324 PsyLo: Part 4

SILO, populated by postwar generations of refugees of the great Yesterwar, was now into its 300th year. Safe and predictably secure, perhaps forever—and all that entailed—its people longed to rejoin Earth.

How much longer? the people wondered. The harbinger for safe exit remained resolutely red, its number of ticks per second warning of excessive ionizing events.

"We shouldn't believe the counter," High Curator addressed the Consortium of Subcurators. "We've been lied to before. It's how people are. How the human race has ever been. It's how Yesterwar happened, even while armistices and treaties were being signed!"

"Your appraisal, High Curator," asked the Society Curator, "is that the red screen lies, a false barrier erected by those on the outside?"

"Yes," he responded.

"Keeping us locked away? A ghetto? Out of sight, out of mind?"

"Yes, yes, and yes."

"Re-entrance vs... exile?" the Philosophy Curator asked. "For what reason would outsides want to keep us away?"

"I asked myself that exact question," High Curator replied.

"And your answer?"

"Come what may..." he answered.

"What does that mean? Explain the logic underlying such an intangible conclusion."

"It means," interjected the Security Curator, "that High Curator's inclination is to blow the hatch and venture outside, where healthy human beings belong."

"We're healthy here," the Medical Curator argued.

"Healthy enough, certainly," added the Population Curator.

"But for how long?" High Curator responded.

"Come what may?" asked the Society Curator. "Am I hearing you correctly, High Curator?"

"Nay!" shouted the Reacclimation Curator. "T'is acting willy-nilly, with nearly 2,000 souls here, planted three centuries ago, nurtured, preened, and pruned so carefully. It is my responsibility to guarantee safe re-insertion. Once released—out there—if we decide incorrectly, our entire civilization could be gone in mere hours!"

"Like what happened in Yesterwar?" the Philosophy Curator added, with sarcasm. "But instead of missiles Stone Age'ing us, it'll be bad decisions flying over our Pollyannaish heads. Decisions that carry just as many warhead megatons, only different. You hope—and pray!—for a civilization re-set, trading eons for a snap decision. What if those outside have learned nothing and dirty bombs are still being heaved this way and that? What if Yesterwar still wages? That would explain the red screen."

________

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

For Tuesday, November 19, Day 324 of the 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge.

366 WORDS (without A/N)

42 DAYS TO GO! THE SILO SURVIVES ON IN THIS VOCAL CHALLENGE, 366 CURIES A DAY.

There are currently three Vocal survivers in this 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge:

• L.C. (Underground) Schäfer

• Rachel (Overground) Deeming

• Gerard (Ground and Minced) DiLeo