HOPE

Hope dies last... so much so that it transcends 

the one who had it.

Anonymous

The construction took three years, a long time for a simple structure, but it is not so simple, it is the size of a stadium, 78 levels deep and more than 400 meters each; we have everything, the factories nearby were mutilated, all our professionals adapted their skills and the surrounding parts to give them a new turn of work. 

The thermal plants (buried under all the factories) had some of their generated energy diverted, all the solar panels and wind sails were adapted, we built 200 meters from a water vein and we have enough storage and recirculation capacity to support the families for a long term.

The families in question belong to the most reactionist groups they all have skills and knowledge, thanks to a renegade director we have the funds and land for the project; we all know of a violence that is coming, we do not plan to stop it, we are too few, so we will train and educate our children and their children's children so that they can grow up in a healthy environment and learn everything they need to survive.

The door is doubly reinforced, before crossing it I saw it as the entrance to heaven, of a sturdiness capable of resisting all the spoiled children in the world. With such a perfect capsule we have great capacity and we take advantage of it, there are entire rooms with farm animals and entertainment; two floors full of crops with ultra violet lamps for their growth; the medical area is superb; our schools are the envy because we try to give everyone a minimum knowledge of life and what awaits them. It is a comprehensive preparation, they will know how to use the resources and make the most of them, our offspring will dominate.

Four years later...

It's a bad day for us, the fauna and flora are dying on us; the crops too, nothing we checked seems to make sense, we all know we are doing the right thing, no one glimpses a way out, the water in the subway canals shows clean, no bacteria or parasites and completely absent of hard or radioactive metals. Our hope was the stored water, apparently that is better and keeps our crops alive, the hard part was the removal of all unnecessary plants and animals for recreation or for their unique value: pandas, penguins, eagles and others were culled to save resources.

Ten years later...

Now I am one of the last of my age, every time one of us is over 60 years old they test us: they force us to drink water from the canal, trying to find one of us who could resist its poison.

The great slaughter of the animals would not prevent the loss of water, so all the parents decided to consume the food resulting from the sacrifices. One bastard came up with the idea that if they were going to die and that apparently only the water contained the toxin, they should be dried and recycled; the idea horrified us, but it was the only way to contain the putrefaction that would proliferate in such a limited space, besides, many had children, many children; what in principle would be fertilizer for the plants, after long discussions became the basic diet of the infants.

We have many children learning and much to do, but we are slowly running out of adults, there are 400 of us per housing block in a population of more than 12,000; the radio outside the citadel is useless and we have no communication with anyone. When we tried to open, the lock indicated that we are still too many. The computer specialists reviewed the code and discovered that there was a condition to open the lock: we had to be less than 1,000.

Indefinite time...

We are left with only chemists, biologists and geneticists; there are two computer scientists who survive, no more, not a single mechanic or industrial engineer; on the other hand, the children are excellent, they learn very well and fast, we use the abandoned documents as well as possible; for our safety we have closed several plants and we live as close to the surface as possible. My birthday is coming up. I know what it means: everyone hugs me and kisses my cheeks, here at the tunnel entrance they say goodbye and leave me...the air smells damp and I am probably less than 50 meters from the stream, although there is lighting in the corridor we left it off on purpose, to give a more ceremonial air; however, listening to the music of the water running unimpeded and free I cannot suppress a tear, because that is what we are supposed to create this place for, to be free from oppression. As there is no point in complicating my life, I undress and running, I dive into the water: it is delicious and I drink it. Simple, fresh water, with a sweet taste that our recycled water supply does not have.

When I regain my sense of time, more than two hours have passed. 

I rush out and run to the hallway, everyone is waiting for me, no one reproaches me for looking all wrinkled by the water and with a smile half covered by my wet hair, some even look at me with envy and give me my only request... a spoonful of jam; I feel like in the movies I managed to rescue from old times, they used to show them a lot to make fun of the people who did not accept the sedition against the companies. While I run my tongue through a substance that from being vulgar became coveted, I wonder why everyone is looking at me and I notice that I see them sideways; it is incredible, I am lying on the floor and I did not even notice; the funny thing is that I am a thin old man because of the diet here, however I can be used to feed the younger and my brain will serve to recirculate the information, even my bacteria will be used, we are less but we are still the same amount. Even the water is recovered, since once the person dies their blood can be filtered and they will have a drink of what I lived in that stream, surrounded by what we miss the most? I guess I'm dead, aren't I? That's the hope I guess.