Post-Apocalypse: Henry and the Number: Post Apocalypse, #1

By Steven Paul

A short read novella centered on a bizarre series of world events that have instantly changed the life of Henry Ward, an IT programmer and avid researcher from Phoenix Arizona. His quest for understanding the truth of what has happened, leads him on a journey where he quickly discovers that there is more to the story than what the public is being told.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steven Paul
• Release date: Jun 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227262509

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Post Apocalypse: Henry and the Number

Copyright ©2023 Steven Paul All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

(stevenpaul.ca)

Dedicated to all those who seek the truth and help lead the way

through the darkness

SP - June 2023

CHAPTER ONE

Numb

IT WAS 4:33 PM London time and 8:33 AM Los Angeles time, when bombs went off at the underground subway platforms at the Los Angeles 7th Street Metro Station and London Victoria Station. It was rush hour in both cities and the explosions sent a shock wave of panic throughout each building as the bombs went off. People were screaming and sent running for their lives at the sight of the carnage. A decapitated body here, a set of missing limbs there, with other various body parts flung across the floor of the platform. Blood stains mixed with brain tissue and splintered bone fragments were splattered against the subway walls, running down the subway tiles to the floor.

The carnage could also be seen through the blown out windows of the subway cars. The sliding doors were blown apart and pushed inwards. The twisted metal doors were scorched with black residue from the explosion. Inside the subway cars, bodies were scattered everywhere from the shear magnitude of the explosion. There were bodies impaled by sharp metal objects thrust through the torso or straight through the skull. Other bodies hung out the back side of windows with their heads smashed in upon impacting the tempered glass. Any voices that could still be heard, were crying out in agony as the bodies of the dead and the dying lay toppled upon each other.

People that survived the initial blast on the platform, were running through the subway tunnels or up the stairs, heading for the escalators leading them to safety at ground level. It was every man for themselves. There was no concern or pity given to the elderly, the handicap or woman with children. They were too slow and they were simply elbowed, punched and kicked out of the way as the panic to get out of the subway station became like an animal fleeing a deadly pack of wolves. 

At the upper level, security personnel we’re running around like mad trying to put into place the safety measures and protocols that they had been trained to do. All the video training they had received and the steps they were to follow in the manual, did not even come close simulating reality. Even the senior security guards were frozen like a dear caught in the headlights. In a frenzy, they ran for defibrillators, medical kits and fire extinguishers. They also ran to secure the entrances to prevent any more commuters from coming in. Frantic calls were made to 911 with hurried voices shouting for ambulances and police to be dispatched immediately. But the terror didn’t end there.

At ground level of the London Victoria station, another attack was taking place shortly after the bomb went off. A strange fog began to fill the air in the hall and people started to cough and choke from the fumes. Their burning, red and puffy eyes were temporary blinded as tears ran down their cheeks. Crying screams could be heard around the hall as people were desperately wiping their eyes while gasping to catch a fresh breath of air into their burning lungs. The more they tried to gasp for air, the worse the pain that burned their lungs. The old and frail collapsed to the floor as others crawled blindly on their hands and knees trying to get away from the fumes and find a way outside the station.

The same scenario was playing out an ocean away in the mezzanine level of the 7th Street Metro station in downtown Los Angeles. A thick heavy fog also filled the airspace of the mezzanine and the same symptoms were being experienced by commuters on their way to their subway platform. The same puffy red eyes, the same burning lungs and the same temporary blindness.

A wailing of sirens and horns could be heard in the distance as fire, police and paramedics were fighting their way through rush hour traffic trying to make their way as quickly as possible to the horrific scene that was still playing out. As first responders started arriving, they quickly began rushing in to secure the area and to start providing aid to the vast numbers of injured. The station hall at the London Victoria and the mezzanine level of the 7th Street station looked like the aftermath of a prison riot. People were sprawled out everywhere on the floor, some with chests pounding still gasping for air, some completely motionless and unresponsive and many other sitting with head in hand, weeping. The vast majority were still stunned by what just had happened and were looking around with a blank stair in their eyes, clearly taken with fear.

Down below in the subway tunnels it was a gruesome sight. The screaming and hollering had now become desperate cries for help coupled with the moans and sobs from the many who were suffering and writhing in pain. Commuters who could not escape the tunnels, lay on the floor or creeping on their belly still in a desperate bid to escape. The injuries were numerous. Broken arms and legs, dislocated joints, broken noses and teeth, ripped out hair, earlobes half bitten off as well as knife wounds and scorched skin from cigarette lighter burns.

Getting to the victims at the London Victoria was going to be a challenge as the entrance ways to the subway stations below had narrow stairs and escalators. They were designed to efficiently move people in and out of the subway station, not for a disaster of this magnitude. These entrances and exits now became a single point of failure. Some access points to the subway stations below were still available for emergency purposes but efforts would still be hampered in getting medical supplies and stretchers down there. There was also the blown out subway train with its dead and dying as well as people still on board the other carriages that had yet to be freed. With the train incapacitated and blocking access to the platform and rail cars, emergency rescue vehicles could not make their way through that way either. All of these difficulties required that a well coordinated rescue effort be put in place. The focus would be on clearing the stairs and escalators of the trampled bodies of the dead and injured, attending to the needs of the suffering laying in the tunnels and lastly, rescuing the people in the carriages. In the case of the 7th Street station, while not as complex a station as the London Victoria, the explosion at the platform had taken out part of the stairs leading up to the mezzanine. The elevator going down to the platform level had been severely damaged, which meant that route to get stretchers in and out would be impossible. Hoisting the stretchers up and down ropes with a makeshift pulley, would be the only other way of getting the bodies out. Like the London Victoria train, getting rescue vehicles to the train was also going to be impossible.

All