PhunkyMunky

Honestly, I think it's outstanding that games like FC3 can be modified like this, although personally I don't understand, as an adult, parents OK with killing a video game person and swearing but not OK with nudity lol. But just as well, the ability to change that part so kids can play this game with the comfort that mom won't walk in with a view of a pair of boobs is good. As a parent I think games like FC and Fallout need to wait until my kids are old enough to understand what's going on and to understand also that THIS is just a game, not real and real people don't run around doing this sort of thing. I'm not worried they won't feel it's wrong to murder, it's simply a matter of personal development. Some things are appropriate, some are only as they get older. By the time my son is a teenager, he'll have seen several porns, I am sure. Reality says I can't keep him from seeing naked girls forever. Anyhow, for what it's worth, I say good job working on a solution to that particular issue! :cool:

:cool: Meh, that works LOL. Sorta like a dream, if it's completely contradictory to the real world, it will probably happen LOL. In this case the Fallout Universe follows it's own laws of physics and reality....

You know.... I wonder how a car that's been sitting as a rust pile over a 200 year old time frame blows up when shooting them? That makes no sense whatsoever.......

:cool: Thnx much!

Can that be done? Their reactions to things and such... I mean, if you are behind a rock or brush, realistically, there is no way they can see you. So there fore, you could set up an ambush, and visa versa..... NPCs also get in the way during combat when they should spread out. I think the AI for the game wasn't very well done. Don't get me wrong, I love the game, some things need fixed LOL. I guess this is why people mod it LOL.

Ok, so the game loads fine. As it's changing from the final loading screen to the actual game, the screen goes black, and then it's CTD. No idea why this is, all of my mods were working before hand. Just in case, I'll post my load order (I've never understood this anyhow) and maybe that is causing the problem. I've some other mods I'd like to add in, and if the load order is the issue, I'd surely like to hear about it. War Never Changes.esm rePopulated Wasteland.esm Weapon Mod Expansion.esm WARZONES - Misanthropy Pure.esm Bondsters Goodsprings Rebuilt.esp Military NV Backpacks.esm Project13 - Populated Wasteland.esm OutfitsReColorNVMaster.esm ELECTRO-CITY - CompletedWorkorders.esm Lings.esm RaiderGirlCyanNV.esm AEFCore.esm JaneV3.esm EnclaveCommanderMarine.esm SVSR.esm FalloutNV.esm DFB - Random Encounters.esm NPC Project.esm IWS-Core.esm VegasOutfits.esp Weapon Mod Expansion.esp Bonds Christmas in Goodsprings.esp FreesideProspectorsHouse.esp GunRunnersExpanded-LoreFriendly1.1.esp Military NV Backpacks - Weapons.esp Seachlight Airport NCR.esp UsableCigarettes neunen Ver for New Vegas.esp Military NV Backpacks - Vendor Script Replenish.esp Military NV Backpacks - BumBagUseSlot1.esp Military NV Backpacks - No Straps.esp Better Binoculars Max.esp Better Binoculars High.esp Chem.Trails-Real Drugs.esp GruntCapNV.esp UrgeWasterScarf.esp McFlyFarm.esp Talon Company In New Vegas.esp Readius_NV.esp Kobu's Sortable Crafting Backpack.esp Goodsprings Filler.esp Tailor Maid - NV.esp DragonskinTacticalOutfit.esp DragonskinNCRPersonnelWearingOutfits.esp NewVegasBounties.esp Companion Neutrality Act.esp WPR.esp ArmyCapCollection.esp Airplane_Fort.esp 700 Nitro Express.esp NVC_Misty.esp Bonds Prospector Saloon.esp Generic Clothing Color Variations.esp Companion Module Pack.esp SunnyCompanion.esp NCR Rearmament v1.5.esp OutfitsReColorChangeClothes.esp War Never Changes - Seven.esp Prove your Worth 3.esp War Never Changes.esp GibbsonFalloutShelter.esp Bitter Springs Revisited.esp GRARG.esp Type 6.esp HDTshop.esp Wasteland_Spe_Outfit.esp Vurt's WFO.esp Bonds Primm Rebuilt.esp NVWillow.esp raidersTunnelA.esp Improved Sound FX.esp Cass Drinks Whiskey.esp 188 sells ncr armor.esp Fellout.esp ViperResurgence.esp Jackal Resurgence.esp FlashlightNVSE.esp theHeroNV_1.1.esp NVNightVision.esp Type3MClothing.esp SOGFusionTomahawk.esp BoonieHats.esp A Better Veronica.esp A Better Cass.esp Continue After Ending (No Dlc).esp The New Bison Steve Hotel.esp Western Sky.esp NPC Project - Freeside.esp aaaJNFFalcon.esp YangtzeBunkerPlayerHomeV2.85.esp IWS-Core-Guards.esp IWS-Core-Patrols.esp IWS-Core-Civilians.esp Total active plugins: 92 Total plugins: 106

+1 for this!!

I agree, especially if you're using Willow as the character is already set up for being a significant other (need a male version for female player chars as well I think). I've been thinking this, myself.

ihaz, I have read it, I own a copy, wasn't bad. Rawles has some good ideas for living in a post apoc world. Even just reading some of his stuff for entertainment value, many things you could pull out of there just for preparing for, and surviving everyday disasters. No need for the world to end LOL. Thank you for the suggestion!

Thank you. I'm out of the Army now. Couldn't stomach staying in after Iraq. Now I work a normal job and play FNV a lot LOL.

I generally agree to some extent here. Survival needs to be considered more so with food, water, medicine, and first aid. Basics of any survival at all is the rule of 3's... 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without heat and shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. This is of course a general guideline, not specific. My argument for firearms is, let's say you do build up a supply of food, water, medicine, and various tools and such to help make things easier. If you've no way to defend these things, and yourself, how do you intend to keep them? Stocking up on ammo is great, it will run out eventually, so my rule is not be noticed if at all possible, then when needed to fight, bring it on big time. Eventually, however, those supplies will give out. One should plan to grow food to replenish it, as well as scavenge. Hunting should be kept to using bow and arrow, or cross bow, as it is quieter and you won't use precious firearm ammo for it. Traps work wonderfully as well. If you have the equipment and materials to do so, you can reload ammo. But you should take care to make it last, which means avoid trouble if you can. In survival mode, everyone is an enemy until proven otherwise. This just means don't let your guard down, not even for women and kids. Doesn't mean shoot everyone on site. If survival is your goal, it doesn't do well to bring a bunch of attention to yourself as it tends to have the opposite effect. Now, I'm speaking on all disasters in general here, not nuke/EMP specifically. You all may think I'm nuts, but I do put away for emergencies of all sorts. One never knows when they'll lose a job, have a major quake, be invaded by aliens LOL Just kidding. It's just a good idea to make sure you can handle emergencies as best you can. Survival skills will always be useful, and if combined with technology to make it easier, all the better. You don't need to rub sticks together to start fire, for example. A 9v Battery and steel wool will do wonderfully. Survival, theory on nukes/EMP, disaster preparedness, and things of this matter are beyond the scope of this forums, and if anyone wishes, I can direct them to where they can look for information of preparedness. As for me and mine, we'll just say I'll always have a roof over my family's head, food in our belly, and a way to keep warm. I've gone out of my way to make that happen and it hasn't been cheap. It also hasn't been the most expensive thing to do either, and can be kept as simple or complex as you feel like going. When it comes to nukes and dirty bombs, my own plan is simply to just grab our crap and leave the area. Why stay if it's going to kill you? I don't anticipate nukes or things like that anytime soon, however. Well, maybe, but that depends on viewpoint and opinion mostly. We went as long as we did worrying over the U.S.S.R. nuking us for how long? And it never happened. The threat was real enough, but never happened. Same goes today with North Korea and Iran. All we know about their intent is what we're told by media. China is also a threat, and one I am more concerned with, but I don't think in terms of nukes with them. Just sheer man power would make war with them quite huge. I don't think anybody wants to see that, or war anywhere else for that matter. I fought in Iraq, so I can say it's not fun in the least. Anyhow, enough of my rambling.

Thank you For taking the time to look over my start to this story. I appreciate what you mentioned, and have DL'd the program you suggested. The story was actually simply a End of the world as we know it fiction, taking some current events and expanding on it, or current events at the time I wrote it. As for me, I've 9 years in the Army. I think lists could be put elsewhere, as in my side notes for personal reference. I was "Dan", deployed to Iraq in 2004-2005 as an Infantryman. Some characters I'd developed somewhat, but my mind races ahead and I lose track of what I was thinking, I just want to get it all down I guess LOL. As for the direction the story takes, it's basically along the lines of things getting really bad and how these people end up dealing with it, and rebuild afterwards. Obviously it's a very violent world this story takes place in. With your input and questions, it will certainly help me to build this thing much better. I've never taken a creative writing class, and this would be my first "book" if it becomes this. My reasoning for posting it here was so maybe someone could tweak it to go along the lines of Fallout lore and possibly develop a mod for that, be it from perspective of Legion invasion, NCR invasion, or some other such thing, and incorporate the Player Character into it as it's happening or something of the sort. Like I said, it would seriously need tweaked for it. "Dan" could be former NCR or something. The story itself isn't complete, I feel I could expand on chapters and there is much to be added to fill it out more. I started it just for the mere enjoyment of placing myself in a different world and it's fun to do because I don't ever know what will happen next, sort of thing. LOL I now work as a Security Guard for local transit and on grave shifts have nothing better to do with my time than things like this LOL. Thank you again for your input. I find it valuable.

Nice! I'd use it

Why are the majority of companions made female? We need some good, manly, companions. Dudes that got your back and kick butt, but are not vanilla. I've posted my own thoughts on a companion and background, nobody picked it up, and that's cool, but there needs to be some dudes we can have as buddies besides the vanilla ones like Boone.

No interest in this? I think it would inspire some awesome FNV mods.....

You are right, in that how one uses tech makes a world of difference. Also what makes a world of difference is culture. What I mean, here, is that when Japan had the quakes and tsunami, it seemed generally the people were pretty well put together. I am sure they had their fair share of social problems following that disaster, however it was absolutely nothing like the reaction to Hurricane Katrina. That place was absolute chaos and extremely violent. Same with the Rodney King riots we had in 1992 (or 3). And not all of the violence was done with guns, either. Google Reginald Denny and take a look at that video, no guns involved and more brutal than if they'd just shot the guy. It's simply the culture in some circles. Of course, we're not the only nation with this problem, Mexico, much of south america, places in Africa, and sometimes in Europe. Man! Europe knows how to RIOT!!!! Many Americans are trying to go back to being more self sufficient, and this is good. Can't depend on the Government to have a proper response to major incidences. And we shouldn't! Some things happen on a scale too large to mount an immediate, good, response to, although Katrina could have gone much, much better. We say WMD simply because an EMP attack on that scale would be massive destruction. No, not like chems, bio, or nukes on the ground. But just the sheer chaos from an entire country is damage enough. Heavy handedness I agree with. Especially the US at the moment, although I don't care to bring up politics really, here. But we have done quite a bit of sticking our nose where it doesn't belong, then stomping those that object to that. Can't keep that sort of thing up forever without someone getting a bit itchy over the big red button. We can all hope not, but just because these things are around, some idiot some day will indeed launch one of those nukes and then it's on. In reality, everything about nuclear war strategy is theory. Since only 2 cities have been nuked in world history, we can only pull from that experience. Which, it looks, Fallout capitalized on.

Massive EMP damage CAN be repaired in a few years time. I agree with that. What I am saying is it's strategy, and makes sense as a first strike, to use that EMP effect. http://www.barking-moonbat.com/images/uploads/3_nukes_60_miles_high_EMP_areas.jpg I was saying this is general strategy. If you can't communicate, if your systems can't track, if Radar doesn't work, if you have no power and no mobility, follow on nukes are much easier, and more effective, to get in. But due to nuclear fallout, everyone knows how bad that can be. We've seen Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nobody wants that. Invading a country, generally, if for the extension of power and taking of resources. Resources that are now part of nuclear waste are useless. Yes, radiation from a high altitude nuke will fall. And it will effect things, however, at that altitude it would end up wide spread, rather than concentrated to say, London, or Seattle. Fukishima happened in Japan and our est Coast was effected a bit. But it had spread out and was less a threat as a result. The space between the burst and the ground would dilute the effects. Less nukes could be used to render a nation useless. I'm not arrogant enough to think my country impenetrable. Obviously things slipped through the cracks on 9/11 and months leading up to that. And in that light, anybody could walk across our southern border and let one off at that, IMO. And for a country like the US, where we depend a heck of a lot on technology, it would make it the end of the world as WE know it. Let something like that off in a country with less technology and they may merely shrug. Sure, we could rebuild but the panic and rioting, people living solely on machines would die, it would be terrible. And it would be that way quite a while. I mean, if someone can hijack a plane and fly it into a couple buildings, killing a total of over 3000 people, the unthinkable can happen as well. But in places like Eastern Europe where manual labor is still widely used, in places not nearly as dependent on tech, it wouldn't take much to fix things. I agree with that part. There are many places EMP wouldn't effect much. Even England, France, Germany.... Many of these places would be effected badly. Awareness and preparation help minimize this, of course, and I'm very sure all of these countries have thought through these things and came up with a plan to handle it. Heavy amounts of nukes on the ground would still be bad. Very bad. But it's now common knowledge tht too many of these could make the world nearly extinct (well, except cockroaches and such). This is why EMP's are now becoming the new WMD.

http://www.newsmax.com/KenTimmerman/super-emp-emp-northkorea-nuke/2011/06/16/id/400260 http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34444 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_nuclear_explosion Take a gander at these links. I spent 9 years in the Army, and while nukes was not my forte, I was a grunt, it is basic nuke strategy to use the EMP effects of nukes first strike. This disrupts communications, the power grid, and a nuked country is of no use if you want to occupy that ground. More and more the threat of the EMP use of nukes is increasing. This makes sense. If you EMP'd someone then invaded that country, you wouldn't have to worry about special equipment. Now, this is not to say nukes on the ground would not happen. Military bases, major cities, ports, and etc would be prime targets. But you can pretty much send someone back to the 1850's by just EMPing the whole continent. If EMP from a normal nuke at say, 150 miles above the surface of the US, in the center, can cause enough damage to set us back a hundred years, why would you nuke the ground? Think about it. A nuke in a city would cause millions of deaths. That's a given. Nukes at high altitude.... How many would die in the first 6 months? Vehicles don't work, circuitry is burnt out and vehicles that don't work can't haul food. Tractors that don't work can't plow fields or harvest crops. Power grids that are down don't power furnaces. Stores only carry 3 days worth of food, after EMP, that'll be gone in 10 hours during panic and looting. Law Enforcement would be ineffective, so gangs and such would be able to go do what they wish. And think about how many people would be completely lost without computers, Ipad, TV, Radio, cars, buses, hot water, gas or electrical heat...... It goes on and on. The damage from high altitude nukes and EMP are far more devastating than nuking Washington DC. I've studied a bit LOL. Trust me on this. And the fact of the matter is, with nut jobs in North Korea, Iran, and stolen russian nukes after the Soviet Collapse, the chances of it happening are even greater than between the 50's and 80's.

One very well COULD prepare and put away the things needed right now. Sure, bunkers would be nice, or fallout shelters, but once the blasts have happened and radiation subsided some, you could likely, wearing a suit and gas mask, come out and make your way to a safer (non radiated) area. Once you live through blasts and or fallout, you'll need those supplies to live on, supplemented with that which you catch or kill or pick. However, the much more likely scenario would be high altitude nukes, wiping out our power and commo grid.

TY, I posted it here, now. http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/480923-into-the-dark-post-apocalyptic-story/ Like I mentioned, it needs tweaked to fit into Fallout lore and etc.

