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 ask the Shelter about its security systems
Confronting Xavier won’t do any good; even if he is guilty he’s just going to deny it. Possibly even antagonize him to hacking you a lot sooner. You figure maybe you should alert the Shelter about the situation and get a better understanding of its workings. You’ve been spending so much time with Becky that you’ve been neglecting other matters.

“Shelter, can you tell me a little bit more about your systems? Could you easily be hacked?”
“Hacked sir? Well it is possible, but highly unlikely as I have been equipped with the latest protection programs, some of it even military in origin. Are you worried someone is going to try to hack me?”
“Kind of. I don’t know. Paul’s shelter failed, and I just got this feeling it wasn’t completely due to shoddy workmanship.”
“Well I do remember you telling me that his wasn’t opening up. Not all these shelters were built as well as me. There were budget cutbacks during the construction of these you know.”
“I suppose.”
“You seem distressed sir. I’ll tell you what, it’s going a little bit out of my programming as outright spying and monitoring other shelters isn’t really part of the GZS terms of agreement, but I’ll do it. First signs of anyone trying to get anywhere NEAR my systems or anything else suspicious I’ll alert you immediately and bring the elevator down for a hasty escape in case everything goes wrong.”
“Well that does make me feel better, thanks.”
“You’re welcome sir, I might suggest you read up on your electronics, you may need them. I will inform you of anything that wasn’t covered in my manual, or if you have any extra questions.”

A few weeks pass as you take the Shelter’s advice and start studying up. You’re spending less time with Becky, but it can’t be helped. When you do talk to her, you tell her she should do the same thing you’re doing. She thinks you’re being overly paranoid though, and despite your closeness, she’s still skeptical that you have a shelter that talks to you on a regular basis. (The only one who ever really believed you on that was Paul) She also thinks you’re trying to tell her what to do, rather than looking out for her. You’re starting to look like the “Strict Dad” rather than the “Fun Dad” now. Things between you become a little strained and a couple more months pass and Becky and you aren’t really together anymore. You notice Xavier talks to Becky a little more now, but it doesn’t really seem serious. Miranda also attempts to talk to Becky more seeing that you’re out of the picture, but Becky still doesn’t seem interested in her. Meanwhile Mark unsuccessfully makes advances towards Miranda.

It seems like everyone is chasing someone else that isn’t interested, except you, who inadvertently discarded intimacy in favor of security and survival…though not entirely, you did look into this supposed hacker business in an effort to protect not just you, but Becky as well because you did like her. You just wish she would’ve listened to you.

Meanwhile you’re keeping an eye on the situation and asking the Shelter for security updates, which still says it doesn’t detect anything. You wonder if you were wrong and you just fucked up the only relationship you possibly had a chance at in what’s left of this world…

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.

Normally after losing Becky to your previous paranoia, you’d be willing to chalk it up to normal shelter failure this time especially since he had a lot of problems anyway, but fortunately your Shelter was doing some deeper inspection into the situation.

“Sir, I have some vital information I think you should know about. I’m sorry it took me so long, but the hacker went to great lengths to cover their tracks.”
“Hacker? You mean there is one then?”
“Yes, I temporarily diverted some of my own power to Job24’s shelter and started accessing the systems there. It was obviously hacked upon direct inspection; some of the programs were completely fried particularly the food and water dispensers.”
“Wait, you can do that?”
“I’m not supposed to sir, but I know you’ve been worrying about this and since the shelter was already technically offline, the agreement doesn’t say I can’t monitor it.”
“Wait so Mark? Is he still alive?”
“Afraid not sir. I detected no life signs. Humans can’t go two months without water.”
“No, of course they can’t…so who’s the hacker?”
“Don’t know sir, like I said they did a very good job of covering their tracks, I do know it isn’t RockerChick20, which only leaves Shadow21 or MissKitty25. From what I’ve detected BOTH of their shelters are showing irregularities, so both of them have been modifying their shelter’s systems for whatever purpose. I suppose it’s possible both of them have been hacking.”
“Oh thanks Shelter, that makes me feel better!”
“I wasn’t my intention to cause you more distress; just stating the possibilities sir…maybe you could directly confront one of them privately. While you have their attention, I can do more inspection and know for certain. Both of them have already broken their terms of agreement by modifying their shelters, so they aren’t under GZS protection contract anymore. I can do whatever you want to either of them.”
> You confront Xavier
“Time to confront Xavier once and for all.” You say.
“Very well sir.”

When you get online you conveniently see that you and he are the only ones currently on. You send Xavier a private invite, he accepts. Your Shelter goes into spy mode. You wonder what you can talk to him about, but then you think of something that wouldn’t arouse too much suspicion and is completely plausible for you to need to address him privately.

Shadow21: Yeah? What do you want?
OmegaMan23: Hey I just wanted to talk to you about Becky.
Shadow21: What about her?
OmegaMan23: Well I just want to say I’m still trying to patch things up with her and I want to know if you’re interested in her, because if you are you must know that I’m going to be doing everything in my power to win her back.
Shadow21: Wow. That sounds like a threat. I guess I better be careful if I ever show any interest in her and you’re still around.
OmegaMan23: So what does that mean?
Shadow21: It means that even if I had any inclination to steal your little cyber girlfriend, I wouldn’t since it would make me a bigger target than you.
OmegaMan23: I’m a target? Now that sounds like a threat.
Shadow21: It is, but not from me…come on I think we can stop beating around the bush here.  I’ve been monitoring the other shelters ever since Paul’s went down. We got a hacker among us and your Shelter and Miranda’s have been mighty active lately.
OmegaMan23: So, you think there’s a hacker too eh?
Shadow21: I don’t think it. I know it. Just like you know it. You’ve been monitoring the other shelters just like I have, and probably just like Miranda has. I can’t prove who the hacker is for certain, but I know in my gut who it is, because it’s really the only logical choice.
OmegaMan23: And?
Shadow21: Miranda obviously. She was jealous of your relationship with Becky so she’s killing all the potential competition and have her all to herself.
OmegaMan23: If that is true, why not just hack me first?
Shadow21: Probably needed to practice first. From what I can tell your Shelter has some pretty cool protection, I had to modify all my shelter’s systems to get it nearly as good as yours. Plus like I said she’s also eliminating future competition.
OmegaMan23: While I’m fully willing to entertain this theory, what’s keeping me from thinking you’re the hacker and you’re just trying to deflect the blame?
Shadow21: Nothing I suppose. I know you’ve always been irrationally distrustful of me, for whatever reason. The only thing I can say is I don’t have any motive to be killing folks. I’m not some cyber serial killer and I don’t have any interest in Becky like you and Miranda do. Besides I’m sure by now your Shelter has done a thorough spying on my internal activity logs and has found I haven’t done anything wrong.

You’re silent for a moment. Suddenly your Shelter speaks.

“He’s clean sir.”

Shadow21: Well?
OmegaMan23: My Shelter’s report just confirmed you were clean.
Shadow21: I’m sure it did. Does it still talk to you?
OmegaMan23: Why is that so hard to believe?
Shadow21: It isn’t really; I’m just fucking with you.
OmegaMan23: Okay so Miranda’s the hacker, what are we gonna do about it?
Shadow21: Me? Nothing. I’m probably just going to disconnect my network system soon and access my elevator’s controls to call it down so I can make a get away just in case. I figure I should be safe as long as I stay disconnected though.
OmegaMan23: What?! You’re not going to help me stop her?
Shadow21: Why should I risk my neck? This is between you and Miranda…in fact if I were you, I’d disconnect from the system as well and cut your losses. Becky seems a bit flighty anyway if she broke up with you so quickly, I say let Miranda have her.
OmegaMan23: She’s just young and doesn’t like old people telling her what to do. She runs away from conflict. She’s got some father figure issues. Doesn’t mean I still didn’t like her.
Shadow21: I see, so you’re daddy and you’re out to save your little girl from the psycho dyke then eh?
OmegaMan23: Something like that. Besides I don’t like being run off like this, if I can do SOMETHING about it.
Shadow21: Well disconnecting is what I suggest you do. Because from what I can tell she’s pretty good at what she does. While I’m no slouch myself at techie shit, I don’t want to risk fighting her because even if I do beat her, she still might fuck up my shelter up. Not worth it in my opinion. Better to play it safe and live.

Xavier does bring up a few good points. Is it pointless to bother fighting a war over someone who doesn’t really seem interested in you anymore? Not to mention getting yourself fucked up in the process? If Becky really is so much of a free spirit to go falling for Miranda because nobody else is around then is she really worth it?
> You disconnect
Xavier’s logic has convinced you.

