A Bow to Fate

"ugh. Damn"

I found myself walking miles just to get back. I never brought a car with me in the first place 'cause who would've thought I'd do what I did. The launch was successful by the way. Thinking of them in a safer place felt really good. Anyway, I needed answers and I think I knew where to find them but I was too tired. I hadn't slept an hour. My stomach was starting to act up. The sky was still dark but it was already an hour past five. Cold winds started to blow. As I walked further, it blew harder and harder that I could hear it whistle. I had a bad feeling about it. With the current conditions of the planet, storms might already be lethal. I needed a place to stay and wither the incoming storm. But all there were were ruins. Piles of unstably stacked rubble, abandoned cars that looked like crumpled colored tin cans, and a bridge.

"Yes! That's it. That bridge could hold."

I ran as fast as I could towards underneath the bridge. As soon I got there I searched for parts of it that I could hold on to and held on to them quickly. My heart was racing. It was the first time I had seen a storm so enormous and vile. Its dark clouds were totally covering the approaching Sun. Thunders roared as if they were vicious lions in the sky. The wind harassed everything that was on her way. From afar, a series of lightning started to randomly hit the ground. It's as if Zeus came down personally to congratulate me for possibly making the biggest mistake of my life. Thinking of which, holding on to a metal bridge on a lightning storm might be a good addition to the list.

So I panicked knowing I'm in a really bad situation. While I was doubting and freaking out.

I heard a voice...

"Hey! Kid."

I looked at him and looked around.

"Yes you! Who else? Hop in! Quick!"

A guy riding a speedboat invited me to my surprise. A blessing in disguise! I hurried to his boat and we rode off. A few minutes later the lightning storm reached the bridge and crushed it in half.

"Whew" I sighed thinking of how close I was to death.

"You're welcome, kid." He uttered as he maneuvered the speedboat around floating debris in the river trying to outrun the storm.

"Y-Yeah, thanks a lot."

"Are you out of your mind?" He asked me. The guy was wearing a black tank top and military pants and boots. Approximately in his fifties. His hair was trimmed and white. Also had white beard all over his face. Bruises and scars covered his arms and back. It's safe to say that he's a soldier. A highly skilled one.

"Not that I--"

"You shouldn't be out in the open during storms of this caliber. It kills. I saw it with my own eyes. It carries monstrous winds that could lift trucks, shitload of rain, and killer lightning. I lost a lot of my men yesterday trying to evacuate the people nearby. The government opened a bunker not far from here. That's where we're heading."

"So sorry for your loss."

A minute of silence transpired before everything he said sunk in me.

"Wait. So the government already knew this would happen?"

He nodded.

"Apparently, but they never predicted it would happen sooner than they thought. Explains how things around us are so fucked up" He added.

Moments later we arrived in a dark cave below the hill; east of the city. He turned right precisely as if his eyes were capable of seeing in the dark. Noise from some sort of mechanisms echoed inside the cave and a giant door opened right in front of us. We entered it and the ground beneath us elevated until the water from the river was completely drained. To my surprise, the speedboat then grew wheels.

"Wew, I gotta hand it to the government. I never thought the Philippines had some cool stuff up its sleeves"

"Well, remember "Build, Build, Build project"? They weren't just roads, and bridges. They were preparing for something bigger. An excellent move from the former president."

"This is some bunker you have in here. By the way I'm Joe. Joe Madrid."

"Welcome to Bunker 9, Joe. Call me Simon"

As the hybrid car went in, my eyes were amused by how big the place was inside. It was like a hangar for 𝑮𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒎𝒔 or a hangar for 𝑱𝒂𝒆𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒔 in 𝑷𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄 𝑹𝒊𝒎 if you're not that versed in anime. It has several floors above but you can see the ceiling if you're standing in the center of the bunker. Quite the architecture. Moving forward, there were quite a lot of people too busy going here and there. Some of them were welding boats, some gathered in a place and seemed like they were planning, some were working up above welding the interiors. Simon seemed to notice my curiosity...