I have a good start of a story about just such a thing right here.... http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/480923-into-the-dark-post-apocalyptic-story/page__pid__3934752#entry3934752

1 Where to begin Not quite sure what to say. It’s all been so…. Strange, like a dream. Well, more like a weird kind of nightmare, but, just strange, really. I just don’t know where to begin. I suppose I should just start with where I came from, and go from there. I was born in Seattle, Washington. I mostly grew up poor, my mom and dad divorced when I was really young, and, after that, my mom remarried. We traveled around a lot, my brother, my sister, and myself, along with my mom and step dad. Spent a lot of time down south, in Arkansas and Texas, before we moved back up to Washington. Eventually I moved in with my dad. You could say I was expected to be a full grown man by the time I was 16, although I was anything but, I acted like a dumb kid. Didn’t like my dads rules, so, I didn’t follow them, got kicked out a few times, and lived on the streets a bit. Those times I ran around with another kid I sorta grew up with, we were an inseparable duo. Loved to kick each others ass a lot, but, we kicked other guys’ asses too. Robbed a few guys, smoked a lot of weed, drank a lot of beer, broke into the high school to say we did it, caught a dumpster on fire and blamed it on my brother. I went through this a few times until I was 19, and found myself again homeless. I thought I was done for, this time, though. I was 19 and a half, and living under a bridge during the winter. I had nobody but myself, and didn’t feel nearly as cocky as I did when I ran around with Will, my old buddy I ran with before. I made it till spring and called my mom and moved in with her in Corvallis Oregon. I hated it there, and, when I was 20, I went into the Army. I went in as a Ground Surveillance Systems Operator. Basically we would watch for enemy activity using either radar, ground sensors, or sometimes, our own eyes. Went to Bosnia, came home, got out of the Army and got married. Went back into the Army, and changed to Infantry. Went to Iraq in 2004, came home, got out, bought a home, and started raising a family. At 5’6” tall and 170 lbs, I wasn’t exactly small. Short, yes, but broad shoulders and thick legs made me built like a brick shithouse. Close cropped brown hair, slightly overgrown goatee with speckles of grey and a grey patch on my chin, with an olive complexion, it was typical of me to wear t shirt, ball cap, steel toe boots, and old worn blue jeans. I tended to be fairly quick in spite of my size, although I wasn’t large in build, but certainly solid muscle. I also tended toward several Tribal and Celtic tattoos, along with a skull and a rose with a sort of funky old English J for Jenny, and a powder blue and black nautical star for Mark, both on the inside of my forearms. Lacy’s smart, sexy, and tough. She’s 5’7” tall and a bit curvy with blue eyes, blonde hair, and a pale complexion, more prone to sunburn than tanning. I always told her she looked like Marilyn Monroe. She was also generally in shock over many of the things that had happened over the last couple months, preferring previously to not face the realities we had before us. But she had gone along with prepping, it was a good idea after all, and she trusted me to take care of the family. Mark is 4 years old, full of energy, and was a blonde version of me. He’s smart, a go getter, and tough for a kid. His sister Jenny is very smart as well. At 8 years old, she was in the Gates Program at school, a program for gifted children. She’s not so tough, often full of drama of one sort or another to get attention. We love her all the same, and I’m always working with her to toughen her up. These days there’s no time for drama. Things were going pretty good, for the most part. I felt something wasn’t right, and began digging around. I didn’t know what it was, just, like, when the hair stands on the back of your neck. You get a spooky feeling and don’t always know why. So, I looked about on the internet, found a lot of bulls***, found a lot of good information, and, I learned I should do things to prepare for disasters. So, I did that. Having a military background, I chose to buy military items along with food and such. I took in to account survival equipment that I’d not considered before. I started learning some primitive skills, but, not too much, and talked with others and gained some knowledge and ideas. I knew things would go tits up eventually. The Country was going to s*** in a hurry, and I knew it wouldn’t last forever. We began to prepare the year previously, getting the idea that things would go badly at some point. We built up food stores, ammunition, tools, fuel. Got only 6 months worth of food. I made sure my weapons were in order, starting with my AK47, putting a Hogue grip on it, a tritium sight system, and a Tapco sling system. My M1903A3 got a scope on it, after I got a red dot sight, and tritium night sights on my 30/30. I bought a Gamo Whisper, which shot a .177 round at 1200 Feet Per Second, a Ruger 10/22 with a decent scope and night sights and polymer stock, I bought a Mosin Carbine, which shot a 7.62x 54 bullet and replaced the sight system with a peep sight and kept the hooded front sight, with a different front sight post, both the peep sight in the rear and front sight post had tritium night sights. Took some work to get it this way, but was well worth it in my opinion. The old sight system shot 8” high because of the lack of elevation on the front sight post. This would be a last resort rifle, cached someplace with a couple s pam cans of rounds. Along with this went a Ruger Blackhawk .357 and a leather mid ride Bianchi rig and about 800 rounds of 180 grain HP. Had all my knives sharpened professionally, including my Kukri Machete, stippled all my polymer handles on my blades and my Glock 22. This was a process of using a soldering iron to burn lines into the handle or grip in order to rough up the surface so I could have a better grip on the weapon. When my hands got sweaty or wet, they wouldn’t slip. I did this with my Kukri, my Ka Bar BK2 (great camp knife) and my SOG Seal Pup. I also bought several other blades for hunting, a Buck Zipper, and several folding knives, as well as a Leatherman Wave. I had a Condor Chest Rig for 7.62, and an LBE set up with a Blackhawk H Harness. These let me have a choice in what I used for what mission. I got a Blackhawk rucksack based on the Alice pack, called an SOF Ruck. This was big enough to fit all of my needs, along with a Condor Urban Assault pack, which was, is, and always will be so long as I have it, my everyday carry bag. These things, amongst many others, I got in order to make ready for things to come. Of course, I didn’t know exactly what would come, but whatever it was I would be ready for it, and my family would survive, I hoped. Laser eye surgery made sure I wouldn’t need glasses, as it did with Lacy. We got chickens, rabbits, and planted a garden. We got canning supplies. When the s*** hit the fan, however, it didn’t completely stop us from being in a sort of panic, once we began to think, what if this won’t last? Toward the end of spring we could see the collapse coming. Start of summer, gas went sky high, food became short, and people began to riot in places. There were flash mobs that would assault people and rob stores. Politically, there had been some battles between unions and government. Illegal Aliens were rushing across the border, draining tax dollars. The wars in Afghanistan ,Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Lybia drained dollars, entitlement programs drained tax dollars, and when our Government couldn’t make all of this go away, and it became very obvious to the rest of the world, the US began to collapse. First it was our near default, as politicians bickered over how to fix our debt. Then came the credit rating drop from AAA to AA+. Six months went by, and due to the fact that we still hadn’t come up with a decent plan to fix debt, we were dropped down to AA, and shortly after, A. Nobody wanted our Treasury Bonds. Most of the country didn’t see this at first. They only saw high gas prices, high food prices, less food in the stores due to bad weather, and low jobs. Riots came, riots went, and toward start of fall, the bottom dropped out. Inflation was the first thing noticed. Prices on everything went up 300% overnight. The Government tried to stop the collapse, but, there was nothing they could do. It was done. Halfway through the second day, China dumped all of it’s treasury bonds holdings, followed by Japan, then anybody and everybody that held US debt. The Stock Market was froze. Everything was froze. The Government had the states impose Martial Law, as, rioting was out of control. But, that did no good. Nobody listened. Gangs looted and roamed the streets, and law enforcement could do little to stem the tide of crime. People stopped working. It was completely bizarre, something you knew was coming but, it all seemed unreal. Sirens all day and night running to and fro, gunfire erupting sporadically for one reason or another, and in all of this, going on all around me, my neighborhood was fairly quiet. Not much going on. Neighbors would come out and talk about things going on, but, although you could see worry and fear, nobody was completely freaking out. Most thought it would pass soon. This was just temporary, like the L.A. riots and Watts Riots. My job still called me and expected me to work. I had asked them, what will you pay me with, and they said dollars, of course. I tried working a few days, but, it seemed pointless and I told them that unless they paid me in something tangible, I wouldn’t be coming in. Now, I admit, I looted. I needed gas, so, I looted as much as I could get. I needed more food, so, I grabbed as much as I could get. I looted tools, ammo, a few more guns, a bigger generator, solar panels, car parts, a lift kit, welder, compressors, air tools and power tools, new wheels and tires, body armor for under my truck, steel plates and steel tubes, a winch. Nope, it wasn’t right, but, I did it. All I cared about was making sure I could care for my family. I also looted some building materials, dog food, and other odds and ends. By the 5th day, the Government came up with a so called solution, and things sort of calmed down. The damage was done and rioters had worn themselves out already anyhow. This solution was total bulls***, they wanted to pass out these sort of IOU slips. Well, that’s what WE called em anyhow. Some tried it. I didn’t. I just battened down the hatches and waited for the next s*** storm. I checked and rechecked my gear. Packed things up so we could leave quickly if we needed to. The IOU thing only lasted a couple days, but, by then they had started rationing food, fuel, things like this. It gave the impression everything was under control, and all would be OK. National Guard manned check points, curfew was ordered at sunset, police presence in the more important areas of commerce, financial sectors, capitol areas such as county seats, city halls, things like this, and, of course, the most affluent neighborhoods. Military patrols went into the more violent areas, places where the most violence had occurred during the chaos. In some of those areas, gun rights were suspended, but, nobody paid any mind to that. The military refused to raid homes to get them, and agreed to take them only at check points or when seen being brandished. Things seemed to mellow out, but then, IEDs began to show up along patrol routes. The sort you’d see in Iraq or Afghanistan. The government tried to keep it quiet, but it didn’t take long for word to get around. It was blatantly obvious when a car bomb blew up a check point. Killed 23 people, Soldiers and civilians. At first it was just one, someplace on the east coast. But… It didn’t take long and more and more happened. In Texas and the border states, Atlanta Georgia, Detroit, Boston. People at some point just stopped working. Money was worthless, IOU slips were worthless, and companies wouldn’t pay in silver or anything else tangible. Power began to go out. Winter was starting early. With no power, people began to die off quickly, more so than during the riots. With no power, came the deaths of those that depended on that power for life support. We hung tight at our house while most of our neighbors began moving out. Shortly after they did so, I made sure to loot those places for what they left behind. I distributed as much as I could amongst the neighbors that stayed. 2 I woke up by a nudge from my wife, “Honey! The dog is growling”. So, I grab my AK and Glock, and a green range bag with a few magazines in it, quietly slipping through the sliding glass door onto the back patio. I stopped in the shadow of the overhang and quietly listened while I let my eyes adjust. I heard some of the neighborhood dogs barking, but, nothing else. I then walked around to the ladder laying against the back of the house, and put it up, quickly climbing to the roof. Staying low, I crawled to the peak and set my AK down, and began scanning the street. I was still a bit groggy, but, since I had stopped taking the sleeping pills I took before the collapse, I wasn’t quite as groggy as I would have been. Left to right, right to left, I scanned the street, and listened. The damn ringing in my ears made it seem impossible to hear much, but, I listened anyway. Nothing on our street, so, I turn to the right and look at the next street over, trying to see if maybe the commotion was over there. Nothing so far as I could see. What the hell was my dog growling about? I forgot to bring a jacket, and, now I began to feel the early morning chill. I continued to scan and listen for the next hour or so, then gave up and went back in. Jake had settled down and was lazily sleeping on the chair. “Jake! Get off the chair, you know better” I scolded him as he slinked to the floor. Crawling back in to bed, I told Lacy I couldn’t see a thing, and tried to get back to sleep. Took me about 45 minutes to get back to sleep, and as the sky outside the bedroom curtains began to lighten up, I started to doze off. Just about that time I heard a distant scream and three rapid shots followed by a shotgun blast, then silence. It sounded as if it came from several blocks away, in the adjacent neighborhood. Lacy sat up “What the hell was that!” “Boyfriend dispute, sweetie, go back to sleep” I told her. But, we couldn’t sleep so I went out, kicked the generator on, and began making coffee. Over the last 2 weeks, the power had come back, but, it was anything but reliable. You’d have no power, cooking on the BBQ with propane, then the fridge would kick up. Or you’d be just fine, half way through cooking on the stove, and the lights would go out. Sometimes there was no power for a few hours, sometimes a few days. Sometimes there’d be power in your neighborhood, but, the next one over had none. Stores tried to stay open, but prices were high, and, there usually wasn’t much in them. Food was all local food only, it was too expensive to haul it from someplace else, and, nobody would drive the distance anyhow, money being useless. Mark and Jenny were still sleeping, hadn’t noticed the dog, or gunshots at all. That was good though, I wanted them exposed as little as I could help it, to the way things were. But, by 7 they were up and hungry. The power was on, so, I turned off the generator, and, Lacy cooked them some breakfast. Pancakes, eggs, and homemade soda bread with blackberry jam. “Think I’m gonna check them traps I set in the park here in a bit, hopefully I snagged a rabbit or two. They seem sorta scarce, but, we’ll see.” I said. We had rabbits we were raising for food, but, if I could grab one without killing what we had, the rabbits we had would last longer. Mark and Jenny asked to go with me and I told Mark he should stay home with momma. He was only 4, and, I didn’t want him out with me not listening to me if there was trouble. After we cleaned up from breakfast, I grabbed my Glock and AK and Jenny and I set out for the park, about 2 blocks away. Jenny and I talked about her friends, and she said, for the billionth time, that she wanted her own cell phone. I told her, for the billionth time, that wasn’t going to happen. We got to the park and as I went to check on my traps, I saw a man standing there with one of my rabbits. I pointed to a tree and told Jenny to go, she knew what that meant, and I made sure my AK was up where I could quickly fire if I needed to. The man had a shotgun, and we stared at each other for a minute, not saying a word. Finally, I said “It’s yours, buddy, you found it before I did. No sense shooting each other over a rabbit, right?” He said “Nope, there ain’t. I just didn’t know if you were gonna shoot me”. “I know it, same here. So, we’re good? Can I have my snares, or, are you taking them?” “I’d like to take them, but, seems they’re yours.” I looked at him for a minute and said “Tell ya what, why don’t you take em. I’ll just make new ones. Any skills you have?” “I do pretty good with most mechanical things, and I can work leather pretty good”. I nodded my head and said “Wanna make a trade? You keep those snares, and I’ll show you how to make, and set, more, and you can maybe make me a shoulder holster or two?” “Deal” he said. And, with that, we agreed to meet the next day at the same place. I motioned for Jenny to follow, and, not immediately turning my back, we walked out of there. I only turned back around when I was sure I could move out of his line of sight. Trust was a tough thing to have these days. We got home and Jenny said “Somebody stole daddy’s rabbit and daddy almost got killed!” I said “No, I didn’t almost get killed. The guy found my snares and the rabbit one of them caught, and I let him keep them. He’s making us a couple shoulder holsters and we’ll meet tomorrow and I’ll show him how to make and set up snares. It’s a fair trade.” Lacy asked, “Why do we need shoulder holsters?” “We don’t, but I don’t want the man to feel like he’s stealing, this lets him off the hook. He’s also a mechanic, and, if we can make friends with him, we might be able to have someone about that can fix our vehicles if we need it. I have no clue how to put this lift kit into my truck, anyhow.” Mark was disappointed that I didn’t bring home a rabbit, but, he didn’t understand that it would have been dead anyhow. He thought it would be a new pet, I guess. The next day, I left Jenny at home. I met with the man from the day before, and I introduced myself “I’m Dan, did security work before all this crap happened” “I’m Jim, was a mechanic.” And, with that, I began to show him how to set up a snare, and he handed me the shoulder holsters. “You seem to have a pretty good holster for that gun you got, why you need these?” “I don’t. I just figured getting something for them traps was better than nothing, you got the better end of the deal, friend”. After that, we went and sat down, swapped stories about growing up. Jim was 25. Just ten years younger than me. He asked me about my weapons, and I told him why I set them up like I did, tritium sights, the sling type on my AK, my reasoning for choosing the AK. He just said “I got this here twelve gauge, works just fine for me”. I suggested he make a sling for it that would hold extra ammo, and he thought that was a great idea. We agreed to meet in a few days and have him over for dinner. Things were mostly quiet the next few days, I put up a new shed, but, mostly we just played with the kids. The day Jim came over, I met him at the park. He brought a case of bud, and we made our way back to the house. Lacy cooked up some BBQ chicken and potato salad, and we had a few beers. We joked around some, talked about things going on around the country, and I told him some ways he could help himself to make it through this with his life intact. Around dusk, we heard a loud scream from the next street over. There were a couple gunshots, and some more screaming. As soon as I stepped outside, I heard the “Bummmm Bummmm Bummm” of a stereo with too much bass, typical of hip hop types and gangsters. From the sounds I was hearing with the stereo I assumed it to be gang members. I ran back in, grabbed my AK and ran around back, climbed the ladder, and took a look. 2 cars were parked in front of a house and several younger black males were trying to stuff a teen girl into the back of one of the cars, a male was laying in the front yard, and several other black males were gleefully looting the house. From some of the screaming, I figured there was someone inside the house with the mother of the teen. Jenny came out, like I told her not to do, and I told her “Tell your mom to bring me the aught six” and a minute later, my 1903A3 came up the ladder. I folded down the bipod, and focused in on the 2 guys trying to stuff the teen into the car. My first shot took one guy in the right shoulder, my second took the other right below his nose. I shot the first guy again, hitting him in the torso. I next focused on one of the guys looting, hitting him in the upper torso, but, then, the rest scrambled into the house. I saw the girl running down the street, and, leaving my 30-06 where it was, slid down the ladder, ran into the house and scooped up some more AK mags and put my Glock in it’s holster, and began running down the street toward the house under attack. A shot from inside told me what happened to the mother, as I squatted behind the engine of an ‘85 F150. Someone from inside the house shot out through a window at nothing in particular, and I poked my head around the front of the truck. Someone was rolling around in the lawn holding his stomach with what looked like a handgun near by. Some more shooting from within the house, and, I thought I’d better do something or they might shoot up the rest of the neighborhood. I saw a minivan a bit closer to the house and ran for it, with a few wide shots coming in my general direction. I came around the front of the minivan and took a bead on the first target I found, and squeezed the trigger. The silhouette disappeared and I began shooting a bit heavier, trying to surpass the fellas in the house. That first magazine went quick, and I ducked behind the van to change magazines. More shooting from within the house, some of the rounds impacting the minivan, but, nothing too bad. I came back around and again opened up, this time shooting while moving to one of their cars parked in front of the house. Another magazine down and I reloaded, and continued to fire, hitting another silhouette, and another. The last one grabbed his arm and ran to the back of the house. No more incoming fire, and I stopped shooting and moved to the other car. I saw that the first man I saw in the lawn looked to be a white male in his 40’s. Must have been the dad. The guy rolling around on the grass had stopped, either passed out or dead. I didn’t bother to check, as, I didn’t give a damn. I watched the house for movement, but, I didn’t see any. I could see the back door open, and, I assumed that the rest of these guys had gone out the back. I ran up to the door of the house and standing to the side, changed to my Glock, and took a peek inside. There was one gangster laying on the floor and some blood that went toward the back door. I then went through the rest of the house, seeing no one, until I got to the master bedroom. She was laying on the floor, beat to hell, naked from the waist down and had a hole in the side of her head. That was the mom, I assume, she wasn’t recognizable. I went back out, walked home, and told my wife, and Jim, what happened. I was shaking and my voice was sorta jerky. My thoughts were running a mile a minute, and none