WELCOME TO DELTADESCO

 

“All wars are civil, because all men are brothers”

-- François de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon

 

To say Deltadesco was a barren wasteland might be incorrect but to say it was anything else might as well be incorrect. Nestled in a deep depression surrounded by fifteen miles of gradually declining trees in the piedmont of South Georgia was a town that had been classified under the MK-ULTRA project as “eyes only”, the highest level of government secrecy. It was devoid of any life in any form what so ever, no trees, no humans, no animals, and any government officials or scientists having abandoned it a long, long time ago in the late sixties, technically, it didn’t even exist.

                The four of us exited the sickly forest onto a deserted, dusty brown plain where wind kicked up toxic brown dirt with an almost greenish glow making it nearly impossible to see more than five feet, how fortunate we had been for strapping our weapons to the exterior of our ever darkening hazmat suits.

True to his word, the city in front of us was just as Paul described, a desolate wasteland filled with empty, weathered homes, paint shedding off of the sides of their lonely shells, the streets emptied of humans and no life of any kind for as far as the eye could see, not even a tree.

                According to Paul who heard it from the Israeli, this had been part of the project MK-ULTRA, a top secret study done by the US government on mind control and fighting communism. The houses were once occupied by the victims of a portion of the project which had supposedly been destroyed, yet Paul had dug up information on it while stuck in the UN camp of good fortunes. They had put whole military families into the plywood tombs and introduced biological, chemical and nuclear weapons over an extended period of time. Some days the rate at which the poison poured out from unseen holes in the Earth’s surface was slowed, other days it was sped up to test the effects on the population. Random outbreaks of disease became rampant and regular and the scientists simply did as they were told from their underground lab, they watched, and took note.

                To find the labs and raid its countless mounds of history would have been something amazing, but it was hidden deep underground behind thick steel doors. Besides, what high ranking politicians and their entourages were still hidden behind its thick walls to wait out the apocalypse? It was built to withstand a 50 megaton nuke; there was no way we were getting in.

                The four of us just stood there and stared out onto the dusty desert. We were amazed at what we were now witnessing, such a dark chapter in American history and one that existed on no paper document.

“Incredible” said Paul, scanning the visible city like a hawk.

“I can’t believe that Israeli told the truth”

“Let’s check this shit out?” I raised my gun and pointed it forward like a general would raise his saber.

“Yeah…” agreed Paul.

                I took my mind off of the whole subject of super top secret towns and thought about what the result of finding those tickets would be. Here we were, four of us. Paul, Francis, Felipe and me. Those tickets were only meant for me, Paul, Jessica and Melissa. How would we ditch the two spare tires?

                Paul hitched his Uzi into a comfortable position on his back and began leading the way. We passed an ancient fence that had fallen victim to years of dry rot, the varnish long having peeled off and found our way between two houses.

                No one in the group could keep their curiosity to themselves and found their eyes wandering through the windows transfixed on a world frozen in time. We saw tacky couches, ancient television sets, drawers, tables and chairs, all empty and lifeless.

“Come on, let’s go inside!” demanded Felipe giddy with excitement.

“Why?” asked Paul.

“Are you serious? We have all the time in the world! This place is amazing!” Felipe pointed to the house with both hands extended.

“Yeah… it couldn’t hurt anything” even though I agreed with a false smile, the knot in my stomach did not. Underneath the hood of my heavy hazmat suit, I bit my lip.

                 As we came around front we saw that the yard was dead, a lawnmower sat silently in the midst of the dirt filled lot. Beyond that, was a cul-de-sac lined with rows of houses, their driveways sporting old Studebakers and Ford pickups.

Paul cautiously made his way across the lawn and onto a cobble stone path leading to the front door; next he made his way up a small flight of stairs and on to the squeaky front porch, To each side of the  door were holes where hedges once stood. Paul grasped the doorknob and turned it, it didn’t move.

“Shit it’s locked” he looked to Felipe, the ex-kick boxer, he raised his chin to Felipe and lowered it quickly, Felipe got the message.

“Step aside” Felipe said with a cocky grin. He hadn’t let us down before when a door needed demolishing, so why now?

                Breathing deeply and readying himself to show the door who was boss, he pulled his leg back and leapt forward sending his leg into the heavy frame with all his strength. It hit hard and cracked, but the door didn’t budge, it didn’t even shake. On impulse, Felipe leapt back grabbing his foot and shouting in pain as he fell onto his back and began rolling around in the dirt.

“AH FUCK!” he shouted.

“Get up, you’ll destroy that suit!”

“FUCK THE SUIT! MY FOOT!” he cried in his strong South American accent.

“fuck your foot right now, if you can stand on it then it doesn’t matter, get up man!” Felipe’ struggled to his feet and limped a little as he walked off the pain. He couldn’t help but complain.

“Looks like we’ll have to shoot the deadbolt off, Francis… blast it with your shotgun”

“Man I could kill for a cigarette right now” was all Francis said as he stepped forward, pointing the gun at the bolt. With a single blast, the entire handle was ripped free and the door swung open.

“Does anyone care about my foot?” asked Felipe.

“Yeah sure we care, now let’s get in here and check it out” replied Paul pushing Felipe in by the shoulder.

                We entered into the living room, Felipe still limping in behind everyone else.  In front of us was a wooden flight of stairs leading to the second floor, to our right was a dining room and to our left the living room with four windows evenly dispersed between two walls, one wall with a couch against it looking onto the side of the house next door and the other with an old TV in front of it on a shelf, looking out into the backyard.

“Wow, this is fucking scary” said Felipe.

“Ah come on, not that bad” replied Paul swatting the air.

                It was truly eerie and had you been here, I am sure it would have sent the same chill up your spine that it sent up mine. Just looking at the old television set and furniture, I was able to imagine a young boy running across the carpeted floor with a model airplane in his hands as he imitated the sounds of machine gun fire, not too far away his sister complained about his hyperactivity as she tried to comb her favorite doll’s hair, their mother peeking out from the kitchen to scold them with a bright, white toothed smile and a pointed index finger.

“Come on you two, get along nicely now!” she seemed to say in my mind.

