“(Sigh) Fine, I’ll attend this exercise in futility, but what the hell are we doing exactly, so I’m not just jumping into shit.” You ask as you and Nina walk towards the conference room.
“Well right now we’re voting on a shelter leader. Someone to make the final decisions about important things. So far Ron is tied with another. In fact the only reason why I came to get you, was so you could break the tie.”
“Whoopie, I feel honored I can take an important part in this democratic process. So who’s the other person?”
“Oh, that would be Elliot. He was one of the later arrivals, but is very personable. Not that you’d know since I doubt you’ve even seen him given that you lock yourself in you room all the time.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know who he is, bald guy. So I take it you want Ron to win huh?”
“Well…I’d be lying if I said I didn’t, but Elliot’s seems like a good guy too, so I’m sure he’d make a good leader as well.”
“Why haven’t you run? I mean you seem to like to organize things.”
“Me? Oh no, I’m not a leader.”
“Well from what I’ve seen of Ron, he isn’t either.”

Nina stops you in the corridor.

“Damn it, stop being an asshole! At least Ron makes an attempt to get involved in things! You haven’t done shit since you got here except insult people and lock yourself away! Like it or not we’re ALL in this together! And you better start getting with the program and contribute!”
“What the fuck? I am contributing; I’m going to this goddamn meeting aren’t I? And you better watch your tone; remember I’M the swing vote for your boyfriend.”
“Ron isn’t my boyfriend! I mean…not yet…uh…”
“What? You mean he isn’t taping your ass yet? Shit, he’s stupider than I thought then, because he’d be lucky to get someone who looks like you even if you are annoying.”

Nina stands and stares at you in disbelief.

“…could you possibly be any more vile?”
“Probably, but we don’t have time for that, I gotta vote for some dickhead.”

You continue to the conference room (with Nina no longer walking with you) and when you finally arrive everyone is there as if they’ve been waiting for you. You don’t even really care who’s in charge since more than likely no matter who you vote for is going to be an intrusive bastard wanting everyone to do something.

You can vote for Ron. As far as leadership material, you don’t really see him as one, though he seems to have some planning skills and friendly to people so maybe he’s got the stuff.

Elliot you barely know anything about, he also seems to be an organizer and friendly to everyone, but not to the point that it’s irritating. Though to you there’s something a little creepy about him.

Ah what the hell, you know this is something Ron wants more than anything why not give it to him? Besides he’s not very “strong” which means you can probably get away with disobeying him on a regular basis without causing a big scene.

“I’ll vote for Ron.” You say, Nina looks surprised and Ron jumps up and down like an idiot in celebration. You take that as your opportunity to go back to your room, Nina once again stops you in the corridor.

“I just wanted to say thanks for doing this; I know you don’t even like Ron…”
“I don’t care one way or another about him, if he wants the headache of running this place he can have it, he better just not ask too much of me, I did my bit. You can think of me as his kingmaker. See ya around.”

You go back to your room and that’s where you spend a majority of your time. You don’t really mix with anyone, and nobody really makes the attempt with you either. You’re asked to contribute to some “events” sometimes, but you always ignore such requests and nothing happens. Nina still hangs around Ron like a love sick school girl, but for god knows what reason he seems completely oblivious to the fact. And obviously she hasn’t told him how she feels about him. You watch this comical display replay itself over and over.

“Yeah, GZS really picked some excellent candidates to pair up to create families for the so called future, what a joke.” You mutter to yourself.

Time goes by and Ron goes about his duties which mainly consist of discussing pointless plans in the conference room. The idiot can’t do ANYTHING without talking about it with others he appointed as advisors first! If somebody’s shower is broken they have to discuss when, how and WHY it has to be fixed! Naturally everyone disagree about one point and they have to start all over again which usually means nothing gets done. A lot of planning and organizing of ideas, but no actual implementations of those same ideas.

The shelter starts falling into disrepair, a few fixes are made here and there, but they’re more jury-rigged ones more than anything. Nobody has perfectly functioning rooms from what you know…well except yours since you do nothing, but study the shelter manual all the time attempting to learn more about how it works giving you an edge in repairing your own room. (In fact you just permanently took a repair kit for yourself out of the equipment room) You really don’t understand why other people aren’t doing the same instead of waiting around for things to get repaired or complaining about needing things to get repaired. Everyone has the same damn operations manual. Read it!

About six months go by and finally you’re given an unexpected visit during the night. You answer your door. It’s Elliot and some other people.

“May we come in?” Elliot asks.
“What do you want?”
“Just to talk about the future of the shelter.”
“Yeah? Well you can talk to Ron about that, he’s the big shelter leader.”
“Yes he is, thanks to you. And that’s also why this shelter is in such bad shape. Ron is ruining this place with his ineptitude.”
“Oh no, don’t blame that shit on me, that’s RON’S fault, not mine. And besides MY room works fine. If you lazy bastards would actually read the damn shelter manual you wouldn’t have any problems.”
“Oh I’ve read the manual, I’m sure many people have. But surely you must realize most people don’t have the natural talent to fix thing that perhaps you have. Besides I’m sure you must also be aware that in a community each person has his own talents. For example Leon behind me used to be a bouncer. Don’t you think with his skills he’d make an excellent head of security around here?”

Leon folds his big black arms almost daring you to say “No.” before Elliot continues.

“My point is me and a few others are planning to take Ron out of office for gross incompetence. Did you know Fred and Greta are planning to have a baby? The first one to be born in here. The population in this shelter isn’t going to be stable forever. It’s going to grow and we NEED to keep this place running efficiently if we’re ALL going to survive. I know you’re a solitary person…I even respect that, but the time has come for you to choose between life or death. By joining our group, you’re choosing life. By remaining locked away in here, you’re choosing death not just for all of us, but for yourself. No man is an island.”

Elliot has a bit of duality to his speech. Part of him sounds genuinely concerned for the future of the shelter; he may even have a point. But the other part of him sounds like he’s politely threatening you. And you’re not sure of the whole “taking Ron out of office” thing. It almost sounds like he plans on taking over by force. You get the impression he and his little group are going to do just that regardless of whether you join or not.
> You join
Can’t be any worse than what’s going on now, and you might as well be on the winning team.

“Alright, I’m in. What do we do?”

Elliot smiles.
“Glad to have you on board, as for what we do, you’ll see. You’ll all see. Leon, and Brenda you’re all coming with me. The rest of you go back to your rooms, tomorrow your loyalty will be rewarded, I promise.”

Elliot and his gang leave, you close the door and go back to sleep without thinking anymore about it.

The next day you hear a lot of yelling and screaming when you wake up, you get dressed and leave your room to see what’s going on. You see a crowd of people gathered outside Ron’s door. You make you way through the crowd and see Leon holding Nina who is struggling and hysterical. Elliot is nearby speaking.

“I DIDN’T DO IT! YOU’RE LYING! YOU’RE ALL LYING! (Sob)”
“I saw her! I saw her lurking around last night when I heard some noises. I just wish I’d done something then! I’ll never forgive myself. I just thought she was taking a walk, little did I know she was going into Ron’s room and killed him! Why? Because she found out he was having an affair with his secret lover William!”
“What the fuck…?” you say to yourself and take a quick look inside Ron’s room. You see Ron’s body lying in a pool of blood on the floor in his underwear, his throat has been slashed. Nearby is another body killed in the exact same way. Its William who you really didn’t know anything about, you guess you know he was gay now though.

“Huh. I guess that explains why Ron never took any interest in Nina.” You say to yourself. Meanwhile Elliot is continuing his speech.

“She even dropped the killing weapon outside her door! Brenda found it when she was going to talk to her this morning! Look!” Elliot shouts when Brenda shows everyone a bloody scalpel.
“THAT’S NOT MINE! I DIDN’T DO IT! I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW RON WAS GAY!”
“Oh we ALL didn’t know Nina, until we found his dead body! But we all know that YOU had a giant crush on him and practically stalked him. It isn’t hard to connect the dots here Nina! You found out he was carrying on with William and you in a jealous rage killed them both! Now granted William and Ron were breaking GZS policy with their behavior, but they didn’t deserve this! To be brutally murdered by an insane love sick stalker!”
“I’M NOT A STALKER! (Sob) I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!”
“Enough! It’s apparent that we need to punish you, for your heinous crimes. Though I feel you deserve death, I am in no position to determine your ultimate fate…I say the people should decide!”

Some of the people in the crowd begin to chant “Death!”, and most of those are followers of Elliot. It doesn’t take long for the rest of the crowd to follow. Elliot’s got ‘em all by the balls. He has completely manipulated this herd of sheep into believing and following him, on little to no basis in evidence. They’re all just believing what he’s telling them. You know damn well he’s set this whole thing up to blame poor Nina. You can’t really do anything about it though; nobody’s going to believe you.

It’s too late anyway, after a few more words from Elliot, you see Leon carry out the crowd’s wishes and break Nina’s neck. Now Elliot makes another speech.

“It is done…it is regrettable, but it is done. Leon, you and some of the others please dispose of these bodies in the incinerator…I didn’t think we would have to use it so soon and under such tragic circumstances. I suppose we’ll need another shelter leader now to guide us through this dark time…well whoever is proposed, I hope they will be willing to listen to some of my ideas about how we should increase security around here so nothing like this ever happens again.”

