"Sims 3" - Sunset Valley - Annihilation
Author: CdnJAGScribe
E-mail:
Rating: M
Classification: Apocalypse -Suspense
Spoilers: all Sims 3 (base-game aand EPs)
Summary:A group of teenage friends from Sunset Valley living life carefree and looking towards the future find out that their future, the way they are used to, may be shorter than they think.
DISCLAIMER: Sims 3 is the property of Electronic Arts/Maxis – and the wonderful brainchild of Will Wright. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended. River McIrish, Fiona McIrish, Molly and Sandi French and all associated Sims characters (both playable and NPC) are the property of EA/Maxis. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead in name or behavior or appearance is purely coincidental.
Author's note: This story will take into effect some game mechanics and other things that are more complicated like medical training will take the real-life approach. You really won't become a doctor by playing chess for forty-eight hours and going to work in a hospital. So the mechanics in this story will be part game/part real life.
Chapter One: Thrown Into the Jaws of Apocalypse.
9:30AM. Block B, Sunset Valley High School; Oct 11, 1987
The transient noise reverberated through the hallways as kids moved from Block A classes to Block B classes. Metallic clangs as doors on lockers were slammed followed by a rattle as locks were applied. Locks only provided minimal protection for belongings.
As always in every little microcosm of society, a school is made up of the same segments of societal interaction. There are the ones who seem to have everything laid at their feet. There are those that are rejected by society, then there are the antisocial. And it was for that last segment that locks proved no problem in terms of accessibility to gain what wasn't rightfully theirs.
"Fucking hell!" Haruo Chikamori exclaimed. "again? I swear to God, I'm gonna beat the living shit out of VJ Alvi. He broke into my locker again, that sonofabitch!"
River sighed, VJ seemed to constantly be looking for people to piss off so he could start a fight. It wasn't as if his parent was all that poor. Vikram Jayapuri Alvi was just angry at the world because of his parents splitting up and Mrs. Alvi took off to parts unknown while poor Mr. Iqbal Alvi was left to raise his two sons alone.
River realized that VJ was acting out but her patience with him was starting to reach an end. Haruo was reaching a boiling point and a blue belt in Sim Fu, he was about ready to turn VJ Alvi inside out. If VJ didn't return Haruo's stuff, her boyfriend was going to beat the ever-loving shit out of VJ Alvi and Mr. Alvi might only have to take care of one child.
"Calm down...I'm sure VJ was just acting out again. You know he gets like this every time his parent's anniversary comes around."
"And that makes it my problem? When my stuff goes missing." He whirled, slammed the door and walked off.
"Where are you going?" River called out after him.
Haruo snarled over his shoulder. "To find VJ and give him a reason to schedule a dental appointment... when I shove his teeth down his fucking throat!"
This was going to get ugly. And sure enough calls of "FIGHT... FIGHT!" broke out in the corridor up ahead. VJ and Haruo were engaged in a brawl. VJ could hit hard, but Haruo's fists had been toughened by months of beating on the Muk Yan Jong, the Chinese wooden fighting dummy. VJ was already bleeding from several cuts opened above his eyebrow. And his nose looked crooked. If Haruo wasn't stopped he'd beat VJ Alvi half to death.
River winced, Haruo was definitely going to be suspended. Number one, he attacked the other student first, secondly he made the other student bleed.
It wasn't long before several teachers waded in and separated the two and hauled them off to the Principal's office.
The two were interrupted by an announcement of a message from the Mayor.
"Students, Fellow Staff, we have an emergency action message from city hall. Please hang on for the Mayor of Sunset Valley:"
The students sat in dead silence not knowing what to make of the announcement from the principal.
"Boys and girls, this is the mayor of Sunset Valley; I have some grave news for you. The War is going badly and it appears that we are being targeted if the other side chooses to go nuclear. We don't know if or when that will be. So we have had to take drastic measures in making sure that Sunset Valley's progeny will continue to thrive in the difficult times ahead.
To this end we would all like your cooperation: we will be having a drill in order to get you into a shelter within the school and this drill must be practiced every day without fail with decrease in time to get to your shelter every single time, it is the only way that shelter can protect the future of our fair city. May the Watcher watch over us."
"Attention children, we will be starting a drill in 20 minutes; several children will be selected at random to play the role of casualties. Do not mind their absence in the subsequent drills."
The teacher said "heads on desks; no peeking."
Haruo and VJ scowled at each other. Blood trickled down VJ's face while VJ dabbed it with a tissue.
The detention room teacher nodded that they were to do the same.
Each teacher indicated that the casualties would be played by those who were tapped on the shoulders. Each student prayed a silent prayer that they wouldn't be selected.
Of course what wasn't said was that there was a pre-screened genetic selection of students that would be tapped on the shoulder.
Everyone waited while they heard the teacher going around. A few muffled sobs from those selected.
An announcement came on the public address system to say:
"Would all the students who were selected to play the role of casualties please assemble in the Principal's office."
"So long, dead meat" VJ snickered as Haruo stood numb. He didn't even bother wasting time to smack the smirk off VJ's face. His heart had sunk into his shoes when he felt the detention teacher tap his shoulder.
He saw very few others walking down the hall; most had tears streaking down their cheeks as they thought they'd been singled out to die when the nuclear conflagration came. When he got to the Principal's office, River ran straight into his arms breaking down in tears. With breaking heart, Haruo realized she'd been picked too.
The Principal opened the door to a large conference room where fourteen chairs were placed. When they all crowded in and sat down it was seen that there were exactly fourteen students who had been called. When the door opened the principal and the Mayor stepped into the room. "Boys and girls. We have had to play a deception on your fellow students. We have sent them and the fellow staff into a windowless basement room. Where they will play games for a while to distract themselves while for them a nuclear shelter drill is taking place.
We've brought you here to inform you that Sunset Valley has had to make a tough choice of who survives and unfortunately that means all of us can't. In fact the great majority will end up perishing.
You who were selected today under the pretext of playing casualties in this drill are the ones who are to be saved out of the entire town. If we tried to save everyone, the shelter wouldn't be big enough nor would we be able to stockpile supplies enough to feed everyone so we had to make this hard choice. Therefore we had to play this deception and make the option so unpalatable that no one would want to be picked. Thus the world's most horrific game of seven-up"
Gasps and questions started with demands of how and why.
The principal stepped in here before the gasps and queries could disrupt the meeting "I don't know if you all remember the blood draw that we had for the school's donation to the blood bank."
The students nodded gazing attentively at the principal who continued, "we had to fib a bit there too so as to not cause wide spread panic around the school. The blood went to a lab to provide genetic markers for who would have the healthiest genes to carry on the human race after the nuclear war." The students were dumbfounded.
The Mayor went on, "I'll explain more but I need to take attendance to make sure everyone is here."
Elation warred with anger as the students digested this news but no one got up. They wouldn't be able to anyways the door was locked and both were guarded by armed soldiers. So they sat silent and stewed waiting for answers that the mayor would give when he was ready to; not before.
