Shelter

Prologue

"Sis! C'mon, get up! Now! Get to the shelter!" I fall off of the bed, and scramble to my feet. I steady myself, and start following Lexi, using her flashlight as a guide to safety. "Where's dad?" She shakes her head. "He's been in the shelter all night, he said he felt like there was going to be a bombing today. In his knees, he said."

I never understood him. The siren blares in my ears, and only grows louder when we slam the door to the outside open. Wind whipping our nightgowns, we open the hatch to the shelter, and duck under. When we padlock it, we see a bright light through the small airtight space in between the hatch and the rest of the bunker. We jump back, and run as close to the opposing area of this room as possible.

"I've never seen anything like that." Lexi is shaking, and I hate to admit it, but so am I.

"Stay back, girls, you're lucky to be alive."

"What?"

The bunker starts to rumble, and Lexi hides under the table, and I grab onto the water pipe, and lean against the concrete wall. "This time, it wasn't an ordinary bomb, you see. This is my nightmare. The atomic bomb. The Soviets actually did it. And you made it to the shelter just in time. A second later and we would have been goners. Thank our god above."

I cover my gasp with my hands. The atomic bomb. The one we learned about in drills at school. Duck and cover, duck and cover. "We're lucky that the bunker systems are connected too, we're still in connection with other families in the community. Shared resources, etc. We may be the only town left alive by the end of this war."

"Wait?! Is everyone else dead?!" Lexi finally got up from under the table. "Anyone who didn't get in their shelters, yes." Lexi looks down at the dusty floor. "I thought that the atomic bomb only burned you!" Dad shakes his head. "No, that's not true. It's much worse than that, but you're too young to learn the gory details. Maybe when this is over, and when you're old enough, I'll tell you." She picks at a loose thread on her nightgown.

"Dad? Do we have a room? A place to sleep?"

"Your rooms have everything you need, in terms of practicality." Rooms? I look around the room again, and notice a door with the words "Abbie" and another one with "Lexi" on it. I walk towards the Abbie room.

A decent library is stocked up, and I have a cot with a small lamp and a box of matches next to it. There's a mirror and a hairbrush on the wall opposite the bookshelf. Next to the other side of the bed is a large stack of paper and a bunch of pencils. I don't want to walk around in this flimsy nightgown. I open up the chest besides the mirror, and take out a shirt and pants. They must have been mom's.

I slip on the clothing, and now much more comfortable, I open the door to the main room. Lexi is sitting at the table, and dad is rummaging through some of the rations on the shelf. "I bet you girls are too frazzled to sleep, so do whatever you want right now. Sorry that there isn't much to do."

"What about the radio? Could we try to find a signal?" He lets go of the shelf, and fiddles with the dials on the radio. There's a fizzle of static, and then sound."

"An atomic bomb has gone off in a residential area in Ohio. The U.S. government plans for retaliation against the Soviets, we take this as an invitation to war. President Eisenhower has issued a high risk alert. Stay ready, remain near your shelters. We suggest that you remain within your bunkers for three months, if possible. We expect more bombings. Trust no one. The Soviets are amongst us."

The transmission ends.
           
"Three months?" We look solemnly at each other. "Three... entire months. In here. Can we even survive that long?" Dad rubs his hand against his temple, as if he had a headache. "We should, if we can stay connected with the neighbors. I'm just worried about people going stir crazy. Some people aren't of a strong mindset."

Dad's right. The possibility of people losing it down here is high. "We should probably also tell them about the radio transmission. People could get hurt trying to go outside." Lexi looks up at me.

"Can I go?" Dad looks at her.

"I think so. It wouldn't be safe to leave you alone here. It's all connected, and someone can get in. Come on." Dad heads over to one of the tubes that connects us to the rest of the community. He enters in a keypad code, and a small door opens, and there's another tube leading to a room. "Knock knock." Dad turns charming again.

"Is that Robert Stevens I hear?" A woman's voice. I think her name is Barbara? "Dave and the kids made it. Come in."

They have a nice shelter, with plenty of food. There's even a kitchen. There's a few chairs, and a coffee table with board games on it. I guess for the kids. The twins, Harriet and Ian run across the 'living room' to their kitchen.

"This place is lovely, Barbara. And such... sweet kids. Anyway, we came to tell you about a radio transmission we received. So, you can't go outside for another three months." Barbara didn't like that. She wipes at her eyes, and looks at her kids.

"Also, this wasn't an ordinary bomb. It was the atomic bomb. You cannot go outside until the three months is up. Or you'll die from radiation and breathing in the fallout particles.  Just keep track of the days, and you'll be out of here by July 19th. That's three months from today." Dave must've entered the room to hear that.

           "Three months... I'm scared that we're not going to be able to make it." Dad shakes his head.

           "You will... We'll definitely work together with everyone else. We'll pull through." We'll try, you mean. Don't make promises you can't keep, dad.

           "You should probably check on the Wallace family. I've been hearing loud yelling ever since we all got down here. There's an old woman there, and the constant shouting makes me worried for her. She should be connected to our shelter through that tube." She points to a tube entrance to the left of us, and Dave walks up to talk, it seems.

           "That family's always been odd. I just feel like they're not handling the bunker well."

           "GIrls, I'll take care of whatever's going on, I think you guys should head back to the bunker together." He hands me a slip of paper. It probably has the keycode on it. I crawl into the tube, and type in the keycode. 23552. Bella, my mother's name. Smart, I guess. The door opens, and we walk into the main room of the bunker.

           "I'm going to my room." Lexi leaves, and I sit down at the table in the center of the room. The radio stations aren't working, so there really isn't anything to do. I sit down, with my head in my hands, and I eventually fall asleep.