Oh no...

Posted on Tue Jan 7th, 2025 @ 9:07pm by Corporal Nicholas Richards

1,086 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Towers of the Void (Series Premiere)
Location: Alexandria, Virginia
Timeline: July 25, 2024

[ON:]

July 25, 2024 wasn't much different than any other day. Nick had just started his shift for the paramedic unit for the City of Alexandria, Virginia with his fairly new partner, Alex Fuentes. Their truck hadn't been washed since Nick was working with his previous partner several weeks ago and was in dire need of a good, thorough cleaning both inside and out. Alex and Nick both thought that it would be a good idea to get the truck cleaned up at the beginning of their shift before they had to run out and pick up any patients.

As they worked around their rig, Alex sprayed some water from the hose towards Nick, narrowly missing him. Nick turned to look at Alex for a moment with a 'really dude' kind of look. They both knew that they wouldn't have had enough time to clean the rig and get a clean change of clothes before having to ship out for their shift, which was probably why Alex decide to do what he did. Alex just smugly smiled and said, "Oops, my bad bro. Missed the rig by a long shot."

Nick had a bucket full of water right next to him with a sponge and some other cleaning supplies. He kicked it towards Nick, making it splash over onto Alex's new shoes for work. Alex looked up at Nick with the same look that Nick had mere moments prior before he sprayed Nick's shoes in the same way. "Payback's a b*tch, isn't it? Maybe you should watch where you're going with that." Alex replied before going back to spraying down the rig. However, both men weren't mad because that's exactly how they worked, even though they had only worked together for a few weeks.

It didn't take long for the rig to get cleaned up and the two to get their shift officially started. The rig was taken into traffic in a City on the outskirts of the national capital, which was rather busy. Alex, who was in the passenger seat, looked at Nick while he was driving and asked, "How do you think the shift will go? Do you think it'll be QUIET today?"

Nick nearly wrecked the rig because of the Q word that Alex just said. Nick looked over at Alex and said, "Do you know what you've just SAID? You just said the Q word and that's going to mean that we're going to be slammed with calls today. And to think, I thought that today was going to actually be a relaxing day without much incident."

Before Alex could even reply to anything, the radio on the rig came to life and said, "ALL UNITS, ALL UNITS. EMERGENCY IN PROGRESS AT THE CAPITAL BUILDING, THE WHITE HOUSE, AND ALL SURROUNDING AREAS. ALL DC METRO AND SURROUNDING AREAS TO RESPOND. MASS CASUALTY RESPONSE."

Alex and Nick looked at one another and knew that if they were being called into Metro DC, especially around the White House and all other areas like that, something must be going on. Nick turned on his sirens and headed straight into the chaos that was unfolding in the national capital. But, before anything or anyone could get even close enough to anywhere they could help, there was a massive explosion around the middle of Washington, DC. From the looks of it, it appeared to have come from the area surrounding the National Archives, which was rather close to the center of DC, or so Nick thought.

Thankfully for Nick and Alex, they were still far enough away that it didn't cause them harm. But, its shockwave did cause their rig and various other vehicles around them to topple over. When Nick regained consciousness, he quickly looked over to see the lifeless body of Alex hanging from his seat on the passenger side. Nick was hanging from his side, so he quickly got himself unbuckled. Nick reached up and tried to see if there was a pulse anywhere of the major points on Alex. But, there wasn't and he knew that there was no way of bringing Alex back.

Nick quickly jumped out of his rig through the front windshield and saw that Washington and the surrounding areas had been hit by something. He wasn't an engineer, military technician, or anything like that. So, he wasn't able to even tell what kind of explosion it was. He was just thankful to be alive at that moment.

That was short lived, though.

Within a few moments, as Nick was starting to get the wounded treated with what little supplies that he had from his rig, he saw what appeared to be metal men walking towards him. Nick had heard something about the military and skynet working on something like this to help the military. Maybe they were being deployed since something or someone had started to attack the United States.

But, as the T-1s and other machines got closer, they started opening fire on Nick and all the people around him. Nick took over with a few people behind the rig, but it was no use. Their bullets were starting to quickly tear through the exterior of the rig from one side to the other. Nick tried to get people away from there, but there were way to many wounded and by the time that they got even a few meters away, most of them had fallen.

Nick and a few of the survivors took refuge in an old, abandoned warehouse. Luckily for the survivors, they hadn't cleaned out the warehouse of the various equipment that the operators used to use. That included stuff for smelting various metallic things. It allowed for the survivors to hide behind some items and use them as weapons. But, they hopefully wouldn't need it.

The survivors slowly waited in a back room of the warehouse that didn't have any windows into it and was well covered for what felt like an eternity. After several hours of blasts around the building and an eerie quietness in the air, Nick and the survivors slowly made their way outside of the warehouse to look at the horror and devastation that would become known as "Judgement Day."

Nick saw so many dead bodies that day, but knew that it wouldn't stop him from finding and helping others. He led the survivors into a new world, hoping to find a safe place to lay their heads and figure out what the next steps were.

[OFF:]

Nick Richards
Medic

 

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