That was a hell of a dirty trick and River started to get angry but she subsided when the roll-call began.
"Noel Allan"
"Here"
"Holly Alto"
"Here"
"Candy Ashleydale"
"Here"
"Michael Bachelor"
"Here"
"Bella Bachelor"
"Here"
"Ethan Bunch"
"Here"
"Lisa Bunch"
"Here
"Phil Burrows"
"Here"
"Haruo Chikamori"
"Here"
"Mortimer Goth"
"Here"
"Bebe Hart
"Here"
"Parker Langerak"
"Here"
"Merrilee Long"
"Here"
"River McIrish"
"Here"
"How many of you are already in a relationship?" The Mayor asked
River raised her hand as Haruo did too.
"There's two, anybody else?"
Nobody else seemed to move their hands upwards so it was still open as to what would happen.
Parker finally clued in regarding the genetic testing comment by the principal, combined with the question regarding who was in a relationship, "So you mean we've had our mates genetically selected for us?" Parker asked. "Who did I match up with?"
"God, I hope it's not me." H olly Alto muttered.
"Hey," Parker was stung. "I'm a great catch!"
Ethan Bunch guffawed. "In your own mind."
"Shut up! Bozo."
"Please, please." The Mayor tried to hush everyone as he needed to disseminate the information quickly before the other students got suspicious. "You will be taken to a bunker in the Summerhill Court area far enough away from military targets to keep away from the blast zones of any nuclear strikes. This place is not apparent as a nuclear blast and fallout bunker as it is located inside a house. To disguise it from enemy satellites and drones. To the naked eye it just appears like some luxury mansion in the suburbs." He quelled questions, "you will be receiving stockpiles of food and other essentials including weapons and ammunition for after the fallout. Reloading cartridge equipment will be provided. During the time you are in the bunker, we encourage you to get your survival skills up so that when it is safe to come out you will have a fighting chance to survive. You will be given military grade weapons to use to defend yourself. Use of deadly force to repel those who try to breach your bunker is authorized. You are our last hope for Sunset Valley's existence beyond the Cataclysm, thus you must be protected at all costs.
"There's twelve of us capable of using military grade weaponry to defend the bunker," Haruo said. "The other two will have to stay in a protective area and hope that we teens can overcome any attack." He had to start thinking tactically in order to figure out what would be the best way to defend the bunker. Evidently having read a ton of military and tactical training books came in handy for learning about perimeter defensive strategies
River was impressed. Haruo may have been quiet but he just became the de facto leader of the group according to her; as did several others who looked towards him and nodded. Even at seventeen he had an air of authority about him.
"The thing is that if we're attacked, forcing any attackers to a choke-point and that way we can catch them in a crossfire and pick them off one by one." Haruo's tactical decisions were cold and technical but made sense. "This is going to mean finding out the entry points and potential sabotage points within the bunker perimeter. Technical and structural blueprints of the bunker and topographic maps of its surrounding area would be helpful."
"Well," the Mayor said giving Haruo a keen look, "...the best thing is to get you established at the bunker, you are all to stay there and use those facilities while we bring in supplies and replenish used food. You will need to stay within the bunker at all times. You can arm your selves to defend the replenishment vehicles that are unloading at the bunker site but stay close to the bunker. If there is a flash,get inside the bunker and get down below underground as quickly as you can. The elevator can trap you in the event of an electromagnetic pulse so we have also put in staircases to allow you to get in quickly. We will be sending hourly rotations of ration trucks so that you will be supplied with enough food to last ten years within the bunker. We need to stock 256,200lbs of non-perishable food to last you that amount of time just in case. We're going to round that off and go with 300,000lbs. That way you don't have to ration your self to five pounds of food a day all the time. Also you are able to grow food as a greenhouse will be provided underground." He paused, looking at the wall clock,
"Right now...We will make our way to a bus that is located off school grounds so we can remove you from the school without students seeing you leave. We do not want to make them panic or think that anything is amiss other than a drill, a rather long one, to indicate a rather extensive attack."
He, then, motioned the students up and walked them out to the road and down the street. Thankfully the corridors were empty as they went out. When they got to the school-bus it was actually a military bus transport; a school-bus painted in olive drab green used for transporting military personnel around. But the students got on-board and the mayor joined them in the transport. Telling the Canadian Army Master Corporal driver to head to Checkpoint Bravo, the Mayor turned to the students who were silent taking in the cataclysmic upheaval in their life. Their parents, brothers, sisters, other relatives who would perish if what the mayor was saying would happen.
River had tears in her eyes as she leaned into Haruo's embrace, "Mom, Molly, Sandi..." she whispered as she clung to Haruo. "Your dad. Your Uncle." Nothing about his mother who they both knew hated his guts and the sentiment was returned twofold by Haruo who seethed at the way he was treated by his mother and by River, who hated Mayumi for the way she treated Haruo.
"I know." He held her as she cried.
The bus rumbled up Summerhill Court Street and drove by the Alto place.
Holly looked emotionless. Whether she was sad to not be reunited with her parents or not, it was uncertain. It was hard to read Holly some-times. She was entirely different from her parents in both character and behavior rooted to the morally upright path, she was detested by her mother who was an evil hag by any stretch of the imagination and just barely tolerated by her father who would kick a puppy down the stairs just because it was in his way.
Nick and Vita were glorious pieces of work in the non-positive sense of the word. Frankly put, they were scum of the lowest order. The rumour was that both Nick and his wife had links to the Sicilian mafia.
Parker Langerak was silent as he looked out the window. Then he turned to the Mayor and said "what about my sister. She's young and could be saved along with the Bunch kids Arlo and Darlene. And what about the Sekemoto kid?"
The Mayor sat quietly. "You know what; you're right...the young children need to be saved."
River looked up as Haruo said "River's friend's daughter, Sandi."
"VJ's brother Miraj, he's good kid..."
"Do we have to have equal splits down the line?" Whoever asked that question made everyone else groan. Angling for polygamy.
The Mayor led them off the bus as soon as it came to a stop in front of the house the only hint of anything different was a hermetically sealed garage door/blast door on the far side not facing the base across the Valley on the far side. At least for the most part it would be hidden from satellite surveillance.
This house essentially was a shell covering the extensive bunker below. The house had floors and stairs, but it was empty; designed to be blown away from the blast effects of a 1MT nuclear across the valley or in the heart of town.
The entrance was a sturdy double brick layered structure; two three feet wide bricks with a lead sheathing sandwiched between the two layers to provide radiation protection for those entering the bunker. That protection was throughout the entire bunker construction however the bottom layers were cast concrete with lead shielding embedded directly into the pour three feet in width, then a layer of lead shielding then another three feet of pour.
This kind of shielding was necessary as rain would leach radioactive particles into the soil and they would lie buried in the soil like natural deadly landmines pumping deadly radiation throughout the area including into the bunker if not shielded.
