The Nightingale Fallout

Chapter one

The winding mountain road was a lonely drive, looking to the right the straight drop off was astounding. Luckily it was night time, Elliot didn't like to see that the only thing stopping his car from plummeting downward into the forest below was a rickety guard rail that had been around since the creation of the road in the early 1900's.

He sighed as he drove, hopefully this job offer was worth the long trip. It was bad enough driving this far alone and having no one to talk to, but ever since he was on this mountain no radio stations were coming in. He had already listened to every CD he brought along for the trip enough times that he hated them now.

Sighing again, Elliot decided to try the radio one more time. By now he was far enough down the mountain, maybe he could get a station to come in. Pressing the power button on his radio brought on a whole light show as it went through its normal routine. He flicked over to Tuner and began his hopeless search. As usual nothing came in but static or silence. He continued scanning through the stations when suddenly he heard a voice break through the white noise. Tweaking the station he kept hearing the persons voice, but it was all broken up.

“Ah, Success. Sounds like some sort of talk show. Of course, I don’t care what it is, as long as I don’t have to sit in silence.” Elliot says aloud. He kept listening and the voice was coming in clearer now, but it was not a talk show, it sounded like a distress call.

“Please some. . .body. . .we. . .send help. . . Elliot begins listening intently trying to hear through the static. “. . .fallout. . .horrors. . .in. . .night. . .killing. . .we need..help!” The radio then falls into complete noise. Elliot frantically tries to get the distress call back. Quickly looking down at the radio he clumsily presses the ‘scan’ button. When he looks back up, he realizes that in those few seconds he had inadvertently veered toward the edge of the pavement and onto the dirt.

“Shit!” Elliot yells as he swerves to get back on track, but in his panic he overcorrects. His car crashes passenger side into the guard rail, ripping it from its foundations. Metal screeches as his vehicle tumbles downward, smashing into rocks and trees. The silence of the night is shattered by the sound of his fatal descent down the mountain. His mangled vehicle continues rolling until it reaches the forest floor. It comes to a sudden stop as it crashes into the side of a tree. Elliot slams his head against the roof and darkness consumes him.

The ground is soft, and the smell of pine needles is in the air. A cool breeze blew through picking up the leaves that had fallen early for autumn. Rays of soft light pierced his vision as Elliot slowly flicked open his eyes. He was laying on the passenger seat and gazing upward through the shattered remains of the driver side window. Large pine trees reached up to the sky, a sky that was covered in clouds. His entire body was sore and he lay there for several minutes before even attempting to move.

He eventually lifts his arms as he pushes himself upward into a sitting position. There is a soft clinking sound as glass shards fall from his body. He slowly raises his hand to his head that was pounding with an unbearable headache. When he looks down at his palm there is dried blood on it. I must’ve cut my head open when I slammed it. I can’t even believe im alive, at least that's what this headache is telling me.

Elliot carefully crawls out of the wreck that used to be his Pontiac. Once out, he stood up and then studies his surroundings. He was standing on an old dirt road in the middle of the forest. He looks left and right, down both ways. Turning, he stares back over at his vehicle. It was a mangled chunk of metal that was barely recognizable as a car. Glancing back up at the overcast sky, Elliot lets out a long sigh.

He cupped his hands around his mouth, “Hello! Anybody!” Elliot yells out at the top of his lungs. But the only answer he received was that of his own echo. He painfully realized that shouting only made his head throb worse and he quickly abandons that attempt at finding help. Remembering his cell phone, Elliot quickly took it out of his pocket, but not surprisingly, he had no signal at all. His whole body groaned as he began walking down the dirt road. He didn’t know which direction of the road to travel, he didn’t care which direction he went, he just walked.

Elliot looked at his surroundings as he made his way through the thickly wooded area, the forest that encased him was cast in silence. All that could be heard was the soft breeze blowing through and his shoes crunching in the dirt. At least his sweater kept him warm as the cool air hit him. Birds were not even out, there was no fluttering of wings, no chirping. Only silence.

After walking for several minutes Elliot notices that the dirt road was slowly turning into pavement. Chunks of broken tar start appearing more and more. Before long, he was walking on a paved road that had been left in disrepair. The yellow lines had faded over time and the road was broken and cracked in several places. It wasn’t just badly maintained, it looked as though it was paved once and then forgotten about. Strange or not, Elliot kept walking. Even a paved road such as this would hopefully lead to a town. Of all the reasons to hope, a hospital was the first one to come to mind.

Looking up at the sky once more, Elliot saw that the clouds are becoming thicker as he walks. The whole area was grey and unsettling, from time to time he even finds himself looking over his shoulder.

After another mile of walking there is a sign on the side of the road, it's bent and covered in dust. Elliot quickly walks over to it and begins brushing the dirt off. The paint was chipped but he could still make out what it said, ‘Nightingale 3 miles’. Spurred with thought of finally getting help he quickly makes his way down the decrepit road toward Nightingale. He just hoped this Nightingale was a town.

As Elliot walked on he continued to look at the road he travels. They had let it deteriorate so badly that it was simply irreparable. Weeds grew out of large cracks, in some places there were actually large bushes. It wasn’t just near the edges of the road either, vegetation grew right in the middle of the broken tar, giant holes were scattered all over. Elliot couldn’t think of a reason why it had been forgotten, it was certainly bizarre. He continues on like this in silence, lost in his thoughts.

