Poison Paradise - Damned of the 2/19th

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"This is bullshit," Raincloud said, turning and throwing the empty can at the wall. It clinked off the wall, bounced into the stack of canned peaches, and all of the cans tinkled as they fell to the floor.

"That's not helping," Renee said softly, setting the can she was holding gently on the shelf.

"Neither is starving to death," Raincloud snapped. He turned to Sarah, clenching his fists. "What's so goddamn funny?"

"It's so obvious, if we would have thought a moment. It's all so obvious," she giggled, covering her mouth. "It's all a cosmic joke. It's just a joke."

"Great, she's cracking up," Mike muttered.

Sarah held up the pages she'd taken from the three ring binder. "The map's right here. We've got living facilities, dining facilities, showers, recreation areas, a movie theater. All of that will be right here," She rattled the pages. "But the stuff that can spoil, rot, or go bad? The stuff that doesn't matter to soldiers who'll be eating military rations and other food for their training? The stuff that a soldier in training doesn't need but can go bad sitting around? That stuff will all be fake, all be mockups."

Kevin nodded, setting the can marked "cream of mushroom soup" back on the shelf. "It would have been nice if the food were really here."

"It'd be nicer if our plane hadn't crashed into the ocean," Renee mumbled, turning around. She looked at Sarah. "Any ideas, Madam Civil Engineer?"

Sarah shook her head. "We can wait out the storm down here, up in the post office, or try another building," she said. She shook the map again. "There's four different exits listed, one for the court-house, one for the elementary school, and the last that's just numbers. I think it's a military entrance."

"That's where we need to get into," Renee said, moving up to the mannequin. "So, sexy, willing to tell me the code to get into the military section if I flash you my boobs?"

Everyone stared at her as she stood on her tiptoes and licked the ear of the mannequin.

"No? Well, your loss, they're really really nice," Renee said, then laughed. She looked at everyone else. "Oh, come on, it was funny."

Everyone just mumbled and looked away.

"Let's head back. We'll let Don and Lori know that this place is a bust," Renee said, moving past the mannequin.

"I've got a map to the town. We don't have to stay in the post office," Sarah said, squinting at the slightly blurred Xerox in her hand. "We could stay in the court-house. There's also..."

She held the paper up to the light. "Huh, weird, there's other shelters. Looks like some in the back yards and basements of houses."

"If this was built in the 1950's, lots of people were building shelters in their basements and back yards," Kevin said, shrugging. "Don would probably know why they'd include it in a training base."

"You could always ask the fan-girl," Charlie said, following Renee out into the hallway.

"OK, why?" Kevin asked.

"Ever heard of martial law?" Charlie said.

"It's where the government takes over everything. Businesses, factories, schools, suspend Congress and the Senate, the Supreme Court, uses the military as a police force, suspends habeus corpus, and moves full dictatorship," Raincloud said. "If the Republicans get into office after Bill Clinton leaves office they will put all of America under martial law within a year."

"Kind of," Charlie said, rolling her eyes. "During martial law for a major disaster," she glared at Raincloud, "Like total global thermonuclear war, they don't want people inhabiting private shelters and residences and hoarding supplies."