Don't Leave
A story about taking risks
The previous week’s story, “Eagle Eyed,” was written by the Bing chatbot.
Here’s the prompt used to generate it: “Write a short story in the style of Cormac McCarthy about an eagle that flies over the same household every day and becomes familiar with the family that lives in one particular house over its route as they play and barbecue, etc. Even though he never actually interacts with the family, he comes to care for them and even love them.”
The poll results: 67 percent said it was the AI and 33 percent said it was by me. So the majority were correct!
Now, on to this week’s story!
“Do you ever wonder what would happen if we left?”
Darby groaned inwardly. Every week, it was the same question out of Nick’s mouth. He was restless. And that was dangerous.
“No, I don’t wonder what would happen if we left,” Darby said curtly, “because I know what would happen if we left. We’d die.”
“But how do you know?”
“I know.”
“But how?”
Darby sighed. She was getting tired of having the same argument week after week after week. But she sympathized with Nick. It wasn’t easy being cooped up here, just the two of them. Eating the same food. Playing the same games. Cycling through the same set of a dozen DVDs.
“We’ve been over this a million times,” she said. “The official warnings were abundantly clear: Shelter in place for no fewer than two years. Leaving any time before that is tantamount to suicide.”
Nick crossed his arms. “But how could they have determined the timeline to that degree of specificity? Hell, we don’t even know why we’re down here! What if it was a false alarm?”
“It wasn’t a false alarm.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know.”
Nick shook his head. “No, you don’t know. You feel. You feel like it’s not safe. You feel like we should trust the government, as if they’ve never made a mistake. But I’m not so sure.”
“This is crazy talk, Nick. They wouldn’t have sent out those alerts if they weren’t sure.”
“There have been false alarms.”
“I really can’t deal with this right now, Nick.” Darby left and walked into the only other room in the bunker, the kitchen. She sat down on the floor beside a shelf stacked with cans of food. She wasn’t hungry; she just had to get away from Nick for a minute.
Although she would never admit to Nick, she did have her doubts. She sometimes dreamt of climbing out the hatch at the top of the bunker and escaping to a world where it really was a false alarm and the world was exactly as it had been six months prior, when she and Nick, two strangers, had both made their way to this bunker that they knew had belonged to an elderly prepper who had recently died. Thankfully, it had remained untouched. There was several years worth of food, and a stationary bike generator that allowed them to power lights and a small TV and DVD player. It was just enough to keep them from going insane … barely.
But deep down she knew there they couldn’t leave. Not even for a peek of the outside world. The emergency alert they’d both received on their phones had made that clear.
She was brought out of her reverie by the sound of footsteps clanging against metal rungs. She bolted up. What was Nick doing?
She ran to the hatch and found Nick halfway up the ladder to it.
“Nick! What are you doing? Stop!”
“I’m sorry Darb,” he said. “I can’t take it anymore. I need to see for myself. You stay here. I’ll come back and get you if it’s safe.”
“Stop it, Nick! Don’t be an idiot!”
“I’ve got to do this, Darb.” He came to the top of the ladder and paused a moment, looking down at Darby. “I’ll be okay,” he said. Then he opened the hatch and before Darby could react, it was back down and Nick was gone.
“No,” she whispered. “No no no.” She couldn’t do this by herself. She had barely managed to make it six months with Nick’s company. If she had to continue on by herself, how could she even make it a month without going insane?
She walked over to her bed, climbed into it and got into a fetal position. Tears leaked out her eyes. Nick was dead. She knew it. She was all alone in this bunker. For all she knew she was all alone in the world. She wouldn’t find out for another year and a half at least.
All she could do now was wait.