Dead of Winter

If you are out and about in the middle of the woods and come across an abandoned fallout shelter, there is a ritual that emulates what it would be like to survive should the clock strike midnight. If you are a hardcore doomsday prepper, die-hard Fallout fan, Denzel Washington, an American citizen living in the 1950s, or someone who thinks they have what it takes to survive, then this is the ritual for you. If not, I suggest you move on. Either way, be sure to do your due diligence and gather whatever gear and provisions you can think of to survive before you begin.

These items aren't necessary to perform the ritual, but they could mean the difference between life and death. You will also want to enter the bunker on the following dates (February 13th, May 18th, anywhere between August 6th to August 9th, and November 14th). If you enter the bunker before or after those dates, then the ritual won't work.

When you have everything you need, return to the fallout shelter. When all of your gear and provisions are inside, and you're ready to begin, close the blast door. The birds and trees clam up. Darkness floods the bunker, only ruptured by the nervous beam of your flashlight. An incoherent cacophony of air raid sirens, panicked banging, begging, and crying, crescendo into a tempest of superheated thunder, smoke, and fire. Scorched flesh and bone hang in the air. Silence, radioactive miasma, and the dead of winter are all that remain.

To finish the ritual, you'll need to survive for one year. For the best chance of survival, stay in your bunker. If you leave the bunker, then you'll be damned to wander the radioactive wastes until either the end of eternity or until you find another bunker (whichever comes first). There is an exception to this rule. If you wait six months from the date you've entered the bunker, the skies will clear. However, you'll only want to do this as a last resort. Once you leave, you'll only have one day at most to hunt and forage for food and water. If you can't get back to your bunker in time, then you'll be damned to wander the radioactive wastes until either the end of eternity or until you find another bunker (whichever comes first).

"But OP, how will you know when you can leave?" Good question. It's good to know your playing with a full deck. The answer? You won't. Even if you bring a faraday cage, it will not protect the electronics within. The only sure way to know how much time has passed is to countdown from 31,560,000 to zero (Or 15,780,000 if you think you'll need to leave six months from the date you've entered). This means that you'll be going for one year without any sleep.

The isolation and insanity won't be the only things you'll have to worry about. Remember the damned that wander the wastes above? They will do anything to get into your bunker. And if they get in... You'll be in a world of hurt. If you can withstand the isolation, cold, famine, and insomnia for one year, then you have two choices. You can either leave the bunker and return to the ordinary world, and no time will have passed. Or you can remain in the bunker for another year and see if you have what it takes to survive.

If you leave after the first year, you will carry whatever psychological or physical trauma you sustained, but you won't die of any radiation-related illness. If you vacate after the second year, you will take on whatever mental or physical trauma you sustained and eventually die from chronic radiation sickness.

If you leave after the third year, you will not only carry whatever psychological and physical trauma you sustained, but you will also die of radiation sickness within a year. If you leave any later than the third year, you won't carry any psychological or physical trauma, and you won't be able to die from radiation sickness.

Instead, you will bear witness to mutually assured destruction. Suicide won't be an option, and you'll be damned to wander the radioactive wastes until either the end of time. Do you have what it takes to survive? Or will you succumb to the dead of winter?