Part 2: Aftermath - Part 2.

(Aftermath - Chapter 1!)

Aftermath - Part 2.

23rd of October 2077 - Brooklyn:

Stepping out of the portal, they were shocked at what they saw, the sky was like it was on fire. There was no sun to be seen, it was blocked by a sky full of fire, and ash and balls of rocks, which were on flames, were falling out of it. These rocks were hitting the buildings, and catching them on fire or/and doing damage to them, (if they won’t already damaged or on fire, ) some minor and some major damage.

Now apart for the firestorm in the sky, the group looked around and saw and heard a few things. First they heard screams of fear, and anger, and cries of people losing loved ones and of what happened to their world. There were sounds of car alarms, and the sirens from the rescue services that were dealing with the aftermath of the bombings. They also heard gunfire in the distance.

As Kaidan and Anna May were looking around, and saw firefighters and emergency medical services, were either fighting the main fires and left the minors ones to burn out on their own, whilst the medical workers dealing with the injured. They also saw downed sentry bots and protectrons, Kaidan suspected they weren’t well protected by EMPs, and which were shut down.

Whilst were there rescue services dealing with the fires, and trying to rescue and heal the people, the military was there doing crowd control. Before the bombing, they were there for keeping the peace, and making sure that people were home before curfew. As for the last few years, the country was under martial law, and you would often see tanks, Power Armour and sentry bots and protectrons seen on the streets.

Upon exiting the portal, Kaidan saw the citizens of Brooklyn, being a bit hostile, suspected seeing how things were. It might me they wanted answers answered, but the military might not the answers and so the citizens were getting upset. And as they get upset, they would get angry and hostile, and because of this the military were using brute force to keep them in control.

As Kaidan and Anna May were looking around, one of the civilians that came out of the portal asked in fear, “Wh ... what is go ... going here?”

“The start of the end.” Kaidan informed them and the others simply, “In the next few hours, the firestorm will cease, and the long night will begin.”

“Wh, what do you, m, mean the long night will begin?” asked another civilian.

“Once the firestorm burns out, all that’ll remains is the soot.” this came from Anna May, who said very few words to them over the last few hours, seeing that she was a communist, “And the scientists believe that the soot will stay up there for the next five to twenty years, maybe longer, before we ever see the sun again. They believe we might see the sun now and then, but we would be lucky to see it. As far as they believe, whilst there might be some light every so often, it’ll be mainly darkness until the soot is call gone from the stratosphere.”

“You damn communist, this is all your fault.” one of the civilian lashed out, but Kaidan punched him in the face and said with a sneer, “Listen you damn fool, she had nothing to do with the bombings, if you see her neck, she is a slave. MY slave, so if you say she was behind it, so am I, and you say that, will you can go fuck yourself. You won’t get help from me. As for the rest of the communists, I would like to inform you, we don’t know who let off the first bomb. As far as we know, it could have been the USA who struck first and they just retaliated and things escalated from there.”

“Why would our own country do that?” asked a civilian.

“I don’t know.” admitted Kaidan, before countering, “At the same time I would ask why would the communist strike first when they know we would counter with nukes too? It makes no sense to strike country that would only strike back with the same weapons. The governments might say they’ll use nukes, but they aren’t foolish enough to do so, as the counter attack could be just as bad. Each government would want to live. So unless they are foolish or have a fool proof plan, no government would do a nuclear strike first.”

None of the civilians thought of it like that, but now that they did, they did have to wonder what happened. As Kaidan put it, no governments would be foolish enough to strike first, as the counter attack could be just as bad and they could end up dying too. So the only option was that they had a fool proof plan, or there was a rogue player at play who launched the first nuke, that started off the Great War. Someone going rogue made more sense to them than a government who would risk their people dying, but the question was now which side was the rogue and why would they want a nuclear war?

Wanting to get away from pissing off this Spectre even more, one of the civilians asked, “Can you explain more about this long night you talked about? What does it mean for us?”

“It means death to those who aren’t ready for it.” Kaidan told them darkly, “As it’ll last for until the soot is gone, which could be at least five years or longer. It’ll block out the sun, and create a winter that scientists calls a Nuclear Winter, where those who aren’t wearing warm clothes or living somewhere warm, will die. But that’s not the worse of it.”

