Tom E

Prelude

When I opened the heavy cryogenic door and a hissing sound appeared, I blocked my ears because I hadn’t heard a noise in 300 years. Okay, I thought, time to get out. I heaved myself out of the icy chair - thump! My knees smashed on the floor and I let out a cry of pain. And in that moment I remembered, I hadn’t walked in 300 years.

As I headed to the underground bunker door, I detoured to get my stuff. A gas mask, a water canister and an M4 assault rifle. I was about to leave when I spotted a sandy coloured tactical vest just lying on the ground. I rummaged through all the pockets and found a medical kit, a knife, a small pack of energy protein bars and a key. I had no idea what the key could be for but I put the vest on anyway.

The bunker door opened and I headed to the elevator. On the elevator platform I pressed the red up button to take me up to reality. “Okay, let's go.”

I pressed the large round button again and a small electronic voice said, “key, please.”

Key? What Key? I thought. Then at the last moment I remembered the key in the velcro patch on the tactical vest. I hesitated for a moment, then took the key out and slotted it in the hole. Five seconds passed as I held my breath while the computer certified my key. Just before I gave up the little voice said, “Thank you. Have a nice day.”

“Sure. I will,” I muttered under my breath.

Whalla - the old elevator started working. It took 5 minutes to get to the top due to several stoppages. Finally, I got to the top and the blast doors opened. I leave the lift and a burst of sunlight hit my pupils. It takes a while for my eyes to adjust to the sun before I could look around.

2320

I looked around and all I saw was a desolate wasteland, full of shattered buildings and dead forgotten people. As I trudged along I looked up at the sky and I noticed something. It seemed to be raining but it was landing on the sky above. Like it couldn't get through. It must be the cryogenic freezer playing tricks on my mind, I thought.

I realised that I couldn’t live here. There must have to be a better place somewhere. Then something sparked in my mind, like blowing oxygen onto a fire, Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado. It's where I learnt to fly a helicopter. That's it. I will go there.

I walked along and a man in a skeleton mask stumbled up to me and asked for water. I was unbuckling my water pouch when he pulled out a makeshift knife and tried to stab me. I deflected his knife and he fell over but he got back up again. He then takes off his mask. Half of his face is all burnt and fleshy.

“Looks like you got some loot,” he said pulling out a gun.

Wow, I thought. He doesn't see my gun. I could do something funny.

“No! Please don’t shoot! Okay… I’ve got some food and water… and this,” I said smiling as I pulled out my big gun. It scared him off.

As he ran away he turns around and yelled, “one gun won't be enough to defeat the death squad.”

I just shook my head and rolled my eyes. I aimed my gun at his feet and fired and that made him run faster. As I walked along I saw a big homemade billboard that was covering a coca-cola sign that said BIG SALE AT SURVIVORS MARKETS. 35% OFF - BRING ITEMS 3 MILES SOUTH!

I decided to go and see if I could find a car of some sort to help get me to Colorado. It took me an hour to get to the sale market, which looked like a big bus depot. Most of the walls had been made from tin roofing that blocked me from seeing the markets, so I was stuck outside. Well, this must be the place, I thought. So I walked around and finally found the entrance.

“Hello - you want some prawn dumpling?” said a chef, out of nowhere.

“No thanks,” I said.

All I need is a chopper, I said to myself. Don't get sidetracked. Suddenly I saw a poster that said BOB’S MECHANIC - LAND ROVER FOR SALE ( see price at shop) It's not a chopper, but it will do.

As I stumbled along avoiding junk on the floor, a siren went off in the market and a minute later a female voice says, “DEATH SQUAD BREAK IN, EVACUATE NOW.” In seconds, there was chaos, people screaming and running around. I tried to ask people what ‘death squad meant but nobody had time.

As I heaved myself through the crowd I saw an old, crippled man lying on the floor with a bruise on his forehead. I helped him up and just before he limped away, I stopped him and asked what the death squad was. He explained it to me. It was an elite group of highly trained Mercenaries who were lead by a crazy guy called Reaper. They were killing politicians in order to become the new government .

Wow! I thought. That skullman that tried to stab me. He must have somehow been part of the death squad.

