The Bunker

Three friends in desperate need of food roam a post-apocalyptic wasteland. They encounter a bunker, possibly filled with food. But how to get in?

“I’m not eating it. Sorry, Jack, I just can’t do it.”

Jenna stared with unconcealed revulsion at the tiny charred corpse with little black stumps where its legs had been.

“Think of it like a tiny cow.” said Noah.

“It’s not a tiny cow.” said Jenna.

“You need protein, Jenna.” said Jack firmly. “Please try it. Close your eyes and I’ll put a bit in your mouth.”

“I’m going to be sick if you keep going on about it.” she said.

They sat around a dismal smoky fire in the middle of a vast grey desert of ruined buildings. Cities were a curse and a blessing. On the one hand, they could be rich sources of food when the supermarkets hadn’t already been picked clean. On the other hand, radiation levels were typically far higher than in the countryside and there was always the danger of being attacked by packs of feral dogs or deranged former citizens.

“If you ask me, it was a mistake to come here.” said Noah. “We should get out of here, go East and see if we can find some abandoned farms.”

“We need batteries.” said Jack. “We can’t leave till we get them.”

“OK, but let’s do what Noah says as soon as we’ve found them.” said Jenna.

She was painfully thin. All they had been able to eat since they had come to the city four days ago was rats and some potatoes that had been miraculously preserved by the radiation.

Jack switched on his Geiger counter.

“About eight hundred microsieverts per hour.” he said, staring anxiously at the battery level indicator.

“Is that bad?” said Noah.

“I think it’s still OK.” said Jack. “It’d take five Sieverts to actually kill us.”

“Then why do you look so worried, man?” said Noah.

“Battery’s almost out.” said Jack. “If this thing dies, we die.”

“The radiation wasn’t nearly as bad in the countryside.” said Jenna.

“Yeah but without the counter you could get a particle stuck to your shoe and you’d never know it till your foot started swelling up a day later, and by then only amputation could save you.” said Jack.

Jenna shivered.

Noah stood up and stretched.

“Let’s go.” he said. “This rat tastes like the inside of a bin anyway.”

Soon they arrived at a corner shop, or what used to be a corner shop. The windows were smashed and the food was all gone.

“We’d better check this place out.” said Jack.

“Looks pretty well scavenged.” said Noah dubiously.

“Food’s gone but they might have left batteries.” said Jack.

“I don’t like the look of it.” said Jenna.

Inside, rats scurried about, devouring the hard and mouldy remains of bits of food that scavengers had dropped. Rows of empty shelves were covered with spiders’ webs and the droppings of pigeons.

“Can’t have been raided all that long ago.” said Noah.

“Probably came back for the stuff no-one wanted to eat on the first few raids.” said Jenna.

“Takes a desperate man to eat a jar of Marmite for lunch.” said Noah.

Jack had wandered off to the back of the shop. Suddenly he shouted to them.

“Come and look!”

At the back of the shop was a half-opened cardboard box containing hundreds of batteries.

“This is the best luck we’ve had in months.” said Noah.

“Now we can get out of the town.” said Jenna.

“Yep.” said Jack. “Here, give me a hand. Should be able to take all of them if we divide them up.”

They were packing the last of the batteries into their backpacks when a filthy figure dressed in rags stumbled towards them, arms outstretched, groaning. The man, or what had once been a man, possessed a filthy hairless head with no eyebrows, reddened scaly skin and pink eyes filmy with cataracts.

Noah unhooked the tyre spanner from his belt and raised it threateningly. The figure stopped.

Jenna stepped between Jack and the figure.

“It’s OK.” she said. “We mean you no harm. We just want batteries.”

“F-food.” groaned the figure.

“We haven’t got any.” said Jenna. “We’ve run out.”

“Foood.” said the figure imploringly.

“We don’t have any food ourselves.” said Jenna. Turning to Jack and Noah, she said, “Let’s go.”

Noah lowered the tyre spanner and they headed for the shop entrance.

“You took a risk there.” said Jack disapprovingly, as they stepped into the open air.

“He was just a harmless old man.” said Jenna. “Probably won’t last another week.”

“The next one might not be so harmless.” said Jack.

“He’s survived an awfully long time since the war.” said Noah.

“The radiation gets everyone in the end.” said Jack. “Except us. That’s why we need this.” he waved the Geiger counter in the air.

“The funny thing is,” said Jenna to Noah, “when he first bought it, I told him it was a waste of money.”

“What did I say?” said Jack. “Sooner or later it’d come in handy.”

“You were right about that.” said Noah dryly.

As the day passed and the sun rose into the sky and began to descend, warm sunlight periodically breaking through the grey clouds, the buildings became fewer and further between and they began to pass by hedges, trees, and overgrown fields.

“Smell that air.” said Noah appreciatively. “Nothing like the countryside to put the joy of living back into a man. Do you think we can find any food round here? I’m starving.”

