Mega Cataclysm: The Last Survivors Chronicles

by Scott Todd

  He continued: "The military is wielded by civilian authority, not the other way around. Normally it would be tempting to take over, or even establish a Martial Law considering all that has happened- but after what happened on the mountain up there, I realized that with you being the only civilians left that I know of, and no other contact from the outside world as of yet- and I've been trying- that I am forced to yield command of this vessel back to you all. Yes, I run it and know the most about it... But EVERYONE will have a say, if it's possible, in where we go and what we do from here on out," he concluded.

  "If only you REALLY knew what happened on that mountain back there, I wonder if you'd feel the same?" I thought to myself. I shuddered, and then suddenly remembered I had to secure my notebook. ASAP. I reasoned there had probably been no time for any of them to even think about looking for anything in the boat supplies when they were so consumed in just keeping the ship running. Then I wondered what Gary had in store for me.

  "As for you, Brian, I am hoping to train you on... on... Wait a minute, I think I hear something... Be right back..." he said, and took off down the hall and up a ladder.

  Jan and I just looked at each other baffled and ran down the hall after him to see what was going on. No sooner than my hand touched the ladder, I heard Gary scream. Jan and stopped and listened.

  "BEN! BEN! I think I heard something on the radio!" he yelled.

  We heard Ben come running. "Well, it's... It's gone now, but pretty sure I heard what sounded like Asian voices. Like Asian MILITARY voices. I had all channels open, on auto lock on... Let's see, what channel... Ahhh yeah, ok, let me look that up right here..." he blurted out.

  By then Jan and I were standing there at the door. Gary pulled out a book and then looked up at us with concern.

  "What!" Ben demanded.

  "Well that's a channel known to be used by the... Chinese..."

  "Well anyone speak Chinese?" Ben asked, looking around. Everyone shook their heads.

  "What, and divulge our existence and possible position?" Gary quickly countered.

  Ben looked nervous, and desperately needed to get back to his planesman's post. "I keep forgetting we're on a planet killing machine, and we're a supreme target coveted by both China and Russia- if there's much of them left," he finally said. "But that could also be a search party. I don't know. I can't deal with that now. We have much bigger problems on our hands. You guys deal with it." Then he turned and scurried away.

  Gary looked at us with urgency. "I highly recommend we do not attempt contact, considering that is a military channel. As a submarine we are very limited in defending against air attacks. And our first rule is stealth at nearly all costs. But I will act on your orders. Your orders, please?" he asked.

  Jan looked at me with a blank stare, as if expecting me to give them. I looked right back at her, and asked what she thought.

  "Well things being what they are, it might be best if we followed Gary's advise... I think... I don't know... What do you think?" she asked back.

  "I agree. We trust you Gary. You know what you are doing and have shown us every good faith in giving us command. And I agree with Ben, too. We have to get this ship to safety in open waters before we do much of anything else. We cannot forget what sub we are on, and the power we carry. We CANNOT forget. If we were on a regular ship or something, things would be different. I vote to not initiate contact," I replied.

  "Me two," said Jan.

  "And me three, which makes a majority out of five," Gary said. "But there is no harm in listening. If that WAS voices, then at least we know SOMEONE else survived."

  "Yeah, but who, and what is the world like out there now?" I said. "We just don't know. We have to take this one day at a time, and cautiously. Especially onboard THIS thing."

  "Absolutely," Gary agreed. "If they detect us, it could be our worst nightmare. I'm already very worried that we are not deep enough and might be leaving a signature wake behind, because we are moving near full speed. That and/or we are susceptible to Magnetic Anomaly Detection- they can detect the metal on our hull when we're this shallow. We've GOT to get deeper. But we can't until we're out of these mountains. I've got to go help Ben. Training at 0600 hours...That ok?" he asked.

  "Yeah, that's fine," I said, with Jan nodding too. Gary then disappeared down a hallway.

  Jan and I went back down to the mess hall, and sat and talked for bit. Then she got up and started rummaging around the kitchen, getting more familiar with the cooler and freezer rooms, as well as the kitchen devices.

  Spotting an opportunity, I said "I'm going to go have a look around... See you in a bit..." I kissed her forehead, and took off. She seemed appreciative, but consumed with her new task.

  I searched around until I finally found my backpack. It seemed undisturbed, and my precious notebook was right where I had left it. I proceeded to the bunks, and took about an hour to update the notes with everything that had happened up until then.

  With so many bunks available, I chose one in the middle somewhere, and hid the notebook in the pull out drawer below it under some papers. I noticed many of the curtains were pulled on the bunks, so I pulled the curtain on that one too, but left just enough of a crack that I'd know which one it was.

  And right about then I heard the static from the radio in the distance turn to voices. I rushed back to it, listening intently. But I couldn't understand anything. All I knew is that they WERE voices, and they did indeed sound like they were speaking in an Asian language.