“Wh, what do you mean, it’s, it’s the worst of it?” asked another civilian.

“The Nuclear Winter will take a few months before it is cold enough to kill anything, and anything they do kill would be anything that hasn’t been killed before hand.” Kaidan informed them all, “The main thing we have to worry about is radiation poisoning and the radioactive rain.”

“Radioactive rain?” asked a worried civilian.

“Yeah, with so much radiation because of the bombing, it’s only natural that the radiation will be absorbed into the air, which in turn would come back into rain.” explained Kaidan, what he didn’t tell them was that radioactive rain have been happening for a while now, because of the tipping of radioactive waste. In the past it wasn’t too bad, it was controllable. “And depending where the bombs have hit, and how much radiation we’re dealing with, it can be an never ending thing. And so unless you’re inside when it starts and have some sort of water purifiers, preferably portable ones, to purify the water, you’ll be dead before the Nuclear Winter arrives.”

“Do you have any idea how long we have before this all happens?” asked another worried civilian, “And what can we do to prepare for this.”

“Without the sun, it’ll start getting cold within the next few days, but nothing deadly for a few months or so.” Anna May informed them all, “As for the radioactive rain, it can come at any time. If not within a few days, within a week.”

“As for how you can prepare yourselves,” continued Kaidan, “I would use the subways to create new homes for yourselves. As the government have reinforced some of the subway tunnels, so they can withstand a nuclear bombing so that people have somewhere to settle if they couldn’t get to a vault or a nuclear settlement.” What he didn’t tell them was that it wasn’t the government itself who reinforced subway tunnels, but the Spectres, but they lead everyone think it was the government who done it, so people kept thinking the government were doing something to make their lives better.

“Then try and get as many animals, seeds and whatever else you and others can get hold, that’ll help you live down in subways for a long time.” Kaidan advised them, “Even try and see if you can find a few L’Cies to help you, as they can be a great help if you can find them. One last thing I should advise you, is to block the entrance and find another way in and out of the subway, or if you find a L’Cies that can help. As blocking the entrance will keep most of the cold from getting in, and so keep you alive at least a bit longer.”

“You can do all that, or you can wait for us and we’ll take you somewhere safe, where we most likely be setting up a safe place for survivors.” Anna May told them, although she hoped that they would leave, as she couldn’t stand these people because of how they treated her because of her nationality. Because she was Chinese, she was behind the bombing somehow, when she wasn’t.

The group of civilians looked at each other and at Kaidan and Anna May, and at their surroundings, and thought about what was going on. Each of them decided that they wanted to find their friends and family, as if they were alive, they wanted to be with them. Even if it was for a few hours, at least they can die or live together. Kaidan could understand that, and so the group parted ways, and Kaidan and Anna May went to the nearby Spectre safe house to see what they could do to help.

o0OoO0o

23rd of October 2077 - Safe House, Brooklyn:

It didn’t take long for Kaidan and Anna May to get to the safe house. The safe house was a whole flat, that the Spectres were using. The first three floors had survivors there, there were many who were crying at what had happened, or were waiting to find out what was going to happen next to them. There were a few people setting up some food and beds for them, and talking to the survivors. As they went up the stairs to the fourth floor, they heard that the radios were still working, giving news reports about what was going on, and giving music to calm people down and help them relax in these hard times.

When they got to the fourth floor, and into the flat that has been set up as the control room for this crisis. There were a few people looking a notice board, and few around desks on picking up some weapons before leaving to wherever. Now Kaidan told Anna May to pick up some weapons and supplies, something they forgot to do before leaving the settlement.

Whilst Anna May was getting their things, Kaidan entered the next room, hoping to find someone in charge. As he opened to the door, he heard a man say, “It was bad before the bombing, but now we’re on the verge of losing this whole neighbourhood. Rioters are taking advantage of the chaos of the bombings.”

“Hmm in that case set up a portal within a two block radius of this neighbourhood.” Kaidan heard a female, as he entered the room. As he did, the female held her hand up to tell him to hold on a minute, as he went on to talk to the soldier in the room. “It might not be much, but we need to protect this area a bit longer until my people can bring whatever survivors they can find back here so we can take them somewhere safe.”