“We’d better.” said Jack.

“What’s the radiation level?” Jenna asked.

“Down to two hundred microsieverts per hour.” said Jack. “It’s fine as long as we watch out for particles.”

“Hey, look at that place over there.” said Noah, pointing.

In the distance, on a hillside, was an enormous building. It looked as though it had once been white, but now it was a muddy dull grey, like everything else.

“Maybe it’s a sanatorium or the headquarters of some company.” said Jack.

“Looks more like a mansion to me.” said Jenna. “Might be some food there.”

“You know, I think you’re right.” said Noah. “Doesn’t look very official. Anyway, sanatoriums and headquarters need food too.”

Jack shook his head.

“A place that size attracts attention.” he said. “It’s probably already been completely cleaned out.”

“I say we give it a go.” said Noah. “Let’s take a vote. Jenna, what do you say?”

“Could be worth a look.” she said.

“That’s it, then.” said Noah. “Jenna had the casting vote. Let’s go and have a look.”

“Waste of time.” sighed Jack.

In their weakened state it took them several hours to climb the hill to the building. They arrived to find the building, which appeared even more impressive up close than it had in the distance, surrounded by a high metal fence.

“What are we going to do now?” said Jenna.

“I reckon I can lever the gate open with this.” said Noah, brandishing the tyre spanner.

When darkness fell and he still hadn't succeeded, they wrapped themselves up in their tattered old sleeping bags underneath a tree and slept.

Hunger kept Jenna awake for a long time. She passed the time staring at the stars and the Milky Way, which, ever since the war, had been startlingly bright, even in the middles of towns. There was no moon, and aside from the stars, the darkness was so profound that she couldn’t see her own hand when she waved it in front of her face.

The next morning, Jack awoke to find Noah was already working on the gate again.

“Give it up!” he shouted.

“I’ve almost done it.” he said, and after some minutes he announced that he had indeed succeeded in opening the gate.

“Thank God, maybe there’s food.” said Jenna.

“I hope so.” said Jack. “I’m starving.”

He immediately felt bad for saying it, since out of the three of them, Jenna was clearly the closest to literally starving.

Many of the windows of the big house had been smashed, so they experienced no difficulty in entering. Inside, spider webs and broken pottery and ornaments lay everywhere. A couple of large rats scurried away as they approached. Noah eyed them hungrily.

They located two kitchens; a large main kitchen and a smaller subsidiary kitchen. In neither were they able to find any food.

“We should check the basement.” said Jack. “The owner of this place must have been rich. If he had any spare food when war broke out, he probably would have squirrelled it away somewhere secret.”

The steps down to the basement were dark, but with the aid of a flashlight they were able to located a nuclear microgenerator. When they powered it up lights came on all over the house and they were able to switch on the lights in the basement.

“Look at this place.” said Noah. “Some of these wines are a hundred years old.”

He pulled a dusty old bottle of wine from a wine rack.

“I’ll definitely be getting stuck into this.” he said.

“Never mind that.” said Jenna. “Where’s the food?”

Eventually they located a locked cupboard, which Noah smashed open with the tyre spanner.

“Bingo.” said Jack, as they surveyed the cans of food inside.

“There’s enough to keep us going for a few days here.” said Noah.

“Let’s see if we can heat up some beans in the kitchen.” said Jenna.

They enjoyed what to them seemed like a veritable banquet of beans in tomato sauce, followed by desert in the form of rice pudding. Then they went to an enormous living room strewn with vast spider webs to relax after their unaccustomed meal.

“We could use this as a base.” said Jack. “There’s got to be food in some of the houses round here. Maybe some of the gardens have potatoes.”

“We should check round the back.” said Noah. “Looks like there’s a massive garden.”

“Fresh vegetables.” said Jenna thoughtfully. “I’d kill for a tomato.”

The garden turned out to have been raided very thoroughly. Everything edible had been picked, plucked or dug up.

“I don’t understand how people got in here when the gate was locked.” said Jenna.

They were standing in front of a curious structure. A slanting concrete roof emerged from the ground and terminated in a metal door with a code pad beside it.

“Must have got over the fence with a ladder.” said Noah.

“That’s what we should have done.” said Jack.

“Well I’ve saved us the hassle.” said Noah.

“I’m grateful, Noah.” said Jenna. “I hate ladders.”

“Anytime.” said Noah. “So what do we think this is?”

“Bomb shelter.” said Jack.

“With a lock?” said Noah. “Why would you put a lock on a bomb shelter.”

“It could be a storage facility of some kind.” said Jenna.

“Wouldn’t it be in the basement then?” said Noah.

“Maybe the owners were just really paranoid about people stealing their gardening tools.” said Jenna.

“What if it’s a bunker?” said Noah. “You know, like one of them massive underground bunkers rich people build, with artificial sunlight and aquariums and everything.”