“Hey! How about you become our shelter leader Elliot? You certainly know how to take charge of a situation and you obviously are concerned about all of us!” another one of Elliot’s lackeys shouts from the crowd where upon a short time later everyone else is following again.

You stand watching a complete fraud take over with mere words. It would appear that even after Armageddon some things never change. Elliot goes through a modesty routine to make him look good and then “humbly” accepts.

You may have just allied yourself with a ruthless sociopath at best or a complete mad man at worst. Time will have to tell.

Five years pass…

Time tells that you’ve allied with a completely ruthless sociopathic mad man.

The Shelter’s population has grown a little; but not excessively. In fact you’re likely to have room for quite some time. Elliot employed a vicious sterilization program to make sure of that. Having a medical background he was able to do the procedures himself with the medical supplies in the shelter. Shortly after he started employing that procedure the initial “cult of personality worship” by everyone stopped and a lot of people regained there senses, but of course by then Elliot had already entrenched himself. There were a few attempts to kill him, but those were always averted by Leon. Elliot now walks around with a couple guards at all times, with Leon is his head bodyguard.

He claimed that it was for the good of the shelter and granted perhaps it is going to make things easier, but it’s obvious that not everyone was keen on this idea. Most of the people who followed Elliot from the beginning were spared this fate though. Disobedience from anyone is punished severely.

However things aren’t too bad for you.

You are pretty much indispensable and you keep it that way. You’re now in charge of maintaining the central GZS computer system which you primarily insist on doing by yourself. Eventually you manage to get the damn thing running at near maximum efficiency and nobody has too many problems with things breaking down anymore. You also do something else to ensure your safety which is carrying your gun secretly on you at all times. There have been times where you’ve wondered if you should kill Elliot, but you haven’t ever killed anyone before, let alone with no provocation, you don’t know if you have it in you. Also he hasn’t really bothered you, if anything you’re one of the few people he’s consistently been okay with.

As long as he’s not bothering you, you don’t really feel the need to kill him. He leaves you to do your job and you leave him to do his…

But is it ALWAYS going to be that way? There may come a day when for whatever reason he decides to get rid of you. Megalomaniacs aren’t particularly known for their trusting nature.
> You kill him now
You need to kill him, things are just going to get worse, or at best stay the same. All the shit that Elliot’s done over the years has gotten to you, and you can’t help, but feel partly responsible for all of this. Sure you don’t like most people, but you’re not a BAD guy. However you are serving a bad master. A really bad master, one that needs to be stopped now.

You take a deep breath and pace around the floor for awhile. Trying to psyche yourself up for your plan. You feel like you gotta take a shit, a piss, and vomit all at the same time. It’s all in your mind though. Its just nerves. You stare at yourself in a blank monitor screen.

“You can do this…you can do this…” you repeat.

You then leave the computer room, ready to do what you have to do.

You don’t get far when you see Elliot walking around with two guards and Leon behind him. You also see him with his wife Brenda and their two daughters. (Of course he didn’t feel the need to make a “sacrifice” for the shelter)

“Shit.” You say to yourself. You didn’t think you’d have to shoot somebody down in front of their goddamned children. You nearly turn back around to re-think this plan, but you stop yourself again. If you don’t do it now, you aren’t ever going to do it. Besides he’s seen you now anyway.

“Hey! How’s our techie doin’? I’m surprised to see you out the computer room; I know how much you like to be alone. So what brings you out?”
“Well, uh…there was something I really thought you needed to see…”
“Oh? What is it?”
“Just this.”

You pull your pistol out and you hesitate just long enough for Elliot to pull Brenda in front of himself resulting in you killing her instead. Leon catches Elliot from the blow back of Brenda’s body and whisks him of to safety. One guard attempts to run at you, but is tripped up when Elliot’s two daughters run screaming past him. The other guard reaches you, but you just manage to get a shot directly in his face. Gouts of his blood splatter in your own face temporarily blinding you.

The guard, who was momentarily tripped up, punches you in the face knocking you to the ground, he pulls out a knife to finish up the job, but with your hand still on your pistol, you fire a couple rounds in his chest causing him to slump to the floor beside you. You get up only to have the guard you just shot to stab you in the foot as a last act of revenge. You holler pain, and shoot him again, before pulling knife out of your foot.

Meanwhile you begin to hear other people yelling, screaming and fighting. Apparently your actions have caused a small rebellion. You’ve given people the incentive again to fight back. Of course it’s going to be up to you to finish it. You limp as fast as you can attempting to stay out of the way of the major fighting, You see Elliot and Leon fighting some people and making quick work of them, you take the opportunity to open fire, blasting Elliot in the knee, he won’t be walking anywhere.

Leon goes to pick him up, but you follow up with another couple shots, hitting him in the side. He goes down and attempts to crawl on top of Elliot, except Elliot kicks him away with his good leg and tries to crawl off instead. You finish off Leon and then kick Elliot in the face hurting your foot since you kicked him with the one that has the big gaping knife hole in it.

Elliot turns over holding his face and addresses you.

“Why? I was your friend! I didn’t do anything to you! I left you alone! Look at what you’ve done to this place! It’s descended into chaos! You’ve destroyed everything I’ve accomplished here!”
“I don’t care.” You say pointing the gun at him.
“WAIT! GODDAMN IT WAIT! If you kill me, you’ll be making orphans out of my daughters! Can you live with that?”
“No…I guess I couldn’t…”

Elliot smiles thinking he’s found a loop hole.

“I suppose I’ll just have to kill them after I kill you.” you say.

Elliot’s eyes widen and you gun him down before he can retort. He dies a lot quicker than he should have, but at least he’s dead.

You were bluffing of course you wouldn’t shoot his children; you just wanted to see his expression before he died. It brought a feeling of satisfaction to you, like you really accomplish something before your own death…

Someone stabs you multiple times in the back with a scalpel while you were standing over Elliot. You fall mortally wounded, with anarchy all around you.

You don’t know if you made things better or worse, all you know is you won’t be around to find out.


Can’t be any worse than what’s going on now, and you might as well be on the winning team.

“Alright, I’m in. What do we do?”

Elliot smiles.
“Glad to have you on board, as for what we do, you’ll see. You’ll all see. Leon, and Brenda you’re all coming with me. The rest of you go back to your rooms, tomorrow your loyalty will be rewarded, I promise.”

Elliot and his gang leave, you close the door and go back to sleep without thinking anymore about it.

The next day you hear a lot of yelling and screaming when you wake up, you get dressed and leave your room to see what’s going on. You see a crowd of people gathered outside Ron’s door. You make you way through the crowd and see Leon holding Nina who is struggling and hysterical. Elliot is nearby speaking.

“I DIDN’T DO IT! YOU’RE LYING! YOU’RE ALL LYING! (Sob)”
“I saw her! I saw her lurking around last night when I heard some noises. I just wish I’d done something then! I’ll never forgive myself. I just thought she was taking a walk, little did I know she was going into Ron’s room and killed him! Why? Because she found out he was having an affair with his secret lover William!”
“What the fuck…?” you say to yourself and take a quick look inside Ron’s room. You see Ron’s body lying in a pool of blood on the floor in his underwear, his throat has been slashed. Nearby is another body killed in the exact same way. Its William who you really didn’t know anything about, you guess you know he was gay now though.

“Huh. I guess that explains why Ron never took any interest in Nina.” You say to yourself. Meanwhile Elliot is continuing his speech.

“She even dropped the killing weapon outside her door! Brenda found it when she was going to talk to her this morning! Look!” Elliot shouts when Brenda shows everyone a bloody scalpel.
“THAT’S NOT MINE! I DIDN’T DO IT! I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW RON WAS GAY!”
“Oh we ALL didn’t know Nina, until we found his dead body! But we all know that YOU had a giant crush on him and practically stalked him. It isn’t hard to connect the dots here Nina! You found out he was carrying on with William and you in a jealous rage killed them both! Now granted William and Ron were breaking GZS policy with their behavior, but they didn’t deserve this! To be brutally murdered by an insane love sick stalker!”
“I’M NOT A STALKER! (Sob) I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!”
“Enough! It’s apparent that we need to punish you, for your heinous crimes. Though I feel you deserve death, I am in no position to determine your ultimate fate…I say the people should decide!”

Some of the people in the crowd begin to chant “Death!”, and most of those are followers of Elliot. It doesn’t take long for the rest of the crowd to follow. Elliot’s got ‘em all by the balls. He has completely manipulated this herd of sheep into believing and following him, on little to no basis in evidence. They’re all just believing what he’s telling them. You know damn well he’s set this whole thing up to blame poor Nina. You can’t really do anything about it though; nobody’s going to believe you.

It’s too late anyway, after a few more words from Elliot, you see Leon carry out the crowd’s wishes and break Nina’s neck. Now Elliot makes another speech.

“It is done…it is regrettable, but it is done. Leon, you and some of the others please dispose of these bodies in the incinerator…I didn’t think we would have to use it so soon and under such tragic circumstances. I suppose we’ll need another shelter leader now to guide us through this dark time…well whoever is proposed, I hope they will be willing to listen to some of my ideas about how we should increase security around here so nothing like this ever happens again.”

“Hey! How about you become our shelter leader Elliot? You certainly know how to take charge of a situation and you obviously are concerned about all of us!” another one of Elliot’s lackeys shouts from the crowd where upon a short time later everyone else is following again.

