At this point of the apocalypse, only the return of the blue energy lines and the first wave of destruction have occurred. Massive earthquakes rendered the world, toppling cities and splitting continents. Freakishly immense storms lashed across the lands creating tornadoes of debris that barraged the shattered landscape. Fires exploded from lightning, severed power or gas lines, and stoked into infernos. Tsunamis slammed coastlines for hundreds of miles swallowing the ground whole. Mountains cracked, cities crumbled, and humanity was crushed, drowned, and burned. And then, before anyone could catch their breaths, Yellowstone erupted, suffocating the screaming world with scorching ash.
There is no magic to save humanity, no psionics to pull the wretched from the horrors of survival. Tales of bizarre creatures and monstrous shadows are only now whispered between survivors through second-hand rumors and witnesses driven mad by despair. Are the stories true or simply hallucinations created by broken minds?
Five days have passed since the earth convulsed and civilization crumbled around you. Five days since, the bizarre blue lines dissected the globe ripping everything you knew, leaving death and despair in its wake. The only way to survive was to find stable ground, so Lieutenant General Sawyer ordered the withdrawal from Atlanta to Chicago. Escape death, survive, bring hope, and, if possible, rebuild civilization. Simple, right?
*
The convoy’s first sign of trouble came at 13:00 on the twenty-six of December when Recon Team Five missed their check-in window. Their primary objective was to scout the convoy’s path to Chicago and report any obstacles or dangers for Command to map. Command labeled the discrepancy in the book since communications had been spotty with the arrival of the blue energy lines—still no contact at 17:00, and they were a no-show at 19:00 for the night. All the other teams returned and reported the usual destruction and chaos, but that was the new normal. Comms monitored the airwaves for any hint of Recon 5 through the night, but by dawn, your team had a new mission, Search and Rescue. Find Recon 5 and bring them home. The convoy would meet you at the next approved waypoint that evening.
*
Ash fell slowly from the gloomy sky, building a layer of dirty snow-like softness over the land. What had been a city of jagged, shattered ruins of concrete, rebar, and steel was now a lumpy, misshaped blanket. It was dangerous to navigate before, but now that danger hid beneath the cover, making any speed treacherous. The sudden bursts of wind and low visibility forced the team to move even slower. After hours of delicate maneuvering, the group arrives at Recon 5’s marked reconnaissance area.
The apocalypse had been loud until now. A cacophony of sounds filled the past several days: The rumble of falling concrete, the whining of twisting steel, the crackling of flames, gunfire, and an occasional explosion. All around came noises of survivors, screams of pain and fear, shouts of anger, and laughter that sent chills down your spine. It was more than the ashy snow that muffled the sounds. As the team enters the ruined outskirts of Louisville, all sounds fade until only silence remains.
Liam waits patiently with the vehicle for Macher to return from scouting the path ahead. So far, Liam’s first real mission for NEMA has been boring. The search pattern discovered no trace, probably because the never-ending ash fall obscured any hint of Recon 5. His hands and feet grow numb, and he pulls his coat tighter.
Butcher monitors the tracking and comms from the inside of his robot vehicle. What had been a clear signal from his teammates since leaving the convoy was now a mess of random static corrupting his feed. Macher stood still only 50 yards ahead over the hill of broken debris, but his signal intermittently dropped only to reappear suddenly. The interference seemed to grow stronger the farther they moved into the reconnaissance area.
Macher, hidden beneath a shadowed overhang, surveys the route through the ruins with the telescopic lens and sees dozens of figures in the courtyard next to a damaged but standing skyscraper. The camera zooms closer in, revealing members of Recon 5 herding a group of civilians into the dark foyer of the building. The last visible Recon 5 member jerks around, looks directly at Macher across the long distance, waves, and points to his helmet before fading into the building’s shadowed interior.
What do you do?
"LT, you hear that? Are you able to" Falcon waves his left hand around a bit "do some of the roboty stuff and tell where the signal is coming from?"