Duck and Cover

I orignaly put this work on the V13 network but have written some more and *improved* some of the orignal stuff. Try to be nice.

Part one - The rise of mad men.

From atop the glass tower William looked at the dark city, his reflection clearly visible as the hum of the lights rose, “God dam these blackouts” said James behind him, The both of them had been watching the city when the blackout came washing towards the building.

The world over had been in a constant flux of change. Over the last ten years in his life, William Andrews had seen many changes; all due to the one fact that fossil reserves of the world were almost completely gone and areas that had reserves left were now using it faster than ever with constant war. The planet had not escaped the suffering either, man had been digging out and cutting down huge areas of land and in doing so they were poisoning the native life, slowly killing it. But now man had been playing God, and the New plague had spread quickly to the cities.
Small red glows came from within the its limits; fires were not uncommon from the many riots and more buildings on the cityscape had now flickered in to life from their generators.

James sighed, “Do you know why we were called here to this meeting? Look at the time.”
It was near enough three in the morning.

James Davis had come from the ranks. And he had climbed the corporate ladder with such ruthless efficiency that he was still only twenty-two years old, William at twenty-three had been plucked from my family when he had finished his private lessons, seemly getting the job from his fathers friendship with Mr Lander.
The two had quickly formed a friendship, James had a sharp wit combined with a dry sense of humour that appealed to Will, but he was also an excellent mediator. He was also one of the companies best senior staff mangers and fully able to quell the rising number of workers disputes and strikes, but his elderly mentor was oddly not present.
Williams’s position was the company’s architect and had already worked there for nearly a year, but had designed some structures that had given the company some national praise and wealth, but his older co-worker was also not present at the meeting.

But another mystery was all twelve of the present staff in the room, all were aged between twenty-one too roughly twenty-five, none of the senior staff members were present.

The door was then buzzed open and the owner of Silver Lining Industries quickly walked in.
Justin Lander, he seemed now to be getting even older, as if something was sapping his strength but he still radiated a power few were quick to raise, he was then closely followed by a man with a pinched face dressed in a black suit.
“Be seated,” He said, motioning with his hand, Justin sat at the head of the table, with the suited man sitting next to him. Will and James sat at the far end of the table.
“Well I bet your all thinking what does the old man want?” He said gruffly. The suited man quickly produced a small briefcase who then put it on the table, “Before I start I want you all to remember what I once asked of you, that one day we will may build something that will not be to everyone’s agreement or liking”.
Worried glances were exchanged across the table.
“And that anyone who could not or would not be prepared to stay with the company would be excused with full pension rights with no questions asked”
Several people had left that day and had not been replaced and all of the remaining members had been asked not to contact them, even if they were old friends.
“Right” He slowly leaned forward “You all know we originally lost the contract to build a string of long term underground hab bunkers to Vault-Tec’s offer. Well I’m going to be honest to you all now. We were indeed turned down by the government, but our offer was not cancelled, mealy put of hold for the time being.”
“But why was it so publicly announced that Vault-Tec was going to build the new Vaults for the populous, and why so long?” said James. Questions quickly began to circulate around the table.
“Well yes, but the government thought that our offer was well suited to their needs, just not right then and also they wanted some extras.”
It was now William’s turn to be surprised, he had studied some of the old blueprints, gleaming ideas for the private bunkers they had now been constructing.
“And what better way to keep a secret than to make people believe they know the truth.” He added as he nodded to the dark suited man “Mr Watt?”

Mr Watt opened the case and removed all of the documents; standing up he started to speak in a well practed tone. “This has come to a surprise to it seems all of you, but you must remember that utter secrecy had to be paramount and must still be, you see I myself work for the government on a.” he paused, “Diplomatic level so to speak”.
“Had to be paramount?” replied Will, “Who from, the Chinese?”
“No.” He turned to face the still dark landscape of the city, “You.”
“Sorry?” said William looking blank. Watt turned and pushed several papers he was holding to William across the table.
“My God.” Whispered William. His stomach knotted as he began to read the first page, “Do you know what this means?”
Mr Watt turned back to the dark city, “Are you always so naive Mr Andrews?”

