APOCALYPSE 2 – THE RECLAMATION

37 years has passed since the nuclear war was started. Families everywhere have
been moved to the vaults. Now, outside, the radiation has worn away. It is time
for society to take back their homes!
Mike woke up. He yawned. He had overslept! He remembered the party from last
night. Reclamation Eve. Wait… Mike thought about this. It is Reclamation day!
Mike jumped from his bed in excitement. Everyone else must have already left
the vault! Mike opened his bedroom door to find his parents, James and Carol,
sitting on the sofa. “Hey guys!” called Mike. “Why aren’t you leaving the vault?
It’s Reclamation Day!” James looked up, his face slightly wrinkled, his eyes a dark
green. “Oh, Carol and I don’t plan to leave.” He said, his voice a raspy whisper
compared to the cheerful adventurous lad he was. “I’ve had enough radiation for
one lifetime. We oldies are spending our last days in the Vault; think of it as a
retirement home.” Mike silently agreed; he remembered James’ RadScan reading
a stunning 27%. “OK then, but I’m going. See you around!” replied Mike. His
ageing father gave him a little wave before Mike closed the door to Room 23.
It didn’t take long for Mike to find the Vault door. It was left open. He climbed
some stairs down and went through the door. The sun was bright, but Mike
didn’t mind. It reminded him of his adventures in the wasteland. As he left the
vault, he heard an alarm. The Vault door was closing. The huge gear was
resealing the giant bunker. Suddenly, the light above the door flickered and then
dimmed before turning off entirely. Was the Vault shutting down? But James
and Carol were still in there… he pounded on the door, shouting. But no reply
came. Mike gave up and walked down the dirt track. The forest was empty. Mike
checked his Vault Lunchbox from yesterday. He had stored some essentials in
there, ready for Reclamation Day. Torch, kitchen knife, water, and a sausage roll.
He took out the sausage roll and took a bite out of it. It was cold, but tasty. Mike
looked around. He could see an axe stuck in a tree stump in a clearing. Jackpot,
Mike thought. He was about to walk up to it, when he realised there was a net
above the axe. He could just make out a string attached to the axe, connecting to
the net. A trap, he thought. Not very affective, though. Mike took his knife and
sawed through the string. The net fell. Mike watched it fall and used his knife to
saw through it and get to the axe. he pulled it out of the stump and ran away. He
could hear people from behind him, running to the clearing. “Oh look, new- wait
where is the axe?” “The little bugger didn’t take it did he?” “And look here? The
radbones sawed through the net too!!” whoever these voices belonged to, they
didn’t sound friendly. Along the track Mike saw a camp up ahead. He started to
walk towards it. When he got there, he found it uninhabited. There was a huge
canister of water, and a can of fish. He ate the fish, along with some of the water.
After that he had a rest. Mike liked the view. He wondered how long it would be
before the owner found him. Mike got up and carried on walking.
Mike was having a rest, when he noticed something strange on the ground. A
body clad in the same sort of suit he remembered the Nuke Forces wearing. He
took off the helmet and saw a skull. He removed the body, trying not to retch the
entire time, and soon put on the suit himself. Mike wasn’t sure how to operate
this, but he managed to turn on something. He felt powerful with this armour on.
Mike carried on walking, still wearing the Nuke Forces armour. It felt a little
strange to be wearing something that a corpse had been enclosed in for god
knows how long, but Mike didn’t mind. He took off the helmet to let a bit of air
get to his head, but just as he undid the clamps he heard an alarm. The nuke
alarm…
Mike stood in amazement, not knowing whether to run or to watch as the missile
hurtled through the sky. But as it got closer, Mike could see it was a meteorite.
He donned his helmet as the space rock smashed into the ground. A warning
popped up in his inner helmet, reading “HIGH RAD LEVELS”. He guessed that the
“nukes” were meteorites, and there was no war. It still amazed him to think that
the military were sending nuclear petitions to other countries in case of a nuke
attack, when they were just meteors. Mike continued down to the town, where
he could see a group of raiders arguing over a dead body. Must be way gone
down the road to insanity, he thought, before starting walking again.
Once he got into the town, the raiders noticed him. “Look! It’s Iron Man!”
