THE ARK

RJ returned to the main tunnel after lunch to find Amy and Jill Warren and Jill’s Weapons Officer, Steve Perk, and another pilot dressed in flight suits going over the plans for the afternoons scouting mission.

Two UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters were in the process of being towed down the tunnel to the landing pad. Jill’s AH-64D Apache Helicopter gunship was riding the giant elevator up out of the pit.

There were eight Humvees already up and outside, four would leave from each gate. They would split into teams of two, each containing six heavily armed soldiers. They would proceed to nearby towns and begin investigating. At no time today would they be more that forty miles from the mountain.

The Black Hawks would serve two functions. They, too, would scout the area, going out as far as one hundred miles, they would scout towns and highways looking for signs of life. For today’s mission, the Black Hawks were armed with miniguns and rockets and were tasked with supporting the ground teams if they ran into trouble.

The Apache Gunship was available in case any teams got into trouble. Since it is heavily armed with a 30MM M230 chaingun cannon and carried 70 Hydra (2.75 inch) folding-fin rockets as well as air to ground Hell Fire missiles, it is a comfort for those going into the unknown. With luck, the only thing the Apache would do today is a brief test flight to ensure that all systems were operational.

Forty minutes later the Humvees passed out the gates and the rotors of the Black Hawks started turning. The Humvees rapidly went to the highway. There were several occasions where they had to go off road because of obstructions or damage to the road.

As Alpha Team entered the town of Merrillville they were comforted to hear the sound of the Black Hawk’s twin T700-GE-701C turboshaft engines overhead. Just knowing that there were ten extra people available aboard the armed helicopter was very reassuring for the ground force.

To a casual observer, these newcomers would look like an aggressor force, but the reality was that they were there to make initial contact and scout out the area. The goal was to befriend any survivors and work with them, to learn and rebuild a modern society.

One fact was simple, only fools would wander into the unknown without the means to defend themselves and these teams were more than ready to defend themselves if needed. In addition to the Kevlar body armor, each team member carried an M-4 assault rifle and a semi-automatic handgun. Each of the Humvees was equipped with a mounted M240B medium weight machine gun capable of firing 7.62mm ammunition at a rate of up to 950 rounds per minute. It had been decided not to equip these reconnaissance teams with heavier weapons since the possibility of encountering a large aggressor force was unlikely and there was ample air support. The reinforcements aboard the Black Hawks were more heavily armed, just in case everyone’s expectations were wrong

As they walked along, they saw that the town that once had a population of close to five thousand and was now just a ghost town. Most of the buildings were in terrible condition after fifty plus years without care. Many had collapsed partially or entirely and most of the others were missing parts of roofs. The rusted hulks of cars were everywhere; the Humvees had to push several out of the way because they were blocking the streets.

Of all the cars on the roads, the team members were surprised at how many had bodies in them. It seemed that in the final day’s many people were trying to escape to anywhere. Running to avoid the death that eventually caught them. Most of the bodies were nothing but clothing covered skeletons. In a heavily rusted Ford Windstar minivan the team saw a tiny skeleton that was still strapped into a car seat. There was still a small faded bonnet on the top of the head.

Sergeant Davis led them to the first building that they passed by. It was a hardware store. The front door was locked, so they went to the rear of the building and forced the door open. Afterward, Davis could not explain why he went through the back other than to say it seemed wrong to smash in the front door. They slowly entered and looked around. There was a heavy layer of dust on all surfaces. There were tools and other products still hanging on the walls. Davis picked up a Dewalt cordless drill and thought how it seemed just like two months ago he had considered buying one identical to this. In the end, he decided it was too expensive, considering how little he would use it. Now here was one, free for the taking and he could not think of a single reason to bother taking it.

There was some damage where water had leaked in from holes that had developed in the roof. Otherwise, the place was in excellent condition. With two days effort and a new roof the store could easily have been reopened for business. After several minutes looking at the condition of the store, the team had determined that there was no sign that there was anyone alive here and left through the same door in which they had entered.

