This place is alive. More alive than anything I have seen in so long. I can't believe that the war hadn't managed to touch down here yet. The city above is crumbling while down here life is thriving as if the war never happened. Children are playing while their parents are working around the clock trying to keep everything moving the way it should. The smell of food filled the air like it hasn't in years. I felt like I was back home again.
The one thing that stuck out to me the most was the sound of laughter. Children and parents alike just laughing with pure joy. I forgot what joy was like. The shock I felt from what I am seeing couldn't be put into words at all. I felt a smile creeping across my face as I continued to look out at all the happy people.
The older lady spoke to me again. "Let's go get you something to eat."
We went to the area that I could assume was the kitchen. I didn't understand how everyone could be in good spirits considering what has happened here lately. I tried to talk to the older woman about the war going on outside, but she shut down my conversation. I didn't understand until she explained why she did.
"We don't talk about what is going outside, because we are trying to focus on being here. The happiness we are building here is the most important thing we have now. We need to think about the children, and the future. That's all we can really do right now. You know?"
I nodded as food came out to our table. It was a nice roast that was better than anything I've had even before the war. It brought a smile to my face thinking of how I would explain this to my mom if she was still alive. If she was. It is odd that I have to think of it like that now. I raised a toast to my mom, dad, and brother in the afterlife. I ate then raised another to my fallen friends after remembering that I forgot them in the last one.
"Respecting the dead? Good. They deserve to be remembered especially knowing they didn't deserve their deaths."
I couldn't agree with her more on that statement. None of them deserved to die in the way they had been killed. They all seemed to have died in the most painful way we could think of. I remember seeing one of the monsters walking around with human skin stretched over the body and torn in several places. It was one of the few things that has stayed in my mind for so long.
"I can see that you are deep in thought. If you are having trouble with the surface then we have a therapist. Also don't think we will stay down here forever. We plan to go back to the surface in a few decades at most."
I nodded before she started to show me around their underground world. It was like everything above, but somehow scaled down to fit in the sewer tunnels. I started to wonder what happened to all of the water and waste that was down here. I looked to ask, but she was already starting to answer.
"We blocked off parts of the tunnels and washed them down as we started to build around here. We built platforms over the tunnels that dropped straight down, and not without losing people in the process. It was sad to lose men and women, but we needed to get it done."
I kept my words to myself and just nodded to her. We finished the tour near the tunnel where the living quarters had been built. I was told to go find anywhere that didn't have a name written on the door already. I nodded and set off down the dim tunnel. Around the area people seemed to be okay with their living situation. I should be okay with it as well.
Not everything should seem so bad constantly when people like this seem to find a way to live on. I walked a mile down the tunnel before finding an empty living area. It was a small box room built from wood and some stone. Inside was a bed, a closet, and a radio with a cassette player on it. Beside it was a cassette the was labeled welcome home survivor. I placed it in the radio and hit play.
"Welcome to the new Mottie City population YOU! Here we are hoping to bring life to what is left of our people. Humanity will carry on after this war. We won't let it end here. We are too strong for that to happen.
Here in new Mottie City we will offer you many jobs, and we will offer many shops for you. We are trying to make sure it is just as close to before as we can get it to be. Hopefully you can offer a nice addition to this place to make it better for everyone including yourself. Thank you for coming to New Mottie City where we welcome you."
It was nice message to have, I guess. This felt like a good time to get a nap. I laid on the bed which was comfortable enough for me to get some sleep. That was until the sound of crumbling stone came from above and shook the tunnel around me.
How did these guys get any sleep. That statement made me laugh a bit as it happened again with the sound of an explosion echoed above along with gun fire. It sounded like a battle was raging above us. That was when someone came through the tunnel yelling for us to wake up and make our way to the lower tunnel. They wanted adults and teens to run the armory while kids went lower with their teachers. The elderly was also guided down to lower tunnels as well.
After going to the armory we had been given automatic rifles and makeshift bombs. The rule was we guard as long as we could and if we lost most of our soldiers we blow the tunnel that the enemy is coming down as that the children can be taken out of the emergency exit. In short we are the last line for these guys. We approached the only in and out exit left to the surface in Mottie City.
The fighting continued as we approached I could hear everyone taking deep breathes before forming our battle lines in the tunnels. Soldiers stayed out of direct lines of fires best they could without putting each others in possible friendly fire situations. The tunnel rumbled as the fighting started to die down above us. A metal on metal sound was heard as the manhole cover started to move. We ready our weapons as it pulled away sending down a blinding bright light with a metallic ping of something dropping onto the tunnel floor.