                As I came back to reality, I could see that Paul was digging in his pocket for a cigarette as he was so used to doing. The thought filled my mind with cravings; I could just imagine that nicotine pouring over my body like a calming wave.

“Damn… I could go for a cigarette right now” I said.

“Don’t remind me Jim” Paul said biting his lip and sighing.

“Come on, let’s break off and see the neat shit we can find” suggested Felipe with a tap on Francis’s shoulder.

“Yeah sure…” Paul replied depressingly as he squeezed his knuckles hard to keep his hands from shaking, his habits getting the worst of him.

                Francis and Felipe began making their way around the bottom level while Paul and I made our way up the squeaky flight of stairs and hung a left down a dark hallway. Like three Pandora’s boxes, we were greeted with three closed doors. We opened each one nervously peeking inside to avoid being attacked by some evil demon that might pull us in.

                We came first to a child’s room that seemed to have been occupied by a boy. Posters of Bonanza drooped on the walls, toy trucks lay tipped over in the middle of the carpet and a pair of plastic cowboy revolvers sat atop a toy chest.

                The next room was a restroom. The towels looked as if they had been moved slightly out of place once long ago and never straightened up again. I tapped one with my hands and a cloud of toxic dust descended from it and fell to the floor.

                The final room was definitely a couple’s, the master bed being big enough for two people, the methodical arrangement of furnishings a dead giveaway.

“Hm” was all I could say as I scanned each room silently, our feet creaking against the dangerously old floor.

“Weird” Paul rubbed the part of his suit where the back of his head was located.

“Yeah man this is something…” Paul was cut short by a shout from Francis.

“Guys come down here quick!”

“What do you think it is?” I asked.

“Don’t know, let’s check it out”

                We bolted down the stairs, our heavy boots pounding away on the loud steps, we hit the bottom floor and hung a quick right to see Felipe and Francis’s backs, they stood transfixed in front of a television set. I wouldn’t have known what they were watching had the evil queen Azura not told her henchmen to open fire on Flash Gordon.

“All guns go, laser beams! Ray guns! Fire! Get Flash Gordon” she shouted.

“What the hell?”  Paul said as we approached our comrades.

“We just turned it on and this is what came on man” Francis said while throwing his hands up in a wild and stunned fashion.

“… Will flash Gordon make it out alive? Or will the evil Queen Azura take no prisoners! Find out and tune in to the next episode of Flash Gordon!” The show ended for a moment and a commercial came on.

“Are you tired of that same old vacuum giving you poor results? Introducing the new thunderbolt 5000! With its sleek design and light weight, bothersome vacuuming has become a thing of the past! Watch as it glides gently across any surface to suck up dirt and unwanted debris…”

                Your blonde haired blue eyed white suburban house mom with overly done up hair from the early fifties sported the vacuum cleaner as she ran it across a variety of surfaces with a smile on her face and her other hand occupied by the chord as she lifted it up high to keep from running over it.

“… I love my thunderbolt 5000, it works miracles!” she grabbed her hips, took her hand off the vacuum cleaner and smiled as her pipe smoking, Douglas MacArthur look alike husband wrapped a loving hand around her waist, a girl and a boy leapt to her other side and the entire family smiled. The commercial ended

                We were immersed as we watched advertisement after advertisement, our heads leaning from side to side, up and down and left to right, each of us in a world of imagination which no one else could enter or interrupt. There was a commercial about a toy car that made sparks when you pushed it fast enough, a little girls pony on a stick, a commercial about a revolutionary oven and a car advertisement, than an announcement for superman came on.

“Up next is superman on the Saturday morning cartoon lineup!”  I was stunned when I realized that it was Saturday morning already.

“It’s looped…” said Paul as he moved in to change the channel.

“What else is on this government, pre-programmed, propaganda tube?” suddenly we heard a sound that made us instinctively leap back from the TV screen. The white T shaped Geiger counter hanging from Paul’s waist began its static whine.

“STEP BACK!” shouted Paul, as he put his arms straight up to and forced us backwards.

“That fucking thing is emitting a whole fuck load of radiation, that’ll shred our fucking suits to hell!”

“You think it’s part of…” it was obvious that this had been part of the experiment, no TV, not even one this old emitted that much radiation.

“Think it was part of the experiments? Yes! Nothing emits that much radiation at all, not even ancient sets like this one!”

“Wild” I said.

“Look what it did” Francis pointed to the shadowy outlines of two small human beings on the carpet in front of the set where the radiation had created silhouettes.

“They were killing these kids” said Felipe raising his hands in discontent. I lifted the M1 carbine to the television set and shot a hole through the middle. The TV jumped and sparked, sizzling a little before a light in it burnt out in a bright blue flash.

“Let’s just check out the rest of the house and get out of here” said Paul.

“Alright” I agreed.

“We’re going up stairs, might be safer up there” said Felipe without Paul’s agreement as he ran off with Francis

“Weird… fucking weird” mumbled Paul. He led us into the kitchen connected to the living room.

                We began rummaging curiously through the pantry and refrigerator. We found canned soft drinks, empty milk jugs and piles of canned food. I stared at the brands and their shapes. I wasn’t at all interested in this crap; I was interested to know the answer to my question, the question that had torn at my heart like fire ever since Paul had told me about the tickets. I turned to face his back as he threw random objects from the fridge.

“Paul” I said, he pulled his head out of the fridge and shut it turning around to face me.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve got a serious question for you…”

“Shoot, I’m your bro” that was an understatement, we both knew how disconnected we had become from one another over the last four or five months while on the run.

“What…” I was searching for the words.

“What are we going to do when we get those four tickets… they don’t know that they’re not getting them!” Paul lowered his head so I could just make out his murderous eyes.

“You know what we have to do…”

“Why not now Paul, Just off em’ now!”

“Jim! Shut the hell up, they’re only up stairs”

“Sorry” I replied. I thought of how pleasing a cigarette would have been at that moment. God that buzz and all the stress it could relieve. Paul raised his head higher now than before and crossed his arms, the hazmat suit squeaking as it rubbed against itself.

