It took a while, but eventually, the geiger counters started to drop in their readings and that gave Haruo and Mickey the opportunity to go topside to see what was going on. They had received information from Horace and Hildegard when they had gone topside to see what was going on, but that was a situation where they were getting information second hand. Haruo and Mickey wanted to see what was there themselves. So Mickey and Haruo got suited up in enviro-suits, positive pressurization so that any leaks would prevent biological contaminants from getting into the suit, however it wouldn't do much for radiological, other than radioactive dust, which was considered by scientists to be the most dangerous radioactive contaminant. Either way, they were going to have to have a decontamination shower when they got back.
"Ready to check things out, Mickey?" Haruo asked. They were up there with Horace who would also be helping out. Haruo and Mickey were both armed: Glocks, M-16A3s and Barrett M107 .50 calibre sniper rifles...
...and they knew that they had limited time to scout around the area to see what was going on. So they hoofed it...towards what used to be the science center.
Mickey looked around slowly before leaning in helmet to helmet, "I haven't seen any movement of any sort." Frankly they hadn't had any experience in this sort of thing. Which meant that it was going to get tougher as they went along. If bad guys moved into the area, they were not going to be able to fight them off. All they could do was mount a defence and hope to heck that they all survived. Or create an army of plumbots to do their fighting for them.
"If I may suggest something?" Horace, his voice robotic: starting and stopping. "I believe that we should check out the perimeter of the city and see if there is anyone around. We may be able to stay out of the heaviest of the radioactively contaminated area. I will keep a constant monitoring of the radiation levels and keep you updated."
"Do that..." Haruo responded, his mind was still in shock as to the extent of the devastation that Sunset Valley had been subjected to. How were they ever going to make Sunset Valley liveable again? Despite his dismay, he knew that they had their work cut out for them. They needed to make sure that life came back to Sunset Valley, even if it was 150 years from now and the potions and elixirs were going to help.
He turned to Mickey and said, "OK...we're continuing along the perimeter of the city. We're going to have to scout around, take readings, and make sure that rad levels in all areas are going down. That's the only way that we're going to be able to make certain that Sunset Valley will be a liveable area again. If not we may have to evacuate when conditions clear up enough that we can make an exit from this place.
Mickey nodded. He knew too that if Sunset Valley was too radioactive, it would result in birth defects and other problems in the generations to follow and that wouldn't mean the best for the survival of the human race. "I'm with you on that, Haruo. I think we should do a thorough recon of the area and see what we can find. I'm hoping that radiation levels are coming down, but I'm not too hopeful that it'll be in the near future."
The sky was a sickly dark green and many of the vegetation though growing was contaminated with radiation to the point where it was inedible. They would not be able to utilize any seeds on the surface for the long term.
Their recon provided a plethora of information that when further research was revealed indicated a decrease in the radiation levels but as was suspected, it wasn't enough to warrant a laxing of their decontamination procedures. It was still in the dangerous levels.
...and that of course was still cause for concern. They would not be able to make it out of the bunker until such time as the radiation levels fell below 1 rad an hour and it certainly wasn't at that point yet.
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