of them made sense. Lacy said “Oh my god! I’m glad you’re OK but, What the HELL were you thinking!” I told her that I saw that girl and couldn’t stand to see those guys hurt her. Jim stated he thought World War Three had erupted over there, and asked if there was anything he could do to help. I told him to get me a beer, and that I’d need his help cleaning up the mess, if he was cool with that. Lacy said she’d take the kids and see if she could go find a Police Officer, 911 had long since been off line. I told her to make sure she at least took her handgun, I didn’t want her getting drug out of the Explorer. I suggested she use one of the new shoulder holsters, easier to draw from in the car. I didn’t want to be drunk or anything, but, I knew the alcohol would take the edge off the adrenaline. I slammed the beer, took some deep breaths, and began to calm down a little. Lacy returned a few minutes later, Police Officer in tow. I left my guns in the house and went to meet the cop, and told him what happened. “Sounds like you had a bit of fun! You sure they were gang members?” “Yeah, seemed like it, most of them wore something blue, hat, shirt, some blue on their pants.” The Officer then followed me over to where the incident had occurred. “Ok, hell of a mess here. You shoot the white guy here?” I told him no, he was the one I saw that was down after I heard the shots fired. “Well, I’d like to do something, but, we just don’t have the resources any more. For that matter, you know, you’d be in cuffs right now if things were normal, like they were”. I told him I know it. “Best we can do is clean it up I guess. By the look of things, at least a couple guys are still alive and had been hit hard. Lets go check the back yard and make sure nobody’s out there” and out we went. There was nobody there, a dead Yorkie lay by the back door. Looked like he’d been stomped to death. Then more Police arrived to the house, about 4 units, and a meat wagon. The cop I first talked to then described what I told them, and they all said it looks about right, and told the Fire Department medics to bag them up. I told them what direction the girl ran, and gave a description, and a couple Officers left to go that direction to see if they could find her. Since the collapse, Police Officers didn’t quite follow the same way of doing things that they had done before. With no money or resources, most the time they only showed up to clean up the mess and get the incident documented. They’d do a small investigation, but, they only responded to serious incidents. Theft wasn’t one of them. If you shot a thief, that’d be enough for them to come. They’d arrest if there was enough reason to doubt your story, but, by and large, you didn’t go get the Police unless you were in the right. As for jailing you, they still did that. I don’t know how they kept things running, with things as they were. There were less Police than there were before the collapse. Most simply went home and never showed back up. As for jailing, I simply don’t know what kept that going. I had heard they got food donations and such to feed those that were arrested. Prison was a different deal all together, the State took care of that. Inmates had to grow the food for themselves, and were under constant watch by armed guards. The guards were paid in food and housing. Prison riots simply didn’t happen. Rioting in a prison would get you shot, no questions asked. Political Correctness went out the window along with the collapse. There just wasn’t time or resources to play nice. Jim said “I guess you didn’t need me to help clean up, hehe” I told him that was just in case. The Officers finished their work and left, and Jim and I headed back to the house. I asked Jim if he had any family, and he said he’d had a girlfriend, but, she killed herself when the collapse happened. Couldn’t deal with it. I told him “Sorry to hear that” and he said he wasn’t too bent out of shape, he was gonna get rid of her anyhow. He only felt bad that she was dead, he didn’t want that, just didn’t want to be with her anymore. Jim had been stationed at Banger Navy Base after he joined the Navy. He was a mechanic and worked on the bases vehicles. He had joined from a small town in Nebraska, and was an only child. When he got out of the Navy, he didn’t want to go back, so he stayed around. He didn’t like the Peninsula, so he moved out here. He rented a house a few blocks away, on the other side of the Elementary School. Said he hadn’t heard from his landlord since the collapse. He had a few friends in the area, but, they didn’t come around much these days. They had their own problems to deal with. I told Jim he was welcome to stop by any time. Then I went back up to the roof, grabbed my aught six, and brought it back down. I wiped it down, lightly oiled it, and put it away. Jim headed home, shotgun in hand. Lacy and I put the kids to bed and sat down to watch a movie. Power was still on. About a quarter of the way through the movie, the power shut off, so, we gave up and went to bed. Lacy chatted about getting some more chickens when we got the chance, and said we needed to butcher some of the rabbits, we were running out of room. “What are we gonna do Dan? This can’t last forever. We’ll eventually run out of the things we need. We don’t have anything to trade, and you going to work is pointless, unless they pay in something worth a crap. Trying to pay you in dollars was a real chickenshit move. I’m getting worried about mom and dad, haven’t heard from them in a while, and the same for Mel and Shayla for that matter. I don’t know how Tom and Nikki are doing, although my brother’s smart enough to have done something to hedge against this.” I told her “I know, don’t worry, we’ll work on getting out to see them, just hang in there.” Outside, the rain began to fall as we drifted off to sleep. The next few days passed without incident. I butchered some of the rabbits, wrapped them up, and put them in the freezer. Lacy canned some of the plums we picked off the trees in our yard, and cleaned, cut, and froze the vegies from the garden. I tried to think of something else to do, but, came up with not much. I thought salvaging might be a good idea, trade what I found for things we needed. Late the next afternoon, Jim showed up with a tan 5 ton military cargo truck. “Where’d ya get that” I asked. “Found it” Jim replied. “Riiight, better paint over them bumper numbers or the three oh third will kick your ass”. “Oh yeah” he laughed, “hadn’t thought about that”. I asked him if there had been anything good in it. He plead the fifth. “I figure to use it as a salvaging rig. Gonna take the sides and benches off, strip it down to just the flat bed, add a boom on to it, welder, compressor, cutting torches, and a generator, then add tool cabinets to the front on the sides and a box on the back with a lift gate. Maybe a plow on the front, like the trains have. With a small crew, should make quick work of salvaging car parts, engines, and such”. Jim hang around for the next couple of hours and we talked about how to make a salvaging op work. At 11:00 the next morning, our inventory of current supplies were interrupted by a loud BaWHOOOM! Which shook the house a bit, and made the windows, doors, and dishes rattle. “Wha… What was that” Lacy asked. “I don’t know” I replied as I walked out the front door. We looked around, and I didn’t see anything until I looked to the east. I saw the top of a small mushroom cloud, and, Lacy saw it too. She started getting antsy, saying something about a nuke. “It’s not a nuke, babe”. I ran back through the house, telling Lacy to grab my bino’s and headed for the roof. She came up shortly after and handed me the glasses. As I looked, I saw the grey and black shoulder of the large explosion, and the mushroom was dissipating. “Looks like a car bomb, maybe, and maybe a fueler went up, which caused the mushroom cloud.” I said. “From the looks of it, it probably hit that checkpoint by the on ramp”. I couldn’t see much, just the top of the smoke and now settling dust. A short while later, we could hear sirens from all over the city. 2 Apaches came in low over the freeway, and began to circle the scene. About 20 minutes later, 3 Blackhawks arrived and looked like they landed on the road way. Over the next few hours, there would be helicopters coming and going, and sirens. Up to this point, these sort of things hadn’t happened in the north west. September turned to October, and my old High School buddy, Luke, arrived. I was happy to see him, and, seeing he had no weapons, I gave him one of my pilfered AK’s and a Springfield 1911, along with 14 magazines for the AK. I introduced Luke to Jim, and the three of us began to work together building this salvaging truck. In Washington DC, no good solution could be found to fix the economic problem at hand, or to bring the U.S. back from the brink. Summer had brought drought, several nasty tornadoes, and a few large, disastrous hurricanes. Both major political parties blamed the other for not cooperating or compromising, and, as the first snows began to fall, Texas left the Union. Almost at the same time, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and Louisiana joined Texas, forming the Republic of Texas. Southern California became the Californian Republic, and, a week later, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Montana, and Idaho joined Texas. 2 weeks later, most of the states below the old Mason Dixon Line left the Union. Alaska and Hawaii opted out, saying they weren’t going to get into it. The first bit of fighting broke out around Oklahoma, militia were the ones doing the fighting, the U.S. Military had already stated they would not shoot Americans over political squabble. However, the President did have his army he had created for trouble with in the U.S. These were the Unionists, or, Socialists as most called them. I hadn’t joined in any of the fighting, I too, refused to kill an American over political squabbles. I had a family to keep alive, and I felt that this was more priority for me. Besides, no fighting was in Washington. Two weeks into the war, Jim told me he saw white UN vehicles driving down Pacific Highway. Luke, Jim, Lacy, and I talked about it over a couple beers after the kids were in bed, and Luke and Jim decided Jim should move in with Luke into the vacant house next door. Somewhere around 4 am, an intense firefight broke out to the west of us. It was intense enough that I knew it was military. The kids woke up and came into the bedroom crying, and, so, we had them crawl into bed with us. A knock at the door drew me out of bed. I grabbed my Glock and just as I reached the hall, I heard Luke yell “Dude, it’s us, let us in”. I did, with Jim right behind him. “What the f*ck is that!” I told him “sounds like a good fight to me”. A couple small explosions confirmed it to be military. It wasn’t just small arms. We sat in the dark and listened, and whispered in hushed tones about it, until the last shot was fired around 7:30. “Lets get some sleep” I said. “We’re going to go check it out tonight, maybe see if we can see what happened”. By ten that night, we were ready to go. We each had an LBE on, and an assault pack with some food and survival items in it. We drove down 320th until we got to the “T” intersection, and pulled to a stop. Didn’t look like anybody’d been there. And there was a light dusting of snow over everything. It was dead quiet. We got out of the truck and began to look around. “Somebody forgot to clean up” I mentioned to nobody in particular. The first few soldiers we found were American. “I thought American troops were staying out of this” Luke said. “I don’t know, wonder what happened. We don’t leave troops out like this, we clean up. So, I don’t know. This is strange.” I replied. “OK, grab weapons, ammo, and body armor. And if you see anybody that looks like they might have been on the other side of this, let me know:” I told them. “You mean like this guy?” Jim ask. Luke grabbed up several M4s, a couple M16A4s with M203s on them, two short barreled M249s and an M240B. He put those in the bed of the truck, and pulled helmets and body armor off some of the guys we found while I went and took a look at Jims body. Jim was standing in a finger of trees, normally called a green belt around here. He was looking down at an Asian man wearing a strange grayish digital pattern. I thought about it for a minute. “Find a weapon” I told him. I squatted down for a closer look at him. “This is a cool assed rifle!” Jim exclaimed. “Is it loaded?” “Um, I don’t know”, “Let me look” I said. It was. “Chinese” I said. “How do you know?” “Camo pattern, and this rifle is a QBZ-95, Chinese”. Luke shouted “Hey, maybe those UN Jeeps will tell us something”. “Maybe, have to find one first” I said absently. Luke persisted “No, dude, THOSE UN Jeeps right there!” I looked up and saw where his flashlight was pointing. On the other side of the finger of trees sat two UN jeeps in an apartment parking lot. One had been blown up, and the other riddled with bullet holes. I went over and took a loser look. More Chinese bodies lay about. “Who the hell won here” I asked nobody in particular. “If U.S. Troops won, we’d have cleaned up the battlefield, and, our dead wouldn’t be out here. We would have cleaned up. I don’t know what happens when Chinese troops win, but, I can’t imagine them leaving their guys out, too.” “Maybe no one won” Jim suggested. “Maybe they both gave it hell and were ordered to back off”. “I doubt the U.S. would do that. For now, chalk it up to mystery. Lets collect these weapons and strip these Chinese guys. I wanna know if there’s any sort of maps, papers, anything at all. Maybe we can find a U.S. Patrol and turn it all in, and let them know the location here. They should know what’s up”. But, after we got the first three stripped and the items put in the truck bed, we received a burst of automatic fire, coming in from the right front. The fire was high and came in across the left. “F*CK GET DOWN!!” I yelled. From behind the engine compartment of the blown up jeep, I returned fire. “FU*KING SHOOT!!” I yelled. Luke fired first, followed immediately by Jim. Incoming fire intensified and started to become more accurate. “No targets, I can’t see a damn thing” Luke yelled. “Shoot under the tracers, you can see those!” I said. More fire from Luke, on my left. “Jim, run back to the other side of this green belt and see if you can see anything back there” I yelled. Without waiting for his reply, I yelled “Luke, move back into the trees! We can’t take this much longer” and Luke ran back. I followed, changing magazines as I did so. “Jim, anything?” “Nope!” “Good, get the truck started”. “Luke…. LUKE…. GODDAMNIT LUKE” “YEAH!” “You OK?” “YEAH” “OK, shoot then!!” “Can’t” “Change mags” “Can’t, won’t go in” “Run back to the truck and get in the bed”. Luke immediately did so. I moved back to a black mass to my right rear, changing magazines as I did so. As soon as I got behind it, I too, turned and ran for the truck. When I got there, I jumped in over the tail gate, slamming my knee on the tail gate. Luke pounded on the roof “GO GO GO” and Luke and I fired into the trees we just left as Jim tore down the road. “Jim, take the first left, then the second right” I yelled. Luke and I had stopped shooting. I felt the truck veer left, then, a short while later, veer right at the second right, then the truck sped up again. “Third left, then slow down” I yelled. We pulled into a quiet neighborhood, and three blocks later I told Jim to pull over and stop. We all got out and Luke asked where we were. “F*ck if I know, but, we ain’t getting shot at no more” I said. “Anybody hurt” “No” Luke and Jim said in unison. “Not a word about this to Lacy!” I said. We all laughed. We knew Lacy would never let me out of the house again if she knew just how close we’d come to getting killed. “Think we hit anyone” Jim asked. “No idea, doubt it. I don’t know, I couldn’t see s***” we laughed again. “Beer?” Jim asked. Luke piped up “F*cking beer won’t touch this s***, I got crown at home” we laughed again as we got in the truck. We chain smoked all the way home, and thanked God we made it out of there. That was TOO close. 3 “So, what do you wanna do” Luke asked. We had taken our time getting back to the house. Luke drove and I directed him. We went down 312th, to Dash Point Rd. then down to Redondo beach, and back up again to Dash Point Rd., behind the high School, and finally to the house. I didn’t want anybody following us. “I don’t know” I replied. Jim suggested we start attacking them. “I don’t wanna do that. In fact, we won’t do that. Not yet, anyway. We don’t need that sort of trouble right now. We have no support, we have no supply cashes set up for it, and we are only three. We’re lucky we aren’t dead right now, or worse, captured. The first things that come to mind, for me, is that we need information. We need to find out what, exactly, they’re doing here, and I don’t mean the grand scheme of things. We need to find out if they are doing patrols, controlling check points, capturing people, transporting something, whatever we see them doing. We need to mark locations of static check points and areas they are patrolling. If they are doing raids on homes, we need to know about that, too. We also need to get out of this city and see other places and what’s going on with those. But, as for getting in to more fights, we just aren’t going to do it for now. Gather information, then we’ll see.” Luke wondered who the American soldiers were that we had found. “81st Brigade” I replied. “Telling by the shoulder patches, anyway. Could be 303rd Armor or 1/161st Infantry. I’m leaning toward the 1/161, however, which company is a toss up. I didn’t recognize any of them. And honestly, it’s a mystery as to what happened there. I can think of no reason why, win or lose, we would leave troops out there like that.” We pulled up in the drive, downloaded the things we had gathered, and turned in for the night. Empty dusty streets. Morning and it was already getting hot. Police refused to come out of the police station, but, insisted that there were 7 guys running around with RPGs. Just another hundred meters down Route Wild. Nothing, decided to go down to Route Green, left turn, now 4 RPGs and small arms. Drop the ramp, dismounts out, pull up, lay down coax fire. I can hear the tink tink tink on the outside of my hatch. RPG skips off the slope of the Bradley. Already my BC is screaming for me to move up. 25 meters, then stop. Apache 33 has an Iraqi Army guy waving his arms and pointing at something on the ground. The Iraqi and the 33 track disappear in a cloud of dust and smoke. 33 is OK, IED, one wounded. Porkchop got some shrapnel in his shoulder. He says he’s ok, and we move up another 25 meters. Main gun opens up and an insurgent disappears when rounds from the 25mm chain gun lands around him. Start to move up some more, and, I see three men running up on to the left side. I scream for the gunner to engage, but, no response. He’s busy with something else. I pop my hatch open and stick my M4 out, select fire, squeeze the trigger. On burst, the first insurgents face and head seem to become mush. The other two running up on the track skid to a stop and turn back for a low wall. I squeeze the trigger, squeeze the trigger, first goes down, fire again, second goes down. The rifle is on burst, although I hadn’t realized it. The two are crawling, now, leaving their weapon behind. I squeeze again, the first one stops moving. The second one gets to the wall, but I have elevation on him, and squeeze the trigger again. He stops. I tried to squeeze again, but, the rifle didn’t respond. I try again, then realize my rifle’s dry. I can hear someone screaming in my CVC helmet. My BC is kicking the side of the turret “Hey f***er MOVE!! MOVE!! What’s wrong with you!!” I close the hatch, noticing that I was hyperventilating. I take a deep breath, and move up. Dismounts are pinned down on the left. Someone opens up with a 25 and I can hear the bumpbumpbumpbump followed by the front side of a building on the right collapsing. The periscope on the right front explodes and causes me to scream. We move up. Bumpbumpbumpbump bump bump bump bump bump gakakakakakakak as 25mm and coax light up something else. We’re now ahead of the dismounts and taking the brunt of the fire. My track bucks and at the same time I can hear a loud WOOMMM ringing through the Bradley, pressure in my ears, all the air out of my lungs, then all goes black. For the sixth night in a row, I wake up screaming, kicking, punching. The bed was soaked in sweat and the bedding was in disarray. The fight in the nightmare had happened, but, my track had never been blown up. I’ll never know why these type of things come in my dreams. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, so, I grab my Glock and go out to the living room. Lacy asked me if I was OK, and I just grunted, said “I’m fine” and closed the door. I checked the street out front, and saw nothing. Luke and Jim had come over for some poker earlier and had left ¼ bottle of Crown Royal sitting there when they staggered home. I hadn’t touched any of it, then, but, now I grabbed a smoke, went out back with the bottle, and took three quick drinks off of it before lighting up. I set the bottle down, I was done with it. With in a few minutes the alcohol began to relax me. It had been a month since that little firefight with the Chinese. I say Chinese, but, I really have no f***in clue who it was. It’s an assumption that it was Chinese. Over the last month we had learned that the I-5 to Hwy 18 interchange had a UN checkpoint, and some of the little side streets around there had regular patrols. 