The Crash Box Set, page 8
part #1 of EMP Crash Series
Chapter 10
The bunker was a large building built into a mountain, so from the outside only the door was visible. Surrounding this mountain were trees, as usual, but on this face there was a small clearing outside and a path that had been made to allow vehicles to come and go, when vehicles still worked. Mack held up his hand, signaling that the other two should stop while he surveyed the scene. Whatever had happened here seemed to be over, and as he crept slowly forward he peered into the inky darkness. He was relieved when he couldn't see anyone lying in wait for them.
What he did see, however, filled his heart with sorrow, and all at once he felt guilty that he wasn't there to have helped his brothers and sisters in arms defend themselves. All around him were military personnel lying on the ground, arms sprawled out, blood staining their jackets, necks bent at unnatural angles and bullet holes riddling their corpses. He checked each and every body, just as he had at the plane, hoping that just one of them showed some sign of life, but it was a forlorn hope. They were all dead. What's more, all their guns had been taken.
Mack walked up to the door of the bunker and reached out, running his hand along the rock, then the metal, his fingers dipping into the bullet holes. The rock was coarse while the metal was smooth, but each of them had been indented with these weapons of destruction. The door was ajar, and this is where the smoke was coming from. It soon settled and faded into the night air, and all around them was still.
“What happened here?” Grace asked as she walked through the collection of corpses.
“Maybe this is the war that you talked about. Maybe the North Koreans have invaded,” Luis said, casting his eyes warily around him. A chill crept down his spine and he gulped, trying to swallow his fear, but he was not successful.
“Do you think that could be it?” Grace asked Mack, her voice trembling with worry.
“No, no, I don't think that's it. The way these shots are distributed doesn't make me think this was a planned military assault. It seems as though the attackers were firing wildly. My guess is they fired on the bunker to draw out the people inside, then picked them off, one by one. Or they may have feigned injury and tried to get the people inside to come out and help. Then once the door was open they stormed in and took everyone by surprise. Either way, we're too late to make a difference.”
“Do you think it's safe to go inside? What if those people are still there?” Luis said.
“I think if they were still here we'd be dead already,” Grace said dryly, but she waited for Mack to move forward before she did anything.
The big man stepped to the side of the door and hauled it open, straining his muscles as he did so. The heavy metal door groaned as it was pulled open, and the last tendrils of smoke floated out. The air was thick with the stench of burning metal, and it took Grace and Mack back to that first moment when they stepped out of the broken hull of the plane. Were their lives now destined to move from one wreck to another? It was a morbid thought, and one which neither of them wanted to entertain for too long.
One at a time, they entered the bunker. There was a narrow hallway that curved to the right, leading to an open area, and in this was another scene of carnage. As they walked along the hallway Mack held out his hand, and on the wall he could feel more ripples of bullet holes. Whoever had attacked this bunker had been well-armed, and were evidently a dangerous foe. It was clear that in this world might made right, and those who had the power were not going to share it willingly.
The three of them walked into the open room. There were lanterns standing on desks, although more were toppled over and laying on the floor. The desks and tables had been upturned and used as barriers, but they had not done much good. Mack stood in the middle of the room and closed his eyes. He thought about what this place must have been like with the cacophony of bullets flying around, with yells and screams echoing around the chamber and the final cries of death. The expressions on the faces of the people dead here were different than those of the plane crash. There people had panicked and couldn't understand what was happening, but it seemed that here people accepted their fate with grim resignation.
The other side had not escaped without casualties themselves, but they were nondescript men and women wearing regular clothes. It was clear that a group of people had banded together and decided they would use force to assert their dominance. They were in the area, which meant that it was likely the three of them were going to run into them sooner or later. In a way, Mack was glad he had missed the fight because it was unlikely he would have made a decisive difference. It was probable he would have been left on the floor with all these other people. At least now he had a chance to carry the memories of these people and right the wrong they had suffered. If he ever found the people responsible for this slaughter he would make them pay for what they had done. In a world without law it fell to men of honor to seek out justice and dispense punishment. Mack knew it was his solemn duty to bear that burden.
The bunker was a wreck but the three of them searched diligently for anything that could prove to be helpful. However, it seemed as though the attacking force had taken everything valuable; the food, water, weapons. When Grace asked what these types of bunkers typically had in their stores, Mack’s face turned grim. They often had a lot of rifles, plenty of ammo, and explosives such as grenades and mines. Whoever attacked this bunker now had the armaments of a small army.
However, hey continued searching because they were looking for information as well. Mack hoped the attackers had not been as concerned about information as they had been about the weapons and supplies. With everything having been turned upside down and strewn about the place it was an arduous task to search through the random bits of paper for anything that could shed light on what happened. Mack hoped that at the time of origin of the EMP this bunker had been in communication with the outside world and actually had written down something of the events that had led up to the EMP.
