Chapter 7 - Very Little Hope

The Mushroom Cloud Chronicles (Reboot)
A JAG-Sims3 Story

Author: Haruo Chikamori
Rating: M
Classification: Angst, Romance.
Spoilers: N/A

Summary: Continuity of Government (COG) – a stark term for starting over after a holocaust the likes of which is hoped will never ever happen. This is a what-could-happen if the button was ever pressed.

DISCLAIMER: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie, Meg Austin, AJ Chegwidden, et al. belong (in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. Animal and all OC characters are the property of Heather and Hugo Chikamori. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.

------------------------------------------------
Chapter 7 - Very Little Hope
------------------------------------------------

Not all was doom and gloom within the bunker, as little Sandi French aged up to child and her surrogate family threw a great big party for her which meant that nearly everyone got cake. (Watcher: EA couldn't you have programmed the birthday cake and wedding cake to have more servings; enough to feed everyone?) It certainly made for a joyous occasion even with the malevolent spectre of impending nuclear conflict hanging over their heads. Sometimes it was good to just not think about that for a time.

Luckily for little Sandi, the bunker occupants kept the floor of the bunker especially the messhall area extremely clean and even more so, the cooking area, so plunking little Sandi down would be safe. In fact, it was certain that the contents of Sandi's diaper probably had more germs than the kitchen floor.

As it was the party was celebrated only by those who resided in the bunker.

Collecting eggs and milk was a daily routine and milk could potentially be gotten hourly so farming was quite the full-time occupation if one wanted to get the maximum number of milk from the two barn-fulls of cows as well as the six henhouses. On top of that there was gardening to do, which meant that whoever tended the livestock and the greenhouse area had their hands full.

As it was people found things to do within the bunker. Meg started working on science research - it wasn't a far cry from doing stuff with computer science; River did her homework and Bella, well, Bella attempted to learn how to cook muffins with the Easy-Bake stove. After all, sometimes people would want something sweet. (Watcher: Yes, I decided to save Bella...and Mortimer - you see, I'm nice...BWA HA HA HA!!!)

It was easy to fall into the lull of thinking that everything was normal...but it wasn't and judging from what Tosh could see when he got the communique from Admiral Pointer in Washington DC. (Watcher: Had to change the whole thing around because of the crashing issues). Likewise the Washington Leadership had gone to ground and communications from the bunker were very patchy...with static.

"Animal, the Joint Chiefs of Staff are joining me at Raven Rock..." Pointer replied, "We just lost another guided missile cruiser. They hit us with a hypersonic surface to sea missile and sent the USS Thomas T. Riley to the bottom of the ocean. And we managed to blow up three Type 093s - they're similar to the Russian Victor-class subs. We haven't lost very many surface combatants in the Pacific, but it's not going good.

"I'd suggest that you start putting your bunker on high-alert. Animal...it may be starting sooner than we think."

Animal sighed as he nodded at the CNO. "Understood, Admiral."

Pointer stresed, "The Chinese have missiles pointed at Pearl and at all of our major bases, not to mention Washington, DC. And if the leadership gets wiped out in one fell swoop, it's going to be up to you and Boone to rebuild the United States Navy." He said soberingly. "If we don't make it here in Washington, the Joint Chiefs unanimously vetted you...you will be the Navy's Command. You may have just skipped four stars and pinned on five and you will be the first to do so since the Second World War. Tell Boone that if we're done for, he can pin on his four stars."

Pointer went on soberingly, "That is the magnitude of the situation that we're in right now, Animal. God help us all..."