THE END [[#Wattys2020]]

DAY 5

Chapter 101: Fighting for Food

Bohdan and Sim Lu (Alcatraz)

It quickly became apparent that not only was no one coming for us and there wasn't going to be any calling for help, not on a radio or anything else for that matter, but we were also going to need to find a better, longer term food supply and water source than garbage cans.

Food, as it turned out, wasn't 'that' difficult... we were on an island in the ocean, after all. Within the first day, Sim and I discovered that if we waited for a sea lion or seal to bring their catch up onto land to eat, then hoot and holler and charge them, they'd scurry back into the ocean, leaving their bounty behind.

'I' wanted to kill and eat a seal, must be a delicious meat, but Sim wasn't having any of it. Seals are easier, they tended to haul ass the minute they even saw you coming. Sea lions were a bit more finicky... Half the time they either didn't give a shit, despite the commotion, and just reared up and barked back, or they hopped off the rocks into the water, fish in tow. The fish hadn't made us sick, yet, so radiation seemed to be, at least for the moment, a moot issue.

"The one that adjusts... open... close... that's the crescent wrench!" I told Sim Lu, with one hand on the water heater's drain valve.

No, it was drinkable water that was eluding us at the moment...

"Ya, that one, good! Hand it to me!"

Tried the faucets and outside spigots, of course nothing. Don't think the big water tower has held any water in quite some time. There are a lot of holes in the roofs of various buildings which create puddles on the floors, but Sim doesn't feel water that's coming from above... the exact place where most of the radioactive dust went, would be the smartest idea.

I said boil it, which apparently only kills parasites and bacteria, and does next to nothing for radiation. And getting sick (again) is the last thing we need when the nearest hospital (if it's still there) is a day's swim in the wrong direction!

"...Ok, ready. Give me some bottles... let's try this!"

...

...

"...Well, that didn't work in the least!"

...

"...Oh, shit, open the pressure relief valve... gotta break the suction!"

"...On the top... with the metal handle!"

...

"...And voila... Woo hoo!!! We got water, baby!!"

"...Water from a hot water heater... who'd have thought!"

...

"...I know, right... makes a perfect 50 gallon water storage tank, though!"

...

"...Just let it cool a bit!" I said, which in itself was a little surprising, seeing as how even after almost a week, we still had power!

Chapter 102: The Package

Vice-President Todd Lewis (Government Bunker, Sierra Nevada Mountains)

"Do they have it?" Someone barked out, not able to control their excitement (that someone was me).

Two months prior, emails showing President Humfrey Rumsfeld's involvement in a possible attack on U.S. soil were authenticated. Two 'weeks' before, we'd gotten word that a serious and highly credible nuclear threat in the next year was eminent; the day the federal government nuked its own cities, a plan that had been finalized just days earlier, was set into motion... safeguard California's citizens at all costs!