Chapter 1
First dawn had been over for an hour, but the guard's eyes were still adjusting. Shatner had joined the wall guards in order to get some fresh air. He stared off out of the walls, smiling. His hunting rifle was slung to the side. There was never really anything to watch anyway.
"Hey, dude," said the guard next to him.
"Yeah?" answered Shatner.
"I think I see something," said the guard.
"It's probably nothing," said Shatner, "It's a little after dawn, the changing lighting and all. Odds are you're just seeing things."
"Now the guy is waving at me," said the guard.
"What?" asked Shatner, "What guy?"
"The guy I'm probably not seeing," said the guard.
"What?" said Shatner, turning around and looking at where the other guard was pointing.
"That guy, you said he wasn't real," said the guard, "And now he's kinda waving, and holding his weapon in the air."
Shatner blinked, he could see it as well. A figure, dressed in ratty clothes approaching from far off. Well, who wasn't in ratty clothes these days, but that wasn't the point. No one should be out this far, no one. Not here. Or could they?
"Uh, open the gates, but only for a second," said Shatner, "I'll deal with this."
Shatner went to get down from the wall, treading past some of the others to try and make it downward. He climbed down a ladder that was nearby, and rushed to the door which was slowly opening. When he rounded the corner and started walking outside the gate, he raised his rifle and put the scope on the intruder.
The intruder wore ratty clothes, yes. That was re-established. He also had his face covered with some sort of bandana, and he wore tinted, dirty goggles. He did hold some sort of rifle, one Shatner didn't recognize at first glance.
"Ok," yelled Shatner, "That's far enough. I want your hands in the air, and your gun on the ground,"
The stranger's head tilted, his eyebrow raising above the other one.
"What?" asked the stranger.
"Hands in the air, weapon on the ground!" yelled Shatner.
"Hell no," said the stranger, still keeping his gun above his head, "I'm not going to throw this on the ground."
"Wait…. What?" said Shatner, "Yes you are, you don't get a choice."
"Yes, I do," said the Stranger, "This is MY gun, so I'm not throwing it on the ground."
"Yes, you are, I want it on the ground NOW," yelled Shatner.
"Well, that's great," said the stranger, "That doesn't mean it's going to happen."
"Throw it on the GROUND!" yelled Shatner, "I will shoot you in the face!"
"No you won't," said the stranger, you have no idea, and if you were going to shoot me you would've done that a while ago."
"I'm pointing a gun to your head," said Shatner, "How do you know I won't shoot you?"
The stranger made a head movement which suggested he rolled his eyes, and he brought his rifle to bear, pointing it at Shatner. Shatner's eyes widened and he ducked down a little, pacing back and forth with his rifle pointing at the intruder.
"Woah" exclaimed Shatner, aiming his rifle more up to bear, "No, no!"
"There, now I'M pointing a gun at YOU," said the Stranger, "Does that mean I'm going to shoot you?"
"Just… drop the gun, man," said Shatner, "I do NOT want to shoot you!"
"I already told you, I will not drop my rifle. I come in peace," said the stranger.
"Yeah, like some sort of alien, I believe that," said Shatner, "Just…. DROP IT!"
The stranger hesitated, and then he lowered his gun, staring at Shatner. He tilted his head a little, and his face twisted into a questioning look.
"Sh-Shatner?" questioned the stranger.
Shatner's eyes widened again, before slitting, and he pushed the safety off the rifle.
"What?" Asked Shatner.
'Shatner?" asked the Stranger again, louder.
"H-How… Who's asking?" said Shatner, beginning to get angry.
"Shatnerpossum?" asked the Stranger again.
"Yeah…" said Shatner, lowering his gun a little, "That's my…. That's my SN."
"Oh my gosh, you're Shatnerpossum!" said the Stranger, "I'm in D.C!! I'm in frickin' DC!"
"Yeah…" said Shatner, "How do you know me? How did you… find me?"