They contemplated the idea quietly.

“Well, it could be.” said Jack after a while.

“Do you think you could do something with the lock?” Jenna asked Noah.

“I don’t know.” said Noah. “They wouldn’t use a cheap lock on a thing like this. Probably sends a code to a computer inside and the computer opens the door with buried servomotors. We might be able to dig down and get at the motor cables if we’re lucky.”

“I saw some tools in the house.” said Jack. “They might be useful.”

“What’d be really useful is if they wrote the code down somewhere.” said Noah.

“We should check.” said Jenna. “We’ve got food for a few days.”

“We ought to spend the time finding more food.” said Jack.

“There might be food in there though.” said Noah.

“Two days.” said Jenna. “How about if we spend two days trying to open it, then we still have a day or two to find more food.”

“I suppose.” said Jack. “Let’s scour the house again, see if we can find the code and gather all the tools.”

By the end of the following day they’d gathered an impressive collection of tools in the large cobweb-strewn living room.

“Why don’t you take what you need from this lot tomorrow and work on the lock?” said Jenna to Noah.

“First I want to check something out.” said Noah. “There’s a bookcase upstairs that’s screwed to the wall and the back of it sounds suspiciously hollow.”

“You think there’s a secret room behind it?” said Jack.

“Maybe,” said Noah, “but I couldn’t figure out how to open it if so.”

Jack picked up a sledgehammer from the pile of tools.

“Probably just needs the right technique.” he said.

Noah pulled an axe out of the pile.

“Let’s go and have a look now.” he said.

They went upstairs to the master bedroom, where a beautiful and ornate bookcase stood against one wall.

“Shame to smash it up.” said Jenna.

“Yeah.” said Jack. “It’ll make good firewood though.”

He swung the sledgehammer back over his shoulder.

“Wait.” said Jenna.

She toggled the light switch by the side of the bookcase on and off three times and then whooped in delight as the bookcase swung inwards, revealing a small room.

“How in the name of all that is holy did you know how to do that?” said Noah in astonishment.

“My grandfather had an old smart bulb from the early 21^st century that glowed in different colours.” said Jenna. “He had to connect it up by switching it on and off three times.”

Noah was already inside the room, rummaging through shelves filled with papers.

“No food though.” he said.

He tore open an envelope and pulled out some photos, then stood looking at them in amazement.

“What’ve you found?” Jack asked.

Noah took a photograph in each hand and showed it to them. One photograph showed the front of the bunker: the very locked door they had been discussing. The other depicted the insides of a veritable palace.

“It is a bunker.” said Noah. “A luxury bunker. And look at this.” He picked out another photograph. It showed a storage room filled with shelves: row upon endless row of canned and preserved food.

“Incredible.” said Jack, taking the photo and gazing at it in wonder.

“The only problem is,” said Jenna slowly, “they’re probably still in there now.”

“Unless they were away when the bombs started falling.” said Jack. “Rich people travel a lot.”

“I’d say there’s a fifty-fifty chance it’s empty.” said Noah. “Anyway, if they’re in there, they can at least give us a few weeks of food and then we’ll be on our way.”

“We’ve still got to get it open.” said Jack.

“We need to search this room thoroughly.” said Jenna. “Maybe they wrote down the code somewhere.”

They began to sort through the contents of the room, carefully making a pile of every paper they’d already checked.

“Hey look at this.” said Noah, holding up a photograph.

The photograph depicted a curious array of objects. An apple, an empty can, a phone, a potato and a cat, all sitting in a row.

“Someone must have been into abstract art.” said Jenna.

“Haven’t seen anything else like that in here.” said Jack dubiously.

By the time they’d finished sorting through all the papers, they had found no code and it was midnight.

The next day they awoke and ate a sumptuous meal of canned food, and even drank coffee with a dash of port.

“This is absolutely disgusting.” said Noah, tasting the coffee.

“I’ll have yours if you want.” said Jack.

“Hands off.” said Noah.

“Are we going to try to hack into the bunker?” said Jenna.

“That reminds me, I had a weird dream.” said Jack.

“No-one wants to hear about your weird dream.” said Noah.

“I dreamed …” began Jack, ignoring him. “… something about that photograph. The one with the cat and the apple.”

“What about it?” said Jenna.

Suddenly he thumped the table.

“That’s it!” he said, triumphantly.

“What?” said Jenna.

“It’s a code.” he said. “It has to be. It’s the code to unlock the door.”

“How does that work?” said Noah. “It’s just a bunch of random objects. The code lock doesn’t even have letters on it.”

“Have you ever seen an antique phone?” said Jack. “They used to have letters on them, so people could remember numbers by remembering the letters. We just have to imagine the letters of the alphabet underneath the numbers. ABC under one, DEF under two, and so on. We can use the first letter of each object.”

“It’s worth a try.” said Jenna.

They finished breakfast quickly and took the photograph to the bunker.