You stand watching a complete fraud take over with mere words. It would appear that even after Armageddon some things never change. Elliot goes through a modesty routine to make him look good and then “humbly” accepts.

You may have just allied yourself with a ruthless sociopath at best or a complete mad man at worst. Time will have to tell.

Five years pass…

Time tells that you’ve allied with a completely ruthless sociopathic mad man.

The Shelter’s population has grown a little; but not excessively. In fact you’re likely to have room for quite some time. Elliot employed a vicious sterilization program to make sure of that. Having a medical background he was able to do the procedures himself with the medical supplies in the shelter. Shortly after he started employing that procedure the initial “cult of personality worship” by everyone stopped and a lot of people regained there senses, but of course by then Elliot had already entrenched himself. There were a few attempts to kill him, but those were always averted by Leon. Elliot now walks around with a couple guards at all times, with Leon is his head bodyguard.

He claimed that it was for the good of the shelter and granted perhaps it is going to make things easier, but it’s obvious that not everyone was keen on this idea. Most of the people who followed Elliot from the beginning were spared this fate though. Disobedience from anyone is punished severely.

However things aren’t too bad for you.

You are pretty much indispensable and you keep it that way. You’re now in charge of maintaining the central GZS computer system which you primarily insist on doing by yourself. Eventually you manage to get the damn thing running at near maximum efficiency and nobody has too many problems with things breaking down anymore. You also do something else to ensure your safety which is carrying your gun secretly on you at all times. There have been times where you’ve wondered if you should kill Elliot, but you haven’t ever killed anyone before, let alone with no provocation, you don’t know if you have it in you. Also he hasn’t really bothered you, if anything you’re one of the few people he’s consistently been okay with.

As long as he’s not bothering you, you don’t really feel the need to kill him. He leaves you to do your job and you leave him to do his…

But is it ALWAYS going to be that way? There may come a day when for whatever reason he decides to get rid of you. Megalomaniacs aren’t particularly known for their trusting nature.
> You leave it alone
You decide there’s no need to kill Elliot. If the day should come where he begins to think about getting rid of you then you’ll kill him. You need a personal reason to do it; you can’t just do it on a whim.

You go back to your job and think nothing more of it.

Five more years pass...

You’ve been down here ten years and you’re beginning to get a feeling of unease.

Elliot has turned this place in a cult compound. He’s had children by all the remaining fertile women in the shelter and sterilized just about all the remaining men. He’s completely indoctrinated everyone to think the way he does at this point, anyone who was still resisting him has been dealt with. He’s got complete obedience from everyone now. You get the impression that killing Elliot wouldn’t do much good at this point, since you’d just be overwhelmed soon afterwards by his followers.

He’s regained his cult of personality, and you’re just about the only remaining sane person left. Oddly Elliot still thinks highly of you, and has never tried to do anything to you either; he continues to let you do your job, with one exception. He’s been sending his older children to the computer room for you to teach them how to use and work on the central computer.

“What’s this?”
“Don’t touch that! That’ll be next week’s lesson!”
“Can I access the game database?”
“No!”
“Ohhh I got a lady to appear on the screen and she’s naked!”
“Stop that and pay attention!

You’ve become a glorified baby sitter, you’ve gone half insane and you’re ready to put the damn gun to your own head at this point.

Over the years you’ve been wondering about the surface. You wonder if it wouldn’t be better than living in place. One time when you were considering leaving you overrode the safety controls to the elevator which would allow you to bring it down. You could bring it down. All you’d have to do is gather what supplies you think you’re going to need.

The only problem is thanks to the idiotic GZS shelter design; you’d need to trust Elliot’s kids to send you back up from the computer room.
> You leave the shelter
Fuck it, whether this plan works or not, you don’t care, all you know is you can’t stay here anymore. One thing that’s working in your favor right now is the fact that Elliot and everyone else is in the conference room (Which he turned into a “meditation room” where he’s preaching some sort of weird philosophy to everyone.) You need to be quick though. You press a few buttons to make the elevator begin its decent. You only need one kid to help you in this task, so you get the one who is the best behaved and does more or less what you say. You get Jane.

“Jane I need you to come with me. As for the rest of you, go ahead and access the game database and play with whatever, just don’t touch anything on the central computer!”

The kids gleefully start following your instructions while you and Jane leave.

“Where are we going?” Jane asks innocently, while walking beside you.
“I need to check on something back in my room, the central computer says something broke down, but I need to see if it actually did, or if it’s a glitch in the monitoring system. Now if something did, I’ll need to get in there and open up the paneling and do some re-wiring. Could be dangerous, so I need you to run to the medical room and grab a first aid kit just in case. Nobody should be in there right now, so just take it.”
“I dunno, Daddy doesn’t like people taking things from there without permission…”
“Its okay, this is for the good of the shelter.”

Upon hearing that mantra, Jane seems to be more receptive to follow your orders. You tell her to wait by the elevator door when she gets the med kit. You rush to your room, load up on water and leave hoping that nobody has wandered by. You see Jane holding the med kit and looking in wonder at the elevator door which has opened up. Good its here and everything’s going according to plan. Now for the final stage.

“Hey! This door opened up! Daddy said it shouldn’t ever open up. He says he doesn’t want anyone to leave.”
“I’ll bet.” You mumble before addressing Jane properly. “Yeah, I know he wants to keep us all safe. Nothing was broken in my room, but I think something screwy is going on with the shelter’s systems and I need your help to fix it because I think you’re the only one talented enough to do it.”
“Yay!” Jane says in pride.
“Glad to see you’re excited, because this is REALLY important. You have to follow my instructions to the letter. You think you can do that?”
“I think so.”
“Okay, back in the computer room on the central computer on the right side you’ll see a green button flashing. Press that one. Then when the screen asks for confirmation, click on yes and press the enter button. You got all that? Repeat it.”
“Go back to the computer room, go to the big central computer, and uh…look on the right side for a green flashing button. Press that button, then the screen will ask me a question and then I click on yes.”
“Excellent, now after you do that, you might get a screen telling you the status of the elevator, telling you its going back up. That’s what we want it to do. We don’t want anyone leaving right?”
“Right!”
“Okay, I’m going to stay here and make sure this elevator doesn’t come down anymore, I need to open up some panels and do some re-wiring, so I’ll be taking that first aid kit now.”

You take the kit from Jane and tell her to go back to the computer room and do what you told her and to continue monitoring the elevator status just to make sure it goes back up and stays there. When she’s out of sight you quickly enter the elevator, and soon the door closes and you’re on your way up.

You are nervous as the elevator ascends, you half expect it to either start coming back down, or worse just stop suddenly mid way through trapping you.

None of that happens though and as soon as that door opens up again, you run out into the foyer you entered ten years ago and past that into the outside world again.

You see a bright light. It’s the sun; you forgot how bright it could be. You never thought you of all people would be glad to see it again. You see everyone’s cars still parked here, well almost. You can tell that few of them must’ve been taken at one time; a lot have just been plain vandalized. Your van still looks the same though, nobody in their right mind would steal that thing, and it already looks vandalized. You wonder if it would still start, but you left your keys to it in the shelter. You doubt if it would though.

“Meh, I need the exercise anyway.”

You cover your eyes and take a far view of your position. Nobody around, there’s not even a sound except the wind; you’re all alone as far as you can tell and this is what you missed. Once again you have peaceful solitude. You don’t know if you’ll make it out here, but anything’s better than staying in the shelter.

You begin to walk…


You decide there’s no need to kill Elliot. If the day should come where he begins to think about getting rid of you then you’ll kill him. You need a personal reason to do it; you can’t just do it on a whim.

You go back to your job and think nothing more of it.

Five more years pass...

You’ve been down here ten years and you’re beginning to get a feeling of unease.

Elliot has turned this place in a cult compound. He’s had children by all the remaining fertile women in the shelter and sterilized just about all the remaining men. He’s completely indoctrinated everyone to think the way he does at this point, anyone who was still resisting him has been dealt with. He’s got complete obedience from everyone now. You get the impression that killing Elliot wouldn’t do much good at this point, since you’d just be overwhelmed soon afterwards by his followers.

He’s regained his cult of personality, and you’re just about the only remaining sane person left. Oddly Elliot still thinks highly of you, and has never tried to do anything to you either; he continues to let you do your job, with one exception. He’s been sending his older children to the computer room for you to teach them how to use and work on the central computer.

“What’s this?”
“Don’t touch that! That’ll be next week’s lesson!”
“Can I access the game database?”
“No!”
“Ohhh I got a lady to appear on the screen and she’s naked!”
“Stop that and pay attention!

You’ve become a glorified baby sitter, you’ve gone half insane and you’re ready to put the damn gun to your own head at this point.

Over the years you’ve been wondering about the surface. You wonder if it wouldn’t be better than living in place. One time when you were considering leaving you overrode the safety controls to the elevator which would allow you to bring it down. You could bring it down. All you’d have to do is gather what supplies you think you’re going to need.

The only problem is thanks to the idiotic GZS shelter design; you’d need to trust Elliot’s kids to send you back up from the computer room.
> You stay
Once again you decide the risk is too high and you’d get caught before you could get it accomplished. You also don’t think you can trust Elliot’s monsters to do anything to help you.