320th and Pacific Hwy had a checkpoint, and some of the side streets had periodic, infrequent, patrols. We ventured down Peasley Canyon Rd into Auburn and decided to base ourselves at the train station there, in the parking garage. We set up on the 4th floor, parking next to the center of the garage. Hadn’t been there but a few minutes when I heard a loud “WOOP WOOP” from below. This was a sweet sound to my ears, these kids I had taken care of before the collapse had noticed I was here and had come to see me. But, at the same time, I was irritated. They could have been quieter about it. I didn’t want everybody and their brother knowing I was there. I had wondered how they were doing. Cody came up the stairs, Angel, Corpse, and Matty in tow. I sent jim to take a peak out and see if we were drawing any more attention than this. Cody said “Don’t worry, ain’t nobody out here”. “How you been, dude” I asked. “I wondered how y’all were doing. How many left of you?” Cody said that they were OK, hadn’t eaten in a week, and they had a total of 15 people. They had, before the collapse, 38 people, he proudly stated. I asked what happened to them and he said they either disappeared or died off from sickness, starvation, or murder. He suspected some of the girls had been snatched as slaves. I asked about parents. He told me that most were either dead, too high to know or care, or had tried to sell them for food. Cody told me his dad shot himself. “I’m sorry to hear that, man. Anything I can do for y’all?” “Yeah, we could use some food and a place to crash. We’ve mostly been on the move.” “I’ll do ya one better” I said “Come hang with me, we’ll take care of the food issue together, and I’ll get y’all going on a few things to keep you alive otherwise. Together, we could have better security. Be somewhat safer than sleeping wherever you been sleepin”. He agreed, and sent Corpse to go get the others. Next thing I know, we got a bunch of people in my truck bed and we’re on our way back to the house, up 15th, Military Rd….. When we got home, I started getting everyone settled in while explaining to Lacy that we really should take care of these kids. “We just don’t have the food, Dan. We don’t have the room, we don’t have much of anything, already, and now you want to bring in 15 more people? Are you out of your mind?” “Honey, I’m thinking of moving us anyhow. With these checkpoints so close, things are a bit hairy for me, and, I REALLY would like to have some space from these guys. I’m thinking spring time, we will go and head for the hills for a bit. With spring thaws, disease will come, and I don’t want us stuck in that. If we get out of here, we can avoid that. Not permanently, and not too terribly far. I was thinking out hwy 18 maybe. I know a spot or two we could go to. Or, head out past Enumclaw up above Cumberland. It’ll suck for a bit, but, by next winter, I’m hoping most the diseases die out and we can return to someplace we would do better at. Maybe a farm or something. Or a warehouse with enough space in it to keep us all, store salvage, and build up a sort of farm. That would be better, honestly.” Lacy said “no way” and turned on her heel and out of the room she went. I knew I’d get my way, however. The following week, the President announced that there would be no elections until further notice, citing Emergency Powers. Amid massive protests in Seattle, 2 small nukes exploded, killing 300,000 people and destroying both the downtown area and the docks. Hezbollah took the credit for it. We found out, later, that similar attacks happened in New York City, with 3 nukes, L.A. with 3 nukes, Atlanta with 1 nuke, Oklahoma City with 1 nuke, and Dallas Texas, with 1 nuke. Peppering other cities were dirty bombs, some biological, some radiological, and a few of them chemical. This occurred just as things began to turn around. Some semblance of order was being restored, at least in those states that were still in the Union. Some negotiation had been going on with those states that had broken from the Union, and a plan for economic recovery was being enacted. However, all hope was lost with these attacks. We weren’t in the way of fallout, however, I immediately packed up everybody and headed out. We went in the middle of the night, taking back roads the whole way. We pulled in to a turn off on hwy 18 that had a gate across it, and, I got out and cut the lock. After getting all the vehicles through, I put my own lock into the gate, then we drove another 45 minutes until I saw a suitable place to stop and get some rest. The Civil War raged for another 3 months. We missed Christmas, even though we wouldn’t have had much to celebrate anyway. That war killed 2 million Americans. American Troops stepped up fighting the Chinese. I had been training the people with me to fight, and, I decided to gather more information on these Chinese. I would begin doing recon soon after we got settled in at the spot I had chosen. It would be a simple set up, and temporary. No farming, nothing. We built crude cabins, and managed to weather the remainder of winter, although very uncomfortable. By the end of May, we were ready to begin doing missions. Amongst the things I had looted the previous year were Talk About radios. These, I had gotten throat mics and ear buds for, so we could talk in virtual silence. I only had six of them, however, so they were reserved for anybody going out to do stuff. Our first mission I planned to check out Auburn to see if the Chinese had set up any place else there, besides at the start of hwy 18 in Federal Way. We planned for it to be a scouting patrol, and after a short drive through Auburn, we saw that they had set up another check point at C street and hwy 18. They had taken up residence at a local Apartment Complex, and had few patrols that we could immediately see. We marked the Group Health Coop as a surveillance spot. This was 252 meters east of the check point. It was a bit close for my comfort, but, it offered the best vantage point to view the goings on. Back at camp, I laid out my plan, and made an Op Order out of it. Nothing fancy, nothing too technical, but it got the basics out of the way. I looked over the maps I had of the streets and routes there and back, and made contingency plans. I decided on the Rule Of Engagement of this mission, which was basically, only shoot if it’s obvious you’re going to be shot at. After finalizing my plans, I briefed everybody. “Jim, Luke, Cody, Corpse, Matty, and Angel, I need to talk with you.” They came over and I began “As you know, we went out to scout out those Chinese guys. We already know they have a check point set up by my old work. I’ve got a spot not too far away from the check point that I want to look at, and we’re going to go do that in a couple days. Matty, you’re driving. You’re going to go to E street and 2nd street and drop us off there, just before the sunset curfew. After that, you’ll make your way back up Lea Hill and on to hwy 18 and back to camp. The rest of us will walk to A St SE and make our way south until we get to the Group Health building. From there, we’ll get in to the building and make our way to the 4th floor and observe from there. Auburn is mighty unpopulated for the moment and it shouldn’t be that big a problem to get in unnoticed. We’ll keep surveillance for 3 days, then make our way back. Matty, you need to pick us up on day three just a half hour before the sunset curfew. We’ll meet you at 2nd and N streets, cool? Once we’re out of town, we haul ass home, but, we need to not alert anybody to us being there. Better for our health. You’ll need to pack 4 days worth of food, toilet paper, extra gallon size Ziploc bags, note books and pens, those liter size bottles of water, you’ll need several of those, and a poncho liner or blanket. “Why do we need to bring bottles of water? We’ve got the camel backs on our packs” Angel asked. “You and Corpse will also need to bring funnels, chances are, those faucets in that building won’t have water, and, you have to take out what you take in, which means, you’ll need to piss in the bottles.” “Eww” both girls said in unison. “Heh, that’s not all, you have to take your crap out with you, too, so, make sure along with those Ziploc bags, you bring trash bags.” “We can’t use the toilet? Dude, that’s disgusting” “I know Corpse, but, we can’t leave ANYTHING behind that might show we were there. Take a crap in the toilet, and they’ll know. Have to pack it out. We might want to use that spot again some time, and, I don’t want to give these guys any reason to come snooping around after us. Got me?” Everybody agreed. “Luke, your primary rifle will be that Remington 700. Make sure you bring enough ammo for a decent engagement. The rest of us will be bringing those AK’s except Jim, who will have that M240. Make sure you bring about 600 rounds. It’ll go quick, but, all we’re going to do is break contact anyhow, and that pig will help a lot in that. We need to pack smoke grenades, and, for smokers, we gotta chew. Save a bottle for your spit, no smoking, at all, got me? Otherwise, do without. We also will be bringing some of those frags we found. Lets go over the break contact drill.” Jim piped up “When we make contact, start shooting. Gain fire suppression and begin to leap back out.” Cody chimed in “Everybody shoots, as the point man passes the slack, a smoke goes out. Slack empties a mag and moves back.” Angel said “And the last one to turn to run throws out a frag.” And, finally, Luke “And if need be, repeat until out of danger”. I nodded and said “Right. Basically, this is what we’ll try to do. We’ve practiced it a ton of times. I don’t expect we’ll have to worry too much, but, one never knows. That Pig is gonna be key in this, so, Jim, I need you to be on it. No screwing around, ok?” We rehearsed drills and verbally the mission for the next 2 days. At just before dusk on the day of the mission, Jim, Luke, Cody, Angel, Corpse, and I slipped out from under the blue tarp in the back of the Silverado, and ran to the back yard of a house on the south side of 2nd St. There, we waited while Matty drove away. We listened, made short commo checks with each other, and then, shortly after total dark, we moved out. It took us about a half hour to reach the OP. Cody jimmied the lock on the door and in we went, locking the door behind. On the 4th floor, we set up. Sleeping was to be done in that room, and security would watch the stairwell with one other at the landing below the 4th floor. As for observation, I set up back from the window enough to be able to see everything but not be seen in the window. I had Luke set his rifle up next to me at the desk, which we had pulled back from the window. The window was open about five inches already. The next three days were pretty mundane. The checkpoint was manned by a crew of 5, 2 machine guns on over watch, and they pulled 12 hour shifts. Security was fairly lax, they must not get much action out here, I guessed. We made sketches of positions, wrote down times for shift changes, noted that every patrol that went out went through that check point, and stayed there for half an hour before moving on. Most the patrols were along the rail tracks, and a few side streets next to them. Late the third day, a white Range Rover arrived. The men at the checkpoint perked up and started looking like they cared about their jobs. A man stepped out and everyone down there acted like he was important. So, I whispered “Luke” “On it boss” he said. “Ok dude, shoot the important f*** as soon as you” BOOM and the new arrival went down. Everybody in my team, to my amazement, kept discipline, and didn’t start yelling or talking loudly. As everyone gathered, I explained what just happened. Everybody was alert after that. We held our position long after that shot. Just as dark started to settle in, we slipped out of the building. Once we got out of the area, we settled in to a trot in order to try to catch Matty. Lucky for us, she was there, and full of questions about all these UN patrols. We got in and I told her “Just go, we’ll explain later”. After we got to camp I held a meeting and explained what happened. We put the information we had into a folder kept for that reason, complete with maps marking all of the spots we had discovered to date. We scouted Kent, Covington, Enumclaw, Renton, Sumner, and only found Chinese in Renton and Kent, along the rail lines. We marked their positions on the map. In Kent and Renton we also found that most of the major ways into these two cities had checkpoints. Parts of Renton were a ghost town, and the crews around it wore NBC gear. I assumed Renton must have gotten fallout, and we didn’t stick around long. In Kent, as we were leaving, we heard the start of a fierce fight. I stopped us on Kent East Hill and watched through a spotting scope. Bradley Fighting Vehicles were down in the valley hammering someone. A humvee came fairly close to where we were at, and a couple soldiers got out. They didn’t seem to notice us. I walked over to them “Hey guys, I was hoping you were on the job. What’s going on?” Cpl. Moore looked at me and said “I thought we evacuated everybody out of here”. “You may have, but, I was coming here to see what these UN guys were up to. Apparently they’re about to get their asses handed to them”. “I don’t know” he said. “They’ve been pretty tough up till now. Not a lot of contact with them, but, what we have had has been pretty rough. Real knock down drag out kinds stuff”. I asked him what they were here for. He hesitated, and, I told him about the fight in Federal Way a while back. I told him I noticed no blue helmets, as well. “I think you need to talk to someone a bit higher up on the food chain than me”. He called someone on his radio, and shortly after, another humvee arrived. An Lt. stepped out and told me to follow him, and, as we drove behind him, a second humvee pulled in behind us. At this point, I figured, we were probably going to be shot if we tried to leave them. We arrived at a school yard and I was escorted in to a makeshift office. After a short wait, a tall man with a grey high and tight walked in. “I’m Brigadier General Read. What can I do for you.” I told him that I was glad somebody was working on the problem of these UN guys, and gave him a quick run down of our current activity. He didn’t say much. Didn’t raise an eyebrow about the kill in Auburn, didn’t flinch at our discovery in Federal Way, he had a good poker face. I didn’t go on after that. I sat and stared at him, making him make the next move. I’ve been out of the Army for some time, so, a General doesn’t mean jack all to me. Never has, for that matter. However, now I don’t have to salute the SOB. “So, why are you here? I don’t have much time, I’ve a battle on my hands. What is it you want?” “General, I know this whole area like the back of my hand. I’ve been out, scouting positions, and such, with the only thought in mind that I wanted to know as much about them as I could. These are Chinese, are they not? Why are they in UN vehicles? Why are they only a few, here? Why have your engagements been so small and few in routing them out? I could go on all day with questions I’d like the answers to, but, I doubt that’ll get me anywhere. Thing is, I can’t fight these guys, my numbers are far too few, and we have no support whatsoever. We could handle a fight or two, I suspect, but, not much after that. So, what to do with the information I’ve collected? Naturally, the answer is to give that to you. What good will it do me?” Read looked at me a moment as he considered. “How about you stay around, let this fight play out, and then we can talk. Meanwhile, you’ll be free to roam about, chow isn’t that bad, and you’ll have clean sheets.” “I want my stuff back. I know you guys need to check it and all, I would, but, I want it back. All of it.” “No can do. Can’t have a civilian running around with weapons on my FOB. Your truck is in the motor pool, you’ll get your stuff back when you leave.” “Gotcha. Well, better get my guys some chow. When will we talk next? Any idea how long this fight will take?” “Don’t know yet, and, I’ll talk to you soon” Read walked out of the room. By the guards coming in to escort me to my guys and our quarters, I took it to be that we weren’t immediately allowed to leave. This could be a long wait. 4 I walked up to my team “Well, let’s follow these guys and pick a bunk. We’re gonna be here a while, so, best get settled in. Once we pick a bunk we’ll get chow.” Luke asked “What about our stuff? I got things in my pack I want. Weapons? And where’s my truck?” “Trucks in the motor pool, and we don’t get our gear for now. Apparently we’re either too stupid or too dangerous to have it. Generals orders” I said with more than a little sarcasm. Meanwhile, back at camp, Lacy and the others began to get worried. We were supposed to be back an hour ago, and still no sign of us. They could also hear the distant sounds of heavy fighting just to the north of them. They hoped we weren’t caught up in it. What they didn’t know, was that it was regular Army engaging a large contingent of UN troops at the junction of hwy 18 and I-90, just a few miles away. Of course, we, too, didn’t know about that. After some discussion with the rest of the group, Lacy decided there would be no lights and no fires for the night. Helicopters flew overhead toward the sound of battle, and once in a while, a plane came over, and you could hear them drop their ordinance before circling around to McChord AFB to rearm. The next morning, we could still hear sporadic gunfire from the valley below, punctuated by explosions, and the occasional “mad minute” when gunfire became heavy for a brief moment. We could hear aircraft overhead, they’d drop ordinance and rush off elsewhere, and, we could hear the choppers either dropping supplies or picking up wounded. We hadn’t slept much that night, but I roused everybody and got them getting ready for the day. We headed for breakfast, and, after standing in line for my food, General Read approached me, and bade me follow him to his table. His staff was already seated and a spot left empty for me. “How was your night, hope you slept well” Read began. I told him we’re fine. “we’ve a few things to discuss before we kick you loose. First up, for now, we could use your help in sorting out a gang problem in the area. Residents remaining aren’t giving any support, or information, to us because we haven’t been able to address the issue of gangs. They’ve become out of control and have been fighting for control over various areas. Some cities have been completely evacuated, others not, and those areas not evacuated have been pretty much locked in by the gangs. They’ve been forced to give up food and other items to the gangs at the threat of death, and they’ve been either taking to raping the girls. Anybody that stands up to them gets shot, no questions asked, and, in some cases, the entire house wiped out and burned. We think they’re getting some support from these Chinese troops, but how much, we don’t know. We have to deal with the task at hand, and can’t send troops to handle these things. So, if you want to help, this would be a big one for us. Try to at least disrupt the gang activity and spread the word that things are getting under control. Support we can give you is limited.” I thought about it for a minute, and said to myself, well, we can do that. Gonna need a few things, however… “If I may, sir, the only support we really need is some food, ammo, maybe fuel, and if possible, some Special Operations types to help training my guys up a bit more. I’ve been able to get them to do some basic infantry stuff, but we really need to be able to step that up. We have 3 five man teams for the moment, and those teams need to be able to come a lot bigger than they are. I hope to gather more people as we can, and get them trained the same way. But, basically, we need to be able to make a very small group make a big impression. We could use some more weaponry, maybe one of those Land Rovers the Rangers have, fitted out with a ma duce on top, and M240s on a swivel on the doors. That way we have a support vehicle that can transport wounded and give fire support. If we could use your medical facilities for our wounded that’d be great, too.” Read asked “What other sorts of weapons and ammo” and I told him we could use 3 M203s and 40mm grenades assorted type. I told him we could use 2 M249s, we already had one, and the ammo for it, and M240Bs with ammo. Either some L.A.W.s or AT-4s, frags, smoke grenades, flash bangs, breaching gear, and demo gear. I told him primarily, for the moment, Main Battle Rifles have been 7.62x39 based rifles, as the ammo for them, at the time, was more abundant. Assorted handgun ammo in 9mm, .40s&w, and .45APC. Medical and surgical supplies. And any local doctors, nurses, and medics he knew about, we could use their help and expertise. The general looked at me a minute and gave a low whistle. Before he could speak again I said “And that’s aside from the fact that we’ll be seeing UN postions and can report them, so, we’ll need a way to communicate with you, sincgars would do fine, along with batteries, and I’ll need to know what is under who’s control, and who to contact if I’m in their AO. Read asked me how well trained my guys were currently, and I told him basic infantry tactics and drills. We’re set up in 5 man teams, 15 fighters total for the moment, and that I expect to expand that unit model and sphere of influence making other units as we can, training them the same way we’re trained. Thus, the reason for the Special Operations types. We need to make these teams the most effective we can be. He agreed to do it, returned our gear after getting a drop off point for the supplies, and gave us a radio to contact him with. We got back to camp and explained everything that went on, and the next day, at 10am, the cache drop arrived. It turned out to be a lot more than I had requested. We had 2 Range Rovers, fully equipped, 3 Humvees, cargo trailers, an LMTV, and all requested food, ammo, and medical supplies plus some, with a note from General Read to make it last. As soon as we got it back to camp, we began to break the stuff down, setting aside ammo for training. As we worked on drills, marksmanship, and other basics, a Special Forces “A” Team showed up. After assessing where we were in our training and the way we had set up, they began to adjust how the camp was laid out, tweak security, and started training us in more advanced tactics, reconnaissance, demolitions, medical and mechanical skills, and how to best use the equipment we have to our best advantage, making sure to tell us that wars have been won by people with less than what we have. They got us some drones, Raven types, that have a camera on it. These are hand launched and used to look ahead and pinpoint trouble spots before we went in. I figured that if we began losing these, we could probably use toy RC helicopters with a camera taped to it and do the same thing. After a couple weeks of training we began to look for a new home. The SF guys and I decided on an abandoned warehouse just south of Auburn. It had one 5 story building, a separate section, attached, that had 4 large bays, all built of brick and steel, and it was enclosed in a fenced off section of property that had a rather large yard enclosed. The main building had a basement, which housed the boiler room and storage space. The building itself had offices, conference rooms, and the entire property had a scattering of miscellaneous junk. We moved in, unpacking everything, cleaning up, and generally getting settled in. After that, we worked on the security of the place. We got concertina wire to go around the outside fence, which we had to repair, and we built a gate for the entrance, setting out jersey barriers we grabbed from the highway in order to make vehicles have to weave their way in to the compound. The gate was of heavy steel. We next built a gate house, and a section behind the fence, next to the gate house, to house anybody captured for a short time, in order to control people wanting to come in. The reasoning was so that we would have the chance to talk to them before letting them come any further. The entire gate section was closed off with an additional corrugated steel wall, thus making it so you could come through the first part of the gate, be held, and not be able to see inside. While we were setting up, we did end up with several locals showing up wanting to be part of the group. After screening them we let them in. Some were other kids that the guys I had with me, fighting, knew. They, too, would become fighters, along with several adults. We also had 3 mechanics, 2 doctors, 4 nurses, and a few paramedics arrive. Some, when asked if they minded carrying a rifle and going out with the teams jumped at the chance. While this meant that they’d be going out on larger operations, it allowed us to have medical support right on the spot for that. Along with those, 3 elderly couples arrived, and wanted to teach the younger kids for schooling. Others that arrived would do to help with cooking, gardening, and other tasks to support the whole. Lacy, naturally, ended up being in charge of the entire “Operation Home front” as she called it. Using an abandoned town, we refined our urban warfare capabilities, worked out our SOP, and learned to become more effective as a force. While I could have done some of this myself, having the SF guys working with us did a whole lot more than I could have done. Just weeks after meeting with General Read, we were doing operations, scouting out gang areas and attacking them where we found them. Mostly light contact, we suffered no casualties during this time. We still trained, working on communications, learning how to make contact with locals and