I’d Like to Hear From You

I’ve pulled all of my stories from Amazon in order to get them looked at by a professional editor. I’ll have them back up this year. In the meantime I’m writing again and now I’d like to get your input. For those of you who have read ‘Changes’ you know a plague swept the world. In order to avoid decimation of human kind a small group of people underwent some rather dramatic changes. I’m not going to spoil the story for you by giving it away.

The sequel takes place nearly four hundred years after the event. Assume if you will a group of humans that survived in a bunker meant to protect politicians from a nuclear war. In a facility meant to hold twenty-five thousand people for ten years a small group of humans from the armed services have survived. Like most facilities built for survival by politicians and the military, no expense was spared and everything was hardened. Here’s where I need your help.

Assume four hundred years have passed and there are some four hundred survivors where population is strictly controlled. There’s a fusion reactor so electricity is not an issue. However, after nearly four hundred years the reactor is on its last legs. Food is also not an issue. Since the facility was built to house twenty-five thousand people there were plenty of provisions. Again though, all of the canned goods are long past being edible and are being used for fertilizer in hydroponic gardens. There are many vegetables like tomatoes, beans, peppers, etc., but no fruit since there were no trees when they went into lock down. Clothing is not an issue. Military uniforms were in storage from the beginning but items like paper, desks, chairs were never thought to be necessary for more than ten years. Ammunition and rifles are plentiful, as are vehicles, but there is no fuel after four hundred years. Electronics are the rarest of all. Electronic components have been scavenged from equipment there during lock down but the years have not been kind to components. There were thousands of cameras outside the facility during the initial event but most have quit working a hundred years ago. Only a very few remain operational and many of those that still have an image have been overgrown by vines or the view blocked by trees. Marriage is strictly controlled and birth even moreso. Forced abortion is required for those exceeding birth limits. Death requires the disposal of the body into grinders where the material is used for hydroponic growth medium.

If you were in this facility what do you see as a major problem? I’d love to hear your ideas. Exiting to the outside is impossible because the virus that targeted people might still be viable, even after all this time. If you’d like to offer your thoughts please comment.