"It's me!" said the stranger, and he removed his bandana mask and lifted up his goggles, revealing a dirty, scraggly haired face. He smiled, holding out is hands in a "Ta-Da" gesture. Shatner just starred on, still confused.
"It's the Master," said the Stranger, "The… Mastah!"
Shatner lowered his gun, and the confused face slowly disappeared until a look of surprise spread across his face.
"Oh… my god," said Shatner, "Comedianmasta? You… you're here?"
"Yeah, dude!" said the stranger, and he rushed forward to give Shatner a hug.
Shatner tried to jump backward, but Comedianmasta's embrace found him and held him for a few second before he let go. Shatner allowed a small smile to stretch across his face, before he shook his head and tried to speak again.
"What…. What are you doing here?" he asked, "I was wondering what was up, you haven't been online in weeks. We thought something had happened."
"Something DID happen," said Comedianmasta.
"Oh… I'm so sorry," said Shatner, "Um… come, come in!"
Shatner lead comedianmasta into the camp, through the front doors. Once inside he signaled for them to shut the gate, and he walked on. It was truly the ruins of Washington D.C. Certain monuments still stood, but others were long gone. Many statues and other monuments had been placed in towers and on the wall that seemed to surround the entirety of the camp. The Whitehouse no longer stood, as rubble filled the area. The Washington Monument had been devastated, but for the most part it still stood.
Camps and tents had been erected every which way, and many shacks had been built, many more in the process of being built. There didn't appear to be many people left, but many could've been inside tents and shacks that comedianmasta couldn't see.
"So," said Shatner, continue to walk through the camp, "Comedian, what exactly-"
"Nate," said comedianmasta.
Shatner looked up, and gave a confused stare at comedianmasta.
"My name," said comedianmasta, "It's Nate. Nathaniel Flint. But please… call me Nate."
"Alright then, Nate," said Shatner.
"And you?" asked Nate.
"Shatner works," said Shatner, "My real name is Brom Shatner. But… please. Only real close friends call me Brom."
"Alright, Shatner," said Nate, "So… what's the possum for?"
"What?" asked Shatner.
"You know," said Nate, "Shatnerpossum…"
"Oh… uh… it's personal," said Shatner, "You know, a little nickname from my mother, look can you not ask?"
"Ok… Shatner." Said Nate, smiling a little, "I didn't think…. It would be like this down here," said Nate.
"You'd be surprised how many people are dumb enough to flock to their nation's capitol at times of crisis," said Shatner, "Many of these people are looking for hope, answers, and power… none of them will ever find it."
"Oh, you shouldn't say that," said Nate.
"So, can we get you anything?" said Shatner.
"A Mountain Dew would be supreme," said Nate, "A Pizza with Pepperoni. Hell, a damn Pizza would be good."
"Ha, how about some water and some soup?" said Shatner.
"Damn…" said Nate.
Walking by a soup-kitchen-like place, Shatner reached in, and nodded. A man gave him a bowl of soup, and someone else threw him a bottle of water. Shatner handed these over to Nate, who grabbed them greedily.
"No line waiting?" asked Nate, staring at the line of hungry colonials.
"I… I've done a lot; it's a perk," said Shatner, "Kind of like a… celebrity here. I'm the one who hooked us up with the network."
Shatner pointed to one of the antennas in the distance, and he smiled to himself. Nate nodded slowly, and followed Shatner through the colony.
Shatner lead Nate to the opening of the Lincoln Memorial, where it had been turned into some sort of tool-holding center. They walked down into a side passage, to the elevator.
"We could've taken the stairs," said Nate.
"No where we're going," said Shatner, and he pressed three buttons at a time when the doors had shut.
The Elevator, instead of going up, went downwards, into the bowls of DC. When they reached the bottom, Nate had finished his soup, and Shatner took it. As the doors opened, they revealed a whole different atmosphere. It was an entire underground network of cables and people.