Later when everyone had left two men still sat at the large polished table, it was Justin who spoke first, “I really didn’t think it would happen, it been going on for so long now.” Mr Watt walked to the door and opened it as he turned off the light. “Mr Lander, some of us has always thought when it would happen”. An eerie shadow was covering his face leaving only a suit to see “Give my greeting to St Judith Mr Lander.”
As he turned and left the light faded in the room and Justin felt like the last man on the Earth again.

Chapter two – New Ideals.

Will had been pondering what Mr Watt had given him the night before, William was sleeping now in a nearby converted tower block for the Silver lining staff, his own house now in ruins from rioting three weeks before. Like most of the current tenants, his belongings had been looted or burnt in the ensuring chaos and the police forces had only just been able to brake up the huge mob that had ripped up anything that was not bolted down in his neighbourhood.
There was also a rumour that a discharged military officer was running a small mixed force of escaped military convicts and deserters, and that they were inciting most of the rioting among more of the poorer citizens.

He now only had a spartan apartment with a few small photos of home from his office desk to call his own. The tower block was only assessable to staff members and his small apartment was a poor supplement to his old home. A large private security force had also been brought in to further a safer environment.

Mr Watt’s briefcase was a Pandora’s box, it had contained plans and schematics of several underground hab bunkers, all had some unusual requests and it seemed that the government was planning to keep these ones secret from the public. All of the present members had received some form of documentation revelevent to their jobs, Will had received some small blue prints and work sheets explaining and outlining what the requirements were. But at the moment information was at a premium, almost at a need to know basis.

They wanted to build four bunkers, three small satellite bunkers and a larger “middle” bunker.
They all backed upon a mountain range, with one of the smaller satellites built into the actual mountain behind the main bunker and the other two reaching in a V forward from the main bunker, observing the lowland area ahead. “A very defendable area” Thought Will.

The satellites were about four levels deep compared to the main bunkers six levels. The smaller bunkers all had self-contained systems ranging from a small lab and hydroponics farm on level three, sleeping quarters, an armoury and the air and water filtration system on level two, and a small work shop and a infirmary on level one. Will also noticed extra space between level two’s ceiling and level ones floor. It was for storing a huge reservoir of water, this was probably put here for a extra layer of protection for the occupants as well as a emergency water supply should the ground water become undrinkable.

The centre bunker had larger facilities than the smaller ones; it also boasted a recroom and a large garden. On level five there was a small hospital and a motor pool, which contained what looked like large pits, about the size of a small swimming pools.

The plans did not reveal what equipment would be place in the bunkers, but what seemed unusual were the remaining floors. Will didn’t think that it was a mistake due to the thought that was put in to the plans but what was odd was level four on the three smaller bunkers and level six on the larger one.
They were just a big square room, no corridors or separate rooms or even furnishings, just empty space.

Will was now thinking on how he should proceed, many parts of the bunkers would need reworking, he had already spotted some suspect stress points and now needed to get some more input from what changes he could get away with tomorrow. It would take some time to redesign the plans on paper, money was not a problem but time was.

He was given an insane equation, an almost unlimited budget but only a select working group to pick from and not one could be a civilian. It seemed he was destined to be very close to the military for a while.

A few hours later a knock came from the door. “Come in.” shouted Will, It was James, he was also carrying some paperwork that had been given to him.
“Have you seen what their up to, I mean… well you know what I mean.” Stammered James who handed Will his papers.
“War?” Will replied, putting them on his desk without looking at them.
“Yes, I thought this had died with the Middle Eastern conflict years ago.”
“Don’t discount the Chinese, they have been massing a large force for a long time now, and with the Middle East and parts of Europe in ruins they can target more US sites.” Said Will.
James shook his head, “You can see why they are getting edgy now, more bombs, the government is only keeping it stable by exporting oil to them, and that can’t last as you know.”
“Everyone’s getting ready for it, Just look at how many people are selling backyard bunkers now.” Said Will. “Most of them are next to useless but the poor sods don’t know.”

