On Distant Shores (Exiles Triology Book 1) (18 page)

This all changed as the nuclear bombs ripped into the crater, cracking the underlying geologic strata, making the rock underneath bow down as it absorbed the energy from the radiation and overpressure of the nuclear explosions.  It took moments for the energy to be redirected as the floor of the park cracked, and the ash exploded into the sky.

Malmstrom Air Force base was hit by two nuclear bombs, one from Russia, one from China.  The Air Force base, and the town of Great Falls, Montana turned into a melted, desolated nuclear ruin before the volcano destroyed the landscape.  Lava bombs peppered the land as far as two states away from the volcano.

A ridge of rock south of Great Falls redirected the pyroclastic flow away from the Great Falls and Malmstrom AFB area to the east.  But, the area was not to be spared.  The pyroclastic flow moved to the west down the valleys carved by the Madison, the Gallatin, and the Jefferson rivers, across Canyon Ferry Lake and onto the Missouri River.  The current of hot gas and rock known as tephra, reaching temperatures of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, flew across the top of the water, and moving at 450 miles per hour, destroyed all life and any sign of human habitation.

The area around Area 19 was devastated, irradiated and shattered by nuclear weapons.  Then the pyroclastic flow completely covered everything in the area.  There was no indication that any life had ever been present.As the ash cloud exploded from the super volcano that used to be Yellowstone National Park, it settled and buried the Air Force base in cement like particles that combined with the steady rain that the ash particles induced from theatmosphere.  Lightning skipped along the ash clouds, highlighting the hellish landscape that was used to be the Missouri River Basin. 

Now

Mike threw up.  It wasn’t much vomit, but inside the helmet, it seemed like a lot.  Mike never threw up.  He didn’t get motion sickness, he wasn’t afraid of enclosed spaces, and he had a stomach made of iron.  Now he had to breathe through his nose so that he didn’t suffocate.  Mike’s visual input was blank, and he couldn’t see any ambient light.  He felt the armor tip and fall.  He cursed as he realized that he couldn’t control the fall.  Panic hit as he realized the vomit was not draining out.  He was afraid that he was going to suffocate.  He pushed the panic down, knowing that was more likely to kill him than the vomit.  Evidently, the electrical power in the armor had shut down, and the foam that held him in place deflated as electrical current no longer flowed through it.  He controlled his fear, and held his breath, hoping the vomit wouldn’t enter his nose.  He waited a few seconds as the foam collapsed, and his body and arms were no longer held in place.  He was able to move his hands and arms so that he could ease the helmet back from his face.  He wiped the slick, foul vomit away from the helmet and his face with his hand.  He took in a deep breath, then another, and repositioned the helmet back on his head.  The smell was horrible.  The audio in the armor wasn’t working, and he couldn’t hear anything around him.  As the armor rocked in its new position, he hoped that everybody on the floorhad the chance to get out of the way. 

The armor was sliding as it rocked against the floor.  The floor around trembled as he moved.  He felt an impact, and his helmeted head smacked against the side of the armor, but the impact wasn’t significant enough to hurt him.  He felt his mech armor slide to a stop as friction from the floor overcame his momentum.  He was disoriented as the sensors and heads up display kicked back on, blurred by the remnants of the vomit.  The foam in the armor start to re-inflate.  He was going to have to talk to the engineering team and see if there was a better configuration for the helmet to handle projectile vomiting.

From the view and the cacophony that he was hearing in the audio, he wasn’t the only person that had experienced the electrical failure.  Emergency lights were flashing red.  Battery backup emergency lights spread a dim white light through the large room.  The overhead lights flashed back on, and the backup emergency lights turned off, flooding the large room with white light, though the red emergency lights were still flashing.  Electricity had been restored.

From this position, it was very hard for him to see what was going on.  He could hear groans, and shouting as people started dealing with their new reality.

“Radio check, radio check, can anybody read me, over?” Mike broadcasted.  The team came back with, “Roger, Lima Charlie,” or with, “Roger, Mike, I have you five by five.” 

“SITREP, over,” Mike ordered.  The entire team came on, in sequence from Everett, through Mickey, Rob, and Tom.  They all reported that none of them had any injuries.  He asked them if they had experienced the same system failure that he had, receiving affirmatives from the rest of the team.

“Does anybody know what just happened, over?”

The team all replied with a quick, “Negative,” on the radios.

“Can everybody do an emergency exit from their armor, over?” he asked.  Everybody on the team replied, “Affirmative,” except for Everett.

“Chief, that is a negative.  I’m currently laying on my back.  I cannot do an emergency exit from the armor. Over,” he replied.

“Roger, Everett.  Can you roll so that you can expose the armor’s back? Over.” Mike asked.

“Chief, I’m concerned about moving around.  From the display, it’s chaotic over here.  I hear people around me, but I can’t see them.  I’m afraid that if I try to roll, I may crush somebody. Over.” Everett reported back.

“Roger, Everett.  Just stay put and we’ll do a quick recon to ensure that there is no one around you.  Out.”

Mike gave the command for the rest of the team to do an emergency shutdown of the armor.  As the power shut down, the foam started deflating again.  Mike pulled the lever that disengaged the lock to the door on the armor.  Quickly, Mike and the rest of the team, exited the mech armor and stood among the displaced equipment which had shifted across the room, strewn haphazardly across the floor.

The floor was now at a five to ten degree tilt.  From what Mike could see, the entire room was still intact.  People had fallen and tumbled to new positions across the floor of the play room.  People were yelling and groaning, and a few weren’t moving.  Dust from lights and rafters sifted slowly down to the ground, giving the room a smoky look.