Another spoke. “Hey there, Mr. Nuke!” “We don’t like you, with your scanners
and your teams!” Suddenly one piped up from the back. “I bet his flesh is better
than this body we’re fighting over!” Suddenly, they were on him, claws tearing,
teeth biting, eyes mad with hunger and rage. Mike was thrown to the floor; his
helmet lay broken on the ground. Just as he got ready for death, he caught
something on his suit. It launched him into the air. A jetpack? Mike pressed a
button on his arm and small rockets flew down onto the mad raiders. He fiddled
with some switches on his jetpack and landed safely on the ground. Time to
reclaim some land. Just as he was going to walk off, a strange lizard ran out of
nowhere, with a person riding it. They stopped in front of Mike and got off their
mount. “Hey there. I saw you having some trouble with those semi-ghouls.
Where’s the rest of your squad?” Mike looked up at the strange rider. They had a
dust mask covering their face, and a cowboy hat. “I don’t have a squad. I stole
this armour off a body I found up there.” He gestured up the hill to the campsite.
“That would be Captain Shay. Ghouls got him. But there’s worse things now.
Look at Old Leafy over here.” He pointed to his lizard, its skin mottled and
speckled with sores. “My name’s Gildo. If you want me, I’ll be around. Catch ya
later!” And then, Gildo rode off on Old Leafy, leaving Mike alone. He turned and
walked off towards a house.
Within this building, Mike found a boarded-up entrance. He used his axe to chop
through the slats and got into a strange room. It had a safe on the floor. Mike
tried to figure out the code, but he couldn’t do it. As he was leaving, he saw a
body left on the floor. It was green in colour, and had spores growing all over it.
Its eyes were yellow, and it was dead, or so it looked. Was this what happened if
you touched the meteor? What if the safe contained a part of the first meteor,
and this creature was the person who locked it in there? Mike left the building,
to hear shouting from around a corner. Mike sprinted around to see what the
matter was when he heard a familiar voice: “Over here, ya fat ogre! Come to
Gildo!” He looked to see Gildo on Old Leafy, trying to catch a giant creature in a
trap. He spotted Mike. “Hey there, mate! Come help me with Loathsome over
here!” he threw Mike a lasso, which he instinctively threw at the beast. It caught
it around the middle. “There ya go!” shouted Gildo. “Now pull it taught!” Mike
pulled the second end of the lasso and tied them together. “Good move! Now
hook it around something!” shouted Gildo. Mike ran to a lamp post and tied it to
the pole. Gildo threw a lasso at the other side and hooked it to another post.
There was nowhere for the behemoth to go. Gildo ran up to it and tied its legs.
“Might as well put it out of its misery, then.” He mumbled, drawing a handgun.
He shot it in the head, and it fell forward, held upright by the rope. Gildo smiled.
“That pest has been terrorising us Wanderers for ages!” Mike thought for a
second. “Wanderers? I know some Wanderers! How is the Lead Wanderer?” Gildo
laughed. “Don’t be silly. I AM the lead Wanderer! The old leader died, and now
it’s my turn to lead.” Mike realised that this would make sense. “But you’re
dressed more like a modern-day cowboy.” Gildo laughed again and pulled down
his dust mask. “I’m still a Wanderer. And, like all Wanderers, I have decided that I
must move on. But I’ll give you a gift, a payoff for helping me.” Gildo gave Mike a
box of bottlecaps. “These’ll help ya down at Junksville.” Gildo pointed to a city
just on the outskirts of the area. It was surrounded with tall walls to block all
enemies out. “That’s where we’re heading next.” Explained Gildo. “We’ll get
some supplies, make some friends, and then move on.” And with that Gildo
saddled Old Leafy and walked off towards an abandoned petrol station, just as a
loud crash signalled the Behemoth had fallen to the floor. Mike set off for
Junksville, wondering what people he’d encounter there…
After many days and nights of walking, Mike came to Junksville. The entrance
was a gate, with a person sitting in a box above it. The man called out to Mike.
“Good morning to ya! Now what might ya be wanting pestering old Ashy on a
fine morning as this, eh?” Mike looked up at the old face, very reminiscent of his
own father’s. “I want to get into Junksville.” Explained Mike. Ashy looked at him.
“How many caps do ya be ownin’?” asked Ashy. Mike counted his bottlecaps and
came to a total of 300. “Oh, a good amount!” exclaimed Ashy. “I’ll be needin’ 50
of those if ya wanna come in!” Mike deposited them in a small rusty box, and
Ashy pulled a lever. It opened the gate and revealed a little village. There were
people everywhere, carrying wooden planks or toolboxes, sitting down eating
some sort of mush out of a container, some were even drinking what looked like
cider! Mike was approached by a man wearing a leather jacket. “You’ll be
wanting work, I suppose.” He spoke with a deep, stern voice, a quintessential
policeman. “We have a little law here. It states that all persons within Junksville
must contribute to society by building or selling wares. Long story short, you
need a job.” Mike gulped. In this village, all people need jobs… or what? “What
happens if you don’t have a job?” asked Mike. The policeman eyed him with a
stare, as if to say, “Don’t let them know you’re jobless.” Mike got the idea and
went into the building that said “Job Centre” on the front door. Inside was a
queue of people, each one looking hungrier than the next. Mike thanked himself
for getting a sausage roll and a jar of fish. Sooner or later he was at the front
himself. The woman at the desk took one look at him and said “Builder."
