Life In An Underground Bunker

CHAPTER -1

Year 2100

           News was running through the devices that a group of unidentified objects were moving towards the Earth at an alarming speed. Initially, the scientist and other important people at the World Space Organization speculated that they were meteors. After monitoring the readings on their tracking devices they believed that the meteors would change their paths by the time they came close to Earth due to gravitational forces. 

           But, after a few hours new information came in. The scientists understood that those objects were not meteors but they were controlled by unknown creatures. People started panicking and sharing their last thoughts on social media. Some others didn’t care. They thought it was not real and felt it was fake news.

           By the time the sun had set in , The WSO (world space organization) had asked the countries to open their safety bunkers .[ Safety bunkers were underground chambers fully equipped with food, water and other equipment to sustain human life in a time of crisis.]

 But, this idea of WSO has few drawbacks. The rich countries had many safety bunkers in almost all cities and were big enough to shelter all its people. But poor countries had a hard time. They didn’t have enough bunkers nor were they equipped properly. And the bunkers gave first entry to the billionaires and millionaires who funded the project. This left the poor people with no hope. 

During the next week the countries were moving the citizens into their respective bunkers. There were fights between people as they wanted to enter the bunkers as soon as possible and some others didn’t want to go into the bunkers. 

The bunker was cylindrical in shape and had several layers. Layers 1 - 8 were for people and there were about 1000 rooms in each layer, so about 8000 rooms in one bunker and the rest of the layers were for growing food and storing water drawn from underground water bodies. The opening of the bunker was controlled by an officer. Each person was assigned their own rooms that were very small to minimize space. There was no sunlight or fresh air. Food was delivered to the people through a small opening on the door of their rooms. People were allowed only to come at a fixed per each layer o the bunker, so that it will not be crowded and also so that people don't fight with each other for facilities. 

Week 1 had passed and many countries were still struggling to provide shelter to its citizens about 60 percent of the citizens were unsheltered. The unidentified objects were coming closer to the Earth’s thermosphere, and was said to reach the land by week 2.

But, in the middle of the week it was found they objects had started to land in the south hemisphere. Much information of the objects were not found but it was said that they were not like the tradition UFO people would imagine of. But they were cubical and covered with a black material that could be invisible. There was no information about the creatures inside the cubical object.

 During week 2 the news services stopped working, networks stopped working. The unidentified objects has damaged the networking services. The creatures were invisible and mysteriously took away subjects walking on the streets. The people were advised not to leave their homes.

Days, months and weeks passed. The unsheltered people were taken away one by one. The population of the Humans and animals reduced significantly. The people living in the bunkers were suffering from mental and physical due to the lack of movement in the bunkers and being away from family and friends.

CHAPTER – 2

Year – 2102

4 year old Astrix looked at the bunker opening and asked the officer what was outside it. The officer said about the creatures that attacked the world in the year 2100 and were still present in the world. Astrix was only 2 years old when he came to the bunker with his family. The child had spent only the first 2 years of his life in the outside world. His family passed away due to health issues in the bunker his only friends were the officer and the other orphan kids at the bunker.

Education was given to the children in the bunker but it was not like the normal schooling before the invasion. The schooling only gave importance to language for communication and taught the children to use the equipment in the bunker. Also history was also taught to make the children know how life was before, the schooling lasted for about 15 years starting at age 5. The first 5 years were for learning language and they post invasion history and the next 10 years were training.

Years passed, Astrix had finished the training and was officially a working member of the bunker.

He was given new responsibility like controlling the release timing of each layer. His other friends were given the job of monitoring the developments outside the bunker and to maintain the growth of edible vegetation in the bunker.

For the next 10 years life went on like this. People in the bunker had adjusted to the life in the bunker, they had never felt the real world. They had only seen it through the screen in the control room. Many longed to visit the surface of the Earth. The earth was still filled with the black objects with invisible creatures in. It was still not safe to go out.

In the year 2130, the water in the bunker hand some unknown chemicals. The people who had consumed the water started developing health issues and started dying. Asterix had also consumed this water and was suffering from side effects. They found out that the objects have been contaminating ground water. They stopped drawing water from the ground and instead started chemically making water from molecules.

Astrix had fortunately survived.

The formation of water using molecules as a time taking process. Only minimal amount of water could be produced. And the bunker controllers took a measure of first come survive. This lead to violent fights between the members. Few also died in this fights.

           The water crises still went one for the next few years until the effects of the unknown chemical was removed from the ground water. The chemical finally got dissolved into the ground and the water became clean.

After the drainage of the chemical from the water, the next few years the Earth saw many positive developments; sky became clearer and fewer black cuboids were seen, the land became more greener and the people in the bunker also were less depressive.

Astrix who was an upper senior member now, got upgraded to the controller of the bunker i.e the most important person in the bunker. It’s now the year 2145, 45 years after the invasion, the population of the bunker reduced from 8000 to just over 1500 now.

In the year 2150, the earth was close to normal, but still not safe enough, the bunker administrative team were discussing about a release plan. They also were working on a way to contact other bunkers in other countries and cities. The control team also closely observed the surrounding. This when one for 5 years, many lost hope too since the release plan was taking too and no contact was made with the other bunkers. But, even after this this the team still kept on working on the release plan hoping to for life to be like before one day.

CHAPTER 3

Year 2170

10 years later, the bunker was finally able to make contact with other bunker, but unlike their bunkers the foreign bunkers were attacked by the creatures and was now had now few survivors. Some bunkers has no people at all devoid of any life.

Suddenly, the unexpected happened, the team’s release plan started working. The cubical blocks were detected to be moving away from the surface. The bunker teamed up with other bunkers for the next few months and collectively scanned the area for any more creature.

They found none.

The people and the controller were filled with hope. Astrix was 72 and was in his old age. He believed that his last wish before his death will come true. He firmly believed that he would visit the surface after 70 years in the bunker.

CHAPTER 4

Year 2172

2 years after, the release plan was put in place, the land was devoid of foreign creatures. After more than half a century, humans are finally able live life like the past.

The last 100 survivors in the bunker waited with hope for the opening of the bunker.

On 19^th September 2173 the bunkers were opened. The door closed for 73 years was opened. The survivors were given glasses to protect their eyes from sunlight which they had never experienced before. Astrix and the other people looked up towards the sky for the first time after many years. They were taken out one by one through an elevator. Astrix was the first one to go. He looked the ground, touched the grass and cried and laid down. He never woke up again. He died after completing his last wish. His comrades looked at him with sadness. We will forever remember you Astrix for you work for humanity. You will never be forgotten. The buried Astrix and walked away from the bunker toward distant lands to live life like the way people did 73 years ago.

__________________________________________

Authors note: Thank you for reading my story !