“Listen… don’t worry about it, I’ll get them ok…” he put a hand on my shoulder.

“Trust me Jim! Trust me!” he had me believing him.

“Alright man… alright” I sighed.

                We were walking out of the kitchen when we heard Felipe scream at the top of his lunges. We stopped and looked at one another. Francis’s feet could be heard running full speed across the floor already.

“Go!” Paul shouted as we stampeded up the stairs once more.

                We had not checked out the right side of the upstairs hallway, and this is where Felipe was. We entered what seemed to be a girl’s room looking around veraciously, faded pink linens were draped on everything and toy ponies and dolls lay strewn about.

                We entered to see Felipe staring at something, what though, we couldn’t tell because he blocked it. We stepped further towards him and could see that he was shaking rapidly.

“What is it?” asked Francis worried, Felipe stepped out of the way and there leaning against a bed was the skeleton of a child.

“OH SHIT!” shouted Francis leaping into the air.

“Fucking run!!!” he shouted again. We bolted out of the door and collided into one another head first, Paul leapt over us and the entire stairwell, I tripped and both Francis and Felipe followed suit rolling over me, Felipe attempted to catch himself halfway down the stairs and just ended up sending himself upwards so that he came crashing down onto Francis and I as we crashed into one another at the bottom level. We got to our feet and shot through the open front door. There was no pain, just adrenaline, and heaven knew if we’d broken any bones, but at a time like this, who cared!

                Paul was gaining too much ground as he ran across one street and down the stretch of sidewalk to the next, dust kicking up behind him. We would of never caught up to him had he not tripped. We stopped beside him and began panting, using our knees for support as we fell to the ground.

                It showed that we smoked too much as we grabbed our chest’s, heaving wildly, and collapsed onto the yard of the corner house.

“Come on man, let’s get the fuck out of here, we aren’t going into any more houses” I demanded.

“Hell no” said Paul.

“Fuckin sheet man!” yelled Felipe in his thick South American accent.

“That’s fuckin crazay!” we helped each other up and found it hard to let go of one another’s suits.

“Let’s just find that fucking house with the safe in it alright! No more civilian homes understand?!” demanded Paul. We all shook our heads and gave our hell no’s.

 

 

                We found ourselves shaking as we walked down the center of Bohler Avenue, our hoods steamed due to the heavy breathing. Not a word was peeped from our terrified mouths as we tried hard not to look into the windows of the endless rows of homes. What ghosts would pop their tormented heads from out of a pair of blinds? What skeleton had died sitting in a chair to look at the road? We didn’t want to find out. We just kept walking until the street ended at the outskirts of Olde Towne.

“Where are we Paul? You’ve got the map” I asked.

“Besides Olde Towne, we are still quite a distance from the house” he pulled the map out of the pocket on the hazmat suit and unfolded it.

“We are right here” he pointed to our position at the end of Bohler tapping the paper. I saw how immersed this entire place was in suburbia. Olde Towne was surrounded by it in a circle ending at the mountainous cliffs that nestled Deltadesco into a deep depression.

“This is where we have to be” he moved his finger to a red dot on the map. It was straight across Olde Towne and exactly opposite of where we were standing on the other side of Deltadesco.

“Sheeit that’s far away as hell man” Francis put dramatic emphasis onto the curse.

“Yeah, we’ll make it” sighed Paul.

“These hazmat suits are stifling man and this place is creeping me out” whined Francis.

“Oh quit botching you…” Paul was cut short by a sharp beeping noise that came in split second intervals

“Oh shit!” said Paul.

“What is it?” I asked as Paul reached into his pocket revealing a stop watch.

“Time to change these hazmat’s, we’ve got five minutes” he dropped the watch back in his pocket.

“Where are we going to do this?” I asked. Paul bit his lip and groaned quickly scanning the entire area.

“We need to find a building that is adequately shielded from all this radioactive dust and we will have twelve minutes to change into our extra suits”

“Alright… let’s get a move on” I said.

“Yeah, Follow me” as usual, we followed Paul.

                He began a quick jog across the street and onto the sidewalk with two story brick buildings to our left and a park in the center of town to our right, each of us quickly reviewing every building to see how it would protect us as we passed.

“What about this one?” I asked.

“Nah… the doors been left open, it’s been contaminated”

“This one?”

“Nah, windows are too thin”

“And this one?”

“Nah, no… nah”

“Shit” I mumbled.

Time was running out and all Paul could do was find an excuse not to enter any of the buildings. We had three minutes to go.

“We have to find a place Paul!” we had covered almost three city blocks and were about to go in a circle when I steered Paul back onto the right path.

“We’ll find one” he replied.

                I was getting angry and about to break down to go off and change on my own as any of the buildings would suffice for a quick switch as Paul was hell-bent on finding a better one, one that might not of even existed, they were probably all contaminated.

The words of disagreement were just about to slip out of my mouth when the commercial, shining jewel of Deltadesco presented itself, located between the outskirt of Olde Towne at the end of Bohler Road and the next row of suburbs, it was a massive supermarket called “Food Land”.

“Ah man” said Francis pleased by the sight.

                As we came closer we realized something odd about it, the exterior was covered in dying vines and suffocating trees, mangled and twisting violently upwards in their last throes to reach sunlight.

 “Holy fuck, right here!” shouted Paul as he ran straight to the supermarket, one minute left on his watch.

“Hallelujah!” cried Francis as our boots tapping in cadence against the pavement.

                All four of us bolted for the store and by Paul’s lead tore through the unlocked glass doors. Paul made sure to close them behind us.

We were in the lobby now looking around at the most magnificent sight we had ever seen and for that matter, heard. The store was far from dead and empty. Soft plush grass padded the ground beneath us; trees had made their way through the linoleum tiled floor, shrubs and bushes sat atop cash register counters and conveyors and animals made their wild calls to one another in this jungle like biome

“What… in the fuck is this strange place?” asked Paul staring into the heart of the supermarket forest.

“It looks like… a strange science experiment to me” said Francis in reply.

“Incredible” said Felipe. All I could do was stare, in silence.

“You can take your hoods off” said Paul eyeing the silent Geiger counter.

