Survival Bunker System Developer

Ghoul Town

“My boy!”

Caleb grinned and bent down so that his foster father could hug him.

Lewis stood by the side awkwardly. He didn’t think that the strange engineer would be acquainted with their saviour but he withheld his opinions. Alan Gomez was a very capable engineer and some of the engineers working in the water plant have heard of the man.

“Why did you come? I thought you left the city.”

Alan rolled his eyes. “I did! I thought you would leave the city too but as soon as I saw your advertisement I came back. Why didn’t you leave this ghoul town? No matter how capable you are, you can’t save everyone.”

Caleb remained silent. He knew that Alan was right. “I had to try. If I failed, it’s a good thing too. I can finally reunite with my parents.”

The eccentric engineer didn’t say anything and took a good look at Caleb. “You’re not yourself.”

Laughing at the first thing Lewis commented on, Caleb wondered if there was anything he could hide from his foster father. His parents passed away when he was eighteen and Alan had cared for him ever since then. They worked together on several projects over the last ten years and Caleb lived with Alan for a while before he moved out to become independent.

Like Caleb, Alan was a freelancer. His engineering knowledge and skills were one of the world’s best and it was said that this man declined NASA’s invitation to work with them. Alan preferred to fly around and help companies troubleshoot strange problems. He dealt with any kind of machinery and despite being in his fifties, continued to learn and improve.

“I suppose having to save humanity made me a little more tense than I usually am.”

Alan didn’t comment right away but he had a lot of questions. Caleb waited for the man to settle down with a cup of coffee before telling him what he told Helen. He even demonstrated some of the system’s abilities to the engineer who became fascinated by what the Survival Bunker System could do. However, throughout their conversation, Caleb never once mentioned Helen’s involvement.

“I understand. There is definitely more than what you just told me but I won’t pry the details from you. If you posted a recruitment notice, you must have some sort of plans already.”

“That’s right,” Caleb nodded. “I intend to add a distillation chamber to the treated wastewater so that the survivors can have access to drinkable water. According to my previous memory, the government will cut the power and water supply in a month from now. The only problem I have now is thinking of a way to link the distilled water to the city’s pipelines so that it reaches the taps of the subway bunkers in Manhattan and shelters in the other boroughs.”

The engineer thought for a while and asked if he could have a detailed map of the city’s underground links. Lewis came back with the map and called for all the engineers to gather around for an impromptu meeting.

While the experts talked, Caleb remained silent and listened. He felt slightly out of place not knowing the meaning as jargons flew past his head. The discussion lasted for nearly thirty minutes with the water plant engineers giving Alan an overview of the facility and how it worked. They also pointed at some intersections on the map that Lewis brought and explained how the sewage system worked. While nobody was very sure about how the water pipes worked, the brief information and drawings of the underground map gave Alan the inspiration he needed.

“Thank you gentleman,” Alan smiled. “I understand how the underground map works now. Just a question. Who came up with the design of the distillation chamber?”

A man in his late forties raised his hand. “I did. I have a master degree in Water and Wastewater Technology. While it isn’t the best, this is what we can do for now given the constraints in manpower and materials needed. The treated wastewater is directly poured into the East River so we hanged that design over here to make it fit but there isn’t an outlet yet.”

Alan looked over the design and nodded. Indeed, the design was complete and functional even if it didn’t maximise efficiency. The most puzzling point of the design was the lack of an outlet for the distilled water.

“I see. How were you intending to store the distilled water without an outlet?”

Lewis pointed to a huge metal structure. “We intended to empty one of the wastewater chambers and clean it to store the distilled water.”

Alan nodded, impressed with how much such a small team could do. “I believe there isn’t much of a problem although we will need to tweak the chamber’s design a little. As for the issue of distributing the water, I think you can rest easy for now. Caleb, can your system build new structures easily in the special bunkers?”

Caleb checked the settings and frowned. “Not easily but it should be possible. I just couldn’t do it before because it took too many resources and I didn’t have a good design to submit to the system to implement the changes. What are you thinking about?”

Alan didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he borrowed a pencil and marked out several spots on the map.

“These are the intersections that are important to guard. Most of the city’s water runs in the new aqueducts. The only place that isn’t connected is Staten Island and some of the older parts in Manhattan. We can easily re-weld the water pipes to connect with the new aqueducts for Manhattan and Staten Island but I will need about two days to complete the linking. The more crucial part is joining the nearest aqueduct to the distillation tank after the wastewater has been emptied from the chamber. I cannot build an aqueduct from nothing. It’s not the same as cutting parts of the other pipes and welding them to connect it to a different pipe.”

Caleb listened to his foster father’s concerns and smiled. “You’re in charge now. How can we make that happen? Leave the connecting aqueduct from the tank to the pipes to the system but I will require a very detailed drawing of the aqueduct and the location before changes can be implemented.”

