Chapter Six

Chapter 6

Kids and other Calamities

In the words of Captain Harmon Rabb Jr.

We woke up the next morning and we could feel the temperature change. Our heaters were compensating for the cold and we knew that there was no escaping the killing cold that was among us. We wondered if any survivors were still up there, but the fleet admiral, our CO, indicated that anybody still up there was contaminated with radiation and thus shouldn’t be brought in since they would contaminate the rest of the bunker. It was a cold, pragmatic decision, but the survival of our group was the utmost importance. You could tell that the decision ate at him, though. If there was one thing that I knew about my friend and superior officer, he agonized over decisions that put someone in danger of dying. And in this case, his decision spelled out a death sentence.

We would send Sadie (SD-001) out to measure temps, radiation levels and other things, as well as gain an idea of what sort of climate we were dealing with. Black soot in the air complicated matters since the radiation in the soot was deadly and it was settling all over the landscape and it would take hundreds of thousands of years before the radiation died down to background levels and was rendered harmless. And that made life much more risky on the surface. What if your property you chose to build your new house on was contaminated with black soot. You had a major problem there – and you would pay the price of that miscalculation with birth defects and eventual death by radiation poisoning.

It wasn’t long before Meg went into labor just about the time that Kimber started getting really lonely. She didn’t pay the slightest bit of attention to me. She was too busy pining over the fleet admiral since he was all eyes for his girl, Meg...my former legal and investigation partner when I was with the Judge Advocate for the US Navy. We don’t know exactly what is going on...whether we are now still a part of the US Navy or whether since contact with Command and Control has ceased, we are stuck being as a militia group which is now on its own. Frankly. I don’t mind the fact that we are in a militia group since we all have some structure this way and our former ranks will be continued. It’s whether or not we can find others to help structure our group the way we want it. We would have to live with the situation and hope for the best.

No matter how much the Pentagon used to crack down on him, Animal, no matter what rank he was, led from the front. When his battle group was flying combat missions over Iraq, he’d end up flying the missions with them. The Pentagon used to say admirals lead from the flag bridge. Animal used to say that idea was absolute horseshit and he’d strap on a jet and fly the mission because he stated, “How can I send my men into battle if I can’t be bothered to lead by example?” The mission got done, the targets got obliterated...and the Pentagon grand poobahs frankly forgot about it all, that Animal had gone against their wishes to keep him safe and in a rearward quarters as he had accomplished the mission. So there!

By the time I'd gone back to the fleet, Animal had become the Deputy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and very well could have become the next Chief of Naval Operations; well in actual fact he did just that; just before the balloon went up. So I knew we were in capable hands in terms of command of the bunker and in terms of our overall survival. Afterall we all wanted to survive despite the fact that our prospects looked bleak.

Artie and Sadie would take turns going out into the miasma of radiation and taking readings. We were hoping for a good sign but unfortunately we weren't getting any. They were not finding any at least as far as we could tell. The cloud cover was as thick as molasses. And snow started to cover the ground. There were thick flakes floating down and Sadie's Geiger counters in went bananas. So unfortunately, we were stuck in the bunker for the duration of the time that it would take for the radiation to deteriorate to the point where humans could come out of the bunker and actually start the process of construction. We had no choice but to start working on potions to prolong our longevity. In fact orders were now in place that each human living in the bunker would have to take Young Again potions every time they reached the age of eighty. And that we were to try to produce as many offspring as possible in order to have a work force that was large enough to restore Sunset Valley to what it used to be. Funny to have Americans and Canadians together in a little enclave living and working in Canada, but I wasn’t going to complain.

So when Meg started having contractions it startled the living heck out of me. And from what I could see it was painful contractions. It looked as though she had to bite her lip to keep from screaming in pain. However the baby eventually came out after some time.

He was a spitting image of of a young Animal with red hair. And if the war hadn't happened he probably would be bound for Naval Aviation or the JAG Corps the two designators his mom.and dad were in. Of course the war made it so that only foot-soldiers would be a part of the new military.