What was unique about the structure was that the ten foot thick foundation of the deception house was the actual roof reinforced with concrete steel rebar and beam and carbon-fiber mix sandwiched with lead for radiation resistance construction to lighten the load yet preserve radiation protection. This thick structure would be the radiation protected capstone of the complex under which the ground level was lowered and a fishing-pond was dug out where one could fish as the fish were to be eaten. The exterior perimeter of the bunker; pond included also was ten feet thick inlaid with lead encased by concrete. Which plunged down 50 feet down into the ground and was separated from the rest of the soil by a floor of concrete and lead.
Except for the robot-fish and death-fish. And they would also stay away from the puffer-fish. That bugger was a catch and release for sport, unless one wanted to chance an encounter with tetrodotoxin of which one of the lovely side effects was death. Not worth trying unless someone was incredibly suicidal.
Outside of the entrance to the bunker and the fishing pond, this first above ground level was just meant to house the decontamination units that would be used in order to clean off any radioactive residue from outdoors. The water and radioactive particles would end up being piped to a secure lead-lined containment tank held off site where it would not contaminate the protective unit.
The first underground level was the armory and firing range. The walls were twenty feet thick in this section along with lead shielding embedded three feet from the exterior side of the wall. This was where the teens as they grew older would practice their marksmanship
The floor was six feet thick to prevent penetration of other levels by fired bullets on the range.
The second underground level was their recreation and activity areas where they could bowl a few frames play pool, foosball, darts or music or do other things as well as their gym where they would need to get physically fit. It also boasted an art studio and workshops
The third underground floor had their farms, warehouses for food and supplies and a greenhouse for growing food as well as an indoor hothouse for an orchard.
The fourth and last living levels contained living/sleeping quarters for singles as well as couples, an adjoining nursery, showers, a large industrial kitchen, a dining hall, 2 classrooms, a basic gym and martial arts room, a room for the arcane arts. In one corner there was a comprehensive medical bay with operating room and examination room as well as a birthing room.
The Mayor took them through every section and floor of the bunker. There were twenty-four single bedrooms in the sleeping quarters, the large queen sized beds in the ten reserved rooms for couples. River took one and dragged Haruo into it and sat him down on the bed and sitting down on it herself. "It's comfortable." She commented giving Haruo a smirk. "We could definitely use this one. Claim?" She looked up at the Mayor and grinned.
"I didn't expect a couple's room to be claimed so fast."
"Well we are a few weeks from being young adults." River said resolutely brooking no objection "That is if the world doesn't go to hell in a hand-basket first."
"You do have a point, Miss McIrish."
"You might as well start calling me Mrs. Chikamori." River stated. "If we are expected to be a couple for the purposes of procreation , we might as well start behaving as though we're married. Isn't that right, Haruo dear?"
All Haruo could say was a rather strangled, "uh-huh."
Luckily for couples, a nursery was just off the couples sleep quarters with doors going directly into the nursery from each parental (couple) room. It would enable parents to have easy access to their children without going through a maze of hallways to get there.
When the tour was finished the Mayor wrote down names and made sure that he considered the children and toddlers. The adults unfortunately wouldn't be able to be saved. The teens would have to whip up baby food and feed them themselves. A crash course in actual parenting before they decided to become parents themselves.
Holly Alto and Noel Allan were slated to be young adults soon. As were Phil Burrows and Bebe Hart. Which pretty much left Parker with Candy, Michael with Lisa and Ethan with Merrilee as teenagers who still had some significant time left before aging up to young adult.
Bella and Mortimer just looked lost, shrugging their shoulders wondering what all this talk about couples and beds was all about.
The Mayor said "I'll have the other children up at the bunker by tomorrow at the latest. Please remember you are on lockdown here at the bunker. That the future of Sunset Valley is in your choices you make."
"That's a lot of responsibility you've asked us to shoulder, Mr. Mayor." Haruo said.
"And I wouldn't ask if I knew that you all couldn't handle it. But we're confident that you can and succeed."
"God, I hope so, "Haruo uttered a fervent supplication to a higher deity.
"Well, I don't know about deities but if you choose wisely the course of action that your bunker takes; you should be able to survive and perhaps even thrive. " the Mayor stated as he turned to head up the stairs just outside the blast doors to the bunker. "May the Watcher Guide you wisely..."
At the top of the stairs was yet another blast door that led to the interior of the shell of the house. Any wreckage would have been blown away by the 600mph blast wave from the nuclear explosion so they didn't fear getting trapped and they had ten years worth of food plus stockpiles from the garden.
Hey, who knew that you could grow and pick eggs, steaks and hamburger patties? The mental gymnastics of rationalization was if steaks, eggs and hamburger patties grew as harvestable plants; would it be classified as vegetarianfood? ~confused~
The teens and the two children were now left alone to figure out what they had to do in order to survive these next few years. Because if it did come to pass that the apocalypse was to occur, then it would be a situation where they would be using every bit of knowledge they could glean from what was left to them to survive the harsh new reality that their world would become. That prospect was a sobering thought to anyone who had thought this was a lark and a playtime before heading home to life as usual.
The Mayor was as good as his word. That late afternoon, he brought down Miraj Alvi, Arlo and Darlene Bunch and Kaelynn Langerak who was overjoyed to be reunited with her older brother.
And two toddlers: Sam Sekemoto and Sandi French, who were quickly scooped up by the teen couple of River and Haruo who intended to get some parenting practice in before they started producing their own children.
Haruo attended to Sam's diaper needs while River fed Sandi and set them to sleep in cribs that the Mayor had provided. He, also for aqthe benefit of the new children in the bunker, gave the caution to not go play outside and to stay inside. It was disappointing news but backing their leader up, Mortimer and Bella, both still children them-selves told the new arrivals: it was the difference between living or dying and that they needed to survive; thus they needed to listen.
The lowest level had the sleeping quarters and the kitchen since being deep underground lessened the chances of radiation leeching into the soil and irradiating the bunker, however, the walls were six feet thick and sandwiched in the cement halfway in between was a layer of lead. Lead was determined to block radiation so it was used as a protective layer against radiation seepage. Even the floor was lead-lined in the concrete. No expense was spared in order to make it as protected as possible for the future of Sunset Valley. Because, truly, in the coming days, these children would be Sunset Valley's last hope.
8:30PM; Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court. Nov 28, 1987
They'd been in the shelter almost a month and three weeks and it seemed routine now to spend it without seeing the sky.
However parenting was a new venture and Haruo and River had their hands full. Sam had been sick with stomach upset for nearly a week now and it seemed to be a matter where he'd gotten something that had affected his digestive tract and the resultant messes could clear out a section of the bunker as well as overload the bunker's air exchange system.
Haruo thought Sam must have had a case of a stomach bug after the third runny disgusting mess of a diaper change in two hours. They needed to find some way of stopping the diarrhea or Sam would potentially be in a bad state of affairs. Potential dehydration could occur if he lost too much water. So they had to rehydrate him and fast. Something with electrolytes. Pedialyte. Dialing the phone, he called the Mayor, "sorry to disturb you Mr. Mayor, we have a health crisis at the moment. Sam has been having diarrhea. We need to have Pedialyte replacement fluid in stock in the bunker. Would you be able to get us some. I'm thinking long term here too. We'll probably need lots of that for kids."
