The Doomsday Shift

Lieutenant Phillips was starting to grow a little impatient waiting for the clearance to come through so that they could take off. He had been sitting here for twenty minutes and he was anxious to be in the air, heading back to Camp Bordman. He was quite pleased with himself, he had just finalized the biggest deal yet. the Brazilians would be eating good, until the next shipment was sent out. They had placed an order for the next two years. Captain Rogers will be surprised by this deal, and Lieutenant Phillips was anxious to see the pleasant look of approval on Captain Rogers face.

Lieutenant Phillips had disappointed the Captain on the last two deals and he didn't want to do that again. This deal would make up for the two that had gone sour. He had always looked up to the Captain, he was like a father that he never had. With this deal, he knew that he would be given the choice of the new batch of girls that was to pass the tests. He had seen the one that he wanted, but up till now, he didn't think he would get her because of the two bad deals. Now he knew he would be getting the first pick and his pick would be Dini Burke. He had seen her a few times when he was taking things to the hospital for Dr. White. He didn't care too much for Dr. White, the doctor always wore a disapproving look on his face when any of the military men were around. This always puzzled him because he knew that the doctors two sons were also in the army. He had even met them on a couple of occasions at the base, and they seemed to be alright, of course they didn't know about the plan of selling the food to the other countries or about the girls that were going through the tests for the pleasure of the government and military. Only the ones in the know, knew about this. Not unless the doctor had told his sons, but Lieutenant Phillips doubted that because neither one had ever given an inkling that they knew anything. Come to think of it, the doctors sons did seem to be asking a lot of questions about the food, on a couple of occasions, but the doctor didn't know anything about that.

At that moment, the pilot came over the speaker letting the Lieutenant know that they had just got their clearance for take-off. He sat back and took a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief. They were on their way, he looked at his watch and it was 10:15 a.m.

They were in the air for forty-five minutes when he looked out of his window and noticed the clouds below them had started to churn faster then what they usually did. All of a sudden the pilot came over the speaker to ask the Lieutenant if he could come to the cockpit. He got up and hurried to the cockpit, he didn't like the look of those clouds.

As Lieutenant Phillips entered the cockpit, Corporal Skidmore told the Lieutenant " sit in the co-pilots seat because we are heading into turbulence, and by the radar screen it's going to be a rough ride". Lieutenant Phillips strapped himself into the co-pilots seat and took a hold of the wheel. From the suddenness of the world shifting, this caused the air to form a funnel, as the jet headed into this, the funnel started to pull the jet down.

The jet went into a tailspin and was plummeting down towards the ground. They had been flying at eighteen thousand feet, when they hit the funnel. Both Corporal Skidmore and Lieutenant Phillips put everything they had into keeping the jet from crashing. They were seven thousand feet in the air when they finally got the jet back under control.

Lieutenant Phillips wiped off his forehead with the back of his hand and turning to Corporal Skidmore he asked, " what kind of turbulence was that?" I have been flying for ten years and I have never come across anything like that before. Corporal Skidmore couldn't answer him, he had no idea what they had just flown through.

Corporal Skidmore looked below and noticed that there were no clouds above or below them and that was something that he hasn't seen since the war had started. As far as he could see, there was land, but he knew that they were suppose to be above water. Corporal Skidmore asked Lieutenant Phillips to check their map because they must have flown off course. He checked the map with the readings from the gauge and he told Corporal Skidmore that they were suppose to be over the Atlantic Ocean. Lieutenant Phillips looked out his window to see what was below them, he chilled to the bone. He told Corporal Skidmore to go lower to the ground so he could have a closer look at what was below them.

As they descended, they could see light and dark blotches of brown and a lot of bright green, there was no water there, only a mass of land that neither of them had ever seen. Not knowing where they were, Lieutenant Phillips told Corporal Skidmore he better fly at a low altitude until they got their bearings. Lieutenant Phillips didn't want to think of the possibilities that were running through his mind, and he couldn't for the life of him where the water had gone. Even if they had flown off course, they couldn't have gone that far, not to see water.

The Corporal changed course and after flying for twenty minutes he spotted a landmark that he knew well. he knew that they weren't in the air long enough to be where he thought they were, so he mentioned it to the Lieutenant, when the Lieutenant confirmed the landmark to the Corporal, both men knew that something terrible must have happened to the world itself. They were near the airport in Newport, Canada.

This flight took hours, many hours and it took them only one hour and ten minutes. As they started circling, and trying to contact the airport tower to get the clearance to land, they could see smoke billowing up into the sky from where the city was. this was not just a small stream of smoke but mile upon mile of smoke. They could see the fires all over the place.

When they couldn't get any answer from the airport tower, they decided to go lower and check things out. What they saw made their stomach tie up in knots, the airport was in a pile of rubble. As they were looking for a runway that was large enough for them to land, they also could see where several planes had crashed and were still burning. Lieutenant Phillips told Corporal Skidmore to fly over the city at a low altitude so they could check out the damage there.