“You enter the letters and I’ll figure out what button to push.” said Jack to Noah.

“Right you are.” said Noah.

Noah read out the first letters of the objects one by one.

“Drum roll, please.” said Jack when he was about to enter the last letter.

Jenna obligingly made a trilling sound with her lips and pretended to bang invisible drums.

Jack pushed the button.

There was a beep, and nothing happened.

“That sounded rather negative.” said Jack.

“Ah well, it was a long shot.” said Noah.

“What if it’s the number of letters in each object?” said Jenna.

“Let’s try it.” said Jack.

Noah read out a series of numbers corresponding to the lengths of the names of each object.

When he reached the last one, he said, “I think let’s skip the drum roll.” and Jack pressed the key.

Again there was a bleep, this time with a distinctly upbeat sound to it, and the metal door of the bunker began to slide down into the ground.

The three friends shouted in delight, high-fiving each other in the air.

When the door had slid all the way down, lights blinked on, revealing a ladder leading down to a floor about three metres down.

“Who’s going first?” said Jenna.

“I’ll go.” said Jack.

“OK, wait for us at the bottom.” said Noah.

At the bottom of the ladder they were confronted by a long dimly-lit tunnel. In the distance was a metal box, with a large symbol printed on the front.

“What is that?” said Noah, squinting.

“Let’s go and have a look.” said Jenna.

“Wait.” said Jack, holding out his hand to bar her way.

He pulled the Geiger counter out of his pocket and switched it on.

“There’s not going to be radiation down here.” said Noah.

“Better safe than sorry.” said Jack, as he waited for the machine to boot up.

Abruptly the counter began wailing with a high-pitched shriek.

“Run!” said Jack.

They scrambled up the ladder as fast as they could.

“What’s going on?” said Noah, when they had assembled at the top, panting.

“Intense radiation.” said Jack. “A few hours down there and we’d be dead.”

“Where’s it coming from?” said Jenna. “It makes no sense.”

“Maybe a microreactor blew up down there.” said Jack.

“I don’t think so.” said Noah. “I’m pretty sure there was a radiation hazard symbol on that box at the end. That’s where the radiation’s coming from.”

“It’s guarding the entrance.” said Jack. “I thought we’d got in suspiciously easily.”

“Hang it!” said Noah. “We’re so close.”

“If the radiation’s coming from there,” said Jack, “assuming inverse-square, it must be intense enough near the box to kill us in a few minutes.”

“Got to admit,” said Noah, “that’s a pretty good deterrent.”

“But how did they plan to get down there?” said Jenna. “The people who built the bunker, I mean.”

“They must have dragged the box in after them, on a rope.” said Noah. “No other way they could have done it.”

“Then we could drag it out with a rope.” said Jenna.

“How?” said Jack. “We can’t go anywhere near it. Walking up to that box is probably a death sentence.”

“There’s got to be a way.” said Noah.

“What’s even the point?” said Jack. “This must mean they’re in there now.”

“They could be dead for all we know.” said Noah. “Or they could have rigged up some way of getting into the bunker that we don’t know about.”

“The tunnel must lead underneath the house.” said Jack. “We should check the cellar for a concealed entrance.”

“Let’s get on with it, then,” said Jenna, “before the food runs out.”

They searched fruitlessly all day, and all of the next day. There was no sign of any concealed entrance to the bunker. Nothing in the cellar sounded hollow, and they could find no sign of any concealed door anywhere in the house that might lead down into the bunker.

“Maybe they just intended to stay down there a good few years.” said Jack. They knew they’d be little point emerging in less than five years. It’ll be at least five years before it’ll really be at all safe to try growing anything above ground. Whatever’s in that box must be intensely radioactive. Must be cobalt-60 or something. That means it must have a short half-life. In five years it’ll probably be safe enough that they can drag it into the bunker and walk past it.”

“If that theory’s right,” said Noah, “they must have at least five year’s worth of food down there, and if there’s several of them …”

He let the thought hang in the air, unfinished.

“There’s no guarantee they’ll share with us,” said Jack, “and I’m not planning to murder them.”

“No-one’s talking about murdering anyone.” said Noah. “I just think, if they’ve got five years’ of food, they might at least give us enough to keep us going a couple of weeks. Anyway, there’s no guarantee they’re still alive. How many dead people have we found in bunkers by now? Must be at least a dozen.”

“There’s got to be a way to get past that box,” said Jenna. “or better still, get it out of there. If there’s a rope attached to the other side of it, all we have to do is somehow snag that rope, then we can pull the box out without going near it.”

“You’re assuming there is a rope.” said Jack. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to have some mechanism that exposes the source once they’ve put the box in place?”

“That’s a good point.” said Noah.

“You’re assuming they thought of the idea at the start.” said Jenna. “If they’d been so concerned about security when they went into the bunker, why didn’t they put an extra door up? Something they could lock from the inside with a massive lock. One of those things with a huge wheel that you turn to slide bolts into place. That would make more sense than a radioactive box.”