While I was running with everyone else, I noticed a girl with a hood next to me. I asked her which way was the exit and before she can respond a big armored car drives through the crowd and was not stopping. I tackle her out of the way into a dark alley. When I opened my eyes the girl was standing up in front of me and she mouthed, “leave... leave.”

I got up expecting an apology, but then I suddenly noticed a blade pushing into her back. A figure stepped

out from the shadows. He was a tall man with chocolate skin and a haunted face. A face I will never forget. He was wearing a bulletproof vest with a strange patch sewn onto it that said ‘THIS IS THE LAST NAME YOU WILL SEE… REAPER.’

Oh no, this must be the lunatic leader of the death squad, I thought. Reaper. I am in big trouble.

He held a silenced pistol in his right hand and a small switchblade in the other. I asked him to let her go and and he held up his gun, aimed it straight at my chest and and shot me. I fell on the floor clutching my chest. The bullet felt like I was getting hit across the chest with a 1000 degree hot iron baseball bat. It pierced my body and would have killed me but luckily with the vest it didn't do much damage. I looked up and Reaper saw that he did not kill me. At that moment, he pushed the girl on me and dropped his knife and ran. Minutes later a police officer with a bit of bacon on his beard came to help us.

“Are you okay? Do you know where Reaper is?” he asked. Before I opened my mouth there was a radio call on his speaker asking for all Authorities to get to sector B. He thanked us and left.

“So, thanks for saving me from the truck and that maniac,” said the girl.

“No problem,” I said. “Do you know where Bob’s Mechanics is?”

“He took off with the rest of them when Reaper arrived but I have a Land Cruiser,” she said.

“Okay, but what do you want?” I said suspiciously.

“One to know your name and two is to come with you. I need to get out of Nevada, this place is hell!”

“Well my name is Ajax and two, you can but on one condition. Can I trust you?” I said.

“Yes yes, you can,” she said.

“Your name?”

“Em,” she said.

I was having the best dream until I'm woken by a loud crack. I looked up and Em was getting out of the car. It was just the car door slamming. I fell back asleep but this time I had a bad dream: I was in a room and I was tied down to a chair and the man with the skeleton mask came in. He brought an old TV and an old video tape which said in red bloody writing ‘The beginning of the End.’ He put the tape in the video recorder and pressed play and left the room. But he quickly came back in and said, “have fun.” I watched the tape. It was the the video of anonymous nuclear missiles hitting america in 2020. It played over and over again. After what seemed like hours, it finally stopped and said the beginning of the end. So that is what happened to me I realised, my dream was revealing the truth.

This time, I was glad to be woken up to be told we were 15 minutes away from the border of Colorado. I tell Em to find Buckley Air Force Base, as there is rumoured to be a bid for a AH-64D Longbow Apache Helicopter. I need to get out of America. Before she could say anything, I said, “I know that every one says there is nothing out there but I want to see myself.” She looked at me like I was crazy.

“A missile will not break the dome that has surrounded America for over 300 years.” Suddenly, I remembered the rain that fell on the sky. A dome?

She explained that after the nuclear bombs hit America the UN decided to build an unbreakable dome so the radiation wouldn't contaminate the other countries. Wow! I thought. My dream really was true.

When we reached the airport we heard gunshots and there were explosions scattered around the airport. The airport control tower was on fire and there were scavengers running around grabbing bits of hardware and plane equipment. There was an old looking ute on the grass which was driving around. Suddenly, it stopped and the skeleton masked man came from a plane hanger with a big 50cal machine gun, which looked like he had taken it off a helicopter or a plane. He ran through explosions of homemade grenades thrown from the scavengers as he dodged bullet fire and finally came to the ute. He attached the gun to a tripod and jumped on the back of the ute as it started doing donuts again. The Skeleton masked man on the back started firing the gun at an empty car and it exploded.

Em and I noticed the jet black chopper in the corner of field and I said, “we need to get to the office and get the keys for the chopper.” I tell Em my plan and she looked scared and defenseless, so I decided to hand her a spare gun. She took it with confidence, which was a relief that she knew how to use one.

We got out of the car and ran down the dry, dead grass mountain. Not many people noticed us but I noticed them. There was a man up on the hill, as I ran past who had a hunter's rifle and was aiming at the masked man. “Come on!” I yelled at Em as we were nearly there. We were outside the helicopter office when Em opened the door and a middle aged man was holding a bat. He was warning us to stay back. I told him that all I needed was the chopper. He demanded $250,000 so I pointed my gun at him and yelled, “Give me the keys!”

