Warday

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by Whitley Streiber


  TYPICAL BUILDINGS AND THEIR PROTECTIVE VALUE

  Type of Building Factor

  Underground shelters covered by 3 feet or more of dirt, or sub-basements of buildings with more than 5 stories 1000+

  Basement fallout shelters, basements without exposed walls, and central areas of upper floors (not top 3) with heavy exterior walls 250 to 1000

  Basements of buildings with frame and brick veneers, central area of basements with partially to exposed waifs, and central areas of upper floors (not top floor) in multistory buildings with heavy floors and exterior walls 50 to 250

  Basements without exposed walls of 1–2 story buildings and central areas of upper floors (not top) of multistory buildings with light floors and walls 10 to 50

  Partially exposed basements of 1–2 story buildings and central areas on ground floor of similar buildings with heavy masonry walls 2 to 10

  Above ground rooms of light residential homes or apartments 2 or less

  REMEMBER, SOME PROTECTION IS BETTER THAN NONE.

  GOOD PROTECTION WILL SAVE LIVES!

  * * *

  FOR LOCAL DISTRIBUTION

  CIVIL DEFENSE DIRECTIVE A-25

  December 15, 1988

  EMERGENCY INSTRUCTIONS FOR RADIOLOGIC DECONTAMINATION

  THE FOLLOWING EMERGENCY GUIDELINES SHOULD BE FOLLOWED UNTIL FULL-SCALE GOVERNMENT DECONTAMINATION EFFORTS CAN BE UNDERTAKEN.

  If you live near a War Zone, or if you are being billeted temporarily by military or local government, you may be in considerable danger through contact with materials that have been made radioactive by the bomb explosion itself, or from fallout.

  Radioactivity cannot be seen. The only sure way to know if radioactivity is present is to use electronic detectors that measure radioactivity. These devices are available from your local government, or from the military units assigned to your area.

  BUT WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU DON’T HAVE ACCESS IMMEDIATELY TO RADIATION DETECTORS?

  It’s best to be safe. If you live within 100 miles of a designated War Zone, it is highly likely that you will have at least some objects or surfaces affected with radioactivity. Or, if you live within any of the areas where fallout has occurred, you probably have some degree of contamination.

  MOST RADIATION WILL DISAPPEAR WITHIN 60–90 DAYS. HOWEVER, DEPENDING UPON YOUR LOCATION AND PROXIMITY TO A BOMBED AREA, YOU COULD HAVE SUFFICIENT RADIOACTIVITY PRESENT TO CAUSE SERIOUS ILLNESS.

  IF POSSIBLE, YOU SHOULD CHECK WITH YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT OR WITH MILITARY AUTHORITIES TO DETERMINE THE LIKELIHOOD OF RADIOACTIVITY IN YOUR HOME OR BILLETING AREA.

  If you know some radioactivity is present, or you suspect this to be the case, then you should utilize the following methods for decontaminating common materials and surfaces.

  1. CLOTHING

  Clothing that is heavily contaminated, e.g., that which has been outside and unprotected, should be discarded at once and buried in a location that will not affect water supplies.

  Other clothing can be brushed or washed, though you should be careful to control the runoff in order to prevent further contamination. Using a detergent will help. All washing should be done in one area and the runoff directed to the same collector, which later can be covered up.

  Always use gloves if you can, and wash yourself thoroughly afterwards.

  2. FOOD

  Packaged food can be brushed or washed, though you should watch out for dust particles. Unprotected food should be disposed of as soon as possible.

  You should not plan to hunt for wild game for another four months; the possibility that wildlife has ingested radioactive particles is still dangerously high.

  3. METAL AND PAINTED SURFACES

  Metal or painted surfaces, including cars and trucks, can be washed or scrubbed, with or without detergents or cleansing agents. Again, you should control the runoff. The use of complexing agents—oxalates, carbonates, acids or oxidizing agents—can be useful for porous surfaces but chemically dangerous; care should be taken in using chemicals.

