Scorched Earth | Page 3

entire world. Those, called peaceful and democratic, were not far from similar aspirations. In utter stupidity, arms were again manufactured for defence.
Trusting no one, the people called 'Americans' resumed in their secret building of great subterranean cities across the face of the North American Continent. These were the cities that were conceived and under construction since the great destruction of two Japanese cities during the period called World War II. Having been the wealthiest of the Earth's nations, the Americans continued with their early nuclear war survival plans, designated as "Proposition Blue". It was this proposal that expedited the construction and populating of those cities named the Omega Sub-Ground Installations: (O.S.G.I's).
Constructed near more populous areas and connected by underground pneumatic travel tubes, each city was designed to host some one thousand individuals made up of the chosen elite. These were the scientists, artists and other members from the intellectual community. The 1950's through the 1980's saw the building and populating of seven O.S.G.I's at the following locations across North America:
OMEGA 1 - SOUTH: Near Eldorado, Texas
OMEGA 2 - NORTH: Near Burke, South Dakota
OMEGA 3 - WEST: Near Pioche, Nevada
OMEGA 4 - EAST: Near Toronto, (Canada)
OMEGA 5 - CENTRAL: Near Manhattan, Kansas
OMEGA 6 - ATLANTIC: Near Atlanta, Georgia
OMEGA 7 - PACIFIC: Near Vancouver, (Canada)
Greatly endangered in the asteroid disaster of the late Twentieth Century, most the cities still survived. Only two cities were utterly destroyed: OMEGA - 2 and 5. These cities were amongst America's greatest achievements, next to their endeavours in space. All the cities were under strict military control, watching the intellectuals and providing them with necessities, to keep them content.
In the first years of the 1990's, however, many of the scientists in these cities were made aware that a nuclear war was inevitable. Unable to control their own consciences and knowing that billions would die, so that they could live, they rose up against the military and passed out of these cities and into the public. They published a document which they called their "Blue Prospectus". This "Blue Prospectus" revealed their government's survival intentions. With adverse feelings towards their respective government, the masses marched on their capital demanding equality to enter these, but nothing was accomplished. The solar catastrophe had occurred and the reasons for their mass discontent were subsequently forgotten.
By the end of the 1999, just over a full year following the asteroid destruction of the Earth's surface, mankind had managed to rebuild their cities and start life anew. Enjoying totally new styles of living, no individual was really poor. The technological advancements during that year of peace were astounding and the entire world now benefited from them.
New sources of power were discovered following great tectonic upheavals caused by the impacting asteroids; small, crystal-like minerals were pushed to the Earth's surface. Their properties were pure and vigorous. Their radiation became useful for everything imaginable.
Remaining secret, those Americans that survived on the surface and those from the O.S.G.I's, converted their power sources to utilise the new crystals. Entire cities were powered by two crystals, no larger than walnuts.
Plans were formulated to build colonies in space, beginning with orbital stations and finally lunar and Martian colonies. These colonies were to be powered by the new crystals and materials for building the colonies would come from the asteroid belt; the very origin of the Earth's cataclysm.
Laser instruments, of innovative design and use, were built to take advantage of this new crystal power. Many of these lasers were used for medicine, however, and only a few thousand weapons were developed, for the police. The police rarely used them, having been given electrostatic guns that inhibited nerve synapses, and in that manner had several non-injured reprobates to their list of captured. The laser weapons that were not used by the police were channelled into the O.S.G.I's, to be taken care of by the city administrators.
During these years of revived human civilisation and technology, there came a movement of great intensity that called for the disarming and dismantling of all destructive weaponry around the world.
The Communist nations were prepared to agree with America and its allied nations. Although there were internal conflicts within the Communist nations, leading to their eventual fall, the governments that emerged from the revolutions eventually fulfilled many promises and commitments to which they were previously committed.
Both great nations dismantled their arsenals and the Americans remained quiet regarding their O.S.G.I's, never recalling those who were assigned to live within them. Not many years following the fall of the Communist Nation, called The Soviet Union, another Communist nation called China, started to experience similar internal problems. Young people and those wishing to have an easier life for themselves, rallied and called for their nation to be more democratic and capitalistic. By the turn of the Twenty-first Century new borders were drawn