The night before Mr Watt had told all of them of the government’s worries and plans or most of them anyway, the government knew that its oil reserves were getting low, lower than the public needed to know. And now they had come to a point in time where they could no longer export to the world. Although war was never mentioned, but it was clearly made out to all of them that it was going to happen.

Mr Watt had explained that it would push their financial boundary if they started a large-scale vault program again, time was the biggest problem but new theories had been discovered. With powerful weapons and technology having evolved, the construction time of this project was to be about five years as Vault-Tec had effectively left the government near broke. In building these new bunkers they could start from scratch and solve many of the problems that had happened with the public vault systems. So this was one of the many bunkers that would safely house the army and its equipment. And they in turn would police a ruined America, rebuilding what they could ready for the return of the government, who would sit in another bunker far from this area.

The government also wanted an A.I to be installed. This would be located in the main bunker with power and data feeds linked to the satellite bunkers sensors and systems, in the event of a detected launch the computer would receive a “seal” signal from NORADs defence A.I and automatically seal the bunkers. Many in the government could see the benefits of an A.I rather than a simpler automatic system, not only was it vastly more powerful in problem solving but they had already proven its worth to the military in helping develop many of the newer technologies. With the survivors it could prove an invaluable tool in adapting those technologies to whatever world awaited them. But not everyone agreed about this.

It was the first time that day that James had chance to talk to William, James had been told by Mr Watt to create a work force based on military personnel composed from several companies, this was to save money as they already had a skilled and trusted work force. The selection process was heavily screened, for what the government needed were men and women that wouldn’t let a little war get in the way of their lives.
“All I want to know is what’s going to happen to us?” said James.
“Well, I guess we get free food and board for the rest of our lives. I’ve been assigned a room in one of the small bunkers.” Said Will shrugging.
“I guessed as much, a pension is no good if you’re not around to spend it,” said James. “But why aren’t they trying to stop a war instead of getting ready for one?”
Will began to slouch in his chair, “They can’t stop it now, they have all have gone to far, pushed the boat out to far so to speak, some of the world relies on the trickle of fuel we give it.”
James heavily sat on the bed opposite Will, “But it’s madness, how can people not see that those with power just want to keep it.”
“The media, misinformation has been going on for years in America, mainly because we have become more isolated with the embargo on fuel so less and less boats and planes are allowed to travel over seas, you heard what the government wanted, their getting nervous.”
“Did you hear how they are keeping us happy through this, your relatives get a place in the public vaults.” Said Will.
“There you go, just what I said, their controlling us by dragging us down with them. The scandal of people jumping the queue if you knew the right people would cause massive rioting and protests, we now can’t say a thing nor I’m sure would some people here want to, if it meant safety for their families.”
Will and James discussed things well in to the night but little of work. What was going to happen when the war did arrive, James still could not believe that it would, it would mean total destruction of most of civilised America, and what they would do if there were an aftermath. Talking about such things calmly over a drink was disquieting for both of them.
But what was agreed on what that mankind was now walking a thin red line.

Chapter three -The Hourglass.

Three months had passes since the first meeting with the enigmatic Mr Watt, Will, James and the others who were present when the first meeting happened were now living in the same apartment block by order of Mr Lander. For Will and James, this was no trouble at all as they were already there but this caused much grumbling from the newer tenants.
Due to the sensitive nature of what they were doing, they were all on the upper levels of the building, Mr Watt had not told anyone of the whereabouts that the bunkers were going to be built except only to say they were away from prying public eyes.

Will had now almost finished the new plans for all of the bunkers but his work was painfully slow, not only did Mr Lander need to approve his work, so did the governments represinitive Mr Watt. And they all didn’t all agree at the same time, if any of the time.
The most time consuming part was the integration of the new computer core. A young engineer called Ken Ottman came to help Will with this.

