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  “You can’t leave,” Jenkins called out from his chair, “I want everyone to stay put.”

  I nodded. “OK, then can you tell me when the plan goes into effect?”

  “The plan?” he asked.

  “Yes, in case of emergency plan. When does it go into effect? There has to be some sort of plan in the event that this happened. A plan of action.”

  Jenkins shook his head. “The only plan is to stay right here.”

  “In this room?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  “And for how long?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “OK, well I do know this. The effects of global nuclear war are going to keep us in this bunker for longer than a few days, so we might as well start preparing for that.”

  “We will.”

  “When?”

  “When I can sort this out. Think.”

  “Well, Good God man, put the thinking cap on now. These forty some people cannot eat, sleep, and stay in this room. It’s unhealthy, mentally and physically.”

  “What do you expect me to do?” he raised his voice some.

  “Organize.”

  “I will. When I can think clearly. My wife... kids... family … they were out there.”

  “And all of us have family out there, too. You need to focus on now. These people need something to hope for and sitting in a hot sardine packed room isn’t hope.”

  “I will in time. I just... I just can’t do it now.”

  “I understand. So I will.” I turned and walked to the door.

  “And do what!” he blasted.

  “Organize, find out what we have. What we will need. Start a structured plan. We are survivors and we were fortunate enough to be here when this happened. We must start thinking outside the immediate survival box into long term. And the way to do that is to find out what all we have and start from there.”

  Jenkins laughed an emotional laugh. “Well, good luck to you. This is a big place with a lot of stuff. Find me when you give up because you won’t know where to start.”

  Ray stood up. “But I do. I’m the maintenance engineer here. I know every square inch, where the plans are, the inventory. You name it. I’ll help ya’ out, Captain.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. He had called me Captain, later I found out Brad told him I was with the Army and Ray had been in the service his entire adult life as well.

  “Thank you,” I said. “Let’s go start this.”

  “Can I help?” Marcus stood and walked to us. “I’d like to help.”

  “Yes,” I laid a hand on his shoulder. “I saw you calming that woman, if you could try to keep it calm in here. Also, see if you can find some paper. I need everyone’s names, ages, and are they here alone, with someone? And if you can discover their one skill that could be useful.”

  Marcus nodded his agreement.

  “When we get back, we’ll organize and get these people assigned to rooms and fed.”

  “Got it, Captain.” Marcus nodded.

  I made eye contact with Jade who sat with our boys. She all but facially conveyed to me, ‘go on, do what you need to do’. I winked, smiled, and left with Ray to get things in motion.

  ***

  I had discovered there were two nurses in the midst. I sent them immediately to our medical section to organize and see what we had. Ray and I organized the inventory list and did a quick look through. There was enough food for a thousand people for six months. Surely, we were good. The eighteen dormitories provided enough space and privacy, and I designated sections to people. There was a stock pile of clothes and I picked two individuals to start working on it first thing in the morning.

  Everyone was concerned about the people in the tunnel way outside of the vault door. I was too. But there was nothing we could do about it.

  A few people said they would leave when the door opened. I told them that was their choice, but they would not be allowed back in.

  Hard. I know. But under the circumstances, I had to be.

  Jade led two women in the cafeteria and by nine pm, the Emergency broadcasting had gone off the air and Jade had a meal.

  She didn’t make a big one. No one was really hungry, but enough was provided.

  People did eat. But they exhausted. Emotionally wiped out.

  The first day, that horrific day had come to an end.

  We dimmed the lights in the bunker. Some people slept. Some didn’t. I was one of those who couldn’t sleep. I just couldn’t. Too much had happened, and there was too much to do. We had to plan. We had to survive.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  It was brought to my attention early on, actually, that first night that privacy was going to be an issue. Especially if we let more people into the shelter. In some of the dormitories the bunks lined up like they were on a submarine. A few dorms allowed quartered off sections of four bunks.

  I thought for sure, privacy wasn’t a problem until my wife brought up to me she had a hard time sleeping with a stranger in the same room. I had divided everyone up. Made sure there were plenty of space in between where people slept.

  Still, she was unsure.

  I informed her that after we let the others in, and were more sound in our numbers then cots could be arranged, blankets could be hung, walls of privacy could be built.

  “Three hundred and forty rads,” Ray informed me, that first evening, rather late. I was sitting in what would eventually become my office; Ray came in and joined me.

  “That can’t be right,” I said.

  “It is. I did the reading myself. I don’t see or think there as any blast damage above, the shaft opened enough to allow the carriage to rise for readings. I’d know better if I went out there. Found the Geiger counter and bio suits.”

  “They’ll come in handy,” I said. “Three hundred.”

  He nodded.

  Roentgens or rads were the amount of radiation in the air. Some called them millisieverts. It was easy to use the rad counts. The numbers were smaller and less scary to someone who didn’t know. Ten rads equaled one thousand millisieverts.

