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After the bombs fell
{This was supposed to be a starter for someone who either blocked me or deleted, so I guess this can be my writing excerpt or an open starter (although please reply in mail if you want to work with this). Its a nuclear post Apocalypse take on D.J. Molles character Lee Harden from The Remaining series (Which was originally zombies).}
Russias brutal invasion of the Ukraine had been sudden, although heavily anticipated, and hadn't lasted long. After seven months of constant fighting and severe loses, Russia had decided to cut its loses and bombard the smaller country from the air and ground using conventional weaponry, which was the final straw for the rest of the Western World. The combined forces of NATO and European Union countries finally moved into the Ukraine to counter the Russian offensive, providing direct action defence against Russian aerial and ground bombardments, and that's when the nukes started flying. Holding true to its threats, Russia launched its vast arsenal of aging nuclear warheads, alongside China and other communist allies. Poland was first to go, followed by Sweden, Lithuania, France, even Minsk, the capital of Belarus didn't escape their fury, although only due to a fault in the missiles aging mechanics causing the booster rocket to cut out qs it passed over the allied country. Everyone fought back, however no manner of technological advancements could account for luck, and the sheer number of nukes used. The world slowly became a barren wasteland; those who didn't perish in the initial attacks died a slow, painful death from nuclear fallout, and from the rain that followed. Those not wiped out by the radiation would slowly suffer from the lack of technology, fried by the electromagnetic pulse released by the detonation of a nuclear warhead, the same technology they needed to produce medicines, and run hospitals. The wheels of modern society gradually stopped turning, that was five years ago.
Lees bunker had been hardwired against EMPs (like most military tech), and shielded against nuclear radiation, however he remained down there for several weeks after the first nuclear warheads flew, waiting for the dust and chaos to settle before emerging. Lee Harden was a Captain in the United States Army, one of only a gew hundred matching specific criteria drafted for selection, and one of 48 to make it through the rigorous training and become a Project Hometown Coordinator. Project Hometown was the Government's contingency plan for a total collapse of government and infrastructure following a major disaster, each Coordinator was responsible for one of each 48 lower, continental states, with the goal of finding survivors and re-establishing society in the aftermath. Lee had been sequestered in his bunker for almost a year by the time he had emerged. Initially he had been sent down for a month after Russia had begun amassing troops at the Ukrainian border, his superiors concerned about the Russians next move. Then he'd come up for a few months until Russia threatened to nuke any countries who directly provided assistance to the Ukraine, followed by the mobilisation of their nuclear assets. That time Lee had gone under and hadn't come up until after everything went to sh*t, surfacing a month after the blast that had wiped out Washington DC. He'd initially gone about his task, gathering survivor's, wary of the radiation from Norfolk. He'd surfaced from his bunker just outside of Angier, North Carolina, and headed to the nearest city, Raleigh. The main risk was from nuclear fallout emanating from Norfolk Naval base and Fort Bragg, two of Russias local targets to whittle down US Naval and Special Forces numbers.
After a few months, Raleigh had proved too big an area to police, with the gathered survivors occupying the city centre, the outskirts fell to rival groups who were less inclined to rebuilding civilisation, so Lee made the decision to relocate to Greenboro, a smaller city up towards the state border with Virginia, and erected barricades at all the major roads into the city, using the buildings to create the main choke points and sealing off most access roads, before setting up secondary barricades and fences using scavenged chain link fencing, corrugated iron, thick wooden panels and whatever else the survivors could get their hands on.
It was a cold November morning when Lee stepped out of his accommodation, a repurposed hotel, and stretched, cracking his back as he did, before working the kinks out of his neck. He'd been offered a choice of one of the abandoned flats or houses, but Lee had opted for one of the lower floors of the hotel, high enough for him to escape from easily, but also offered a good view of main street and the surrounding area. Years of bunking in army standard barracks, FOBs, bases and foxholes had accustomed Lee to sleeping in the worst of the worst, compared to that a Hotel was a luxury, although it hadn't compared to his house and bunker that the government had built each Project Hometown Coordinator.