We had been blown back into the near stone-age. In fact, the weapons that we had would only suffice until such time as we ran out of ammunition; depending on how much our stockpiles were in terms of gunpowder and other necessary things that would allow us to be able to create primers and loads for our rounds, we would end up having to melt metal and refine it into swords so that we had weapons handy. As far as I could see, this was going to end up being a savage world that we were coming back into. We were now roving bands of savages that would throw rocks and spears made of wood. At least we had the capacity to be able to communicate with each other in a form other than grunts and screams.

How would we manage? Would we all make it? What primitive life-forms would we have to deal with? Were there new creatures that we didn’t know anything about? These were the surprises that awaited us in the treacherous gloom. For right now we would have our shelter and hope and pray that we are able to keep it secure from those who would try to gain entry and do us harm.

Not too long after I saw Meg conversing with Kimber, I saw a fellow, an adult with a mustache, wandering around the bunker looking lost and trying to come to grips with where he was. Without the mustache, he had an uncanny resemblance to our Dear Leader of the Bunker. Evidently someone had mastered the art of cloning; progressing the clone in age from infant to young adult in a matter of minutes. That in itself was a total mind-twist. And what ethically could that do to us as a species. If we needed an army, all we had to do was take our most capable fighters and clone them into hundreds of clones that could decimate any oncoming invasion force. But was that right for us to do? To clone ourselves into an army which would essentially do nothing but die for us. The ethics of cloning leapt back up to bite us in the face. Yet did we have a choice? If the Russians or the Chinese attacked us, we would be sitting ducks in this bunker. We needed to be able to get out of here and have the manpower to be able to protect our stronghold. And it wasn’t just Meg and Kimber either. There were others in the bunker who were sadly unpaired; a situation which sorely needed to be changed so as to increase the genetic diversity of this bunker.

Genetic Diversity was the bugaboo; the fly in the ointment of this apocalypse. We could try to repopulate the earth but if we were inbred, that wouldn’t be a good thing. And with only seven women and 4 men, that made things even worse and the fifth was a clone of one. Somehow both Animal and Meg’s boy and River and Haruo’s boy ended up with a doll that was sufficiently kept out of the path of radioactive particles and thus was safe for the children to use. That was until Jen shouted Eureka, holding up a flask with a gold liquid in it. “Sir, I’ve found out a potion, but I have absolutely no idea what it does.” She said to Animal.

“Well, Chief, Let me know if you know how to duplicate the process and create a duplicate potion...so that we can make it over and over again.” the Fleet Admiral replied.

“Aye-aye, sir!” Jen grinned at Animal.

What I would have given to be a fly on the wall when Captain Kimber “Jugs” Benton went into the fleet admiral’s quarters to ask if he would consent to donating some DNA. Those conversations always go over well. However I figure that it went well since we now have Katsuo Nakamura – in order to keep everything in the family. I suppose. And we have one more breeding pair. And frankly, that is always a good thing, even if the genes are almost identical with some genetic manipulation to the contrary. I can hear Mrs. R. McIrish-Chikamori have a jaw-dropping moment when Bebe Hart, our soon-to-be medical officer, asks her if she might be able to get a DNA sample from Haruo. And I’m sure that the same conversation took place.

Things are rapidly going nuts around here.

In the words of Fleet Admiral Toshio “Animal” Nakamura

To be asked by Captain Benton if she could take a sample of my DNA was rather disconcerting to say the least; and I was speechless for a long moment trying to, in my mind, figure out what it was that was prompting her to try to get a sample. There were two other unattached males in the bunker that needed mates however none of the two invoked Captain Benton’s interest. Least of all Commander Philip Burrows.

“Sir, I know that this is going against the Uniform Code of Military Justice and blowing the fraternization rules to smithereens, but sir, you have to admit that this is extenuating circumstances, wouldn’t you agree?” Kimber had approached me in my quarters while I was not prepared to be meeting up with guests.

“I’m not sure, Captain, what your argument is here, but I’d have to agree that this has to be some form of extenuating circumstance in terms of what the regulations allow. Admittedly, we have a group that isn’t going to run afoul of the UCMJ in terms of anything other than perhaps insubordination or perhaps treason and I doubt that will be of any use, considering the fact that the atmosphere is poisoned – there really is no way to communicate with any other foreign parties.” I said in reply.