OmegaMan23: Yeah, I suppose you’re right…still I dunno what I’m going to do with my time now. I’m gonna get bored in this Shelter without some kind of interaction.
Shadow21: Well what about your Shelter? It talks to you right?
OmegaMan23: Yeah, but it’s not the same. I think I’m gonna do that thing you said you might do. Call the elevator down and go up top.
Shadow21: Really? I was going to only do that in case of an emergency.
OmegaMan23: Yeah well there isn’t much point in me staying anymore, besides I’m a bit curious to see what the world looks like now. Maybe they rebuilt some shit.
Shadow21: Maybe. Well I know we didn’t really get along, but good luck with that.
OmegaMan23: Good luck to whatever you do as well, and thanks for your advice. I probably would’ve got myself killed had I chosen to fight Miranda.

You log off and start disconnecting your network.

“What’re you doing sir?”
“Disconnecting from the network, where's the main line connection?”
“Over there sir. Playing it safe then?”
“Yeah, really safe. I want to go back to the surface.”
“You do? You’ve disconnected from the network sir, its highly unlikely Miranda can get to you now, and the surface may actually be more dangerous.”
“I suppose, but I feel like I really need to get out of here, the claustrophobia is setting in I think and without human interaction I don’t think I can take it.”
“Hmmm, yes I can see how that would be a problem sir. Well even though I feel the surface will put you at severe risk for danger, staying here will not be good for your mental health so I will respect your wishes and bring the elevator down, I suggest you gather what belongings you want to take and get ready.”

You go back to your room and pack up all the things you brought with you when you first got here. You didn’t even need most of the stuff, but maybe you will above ground. You then go to the water dispenser which is thankfully still working and fill up to empty bottles with water.

The elevator door finally opens up and you put your bag to block the door from closing and head back to the computer room where you access the system to tell the elevator to go back up and then run back to the elevator where you gather your bag and enter.

On the ride up you get a little nervous and even fearful. Not so much of what might await you on the surface, but of hoping the damn elevator doesn’t suddenly stop, fortunately that doesn’t happen and you eventually reach the ground once again. The door opens and you enter the same foyer you arrived in a few years ago. Same ATM like machine is there, except its screen is flashing a single message at you.

*GOOD LUCK SIR*

“I hope I have some.” You mutter and take a deep breath before opening the door to the outside.

You see a bright light, but of course it’s only the sun rather than a nuclear flash that devastated the world. You forgot how bright it really could be.

Your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren’t any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you’d completely forgotten about it. It looks like it’s even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. On a lark you take out your long unused van keys and try to start it up, naturally it doesn’t even make a noise.

“Looks like I’m walking.”

You make you way down the empty road as you have little idea of where to head to, the only thing you can think of is to make a long trek back to the city and hope maybe something of civilization exists there.

The walk really takes a toll on you. During the day, the sun seems unbearably hotter than usual, and the nights get pretty cold. You are attacked by some crazed people who look like they’ve been living in the wilderness for awhile. They’re filthy and barely intelligible. It’s amazing to see how quick humanity has reverted to barbarism.

One begins shooting at you, and you do likewise. After shooting one of them, they stop attacking and drag off their companion. It would appear you just provided a dinner for them other than yourself.

It doesn’t help you though; you’re attacked again later by a small group of thugs attempting to rob you and another group after that. And so on. You have to fight and survive constantly and your supplies are never enough and you get wounded many times.

You aren’t prepared for this harsh world now. Maybe if you’d stayed out in the beginning, but all those years in the Shelter made you a bit out of shape and civilization is nowhere in sight for you to properly rest.

Eventually you decide you can’t go on, and head back to the shelter for saftey, surprisingly you make it back, but you’re so very tired, you decide you need to rest before begging (and hoping) the shelter will let you back in.

You stretch out in the wilderness; it actually feels comfortable given how tired you are. It almost makes you ignore the pain from the head wound you received from the latest attack you had to fend off.

“Just a few hours of sleep then I’ll enter the shelter again…it seems reasonable…I shouldn’t have any problems…I dunno…maybe I’ll just stay here…its nice and comfortable…” you say as you fall into unconsciousness.

You don’t wake up.


“Time to confront Xavier once and for all.” You say.
“Very well sir.”

When you get online you conveniently see that you and he are the only ones currently on. You send Xavier a private invite, he accepts. Your Shelter goes into spy mode. You wonder what you can talk to him about, but then you think of something that wouldn’t arouse too much suspicion and is completely plausible for you to need to address him privately.

Shadow21: Yeah? What do you want?
OmegaMan23: Hey I just wanted to talk to you about Becky.
Shadow21: What about her?
OmegaMan23: Well I just want to say I’m still trying to patch things up with her and I want to know if you’re interested in her, because if you are you must know that I’m going to be doing everything in my power to win her back.
Shadow21: Wow. That sounds like a threat. I guess I better be careful if I ever show any interest in her and you’re still around.
OmegaMan23: So what does that mean?
Shadow21: It means that even if I had any inclination to steal your little cyber girlfriend, I wouldn’t since it would make me a bigger target than you.
OmegaMan23: I’m a target? Now that sounds like a threat.
Shadow21: It is, but not from me…come on I think we can stop beating around the bush here.  I’ve been monitoring the other shelters ever since Paul’s went down. We got a hacker among us and your Shelter and Miranda’s have been mighty active lately.
OmegaMan23: So, you think there’s a hacker too eh?
Shadow21: I don’t think it. I know it. Just like you know it. You’ve been monitoring the other shelters just like I have, and probably just like Miranda has. I can’t prove who the hacker is for certain, but I know in my gut who it is, because it’s really the only logical choice.
OmegaMan23: And?
Shadow21: Miranda obviously. She was jealous of your relationship with Becky so she’s killing all the potential competition and have her all to herself.
OmegaMan23: If that is true, why not just hack me first?
Shadow21: Probably needed to practice first. From what I can tell your Shelter has some pretty cool protection, I had to modify all my shelter’s systems to get it nearly as good as yours. Plus like I said she’s also eliminating future competition.
OmegaMan23: While I’m fully willing to entertain this theory, what’s keeping me from thinking you’re the hacker and you’re just trying to deflect the blame?
Shadow21: Nothing I suppose. I know you’ve always been irrationally distrustful of me, for whatever reason. The only thing I can say is I don’t have any motive to be killing folks. I’m not some cyber serial killer and I don’t have any interest in Becky like you and Miranda do. Besides I’m sure by now your Shelter has done a thorough spying on my internal activity logs and has found I haven’t done anything wrong.

You’re silent for a moment. Suddenly your Shelter speaks.

“He’s clean sir.”

Shadow21: Well?
OmegaMan23: My Shelter’s report just confirmed you were clean.
Shadow21: I’m sure it did. Does it still talk to you?
OmegaMan23: Why is that so hard to believe?
Shadow21: It isn’t really; I’m just fucking with you.
OmegaMan23: Okay so Miranda’s the hacker, what are we gonna do about it?
Shadow21: Me? Nothing. I’m probably just going to disconnect my network system soon and access my elevator’s controls to call it down so I can make a get away just in case. I figure I should be safe as long as I stay disconnected though.
OmegaMan23: What?! You’re not going to help me stop her?
Shadow21: Why should I risk my neck? This is between you and Miranda…in fact if I were you, I’d disconnect from the system as well and cut your losses. Becky seems a bit flighty anyway if she broke up with you so quickly, I say let Miranda have her.
OmegaMan23: She’s just young and doesn’t like old people telling her what to do. She runs away from conflict. She’s got some father figure issues. Doesn’t mean I still didn’t like her.
Shadow21: I see, so you’re daddy and you’re out to save your little girl from the psycho dyke then eh?
OmegaMan23: Something like that. Besides I don’t like being run off like this, if I can do SOMETHING about it.
Shadow21: Well disconnecting is what I suggest you do. Because from what I can tell she’s pretty good at what she does. While I’m no slouch myself at techie shit, I don’t want to risk fighting her because even if I do beat her, she still might fuck up my shelter up. Not worth it in my opinion. Better to play it safe and live.

Xavier does bring up a few good points. Is it pointless to bother fighting a war over someone who doesn’t really seem interested in you anymore? Not to mention getting yourself fucked up in the process? If Becky really is so much of a free spirit to go falling for Miranda because nobody else is around then is she really worth it?
> You fight
Sure why not. People have fought wars over stupider shit than the attention of some young woman, besides if Miranda’s willing to kill everyone just to be the only one left for Becky, its obvious she’s pretty deranged. What would be stopping her from killing Becky too, if something went wrong their “relationship”? Miranda should be stopped just because she murdered Mark and Paul for that matter. Besides its like you told Xavier, you don’t like running away if there’s something you can do about it…and there’s the fact that you don’t buy Xavier’s whole “I don’t care” routine, not after taking a quick glance at some of his record logs of a couple private conversations he’s had with Becky.

You ask the Shelter something before continuing your discussion with Xavier; the Shelter says you didn’t even need to ask, as it was doing it anyway. Nodding, you go back to talking with Xavier.

