text: [Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic]
  
  At one time you thought about actually buying one of those things, sometimes you even wonder how things would've been living underground completely oblivious to what's going on the surface. Things might've been a lot easier...or maybe they wouldn't. You'll just have to wonder about the road not traveled.
  
  You see no harm in making contact; they may even have useful resources to trade and might appreciate knowing that the surface is exactly the hell on Earth that they might think. Plus the rest of the Alliance leaders seem pleased that you're agreeing with them. Maintaining good relations to keep everyone happy is always a sure way of keeping the Alliance stable. Even Ashtown makes mention of a Shelter nearby that they've been debating about whether to contact or not. You organize how to go about this, since you don't want to make enemies unnecessarily.
  
  It doesn't take long to open up the Shelters and bypass the computer elevator systems with your help. First contact with most of the shelters is a very large surprise for its inhabitants, though a lot of them seem really grateful. Apparently GZS Shelters weren't built very well, you hear reports of how inhabitants had to improvise and constantly repair various things. Alex tells you he isn't surprised.
  
  "The main reason why I outlived my cyborgs when I was...uh...indisposed... was due to having faulty GZS equipment. Granted they made a lot of good stuff, but they had a terrible habit of cutting corners. When I think about it, I really can't believe I thought I was actually going to DO something with them, probably wouldn't have even lasted in a real fight...still it would've been interesting...my God I can't believe I used to think things like this...like...I dunno..."
  
  Every now and then Alex talks like that. Probably wondering about his own road not traveled. It creeps people out though, however it doesn't prevent him from being a good doctor. You almost get the impression he feels like by being a good doctor and patching folks up real well is sort of like his "penance". One he feels necessary to do until the day he dies. This line of thinking becomes really noticeable within a few weeks of the Shelter openings.
  
  The Shelter near Ashtown is in bad shape. From the reports you've heard some sort of weird "social experiment" was going on down there which resulted in some sort of catastrophe. There are many dead bodies and broken equipment. Many of the people are sick and infected with something, and they aren't in very good shape to go anywhere. Looks like they've been slowly dying. In fact the Mayor of Ashtown, Carlos, is taking the hard line stance refusing to let the ones that went down there to come back up, for fear that they will infect his town. This isn't a popular decision, so he's hoping you can send some sort of medical team to help since Ashtown doesn't have the experts you do. Carlos says that he'll formally join the Atomic Alliance if you get him out of this jam. Alex insists on going to help.
  
  "Please, let me go help. I'm the best doctor in the Alliance. I...I need to do this. I need to help these people..." Alex says almost in a begging fashion.
  "...Well alright Alex, but you're taking one of those biohazard suits! Who knows what the hell those people have, and I really can't risk losing my best doctor."
  
  Alex thanks you profusely, and gathers a couple of his assistants and all the necessary equipment before leaving.
  
  A couple weeks pass and you get a report from Carlos. He mentions that Alex has determined there is nothing contagious about whatever the Shelter people are infected with, and the Ashtown citizens are allowed to come back up and return. Alex is still working on the problem though and it might take awhile, he requests for more equipment, which you allow Ashtown formally joins the Alliance. You personally go there to welcome them in.
  
  It's strange that you've never actually been to Ashtown before, given a lot of your dealings with it. While you're here on business you think about Ophelia, and that one night. A night that possibly saved you from committing suicide, given the downward spiral you were in at the time. There's a few times you thought about going to see her to thank her...but then you think how she has a family now and it would just be too weird.
  
  A month passes and you suddenly get a call from Alex on your radio.
  
  "Alex? Where are you?"
  "I'm in the Shelter. I managed to rig the computer to transmit a signal! Now I can talk to you directly! Great huh?"
  "Uh yeah...what's going on over there?"
  "Oh, nothing much. This place is pretty fascinating; I've been trying to figure out what was going on down here. This one diary was really interesting"
  "Alex what about the people?"
  "It seems there was this guy called Elliot who had a lot of weird ideas, he was a doctor..." Alex says seemingly oblivious to your question.
  "Yeah, I know the type. ALEX WHAT ABOUT THE FUCKIN' PEOPLE?"
  "Oh yeah...the people. They're okay...I guess."
  "You guess? What the fuck Alex, don't you know?"
  "Well, uh y'know... this isn't an exact science, and I'm still trying to figure some things out...I went to Ashtown recently for some more supplies, but I think I need some more higher qulity equipment from you, its getting kind of complicated down here..."
  "What the fuck Alex? No, you're not getting anything else! We're not an endless supply of resources! Now you work with what you got and I better hear some progress soon!"
  "...work with what I got...yeah...story of my life..." Alex says and disconnects.
  
  Another week passes and this time you get a message from Carlos, he doesn't sound well, but he does sound angry.
  
