Tim, a garbage handler in a post-apocalyptic bunker, loses the little he has. But then he finds Amy, the redhead with an attitude. Together, they will try to change the world they live in.
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Tim is one of those who shovel the shit and clean away th...
The people are safe in the caring hands of the Church
The Manuals of the Bunker, Vol. 2, Verse 6
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I stared at the book Amy held. It wasn't much bigger than her hands, its thin cover wrinkled.
"Tell me what it says." She pushed it towards me.
Carefully, I took it, doing my best not to touch the brown stains, wondering if they were the dead woman's blood.
The paper was yellowish, and the staining had seeped into it.
Neat handwriting ran along the first page. It looked different from how I had learned to write at school. The letters weren't strung together but stood alone, almost like the Engineers' script.
"What's it say?" Impatience laced Amy's question.
"Power ratings, generators 1, 2, 3, 4" I spelled the first words. "And beneath this, there are only numbers. 23.10.2121 345 234 124 322. And more." They filled the whole page.
"What's it mean?" she asked.
"I don't know."
Amy sat at one of the tables, patting the chair next to her. "Come and sit. Then let's see if there's anything else in this book, something more interesting."
I shook my head and took the chair, feeling the fatigue in my legs. "This must be Engineer stuff."
And what right did I have to read the numbers of the Engineers?
"Is it all just numbers?" She frowned. "Why would a dying woman hold on to a book full of stupid numbers?"
She had a point there. Maybe, numbers meant something more to Engineers than to normal humans. Still, I couldn't quite believe that and leafed through the pages. The first few contained more numbers. Then, they were empty.
"Just numbers," I said as the fatigue crept up into my chest. It had been a short night.
Amy took the book from my hands and turned over more pages until she got to the last one. "And what's this?" She held it up to me.
There were more stains on that last page than on the other ones, and the writing was less clean as if written in a hurry.
I read aloud.
Dear Shawn & Freya
As agreed, we have tried to explain to Bishop Gregorius that things are falling apart. At first, he was all friendly & understanding as always. I explained about the failing machinery, told him the bunker was built to last a century & we are far beyond that. He didn't believe us. He said it was not safe outside, that we have to stay put & we should fix the machines. When I said we have run out of spares, he didn't believe me either. Thinks we are questioning his power, trying to take power. When Jeremy told him he wanted to talk to all the people in the bunker, putting this to a vote, Gregorius got angry & called the guards.