However, after a long time of searching they found nothing, only reports of chaos coming in. There were a few small notes concerning the city. It seemed that a group of soldiers had been given orders to get there and make contact with the local law enforcement or anyone in charge, but then there was a later note that said they never had returned. Mack held the piece of paper in his hands and clenched them into fists, his entire body trembling with anger. Grace and Luis saw this and looked at him with worry, for he was the one they looked to for leadership and guidance, but he was only human, just like them.
“This world has gone to hell!” he yelled, and threw the paper down on the floor, where it bounced and rolled until it came to a stop, resting against the fallen body of a soldier.
The bunker was large but it was quiet, and when Mack shouted his words echoed off the walls. There was so much equipment the attackers had just left on the shelves because it all was useless now. Mack went up to the shelves and picked the items, one by one, then dropped them on the floor. Glass smashed, making Grace and Luis jump.
“Everything we've built, all the progress we've made, it's all been for nothing,” he said, letting another useless device fall harmlessly to the floor.
Grace winced, naturally protective of all these things. She had tried the laptops and computers, to no avail, although it did feel good to have her hands resting on a keyboard again. The sheer act of pushing the keys down with her fingers brought her the same relief as a dose of a drug did to an addict, but now she was worried for Mack. Ever since this all had happened he had been the calm one, the composed one, the strong one who met circumstances head-on with no time for doubt or fear. So it genuinely frightened her to see him like this. He was a hero, and a hero should not lose hope. She glanced at Luis, who merely shrugged, offering no help, while Mack continued on his destructive trail, ranting about the state of the world and how everything had fallen apart.
“This bunker had good people, people who could have worked together to rebuild society, but these others, they don't want this, they never wanted it. All they wanted is what they've wanted for the longest time, to tear down everything and start again. You were right, Grace; people don't want to work together. They just want to destroy everything. Look at this, all these people, they're dead now, and for what? A few guns, some water, some food. You take away society and we just crumble. Is this what's waiting for us out there? And who knows what's going on in the city! They don't know. Nobody knows a thing. How many others have died because of this? How many more are going to?”
“Probably lots,” Grace said in an even tone, walking toward Mack. He stopped and stared at her.
“This is the world we live in now. It's changed, and we have to adapt as well. But Mack, there were bad people before the EMP. People still died then. That hasn't changed. And as long as there are people like you there's still hope in the world.”
A smile flickered on Mack's face. “You've changed your tune,” he said.
“I have, because I've spent time with you,” Grace said, and the two of them shared a warm smile. Then, Luis moved forward.
“I hate to interrupt you guys, but what are we going to do now? I mean, the whole plan was to come here, but there isn't anything here.”
Grace and Mack looked at each other, then back at Luis. “We survive,” Mack said, and as he walked out of the bunker a new dawn was breaking.
Chapter 11
The world as we know it has ended and a new one has begun, one without laws. An EMP knocked out all the electrical devices across America, and perhaps even the world. Thomas 'Mack' Mackenzie, Grace Everly, and Luis Gonzalez already have been through a lot, even though they've only just found each other. Having rescued Luis from a crazed family, the three of them traveled to a military bunker in the hopes of rebuilding some sense of order, only to find the bunker had been attacked before they arrived. There were no signs of who had attacked it. The place was littered with corpses and had been stripped of anything worthwhile. The three of them now had to plan their next moves.
They only had oil lanterns to illuminate the bunker, and this gave the place a dingy feel. After they had searched the place they spent time dragging the bodies out and covering them in some tarpaulin and rocks they had found. It was a grim task and already Mack had seen too many people die in this apocalypse. It also made him feel guilty that he couldn't bury any of the bodies, as it would have taken too much effort and time to dig a big enough grave. His mind turned to the bodies that he and Grace had left after the plane crash, which would have been rotting by now. He pinched the bridge of his nose, wishing this whole thing never had happened.
After that, the three of them decided to stay in the bunker for a day or so while they planned their next move. Their plan had been to get to the bunker and see if the military personnel had any information about what had happened, but the only records left weren't helpful. The only plan the small group had at the moment was to survive. Mack knew the two younger people were looking to him for leadership, but he never had thought he would be in this type of situation. However, there was a grimly ironic thread in that he saw himself almost as a father to the two of them, especially Grace, even if she still technically was his prisoner. If the EMP hadn't hit and life had carried on as normal he and Anna, his wife, would have been trying to bring a new life into this world.
But now the thought of a baby being introduced to this wasteland of a country made Mack feel nauseous. He couldn't imagine how dangerous it was, or how a fragile, vulnerable thing like a baby could make it through these days. It was difficult enough for him, and he had been in the army for a little over two decades.
