The world ended two years ago. Or maybe it was three? The world ended, but we survived. We hid in the vault just before the terrible bombs fell. We only heard them shake the hill and then it was over. At least for the billions of people on Earth who weren't as lucky as us.
However, our little community survived. We live within the steel walls of the vault, we have our own reactor located deep underground, air and water purification systems, electricity, hydroponics, and a food synthesizer. Sometime in the far future, when the Earth is cleansed from the killing radiation, perhaps our descendants will be able to rise to the surface and start a new life.
But for now, life goes on underground.
Do you remember that old Skeeter Davis song? "The end of the world". The very same. I started listening to it shortly after the Battle of Anchorage began. It calmed me. I also listened to it on the morning of October 23rd, shortly before the Chinese dropped their bombs on us.
Ironically, Skeeter Davis' record turned out to be one of the few musical records we found in the vault. There was no room for music in our emergency luggage anyway.
I go and put the record in the gramophone. Mom hates it when I play it all the time, but she's on a shift in the lab right now. And my brother hasn't come back from school yet. The room is only mine now.
"Why does the sun go on shining?" Skeeter asks, and I wonder, is it really shining? "Why does the sea rush to shore?" Well, it surely does, if it hasn't evaporated yet. "Why does my heart go on beating?" Well, I don't know about that.
Maybe because mom grabbed my brother and me that day, shouldered the bags all by herself, and chased us up the hill. Maybe because she forbade us to look at the two suns in the south whose light we felt, and picked us up every time we fell, even after we tumbled into the ditch and declared we weren't going anywhere.
The difficulties began almost immediately. We had no experience and had to start from scratch. We ruined the first two harvests. The food synthesizer was acting up too. We had enough water and energy, but the seeds were scarce. Eventually, we got the hang of it and started growing our own fruits and vegetables, wheat, and even steaks.
Uncle Bill and Uncle Jack from the first floor seemed to be waiting just for that. They equipped a distiller and began brewing brandy from everything they could use. Once they even tried cucumbers, but it didn't work out. They claimed it was for medicinal purposes, but we all knew they put away the best for consummation.
At first, the overseer was angry, but when his superiors stopped answering him, he put up with our waywardness. Also, uncle Bill confided in me that they made a deal with him to keep quiet for one bottle of each brew.
As for me, I work in hydroponics, too. I don't have a boyfriend, but there aren't many guys my age at the vault anyway. They are either old men or babies. Well, they aren't quite old, because the program does not provide for the accommodation of very old people, but they look like it to me. Still, I'm expected to settle down someday. There is a boy who isn't too bad, but he is very timid. His name is Steve, he does machine maintenance. Maybe I should go talk to him about this sometime when I'm off duty. Uncle Jack promised me a bottle of brandy if I decide to do it. I might be able to seduce him with it.
We have no connection with the other vaults. We are trying to send radio signals as well as we could, but apparently, our radio is not powerful enough.
So we have to accept we're alone.
The more I listen, the more I think. What does "The End of the World" mean? For the rest of humanity, it happened on October 23rd, but we are still alive. We still breathe, work, and even have fun. True, we lost many things we were used to, we don't have radio or television, nor computers, except for the overseer's and the educational ones, but we also produce many things ourselves. We even have a blacksmith and a carpentry workshop, although the lumber is nearly gone.
Life goes on. It continued even when the giant glowing cockroaches attacked us, followed by the radioactive flying ants and the infected mole rats. I remember that no one died only because our medical robot had anti-radiation drugs and an antidote serum for the infection. And all this while the radioactive ghouls pounded on the front door, hoping we'd let them in before they broke it down.
First, we dealt with the cockroaches – we beat them with shovels, we shot them with lasers; we sprayed the ants, then beat them until they stopped moving; the mole rats were dealt with by the firing squad. The robot dumped the corpses into the waste shaft, then we scrubbed the floor with potassium permanganate for a week and covered it with sand, which we also threw away.
Fortunately, something outside distracted the ghouls and they forgot about us. It looked suspiciously like an army of huge scorpions on the monitors, but no one went out to check. The scorpions had no interest in the vault, so at least they didn't come to bother us.
The recording ends, but I go and play it again.
At this time, mom bursts into the room as if there is a fire in the vault. I leap.
"What's up, mom?" I ask her. "Have more bombs fallen?"
"No, Cynthia, it's worse!" she gasps.
"Did someone die?" I guess.
"Don't talk to me about dead people now!" mom scolds. She pauses for a moment to catch her breath, then continues, "Jenny confided in me that Mildred told her that Sandy complained to her that the mole rats gnawed all the coffee before we exterminated them!"
The horror! How are we going to get up for a shift now?
The end of the world is really coming.