  Reasoning that Japan had likely been destroyed, I thought the chances of them being Japanese were pretty darn slim. No. I had to agree with Gary. These sounded Chinese, and I got the sense like he did, that someone was barking orders. But I couldn't be sure.

  "Sure sounds like military orders to me," Jan said, startling me out of my thoughts. "It just has that... That... Tone. Regular people don't talk like that, do they?" she asked.

  "Not usually," I replied. We listened for another few minutes, and then they were gone again, back to static. "I just don't understand how though, if that is military, that this radio is picking it up," I commented. "I thought military communication was encrypted."

  "It is," Gary said, just walking in. "But that's not an ordinary radio. In fact, there is technology involved in that radio circuitry so secret, that I could think of quite few intelligence agencies that would have loved to get there hands on it. We just wouldn't let them, for fear of leaks.

  "You see, the Chinese just THINK they have us beat. And actually they do, but only in one specific type of encryption. And they hardly ever use it, because they think about 99% of their military communications are secure. When in fact, unless they use that specific one, we can hear just about everything they say... If we want to... And they don't even know which one it is that we can't decrypt.

  "But judging from the clarity of that signal vs. the noise, I'd guess they are within a few hundred miles from here. And from the notes, it is most likely a plane. But unfortunately, our language specialist is gone, along with all the others. So I don't know what good it does us other than to let us know that at least some Chinese military survived- exactly as Ben predicted," he finished saying. And then he was gone.

  Jan looked bewildered. "The THINGS that man must know!" she said, shaking her head.

  "And a lot of it WE are probably going to know too- in time," I replied. "It looks like we are going to have to start thinking like military people, whether we like it or not."

  "And I SO hate war, and the military, and everything about it," Jan curtly remarked.

  "Yeah but if that is indeed a military plane, then you have to wonder what it is doing in our airspace," I replied. "They could be specially equipped to destroy or capture this sub. There could be special forces with them... I mean this could get very ugly very quick... If they detect us. So I understand Gary's concern. He's just protecting us."

  "Yeah well, I guess so..." Jan conceded.

  Suddenly we heard some co
mmotion coming from the bridge area. Gary was very upset over something, and yelling things out to Ben. Jan and I rushed up to see what was going on.

  "Yup, radar track has picked up an aircraft... No wait... Two... Now three... Oh my God! Eight now showing up, and they appear in formation," Gary barked. "Hold on, I got to get over here and try for auto identification... Sometimes it works and sometimes it... Oh no! They can't be serious! That one there is a long range bomber, one of their newest, and I see... Six fighters.... And that other one... It's... It's... Holy crap! A god damn Gaoxin-6! That's a new anti submarine plane they've been testing, with all the bells and whistles. SHIT!" he screamed.

  Just the sound of his voice was enough to set us all on edge. Even Terry came running in, having heard us on an open line she had with the bridge. But Ben stayed steadfast trying to concentrate on his critical job. "So what do you suggest we do?" Ben asked, surprisingly calmly.

  "I don't know! Prey???!" Gary blurted out.

  "Well you better damn well start thinking like a Captain instead of a Weapons Officer... And FAST," Ben barked back, surprising even Terry with the stern tone of his voice. "WHAT would the Captain do in a situation like this?" Ben pressed him.

  "Well, he'd probably have us go as deep as we can immediately, cut our speed, and shut off engines, maybe call me for target tracking to engage other forces... But we HAVE no other forces," he said and then went silent.

  "Well I can handle the first part," Ben said as he swiftly dove the sub downwards. "I'm cutting speed. Terry, we need you on that sonar, NOW!" Ben commanded. She went running off to her post.

  "I can get the engines here after we stabilize," Gary said, and went running down the hall and disappeared.

  "You two better get to the bunks below, but you better be quiet about it- go slowly and easy. Keep silent until further notice. GO!" Ben said softly but sternly.

  Jan and I obliged. Within a minute we were in two bunks, holding on for dear life at first. We had never been to war before... Well... Wait a minute... Yes, we had. I dangled a hand down and I felt Jan grab it right away. I squeezed hard and she squeezed back.

  Chapter 54: >>>Boom<<<

  What little hum the sub had while operating, now ceased to a total, deathly silence. Gary had no doubt shut off the engine. It was so quiet I could just barely make out a slight movement as he silently went back to the bridge.

  I suppose Ben had reasoned that being caught like a fish in a pond would be better than getting blown out of the water and killed outright. Because now we had no speed at all. Getting trapped behind a submerged mountain ridge while the receding water rushed off was a chance we'd just have to take.

  The hull slightly creaked from the increased pressure, and I wondered how far down Ben had dared to take us. I guess he figured as long as we weren't moving, the risks would be worth the gained stealth.

  I started to think how this might play out. I didn't know how far we had gone from the mountain, and I tried to remember what I saw on the elevation maps. It was full of ridges, ravines, and lower lying river beds. We had gone around several sharps bends by now, after some fifteen hours of navigation. I figured our chances of avoiding detection were pretty good. After all, what they would see from the air would just be the mountain peaks and water.

