The Story So Far

You are Cal Phoenix, a survivor, born in California on Thanksgiving Day in the year AD 2000. In 2012, whilst on winter vacation at your Uncle Jonas’ and Aunt Betty-Ann’s ranch in Texas, you were invited to visit a shale-oil mine near Austin, the first of its kind in Texas. As Chief of Construction, your uncle was proud to take you on a guided tour of the whole underground complex, which, for security reasons, was totally self-supporting. It was during this tour on 3 January 2012 that the unthinkable happened.

You remember how the ground shuddered when the shock waves from the first distant explosions reached the mine. Immediately you assumed it was the start of an earthquake, which you had experienced many times at home in California. However, as the levels nearest the surface began to collapse and the central elevator shaft filled with rubble, you realized the awful truth: the holocaust. At first there was no way of telling the extent of the surface devastation. Below ground, the safety generators had switched into operation automatically when the main power supply failed, and the tremors had faded quickly, which encouraged your aunt and uncle to believe that the damage above was superficial. Uncle Jonas was confident that the military would mount a rescue operation and that you would be brought out within a few days, a week at the most. Aunt Betty-Ann, too, was optimistic. After all, there were emergency supplies—enough to feed 200 men for a whole month. Little did she know that the three of you would end up consuming all those supplies, or that the mine would become your home, your shelter, and your prison for the next eight years of your lives.

It was early September in the year 2019 when eventually you broke through to the surface. When first you set eyes on the landscape surrounding the mine, it was like looking at the surface of another planet. Few structures had survived the blizzards and intense cold that had swept around the world in the years following ‘The Day’, and now, after the dust had settled and the sun had returned, the once-fertile plains of Austin resembled little more than a desert of parched and broken rock, littered with the artefacts of an absent civilization.

During the first few days, when you set out to explore this wilderness, it was easy to believe that you were the only survivors. But on the morning of the fifth day Uncle Jonas made chance radio contact with a family called Ewell who were living near the ruins of McKinney, thirty miles north of Dallas. They told him that they had been in touch with a handful of other groups who had managed somehow to survive the holocaust. Most were isolated and unable to move due to lack of fuel, food, or water. They had urged those who could travel to join them in McKinney to start a new community there, and some people were already on their way. When your uncle and aunt accepted their invitation, the Ewells were enthusiastic, but they also warned you to be wary—not everyone who had survived wanted to establish a new community. The ruins of some large Texan cities, such as Dallas and Fort Worth, were controlled by gangs of criminals who fought with each other and terrorized anyone seeking to reestablish law and order. They urged you to avoid these gangs at all costs.

It took more than a week to discover a vehicle that could transport you to McKinney. It was an old school bus, one that had been parked in an underground lot and had survived the years of sub-zero blizzards. With fuel and spares salvaged from the mine, you managed to coax it back to life, and then set off on your journey north.

When you arrived at the town, it was easy to find where the Ewells lived—their ranch was the only place that was still standing. It looked more like an old frontier post than a ranch, with its fortified perimeter wall, lookout posts, and stake-filled moat. However, after being ambushed and shot at by the city gangs of Fort Worth during the final stages of your journey, you fully appreciated the need for these defences.

‘Pop’ Ewell, the seventy-year-old grandfather of the Ewell family, was the leader of this small colony of survivors, and it was he who had urged Uncle Jonas to join them when they had first made radio contact. The colony numbered less than a dozen at the time of your arrival, yet, as the airwaves became clearer and new contacts were made, soon this number had more than doubled to twenty-five. It was decided that a name was needed to identify the settlement. The name ‘Dallas Colony One’ was adopted, known as ‘DC1’ for short. From that day on, everyone worked hard to make DC1 a secure haven for those seeking refuge from the hostile wastelands and marauding city gangs.

‘Cutter’ Jacks was one such refugee. Before ‘The Day’ he had been chief mechanic at the International Grand Prix Circuit near Lake Dallas, and his incredible skill with, and knowledge of, engines was soon to prove invaluable to the colony. He taught you how to drive, and from a pile of old wrecks that you helped him salvage from the circuit, he built you a powerful, customized car. You used it to patrol the highways north of the city, keeping a lookout for gangs of city punks who frequently mounted raids to steal or destroy DC1’s supplies. Cutter also taught you to shoot. It was your natural prowess with a gun, and your skill behind the wheel, that was to earn you the begrudging respect of your enemies, who took to calling you the ‘Freeway Warrior’.

Six months after you arrived at DC1, the colony was faced with a major crisis. A heat wave was causing a drought that threatened to destroy the food supply. Crops were failing and the colony’s artesian well, its only source of uncontaminated water, was beginning to dry up. The drought was also provoking more attacks from the city punks, who were desperate for food and water. Their common need had united them and now they posed a very real threat to the security of DC1.

It was the last day of May 2020, when Pop Ewell made radio contact with another colony who were based in the city of Big Spring, 300 miles west of McKinney. Their situation was completely the reverse of DC1’s: they had food and water in plentiful supply but they were desperately short of fuel. They told of their contact with survivors in Tucson, Arizona, who were also without fuel. The Tucson colony reported that the territories west of the mountains of the Sierra Nevada had been spared the worst effects of the radioactive blizzards that had devastated the rest of the country and, miraculously, much of southern California was still widely populated. In fact, it had survived the last eight years virtually intact. When you heard the news you could hardly believe your ears. Perhaps your family was still alive. After all that had happened, there was now a real hope that one day you might be reunited with them.

