A Capitol Conundrum
Daisy looked over at Scott, finally having fallen asleep in his pilot’s chair.
“Well, at least he doesn’t snore.” She said to herself. The first inklings of dawn appeared on the horizon as the jet continued on, looking for someplace to land.
Daisy decided to pass the time by having some fun with her new boyfriend.
“Scott, I wanna have your babies.” She said in a seductive tone. He didn’t move.
“Scott, I want you to fuck me so hard I’ll never walk normal again.”
He still didn’t budge.
“I wanna have a threesome with you and the other me!”
Scott’s head moved, only to flop onto the other shoulder.
“huh… out like a light.” She said, giving up.
A few minutes went by when a light on the instrument panel lit up, and a small “PING” played.
Scott jolted awake.
“That’s a S.H.I.E.L.D. IFF!” he yelled.
“We don’t know that.” She said “and that woke you up?”
“These pings contain a long, special encryption.” He said “The computer would have ignored it otherwise.”
“It could have been anyone”
“You’re going to tell me that in the plenitude of universes, someone picked the exact same 256KB code?”
She conceded he had a point
“Well, we know someone is down there somewhere.” He said “and we might find them soon. Look.”
The clouds were thinning out, they’d reached the edge of the storm.
“Go wake up the others” Scott old her as he resumed flying the plane.
Twenty minutes later and signs of a city appeared on the horizon. Soon, which city became clear.
“Washington DC, dead ahead!” Scott yelled back.
Scott took a low approach over the Potomac.
“Why does this place look deserted?” Jemma asked out loud.
The group looked out at the city stunned.
The roads were littered with abandoned cars, cars that looked like they all crashed.
Not one soul in sight.
The plane swung west towards Theodore Roosevelt Island.
“My God…” Scott said flatly “It’s not done…”
There was the Triskelion, the old headquarters of SHIELD. Construction cranes dotted the area around the building, most of them collapsed.
“It’s not finished…” He said again “this can’t be right…”
He switched the plane to hovering mode and starred down the massive building.
“You OK?” Daisy asked him.
“Yeah… It’s just weird seeing it like this…” He said “I was born in the medical wing here. My parents were with my grandfather on a tour of the complex’s construction when my mother went into labor. The contractions were too close together, so they delivered me there. It’s always been special to me. I was actually kind of sad when Cap crashed the Insight carriers into it. Built to see it like this? It’s not complete, and the cranes… something happened.”
“Your life really does revolve around S.H.I.E.L.D.” came a voice from the door. Seven was standing there.
“How are you feeling?” Daisy asked her doppelganger.
“Surprised you care.” The other girl said in a huff. “I’m all right at the moment. No signs of going nuts. Not yet at least.”
“I’m gonna put the plane down at Reagan and we can drive back.” Scott said “there should be fuel there.”
Scott swung the plane around and made for the nearby airport.
“This is giving me the creeps.” Barry said. “I feel like I’m on an episode of ‘The Walking Dead.”
“Amen to that” Fitz said as they climbed down onto the airport tarmac.
“Welcome to Washington National Airport.” Thawne read from a sign “No mention of Ronald Regan at all…”
They found a door into the terminal and forced it open.
“The place seems so clean.” Jemma said as they entered the main concourse.
The stores were unlocked, their shelves still stocked with inventory.
“HOLY SHIT!” Seven said as she ran over to the others with a Washington Post.
“LOOK!” She said in a panic, pointing at the date.
“Did you pay for that?” Scott asked before Daisy elbowed him in the gut.
“Look! Look at the date!”
Daisy took the paper from her twin
“July 7th… 1991!?!” She said in shock. “Something isn’t right here. The paper feels old”
Scott looked around “Old newspaper for sale, an Eastern Airlines check-in desk over here, a TWA desk over there… It’s like the world stopped”
“Maybe the Triskelion will have answers.” Jemma said.
“God I hope” Daisy said as they went back outside to unload the car.
“You didn’t plug it in?” Daisy screamed.
The car was not responding. A quick test showed its battery had not been charged.
“It plugs in automatically,” Scott said, pointing his flashlight under the car “The charger is built into the clamp, but it’s not charging. Might have gotten nicked.”
“So now what do we do?”
“We could walk?”
“What about your bike?”
“I didn’t have room for it. I left it at my parent’s house.”
“I guess walk it is” she said, dejectedly “But what about the storm?”
“We’ve got a few hours and our jump timer is almost clear to go.”
They informed the others and then began to trek along the highway northwards along the river.
They soon discovered that it was probably for the best that they were walking as they continually encountered small pile ups that were blocking the road.
“Whatever happened to the people here happened all at once.” Scott said, looking around.
“But there are no bodies… You don’t think?”
“I mean anything is possible, but we’re talking about it having happened when we were three years old…”
“Could it be…Thanos came early?”
“But the guy said his MO was to cull half of all life. Who the hell pissed him off enough to snuff it all out?”
It took them about forty five minutes, but they eventually reached the entrance to the Triskelion. Daisy quaked the door open and the two went inside.
“Almost as clean as the airport terminal.” Scott said. “Still feels like I’m in a Stephen King book…”
“Oh calm down.” Daisy said. In the distance of the empty halls, a thud echoed.
“Probably the winds from the storm.” She said.
A second thud followed, this time much closer.
“Sounds like a clumsy wind…” Scott said
The two got into a fighting stance, when an unexpected sound echoed through the atrium.
“Oh My God!!” A man’s voice yell “People! Actual People! I knew they’d send someone for me!”
The pair heard footsteps running up behind them.
They turned around and looked, the man stopping in his tracks when their eyes made contact.
“…Daisy…?” He asked
“…Lincoln...?”