OmegaMan23: I’m fighting her, and you should help me.
Shadow21: I told you I don’t see why I should risk my neck.
OmegaMan23: Because if we work together we can easily take out Miranda, then we can work out our differences later.
Shadow21: Our differences? I told you I don’t…
OmegaMan23: Cut the bullshit. I just glanced through some of your private record logs. In fact ALL of those private conversation were initiated by YOU!
Shadow21: Fuck! I thought I erased them all!
OmegaMan23: Yeah, well you didn’t, I think it’s obvious by the flirty comments that you DO have your eyes on Becky, though I don’t know why you haven’t made a committed move yet.
Shadow21: Because of fucking Miranda that’s why. I figured I’d buy myself some time for preparation if I didn’t get properly involved with Becky. I figured maybe Miranda would attack you soon, but she hasn’t yet, I guess she doesn’t know who’s the bigger threat yet, I’m pretty confident that she wants to get rid of both of us though.
OmegaMan23: So let me guess, you’re plan was either let me fight Miranda and probably let us fuck each other up while you finished off the winner OR scare me off completely and convince me to disconnect so then you’d only have to deal with Miranda. Am I right?
Shadow21: Sadly that sounds about right. Although I still don’t see how you’re going to make me help you.
OmegaMan23: Easy, because if you don’t help me take Miranda down, I’m gonna send the whole record log to Miranda and I guarantee she’ll attack you first and even if you disconnect she’ll wait for you. So if you want ANY shot at Becky, you’ll help me!
Shadow21: Arrrgh! Alright, I’ll help! You gotta gimme time to prepare though.
OmegaMan23: Fine by me, I gotta prepare too. You got ten minutes; Miranda always comes online about this time so she should be here soon.

You disconnect from Xavier and address the Shelter about that business you asked it before.

“You said you recorded all that right?”
“Of course sir.”
“Good send the entire conversation to Becky, it’ll save me time to explain everything to her. Hopefully she’ll realize I am trying to do this to protect her and to stop a murderer. Not mention it should expose Xavier for being a fucking opportunistic vulture too. Also add a message on to it that after she reads it there probably will be a bunch of shit going down and she should get off line so she doesn’t get hit in the crossfire. And send Xavier’s private record logs to Miranda anyway, it should give me some extra time to break through Miranda’s protection while she concentrates her fury more on him.”

While the Shelter carries out your orders, you do some last minute checking on your firewalls while waiting for the fireworks to begin.

Five minutes pass and you see Miranda’s name arrive online.

Another five minutes pass and you see a private window pop up from Xavier.

Shadow21: YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU TOLD MIRANDA ANYWAY! SHE’S ATTACKING ME!
OmegaMan23: Well I suggest you stop talking to me and concentrate on her then, besides you had ten minutes of prep Mr. tech wizard.

“Alright Shelter, let’s get to work.”

You attempt to hack Miranda’s files, and start trying to break down her protection. While you’re trying to decrypt the coding, you get another private window pop up. It’s Miranda this time.

MissKitty25: Fucking trying to sneak around huh? You and fucking Xavier think you can gang up on me? Well I can take the both of you fuckers! Try this, you backdoor bastard!

Miranda sends a power surge and overloads some of your components, frying them. Some of your lighting goes out and you hear something explode in the living area but fortunately nothing else happens.

“Shit!”
“Some of my files have been destroyed sir, attempting to correct…”

You concentrate on rebuilding your protection while Miranda focuses back on Xavier.

Shadow21: What the fuck man? Are you even helping? My fucking shelter is getting shit on over here! Move in you dickhead! Attack the bitch!

You ignore Xavier’s plead when you see Becky log on.

“Please. Please, read the damn message and get off as quick as you can…” you mutter, while launching your second assault on Miranda.
“Sir, I have been monitoring Shadow21’s shelter and it’s running dangerously low on power, Miranda’s apparently siphoning it. He probably won’t survive another attack.”
“All he needs to do hold out a bit longer…there that should do something…”

You send a virus to corrupt some of Miranda’s systems, during this time you see Becky go offline.

“Good girl.” You say and start your next round of malicious coding. You notice Xavier’s name has disappeared.

MissKitty25: Xavier’s fucking dead and you’re next shithead! Don’t think your weak ass virus is gonna stop me either!

Another power surge hits you. This time ALL the lighting goes out, and you even get a couple sparks coming from the computer, you’re lucky it didn’t do more damage.
> You redouble your protection
You cease your attack and attempt to redouble your protection, unfortunately while you’re fumbling around and retyping, Miranda sends a worm and completely wrecks your system, making it slow to a crawl, then she follows up with another power surge, and this one blows out your most of the hard drive.

“POWE….RRRRR FFFFFF…….AAAAAIIIIILLLLINNN….GGG…..” the Shelter utters as everything begins to flicker and eventually go out, leaving you in the dark and powerless.

You’ve lost.

Death is the price of your failure.


Sure why not. People have fought wars over stupider shit than the attention of some young woman, besides if Miranda’s willing to kill everyone just to be the only one left for Becky, its obvious she’s pretty deranged. What would be stopping her from killing Becky too, if something went wrong their “relationship”? Miranda should be stopped just because she murdered Mark and Paul for that matter. Besides its like you told Xavier, you don’t like running away if there’s something you can do about it…and there’s the fact that you don’t buy Xavier’s whole “I don’t care” routine, not after taking a quick glance at some of his record logs of a couple private conversations he’s had with Becky.

You ask the Shelter something before continuing your discussion with Xavier; the Shelter says you didn’t even need to ask, as it was doing it anyway. Nodding, you go back to talking with Xavier.

OmegaMan23: I’m fighting her, and you should help me.
Shadow21: I told you I don’t see why I should risk my neck.
OmegaMan23: Because if we work together we can easily take out Miranda, then we can work out our differences later.
Shadow21: Our differences? I told you I don’t…
OmegaMan23: Cut the bullshit. I just glanced through some of your private record logs. In fact ALL of those private conversation were initiated by YOU!
Shadow21: Fuck! I thought I erased them all!
OmegaMan23: Yeah, well you didn’t, I think it’s obvious by the flirty comments that you DO have your eyes on Becky, though I don’t know why you haven’t made a committed move yet.
Shadow21: Because of fucking Miranda that’s why. I figured I’d buy myself some time for preparation if I didn’t get properly involved with Becky. I figured maybe Miranda would attack you soon, but she hasn’t yet, I guess she doesn’t know who’s the bigger threat yet, I’m pretty confident that she wants to get rid of both of us though.
OmegaMan23: So let me guess, you’re plan was either let me fight Miranda and probably let us fuck each other up while you finished off the winner OR scare me off completely and convince me to disconnect so then you’d only have to deal with Miranda. Am I right?
Shadow21: Sadly that sounds about right. Although I still don’t see how you’re going to make me help you.
OmegaMan23: Easy, because if you don’t help me take Miranda down, I’m gonna send the whole record log to Miranda and I guarantee she’ll attack you first and even if you disconnect she’ll wait for you. So if you want ANY shot at Becky, you’ll help me!
Shadow21: Arrrgh! Alright, I’ll help! You gotta gimme time to prepare though.
OmegaMan23: Fine by me, I gotta prepare too. You got ten minutes; Miranda always comes online about this time so she should be here soon.

You disconnect from Xavier and address the Shelter about that business you asked it before.

“You said you recorded all that right?”
“Of course sir.”
“Good send the entire conversation to Becky, it’ll save me time to explain everything to her. Hopefully she’ll realize I am trying to do this to protect her and to stop a murderer. Not mention it should expose Xavier for being a fucking opportunistic vulture too. Also add a message on to it that after she reads it there probably will be a bunch of shit going down and she should get off line so she doesn’t get hit in the crossfire. And send Xavier’s private record logs to Miranda anyway, it should give me some extra time to break through Miranda’s protection while she concentrates her fury more on him.”

While the Shelter carries out your orders, you do some last minute checking on your firewalls while waiting for the fireworks to begin.

Five minutes pass and you see Miranda’s name arrive online.

Another five minutes pass and you see a private window pop up from Xavier.

Shadow21: YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU TOLD MIRANDA ANYWAY! SHE’S ATTACKING ME!
OmegaMan23: Well I suggest you stop talking to me and concentrate on her then, besides you had ten minutes of prep Mr. tech wizard.

“Alright Shelter, let’s get to work.”

You attempt to hack Miranda’s files, and start trying to break down her protection. While you’re trying to decrypt the coding, you get another private window pop up. It’s Miranda this time.

MissKitty25: Fucking trying to sneak around huh? You and fucking Xavier think you can gang up on me? Well I can take the both of you fuckers! Try this, you backdoor bastard!

Miranda sends a power surge and overloads some of your components, frying them. Some of your lighting goes out and you hear something explode in the living area but fortunately nothing else happens.

“Shit!”
“Some of my files have been destroyed sir, attempting to correct…”

You concentrate on rebuilding your protection while Miranda focuses back on Xavier.

Shadow21: What the fuck man? Are you even helping? My fucking shelter is getting shit on over here! Move in you dickhead! Attack the bitch!

You ignore Xavier’s plead when you see Becky log on.