The time to have acted against Elliot would’ve been long ago, this is your life now and you’re stuck. And you also realize you can’t go on waiting for the other shoe to drop. Elliot’s finally gotten around to his plan of getting rid of you, you aren’t blind. He’s sending his kids for you to teach, so that one day they’ll replace you. Then at best he’ll allow you to live as a eunuch like most of the other guys here, or he’ll just kill you and as far as you’re concerned that’s the ONLY choice he’s going to have.

And if you kill him, you know you’d die soon after and someone else would just take his place. You ponder the idea of killing his children, since he seems to be a bit enthusiastic about continuing his bloodline, but you know he’d just have more and you don’t think you could kill a child, at least not directly....then it suddenly occurs to you what you can do. Something you can do to shut down the whole show.

“Sonofabitch! Why didn’t I think of that before?!” you say out loud.
“Ohhh! You said a bad word!” one of the children shouts, causing you look over at them all.

“You bet your ass I did! Hey kids do you find this boring?”
“Yeah.” They all say in unison.
“Would you like to never have to do it ever again?”
“Yeah!”
“Would you all like to see a neat trick instead?”
“YEAH!”
“Okay! Brace yourselves!”

You whip out your pistol and start blasting the central computer, causing it to spark, shutter, and all other kinds of bad things before it shuts down completely taking all the shelter’s power with it. All the children scream and run off while you’re doing it. Screaming yelling by other shelter members in the distance soon follows, you can hear footsteps running towards your position, everyone’s probably wondering what’s going on. You take a mental count of how many bullets you used up.

“Let’s see…oh good, I got one left.”

You point the gun at your head and pull the trigger.


GZS probably has some sort of scanner that does a little more than just scan your body, so just not having the gun on your person most likely isn’t going to work.

You get the idea that the machine is probably not going to scan the ceiling though, so you get out your duct tape and fix it to the pistol, you then climb on top of the automatic teller and jump up to stick the pistol on the ceiling. You end up falling on your ass, but you succeed. You then press some buttons on the machine, where it proceeds to ask your name and how you’re going to pay. You type in your name and insert you debit card where upon it drains most of your account. The door you stepped through sudden shuts and a hum is heard. You take a deep breath and hope for the best.

“Now scanning for unauthorized items…Scanning…Scanning…Scanning complete. You have been allowed entry, the elevator doors will now open, your room number is 23, thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!” an  emotionless electronic voice remarks as the elevator doors open. It worked!

You quickly climb back up on to the teller and jump up to grab your pistol, (this time able to maintain your balance better) toss it into the elevator opening and then rush in with all your belongings and take the long elevator trip down.

When you get to bottom the elevator door opens to large sterile hallway with lines of other closed metal doors on either side As soon as you enter, the elevator doors slam shut and you hear it going back up, you also notice there aren’t any buttons to call it back…before you’re able to worry about that little detail you’re met by a few of your new neighbors. One is some tall skinny guy another is a brunette woman who begins talking to you.

“Hey, another new neighbor! My name is Nina and this is Ron, what’s your name?”

She is entirely too fucking friendly given the situation.

“Why aren’t there call buttons back on the elevator?” you ask ignoring her question.
“Huh? Oh I guess it’s a safety feature. The elevator automatically goes back up so the other people can get in as quickly as possible. Ron suggested that they might’ve thought someone would deliberately try to keep the elevator down here to prevent anyone else from seeking shelter. Though I can’t honestly imagine that anyone would do such a horrible thing.”
“Been living on earth long Nina?” you ask rhetorically. “Great, so I’m basically trapped down here due to the brilliant engineering minds of GZS…so is it just us so far or are their other people here too?”
”There are a few others, if you come with us we can introduce you to…”
“Maybe later, look we’re gonna be stuck down here for a long time so I’ll get to know everyone soon enough, right now I just want to go to my room and rest.”
“Erm, okay…” Ron says as you push past them both.

You head to your room which is equipped with the basic requirements; food and water dispenser, shower, bed, and a cabinet. (You hide your pistol in your mattress) There’s a standard Shelter Operations Manual sitting on the table as well as a Shelter Booklet about socialization, rules, guidelines and such, both of which you skim through every now and then. There’s a big public recreation area and a couple of other public rooms where your neighbors gather, but you stay in your room and keep to yourself for the most part. Sometimes in the middle of the night when nobody else is around you’ll watch the TV in the living area to keep up on current events.

You hear other people arriving over the month. Ron and Nina greet them all, you can tell those two are going to be the ones to “organize” shit and probably try to decide what’s “best” for everyone. Always saying stuff that they read in the booklet.

“Fucking busy bodies…” you say as you fall asleep watching the world in its death throes on TV…

Monday 8:00 AM

“…BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…”

You groggily wake up and see a test pattern on TV.

This is it.

You feel a small tremor and then you turn off the TV, just as Nina and Ron come walking in.

“What was that?” Nina asks.
“Test pattern, I think Armageddon arrived.” You answer.
“What?! I can’t believe it!” Ron exclaims.
“Why are you so surprised? I mean that was the whole point of coming down here right?”
“Yeah, but I dunno…I just wasn’t prepared for it actually happening.”
“Christ, Ron I’ve overheard you say you were the first one in this goddamn shelter, you of all people should’ve long gotten used to the idea of living down here.”
“What is your problem? You been nothing but hostile since you’ve got here!” Nina exclaims.
“My problem is I’m stuck down here with a bunch of people I don’t really know and if you two are any indication I don’t want to know.”
“How did you even qualify to get a room down here?”
“Good clean living I guess, so is there supposed to be something special we do now?”
“Uh, yeah I think so, it mentions something in the booklet I was reading that came with the shelter, we’re supposed to gather everyone and tell them.”
“Okay well I guess you guys go do that then. I’m just going to check on something here.”
“Okay, but we’re supposed to have some sort of vote to decide on how this place is going to be run, if you don’t show up you don’t get a vote.” Ron reminds you.
“I know Ron, I’ve read the booklet.” You answer unenthusiastically.

Ron and Nina leave you and go tell the others of the situation and follow other things it states in the booklet. You’re wondering if you should even stay down here. All these people seem completely different than you. You wish there was someway to call the elevator back down, but after checking a GZS computer it states that it won’t come back until it detects that the surface is safe for habitation again…which basically means not in your lifetime.

It’s probably just as well since the surface probably isn’t the safest place you’d want to be, lord knows what the hell it looks like now, not to mention the radiation factor. Then again you’d still like the option to leave if you wanted to. You go back to your room, read and enjoy the solitude until Nina comes to get you.

“Hey! You didn’t show up for the meeting! We’re discussing which ways this place could be run, are you coming or what?”
> You be obstinate
“I don’t feel like going anywhere, you guys do what you want.” You say, but Nina insists on invading your space.
“Hey look, I know you don’t wanna do shit, but unfortunately we’re in a real deadlock and we could really use your vote to break a tie.”
“HEY! I told you I’m not going anywhere, now get the hell out of my room and stop invading my privacy, unless you’re looking to get invaded by me.”

Nina is offended by that remark and starts to hit you. It doesn’t really hurt, but it’s annoying and stings enough for you to start blocking her.

“How dare you say something like that to me!”
“Stop it! Get outta here before I throw you out, you crazy bitch!”

While you begin to get up to avoid her slaps, your shift on the mattress causes your pistol to fall out on to the floor, Nina notices, stops hitting you and backs off.

“Oh my god is that a gun?!”
“Well, uh…yeah.” You say picking it up.

Nina suddenly runs off thinking her life is in danger, you soon here her yelling “Help!” and similar cries. You immediately go chasing after her, in an attempt to reassure her that you’re not some murderer.

You see her run into the conference room and follow, when you arrive, a leg trips you up as soon as you enter causing you to slam face first on the floor. Then somebody tries to take the gun away from you, its Elliot.

You feel a hefty boot kick you in ribs and knock the wind out of you, and a couple of other people start dog piling on top of you. Nina is ranting to everyone saying you tried to kill her. The fact that you came running in here with a gun, doesn’t exactly persuade them from thinking differently. Meanwhile you lose grip of the gun and Elliot takes it from you, but “accidentally” shoots you in the face with it.

“Oh my god! I didn’t mean to kill him! He wouldn’t let go of it!” are the last words you hear.


As much as you’re not keen on sharing, you’re less keen on the idea of being shoved in an experimental shelter. Sounds like they didn’t work all the bugs out of the system, and it’s filled with hi-tech equipment? God help you if something broke down. You wouldn’t know how to fix it. At least if you’re with other people, there’s bound to be people with different skills to compliment each other.

Of course everyone could just be incompetent like they usually are.

You’re not going to dwell on it too much, you’ll take the safer choice; maybe it won’t be so bad.

“Okay I’ll take a room in the Community Shelter.”
“Wonderful sir! You won’t regret this decision! Now I’ll need to know some vital information about yourself before I can direct you to our nearest Community shelter in your area where upon you shall pay the automatic teller just inside the foyer of it so that the main door can open and you will be able to enter your new residence during Armageddon! Okay let’s start with your name sir.”

You give out your name, address and such. It’s all pretty routine stuff until the questions get more personal.

