My name is Jaemis Jaksihn. A 21-year-old survivor of the nuclear holocaust a year ago. And I'm running out of food.
Considering the amount of panic bunkers that still existed when I took control of this panic bunker in Albania, at the very LEAST a million people still exist in the world. Unless hunger or their own insanity killed them. Maybe thirst. Hopefully at least a few thousand got the same idea I did.
I came prepared. I left my 100,000 dollar house I had just bought after a few years of being a reseller in Texas to survive. I wanted to live. I told my family that they should have come with me, but they didn't believe that the war would go NUCLEAR.
It's been a year. My watch reminds me of the day.
It's April 1st, 2056. It's been a whole year.
I've been living off of my potato and mushroom farms after my vienna sausage and other luxuries ran out.
Now I'm running out of food.
.
.
.
And water.
I have about a week's worth of potatoes left.
I got really hungry one week and ate 3 potatoes instead of 1 each of those days. Huge mistake. That means I don't have food after my week runs out for at least two weeks. I also only have about a month worth of water left. And only about 20 glasses of wine left. I haven't showered in a year either. My teeth are good though, I have at least 6 years worth of toothpaste left. I need to find canned food. But I'm scared if there's still radiation that it'll contaminate the plants. My bunker is only the size of two rooms and still smells like my poop that I use as fertilizer.
I need to go outside. Fast. I need water really bad.
I make it out, and the air is actually very clean.
"Oh look someone came out of a bunker!"
A beautiful Asian woman said in what seems to be Singlish, mostly because of her accent. Doesn't surprise me that a Singaporean survived. They have money.
"Hey what's your name? Were you really in there an entire year?" the woman asked me.
"My name is Jaemis. Yes, I was in there a year, was scared of the radiation."
"Oh so you didn't know? Despite the radiation being extremely thick, excluding the slight contamination, since here wasn't directly nuked, the air was clean within like a week." she replied to me.
"I thought it would all be like Chernobyl."
"That's the metal and water and soil that was contaminated, the air was clean within like a couple of weeks."
"How many people are left?" I ask her.
"Many people died of cancer. Some people died here in their bunkers. Some died because they couldn't find any soil or vegetables that weren't contaminated. Maybe about a sixteenth of a million people survived here, some didn't make it though, food's scarce, don't know about other countries, could be better or worse, but here there's about 200 of us in this town."
"I have potatoes." I say.
"YOU HAVE POTATOES? HE HAS POTATOES!" she yells at the group.
"Will you help us?" A little girl said.
"Y'all can take two potatoes to use to grow. Y'all got any canned food left to trade for that? One potato has about 5 eyes, so one can for each eye. 10 cans of food."
"What?! That's expensive!" A big guy said.
"Only I know the password to my bunker! So what do YOU think about that? You literally will get a potato that can become 5 plants, each plant grows about 5 potatoes at a time. That's beyond a steal."
"But we don't have soil!"
"Just poop."
"But. But."
"You want to survive?"
"Yeah..."
I was able to talk the big guy who seems like the leader of the group or vice-leader.
Then the beauty from earlier came up to me.
"Can we get one potato for 4 cans of food each?"
"I only have 7 potatoes left before it runs out. My plants need about two more weeks to grow the potatoes."
"Come on! We'll give you water! A scientist guy was able to make consistent clean water."
"4 cans and two bottles of water each potato."
"Deal."
This woman seems to be in charge.
"You the leader?" I ask her.
"How'd you-"
"You're the most attractive woman here, that big guy right there is either your boyfriend, husband, or your cousin. He seems to not be that smart. Hence why I assumed you're the leader. You seem smart enough and able to coerce men into doing your bidding."
"He's my husband and yes, I am the elected president."
"Democracy in a world like this? Trying to go back to the way it was? Humanity is almost GONE. You understand that right?"
"Yes, hence why we need stability-"
"What humanity needs is working together to rebuild."
"That's what I plan on-"
"You plan on controlling the food and being a dictator. Not interested. Pleasure doing business with you though."
"You really should work with us. We can work toge-"
"No."
"YOU'RE RUDE!"
"Why are you being rude to my wife huh?" the husband said.
"And? Y'all need the one reliable crop that can live off of low-quality dung. Most other animals are dead, our atmosphere is barely hanging on, what do you expect? It's 100 degrees and it's April 1st."
"Okay. That's actually kind of fair." the woman said.
"What are y'all's names?" I ask.
"I'm Lou. This is my husband Armin. This little girl is our adoptive daughter Aaliyah."
"Well Dictator Lou. It's nice doing business with you."
"Shake on the deal?"
"Shake on the deal."
We shook on it.
"No one can be nearby me when I punch in my code." I say.
"Why? You think we'll break in? We're upstanding citizens!" Armin yelled.
"In a world in anarchy. I don't trust y'all." I reply.
"It's okay. We got to get our food cans and water to trade with him." Lou said.
"Let's meet in our town square." she said.
"No. A mile away from your town." I say.
"Why?"
"Again. I don't trust you. Being out in the woods is safer for me than being in a town I've never visited that could have neurotic thieves desperate for food."
"Cannot be near here either."
"1 mile south of your town is fine."
"That's a deal."
"Also, why did yall check these bunkers 2 miles away from your town?"
"Family outing."
"I see. A coincidence. Sure."
"What time?"
"In 2 hours?"
"Okay."
I wait for them to leave then pull out my phone.
I actually scored big time.
Let's hope they give me some creamed corn or canned yams or something.
My phone and JS8 have internal clocks, so even if the mobile data is cut off, I can still check the time.
I make sure no one is around.
I punch in my 15 digit code. 128491284813840.
And I'm in.
I forgot to tell y'all this.
After about 3 days of boredom after the nukes dropped. I rose a solar panel and I already prepared plexiglass for it. I've had electricity ever since.
I brought a wall mounted tv beforehand and since my phone isn't a crappy Pineapple phone, I have non-crappy chargers.
Let's just say, I REALLY prepared.
I get my two potatoes. I bring a chain taser with me just in case. I don't want to to get attacked by the big burly Armin guy if I don't have to. Having electricity is the absolute best.
.
.
.
1 hour later I make my trek about a mile and a half away from the nearby town-state.
I take my taser with me and not my phone. One of my 2 entertainment devices that keeps my sanity needs to be safe.
I make it to our meeting spot.
I came with the two potatoes.
I see Lou coming in the distance with Armin.
They have 8 cans and 4 bottles of water, good.
OOOOH they're big cans.
"Just a complete swap. We leave it on the floor." I say.
I take the food and they take the potatoes.
"Honestly thought you'd try and kill me." I said.
"Why?"
"Willingly giving food cans and water for two potatoes sounds like a terrible idea on paper without the context. Now you have about 10 plants for agriculture. Have fun!"
"Heh. Sucker."
The husband runs up to me like he's about to punch me.
I pull out my taser and get him.
"We had a deal woman. He'll be fine in like 5 minutes."
"See you in a month or two."
"Doubt."