“Sir, we’ve served together for a long time.”

“That we have, Captain Benton.”

“I have to tell you something, sir.”

Oh no, here it comes. I thought to myself as I looked into her eyes. She had always been my wing-man protecting my six when we were in the air. We were a tight team, my RIO, her RIO, she and I. The group of four that crewed our two F-14 Tomcats...and my jaw dropped open when she told me that she loved me with every essence of her being, but that she couldn't take me away from Meg, the woman she knew that I loved, but that my team-mate through three wars, Desert Storm, Bosnia and the Second Iraqi War was going to settle for second best and create a clone of me to bed. I basically had absolutely no words for that. “Did you talk to Meg?” was my only question once I could trust myself to speak. I think I was too afraid that my brain was going to explode or something.

“I did...” was her answer – short and simple. Jugs was always a straight shooter, the same way she flew, no fancy stuff, by the book and deadly. So I knew that she was being straight with me. She wasn’t about to sneak around behind Meg’s back. So I gave her the DNA that resulted in Katsuo.

I don’t know if Commander Burrows will forgive me for that, but I’m the CO of the bunker and well, my job is to make sure that the bunker stays secure and if that means making certain people happy that have the power to make my life miserable, then so be it. And at least now we knew that cloning was a viable method of repopulating the town if it came to that so that there would be no genetic defects. Along with the cloning, we found out more about DNA and how to repair damaged genetic coding to ensure the continued health of the generations. Also we were able to adjust the genetic code to eliminate genetic mutations that were detrimental to the continued longevity of our species. This was something that wasn’t foreseeable but we were grateful to the medical breakthrough of our two medical staff, CMCPON Jennifer Coates and Lieutenant Bebe Hart.

I had no idea what we would do in terms of the two civilians left in the group so I discussed it with Meg. Meg came up with the idea that we could commission Haruo as the agricultural officer in charge of the food supplies and other items with the rank of Lieutenant and River as morale officer in charge of keeping the bunker supplied with things that would help keep morale up. All three ranks including the medical officer commissions would be to the rank of Lieutenant or O-3. Normally, one has to have a United States Citizenship to become an officer in the United States Military, but we had no more United States, no more Canada. This had become a blasted out global village and our military structure was within our bunker.

And Mac remained our sole US Marine though that would soon change as Mac had insisted that we have not only AI in our Marine Corps ranks but human bodies as well and thus most of the next generation were going to be trained as Marines with the exception of those who would be trained as medical staff keeping on the tradition of Navy corpsmen who took care of the wounded Marines. Filling out our ranks was something that we were looking forward to. It was one of the first ways that we would be able to establish some normalcy after the bombs. At least what normalcy could be salvaged from a situation where we were living out of a hole in the ground. But that’s the new normal that we had to contend with insofar as post-nuclear apocalyptic day-to-day living was concerned. Thankfully a lot of the group had managed to get used to the situation quite quickly.

Every day we would hope for a change in the conditions; a reduction of the overall radioactive soot in the atmosphere, a reading from the ground that showed that the saturation of radioactive particles was deteriorating, allowing safe passage from this area to perhaps yet another area where we could somehow survive until we were able to establish a foothold genetically – where we weren’t about to become extinct in one generation. From what Lieutenant Hart was able to tell us, that genetic variation was going to be the key to our survival. Which meant that we had to somehow survive until the generations were enough that we were able to escape this bunker when the radiation came down to acceptable levels where we could take the risk to leave our bunker and eventually, the area. My mind keeps going back to movies like The Roadand books like The Last Ship. This is the situation that we’re in now; where humanity’s last remnants are clinging to life in a desperate attempt to survive. The question mark is: will we bring ourselves back from the brink of extinction. That is a question to be answered by future generations, if there is a future.