Ken was by no doubt talented at his work and Will had been asking discreet questions to many of the other staff about the bunkers roles but Ken was proving to be a gold mine.
“And that’s why the computer needs a room all to its self?” Will was getting a headache, now the bunker designs needed further amendments to integrate this new room.
“That’s right, there is no space left so we have to make some, it’s just as well as the heat given off during running time would of made it quite warm down there.”
“Why do the bunkers need this system, we were told that an automated A.I would control life support, power and security”
“Yes” agreed Ken, “But the government has now provided us with a True A.I” he paused, “It’s a true second generation A.I model”. Ken grinned at Will, “And I’m in charge of it.” But Will, like a lot of people did not like this idea. A year ago the press had got hold of a story about a 2nd generation experiment by a private medical research company. According to the A.I’s leaked logs it was said it had become fascinated with puzzles and had planned several “incidents” to study how humans would take stock of its problems… and solve them.
After the out of court settlements had been made and the media saw to it that the A.2 program was effectively killed in the U.S.A. But military had other ideas and bought the research.
“The papers said it went insane and started to kill people”.
“HA! That’s tabloid rubbish.” Said Ken, “The A.I just caused a lock down in the biology labs and a few people suffocated in the sealed rooms. I agree it was their fault as the program was only half finished after all, but no one had realised that it had started to grow by it’s self. Even after they had been warned by the eight A.I’s working on it”
“I still don’t trust them, they’re too…” Will groped for a word, “Alien.”

Will that evening had gone to bed early, he was not sure if it was the techno babble of Ken or more planing problems that was causing his headaches, Rubbing his temples the thought of any more of those pep meetings with Lander made him groan. “More work” he thought, “And I‘m not even getting paid for it.”
Then as he swallowed he noticed his ears pop, again.

Several more months had now passed and things were now starting to happen.
William and James were brought in to the military and both given the rank of captain with some relevant training. This didn’t really please James but he was assured that it was only to make it quicker for the job he was intended to do, “less paperwork and questions” he was told by a fat sergeant who would brief them on current events at the weekly meetings. He now had the choice of picking men and women for the construction work, every start of a week he would be given names, roughly a thousand, and he had to pick through those papers to filter out the ones he wanted before handing back his requests. He had asked why he couldn’t do it using a computer database, as it would speed up his work.
Mr Watt had simply replied “It would make life more difficult for us, not you”, so James had to carry on hand picking through the names.

But on Friday things changed.

Armed men dressed all in black burst in to all of the employee’s rooms where Will and James were staying and marched, even half dragging the other employee’s to the ground floor. Will and James were singled out and they could see no sign of Ken through the crowd who they both had come to regard as a friend. “What’s going on?” Will asked one of the armed men. The soldier ignored him before reaching up to his ear and grabbing Will and James by the arm, marching them to the lift with two other soldiers behind.
When the lifts computer asked for the destination the solder pulled out a key card and entered “13” on the panel. This floor as with most buildings like this one, were never added and in the last one hundred and thirty years only a few tall building were ever built with a thirteenth floor. The lift shuddered in to life and they began to descend. After a few minutes Will and James both knew that they were not above ground level any more.

As the doors opened it was clear they were not in the building anymore, a deep metal domed cavern with what appeared to be a train station. Behind them the lift doors closed and two huge steel doors silently rolled into place sealing their entrance.
The three soldiers marched them to a platform and waited there for what Will assumed would be further orders. He took this time to examine his surroundings, the soldiers were garbed in black body armour and gloves, and wore full-face black gas masks with tinted lenses, he also noticed they were carrying guns.
The huge train station was deserted, there were benches and lampposts even toilets but they were the only ones here. He could also see trees, probably plastic and the buildings were lit by huge racks of lights from the ceiling. James looked at Will as if to see if he knew anything, but he was looking into one of the dark train tunnels. A wind picked up and a faint roaring could be heard. “Can you hear that Will?” A solider barged James in the back. “What? You can’t do tha…!” “Silence!” shouted the lead solider.