“You know, I always imagined different apocalypse scenarios but I never thought it actually would happen, and I didn't think it would be like this,” Luis said. He was sitting on a chair with his legs resting on the desk, staring up at the ceiling. Grace was at another table, but she was slouching forward across a keyboard, almost as though she was hugging it.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well, I always thought it would be something like zombies or aliens attacking.”
“Is this not exciting enough for you?”
“It's not that. I just never thought that, with all our technology, we would not see it coming, that there would not be some sign so that we could prepare.”
“Humans are arrogant and we always think we know what's going on. You really think things would be different anyway? Look at climate change. We had ample time to prepare for that, but it was still a struggle for anyone to get things done. Frankly, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. This has been waiting to happen ever since World War Two. When the atom bomb was invented that was the tipping point. Suddenly it was possible to wipe out people on a large scale just by pressing a simple little button.” She tapped the return key on the keyboard, almost in hope that it would magically do something, but the screen in front of her was still blank and only her reflection stared back at her.
“And it's a miracle we lasted as long as we did, but at the end of the day you can't change human nature. There's a destructive force inside us that always is going to be there, no matter how much we fight it. Just be glad that it was an EMP and not a massive nuclear event, otherwise we wouldn't be here having this conversation.”
“It's strange to think we can't even know what's going on in the nearest city to us, when we used to be able to know what was happening on the other side of the world.”
“I know, it's killing me. Computers were my life. I used to be connected to the internet 24/7 and now I feel like I don't know what to do with myself. It almost feels like I've lost two worlds, the internet and the real one.”
“Which one do you regret losing more?” Luis asked, looking at her with a crooked smile.
“I'm not sure yet,” Grace said, still reluctant to open up to him fully.
The only person with whom she had built a relationship was Mack, but old habits were difficult to break. She had spent her life not trusting people and keeping her distance, and those walls were being kept up against Luis' eager charm.
“Is the internet still there? I mean, all the information on it? Like, if we got everything working again would it still be there or has everything been lost?”
Grace pushed herself up and exhaled deeply as she sat back in her chair. She pursed her lips. “Well, that's a good question. Basically, everything is still there, but since nothing works we can't access it. So, for all intents and purposes, it has been destroyed. If we could get replacement components then we could access it, but it's looking as though we would have to build them from scratch. Building them also requires electricity. So, we're basically screwed. The only other way is if somebody had a Faraday cage.”
“What's that?” Luis said, a blank look on his face.
Grace swiveled on her chair and hooked her legs up beneath her as she explained a Faraday cage to Luis. Mack looked on with something akin to pride as he watched Grace actually engage with someone, presumably because this was her area of expertise. Since this all began Grace had been feeling a little lost, so it was good to see her becoming passionate about something again. Mack was leaning against the bunker wall, staying out of the way as he didn't want to interrupt their conversation just yet.
“It's pretty simple, actually. It's literally a cage of metal that is grounded in the Earth, and it shields electromagnetic interference.”
“Surely there must have been a lot of these around if they were so easy to make?”
Grace shrugged. “Like I said, humans are arrogant. I can imagine that a few paranoid preppers probably have them but the government? Not likely. They never took cyber security seriously.”
Then Grace caught herself before she said anymore. So far she only had told Luis that she worked with computers and that it had been by chance that she had been sitting next to Mack when the plane went down. In reality she had been his prisoner, and in another life she had been known as C1PH3R, a hacker responsible for a number of attacks on the government and big corporations.
“But if you want to know something interesting,” she said quickly, before Luis could ask her how she knew so much about the state of government security, “the satellites that transmit all the information are still up there. If it wasn't a solar wind and the EMP was caused by bombs being detonated, it wouldn't have affected them since they're too high up. So they're still floating around up there, and I guess they will do that until they eventually fall out of orbit.”
“Wait,” Mack said, stepping forward, “you mean the things we put in space still are functioning?”
“Yeah, why?” Grace said, instantly turning her head toward him.
Luis took his feet off the desk and folded his arms, disappointed that his time alone with Grace was at an end. It was never possible to forget there were three of them in that bunker, or that Grace responded to Mack in a way that Luis yearned for.
“The space station! The men up there must still be alive,” Mack said, planting his hands on the table in front of Grace.
“But there's no way to get to them. I wonder if they even know what's happening down here...” Grace said.
“You said the stuff in space wasn't affected. So if they returned to Earth, their equipment still would be working?” Mack asked.
“Well, yeah, but from what I understand the station never was built to land on Earth. They'd have to leave in a pod and they wouldn't be able to carry much. Even if they did, it still would be a hell of a lot of work to retrofit the equipment in that pod to be of any use to us, and that's if they actually made it back to Earth. Without anyone to guide them in it'd be a difficult task. Not to mention the problem of who they first would run into. Some people may not welcome the arrival of a man from space.”
Mack snapped his fingers and turned away.
“I'm sorry,” Grace added.
“No, don't be. I just thought for a moment that there might be some glimmer of hope.”