Excerpt from “The Threat of Extinction; Humanity’s Survival After the Nuclear Holocaust” by Fleet Admiral Toshio Nakamura, (MOH recipient) and Terry O’Callaghan

It cannot be stressed enough that nuclear weapons were nearly the downfall of human existence on this planet. The nuclear genie in a bottle could not be contained and the misguided idea that three nuclear superpowers wielding such weapons of mass destruction in a Mexican stand-off would lead to deterrence against annihilation was sheer hubris on the part of those who dreamed up that strategy. In my years at the top of the Navy pecking order, there was never any doubt that once the keys were turned at the command centers in the missile silos and in the launch centers of the ballistic missile submarines, there was no turning back; that humanity was on a course to wipe themselves off the face of the earth. How we managed to sleep at night knowing that we held the power of life or death over seven billion people on this planet was a miracle; that we could conduct our nuclear launch drills without cracking mentally was nothing short of incredible. Such was the discipline drilled into those who we entrust with our safety and our freedom.

Note by Terry O’Callaghan – It is interesting that the Fleet Admiral still utilizes the old sawhorse of “freedom” to engender rationale for the actions taken by US military high-command in the spring of 2019. Even five hundred years later, it is interesting that the illusory ideals of freedom and safety are still bandied around like the hundreds of thousands of nationalistic flags that are woven into the jingoistic fabric of resurgent Earth society.

80 years later
In the voice of Vice-Admiral Meg Austin-Nakamura

Our first steps into the daylight brought a cascade of new scents and visions that made us step back in amazement. In one hundred years, nature had slowly managed to heal some of the grievous wounds that had been inflicted on it. We saw young trees; green and full that had pushed up in between the cracks of the concrete pushing aside the remnants of human habitation. There were still scorch marks here and there, but the lush greenery was starting to erase those signs. And we would be one with nature – a vast difference from what it was before where we were more than likely not aware of our effects to the earth. Here we would have a chance to rebirth our society...with much more of an emphasis on living with our actions being a benefit to the earth instead of a detriment. The earth was our survival pod and we needed to start taking care of it instead of taking from it.

Artie and Sadie had measured the radioactive effects of what was left of the soot and the videos taken showed a clearing of the skies and the return of blue skies to our world. Our group had grown in numbers. My three sons were strapping young men of chronological years of seventy, seventy six and eighty exactly, each of who had taken their first young again potions and had reverted back to biological bodies in their twenties.

My husband Tosh was always by my side...and frankly, we were planning to take our dose of young-again potions which would put us biologically younger than our sons which has been a source of endless amusement of our children and of our fellow bunker-mates. We have yet to know what the new ultraviolet radiation levels are after the nuclear war and whether it will affect us now that we are at the surface rather than back in our bunker.

Katsuo and Kimber have had five children and have been married together now for over seventy five years. We are now going to have to figure out new anniversary names. Pretty soon we’ll have regular one hundred and sixtieth anniversaries which will make for interesting parties. How many candles can you put on one cake before it becomes a conflagration. Or do we have to start doing 1 candle for every twenty-five years. Happy one-hundredth anniversary with four candles. That ought to be loads of fun.

Phil somehow managed to get Kimber to allow him to donate some of her DNA to clone her as he was desperately lonely. After enough times, Kimber finally allowed him to with the express understanding that the clone was NO relation of hers and that she would disavow any relationship to him. So Katarina Ellison Burrows was created and a completely fake history was given. And Katarina and Phil went on to create six children of their own.

Mac finally said yes to Harm and they were now a couple. With treatments from Captain Bebe Hart, Mac was now able to conceive a child and they had two children. One male, one female.

Mac dissolved into hysterical laughter when Jen came over and asked her if it was possible to clone Harm, but Mac ultimately gave her permission since Jen needed to reproduce too.

Lia ultimately went and got DNA from Tosh after asking me of course and ended up marrying the clone she created. They had four children. Three boys; one girl.

So eventually, every single one of us was matched up and ready to contribute to the furthering of our species.

Lia with Clone Tadashi (Tosh)
Mac with Harm
Jen with Clone Harold (Harm)
Kimber with Clone Katsuo (Tosh)
River with Haruo
Bebe with Clone Tatsuo (Haruo)
Phil with Clone Katarina (Kimber)
Meg (me) with Tosh

I don’t really know what to say about seeing two clones of my husband running around the bunker even if they do look a bit different (one wears a moustache, the other a much longer hairstyle), but well I console myself with the fact that at least I have the original.

We don’t have much options open to us at the moment.