Bug: First 800 words

The first 800 words of Bug. This is also a rough draft, so I am less focused on grammar and spelling at this point.

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 She lowered her rifle, not wanting to see the destruction and death below. As she turned her head away from the school she saw a cell tower on the far side of the town. She had scavenged this town a dozen times, searching for food and water. Her group was doing all that they could to hunt and to grow food, but the lack of water meant the plants and animals were scarce. This is why they send out scouts.

“Alpha Bravo Zero Papa Gulf this is Kilo Oscar four Papa Juliet Charlie.” Rebecca said into her shoulder mic. She remembered her husband studying for his amateur radio license. It seemed silly to use call signs at the end of the world. No government, no FCC, no need to use government issued call signs. She still used them because it reminded her of a time when the world still worked. It reminded her of her husband.

Static blurted out from her shoulder mic and a man’s voice barely audible over the noise. “Yeah Becca, I can just barely hear you over the static. Sounds like you’re frying up a lot of bacon.”

“I am switching over to cross band repeat. Stand by.” Rebecca replied into her mic. She turned and walked over to her fat bike.

“Yeah ok I can wait.” Said the voice over static.

Her bike had been outfitted with a mobile radio that could cross band repeat. The more powerful radio and bike antenna in conjunction with her hand held radio attached to her backpack extended her reach up to 50 miles. As opposed to a mile or two the hand held afforded her. The more powerful radio required a heavy battery, which was mounted to the side of the back tire on the bike’s pannier frame.  The radio itself was mounted on the other side of the tire to help balance the weight of the back tire. She pressed the power button on the bike’s mobile radio and its screen lit up.

She began to extend the vertical whip antenna on the back of her bike. It was about a foot and a half tall fully extended. It was mounted to the top of the back tire on the pannier frame. It used a baking sheet at the antenna’s base as a ground plane. Her husband was so excited when he set this bike up. She remembered being frustrated with how much time he would put into his radios. He would spend hours playing with them, and double checking his gear. He would have been much better suited for a scouting mission like this. He would have loved this. It would have been an exciting adventure. She just wanted to get back home as soon as she could.

Keying her shoulder mic she called “Ok I am all set. Can you guys hear me now?”

The voice over her shoulder mic responded clear as if they were right next to her, “Crystal clear Becca. What do you have for us?”

Walking back to the cliff’s edge she saw the cell tower again. “I would like to try the radio shack at the base of the cell tower,” she called into her mic. Pointing her riffle at the base of the cellphone tower she peered through the scope. A fence surrounded the tower with a small building inside.

“We need water Becca. We need food. We don’t need to waste our resources on getting tech.” A woman’s voice said over her shoulder mic.

“I get that Janine, but that is one of the only buildings we haven’t checked out yet. I think it might be worth taking a look. We have already riffled through this town a dozen times.” She responded slightly annoyed.

The man’s voice came over the radio, “Yeah good thinking Becca, go ahead but watch your six.”

“Thanks Jim.” She replied taking one last look at the town through her scope.

Discussion

In this section I have done the following:

• The town is a modern-day town. The use of modern technology places the story in the modern era. Cell towers, HAM radios.

• I have implied that our main character Rebecca is part of a group of survivors that live in a nearby community.

  • Her handheld radio was able to just barely make contact with her people, and later we mention that it has a range of a few miles. This indicates that the town she is scouting is only a few miles away from her group.

  • Rebecca has a cross-band repeating radio attached to her bicycle, and a handheld ham radio on her person. This gives her a range of around 50 miles via simplex.

  • I introduced 2 members from her group: Janine and Jim.

    • Janine seems to be a bit of a pain in the rear

    • Jim seems to be more chill

  • I have introduced Rebecca’s husband

    • I have implied that he is no longer around. Possibly he has died.

    • she seems to miss him

    • Her husband was a HAM radio operator and likely a prepper

    • She was not as interested in his hobbies as he was, and was likely a point of conflict for their marriage. This is a very common issue with HAM.

  • I mentioned that the government is dead, and there is no FCC.

  • I mentioned the lack of water

Things I would like to include moving forward:

• The group uses GMRS radios to communicate with each other inside the community. For scouting missions they use VHF/UHF HAM radios that give them a little bit further range.

• The local repeaters are not functioning. HF and VHF\UHF simplex are the only forms of regular communication. Cellphone towers are dead, and the electrical grid is down as well.

• Expand upon the lack of food and water.

  • The bugs ate most of the vegetation, which affected wildlife.

  • The lack of water also affected the wildlife, and the fact the world has become a dustbowl means finding water has become the highest priority.

    • It barely rains, and when it does the ground drinks it up leaving very little for consumption. Groundwater is also hard to find and often tainted. Possibly with a virus or contaminant.