And So it Begins

Posted on Fri Jan 10th, 2025 @ 9:55am by Corporal Emma Callahan & Colonel James Colt

2,300 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Towers of the Void (Series Premiere)
Location: Callahan Family Home, Montana
Timeline: Morning of Judgment Day

Emma was rarely one for a late lie in, not that it was that late, but being cuddled up with James she’d slept better in one night than she had in a long time. That was until the house shook as a massive explosion rocked the neighbourhood. Emma scrambled out of bed in a blind panic, still half asleep she dived for the nearest corner for cover huddling up with her hands over her head.

The explosion woke James who had been sleeping soundly with an arm draped over Emma. He looked for Emma and found her cuddled in the corner with her hands over her head. He was beside her in an instant. "Emma? Emma, are you alright?" he pressed her.

James’ prompting made Emma snap out of her frightened stupor, looking up at him just as another bigger explosion rocked the house. “We have to get out of here!” She sprang to her feet, grabbing her dressing gown and putting on before picking her backpack up off the floor. “This way! My dad’s shelter! He finally got it finished.”

James grabbed his pants and shirt and followed Emma in his underwear. As she grabbed her gown and backpack. " Right behind you!" He hollered. He did?" James questioned. "I thought he had stopped." he muttered as they moved through the house and to the backyard. His eyes searching for the shelter.

Emma dashed down the garden her military survival training kicking in. “It’s right down here...” she stopped at the rear of the old wooden garden shed where a disguised entrance in the ground went down into a bunker. Being ex-military himself her father had built the shelter, but he’d only gotten as far as equipping it with a couple of weeks of food & water, more concentrating on getting the comforts installed first. No one expected something like this would ever truly be needed except in the case of severe storms.

James was beside her as they stood at the rear of the old shed. "Let's get it opened up and get inside before any more explosions occur especially if they are closer. it sounds like the explosions are bracketing the area." He observed as he racked his brain to remember what military installations were close by. "Malmstrom" he said quietly. "Do you need help getting the hatch open Emma?" he questioned ready to help any way he could.

“Please” Emma nodded, the hatch was weighty as it had to be to cover the shelter entrance.

"Okay, stand aside." James said as he moved to the hatch and removed the camouflage from it. He reached down and with a grunt pulled the hatch open. "Geez, it weighs a ton." he muttered as he got it fully open. "Okay you first, I'll be right behind you." as he held the hatch for Emma to scramble into the shelter.

Scrambling inside Emma was grateful to get under cover, moving down into the bunker she lit an oil lamp that was waiting on a small table in one corner, before lighting a gas heater to warm them up. She had yet to get dressed luckily there were clothes in her backpack she could put on to warm herself up. She looked around noting an open store room door and shelving that thankfully looked pretty full up with tinned and dried foods.

James closed the hatch and locked it shut then came down the short ladder into the bunker. He looked around and nodded. at Emma. "Best get dressed Emma and I will do the same." He said and then asked. "We may be here for a while; we need to take stock of what we have as we may have to stretch it." He said honestly. "At least we're warm. That's a plus." He noted. He pulled his shirt on and started on his pants. "So, any idea what's in here?"

Emma shook her head. “Plans were for a food store that would last months, but the Shelter was finished later than planned I’m not sure how much food and drink there actually is. There’s heating, & lighting obviously, there should be batteries and spare fuel too. That and bedrooms, plus an emergency radio for broadcasts. We should put it on see what’s going on out there.”

"We'll need to see just what we have Emma. Turn on radio, see if you can pick any civil defense station. We need to know what is going on!" James stood in the middle of the room. It appeared well stocked but that could quickly change if he and Emma were forced to stay here for an extended period of time. He silently wished for some weapons to defend Emma and himself.

“There’s a weapons locker too incase you were wondering” Emma smiled. “My suggestion, more to keep my parents safe when they’re here alone.” She picked up the radio turning it on to see what she could find. An emergency broadcast was being sent over all frequencies and it didn’t sound good, She flinched as more explosions continued above them. “My parents and Michael...” She gave James a worried look.

"Easy Emma. Your parents were on a cruise, right? So, they could be alright as long as they weren't in the vicinity of any of the explosions. Where's Michael?" He nodded, "I was wondering. best see what we have to defend ourselves." he said as he listened to the panic in the announcer's voice as they were trying to give a coherent update.

“I... I don’t know! He was supposed to be Overseas with his unit, but I don’t know where!” She took a deep breath Now wasn’t the time to go to pieces. All hell was breaking loose above. “What in the hell is happening out there!?”

James walked to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Breathe." He ordered. "I need you to keep it together. Michael can take of himself; I'm confidant of that. As to what is happening, sounds like World War III has started. " He motioned around the bunker. "Come on let's see what we have."

Emma took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes Sir” she offered a brief smile before grabbing a pad and pencil that lay on the table. “Let’s do an inventory, we can plan from there. We should have medical supplies, I made sure dad had everything he’d need for an emergency including anti radiation meds. Comes in handy when you have contacts in high places.”

James smiled at Emma's reply. "That a girl." He replied. "Let's get started. Though that is great news as far as medical supplies. The anti-radiation meds may well come in handy. So, thank you for insisting you dad stock up with medical supplies and yes having contacts in high places does indeed come in handy."