“Not a trace of anything in here”

“It’s clean for real?!” I asked.

“For real…” he replied

“Woo-hoo” I shouted.

                As usual, Francis was the first to take the hood off without questioning Paul’s advice. He stripped down to his civilian clothes and threw the suit off. He was now in a black t-shirt and dark blue jeans.

 “Let’s see what we can find” he said as he hitched his shotgun onto his back and began moseying about the store by his self.

                Comfortably we were able to split up and venture throughout the establishment. I found myself interested in opening the coolers covered in vines, Felipe announced that he was running to the wine rack, Francis ran towards the last aisle near dairy and Paul reverted back to old habits as he leaned against a cash register and lit a cigarette to calm his shaky tobacco craven hands.

                I found myself curious to see what foods had survived as I walked amongst the rows of dead, unlit coolers. There were still boxes of TV dinners, frozen bubba burgers and sacks of mixed vegetables. I came to the end of the aisle and met with the long meat department cooler, I hung a right until I reached the seafood section and ran my fingers slowly across the glass shield which had once covered fish fillets and shrimp.

                As I did this, I could hear a florescent bulb explode against the floor, then I heard another one and another, then I heard Felipe yell something.

“Yeah man, this is so much fun” another one exploded, I laughed.

“Felipe what are you doing?” I asked loudly.

“Smashing light bulbs” he replied            

“Better not be wine idiot!” I yelled with a cupped hand over my mouth

“Hey don’t worry Jim, it’s not” he shouted back.

“Guys come check this out!” another voice cried out, this it was Francis’s.

                I walked to the last aisle passing the meat section right before I got to dairy and looked down aisle 12. Francis was climbing up a frozen goods cooler to a lawn chair and table display situated on top of it.

“Dude, hey Jim, I’ve always wanted to fucking do this but you were never allowed to in the real world man!” he said waving me over.

“Haha wait for me!” I had always wanted to sleep behind the soft paper towels all night until the store opened.

From where I was, I climbed atop the cooler and ran the rest of the way to the display. Here I found Francis cleaning the dirt and rust off of a chair for me to sit on, he pulled it out courteously.

“Have a seat brother” he said

“Looks kind of unsafe” I replied

“Nah don’t worry, look” he sat down comfortably on the plastic mesh.

“Sweet I guess” I sat down too.

                I could see Paul still trying different cash registers; he was hitting them with the butt of his gun attempting to pull the useless loot from inside.

“Hey Paul!” I shouted.

“Look! Over here” he lifted his head up and saw us.

“Hey holy shit Jim, wassup!” he laughed and made his way over.

                Felipe’s head appeared from aisle one, he looked around until his eyes locked onto our position. As he started running towards us, we began to make out the apple in his mouth and the bottles of wine crammed into his pockets and cradled in his arms. He neared us and spit the apple out, it thumped against the soft soil.

“Dude, look guys! I found an apple tree and loads of free wine!” shouted Felipe.

He began handing us up the bottles and with Paul’s assistance, climbed to the top of the cooler. Paul came up after him; they both cleaned off their chairs and sat down as Francis and I placed the bottles on the glass table top.

“So yeah man, I thought I’d crack open a nice bottle of peenott greeggiott” said Felipe as he adjusted his seat, I laughed at the mispronunciation.

“Peenott greeggiott? It’s pronounced pee-no gree-zhio”

“Hey whatever, I’m not German”

“It’s French you idiot” I replied.

“Whatever!”

                Paul lit another cigarette and laughed, he opened his bag, set it beside him and began rummaging through it until he had a deck of cards, he zipped it shut and slouched down in his chair.

“Let’s play some cards and get to know each other” he said as he poured the cards from the box.

                Paul shuffled the cards and laid them out onto the table nicely as each of us carved the corks out of our separate wine bottles with our own knives. Paul took a break from the cards and dug into his own bottle, he got his cork halfway out before gnawing it off with his teeth and spitting it to the ground. He went to take a sip, but I stopped him short.

“Hey, hey, hey!” I said.

“What is it man?! I wanna get drunk!” he said annoyed.

“Cheers first” he laughed at the idea.

“Of course” all the guys raised their bottles as Paul took a painful looking tug on his cigarette.

“Here’s to the heavens and all they have awaiting for us!”  I said.

It couldn’t have held more meaning to me, the heavens, it’s where I belonged, and it struck a chord with everyone else. This thought though reminded me of a mafia joke, but I tweaked it a little. How do four men keep secret four tickets off of this world? Two can keep a secret if the other two can’t talk, maybe, if all three can’t talk, just me!

 

As we played we stared off into the wilderness, birds occasionally swooping down to greet us, and making us jump before flying off. We pointed out fruit trees growing everywhere and how the ceiling had formed a sort of cloudy mist. We would then return to our game of five card double draw and ask one another questions as we took swigs from our wine bottles.

“How do you think this place became like this?” asked Francis to anyone willing to answer.

“Talk to Jim, he’s the brain’s of the outfit” said Paul.

“Don’t flatter me” I replied before explaining my thoughts on the biome.

“Maybe a seed got lucky and landed in a patch of dirt or some mulch and the radiation gave it that little miracle grow boost it needed to thrive, then maybe the sprinklers came on or something, got the little packets of seeds wet in the gardening aisle and they began to grow and then all the animals found a safe haven and began moving the seeds around”.

“But there’s no sun in here, how do they survive?” said Francis.

“The sun’s radiation correct?” I asked him.

“Yeah…”

“There is just enough radiation to keep the trees growing but not kill them, see the trees eat up all the radiation and use it as plant food”

                The guys liked the theory and approved of it, maybe I was wrong though, maybe it was part of MKULTRA, why would it be anyway? It was a good theory though and it kept the silence letting us think about something for a good five minutes before the next question attempted to break the awkward silence.

“So… where you guys from” asked Francis nonchalantly of Paul and I.

“Savannah Georgia” Paul answered for the both of us.

“Oh nice man, we’re from Atlanta, well he’s from Kennesaw anyway” said Francis pointing to Felipe.

“Yeah it sucked there” said Felipe.