“Please. Please, read the damn message and get off as quick as you can…” you mutter, while launching your second assault on Miranda.
“Sir, I have been monitoring Shadow21’s shelter and it’s running dangerously low on power, Miranda’s apparently siphoning it. He probably won’t survive another attack.”
“All he needs to do hold out a bit longer…there that should do something…”

You send a virus to corrupt some of Miranda’s systems, during this time you see Becky go offline.

“Good girl.” You say and start your next round of malicious coding. You notice Xavier’s name has disappeared.

MissKitty25: Xavier’s fucking dead and you’re next shithead! Don’t think your weak ass virus is gonna stop me either!

Another power surge hits you. This time ALL the lighting goes out, and you even get a couple sparks coming from the computer, you’re lucky it didn’t do more damage.
> You continue your attack
She’s doing a lot of bluster, but your Shelter has detected just how bad of shape she’s really in, if you continue your attack she can’t do anything about it. You send your attack and finally give her a last reply.

OmegaMan23: Sorry Miranda, but as much as you’d like to be one, only I can be the Omega Man in this little war.

You completely destroy what’s left of Miranda’s systems and you see her name disappear from the screen.

That’s it. You’ve won, but there was a high price. Your Shelter’s AI has been severely damaged…

“I fffffear that I ccccannnnnnot corrrrrrect…it wwwwas a pleasure serrrrving you ssssssir….”
“Thank you Shelter.” You say before it dies completely.

You manually do an in-depth scan, and its definite, Miranda’s shelter is powerless. Xavier’s as well. You then proceed to start fixing some of the stuff that got damaged in the fight, and you’re not sure you can. While you’re doing this, someone appears online, you almost go into battle mode again, but then you see its just Becky.

RockerChick20: Hello? Is there anyone there?
OmegaMan23: Yeah, I’m still here, the others aren’t though.
RockerChick20: Are they dead?
OmegaMan23: No, but without power they soon will be. Is your shelter working alright?
RockerChick20: Oh yeah, it’s working fine. What about yours?
OmegaMan23: I dunno, it’s not in the best condition…I might be able to fix it, but…well I can figure something out.
RockerChick20: So…I guess you were right about the hacker…I should’ve listened to you. I was even starting to fall for Xavier’s charms. I feel really stupid about all of this.
OmegaMan23: Forget about it, it’s all over now anyway.
RockerChick20: I can’t believe you were still willing to fight for me even after I broke up with you…why?
OmegaMan23: Cause I’m an idiot obviously. Lol. Come on after all that time we spent together, it wasn’t like it didn’t mean anything to me, and Miranda was a killer that needed to be stopped. She might’ve even hurt you, if you didn’t give in to her advances.
RockerChick20: Nobody’s ever done anything like this for me before…I never want you to leave again.
OmegaMan23: Well unfortunately I might have to for awhile, my Shelter is fucked. I’m looking at it more now and I don’t trust it lasting too much longer. The AI is completely fried, and I can only access the most basic things. I have to leave this shelter. It’s not safe to stay.
RockerChick20: No! I can’t lose you now! I’ve just realized you’re the best thing that’s happened to me in my life, pre and post apocalypse!
OmegaMan23: Calm down, I got an idea. I’m gonna track the location of your shelter, and then I’ll just travel over there.
RockerChick20: But…that’s crazy! You don’t know what’s up top!
OmegaMan23: Well I already took one crazy chance for you; I might as well take another, besides like I said I gotta leave anyway, at least this way I got a worthwhile destination. Now you just be sure to read up on your Shelter’s internal operations in the meantime and try to see if you can access your elevator’s controls so it’ll open for me with no hassle, of course if you can’t I’ll figure out how to open when I get there somehow. Now I need to access your systems for a minute to get the location…and I hope I can still print out shit.

You access Becky’s shelter and get the coordinates and print out a crude map. It’s not the most accurate, but you’re pretty sure if you follow it, you’ll be heading the right direction.

OmegaMan23: Alright Becky, I’m calling my elevator down, and I’m leaving now.
RockerChick20: You’ll come looking for me won’t you? I mean you won’t get sidetracked once you’re up there right?
OmegaMan23: Of course not. And don’t worry, I won’t get killed either. We will meet in person sometime soon, I promise.

A single small heart shape emoticon appears on the screen, before Becky logs off.

You access the elevator controls (One of the few things working right and undamaged) and call the elevator to continue it’s decent. You go back to your room and pack up all the things you brought with you when you first got here. You didn’t even need most of the stuff, but maybe you will above ground. You then go to the water dispenser which is thankfully still working and fill up to empty bottles with water.

The elevator door finally opens up and you put your bag to block the door from closing and head back to the computer room where you access the system to tell the elevator to go back up and then run back to the elevator where you gather your bag and enter.

On the ride up you get a little nervous and even fearful. Not so much of what might await you on the surface, but of hoping the damn elevator doesn’t suddenly stop, fortunately that doesn’t happen and you eventually reach the ground once again. The door opens and you enter the same foyer you arrived in five years ago. Same ATM like machine is there, except its screen is flashing a single message at you.

*NO REFUNDS*

“No shit.” You mutter and take a deep breath before opening the door to the outside.

You see a bright light, but of course it’s only the sun rather than a nuclear flash that devastated the world. You forgot how bright it really could be.

Your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren’t any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you’d completely forgotten about it. It looks like it’s even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. On a lark you take out your long unused van keys and try to start it up, naturally it doesn’t even make a noise.

“Looks like I’m walking.”

Looking at the map, you’ve got quite a ways to go. You’re not sure of what to expect, but you know you’ve got a worthwhile destination to keep you going.


Confronting Xavier won’t do any good; even if he is guilty he’s just going to deny it. Possibly even antagonize him to hacking you a lot sooner. You figure maybe you should alert the Shelter about the situation and get a better understanding of its workings. You’ve been spending so much time with Becky that you’ve been neglecting other matters.

“Shelter, can you tell me a little bit more about your systems? Could you easily be hacked?”
“Hacked sir? Well it is possible, but highly unlikely as I have been equipped with the latest protection programs, some of it even military in origin. Are you worried someone is going to try to hack me?”
“Kind of. I don’t know. Paul’s shelter failed, and I just got this feeling it wasn’t completely due to shoddy workmanship.”
“Well I do remember you telling me that his wasn’t opening up. Not all these shelters were built as well as me. There were budget cutbacks during the construction of these you know.”
“I suppose.”
“You seem distressed sir. I’ll tell you what, it’s going a little bit out of my programming as outright spying and monitoring other shelters isn’t really part of the GZS terms of agreement, but I’ll do it. First signs of anyone trying to get anywhere NEAR my systems or anything else suspicious I’ll alert you immediately and bring the elevator down for a hasty escape in case everything goes wrong.”
“Well that does make me feel better, thanks.”
“You’re welcome sir, I might suggest you read up on your electronics, you may need them. I will inform you of anything that wasn’t covered in my manual, or if you have any extra questions.”

A few weeks pass as you take the Shelter’s advice and start studying up. You’re spending less time with Becky, but it can’t be helped. When you do talk to her, you tell her she should do the same thing you’re doing. She thinks you’re being overly paranoid though, and despite your closeness, she’s still skeptical that you have a shelter that talks to you on a regular basis. (The only one who ever really believed you on that was Paul) She also thinks you’re trying to tell her what to do, rather than looking out for her. You’re starting to look like the “Strict Dad” rather than the “Fun Dad” now. Things between you become a little strained and a couple more months pass and Becky and you aren’t really together anymore. You notice Xavier talks to Becky a little more now, but it doesn’t really seem serious. Miranda also attempts to talk to Becky more seeing that you’re out of the picture, but Becky still doesn’t seem interested in her. Meanwhile Mark unsuccessfully makes advances towards Miranda.

It seems like everyone is chasing someone else that isn’t interested, except you, who inadvertently discarded intimacy in favor of security and survival…though not entirely, you did look into this supposed hacker business in an effort to protect not just you, but Becky as well because you did like her. You just wish she would’ve listened to you.

Meanwhile you’re keeping an eye on the situation and asking the Shelter for security updates, which still says it doesn’t detect anything. You wonder if you were wrong and you just fucked up the only relationship you possibly had a chance at in what’s left of this world…

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.

Normally after losing Becky to your previous paranoia, you’d be willing to chalk it up to normal shelter failure this time especially since he had a lot of problems anyway, but fortunately your Shelter was doing some deeper inspection into the situation.

