Relocated (Chapter 5)

The girls made it to the bottom of the bunker. They stood still for a moment to let their eyes adjust to the darkness. Mitch found a light switch and flipped it on. The bunker was illuminated and they were amazed at the sight of the bunker. It was surprisingly quite large. There was a living room space, enough rooms for each of them, a kitchen and one bathroom.

Wini found a closet with an emergency first aid kit. She pulled it out and summoned Cyra to come over to her. Wini carefully applied ointment to Cyra’s injuries and then bandaged them reverently, almost as if she was praying for the wounds to heal quickly.

“What made you decide on nursing school, Wini?” Cyra asked after thanking her for the bandaging help.

Wini smiled. “One time I was spending the night with my granny when I was a little girl. We were chopping up vegetables for some soup and my granny accidentally sliced her hand open really bad. She told me to run get some superglue, so I did. She told me exactly what to do for the cut, how to get it to stop bleeding and then how to glue it shut. She looked at me proudly and just said, ‘you’ll make a great nurse one day.’ Ever since she told me that I just kind of got it made up in my mind that I was going to pursue a nursing degree. Let me tell ya, microbiology was no joke! It almost made me change my mind altogether. Also, for the record, people shouldn't use superglue for cuts, Dermabond is used in some cases though.”

Trista had sat down next to them. She smiled after hearing the story. “It was so sweet to see your granny there at the graduation ceremony and then she stayed for the nursing pinning too.”

“Yeah, it sure was amazing for her to be there like that for me.”

“I never knew any of my grandparents. They all had died before I was born,” Trista stated, as she had a far away look in her eyes. “I always wondered what they were like. I just had horrible foster parents,” she sadly added.

Cyra nodded. “I decided on accounting for my major mostly because CPA’s make pretty good money. I don’t have any inspiring reason.”

“It seems practical,” Wini stated affirmatively.

“Yeah, everybody’s gotta pay taxes.” Trista agreed.

Mitch chimed in. “Well, maybe not now, if the world’s being destroyed outside of here.”

Skippy had been rather quiet for awhile and she couldn’t stand it anymore so she blurted out. “Shower time! Y’all stink like a jungle.”

They took turns taking showers in the small bathroom. Mitch let the four of them shower first and then he showered. The water was cold but he didn’t care because he usually took cold showers anyway. They found several sets of clothes in the rooms. It was nice to finally wear regular clothes, rather than their bathing suits.

Cyra turned a small TV on in the living room. A strange robotic voice started talking but the screen did not show any images of anything. It was just the voice which said:

“Soon, there won’t be anyone alive outside of the bunker, due to the nuclear warfare. Congratulations on finding the bunker, which has been prepared for you. It should have everything you need, including ration amounts for daily MRE’s. If you do not follow the ration portions recommended, then you may starve to death.”

The TV cut off, as it was the end of the message. Cyra tried turning the TV back on but it was just static when she tried turning it back on. She hit the remote as a reflex to see if it would do anything. It didn’t help, so she turned the TV back off. She sat in silence.

Mitch looked toward the kitchen. “I’m going to see what ration sizes are recommended. Those papayas were good but not very filling.”

Trista shook, as she was processing the latest message. Then, she burst out suddenly in a strong emotional response. “Does anybody realize what it just said? THE WORLD IS ENDING!? And all you can think about is food at a time like this?” She said as she glared at Mitch disgustedly.

Mitch looked at her with a stunned look and didn’t respond with any words. What could he say exactly. He understood what the message said but they had to eat to survive.

“I can’t eat. I feel sick!” Trista held her stomach.

Wini grabbed a blanket and carefully offered it to Trista. She grimaced but accepted the blanket and thanked her.

Cyra pursed her lips. “Yeah, this is really confusing. How did the drones time everything just right?”

“Yeah… super errie.” Skippy said, standing up.

“What are we gonna do?” Cyra was very still and didn’t make a motion.

Skippy thought for a second. “Well, what are the facts?”

Wini started with, “We’re in a bunker.”

“We supposedly have everything we need here,” Cyra motioned around the room.

Mitch was half listening to them while he looked through the kitchen pantry. Looking over his shoulder, “The drones knew we were coming here.”

Trista quietly breathed out. “The drones or robots or whatever they are…they’re communicating with us.”

“Kind of…” Cyra half-heartedly agreed because she found herself wanting to hear more from the drones because it seemed like they could have given more detailed information in their messages.

“We survived crocodiles that almost ate us!” Skippy exclaimed.

Somewhat muffled, “We have enough to eat for exactly one year,” Mitch said from across the room. He’d read the directions on how much they were supposed to eat each day. The closet was bigger than he’d thought and he had to climb inside to see the marked MRE’s which had the days marked on them.

Skippy became interested in seeing the MRE’s so she walked over to inspect Mitch’s discovery. “Got any turkey legs in there with some mash potatoes and garlic bread?”

Mitch rolled his eyes at her. “Nope, fresh out of all those things. But maybe they have some in the next bunker over?”