“Have you ever committed a felony sir?”
“No.”
“Do you have a history of mental illness sir?”
“No.”
“Are you a drug addict or smoke sir?”
“No.”
“Are you handicapped in anyway sir?”
“No.”
“Do you believe in God sir?”
“Huh? Uh…sure I guess.”
“Hmmm…okay…” the voice says a bit disapprovingly. “Do you have any physical diseases or suffered from any in the past sir?”
“No.”
“Do you have AIDS or any other STDs sir?”
“What the hell? I just told you I don’t have any diseases! Sexual or otherwise!”
“Are you sterile sir?”
“What?!”
“I said are you shooting blanks sir?”
“What difference does that make?”
“Please sir, just answer the question.”
“(Sigh) No. As far as I know, I’m packing a loaded fucking weapon. I know because I had to take an overly thorough physical for work recently.”
“Wonderful sir! Okay are you a homosexual or ever had homosexual feelings?”
“WHAT THE FUCK?! NO!!”
“Sir, I told you before don’t take that tone with me.”
“Well you’re asking me a lot of fucking personal questions! Why do you need to know all this shit?”
“Sir, as I said, we are a family orientated business, we aren’t just a money motivated corporation, we are interested in the survival and well being of the human race. The human race can’t thrive if people don’t meet the necessary…requirements. How can civilization be re-built if children aren’t being born? I mean would you want to live in a society built by drug addicted mentally ill homosexual criminals? That’s the reason the world is ending now, because people have turned away from a righteous way of living!”
“Look I’d live in a fucking society with transsexual midgets if it’ll get me to the fucking shelter already!”
“Hmmm, well despite that comment, your non-committal answer on the belief in God, and your overall anti-social tone, you do qualify for one of our rooms in the Community Shelter in your area. I can only hope some of the other more sociable residents rub off on you, and cause a change in your personality. I’ll give you the location of the shelter sir.”

You are given the location of the Community Shelter which you are surprised to find out is closer then you think, it shouldn’t take too long for you drive there. You are then given the price, which is pretty steep, but you can afford it. Besides if the world is ending it’s not like you’re really going to need money anymore. Which makes you wonder why GZS is in business at all. What’s the point of going to the trouble of building bomb shelters for Armageddon if all the profit they make is most likely going to be useless in the aftermath?

Oh well that’s not your concern, you’re just glad you passed the damn interrogation and got into the shelter. Of course now you’re subjected to some last minute rules.

“Okay sir, you are now in the system and registered. You may move into the Shelter at anytime as long you pay the fee required to the automatic teller as previously described to you. If you don’t pay, you can’t get in obviously. Cash, check, or debit card are acceptable. NO Credit Cards will be accepted! Now then some rules. You do not have to bring anything with you, but it is recommended that you do bring your own clothing if you wish to wear something different as the days go by. Food and drinkable liquids are acceptable, but not necessary. Do not bring in private medical supplies or repair equipment, the shelter has been stocked with those items, we do not want people bringing in potential weapons or illegal drugs. Speaking of which, DO NOT attempt to bring in any kind of weapon! Guns and knives are strictly prohibited! Attempting to bring in either one will result in non-admittance of the shelter! Same goes for drugs of any kind. Alcohol is frowned upon, but accepted. There WILL be a machine to scan you before you’re allowed to enter, so do not think you will be able to sneak anything in! Now then I trust our transaction has ended. If you have anymore questions please contact our customer service line. Good day sir, may your first child be a masculine one and thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!”

That’s it, all you have to do is get what stuff you want to take with you and move in, might as well do it now, no sense in waiting until you see the nuclear cloud. You wonder if you shouldn’t try to “beat the system” by sneaking your weapon in though.

Ultimately you decide this is survival. You need every advantage you can get. You don’t know what kind of people you’re going to be stuck with, so you take your pistol with you and a few “non-lethal” supplies such as duct tape. You also you just pack some clothing, food and water. You then set off on your way.

After a couple days of driving you finally arrive at the location that you were given. It’s in a fairly desolate place with a single solid metal structure with a door standing there. There’s also a few other cars parked nearby, you obviously aren’t the first one here. You park your van and enter the structure with the items you brought with you. You’re in a small foyer with an elevator door and ATM like machine; you’re guessing that’s the automatic teller you were told about.

Before you start pressing buttons you need to figure out how you’re going to get your pistol through the scanning process, because you can be sure if you fail something nasty will happen…
> You just drop the pistol so it is not on your person
You figure you’ll just drop you pistol and then after the scan you’ll just grab it and head into the elevator. After doing this you type in your name and insert you debit card where upon it drains most of your account. The door you stepped through sudden shuts and a hum is heard.

“Now scanning for unauthorized items…Scanning…Scanning…Scanning... WEAPON LOCATED IN FOYER! ACCESS DENIED! GZS SECURITY FORCE HAS BEEN DEPLOYED!”

Your first reaction is to escape, but the front doors have auto locked and the elevator doors are definitely not open. Shooting the door won’t do any good either; it’s thick and solid steel. The only thing you can do is resign yourself to your fate. You pick up your pistol, slump into the corner of the foyer and wait, wondering what’s going to come next.

Surprisingly you don’t have to wait long; you soon hear movement and voices by the outside door followed by a click and the door opening.

“GET OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP AND LEAVE YOUR WEAPON INSIDE!”

Feeling a little nervous and scared you do exactly that. When you exit, suddenly a spray of bullets is fired from one of the GZS security guards. You’re hit several times in the body and fall to the ground. Amazingly you’re still alive, but you’re in no condition to do anything except listen to the security guards argue.

“You goddamn asshole! That’s the THIRD person you shot! I told you CAN’T fire on anyone unless they’re holding a weapon! Fuck, we’re gonna be buried in paper work because of you!”
“Yeah well he looked like he was going for one.”
“He had his fucking hands up! (Sigh) Nevermind, is he dead?”
“No, he looks like he’s still breathing…so uh what do we do? We never had one that survived before.”
“Drop him off at the emergency room.”
“Can’t we just finish him off? It would be a hell of a lot easier.”
“Maybe, but the GZS guidelines say that anyone who violates the policy agreement is subject to a lawsuit. He broke it, by trying to sneak in a weapon, I’m sure management or whoever is gonna want to sue his ass for all the remaining money and assets he owns. So keeping him alive is in GZS best interest. Hell, with their connections they’ll probably figure out how to sue him for the hospital stay. Why do you think I got pissed off when you killed the others? You can’t sue dead people!”
“Alright, alright get off my ass. Let’s move him into the van before he bleeds to death.”

At this point you fall unconscious. When you wake up you’re lying in bed with a hose up your nose and several other tubing going into various places of your body. Apparently you have a private room though; GZS is probably adding that charge to your lawsuit as well. You’re most likely going to be living in a cardboard box by the time you leave this place, but you don’t really care at this point anymore.

As you slowly recover occasionally you’re visited by some lawyer types who spout some legalese at you, but you’re so zonked out on pain medication half the time and fading in and out of consciousness you can’t even pay attention. You spend most of your conscious time in the hospital watching the TV in the corner of the room. The state of the world isn’t getting any better.

Monday 8:00 AM

You groggily wake up and hear a loud continuous beeping noise. It’s a test pattern on TV.

“…BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…”

This is it.

You manage to lift yourself off the bed as you hear commotion going on in the hallway. After turning off the TV you look out the window and see the city practically in chaos. This hospital room doesn’t seem so bad now; at least you’ve gotten some peace. You also can’t help but to laugh, GZS won’t be able to get anymore money from you now.

You continue to stare out the window laughing and then gaze upward towards the sky.

You see a bright light and then nothing at all.


Fuck work, the world’s about to end soon and you need to prepare yourself for that! You immediately call up the number that the infomercial mentioned. You know the damn thing by heart since you’ve been watching it night after night. Eventually a chipper female voice picks up on the other end.

“Ground Zero Survival Inc. How may I help you?”
“Uh, yeah I’d like to buy a bomb shelter.”
“That’s wonderful sir! In these uncertain times you can never be too careful and we here at GZS are thrilled that you’ve chosen to trust us in your continued existence! You and your family’s utmost protection is as important to us is it is to you! Our shelters are the best you’ll find and, we have many shelters still available at various prices, but really can you put a price on your loved ones protection? Of course not! So I’m sure you’ll want one of our top of the line models that are still left! Okay so how many are in your family?”
“Um, just me.”
“Oh…” the voice suddenly gets less chipper.
“What?”
“Sir, don’t you have ANY family? Like a wife at least, maybe a cousin?”
“No, not really.”
“Oh dear…”
“WHAT!?”
“Well sir, its just that, we here at GZS are a family friendly business and we feel that the survival of the human race will best be served by those who have a strong sense of family ties and a respect for the family unit. We aren’t in the business of selling shelters to those of low moral fiber sir…”
“What the fuck?! Just because I’m single I gotta be some sort of low life? I’m not luring fuckin’ little girls into my car with lollipops! I have a fucking job and pay my goddamn taxes!”
“Sir, I don’t like you taking that tone with me when there isn’t any call for it and I would appreciate it if you didn’t blaspheme, I’m a God fearing woman. Now then I understand your frustration, but there’s nothing we can do. Our shelters were primarily built for families of at least four. To put singles in them wouldn’t be fair to families that have children who shall surely be the ones to rebuild civilization, not to mention it would be a waste of resources. A single person would have an overstock of food and water since as I said we primarily cater to families and stock the shelters with families in mind.”
“I fail to see how me having MORE than enough food and water is a bad thing…”
“I see sir, so you would be selfish and deprive a possible family of survival?”
“I didn’t say that! And wait a minute; wouldn’t I be doing that anyway if I had a family of my own?”
“Yes, but it would be different.”
“How?”
“You would have a family sir.”