  4. LARGE STRUCTURES

  Large structures, such as houses, buildings, barns, etc., are most quickly cleaned with water sprays. Structures that are heavily contaminated, however, will need more intensive treatment. Chemical treatment may be necessary; abrasion or sandblasting may be necessary with concrete and brick.

  Runoff can be a major problem, and all cleaning personnel should wear protective clothing and masks.

  5. TERRAIN

  Earth surfaces that are radioactive can be removed, though disposal can be a problem. For farming areas, plowing under may be the most expedient action, but the ground remains radioactive for some time and may not be readily usable again. You should consult your local authorities about any substantial earth-moving activity you propose. Protective clothing should be worn at all times, and face masks, such as those worn by medical personnel, should be used.

  6. WATER

  Standing water, such as that in pools or tanks, should not be used and little can be done to purify the water, short of using complex ion-exchange equipment. Water from streams or rivers may have surface contamination as a result of having passed through radioactive areas. Water for personal consumption should be purified using available equipment or homemade devices, such as natural filtration through buckets filled with stones, clay, and other filtrating materials. Filtered water should then be treated with iodine tablets to remove any trace of radioactive iodine. Water from deep ground wells should be usable without treatment.

  WARNING: IF YOU ARE UNCERTAIN ABOUT THE LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVITY OF ANY OBJECT OR SURFACE, USE CARE AND DECONTAMINATED DO NOT HESITATE TO CONSULT YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT OR MILITARY AUTHORITIES FOR ASSISTANCE.

  RUMORS

  Mutants and Super-Beasts

  Jim and I heard our first rumor on the trolley into L.A. Since then, we’ve found that rumors run in the blood of this city.

  RUMOR: There is a gigantic beast with bat wings and red, burning eyes that has attacked adults and carried off children. The creature stands seven feet tall and makes a soft whistling noise. It is often seen on roofs in populated areas, but only at night.

  FACT: Of all the rumors we heard, this was the most persistent.

  Claiming that we were L.A. Times reporters, we called Dr. Edward Wagner of UCLA, a biologist, and asked him to comment on the possibility that some sort of radiation-induced mutation could have produced a new species of giant bat. Dr. Wagner stated that giantism is a fairly well understood evolutionary phenomenon that is caused by space-competition among species. He doubted that something as fully developed as this could have come about in the thirty-odd bat generations that have elapsed since the war.

  A Glendale resident, who was attacked in August of ’91, recorded his experience in the weekly Glendale Courier:

  I had just gotten off the Glendale trolley when I heard this soft sort of cooing noise coming from the roof of a house. The sound was repeated and I turned to look toward the house. Standing on the roof was what looked like a man wrapped in a cloak. Then it spread its wings and whoosh! it was right on top of me! I remember it smelted awful, like something dead. It was working at my face with these long, probing fingers. It got them around my neck and it started snapping its teeth and hissing. Its wings were wrapped around me. I was smothering in there, in the stink of the thing.

  When I saw its eyes, red and glaring, hideous, I thought it was the devil come for me and I gave out a scream. Just like that, it spread its wings and started flying, its fingers still around my head. I was dragged halfway down the block, then it let me go and took off into the sky, cooing and hissing. I saw the moonlight glint off its wings, then it was gone.

  The individual who told this story to the paper was also reported to have extensive scars on his neck and head, of the type that long fingernails or talons might make.

  We have no further information about this story.

  RUMOR: Radiation has caused many terrible mutations, such as babies who claw their way ou
t of the mother’s womb just as the first contractions of labor start. Also, babies who are born with the genitals of adults, or women having animal children, usually monkeys or pigs.

  FACT: We have great difficulty getting used to the high level of mutation that is an inevitable side-effect of high ambient radiation.

  Naturally, mutations occur with greatest frequency in areas most seriously radiated. A mother in California, for example, has little more chance of bearing a mutant child than before the war, but a mother in Dallas is many times more likely to bear a mutant.

  Mutations take two basic forms, degenerative and progressive.

