A Tale of Two Cities

Only two cities were left after the devastating nuclear war, Atlas and Ward. For now their great transparent dome shields hold firm from each other's remaining rockets and bombs, keeping their civilians alive and away from the fallout that covered the land around them. It wasn’t only the other city the great shields had to protect its civilians from but also the large grossly mutated creatures that used their mighty strength to try and find a way through.

The war had lasted centuries that most, if not all people had forgotten what sparked the annihilation of the planet and those who lived in the other cities. One of the people that knew the reason was Sergeant Jefferson. A tall, bald, stern faced man who lived in the underground bunker under the city of Atlas. He was born and raised in the bunker because his great great grandfather was part of the secret service that worked on project N.U.K.E - Natural Unionization of the Kladstone Evolution.

Kladstonian people who dwelled in Atlas at that time had a superiority complex of thinking they were better than those around them, this was the whole reason for the nuclear war. Spurred on by the president of the time Smithson, he got the backing of the people to start the all out war against the other races on the planet. Atlas dropped their bombs before other cities had time to react, some cities were wiped completely out of existence before the end of the first week.

Before long people saw the destruction and chaos they had brought upon the land, they rallied and protested against the president to call a ceasefire. They saw the error of their ways, human life was precious no matter the race but the president didn’t back down. Those who stood against the regime were lesser beings, rounded up and forced out into the nuclear wasteland. Those who suffered that fate were unsurprisingly never seen again.

Decades past, both the nuclear war - which only Atlas and Ward still stood - and the revolutionary war within Atlas raged on. That was until the day of reckoning, the day the revolutionaries found hope and strength. One of the outcasted members had found a way back into Atlas, her name was Helen. She had somehow survived the wasteland with no physical mutations but had seen her other comrades turn into ghastly creatures. She gathered the people of Atlas who stood against the president and convinced others who still sat on the fence with the whole issue. They marched to the president's office, many lives were lost that day on both sides - including Helen’s. In the end the president’s life was also taken, the revolutionists had won.

Though they were victorious the war with Ward still raged on, no matter how often Atlas called for a ceasefire, Ward didn’t stop. President Abraham - The new leader of Atlas - spoke with the people, telling them they had to keep dropping their bombs in order to survive to keep Ward at bay. For sixty years this had been the case and the reason for the war had since changed.

The red phone on Sergeant Jefferson’s desk in his practically empty office rang, he snatched it up. “President Abraham, how can I help?”

“How can you help?” Abraham remarked. “How about you address me properly?”

Jefferson rolled his eyes. “Apologies President Sir, Sergeant Jefferson at your service.”

“That’s better.” Abraham said. “Now I just wanted to check that our bombs are ready to be fired.”

“Of course sir.”

“And you're not going to miss the schedule again, are you?”

“Of course not sir.”

“Good because Commander Tarkov was not pleased as it made the people of Ward start to wonder if they were the bad guys if they were the ones firing at us first. We don’t want that now do we?”

Jefferson leaned back on his office chair, the mechanism squeaking louder the further he went. “Of course not sir.”

“Wonderful, I’m glad you understand. We don’t want you following in your fathers footsteps.” The phone call ended.

There was never a goodbye, how are you? Or any other pleasantries with Abraham which Jefferson never understood why. He had been speaking to the man everyday for the past twenty years but everyday it was still so formal. Jefferson leant forward on his chair, putting the red phone back onto his desk. He swivelled his chair round to face his computer, reading the most recent message from Alexandria. 

“Did he tell you off?”

Jefferson ran his fingers across the keyboard replying. “Not really a telling off, more of a mini lecture. At least our conversation was longer than usual.”

“Why do you care so much about having a relationship with him?”

“If I get close to me, maybe he might divulge some information as to why we are firing dud missiles."

Jefferson sent the message and hurriedly began typing again.

"I wish I could be in the Ward bunker with you though, this whole operation would be easier if we did it together.”

“Yes that would be nice but that will never happen.”

Jefferson knew this was the truth but it still hurt every time Alexandria reminded him. “Have you managed to find a way out of your bunker?” he replied after sometime.

“No, the only way in and out is the elevator.” That was true for Jefferson too, it could only be operated with a code and certain key card.

The three dots of Alexandria typing a new message popped up underneath her last message, then they disappeared before reappearing again. “I think it would be best if you stop believing you will ever escape that bunker.”

Why would she say something like that, after all these years. “But if we can get out we can tell the people that the war is a sham and they can leave the cities.” Jefferson replied.

“You know I want that too but we need to be realistic.”

Jefferson shook his head, closing the messaging program. Taking him back to his desktop, it was still the default wallpaper of rolling green hills - something he longed to see in person. He clicked open the file shortcut named ‘Blueprints’. Being high ranked in the secret service had its perks of having access to all sorts of files, like the blueprints to the bunker. There has to be another way out. He thought, even though he had looked over the blueprints at least thousand times before.

Every time his studying of the blueprints concluded, with nothing new discovered he couldn’t help but remember the final words from his father before they dragged him away. “Get out and the people in the cities before Project X starts.”

In the past five years Jefferson had made no progress in finding a way out or what Project X was. He had spoken with Alexandria but she didn’t know about the project but would keep her eyes and ears open for any info in the Ward bunker. A notification pinged on Jefferson’s computer, a message from Alexandria. Jefferson clicked on the notification and the messaging app popped open once more. “Reminder, 1 minute till launch.” her message read.

Jefferson opened another program on his computer, it simply called N.U.K.E. This is where Jefferson sent the command to dud missile’s to fire at Ward. Whilst he waited for it to load, he kept thinking about what Abraham had said about him not wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps and Alexandria comment of the only way in and out was via the elevator. N.U.K.E loaded and he hovered his mouse over the launch button, the thoughts continued to swirl around his mind. 

Another message pinged up. “10 second countdown.” His father had been taken away because he stopped following orders and where did he get taken to, the elevator. That was Jefferson’s ticket out of here but what was he going to do when he got taken away? They would find his messages to Alexandria, she would be in danger. Would he be able to live with himself knowing that?

“5, 4, 3.” He could wait before committing to going rogue but what if Project X was nearly complete? “2, 1.” Jefferson clicked his mouse, stood up from his chair and walked out of his office.