Day by Day Armageddon (21 page)

  
"Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire
and
a
combat site
…"

  
-REM

  Rounding the corner to where we thought the music was coming from, we came to an open door that I estimated to be a foot thick. It looked like a bank vault door. The music was coming from inside that room.

  I could see computer panel lights flashing intermittently inside, and the smell of rot was in the air. I gave John the look, and I stepped in. Captain Baker was the first corpse to meet my gaze. Tied up in a steel chair, was an Air Force captain with the nametag "Baker" pinned above his right pocket.

  He writhed and struggled with the bonds that held him firm. His skin was being torn off in places by the ropes. Another officer lay slumped over a command console with a Berretta 9mm in one hand, and half his head missing.

  I can only theorize what happened. Baker had three gunshot wounds to the chest, and a cracked skull. As the creature sat there writhing, I grabbed the sidearm out of the other officer's stiff rotting hand. Checking the magazine, I counted eleven rounds. Three for Baker and one for the no name tag "Major Tom" added to fifteen. I suppose Baker was infected, "Major Tom" tied him up, launched the missile, then shot Baker three times in the chest before taking his own life. Of course, it is all speculation and doesn't really matter at this point.

  John and I led the others to the silo, terminated Baker, and took him, along with "Major Tom" to an empty room for temporary storage. Power, food, shelter and water seem to be in abundance. I have no way of knowing if the Internet backbone is still operational. I am currently utilizing this compound's computer system. Most of the secure consoles are still logged in, and many of the non-secure desktop computers are working. Need to figure out a way to get those blast doors shut. Will be looking for the "keys to the kingdom" in the following days.

  I searched the Baker and "Major Tom" corpses and found numerous personal items and a notepad. Of particular interest was Bakers notepad containing numerous passwords for the different systems in the facility, and a proximity card for entering certain doors.

  This facility is powered by the local power grid along with four huge diesel generators. The local power has not gone out in this area. I have located some technical manuals in the desk drawers of the control room. They outline different emergency procedures and capacities for this facility. One of the manuals stated that if this facility is properly stocked, it will provide air, food, water, and shelter for one hundred people for thirty days.

  One problem remains, figuring out how everything works, and where everything is. We have not explored the entire facility for fear that there may be more of the un-dead lurking in the catacombs of the outer reaching compartments. One thing worthy of mention is that all, the manuals have the words, "Hotel 23" printed on the covers. A ceremonial wood plaque hangs over the main control console with the same words carved into it in English, and below that in Russian.

  The facility galley has a large pantry full of canned food, and numerous items called "C" rations. I have never eaten one, but I have heard about them from some of the old timers I served with before all of this happened. There are also numerous cases of MREs lining the shelves in the back of the walk in pantry.

  John, while working with the computer control system, figured out how to operate the remote cameras outside the facility. No luck on finding out how to shut the blast doors. Found the main entrance and exit with John's security camera. Unfortunately, it is a quarter of a mile away down the access tunnel, and up an elevator. Worse still, the fact that a hundred un-dead can be seen on the closed circuit television milling about outside the doors.

  I have located a hand written schematic of the facility today. Some of the rooms don't match the schematic. I assume because some areas may have been added to the facility since it was drawn.

  We plan to fully clear out the interior of the bunker by tomorrow. It stinks.

  While rummaging through the living area of the silo yesterday, I found Capt. Baker's personal diary. It dates back to March of 2002. It pretty much outlines everything that happened here since the beginning. I have not read it in its entirety, however I plan to do so in the coming days.

  We made an attempt to thoroughly clean the interior today From time to time, I can hear a mechanical/electrical sound kick in from another area inside the bunker. I have a feeling it is some sort of air filtration system. We cleared most of the silo yesterday, all except the room marked, "environmental control." There is a heavy steel door with a cipher lock blocking access to the interior. The notepad taken from the officer a couple days ago had no useful codes for this particular door. John found a folder on the desktop of one of the launch control computers.