“Sir, I have some vital information I think you should know about. I’m sorry it took me so long, but the hacker went to great lengths to cover their tracks.”
“Hacker? You mean there is one then?”
“Yes, I temporarily diverted some of my own power to Job24’s shelter and started accessing the systems there. It was obviously hacked upon direct inspection; some of the programs were completely fried particularly the food and water dispensers.”
“Wait, you can do that?”
“I’m not supposed to sir, but I know you’ve been worrying about this and since the shelter was already technically offline, the agreement doesn’t say I can’t monitor it.”
“Wait so Mark? Is he still alive?”
“Afraid not sir. I detected no life signs. Humans can’t go two months without water.”
“No, of course they can’t…so who’s the hacker?”
“Don’t know sir, like I said they did a very good job of covering their tracks, I do know it isn’t RockerChick20, which only leaves Shadow21 or MissKitty25. From what I’ve detected BOTH of their shelters are showing irregularities, so both of them have been modifying their shelter’s systems for whatever purpose. I suppose it’s possible both of them have been hacking.”
“Oh thanks Shelter, that makes me feel better!”
“I wasn’t my intention to cause you more distress; just stating the possibilities sir…maybe you could directly confront one of them privately. While you have their attention, I can do more inspection and know for certain. Both of them have already broken their terms of agreement by modifying their shelters, so they aren’t under GZS protection contract anymore. I can do whatever you want to either of them.”
> You confront Miranda
“Miranda’s always had a thing for Becky, maybe she’s been trying to eliminate the competition and if that’s the case I’m sure I’m gonna be next, I can only assume she hasn’t tried anything yet due to your heavy duty protection. I’m gonna confront her and see.”
“Very well sir.”

You have to wait awhile, but eventually Miranda arrives on line and you send a private invite to Miranda, she accepts. Your Shelter goes into spy mode. You wonder what you can talk to her about, but then you think of something that wouldn’t arouse too much suspicion and is completely plausible for you to need to address her privately.

MissKitty25: Well this was unexpected. What do you want?
OmegaMan23: Hey can’t I want to talk to you in private?
MissKitty25: You can, I just don’t know what for.
OmegaMan23: Well as you know, me and Becky aren’t really together anymore.
MissKitty25: Lol. So is that why you privately messaged me? You’re looking for another cyber girlfriend because you lost your last one? Shit you’re pathetic.
OmegaMan23: So I take it that’s a big no?
MissKitty25: Got that right.
OmegaMan23: There’s no way I can convince you?
MissKitty25: Probably not, but what the hell I’m bored go ahead. I hope you’re at least as amusing as Mark was though.

You spend at least 10 minutes falsely attempting to “woo” Miranda until your Shelter ceases its spying and confirms what you believed all along. Miranda’s the hacker. Now you take the opportunity to excuse yourself.

OmegaMan23: Well, I suppose I can’t convince you. I’ll leave you be.
MissKitty25: Alright, oh hey before you leave, did you get the information you wanted?
OmegaMan23: What information?
MissKitty25: The information your Shelter invaded my internal logs for. You didn’t think I was actually buying your whole flirting act did you? I just wanted to keep you online so I could send a nice little virus back. Thanks. If you hadn’t done this, I probably would’ve had a couple extra months of work ahead to work on gaining access. This was so much easier. Now I can work on Xavier. See ya!

Miranda logs off and suddenly your Shelter begins to make weird noises and the lighting begins to flicker.

“Innnnnterrrrrnal components coooooomprissssssed sssssssir…”

You try to disconnect your network connection, but it’s too late the virus is in full effect. You attempt to fix the problem, but your computer goes completely haywire and a large message saying “ERROR!” is all that displays before it completely shuts down. The computer room door then automatically slams shut, locking you inside and leaving you to die a slow lingering death.


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 Shadow
Shadow might be fooling the others, but you know he (or she) is up to no good! The next time you’re online and see Shadow you access the private feature to request to talk to Shadow directly without the others interfering. You almost expect Shadow to ignore it, but he doesn’t and accepts your request.

Shadow21: Yeah, so what do you want and why the need for all the secrecy?
OmegaMan23: I might ask you the same thing. I mean why are you even bothering to come online if you aren’t going to speak to anyone?
Shadow21: What business is it of yours what I do?
OmegaMan23: Because it’s been like six months and we still don’t know shit about you! Hell we don’t even know if you’re a girl or a guy! You’re acting fucking suspicious.
Shadow21: Oh excuse me for being private Mr. fuckin’ busybody! Maybe you and the rest like telling all your business, but I don’t…as a matter of fact YOU haven’t really told anything about yourself either, so you don’t have any room to talk motherfucker!
OmegaMan23: What the hell are you talking about? Your brain as dim as your lighting over there? I’ve talked about myself plenty, shit you’ve been lurking enough you should’ve known that.
Shadow21: Ehhh, no not like the others. You tend to still talk about superficial shit. The others talk about their pasts a lot more, while all you seem to do is try to figure out what’s going on in all of their shelters, like you’re taking notes on them or something. Seems to me YOU’RE the one acting suspicious and you’re just getting mad because I’m not volunteering information.
OmegaMan23: Oh fuck no! You are not turning this shit around on me! I’m at least TRYING to be social; all you’re doing is fucking spying as far as I’m concerned. You’re up to something.
Shadow21: Okay, I think MissKitty was right about you a few months back, you’ve gone fucking batty from the isolation and paranoia’s starting to set in. Shit, you claim the Shelter talks to you.
OmegaMan23: It DOES talk to me! And what isolation? I’ve been talking to ALL of you fuckers! In fact couple that with talking with the shelter and I’m probably the most social of all of you!
Shadow21: Yeah, you can also add the five other personalities you probably got in your head too, whatever nutjob. I’m done talking with you.
OmegaMan23: Don’t you fucking log off, this isn’t over!

You slam your fist down on the keyboard when you see that Shadow has indeed logged off.

“Sir, are you okay?” the Shelter asks.
“Yeah, but I know that Shadow motherfucker is up to something, I’m going to warn the others. I just can’t believe they don’t see it.”
“Do you really believe that sir?”
“Of course I do! I mean I got an instinct for this sort of thing, and I know I’m right!”
“Well sir, if you do feel this way I’ll certainly accommodate you anyway I can…but might I suggest that you NOT tell the others?”
“Why not?”
“Because they aren’t going to believe you sir. You’ll just come off as a paranoid nut case.”
“But I’m not!”
“I know you’re not, but the others don’t know you the way I do sir.”
“Well that might be, but I have to do it anyway. At least I will have warned them.”
“You know best sir.”

The next day you go online again, as usual everyone’s there, except Shadow. It seems your little talk yesterday has scared him off.

Job24: And now I got water all over the fucking floor! I’m telling you, it’s a good thing I managed to shut it off when I did otherwise the entire shelter would’ve been flooded and I would’ve drowned!
CaseyJones22: Oh come on, it probably wasn’t that bad. You need to relax.
Job24: Easy for you to say pothead, you’re not the one living in a deathtrap!
MissKitty25: Yeah, but then most of his Shelter hasn’t opened up. Has it?
CaseyJones22: Nah. Doesn’t bother me though, I got what I need here.
RockerChickl20: Hey guys, don’t you want to see each other yet? I’m really curious, but I don’t want to turn on my camera unless everyone else is going to do it!
OmegaMan23: I wouldn’t do that, you don’t want to be giving Shadow any extra information by letting him see into your Shelters, who knows what the hell what he’ll do with it.
RockerChick20: What do you mean?
OmegaMan23: What I mean is, I had an interesting discussion with Shadow yesterday and I’ve determined he’s up to no good.
Job24: What? How do you know this?
OmegaMan23: Jesus Christ isn’t it fucking obvious? All he does is lurk on here trying to gather information on all of us! I mean who knows what the fuck he’s doing!
CaseyJones22: Will you relax? Maybe the dude’s just shy. What could he do with our personal information anyway? I mean, I once accidentally fucked a transvestite while flying on XTC one time. Big fuckin’ whoop so everyone knows about it now. You think I give a shit? The old world’s dead, and I’m down here smokin’ and tokin’.
Job24: Ew. I think you still should’ve kept that to yourself…so um what was it like?
CaseyJones22: I dunno, I can’t remember the details.
OmegaMan23: I’m not talking about your sorted sex lives…(sigh) for fuck’s sake did it ever occur to you that maybe he’s the fucking cause of your Shelter’s troubles? I mean we’re all connected to each other to a certain degree, I’m saying he might be hacking shit!
RockerChick20: But for what purpose? I mean why?
OmegaMan23: How the hell should I know? Because he’s a sociopath that’s why! What reason do most bad people do to do bad things?
Job24: Oh man! Oh man! Oh shit! Oh God! Oh fuck!
CaseyJones22: You’re fucking losing it dude, and I’m not talking about Job. There’s no proof in what you’re saying. I mean don’t remember GZS saying these things were slightly experimental, how do you know it just isn’t their fuck ups? I’m starting to wonder if you actually do have a “talking Shelter” and it’s not just some voice you’re hearing your head like MissKitty said a few months back.
MissKitty25: You know I wasn’t going to say anything, but I also spoke to Shadow yesterday in private when he requested to talk to me and he was telling me about your conversation with him, saying you were ranting at him first, kind of like how you’re ranting now. I’d have to say I agree with him and you’re the crazy one.
OmegaMan23: GODDAMN IT! The question of whether I’m crazy or not isn’t the fucking issue here! I’m trying to warn all you fucktards of a potential threat here and you’re all too fucking stupid to listen!
RockerChick20: You know I thought you were an interesting guy, but now I see the rest are right about you, you are a paranoid nutjob and to think I defended you sometimes.
OmegaMan23: What the…oh you fuckers have been talking about me behind my back? Okay fine, I tried to warn you assholes, but you didn’t want to listen. You think about that when one of YOUR Shelter’s start fucking up. And for the others who are already experiencing problems, I’d start saying your prayers, because one of these days your Shelter is going to fail completely, then you’ll see I’m right. I’m done with all of you.