You’re about ready to throw the phone against the wall in frustration.

“So basically what you’re telling me is you’re not selling me a shelter.”
“Ah now I didn’t say that sir! Since you’re interested in buying our product and by your previous outburst I can tell you ARE a productive member of society. And it is only due to your poor social skills that you have been unable to take the necessary steps to have a family of your own! But never fear, GZS HAS kept your type in mind!”
“Gee, thanks…”
“You’re quite welcome sir! We have the Community Shelters for singles! It is basically a giant shelter filled with singles such as yourself. You will be given a separate room to live in, but everything else you must share. Don’t worry we have stocked these shelters with supplies to last for years! It is our hope that nature will take its course and when it comes time to return to the surface a fully functional tight knit community of families will emerge to rebuild civilization once again!”

Sharing isn’t something you’re good at. You like your privacy and your space and your solitude. You can’t imagine sharing stuff when your very survival is at stake.

“Look, don’t you have ANYTHING I can get by myself?” you demand.
“Are you serious sir? You actually want to be alone?” the voice says as if you must be nuts to ask that kind of question.
“If possible yeah.”
“Well…I shouldn’t really tell you sir, because you snapped at me earlier, but it is my job to make sure any potential customer is serviced to the best of my ability. That and the fact that these other Special Shelters we have are a bit…experimental.”
“Experimental? What do you mean?”
“Well I don’t know too much about these Special Shelters myself sir, all I know is they have been equipped with the latest technology and VERY expensive. Anyone can buy one as long as they have the money to do so.”
“Well how experimental are these things exactly?”
“As I said sir, I know little about these Special Shelters other than they are equipped with the latest technology. GZS has run tests and they are considered very safe and will protect you in the coming apocalypse, however due to time constraints GZS may have missed a few minor things, and as such we are legally required to warn…er inform potential customers before they buy them.”
> You buy the Special Shelter
Experimental or not, it sure sounds better than being crammed into a shelter with a bunch of other people like sardines. At least you don’t have to worry about having to share anything, and if something goes wrong well you’ll deal with it when the times comes like you normally do.

Or maybe you won’t. You aren’t going to dwell on it to much.

“Okay I’ll take the Special Shelter.”
“You will? I mean, that’s wonderful sir! You won’t regret this decision! Now I’ll need to know some vital information about yourself before I can direct you to our nearest experimental shelter in your area where upon you shall pay the automatic teller just inside the foyer of it so that the main door can open and you will be able to enter your new residence during Armageddon! Okay let’s start with your name sir.”

You give out your name, address and such. It’s all pretty routine stuff.

“Okay well that’s about all the information I need. I’ll give you the price and the location of the shelter sir.”

You are given the location of the shelter which you are surprised to find out is closer then you think, it shouldn’t take too long for you drive there. You are then given the price, which is pretty steep, quite frankly its going to break you. However if the world is ending it’s not like you’re really going to need money anymore. Which makes you wonder why GZS is in business at all. What’s the point of going to the trouble of building bomb shelters for Armageddon if all the profit they make is most likely going to be useless in the aftermath?

Oh well that’s not your concern, you’re just glad you managed to get a shelter. The voice gives you some last minute information.

“Okay sir, you are now in the system and registered. You may move into your shelter at anytime as long you pay the fee required to the automatic teller as previously described to you. If you don’t pay, you can’t get in obviously. Cash, check, or debit card are acceptable. NO Credit Cards will be accepted! You may take whatever you wish with you into the shelter; it will be your new home after all. There will be an owner’s manual provided inside your new shelter. Any problems you encounter you should be able to troubleshoot yourself if you read and follow the manual. I’m sure any problems will not be life threatening sir, and there has been a back up system also installed in the unlikely event of total shelter failure since your survival is our foremost concern at GZS! Now then I trust our transaction has ended. If you have anymore questions please contact our customer service line. Good day sir, may you maintain relatively stable mental health and thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!”

That’s it, all you have to do is get what stuff you want to take with you and move in. You might as well pack your things now, no sense in waiting until you see the nuclear cloud. You pack up some extra food and water, a repair kit (since it sounds like you’ll probably need one) some basic medical supplies, and a few other useful items.

Oh and your pistol.

Still, part of you is reluctant to leave the “real world”. You wonder if you shouldn’t stick around a bit longer to see if the climate changes…you’d hate to spend your life savings and the world not be bombed into a nuclear wasteland.
> You leave immediately
You leave immediately; things aren’t going to get better you know that, in fact you’re glad, because in a strange way the idea of not having to live in the world as it exists today anymore is weirdly appealing to you.

After a couple days of driving you finally arrive at the location that you were given. It’s in a fairly desolate place with a single solid metal structure with a door standing there. You park your van and enter the structure with the items you brought with you. You’re in a small foyer with an elevator door and ATM like machine; you’re guessing that’s the automatic teller you were told about.

You press some buttons on the machine, where it proceeds to ask your name and how you’re going to pay. You type in your name and insert you debit card where upon it completely drains your account.

“You have been allowed entry, the elevator doors will now open, thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!” an  emotionless electronic voice remarks as the elevator doors open.

You enter with all your belongings and take the long elevator trip down.

When you get to bottom the elevator door opens to a sterile, but obviously large and well equipped living area. As soon as you enter, the elevator doors slam shut and you hear it going back up, you also notice there aren’t any buttons to call it back…before you’re able to worry about that little detail you’re met by another electronic voice…it actually sounds a lot like the female voice you were talking to on the phone…

“Welcome to Ground Zero Survival Shelter Number 23! You will find that this shelter has been equipped to serve your needs in the event of total World destruction! Due to power saving design and money back guarantee concerns, fully functional shelter facilities will not be available until Armageddon occurs. Until then you will find all other doors firmly locked, please do not attempt to open them. I have detected that Armageddon has not yet occurred as 84% of the countries on Earth still maintain a stable centralized government system and 70% of the land surface is still habitable. However the world conflict rate is 92%. Prediction that Armageddon will occur in a month or less. This shelter will become fully functional at that time.  In the unlikely event that Armageddon does not occur and the conflict rate drops to an acceptable level, the elevator will return and you will be able to leave this shelter and receive half of your money back from the automatic teller in the foyer on the surface.”
“Wait a minute didn’t I talk to you on the phone?” you ask the voice, not really knowing if it’s going to answer back.
“…I don’t think so, as far as my databanks are concerned this is the first time I have been in contact with a human since I was built sir. Is it okay if I call you sir?”
“Sure, go ahead.” You answer.
“Wonderful sir!”
“Hey, so I can’t explore this damn shelter even though I paid for it? I have to stay in this living area?”
“Not until doomsday sir. As I said this is to conserve my power and also to prevent buyer abuse in case of non-Earth destruction. Do not worry sir; this living area alone can support your needs until the appointed time. There is a basic food and water dispenser on the right wall.”
“Buyer abuse?”
“Yes, think about it, here you are using up all the wonderful facilities that this shelter has to offer for months on end while the Earth teeters on the brink of destruction then suddenly through a miracle hostilities cease. You then would be able to leave, get half of your money back and go about your life. You think it would be fair to GZS if we let you get away with basically having a luxury vacation on our dime? Just because we are in the business of your survival, does not mean we in the business of being exploited sir”
“But…I paid for this!”
“And so you did sir, and you will be able to use ALL the facilities when the time is right, until then you can enjoy the living area, oh and the bathroom sir.”

One of the metal doors opens up to reveal a normal (And again sterile) bathroom.

“Gee thanks.”
“You’re quite welcome sir! After all I’m here to serve you!”
“You kept saying I would be able to leave if the world doesn’t blow up…can’t I just leave at any time?”

The voice doesn’t answer for awhile.

“…I’m sorry sir I’m puzzled by your inquiry.”
“Can’t I leave anytime I want?”
“Why would you want to do that sir? I have been designed to keep you safe from harm as soon as you paid and entered the elevator. The current world situation is very grim and most likely terminal sir. Allowing you to leave at this point would be a severe violation in my programming.”

You suddenly realize you’re here now regardless of whether you’re having second thoughts about this situation. You can see why these shelters were “experimental” now. You try not to think about the potential waist high shit you might have gotten yourself into, and instead try to think about how you might’ve just avoided becoming a statistic in a nuclear exchange. You resign yourself to your current fate and start unpacking your stuff. You could do with a little distraction from your current predicament, so you turn on a TV monitor that has been provided. The fact that the world’s situation hasn’t gotten any better seems to cheer you up.

You spend most of your time on the couch, watching TV and exploring what you can. You’re glad you brought some of your own food, because the dispenser food doesn’t taste all that great. You’re guessing it’s just supposed to keep you alive, nothing more.

 As the days blur into the next, the shelter and TV you apprised of the world situation, which is only getting worse. It looks like you’ve made the right decision…

Monday 8:00 AM

“…BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…”

You groggily wake up and see a test pattern on TV.

This is it.

Suddenly the TV turns itself off.

“Armageddon has arrived sir! This shelter is now fully functional! Please explore and enjoy all the things this facility has to offer!” the voice beams.