“Let’s just say I’ve been keeping busy since I retired.” Emma walked ahead into the storeroom to start the inventory whilst trying to listen to the radio broadcasts. “Did someone just say Skynet? That’s supposed to be a defence program.”

"What?" James jerked his head around to look at Emma. "Skynet is more than a defense program Emma. it is the most sophisticated AI program ever devised. It is designed to have complete control of the United States nuclear forces. But it hasn't been ..." He stopped as it dawned on him what had happened, "Oh no, no, no! They finally implemented it. There were reservations to giving complete control to a computer."

“You think it’s activated? Either by accident, or by design?” Emma gave her husband a worried look. “No one would stand a chance against something like that.”

James nodded solemnly. "If you heard the announcer, say Skynet then it is activated as to whether by design or by accident it doesn't matter." He paused, "It's a computer program Emma, highly advanced but still a program so it will have flaws. We just need to find them and exploit them."

“I could have misheard, but I doubt it!” Emma looked up as a series of explosions made the ground quake. “I don’t like the sound of that at all.” She silently carried on with the inventory of the storeroom wondering just what they were going to re-emerge to find when it was all over. “We should have checked on my parents neighbours, I was so busy trying to get to cover I didn’t think!” She cursed herself for being selfish.

James was listening to Emma but like her he wondered what they would find when the emerged from the shelter. He knew they couldn't stay here, and their best bet was to get back to his base outside of D.C. "Hey, don't go beating yourself up over this Emma. It was dark and we were awakened from sleep, and we reacted." He decided to change the subject, "How is the inventory going? What have we got?"

Emma re-emerged pad in hand. “Well looking at this there’s enough tinned, and dried food to last us at least a couple of weeks, more if we ration it further. There’s also bottled water, plus the medical supplies, but there’s not a lot of the medical supplies just above the bare minimum really. The weapons locker is locked, I’m hoping the key is hidden down here, and it’s not in the house.”

"Wow. that's much better than I hoped. Very good Emma now let's see if we find the key so we can see what kind of weapons we have. It has to be somewhere that can be accessed quickly. You know how your dad thinks, it has to be here. Would make no sense to hide it in the house. Question is, where would he put an important key like this? We'll also keep an ear to the radio. Hopefully we can get some more information on what is happening." Jason answered.

“Let me see...” Emma looked around setting eyes on her father’s old desk sitting in one corner of the bunker. “Here..” walking over she felt around underneath the desk finding the key taped on the underside. “Thank you dad!” She pulled it off, getting up she handed it to James. “There you go, I’ve no doubt it’s well stocked.”

James took the key from Emma and walked over to the weapons locker it was an upright, big and wide. "Must have been hell getting this down here." He commented to himself as he placed the key in the lock, pulling the heavy door open. He stood open mouth as he stared at the array of weapons inside the locker. "Emma." He said softly, motioning her to join him. "Look at this."

Emma gave her husband a wide eyed look as she walked over. “How in the hell did my dad get his hands on half of this?” She offered a wry smile. “I already have some gear in my rucksack, you know me I don’t go anywhere unprepared. So just what do we do from here? Getting anywhere unnoticed is going to prove difficult at best.”

James busy looking at the arsenal Emma's father had put together. "First, we sit tight, make sure the explosions are over. We also listen to the radio for any information we can use. Once it's safe we gather up everything we can carry and head for Fort Myer. I'm the liaison officer there." He replied then added, "Thoughts? Ideas Suggestions? Emma."

“Sounds good to me” Emma nodded in agreement. “I never told you, I’ve been working as a private contractor, using my expertise to help with training special operations teams, and advising government agencies on tactics and security. I couldn’t just sit at home twiddling my fingers hoping the nightmares would go away, so I put myself through a rehab program first to get myself back in shape. I never imagined I’d end up back in a situation like this. So...Fort Myer, that’s some err...2000 Miles from here isn’t it?”

James smiled at her, "Good for you Emma! I am proud of you, doing this on your own. You have the knowledge and the skills. That is great." He shook his head, "You look great, your conditioning routine paid off. As I told you last night." He blew a sigh through his teeth. "I don't think anyone imagined a situation like this. Well, maybe a few did but they were overlooked or ignored and this is the result." He nodded his head. "Yes 2000 miles give or take. It is going to be a long trek Emma, but we'll make it."

“Damn right we will” Emma nodded, listening to the noises from above it sounded like all hell was still breaking loose. “We should eat, keep up our strength sounds like we’re going to need it.”

James nodded in agreement and gave voice to his agreement. "You can say that again Emma. We will make it, and you are right we need to eat and we are going to need every ounce of strength we have."

Walking into the storeroom she returned with some cans of food. “Thank heavens for ring pulls, saves the can opener!” She offered a smile.

"James nodded, "Make a note of bringing a can opener with us Emma." He replied accepting the can of food from her. "Bon appetite Emma!" He said raising the can to her and returning her smile and preparing for the journey ahead of Emma and himself.

“Bon appetite James” Emma offered a smile, but she couldn’t help but wonder what they were going to be faced with above ground.

{tbc}

 

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