“How was Atlanta?” I asked.

“Never been?” implied Francis.

“Of course I have, I just don’t know what there is to do their, plus it was so long ago…”

“Ya know… go see a movie, chill with friends, whatever” said Francis shrugging.

“Hey Francis, remember the time we went and through tennis balls out of our window and hit that one guy in the head” Francis laughed approvingly and reached for Paul’s box of Marlboro reds on the table, he lit it and inhaled.

“Ya’ll knew each other before you came here?” I asked a little taken aback.

“Yeah, it was weird that we ran into each other again, sheer chance man” said Francis. It was weird; it was also weird that Paul and I had also found each other by chance.

“Yeah I remember, but remember when we hit that whole crowd of people?”

“Yeah or when we hit that black dude that thought he was so tough man!”

“Haha, we got him good”

“Reminds me of this time Paul and I chased some kid down we only met once and roughed him up” I said.

“Hah yeah…” replied Paul.

“Why’d you do that?” asked Felipe.

“Paul’s a jealous little bastard when anyone messes with…” I cut my self short very fast, I had almost used Rebecca’s name in the present tense, I couldn’t imagine what heart string of Paul’s I would of pulled on, or what he might of done out of sorrow and anger.

“Let’s not talk about that” I said.

“What? Or who?” asked Francis.

“No one!”  Snapped Paul suddenly.

“Oh come…” Paul slammed a fist onto the delicate glass table sending cards flying upwards as tears began welling in his eyes; Francis jumped in his seat and stopped talking. Paul stared at him for a moment bringing his face in closer to Francis’s for intimidation.

“Sorry” he apologized as he lifted his hand and moved back, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“I don’t want to talk about her” Francis was obviously nervous as he bit his lip. It was silent for a moment; Paul wiped the tears from his face.

“Yeah so uh… what ever happened to Atlanta?” I asked quickly changing the subject as Francis tried to keep eye contact from Paul.

“Uh… “Francis swallowed hard, thankful for the change of topic.

“well, it became a melting pot for the poorest scum Georgia had to offer, a kind of… congregation center for the inferior I guess, cardboard cities, burnt out buildings, chaos, no order, hell really. I haven’t been back” he said.

“You leave anyone there?”

“Yeah…” he lifted his head in an obvious attempt to fight back tears of his own.

“Lots of people… I am a fucking failure for what I did” Francis let out a quivering sigh of emotion, it was silent again.

“Man this table’s getting all emotional now” chimed in Felipe.

“Yeah… shit we’re all brothers of the same mind here” said Paul with a stressful frown on his face before unexpectedly telling his story.

“Rebecca. That was her name… I knew her since… kindergarten, I’ve known Jim since kindergarten too… we were all three inseparable. When the hurricane moved in we hid up in… Jim here’s attic and I finally got to “get to know here a little better” ” he raised his hands in quotation marks.

“We left two days later to get help and were ambushed by some gang members that were looting Savannah. We couldn’t even go back through that war zone in downtown, to get her… I returned by myself before I was captured by the UN and while Jim was in the Chinese camp and found her body in a church that had been raided by all kinds of pieces of shit. Someone put a bullet straight through the front of her head, I don’t know what horrible things they did to her before they killed her, she was tough though, I bet she fought and I bet that’s why they did it” he took a swig from the wine and emptied the bottle throwing it to the ground, it landed with a soft thud.

“All gone, the only girl I ever loved” next he threw his card hand to the floor and watched as they landed gently around the bottle.

“Yeah… listen don’t worry” Francis sighed letting out a massive plume of smoke that became his skeletons.

“When the hurricane hit us it brought massive floods all over Atlanta and then the UN dickheads moved in to “secure the peace”. They were more like armed vandals. They raided homes for quartering, even though it says they can’t in the goddamn constitution! shot anyone, raped everything. We thought we were safe on our slice of well hidden property right on the outside of Atlanta, but they found out we had guns. My dad stayed and fought, I was too scared. I just took pot shots with a bolt action deer hunting rifle before I herded my two brothers and sisters into our truck and sped off southbound through the ghettoes. We were almost outside the perimeter too when we hit a fucking UN roadblock. I put the truck into park in the long lanes of traffic and tried to get to the woods with my siblings. They shot at us, tore my loved ones to shreds… I remember bright light, anger, just crawling on the ground trying to get to the safety of the trees, tears blurring my vision. General chaos ensued and all the plebeians got out of their cars against the will of the UN soldiers and fought what they thought was a mass cleansing. While people fell and died, I just crawled under car after car until I got to those woods and ran straight across the police line. I walked and hitched rides for four months straight all over South Georgia. I just walked and stopped where I could, slept in the woods a lot, then I ended up in the same camp as Paul. We escaped together and met up with Felipe in La Grange before he found you when he came back to Savannah, I can’t believe what’s happened so far” Francis threw his hand to the ground.

“What’s your story Jim?” I was jittering under the table; I felt nervous sharing information about myself.

“Paul’s story really. We lost the same people, we’re like brothers” my blood froze at the statement.

“But there is a girl too… Melissa… I love her; she is supposed to meet me on the north road towards rocket city” I paused, realizing my mistake; Paul tried not to look up.

 “Hell I may not even go to rocket city if she can’t go” I saved face as best it could, maybe they didn’t notice.

“I love her that much. If I lose her… I die too, I can’t toss my hand to the ground yet” I folded. Francis and Felipe nodded, Paul lit another cigarette with secret fury in his eyes and just stared at me.

“Hmm, Felipe?” I said.

“Me… I just saw my parents get shot dead, drove their car to north Georgia and hung out in the mountains for a little bit before I learned about the raids that were going to take place by the UN and headed for la grange, then as you know, I found my best friend with Paul…” he pointed to Paul and Francis with a grin on his face, obviously his past life had not meant much to him. he tossed four of his cards to the ground and retained one, slipping it into his shirts breast pocket.

“Cheers” said Paul raising a new bottle.

 

                We had slept a mere four hours under a large tree in the produce department where we passed out on the other side of where we had gotten wasted when Paul’s watch alarm went off.

