I looked down as he laid a piece of paper before me with a hand drawn image. “You drew a map.”
“A diagram. It’s rough. But it will help you. Right now we’re in Hive Two. The best way to remember it is everything that isn’t work or sleep is done here. This is the first floor. We eat and cook here. Nelly devised a rotating schedule for cooking and clean up. Below us is like a giant family room. Couches, chairs, a ping pong table, Juke box and books. It also has one of these wall length pictures, but it’s different. I’m curious now whether or not you know what it is.”
“If Gil picked it out, I probably do,” I said.
“Hive Two is not part of the original structure. This was finished a year ago, I think. Hive One, the bay up top and the hatch which is directly above Hive One, they are all part of the original structure.”
I understood. Even though his drawing was rough, as he explained it made sense.
“Do you want to see downstairs?”
“Is anyone there?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
“Then, no, I’m good. Let’s go see Hive One.” I peered closer at the drawings. “Five floors. What is this little box below everything?”
“Storage. That is not drawn to size. Nothing is. The whole system was a miniature thievery of Greenbrier Mountain Bunker. We started with that and then worked our way up.”
“I’m ready.”
Tony led the way.
Getting the grand tour and talking to everyone would help get me focused for the day. Tony explained briefly that there were five floors to Hive One.
The top floor was divided in three. Switch room, medical room and Peter’s office.
Floors two and three were sleeping floors. Floor four was agriculture and floor five at the bottom was where they kept the generators, diesel tanks and water purification system.
On our way out, Nelly walked in with Joie and Baby John.
“Oh,” Nelly smiled. “Good to see you up and about.”
“Thank you. We’re taking the tour.”
“Well, we’re making lunch so be back in a couple hours.”
Joie delightfully added. “We’re cooking rations.”
Tony tilted his head toward her. “Nelly has taken the job of care taker and teacher.”
“I enjoy it,” Nelly said. “Keeps my mind occupied.”
“That’s nice,” I said passively. “Well…” In the middle of my sentence, Tony nudged me and mumbled, ‘ask her something’. I did. I asked.”Nelly, what did you do in life? I mean for a living, a job.”
“I was a beautician. I worked at a shop and then opened a shop in my home when my daughter was born. But I was a beautician.”
“See?” Tony nodded. “That’s good to know. A useful skill. If it was up to me, I’d use clippers on everyone.”
I thanked Nelly and Tony and I headed out. There was a noticeable temperature increase when we went to the walkway to Hive One.
It cooled some the lower we walked. We decided to start at the bottom and work our way up.
The generator room was loud. Unlike the sleeping floor, that lower level wasn’t sectioned off. It was one big circular room containing the guts of the bunker.
To my surprise, Duke was down there. He was a mechanic all his life, loved to fix things and took on the job of maintenance. Watching the machinery and making sure everything kept running was his new occupation.
“Fourteen thousand gallon tank,” Duke said about the fuel.
“What happens when it runs out?” I asked.
“Hopefully, it won’t. We plan on switching to wind power once the sun returns fully and most of the dust has settled. All of the blades are in storage. The tower is in place, it just needs to rise. Right now we’re burning about forty gallons a day, so we’re good for a while.”
Duke seemed like a no nonsense, straight forward and strong guy. I probably could have guessed every aspect of his life. But seeing how Tony wanted me to ask one question, I did. I asked him what his favorite music was. When he said country, I was thrilled. Jackson loved country and I was certain he had several of his songs that he wrote on his tablet.
I made a mental note that once I was brave enough to fire up his tablet I would let Duke hear them.
Heading to the next floor, Tony told me that the only two people I wouldn’t see were the two guards, Abe and Ben. Somehow I didn’t think those were really their names since at first Tony referred to them as A and B.
Abe and Ben took the night watch, making sure things ran smoothly and there were no problems while we slept. Also, Spencer, our police officer, had come down with a bug similar to mine.
Floor four was agriculture and it was divided into three sections. Growth, research and animals.
We had chickens. Despite the fact that we weren’t near them when we entered the floor, I could hear them.
“Only ten.” Melissa said. “And I know it’s warm, but we have the ultra violet lights running in the interior farm. It looks good. Skyler is with them.”
I asked Melissa why we had an entire floor for agriculture.
She replied. “Because I need to make sure we find a way, either topside or below, to be self sufficient long before our supplies run out. We don’t want to rely on storage. We want to count on growth.”
“Tell me something about yourself,” I said. “That I would be surprised to know.”
“I sew.” Melissa answered without hesitation. “I make my own clothes.”
“You farm and sew?” I asked.
“Yeah, you can say I was preparing for the end of the world long before I knew it.”
We walked to the chicken area, which had fake grass, fake sun and a coop. Skyler was there and I spoke with him for a while. I learned that he spoke three other languages and loved being in the Army. He even offered to help with security in the bunker. Monitoring and so forth.
Tony said he would take him up on that. Skyler would work all the time. He wanted to stay busy and joked that was why he was being the dedicated ‘Mother Hen’.
It made me smile.
We headed to the top floor. I had seen the medical room and Craig was in there taking inventory of what they had. He told us he hoped there was a never a need for it, but worried in regards to the future because anything we had would be useless in a few years.
Craig was one of those people who thought ahead. He was gentle and cared.
Peters’ office was tiny, and he had the least time to make for us. He was comparing statistics from previous impacts, trying to make predictions on the current one.
When I asked him about his life, he stated. “I don’t have time right now. I am trying to be focused. But if you want, I would love to make time for you. I’ll tell you all that you need to know.”
We left Peter’s office, and of course Tony had a sarcastic comment. He stated, “You opened yourself up to the first post apocalypse world stalker. He’s not going to leave you alone.”
Peter had a brilliant mind and a part of me didn’t mind at all spending time with him and listening to him. If I had anything, it was time to learn.
The switch room was last.
“And here’s the man of the hour,” Tony said. “And decade. Because he will keep us running into the next phase.”
Tom sat in a swivel chair and turned to me. “Glad to see you up. How are you feeling?”
“Better, thanks,” I said. “What is all this?”
“All this… is the hub,” Tom replied. “It controls the generators and the meters on the tanks. I watch to make sure everything is running and that nothing is overheating.”
“Speaking of which,” Tony said. “What’s the surface temperature now?”
“Last reading was one ninety-Fahrenheit. It’s bad.”