Day 1 - On or about June 21st, 2029

I am utterly alone.  It has been 5 years since I was forced down into the shelter and almost that long since the last radio contact with anyone was made.  I don't remember what I was doing that day in particular, but I remember my wife calling from her celular phone saying she was on her way home and for me to get into the shelter and wait.  In a way, I am still waiting.  I have decided to create this journal in the hopes that maybe someday, someone will find it and my life will have meant something. 

I am not sure if this will mean anything to anyone that finds these entries but I will try to describe what happened to the best of my ability.  Apparently back in 2024 someone or some organization gained posession of a supervirus of some sort.  I am not quite sure what it was or what it did but I do know it killed within just a few hours.  I seem to remember watching one of the cable news giants when the story broke.  Some people had obtained the virus, infected themselves with it, and went to different airports around the globe to spread the infection before they themselves died.

It spread like wildfire.  The best I can tell, at least a day had gone by before all the governments put two and two together and by then it was too late.  My wife was in California on business when I called her.  I told her not to get on a plane but to rent a car and head home.  Trouble is I think that she had already been to the airport and was probobaly already infected.  She never made it to the shelter so I imagine she died somewhere between California and Louisiana.  It is a long drive, maybe she wasn't infected but got killed somehow in the madness that ensued after the announcement was made on television. 

I watched until all of the stations went dark.  There were continuing news stories for a couple of days followed by mostly military messages looped over and over.  Apparently, martial law was enforced but once the soldiers started dying, it was only a matter of time before that didn't matter anymore. 

A little about the shelter.  When my wife and I bought this house, the shelter was already here.  It was top of the line for its time.  It had the latest power cell, a water treatment / producing plant, and a stockpile of dehydrated food.  It was all included in the deal and of course my wife being the paranoid person she was, loved the fact that the house had a built in shelter.  I guess her paranoia was justified.

The shelter is around 500 square feet with an additional 200 square feet of storage space.  There is only one door in or out for obvious reasons and as far as I can remember it was about 2 feet thick.  The bunker itself is made up of a combination of kevlar polymer and concrete.  The filtration system is charcoal and .  The power system was designed to last around 5 years and is comming to the end of its cycle.  The lights flicker now and again which reminds me of my impending departure. 

I am unsure what I may find up there but I know I don't really have a choice.  I can either stay here and suffocate for sure, or leave and take a chance on getting the virus or who knows what else that could happen to me once I get up there.  Maybe I will get lucky and everything will be back to normal.  I could sure use some Burger Town or Fish Mart.  If I never see another MRE (Meal Ready To Eat) again as long as I live, it will be too soon.  That is all I have had to eat for the last 5 years and my appearance shows it.  I have become very thin and even though I excercise daily, have lost a lot of my muscle mass.  I have been forced to eat only one MRE for the last few months as I overate them when I first got down here.  If my wife had made it, we would have been forced to leave earlier as the food supply would have been drained. 

It would be interesting to know everything about this bunker as it was very well designed.  Trouble is, I left the manual in the house and was not about to go out to get it a week later when I realized what I had done.  I wonder, for example, where does my bathrooom waste go?  How do the air filters work?  Where does the power for this place come from?  All good questions that I am sure are explained in the book.  Oh well, perhaps I will look for it when I leave. 

I often wonder to myself, have I gone mad?  Am I down here for no reason?  Did the end of the world really happen?  Am I in a coma and dreaming all of this? 

I guess I will find out in a couple of days when I open the door and walk outside to meet whatever fate awaits me.  Tomorrow I think I will go ahead and leave.  I need to create a listing of the things I want to take with me.  I am unsure if I will be able to find anyone alive but if I do I wonder what they will be like.  Will they be happy to see me?  Try to kill me on sight?  All kinds of questions are spinning in my head.  I need to sleep for a while.  I will update the journal tomorrow.