The following is a work of fiction. All characters participating in sexual activities are over 18. Any resemblance to real life persons is merely coincidental.
This story is part of a series and it is advised to read the story from the beginning as each chapter continues directly from the last.
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The Bunker Project
By: VanillaUnicorn
Chapter 7: Hot & Cold
Third Week of April 2024
After his quick romp with Madeline, Paul doubled down his efforts to talk to the women who had come into his life. It was proving a lot more difficult than he had ever imagined. It had been almost two months since his first sexual encounter with Ashlei and for whatever reason she seemed to be avoiding him whenever possible. Any time he would spot her out and about; she would quickly turn and disappear as soon as she saw him.
He was having an equally hard time reaching out to Sarah which seemed kind of odd too. Where the flow of racy pictures had been a constant daily occurrence prior to his four-way orgy with Amanda, Sarah, and Kristy, the messages had now seemed to stop as quickly as they had started. He had texted her back himself multiple times with each coming back with no reply. He knew she was reading them as each had shown as delivered and read on his end. Even calling proved to be fruitless since she never picked up.
He got the same silence from Cori and Kristy as well. Things didn't seem to be adding up. The only women who continued to have any communications with him were Alison and Jade. Madeline still talked to him but things seemed to have changed since their time at her place.
Alison had become a constant visitor to his suite. While things never went beyond anything more than casual flirting and the occasional make out session, he was cautious to talk to her about where things might have been going because he was afraid to scare her off and make her think that he was rushing her into something.
There was seemingly no one who shared his bed now. He could have easily invited Melisa over as she made it perfectly clear that she was still very interested and eager to join him but he wasn't so desperate to go down the path of sleeping with a married woman again. After the insane amounts of sex he had gotten over the last few months in the bunker, the lack of anything felt strange and it took very little for him to slump back into his old ways he had gotten used to over the years.
He had crossed paths with Danielle a few times but each time he would end up called away to deal with some minor problem in the bunker or she had some other place she needed to be before he could really talk to her more in depth about a possible future together. She still seemed genuinely interested in him but it seemed like there was something that she wasn't telling him that was holding her back.
It wasn't that he couldn't go without anything sexually, as he had proven he could go years in between things happening. It was more that something just felt off and it made it feel like there was something wrong with him. The way each of them and the female population of the bunker now looked at him, made him feel like he had done something wrong.
It certainly didn't help when just after releasing the last group from quarantine and preparing for the next arrivals, the temperature control in the bunker went haywire. Where the bunker was normally a comfortable seventy degrees throughout, it was now pushing into triple digits on a regular basis. They could turn everything off but being so far below the surface the temperature would've ended up in the low fifties to just above freezing, essentially taking things to the extreme in the opposite direction.
The most pressing issues that the increased heat would cause were the destruction of the majority of the bunker's crops and the possibility of mass deaths amongst the livestock that was housed down in the bunker. There had been some redundancy planned into the animal habitats which kept the temperature around 10 degrees lower than the rest of the bunker but it still wasn't enough to ensure the safety of the animals.
The residents did their best to try to stay cool. The heat had caused a lot to flock to the pool and large lake. Most dressed with as little as possible typically swim suits or some even in their underwear. Even the simplest walk amongst the paths of the bunker showed more skin than had been normal amongst everyone.
Work had crawled to a standstill which didn't make things any easier since they were due for another conference meeting with the corporate board in just a few days and they were quickly falling behind. It had initially been scheduled for the following week but got pushed up due to a few of the board members having other plans and needing it rescheduled.
Even Paul wasn't immune from the effects of the heat. He became a pretty common sight at the pool. While most had chosen to cool off in the lake due to its cooler water temperature, the pool was still more crowded than it normally would be. He was pretty disappointed that none of the times he was there at the pool that he didn't spot any of his lovers to possibly talk things over.
It was the second day of the heat wave, when Paul went to check on the livestock. The massive structure that housed all the animal habitats rivaled that of the main atrium in awe inspiring grandeur. While not as tall, the four story high building far outsized the main atrium when it came to expanse.
The bunker had collected plenty of cattle for use in both dairy and meat capacities. Their enclosure was the largest of the area, made up of bio-engineered grassland. It was all safe for the animals to eat and would have no residual effects that trickled over to the human residents. The sprinkler system mounted in the ceiling worked to create an artificial rain that not only watered the grass but also helped keep the animals cool. Due to the heat, the system was forced to run at twice its normal rate.
The next largest habitat in size was the one that was designed for the poultry. Farm chickens and turkeys filled the area and seemed to get along with each other so long as the food supply stayed adequate. The original plan had been to source wild game birds such as pheasants and ducks but none could be found in the outside world at a decent enough rate to make it feasible.
The main other habitat was two massively large aquariums that were filled with thousands if not millions of fish. The aquarium was easily the least difficult to maintain of the bunch as it was its own self-contained eco-system. The aquarium was maintained when necessary by a small platform that sat on top on the three story high massive pool and also served as the main method to collect fish.
The animal reserves had been carefully planned to feed everyone throughout the future and any failure might result in everyone eventually starving to death. It was imperative that something such as a large heat wave like what was currently happening to be closely monitored since they had no data to fall back on and if things failed now they could still resupply from the outside world if they needed to.
Thankfully they had employed some of the most knowledgeable biologists and zoologists that money could buy. Not only were the animals still remaining healthy but they seemed to be thriving in the underground habitats.
