From The Wilds

Into the Wilds

In seventy-five years the world collapses in on itself. The fields stop yielding crops at once, exhausted from trying to keep up with a population of 11 billion. Scientists in labs messing with animal DNA suddenly create a whole mess of superanimals: predator animals with human-like intelligence. Bread for the military, the animals escape around the time of the crop failure. With no food and increasingly intelligent, still adapting animals spreading out across the six continents, the population drops until most of Earth's estimated 500 million known population are contained to large epicenters across the planet. Places like New York City, Washington D.C., London, Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and Paris become overpopulated civilian military bases. International communication shuts down, technology set back until only leaders have vidphones and only the military police use the old cell lines. No one dares fly because wolves and bears aren't the only predator animals affected. Falcons and eagles rule the skies outside of the barricaded cities.

In the United States, the land between the cities became known as the Wilds. There are video phone lines and cell towers out there, as well as hundreds of tribes of Native Americans; but so were the superanimals. Those who came to power inside the cities kept in contact with each other and, fifty years after the city-states formed, began population trades to keep diversity up.

Twelve years ago in New York City, Miranda Lopez married Lee Saunders of the Exchange. They had the required three children and separated. Miranda continued her plan to join the Military Police: Military division. She graduated top of her class and assigned her own team. Lee joined the rebel forces to take back the Wilds and throw off the oppressive governments that sprung up after the city-states' formation. He was captured after a failed bombing on one of the gates that surround the city.

Today is mission handout day. Whichever of the sixty teams without assignment gather in the conference room. Miranda's team finished a mission in time for them to have their mandatory downtime before today. It's a formality; as it had always been. Alpha teams are assigned a variety of difficult tasks; Beta teams are assigned to Wilds rotation; Charlie teams ran the prisons; and Delta teams work the beat. She leads Beta 5; they usually have gate detail or diversity escort.

Miranda takes a seat near the middle of the room and crosses her legs. The room is a quarter full when she arrives and fills up to three-quarters full by the time the chiefs walk in with the assignments. Chief Dan and Chief Robert walk in from a back door near the podium after the last team leader walks in. It seems that all sixty teams in the city had ended or were near enough to ending their latest assignments.

Chief Dan, the military chief, goes first. He delivers the assignments to the Alpha teams first: calling the leader's name and handing them a file. Some have sensitive information or are undercover assignments and nobody wants word of who is on what to get out. They get their assignments from Alexandra, the alpha secretary.

"Betas 1, 2, 5, 7, and 9 are on Wilds security detail for prison escort to repair sites," Chief Dan says after he looks down at his list. "Collect your details from Richard and get." Miranda collects her mission folder from a young white man with black hair. She flips it open and sees 'New Jersey' at the top of the page. With a smile on her face, she makes her way back down to her team's desks.

"What's the mission, Captain?" her second in command, a twenty-year-old African American by the name of Andre, asks. The other fourteen members of her team gather around her as well.
"New Jersey," Miranda says, "Forty prisoners and three engineers for repair work to the vid and cell lines out there. We're also building a new tower half way down the Jersey coast. Signals to and from DC have been patchy recently and scientists have traced it there. Also, last report had supes swarming the area, likely the reason we have to put in a new tower. We'll need to be on our game at all times to keep everyone safe. All prisoners are marked for execution eventually, but if we sacrifice them in the beginning we won't have enough later. It's a four-week mission. I'll assign you your prisoners tonight or tomorrow. Kiss your loved ones goodbye, we move out in a week."
"Yes ma'am!" the team choruses and go back to their desks. Miranda distributes paperwork to them to get the weapons, ammunition, and supplies they will need in time for them to move out.