It seemed that every large structure had collapsed, there were fires burning everywhere, the smoke was coming from all parts of the city and as far as they could tell there were no fire trucks, police or emergency crews at any of these disasters. The smoke was so thick in some places that they had to fly higher. Lieutenant Phillips told Corporal Skidmore to land at the airport so that they could do a summary and report it to the Captain. Little did the Corporal know but Lieutenant Phillips wanted to see if Dini Burke was alright.

As they were circling around the airport, they noticed that most of the runways were damaged too much for them to make a landing. They were going around for the third time when Corporal Skidmore spotted a runway that might be big enough and that had the least amount of damage. Corporal Skidmore told the Lieutenant to hang on because it would be a rough landing. the landing was a rough one and they had run off the runway onto the grass, but they had managed it alright.

They went over to airplanes that had crashed to see if there were any survivors, but they found none. They looked around the airport and they thought that they were in a dream because all they could see was destruction and not another living soul.

They walked around the rubble that used to be the airport and checked out the cars that were standing on all four tires. The parking lot looked like a kid had a bunch of dinky cars and had piled them up haphazardly. This amount of destruction was mind blowing. The Lieutenant and the Corporal felt as if they had just stepped into the Twilight Zone. They started walking towards the highway hoping that they would come across someone driving, or just alive. They were thinking the same thing, wondering if they were the only two people alive.

They had been walking for some time when it started to get dark, up until then they never saw a living soul. They had been walking in the dark for quite some time and they stopped to take a rest when they both noticed the outline of a house that was still standing. As they were walking up the driveway, the Lieutenant could just make out the out-line of a pick-up truck. They tried the doors of the truck and found that they were unlocked. Corporal Skidmore was checking out the glove compartment and found a flashlight. He pushed on the switch and the flashlight worked. They then headed for the house.

Once inside the house, they noticed a flickering light coming from the back room. Lieutenant Phillips called out to see if anyone was there. They heard a faint "hello" and headed towards the voice. From the front door to where they were standing, there was a long hallway, there was a door on either side of the hall and right ahead of them, at the end of the hallway was another room, this was where the faint light was coming from. When they got to the doorway at the end of the hall, they could see an elderly woman sitting at the table. As they came into the kitchen they could see an elderly man standing in a corner, with a shotgun pointing at them. Lieutenant Phillips introduced his Corporal and himself. Upon doing this the elderly man lowered his shotgun and explained to the Lieutenant that they had driven around after the big storm to see if they could help anybody but they couldn't find anyone alive. When they heard someone coming into their house, they wanted to be sure that wouldn't be harmed. The Lieutenant told the elderly man " this is very dangerous times and that he didn't blame him for being cautious." The elderly woman introduced herself as Annie and he husbands name was Artie, then she asked them "would you like something to eat or drink?" Both men answered with a resounding "please."

Once the elderly couple made the men a sandwich and a cup of tea, the Lieutenant asked the elderly couple to tell them what had happened? After they had eaten and had found out what happened the Lieutenant asked Artie if they could have a loan of his pick-up. Artie put his hand in his shirt pocket and extracted the truck keys and held them out to him. Lieutenant Phillips and Corporal Skidmore thanks the couple and then they took their leave.

Once they were in the truck and driving down the highway, towards the city, they could see the outline of something that should have been the city, instead it was like they were in another world. They drove as far as they could and then pulled over to the side of the road. They were looking at a wall of cement, steel and all other different things. The wall was at least fifty feet high. They walked along this wall to see if there was an opening, but all they could do was stand there and look with disbelieving eyes. Corporal Skidmore suggested that they should check the back of the truck to see if they had any rope, so they could try and climb the wall. Maybe once they got over the wall they would be able to walk into the city.

They went back to the truck and as luck would have it, they found lots of rope. They had to go slowly and it took them several hours to get to the top of the wall. Once up there they were sorry that they made it. Looking around them they knew that there would be no one alive, if there was then they were buried under tons of concrete, steel and tons of glass, with the moon shining down on the broken glass, it looked like millions of diamonds. Just as they were turning to go back down the wall that they climbed, Corporal Skidmore noticed a bright light come on about a mile from where they were. He pointed this out to the Lieutenant. Lieutenant Phillips didn't notice the light because he was too deep in his own thoughts. When he became aware of this he told the Corporal they were going to get where the light was. Once they were on top of the wall and had looked around them they knew that the wall used to be high tower buildings that had collapsed from the great storm or quake, that the elderly couple told them about.

It took them a couple more hours to get to where the light was. Before they reached the point where the light was they could hear the generators running at full speed. The light was coming from the parking lot to a hospital. There were a few nurses and a couple of doctors and many injured people. There was a crew of men trying to erect a large tent, another crew were running with stretchers which had dead bodies on them. There was a large lawn in the back of the parking lot and there must have been a thousand bodies placed in rows. The nurses and doctors were hurrying from one stretcher to the next. The hospital had collapsed towards the street entrance and that was how they were able to use the area that they were in. The back of the hospital had a park setting and this was left virtually untouched. Lieutenant Phillips when up to a doctor that he recognized and asked him "where Doctor White was ?" Doctor Banachek told the Lieutenant that as far as he knew, Dr, White had left that morning to go to his cabin up north. Only Dr. White knew about the tests that were being done on the girls, so there was no point in asking this doctor about Dini Burke. The Lieutenant told the doctor he and the Corporal would be heading back to their army base and that he would tell the Captain that the city needed help. The doctor thanked him and turned to check out another body that was brought to him.