develop a relationship for collecting information and support. Some of our missions we went on did just that, developed contacts and gather information. In no time flat, we were collecting our own Intel and having good information to act on. Also, during this time, another old friend arrived that I had been in Iraq with. SFC Jackson had been my Platoon Sergeant, now retired, and he agreed, after some discussion, to take command of the whole thing. Having been in the Ranger Battalions, he, too, had a vast amount of knowledge, experience, and a strong leadership ability. He moved his family in with us. And, not long after we had settled in, our little group of 25 we had originally had grown to more than 80 fighters, support, and just general family. After working on gaining a good picture of the area and it’s gang issues, we got a good idea where a large Hispanic local gang was centralized. We began putting together an operation, sending teams out to recon and verify information. Some of the teams used the drones to pinpoint specific spots, and we refined our plan. A week after we began planning the operation went into play. Toward the bottom of Muckleshoot hill, in Auburn, was a dense residential area previously known to have heavy gang activity. The Little Valley Locos had wrested control of the area after the collapse, mostly by being more than willing to commit ruthless violence and sheer numbers. They had an estimated 150 members in the area, mostly concentrated in the Our Place Manor apartment complex. With scouts in place, in the early morning we went in with 35 troops, and both Range Rovers in support, with a cargo humvee having extra supplies we might need. Split up into two groups, one moved south along M street to the back end of the complex, and the other moved east along 17th street, which would bring them to the front of the complex. Radio communications and star clusters would signal the groups’ locations. The plan called for the group along 17th street to push into, and move around to the east side of the complex, and hold, while the group coming up M street would sweep from the north west and push the gang members into the other group, sort of hammer and anvil. There was no plan for capturing. We felt we needed to send a strong message, and kill them all. Luke was with, and in charge of, group A, and I was in group B, Jackson was with me and in charge of the overall operation, and Jim was in charge of a small security detail with the supplies. As we began moving into the complex, there was not a sound. Slipping around to the east, we had nearly completed the maneuver, when we began to take gunfire. Apparently someone was awake. At about the same time, Luke’s team began to enter the complex, and was, also taking fire. Nothing too big for now, however, as more gang members began to wake up and react, more fire came in. The buildings were all 2 story type, and we began to clear some of them, and occupy some of them. However, 15 minutes into the fight, we realized our mistake, as we began to receive fire from the south, across the street at another complex. This was much heavier than what we received going into the complex we had targeted. Luke reported taking heavy fire from both the target complex and to the south east, at the other complex. By now, both Range Rovers were opening up on the complex across the street in an attempt to suppress that side. The complex across the street were 3 story buildings, and, apparently full of wide awake, angry gang members. Jim reported engaging a small group and, having beat them off him, had to change positions. Jackson then decided both teams would link up in the middle of the target complex and begin to push south and east through the entire area. He warned that everybody be sure of their targets, as he didn’t want any innocent casualties, there may be people stuck in the middle of this that weren’t associated with the gangs. Now, instead of just small arms, there began to be random explosions as we tried to break up larger pockets of resistance. Jackson radioed home base to tell them to get more guys ready to come in, and make sure medical was all awake and to expect possibly heavy casualties. Jim reported taking light gunfire again, and had to move again. Soon after, he found a more secure location and started getting the Ravens up in the air, about the same time Jackson requested that Jim do so. Jim had 3 of them up, one working on his surrounding area, and 2 working over the battlefield. Once over the complexes, he began to see that there wasn’t anybody fleeing the area, and noted that everybody he saw had a weapon. Jackson, at this time, declared no innocents in the area and that we were free to shoot everything. Luke reported the first casualty, Josh, one of the original 15, had taken a round in his abdomen. A casualty collection point Luke had set to the rear was where Josh was taken, and a couple paramedics were there to take care of him until someone could pick him up. Soon, my own team reported 2 casualties, and Luke reported another. Minutes later, 15 more militia members arrived on the LMTV and the casualties were taken back to home base. We wasted no time putting the new arrivals to work. Jim reported more gang members arriving on our right flank, and, getting the number of 20 enemy, one of the Range Rovers went out that way to cover for Luke’s team extending to the right. We were using the full amount of force we had at our disposal, and, after 3 hours of fighting, the remainder of the gang had fled. Anything we found cleaning up afterward was shot and killed, and piled in the middle of a car lot. We counted 44 enemy killed, unknown how many escaped. They could do no more than generally harass Jim once he got to a good spot. We took a total of 4 casualties, and none of them killed. We spent the rest of the day going through the area collecting the things we found, gathering any information we could find, and found a large food cache, which we set about distributing to any civilians that remained in the area. We sent out small 5 man patrols ferreting out small groups of gang members, taking occasional contact, usually resulting in the gang members fleeing. Jackson set a small outpost in the area, taking the Lutheran Church as the spot for it. Once back at Home Base, we conducted an After Action Review. Things had gone well, we addressed the issue of not thinking about the apartment complex, and things we could have done differently, however, overall, we did fine. We adapted to the situation and overcame it, with resounding success. A small intelligence brief followed, and after that, the team that had been working with us departed, bidding us good luck. As for the situation and developments goes, we learned that the President, in lieu of monetary payment for the loss of funds from the treasury, post collapse, had agreed to give up parts of the country. The West Coast was largely part of this. In order for the Chinese to assess what they wanted without raising alarm in the local population, knowing most of us were armed, they posed as UN troops. They didn’t want any sort of rebellion before they were ready for it. There were more Chinese troops in less populated areas not bothering to pose as UN troops. These are mostly along the West Coast. Terrorist attacks by Hezbollah and Al Qaeda continued but not on the same scale as before. The East Coast was more fully under Federal control, although that was slipping. Elections had been called off and toward the east, civil war had erupted again. It had died down some, but a renewed effort had begun. Warfare with Mexico had broken out along the South West, Texas leading the way on that, pushing in to Mexico and using militia and National Guard, pounding the Drug Cartels as much as they could. The Cartels, however, had spread their influence as far as Washington State. Northern Midwestern states, especially those along the Canadian Border, had so far remained mostly untouched by any warfare. Most of these states did fine, trading with Canada. Mexico struggled as Cartels continued to grasp control of larger and larger areas, along with continual warfare with the American Southwest. The Middle East was being eaten up by a new Persian Empire, Israel struggled with this and had broken ties with the US after the our President refused to back anything that didn’t include giving up land to “Palestine” so they could have a state. The President had even gone so far as to threaten Israel if they didn’t comply. The majority of Europe was in collapse. The EU fell apart as the USD became worthless. South America remained mostly unchanged. In South Africa, and in the Ivory Coast, a pandemic began to kill people off. Other than that, Africa remained unchanged. The pandemic would reach the Middle East and Europe before it petered out. China was rapidly expanding, North Korea overran South Korea creating a Unified Korea, with Chinas help, but then collapsed. Taiwan had been taken by China, Vietnam was now in Chinese hands, and Australia , New Zealand, and the Philippines were pooling resources to counter that threat. Russia began to expand, working a deal with old Soviet Bloc nations in an attempt to counter a Chinese threat. After some success, however, it ended in utter failure and the whole of eastern Europe collapsed into chaos. China, too, had disease running rampant. This would ultimately stop their expansion attempt. Canada, too collapsed, as did Mexico for the most part, although in those countries wouldn’t know it for the most part, and for different reasons. Except for the more populated areas, Canada was unchanged by it, and Mexico was a mess to begin with. Here in the US, Spring brought more frequent contact between US forces and Chinese/UN forces. Street Gangs became much more active, and my group was making more contact with them. Some of these fled south into the Tacoma area. Amongst those that did, there was warfare between them as they vied for territory, some ended up merging, and some simply got stamped out. Local trade began as routes became safer. We had lost, to this point, 8 people in combat, 2 suicides, and an elderly couple died, the husband first, a week later the wife. These were due to natural causes. As for those wounded in the fighting, we had several, myself included, bullet fragment, and I was grazed by a round. Most of these wounds weren’t too debilitating. 5 By June we began attacking UN troops again for something to do. Our influence had expanded south to Tacoma/Lakewood, but our group in particular weren’t fighting, there. We had gathered and trained new guys to do what we had been doing. By mid June, more Chinese troops began to flood the area, these not even pretending to be UN troops. This was not just due to more frequent contacts with US military, but locals began to attack them as well, other than us. Chinese and American war planes began fighting to control air space, and Chinese Tanks and Infantry soon filled the area. This pushed U.S. Forces back, leaving my group and I behind, but, that was OK. We took pleasure in being a pain in the ass. US troops were building up to push back, but, we didn’t know that. Our small teams of 5 did a lot of hit and run, sabotage, and sniping. Luke was the best shot amongst us. Before the US troops backed out of the area, Luke and I had snatched a couple M82’s and quite a few .50BMG rounds. This made it nice, reach out and touch em. Cody became quite adept at sneaking up next to tanks and planting sticky bombs on the sprockets of tanks. One day, Luke, myself, and Cody saw a tank at a checkpoint. I set Luke up to shoot at the Track Commander. I took a position to pin the 15 troops standing at the check point down, and Cody had an AT4 to hit the tank. The plan was that Luke would do the “Stupid thing” and try to shoot the TC, when the tank reacted, Cody would shoot the side of it while I sniped at, and pinned down, the 15 troops standing around the checkpoint. The tank was typical Chinese type 96g. Heavily armored in the front, weak on the sides. You aim for just above the upper road wheels. The main gun loads automatically, with the ammo stored in the crew chamber, and when that puppy blows, it pops the turret off nicely. They Type 96g has a good fire control system, able to engage targets day or night, with thermal imaging, and can fire guided missiles out of it’s main gun. On the move, it can easily hit a target at 1700 meters, stationary it will reach out to 3000 meters with little problem. The main gun is a 125mm smooth bore. More of these were fielded than the Type 99, which is WAY more advanced, but only about 500 made as they are so expensive to build. These have only been given to the most elite of the PLA, Chinas Army. Once everyone was in position we all called on the radio to say so. Luke shot first and made a good hit on the TC. The turret spun around to the general direction of the shot, and Cody let the AT4 fly. At the same time, I picked off the first 4 dismounts before they took cover. The shot was good, and the turret popped off predictably. Luke took his next shot at the dismounts, finding his target. The other 2 members of our team then opened up with SAWs. That kept them pinned down some while Cody moved to my position. I slung the 1903A3 I had across my back and grabbed up my AK and we moved in. The SAWs were positioned to my right, Luke to my left, and Cody and I moved up in hopes of taking the whole lot. No such luck, however. We began receiving return fire and Luke radioed that another Tank was on the way with more Infantry riding on it. Time to skedaddle. I radioed to break contact, smoke went out, and we boogied on out of there, taking more than a few rounds our way. We ran for the mile it took to get to the rest of our gear, and then we headed off the line of travel we had been going, in hopes of losing any pursuit. There was no pursuit, and we faded off into the woods to the east, reaching a thicket to rest at and reload. “Well, that went pretty well“ I said to no one in particular. Then I told everyone we weren’t done with that spot. “Cody, you up for another tank kill?” “Yup, lets do it” “Good, Angel, give Cody that last AT4. This time we’ll approach from a different direction and see what we can do. Same as last time, distract the crew, hit the tank from the side, and get outa there.” This time, however, it didn’t go so smoothly. The tank was buttoned up, so Luke shot at the optics housing. Didn’t do jack s***. The tank found some of us in the thermals and opened up. Cody, however, determined to knock out another tank, did the very stupid. As the rest of us began backing out, Cody moved up. He gained a good position and hit that thing squarely. The turret didn’t pop off this time, not like the last. It did slip it’s rings, however, and that was good enough. Infantry gave chase and Cody went a completely different direction than the rest of us. “What are you doing” I radioed, but Cody didn’t answer. Cody was doing his own thing it seemed. Eventually, Cody lost his pursuers. He had gone to ground inside of a building, and stayed hidden, lucky bastard. The rest of us soon had a Z-10 Attack Helicopter on us. As it was attempting to pepper us with 30mm cannon fire, we spread out and began taking different directions ourselves. Infantry also came for us. This was bad, really bad. Luke cut off to the north and set up his rifle and began picking off Infantry. That was great, but I REALLY wanted that chopper off our ass. I tried to pick up a near by team on the radio and after several seconds received a response. I invited them to our little shindig, and they gathered another 10 guys from other teams. This gave us a total of 20, and gave us 6 more AT4s we could use. As we gathered back together (Cody excluded, who knows where he is at this point) we ran by the ambush spot. The first rocket missed, but the second impacted on the tail boom and down the chopper went. On its corkscrewing way down, someone thought it a good Idea to shoot it with small arms, no idea who did it or if they even impacted. The infantry platoon in pursuit met with yet another ambush, causing it to back off, as another team of us arrived to help in the ambush, trying to assault their way in. To me, this seemed pandemonium, but somehow it worked. The Chinese believed we were going back on the attack and backed into a defensive position, at which time we broke apart and departed the area. The next morning, we received a call from Cody and linked up with him. Aside from hungry, he was fine. I had gone alone to hook up with Cody, leaving everyone else to redistribute ammo, water, and to eat. Staying serious, I told Cody that he completely missed the tank. “No way, I saw it hit Dude.” “Nope, went right over the front slope and hit the building behind. After that, Luke tried to shoot the optics housing again to get the heat off you, but that tank fired it’s main gun, and now Josh and Luke are dead. Angel and I managed to get away from the tank, but Angel ended up taking cannon fire from that helicopter. You and I are the only ones left in the team. I tried to send Corpse and her tram to go get you but, I think they were ambushed. Haven’t heard from them since”. I didn’t say another word after that, and even managed to make myself sound a bit choked up at the end. Cody and I walked in silence for the hour or so it took to get back to our gear. I could tell Cody was trying not to cry, Josh was his best friend. But, when we got to the thicket where our gear was, Cody broke into an open sob, and when he walked through to the middle, Josh looked up at him and said “f*** is wrong with you”… Luke looked at me, seeing me stifle a laugh. Cody, still crying, managed to stop long enough to say “Y… y-y-y’all ain’t dead??” Luke couldn’t help it, burst out laughing, so did everyone else. For a good 15 minutes everyone laughed, with Cody accusing me of being a sick son of a *censored*. The look on his face had been priceless. After things calmed down a bt, we told him what really happened. Cody accused me of being an a$$hole, smiling at being the butt end of a good, although sick, joke. “That’s just not right” he kept saying. And as it got dark, we grabbed our belongings and leaving a couple booby traps behind, went back to the warehouse. After dispersing for a week, we gathered together again. I sent Corpses team to take out a fuel depot, Jim, I sent to harass a checkpoint, Luke took a team to ambush one of the supply routes, and I went to a sot up Peasley Canyon. All of these we timed to pull the Chinese into differing directions, causing them to have to run to put one fire out and get there just in time to do it again on the opposite end of their area. We set a larger force to try to make a raid on the remainder of the Chinese supplies. The meeting broke up and half a week later, we began to move into our positions. The fuel went up first, and the reaction was great. All sorts of Chinese ran for the area of the explosion. Next, Jim hit the check point, taking heavy return fire, but he managed to burn a lot out by tossing jellied molotovs. And AT4 knocked out the APC, a ZSD89 with a12.7mm anti-aircraft MG on it. Has a troop compartment capable of carrying 13-14 troops, and it’s a tracked vehicle. The AT4 hit the side, between the Track Commander and the Driver. No troops in the back, they were all shooting at Jim. The raid on the supplies began about that time, and Luke spotted reinforcements from Federal Way coming in. Luke ambushed and demolished the truck carrying them. About that same time, a Z-10 Attack Helicopter followed down Peasley Canyon on it’s way to provide support to those under attack. My teams AT4 knocked it out, and scared off the second coming in. We then moved back into the trees, and moved up the canyon and ambushed the rescue attempt. Once that was done, we bugged out of there, considering our luck as being run out. The raid on the supplies was mostly failure, although we did manage to get artillery shells and mortars, which once I found that out, I intended to make things a bit more interesting. For the next 2 weeks, we rigged the ordinance up to make IEDs and Car Bombs. We knew that the area had pretty much no civilian activity, and so we began setting these things out, parking cars in choke point areas, setting IEDs along the Supply Routes, and rigging a fueler full of artillery, packed with ammonium nitrate. All of these were set up as command detonation, so we didn’t have to have people right with the vehicles and such. We aren’t suicide bombers. We also set singular IEDs up along normal patrol routes. All of these, we’d leave for weeks and use them along with normal hit and run attacks. One day, at a check point that bugged me the most, we had Luke take the fueler and have it “Break Down” near the check point. He explained as best he could that he just needed to go get the parts to fix it and it’d be out of there. After he left, we let Chinese Military traffic build up, and finally a Tank arrived to try to push the truck out of the way. Soon after the tank started to push, we set the bomb off. The explosion was awesome, and royally screwed up their day. The majority of the checkpoint was destroyed, and while they were reacting to that, we hit their supplies again. We managed to get food, mortar tubes, stinger type missiles, and more things to make bombs out of. Once we had all we could take, we set a charge to the rest and blew it up. We kept setting the IEDs off, and making small attacks to harass them, provoking them to chase us into a choke point, then we’d set a car bomb or IED off. The whole time we did this, we moved our families and support further to the east, away from the danger while using the stepped up activity as a distraction for that. We got them all settled up in the Muckleshoot Reservation, and ended up with more than a few Muckleshoots wanting to join with us, saying it looked like we were having too much fun. 6 After a few weeks, while these Chinese were in a frenzy of trying to be security conscious, we melted a way and moved down toward Tacoma. Jackson went to a meeting with other regional groups developed just like ours. They had all heard what we had been doing up in the Auburn, Pacific, Algona, and Federal Way areas, and liked the way things developed there. Here, in Tacoma, shortly after the militia groups developed, the Chinese had made a major offensive and pushed the militia out of the majority of Tacoma, creating their own safety bubble. Tacoma was now pretty much a rear area, with some fighting around the out skirts and in the slums. The array of people we had represented at the meeting was amazing, most of the local Indian tribes were present, folks that had formerly been gang members were present, farmers, banker, accountants, construction workers… From all backgrounds the came. All wanting to do their part to kick some Chinese ass. All had adopted our unit and operation model. Up in Everett the very same thing was developing. It was becoming time to get serious. We had Special Operations teams telling us that US Forces were ready to begin a major push back, and that they had tried to avoid big clashes in order to build up the maximum amount of force that they could for the push. We were all gathered to take Tacoma away from the Chinese. We began by gathering and building up supplies, and caching them in and around Tacoma. Someone mention that they had gotten hold of MOABs, which are REALLY big conventional Bombs, and had been working on getting them rigged up and planted along the docks ready for a command detonation. I didn’t believe that, but, I thought, whatever. We moved tires, barbed wire, concertina wire, car bombs, IEDs, and ammunition into the city. We spread the car bombs about in places we intended to choke off and force maximum casualties. We