“Oh shit!” said a hung-over Paul as he stretched out his arms and smacked his lips.

                My breath smelled rank and my mouth tasted awful, my head hurt and I needed water. I stood up, groggy and discombobulated and stretched.

“Shit man, we need more sleep” I suggested, hoping for an approving answer

“We don’t have time for that shit, you don’t want to be here at night, we need to get our suits on and go” explained Paul.

                Francis and Felipe yawned as they both slipped into their hazmat suits. Francis put his on backwards and Felipe was having trouble with the zipper, then Felipe tripped on his own feet and ran into Francis, knocking him over as they both fell to the ground. They were still obviously quite drunk.

                I slipped mine out of my small pack and rubbed my weary eyes as I began slipping it on. Like Felipe, the drunkenness didn’t seem to help me when my zipper became stuck, I kept cursing my situation.

“Damn it!” I yelled.

“Just take it easy” grumbled Paul as he slowly but successfully pulled his zipper closed.

                He finished getting his hazmat suit on and then leant me a helping hand. He slowly pulled my zipper up to my neck and then handed me my hood.

“We need to hydrate” I said, stumbling backwards and catching myself with my right foot.

“Yeah… good idea” agreed Paul as he began sifting through his bag.       

                I reached into my small brown pack and pulled out one of the three large bottles of water and began chugging it. It felt refreshing to my sore throat.

“Man… that feels great” I said. Everyone took a drink and zipped up.

“Get the tape out Jim” said Paul.

“right-o” I replied. 

I pulled the gorilla tape out of my bag and began unwinding it with a loud peeling noise. I wrapped it around Paul’s hazmat sleeve as he pulled his hood down with his other hand. I wrapped it around the next sleeve and then handed it to him so he could do the same for me. He finished and threw it to Francis so he could wrap Felipe up, they traded off and finished, Paul topped it off by pulling his hood back and lighting a cigarette.

“Alright, now ammo up, make sure we’re still loaded and clean out your guns if they need it” Paul reminded us.

                I popped the magazine out of my carbine and unloaded it. I found that I only had fifteen rounds left in a thirty round magazine. I sifted through my bag and found a box of .30 carbine ammunition, opened it and loaded the banana shaped, steel magazine, I then put one in the chamber and put one more into the magazine so it could hold thirty one rounds of ammunition. Next I checked to barrel to see that the gun was still well oiled.

Paul, who had never fired his .45 Uzi, simply through it back on his shoulder. Francis jacked another round into his 12 gauge, Saiga shotgun and Felipe cleaned off his massive Smith and Wesson .500 putting a bit of oil on the barrel and in the chamber. I loved the massive revolver, and if we had to kill our two acquaintances, I was going to take the gun from Felipe’s corpse.

“We all good?” asked Paul.

“Check” I said.

“Check” said Francis.

“My zipper came un…”

“Oh for crying out fucking loud Felipe!” Paul reached over and violently yanked his zipper upwards on his suit.

“Alright… we’re good! Let’s head out” Paul sighed a sigh of annoyance at Felipe.

“What man?” was all he could respond with as he shrugged his shoulders.

                It looked to be around five O clock as we walked out onto the main street. The sun was probably nearing the edge of the horizon where it was about to disappear for the night.

“Alrighty then… we have to be here of course, but we are currently here” he said pointing to our destination and then to where we were currently located.

“That means more shitty ass suburbs for us to walk through scared as hell… come on, let’s get this done with”

                We left through the parking lot of the supermarket and got onto Wittemeir Road. Again we were surrounded by the cookie cutter homes, each one a scene of peeling paint and ghostly furniture.

“Shit this sucks, I hate these houses” said Felipe.

“It’s not supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be our way off this rock” replied Paul.

“I’ll sing to lighten the mood up a little bit” offered Francis

“No, no don’t fucking worry about it, we’re not that far from our destination.

“Oh come on, I know some good songs” he argued

                Francis started singing and eerie tune by Lee Marvin “under a wandering star”, he hummed it gently recalling all the words without a problem. What was even weirder though was the strange mist that began filling the air. It was the middle of the day and we suddenly couldn’t see five feet in front of us. We just trudged along, guns swinging from our sides when Felipe stopped, Paul running into his back.

“What you stop for?” Paul asked annoyed.

“Is that a cemetery?” Felipe said.

“Where?” asked Paul putting a hand over his squinted eyes.

                Surely enough, a hundred stone monuments began taking shape amongst the swirling, bright white mist. They were surrounded by a rusted old rot-iron fence. I felt cold suddenly as I looked at the bone chilling sight.

“I never told you what that Israeli told me about the population of this town did I?” said Paul.

“No Paul, you didn’t, mind filling us in a little”

“When the MKULTRA project ended… they killed everyone and buried them here… dead men tell no tales do they?” what irony in relation to our current situation.

“You said the majority of this project was destroyed, correct?” I asked.

“Correct… here’s part of that 90% that was lost in red tape” replied Paul.

                These people had been subject to radiation emitting televisions, low wave sounds, recordings looped for day’s on end, horrific dreams, sleep deprivation and anything a Nazi scientist could scheme up in his intelligent mind. then they were thanked for their cooperation with a bullet, kids, fathers, mothers, brothers sisters, all slaughtered and buried right here in front of us.

“We can skip this bit of history and act like we never saw it” Paul spoke with utter fear in his voice, and I know that if he had been able to take the hood off and safely smoke, he would of finished a pack out of sheer anxiety.

“Come on, keep walking” he recommended.

                We made our way around the cemetery, just staring, attempting to see the names of those who had sacrificed themselves to fight communism. The gravestones were blank, these people had never existed, and the people they knew? They probably “never existed” either, and even still yet, probably endured the same fate.

“You think this shit has ended today? You’re wrong! They’re still experimenting on us” proclaimed Paul.
“These cigarettes I smoke, they’re filled with radiation, and I am a proud walking nuclear reactor” Paul laughed.

                Again we were in the suburbs, the mist not subsiding even when we passed the cemetery. As we walked we realized that we couldn’t make out any more houses, was the mist that thick?

“There are no more houses” said Paul confused.