A meeting was held to decide how best to deal with the crisis facing DC1. Everyone agreed that to stay at McKinney would lead eventually to death, either slowly from starvation or suddenly at the hands of the murderous city gangs. The only choice open to DC1 was to try to reach California; only there lay real hope for the future of the colony. The decision was relayed to the survivors at Big Spring and a deal was struck to rendezvous with them as soon as possible. DC1 would refuel them in exchange for food and water, and together they would join up with the Tucson colony for the final stage of the journey to California.

Careful preparations were made for the long trek, and three vehicles were chosen to make up the convoy: the school bus, your customized roadster, and a gasolene tanker laden with 5000 gallons of petroleum siphoned from underground storage tanks at the Ewell ranch. Supplies of food and water were adequate but the colony lacked sufficient firearms and ammunition with which to defend itself. So, on the day before the convoy was due to leave, one of the colonists was sent north to search the town of Sherman for weapons. He radioed back to say that he had found a cache of hunting rifles and ammunition, but that his truck had broken down and he was stranded in the town. He had also found a survivor—a beautiful teenage girl—and he requested that you be sent to Sherman to pick them up. As soon as you arrived you were ambushed by the scouts of a brutal gang of bikers known as the Detroit Lions and, in the ensuing gun battle, you killed Stinger—the scouts’ leader.

Later, you learned that the girl, Kate Norton, was the sole survivor of a Kansas City colony, which had been attacked and wiped out by the Detroit Lions. The Lions’ leader, who calls himself ‘Mad Dog Michigan’, had taken a liking to her and spared her life. Mad Dog had once been a high-ranking HAVOC agent. He had escaped from Pontiac Deep Pen near Detroit, and he and his gang, most of whom were also HAVOC escapees, were heading for the Fort Hood Military Reserve near Killeen, Texas, the largest armoury in the whole of the United States. There he hoped to find enough weapons to equip the other HAVOC clans who were now in control of cities all along the eastern seaboard. Kate had managed to steal a motorcycle and escape from their camp, but Mad Dog had been determined to get her back. He sent his brother—Stinger—and a handful of his best scouts to track her down. They had finally caught up with her at Sherman.

When Mad Dog learned that you had killed his brother, he vowed to get even with you at any price. He abandoned his plans to loot Fort Hood and embarked instead on a relentless pursuit of your colony as it crossed the sun-scorched wastelands of central Texas. The journey to Big Spring was fraught with great danger. Yet, in spite of the many perils you faced, or perhaps because of them, you felt yourself falling in love with Kate and you sensed that she, too, was becoming increasingly fond of you.

Sadly, the convoy was only a few miles from Big Spring when disaster struck. The land surrounding the settlement was controlled by a gang of bikers, a renegade clan called the ‘Mavericks’ who had been the bane of the Big Spring colony for many months. As the convoy drew nearer to its destination, the Mavericks launched an attack, and, in the running battle that ensued, they captured and abducted Kate. The convoy entered the fortified gates of Big Spring to a rapturous welcome from the colonists of that settlement, but for you the mood of celebration was soured by the vivid memory of Kate’s abduction. You vowed to rescue her, and, from that moment on, every waking minute of every day at Big Spring was spent thinking about little else.

By chance it transpired that the leader of the Mavericks, a blond-haired murderer called Amex Gold, was a former HAVOC agent who had served under Mad Dog Michigan before ‘The Day’. He offered to join forces with the Lions, and, as a token of his loyalty to his former commander, he returned Kate to him. Together, the Lions and the Mavericks launched a hasty attack on Big Spring. However, although they outnumbered the colony by more than three to one, they were unable to breach the settlement’s fortified perimeter wall, and were repelled with heavy losses.

On the day after the attack, Pop Ewell discovered the radio frequency that the clansmen were using and was able to eavesdrop on their communications. He learned that Mad Dog had ordered another HAVOC clan, based in New Orleans, to come and reinforce his command; they were expected to arrive within the week. He also overheard Mad Dog arrange a meeting with Mekong Mike, the leader of the Angelinos, a gang that controlled the city of San Angelo. He wanted him as an ally and was prepared to offer guns and ammunition in return for his help in destroying the Big Spring colony.

Two days later, Mad Dog Michigan set off for San Angelo at the head of a motorcycle pack 200 riders strong. Those few clansmen who remained with Amex Gold tried myriad tricks to convince the colony that the Mavericks and the Lions still surrounded Big Spring in strength, but to no avail. The senior members of the newly-enlarged colony convened a meeting at which it was decided that, with the clansmen now at their weakest, and with the appearance of the New Orleans gang expected at any time, a breakout had to be attempted without delay.

There is only one way for the colony to reach Tucson overland and that is to follow the remains of Interstate Freeway 10 through the arid, mountainous territory of western Texas. Precisely halfway between Big Spring and Tucson is situated the city of El Paso, which is chosen as the colony’s first destination. The city lies at the end of a long, steep, and tortuous stretch of mountain highway, and few doubt that the journey to El Paso will prove the most exacting test of strength and endurance any of you are ever likely to face during your long journey to California.