Lieutenant Phillips knew that Dr. White had taken Dini Burke with him when he went to his cabin that morning. He didn't trust the doctor, Dini and her sister had become very close to the doctor, and Lieutenant Phillips knew this. He just felt it in his bones that that Dini was alright, he even made a promise to himself

that he wouldn't tell on the doctor if he did help Dini out of the city because with him doing that the doctor probably saved her life. He also knew that Dini's parents owned one of the greenhouses that the army was getting food from. If she wasn't with the doctor, then she would be at her parents and this put the Lieutenant in seventh heaven, he knew that he would be able to go and bring her back. He was going to get Dini and the most pleasant thing about this was that she would be very grateful to him because he would go to bat for her with his superiors and with the government. This was going to work out much better then what he thought. They soon came to the wall were they left the truck. It took them less tome in getting down the wall then it did climbing up it. As Lieutenant Phillips walked back towards the truck, he wore a satisfied smile. Once in the truck, Lieutenant Phillips told the Corporal "to head for the base".

They were travelling on the highway and instead of having a clear course of roadways, they had become obstacle courses. The Lieutenant told him " pull over to the shoulder and they can grab a few hours of needed sleep until daylight, it was getting too dangerous to drive in the dark". There were too many fallen trees and debris on the roads.

Corporal Skidmore didn't like the Lieutenant, but he was stuck with him until they reached the base. When the Lieutenant had told him to pull over at the side of the road and to get some shut-eye, he pretended to sit back and close his eyes and sleep. Once he heard the Lieutenant snore softly, he opened his eyes and gazed up at the night sky, seeing the stars and clearness of the sky. It was a wonderful sight. He didn't understand what was going on but something had changed for the better. He was in a hurry to get back to base too, he wanted to get his leave and check on his wife, Arlene and the kids to make sure that they were alright as well. As he was sitting there thinking about his wife and daughters, he dozed off.

As the first rays of sunlight lit up the horizon, The Corporal and Lieutenant started to head for the base. This was no easy task, there were trees strewn across parts of the highway, with the debris from houses and buildings, the driving was slow going. They were driving up highway ten, trying to get to highway nine. They had just passed highway eighty-nine. All these back highways were all two lanes and there were many bends and dips in all of them. Corporal Skidmore had travelled these highways many times and he knew it like the back of his hand. As he approached the crest of the last hill before their turn-off, he hit the brakes hard and the truck came to a screeching halt. Lieutenant Phillips had been sitting back in his seat with his eyes closed when this happened, with the force of the sudden stop, the Lieutenant was flung forward and he hit the dashboard with a \sounding wack. As he pushed himself back onto his seat, ready to give the Corporal proper shit, he looked out the window and saw that where there used to be a hill, there was water. The truck came to within twenty feet of driving into it. They both got out of the truck and walked to the edge of the water, they could see that the water covered the land for miles. When they left here four days ago, this was all farm land, with trees surrounding the highway on either side, now they were facing a lake that was never there before now.

Lieutenant Phillips asked in a whinny voice" what are we going to do now?" Corporal Skidmore told him " the best thing was for them to go back to highway eighty-nine". The Lieutenant gave a nod to his head and they headed back to the truck.

It took them twenty minutes to get back the highway eighty-nine, but once they were on it, they had an easier trip. It took them another twenty minutes to get to highway four hundred, this highway was a six lane highway and they were able to make good time. This highway was another that was surrounded by trees, but all they had to do was turn their heads to the left and they could see the new formed lake.

As they were approaching the city of Brandon, the Lieutenant told the Corporal to drive into the city limits, if he could. He wanted to see if he find a small boat or raft, just in case they came across a mass of water again. As it turned out they didn't have to go into the city because as they were passing a farm house, they spotted a small fishing boat. The farm house was in a heap, so was the barn, they called out to see if anyone would answer, but they knew that they wouldn't get a response. They put the boat in the back of the pick-up and were back on the highway within fifteen minutes.

When they pulled onto the highway, they noticed a military truck behind them. As they took their turn-off the army truck followed them. The road was in real bad shape and they had to go real slow.

They were three miles from the army base when they did come across more water. They pulled over to the shoulder of the road and noticed that the army truck did the same. As they were getting out of the truck they could see that there were three military men getting out of their truck as well. The three Privates came up to them and the one named Andrews, reported to the Lieutenant, Shortly after their brief conversation, Corporal Skidmore heard the Lieutenant telling the Privates " get the boat from the back of the truck and into the water."

Corporal Skidmore was wondering if the army base was still where it was when they left or if it was under water. He also wondered, with all of the destruction everywhere he had been, if the small town where his wife and daughters were, was still standing or would it be in a pile of rubble or worse still would it be under water?