The response appeared to be favorable since Haruo got off the phone with what appeared to be a relieved look. River looked at him, "Boy, parenting is a lot harder than I thought. My mom and Molly made it seem so much easier." Sandi was making sniffling sounds as if she was going to start wailing any second now. "Are you hungry, Sandi? Tired, Poopy diaper?" Sandi exploded in a full-on temper tantrum. Which caused River to roll her eyes in frustration. Leaning out the door at the other teenagers, who seemed to be hanging out watching TV or doing other recreational activities, she bellowed, "SOME HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED RIGHT ABOUT NOW!"
Holly and Bebe immediately got up and came over. Lisa, Merilee and Candy just continued to watch TV with a "oh, they've got it" blasé attitude. River gave the latter three the stink-eye but gave Holly and Bebe appreciative looks.
"I'd say let's tag team this." Bebe said. "This way we get stuff done quicker. Besides there's only two of them we should be able to cover it. Then when you two..." she looked over at Haruo and River meaningfully,"...start having kids. You will have experienced help."
Haruo and River both looked at each other and flushed with embarrassment.
"Hey..." Holly grinned, "we know what you two were thinking when you were sitting on that bed."
"Oh, stop it." River spluttered rather annoyed. But she knew that was her long-term goal, to have children and be a good mother.
But being a teen parent to a pair of someone else's toddlers whose parents were going to end up being vaporized into their basic components when the nuclear warheads hit was going to be hard.
She knew for a fact that she wasn't Sandi's real parent, but that she was thrown into this role by circumstances beyond her control and she would have to make the best of the whole situation.
That she and Haruo would be the only parents that Sandi and Sam would have growing up to turn to was overwhelming for a teenage River and her eyes filled with tears.
She held Sandi who had subsided to whimpers close to her and said, her voice shaky with barely restrained emotion; "for...these two, Haruo and I will be the only parents they have and we'll have to give them a family that is closely knit. And Haruo and I have to grow wiser so that when they're older, they can turn to us and take counsel from us." She looked at Holly and Bebe, "We've lost the rest of our childhood, let's make sure the kids don't lose theirs."
Holly and Bebe looked at each other. This was a side of their mutual friend, River, they had never seen before; a side they never realized existed when all they were concerned about was romantic liaisons, teenage crushes and boys. The River they were looking at was blossoming from her role as teenager to that of a protective mother and parental figure - grown up before her time. Still physically a teenager but her mind was already in mothering mode and, frankly, it blew their minds to think that she had undergone such a profound change in her outlook in such a-short stretch of time. .
Holly thought, both River and Haruo are the de facto leaders in the group. They stepped into the role of parenting without being asked.
Phil came into the room, "I've figured out the stoves and where all the food supplies are. Noel and I are going to start on dinner."
Haruo said, "Good, thanks. We're going to have to have a meeting with all the teens to map out what our roles are going to be in the coming days, months and years." He'd heard the note of frustration in his beloved's voice when she'd yelled out for help with Sandi while everyone else sat around and only two responded. That behaviour was going to come to a screeching halt right now. His voice was somber, "Some aren't going to like it, but I'm not here to be liked." He said, "We all have a role to play in our survival and we need to work as a team to get it done."
Phil nodded, "This situation's a bit of a mouthful to swallow at the moment." He said soberly, not his usual ridiculous joking self, now wasn't the time for it and even Phil knew when it was time to get serious. "We need the other six on board as well or its not going to work." He looked at Haruo, "I don't know if they're still trying to figure it all out or what but we don't have the time for them to come to termswith it all. If we don't make preps, we die."
"That's the reason for the meeting..." Haruo said, "Glad you noticed too."
"Noel brought it up and I looked. Took me a bit but I noticed that the others seem to think it's a holiday..." Phil commented disgustedly, "...instead of the whole town's going to get vaporized and we're gonna be the only survivors." Phil turned to look out at the group who seemed to be busy doing lots of enjoyable but unproductive things. He shook his head.
"Let's let the meeting sort that out. If I have to I'll bring in an adult mouthpiece so that the rest don't know its my commands that they're executing and not those of the adult that's saying them." Phil was impressed, Haruo was not only thinking tactically, but strategically too. Leaders were not popular but they got the job done.
10:55PM; Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court. Nov 28, 1987
The Mayor had come and gone for the second time bringing a case of Pedialyte and promising that there would be a large shipment of it in the next day to store away for future needs. Suggesting to Haruo that if he could get the rest training on the chemistry table maybe they might be able to come up with a formula just as effective. Haruo indistinctly remembered that there was an age freeze potion that could potentially halt their aging process. The idea was fuzzy but maybe it would help once everyone was trained to use the potion table.
End of Week, Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court
Haruo's meeting had been a relative success. His emphasis on their survival being paramount was key in getting the other six to accept him as their de facto leader. And that he had concrete steps to bring them through the rough times ahead.
The rations with the increased number had been adjusted in terms of deliveries to the bunker door. There was a delivery once every hour nine shipments of supplies and at least fifteen shipments of food daily. The warehouse on the second floor was gradually filling up. The need for food went up to 732,000lbs of food; the mayor decided to round that up to an even 800,000lbs and this outside of meat was mostly non-perishable food-stock. They had twelve cattle and a whole brood of hens and four roosters and from those they would get milk and eggs. They could also turn the milk into cheese. In order to keep the livestock fed it was necessary to stock 4,000,000 lbs of grain and other animal essential feed and that increased shipments to two trucks every hour which meant they had to have a busload of workers unloading at the entrance bay and storing in the warehouse on the third floor while the young teens watched in gape-jawed amazement.
Michael Bachelor loved tending to animals so he took over the feeding of the cows and chickens. Parker and Ethan, being practical, told Haruo that they would take over the maintenance issues and would strive to learn what needed to be done. Holly and Bebe assisted River in the nursery. Merilee, Lisa and Candy started helping Phil in the kitchen which freed up Noel to start toiling in the garden in order to start replenishing vegetables as needed. Michael also helped which would allow Noel on occasion to get on the science machine to do some gene research and try to make hardier plants.
Most were starting to get royally sick of Autumn Salad. Haruo swore if he saw another plate of the stuff he'd give it to the chickens and let them figure out what the hell to do with it. Or maybe the cows would like some fresh vegetables minus the Caesar dressing.
There was also Stew Surprise now that Phil was of sufficient enough skill to make something other than rabbit food. The stew consisted of whatever was left in the fridge tossed into the stew pot to make a Frankenstein creation that could oft turn either palatable or unpalatable with the addition of one or two ingredients. Oh yummy, a fish-head tossed in from last night's fish n'chips dinner preparations. SURPRISE!
