Transmissions Echoing Away

New Beginnings

3 years had passed. It was no 2018 and the 4 men were still living in the bunker. They had gone out to raid food, new clothes and weapons. Their faces were plastered all over the place on Wanted and now, Exterminate posters. As the time passed and they left the bunker, they had noticed the flames had gone, the bombings had stopped and there was building work going on in what used to be the old city. Now, they were forming a new city. A new civilization and a new world. The rest of California had been turned into a baron desert, labelled out in “zones”. “This is just weird now. I haven’t seen any normal people around for 3 years, 4 months and 26 days.”

“You’ve been keeping track?”

“Helps pass the time. Come on. We had better head back before they start worrying ‘bout us” Gerard said to Frank. He nodded, grabbed the battered and beaten bag that had painting and artistic tools in and they headed back.

As they made their mad dash back to the bunker, something caught Frank’s eye. It was a vending machine next to a diner. “Hey, what’s that?” he said, pointing toward it. Gerard frowned slightly and they moved toward it slowly. “I thought there were no vending machines anymore?”

“It has guns in it. Guns and batteries. Shall we see if we get stuff from it?”

“Go ahead” Frank said, watching his friend. They had managed to keep a low profile and managed to raid wherever and whatever they could find. It mainly consisted of food called “Power Pup” which they had taken to eating, art tools, medical supplies, a car, a bunch of old guns with ammunition, new clothes and jackets, sewing materials and even some hair dye. Gerard starting pressing the buttons and smacking the machine until a gun and some batteries fell out. He did it 3 more times and the same fell out. “Frank, put these in the bag and we’ll head back” Gerard whispered. He nodded, stashing them in the bag quickly.

Ray and Mikey were busy doing absolutely nothing back at the hideout. As soon as the creaking of opening doors hit their ears, they shot up. “Relax it’s us!”

“Get anything good?”

“Yeah we did actually I’m impressed with this raid!”

“Awesome!” Mikey said, as Frank dropped the bag. He dove into it and started pulling stuff out. “This is pretty cool” he said, pulling out the plain white guns.

“Our faces are still plastered everywhere. We managed to go a whole raid without being noticed.”

“Any sign of her?” Gerard shook his head and looked at Frank who had gone into a corner and started drawing on some paper. “It’s been 3 years and we keep looking for her. What if she’s… you know… Dead?”

“Don’t even fucking say that” Frank growled quietly. He had really taken a liking to this girl and was very protective and defensive of her but no one knew why.

“Now has come the time you have all been waiting for! Today is the day we move you into your new homes. Now, in your bags that you have been given, you have a change of clothes which you must change into, a 6 month supply of medication which is mandatory to be taken and your front door keys. If you have a family, you will be moved into a family home, if you have a partner, you will be moved into a 2 bedroom home in case you are pregnant and have a child or if you are alone, you will be moved into a one bedroom home. Now, everybody follow this Draculoid and he will drive you to your new homes and welcome to Battery City” a woman smiled. Kasi recognised her as the woman she ran into 3 years ago. Now, she was listening to her every word. She grabbed the black bag with a smiley face on and headed out with a group of people when her name was called.

She climbed into the white bus that was waiting to take them into the newly built city. They would be the first residents there. A Draculoid walked onto the bus with a small plastic wallets that contained small plastic cards and sheets of paper. “In these wallets contain your citizen cards, your medical cards, you work cards and the rules of the city. Your citizen and medical must always been on your person as you can be asked for a form of identification at any point and at check points throughout the city. Does anyone have any questions or any problems with this?” Silence. No one had anything to ask or anything to say about it. They accepted their plastic wallets silently and the bus made a move.

Ray was doing the usual patrol when he heard the bus moving toward the city. It had to go straight past the bunker and he got inside quickly, watching the bus roar past and spraying dust all over the place. He kept watching and noticed her inside the bus. His eyes widened and he dashed downstairs quickly. “I found her!”

“What?”

“I found Kasi! She’s being taken into the new city!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah I just saw the bus go past there are other people on there so god knows how many people they have” he said breathlessly. They nodded and Frank looked up from painting his gun.

“I told you” he muttered. They looked at him. “I told you she wasn’t dead. I don’t know how I knew but I did” he kept muttering. They sighed, knowing he was right.

“We need to make a plan and get her out quickly” Gerard said.

“We need new names, new identities. So how the hell do we do that because they have our faces dammit!” Frank yelled, punching the wall hard. Gerard pulled him away quickly, holding his arms down.

“Relax Frank. I promise. We’ll get new names and we’ll get new identities I promise. Nicknames sounds better. Me and Mikey will dye our hair and we’ll work from there okay?” Frank nodded, taking a deep breath in and shaking with fury.

“Come on Mikey! Hair dying time” Gerard called to his brother. He nodded and put the gun down.

“What colour do you want me to paint yours?”

“Uh… Red please.”

“Okay” he walked off and followed his brother into the dank little bathroom.

“What you doing Frank?”

“Painting the guns to make them look pretty. Their boring at the moment.”

“Cool what colours are gone?”

“Uh… Gee’s is yellow, Mikey’s is red and mine is green. What colour do you want yours?”

“I’ll go blue” Ray said. Frank nodded and went back to painting the guns. “I’ll go back on patrol and let you know what I find” Frank nodded and didn’t look up from painting. Ray went out quickly and got in the crappy little car they had found, driving off onto a patrol.

What he would find on his patrol, would change the way they lived their lives. It would only be for the worse and not for the better.