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.

03-21-2016

 DAY1

So I’ve survived day 1. I got the call that I had been dreading and now I’m here, for lack of a better word: alone. The message was received on my watch at oh-nine-hundred yesterday, March 19th, and I went straight to my local base to get on the next transport. I was expecting the message, but didn’t think it would come this soon, and with so little warning. Luckily I don’t have any pets, or a girlfriend or fiance at home. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to my friends or Mom though. So, uh, goodbye everyone. I hope to see you again, or hear from you when this is all over. Mom, I love you and miss you, and I’m OK. I guess I should get that out of the way right away. I’m OK.

A little back story – I’m a Division Agent. Surprise! Right? Who would have guessed? One of many agents actually. We were enlisted, and trained in basic combat, and survival techniques. Nothing fancy. We know how to shoot, track, and survive. And basic comm skills. It’s not our day job, but something that we get some compensation on the side for, to keep up emergency supplies and rations, and so they can keep tabs on us. We’re a sleeper emergency response unit basically, to be called upon when shit gets real, when the government needs to regain control of its people. In the event of a disaster or something. We report to the Strategic Homeland Division and assist the JTL, or Joint Task Force to help restore some order to the city.

What I don’t need to tell you is that disaster has struck, in the form of a smallpox pandemic. Someone called it the “Dollar Flu” and the name has stuck. Its central to New York right now, and the city has been quarantined. With me inside. There aren’t many people left here either. Anyone left here standing is immune and the rest are, well, diseased. The disease transferred by touch through money, physical money. And in a heavily populated area like New York, money changes hands constantly. That’s why it spread so fast.

I got one of the locals to snap a picture of me standing underneath a “No Standing Anytime” sign. The sign could be referring to me, or The X-Men. I didn’t ask for clarification.

They have the base of operations set up James A. Farley Post Office, and that was my first stop today. Met with the commanding officers and was given my gear, guns, some food while I’m mobile and my Comm pack. Met a few of the other Agents, but the expectations of us are to go somewhat alone, so that we’re more spread out across the city, and not clumped together. As a result of the Dollar Flu, and the city being quarantined, there is some pretty heavy looting and destruction of the city by the survivors. Basically thugs. The cockroaches are the ones to survive right? Our primary objective as an Agent is to clean up the city while the cause of the pandemic is determined, and a cure is created. As we are ground zero, we also have to follow the commands of the higher-ups, in case we’re give a mission.

Looting and destruction isn’t the worst of it. People have been taken hostage, people are fighting over whole streets, and claiming it as their own, like a gang mentality. No city services are running, so there’s fires everywhere. I’m surprised the power is even still running. There doesn’t really seem to be a lot of news leaving the area either. At the head base while I was waiting for my turn to be called for gear, I was watching the TV of the outside connection they had setup, and the news was talking about the virus and the quarantine, and that’s it. I’m guessing they don’t want people to know how bad it actually is, how bad the looting has gotten, or how high the death toll has risen. The JTL has no way of removing the dead bodies, and no real means of cleaning up the city. I’m not sure if they’re keeping them for testing, but there’s a lot of covered bodies around. I heard they have a huge incinerator near the construction site of the train tunnels.

I’m not allowed to talk to media or share anything. I have a little wireless chromebook that I keep with me, which is how I’m writing to you, but there’s no network or internet connections throughout the entire Downtown Manhattan. Only the Base has the hard-line connection and Satellite. Luckily the base is located in a Post Office though, and post offices deal in mail. I have a friend who works in Comms, and he has access to the Network and Comms to Brooklyn. I’ve given him the info to my work’s FTP. I work for a local free newspaper. They’ll get it, and hopefully post it somewhere. The plan is to drop off a USB drive with the entry into a secure mailbox, he uploads it, and puts the drive back. I have to check in at the HQ every morning and evening anyways for the daily rations, so this setup should work. Unless the Base gets attacked, or either of us get found ot, or I die. But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

I’m sharing this because I feel people need to know, and so my family knows I’m OK. This city is contaminated. We wear masks so that we don’t breath anything in. The streets are littered with abandoned cars. Its a mess. I’m staying in an apartment building a couple blocks away from the post office. Keeps me close,  but not too close. I also take a different route home everyday, just in case. The condo is nothing special – its already been looted and no one else was staying here. I sleep on the floor and don’t touch any of the furnishings without gloves, and it has power and heat most importantly, since its still late winter here. Hasn’t quite warmed up yet outside. It has running water too, which I’ll boil so I can bathe.

So that’s that. I made it through day one. It’s dark outside and I’m exhausted. They told me today was basically for orientation and to get situated, since I was one of the last transports in, but tomorrow … tomorrow is when the real deal begins. Oh-six-hundred – be ready. And I intend to be. Hopefully this message makes it out. It’ll be at least 12 hours old by the time anyone reads it I suspect. Hopefully another one will follow.

-iRogan
01261985