“She’s right.” said Noah. “This looks like some improvised thing. Maybe someone got in and they decided to take measures.”

“Let’s think this through systematically.” said Jack. “OK, option one: they brought the box down here, retreated into the bunker and then exposed the source by remote control. Then the only way we can get past it is if we can drag it out of there, and there’s probably no rope attached to it.”

“And they don’t have to wait five years for the radiation to die down before they can get out.” said Jenna. “That means they might not have five years’ of food.”

Noah shook his head.

“No way. You saw the photographs. There’s years of food in this place. Even if they’ve already eaten two years’ worth, they’ll be loads left.”

“Option two:” said Jack, “they found something intensely radioactive, somehow manoeuvred it into the box, then dragged the box down on a rope. That means they must have balanced the box at the top of the ladder, pulled it down, then dragged it down the tunnel after themselves.”

“How would they have got it into the box in the first place?” said Jenna.

“They could have found a shielded source in a hospital,” said Jack, “or a nuclear battery. They would have had to remove the shield somehow.”

“Then they’d still need a way of removing the shield after they’d got it into the box.” said Noah. “They might as well have done that after the box was already in place.”

“Then there’s probably no rope attached to it on the other side.” said Jenna. “They wouldn’t have needed to drag the box.”

“We’d have to attach ropes to drag it out,” said Jack, “and there’s no way we can do that without spending at least a few minutes next to it, and that’d be lethal.”

“Dammit.” said Noah. “There’s got to be a way.”

“We should get some paper and write down a bunch of ideas.” said Jenna. “Do a bit of brainstorming.”

“I’m all for that,” said Jack, “but we’re running out of food.”

“Then we’ll look into the houses round here while we work on it.” said Noah.

For several weeks they systematically raided the surrounding houses while brainstorming ideas for removing the box. The pickings were slim; most of the houses had been thoroughly cleared of food already, and they had to rely on finding caches that the occupants had hidden before expiring of radiation poisoning.

No-one in the surroundings seemed to be left alive. They found only decaying corpses, and in one case, the hideously bloated corpse of a man who had apparently died relatively recently and hadn’t yet been discovered by the area’s many rats and feral cats.

Jack and Noah augmented their limited food supply with roasted rat, but Jenna still refused to eat it.

“I’m sorry, I just can’t.” she said. “Just thinking about it almost makes me gag.”

“What if we fry it up with some spices?” said Noah. “We’ve got quarter of a bottle of cooking oil that isn’t completely rancid.”

Jenna gagged involuntarily.

“OK, bad idea.” he said.

“I’ve lost track of how many stupid idea we’ve come up with for removing that box.” said Jack. “Let’s go over what we’ve got. Maybe one of them’s got something to it.”

They assembled in the dusty spider-ridden main living room of the mansion to examine their various schemes. They had boarded up two windows that were smashed, and the room was warm and cosy with heating supplied from the mansion’s still-functioning micronuclear generator.

“OK, first idea,” said Noah, “we fire an arrow at the box. There’s a thread looped through an eye at the end of the arrow. We use that to pull a rope through the eye, then we drag the box out.”

“The problem with this is,” said Jack, “we haven’t got a crossbow and we’ve no idea about how to find one, and in any case I’m sure the arrow would just fall out when we started to drag it, if it can even penetrate the material the box is made of.”

“Second idea,” said Noah, “we fix a camera to a toy car so we can get a good look at it, and maybe there’s a rope attached to the back that we can drag out with more toy cars.”

“We should send a camera down there anyway.” said Jenna. “That surely wouldn’t be hard to do. What about this?” she pulled out a paper from the pile of idea they’d written down. “One of us runs down there and lassoes it.”

Jack shook his head.

“Absolutely not.” he said. “At best whoever did that would get severe radiation sickness. More likely they’d die. My idea’s still the best.”

“Which one’s that?” said Noah.

Jack pulled out a paper from the heap.

“We build a shield that can be lowered into the tunnel and pushed forwards. One of us crawls behind the shield. Once we’re close enough we throw two stones over the two sides of the box. They have a rope attached to them, forming a loop. We retreat, pulling the shield behind us, then we pull the rope tight so a loop forms around the box. Then we can pull it to the bottom of the ladder.”

“What then?” said Jenna.

“Then I don’t know.” said Jack. “At least we’d be a step closer to removing it.

“All of these plans suck to high hell.” said Noah.

“Except the idea about the camera.” said Jenna. “That’s worth a try.”

Jack nodded.

“Let’s do it.” he said.

Two miles from the mansion was a small town. They searched its streets looking for a toy shop and found a shop that sold electronic gadgets.

“This is a goldmine!” said Jack enthusiastically.

