text: [Themes: sci-fi]
  
  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.
  
  > 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.
  
  > 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?"
  
  "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!
  
  > 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.
  
  > 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.