began to quietly move an civilians we found out of the area. Some of the males and more than a few females returned to help with the fighting. All of this we managed to do under the Chinese noses. Everything was set. We were ready. On August 18th, after dark, we began setting out the tires and debris to create the choke points. And the morning of the 19th, the first car bomb went off, knocking out a patrol. Half an hour later, this was followed by another knocking out a check point out of the city. Attacks began with militiamen ambushing patrols or reaction forces, and attacking any checkpoints found. While this was going on, the Tacoma Narrows bridge was rigged to be blown, the rail lines were rigged to be blown, and freeways were set up with IEDs and overpasses rigged to be blown. These guys weren’t going to win this one. We were dead serious about booting the Chinese out of the area. Throughout the day we managed to keep firefights going and the explosions going with just enough tempo to make the Chinese think they needed to flood the area with troops. We hadn’t yet brought out the full force of what we had available. To this point, since the start of the Chinese invasion, as we called it, we had given the Chinese nothing to think we were nearly as dangerous as they came in thinking. Most of this was due to lack of ability on our part. Collapse had screwed up a lot of things for us, and most didn’t have training of any sort. As we ramped up the fighting, we would concentrate on one area and as Chinese flooded in to take care of the problem, we’d melt away and another problem area would begin. We did this on purpose, to keep the Chinese off balance and running from one fire to the next. Attack Helicopters soon came into the area trying to suppress us, but our stingers knocked them out soon enough, causing pilots to be wary about coming in to support. On the night of the 21st, Luke and I were sniping from the upper floors of the Frank Russell building along A street when we noticed a mass of navy ships in the harbor, and through a spotting scope, we saw a massive surge of Chinese troops unloading, along with equipment. I hollered for Corpse to go spread the word about the activity in the harbor. A short time later, 4 massive explosions went off, rocking the entire city, and enveloping the entire harbor area. “Holy f***! What was THAT!! Jesus Christ that was big!!” “I think my doubts about MOABs along the harbor were just proven wrong” “What the hell is a MOAB?” I told Luke it was the Mother Of All Bombs, the biggest bomb we had that wasn’t a nuke. “And telling by the effects, it just cleared the surge of troops in the harbor”. Half an hour later, another explosion to the south, and we could see a train derailing. “Well, there goes that. Corpse! Light the tires!” off she went, taking Angel, Cody, Josh, and Alien with her. Jackson came up to where Luke and I were. “Wow, looks like they’ve got a problem on their hands don’t it” he laughed. “Seems that way. We’re gonna make a mess of this place, you know. But, as long as we’re killing chinks, it’s all good.” Luke agreed, saying he didn’t give a f*** about Tacoma anyhow. By the time the explosions knocked out the harbor, however, several thousand Chinese troops had gotten out of the area, and were spared what the majority of their comrades had suffered. Luke and I had moved to another spot, setting up for an ambush when someone said the Tacoma Narrows bridge had just been blown, with an estimated 300 Chinese going down with it. Outstanding I said. The remainder were now stuck on the peninsula, having to go the very long way around. Around 4am, we began seeing explosions in the harbor. A short while later we heard a massive explosion to our rear. Then Luke heard something fly overhead, and followed by an explosion in the harbor, and an explosion behind us. “Sound like they’re hurling Volkswagens at us. What the f*** is that” “Naval guns. The rounds ARE as big as Volkswagens” We continued to hear a constant pounding of these, mixed with incoming mortar fire. You could hear gunfire all around us, as people made contact with more Chinese. At about 10 that morning, Jackson pulled us all in for a meeting inside of a large warehouse. “Looks like we’ve got them fit to be tied here. Obviously they feel they need Tacoma for something, or they’d have turned the whole place into rubble by now. We’ve got more tires and materials on the way in, along with ammunition and the Army is providing grenades. Tonight, be ready to see some ships being sunk in the Harbor, we’ll be getting Stealth Bombers in, according the SF guys I just talked to. So far, we’re doing a great job. Our group has lost 6 men dead so far, and about 18 wounded, most able to return to fighting. We also have 3 completely missing. Still, ammo is still good to go, tires have been lit, and it’s causing quite the ruckus for the Chinese, and they didn’t know WHAT to think about those MOABs. They’re becoming leery about natural choke points, our car bombs are doing a good job of keeping them from going down side routes and discovering the other tires we have ready to go. IEDs are doing their job, restricting their movement as well. Luke, how many kills you have now, 23?” Luke said “More like 40, but who’s counting anyhow”. Food was cold, and in cans. Water was still good so far, but we’d run out eventually. Then it’d be collecting, boiling, and filtering. But, I wasn’t too concerned about that for now. The pace of the fighting was becoming intense, leaving little time for rest, but so far, we were doing good. Not meeting them head on was working out the best for us. We just didn’t have the people or the equipment to do that. So far, we were making life complete hell for them. We created bubbles of safe zones and allowed civilians that were stuck to escape. These bubbles had a time limit on them, as we couldn’t keep it up forever. Many of these returned either to help with taking care of fighters, or help fighting itself. Up north, in Everett, the same thing was going on. Tracer fire zipped overhead, and Cody and Josh were trying to position themselves for a grenade toss. Luke laid down as much suppressive fire as he could, along with me, Corpse and Angel. Cody and Josh, regardless, ended up pinned down. Angel let a long burst from the SAW. “Luke, see that rubble to the right up there? I want you to try to get to that. I’m going to move to that van, CORPSE!!’ “Yeah” “Move up with me, Angel, you go with Luke. Once we get there, lay it down heavy, then Cody and Josh can get up here and try to throw those ‘nades out”. We tried it, Luke ran up to the rubble, Angel laying down next to him, and they began pouring fire down the street. I moved up to the van with Corpse and did the same. Once we got there, Cody and Josh tried to move up. Cody made it and tossed his grenade. The explosion dampened the incoming fire some. Josh, however, was behind, in the middle of the street, screaming and writhing on the ground. Corpse disengaged and ran back, dragging Josh by his collar into a building. Alien came up and began to shoot, along with some guy I’d never seen before. A Native American. “Alien, go back to Corpse and find out what’s going on with Josh” and off he went. He returned a few minutes later saying Josh had his knee shot out. “Shot out? As in no knee now?” “Yes” I took a deep breath “OK, go help Corpse bandage it up, then see if we can get him out of here.” I knew he’d lose the leg. I didn’t tell anybody that, however. Instead, I told everyone he’s fine, just needs to go to the rear and get patched up, he’d be back in a day or so. I didn’t want everyone distracted by the loss, we needed to focus on the issue at hand. So far, we had held this part of the street. We had more people in the buildings shooting down on the Chinese, and the fighting had been intense for the last 3 hours here. Next block over was the same. As the Chinese, after 3 hours of trying to bust through, began to back off, I had Angel blow out part of one of the buildings across from the other rubble pile, to choke up the area that much more. I had Cody ready some C4 with grease inside a sock. It would stick to the sprockets of a tank or APC, so we readied that, knowing that they would try to send a tank or something in to bust us up. Shortly after the incoming fire died down, we began to receive heavy 12.7mm MG fire. I had everyone back up into the buildings if we could. The Native American guy was hit, and lost his legs. I grabbed him and drug him with me. Cody moved back into the nearest building, and emerged next to the APC. His sticky planted right where it needed to be, he popped the fuse and ran back in. The job went as expected, and the APC was brought to a halt. We cleared out of the area a bit more just as one of the guys upstairs dropped a garbage bag full of jellied gas and a thermite on top of the track. The shooting stopped right away, the thermite grenade burned its way through the hatch, letting burning jellied gas into the crew compartment. We moved to the next block over and began hitting the Chinese from their flank. We could hear ammo cooking off in the track, and the Chinese began to back out, fearing their own ammo would kill them. Half an hour later, the Chinese had exited the area. We regrouped, redistributed ammo, made sure to drink plenty of water, and made ready to move to the next spot. 6 blocks away, Jackson was in charge of another group blocking a route. As Jackson crossed the street to help direct fire of some of the guys, he collapsed next to the curb. Cody, Corpse, Angel, Luke, and myself had just linked up with Jim and his team, Josh and the Indian guy had been evacuated to the rear. We took to attacking retreating Chinese and having lost contact after a fierce hour long fight, took refuge in a near by building. Shortly after, the front end of the building crashed in and an explosion put us all on the ground. All I could see for a moment was black, then red. I thought I was hurt bad, and I couldn’t hear a thing. Cody was wandering around trying to find something, Jim sat with blood coming from his head saying something I couldn’t hear, Corpse was out of it, staring at nothing, and Angel was tying to talk to one of Jims teammates who had his guts in his lap. Everything was caddy wampus, my head swimming, and I blacked out for a minute. As I came back around, Luke was asking me “You OK Dan! DAN!! You OK” and he was trying to wrap something around my head. I saw another guy walking around in the street, apparently looking for his arm. Most everyone else was dead. We thought Alien was dead, too, but he came around and said he had a hell of a headache. I began looking for my weapons, while Luke tried to get me to sit still. It didn’t take but a minute and I found them. My aught six needed a new scope, but other than that, all was well. “What happened” “I don’t know dude. Something blew up I think”…. Soon, more militiamen came into the building to help. We made sure to gather everything we had, and some of the militiamen walked us back to a truck, where we got in the bed for the journey to the rear. Along with us were the bodies of those dead, the man with his arm missing, and the other guy with his guts in his lap. He died on the way to the hospital. 7 We got back to the rear and Josh and the guy with the missing arm were rushed into surgery. The rest of us got looked at, patched and stitched up, and sent on our way. After grabbing some chow, as exhausted as we all were, we crashed. Man, did we sleep. Some of us 12 hours, some even 18. Running and fighting as we had, with barely any sleep, we just had to crash like that. As we began to wake up, clean weapons, take clothes to wash, take showers (cold), and take serious notice of all the aches and pains we accumulated. We learned that Josh managed to keep his leg, although the war was over for him, now. Never got any word about Jackson, my old Platoon Sergeant, nor his team, or platoon, if you will. Some of the militiamen that came to help us explained that one of the naval guns is what took us out. We also learned that more and more Chinese were getting into the city, along with even a few Koreans, although these were not well trained and were very few comparatively. North Korean units were used as cannon fodder, nothing more. They’d send them against us in hot zones to find our strongest points then either hit us with naval guns or bomb us from planes. That evening, as we sat on the hill, we watched the Naval Guns hammer militia positions, and between that, planes dropping bombs. They were pounding the s*** out of us and we were glad we weren’t in that at the moment. Hell, nearly killed us all already. Guess they figured they’d pound us into submission. That night, sleep was fitful for all of us. We all got up early, and as we were standing in line for chow I heard a familiar voice, one I hadn’t heard for a long time. “Dan!! DAN muthaf*#@a what up!” It was Frank, small time street dealer I had sort of befriended before the collapse. “Doin good, how’s Tia and the baby” “Last I saw em they’s OK”. Frank was tiny for a guy. He was about 5’2” tall, and skinny. But don’t piss him off! Light skinned black guy, always was straight with me. Tia was just as tiny. He sported an AK-47 and a cheap Chinese chest rig. “Looks like y’all aready been in dat s***” he said. “We have. When you join up” “Few weeks back or so. Man, when you tole me dat s*** about the Country collapsing I thought you was crazy muthaf*#@a, Now I know” “Yup, all good, now you know”. He looked at me a minute, then looked around “Hey, listen, I got no crew, don’t wanna be wit no strangers an s***” I interrupted him and turned to the guys, and introduced Frank as our newest team member. He looked at me “I didn’t think s*** would pop off like it is now, damn”. I brought him up to date over breakfast and the next few hours, other team members interjecting stories as well. They all seemed to take him in as their own, he always has had that kind of personality though. You instantly like him. After going through some SOPs with him, going through some drills, and explaining how things were down in the city, we had lunch and sat on a roof top and looked down at the city. Fires raged all over, and they were still bombing. “This is what it looks like to be on the receiving end of an ass kicking” I said to no one in particular. Franks cheeks were working as he gritted his teeth, thinking about being down there in that s***. I could see fear there, but that was good. It meant he was neither stupid or crazy, and would be less likely to do something to get us all killed. Or himself. As we watched in a sober silence, Jim said “I miss ice cold Budweiser.” Angel added “I miss raves” Corpse agreed. Cody and Alien stated they missed weed. Frank looked at everyone, and produced a joint “How bout some Cantaloupe Kush” we all looked at him a second. Next thing I know, he fired it up and we began to pass it around. Screw it, may as well relax today, might be dead tomorrow. That was the most relaxing afternoon we’d had in a long time. We also all decided that we would be going back in to the fight the next evening. The next day was spent getting lost or destroyed gear replaced, test firing weapons, zeroing scopes, and getting intelligence updates, as well as where we would be going in to, what areas we were to get to and hold, and things like that. We did a look over of the map, doing some map scouting. We went through drills, went through equipment checks, repacked our gear, rechecked how much ammo we had, and made sure to fill up on water and food. We took a nap, then said a prayer as we loaded on to the truck. At about dusk, we jumped out of the truck just east of I-5, then made our way down to A street, and past the Frank Russell Building, which now had the top obliterated. From here, we were a stones throw from the docks. We turned up hill at S 11th St and walked 5 blocks to Market St. From there, we chose a tall residential building at Commerce and 9th. Once we occupied the building, I set lower security, sent Luke to the 8th floor to get a good view and to snipe if he could. After that I had everyone start taking debris and start piling it inside the walls, along with screen material, if it could be had, to cover the windows from stuff coming in. Next, holes were knocked out between walls for ease of movement, and lower floors made small mouse holes to shoot out of. Just across the street, another team moved in and set up. Streets around began to have tires and barbed wire, or concertina wire, set out, ready to be fired up, channeling traffic into us. Another team set up in the building behind us, looking to the north. We set out Molotov’s, brought in more ammo, AT4s, and even had some mortar men set up on a building to our rear, on the roof. They had a great observation point. Most of these buildings had been shot up and blown out, some missing the entire top floor. The sky was a heavy grey, and in the early morning, before dawn, we couldn’t see a thing unless from fires or occasional flashes from explosions in other parts of the city. “Welp, we’re here” I told everyone. We set up a casualty collection point toward the center of the building. A former paramedic had volunteered to come along, and he took charge of the casualty point. Not long after, a truck came by dropping off water, ammo, more ordinance, and stuff for the IEDs. We had a few stingers as well. We were waiting for a fresh batch to move in from the docks. We set Piano wire across the roads, about the height of a track commander. We were ready, we hoped. Just before dawn, heavy shelling began. Naval guns hurling car sized projectiles overhead, landing well behind us. We had set the IEDs out. We believed they would come across the bridge at 11th and make their way to the north. We had set things up to channel them to us. We were set, and waiting for what seemed like forever. As the light began to dawn, they grey skies began to rain, and Chinese troops could be seen moving up 11th. Just as they crossed the bridge, we lit the first set of tires. They moved from there into our kill zone. We waited while they stopped, just inside AK range. This was the lead element, and everyone held their fire. Gunfire erupted sporadically in other parts of the city, but we held tight. Frank sensed what was about to happen and started to get antsy. First time in a fight. I calmed him down some, and the Chinese continued to move up. Luke confirmed that a whole mess of Chinese were coming round the corner. “Good, let us know when they are all there”. “Will do” and as the Infantry advanced, slowly, we began to see 2 APCs and a tank. As they sort of bunched, I gave the signal and the daisy chain of artillery shells blew, knocking out the majority of that threat. We then opened up on the Chinese near us with devastating effect, those not hit took cover where they could, some of them in buildings. A platoon of Koreans came up from our south, down a side street. We set off some more IEDs and mowed them down, which took care of that as they scrambled for cover, leaving many dead and wounded in the open. Another block over we could hear heavy fighting, and one of the new guys said they could see some of them fighting with knives. So, they got close, then. We called for mortars as more Chinese moved in. We had waited until they got to an intersection and called for fire, which slowed down the advancing Chinese, there. I shifted fire to the enemy left on the street we were blocking, just to harass. This didn’t have much effect, but if it kept them from popping up, it was fine with me. Luke used his M82 and began to pick at the guys in the intersection. It didn’t take long before we could hear more incoming naval gunfire. The guy who had seen the other group the next block over fighting with knives told us that the Chinese had backed off some, and we began to hear heavy mortar fire in that area, keeping the Chinese from moving too much. More helicopters coming in to support the Chinese troops, and Jim managed to knock one of them out. The result, however, was that we received heavy 30mm and missile fire into the building we were in. When we finally looked up, Chinese were rushing the building again. We began to shoot, and the fighting became very intense. We threw grenades out, some of those came back. After about 10 minutes of intense shooting, the first Chinese troops entered the building amid heavy shooting. It was now 11am, and they came through a hole they punched in the north wall. With in seconds, we were fighting with knives, hands, chunks of concrete, pieces of rebar, and guns. Anything we could grab, and the Chinese were doing the same. It didn’t take long for the small group that closed with us to back out. We had the advantage, and within the building, many of us still had cover and the ability to shoot. So, after only a few minutes of chaos, it was over. The Chinese had backed out, but they certainly weren’t done. We began to take heavy fire right after that. Luke had taken a knife in his hand when he tried to block what he thought was a punch, Angel had been cut in the side, Cody was shot through the left shoulder, Corpse had a gash in the back of her head, and I had a cut on the left side of my forehead and down the left side of my eye into my cheek. Jim was doing all he could to keep everyone together. With no time to fret about it, we gathered weapons and began to shoot back, those of us that had been hurt that is. We exchanged intense fire for another 15 minutes before it slacked off. At that point, we began to work on those wounded, putting field dressings on wounds while those not wounded or dead kept up sporadic gunfire. We left some on the lower floors and we took to higher floors again, and the Chinese made another rush for us. We dropped Molotov’s on them, grenades, bricks, and gunfire. A Chinese APC was making its way to us, which was knocked out by Frank with an AT4. As things began to slack off again, more naval fire pounded us. We tried to call in more mortars but they told us they had to move due to the navy guns. We had been hearing planes overhead, pounding positions in other parts of the city, but we soon began to hear a lot more planes. Someone said they saw what looked like an F/A-18, and said it looked like our guys were shooting at Chinese aircraft. Someone came on radio and said that the helicopters were bugging out, being shot down by American aircraft. The fighting on the ground intensified again, and we were barely hanging on when we saw a Bradley Fighting Vehicle turn down the street and begin to engage the Chinese we were fighting. Infantrymen exited the vehicle and more arrived, pushing these Chinese back. I was absolutely amazed by this. Completely unexpected, but I guess they had made their way to us. As the pressure was taken off of us, we began to pull back, trucks arriving to help carry off dead, wounded, and equipment. 