“Drones.” said Jenna, picking up a box from a half-smashed-up shelf. “Why didn’t we think of this earlier?”

“Could we fly a drone down the tunnel?” said Noah.

“Probably.” said Jack. “There’s plenty here to practice with.”

“We could use them to hook a rope around the box.” said Jenna.

“You know, I bet we could.” said Noah.

They took as many drones as they could carry back to the mansion. In the town they also found climbing rope in the house of a climbing enthusiast, and fishing line that they thought they could use to to drag the heavier rope into place, if they could get a loop of fishing line into position around the box.

With practice they found it was perfectly possible to fly the drones in a straight enough line that they thought they’d be able to fly them down the tunnel.

It was only when they attempted the feat that they encountered a problem.

“Same thing as last time.” said Jack, watching the screen of a drone remote control as they stood at the entrance to the bunker. “The radiation level near the box is just too high.”

Every time one of the drones neared the box, it spiralled out of control. The only useful thing that had come out of their plan was that they had managed to film enough of the box to see there was no rope attached to it and it had no discernible external features that a rope could be hooked on to.

“It’ll have to be plan B.” said Jack.

“What’s plan B?” said Jenna.

“We build a shield that we can push in front of us and one of us goes down there and lassoes it.” said Jack.

“That still wouldn’t solve the problem of how to get it up the ladder.” said Noah.

“It’d be a big step in the right direction.” Jack replied.

“I’ll do it.” said Jenna. “You two can build a shield and I’ll go down with it.”

“No way.” said Jack. “Women are more sensitive to radiation.”

“Where’d you get that from?” said Jenna.

“What if you get pregnant one day?” said Jack. “It’ll affect the foetus.”

“You’re off you’re head if you think I’m bringing a child into this nightmare.” said Jenna.

“Things might improve.” said Jack. “We were talking about having a baby before the war happened.”

“Things have changed a lot since the war happened.” said Jenna.

“The human species has to go on.” said Jack. “We can’t just give up on everything.”

“Maybe I would need a man who could bring me something to eat other than bits of dead rat.” said Jenna petulantly.

“That’s not fair.” said Jack. “I’m trying to —”

“Can you two shut the hell up.” said Noah. “It’s like living with my parents again. I’ll go into the tunnel.”

“No, I’ll go.” said Jack. “I know more about radiation.”

“Then tell us what we should build this shield out of, professor Einstein.” said Noah.

“Water.” said Jack.

“What?” said Noah.

“We get a big aquarium tank, fill it with water and put it on wheels.”

“Wouldn’t lead be better?” asked Jenna.

“Where would we get lead?” said Jack.

“Water it is, then.” said Noah. “When do we start?”

In the town they were unable to find a big enough tank, but they strapped together plastic bottles and petrol cans, lowering sections of the proposed shield down onto a trolley that they placed at the foot of the ladder.

When it was time to try the plan out, Noah and Jack tossed a coin to decide who would go into the tunnel, Jenna having acceded to Jack’s insistence that she should not be the one to do it.

“Heads.” said Noah. “I win. That means I do it.”

“No, hang on.” said Jack. “If you win the toss, that means the loser has to do it. I do it.”

“I would’ve chosen tails if I’d known you were going to say those are the rules.” said Noah.

“What difference could it possibly make what the rules are? It’s fifty-fifty either way.”

“I’m lucky with heads.” said Noah.

“Do it again.” said Jenna. “Winner goes into the tunnel.”

They flipped again and Noah won with heads.

“Told you.” he said. “I always get heads.”

They made an enormous loop of fishing line as they’d discussed, and tied weights to two points in the line so that Noah could throw them over the box. When they’d finished it was dark, and they decided to make the attempt the following morning.

That night they ate only fried rat and a wizened old apple. Since Jenna was unable to eat rat, they gave her the apple and she ate it by herself, avoiding the smell of the rat.

In the morning Noah climbed down the ladder and crouched behind the trolley laden with strapped-together water bottles. Working quickly, he tied a rope around the bottles to be sure they would stay in place.

“How’s the radiation level behind the trolley?” shouted Jack.

“Still pretty high.” said Noah.

“Don’t take any chances.” said Jack.

He began to trundle slowly towards the box. Jenna and Jack watched him anxiously, his image transmitted from a drone camera attached to the trolley, to a screen they held in their hands.

When he was halfway down the corridor, the shriek of the Geiger counter rose to a fever pitch.

“It’s too radioactive in there.” Jack shouted down the ladder. “Get out of there, Noah.”

“It’s still under the limit we agreed.” shouted Noah.

The video feed displayed innumerable white speckles, indicating radiation interfering with the camera.

But after another few paces he had to reluctantly concede that the plan wasn’t going to work, and he retreated, pulling the trolley along with him.

“The water doesn’t provide nearly enough shielding.” he said as he climbed out of the hole.

“We’re going to have to come up with something else.” said Jenna.