  "...we ally with you and this is (Cough) what happens? We're all sick and it's (Cough!) all you and that doctor's fault! He contaminated us! YOU contaminated us! The town is Uhhh..."
  
  There's an old saying, that a scorpion, no matter how well you take care of it or treat it, its nature will always be to sting you. And that's just what happened.
  
  Shit.
  
  > send another medical team to Ashtown
  You immediately dispatch another team of medics in hazmat suits to Ashtown. Vivica insists on going since she's probably the second best doctor in the Alliance, you order her not to since you can't afford to lose her as well, not to mention she runs Fort Justice, but she's defiant and goes anyway. You also order Eden to not let ANYONE who wasn't already working there in, until this situation is resolved. You can't afford your major food source to get contaminated. You decide not to inform the rest of the Alliance towns, since you hope maybe you can contain this before panic occurs. You next step is to radio Alex, but as predicted you don't get an answer.
  
  You soon get a report from Vivica,
  
  "It looks bad. REAL Bad. Most of Ashtown is already dead or dying. Whatever it is, I don't think it's airborne. It might be the water supply. The only weird thing is, the children didn't seem to be affected...it's very sad though. We're going to have a bunch of orphans."
  "Can't you do ANYTHING?"
  "No, I have no idea what this is and I think it's too late anyway, uh there's something else I think you'll want to know...though I'm not sure how to say this..."
  "Vivica just spit it the fuck out!"
  "Well, uh...I tired to treat Ophelia, but I failed, her husband was already dead by the time I got here."
  "...Vivica, I appreciate you trying to save someone I had fond memories of, but there's a whole town at stake..."
  "I know, I know, but that's not what I'm getting at. Ophelia had a daughter you know. Her name's Laura. She's five. Ophelia told me before she died; she wanted her daughter to have a good home."
  "Well of course! I mean we'll give good homes to all the orphans!"
  "Again, that's not it. She asked for you specifically to give her that home. She said she said it's about time her daughter got to know her father anyway."
  
  The surprises just keep coming.
  
  "Excuse me?"
  "Looks like you're this little girl's father...the timing is about right, I mean you did have that encounter with her five years ago. She's five and if I may say, I see the family resemblance, she doesn't look anything like Ophelia's husband, I mean granted he's dead right now, but..."
  "Why the hell didn't she tell me? I mean I would've..."
  "I asked the same question, during her final moments. She's said she was sorry she never told you before, but she knew you had other things on your mind and bigger concerns with rebuilding civilization and all. She always thought she would've lived in Marina's shadow anyway and by keeping Laura to herself it was like she still had a piece of you...sir I hate to break this information up since I know it probably really important to you, but what are we going to do about the town and Alex and everything?"
  "Start evacuating the children to Base Pandora, the town is dead. I'll take care of Alex." You say grimly before disconnecting.
  
  Armed and focused, for the first time in a long time you travel by yourself to the Shelter where Alex is at. You meet up with Vivica on the way, who tries to advise you to at least go in with back up, but you won't hear of it and tell her to continue on to Base Pandora. You also see Laura and some of the other orphaned children. They're obviously still upset about their parents dying horrible deaths. You approach Laura whose eyes are all red from crying. She looks up at you.
  
  "Are...are you really my daddy?" she asks, obviously having been informed of the situation. Contrary to what Vivica said, you think she looks more like her mother, but yes there is a resemblance to you particularly the hair. Unsure of how to respond, you give a straight forward answer.
  
  "Yes I am and I'll be home soon to take care of you." you stroke her face and get back in your vehicle and drive off.
  
  You drive through Ashtown and see the dead bodies, by the facial expressions you get the impression it wasn't a pleasant one. Once again you think about going to see Ophelia's body, but you quickly decide against it. You'd rather remember her how she was the last time you saw her. Besides you'll always see her now in your daughter, plus you've got a score to settle with Alex.
  
  You get to the Shelter and enter its foyer and surprisingly its elevator is at the top, looks like some modifications have been made to it as it looks as if the call buttons were there originally. You really don't care about any of it though, you're on a mission.
  
  When you get to the bottom, you see the same modified call buttons near the elevator on this level as well (You can't believe the idiotic way GZS designs their Shelters though, effectively trapping their "customers" down here) You also see more dead bodies in various stages of decay, some look like they were dead long before Alex got here. Much of the equipment and place in general is in disarray, but you also notice some of it has been recently repaired. Probably by Alex no doubt.
  
  You hear cursing coming from a nearby room, it sounds like Alex.
  
  > confront him now
  Knowing Alex, he's probably killed his assistants too; you go in with your weapon ready.
  
  "FUCK! Goddamn GZS equipment! Always fucks up!" Alex says as he's trying to install some sort of implant in the head of some corpse on a table. Its one of his assistants and his brains are leaking all over the place, you don't even know what the hell Alex was trying to accomplish, and you get the impression he doesn't either. He stares at you with eyes telling you he's finally gone over the edge for good this time.
  
