326 PsyLo: Part 6

The label, "survivor," is relative. Three centuries after Yesterwar, who was more the survivor?

Was it the organized, somewhat fanatical group who chose to survive, on the front end, by retreating from the fallout, death, and disease, incarcerating themselves in a subterranean tube, waiting patiently—at the mercy of a begrudged planet that took its time scrubbing down its air, land, and sea?

Or was it the hapless, refuse of people who survived, on the tail end, being the offspring of the resilient, immune, or just plain lucky who outlasted the fallout, death, and disease, carrying on the human race?

At what point could the front-enders rejoin the tail-enders?

The people of SILO, called PsyLo by those on the outside (after a sap-sucking parasite), were rendered completely incommunicado. The outsiders had sabotaged any chance of appraising survivability outside their tubular home.

Until...

Until those on the outside heard explosive bolts release what had sealed in the hunkered-down survivors for 300 years. Those outsiders never had wanted anyone to invade their status quo, but when they knew the insiders would be coming, they decided to re-do some wiring so that a message could be delivered to them.

People of PsyLo:

We heard the bolts release your seal. We are excited to meet you and re-welcome you back to the good Earth.

We know history. Those who don't are doomed to repeat it. You should know that we have cherry-picked carefully certain lessons and have gone through a lot to get our society to where we wanted it over these centuries. As such, we want to safeguard our ethos and way of life. Before we receive you warmly, please inform us if you have any of the following in your numbers:

• Negroes
• Jews
• Gypsies
• Handicapped
• Others* (as per our vetting process)

We'd like to specially process these before the remainder of you people join us. If you're anything like us, you already understand.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Overwood, Grand Redactor, New World Order

The Consortium of SILO reconvened immediately.

"I'd like to reintroduce my motion," SILO's Medical Curator said, "that we table the decision to leave for another century."

"It'll take longer than that," lamented High Curator. "Re-arm the seal bolts!"

________

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

For Thursday, November 21, Day 326 of the 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge.

366 WORDS (without A/N)

40 DAYS TO GO! THE STORIES CONTINUE IN THIS VOCAL CHALLENGE, 366 WORDS A DAY.

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

• L.C. (Ionizing) Schäfer

• Rachel (Mesmerizing) Deeming

• Gerard (Simonizing) DiLeo

ABOUT THIS STORY

I never meant this to be a 6-parter. I thought it would be a 2-parter, each half dealing with those outside (New World Order) and those inside (of SILO). In fact, I didn't even know where this series of stories (hopefully each stand-alone in their own right) was going until the theme for Part 6 dawned on me. I decided the best way to wrap it up was by re-visiting the doom of those who don't know history but relive its recorded mishaps as surprises. Or more specifically, in this case, as those who choose which lessons they want to learn and think they can re-write where they feel those lessons went wrong. Such knowledge, it turns out, is stupidity, the final irony of the many I began in Part 1. As I look at the world today, the future may end up mourning the past, based on history and which lessons are "cherry-picked."