  I wondered if they'd spot the cars in the parking lot we left behind. Would they land a special forces team and check it out? Maybe I was mistaken and it was just a search party.

  Then all of a sudden out of nowhere, the sub shook and lurched forward from a tremendous water impact, knocking us off our feet. And in the midst of that, we heard what sounded like a monstrous explosion in the distance.

  The persistent rumbling reverberated throughout the ship, and lasted for quite a while. The extremely low frequencies felt a lot like what we had heard before when the water was coming, or during the earthquakes.

  Jan clenched my hand tightly and then quickly climbed up into my bunk with me. There was really not enough room, and we struggled to get comfortable. "If we're dying, I'm dying with you," she whispered somberly into my ear. We found ourselves once again in the death embrace. And by now, we had perfected it.

  After about twenty minutes, I finally couldn't take it any longer. I just had to go up and see what the hell had happened. "Stay here quiet," I whispered to Jan. "I'm going to slither up there and see what I can find out."

  I made my way slowly and silently up to the bridge. Gary and Ben appeared ok, and they were both whispering back and forth. They were in front of some kind of console discussing some data on a screen.

  "So what WAS that?" I whispered. They both turned to me with their fingers over their mouths, telling me to keep quiet.

  "It appears they just detonated a nuclear weapon over Mount Mitchell," Ben whispered. "We're pretty sure from the parameters of that explosion. The only thing that saved us were the mountain ridges we're behind, and our depth. They absorbed most of the impact."

  "So much for the search party," Gary whispered. "They are clearly disintegrating whatever's left, and aren't taking any chances. That puts us in an immediate, emergency state of war. NUCLEAR war. We need to call a conference, NOW. With three of us here, we already have a majority. I need to know from you two if I have the authority to counter attack."

  "And how would you do that?" Ben whispered.

  "Well we still have them on radar," Gary said softly. "They appear to be heading westward now, over the open ocean. I have already targeted them. And like fools they are still flying in a tight formation and low. With a bit of maneuvering, I believe I can blow them right out of the air."

  "With WHAT? I asked quietly. "This thing doesn't carry surface to air missiles, does it?

  "No, but I can send a couple of nuclear-tipped Tomahawks right up their asses. These particular secret variants move so fast- way faster than published specs- the missiles will be on them before they even know what hit them. Because I can fly them there at sea level- avoiding initial detection. And thank God they changed the targeting systems at the last minute to include aircraft- it gave us some much needed air defense, as a last resort. And THIS is a last resort!

  "But you HAVE to give me the order. NOW!" he continued. "Or we'll lose them- and that's going to make it near impossible to target them after they're off radar. It's all ocean out there now, so fallout really isn't that much of a concern," Gary said softly. But his intensity was still every bit present.

  Ben had a mean look on his face- one I had not seen yet in the short time I had known him. Even after all we had been through. "I agree," he said vengefully. "As much as I hate it, they are trying to finish us off. And that's exactly what this sub was designed to do: Provide retribution. My vote is go. Kill the bastards, while we still can. If they are so barbaric that they would kick a man... No... KILL a man when he's down... No... Kill a COUNTRY when it's down... Then damn it... We have a right to defend ourselves."

  Then they both stared at me intensely. Here I was, just little old me, and suddenly I found myself as the deciding vote on whether to start a nuclear war or not. But they fired first. They asked for it, and knew the risks before they pushed that button.

  "Well we've already died a thousand deaths out here already in the last week. One more won't hurt. I'm in. You have my vote, Gary," I whispered back. But I immediately experienced a form of buyer's remorse. What had I just done?

  Gary wasted no time. Going over to another console he got out a book, whipped out a key and put it in, flipped a bunch of switches, verified some things on a screen, punched in some codes and looked at us both straight in the eyes with his finger on a flashing red button.

  "Go to hell you bastards," he whispered, and pushed it. The sub suddenly awoke with distant hatches opening, and motors turning. In all of 30 seconds we heard one missile take off, and then another.

  "Two?" Ben asked.

  "Yeah, just in case. I set a simultaneous detonation with max nuclear yield about one mile apart, with their formation in the middle
. In max mode, those are some vicious little beasts. Anything within 25 miles of there will be utterly and totally vaporized. Brace yourselves, because we will likely feel it here. Explosions will occur about 100 miles from us, in about 2 minutes 50 seconds... And counting." He pointed at a diminishing time display.

  Terry suddenly appeared, looking frightened, but I was honestly more concerned about Jan. I rushed back down, jumped in the bunk with her, and whispered "Brace yourself, we're going to feel another shockwave here in a couple minutes."

  "Did we just launch a missile?" she whispered.

  "Two of them," I replied. She looked at me wide-eyed, and hugged me for dear life.

  At about three and half minutes by my watch, again the ship shook. This time it was harder, and we heard a huge distant explosion and more distant rumbling, as before. This time we didn't have as many mountains between us and the explosion, and we felt the difference- despite the fact that it was much further away.