text: [Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic]
  
  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.
  
  > 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."
  
  > 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?
  
  > 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.
  
  "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.