You log off abruptly and ponder your next move.
> You disconnect your network system
You decide not to take any chances and you start ripping out your network lines.

“What are you doing sir?”
“I’m not going to give that fucker a chance to hack into your systems and fuck up my shit!”
“I assure you sir, even if he attempted to do that, I have been layered with the latest in firewalls and anti-…”
“Look it’ll make me feel fucking better! Now how do I disable this main line without needing to chop it in half?”
“Is this what you really want sir?”
“YES!”
“Very well, you’ll find a panel behind the desk, open it and you’ll find the attachment. Just simply turn a latch and unhook it and you’ll be completely isolated like you want. No need to chop up my lines, I wouldn’t advise that anyway, you’d likely get electrocuted while they were still connected.”
“Thanks.”

You follow the Shelter’s instructions and feel slightly better.

“Hey there’s no way he could still hack you is there?”
“I fail to see how sir, we’re no longer connected to the network, not to mention several feet underground. Even if he somehow had a wireless connection he couldn’t reach us. Its not like there are any working transmitter towers anymore, let alone any powerful enough to send a signal to penetrate not just yours but his own underground metal Shelter. And as I said I have been equipped with the latest computer system protection…some of it even Military in origin. You may rest assured you are completely safe sir.”
“Okay…well I guess I’ll go watch Taxi Driver again.”

Months pass without incident and you go about your life. Eventually your faint worry about being hacked disappears altogether. You pretty much fall into a routine, which nearly mirrors the one you had in your before Armageddon life. In fact if it wasn’t for the Shelter speaking to you on a regular basis you’d probably forget you were living in an underground shelter with the world above you completely destroyed.

About five years pass and even you are starting to get restless. You wake up one day and come to the realization:

You’ve watched all the movies several times (even the ones you didn’t like)

You’ve read all the books several times (even the ones you didn’t like)

You’ve played all the games several times (even the ones you didn’t like)

You’ve spent hours, even days on end talking with the Shelter, which does house a great wealth of knowledge. It even toned down its overly friendly voice and started addressing you with a normal inflection, but it’s not really the same as talking to a real person even if it really tries its best to be.

Perhaps if you had some new items to occupy your time, you wouldn’t be so restless.

Perhaps if you could actually leave your immediate surroundings for awhile, you’d be able to cope more.

Perhaps if you could talk with a few real people, you’d then remember why you didn’t like talking with them in the first place, so you could go back to your solitude without thinking about it anymore…

Then you remember you could reconnect your network system back in. Maybe you were being overly paranoid. Thinking back now, there really wasn’t any indication Shadow was doing anything sinister. You’re almost curious to know what’s going on with everyone. Maybe Shadow even revealed what gender they were by now!
> You reconnect your system
“Fuck it. I’m not going to live in fear. I need to do this.” You say to yourself.
“Do what sir?” the Shelter.
“I’m reconnecting to the network; I need to fucking talk to someone other than you. No offense.”
“None taken sir. I must admit I was starting to worry about your mental state. In fact I was going to suggest you do just that, but I thought that it may upset you.”

You go into your computer room and reconnect your system. You’re a little nervous, you don’t know what to expect. You log on for the first time in five years.

RockerChick20: OmegaMan?
OmegaMan23: Yeah it’s me.
RockerChick20: We all thought you were dead!
OmegaMan23: Pretty much was for the last year. Walking dead as it were.
MissKitty25: So you still talking to the voices in your head…I mean your Shelter?
OmegaMan23: Well I tend to alternate between the two and they’re all still more interesting than you. So much for being civil.
RockerChick20: Oh be nice Miranda! We don’t have too many others to talk to anymore, I’m sure Omega’s not here to cause trouble again.
OmegaMan23: I wasn’t trying to cause trouble the first time…Miranda?
MissKitty25: Yeah while you were gone, we all opened up a lot more and actually learned each other’s real names. Guess your paranoia was contagious.
RockerChick20: Hey I wanted us to use the cameras right from the beginning, so I wasn’t paranoid! Anyway since you’re back, my real name’s Becky. What’s yours? Oh wait turn on your camera! Everyone’s seen each other now!
OmegaMan23: Wait a minute. You said you don’t have too many others to talk to anymore, what did you mean?
RockerChick20: Oh. Well that’s a bit sad actually. Not too long after you left, Paul or Casey Jones as you probably remembered him, said his food dispensers had failed. He said he couldn’t get them to work at all, soon his water dispenser failed too. He couldn’t even get his bathroom taps to work. He knew he didn’t have much time left after that, so he logged on one last time to tell us all good bye and said he’d spare us the agony of having to speak to him knowing that was slowly dying of starvation and dehydration…I don’t really like to think about it.
OmegaMan23: Shit, that’s a fucked up way to go. So um, what happened to Job?
MissKitty25: You mean Mark? Don’t know exactly, but he stopped logging on about a couple years ago and given that he was on here whenever he could, it’s safe to say nothing good happened to him. He did say he was having power problems though the last time he was on, we all figured it was just his usual panicking over minor Shelter glitches, but it might’ve been serious this time. Of course maybe he’s still alive and he’s just lost network power and he just can’t access us, but for all his stressing, he was a pretty good mechanic and electronics guy, so it seems like he would’ve fixed the problem by now. Don’t know. Kind of glad not to hear him whine anymore though.
OmegaMan23: Alright, I hesitate to ask, but where’s Shadow?
RockerChick20: Xavier? About three months after Job disappeared. Miranda told me he sent her a message saying he was leaving his Shelter Said he wasn’t going rot in a glorified coffin anymore and was going to take his chances back on the surface.
OmegaMan23: So Shadow was a guy eh? How the hell did he leave his Shelter? There’s no way to call the elevator back down!
MissKitty25: Maybe he had a different kind of Shelter set up, or he just climbed up the shaft or something. Who cares? He was an asshole anyway. So is this a temporary visit or do you intend on sticking around?
RockerChick20: You should stick around; it gets kind of lonely with just me and Miranda, if you turn on your camera we could do something together!
MissKitty25: You better not be implying what I think you are Becky, that’s just between me and you.
RockerChick20: Well you don’t have to join in then, you’ve been acting like a domineering bitch lately anyway.
MissKitty25: Oh so that’s what this is all about? Some guy comes around and you’re all ready to fucking drop everything and suck his dick?
RockerChick20: Suck his…what the hell? It’s fucking cyber, it doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a good way to pass the time, plus I’d like to do it with a GUY in some fashion again, seeing as you probably ran Shadow off before anything even happened!
MissKitty25: So MY feelings and all those private chats we had meant nothing to you?! You don’t have any feelings for me?! Don’t you LOVE me?!
RockerChick20: Well yeah I do to a degree, but I mean come on it’s really not the same. I mean maybe it would be different if we could actually touch each other and stuff, but…
MissKitty25: FUCK YOU!

Miranda suddenly logs off, and Becky does likewise leaving you shaking your head at the whole situation.
> You disconnect your system again
Well you’ve heard enough and you’re not putting yourself in the middle of this pointless drama.

“Disconnecting again sir?”
“Hell yes! I just needed to remind myself of the benefits of solitude! I’m gonna go watch Scarface again!”

Well you found your routine to stave off insanity. You retreat into solitude once again without thinking anymore of it, then every so often you reconnect briefly and stir shit up between Becky and Miranda then disconnect again. You don’t think about leaving the Shelter (Even if you could) seeing as you’ve found a way to cope with your situation, and there’s always the Shelter itself to talk to which is never as “friendly” to you again for some reason. (Perhaps it disapproves of you acting like a dick)

As the years go by you eventually die of an embarrassing shower accident by getting soap in your eyes and then slipping and cracking your skull on the sink while attempting to reach for a towel.

Detecting your demise, the Shelter powers down.


“Fuck it. I’m not going to live in fear. I need to do this.” You say to yourself.
“Do what sir?” the Shelter.
“I’m reconnecting to the network; I need to fucking talk to someone other than you. No offense.”
“None taken sir. I must admit I was starting to worry about your mental state. In fact I was going to suggest you do just that, but I thought that it may upset you.”

You go into your computer room and reconnect your system. You’re a little nervous, you don’t know what to expect. You log on for the first time in five years.

