Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Chapter Twenty-Four - More Martial Arts - Part II

Because they hadn't seen anyone around; not even the clones as of late; didn't mean that they weren't under threat of attack. The situation called for a state of watchfulness and thus the bunker occupants, The Eight, did not slacken their daily procedures. That included training for martial arts and doing whatever occult things that needed to be done in order to make sure that they were ready to defend the bunker and now that the next generation of sims were here, there was even more need to be disciplined in their training. This was a harsh new environment that they were now living in and anything in the environment could kill them. So Haruo trained them hard.

Even if there wasn't a human in sight, the price of freedom was eternal vigilance. Humanity, using Probability Theory and Occam's Razor, had probably survived in some shape or form elsewhere - in bunkers much like theirs and it was certain that at some point they would emerge, givven the state of the information they were receiving about the environment - radiation levels were going down and the storms would eventually dissipate.

More than likely, even though they hadn't seen anyone, they would be out there somewhere braving the possibility of radiation poisoning and the fickle electro-static charges in the atmosphere while the bunker occupants were able to chow down on several meals a day.

There was a reason for going werewolf, though it wasn't clear before the transformation. Humans, other than survival, were oft-nihilistic and self-serving. They would turn their backs on those relying on them for survival if it meant that they were able to get an advantage. Weres were less self-serving though they were technically human/wolf hybrids. When in werewolf form, their pack-mentality and a base need for survival through cooperation coursed through their veins. Sure there was in-fighting amongst the wolf-pack, but a wolf knew that his odds of survival outside of the pack was very low. So being a werewolf: all savagery aside, was an advantage in this new world of post-nuclear devastation.

However most elected to stay in their human form unless forced into transformation by the full-moon. Even being in the bunker didn't free them from Luna's influence. As it was, Hildegard played the piano having been given the Musical Machine trait chip and Amanda played with her Imaginary Friend.

Contrary to the evidence presented in the recordings that Horace and Hector provided once their optical sensor hard-drives were downloaded to the computer, there were still humans on the surface, but they were being constantly bombarded by meteors and lightning strikes.

Hildegard used her musical trait chip to entertain those in the bunker and her Steel Chef trait chip to feed those in the bunker that ate while the rest did what they had to do to ensure that they had the tactical advantage if someone chose to attack their bunker.

...and thus they were able to sleep, secure in the knowledge that if anything did happen, they had the skills to meet the challenge.

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