  Ninety-nine out of a hundred degenerative mutations involve some sort of destruction or malformation of the fetus. They never involve atavism, such as a woman giving birth to an animal child.

  Such a mutation is probably not possible. Nor are they likely to involve such farfetched nonsense as babies with claws or babies with fully developed genitals. The truth is much more prosaic, and much sadder. Common mutations are malformed limbs, bones, or eyes, brain disorders, and malfunctioning organs, such as improperly formed hearts. In cases where the mutant is declared non-viable on the Hexler Function Scale, the parents may elect euthanasia.

  Progressive mutations are much more rare, but they are not unknown. The most usual progressive mutation we are aware of is so-called hyperintelligence syndrome (HIS). Babies displaying this syndrome exhibit certain common characteristics: they are extremely aware even at birth and are generally capable of lifting their heads, smiling, and making organized sounds within a few hours of being born. This initial precociousness is not followed up, however, at least not evenly. There are HIS children three years old who can read Shakespeare but are still mastering the art of walking. A common problem in HIS children is difficulty acclimatizing to extreme stimuli such as loud sounds or bright colors. HIS children generally learn reading and mathematics by passive assimilation by the age of two or three. The oldest known HIS child, Charlie B., is now four. He was born in Philadelphia eleven months after Warday, six months before that city was temporarily evacuated due to high radiation levels caused by the Washington and New York strikes. Charlie B. is physically developed to the size of a normal four-year-old. He is the clear intellectual superior of all adults who work with him. He has no formal education; indeed, there is no educational system yet devised that can help him. He reads four languages, is conversant in the most abstruse mathematics and physics, and has what his parents describe as a “vast” memory. He is often despondent. His family has plans to move from its present home in Los Angeles to England if Charlie is accepted, at the age of seven, by Oxford.

  There are eighteen identified HIS children in the United States.

  Twenty-four are known to have been born, but one was killed in a home fire and five have died for other reasons. Poor reporting and record-keeping may mean that there are undiagnosed HIS children.

  These two are the basic “mutant/super-beast” rumors that are current in California. Variations are many, including the Hopping Devil rumor that seems to be a variant of the Giant Bat story, and the story of the secret think-tank at Cal Tech where Japanese scientists exploit HIS children in the development of ever more extraordinary technologies, which they do not share with the Americans.

  Since there cannot be any HIS children older than four, this last rumor appears to be without real substance, though the exploitation of HIS children is something that the Relief or some responsible U.S. agencies should certainly examine very closely.

  The Immigrant Quickstep

  Father Dougherty explained to us that the only way to evade the California authorities was to keep moving from city to city or, even better, to leave the state at once. He warned us that we were taking great risks staying in L.A. even long enough to go downtown so Jim could gather documents from the remains of the old federal government, which has its offices in the L.A. Federal Complex.

  When it became clear to him that we weren’t going to change our minds, he insisted on driving us. He felt that, without help, we had no chance of staying out of the hands of the police.

  On the way into the center of the city, Father Dougherty told us that, like it or not, he was leaving us at Union Station after Jim got his documents. He briefed us about how to contend with the various travel zones.

  “You have Red Zones, Yellow Zones, Blue Zones, and Green Zones. Stick to the Greens. They lead to the intrastate tracks, which will be on your left as you pass through the main waiting room. Yellow Zones are for incoming trains from our sister restricted-immigration states, Washington and Oregon. Red Zones are for trains arriving from abroad, which means the rest of the United States. Don’t even look as if you might be interested in them. Remember that the IPs are just dying to check you out. Need I add that there is also a White Zone in the waiting room? It’s for the outgoing Southwest and Sunset Limiteds, and the Desert Wind. Nobody will bother you in the White Zone.”

  We arrived at the Federal Complex and parked. There were plenty of empty spaces. Father Dougherty and I would wait while Jim looked up a few likely parties in the government. He had some contacts he had met during the years he researched and wrote about atomic weapons and the community of men around them.