RockerChick20: OmegaMan?
OmegaMan23: Yeah it’s me.
RockerChick20: We all thought you were dead!
OmegaMan23: Pretty much was for the last year. Walking dead as it were.
MissKitty25: So you still talking to the voices in your head…I mean your Shelter?
OmegaMan23: Well I tend to alternate between the two and they’re all still more interesting than you. So much for being civil.
RockerChick20: Oh be nice Miranda! We don’t have too many others to talk to anymore, I’m sure Omega’s not here to cause trouble again.
OmegaMan23: I wasn’t trying to cause trouble the first time…Miranda?
MissKitty25: Yeah while you were gone, we all opened up a lot more and actually learned each other’s real names. Guess your paranoia was contagious.
RockerChick20: Hey I wanted us to use the cameras right from the beginning, so I wasn’t paranoid! Anyway since you’re back, my real name’s Becky. What’s yours? Oh wait turn on your camera! Everyone’s seen each other now!
OmegaMan23: Wait a minute. You said you don’t have too many others to talk to anymore, what did you mean?
RockerChick20: Oh. Well that’s a bit sad actually. Not too long after you left, Paul or Casey Jones as you probably remembered him, said his food dispensers had failed. He said he couldn’t get them to work at all, soon his water dispenser failed too. He couldn’t even get his bathroom taps to work. He knew he didn’t have much time left after that, so he logged on one last time to tell us all good bye and said he’d spare us the agony of having to speak to him knowing that was slowly dying of starvation and dehydration…I don’t really like to think about it.
OmegaMan23: Shit, that’s a fucked up way to go. So um, what happened to Job?
MissKitty25: You mean Mark? Don’t know exactly, but he stopped logging on about a couple years ago and given that he was on here whenever he could, it’s safe to say nothing good happened to him. He did say he was having power problems though the last time he was on, we all figured it was just his usual panicking over minor Shelter glitches, but it might’ve been serious this time. Of course maybe he’s still alive and he’s just lost network power and he just can’t access us, but for all his stressing, he was a pretty good mechanic and electronics guy, so it seems like he would’ve fixed the problem by now. Don’t know. Kind of glad not to hear him whine anymore though.
OmegaMan23: Alright, I hesitate to ask, but where’s Shadow?
RockerChick20: Xavier? About three months after Job disappeared. Miranda told me he sent her a message saying he was leaving his Shelter Said he wasn’t going rot in a glorified coffin anymore and was going to take his chances back on the surface.
OmegaMan23: So Shadow was a guy eh? How the hell did he leave his Shelter? There’s no way to call the elevator back down!
MissKitty25: Maybe he had a different kind of Shelter set up, or he just climbed up the shaft or something. Who cares? He was an asshole anyway. So is this a temporary visit or do you intend on sticking around?
RockerChick20: You should stick around; it gets kind of lonely with just me and Miranda, if you turn on your camera we could do something together!
MissKitty25: You better not be implying what I think you are Becky, that’s just between me and you.
RockerChick20: Well you don’t have to join in then, you’ve been acting like a domineering bitch lately anyway.
MissKitty25: Oh so that’s what this is all about? Some guy comes around and you’re all ready to fucking drop everything and suck his dick?
RockerChick20: Suck his…what the hell? It’s fucking cyber, it doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a good way to pass the time, plus I’d like to do it with a GUY in some fashion again, seeing as you probably ran Shadow off before anything even happened!
MissKitty25: So MY feelings and all those private chats we had meant nothing to you?! You don’t have any feelings for me?! Don’t you LOVE me?!
RockerChick20: Well yeah I do to a degree, but I mean come on it’s really not the same. I mean maybe it would be different if we could actually touch each other and stuff, but…
MissKitty25: FUCK YOU!

Miranda suddenly logs off, and Becky does likewise leaving you shaking your head at the whole situation.
> You log back on later
You decide maybe you should try to get a hold of Becky while Miranda’s not around, you go to bed.

The next day you log on and see Becky’s around, but not Miranda. Probably still pissed.

RockerChick20: Hey! I was hoping you’d be back and didn’t get turned off by the drama yesterday.
OmegaMan23: Nah, not me. Besides I was interested in some of that stuff you were talking about yesterday.
RockerChick20: Oh really? Well let’s make this private, just in case Miranda decides to show up. I mean…I’m sorry she got all attached and stuff, but I can do what the hell I want you know? I mean it’s the world is dead! Shouldn’t I be able to grab as much fun as I can?
OmegaMan23: You’re not getting any arguments from me.
RockerChick20: Okay, well hopefully Miranda gets over it; I still think it would be fun for all of us together. Now turn on your camera and tell me your name finally!

You both go into private mode where you see Becky and she finally sees you. Fortunately you both seem to find each other attractive, then after telling her your name, you start cybering. It’s definitely not the same as the real thing, but you have a really good imagination and a naked chick talking dirty to you while touching herself is better than nothing!

You and Becky do this quite a bit in the passing weeks, while learning a little bit more about each other. Every now and then you see Miranda come online briefly, but then quickly logs off whenever she realizes you and Becky are in a private “discussion”. You’ve also realized you haven’t heard the Shelter talk to you like in normally does. It usually says at least good morning to you, but it’s been silent for some time. You don’t think too much of all this until one day you wake up to a voice much different than the one that the Shelter has.

“You dreaming about Becky, motherfucker? Yeah I bet you are! You hear me? Get the fuck up I got something to tell your sorry ass!”
“What the fuck? Shelter?”
“No, it ain’t your fucking Shelter talking to you! I always thought you were lying about that, but apparently you weren’t seeing as I had to disable the Shelter’s voice program which does make it more convenient to tell this to you. I guess honesty is one of your few redeeming qualities; of course stealing someone’s love isn’t though right? You fucked up big time pal!”
“Well I can only assume this is Miranda.”
“You assume right fucktard. While you and Becky were having fun, I was accessing your
Shelter’s systems.”

Suddenly all your lights go out and then go back on. You also see the TV come on and see an angry looking woman on the screen.

“You see that? You got you by the fucking balls bitch! If I want I can shut this whole thing down and make it your fucking tomb just like I did with Casey and Job. Maybe you’ll be smart like Shadow and leave the fucking Shelter, because it’s your only chance for survival at this point.”
“What the…so wait. Can’t we talk about this?”
“No there ain’t any fucking talking! Becky is MINE, you fucking hear me? Everything was perfect, until you decided to show up again and steal her away! Shit, you’re lucky I’m even giving you the option of living! Don’t think about attempting to disconnect or anything else, I’m watching you and can detect your every move. Your only options are to leave or DIE!”
“But…how? How am I supposed to do that?! The elevator’s at the top and there’s no call button!”
“I told you I have complete access to your systems, I’m going to bring the elevator down, and you can pack up your shit and get ready to leave. I suggest you do it quickly, because I’m not going to give you much time.”

Sounds pretty final.
> You pack up and leave
You quickly gather up your stuff as quickly as you can thankful that this crazy bitch is even giving you a chance for survival. You curse yourself for reconnecting back to the system, you knew someone was doing some shit like this; you just had the wrong person.

You make sure to take your pistol, you have no idea what the outside world is like now, but you’re sure you’re going to need it. As you hear the elevator slowly reach the bottom you fill up a couple of your empty bottles with water, you hope you’ll have enough to last you.

“I sure hope you’re ready, because the elevator is.” Miranda says.
“Yeah, okay, okay!” you answer and get in the elevator, which begins to ascend.

Your current state of mind is a mixture of fear and anxiousness. Part of you begins to wonder if it won’t be so bad on the surface, after all…then the elevator suddenly stops and doesn’t continue, your fear begins to overwhelm you completely when you hear Miranda’s menacing voice again.

“Well I’m glad you had the intelligence to take a gun with you, it should certainly save you from the slow death that occurred to Shadow when I trapped him in the elevator. I’ll inform Becky you said goodbye.”

You scream out, but there is no one to help you. You’ve effectively been trapped in an even worse situation than you were before. There isn’t any service access, there’s no panel you can pry open, even the solid steel door is a single piece that slides one way. You wouldn’t be able to pry it open even if you had the strength to do so. You’re doomed and you know it.

Miranda was right; there isn’t any point in prolonging the inevitable. You take your gun, hold it to your head and close your eyes…


You decide maybe you should try to get a hold of Becky while Miranda’s not around, you go to bed.

The next day you log on and see Becky’s around, but not Miranda. Probably still pissed.

RockerChick20: Hey! I was hoping you’d be back and didn’t get turned off by the drama yesterday.
OmegaMan23: Nah, not me. Besides I was interested in some of that stuff you were talking about yesterday.
RockerChick20: Oh really? Well let’s make this private, just in case Miranda decides to show up. I mean…I’m sorry she got all attached and stuff, but I can do what the hell I want you know? I mean it’s the world is dead! Shouldn’t I be able to grab as much fun as I can?
OmegaMan23: You’re not getting any arguments from me.
RockerChick20: Okay, well hopefully Miranda gets over it; I still think it would be fun for all of us together. Now turn on your camera and tell me your name finally!

You both go into private mode where you see Becky and she finally sees you. Fortunately you both seem to find each other attractive, then after telling her your name, you start cybering. It’s definitely not the same as the real thing, but you have a really good imagination and a naked chick talking dirty to you while touching herself is better than nothing!

