Way of Life: Chapter Five

The poisons in the atmosphere came and went, depending on the rad-meter's readings; if there were clouds in the sky, the rad-meter readings jumped, if there were clearings in the sky, the rad-meter dipped slightly, but in that regards the UV index jumped, neither radiation was healthy even though the UV radiation was natural. Since the ozone layer had been affected by the nuclear exchange, more UV rays were getting to the surface of the earth and thus the potential for adverse effects on the human physiology increased.

Horace had placed two rad-meters outside the bunker entrance one on the roof, one on the ground and they were in the process of reverse-engineering more rad meters to place around the general vicinity so that they could get a more accurate reading of the current radiological situation. It was time-consuming but necessary in order to make sure that they would remain physically healthy. And the question that everyone in that bunker asked themselves was, would the earth heal itself enough that life on the planet's surface would be possible again. Horace even went so far as to go into the radiation hot-zone with one meter to make sure that they always knew what the radiation reading in that area was, back at home-base - after all prevailing winds could carry the radiation up the hill and contaminate the area without them knowing and while their personal dosimeters were reading the surrounding area's radiation level, the level could be silently increasing without their realization.

Noel, with the help of Horace, had built another plumbot to assist in daily tasks around the bunker. And she also backed up Horace on his excursions outside of the bunker, especially when they went out to obtain soil samples from the area in order to determine the extent of soil contamination by radiation, radiological water contamination by fishing for fish and assessing their exposure to radiation. All of this took time out in exposure on the surface, that only the plumbots could do without significant damage. Any biological being would be writing their own death sentence if they had to stay out for the length of time that it took to get all the samples that they needed. Exposure was down to about half an hour exposed, perhaps a bit more if protected. The Eight had all pushed the upper limit of exposure with fighting the fires and were not willing to risk their lives any further, so it was up to Horace and his partner, Hildegard to keep them informed.

Meanwhile, the Eight had their work cut out for them. They made potions and elixirs, as well as researched anti-radiation technology. Mickey worked on the his inventing skills to try to come up with items that could potentially help. Sending tunnelers with rad-meters attached to them enabled them to figure out what areas of the bunker could be potentially expanded without contaminating the bunker from the leached rainwater into the soil. It was a matter of time before they would need to expand the bunker as the children of the Eight would end up being a part of the bunker and they had to have enough space to fit them all.

Of course all that time at the surface made certain that Horace, a lower level plumbot than Hildegard, had to spend time in the recharger as he'd come back to the bunker with his batteries nearly drained.

Of course there was also time for recreation of a more intimate sort. Haruo and River decided to partake in skinny-dipping...of course that decision translated to other things. Yeah, they were checking for chronic cutaneous reactions to ionizing radiation...in layman's terms, skin lesions. No...really... Haruo looked her over and made sure that their exposure to radiation while fighting that fire had led to no complications...at least on the surface of their skin. It was a check that had to be done. After all the possibility of radiation poisoning was on everyone's mind.

Of course Haruo wasn't the only one looking at a certain person's rear-end. Let's just say others had other things on their minds as well.

Noel was too busy making nanites and trait chips to look at anyone's rear-end.

The plumbots being tasked to do things, did the things that they were asked to do: milking the cows, making nanites and even cooking. It helped as it freed up the Eight to do things such as increase their skills to help their survival and it helped that Noel was getting even closer in bot-building to developing the RoBotany trait chip. Once the garden was in the hands of the plumbots, they would help keep the garden growing.

Meanwhile Haruo, Phil and Holly tackled some more alchemy research. If this new world of theirs, after the nuclear holocaust, had triggered magical properties, then they would have to learn to live in it under the new rules and they would do whatever it was that would ensure their survival, including turning into supernatural beings, altering their lifespan and other things. After all, adapting was the first step to overcoming obstacles.

Potions also were helpful; the sleeping potion enabled them to get as much sleep as a full eight hours of rest in half the amount of time. So a lot of time and effort were spent on ensuring that they had a steady supply of those potions. Sleep was also when they were most vulnerable and being tired under stress had a nasty side-effect called paranoia. And they were all under stress: seeing their town blown to smithereens, having to stay underground in a fortified bunker, having to battle an invisible enemy (radiation) and trying to ensure that they all survived.

On the surface, life was not fun and games. The clones were getting hit left and right from lightning. Evidently they weren't smart enough to get under cover to avoid the storm. Luckily for them, other than a severe jolt to the nervous system, it appeared as though they were impregnable to over 7M volts of energy coursing through them. To put it lightly, it was rather shocking.

The days came and went as everyone did what they had to do. Phil still attacked his alchemy research while others honed their potion-making skills and Mickey invented things.

River, being dedicated, honed up her martial arts by training with Haruo and she ranked up to blue belt. They squared off in the ring with the traditional respect given to each other as martial artists. When they were in the ring they were martial artists first and foremost. An overhand strike by River was countered by a roundhouse kick to the head which was ducked under. There was no room for lovers in the ring, a martial arts fight was literally you were trying to take the head off the other opponent. That's why it was called the martial arts - of or appropriate to war; warlike... Your main objective was to incapacitate the other guy. There was no two ways about it. And in a survival situation you were ramped up to kill mode: if it was against a real opponent in war, you would take him out by any means possible.

Not letting that faze her, River threw yet another overhand strike and immediately went into a roundhouse kick of her own that Haruo barely countered.

...and so it went back and forth, Haruo attacking, River countering or vice versa.

Haruo pressed the attack and barely avoided a countering roundhouse by River but immediately pressed another counterattack and recorded a strike.

In the second round, they traded blows, countering them each time with their own countermoves and so it went: overhand strike, mawashi-geri, spinning forehand strike...neither one gaining an advantage. Haruo was very impressed with his protege.

...but he didn't let it show...during the course of their match. His face was grim as was River's. They weren't fiance/fiancee at this very second in time, they were opponents matched together in a martial arts ring and the only thing on their mind was to defeat the other and that was how it should be in martial arts. Each of their countermoves formed no set pattern, no rhythm; it kept each of them guessing as to what the other's next move would be. “Be extremely subtle even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.” ~Sun Tzu, the Art of War.

It was a hard-pressed battle, but eventually experience won the match. And that was a lesson in itself. Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first then the lesson afterward ~Vernon Law. Asides from a few bumps and bruises where each had contacted on each other - they were relatively unscarred.