Radiation.

Plans upon plans upon plans. There was never an end in my schemes to protect us better. I have heard them groan, sigh, grumble, mumble quietly and loudly enough for me to hear, but at least they did as I asked. And I was grateful for it.

I had been named the worrier-chieftain, mister plan Z, Redundant Boss and other clever variations, but at least it was all in the name of protection, however much work it had required. I had hoped it wouldn’t be needed, but sadly the day had come, it was needed after all. And we were far from grateful for that day.

It was the day that would be forever etched into every surviving member of human society. The day of doom so many amateur survivalists had prepared for, been called idiots for it, been looked at with wary eyes by normal people, shaking their heads at the money those idiots had spent on their stupid hobbies.

It was a running joke in the survivalist community, that Noah had been building an ark for so long, being laughed at for so long, but in the end had sailed upon the waves while the others were drowning.

The day that the Chief-Fucker...

No, not me... that other guy who had started the mess, that now wanted to end the mess on his own terms, not on the terms of his nation’s population. If only he had followed the example of his predecessor, the one with the silly moustache, and killed himself... But he didn’t kill himself.

It was the day that the Chief-Fucker had unleashed his remaining nuclear bombs on all opposing countries with nuclear bombs. Probably six Borei Class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines launched their entire payload of sixteen RSM-56 Bulava nuclear missiles, each armed with six multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) warheads. No interception succeeded. Ninety-six large cities were wiped off the map.

Senseless in military tactics as there were no armies in those cities. It wasn’t to weaken military strength, it wasn’t to weaken the resolve of those countries, it served no goal at all. Except... perhaps the ultimate **** on his own rebelling people. Mutual Assured Destruction followed swiftly. It was MAD in more meanings than one. It was the purest form of madness...

We didn’t know which cities had been obliterated. All major communications were down, all broadcast centers in the EU and US suddenly were cut off. But we did know it had happened. And we knew European cities were hit too.

Nuclear fallout. Radio-active particles that bind themselves with dust in the wind. Wind that could blow anywhere, depending on the weather patterns of the coming weeks. So I had prepared the caves and the villages. As best as we possibly could. We had hoped for the best, but had prepared for the worst.

We would be stuck in the caves for at least a few weeks. Well, actually, it depended on the weather pattern. The pattern we had no forecast of. We had installed primitive instruments in the villages in the hope it could tell us when it would be safe to go out, or when it would be best to stay bunkered up.