Grins could be seen on everyone’s faces and their eyes were filled with hope once more. Alan looked at Caleb and gave him a pat on the back. “I’ll give the drawing and details in a few days. I’ll need some time to close off the water supply to those pipes and weld those intersections to the new connection. Some households are going to be without water for a while.”

“Not a problem,” Caleb said. “Let me know which neighbourhoods are affected and I’ll announce it on my blog.”

Lewis helped Caleb and Alan mark out the affected districts while the other engineers finished their food and prepared to start emptying a wastewater chamber to get it cleaned. Assembling the distillation chamber was put off for now until Alan came up with a better design so Caleb took back all the materials and sacrificed them to the system.

Watching Caleb demonstrate the system’s abilities was very different from hearing it. Alan was interested in what else the Survival Bunker System could do. At the same time, he was dying to ask what else Caleb was planning. His student and foster son didn’t look tense for no good reason. While the burden of needing to save humanity is heavy for anyone, Caleb really wasn’t the kind of person to stress over responsibility. There had to be something beyond Caleb’s capabilities that was bothering him. The system developer lived by a motto of being content with what he had. He might lead an uneventful life and take on challenging jobs but Caleb was never shaken or stressed. This time, Alan was sure about it. The only time he’d seen Caleb look so overwhelmed and lost was when he lost both his parents while he was still in school.

After everyone left for the day, Caleb offered Alan a ride back to one of his bunkers. Alan was the first resident in his bunkers and the man was impressed with how well designed the bunkers were.

He sat down and told Caleb to stay. “Let’s catch up a little. It’s been years since I last saw you in person. Have you been well?”

Caleb sighed. Alan was still as sharp as ever. The man wasn’t fooled by his behaviour. No matter how busy Caleb tried to be, there were still nightmares bothering him about the uncertain future. So far, the future had deviated a little with his interference and looked slightly more hopeful but only Caleb knew the truth. The awakened ghoul would mark the end of humanity all over again and the bunkers that can save ten thousand lives would not be enough.

Right now, New York City’s ghoul count was at its lowest since the start of the apocalypse but Caleb knew it wouldn’t last for long. The second wave of ghouls will appear soon after the stores were depleted of food. There was so much to be done but Caleb was only one person. It was difficult for him to manage everything alone even if he was capable.

“Aren’t you asking me what I’m up to?” Caleb asked.

His foster father shook his head. “I believe that you know what you’re doing. I didn’t come back to this ghoul town to lecture you. I’m here to lend you support because you sound like you need it. Saving humanity shouldn’t be the responsibility of one person but God is often unfair. Still, I’m happy that I still have you in this life.”

Hearing that, Caleb closed his eyes so that they wouldn’t betray his emotions. The fear he felt and the regrets he had after dying in his previous life kept haunting him. Hearing how Alan thought about him now that he had a second chance made Caleb want to cry but he hadn’t done that ever since the death of his parents.

“Say, what else do you need help with? I’m here now. Even if I don’t have the system, I can still do my part for humanity. The water pipeline and distillation chamber design is simple for someone like me. Surely as the head engineer, I will be assigned something more challenging.”

Caleb thought about it. “There is a job for you but not yet. The army hasn’t fully pulled out so I need to wait a little longer. My current goal is to tear down all the useless structures in the city and sacrifice them to the system as resources to build other things like farms. However, I need your help to run between the water plant and the power plant to keep it going so that the other survivors in New York City can still fight it out without my help. My bunkers can only host ten thousand people but the number of people in the city exceeds a hundred thousand.”

“The Lord says not to worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry for itself. You do what you can within your limits. If you can save ten thousand from the hundred thousand then you should choose the ten thousand that will do humanity proud so that the others who were not selected wouldn’t suffer in vain.”

Alan’s words of wisdom undid a heavy knot in Caleb’s heart. “Thank you. I guess for now I will do my best to continue offering advice with the blog while doing what I do best to select the ten thousand bunker survivors. I can’t do the farm now so it will have to wait. One last thing. Can I trouble you to create my automated assistants and improve them?”

“Automated assistants?”

Caleb grinned and pulled out a picture of his first design that he snapped with his phone. I’m sure you’ve passed by some of these guys while you were on your way over. I designed them but they’re not very efficient.”

Alan made a face. “Is this from Wall-E? They’re rather cube-like.”

The comment and on-point reference made Caleb burst into laughter. “It’s cute, isn’t it? I wanted to be reminded that there is still hope for humanity. Imagine if the survivors saw one of these running around and remembered the reference to the movie.”

Alan shook his head with a fond smile as Caleb rambled on about the other things he had to do while giving his foster father a tour of the bunker. The one thing that impressed Alan the most was how the fridge can restock itself but the dishes won’t do themselves.

“You can’t have the cake and eat it too,” Caleb chided and Alan sulked.

“Damn. I thought that after so many years someone would invent a wife but technology hasn’t advanced all that much. What a shame.”

Caleb blinked and the two men exchanged looks before bursting out into laughter.