M. Marshall - The End Is Nigh

Shadow had been allowed to stay with me too although I had to keep him in a section of the tunnel up near the entrance when I worked my shifts at the nursery. It had been made clear that he was not allowed in the communal living areas without me. However, twice a day we were granted special clearance to walk the tunnels in a section near an old emergency fire exit. I learned it had been bored into the thick concrete wall of the bunker to provide easier access to the emergency services after the site had become a public museum.

Each night Shadow slept at the foot of the bed which Rosa and I shared. We had been given a small space of our own, an alcove in the shared female dorm room. They went to such trouble to keep the men and women separate which was something I thought of as being unusual.

While working in the nursery with a girl called Emma, I voiced my confusion. Emma shared most of my shifts since I had started in the bunker and was the closest thing to a friend I had down here.

“Even families? What reason could there possibly be to keep them separate?” She laughed.

“What makes you think there are any families down here? None of the women has any connection with the men who work here.” Something about the way she had said it made me feel uncomfortable.

“What do you mean the men who work here?”

“Just that. The men who work here. They don’t have any personal ties with any of us, they work they get fed, and that’s it. No one actually knows any of them.” I was getting more and more confused.

“So you don’t have any contact with any of the men down here then?” Thinking about it, I hadn’t seen anyone except for authority figures in the Bunker speaking to any of the men.

“Not me. Only girls who are in the BNW program spend any time down in the men’s quarters and then it’s one to one obviously.” I gave her a blank look. She chuckled. “Hasn’t anyone tried to recruit you yet?” Confused I shook my head. “Normally they’re all over the new girls.”

She took my arm and guided me away from the door leading to the cafeteria and further towards the back of the playroom so that we couldn’t be overheard.

“It’s called the Brave New World program, BNW. Apparently, it was something which the government has ordered to be put into action. In a nutshell, it says that if there is a significant loss of life, the survivors need to put all of their efforts into re-population.” She glanced over in the direction of her son who was playing quietly on the floor beside Rosa “Possibly because we already have young children they tend to lay off us. The women without kids though. Well, let’s just say they’re starting to pile on the pressure.”

“What? You’re kidding? There is no government policy which would order that.”

“How would you know?” I sensed that she didn’t like me disagreeing with her. “Anyway, how long have you been here? I’m surprised no one has said anything before now. Some of the women are getting uncomfortable and have been asking to leave, but Lynda and her cronies keep the supplies under lock and key. You can’t leave without food, so they’re stuck. Most of us have been down here since the attacks and have no idea what it’s really like above ground. We’ve all heard the stories, but since you arrived people have started to talk. They are saying that it may not be as bad up there as they are trying to make out.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing it was hard for me to understand how they had got the men to agree to such a situation. Although the cynical part of me felt that it probably wasn’t a hard sell.

“I’m not sure I understand. Are you saying that the people running this place are forcing men and women to have sex to get them pregnant? How do they get them to go agree?” I hadn’t imagined for one moment that Liam would be the type of guy to go along with it. Well, I hoped not. It didn’t seem to fit with what I knew of his character.

Emma eyeballed me cheekily and smirked.

“I don’t think they mind, and the ones that do disagree with it don’t get much of choice. There’s a rumour going around that some of the men are sedated.” I was horrified.

It must have shown on my face because Emma was quick to beg me not to repeat what she had told me. I got the impression that she was afraid of some of the committee in here. It sounded like they were the ones calling the shots no matter what the resident’s wishes were. She stopped talking altogether when anyone in the cafeteria area came within earshot of our conversation.

The next day I went about the routine which had began to bring me some comfort, but now made me feel like I was suffocating. I needed to speak to Liam and check that he was okay. If the rumours were true, then we needed to leave immediately. It didn’t feel safe to be living amongst any group of people who thought this behaviour was acceptable. Even if it was ran by women.

I looked all day to find Liam, I checked in all of the places I thought I might catch him and kept roaming until I needed to walk Shadow. The Bunker wasn’t that big. I wondered where they were holding the men and how are they keeping them compliant? I had so many questions about the set up of this place. It had been all that I could think about since my conversation with Emma the day before.

I needed to find out for myself if what she had told me was true. I was sure that it was going to be a stupid lie created by a group of bored girls to see which idiot would think it true. Emma had said something about an administration hall. If this place had been used for an official evacuation as it had been intended, the government would have moved a skeleton staff to support the Prime Minister. The administration hall part at least made sense. I would need to get in there. I wanted to see if there was any proof that this BNW program existed.

There was a hall which had been sectioned off to use as a classroom to teach survivors new skills. Just yesterday I had attended a workshop ran by a retired midwife about assisting in childbirth and what to do if you are alone when you go into labour. Things were beginning to click; I would have to do another class and see if I could get any information to prove my theory. There was a class teaching survivors how to build a water filtration system which was being run by two men who had previously been in the construction business. It seemed highly unlikely to me that they would have been drugged.

I signed up to take part in the class and was given a slot in the next day’s session. I mentioned to Emma that I was interested in learning about it in case we decided to leave and asked her to cover for me. She agreed and offered to take care of Rosa for me.

I walked into the administration hall and took a seat towards the back of a column of desks facing an old-fashioned chalkboard. Sometimes it was easy to forget that this place had been a museum.

Only one man was giving the workshop, and he did look exhausted. His eyes were red-rimmed, and he was visibly feverish. He stopping every few minutes to take a drink of the water which sat on the desk in front of him. I watched his hand shake as it clutched the plastic beaker. His eyes would dart to the back of the hall every now and again, and continually he lost his train of thought. He looked to the back of the hall like he was waiting for something or someone to come in. No one did.

During the workshop, we were given a break for lunch. I used the crowd waiting to move out of the hall and into the canteen to skim around the edge of the room. It did give me a better look at the unused part of the hall but I found nothing. I needed to get going anyway, Shadow would be waiting for his walk. I followed the crowds out of the hall and walked towards the part of the tunnel system which was now a home to Shadow. I would need to think of another way to work out just what exactly was going on down here.