Page 34 of Sixty Meters Under

Thousands of people died. New reports are coming in every minute.

Radiation warnings were issued for surrounding areas…

Ryosuke read it all, until his eyes became wet. His vision blurred and he tried to blink away the gathering tears but failed miserably. He had to wipe his face with the back of his hand.

FALLOUT

EPICENTER

RADIATION

“This is nuts!” Liam exclaimed, bringing Ryosuke back to his senses. “Jesus.”

Ryosuke continued reading in silence, afraid his voice would break. Murmurs and cries of shocked residents permeated the space. Liam kept the coolest head in the room.

The ground shook. The sky burned. Buildings crumbled to ash. The cause of the blast still remains unknown. Government sources remain silent. Communication networks are down in the area.

“Unknown?! We all know who did this,” Liam blurted out and began typing. “Let’s see how far we are from the epicenter. I’m not sure where that town is exactly.”

Ryosuke leaned in to see it too.

“We’re about two thousand kilometers away,” Liam said when he located the now non-existent city.

“Still close,” Ryosuke muttered under his breath.

“Yeah. I’m going to download all the data in case we lose connection.”

?

The latest news spread through the bunker like wildfire. Residents who were not working their shifts sat gathered in the canteen and debated the current events.

Hugo entered the room, this time alone. Anna remained in her room since she didn’t take the news well.

“Good evening, everyone,” Hugo began when he stopped in front of the group. “We gathered here today because of an unfortunate event that happened not far from us. Many of you have already heard about it.”

Murmurs in the canteen intensified, and someone from the crowd asked aloud: “How far is it? When will the fallout reach us?”

Hugo looked towards the middle-aged man. “We are about two thousand kilometers away from the epicenter. And no, the blast cloud shouldn’t reach our location. Reports say the wind is blowing it away. I understand the blast radius was over a mile.”

“Dear Lord, all those people…” A woman sitting at the table in the front row gasped and covered her mouth.

“Yes. That’s still very close,” Hugo confirmed. “Tomorrow we will have a Mourning Day. All entertainment activities will be canceled.”

Another question followed, “Were there other nuclear attacks or just this one?”

“Just this one. We hope it will stay that way and sense will prevail,” Hugo said, and just as he finished sentence, his phone rang. “Excuse me for a second…” He pulled out his phone and turned to the side.

The call was from Liam. Hugo’s face darkened as he answered.

“Hugo, there was another detonation.”

Hugo froze, his face suddenly pale. He glanced towards the group of residents who were looking at him with expectation. Their curious eyes scanned him, so he had to turn away for a moment to get some time to collect his racing thoughts.

?

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” Anna said and covered her eyes with both palms.

“I know.” Lennart put his hand on her back and ran it up and down to soothe her.