Hope
(Image Description: This image depicts a striking post-apocalyptic scene featuring the word “HOPE” in bold, golden lettering overlaid on a desolate urban landscape. The image shows the skeletal remains of skyscrapers and buildings shrouded in a hazy, sepia-toned atmosphere, with dramatic rays of sunlight breaking through the gloom from above.)
Hope
Bunker 231, Zone 4 - Nevada: Status Update, July 9, 2049
Johns had to suit up and go outside today. The solar array for the particle analyzer went down. It’s the first time anyone’s been outside in nearly seven years. To say tensions were high is an understatement. We followed all of the standard decontamination protocols, but if I’m being honest, we hadn’t exactly kept up with the training.
The maintenance crew met at 0700 this morning to argue over who would go outside. Many of them felt that Thomas should go, since he’s the only one who had been out before. However, the medical staff raised some concerns about repeated exposure and in the end, Johns drew the short straw.
We got him in the enviro suit and then into the air lock, which we subsequently switched over to its own air system. Opening the outer door was simple, calm - no woosh of vacuum like you see in old sci-fi vids of airlocks in space. We still have an atmosphere, just not a healthy one.
He made the 150 yard trek to the solar array for the particle analyzer and what he found is the reason I’m broadcasting this to all other bunkers in the region. Grass. He saw grass! It wasn’t much, just a few patchy areas, but this is the first indication we’ve found that life is returning here. Hopefully, in a few more generations, we’ll be able to walk on the surface again.
As you can imagine, this instantly changed the mood around here. There’s a little bit more hope now. Even Johns came back smiling, despite the harsh chemicals from the decon process that will leave him with nausea and dizziness for the next several days.
I’m left with a bittersweet feeling. The return of plant life is exciting, reassuring, and proof that life endures and that one day we’ll walk on the surface of our planet once more. However, it will still be decades after I’m fertilizing the hydroponics garden. It’s hope mixed with anger. In a way, I’ve never felt more trapped.
So spread the word. We have plant life.
I just hope that when this world grows back, we don’t tear it down again – that our children don’t do what our ancestors did to us.