As Kaidan looked closer, he was shocked to see that the lady was Chinese, with black hair, and she didn’t have a slave collar on. But on a closer look, he saw that she had a small tattoo on the left side of her forehead. It was of the flag of the Commonwealth, this shown that she was a Chinese-American, this meant that her mother was a slave and her father was most likely her mother’s master.

And instead of making the child a slave too, as many men often do, her father recognised her as his child which give her more options in life - if she was a boy, he could have given his family name. But for her to be recognised, she had to be branded with the Commonwealth Flag, to show she was a born in America. But this also show that she came from a slave too. This made the lives of anyone who was recognised by their fathers hard, as they had to prove themselves to the world as a whole and forced to endure a lot. To get to this point where she became a Spectre, she most of worked on in a job that the Spectres thought she can be useful. Kaidan didn’t want to think what she had to go through to become Spectre.

“Seeing that it’ll be getting dark soon, I would set up bonfires or generators to power lights.” Kaidan added to the talks, “As once the firestorm in the sky has gone out, the only lights we’ll have for a while will be bonfires, lamps or generated lights. We don’t know when we’ll see sunlight after today.”

“Yes that would help us greatly,” admitted the Chinese-American woman, before she said, “it’s good to see another one of us alive. So far, I have only seen five other Spectres not counting us. Anyway, I’m Faye Lau, and thanks for the input.”

“I’m Spectre Network.” Kaidan introduce himself to Faye.

“You do know that the Spectre Program is no more right Spectre?” asked Faye.

“Yeah I know,” admitted Kaidan, “I’m just use to using my Spectre name in times like this. But you can call me Kaidan Alenko.”

“Thanks Kaidan,” thanked Faye, “before we go on, do you have any other ideas we could use? We are gathering up all the survivors and send them to the settlers that we have set up around the country for them.”

“What about those who aren’t willing to come, or those we can’t find, have you got anything planned for them yet?” asked Kaidan.

“At the moment no,” Faye informed Kaidan, “I was planning to ask the Commander when we got to Jericho about them.”

“Well the survivors I saved but decided to find their family, I told them that if they don’t come back in time, they should set up base in the subways.” Kaidan informed Faye and the soldier. “I also told them that they should gather any animals, seeds and whatever else they could get hold to live for years to come until it is safe to come back to the surface. I also told them that if possible, get any L’Cies to help them too.”

“That makes sense,” acknowledge the soldier, before putting his two cent in, “they could even use some of the sewers, as some of them could be deep enough for them to live in for a while without getting too cold.”

“I would wait before sending people down to the sewers Lieutenant,” Faye informed the soldier, “we have to wait for the radioactive rain to pass, seeing that the rain will go through them.”

“True, but I know that over the years some of the sewers have been blocked or closed down for one reason or another,” the Lieutenant informed Faye and Kaidan, “so we could sort them out within the next week before broadcasting over the radio your idea to build up a small settlement for themselves for the foreseeable future in the subways or the sewers.”

“I would like it if you could inform them to set up the subways ASAP,” Kaidan informed the Lieutenant, “as many of the animals could be dead before you can get the sewers ready. So it would be better if people can get the animals that they can, as the rest could be dead or dying when we can get to them later.”

“True, didn’t think about that,” the Lieutenant admitted to the Spectre, “I’ll have the people at the radio stations to relay this information as soon as we’re done here. Is there any other ideas you can think of I should pass on?”

“Yeah there is one thing, I would tell tell the public about finding info about creating weapons,” Kaidan informed the Lieutenant, “as they’ll have limited resources and would need to create basic weapons like blades, bows and spears, as ammo will be hard to find unless you know where to look for it. As they should think about creating other weapons, from anything they can get hold of.”

“That makes sense,” admitted the Lieutenant, “I can get some of my men go to the radio stations and give a talk to the people about how to create some basic weapons.”

“That’s good to hear Lieutenant,” acknowledged Kaidan, “now is there anything I can do to help?”

“In fact there is,” Faye told the Spectre as she looked at her computer, “whilst the other Spectres are looking for survivors, I want you to search some missing weekly food and medical supplies for this area. The supplies for this area were already running late before the bombing, but we had reports that it came in before the bombs hit, but they are now missing. We would like you to find them, and set up a beacon so that the Lieutenant can send some of his men to get them.”