That night they had nothing left to eat but rat. They fried it in the main kitchen with some spices. Jenna hung back near the doorway. Her face was pale and a persistent tremor borne of malnutrution had begun to affect all her movements.

“I really hoped it would work.” said Jack glumly.

“We might be able to get lead somewhere.” said Jenna. “Maybe off a church roof.”

“They replaced most of the lead on the church roofs decades ago.” said Noah. “People kept stealing it.”

“Jen, you’re going to have to eat some rat.” said Jack.

“I can’t.” she said.

“We’ve no other food.” said Jack.

“Try a little bit.” said Noah. “It’s not so bad. Pretend it’s pork.”

“I wouldn’t be able to keep it down.” she said.

“One little piece.” said Jack.

He held out a small piece of cooked rat on a spoon. It was a yellowish pink colour.

“Shouldn’t it be more cooked?” said Jenna.

“It always looks like that.” said Noah.

She hesitated. Her stomach was growling ferociously.

“Please.” said Jack. “Just this little bit.”

She took the spoon and swallowed the rat flesh whole, washing it down with half a glass of water. Then she gagged.

“Don’t be sick!” said Noah, alarmed. “You have to digest it.”

She ran to the sink, waving her hand in front of her mouth, but managed to keep from vomiting.

“No more.” she said, after some minutes had passed. “I’m going outside to get some fresh air.”

“If we have to rely on rat, she’s going to starve.” said Noah after she’d left.

“I know.” said Jack.

“We’re never going to get into the bunker.” said Noah.

“I know that too.” said Jack. “We’ll have to leave. Check out the next town. Tomorrow.”

When Jack awoke the following morning, Jenna was absent.

He got up and wandered around shouting her name. There was no sign of her.

He went back to the bedroom where Noah slept.

“Jenna’s missing.” he said. “Help me look for her.”

“Have you checked the garden?” said Noah.

“She’s not there.” said Jack.

“OK, give me a minute.” said Noah.

Jack went down to the cellar, but she wasn’t there either. Then a horrible thought struck him and he ran to the bunker.

Just as he got there, Jenna climbed out of the hole containing the ladder and began to vomit greenish slime.

“What did you do?” said Jack wildly.

“I tied the rope around the box and taped it on with duct tape.” she said. “I got it under the box too. It’s not heavy.”

Jack put his arms around her.

“Why, Jenna, why?” he said.

“Another two weeks and I’d be dead from starvation anyway.” she said.

Noah arrived and Jack quickly explained what had happened.

“We need to get her inside.” he said.

They lay Jenna on a sofa in the living room. She was shivering and vomiting.

“Get some blankets.” said Jack. “And water.”

To Jenna, he said, “You shouldn’t have done it. I’d rather it was me than you.”

“Will I die?” said Jenna.

Jack gazed at her disconsolately, tears in his eyes.

Noah rushed in with blankets.

“Take care of her.” he said. “I’m going to pull the box up.”

“We should do it together.” said Jack.

“I can manage.” said Noah. “If I can do it, I can bring food.”

“She can’t eat now anyway.” shouted Jack after his retreating form.

After an hour, Jenna’s vomiting subsided and Noah reappeared.

“I did it.” he said. “She fixed the ropes really well. I hauled the thing straight out of the stairwell. Jack, it’s everything we hoped for. It’s full of food. There’s only one guy in there and he’s long since dead.”

“It’s not going to do her any good now.” said Jack.

“You don’t know that, Jack.” said Noah. “Look, I brought a bag full of stuff. It’s all canned but there are freezers down there that are probably full of frozen vegetables and meat.”

In the evening Jenna seemed much improved and even ate some rice pudding that Jack heated up from a can.

“It’s delicious.” she said. “I want to see the bunker.”

“You’re too weak.” he said.

“I don’t care, I want to see it.” she said.

“Let me talk to Noah.” said Jack.

In the kitchen, they held a hurried conference.

“She seems like she might be all right.” said Noah. “She’s eating.”

“You don’t understand radiation.” said Jack. “It’ll have smashed up her DNA. She’s over the acute phase but now her cells will start to die. In a day or two it’ll start. She’ll suffer horribly.”

Jack was struggling to maintain his composure.

“Even if she’s going to die, which you don’t know,” said Noah, “she deserves to see what she’s sacrificed her life for. Let’s take her down there.”

“If she dies, I don’t want to live.” said Jack.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” said Noah. “She might be fine.”

“Where’s the box now?” said Jack.

“I dragged it to the end of the garden and managed to get it behind the shed. It’s out of the way. Don’t worry about it. Radiation levels in the garden are tolerable.”

Jack nodded glumly.

“OK.” he said. “Let’s go.”

“To the bunker?” said Noah.

“Yeah.”

The pair of them had to support Jenna on both sides, and when they arrived at the bunker, she had to rest.

“You’re not going to be able to climb down the ladder.” said Noah.

