Wasteland Rules: Born to Fight (The World After Book 2) (23 page)

June 24, 2029

Dulles International Airport Washington, D.C.

   The transport chopper dropped them off at what
had once been Dulles International Airport. It took off seconds after they
offloaded and rushed back out of the Nuke Zone. The chopper had been specially
outfitted for the purpose of delivering Derek, Rora, and their ride into the
Nuke Zone. The cabin had been sealed for Nuclear Biological and Chemical
protection, commonly referred to as NBC, and provided with its own air supply
so the pilots wouldn’t be contaminated. Unfortunately it hadn’t been able to
get any closer because the radiation interfered with the choppers instruments.
It would also prevent communications with the Voice even on the secured phone.
They would truly be on their own.

   So, they had been given a standard pattern
camouflage Kawasaki Tyrex 760 Lightweight Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle to carry
them the rest of the way. It was a side by side ATV with a roof and armored
panels. An M-240 belt fed light machine gun was swivel mounted on the passenger
side at the frame. The vehicle had a powerful motor and was capable of
traversing even the most difficult terrain, making it an excellent choice to
traverse the rubble strewn streets. The general hadn’t been too happy about
risking one of his remaining choppers and the LTATV, but there hadn’t been much
choice.

   The flight over the ruins of Northern Virginia
evoked more emotion than he had thought it would. The devastation of the Nuke
Zone was a graphic representation of how far they had fallen and the awful
things man was capable of. Millions had died in the strikes and millions more
had died from the wind borne radiation in the weeks following. The government
had been completely unprepared for the attack and the fallout, and the people
had been helpless; conditioned to depend on the government for help.

   The chopper had dropped them at the airport
because it had the best open space for the landing and had a direct shot into
Langley. They could take the 267 to I-495 and then the George Washington
Parkway right to the front door of CIA headquarters. The building was located
inside the Beltway but across the river from the Capitol and the White House. It
hadn’t taken a direct hit; but the Pentagon, which was nearby, had. So the area
would be pretty much leveled and very hot.

   The airport was more intact than Derek had
expected. He could see that the blast waves from the detonations had passed
through the airport. All the light posts, signs, and virtually anything that
had been upright had been knocked down or flattened. But the terminal was still
standing and a few of the hangars. The windows had been blown in or out of the
buildings, depending on which side they had taken the blast wave. Debris
littered the ground, thrown by the blast waves. The buildings had probably been
designed to withstand powerful storms and winds and that had aided them in
remaining structurally intact.

   There was some wreckage of planes and abandoned
vehicles on the runways, but less than Derek expected. It made sense though, as
the Collapse had gone on and the Aftermath had neared, there had been less and
less air travel. Few wanted travel anywhere and even fewer could afford the
exchange rates necessary for a flight. Most people had abandoned their jobs and
were just trying to find food to survive at that point.

   The hangars contained more ruined planes and
damaged vehicles. Derek really wanted to stop and scavenge them; this place was
barely picked over if at all. This place should be almost virgin territory when
it came to scavenging. Except for a bold few in the beginning, no one had ventured
into the Nuke Zone. The radiation killed those bold few in a few days and
served as a stark reminder to the scavengers that this place was off limits.

   The problem was that they had limited time. He
wasn’t one hundred percent convinced that these suits would keep them safe,
even though the HUD told him that his suit was at 100% integrity. It was also
telling him that the radiation level outside the suit was deadly. He also
wasn’t convinced that their mole hadn’t told someone about this mission and
another ambush was just around the corner. Maybe on the way out he could grab a
few things.

   After a brief survey of the scene, they jumped
into the LTATV. Derek had Rora drive so he could man the light machine gun. She
had already proven to be good driver, and he had a lot more experience shooting
on the move if it came to that. One of the soldiers at the complex had showed
her how to operate and drive the vehicle and she had done well in the test
drive, so she took the wheel with confidence and fired it up.

   The engine roared to life and they took off. Free
to drive the dune buggy-like vehicle without an instructor grading her, Rora
floored the gas and they were thrown back in their seats as it accelerated. She
took the little vehicle to full speed immediately, almost seventy miles an
hour, and Derek hung on for dear life since there weren’t any seatbelts. She
took the vehicle for a little spin around the tarmac and then headed towards
the highway. Derek couldn’t see the grin on her face, but he could hear her small
sounds of excitement as she took the little joy ride.

   Sometimes he forgot how young she was. The
Collapse would have happened before she was born and the Aftermath when she was
two or three. There were many things he took for granted that she had never
experienced; learning to drive a car, going to school, dances, sports, just to
name a few. The World After had robbed at least three generations of their
childhood, and that was just sad. That was a precious time that no one should
have stolen from them.

   Derek was bumped from his musing as she launched
the LTATV off of a broken piece of concrete roadway. The soared for several
dozen feet until landing hard, the vehicle bouncing wildly as the suspension
struggled to handle the impact. Rora screamed with excitement as they left the
ground and laughed as they landed. She turned the wheel and headed for another
makeshift ramp. Okay, that was enough, time to focus on the mission.

   “Rora.” Derek snapped. “Enough joy riding, we
can’t take a chance at damaging or wrecking our only ride. Do you want to walk
to Langley?”

   “Fine.” Rora sulked. “I’ll keep it on the road
Major Buzzkill.”

   She slowed the vehicle to a reasonable speed and
kept it on the ground after that. Derek put his attention back on their
surroundings and kept a watchful eye. He kept his hand on the machine gun grip
and his finger near the trigger. The area was supposed to be devoid of life,
but you never knew. Rules #10 and #12 applied here. Always watch your back, and
the safest place is usually a trap.