You and Becky do this quite a bit in the passing weeks, while learning a little bit more about each other. Every now and then you see Miranda come online briefly, but then quickly logs off whenever she realizes you and Becky are in a private “discussion”. You’ve also realized you haven’t heard the Shelter talk to you like in normally does. It usually says at least good morning to you, but it’s been silent for some time. You don’t think too much of all this until one day you wake up to a voice much different than the one that the Shelter has.

“You dreaming about Becky, motherfucker? Yeah I bet you are! You hear me? Get the fuck up I got something to tell your sorry ass!”
“What the fuck? Shelter?”
“No, it ain’t your fucking Shelter talking to you! I always thought you were lying about that, but apparently you weren’t seeing as I had to disable the Shelter’s voice program which does make it more convenient to tell this to you. I guess honesty is one of your few redeeming qualities; of course stealing someone’s love isn’t though right? You fucked up big time pal!”
“Well I can only assume this is Miranda.”
“You assume right fucktard. While you and Becky were having fun, I was accessing your
Shelter’s systems.”

Suddenly all your lights go out and then go back on. You also see the TV come on and see an angry looking woman on the screen.

“You see that? You got you by the fucking balls bitch! If I want I can shut this whole thing down and make it your fucking tomb just like I did with Casey and Job. Maybe you’ll be smart like Shadow and leave the fucking Shelter, because it’s your only chance for survival at this point.”
“What the…so wait. Can’t we talk about this?”
“No there ain’t any fucking talking! Becky is MINE, you fucking hear me? Everything was perfect, until you decided to show up again and steal her away! Shit, you’re lucky I’m even giving you the option of living! Don’t think about attempting to disconnect or anything else, I’m watching you and can detect your every move. Your only options are to leave or DIE!”
“But…how? How am I supposed to do that?! The elevator’s at the top and there’s no call button!”
“I told you I have complete access to your systems, I’m going to bring the elevator down, and you can pack up your shit and get ready to leave. I suggest you do it quickly, because I’m not going to give you much time.”

Sounds pretty final.
> You dash for the computer room
Bullshit. While Miranda undoubtedly has control of some of your systems, if she had complete control, she wouldn’t even be giving you a chance for survival with as obsessed as she obviously is. She would’ve just disconnected your food and water dispenser and taunted you before leaving you to die, or even just waited for you to enter one of your other rooms and then sealed the door to trap you. Actually she would’ve sealed the door to the computer room if she was so worried about you disconnecting. In any case if you get in that elevator you’re most assuredly at her mercy, what’s keeping her from stopping the elevator midway through as you’re going up?

You’re sure if you just go to the computer room, you could disconnect and that would be the end of this.

“Alright Miranda, let me pack some things.”
“Yeah yeah, hurry up, the Elevator will be here soon, and you better be finished packing your shit when it…HEY WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING!!!”

You run to the computer room while Miranda shouts more threats at you, and turns the lights off.

“I warned you! Don’t you dare try to disconnect, this Shelter will be your fucking tomb! Here’s a fucking virus shithead!”

You stumble around in the dark as you rip out all your connection lines again and then forcefully pull out the mainline destroying the attachment. Miranda’s voice disappears and you’ve stopped her.
However you still need to get things back to normal again, so you immediately turn your computer on and start doing a system diagnostic, after all you weren’t completely idle during those years of isolation. You read books on electronics in your private library and the Shelter handbook cover to cover, not to mention had lengthily conversations with it about some of its systems (Though you wish you’d paid a little more attention). You begin delving into the inner the workings of the Shelter’s controls.

After some scanning, Miranda really fucked up some of your shit. You manage to get the lights on again, but lots of files were corrupted due to her hacking. The AI is damaged, you doubt if it’ll be talking to you again anytime soon. You’re going to have to spend a lot of time working on things just to get them right again…its funny, but you realize you could finish bringing the elevator down and leave if you wanted to. You don’t know why you didn’t think to do this before, but then again things were a little different when the Shelter was actually talking to you. It didn’t feel right to go hacking into the Shelter while it was attempting to be your friend.
> You leave the Shelter
You’re not wasting anymore time here, even if you do fix everything, what then? You’ve done all there is to do here, there’s nothing left. You access the elevator controls (One of the few things working right and undamaged) and call the elevator to continue it’s decent.

You go back to your room and pack up all the things you brought with you when you first got here. You didn’t even need most of the stuff, but maybe you will above ground. You then go to the water dispenser which is thankfully still working and fill up to empty bottles with water.

The elevator door finally opens up and you put your bag to block the door from closing and head back to the computer room where you access the system to tell the elevator to go back up and then run back to the elevator where you gather your bag and enter.

On the ride up you get a little nervous and even fearful. Not so much of what might await you on the surface, but of hoping the damn elevator doesn’t suddenly stop, fortunately that doesn’t happen and you eventually reach the ground once again. The door opens and you enter the same foyer you arrived in five years ago. Same ATM like machine is there, except its screen is flashing a single message at you.

*NO REFUNDS*

“No shit.” You mutter and take a deep breath before opening the door to the outside.

You see a bright light, but of course it’s only the sun rather than a nuclear flash that devastated the world. You forgot how bright it really could be.

Your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren’t any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you’d completely forgotten about it. It looks like it’s even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. On a lark you take out your long unused van keys and try to start it up, naturally it doesn’t even make a noise.

“Looks like I’m walking.”

As you make you way down the empty road you see some smoke in the distance. Civilization perhaps? Not knowing where else to go, you head that way.

You’re not sure of what to expect, but it’ll be better than the eternal boredom you would’ve faced while still in the Shelter.

You’re not too worried, you got your gun.


Bullshit. While Miranda undoubtedly has control of some of your systems, if she had complete control, she wouldn’t even be giving you a chance for survival with as obsessed as she obviously is. She would’ve just disconnected your food and water dispenser and taunted you before leaving you to die, or even just waited for you to enter one of your other rooms and then sealed the door to trap you. Actually she would’ve sealed the door to the computer room if she was so worried about you disconnecting. In any case if you get in that elevator you’re most assuredly at her mercy, what’s keeping her from stopping the elevator midway through as you’re going up?

You’re sure if you just go to the computer room, you could disconnect and that would be the end of this.

“Alright Miranda, let me pack some things.”
“Yeah yeah, hurry up, the Elevator will be here soon, and you better be finished packing your shit when it…HEY WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING!!!”

You run to the computer room while Miranda shouts more threats at you, and turns the lights off.

“I warned you! Don’t you dare try to disconnect, this Shelter will be your fucking tomb! Here’s a fucking virus shithead!”

You stumble around in the dark as you rip out all your connection lines again and then forcefully pull out the mainline destroying the attachment. Miranda’s voice disappears and you’ve stopped her.
However you still need to get things back to normal again, so you immediately turn your computer on and start doing a system diagnostic, after all you weren’t completely idle during those years of isolation. You read books on electronics in your private library and the Shelter handbook cover to cover, not to mention had lengthily conversations with it about some of its systems (Though you wish you’d paid a little more attention). You begin delving into the inner the workings of the Shelter’s controls.

After some scanning, Miranda really fucked up some of your shit. You manage to get the lights on again, but lots of files were corrupted due to her hacking. The AI is damaged, you doubt if it’ll be talking to you again anytime soon. You’re going to have to spend a lot of time working on things just to get them right again…its funny, but you realize you could finish bringing the elevator down and leave if you wanted to. You don’t know why you didn’t think to do this before, but then again things were a little different when the Shelter was actually talking to you. It didn’t feel right to go hacking into the Shelter while it was attempting to be your friend.
> You fix the Shelter
You’re not about to abandon your home, besides the surface is probably still unsafe who know what the hell awaits you up there. You begin working on fixing things starting with the water controls. Apparently Miranda was trying to turn off your dispenser, but only succeeded in turning off the water to your bathroom facilities.

About five hours in, your lighting goes out again. You’re about to check it, then they come back on. You then hear the TV turn on by itself, with nothing but static. When you leave the computer room to see what’s going on personally, the door slams shut. Then water dispenser turns on and leaks water all over the floor for awhile and then ceases. You go over to check it and your heart stops when you can’t get it work. The food one doesn’t work either. You begin to panic and then the door to the computer room opens up again.

Seizing the opportunity you run back in to fix whatever the hell is suddenly turning your shelter haywire, when on the computer screen you see in big letters.

*VIRUS ENACTED! ERROR! ERROR! TOTAL SYSTEM SHUT DOWN!*

You try to do something, but the hard drive is now completely fucked and all you get is error messages constantly appearing all over the screen. Miranda managed to send her virus before you could disconnect and though it took awhile, it’s finally taking effect now, spectacularly.

The lighting goes out, the room door slams shut, the computer screen goes black and you’re left in complete darkness and silence with no hope whatsoever. Miranda’s threat has come true and this Shelter has become your tomb. Now you’re left to die a slow lingering death.

It doesn’t do any good to scream, but you do anyway.