Chapter Four - Knowledge is Survival

Horace, having returned from outside the bunker and having seen the devastation, developed a new appreciation for the simpler things in life, such as feeding the chickens. Maybe this was what it was like to be human?

Noel, on the other hand, concentrated on complicated tasks such as building nanites and trait chips to outfit the plumbots with. Horace did what he could to help him by researching and constructing nanites in order to be able to create for Noel the most advanced nanites that he possibly could. After all, what wouldn't he do for Noel? He'd been the one to give Horace life.

The Eight concerned themselves with increasing their logic skills by creating potions at the chemistry table which would come in useful later on, while Mickey proceeded to hone up on his inventing skill. When the atmosphere cleared of radioactivity, he would use those skills that he learned. And River and Haruo bent over the alchemy table to try and create elixirs that would help their continued existence.

On the surface it was a cutthroat battle for survival and those who were still alive after what was considered by those, who were superstitious to be the Day of Reckoning, were left to fend for themselves in an ever present constant danger. Because if it wasn't thugs it was clones of the eight that had no idea of the mores of human civility and would sooner kill to get what they wanted. There were no rules in the wasteland other than Only the strong survive and its corollary The strong take what they need and nothing would prevent them from doing so.

Evidently there had been a shift in what governed reality; what could formerly be done and what could now. Things that were purely metaphysical were now possible in the realm of reality. For who would have thought that one could conjure up as if by magic, things out of thin air. Such was possible with the Lord Vladimir's Magic Cauldron. In fact two had been placed in there as large stew cauldrons. However those two cauldrons had been appropriated for their magical properties once it was learned that it could be used in that manner.

So the eight set about to learning about how to use Lord Vladimir's Magic Cauldron and they learned that magic was taxing on one's body and that conjuring could certainly take the wind out of one's sails if one persisted in materializing objects out of thin air for far too long. Some of them learned that far too painfully.

On the surface, the survivors did their best to remain alive. They sought shelter as best as they could when the clouds laden with radioactivity arrived and the rad-counts soared into the lethal range. All they could do if they were able to was find the nearest place that could shield them from the radioactivity, even if it meant a subterranean parking garage and hiding in the nearest elevator; at least the concrete shell of the elevator shaft would protect them...somewhat. If they didn't; they sickened and they died.

River and Haruo took what minor solace that they could given the situation; they took comfort with each other's bodies. Social mores went out the window when it came to a survival situation. No, River and Haruo were not married and back in the world before the Bomb; such degeneracy would have been roundly castigated. But now there was no one to chastise them for such immorality - they gave of themselves to each other.

Phil, on the other hand, concerned himself with potions. One of his traits being insane, he wanted something that would go kaboom...but well, if he wanted that, he should have gone into inventing.

Horace, as usual, helped his Creator, Noel, build more nanites as Noel increased his bot-building knowledge to be able to reverse-engineer those nanites and get the various sizes of circuit boards that he needed to be able to create trait chips.

And well, the Eight would need whatever knowledge that they could learn to be able to survive.

Chapter Three - Threats to the Bunker

It had been evident that there were strange things going on at the facility in which they had been assessed for suitability. There had been blood tests and all sorts of poking and prodding to ensure that they were in the peak of physical health; no congenital birth defects, nothing that could potentially spell trouble in the future. In fact there had been all sorts of physical tests including their fitness levels and what they found was satisfactory and they could get their physical fitness up to military standards when they were in the bunker. Of course they weren't military, but they were essentially given military equipment (rifles and tactical gear) to defend themselves. To Phil and Noel, that pretty much sealed the deal. If they were going to be able to defend themselves gainst potential marauders, it would have to be with military grade-equipment.

For Mickey and Autumn, they thought that perhaps the governments of both the United States and Canada were overreacting to the potential Russian threat and that nothing would potentially come of the whole plan but their viewpoint came to a crashing ruin when the doors were sealed and the bunker became their only salvation. To feel the shaking of the bunker when the three 550KT warheads exploded in an airburst: that scared them to their very core. It was then that they knew that nothing would ever be the same again.

