The Duo of Incident.

Chapter 5 : Field hands

The commander looked into the two mens eyes, awaiting, then states " So? What will it be men?"

Joe looks at Guy for a moment, then returns to the Commander " What do you propose we are to do out there? We would drop from radiation sickness within days of exposure without some sort of buffer. Some sort of equipment to protect us. " Guy then states after Joe " Commander, we'll do it, but I'd rather be shot then die out there."

Joe rotated his wrists a little bit, trying to reduce the strain of his restraints. Commander Shall put his cigarette out. " You're correct Joe, you would die within days of exposure without adequate protection; and that will be provided. Men -- " the Commander moves his seat back slightly then continues "-- As you may have heard all communication from our station to any other station, state capital, or country is lost. We do not know why yet, but there are larger problems. About two weeks before last night the station was scheduled to replace its food reserves with a more extensive shelf-life reserve line of MREs and other supplements, that would be reserved in event that we would have to stay in station wide lockdown, for an extended amount of time. Three days ago the issues were made to expose all of our emergency food, to make room for new reserves, and those issues were executed."

Guy looks at the guards still standing patiently at either sides of the walls, then Commander Shall continues " Here we stand today. We were scheduled to receive our new reserve shipments in two days. So, as you can see, we are not only in a station wide lockdown, but we are in a lockdown, and our reserves are non existent." Commander Shall purses his lips and looks across the room to the guard still standing by the door, then nods slightly, the guard then nods back and exits the room

The Commander then states " We have about, one and a half weeks worth of petty food: vending machines, cafeteria cache, miscellaneous food, our non-dispensable reserve which is only enough for four days for all 28 of our staff and military personnel." The Commander then stands up and tells the guards to remove Guy and Joe from the seats, and remove their restraints. Guy and Joe soon are unbound "Come with me you two. " The Commander tells Guy and Joe, adjusting his olive long coat.

Guy and Joe follow, as they exit the room through the steel plated blue door they came through, following the Commander. Joe asks Guy " Hey you alright? " Guy responds " Yeah, i'm okay, you alright ?" Joe nods then says " yeah i'm fine" It's quite for a moment before the Commander Shall takes a right turn , as he and the two men follow him through a larger metal door, Guy and Joe know this room, the military supply room.

"Come on." the Commander says as he unlocks the door. Entering as the clean air of the room floods out of the open door, as Guy and Joe travel inside. " Let's not waste time men" the Commander says. Soon after the commander reaches a aluminum table in the center of a room , whose walls were lined with wire mesh and steel frame cabinets, who held numerous assault rifles and various other weaponry. On the floors , against some walls lied stacked plastic ammunition cases. "Wait here." Says the Commander, exiting the room. Guy and Joe stood next to the table, Guy looked behind himself to find there were two soldiers standing near the door , watching Joe and Guy.

The lights in the room are a blurry white , giving anyone in the room a headache if they stand around to long. Before long, the commander enters with a wooden crate, the crate is nailed shut. Commander Shall sets the crate down on the table in the center of the room, the crate must have been heavy, it thunked down with a faint echo. From the coat pocket of the Commander is drawn a hammer, the Commander wields it to pry out the four corner nails holding the crate's bulky wooden top on.

One by one each of the four nails is pried out of the wood, each squeaking as they slided out. Commander Shall places the hammer to the side, then he pulls the wooden top off the crate and sets it in front of the crate, towards Guy and Joe. This crate's contents were unknown still, as there were wooden shavings covering it, the Commander brushed the shavings aside as two white boxes, side by side appeared gradually inside this wooden crate.

Each box was pulled out, each was put beside the crate, and beneath then laid two more boxes, these were a thick plastic. Both of the plastic boxes were pulled out, and handed along side with each of the large white boxes, to Joe and Guy. "What are these?" Guy asks, Joe looked at the smaller thick plastic box, nothing identifying was on it. "That plastic box has the face mask , respirator filter ,and hood with neck connected to a DemRon suite. That White box has the full suite, full body cover." Guy popped his plastic box open and lifted its lid off, placing it as well as the box on the table.

Inside the box laid a large facial mask, it's area around the eyes was covered by a thick polished synthetic material. It's area around the mouth and nose snouted out into a glossy muzzle, at the end was attached a cylindrical black vent, a bright red rubber gasket was squeezed between the two. Guy pulls the mask and attached hood out of the box and lifts it above his eye level, turning it to see the other side . It was a bright shade of blue.

"There is a barrack over there go try them on and make sure they fit properly. " The Commander stated, both Guy and Joe grabbed the boxes and went into the barrack area at the far end of the armory, they both entered and the door shut behind them. After about two minutes they both came out , fully suited.

"Do they feel comfortable? Is there a lot of slack? " Joe replied in a slightly muffled voice "Mine is fine. Guy?" Joe looked at Guy "Yeah mines fine." Guy replies. Commander Shall nodded , then asked them to take the hoods off until they needed them , the filters weren't needed.

"Alright, now we need to discuss what you will be tasked with in depth, go change and put the suits away carefully, then come back." Said Commander Shall as Joe and Guy exited once more, before returning momentarily. "Okay, what will we be doing out there?" Joe asked the Commander, fixing his collar on his blue janitor button-up. Commander Shall grabbed a map from ontop of a shelf near the far right side room, and walked back before placing on the table and unfolding it...

"Okay men let's start."