  The human body could only tolerate 100 roentgens without showing any ill effects. A body could repair 100 hundred roentgens per hour.

  Per hour, meant how many rads you were exposed to in one hour’s time. At three hundred and forty. If one was out there for two hours they would have absorbed enough radiation to die in a few days to weeks.

  One thousand in one dose was instant death.

  It was a numbers game, but to no avail, the higher the dose the more chance you stood of dying. If you didn’t die, you’d be awfully sick with long term effects.

  Clearly, with the outside air being at three forty, it wasn’t safe.

  “How about in here?” I asked.

  “Fine.”

  “What about outside the vault door?”

  “I assume fine, as well. But up there.” Ray pointed. “Death.”

  “And you don’t think we were hit?”

  Ray shook his head.

  “What made you think to do a reading?”

  “I was monitoring the security cameras and it scanned past the air test area. That’s when I thought it. We’re pretty remote, blast damage would be nil. We’re catching the fall out cloud.”

  I stood and started to pace. “Theoretically it shouldn’t be that high.”

  “Not with the rule of seven.”

  The rule of seven. One we were always taught. Every seven hours the radiation drops seventy percent of its last reading. For example say it is at 1,000 RADS per hour, seven hours later it had to be at 300. Theoretically.

  But we were looking at fourteen hours. It should have been in the double digits. It wasn’t.

  What happened? Why was that panning out?

  “Maybe it’s just lingering,” Ray said. “We’ll check tomorrow. We’ll check every day.”

  “I am eventually going to want to go out there. Check, see what happened.”

  “I think everyone will. Maybe look
for family.”

  I nodded.

  “There’s a M-93 Fox in the south tunnel.”

  “Why is there a reconnaissance vehicle there?” I asked.

  “Well, from what I learned, there always was. They just updated constantly. A reconnaissance vehicle to go out and scout. That would work if the levels fall below a hundred. We’d be able to safely be out there for hours. Maybe make trips?”

  “It’s what it’s designed for,” I explained. “NBC. Nuclear Biological and Chemical testing unit. It has everything we need to do readings and take a look.”

  “Did you hear what I said about trips?”

  “I don’t think it’s wise, if it’s dangerous out there to take everyone out. But, setting up scouting trips for people may work.”

  “A little too early to be planning, though. Don’t you think?” Ray asked. “I mean. It could only be part of the country. Part of the world. Hell, we don’t even know who started it.”

  “This is all true.”

  “I mean, we could emerge to just a few hits,” Ray said.

  “And we could go topside to find ourselves face to face with Fu Man Chou, eating rice cakes and using chopsticks.”

  “Ouch.” Ray winced. “Someone has a chip.”

  “No, someone has a good idea who has these capabilities.”

  “So you don’t think it’s targeted. Or random. Or localized.”

  “No, I don’t.” I replied. “The way the news shut down. It’s everywhere.”

  “Then it’s over up there.”

  “Pretty much so, yes.” I sighed out. “Pretty much so.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Jenkins had killed himself on the second day, well almost the third. He had an issued gun from before the bunker closed down. A small pistol and he used it to blow out his brains.

  It was just after 2 am when he did so. Clean up was tough, but disposing of his body was not. The bunker had a crematorium and Jenkins was our guinea pig.

  No one really noticed. Not even the next day did anyone ask.

  From the time rooms were assigned he locked himself away, spoke to no one. I don’t think a soul knew.

  The only reason I knew was because I heard the shot. Ray and I found the body.

  I believe another reason for the lack of concern was because all of us were too thrilled about the door opening. We were counting down the minutes until the seventy-two hours mark.

  Out of forty one remaining, three said they were leaving when the doors opened. The rest vowed to stay until it was safe and or we knew exactly what was going on up top.

  They put their trust in me that I would do everything in my power to find out while keeping them safe and structured.

  Ray took a reading just fifteen minutes before the door was schedule to open.

  It was extraordinarily high.

  One twenty-two.

  Still unsafe.

  It didn’t make sense.

  Clothes had been issued, but there weren’t enough. Ray suggested the decontamination room to sterilize and decontaminate clothing brought in from the hotel.

  I needed clothes. The ones in the shelter were too tight.

  The radiation suit fit, and like Ray I was going to be one of the three who went into the hotel for supplies.

  Surely we couldn’t be up there long, and neither could those in the shelter.

  The door was going to open and over half the people in the shelter waited patiently as if some celebrity were going to be there.

  Jade wasn’t around. I wondered why.

  Brad was; he went with me to seek her.

  Ten minutes and counting.

  “Where is your mother?” I asked.

  “In the room. Cup washing.”

  The ‘cup washing’ comment made me pause. We had a shower timer. To conserve on water we had people who timed the showers. In order to not run out of water with a hundred people in the shelter, Ray and I deemed a two minute shower; every other day would keep us in supply for an infinite amount of time. That was based on a hundred people. Not forty. And on the off days you were given a 32 ounce cup of water to wash and brush your teeth.