What they weren't aware of was the fact that the test had also looked at the possibility of radiation-resistant clones of the bunker subjects - that was what they didn't tell the occupants...and that the government had seeded the area with subjects prior to the Russians launching their counterattack. Several clones of each of the bunker occupants, each resistant to radiation, were now nestled amongst the perimeter of what was now ground zero.

While the bunker occupants were nestled comfortably in their shelter, the resultant radioactive miasma that blanketed the area was quite evident in the toxic radioactive clouds that permeated the atmosphere. There was no escape other than being subterranean when the rad-counts soared.

If there had been any doubts before the blasts that it was unsafe to go out without adequate protection from the radiation...it was well evident in the patrols that Horace (their plumbot) made around the general vicinity of the bunker. From the footage that he'd downloaded to the computers downstairs (which had survived the blast owing to the fact that they had been Faraday-caged), it was horrifying to see the green atmosphere, the toxic clouds and the dead and dying.

No, they would stay in the bunker and hope that time would be on their side. They had enough seeds to start growing food to help facilitate a cycle of rebirth and growth of their families as well. They were the last (as far as they knew) and they needed to ensure the continuation of their species. Perhaps the very threat of extinction would get them to the point where they surpassed what they had done to themselves and began to think outside the little petty problems of their little ball of dust and water.

The group knew that they had a monumental task. They had to get into fighting shape. That meant that they needed to learn the martial arts. They didn't have a black-belt...they only had a recently promoted to blue-belt helping them. Hopefully he had enough skill to help them get to where they needed to be.

River nearly got herself knocked out by the training dummy during initial drills when she hit the thing too hard and it swung around and cuffed her one across the side of the head. And as the students got their initial belts, they started formal sparring. Phil went after Holly hard being a yellow belt being assigned to a higher belt partner. However Holly took the match.

After which Haruo ordered three partner pairs to spar and watched them carefully calling out corrections in technique.

The only unpaired person was Holly who watched the sparring matches standing by her instructor. He also instructed her verbally on technique while the sparring matches went on pointing out certain things that Holly needed to watch out for.

That night, however, was the first one where their very safety was threatened, as two of Haruo's clones showed up on the property and as if to make matters even worse; a meteor strike just happened to coincide with their presence causing fires to break out on the property. With no rain, the fires had no way of going out and in fact were threatening to spread along the surface - a raging wildfire could suck the oxygen out of the air; the very air that they were recirculating within the bunker with filters and suffocate them. They had to go to the surface to fight the fires, risking radiation exposure.

Those fires were not small or contained to one location.

After successfully fighting the fires that had occurred, they decontaminated themselves and then headed back to their beds hoping and praying that with the immediate consumption of Potassium iodide, that they would be alright.

Clone Haruo, however, was not so lucky...evidently he hadn't realized that when you see those purple clouds in the sky, you run.

Horace went out on patrol...and considering that he was shielded from EMP and lightning, he headed down to the epicenter of the explosion. What he didn't count on was the literal bombardment from the heavens of meteors. Who knew that nuclear war could precipitate such an atmospheric disturbance such as cosmic rocks hurtling from space?

Horace managed to miss getting turned into a flattened sheet of metal and continued his patrol without further incident recording so that his humans could see what was going on out on the surface. It was too dangerous for them to stay exposed for long lengths of time so he was doing them a service by patrolling the area on his own and recording it for posterity and further research. He also carried a M-16A3 along with ammo packs with him for further protection. Even though he couldn't be killed, he could be damaged and if he took fire he was going to return fire.

For a non-flesh and blood being, he believed in loyalty to his Creator - the all-wonderful Noel and loyalty to Noel's friends and he would serve them to the best of his ability.