  The non-classified computers are using Windows, however the secure tempest resistant boxes are running some form of Linux that I have never seen. John has been using some sort of DOS like non-GUI (graphical user interface) to explore the computer. He has been able to bring up numerous colour aerial photographs of the same area (unknown), only it seems like every time, he accesses the folder with the photographs, and selects the same filename, it shows a slightly different photo, i.e. different cloud placement, or some other minute detail.

  Also on the list to access is a large seven-foot tall, thick steel safe marked
armoury.
Unfortunately there is a rather large padlock in place on the front of the safe, temporarily barring access. I haven’t really gotten a chance to get to know Tara, but she did reveal just how curious of a person she really is. She did not like the idea of not being able to see what was in the safe, and searched the bunker for three hours, digging through boxes trying to find something that would be useful in cutting the lock. No joy.

  On a side note, all of the toilets in this facility are similar to airplane latrines. Dry bowls. I suppose it conserves water. Which reminds me of the water supply here. We found a large rectangular tank in the diesel generator rooms marked "potable water." Using the butt of my rifle, I tapped the side of it until a hollow sound resonated through the chamber. It was over 3/4ths of the way full. The tank is roughly 20ft x 10ft x 5ft. I will do calculations in the coming days as to how much water we can and should be using.

  It should have been obvious the reason the photos that John was pulling up on the secure Linux computer were changing. They were near real time satellite imagery. John figured out what it was last night and also figured out how to zoom the photos down to what the computer indicates is 2-meter resolution. Using rough coordinates in the road atlas we have, we were able to see detailed photography of what was left of the San Antonio area.

  It was difficult at first to interpret the overhead angle of the photos. Also, the colour wasn't tweaked very well, making the photos look a little off. After numerous command line inputs, John zoomed down to a one thousand meter resolution and we were able to see a good section of what was left of downtown. The photo was a few minutes old according to the time stamp, due to the fact that the satellite was configured to automatically photograph a certain footprint at a certain time. John couldn't figure out how to get the bird to take a snapshot on demand.

  Studying the photo, I could make out numerous destroyed buildings, and even some of those creatures that must have wandered back after the initial blast, attracted by the sound and light. I could also make out a group of them huddled around something. John zoomed in the best he could to the centre of the group of corpses.

  The group was fighting over the carcass of a large rat. I suppose a picture really is worth a thousand words. John and 1 plan to go city by city, entering coordinates and attempting to gather any information we can on what cities were destroyed and which ones still stand. This will take some time, but worth the peace of mind, or lack thereof.

  Jan and William have settled into one of the larger compartments, with Laura. John told them it would be fine by him if Annabelle slept with Laura at night. John knew the dog helped Laura deal with our situation, as Annabelle was something familiar from a world long fucked.

  Yesterday, Tara and I went topside to check the perimeter, as the camera near where we climbed in only covered the launch bay doors. Kind of ironic how John can figure out how to look at a dead man's wristwatch from a thousand miles away with a satellite, but can't seem to figure out how to get our back door closed. I have to give him credit as he has proven himself a good friend and a very adaptable person.

  After a few days of figuring out coordinates with many failed attempts, we have come across cities on the satellite photos that are confirmed destroyed by either nukes, or more conventional MOABs.

  San Antonio, New Orleans, San Diego, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Orlando and probably New York have been destroyed and we have confirmed that dead walk the ruined streets. This is a definite blow to the group's morale, including my own. John and I, using a larger resolution in order to see a more wide view of the cities, saw mass devastation. Not even one of the photos displayed any living human. Some of the groups we were seeing reminded me of old photos of the Woodstock crowds. There was no way to count, but I estimate there are millions of un-dead in highly radiated areas of ruined cities. There is no telling how many walk in unaffected areas of the United States. We are hopelessly outnumbered and worse, there seems to be no fragment of any government remaining.

  John and I attempted to gather satellite intelligence on the more northern states, but were unsuccessful due to the fact of the limitations of the satellite footprint (Area of effective satellite view). However, 1 was able to find some information on the fate of New York City.

  Upon closer inspection of the command and control area, I found a black briefcase with a double spin lock set to the numbers 205 on both sides wedged between two consoles. The case was unlocked, and inside was the following printed message: