Chapter 5 - The First Days in Sunset Valley

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.

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Chapter 5 - The First Days in Sunset Valley
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Sunset Valley, a sleepy little military town; home to a base with a rocket launch pad making it one of the major bases around the country. And unfortunately, for Sunset Valley, it made it a prime target for any one of the nuclear powers to launch an ICBM tipped with a 1MT nuclear warhead at it. Considering it was a population center and a military base, it was quite probable that said country would launch two at it and the population would fry.

No one was quite sure of why the government chose to place a military base in this town, but for one, the economy certainly dictated that it was a military town. There were many who served in the military and as such the town's economy revolved around that main source of jobs, whether it was the civilian population who worked at the base or whether it was those in support of the base being in town providing supplies and generally being supportive of the military personnel there on-base, although there were its share of detractors, especially those who didn't want a bulls-eye on their sleepy little town.

Needless to say, Vice-Admiral Tosh Nakamura got a good idea of what the town was like on their flight into Major Stanley Gnome Air Force Base. Major Stanley Gnome, United States Army Air Force, was a Medal of Honor recipient in the battle of Guadalcanal during World War Two; low on fuel he laid down suppressive fire from his P-38 Lightning; supporting the Army troups until his fuel completely ran out and he had to ditch his P-38. Seeing an enemy machine gun emplacement on the ridge firing upon the US troops, he decided to put his P-38 right into said emplacement saving dozens if not hundreds of lives. Seeing that the Army brigadier general in command of the Army division assaulting Guadalcanal recommended Major Stanley Gnome, posthumously, for the Medal of Honor. Most people, in Sunset Valley, were unaware of the heroic acts of the base's namesake, but VADM Toshio Nakamura made it a point to stop by the memorial marker of Major Stanley Gnome to pay his respects.

When they got to the bunker that the Seabees had finished building, it was quite the structure. Even Master Gunnery Sergeant Elmo Stacker was impressed by the magnitude of the structure. This was a building designed to withstand the forces of a nuclear explosion in close proximity...however within a mile of the structure, all bets were off if it was over ten megatons. But placing trees around the area would certainly cut down on the wind generated by the blast. And that was a suggestion that the Master Guns informed the Vice-Admiral about. It could be done; the Department of Defense had allocated over §90M to the task of making sure the bunker was impregnable.

After all...the walls were double-thickness to keep the radiation out; and the clean air in and there were air-recirculation fans that allowed the entire facility to remain sealed for a generation - that was estimated by environmental scientists, dedicated to that area of post-apocalyptic research, how long it would take for radiation levels to come down to a safe level . After that, however they would have to start making their way in the world or what was left of it.

Master Gunnery Sergeant Stacker made the first foray to the bookstore to obtain some skill books, as the entire bunker needed to read and learn their skills so that they would be able to survive once the next bunker generation emerged from the bunker...to make their way towards habitable land. They would have to know everything that they needed to make sure that they were able to survive; long enough to let the human race, establish a foothold back on the planet. Because right now things were not looking good for the human race with how they seemed oblivious to the precipitous headlong rush towards the abyss. But Master Guns Stacker had a job to do and he didn't have time to contemplate the whys, wherefores and the meaning behind all this mess. The only thing that he contemplated was the how of getting the job done.

...and THAT was the main reason why President Obama selected Master Guns Stacker to be a part of the group that was the main leadership within the bunker, with Vice-Admiral Toshio Nakamura the commanding officer, Rear Admiral Thomas Boone, the executive officer and the Master Guns Stacker as the Command NCO in charge of security...and the enlisted part of the Naval contingent within the bunker would be under the command of Command Master Chief Jennifer Coates.

Even though she was one of the youngest of the adults, she had been in the Navy long enough to achieve her E-9 grade; one of the youngest Command Master Chiefs in the United States Navy.

Of course first things first in the bunker after food supplies were brought in meant that said food supplies would have to be cooked and there were two teppanyaki grills within the bunker. The first attempts didn't go so well. Thank goodness for fire-retardent nomex chef suits or poor Captain Kimber Benton would have been charred to a crispy critter.

Let's just say that Tosh didn't fare much better either.

With a single elevator in play in the entire bunker, it was certainly quite the problem to get anywhere (Watcher: but sims get completely confused when you have more than one elevator in the house (bunker) so I figured, well...better that they utilize just one...but in a real bunker there'd be stairs).

Stocking up the pantry and the fridge took multiple trips to the store and the CO of the bunker was up for that duty too. So he took the Stryker and headed out to the grocery store. Let's just say that the populace of Sunset Valley was rather non-plussed to see an Armored Personnel Carrier come rolling down the streets of their sleepy little town. Beau Andrews, I'm sure was probably mumbling in his cups about some government conspiracy..."Hey...that's why they're here...they're out to get our..." Yeah, whatever, Beau.

Also after stopping by the food store, he headed over to the bookstore to acquire some more skill books. Having enough skill books for all of them to read was essential to ensuring that they made the most of their time in the bunker and equipped their offspring with the necessary skills to survive.

Until they got skilled enough to make food that was palatable, their diet was going to consist of microwaved hot-dogs.

...and days consisted of heading out into town to stock up on supplies and making sure that they had enough items stocked away to be self-sufficient if the worst happened.

...and most of the first week of living in the bunker amounted to just making sure that everything was supplied and making in-roads with the community at large. They realized that they needed a substantial subset of the population around teen-child age to form a transition group to lead the group out of the bunker, the ones that would grow to mature adult and take the reins of leadership from those who lived their lives in the bunker, so they would draw from that from the civilian population, and drill them into military people who had the courage, the strength and the will to survive even the harshest of situations.

What that meant was essentially asking their parents to give them up so that their children could have a chance to survive. Some parents would refuse, other parents would acquiesce selflessly. Most were hoping that the worst would never happen; others having seen the news were fatalistic; the latter were the most likely to let their children go with absolute strangers in the hopes that they would be able to survive the impending holocaust.

...and the heated rhetoric between both sides continued.