“It should be right here…” Paul was pointing a finger at a crater where a house should have been standing.

“What the fuck?!” he looked at the map, turned it upside down and looked back at the crater for a moment. He then looked back at the map.

“Well… there should be a house here, according to this map”

“There’s a crater” I implied snidely.

“Well fuck lets go check it out” Francis ran ahead of us and stopped at the edge of the crater catching his balance.

“There’s a door” he said pointing downward and looking back towards us, we came up behind him.

                Surely enough there was, in the bottom of the crater was a silver hatch.

“I guess we are going to have to get down there and hope to god its unlocked like the Israeli promised” We got on our butts and slid to the bottom of the crater, stood up and stared down at the hatch.

“Think that’s the safe with the tickets?” asked Francis.

“No, it is a hidden sub level, it used to be under a house, I guess someone came and tore it down to find it” Paul stared at it in interest for a moment.

“Come on, let’s not just stand here” commanded Paul.

 “Let’s check it out” I kicked dirt from off of it and pulled upward on the handle, there was still too much dirt on it.

“Come on, help me out”

The others began clawing at the earth and forming a more even square shape, they threw the dirt off to the side until I was able to pull it open. The hatch creaked as I lifted it upwards; we stared into a bottomless pit.

“Well shit, if that isn’t scary, I don’t know what is. Who knows what evil demons the US government put at the bottom of this god damn ladder” said Paul.

“Shut up Paul” I said in a serious voice.

“Just a little joke man”

“Our own morale can’t afford it”

“Lighten up” Paul gave me an angered expression.

“I’ll go in first” he offered.

                He put his legs in first and began clinking his way down the ladder, I went next, Francis followed and Felipe proudly went last. There was nothing out of the ordinary as we descended, just a ladder and a dark tunnel. Eventually we hit bottom, Paul flicked his lighter on and illuminated a tiny square chamber that could barely fit the four of us. Paul carried the light to the rough bunker like wall and found a coded lock.

“Oh shit” my heart dropped.

 “Alright, let’s see” was all Paul had to say to make me feel a little better.

“You got the code right Paul?” I asked

“Of course” Paul pulled out the map and flipped it over.

“459384” he whispered as he punched in the numbers. The door made a noise.

“Uh… it didn’t open” said Francis, sweat streaking down his face.

“Don’t worry, just push” said Paul.

With all our strength, we laid against the door and pushed. With the rumbling low tones of metal grating against stone, it began to slide open. Light creaked through and Pauls Geiger counter exploded with static. Paul dropped the lighter as he jumped.

“Oh shit” Paul looked at the Geiger counter, the small needle on the meter was as far as it would go and was tapping violently against the side of the gauge.

“Shit, we’ve got a huge amount of radiation in here, we’ve got fifteen minutes, now fucking push!” we pushed until light poured through and we could each fit through the large crack.

                Before us was a hall which had witnessed years and years of radiation. Tacky wall paper that had once resembled yellow ducks now turned into a greenish brown peeled off and fell to the ground where it turned into a mix of lead and radioactive dust.

There were multiple, off white doors lining the hallway to each side, all of them closed and with a number denoting possible patient’s rooms. I wondered what they could be used for or if skeletal remains’ still resided in them.

“Did he say it was going to be underground?” I asked

“No… just that there was a hatch, but he gave me two more codes.

“Did he mention this level of radiation?”

“No, now let’s go!” Paul began a light jog down the hallway and turned right where it ended.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Last room, last door, that’s where it’s at

“How big is this place?” I asked.

“Don’t know, don’t care right now” huffed Paul taking a left turn.

                I had spoken too soon. We arrived at the last door in the entire hallway, which Paul didn’t even hesitate to demolish beneath his heavy boots. The years of radiation had made it weaker; it flew from its hinges and landed inside a medium sized room.

                The room looked to be an experimental lab of some kind. In the middle of the floor was a square table with two white chairs one each side facing one another, in the middle of the table was a telephone and in all four corners were drawers with vases sitting on top. What I found odd though were the two tall windows on the each wall to our left and right. Behind them was a highly detailed mural of a Deltadesco once bright and alive with sunshine and cars, it looked real and had probably been painted here to keep anyone who came into this chamber from going insane. There was one last thing about the room though; on the farthest wall opposite us was another door, the very last door.

“We’re here” Paul said.

“Finally!” I said elated, the Geiger counter still keeping my pulse raised.

“Here it is” Paul pointed to the far door.

“Last door…” I said.

“Last door…” agreed Francis as he and Felipe nodded their heads.

“The safes in there” Paul let us know.

                He approached the door and turned the knob, just as all the other doors were, it was unlocked, but behind it was another frustrating let down another steel door with a combination lock

“Shit, shit, shit!” I moaned.

“chill out Jim, I got the code right here” Paul said as he looked at the map and punched in four simple numbers, the vault clicked and Paul pulled the heavy frame toward us, we stepped back.

                We stared into a square room that could be considered a large walk in closet. It was bright yellow but by the way the color became darker at the bottom of the wall closest to the floor, one could tell that the paint had originally been orange. Sitting in the middle of the room on a brown carpet on a wooden table was a metallic silver safe that looked as if it could only hold a couple of small pistols.

“Is that it?” I asked.

“That’s it… the tickets are in there” confirmed Paul.

“Oh shiiiit man!” screeched Francis jumping up and down while holding onto Felipe’s shoulders.

“Oh man! THAT’S IT!” Felipe shouted swapping friendly punches between him and his buddy.

“This’ll take a moment” Paul said walking over to the combination safe, the stomping of his boots the only sound audible in the tense silence.

He squatted down to his knees to make himself level with the safe and began turning a combination lock. Francis grabbed one of the chairs from the table and set it down in front of the safe behind Paul, ignorantly, he sat down in it. What came next made Paul jump and only slowed him down. The entire rotten chair collapsed under Francis’s weight and splinters went flying in all directions.

“Fuck!” was all Francis could say to save face as he stood up.

“You idiot! Years of radiation degrades this shit!” I yelled at him, I looked back towards Paul.