Administrative Office;; Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court, November 30, 1987
Haruo also had an administrative office where he had a TV to watch the outside news channels to glean what was going on outdoors and in the world It also meant that he could make strategic decisions about when to lock down the bunker.
Yesterday in a press conference in front of the Kremlin, President Abramisov warned President Graham that if his forces were to attack Simsograd, a key installation for command and control of the Soviet Republic intercontinental ballistic missiles, a nuclear response would be imminent. Graham in return warned Abramisov that a nuclear response by the Soviet Republic would escalate the already tense situation and incite a total nuclear retaliation by USA
Canada is making preparations for a full-scale emergency response with shelters having been under construction for the past three years.
Canada Prime Minister Jean Chretien warned that both sides needed to settle down, have a good drink and let cooler heads prevail.
It is uncertain whether those words have been heeded at this time."
Haruo grunted an epithet at the TV, got on the Public Address System.
"All hands. Listen up. This is an emergency action message, as of this last shipment, we are closing the loading blast-doors and going on full-secure. Nothing going in or out of this facility. We are on full lockdown procedures as of now!"
The loadmaster not used to hearing a teenager making such an announcement, was told under no uncertain terms by Parker Langerak that this was no joke and
no further deliveries were to be delivered and that the facility was going on full-lockdown. The loadmaster tried to make him see reason. But Parker had an Armalite C-7 around his shoulders and had a no-nonsense look on his face so the loadmaster told the drivers "no more deliveries, facility on lock-down." Parker headed back inside when the last trucks left. Securing the blast doors and ensuring every entrance was locked down tight. When he was done, he headed back down the shelter stairs.
There were no provisions left in the loading bay when the last help left with a heartfelt, "May the Watcher Guide You and protect you." And the final door was sealed and the facility became like a vault holding the last of humanity waiting for the end times.
The end did not come soon, there were days where there were false hopes and when the bunker occupants wanted to go outside for some fresh air, Haruo steadfastly refused which did not make him popular to many in the bunker. It was several days before they realized that the commands that he'd given and his stubborn refusal to crack the hatch open for a short while so they could have some fresh air had inevitably saved their lives.
Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court - THE APOCALYPSE - December 4, 1987
The event that precipitated the end times was but a small event in the course of the entire war.
The American 2nd Fleet had been sailing in to the Adriatic Sea watching over Yugoslavia whose ethnic sides were eying each other like vultures, eager to hit each other with horrific atrocities.
So keen was their attention on the actions of the Serbs, Croats and Bosnians that they hadn't noticed a Soviet Kilo attack sub slip into trail behind their battle group lying in wait until high command gave the go ahead. The torpedo had a 350KT warhead, more than enough to sink half the battlegroup. When the signal was given the submarine launched knowing that given the torpedo's limited range the launching submarine would be caught in the detonation too and go to the bottom of the sea, a sacrifice for the glory of the Rodina.
In the wake of that event, tactical battlefield nuclear weapons were launched causing cataclysmic casualties as mushroom clouds rose like umbrellas of doom over the carnage of the battlefield.
All of this was prelude to the inevitable. When each side knew that winning was not possible and going back to conventional war was not feasible, the keys to unlock the big boys were used. Cities and key military installations were targeted and slated for destruction and as the long tubes bearing their megaton emissaries of cataclysm to their eventual destinations rose into the air it appeared as if a final clear rain fell in a futile cleansing effort before the hellfire unleashed over the surface of the earth unfolded.
6:00 PM; City Hall and CFB Gnome; Sunset Valley; December 4,1987
The hideous doom that fell upon Sunset Valley was at the height of the afternoon rush-hour. Launched from its silo hidden in the Belyamerskoi Forest, the SS-24 Molodets' (NATO name: SATAN) warheads detonated in quick succession, three over the Armed Forces Base CFB Gnome and one over Sunset Valley City Hall. Each warhead was 375KT. The flash seared the flesh of those over five miles away from the epicentre. And three fireballs billowed up into mushroom clouds that swayed menacingly over the now devastated base and airfield.
Those protesting at city hall about the removal of their children were here one second and gone the next vaporized, the water in their tissues evaporating in an instant and the heat searing them to a crisp which vanished, immolated in the millions of degrees heat. wave flattened anything in a radius of eight and a half kilometres and caused lower degrees of damage as the blast wave spread out. Burns were fatal up to three miles away as clothing melted leaving third degree burns on the body.
From three up to seven was second degree burns requiring immediate medical treatment if they weren't to get infected and cause sepsis.
Anything from eight to ten would be first degree burns treatable by emergency personnel. The main trouble was the gamma radiation exposure due to the flash and the bomb's inherent radioactivity with its fission process.
From 76,800; the population of Sunset Valley was reduced to five or six wandering the streets, clothes hanging off their backs and burns covering fifty to ninety percent of their body, in shock. Never in their existence could they imagine going through hell like this; of the ones who were dying, pleas and moans for water filled the air and for some of the dead only burnt shadows remained on the surfaces that survived the intense heat. Someone crossing the street was forever etched into the melted asphalt: his/
her shadow burned by millions of degrees centigrade onto the street surface by the school.
The horror of that afternoon would be burnt into the memory of those who experienced the horrific events of the nuclear warhead detonations; by the only survivors of this cataclysmic event.
The Christmas carols that were playing on the radio prior to the attack were permanently silenced. And into the darkness was a Silent, but not Holy Night. This was not Heaven but a Hell.
6:00PM; Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court Dec 4, 1987
The bunker's exterior facade as designed by the SimCanadian Army Corps of Engineers was shredded by the winds exceeding gusts of 750mph. The wreckage had slammed into the Landgraab mansion and razed it clean off its foundation. The Alto house had taken the full force of the blast-wave and it stood, but the second floor was a mangled mess and the lot was scoured clean. The gas main exploded leaving a crater ten feet wide and twelve feet deep under the foundation of the Alto house. Nick and Vita were eviscerated by the flying debris and were killed instantly.
But those in the bunker only felt tremors and their electronics get rendered a mess of static. But somehow they knew and the terror in the faces of all the children and the teens was all that was needed to be said.
Somehow as the tremors died down and the ominous silence took hold, the cameras righted themselves and a picture reestablished itself and gasps, sobs and crying filled the air as they realized just how much devastation had been wrought on the city. it would be lucky if there were any survivors and those survivors, after the amount of radiation exposure they'd been exposed to, were essentially walking dead.
Training the cameras on with their spotlights to the Landgraab house saw a bloody mess that they realized was Malcolm Landgraab reach up both hands to the sky, move his lips in what appeared to be a silent cry and then collapse backwards in a heap, he did not move again. Haruo felt River bury her face in his shirt, her body wracked with sobs; overcome by the horrific scenes they were witnessing.
"We go out there, Ladies and Gentlemen, that is a death sentence." Haruo's voice sounded older than he had ever sounded before, harsh; more authoritarian. A leader handing down a dictum that any act to the opposition of would be severely dealt with, "May I remind all of you that we are still under lockdown and will remain so until further notice."