At this point all the previously closed metal doors in the room unlock and open (Except for the elevator ones of course) After taking a quick check, you find you now have a small library, a computer room and a proper bedroom. When you return to the living area the voice chirps up again.

“Sir, I highly recommend that you read the manual to familiarize yourself with everything properly first, so you aren’t just fumbling around.”

A small panel in the wall opens up to reveal a hefty owner’s manual. You were wondering where the hell that thing was, since you were told you were going to be provided with one when you talked to the voice on the phone.
> You read the manual
Maybe it’s because you’ve gotten so used to the idea of being in the living area, you’re more willing to lounge about there. You take the manual and start reading. While you’re in the middle of it, the voice suddenly pipes up again.

“Sorry to bother your reading sir, but would you like to meet some of your new neighbors?”
“Neighbors?”
”Yes sir, I’m sure as you have already read, this shelter is equipped with a very high tech computer with loads of storage, information and…”
”Yeah, yeah, what does that have to do with this neighbor business?”
“In an effort to cater to all its customer’s needs, GZS is well aware that socialization is vital to human mental health. Studies have shown that humans in long periods of isolation often go mad, so that is why this facility has been linked in communication to other ones within your area. You might think of it as a chatroom type form of communication commonly used on the old world internet! If you wish there is also a camera type device if you wish to show yourself to your new neighbors. We have found humans feel someone is more real to them if they can actually see who they are talking to and thus have a greater connection.”
“So how many people are there?”
“This shelter merely has been fitted with a basic communication system to other similar shelters, and only then those in your area. For example this is Shelter number 23. Your neighbors are only numbers 20 through 25, those being the closest ones to your location. While obviously there were other shelters of this type built, it was not cost effective to link all the shelters together in such a manner given our timeframe to finish these before Armageddon, so only a few were linked together at a time. Do not worry sir; it has been found that six people are sufficient to sustain enough conversation to prevent mental failure due to isolation.”
“Wonderful, so does this make me the Professor?” you ask rhetorically.
“Pardon sir?”
“Nevermind, look I don’t have to talk to these people do I?”
“…well no sir, but I fail to see why you’d intentionally want to stay isolated.”
“Duh, that was kind of the point of buying a shelter for myself.”
“…I see, well I can’t force you sir, but I would like you to reconsider…I’m just trying to look out for your physical as well as mental welfare as per my programming…”

If you didn’t know better the voice almost sounds a bit hurt by your decision.

“Oh alright, I’ll go talk to them. Can’t be any worse than the idiots I used argue with on the internet.”
“Wonderful sir! I trust you know your way to the computer room. You will find that a designation name has already been chosen for you.”

You make your way to the computer room and take a better look at it this time. It’s filled with lots of multi-media entertainment. You’re glad they gave you a wide variety of movies to chose from. You sit down in front of a fairly wide computer screen which has already been turned on for you; you guess the Shelter is really keen on the idea of you being social. You don’t turn the camera on though, in fact you turn it away from you completely, you’re not quite ready for THAT level of socialization yet.

You log on and begin typing.

OmegaMan23: Hello? Is there anyone out there?
RockerChick20: Hey! I’m here!
OmegaMan23: Oh. Okay. Hi.
RockerChick20: Hi yourself! This is just like a chatroom! Isn’t this great?
OmegaMan23: Uh yeah real great.
Job24: Hey I’m here too; um do you guys have any movies or something?
OmegaMan23: Yeah I got a shitload of movies, DVDs and VHS. Most of them I even like.
RockerChick20: That’s weird, I don’t have too many movies, I have a lot of music CDs though.
Job24: What kind of music?
RockerChick20: All types, but I have a lot of them. Why?
Job24: I don’t have any movies except those with Pauly Shore in them! He fucking sucks! And all my music CDs are New Age Yanni type shit! Thank god I have some games to play!
OmegaMan23:  I’ve got some games too, but for some reason I have nothing but Gangsta Rap and Hair Metal as far as music goes oh wait I also have some Classical. Weird. What the hell I thought these Shelters were all stocked the same?
MissKitty25: Apparently not, I have nothing but porno and not all of it is regular porno either, some of it is quite…bizarre.
Job24: Lucky.
CaseyJones22: Hey guys when do the Shelters become fully functional?
OmegaMan23: What the hell are you talking about?
CaseyJones22: I mean when do the rest of the doors to the place open up, besides the bathroom I mean.
RockerChick20: What do you mean? The doors were all open to begin with.
Job24: Yeah they were always open.
MissKitty25: Yeah.
OmegaMan23: They weren’t open for me! I was stuck in the living area until the nukes hit! Wait a minute how are you using the computer if you’re stuck in the living area? In fact if the doors were all open for you guys haven’t you been in contact with each other before?
Job24: My computer didn’t link up to you guys until just now. I could use it to play games and such, but I couldn’t do anything else with it. When I turned it on today I got a message saying that the communications to you guys was operational and it said I could take the opportunity to say hi to my five new neighbors.
RockerChick20: Sounds like what happened to me.
MissKitty25: Same here.
CaseyJones22: Me too. Oh and you guys must have different shelter designs because my computer is in the living area.
OmegaMan23: The Shelter never told me anything about this stuff and it’s been quite talkative since I’ve been here let me tell you.
CaseyJones22: The Shelter talks? Now what the hell are you talking about?
OmegaMan23: I’m talking about the Shelter, you know the overly chipper voice that tries so hard to please you?
CaseyJones22: You’ve lost me dude. You been smokin’?
OmegaMan23: NO! I’m talking about the Shelter voice! It’s a computer or something that talks to me! It’s always trying to be friendly! Don’t you guys hear it?
RockerChick20: Um, no.
Job24: No talking computer here.
MissKitty25: You sure you’re feeling okay and aren’t imagining things? I mean we all were isolated for a long time before we were able to talk to one another. I know sometimes I would talk to myself, maybe…
OmegaMan23: Look, I’m not fucking crazy alright?! The damn thing even insisted that I talk to you fuckers!
CaseyJones22: Okay dude calm down we believe you! Maybe you got some sort of extra special shelter; I mean from the sound of it we all don’t have the same things.
RockerChick20: Hey shouldn’t there be one more person here? The message said five new neighbors on my computer; so far I’ve only met four of you guys.
OmegaMan23: Yeah we’re missing number 21, whatever his or her name is.
Shadow21: I’m right here; I’ve just been reading the conversation.
OmegaMan23: Oh really? Well you mind announcing your presence next time?
Shadow21: I only speak when necessary, besides if any of you bothered to check you would’ve seen my name listed on the active list.
Job24: Hey what kind of movies do you have?

Well you’ve met your neighbors, the question is if you want to bother talking to them on a regular basis or not. You did find their information interesting though.
> You continue to talk to them as frequently as possible
Your curiosity is peaked and you take the opportunity to talk with the others whenever you can. The Shelter is certainly pleased you are being social. Months pass and you all learn more about each other more or less. (Though only RockerChick has even hinted at turning on the cameras to see each other visually) You have to admit though you’re a little more interested in what’s going on their shelters.

From what you can tell RockerChick has a shelter similar to yours with just a few differences in equipment. Her personality is damn near as “chipper” as the Shelter. She likes talking with everyone, but seems to like speaking to you a lot more. Must be your “winning” personality.

Job’s shelter is a lot like yours too except he’s constantly complaining about various things breaking down and he has to fix. Last time he said he damn near got crushed by his own bed when it suddenly rose back up into the wall when he was sleeping. He doesn’t have much in entertainment either, so he’s always glad to talk with anybody. Mainly to complain.

CaseyJones’ Shelter STILL hasn’t become fully functional! He’s effectively trapped in the living area and bathroom. He has his computer to talk to everyone but little else. He doesn’t really seem to care though; apparently he brought a shitload of weed with him and has somehow created a small hydroponics pot farm in his bathtub (He doesn’t see the need to bathe since he’s not in contact with anyone) He says he plans on spending the Aftermath completely stoned. Job can’t understand why Casey isn’t freaking out about his situation.

Apparently MissKitty has a more “homey” type shelter. From the description it sounds like it’s bigger than any of yours and not quite as “sterile”. She has a hot tub in her bathroom and some other luxury type items. MissKitty tends to brag a lot and is rather an uninteresting person other than the weird porn she watches and describes sometimes. Job often complains that it’s wasted on her.

As for Shadow, he or she barely ever talks. Shadow makes his presence known, but then just lurks and doesn’t say anything. Most of the others forget he’s even there, but you always keep it in the back of your mind and will address him when you feel the need. So far the only thing he’s mentioned about his shelter is how dim the lighting is.

One thing that you’ve been tempted to do is use the private feature and talk to one of the others in private. The only ones that interest you are RockerChick and Shadow though. The first because she seems friendly with you. The second because you’re kind of suspicious of Shadow and you’re hoping to learn more.
> You talk more in depth with RockerChick
No point in spending the Aftermath worrying about shit you can’t do anything about, you might as well focus on what little chance you’re going to have of female companionship again. You take the opportunity to ask to talk to RockerChick more privately one day, unsurprisingly she agrees.