  Jade was on her cup day.

  “Do you think there’s a lot of people out there, Captain?” Brad asked as we walked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Bet me there’s a hundred. Then you have to recalculate.”

  “I guess I will.”

  “There has to be a ton.”

  “Why do you say that?” I asked.

  “Because the hotel was full. Packed to capacity. Four hundred beds. So four hundred people. Two hundred were there for some conference. Dude, they’re like all outside waiting. How we gonna fit them in here.”

  “If there are four hundred people, we’ll fit them. Don’t worry.”

  We arrived at our dorm room, and I could hear the soft humming of Jade’s voice echoing in the hollow room.

  “Wait here,” I instructed, and I walked in. The room as empty, the other family wasn’t around and I suspected that was why Jade chose that moment to use the bathroom and wash up.

  She was in the bathroom, the door ajar. I could hear the wash rag squeezing. Water dripping.

  It had been since earlier in the morning, hours since I had seen her. I was so busy getting ready for the arriving survivors, I hadn’t checked in.

  It made me feel guilty. But I was secure that Jade understood.

  I knocked once on the door and pushed it open.

  I was speechless. My wife’s long blond hair was now short and croppy.

  “Jade?” I questioned. “You …. You’ve cut your hair?”

  She nodded and smiled. “It’s hot, Hal. And with two minute showers every other day, long hair is not gonna cut it. It won’t. Maybe once everything gets settled, water is better, and then I’ll let it grow. You don’t hate it do you?”

  “Not at all. It’s beautiful.” I reached out and touched it.

  “Felix did it. He’s a barber you know.”

  “Really?”

  She nodded.

  “I like it.”

  “I do, too.”

  “Jade, the door is opening. Aren’t you coming?”

  “No, Hal,” she said softly. “We don’t know how many are out there. Plus, everyone else is hanging around. One more body is only gonna add to the confusion. You’ll fill me in.”

  “I will.”

  “Plus, I want to use this time.”

  I reached out and touched her face. “I understand completely. I’ll be back.” I kissed her and then left her to her privacy. After rejoining Brad in the hall we went to the vault door.

  ***

  The hallways of the bunker were thick and wide. Even though food was stockpiled in boxes against the wall, there was still plenty enough room for people to stand by.

  Ray had the Geiger counter in hand and I stood by the door.

  What to expect?

  Would there be many like Brad suggested or would there be few.

  A buzzing sound caused me to jolt and my eyes stayed glued to the door.

  It buzzed. Hissed. Then the light turned green.

  “Go on, Captain,” Ray nodded. “Open it.”

  The fifty ton door was a lot easier than I expected. I turned the wheel of the vault, and pushed. It slid.

  I gasped.

  So did Ray.

  A few of the people who were close by jumped back when the odor pelted us like a chemical weapon.

  My eyes watered from the stench I could not place.

  Vomit. Urine. Feces. Old blood … death.

  I coughed out a gag, and huffed through my nostrils.

  The sound of moans carried to us.

  How many were there?

  Fifty perhaps? It was hard to tell. They lay on the floor, on their sides, moaning, crying, and coughing.

  Only a few, very few were healthy and attending.

  “Give me a reading, Ray,” I requested.

  The machine clicked. Ray shook
his head “Not even hitting one, Captain. This area is safe.”

  “Then how in God’s name?”

  He shook his head.

  “Is this a flu?”

  Mary Agnes, an elderly woman, maybe seventy, stood up. “It’s radiation poisoning. And we need to get these people some comfort. Can you help?”

  What choice did we have?

  She was an Army nurse for many years, and I can’t say I wasn’t glad to meet the matter-of-fact, Mary Agnes Boyle. I was very glad.

  At seventy-three she was feisty, strong, and healthy. And smart. Smart as a whip. She told of how the door closed on them. And they had two choices, stay put or go topside.

  She herself was confident that they were in no immediate danger of a blast, but she was also pretty confident in the effects of radiation.

  She suggested, hitting the hotel for food surplus and going into the hotel basement, blocking out windows.

  There was a lot of mutiny and ignorance, she described. Chaos, fighting, disagreements.

  “People, just didn’t want to think that anything would happen,” she told us. “That they were safe because they were deep in the woods. I tried to tell the fall out shows no prejudice on remote areas.”

  In conclusion of her story she told of mayhem, and being given only minimal amount of food. She put water in pans, and her and only five others went in the basement. They locked their doors.

  There wasn’t a person in the tunnel by the vault door when she left.

  Having heard about the seventy-two hours mark, Mary Agnes and the five others emerged from the basement, took the west wing route to the main vault tunnel, and that was where they found the ill.

  Her guess, they were exposed to too much for too long and found solace in the tunnel, waiting for help.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The Lawson family, which consisted of a grandmother, mother and three children, had to be moved to Dorm room seven. They had the smallest of the dorm rooms and it was needed for the ill. All sixty beds.