“Don’t either of ya’ll slow me down” demanded Paul angrily with an outstretched finger pointing at all three of us.

“Sorry” I replied, Paul got back to work.

                It became dead silent in the room again, the tiny clicking of the lock pounding in our brains as sweat came down our faces like a waterfall. I couldn’t even collect my thoughts. This tiny safe the size of a small lockbox held in it treasures that no amount of gold in Fort Knox could compare to, no sum of money could buy and no girls heart could wrench from my cold dead hands.

                Paul’s silence was making us all the more jittery as he just sat there, squatted down on one knee and spun the lock, time ticking away like melting ice on a hot blacktop.

“FUCK MAN JUST OPEN IT!” shouted Felipe, we all jumped. The suspense had been too much for him.

“Sorry” Paul had turned around to give Felipe an expression that showed just how annoyed he was, it wasn’t one of anger, but one that let you know he was desperate to get out of here with our tickets. He turned back towards the safe and began spinning the lock once more. Unexpectedly it clicked, we twitched and an air of joy filled all of us.

“YES!” all three of us jumped and began hugging one another as Paul opened the safe door.

                We all quickly leapt toward the safe where Paul pulled out random articles of literature, he handed me something, it was a pamphlet that read “the prospect of rocket city”. It showed a large group of animated white couples with varieties of hair colors holding hands as a man in the middle held up a thumb of approval with a massive white toothed grin on his face as a rocket blasted off behind them. I opened it and cried as I screeched with joy, reading each line of the myth, now declassified and proven to be true. I couldn’t believe it, there really were tickets all over the United States, each set buried in super secret facilities that one could consider far too unordinary. It just made me wonder what group of devoted teens like us dressed in hazmat suits were searching for their tickets to the stars.

I opened the brochure further and read about what rocket city had to offer. Lavish dining halls, comfortable sleeping quarters, recreational accommodations such as a swimming pool and tennis court and a genetics lab with a cryogenic chamber for “the future of mankind and for all those important high ranking delegates who had been invited to see this world and the next!”.

I just laughed overjoyed and slipped the brochure into my pocket clenching my fists tightly. I turned around to look at Francis, who for some reason, had a look of utter bewilderment upon his dumbfounded face. He looked to the safe, looked left at Felipe, turned right towards me, turned back to the safe and threw his arms up in the air before he said the words that made me choke on my own saliva.

“Uh… there’s only two fucking… two fucking tickets in there” you’ve never been witness a stranger silence in your life. It filled the room like invisible gas but it felt like the pressure of water pushing down on your head, you could of cut the tensions with a chainsaw. I cleared my throat.

“Excuse me?”

                Paul reached into the vault, pulled out two yellow tickets and slipped them into his side pocket, turned around to Francis and didn’t speak a word.

                Pauls lack of response was enough though, because without prior warning, we all simultaneously raised our weapons by sheer chance and aimed them at each other, my M1 Carbine was pointed at Felipe, Felipe’s S&W .500 pointed at Paul, Paul’s Uzi at Francis and Francis’s Saiga at me.

“You fucking lied to us! Two fucking tickets!” shouted Francis with spit flying from his mouth and hitting the inside of his hood.

“You were in on this too you fucking faggot ass bitch!” yelled Felipe, his accent thicker than ever.

“Yeah so!” replied Paul snidely.

“Nah I didn’t know a damn thing!” I pleaded wildly.

“It doesn’t matter Jim… it doesn’t matter for you two either…” Paul lowered his gun, foolishly letting his own guard down.

“Wanna know why?” he asked in a collected tone.

“Fuck tells us man!” demanded Francis shaking his gun in Paul’s face.

“We’ve got one minute left… excuse me… two seconds”

“Wha…” replied Francis letting his gun drop, the sharp beeping noise bursting from Paul’s watch in its quick intervals.

Now I don’t want to say what happened next was completely Paul’s fault, because it was Francis who dropped his own gun to his side, but Paul snapped his Uzi upwards and at chest level with our two new enemies and raked three fast shots across both of their torso's. Felipe died instantly as his heart exploded from the back of his suit, portions of it smacking against the wall behind him, but Francis took a bullet beneath his heart, to the right and the second bullet hit the upper part of his stomach. Francis dropped to the ground and began twisting and moaning, His shotgun lay on the floor next to him as blood consumed it.

“Oh fuck you!” he groaned as he coughed out blood onto the mask of his hooded visor, obscuring his face.

“Why?!” asked Francis. Why, an age old question with no answer, why not!

“What else would we do in this situation chum?” replied Paul as I stood back and watched silently, feeling just a bit more mortal. Paul evened the barrel of the gun between Francis’s eyes and let loose a final death note stapling his brains to the floor.

“Come on Jim, let’s get outta here” said paul as he stared at the dead man and slipped his Uzi onto his back.

                As Paul began to make his way out, I reached for Felipe’s giant revolver and slid it into my side pocket where it pulled down the entire right side of my suit and brought me off balance. I suddenly remembered the card he had slipped into his breast pocket of his plaid shirt when we were in the supermarket; I unzipped his suit and reached into the pocket pulling out an ace of hearts. The bullet that had taken Felipe’s life had gone straight through the middle of it and stained it red with blood, I put it into my pocket as well.

“Jim, hurry up man! We don’t got any time!” yelled Paul.

                I stood up, my blood pressure spiking as Paul began leading the way out. We bolted down the hallway and soon enough made it back to the ladder, the sky outside darkening. We climbed up quickly and came out onto a world of near total darkness. The last place I wanted to ever be was Deltadesco, especially at night.

“Bad shit happens at night here man!” shouted Paul as he ran straight for the woods.

“What do you mean… slow down” I begged.

“Fuck that, keep running!” he didn’t slow down at all

“Why?!” I pleaded.

“Super low and super high pitch frequencies play from air raid sirens at night, you can’t hear them but they destroy your brain slowly, give you horrible dreams and make you see shit, just another part of MK-ULTRA”

“Yeah let’s go!” a cold shiver shot up my spine and my hair stood on end as the light disappeared into total darkness, we leapt from the dead plain into the forest, we weren’t about to stay for the ghostly parade.