The next day was rough. Mike found himself carrying heavy wooden stakes to a
muddy field in Junksville and pushing them into the ground using only his
hands. It was hard work, and even harder when he found out that at the end of
the day he earned 10 caps. That was just enough to buy the mush he saw the
other people eating the day before. He sampled some himself. It was like mashed
potato gone wrong. He spat it out on the floor. The next day was the same, and
the next. These workers were being payed less than minimum wage to buy
disgusting slop that they only ate to stop the risk of starvation. Mike couldn’t
believe this was going on. He was going to put a stop to it…
One day, while heading to work, Mike talked to the police officer he had seen on
his first day. “Do you realise the conditions these poor people are working in?”
Mike asked. The policeman looked at him. “Yes. That’s just the way it is.” Mike
was getting cross. “Who enforces these horrible rules?” The policeman’s nostrils
flared. “We do. The Junksville police do.” Mike wasn’t going to have this. “Who’s
we? Because really, it only seems like you.” The policeman took off his hat. “We
could send you to jail for that.” Mike braced himself for whatever happened next.
“You and who’s army?” The policeman took out his whistle and prepared to blow
it. “This army.”
STOP THEIF! Yelled the policeman. Suddenly, all the surrounding people were
attacking him. Some had broken bottles, some had stakes, some just had fists.
They grabbed him and shook him, punched him and pushed him, until Mike was
almost ready to give up. He remembered when he was fighting the ghouls. He
switched on his jetpack and flew high into the sky. Over the walls he flew,
evading rotten apples and Molotov cocktails. “YOU’LL PAY FOR THAT, YOU
LITTLE BUGGER! WITH YOUR LIFE!” screamed the policeman, as Mike landed
outside the Junksville walls. Just as he landed, Mike saw Gildo leading a group of
masked followers towards him. “Hey there, Mike!” called Gildo. “I heard there
was some trouble down at the town.” Mike smiled, for what felt like the first time
since he exited the vault. “Yeah. That was me.” “I wouldn’t go in there. “Mike
explained what had gone on, and Gildo agreed. “You can travel with us if you
like.” Said Gildo. Mike agreed, and they headed east.
“Now, according to my map, there’s a little settlement just along that river called
Scrap Crescent.” “It looks nicer than Junksville, at least.” Mike could see it from
across the field. It was surrounded by a low gate, and there was a neon blue sign
reading “FRIENDS WELCOME”. Mike smiled. Finally, a place he could call home
again.
Mike was the first to walk up to the door. He knocked on it and saw a box office
cover open next to it. A friendly face looked out, wearing a party hat. “Hello
there. I expect you’ll be wanting to come into Scrap Crescent.” Mike nodded. The
man smiled again. “Well, the sign doesn’t lie. Friends are welcome, and you look
friendly enough.” The man disappeared, and the door opened. Inside, there was
a campfire and a few small buildings. “My name’s Ryall, by the way.” The man led
Mike and the Wanderers into Scrap Crescent and took a seat by the fire. It was
getting dark. Mike sat down next to the fire. Ryall was on his left, and another
woman was on his right. Mike felt like he recognised the face. “Polly!” The
woman looked up. “Mike? Is that you?” realisation washed over her as Polly
comprehended that she was with her brother again. Another man’s voice broke
out from across the campfire. “Who wants some marshmallows?” Mike turned to
see a younger man wearing a leather waistcoat, holding a bag of white
marshmallows. “Thanks, Duram, you’re the best.” Polly handed around sharp
wooden spikes, and Duram speared a marshmallow on each of them. “This
reminds me of when I used to go camping.” Said Ryall. Duram looked into the
distance. “Me too…” he murmured. Gildo walked closer to the fire from the
shadows. “Where do we sleep?” Polly gestured to a few sleeping bags on the
floor, before turning to Mike. “So where were you from before coming here?”
Mike took his marshmallow out of the fire. “Junksville.” He pointed to the rusty
basin surrounding it, which currently seemed to be burning. “I guess they got a
bit too exitable with the Molotov cocktails.” After that the team went to sleep.