Phil was the first to respond, "Yes, sir!"
"Yes, sir!" A smattering of assent went around the room. It wasn't sarcastic. At this point they were all looking for a leader that would guide them and tell them everything would be OK. Haruo stepped up into the role of leader but he still could not tell them everything would be OK when he didn't know himself. All he could do was give them an order that hopefully would resonate enough to ensure their continued survival.
He could feel River still pressed up in an comfort seeking embrace against him nodding her head in assent.
And it was true. With the radioactive miasma floating in the air any attempt to rescue those now fatally injured and affected by radiation would result in their own deaths by similar exposure. It was harsh but the reality was that those survivors out in the open were going to be dead in a matter of weeks if not days and there was nothing they could do to stop it from happening.
Kitchen; Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court; June, 1988
The group's elders, the teens, were starting to pair off, Holly and Noel had found solace in each other were at the stage where they were going to turn from teens to young adults. Phil and Holly would turn next and then River and Haruo, but of all the teens the other ten thought that Haruo and River had undergone the most drastic changes in their lives. They were older in behavior, mature and were now surrogate parents to Sandi and Sam.
There were two ways to age up in this world, one would age up on one's anniversary of their birthdate or they could get a cake and blow out the candles. As the ones who stepped up to become the heads of the family, Noel thought River and Haruo should have first crack at becoming young adult as they were considered the oldest by means of maturity. So he proffered out two cakes with candles as River and Haruo looked at each other and nodded. They both stepped forward and blew out the candles at the same time.
"Did it work?" River asked for a moment as the delay threw her off. Haruo was already in the midst of his transformation then River's vision went fuzzy as her own transformation initiated. At its conclusion, the changes in River were completely mind-boggling. Her hair was different, it wasn't a non-descript brownish-red anymore; it flowed in fiery auburn shoulder-length soft waves parted to one side, she had on soft eye-shadow, mascara outlined her lashes, eyeliner accentuated her big beautiful eyes now a head-turning brilliant green instead of that plain couldn't-decide-if-it-was-olive-drab-or-brownish-green, a hint of blush on the cheeks and her lips a glossy cherry red lipstick. No more the frumpy green sweater and brown pants that she used to wear; she was in a miniskirt, one that didn't go down past mid-thigh and highly accentuated the nice curve of her rear-end and she had on a white halter-top that made him just about hit his jaw on the counter, and that was about how far his jaw dropped. Haruo gazed at her, in awe; she was stunningly beautiful.
Nearly every other male's jaw dropped too. That was River?! The River they remembered was plain, nearly flat chested and no figure practically as straight as a board-no ass; and what they considered as an artsy-fartsy nerd. Now she was an incredibly gorgeous woman, C's at least and an hourglass figure that put tongues on ground and she only had eyes for her boyfriend. Oh how life sucked. No chances for anyone else to even contemplate River and Haruo had her wrapped up for himself.
When her transformation to young adult finally finished, River took a long look at her boyfriend, Should I call him husband now? Since we no longer have ministers or any sort of organized religion. Are we back to the old days of man clubs woman over head, drags back to cave; tell her, me man, you woman, me you make babies...now. Hmmm interesting thought. River watched who she considered to be her husband. To her, Haruo had always been good-looking but his lips were now thinner, masculine, he actually had abs, his muscles were clearly defined and his height was at least five inches taller than her. In fact she felt small and feminine beside him as River was no short woman she was 5'6". Haruo was 5'11" now and towered over his friends. In fact to the other men he was much more intimidating.
She moved towards him and he reciprocated by moving towards her meeting in the middle and he gave her a passionate kiss. Which pretty much made her brain depart for locations unknown. She grinned giddily at the rest of them; grabbed him by the collar and headed for the sleeping quarters. "Save us some of our cake, OK?" She tossed back over her shoulder, pulled him
Into their selected bedroom and shut the door.
9:00PM; River & Haruo's Bedroom; Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court. June, 1988
"Wow..." River looked at her "husband". They hadn't even bothered pulling the sheets back and getting under the covers. "Never realized that was so fun..." she murmured softly at him tracing a finger along his bare chest all the way down to just below his belly-button."
There was an dull ache; that blasted hymen always getting in the way of enjoyable fun. She thought but it's not going to get in the way again.
Kitchen;Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court; June, 1988
"Why did they run off? Kaelynn Langerak asked Miraj Alvi. "I thought they wanted to eat their birthday cake."
"Who knows what grownups are thinking about. If I ever grow up,I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna siddown and eat my cake."
"Yeah, you got that right." Kaelynn agreed. "Why pass up a really good cake like this?"
Meanwhile at the counter, Noel and Holly were blowing out their candles. And Phil and Bebe were getting ready to deal with theirs.
"You think they might let us have seconds?" Arlo asked. The kids were all sitting at the kiddy table while the somewhat grown-ups sat at the big table.
"Maybe, if they don't eat their cake either..." Kaelynn said hopefully.
"Ugh kissing..." commented Bella Bachelor seeing Holly grab Noel by the collar and kiss him, "When I grow up, I'm not doing that either."
"Kissing's not so bad..." Mortimer said,
"Except when they try to suck each other's lips off their face. I mean yucky!" Bella told him.
Darlene made fishlips and kissing sounds. Miraj looked at her and rolled his eyes. "You are sooo weird, Darlene."
The rest of the uneaten cakes went into the fridge.
11:00PM; River & Haruo's Bedroom; Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court, June 1988
"Oh, great, I think my sheet is crawling up my rear end."
"Yeah, I think we might have to change the sheets." River commented looking at the rather damp spot in the middle of the sheet, "Confound it!" She got off the bed in all her glory and started pulling the sheets off the bed. "Can you check and see if there's any clean sheets we can use for the bed or if we have to raid the queen size bed linen closet.
Haruo got up and looked in the drawer and pulled out a fresh set of sheets.
"Why is my thigh rather damp? ...oh great...I'm le-I'm gonna need a shower before I even go to bed." River muttered. "Darned brown sheets can't tell if it's blood or...".
"I'll toss it in the washer with stain remover."
"After you get in the shower with me. I bled all over you after you you know what. You don't need to stain clothes with that."
"How do we get to the shower?" Haruo grinned. "We're buck naked."
River raised her eyebrows,"just walk casual like everything is normal or..." she giggled, "or we can sneak down the hallway to the showers."
"I like sneak, it's much more suspenseful."
Opening the door part way River poked her head around the corner, "Coast's clear, I think..." she grinned at him. "Let's go, lover." She stepped out into the hallway and sprinted. Haruo did the same. Skidding into the bathroom, they grabbed one of the showers and went in, just as Parker came out of the toilet stall, washed his hands. and headed down the hall towards the door nearest the kitchen when he caught sight of River and Haruo in the shower buck naked: washing each other off...it looked like.
