They said that no one would ever push the button. That it was unthinkable due to the horrors that would be unleashed. In that mindset of hubris, mankind immolated itself at the first available opportunity and we were left to pick up the pieces
It was advantageous that the bunker occupants had plumbots to brave the elements topside. They were the ones able to recon the area and see that there were no intruders. Their metal bodies could stand the radiation better than the humans could, so it was logic to send them out to scout the area. Plus their eye receptors held cameras that would relay the information back to the bunker. It gave the bunker occupants intel that they wouldn't otherwise have so that a plan could be formulated.
Their patrol consisted of patrolling the perimeter of the bunker and then making a recon foray into town. The warhead had detonated right over city hall; an airburst at 2600 feet above the main spire of the building. With the warhead only being 850KT yield, it only scorched the building and softened the ground around it so that Sunset Valley City Hall sank into the ground. at a precipitous angle, sealing all exits to the building that any unfortunate survivors would be sealed, still alive in their tomb, waiting to starve to death.
It was a somber group of plumbots that headed back to the bunker after their reconnoiter of the area.
Dawn's light fanned out over the ruins of what was once a bustling little military town. Sunset Valley was a ruin. With the meters that the plumbots had placed, the bunker occupants knew that the UV radiation levels were going up. The ozone layer had been damaged (for how long they didn't know) and thus more and more UV radiation was getting through the atmosphere. What this meant for The Eight was that they had more of a bunker stay than they realized.
Of course the radiation laden clouds of soot that were circling the globe came back around and blotted out the sun which shone palely through the dark ominous layer.
There were certain new species of plants that took root in the ground. Namely a vine like object that was topped with a bovine head. They named it a cowplant. But unlike the grazing ungulates of old, these were nightmare-inducing things with sharp, dripping fangs with a taste for meat instead of pasturage and lodged on their tongue, like an anglerfish had a light protrusion over its head, was a lure...a tasty looking delectable cake - a lure of death for if one succumbed to the temptation and made a grab for that cake, they would find themselves digesting slowly within the stomach juices of the cowplant. A rather horrific death to be sure.
When the plumbots returned from their recon around the town, they did some adjusting of each other's circuits to make sure that they were in top-notch shape for anything that could happen.
Meanwhile down in the lower depths of the bunker, Haruo did his science research and the kids were taken care of.
Of course, there were still pockets of survivors here and there. But they had to brave the periodic meteor showers which seemed to coincide on the ruins of Sunset Valley with alarming regularity.
Science research was going to be important because that was what would enable the survivors (the Eight) to be able to produce UV resistant foods that would help to feed them all once it was safe to emerge from the bunker to begin life anew topside.
There were new radiation resistant life-forms however and it seemed as though everything that the Eight had known had been thrown by the wayside. Though one had to admit that they didn't appear to be all too intelligent considering that one ended up lighting himself on fire, by accident. Yeah, it's probably not too safe to stand out in the radiation like that. You might get a sunburn.
Phil worked on the botanical garden in order to maintain the steady supply of food-stuffs and the toddlers got their rest.
Everybody would do what they had to in order to survive the nuclear winter, no matter how long it took.