  "You see? You see what I have to work with? Can't fucking work under these conditions! Not enough equipment! Plenty of bodies, just need the equipment...is it lunch time?"
  "Is that why you infected Ashtown? So you could rebuild your insane dreams of cyborgs again?"
  "It's not insane! Its evolution! You really think the Atomic Alliance can last in its current form? NO! It NEEDS to be remade! Y'see I tried...I really did...I really tried to delude myself into thinking civilization can be rebuilt and survive in its current form...but it wasn't until I came here and found this diary...this Elliot guy...had lots of good ideas about the nature of man...and how control IS the only way to maintain order...of course he obviously failed when his so called "obedience serum" had a long term detrimental health effect on the inhabitants here. Comes in handy as a virulent toxin when altered a bit and dumped into a water supply though. Strange how it doesn't affect pre-pubescent children."
  "You fuckin' sonofabitch..." you say pointing your rifle at him, he doesn't even seem to notice, he just keeps talking.
  
  "His ideas were sound, just his method was flawed, and it made me realize I was right in the beginning, I was just prevented from seeing my plan come to fruition due to YOUR own ambition and meddling! Shit, you can barely keep the Alliance leaders to agree on anything! The only reason why they follow you is because of the polite threat of superior firepower that you have access to and the major food source you have under your direct control in Eden. If that advantage ever disappeared, you'd have another civil war on your hands. You're petty dictator hiding in democracy. Your own method of control is as clumsy as Elliot's."
  "I'm not controlling anyone, you psychotic fuck!"
  "Bullshit! You've built your whole career on it! Your destruction of my plans, your war with the Combine, creating the Atomic Alliance and being the head of it. You really expect me to believe you did all this without ambition?"
  "Actually yeah. Had it not been for Marina's influence, I probably wouldn't have bothered..."
  "How long are you going to hide behind THAT ghost? Perhaps she did have influence on you in the beginning as far as motivation was concerned, but nobody, NOBODY that has gotten this far can say they've been doing this all this as some sort of monument for the love of a dead woman! You're lying to yourself because YOU don't have the fuckin' balls to admit you're a goddamn friendly fascist! And after you're dead? Do you think the Atomic Alliance will really live on? I predict it falls apart and in fighting occurs within a month! Humans are incapable of ruling themselves! The LAST WAR PROVED THAT! The Cybernetic Evolution is the ONLY thing that makes sense!"
  
  You think about some of the things Alex's insane ranting, before responding.
  
  "...you might be right Alex. You might be right, but there's just one thing..."
  "Oh what's that?"
  "Your method sucks too, mainly because you were too idiotic to ever get it off the ground in the first place and this isn't for Marina, its for my daughter Laura you fucking mass murdering motherfucker."
  
  You riddle Alex's body with bullets until he's such a bloody heap that he's actually ripped in half by your burst. You then pull out your pistol and blast his face into a red pulpy mess.
  
  Its over.
  
  You return to Base Pandora where Vivica has been trying to keep control of things as everyone is starting to wonder what's going on exactly. You give a full report to the entire Atomic Alliance about what happened. It's a big event that nearly shatters the Alliance. When you think about it, maybe that was Alex's "back up plan", as even if he had been killed, he must've known you'd catch heat for what happened.
  
  Some say it really wasn't your fault, others say it was, since you left an unstable element like Alex to his own devices. Some say your past deeds should be taken into consideration, others say it doesn't make up for the death of an entire town. Some say you tried to make things right, others say you shouldn't be applauded for attempting to fix something that was your fault in the first place. Still others say it wasn't your fault to begin with since the opening of the Shelters was most of the OTHER town leader's idea not yours. It's apparent everyone is divided on the situation, so you do the only thing that makes sense and step down from being the head of the Atomic Alliance.
  
  This has more of an effect than you hoped. Some people still think you should be punished directly, but for the most part most are just satisfied that you aren't the head of the Alliance anymore. The ones closest to you think it's unfair, but you don't really care. You probably saved the Alliance again with your actions, another civil war would've occurred otherwise. You can only hope in time people will see that.
  
  Vivica becomes the new head of the Alliance. Some object to her as well since she's somewhat close to you, but most accept her since her reputation is pretty spotless and fair minded. You remain in control of Base Pandora, which now mainly concentrates on strictly military matters as in defending the AA borders. Less politics, but not less responsibility since you now have a daughter to take care of...
  
  Ten more years pass...
  
  Twenty years have passed since the bombs dropped, and the Atomic Alliance is the largest known stretch of civilization known in the immediate area. It's now become an official democratic political entity rather than just a collection of separate towns and forts which were merely aligned. Vivica is now officially the President.
  
  GZS Shelters have been converted into major the supplier of water. Gone are the days of wondering if water was safe to drink. These Shelters have also been modified to have surrounding land to become agricultural centers like Eden; the water is piped in from underground to help grow crops. They're probably more useful than what they were initially intended for.
  
  Ashtown was repopulated, but a big memorial is now standing there in memory of the dead, the Shelter near Ashtown was destroyed. Explosives were placed in the entryway such a manner that it imploded in on itself forever burying the place.
  
  As for you, you find less and less to do each day at Base Pandora. While it's foolish to think that the world is now a safe place that an Atomic Alliance military isn't needed, it's just that it has fewer threats. Raiders might lurk on the outskirts of it, but to actually attack it now would be folly. Only the craziest and most desperate raiders do that nowadays, and they're usually easily dispatched by the AA Police Force. (Most of course having trained at Base Pandora combat academy) Civil unrest mainly consists of a few normal complaints, never anything like what happened in the past. It almost like the "Old World" again.
  
  You however are glad of this, since you have enough trouble trying to look after your daughter Laura. She's quite willful now that's she's a teenager, but fortunately your relationship isn't really bad though, you just never did get a hang of this whole father thing. The best thing you did was train her to take care of herself. Though now you're wondering if that was such a good idea.
  
  "I want to join the Atomic Alliance City Project!" she says.
  
  Having tamed most of the surrounding area, the next big agenda for the Alliance is to restore the City. You never really thought this was the best idea Vivica had, since the City has always been considered a very dangerous place, with nothing but deadly radiation levels and mutant monstrosities. In fact you turned down the option to head up the project when she proposed it to you. You remember way back in your early days of the Compound, when a few people were sent to the City, and only one returned speaking of the horrible creatures inside. Since then, nobody ever really went there. Every now and then you heard about a few hostile mutants wandering from the city, but it was rare, it seems as if they were content on living in their own area.
  
  You lived on "your side" and they lived on "their side" and that's the way it should stay. Seems like fucking around with the City might be inviting trouble, sort of like when you decided to fuck around the Shelters ten years ago...
  
  Your daughter on the other hand like most youthful sorts, sees "adventure". True she's not some delicate flower and she grew up relatively fast (She did see her mother die in front of her along with the rest of the town) but its not like she's had any real combat experience, plus she's only fifteen and you do feel the need to protect her.
  
  > restrict her from going
  She's still fifteen; you're still able to restrict her from doing whatever the hell she wants. You do however realize that too much restriction isn't going to help and possibly even drive her away, so what you propose is a compromise and you allow her to go on border patrol mission and minor recon duty.
  
  Let her deal with some raiders and see if she still wants to pursue this life of adventure...
  
  She isn't exactly enthusiastic about this idea, probably because it doesn't seem as "exciting". Most raiders go running at the first sign of trouble, so there's actually little in the way of combat. She starts becoming a little more daring and patrols further than she's supposed to. You tell others to keep an eye on her, but of course that's impossible all the time.
  
  Then your worst fears come true. Laura is ambushed, beaten and gang raped. She would've probably been killed, but the rest of the recon team arrived in time to drive them off. They managed to kill a few...but not all. You've suffered a lot of tragedies in your life, but this one has got to be the worst since you lost Marina...worse even. You don't sink into depression though, you fly into a rage. You immediately gather your best men and personally hunt the rest of these scumfucks down.
  
  There is no where they can hide; you are the embodiment of vengeance. As is typical you find them hold up in a cave where you catch most of them off guard, as ordered, your men don't shoot to kill, they shoot to maim. You'll be the one doing the killing.
  
  You cut off the genitals of each one of them and stuff them into their mouths. You yell and scream at them as you repeatedly shoot and kick their bloody bodies. You don't stop tormenting them even after death until one of your men finally tells you stop.
  
  You don't really feel any better though, once again you feel like you've failed, just like you did ten years ago with Alex killing most of Ashtown. You can't do this anymore; you resign your command at Pandora, despite Vivica not wanting you to.
  
  It takes Laura awhile to get over the traumatic event, and she never really does. She picks a safer career path and she never marries or even dates, despite you telling her that she should and that its okay, but she says she's satisfied just living with you. (And while you blamed yourself for what happened, she never did) And while you don't mind her company, this also saddens you.
  
  In your remaining years, you spend a lot of time regretting a lot of decisions you made in the past. You can't even take "pride" in the fact that you contributed greatly to rebuilding civilization. When yet another war breaks out with the mutants due to the Atomic Alliance City Project you just shake your head wondering if it was all worth it to begin with.
  
  Eventually when you die, it's sort of a release for you. A small respectful funeral is held for you as you're buried next to Marina like you always wanted to be, but as time goes on after Vivica and those who were with you from the beginning in the Compound die off, your name and deeds are forgotten completely as what happens to most "heroes" of history.