Letting out a deep sigh, Lee watched as his breath bloomed in the cold air, pulling his jacket tighter around him as he thrust his hands into its pockets and made his way to the motor pool, which in reality was a stripped out vehicle impound lot.
Russias brutal invasion of the Ukraine had been sudden, although heavily anticipated, and hadn't lasted long. After seven months of constant fighting and severe loses, Russia had decided to cut its loses and bombard the smaller country from the air and ground using conventional weaponry, which was the final straw for the rest of the Western World. The combined forces of NATO and European Union countries finally moved into the Ukraine to counter the Russian offensive, providing direct action defence against Russian aerial and ground bombardments, and that's when the nukes started flying. Holding true to its threats, Russia launched its vast arsenal of aging nuclear warheads, alongside China and other communist allies. Poland was first to go, followed by Sweden, Lithuania, France, even Minsk, the capital of Belarus didn't escape their fury, although only due to a fault in the missiles aging mechanics causing the booster rocket to cut out qs it passed over the allied country. Everyone fought back, however no manner of technological advancements could account for luck, and the sheer number of nukes used. The world slowly became a barren wasteland; those who didn't perish in the initial attacks died a slow, painful death from nuclear fallout, and from the rain that followed. Those not wiped out by the radiation would slowly suffer from the lack of technology, fried by the electromagnetic pulse released by the detonation of a nuclear warhead, the same technology they needed to produce medicines, and run hospitals. The wheels of modern society gradually stopped turning, that was five years ago.
Lees bunker had been hardwired against EMPs (like most military tech), and shielded against nuclear radiation, however he remained down there for several weeks after the first nuclear warheads flew, waiting for the dust and chaos to settle before emerging. Lee Harden was a Captain in the United States Army, one of only a gew hundred matching specific criteria drafted for selection, and one of 48 to make it through the rigorous training and become a Project Hometown Coordinator. Project Hometown was the Government's contingency plan for a total collapse of government and infrastructure following a major disaster, each Coordinator was responsible for one of each 48 lower, continental states, with the goal of finding survivors and re-establishing society in the aftermath. Lee had been sequestered in his bunker for almost a year by the time he had emerged. Initially he had been sent down for a month after Russia had begun amassing troops at the Ukrainian border, his superiors concerned about the Russians next move. Then he'd come up for a few months until Russia threatened to nuke any countries who directly provided assistance to the Ukraine, followed by the mobilisation of their nuclear assets. That time Lee had gone under and hadn't come up until after everything went to sh*t, surfacing a month after the blast that had wiped out Washington DC. He'd initially gone about his task, gathering survivor's, wary of the radiation from Norfolk. He'd surfaced from his bunker just outside of Angier, North Carolina, and headed to the nearest city, Raleigh. The main risk was from nuclear fallout emanating from Norfolk Naval base and Fort Bragg, two of Russias local targets to whittle down US Naval and Special Forces numbers.
After a few months, Raleigh had proved too big an area to police, with the gathered survivors occupying the city centre, the outskirts fell to rival groups who were less inclined to rebuilding civilisation, so Lee made the decision to relocate to Greenboro, a smaller city up towards the state border with Virginia, and erected barricades at all the major roads into the city, using the buildings to create the main choke points and sealing off most access roads, before setting up secondary barricades and fences using scavenged chain link fencing, corrugated iron, thick wooden panels and whatever else the survivors could get their hands on.
It was a cold November morning when Lee stepped out of his accommodation, a repurposed hotel, and stretched, cracking his back as he did, before working the kinks out of his neck. He'd been offered a choice of one of the abandoned flats or houses, but Lee had opted for one of the lower floors of the hotel, high enough for him to escape from easily, but also offered a good view of main street and the surrounding area. Years of bunking in army standard barracks, FOBs, bases and foxholes had accustomed Lee to sleeping in the worst of the worst, compared to that a Hotel was a luxury, although it hadn't compared to his house and bunker that the government had built each Project Hometown Coordinator.
Letting out a deep sigh, Lee watched as his breath bloomed in the cold air, pulling his jacket tighter around him as he thrust his hands into its pockets and made his way to the motor pool, which in reality was a stripped out vehicle impound lot.
1 | Oct 13th 2022 09:56