  The federal government takes up only the lower floors of the federal building. Most of the structure is given over to the California State Department of Small-Scale Agricultural Control (Southern Region), an organization devoted to the licensing and regulation of private gardens.

  According to Father Dougherty, Jim had at all costs to avoid straying into any part of the complex controlled by the state. “The President and the Governor aren’t friends,” was the way he put it.

  “This is a state in name only. Within five years it’s going to be accrediting ambassadors. Already there’s an Embassy Row in Sacramento. But as far as the Feds are concerned, you’ll be subject to their laws on their territory—which means you’ll have full constitutional rights below the eighth floor of the building. If somebody on the federal floors asks for your ID, ask for his warrant. But, for God’s sake, don’t go upstairs.”

  As he crossed the parking lot, I could see that Jim was edgy. I did not envy him this duty. We hoped for the chance of an interview with the President, or at least with some senior officials. So little is known nowadays about the federal government, we felt that anything we could get would be of enormous value.

  The silence of waiting settled into the car. Father Dougherty turned on the radio, a new Sony. There were about ten stations up and down the dial. Twisting it, I heard the Beach Boys. Their voices, the tone and feel of the music, evoked the past, summer weather. How anybody can bear to listen to the Beach Boys for very long these days, I cannot imagine.

  It is interesting that the past has come to seem so beautiful. I wish we could remember it clearly enough to avoid its mistakes.

  But I am coming to recall it more for its laughter than its danger. I remember how Anne and I used to enjoy SoHo, and the East Village galleries that were gaining a foothold by about ’84. Extremes in art spoke to us then, though I cannot now remember why. America was sunshine, wasn’t it?

  It was also excitement. I remember, for example, space exploration. At the time I took at most mild interest, but now I’m fascinated. What wonders we accomplished: the moon landings and Viking, and the Space Shuttle. Most of all, the confirmation by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite in ’85 of the planetary system around Barnard’s Star, with a fifth planet that might be very like Earth.

  Suddenly Father Dougherty started the car. Jim was hurrying toward us, a thick manila envelope under his arm.

  “I didn’t manage to see the President,” he said as he got in, “but I got good stuff. Some Presidential papers on radiation, and a report on the state of the upper atmosphere.”

  “Meaning you two will finally do the sensible thing and leave Los Angeles?”

  Jim nodded. “I still don’t have many California state documents, but m
aybe I’ll pick some up in San Francisco.”

  “So you still intend to remain in California, do you? I can’t bear the thought of people getting arrested for nothing. I wish you’d reconsider. The moment you buy a White Zone ticket, the IPs will leave you alone.”

  We had been through this at the rectory. We didn’t need him to convince us of how poor our odds were. But the book could not be complete without a visit to San Francisco.

  “We’ve got to try, Father.”

  He sighed, then got out of the car and opened the trunk. He brought out a small suitcase, opened it on the front seat. “These are clerics’ suits. Get into the darned things and God go with you.”

  I am not sure how convincing we were as priests, but the collars and jackets certainly changed our attitudes. To cops we would now seem a lot more confident, a lot more normal.

  My black suit fit well. Jim’s was a bit too short. “Well now, Fathers,” Father Dougherty said, “you look like a couple of rascals if ever I saw them.” He showed us the priestly blessing. “People will ask for it, so be ready to give it. God will forgive you for this little impersonation, since it’s in a good cause,” he said. Then he drove us to Union Station and blessed us himself. “Take my advice and buy your tickets on the White Zone trains.” He laughed. “I sound like a broken record, I know. But please. For your own sakes.”

  We thanked him and said good-bye.

  There was an atmosphere of subdued intensity in Union Station. Along one wall of the waiting room, a high cyclone fence enclosed a makeshift holding area. In it, the morning’s suspects sat on benches, most of them going through their purses and wallets before they appeared before the examiners to verify their right to be in California. These were people who had gotten through the P.O.E. nets, only to be tripped up just when they must have thought they were free.

  It does not take long for such scenes to seem normal.

 

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