"Yeah, as I've mentioned. It's one of the newest bunkers so it's quite not finished yet. People are working their asses day and night to make sure this place is tight. C'mon, I'll show you around."

"By the way, what do you do, kid? Are you a student? Working two part-time jobs?" He asked while we were walking further into the bunker.

Wow, I didn't know if I'd take that as a compliment or an insult. Am I really that young-looking? so I just smiled and...

"I'm a senior research specialist at WCE"

"Say what again?" He stopped walking and he turned to me.

"I work in WCE. At the software research department."

His eyes enlarged out of disbelief.

It's as if he saw a ghost as he grazed upon me.

"WCE as in that skyscraper? Along the rotunda beside the river?"

"Yea."

"So you're a techy guy? You could be a great help down here. Great! uhm. Follow me. There's someone I'd like you to meet. You see, the place is barely even done. We'll really need all the help we can get." He got pumped up.

"Hehe, don't get your hopes up high. I'll see what I can do." That awkward smile I gave.

The bunker goes deep down underneath the city. It had wide and well-lit hallways. People had started to live comfortably below the ground. Kids were running and playing street games like nothing worse ever happened recently. Their resiliency was quite a refreshing view. They kind of reminded me of when I was a kid.

The air was abundant and breathable even claustrophobic people could live down there. Simon took me to an open area where they culture food and livestocks.

"Hey Dr. Steve, this is Joe. I happened to meet him on the surface. He works in WCE and I thought he might be of help with our current dilemma."

"Dilemma?" I wondered.

"Nice knowing you, Joe. Although yes, we grow our own food but with the number of occupants here today. The supply wouldn't be enough due to low frequency of production that cannot meet the demand and shortage of other factors needed like power, irrigation, sunlight, and others. The scarcity led government to pass down a decree stating all individuals in this bunker should only eat twice a day due to the state of our food supply until further notice"

"And how long until the current supply is fixed?" I was worried.

"Well, they said that they would send out a team to fix this problem. Given the conditions of the world, a solution within a year would be a miracle. We can't wait for that long. People are gonna starve and chaos may erupt."

"That's why we go out and scavenge any useful materials and edible food to help make up for the shortage." Simon added.

"I'm a botanist and a food engineer at the same time. I have plans laid out for the production but we don't have the technology to make it work. We need people like you. So will you help us?"

This was definitely a delay in my quest of trying to save the world or at least contribute to saving it but leaving them in the dark kind of defeats my purpose...

"Yes, but I need your help too..."

"Sure. Anything." Dr. Steve replied.

"After we solve this problem, I need to safely reach WCE from here and I need a buddy while I'll stay there."

"But why? The building is already torned down to pieces. I've seen it with my own eyes, kid. If it's something with sentimental value that you forgot in there, just forget it. It's much safer here. It would be suicide if you go on the surface randomly." Simon reacted.

"It's more than that. I can't get into details 'cause I think it would sound crazy if I say it. I need an assurance before we get started here."

Their eyes were shouting suspicion as they looked at each other. It took a minute or two...

"I'll go. But I swear if this is just for some petty things, you'll gotta get one from me, kid." Simon uttered.

"It's a deal then. Let me get the plan I made. Let's meet up in the mess hall in about thirty minutes." Dr. Steve hurried getting his things and went somewhere.

Simon and I proceeded further. I looked around and I saw people wearing white suits checking the plants and animals. I believe they're with Dr. Steve. After a long hallway was a large circular area with tables and chairs. A lot of people were lining up towards multiple counters.

"This is were we eat." Simon said.

A siren sounded and and more people came to the area. From all walks of life they lined up. The food was given in rations. Half potato and corn soup for breakfast for everyone. The next meal would be dinner and would probably be the same thing. Their eyes sparkled in every spoonful of soup they ingest, in every bite of potato, in every gulp of tap water.

"You see it now?" Simon bumped his shoulder to mine.

I nodded.

"Good" Simon said.

[𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎𝚍]