Chapter 10

Welcome Wastelanders to the Post-Apocalyptic Joe in a Cinematic Wasteland Audiobook Podcast! My name is Joe Gillis, and I’m the writer and narrator of this Serial Fiction Series. This week, we’re in Chapter 10, but there is a new chapter every Friday, so be sure to subscribe.

Also, if you stay until the very end, you’ll get a peek behind the page with a quick tidbit about this chapter.

The story so far…

After being “retired” from his job, Joe turned his focus to his Titan One missile complex. Maya and Sanjay were visiting him in the MECHA IR when the construction night crew rushing out of his facility triggered an alarm in the virtual world. Joe went to investigate only to find out that there were missiles headed their way from North Korea—which turned out to be nuclear. Joe told the crews to they could stay at his facility. He stayed above ground waiting for them, while continuing to talk to Maya and Sanjay in the MECHAverse. He discovered from a news report that not only had North Korea launched nuclear missiles at us, but so had Russia and China. There was less than 20 minutes before they began to hit the continental U.S. The outlook was grim to none on this soon-to-be nuclear apocalypse. Joe realized he was going to be alone, but Maya reassured him that he had them. And that’s when he lost contact with them.

Alright, let’s find out what happened next.

Chapter 10

I had gotten so caught up in multitasking between searching the landscape for my construction crew, and talking to Maya and Sanjay, that it hadn’t even registered to me that the broadcast had stopped. In fact, I couldn’t access the Internet anymore at all. It seemed as though I lost contact with everyone.

“Guys, you there? Maya? Sanjay?” I cried out.

A few seconds later, a familiar robotic voice answered. “The connection is gone, Joe. Are you okay?”

“I have no one, ALFINA.” Even though she wasn’t real, I fought hard to hold back crying.

“You have me, Joe.”

“Thanks, ALFINA,” I said as I wiped away my tears.

“Can you get a radio signal?”

“Yes.”

“Can you scan the channels for any broadcasts?”

“Scanning… I found this, Joe.”

The channel volume raised to my default volume right in time to catch that annoying tone sound.

“California’s Office of Emergency Services has been warned of an imminent missile threat to California. A missile may impact on land or sea within minutes. If you are indoors, stay indoors. If you are outdoors, seek immediate shelter in a building. Remain indoors well away from windows. If you are driving, pull safely to the side of the road and seek shelter in a building or lay on the floor. We will announce when the threat has ended. This is not a drill. Take immediate action measures. Repeat. California’s Office of Emergency Services has been warned of an imminent missile threat…”

It continued to repeat the message with no new information.

“Immediate action measures?” I contemplated before I glanced down at my watch.

“Might I suggest heading inside, Joe.”

“10:41, so we have…” I wasn’t sure why I was even trying to calculate it. The MECHA system was what I really needed to use to figure out how much time I had left.

“ALFINA, how much time until impact?”

“Based on the time of broadcast, I estimate six minutes until impact.”

ALFINA was so much more informative than a watch, but I liked the action of lifting my arm to check the time—that, and the watch had sentimental value.

“ALFINA, what are the odds anyone will make it back here before then?”

“The odds of anyone making it back in time is zero.”

I knew she was right, but I wasn’t willing to give up hope and continued to scan for returning vehicles.

“Joe, why have you not sought shelter yet?”

“I can’t give up hope, ALFINA. I mean, someone has to make it back, right?”

“Joe, your odds of survival are much higher indoors. Based on my calculations, you should really seek shelter.”

“I can’t ALFINA. I just can’t give up hope.”

I stood there for what seemed like an eternity before I spotted an explosion nearby. It lit up the night sky with the most brilliant, yet intense light, I have ever seen. Without hesitation, I looked away and shut my eyes tight, throwing my forearm up as an additional shield from the blaze of light. The blinding white light still seared through my eyelids, leaving me momentarily disoriented and panicked.

“Gosh, dang it!” I cursed under my breath.

What the heck was I thinking?!

My heart raced, knowing exactly what had just happened.

As the seconds passed, a deafening silence enveloped me, broken only by the sound of my panic-stricken breaths. But then the explosion came, confirming my worst fears... well, not the worst. That came after I realized my forearm should have been blocking most of the light.

I opened my eyes while still covering them with my forearm, only to discover I still had a white haze filling my vision.

I always feared losing my sight. Now I was stuck above ground in what might be a nuclear apocalypse, and I might have flash blindness AKA a temporary disruption in my vision where I can't see!

Flash freakin' blindness!

Taking a deep breath, I tried to remind myself that the effects may only last seconds or minutes, which is great, but here’s the other thing: it can also be permanent... and I couldn’t stop thinking about that option.

Did I closed my eyes fast enough?

Maybe, but maybe wasn’t good enough to calm me down.

Guess what was one way it could be permanent? From a freakin’ nuclear explosion!

Chill out, Joe… it might not be permanent.

And just as quickly as I lost it, my vision returned, just in time to see a billowing dark cloud of anger ripping across the surface. It was sheer brilliance to see it in person. It felt like it was alive. A beast tearing through the sky, sending its tentacles across the Earth, destroying anything that crossed its path, and drawing my eyes to the massive mushroom cloud growing in the distance. That’s when I had the craziest thought.

Man, my guys totally nailed the whole end of the world thing.

Seconds later I was smacked head on with the shockwave–and a whole lot of debris.

What the—

Everything went black.

Did I just lose consciousness?

It felt like I did. My head was pounding like a semi-truck had just hit it. I was still alive, so I guess I was far enough away from the blast that my body didn’t disintegrate into ashes.

My hard hat was lying next to me on the ground. I picked it up and got a closer look at it. Tiny fragments of rock were embedded in it, like a layer of diamonds. In a panic, I began to inspect my head and face for any wounds. There was some blood, but it wasn’t too bad. I guess the hard hat must have done its job. Sadly, I knew that wasn’t the worse thing. The only source of illumination came from the detonation and, I assumed, the ensuing blazes. It wasn’t as bright now—probably because I was now enveloped by dust and debris—but there was enough light that I was pretty sure I didn't have any radiation burns.

“ALFINA, how long was I out for?”

You need to get inside, I told myself as I stumbled to my feet.

“ALFINA, respond.”

Nothing.

No heads up display either.

My MECHA system must have been knocked out by the blast, so I visually scanned the horizon to spot any headlights. All I could make out was the carnage left by the shockwave, silhouetted by the glow of the mesmerizing mushroom cloud that continued to fill the sky. It had me in a trance until my sense of self-preservation kicked back in.

Get inside, Joe.

As I turned around away from the blast, I found myself in darkness, lit up by the flames of destruction behind me. Light danced across the rubble that was blocking my only escape from this atomic mess.

That concludes Chapter 10 of Post-Apocalyptic Joe in a Cinematic Wasteland.

Written by Joe Gillis. Read by Joe Gillis.

Boy, oh, boy, things are not looking good for Joe. Is he going to be trapped in the nuclear wasteland? Will he ever make it back inside his Titan One facility? Tune in next week to find out.

So, the emergency broadcast from this chapter is based around the false missile alert that accidently went out via the Emergency Alert System in Hawaii back in 2018. It warned citizens to seek shelter from the incoming ballistic missile with the whole “this is not a drill” and everything. I guess some state emergency worker messed up during a drill, sending out the real deal to the people of Hawaii, and quite frankly, freaking them out because there were constant threats from North Korea—who had also been conducting missile tests right around then.

For 38 minutes, the people of Hawaii waited until the second emergency alert was sent informing them that there was no threat and that it was a false alarm.

Because this was broadcast out, there are recordings of it, enabling me to hear a real missile alert from the United States.

Since  Joe’s Titan One missile complex is just outside of Sacramento, California, I had to change it to California—which by the way—there are really three Titan One missile complex’s outside of Sacramento. Why Sacramento? Well, that’s because it is both mine and Joe’s hometown.

Lucky for me, Beale Air Force Base was one of the military bases to have Titan One facilities. And since there were only a few Titan One sites built, I was really lucky, since I wanted him to live in the Sacramento area and Beale is only 30 or so miles outside of Sacramento.

That brings us to the end of another chapter.

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Thanks for joining me on this crazy journey! See you on the flip side!

Post-Apocalyptic Joe in a Cinematic Wasteland copyright 2023, Joe Gillis, All rights reserved. This is a Jowagi Production and is distributed by Slacker Entertainment.