He exclaimed, "Oh my God" as he caught an eyeful and rapidly reversed track "I didn't see that." He stated loudly as he headed out the door Haruo and River came in. "Need eye bleach and mental detergent, thank you."
Back in the shower, Haruo asked River "Did you hear something?"
"Nope. With my head under the shower, I can't hear a thing." River was washing her hair.
"Did we remember towels?" Haruo thought for a minute.
"Oh...Shit!"
5:00 AM, River & Haruo's Bedroom; Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court
8 mo - Apocalypse. June 1988
Haruo cracked an eye open. They were in a nice comfortable bed. And River was snuggled up beside him. He smiled as he took in the sight of her gorgeous body, the body she'd hidden for so long underneath frumpy clothes that didn't suit the beauty that she was. But now with her gorgeous, fiery-red, tousled, bedhead hair and the jaw-dropping clothes she wore, she was a 15 out of 10...and she was his and he was hers.
And she was in his bed, asleep, so comfortably, her bare arm and shoulder sticking out from under the sheets and he could feel her naked body asleep pressed up against him; her bare leg carelessly draped across his lower torso. Then she rolled over in her sleep, unknowingly pushing back against him and he responded by spooning against her letting her feel his body against her, his bare torso against hers.
River whimpered slightly as she pressed herself back against him, her fingers reaching back and finding what she wanted, started stroking. Haruo's eyes opened wide as she hiked herself backwards and had him intimately join with her and he heard her sigh a deep sigh of contentment and then slowly grind against him.
Despite the slight discomfort River felt from her virginity being taken last night, having her "husband" take her was intimate and very enjoyable.
And anyway they were young adults so who would care anymore.
Eventually she had to bury her head in a pillow to keep from waking up anybody else who may have used rooms to the side. "Oh...God..." she sighed. "To have this kind of enjoyment after what we've been through...I never thought it was possible."
"I know...but considering the circumstances, I'd say let's take pleasure where we can." Haruo paused, "For all we know, the Soviets have used up all their nukes, then again they might not have, so if any are left and they manage to get a drone overhead..."
"Boy, that's one cheerful thought" River said sarcastically, " you got any more?"
"Well the Russians never used all their Tsar Bombas."
River took her pillow and beaned Haruo over the head.
When they did get up out of bed and had another shower this time taking towels with them.
Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court - 9 months Post-Apocalypse; Sept, 1988
They had a water reclamation system in the bunker that was able to be utilized. Bath water was cleaned, deoderized, filtered of dust, bacteria and other contaminants and placed under UV light to ensure germ killing sterilization then boiled to 600 degrees in a holding tank to evaporate into steam then condensed again into liquid, the same was done with the separated toilet gray water which was filtrated, cleaned, sterilized and boiled and reused within the toilet system. The drinking and cooking water was kept on its own closed-cycle separate reclamation section. This was one of the most important sections of the bunker complex and needed to be maintained. One could go without food for a time, but without water, one would die.
The simple fact was that since water was being reclaimed, people could take decent showers and Haruo's and River's showers were slow and intimate making sure that each part of them was properly cleaned off.
Studying was a key part of one's usefulness to the bunker. Having key people trained in traumatic injury treatment was essential. And most of that was going to have to be done via having videos where students of medicine would watch operations done step-by-step and learn surgical procedure. It was a long, arduous process to become a competent medical professional. But they would need them in fact as the society they started to create would evolve. Medical research would resume and they would move forward.
Other subjects could be learned by reading books like mechanical repairs. So Parker and Ethan set about to reading and then to practical repairs as every so often a faucet would end up geysering like Old Faithful and someone would yell, "Mechanic!" It was a royal pain in the ass when three or more faucets went at once as invariably they got soaked. But luckily the floors all had drains leading to the gray-water tank and thus the spilled water was able to be conserved.
A part of the bunker was reserved for the armory and everyone was expected to qualify on the range which was at the top level luckily there was a six foot layer of reinforced concrete lining the floor of the range level to protect against accidental discharges from puncturing the floor.
About the only thing they could not fire indoors were the .50 calibre sniper anti-materiel rifles which were designed to take out vehicles. And that was understood as the impact force from a .50 calibre would breach the wall of the bunker and subject them to worse problems then inaccuracy in combat.
When they weren't helping Phil in the kitchen, Merrilee, Lisa and Candy were all reading cooking skill books in order to learn cooking skill faster and to make something a little more appetizing than autumn salad or stew surprise. At least then they thought the Increased variety of food available would make morale higher in the bunker.
Haruo, on the other hand, was inventorying their supplies and making sure what they had was going to be enough to keep them going for what length of time they were going to be in the bunker.
Michael was going to have to do some miracle-work as the seeds were going to need to be cultivated into plants then what seeds the plant produced was going to have to go to replenish the stock of seeds they had. And they would have to ensure each seed group they planted had a plentiful harvest which meant that the gray and brown water was going to play a major role in providing nutrients for growing plants including fertilizer for the growing plants. So Michael Bachelor when he wasn't toiling in the garden was going to be reading books on gardening. Looking to increase his skill.
Everyone needed to be working on increasing their skill and usefulness towards the bunker and their survival and after the initial meeting, they all took that goal a lot more seriously. After all if they didn't work together, they would all perish together. Suffice it to say, the latter was not a palatable option for any of them. And thus they pulled together as a group. Even the children were doing their best to help. Whether it was cleaning the floors or doing dishes or any of the numerous day-to-day chores when they weren't doing homework assignments that Holly assigned and each were doing what they could.
Miraj Alvi and Darlene Bunch had grown into teenagers as they were already on the cusp when the Apocalypse occurred. Darlene had matured not doing the same silly faces as before. She was a serious student and worked hard at her skills. And when she was not doing that, she was helping Michael Bachelor or Noel Allan in the garden.
Miraj Alvi had no problems with assisting Parker and Ethan in learning mechanical repairs. After all more people knowledgable in repair of their facility would be quite useful and when he wasn't doing that he was helping Phil in the kitchen, just trying to be of general assistance to everyone. Just this behaviour alone set him apart from his late brother.
Everyone worked at their potion skills as that would open the key to a great many things that could potentially be useful for the bunker occupants.
There really were no ceremonies to commemorate the coming together between two individuals in a consenting relationship: no ring exchange ceremony, no official "tying of the knot". Just a mutual understanding amongst all the adult and teen members of the bunker, that if two people considered themselves mutually exclusive, then that was a sacrosanct relationship and not to be interfered with. That was the state of marriage post-Apocalypse.
River and Haruo went one step further. They both fashioned stainless steel rings at the smelter similar in shape, design and decorative detail and made them in each other's size. When the rings were cool enough to wear they put them on their fingers and did not remove them even to bathe. It marked them forever as a couple and formalized their marriage and commitment to each other. At eighteen it was a rather deep commitment they were making to one another but after the events of the Apocalypse,
And it was to that end that others tied the knot as they hit young adulthood. Noel and Holly were the next to consider themselves mutually exclusive. They didn't go so far as to get married in a ring exchange sense, but declared to each other that they considered each other their mate.