In the morning, Mike awoke to the sight of Junksville’s outer walls collapsed and
burnt almost to the ground. “Serves them right.” Polly snorted. “I think it was
part of a government experiment to see how people would labour if they knew it
was for their survival.” Mike looked at her, grim-faced at first, and then burst into
laughter. “Well, you think everything is an evil government experiment.” “When
we first went in the Vaults, you thought it was a government scheme to keep us
out of the way while they fought a nuclear war and destroyed the land.” Polly
looked sceptical. “Well, isn’t that what was actually going on?” Mike shook his
head. “The nukes are actually strange meteors that contain toxic gas and
radiation.” Now it was Polly’s turn to laugh. Mike smiled as she stood there. “You
really think that these attacks are coming from space?” Mike nodded. He looked
into the distance. “I need to get this information to the government.” Ryall
looked up. “The new government is situated in Vault 001.” Mike thought for a
second. “Where’s Vault 001?” Gildo walked up to him, Old Leafy following
behind. “I know where it is! I could take you if you like!” Mike nodded, and the
Wanderers prepared to move out…
Just as Gildo and Mike were about to leave, Polly came running up to Old Leafy.
“Wait! Can I come too?” she asked. Gildo nodded, and Polly got up onto Old
Leafy’s back, and the team started riding away. As it happened, all Wanderers
had creatures the same species as Old Leafy, but none were as large as the gentle
giant that Mike, Gildo and Polly were riding. After days, nights, perhaps even
weeks of travelling, they came to a forest. “This is where you get off.” Said Gildo
to Mike. “We’ll wait here. Just give us a shout if you get into trouble.” Mike
thanked him, and walked up the path towards the huge, gear-shaped opening to
Vault 001. He tapped the voice receiver. A gruff voice sounded out. “Who is it?”
Mike though desperately for an answer. He saw a notice saying the Vault safety
check was today. “Um… Vault safety check?” the voice on the other end was
quiet for a second. “It’s about time. You were supposed to report here at 07:00
hours.” Mike waited, and then heard the voice shout something into another
room. “Boys, open the door!” Mike heard the hiss of a hydraulic piston, before it
slotted into place and the gear was moved to the side and rolled away. Next to
the door was a young man at a control panel. Behind him was an older man
dressed in a general’s uniform. The younger man spoke first. “Good afternoon
Inspector. It is a pleasure to- wait, why have you got Nuke Forces armour on?”
Mike looked at the man. Certainly, a lower rank than his leader behind him. “I
believe they should be called Meteor Forces armour.” “I need to see the prime
minister. It’s an issue of utmost importance.” The general looked suspiciously at
the Nuke Forces armour, and then at Mike, before opening a door behind him
and leading Mike through it, deeper into the Vault…
After a long walk through the Vault, Mike and the general came to a room titled
“PRIME MINISTER”. The door opened, and Mike saw a woman dressed in a suit
behind a large desk. “Good afternoon, Prime Minister.” Said the general. “The
inspector is in, despite being 5 hours late.” He saw the Prime Minister look closely
at Mike’s Nuke Forces armour. “Don’t ask about the uniform. He wishes to speak
with you privately. The Prime Minister looked up from her papers. “Very well.”
She replied, and the general stepped out of the room as the metal doors closed.
The Prime Minister gestured for Mike to take a seat. “You wished to speak to me.”
Mike nodded. “The nukes… they’re meteors.” The Prime Minister laughed. “You
are wrong.” She pressed a button on her desk and the bookcase behind her
moved to reveal a glass case. Mike looked in. “The bombs are from space, but
they are not natural.” As Mike looked closer, he realised that the Prime Minister
was correct. The “meteor” actually had little rockets on it, and Mike could see
vents and metal covers where he had originally seen craters. “This one detonated
23 years ago.” She said. “Feel free to take a closer look.” The glass case opened,
and the Prime Minister handed Mike a pair of gloves. He caught a little catch on
the nosecone of the missile, and accidentally opened it, revealing a chamber
where a canister could have been held. “We believe that this is where the toxic
radiation would have been held.” Mike looked back at the Prime Minister, her
hands at a control panel on her desk. “Who do you think is sending them?” He
asked. A periscope lifted down from the ceiling. “Have a look for yourself.” She
replied…
EPILOGUE
Mike could see a space station, but not the ISS. It was a sphere and covered in
technology he had never seen before. Suddenly, a door opened on the side, and
a cannon pointed out. It launched a missile, very reminiscent of the one Mike had
been examining minutes before. “Aliens?” he asked. The Prime Minister looked at
him. “Yes. I believe they are…”
THE END