   They found the highway easily, even though the
signs had long ago been knocked down. The concrete barriers and other solid
obstacles still remained and it was easy to follow the roadways within the
airport. Actually it was very easy considering there were no children running
into the road, people triple parked, or crazy taxi drivers to worry about. The
ride was bouncy in the airport because many of the roads had buckled during the
quakes caused by the Aftermath.

   The highway was a smoother ride and relatively
free of debris. They had to avoid a few abandoned cars, but they stuck to the
side of the road heading in to the city. Most of the cars had been fleeing the
city when the warheads had struck. For some reason no one ever used the other
side even though it was empty. A couple of abandoned limos and scattered police
cars further in answered that question. They had kept this side open for VIPs
to escape without getting stuck in traffic. Well, the nukes hadn’t cared about
wealth. They had killed everyone and everything in their path.

   The devastation became worse the closer they got
to the city forcing them to slow down and drive more carefully. They found that
the bridges were knocked out and they were forced to detour onto Georgetown
Pike. When they turned on to Georgetown Pike, there were no buildings standing.
Everything was reduced to rubble and ash. Steel support frames and the remains
of concrete foundations jutted up randomly. Debris was strewn everywhere. There
was nothing but ruined landscape as far as the eye could see. The few cars that
had still been here when it hit had been flipped and thrown and lay lodged in
buildings or upside down on the sidewalks. Rora was forced to weave in and
around all the obstacles, slowing them down considerably.

   “How could this happen?” Rora asked, almost in
awe.

   “People got scared when the satellites went
dead.” Derek explained. “We had been living in such an unstable world at that
point that everyone was at each other’s throats. The world’s governments were
blaming each other for the virus and ensuing Collapse. The U.N. had broken
apart months earlier amidst actual fights on the council floor. Alliances had
disintegrated and each government was just trying to hang on to power.”

   “Why didn’t anyone work together to stop it?” She
inquired naively.

   “A few tried, but they were swept aside by the
mass of angry people wanting to save themselves.” Derek told her. “Every major
city in the world was suffering from food riots and many of the police and
military assigned to keep order had joined them or gone home to protect their
own families. Rumors of food stockpiles in the U.S. turned even our allies
against us when we refused to give up what we didn’t have. It turned out that
many of our so called friends in the world were only friendly because we
supplied money, food, and weapons to them. They had only pretended to like us
to keep all that flowing. With that gone, their true colors showed and they
came out against us.”

   “Nobody worked together? Weren’t we all in it
together?” Rora asked skeptically.

   “In the old world, there was a lot of hatred and
distrust along ethnic and socioeconomic lines. People were very divided, even
within their own countries. They were becoming increasingly selfish and
narcissistic. There was constant warfare and unrest all over the world. Battle
lines were already being drawn; the Collapse only provided the catalyst for it
all to explode.” Derek said sadly. “Just prior to the Aftermath, things had
gotten especially desperate and several full scale wars had already started.
The U.S. had remained out of the fighting, but we had a situation at home
rapidly spiraling out of control. Armed gangs and militia groups were battling
in the streets with the remaining police and each other. Martial law was
declared and troops, many of them recalled from around the world, flooded into
the streets. The government was determined to gain control of D.C. and then the
rest of the country. But then the satellites went dead. Afraid that they were
the only ones blinded and that it was a prelude to a strike, all the warring
countries launched whatever weapons they had been stockpiling for decades.”

   “But they didn’t know that for sure.” Rora
pointed out.

   “That was the problem with the concept of nuclear
deterrence through mutually assured destruction.” Derek explained sadly. “It
only worked if all sides were too afraid of retaliation to launch their weapons
first. But, it also meant you had to be ready to retaliate if attacked. No one
really wanted to be second in a nuke throwing contest so they panicked and
launched first. Many of the weapons were aimed at the U.S. because of old
hatreds and because we had the most weapons.”

   “I thought we had built a missile shield?” Rora
interrupted.

   “We had, and that had incited many of our former
allies and old enemies against us. They saw that as bypassing the mutually
assured destruction and that we could launch with impunity. So they had
concentrated their warheads on fewer targets in an attempt to overwhelm the
shield.” Derek answered.

   “That obviously worked here, the nukes got
through.” Rora stated.

   “The shield worked.” Derek told her. “Many of our
allies, like the Europeans, didn’t get hit by any missiles; nor did much of
North America. But the shield didn’t shoot any missiles that targeted the
Northeast. Every single one came through and delivered its deadly payload.”

   “Do you really think the general was right when
he said it was deliberate sabotage?” Rora asked.

   “I do. I find it impossible to believe that it
was coincidence that the only missiles that didn’t get shot down all hit in the
same place.” Derek said flatly. “The Northeast would have presented the most
resistance to the U.S.T.G. and their takeover, and the strikes eliminated many
of the bureaucrats and lobbyists that really ran the country. I wouldn’t put
anything past President Channing and his cronies. I’m also convinced the
‘terrorist’ attack on the Cheyenne Mountain command that wiped out the top
military leaders was their doing as well. It was never explained how terrorists
smuggled a small nuke into one of the most secure and heavily guarded
facilities in the world.”

   “Is he really that diabolical that he would
condemn millions to death just to further his own goals?” Rora asked.

   “The craving for power knows no limits” Derek
told her. “The government had already been taking over more and more control of
people’s daily lives. Telling them what they could and couldn’t eat, what
healthcare they had to buy, and even what light bulbs to use. Both parties had
stopped worrying about their political views and were merely fighting over who
controlled the government and the power it increasingly wielded. That desire
for more power led neglect of the people’s needs and the country became more
and more unstable as the masses got poorer and more desperate and the elites
got richer and more spoiled. The infrastructure itself began to crumble and
people began to really suffer.”