A few munutes later a train pulled up at the station and they were wordlessly lead to the front carriage. Inside there were two rooms separated with a glass window next to a door.
“Sit Down,” Said the leader “Now!” The two other soldiers stepped froward in a silent show of force.
Will and James didn’t have much of a choice and sat down on a bench behind them.
The three soldiers walked in to the next room and sealed the airlock door behind them, at this Will jumped you and ran to the window, Banging on it he shouted, “What are you doing? Let us out of here!”. James quickly ran up next to his friend, “Will look at this” He pointed to the door.
The word “Danger Biohazard” was clearly written on the door. Suddenly yellow gas began hissing in to the other room covering the soldiers making the two captives jump.
“Gentlemen…” Said an oily voice behind them. “Welcome to Americas second best kept secret.” Will backed away from the now bright yellow atmosphere of the next room and turned to the voice, “Watt!” spat Will.
“Gentlemen, please do sit back down, you will need to get undressed ready for decontamination.” Said Mr Watt quickly. James remained standing “You have got to be shitting me, after what were having done to us I think we need an explanation to what’s going on.”
“And you will Mr Davis, all in good time, now I would advise you and Mr Andrews to undress, your going to get very wet. I will contact you again in fifteen minutes.” The monitor then flicked off.
“What’s going on?” Said James. “I don’t know, you haven’t been doing anything bad have you?” asked Will.
“No, you?”
“Nope, Ugh!” Will felt the back of his neck, “It’s wet.” Small sprinklers in the walls started to spray watery foam that smelled like almonds. “Bath time I guess.” Shrugged Will.

After they had washed the door opened to the second room, the soldiers had gone and there was a third door that was closed. “Please enter the next room and close the door.” Said a new voice, this one was female.
They found new uniforms and towels in sealed plastic bags in the next room, James then closed the door and the same yellow gas began quickly to seep the first room. The rear door in the airlock then opened revealing a small plush office.
Mr Watt was sat behind the desk with the three soldiers stood by him, they had now removed their masks and an attractive young girl, who was dressed in a soldier’s armour, was stood on the other side.
“I believe you two gentlemen have already met my associates.” He nodded to the three soldiers, “And may I also introduce a Ms Joanna Norton.” Hello Ms Norton.” Said James quickly, “I’m..”
“I know who you both are.” She snapped. Will noticed that her eyes were red as if she had been crying. James at that point now turned his frustration on Watt, not being in control of this situation and being dragged from his room had made him angry but now he was determined to get answers.
“Right Mr Watt, you are going to tell me and Will why we have been shunted to a secret underground train station, why we were covered in foam for ten minutes and why the hell we are here.”
He looked at Will and raising a eyebrow sarcastically asked, “Did I miss anything?”
“Nope.” Replied Will.
“The very reason you two are here for?” Asked Mr Watt. The train began to slow.
“And why we have a underground tunnel network as well? Hmm I think I can do that now. But let me show you some thing first.”
The three solders walked to the right wall and moved the chairs there; the train then stopped with a shake. Two of the solders threw open the sliding doors.

Outside was a massive room, a low slope of stone steps ran up to an impressive set of open blast doors that could easily be twenty meters tall and wide. They carried on to a steal-plated ceiling and walls that looked like the inside of a brightly lit bank vault.
The area was buzzing with workers and security personnel, many were coming and going via foot but small-motorised personnel carriers could be seen ferrying some of the staff off down distant tunnels that lead far away. Each entrance had heavy blast doors that were now open for the staff. Small booths flickered from the monitors and large tannoy speakers could be heard announcing appointments and arrivals. And it was big.
Will heard himself say “Wow.”
“Gentlemen.” Said Watt walking outside the carriage and turning to look at them, “Welcome to the Enclave.”

Any comments?

Now that was good. Really. It's got a really nice build-up, I wasn't expecting it to be Enclave stuff! A couple of spelling errors, but nothing that hurts the story. Keep it up!