M. Marshall - The End Is Nigh

Looking around I couldn’t help but feel miserable. The scene before us was bleak. If I was honest with myself, I was glad I wasn’t arriving here on my own.

“Maybe we should get out and have a look, you’re right. There must be some reason for all of the empty cars around here. There are no other buildings for miles.” There must have been over thirty cars scattered around the field by the bungalow, but there wasn’t any sign of human life outside of our car.

Liam parked up the SUV, jumped down from the driver’s seat and walked towards the bungalow. The nerves really kicked in when he walked straight through the front door. He didn’t even glance back before he did. He was unlike anyone I think I had ever met. I watched at the edge of my seat waiting for him to return to the door.

Around five minutes later he did. I was just about to go after him when I saw the door swing open and he emerged. He was followed by a tall, heavy set woman in a green flannel shirt. They talked among themselves as they walked over to the car. Liam gave me a nod letting me know that we had found what it was we had been searching for. He walked over and let Shadow out. Shadow jumped down and promptly walked over to the stranger.

“Shadow,” I called him to me aware that the woman didn’t look too comfortable about it.

“I’m afraid your dog will need to be on a lead. We don’t really allow pets down in the bunker.” The woman was looking at Liam warily.

“Oh, actually Shadow is with me. I suppose I could put him on a lead, but if he isn’t able to stay with us, then my daughter and I won’t be staying.” Liam looked at me shocked he hadn’t expected such a strong response but Shadow had become a part of our family.

“Ah sorry, I had assumed you were all family. That’s no problem the dog can stay on the upper level. The women ’s quarters are more suitable for a dog. If you could just make sure to keep a close eye on him. We don’t want any trouble.” The woman smiled at me and seemed to change tack.

I knew that I should have felt relief upon our arrival. We were finally in the safety of an organised security compound, but I didn’t. Instead, I was hit with an overwhelming sadness. We should have been arriving here with Matt. I tried my best to hide the feeling away, now wasn’t the time. It was important that I paid attention. I needed to keep a clear head, not drown in my own self-pity.

I carried Rosa over to the bungalow, and we walked through the same door I had watched so intently. The woman in the flannel shirt led us down through a concrete tunnel which was hidden inside the building. Immediately I noted how quiet it was. I suppose I had imagined lines of people trying desperately to be admitted.

“My name is Lynda. I’ve been down here since the beginning. I work on the committee that runs this place.”

“How is it that there aren’t more of us here?” I asked.

“I’m sorry?”

“I mean I had expected there to be hoards of survivors here trying to get in. I heard the radio message.”

“So many people have come and gone, we’re stopping the transmission any day now. We have a good variety of people these days anyway. Many of the survivors who weren’t ready to settle here caused too much disruption. It got too much for them, you know? Four weeks of being locked up in a Bunker. We had a vote and those who wanted to leave to find the missing members of their family did.” Her brow furrowed and she rubbed sweat away from her forehead with a piece of cloth. “How could we stop them? After all, we’re not running a prison down here.” I smiled at the woman and thanked her for allowing us to enter.

I had always imagined that what with the radio broadcast they would have been inundated with people wanting food and shelter. I was very surprised to hear that the Bunker wasn’t already at maximum capacity.

After being given a tour of the facilities, we finally got a moment to ourselves as we were given standard issue towels and bed linen. We were guided into a room where we could leave our belongings.

“You okay? You haven’t said much since we arrived.” Liam put a hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes. “I hate that there are separate living quarters for the men and women. A little old fashioned I think.”

“Yeah, it’s weird, right? I think it was a museum for a while. It’s probably a little behind the times.”

“I’m not sure that I’m keen on staying either now that I’ve seen it. Let’s see how we feel tomorrow after some sleep and go from there?”

“Sure. Goodnight.” Liam grasped my hand and squeezed before letting go and walking away to find the men’s sleeping quarters.

Maybe he was right. Rosa and I had been on a roller coaster journey since we had left our home on the south coast. So much had happened since then. We would certainly benefit from a few nights rest before deciding where to go next.

THE FEW NIGHTS we had decided to spend in the bunker quickly turned into a week. Everything was so accessible in here. So easy, compared to the struggles we had experienced outside. There were two hot meals per day provided in the canteen, and everyone had a job to do which gave a new sense of purpose. They had even set up a nursery facility.

Aside from Rosa, there were five other children under the age of ten. The kids over ten years old were all included in the work rota with the rest of the survivors. That’s what everyone called themselves down here. And we were.

Being the new kids, people were keen to talk to us. The other inhabitant’s seemed amazed that we had managed to exist above ground for as long as we had. There was a strong opinion down here that those on the surface wouldn’t be alive for much longer. I’d heard so many disturbing stories regarding radiation poisoning. It sounded like they had lost a lot of people down here which could have been to blame for their morbid way of thinking.

There were so many more women in the bunker than men. It was strange, but then I remembered that I was here without a man. Well, I had Liam, but he wasn’t with me. Within a few days of being here, I also noticed that the people in a position of authority. The committee as Lynda called it were all female. Refreshing. It shouldn’t have surprised me. I supposed It was sexist in a way, but it did.

The men in the Bunker were all quite young, under forty-five. I wasn’t aware of what their work rota entailed, but I assumed it was quite labour intensive as they all looked in good physical condition. It would have been nice to get to talk to some of them, but they didn’t appear to get much free time. If any. When I thought about it, the times that I did see guys around the communal areas of the compound they were always exhausted.

Even Liam was more subdued, and as the days went on I began to see less and less of him too. I supposed that was fair enough I don’t know why I had expected him to stay with us once we had arrived. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I was hurt that he hadn’t been more interested in how we were doing.

I had been assigned to work in the nursery facility, probably down to me telling Lynda that I was a stay at home mum. After what Liam had revealed to me about some professions becoming a form of currency I had decided that keeping the fact that I used to work in government quiet was probably the safest thing to do; I was just Elizabeth here. Nothing complicated. I spoke about myself as little as I could reasonably get away with, instead choosing to talk about my daughter. It was easy to draw attention away from myself. Repelling unwanted questions by boring people with repetitive stories of my beautiful child worked. Mostly my days were filled up by Rosa and looking after the other children in the bunker, and I enjoyed it.