What follows is a chronological order of events that take place in a series, written by an Agent within The Division who shall remain anonymous. He shares his nickname at the end of each entry, so that his friends and family will recognize, that they may keep up to date with his journey. The entries are date stamped the day they are received, which may not reflect the day they were written, as some entries may cover multiple days. They are posted as they come in, unaltered.

03-25-2016

Day 2

My hands are still shaking, so I don’t know how long this entry will be. I’m currently writing this in the darkness of the underground subway tunnels tucked into a corner, lit only by the dull LCD of my Chromebook on battery power. When I showed up at the post Office HQ at first light, I was sent off on a three mission, three day expedition. There was a doctor working out of Madison Square Garden that was being forced to work for one of the bigger gangs, healing their wounded. Second mission was to get some of the subway tunnels powered up near the Hudson Yard construction site and makeshift dead-body incinerators, and get the ventilation fans turned on, and then finally meet with the Chief of Security, Captain Roy Benitez, at an undisclosed location by day three. I’ll get that information tomorrow, if I make it through tonight.

So, why am I in the darkness, in the subway tunnels? Well, let’s first talk about Madison Square Garden.

 MSG was one of the first buildings used as a quarantine shelter when the pandemic hit and Manhattan went on lockdown. The building typically caters to tens of thousands of fans nightly, so they had enough food and supplies ready for the first waves of people. But one of the bigger gangs, the Rikers, rolled in and took over the place once the looting and riots started. As the JTF was just getting situated, they didn’t have the resources yet to take it back, and they lost control. Dr. Jessica Kandel was captured and held against her will to provide medical attention to the club. My task today, with hopefully some other Agents was to take back MSG and rescue the doctor, and escort her back to the Farley base so she can work with the JTF and figure out what’s happening with this virus.

I was not naive or delusional when I enlisted to be an Agent many years ago, I was qualified, aced their training programs, and passed their counseling sessions and psychological assessment. I was led to believe that I may have to take a life, in self defence, in this type of work, especially when the situation is as extreme as the one we presently face. I’ve been equipped with a classic AK-47 with extended magazine and laser sight, a metallic black Super 90 shotgun, and First Wave PF-45 pistol. Obviously the Homeland Division and Joint Task Force are expecting us to come against some push-back.

All the sessions and assessments did not prepare me for today. I . . . I just get this feeling where it’s like I’m not, I guess, whatever. We don’t have to get into it right now.

All the missing person posters are attached to the walls of the buildings adjacent to the Post Office Headquarters.

Two other Division Agents followed me through the entrance doors of the Madison Square Garden arena, along with a handful of JTF soldiers. We were directed to the security room where the CCTV and broadcast cameras had different views of the building. Dr. Kendel was kept at the East side of the building, in the main restaurant area between the lower and upper bowls. Due to the clogging of refuse and food stores all the hallways were blocked off and the easiest way was down through the seats, across the floor and then up the far side. The mission quickly turned to disaster as we hit the floor and were attacked by a handful of the Riker gang members.

Primarily armed with only handguns and baseball bats, they were no match for the other two Agents or me, as we had them clearly out-classed. There was no hesitation on their part though. I begged them to lay down their guns – walk away. Maybe it was my mask, maybe they didn’t understand me. Maybe they weren’t listening. I’ll put it this way: they didn’t leave the arena floor to follow us up the other side.

The rest of the extraction is still kind of a blur to me, but we made it out. The JTF soldiers extracted Dr. Kendal from the VIP restaurant section, while the other two Agents and I made it to the roof to clear out the remaining members of the entrenched gang. Another battle filled with confusion, smoke, and very little negotiation.

The sun went down a few hours ago and it got cold quick. I didn’t have the strength or the mind to make it back to the Base to properly check in – just used my Comm instead – and I went straight to the Subway Tunnels to prepare and scout my next mission. I’ll have to touch base with one of the city planners who are familiar with the inner workings of the electrical room tomorrow.

I do hope my previous message made it out into the world, or that it at least got to the people that needed to read it. If I make it out of this mess, I’ll have to remember to thank my old crew at the paper. This message will be quite a few days old I suspect by the time it gets out, if it gets out. But now I just need to try and get some rest.

-iRogan
01261985