The Fallout by Knox J.C

Author:Knox, J.C. [Knox, J.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic
Published: 2020-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Three hours later, all the occupants of the bunker gather to remember Sarah. George, Seamus and Connor all say a few words about her, and the group raise a toast,

‘To Sarah.’

George hates public gatherings such as weddings, christenings and funerals at the best of times, but this is worse than usual, in the bunker he can’t escape. He’s to blame for his wife’s death and knows that everyone here knows it as well. But he also knows that there’s no prison in the bunker, no serving time for the unforgivable crime he’s committed, the bunker is the prison and they’re all trapped in this hell hole together. Maybe Sarah was right, dying is better than living like this, what’s the point? If Oscar is right about what happened, it’s likely that none of them will ever get out of here. Sitting alone enveloped with darkness and guilt, George realises that he needs to talk to Oscar, he needs to find out what happened the night the reactor exploded in Sweden. Slapping himself around the face several times before heading over to the area that Oscar and his family have occupied, he finds them playing chess. Watching the situation that is so normal yet so completely abnormal he can’t stop staring. It takes a minute for him to realise they are all looking at him, waiting for him to say something.

‘Sorry to interrupt, but could I have a word Oscar?’

‘Yes, of course,’ Oscar said, following George into the common area.

‘Oscar, I need to know what happened the night of the explosion, I need to know if we have any chance of getting out of here, of leading normal lives again?’ George asks, a darkness clouding his ability to think beyond the confines of the bunker.

‘Yes, of course, but you should know I was a coward, I left, I suspected something bad was going to happen, and I left in the middle of my shift, maybe if I’d stayed, I could have helped stop it from happening,’ Oscar said, watching for Georges reaction.

‘You did what you had too, to survive and keep your family safe.’

‘I was called in at the last minute to cover the night shift after my colleague had to go home sick. I’d only worked the night shift once before and was tired from working all day, but when I checked the readings, they were way off what they should be, I asked my colleague to double check. He told me that they must be wrong and got his boss who checked them and told us that we had to carry out a planned shutdown, it was a safety test, to see how the reactor would act in a blackout. But I didn’t want to do the test until the readings were stable, but I was told to carry out the test or I would be fired, and I wouldn’t get employed in a nuclear plant anywhere in Sweden. I chose to go home, something told me that the readings were too unstable to handle the test.

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