Next door to the hardware store was Jack’s Pizza. The name was still clearly legible on the large front glass window. There was a wood frame door next to the window and the store hours were printed in marker on a small red and white plastic sign that was attached to the glass in the window. The rest of the front wall was in fair shape, but that was as good as Jack’s Pizza had held up. It looked like the roof had caved in at some point, and in the process pushed the sidewalls out. The back wall was partly collapsed and stood only about five feet high.

The next building that they entered was a medium sized ranch house with white seamless vinyl siding and the rusted remains of a Ford Explorer in the driveway. As Davis touched the doorknob he had an unexplainable urge to knock before entering. Knowing that the rest of the team would give him more than a little harassing, he resisted the urge and used minimal effort. He pushed the partially rotted door open with his shoulder. As the door opened, it pushed against an object that lay directly behind the door. As they moved through the door, they saw that the door had pushed into a small skeleton which had been behind it. There was a moment of confusion because of the shape and size of the skeleton, and then they noticed the fur and red nylon collar around the neck. There were three identification tags that were attached. One of the team members slowly bent down and looked at the tags. “His name was Guido,” he said.

Looking around they could see that they were in a kitchen, which at first glance, seemed to have held up well over the years. On the counter by a window rested a man’s watch. Davis picked the watch up and recognized at as one identical to the one that his brother wore. It had a titanium finish and its battery was recharged with any light source. His brother had told him that as long as in got some regular exposure to everyday light, and was not left in a drawer for several months in a row, it would keep going forever. Davis looked and saw that it was indeed still running and the time was very close to accurate, even after fifty-four years.

Davis reverently placed the watch back exactly where he had found it.

The team moved further into the house. Several of the windows were broken and there was extensive damage where the weather had been getting in for many years. There was a musty unpleasant odor in the house. It seemed to worsen as they went deeper inside. In the living room, there was a faded portrait on the wall of a very happy looking couple. They appeared to be in their sixties. In the photo, they were formally dressed and there was a handsome German Sheppard obediently sitting at their feet.

The team moved slowly, and in places could feel that the floor was spongy beneath their feet.

“Why don’t the rest of you head back out, I’m not too comfortable with the strength of this floor. Daniels will come with me and we’ll take a quick look around and be right out,” Davis instructed.

The two of them continued through the house and soon came upon a bedroom. While it was dark in the room, they could still make out the scene before them.

There were two people in the bed. They suspected that the one on the right was a female by the remains of her nightshirt. There was nothing left other than the clothes, bones, and some hair. The one on the right had no shirt on, and his right arm was bent upwards and was resting on the pillow next to his head.

Still held in the remains of his hand was a small caliber handgun. There was a hole in the side of the skull just above the right ear.

Daniels gently peeled back the covers from the woman and noticed how stained the sheets below her were from the fluids that leaked from the body as it decomposed. He carefully examined the head and then the torso but there was no sign of a bullet wound or any other kind of trauma.

They left the house and Alpha team spent another two hours in the town; they split up and went into about fifteen more homes, and twice as many businesses.

In almost every building they encountered skeletons, but never any people. There was no sign that there had been anyone around for many, many years.

Sergeant Davis was getting ready to head back to the rendezvous point at the town square when he decided to check out one last building. His team entered the Baptist Church on the South side of the town.

As they entered, they were amazed at what they saw. Across the tops of all the pews were sheets of plywood that were laid out as makeshift beds, and on all the boards were bodies. There were at least one hundred skeletons in the old church. At first, the sight was incomprehensible but quickly the picture came into focus. When the local hospital was overloaded many of the people brought the sick and dying here. Either because this was the only other organized group trying to help them or because they knew that divine intervention was the only possible escape from what was to come.

As they looked on in shock at the spectacle before them, there was a sudden clatter from the back of the sanctuary of the church. The team looked up in time to see a brief movement. Not sure of what was going on several team members raced forward while the rest ran outside to cut off the escape route.

The team that went outside was coming around the side of the church and saw what had to be the world’s ugliest cat slip out through a hole in a window and disappear into some badly overgrown hedges. The rest of the team then came racing out a side door in pursuit of the hideous looking feline.

After five minutes of searching, it was clear that the cat was gone and would not be back anytime soon.

Later in his report, Davis admitted that since this was the first animal life any of them had seen that day, for the first time in his life he was actually glad to have seen a cat.