12 days later, Tacoma was ours. It was now late September. After two weeks of rest and recovery, we were ferried across the Sound with replacements to a spot just south of Port Angeles. There, we fought for another week before pushing on into the Olympic National Forest. Things seriously bogged down in the National Forests. After pushing in for several miles, we ended up settling in and had to dig in. Things slowed down immensely. We had our lines, they had theirs, and this was nothing like anything I had fought before. It went down to doing patrols, pulling ambush, sitting on the line, attack, defend… Much like the Ardennes in WWII. Sitting in the cold rain under poncho shelters we had put up, we were shivering. “How much longer you think this will last” Angel asked. “Well, it rains non stop for 300 days, then you get 60 days of snow, then 5 days of sun, then it starts over again” I replied. Some of the others laughed. “No, I meant this war s***. How much longer do you think this will go on” “I don’t know. Could be a day, could be 20 years, I have no idea where this is going to lead.” I said. There had been little action. A fight would flare up here and there, but mostly it remained quiet. There was daily shelling, out going and incoming. The forest was thick and lush, and you couldn’t see much. At this time, we were sitting back off the line. We had been on the line for a month, and now we were pulled back to do maintenance and other routine stuff. Mostly we used the time to try to relax, get clean, and rest. We had new guys, filling us out to a 12 man squad, but we didn’t bother to get to know them. We had us, who’d been together for so long, and worked so well together. People died, and we didn’t want to know them. Didn’t even bother to learn their names. One exception was John. We called him “Big Sky”, as he and his sister came to us from Montana, just south of Missoula. His sister, Dakota, was a nurse further to the rear. We all took every opportunity we got to go see her. She was cute, 26 years old, 5’3” tall and Marilyn Monroe curvy, with dark brown hair to the bottom of her shoulder blades, completely country girl. John was 5’10” tall and built like a tank, and all country boy. Our group got to like them right away. They were honest, hardworking, and that sister of his was cute. Did I mention she was a good looking woman? Anyhow, anytime I went back to the rear, it was to visit her and tell her about my wife, and see if she could try to pass a note back to my family. The more I talked about Lacy, the more Dakota decided she liked her. The other guys liked to try to flirt with her, but she just flirted back lightly and gently kept them in check. We had been mixed in with the military since Tacoma. Now the Army had us organized in proper units, and ours was designated 032 Volunteer Infantry, I guess it had to do with the zip code most of us came from. Stupid I thought. We were just a squad in a company, in a Battalion, in a Regiment. We didn’t know anybody else. They all came from all over to help push the Chinese back into the sea. As for the current situation, across the West Coast, we believed there were somewhere around 10 million Chinese troops. In front of us were about a million, stretched from just south of Sequim to near Lake Cushman. About a 36 mile long line. Our spot was in the rain forest in a valley leading back into the Olympic Mountain Range. As for us in this place, I have no idea how many we were. Somewhere around 1.5 million I believe. Well, we’ll just say a lot. That afternoon, Sergeant First Class Wilkinson, one of the guys the Army assigned to us to keep us under control, came over and informed me we had a patrol and ambush to do that night. Over the map, he told us where he wanted us to look over, and I selected a spot along a service road to ambush. Most of the patrol was to see if any enemy patrols were around. If so, we were to ambush them. The general thought was that they might have recon patrols out, and to particularly pay attention to the service road. So, after that I went back to my guys, told them what was up, and we began to pack for a 3 day patrol. After we were ready, we got the challenge and password, and the SOI squared away, commo checks, etc. and slipped through the lines off into the forest. For the first 3 miles, we walked in ranger file, then we changed to a tight wedge. We found the forest service road and began to parallel it about 100 yards into the trees, stopping every so often to listen and watch the road. As it approached dark, we moved into a clump of vine maple and made to settle in. Right after dark, we moved to another spot I had picked out in an alder thicket, and there we set up for the night. Once we were squared away, I took half of us to the bend in the service road for the ambush. The night passed uneventfully, and come morning, we pulled back and the other half of the squad went out to the ambush. After nothing most the day, they, too, pulled back and we all got up, geared up, and moved on, traveling south away from the forest service road. By late afternoon we found a doable OP position and set up there. We spent the rest of the 3 day patrol there, just watching, and seeing nothing. We returned on the third day, slipped back through our lines, and I did a debrief with the company commander, and we once again took our little spot and put up the poncho hooches. Later that night we heard a fairly heavy attack to the south of us, and it died down after about 45 minutes. Soon, SFC Wilkinson came over and told us we needed to be on the line to the south, where the attack had taken place. So, we picked up and moved. By now, it was getting into November. As cold as it was, we managed to find ways to keep somewhat warm, and to try to stay dry. I thought to myself “So this is what it must have been like in WWII”. Things continued the same. Take your spot on the line, defend, patrol, ambush, hug the ground for incoming artillery, listen to out going artillery, rinse, repeat. It was depressing, boring, and so damned cold! We received a probing attack on our position and it lasted 15 minutes and stopped. We lost 2 guys, one wounded with a sucking chest wound, the other just dead. We received replacements with in a day. We didn’t bother to ask his name, just said “hi” and ignored him. It probably wasn’t good for this guy to receive that sort of treatment, but we just didn’t want to know these folks. People die, and the less you know them, the less it hurt when they did die. And we all figured we were already dead just by being here. A week into November, we got word we were going to make a push. We had been hearing artillery pounding the Chinese lines non stop for the last day and a half. We heard planes dropping bombs, and Apaches hitting enemy positions. We heard our Navy had control of the waters off the west coast, now. And now was the time to push. So, we began to get ready. Made sure our packs were ready to go, filled up on water, food, and lots and lots of ammo, sharpened knives, checked equipment, and received briefings. Half a week later, we were still pounding the hell out of them, and we began to move out. We slipped forward, towards the mountains, and it didn’t take too long, a couple hours of moving, before we began to receive small arms fire. Mortars followed, and we began to bound up. Artillery, also, began to come in, but we could hear counter battery fire overhead as well. Somehow, I kept my guys moving, and soon small arms was so heavy you had to crawl. I continued to move us up, and then noticed Frank was way behind, trying to become very small behind a tree. I moved back to him to check on him while everyone else fired into the forest ahead of us. When I got there I asked Frank is he was OK. “Deez Niggaz tryin to KILL my black ass” he said. “Well, I’m gonna kill your black ass if you don’t move up. C’mon, I gotta do this twice, you only have to do it once, let’s go!” And I began to drag him up with me. About halfway back to the rest of the squad, Frank seemed to get over whatever it was that held him back, and we all began to bound up again. Sometimes we saw shadows in the trees ahead, and those we shot, the rest of the time we just fired ahead of us. We knew the enemy was there, we just couldn’t see it. Soon, the outgoing artillery stopped, before we knew it, I found us IN their lines. It was obvious they were just as surprised as we were, and immediately we lost 3 guys, the rest of us scrambled for cover and dropped our packs, returning fire. The fighting was extremely intense and close, and soon deteriorated into hand to hand. Some still shooting, some fighting with knives, one guy was beating a Chinese soldier with a stick, Frank tossed a grenade at a machinegun that was desperately trying to swing around to us, knocking it out. Angel was on someone’s back, beating them in their face with her fists and likewise being swung around while the guy tried to get her off of him. Angel, however, would have none of it. She bit into his neck, lost her grip, regained it, and then bit his ear off. Corpse was bashing someone’s head in with the butt of her AK, Luke was kicking a soldier off of his big bowie knife, and Frank was on someone’s back, bit into their neck and apparently found their artery, because the guy was spurting blood. Did I mention Frank was short and skinny? But don’t piss him off! Jim had his M240 and was smashing the feed tray into someone on the ground. I saw Angel get thrown off the guy she was fighting and the guy was on her, trying to choke her. I ran over and swung my AK like a baseball bat, hitting the big Chinese soldier and knocking him off her. Angel then got on him and scratched at his eyes, then grabbed the guys pistol and shot him. Next thing I know, I have a Chinese soldier running for me and I butt stroke him. He fell, but hooked one foot behind my knee and pushed on my hip with the other and I went down. He then crawled on top of me and began to try to choke me. I fought him off on that, and took several blows to the face. I slipped a leg outside of him, trying to get out of his guard, and got kneed in the balls as a result. But, I kept working at it, and managed to get a bit more freedom. I grabbed his collar with both hands, pulling opposite directions so his shirt cut his blood supply, and rolled him under me and I took the guard. He managed to get my hands off his collar, so I shoved my thumbs into his eyes. He screamed and squiggled, but I kept pushing, and eventually he went limp. I don’t know if it killed him or he passed out, but I found the handle of my SEAL Pup and plunged it into him just below his sternum to be sure. I grabbed my AK back off the ground and changed magazines, and again began to shoot at those that weren’t where I’d hit my own guys. I saw another 3 of my guys on the ground, one holding his leg and screaming, trying to hold the blood in his artery in. He failed. Luke was now bashing someone with his rifle, and Jim had managed to get another belt in his feed tray, and had began to shoot into other Chinese. As I ran out of ammo, I would end up with another guy I had to fight very close, sometimes with my knife, and others I’d use my AK if I could. Once eliminated, I would change mags again and start shooting again. After 15 minutes of insanity, Chinese began to run off. At first we weren’t sure why, they had more numbers than we did, until I saw American troops running past and shooting into them. At that moment, I realized that for us, the fight was over for the moment. Jim was sitting and staring at nothing, Luke was mumbling to himself about something I couldn’t hear, Corpse and Angel were crying and holding each other, Frank was puking, and I realized I had pissed myself. I had a cut across my chest and a stab wound in my side, and my back was sticky. Luke had a big gash on top of his head. We all had bumps, bruises, broken noses, bloody lips… And we were all exhausted. Nobody really spoke much. After a bit of settling down, I got everyone together, counted heads, began to patch us up, and redistributed ammo and water, and collected the gear of the dead and put it in a pile near by. Those too wounded to continue to fight were set up at another spot, ready to be picked up by medics when they came by. Ours was dead. I was worried about John, I couldn’t find him. But, the answer as to his whereabouts came as he walked back from the direction the Chinese had run. “Where the hell have you guys been, the fighting is that way” as he pointed back the way he came. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but, half the squad is dead, here. Well, I don’t know about Cody over there. He looks pretty bad, but he’s breathing.” John looked at me, then went over to Cody to check on him. We made a couple litters, put Cody on one, and the gear on the other, and began to make our way back to our old lines. On the way, we found more troops moving toward the retreating Chinese, and some of these gave us a hand. As we walked out, we had a heavy incoming artillery barrage, but none of us were hurt. Soon we were out of the impact area, however, so it didn’t really matter any more. We got back to the rear, and Cody went into surgery, while the rest of us got stitched up, broken bones fixed, and fussed over by our favorite nurse. To the south of us, the Chinese had also made a push, but didn’t get far. They pulled back when their lines broke where we were at. A couple days later, we got word that the Chinese troops had disappeared. We also heard that a large fleet of Chinese had been nuked. Apparently they had a very large amount of troops inbound. The Chinese we were fighting couldn’t go home, we would later find out. They had brought families over, kept by the coast, because they were to start a new life here after the Chinese took control of the land. These Chinese simply vanished once they saw that they wouldn’t win. Later, we would run into them again. These would be called simply “The Chinese Settlements”. We would end up getting along with them just fine. They couldn’t go home, there would be no way home, and China would kill them anyway for their failure. It took 3 weeks for China to realize their fleet had been nuked off the coast of Oregon. They responded, then, as did we. In a 20 minute period, we had tossed out enough nukes at each other to set the entire planet back quite a bit. This was no longer just countries collapsing, EMP effect had been world wide, most places having been effected. A large part of the US had been knocked out, Washington DC was no longer existent. But, then, neither was Beijing. Winter snows began to fall, and wouldn’t leave for another 3 years. By the time all of this had happened, John, Luke, Frank, Jim, Angel, Cody, Corpse, Alien, Dakota, and I had gone back, with 2 Hemett’s of supplies, mostly food, to our families. We had also brought along another 5 ton and materials for making salvaging trucks out of the 5 ton and Hemmetts. 8 The long winter and the new world Over the next 3 years, nearly 2/3 of the worlds population would die from the cold, starvation, and disease. Governments vanished, borders no longer meant anything, and many smaller communities ended up completely isolated from the rest of the world. 3 weeks after the war ended: Homecoming wasn’t much to fret about. When we got to the Res, we found only the sick and dying, and the old. We were told the Military had come and taken everyone else, and no idea where to. Lacy wasn’t around, and neither were the kids. And, of course, I was upset. I wanted to immediately set out and look for them. But there was nothing that could be done, for the most part. I did ask around and found they had been taken east, but not much information beyond that. Winter was looking to set in hard and most knew it would be a long, cold one. Many knew about nuclear winter. Many were afraid and did not know what was to come, or if they would live through it. After resting Cody, Angel, Corpse, Alien, and Dakota decided to stay around and look for their families. They would stay in the area. Josh, Luke, and myself decided to move on. We went east through Enumclaw, which was near abandoned. We spent some time salvaging there, driving the 5 ton, having taken what we needed and leaving the remainder to the others. After spending a few days in Enumclaw gathering what we could, we moved south to Wilkeson and took up residence in the Sunset Lake Quarry east of town. Wilkeson had a population of 425 people, and just to the south, Carbonado, had a population of 610. Just 20 miles, as the crow flies, north west of Mount Rainer, these were small, quiet places where American Values seemed untouched. Wilkeson was built in 1877 as a village for the Coal Mines (South in Carbonado) and the sandstone quarry. Most of the buildings there remain exactly as built in 1909. Mostly brick, the main part of town has an old gas station with the gas pumps unchanged since the 1950’s. As we approached Wilkeson, we noticed a couple trucks and some fellows with firearms blocking the highway. “Josh, stop.” I said. “How many you see? I count about 5” “Looks about right to me” Luke said. “No, there’s 2 more in the trees on the left and one more on the right” Josh pointed out. “Well, anybody got something white?” I asked. Luke produced a white T shirt. I wrapped it around my AK barrel and stepped out of the truck. “Hey! We don’t mean no harm here, was just passing through” I said as I began to walk up. I was stopped at a hundred paces from the road block “That’s far enough mister” said a big bearded man with a shotgun. He was dressed in wool clothes and had a bit of snow on his beard and jacket. “Look, like I said, we just need to pass through. We’ve some stuff to trade if you’ll let us. Some tools, a bit of military equipment, some bullets we won’t be using. We need some firewood and such” I told him. “My names Dan”. “I’m Jimmy, and you’re not getting through here. May as well turn and go back Mister, I don’t want to have to shoot you and we don’t want any trouble.” “I understand. Who’s in charge of you guys? Got a mayor? Can I talk with him?” “She’s busy right now, just turn around and leave”. “Jimmy!” I heard from behind them. It was a strong female voice, and then I saw a plump woman with graying hair and a heavy coat and blue jeans, and a knitted stocking cap. “You leave those guys alone! I told you, if folks are passing through, let them through! I’m sorry sir, what was your name?” She ask me. “It’s Dan, and you are?” “I’m Mary, I’m the Mayor here. You just passing through huh… Military?” “Used to be ma’am. That’s done with now, war’s over. Just looking for a spot to restart. Got some stuff we can trade, and then we’ll move on” I said. All the while I was looking at the way these guys were spread, and looking for what I’d use for cover, knowing Josh and Luke had my back and already had spotted, and divided up who to shoot first. “You’re pretty ballsy to just walk up to these guys like this” Mary stated. I replied “Well, somebody’s gotta start trusting somebody or we’re all in a heap of trouble. Besides, I doubt any of these guys have ever shot a man, it’s pretty rough to do when face to face, at least the first time”. Mary chuckled “You got that right, come on through and pull up at city hall. We’ll see what ya got and give you a spot to stay for the night. You don’t seem so bad, we’ll see.” And with that, Mary turned around and walked back the way she came, yelling behind her “Jimmy, you let those folks though or I’ll have you locked up, I mean it!” Josh and Luke got back into the truck and pulled on up and I hopped in. I tipped my hat to Jimmy as we passed through and I had us stop at City Hall, just as Mary directed. We got out and stretched our legs and Mary invited us in for coffee. “Nice little place” Luke commented. “Yeah, Lucy and I were considering buying a spot out here once we were able to sell the house in Federal Way. Came out to see the area a while back. We liked it. The School is the oldest in the state, looks creepy in a why. But I thought it was cool!”. Once inside, Mary handed us our coffee and said “We don’t get people out here. Been a very long time since we’ve had anybody pass through here. Where are your families?” I told Mary what happened, to the best of my knowledge, with Lucy and the kids. Josh and Luke said they had no family besides me. “How was your time in the war? We’ve had no news of it out here. I’m guessing since you are here it’s over with, unless you’re deserters.” “War has been over with for about 2 weeks. Nukes knocked everything out” “Yeah, we saw about the nukes”. “Well, we had them all the way to the coast when another wave was on it’s way in, one of our nukes knocked that fleet out, which is what started the whole nuke business.” “I see”. “After that, we mopped up what was left that didn’t desert their units, the Chinese knew it was over and there was no way home. Then Luke, Josh, a few others, and myself decided if it’s over, lets go home. So we did, but, like I said. Everyone was gone.” “I take it you plan to go find your wife and kids?” “Yeah, but no idea where they went.” Mary looked into her cup for a long minute. Mary was about 50 years old, and sort of a hippy. By that I mean she had a sort of “Earth Mamma” persona about her. She was no idiot, however, and I could tell she had strength in her. “So what’s up with that Jimmy guy” Luke asked. “Oh don’t worry about him, he’s a useful idiot. Half the time drunk, but keeps security around here. We’ve no police or anything. He’s head of the militia, if you can call it that.” Luke, Josh and I looked at each other. We knew that if we had wanted to, we’d have eaten them alive. “I’d say you’re lucky you’ve had no visitors then. A halfway decently trained few men could have cleaned this place out.” Mary looked up “It’s what I had available. We weren’t ready for all this.” “Nobody was, to be honest Mary” I reassured her. “You guys have any liquor around here?” I asked. “Nothing not home made” Mary replied. “Josh, go get that stuff out in the truck, will ya?” “Mary, you like Jack Daniels?” “Now you’re talkin!” She smiled. Mary said she hadn’t seen real whiskey since just after the crash, so I told her we’d stock the bar for her. “Well, I don’t know what else to do, so do you mind if I vent a bit?” “Sure! Shoot” And Mary mentioned that they didn’t have much food stocks in town, or to the south in Carbonado. No one had been out of the area since the war started, not having been seen by Chinese or any violence at all, they simply stayed quiet and hoped the world would pass around them. It seemed to work. So there would be a food shortage. All local farms had bright their food in to town, what was surplus, and they worked to preserve it and it’s kept the town fed so far, but would run out eventually. They had no real medical ability, no police, and no real militia to protect the towns. So far, Mary told me, they had simply survived on luck. “Sounds like you’ve got your work cut out for you” I said. “I don’t know where to start. I’ve been telling the town folks that there’s a plan and everything is fine, but they’ll only believe that for so long”. I looked at Josh and Luke. From the look I got, they were on the same thought wave as I was, we may as well stay and help if we could. “Mary, suppose we could help out a bit. We could recruit and train up a proper militia, and set a couple guys for law enforcement, which in my opinion would be from the militia folks, and get out and show folks where to salvage at. We could go and see if we could bring in livestock from abandoned farms, if they’re still alive and healthy somewhat, rig up a truck to plow the roads around here as the snows fall, and generally help you guys become a whole lot more self sufficient.” “You can do that? What about going to find your wife and kids?” “Those passes are clogged up with snow and will be for a while. There’s no way I can get through for a while. I may as well stick around and help out, Luke and Josh I think agree, you can use it and we could use a spot to stay, at least for a while.” “Son, if you can help me out, you can stay as long as you like.” “It’s a deal then.” Mary then showed us a few houses that were vacant, set back off the main road. We took up residence in them and began setting ourselves up, gathering firewood, fuel for generators, and running and forth to Buckley and Enumclaw to get food stocks and whatever ammunition we could find. We then opened the abandoned building up as a trading post, and then set about getting the rest of town squared away, using the trading post as a food distribution center. _______________________________________________________________ More to come