River and Haruo had decided not to have children until they had managed to raise Sam and Sandi to childhood. So that was their main focus to give their adopted children the benefit of their ties as a family.
So it was a rather shaky revelation that River found herself with morning sickness after throwing up her breakfast in the communal bathroom toilet. First to pair off and get married; first to get pregnant, so it seemed.
And it was not pleasant either. The morning sickness was every single morning for the first three months without ceasing. River was seriously getting tired of seeing her morning meal floating in the toilet afterwards.
It was at those times where Haruo tried to help her by holding her hair up while she was upchucking her breakfast a la commode. It was also certain at those times that River wanted to geld her husband with a rusty spoon for putting her in this way.
After seeing River in this way, Holly was having second thoughts about becoming a parent. Having a child was risky and now thanks to nuclear war, they were right back to the dark ages of medicine.
Though thanks to comprehensive medical textbooks that the powers who built this complex had the foresight to put in, their state of medical ignorance would be temporary. However no guidance by live medical practitioners meant that each procedure would be trial and error. And that put an element of risk into every medical procedure that ordinarily would be much reduced with competent and highly trained medical staff. And they would need to find competent medical staff soon so that they would be able to treat anyone who would fall ill or was traumatically injured. If not the only thing they'd be able to do was watch them sicken and die.
Replacements for antibiotics and antivirals needed to be found. Even though there was a stockpile of such in the shipments of medical supplies they had an expiration date and they needed to make replacements that would do the same job as or better than the original. Such was the state of affairs within the bunker.
Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court - 18 months Post-Apocalypse; June 1989
"OH GOD! THAT BLOODY HURTS!" screamed River,
...as the newly minted eighteen year old Dr. Bebe Hart stated "on three, push...one...two..." as she prepared to receive the mucous covered infant after the delivery. Covered in doctor's surgical gown, having read up the medical textbooks on obstetrics and birthing procedure, Bebe was prepared at least the best that she could be.
"Push, River. He's almost there." Bebe said At least he's not breech or that would be a medical emergency. "You can do it!"
"I wish to hell it was you having to give birth..." River glared venomously at her husband who winced. She didn't mean it, but at the moment, she was in pain and extremely punchy as hell. And gripped her husband's hand with a grip so hard that almost appeared as though she would dislocate some of his bones in his hand.
He gritted his teeth as River clamped down again on his hand like a pair of vise-grips as she pushed again. Sweat-sheened brow and damp hair from all the cold damp compresses that he'd been wiping her forehead with, River looked far from glamorous, but to Haruo, she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was bringing a life into this world. This strange new hostile world that they were living in. It would be their biological off-spring, their son.
Another loud scream of pain and a baby's wail joined the cacophony of voices, sobs and general joy of the childbirth. Dr. Hart was busy clamping the umbilical cord tying it off and then cutting it so that the baby would now be on its own.
"Let me see my baby..." River said reaching out to take her son into her arms. He was breathing and he started rooting after River's naked breast and River let him latch on to feed the colostrum that her body was producing. This naturally produced mother's milk helped to improve the child's immunity to common germs that could cause illness bolstering his immune system for the future.
The Madonna and Child image was a striking contrast to the raging-in-pain virago of a few minutes earlier who was verbally airing her desire to not ever let Haruo have kids again because she was going to take a knife and make sure to render him a eunuch in the most complete way possible.
Then she absolutely floored Haruo by saying to him with emotion filled voice and teary eyes, "Honey...I want another one." To say Haruo was gobsmacked would have been an understatement.
Andrew James Junichiro Chikamori joined the nursery as their first born in the bunker.
Everyone was taking dibs on what Noel and Holly would name any kid they had. Haruo had dibs on Tinsel for a girl and Tree for a boy. River just rolled her eyes. Holly was not amused.
Haruo and River went back to child-rearing their firstborn; new parents at eighteen, yet having had to mature faster than their now immolated peers back in school who would just be completing their first year of university.
And Bella Bachelor and Mortimer Goth became teens. Bella helped out in the kitchen and went out to help with feeding the chickens and the cows.
It was at about this point the first Age Freeze potion was discovered by Haruo at the potion table which set a new quandary; were they supposed to live forever? And if so, how to make it so that future generations had their own day in the spotlight instead of the previous generation hogging the limelight. They all agreed that it had to be a personal choice. You could choose to drink the potion, or choose to abstain at the transition point between young adult and adult but once it was made it was irrevocable even if you changed your mind. Which meant a lot of thought went into The Choice as they called it. You could choose to stay the age you were when you drank the potion or you could choose to drink a Young Again potion to put you right back at the very beginning of Young Adulthood at the height of health and vigour before taking the Age Freeze potion then they were able to stay at the age in which they would be the most help in the Reconstruction.
Cameras on the exterior of the bunker saw periodic clearings in the radioactive miasma that seemed to have coated the lower atmosphere in soot clouds that sent the rad readings skyrocketing through the roof. The geiger sensors on the exterior of the building transmitted their readings to interior monitors. Evidently the scientists that had advocated that radiation from a nuclear war would dissipate in a matter of weeks were wrong; dead wrong in fact as none of them were known to have survived the initial exchange of strategic nuclear weapons. And they were not alive to have their hypotheses proven incorrect.
Haruo had opted for their generations to stay within the bunker until the radioactivity reduced down to a level that mirrored background radiation level prior to the nuclear war. Which meant they could potentially be in there much longer than the year or two the scientists were estimating. And their numbers were steadily increasing if River and Holly had more children and then would explode as the others started reaching prime child-rearing age.
When the drone was sent up it sent back terrible images of the destruction. Augmented by transmitters the drone was able to fly over the devastated location where the base used to be. The base was now a lake as two of the 375KT blasts were surface detonations carving a massive crater in the ground where the base used to be which filled with water and was highly radioactive. The geiger counter on the drone went absolutely crazy when the drone was within 200m altitude of Crater Lake. Anything within a mile of that lake was in a death zone.
The other hotspot was the region around where the nuke detonated over City Hall, and City Hall was a wreck melted into the ground at an angle in such a way that all access doors were barred. Anyone who had survived the incredible temperatures at ground zero within the building was doomed to die of starvation as they were sealed into a crypt that used to be their workplace. Even windows that seemed a salvation were not. They had bars in the window frame that were unable to be removed from the inside and the incredible heat had welded them to the building so the occupants that were still alive could only glimpse what they couldn't reach until they starved to death.
Central Park was a mangled mess of new growth trees, and glassed ground that was the centrepiece of display to the destructive power of the atom. For the new growth trees trying to make a comeback with the renewal of life were being attacked by radiation and some of those trees had lost the fight becoming yellowed withered versions of themselves before succumbing.
It was visions like this that made Haruo despair of ever being able to set aright what had been perpetrated on his town. Every nuclear detonation was yet another blight that only time would contain.
Though it was uncertain whether humanity had that time left.