Prologue

Adam Powell was one customer that Florence Delarosa would never forget. Although he was much younger that she was (he was a student at Phoenix college) she found in him a kindred spirit like few others. He shared her thirst for knowledge (his lifetime want was to max out all his skills) and her love of nature. He shared snippets with her from his biology course, it was him that told her about the unusual properties of a certain species of snapdragons that he was doing a project on their properties for his senior thesis. He smiled when he heard that she had incorporated them into some of her flower arrangements and commented that he must try that himself. Yes, he was definitely a kindred spirit. Florence would have easily fallen for him except for two things:

She was very much in love with her husband Chester and ...

Almost on his first trip into downtown he fell head over heels in love with one of her neighbours, Sarah Kearney.

Florence knew true love when she saw it. The couple spent what little spare time they had together (Sarah was a high ranking army officer) either downtown or in Bluewater village. When Sarah wasn't around Adam worked as a DJ in a local Bluewater nightspot. He said he wanted to offer Sarah a home that was worthy of her. Somehow he found the time at college to max out all his skill and graduate at the top of his class. He had a job lined up at a local research facility and was looking for some land. They wood get married and have kids and....

An enormous boom shook Bluewater. She ran out into the street and looked up into the sky, up and down the street she could other sims doing the same thing.

And then the lights went out...

It wasn't until the army rolled into Bluewater and informed them that Bluewater was being evacuated that she found out what had happened. Apparently a nuclear reactor at a research facility had exploded spewing radioactive toxins into the environment. There was one particularly nasty cloud heading Bluewater's way hence the army's desire to clear everyone out.

"Lady, we've set up a rendevouz point just beyond the village. If you can make it to that point we can evacuate you out of the area but there is only a limited amount of space and time. If you can't make the rendevouz in time you need to head to the hills, believe me you don't want to be here when the cloud hits..."

Chester turned and walked inside the door, "I'll see if the phones are working again, I need to make some phone calls." Florence started packing.

The army officer was not the only visitor that morning.

Adam turned up on her doorstep.

"Have you seen Sarah? I need to talk to her. I need to tell her..." He struggled with himself for a moment and carried on. "I need to tell her I'm not leaving the area. I'm leaving Bluewater but I am not leaving the area. I think I know how I can combat the toxins and I think I have found a safe place, a sanctuary as you might say, but I need to get a message to Sarah. She needs to know where she can find me..." He gave a map to her and left.

The next visitors were the Larson twins. Much to Florence's surprise they were not at interested in fleeing the area.

"We told our family we were going to make it in the real world and if we return now we are always going to wonder if we could have made it. Just think of it as being the ultimate challenge. Still you don't know of an neighbourhood that's just a wee bit safer than Bluewater?"

Florence showed him Adam's map.

They no sooner left than Gilbert Jacquet came running in through the door.

"Florence, have you seen Beverly anywhere." Beverly was Gilbert's employee and rumoured to one of Gilbert's many conquests. Judging by Gilbert's face the relationship was a bit more solid than she had previously guessed.

"Gilbert, if you don't leave soon you are going to miss the convey out of the area..."

"I know that but I've got to find Beverly, if we can't make it do you know of a place that is safer than Bluewater?"

For the second time that morning Florence found herself showing Adam's map to somebody other than Sarah.

She heard her next set of visitors halfway down the road....

Arguing.

It was a couple with two teenagers and two toddlers. Apparently half of the family wanted to join the evacuation and the other half completely distrusted the military. They seemed to take their cue from their father, whose arguments seemed to be totally irrational. Florence glanced sympathetically at the mother and walked over to her with a copy of Adam's map. The sudden appearance of an alternative to the options of being Incinerated by a Toxic Cloud or Selling Out to the NeoNazi Military Establishment seemed to quell the squabbling within the family. Florence smiled ruefully and wondered what Adam would make of the family, the Dantes she thought their name was.

Chester came out of the house, "I managed to get hold of the Tinker and the Ramirez families, they are heading over this way, we'll take our car to get to the rendevouz point. I couldn't get Malcolm Landgraab to budge though, he says he wants to protect his investments."

"Did you manage to get hold of Forrest?" Forrest was their adopted son and in his freshman year in college.

Chester sighed "Finally, that's what took so long. I finally got through on the phone, apparently the local colleges are not in immediate danger and the students have been ordered to stay put until the military has secured the roads. Adam was lucky to make it this far."

Florence looked at him in shock, "secure the roads, what on Earth is happening out there!"

Sarah came running towards the house. "Have you seen Adam, has he heard about the evacuation order?"

Florence gave her Adam's map and relayed to her Adam's message. Moisture welled in Sarah's eyes. "At the moment I don't know whether to kill him or kiss him. Still if he was not the sort of sim who could do whatever he could to help he wouldn't be the man I fell in love with." She turned to the Delarosas, "You guys need to get down to the rendevouz point, the convey is leaving soon." She looked the pile of luggage that Florence had packed. "Don't bother trying to pack everything, my orders are to evacuate people not their goods. Only take with you the essentials"

Florence told her that they were waiting on the Tinkers and Ramirezes.

Sarah looked relieved, "That's good, it's probably safer to travel in groups..."

"Sarah, what is happening out there?! There's more than just radiation clouds to deal with, isn't there?"

About this point the Tinkers turned up, they walked over to hear Sarah's reply.

"The nuclear explosion occurred at a research facility, well what we know is sketchy - we're relying on applications the facility filed with the federal authorities, but as far as we can tell they were working on some genetic experiments under the strictest level of containment. The explosion ripped open the containment lab, spewing out it's contents as well as the radioactive toxins from the reactor. It all means that there is a pretty potent cocktail of mutagens that being affecting survivors. There are physical symptoms, people's skin becomes blue and muscle coordination is badly affected among other symptoms but more worrying is the psychotrophic effects of the mutagens. Affected sims become very aggressive and paranoid and what's even worse can infect other sims with that paranoia. Some sims just get the physical or psychological effects but most get both."

Florence described to Sarah the Dantes, the family that came earlier.

"Yes that seems to be a classic case of somebody suffering from the psychological effects." A haunted look came over Sarah's face. "The authorities are becoming very twitchy about the whole business, I'm under strict orders..." Sarah's voice breaks, she pauses for a moment to gather herself together. "Under strict orders not to evacuate anyone who is showing the symptoms. There were a couple of families I had to turn away. One was a mother with a young family whose skin was starting to turn blue I would have let the rest of the family, they have four toddlers for goodness sake but the rest of the family refuse to budge without them. Then there was another family where a fight broke out between two of the daughters of the family. It sounded like they were fighting over a man rather than being affected by the toxins but my hands are tied, aggression is one of the symptoms I can't let them on." She looked at Adam's map, "Maybe now there's a safe place for them to go, maybe if they are evacuated in this evacuation maybe they'll get evacuated in the next.

Wanda Tinker stood listening to the conversation and pulled her coat tight around her. She had been worried about a blue patch her arm when she was dressing. Without the others noticing her she pulled up the sleeve of her coat, yes the patch seemed to be growing. She was going to show it to an army medic but know she knew she had to keep quiet, very quiet about it.