“I can do it.” said Jenna. “Just give me a few minutes.”

“Drink this.” said Noah, and he handed her a bottle of Coca-Cola.

Jenna laughed tiredly.

“I haven’t seen this in a year.” she said.

“I’ll open it for you.” said Jack.

She drank half the bottle, then announced that she was going to climb down the ladder.

They helped her to the top.

“Are you really sure about this?” said Jack.

“Absolutely.” said Jenna.

“I’ll go first in case she falls.” said Noah.

But Jenna made it to the bottom of the ladder without incident.

They threw the bottles off the trolley and used it to wheel Jenna into the bunker.

“There’s a bedroom through here.” said Noah. “You can relax.”

“Wheel me around a bit first.” said Jenna. “I want to see it.”

They pushed the trolley around the bunker complex. It was truly astonishing. In addition to two massive store cupboards full of canned and dried food, there were three freezers full of fruits, vegetables, meat and fish of all kinds, and innumerable bottles of freshly-frozen milk.

Eventually they stopped in a vast airy living room with lighting arranged to resemble soft sunlight.

“It’s beautiful.” said Jenna.

“This is where I found the corpse.” said Noah. “But don’t worry, I wrapped him in a blanket and stashed him in one of the freezers.”

“What’s the TV for?” said Jenna, nodding towards a huge screen on one side of the room.

“Let’s have a look.” said Noah.

He fiddled with the controls and the screen burst into life. On the screen was a video of a man, saying something. He looked ill.

“Turn it up.” said Jack.

“I’ll see if I can rewind it.” said Noah.

Then they sat and watched the last recorded message of Sir Richard Philby-Jones, OBE.

“If you’re watching this, I am already dead. My supply of medication has run out and I won’t last long without it. I am too weak to attempt another excursion into the town and I doubt whether I could find any further quantity of the medicine I require, even if I could manage it.

“I built this shelter for my family, but my wife and children happened to be visiting relatives in the United States when the war broke out. I don’t suppose I shall ever see them again now. Perhaps they are dead.

“My medical condition developed only after I took up residence here, after the war. I was able to diagnose my condition using a computerised system, and by raiding a pharmacy I obtained enough medication to last a few months, but alas, not enough to last years. My last trip yielded only a few pills, after searching dozens of houses. There is an extensive supply of medications of all kinds down here, but by a terrible stroke of fate, I did not foresee the necessity for this particular variety of medicine.

“Congratulations on getting past my little deterrent. I don’t know how you did it, but somehow you managed it. After I had been here for three months, a gang of very uncouth youths followed me back from one of my trips to find medicine. They planned to take over the bunker and doubtless would have killed me, but I managed to lock them in one of the freezers.

“They banged and shouted for several hours, and by the next morning they were frozen solid. It’s minus fifteen degrees in there. Please don’t think badly of me. They were entirely bent on murder, and it was a matter of self-defence. They openly discussed how they intended to kill me. It was pure luck that they left me unguarded for a moment while rummaging through my freezer, leaving me enough time to get out and lock the door.

“It was after that that I thought to create a kind of deterrent to anyone who might be able to get past the door. I wanted to create something utterly terrifying, so that even if I were to be waylaid by thugs, they might perhaps leave me alone when they lay eyes on it and they see how it makes their Geiger counters scream.

“Of course it’s a crude trick; nothing but a simple Tesla coil. There is no radiation. The broad-spectrum electromagnetic waves send Geiger counters loopy. I’ll attach some footage of the construction of the device to the end of this video.

“I hope you find some use in my efforts. At least then this facility won’t go to waste.”

Jack, Noah and Jenna stared at the video in amazement, which now displayed footage of the same man placing a device largely consisting of coils of wire into the very box that had occasioned them so much anxiety.

“It’s not radioactive.” said Noah. “It’s a trick!”

“Then why is she sick?” said Jack.

“You made me eat rat, you imbecile.” said Jenna, laughing.

“We ate rat and we’re not sick.” said Jack.

“We’re used to it though, aren’t we, Jack?” said Noah.

Once Jack and Noah had finished dancing around the living room in joy, Noah went out to examine the box. When he returned, he said, “It’s not radioactive. I broke it open and switched it off and now the Geiger counter does nothing around it.”

“I thought you were going to die.” Jack said to Jenna, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Yeah, not anytime soon.” said Jenna.

“What are we going to do now?” said Noah.

“We’re going to relax and enjoy ourselves while the radiation subsides.” said Jenna, lying back on the sofa. “I think I could manage to do that for a few years. Then we can start trying to grow some stuff outside.”

“Oh my, am I going to be stuck alone with you two for literally years?” said Noah.

“Well we could see if there’s anyone around who needs rescuing.” said Jack. “There’s enough food in here for at least a decade.”

“Good,” said Jenna, “because I’ve eaten my first and last piece of rat.”