This first post is to prewarn you of an incoming wall of text. I've worked quite some time on the story itself. I posted elsewhere (general discussion) that I had the story available and where should I post it. Since my hope is for it to inspire some mods and add game play, I figured I'd offer it here in the only way possible: for those to use it by tweaking things to fit lore and the general story line of FNV. I think it'd be awesome if it did do this, although I do hope readers enjoy what I have so far as well, if they're in to reading. If this inspires anyone, I'm perfectly open to discussion on it and how it might be used for modding. Thank you PM

Ok, I write fiction. It's post apocalyptic, currently geared mostly to a US collapse, war after this which ends in a nuke exchange with China. To an extent, this line of thought follows Fallout already. The story follows a couple of guys as they struggle for survival, and fight the foreigners (Chinese), and then struggle to survive and rebuild the world around them afterwards. Several people come together to form militia which eventually gets added to the regular Army before disbanding. Anyhow, the story is a good one, so I'm told, and I thought that maybe if I found a place to post it, it could be looked at and taken apart to fit the lore of Fallout, and possibly turned into a new set of missions with in the game? I think it would be really great to see this thing put into a video game form, although I'd retain the original story so that I may publish it when it's finished. The concepts in the story could be used for a Fallout expansion or new lands/quests/characters.... So, I'm wondering how I'd go about that? I've about 8 chapters written.

Glad for the thread, gonna see if I can make my own!! Probably won't be as good as some others created here however, say like Willow. LOL