Ground Zero by EndMaster R

Something comes over you, maybe it was the tension or the hostility or maybe you were just horny, but you grab Nina and kiss her passionately. Fortunately for you, she returns the gesture. Now nobody knows what to think they all just stand around watching, they’re probably just glad you didn’t shoot anybody this time. William and Ron are still recovering from their beating and staggering in the doorway of the elevator.

Nina stops you just for a moment to address everyone. “The exile is off, everyone go back to your lives…and YOU are coming with me!” then she starts pulling you back to her room.

You and Nina relieve a lot of pent up sexual energy that day. A lot of things change after that…

Four more years pass…

You and Nina are an item now, which makes you somewhat more social by necessity (unfortunately) its not all bad though since she’s the one that’s still shelter leader and has to do all the major work. She does a good job hence the reason she’s stayed in power. (Though not surprisingly William and Ron still vote against her, even if she did apologize)

You’re now in charge of maintaining the central GZS computer system which you insist on doing primarily by yourself, though Charles and Todd assist you sometimes. Eventually you manage to get the damn thing running at near maximum efficiency and nobody has too many problems with things breaking down anymore.

The Shelter’s population has grown a bit now; the only good thing about the shelter was the design to make allowances for a population growth. Of course now there’s rug rats running around which means Nina appoints a person to start being a “teacher” of sorts for when they start getting bigger. Fortunately there are a couple of those already in the shelter. Kyle and Brenda are now the main medical practitioners, though you doubt if they’d be able to do open heart surgery, they’re competent enough to keep people in relatively good shape and they keep trying to learn more whenever possible with the medical database provided and from books. (You still don’t understand WHY you’re the only competent tech though! “Gah! Read the books! Study the schematics! It’s not difficult!” you’re constantly saying and that’s to Charles and Todd!)

Then there’s the elevator. After the near exile incident, it was still considered a good idea to have it accessible at all times just in case. What you eventually did was install a call button and did some re-wiring to do just that, though nobody has ever dared to actually go up to the surface. (And nobody’s ever gotten thrown out either)

You begin to wonder what the surface looks like now though from time to time.

One night while lying next to Nina…

“Hey Nina, you ever wonder what’s on the surface now?”
“What? It’s probably an uninhabitable wasteland.”
“Well maybe, but we’ve been down here five years, it might look different.”
“Yeah, and it might not. Go back to sleep.”
“You know I just thought about it, everyone’s vehicles are up there. I bet we could strip them down for parts or something, maybe some of them will even work. We could drive around and see what’s going on else where.”
“What? I don’t want you going up there! The elevator is a last resort thing just case something bad happens! And since when do you want to play great explorer? When you first got here you never left your room!”
“I dunno, maybe your socialization has made me a little more extroverted.”
“Hmm, knowing you, you probably just want to get away from the increasing population here.”
“Ha ha, maybe. But I still wouldn’t mind just taking a quick look outside, and to inspect the vehicles like I said.”

Nina now sits up.

“No! I don’t want you going up there! There’s probably radiation still all over the place! I don’t want you getting radiation poisoning or mutating or something!”
“I’ll be fine! I won’t go too far, I just want to…”

Nina grabs a hold of your hand.

“NO! I don’t want you going up there! It’s not safe!”
“Alright, alright, calm down. I won’t go anywhere.”
“You promise?”
“Yeah!”
“Alright then, I don’t want to hear anymore about it. Our life is here, not up there. I love you too much to lose you.”

The both of you lie back down, and Nina holds on to you tightly, putting her head on your chest almost in an effort to make sure you’re not going anywhere tonight.

Of course now you’re lying awake REALLY wondering what the surface looks like.

The next day you’re working with Charles and Todd doing the usual mundane routine. They’re talking about the same stupid movie they’ve watched over and over in the community living area. Shit you feel like you’re at work again. The GZS central computer hasn’t been giving you trouble for quite some time, and you know there’s a big meeting going on in the conference room…

Maybe you could sneak out and just take a quick look on the surface for awhile. You could let Charles and Todd look after the computer, you know they’re capable of doing that.