After what seemed like hours of looking at his feet to try and push the headache out of thought, Elliot looks up at what caught his eye. It was a large sign to his left that read, ‘Welcome to Nightingale, Pioneering Nuclear Power ‘. The sign was old and chipped, appearing as though it too had not been tended in several years.

The strangest part of the whole scene was what lay just past the welcome sign. It was a large concrete wall, it had to be at least fifteen feet high. The poorly maintained road led right into the ‘entrance’ to the town. An entrance that just happened to be two very large metal doors, large enough to allow two lanes of traffic to pass through. They were completely rusted and shut tight. There was no way Elliot was going to be opening these doors, he decided instead to knock. His 'front door of a home' knocking quickly turned into pounding his fist very hard on the thick iron doors. The obscene noise reverberated through the forest.

“Hello! Can someone open the doors? I need a hospital, I was in a car accident! Hello!” His words and fierce knocking echo in the silence. Several minutes passed, several quiet minutes, there was no answer. Looking around Elliot noticed a much smaller door located near the edge of the woods. It too was thick rusted iron and embedded about a foot into the wall. He made his way through the trees and tested the door, it was locked.

“Shit, what the hell kind of place is this?” Elliot quietly said to himself as he walks around near the door, looking up at the wall. As he was walking backwards, he noticed something poking out of the ground right next to the door. He quickly went over to it and began digging in the ground with his hands. What he discovered was a large key, he looked over the door, and sure enough, there was a keyhole underneath the latch.

Elliot looked around the forest and then tries the key in the door. It fit. The hard part was turning the cylinder lock, it too was very rusted, but after a short battle he heard a click as the door was now unlocked. Pulling the key out, Elliot forced the heavy door open. He was inside.

He quickly shuts the door once he is on the other side. Deciding also to keep the key on him, he quickly slides it into his pocket. Thinking for a few seconds, he reaches underneath the latch and locks the door.

Turning around, he gazed at what was on the other side of the wall. There was not much to see, the air was veiled in a thick haze, and a thin fog hung low to the ground, barely rising to his knees. The road continued on into the dense air, Elliot hesitantly began walking again, he was looking forward to hearing the sounds of civilization.

A few hundred feet and he was standing in the middle of the road that led straight into the small town of Nightingale. It was a nice place, except. . .except, the buildings, and the streets, they were empty. Everything was abandoned, and the silence was absolute. The road led into a ghost town.

Looking around revealed buildings that appeared as though no one had set foot in them in fifty years. The whole town was like a time capsule, forever stuck in some period in the 1950's. He walked on and every building he passes is empty. Large windows on the front of stores, they were either dirt covered or broken. The dark sky cast a haunting look about the place.

He came up to a four way and saw a tourist kiosk on one of the corners and walks over to it. There is a town history on the front, curious, Elliot begins to read it.

'Nightingale was founded on the eve of August, 1948, built up around and inside the thick forest that encases the small town. It was aptly named after the nightingale birds that live here as well. On January 19, 1951, our town became a milestone. A large Nuclear power plant was built in its center, something never done before. Nightingale quickly became the first town to have all of its energy supplied by nuclear power. Serving as a test subject of sorts, Nightingale is the gleaming hope of the future of nuclear power. Eventually every place on earth will be supplied with nuclea . . . '

Beyond that was illegible, the words had faded over time and became impossible to read. Elliot looks about his surroundings.

“A ‘gleaming hope of the future’? It looks like someone abandoned that future. And it doesn’t look as though any bird lives here.” He says to himself as he looks around. The kiosk was right in front of a barber shop and across the street was the police station. All of the buildings looked like hollow shells, the windows revealing only dark interiors.

There was something strange, Elliot remembered a project in history class he did when he was in high school. It was on a town in Russia, what was it called? 'Obninsk'. About the breakthrough it had been because it was the first town to be powered by a nuclear plant. That was in 1954, according to the town history of Nightingale, this place would’ve been the actual first town to be run on nuclear power. Yet, Elliot had never heard of this town, a huge accomplishment such as this, and three years before Russia, but there has never been any mention of it anywhere.

He looks in the back of the kiosk and sees town maps stacked up on the shelves. Reaching for one he quickly grabs and unfolds it. The town is not very large and neatly laid out. The largest structure on the map is, of course, the nuclear power plant in the center. That was not what he was looking for. After a few more seconds of searching he finds the hospital.

He was carefully studying the town of Nightingale when he hears the sound of footsteps echo in the streets. He snaps his head up and looks around, expecting to see another person. The streets are empty, and there is no movement. Elliot quickly goes back at the map trying to find his way to the hospital.

“Gauntlet Street, take Gauntlet Street all the way down, then turn right onto Spruce Street, continue straight and the hospital should be on my right.” Elliot folds up the map, stuffs it in his back pocket and quickly makes his way toward his destination. As he walked, he couldn't help but look over his shoulder several times. There had definitely been footsteps earlier. There was something wrong with this town, something lurking underneath. Elliot slowly headed down the road, unaware of the set of hollow eyes that watched him from the dark.