Mickey grabbed his medic bag from the armor and ran to members of theengineering team to take care of any injuries.  The rest of the team moved among the debris to help with the engineers and techs, pulling those who were able to stand to their feet, and evaluating injuries.  As the team found people that were moderately to seriously injured, they called for Mickey to come over and evaluate.

Mike climbed the debris and moved to Lieutenant Pang.  She was at a phone on the wall, trying to call through to other floors.

“What the hell just happened?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” she answered.

“Are you able to talk to anybody?”

“No, not yet, nobody is answering,” she replied.  “I can’t even get a dial tone on this thing.”

“What do the flashing red lights mean?”

Lieutenant Pang hesitated for a moment, then answered, “Mike, if the red lights are flashing like that, that means that we’re being attacked.”

Mike had a confused look on his face, “Attacked?  You mean by terrorists?”

She shook her head.  “No, there is no way a terrorist could make it down to our level.  I’m talking about a nuclear attack.”

Mike felt his body go cold as he thought about this. 
“Oh God, Jo, are you okay?”
he thought.  His face must have mirrored his thoughts.  He could see the concern in Lieutenant Pang’s face.

“What do you mean, a nuclear attack?” he asked.  Some of the civilians were gathering around.  Mickey was moving through them to take care of cuts and abrasions.

Dr. Nachman spoke up, “Mike, you have to remember, this entire area was created in response to the cold war.  They closed these missile silos after Salt II.  We took them over because it was expedient for us to use them.  We could use them without fear of anybody finding out what we’re doing down here.  We were especially anxious about some of the research we’re doing here, falling into the hands of other nations that don’t have our best interests at heart.Originally, they were going to be used as living quarters for the general in charge of the 341
st
Space Wing.”

Mike Crandall broke into the conversation, “Who can tell us what is going on?”

Lieutenant Pang looked at him.  “Security is probably the only ones that can tell us what is going on here,” she explained.

Mike mulled over everything.  “We’re still alive, though.  Doesn’t that mean that the nuclear strike didn’t happen?”

Lieutenant Pang shrugged her shoulders.  “I talked to security when the red lights started flashing, and they confirmed a nuclear strike was imminent, but then that weird thing happened, and I haven’t been able to get through to them since.

“What weird thing?” Mike asked.

Lieutenant Pang held her hands together then brought them apart and spread her fingers at the same time, “You know, the . . . Blink.”  She was unsure of herself.  She wasn’t sure if she imagined the incident, or if the incident was actually real.

Mike felt relived.  He thought that the unusual physical sensation hadn’t been part of the electrical shutdown of the suit.  If it had just been electronics, he wouldn’t have vomited.  He didn’t know if he was going crazy, or if others experienced the same sensation.  Now he knew that others experienced the same thing, when reality stopped, and then started again.

Mike nodded, putting his hand on her shoulder, “yeah, okay, I understand.”

The relief was visible on Lieutenant Pang’s and Dr. Nachman’s faces, knowing that they weren’t the only ones that experienced that unsettling nothing.

“I don’t have enough information to be able to answer whether or not the nuclear strike happened,” she replied.

Mike heard a voice in his ear.  It was Everett, “Mike, are all civilians are out of the way, I want to go ahead and right my mech.”

“Wait one, I need to clear with Lieutenant Pang.  When you start, be careful, the floor has about a five to ten degree tilt to it,” Mike explained.

Mike turned to Lt. Pang.  “Do you think it will be a problem?”

She thought about it for a split second, “It shouldn’t be, the mech armor was designed to operate on uneven surfaces.”

Mike turned and yelled at the crowd, “Everybody, move away from the mech armor, Everett is going to try and maneuver so that he can get out of the armor.”  This announcement was followed by a number of people scramblingto move further away from the armor.

He waited for everybody to clear, then he got back on his comms, “Everett, you’re a go for righting your armor, everybody is out of the way.”

Everett started rocking the armor so that he could roll over.  The mech armor was very maneuverable, but being on its back, Everett needed momentum to get to a new position.  Mike watched in awe, as he usually did when the other members of his team were in the armor, practicing complex maneuvers.  Over the weeks of practice, they were able to make very human movements in the armor.  The neural interface went a long way to make the mech armor react like an extension of their bodies. 

Everett rocked, and soon he was on all fours, then stood up at a slight tilt to make the armor go vertical.  The armor hesitated, then Everett seemed to make a decision.  He walked the armor over to the wall that the floor now sloped down to.  He maneuvered the armor so that the butt of the mech armor was braced against the wall, and then he went into the linebacker position the armor was stored in.  It was amazing to see the huge mech armor walk like a normal human being.  The armor crouched down, and soon the door popped open.  Everett climbed out to join everybody on the floor.

Mike turned to Lieutenant Pang, “Are all of your team accounted for?”

They did a quick head count and the only person that wasn’t there was Jim Wright.  Everybody searched among the detritus of pelican boxes, electronics and crates.  It was hard moving up and down the room, now that everything was on an angle.  They found Jim at the far end of the rubble.  He was the victim of the rolling platform.  It had toppled on top of him and knocked him out.  Mickey brought his bag over and started administering aid.  It was a head wound, so there was blood everywhere.  Members of the engineering team looked queasy at the sight of blood, but Doctor Humphreys, a neurologist, waded in and helped Mickey to stabilize the victim.

Tracy Sheffield, a mechanical engineer, started crying.  Bob Leitz put his arm around Tracy and steered her away from the blood.Mike and his team were not affected by the sight of the blood.  They had seen plenty of blood during operations.  Mike spoke up, talking to comfort the civilians.  “Don’t worry Mickey, will stabilize him.  He’s an accomplished combat medic.”