to occur… She held tightly to Connor's hand and then she realized that he was there with her, as amazed as she was.
She—
VWOOM!
And like a vacuum they were suddenly sucked into a world that came from below them and the next thing they knew, there was light, sunlight…
Delia opened her eyes and saw somebody flying in front of the sun, with large wheeled-shoes on his/her feet, above her…and then she fainted…
The next thing Connor knew, he was in a stadium, people cheering from all directions, the hot sun filtering down on them and a person wearing padding, flying through the air, with strange things attached to his feet, was above him…
Connor rolled to his right and then…everything seemed to fade…going black…he tried to fight it but…
Author's Note
Yeah, it was slow…yeah it was weird…and yeah, A-Man wasn't in it…but hey, and have a little faith in me, eh? Don't worry, this story will be my best epic yet, and Action Man's biggest fight (actually war but…) ever. So please, spare me from flames and just say something helpful or if you find a lot of flaws, go ahead and say them, but in a nice way. Don't kill me because this fic will be AWESOME by the time the next couple chapters hit.