"This," said Shatner, placing a bowl off to the side, "Is the Network. Now all of it is, a lot of this area consists of Trauma Hospitals and Intensive cares as well as sterile environments for child birth, but we also have our… 'Government' down here and, of course, the Network."
The World Wide Broadcasting Center… the Network. Nate knew it well, and he followed Shatner to his terminal. It was just a series of screens and a few webcams and a microphone and keyboard attached to a swivel chair.
"Wow… never thought I'd be on this side of the screen," said Nate.
"I want everyone to know you're ok. Again, you've been out of it for a while," said Shatner, sitting down and booting up the system.
"You guys really care?" asked Nate, taking a sip of his water.
"I want to know what happened, but so will everyone else," said Shatner, "I hope you don't mind."
"No… this might be cool," said Nate.
The screen booted up, and Shatner looked for a room, and found it. He immediately sent off a request, and waited for a bit. A young man entered the room, with some files in his hands.
"Hey, Shatner," he said, "I got some of those Documents you were looking for."
"Hey, Bailey," said Shatner, "Guess who?"
The man came back, looked at nate for a second, then lit up and smiled.
"Holy crap, Comedianmasta!" said the man, coming inside.
Nate immediately recognized the man as well, and he lit up and shook his hand.
"Pandora? Is that you? Oh… GOD!!!" said Nate.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" asked Pandora.
"I… you're about to hear I guess," said Nate, "I thought you were in North Carolina?"
"Yeah, for like a week. Don't you remember? I moved up here with my family so we could actually survive, haha," said Pandora.
"Nice, and you look well, that's good," said Nate.
"Alright, I found him," said Shatner.
Nate turned back to see someone had entered the chat-room. The name appeared as "Zurom", and beside it a screen opened up, revealing a man in about is early twenties with glasses in a room with wires and servers and food littering his desk and the background.
"What, can I help you with?" asked Zurom, to Shatner, "I'm a little busy with working on rebuilding a server I found in the office in the next city over. After this, there's no need for me to leave again. People can deal with their own problems after this."
"Zurom, we need to get everyone together. Guess who's with me?" said Shatner.
Zurom's eyes slit for a second, and he leaned forward on the screen. Then his eyes widened and he smiled.
"Hey, Comediiaaan," he said, half waving, "I was wondering what happened with you.
Shatner through his hand's in the air with a look of confusion and Nate smiled, greeting Zurom back.
"Am I the only one who didn't recognize him on site?" asked Shatner.
"Yeah, dude," said Nate, laughing a little, "Get more on the ball…"
"Alright, let's get them together," said Shatner.
"Alright, lucky for you the majority is on," said Zurom, "One second…"
In a few seconds, the room was alive with names of people entering and webcams turning on. Nate smiled a bit, recognizing some of the names. Eonmokri, fkeuitan, and 89fred were some of the firsts to enter. Greetings and things of shouts of glee spread from one to the other. Shatner tried to get it quiet, but with no hope for several minutes. Finally everyone settled down enough for Shatner to speak.
"Alright, hi everyone. We don't have this often," said Shatner, "But it's important. I think there's something we should all know."
"Hey, is that comedian in the background?" asked fkeuitan in his deeper, welsh accent.
"Oh my God," echoed eonmokri, "Is that comedian? Hey Comedian!"
Nate waved from the back of the room, while Shatner shook his head.
"Am I the only one who didn't recognize him right off?" asked Shatner.
"Maybe you're just blind," said Nate, "As a possum…"
"Wow… really? That's what you went with?" asked Shatner with sarcasm, "That's not even accurate!"
"So what's the deal?" asked 89fred, "Why do you have comedian over there? Are we all going to DC now? Why didn't I know?"
"Look, Na…. uh… Comedian is here because something happened," said Shatner, "I don't know yet but I was hoping he'd tell us."
"Uh… yeah, I don't know…" said Nate, rubbing his neck.