RockerChick20: Hey! You’re the first person to want to talk privately to me!
OmegaMan23: You’re kidding; I would’ve thought the other guys would’ve been jumping at the chance to talk to you.
RockerChick20: Well I see you’re the charming type, that’s alright though I like that. But sadly no, the other guys haven’t. I think Casey’s so busy getting stoned most of the time that any extra effort on his part would be too much for him and Job is too busy complaining about his latest shelter problems. And if Shadow is a guy, he’s been pretty tight lipped as usual…although MissKitty has been talking with me a lot lately. I get the impression she’s been wanting to see a lot more of me if you know what I mean, but she’s a bit too self-involved and doesn’t seem that interesting. Maybe if I didn’t have any other options, she might have a chance.
OmegaMan23: Wow, I guess it’s a good thing I made my move then.
RockerChick20: Guess so. So! Are you just going to continue being a faceless entity or do I finally get to see you and learn your real name?
OmegaMan23: Well, okay, but only if you do it too.
RockerChick20: Well of course, we’ll do it together! On the count of three! One, two…

And true to both of your words you turn on your cameras and see each other for the first time. After telling her your name, she tells you her real name is Becky. She certainly is attractive, but she seems a lot younger than you, like barely out of her teens, if that! You wonder how the hell she could afford one these Shelters since you’re probably at least ten years older than her and with your salary you could barely afford the damn thing.

OmegaMan23: If you don’t mind me asking how old are you?
RockerChick20: Nineteen! How old are you?
OmegaMan23: Probably old enough to be considered a pervert to be talking to a girl as young as you. How did you afford one of these shelters, I went broke getting into this thing, not that it matters now.
RockerChick20: Oh my parents had a lot of money and they gave me a lot of it. I registered about one during one of my spending sprees; I didn’t actually expect to ever use it. I even thought it would be a cool place to gather all my friends where we could party one day.
OmegaMan23: So if you didn’t expect to use it, what changed your mind? The slow realization that the world was going to shit on TV?
RockerChick20: Not really, I barely paid attention to the news. I ended up getting into a fight with my parents and ran away from home for the umpteenth time. I usually didn’t go far and stayed with friends, but I really wanted to try to worry them, so I figured I’d use this shelter for a little while! Little did I realize that I’d be trapped down here, I couldn’t even get my cell phone to work to call out. After panicking for a few days, I resigned myself to thinking that my parent’s might figure out that I came here since they knew I registered for one of these and were pissed off about it. As I watched TV in the passing days that’s when I started seeing how bad things were then one day the TV displayed nothing but snow and I knew what had happened. The world blew up. Sometimes I wonder if my parents were still looking for me…
OmegaMan23: I’m sure they were.
RockerChick20: Maybe. It got really bad the last time. They were control freaks anyway…they didn’t really care about me; they just wanted to run my life. I don’t wanna talk about them, so what about you?
OmegaMan23: What about me what?
RockerChick20: What’s your story silly! Surely being as old as you are, you have some interesting stories to tell! All you old guys do.
OmegaMan23: Talk to a lot of old guys do you? Is that before or after they buy you candy?
RockerChick20: Lol. ALWAYS after! I’m not a slut! No, I like older guys they know so much more about everything.
OmegaMan23: Not really, we can just bullshit better than younger guys.
RockerChick20 Lol! You’re really funny.
OmegaMan23: See I told you.
RockerChick20: Ha ha! Okay let’s be serious for a moment. Tell me about yourself.

You proceed to give some information about yourself, which probably isn’t nearly as interesting as some of the stuff she’s told everyone when you were talking with her in the public network. Becky seems to be a bit of a free spirit which doesn’t really surprise you and the fact that she’s into older guys doesn’t really surprise you either as most girls her age go through that phase, and given she didn’t really have a good relationship with her parents, she’s probably sub-consciously looking for a father figure.

About a month passes and you and Becky get comfortable enough to start having “sex” in a fashion. It’s not exactly the same being cyber and all, but you’ll take a hot naked chick touching herself and typing dirty words to you over nothing. The Shelter is pleased that you are finding a healthy way of releasing your sexual tension, but it really creeps you out that it keeps track of such things.

A few more months pass and it’s obvious to the others what’s been going on between the two of you. Casey thinks its “cool”. You get the impression MissKitty is a bit jealous, but doesn’t really say anything. Job, sensing he missed his chance keeps unsuccessfully directing his attention to MissKitty now, and Shadow actually becomes more talkative in general.

Soon you all learn each others names. Casey’s is Paul, Job is Mark, MissKitty is Miranda and Shadow (who you finally find out is male) is Xavier. Everyone actually sees what each other looks like except for you who continue to refuse to show yourself to anyone, but Becky in private and Xavier who’s a bit hard to see since his lighting is very dim.

In general things are running smoothly and you and Becky have as close of a relationship as you can over a computer. Even you’re surprised that such a thing is possible.

A year passes...

Suddenly you all get a distressing message from Paul. He says his food and water dispensers have ceased working and he can’t even get his bathroom facilities to work anymore. He says he knows he doesn’t have much time left, so he logged on one last time to tell you all good bye. Xavier states how fucked up that is. Mark naturally freaks out worrying that he’ll be next to suffer total shelter failure. Miranda gives her sympathy and you ask if he has any tools to fix the problem, but he says he didn’t bring any of that kind of stuff with him and there don’t seem to be any tools in his shelter either, at least none that he has access to. This incident gets Becky pretty upset, but more so in private with you. She always liked Paul since he was a cool guy. You do your best to try to comfort her. You however are starting to get paranoid again.

While it’s certainly possible Paul’s shelter failed on its own, lord knows these things are supposed to be experimental and his wasn’t working right from the beginning. However, you’re starting to wonder if it’s possible for someone to maliciously hack into the other ones. When you first started all this “meet the neighbors” shit, you were wondering if Xavier was up to no good when he was being all silent in the beginning, but maybe he was sizing you all up and is beginning his strike now though.

Picking you off one by one.
> You are being paranoid, forget about it
You stop yourself from imagining conspiracy theories. There doesn’t need to be some mysterious “hacker”. Paul’s shelter was fucked up from day one from what you know. It’s most likely just shoddy GZS workmanship. It’s bad what happened, but there’s no point in stressing over it. You’re just glad you got a good shelter that seems to work properly. Besides your Shelter has a pretty active AI, you’re sure that at the first sign of trouble it would warn you verbally.

You continue your life as normal with Becky.

Another year passes...

Mark stops logging on for two months which is strange, because he always made an effort to get online whenever possible even when he was in the middle of fixing something. You know he also thought he was “getting somewhere” with Miranda as well.
Everyone doesn’t say too much about it. While it’s possible he’s just lost network connection and can’t access the rest of you, it’s a given that probably the worst has happened. He was also having shelter problems from day one, so again you chalk it up to GZS fuck ups, after all the Shelter did tell you there were budget cut backs in the construction of these things. Again it’s bad, but there isn’t any point in dwelling over something you can’t do anything about. The world technically ended years ago, all that’s important is that you get what enjoyment you can out of life and that’s what you’re doing with Becky.

Life continues as normal, except you notice the Shelter isn’t as talkative anymore and then ceases speaking to you at all. You don’t think too much about it until a couple months later…

You wake up to an angry female sounding voice and it’s definitely not the Shelter and it isn’t Becky either.

“Well it took me awhile, but I now have complete access to your systems. Good thing I practiced on Mark and Paul first. You know I didn’t believe you had a talking shelter, but I’m glad you did, it gives me a chance to verbally tell you about how you’re going to die.”
“Miranda?”
“Got it one, but then again the choices were pretty limited. Soon after you’re out of the way, Xavier will be next and then it’ll be just me and Becky. She’ll have no choice, but to come to me.”

You’re so caught off guard that the only reply you can come up with is…“You’re fucking nuts.”

“Maybe, but I’m not going to be dead and that’s the important thing here.”
“Wait! How about I just break up with Becky? I’ll be a real dick to her, that way there’s no chance she’ll want to get back with me…or better yet how about I just disconnect myself from the network?”
“Sorry, no. I can’t take that chance. Even if you disconnected from the system what’s stopping you from fixing all the damage I’ve done so far, fortifying and then reconnecting to get revenge on me later? You gotta die, it’s the only way.”
“Wait! If you do have access to all my systems, how about you just bring the elevator down and let me leave the Shelter? I mean I’d have to go outside, I wouldn’t be able to do anything to you or Becky then, not to mention topside probably isn’t hospitable.”
“Nice try, but no…for all we know life topside could be paradise now. A few years have passed you know, a lot can happen in that time.”
“Oh come on, you don’t actually believe that?”
“Not really, but I just want you to die by my hand…I REALLY don’t like you. You stole Becky away from me and now I’m going to get her back. No more talk, goodbye.”
“WAIT!”

All power shuts down in your Shelter leaving you in complete darkness. You fumble around and head towards where your food and water dispensers are and predictably they don’t work. You’re left to the same agonizing fate that Mark and Paul were. Oddly you don’t panic as much as you might think in the face of imminent death. In some ways you had a good run after the world ended. You cheated death for a longer time than most folks did and you got to spend time with a pretty girl at least during most of it. Again, no point in worrying about shit you can’t do anything about. Kind of wish you got to say goodbye to Becky, but you can’t have everything.

You do have one advantage that Mark and Paul didn’t though; you can still choose when to die. You feel around in the darkness back to your bedroom and go into the bag you brought with you when you first got here.

There it is; your pistol.

You position it to your head…