Level 7

“Our shelter is becoming a grave, a collective grave of human misery.” Louder now: “Politicians! Soldiers! From the bottom of our grave we curse you! May you follow in our…” His voice fails him.

“Steps,” I suppose he wanted to say. But there is nothing coming over except groans and the sound of people vomiting.

Now the station has been switched off.

JUNE 21

The news is the same as yesterday’s: neutrals and Level 2 are dying fast.

The probable reason for these deaths is polluted air. The filters used on Level 2 and in the neutral countries are apparently not a good enough protection against radioactivity —at least, against the strong dose they have just received. Nobody knows for certain, and nobody is going up to make sure. But there seems no doubt that millions of people have escaped death by blast or burning only to die of poisoned air.

This means that the world population is quickly being reduced to those living in the deeper levels, the ones fitted with self-sufficient air-supply systems. The enemy must have shelters with this equipment too, but I suppose none of the allies and neutrals could afford it. If nothing happens to halt the present death-rate, the population will drop in a matter of days—perhaps hours—to a mere one and a third millions. Maybe a few thousands more or less for the enemy’s deep shelters may differ in capacity from ours.

Nothing has been heard from the neutrals since about 14.00 hours, when the last of their messages was received. It gave facts and figures, in some detail, about the mass deaths. It did not end in the pathetic way yesterday’s Level 2 broadcast did. But the dry report, trying to give the up-to-date figures of death—as if life would go on there tomorrow—was, in a way, even more pathetic. There were no accusations, no curses in their broadcast: just the latest news about the victims of radioactivity in that country.

It went off the air quite suddenly. There have been no more neutral broadcasts since. There will be no more.

Of all the people who used to live on this earth, only we and our enemy remain. To be more precise: only that handful on each side which is deep underground.

JUNE 22

There is a strange feeling in the air—other people besides myself have noticed it, and perhaps it is not restricted to Level 7—a feeling that we are living in a new world.

The old world, on the surface of the globe and on the underground levels connected with or dependent on the surface—that world is dead. Life has been restricted to those who went deep enough and who are self-sufficient, even in the matter of their air-supply.

The surface of the earth is out of bounds, definitely and absolutely so. And will be for some time to come. How long, is a matter for debate. More and more people can be heard discussing the question. The neutrals asked it, and got no answer. Not that it would have made any difference to their fate, for death was already in their bodies.

But we, who have all the equipment to keep ourselves alive down here, we want to know the answer.

Strontium 90’s half-life, the time taken for its radioactivity to decay to half its original strength, is twenty-five years. The half-life of Uranium 239 is twenty-three minutes. But Uranium 238’s half-life is 4,510,000,000 years! Which of the isotopes is poisoning the surface?

The answer to that question will decide the life of the remaining levels. We on Level 7 are best off, with supplies for 500 years. Go up to Level 5, and the underground lifespan drops to 200 years. While in only twenty-five years the inhabitants of Level 3 will be forced to leave their burrows and risk life on the surface!

It is certain that surface pollution was intended to last for years. Otherwise the Button 4 bombs would not have been used at all. But years, decades or centuries?

People on Level 3 have raised the question in very practical terms. Though a life expectancy of twenty-five years is pretty good, if you remember that most of humanity has just died, they still face a problem. They are asking: “Should we raise children?” Children born now on Level 3 will starve in the prime of their life, unless they can get out.

So for them it is a significant problem. And so it is, in a less pressing way, for all the rest of us cave-dwellers. Even we, on Level 7, would like to know the answer. Can we look forward to the prospect of going out before we die? And if not, will our descendants be able to go out in five centuries’ time? The fate of remote descendants cannot be said to affect us personally; but we are curious to know whether humanity has a chance to survive and, perhaps, one day spread again over the face of the globe.

JUNE 23

In the lounge today, in the dining-hall, in corridors and rooms where people met and passed the time of day, the same question was on everyone’s lips or unspoken, in their eyes: how long will the surface be radioactive?