"Come on, Comedian!" said eonmokri in a German accent, "Why would you go all the way to D.C.? What happened to your colony? The Major? Sheila? Max?"
After a little more urging, Nate raised his hands to silence them, and he nodded his head.
"All-right… all-right," said Nate, "You want to know? You really want to know? I'll tell ya."
Nate shifted his feet a little before beginning, and he rubbed the gruff on his chin and neck that had grown from years of being un-kept. He cleared is throat, before staring directly into the camera and beginning his story.
"Well… uh… as you guys know I was up in the colony in New Hampshire for a bit. Stayed closer to home, with whoever I could find," began Nate, "And… uh… well… then I disappeared. Well… They're no longer with us."
There was nodding and the like from some of the people. Shatner tried to offer some words of comfort, but Nate continued.
"Some raiders, they attacked in the night. We really didn't stand much of a chance," he continued, "Max was the first to go. He wasn't even sleeping. He got up to pee… was shot. We tried to fight… tried to escape. Only Jamie and I made it out. She… died a few hours later. Her wounds were too great, and Doc just… wasn't there."
"I am so sorry for your losses," said eonmokri, "That must've been terrible."
"What did they want?" asked fkeuitan.
"To be honest. I don't know. They took some gas, destroyed the place, and had some food while I was gone, I returned in the night of the next day… they did however, Kevin, take with them a lot of our weapons. I was left with only a few… the few that had ammunition left," continued Nate.
"So what made you come here?" asked Zurom, "To Shatner's place?"
"To be totally honest," said Nate, "I had no idea he was here. I didn't know I was in D.C. I just kind of… stumbled upon it. I was in many different places, actually. Hearing many strange things. We'd be surprised at who is still out there."
"Well, maybe we don't need to know more," said Shatner, "You've had it rough. You're always welcome here. We can always use a working hand. We'll set up your old account here and get you rolling again."
"You are always welcome here," said eonmokri.
"Thanks, but Germany is a little far," said Nate, "I think I'll crash here for tonight."
"Well… that's a shame about all that," said Zurom, "Reports and rumors say they're getting stronger, getting faster, and getting more advanced. I have many reports of several raider groups becoming quite a major power in our world as it is. It can only be a matter of time before they log into our network and make themselves known. I mean, who's here to stop them?"
"Well… it's not the raiders I'm afraid of," said Nate.
"Now, let's all not worry," said Shatner, "There haven't been many raider sightings in America. They're more like gangs. The New Hampshire colony must have been a fluke."
"Hey," started Nate.
"Most American raiders break up from internal struggles or they see a bustling colonization as a return to normalcy. They don't try to govern themselves or rebel like in other countries."
"I worry," said Pandora, off to the side.
"Ok, well now that we all know what's happening, we should get Na- ah… comedian some actual…. Hygiene and get his fed a more proper meal. An actual supper will happen in a few hours, I hope you'll enjoy it," said Shatner, licking his lips slightly, "Not one, but three deer, FAT dear, were caught the other day. That's amazing. Some meat and bread will go nicely."
Nate nodded, eager to get into some real food, not soup.
"Ok, well we'll talk more later," said Shatner.
Everyone said their good-byes before signing off, and Pandora smiled and shook Nate's hand before leaving to continue his tasks.
"Raiders," said Shatner, whispering a little, "We can't let this get out… The Major, he was a tactician, right?"
"We were hidden," said Nate, "We did everything right. It just wasn't enough."
"I can't have people thinking we're weak," said Shatner, "We cannot have widespread panic, especially here in the United States. We're already hopeless as is!"
"Stop worrying," said Nate, "We'll hold out. It will all be just fine."
"Well… I'm glad you made it out," said Shatner, "And made it here! Now, I'd love to hear some of these stories but FIRST I have to EAT! Let's go!"
With that, Shatner arose from the chair and lead Nate back to the Elevator to the surface.