I just finished engineering school on the east coast and my family and friends families all wanted to come together and celebrate our graduations when we came home. Everyone chipped in for booze and pizza and for a solid hour everything was nice and calm until people started to get their drink on.

Liquid courage caused two divorces, multiple counts of felony property damage, a drunk car crash with both vehicles ending up vertical in a Gazebo, Arson, and one family being banned from Dave and Busters for life. Funnily enough most of the damage was caused by the parents except for the Dave and Busters thing, that was my fault. The very next day while I was recovering from my hangover my apparently sober dad took me out into the mountains “Just in case” he said.

My dad was a doomsday prepper, made sure all of the equipment was up to date and the shelter was stocked full of water and food. He taught me how to survive by myself from a young age and taught me to hunt and all that. I never would have thought I would ever use these skills. We laid low in the mountains for a few days enjoying the crisp air when my dad went out to a nearby town for some supplies.

I wandered around the shelter aimlessly for a while. Because my dad installed shock absorbers to the shelter if it wasn’t for the bang I wouldn’t even know bombs were being dropped. By the time I managed to look outside everything was burning and massive craters lined what little of the horizon I could see. My dads drilling kicked in and I shut the shelters doors. Twenty years later they’ve never been opened.

I’ve been breathing the same recycled air for the past twenty years, drinking the same recycled water, eating recycled food.For the first month I used the satellite phone to see if anyone was still alive but it quickly became a way to still hear my families voices again. You never really think about how if someone has been gone for long enough you forget what they sound like until you accidentally ring a friends voicemail that you forgot the number for.

Life for a while really sucked, especially when you ring someone and their voice mail is “Hello, Hello. This is Kate, how are you?” And it really brings you how that there’s someone out there and that you’re talking to a real life person until the automatic operator takes over. Those were the most devastating times of my life

For twenty years it was the same routine over and over again and ended up creating a small phone book of the numbers I managed to call up. I would write stories about how they would look and what their average day would be like. I kept the bad thoughts away and passed the time which is really all I could ask for.

As my day was winding down and I made my last call for the night I heard a ringtone that I had never heard before. After a moment of shock and sprinted over to the phone like my life depended on it but the call was dropped. “I need better signal, I need better signal” I looked towards the sealed door. The moment I unseal it there’s no going back, there’s no way of knowing what’s outside waiting for me, for all I know I’m just floating through space but this life isn’t worth living. If I don’t try now I may never get another chance, and if I die, then at least for the first time in two decades, I lived.

I walked over to the controls, only used once. I input the override code and placed my hand on the switch. I closed my eyes and whispered “This is it” and pulled the switch. The seals opened and the door slowly pulled itself up. Instantly the smell of fresh real air almost overpowered me, the sight of real green vegetation, and real sunlight almost blinded me. I had lived everyday in a concrete box with a single led light separating me from darkness and here everything was , waiting for me just like it was twenty years ago.

I stepped outside and the dew covered grass hugged my calloused feet and I will without shame in my heart admit I dropped down to the ground like a dog and rolled around in it crying. I had to steel myself, I raced up the mountain calling the number back over and over as I climbed higher and higher. As I hit the top of the mountain where the satellite antenna stuck out I got a clear enough signal. After a few seconds the other phone picked up and in a act desperation said “Hello?”.