We ran out of the shop with the heavy keys dangling out of my black jeans. Finally, we were able to reach the chopper and we opened the two front cockpit doors and climbed in. There were so many buttons.

I suddenly had a flashback. It was a week before I entered the bunker. I had a some money left so I decided to take a weeks training course in helicopter flying. I had made friends that week with this guy named Darcy. During the week, when we were flying together something went wrong with the engine and we had to jump. I was so scared when we opened the cockpit door and got our parachutes out. Before we jumped I tripped and fell, he grabbed my arm but the chopper exploded and he died. Ever since then, I have had a fear of flying.

Woosh, woosh! The blades started turning at a rapid speed, as I was checking fuel and disarming the missiles. We took off and in minutes the raging battle was the size of a lego version. We were sitting in the helicopter for a while and Em was playing around with what seemed like the entertainment system. After a while a TV screen popped out of the dashboard and I found it played South Park season 24. We watched that for a while but then a siren went off and said, “missile locked, deploy flares!”

A second after that a side compartment outside opened up and crystal blue colored flares soared out and they hit a missile. The explosion carried us forward and I looked in the rear vision mirror and a big Black Hawk helicopter was behind us. I squinted and saw a massive grim reaper with a bloody scythe and then in big bold letters, DEATH SQUAD. It sent shivers down my spine. Then the helicopter surged forward and was next to us then the side door opened and a man with a skull emoji mask was sitting down and aiming a RPG-7 at us. My first reaction was to grab the controls and we shifted down and the missile blasted over the top of us.

By the way, I had never learnt to fly armoured helicopters, so I was new to this. Now it was my turn to shoot. Somehow I knew that a Apache had more firepower than a Black Hawk, but they have more men with guns. But I just took my chances and pulled the ballistic missile trigger. It launched out of the missile compartment and then blew up. My heart sank but then about 10 little missiles came out of it and hit the back of the chopper. Yes, I thought. Just before I started to celebrate, Em yelled, “dome!”

Then I realised I was about to be squashed by the dome. I swerved out of the way but unluckily for the other chopper it was too heavy to turn and exploded on the dome, leaving a big enough hole for us to go through. Just as I was turning the helicopter around to escape the dome, an attack helicopter came out of nowhere and hit us with a missile. I looked out and saw our helicopter was on fire. We were going down. Then the other helicopter flew past us and I saw that it was Reaper at the controls. I asked Em if she could fly and she said she would try but asked, “what are you doing?”

“I am going to jump on the helicopter!”

“No you can't, you will die!” screamed Em.

“It's OK, I won't die!” I exclaimed, giving a thumbs up as I jumped off our helicopter and landed on Reaper’s window.

He was about to pull out his gun but I punched the glass open and millions of tiny shards erupted and cut his metal mask of death. I yelled at him, “no more killing! No more reaper!”

I pulled him out of the seat and grabbed his hand. He was dangling 10,000 ft in the air and yelled, “forever!” as he penetrated my tactical vest with his knife. As soon as the icy cold blade went into me, I fell backwards into Reaper’s chopper and let go of his hand, sending him down to certain death. As I slowly passed out, I yelled out to Em, “get your parachute!”

________________________________________________________________________

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Where am I? I looked around and I was in a hospital bed with wires strapped into me and nurses around the next bed. “We found her floating in the sea with a piece of shrapnel in her chest, she will be okay,” said a nurse in a British accent.

“Where am I? Who are you?” I said, barely able to keep my eyes open.

“It's okay, you're in a recovery hospital.”

“Where?”

“F22 Space Carrier,” she said.

“You mean outside the dome?” I asked with my heart rising.

“Yes I will explain,” she said.

I had been found by the Space Carrier’s Search and Rescue squad outside the dome. Their radars had detected us and they had got a B12 Space Cruiser to pick us up. They also found Reaper’s crippled, destroyed corpse, the impact of the water had killed him. They brought us to the F22 Space Carrier. I had a nasty hit. The knife hit my appendix so they had to take it out.

I wondered, where does everyone live? The nurse must have read my mind because she pointed out the window at Jupiter on the horizon. “You will live there,” she said, smiling.