Isotope

PROLOGUE

World War Three lasted 24 hours.

Elections during the 2020s and 2030s were all contentious, with reason defeating chaos by embarrassingly slim margins. Once the polarizing leader of the Take America Back (TAB) Party died in a Georgia prison in 2026, it was expected that the movement he fomented would lose steam, and the cult would disband. While their numbers did recede, their fervor only intensified, with ever more would-be dictators attempting to seize power within the faction. In 2027, the TAB Party rebranded themselves as the Party of Constitutional Perfection, completely oblivious to the ridicule their initials invited. They believed the country would function better under the strict rules of the original Constitution, before the days of that annoying Bill of Rights.

Their platform wanted to return the country to strict adherence to the laws and mores of the 1770s, when the document was drafted. The issue for the rest of the country was that at that time, blacks were enslaved, women had no rights, the handicapped were left to die, only wealthy white men could own property or vote, and that property often include women and blacks. There was little appetite to return to this unenlightened timeframe.

The PCP kept trying to force their agenda onto the nation at large. Finally, their extremism was soundly and decisively defeated once and for all in the 2040 election cycle. The PCP vowed that that would be the last time. They took action, bringing the country to the brink of civil war and the world to a stalemate.

One week before Inauguration Day, 2041, the PCP sent thousands of heavily armed soldiers to 200 ICBM missile sites all at once, and in a fell swoop, took control of the missile sites. They had programmers able to quickly reprogram the warheads to target major metropolitan areas in the US, all of which had been deemed "Un-American liberal cesspools". Their demands were simple: Throw out the results of the recent election and on Inauguration Day, install their candidate for a 10-year term, or face annihilation of the godless blue cities. Tens of millions would die.

The PCP had control of the missiles, while the Federal Government had the hard-wired controls, but was effectively locked out of over-riding the new coordinates. The only recourse would be to deactivate the compromised missiles, but that would leave the US vulnerable to attack by an increasingly belligerent Russia. Going into the weekend before Inauguration Day, the world held its breath as the United States faced down a nuclear civil war.

At noon on Saturday before Inauguration Day, every screen in the United States lit up with the face of the British Prime Minister. "To the terrorists currently holding hostage the United States nuclear arsenal, carrying out your plans would not only destroy the so-called 'Blue Cities' you so detest, but the entire country as well as the rest of the world. This cannot be allowed to happen. Therefore, in cooperation with the

lawfully

elected President of the United States, please know that every conventional warhead in Western Europe is aimed at your locations. Surrender to the federal forces outside your door or all your locations will be fired upon simultaneously. Since this will result in the destruction of America's defenses, the Russian Federation should be aware that every

nuclear

warhead in the Chinese and EU arsenal is aimed at Russian sites as a deterrent against opportunism. This is not a negotiation. You have one hour to surrender." The screen went black.

Less than two minutes later, the largest single barrage in the history of war itself, of satellite-guided conventional missiles rained down on 200 nuclear sites with surgical precision, killing almost all the PCP forces with minimal destruction of the silos. Included in the barrage were newly designed bunker busting EMP bombs that disabled all electronics, including the hardened and shielded circuitry of the nuclear weapons and the launch systems.

America's missiles were rendered inoperable, so the cities were safe from the terrorist threat of the PCP. The Russian Federation complained mightily, but the Chinese missiles trained on their cities kept them at bay. Virtually all the PCP terrorists were killed. All who were apprehended were processed into undisclosed locations by the end of the day. None of them were ever heard from again. None of the PCP leadership survived the missile attack. By Executive Order, the PCP Party was classified as a terrorist organization and a 'Clear And Present Danger to the U. S.', and federally elected PCP politicians were immediately removed from office and charged with High Treason. The outgoing President had worked with European and Chinese Heads of State to bring a swift and decisive end to the crisis, and had invoked the War Powers Act to be able to deal with the threats unilaterally. The whole operation lasted less than 24 hours, at which time he ended the War Powers Act, just in time for America's vaunted 'Peaceful Transition of Power.'

The President was lauded for how he handled the crisis. Some wanted to brand him a war criminal for his brutal and ruthless treatment of US citizens. PCP deaths were in the thousands. The number of Renditions was never disclosed, but is rumored to be in the thousands as well. To his critics, his oft repeated statement was, "They had our nukes, they had to die. I don't regret a thing." In later interviews, he said, "The moment they stepped into the nuclear installations with hostile intent, they declared nuclear war on the United States. Because of the millions of innocents they were prepared to murder, leniency was not an option, and a stern message needed to be sent to future extremists."

The results were impressive. Extremism was finally put down. With the noise makers and obstructionists finally out of the way, America entered a new era of peaceful cooperation and friendly competition with the rest of the world. As a result, scientific development exploded, creating a truly golden age for Humanity. With all of humanity working together, energy shortage, poverty, hunger, even, to a large degree, racism, were finally overcome. Even citizens in North Korea finally rose up and overthrew the Kim regime that had ruled for over a century. The first act of their new democratic government was Korean reunification. Mankind began reaching for the stars again. A joint effort between the US and Europe had already visited Mars twice, and now had plans for permanent colonization. China was well underway in building a scientific habitat on the Moon.

After 120 years of uninterrupted human progress on all fronts, an interstellar asteroid threatened to end the species.

2160 AD

Zoey Xander grunted in frustration. "Ugghhh! I wanna get out of this place! It's been a whole year now! We have all these dead bodies inside here and it's hard for me, knowing that they're down there! But if we go outside, the radiation will kill us! Ughhh!" She sobs in frustration.

"Come here, sweetheart. Give me a hug. It'll make you feel better," says James Xander, opening his arms to his distraught daughter.

She came towards him and he enclosed her in his arms. She cried into his chest, letting out all her emotions.

"That's it. Let it all out," he says soothingly

She continued to sob and let out her frustration and sadness.

"I know it's been a year," she says, "and I should be able to let go, but WHY? Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't we have a normal life? A meteor?! A meteor ended the world? What, like we're dinosaurs?!"

He smiled in spite of himself, and squeezed his daughter and rubbed his hand up and down on her back. That had always soothed her before, and it seemed to be working now as well...

"Yes, it's been a year. Your mother and brother are gone, and all our friends are dead, some of them right here in our bunker. In that year we haven't seen a sign of anybody else. As far as we know, we may be the last man and woman on the planet. I would never want something like this to happen, but if I had to be the last man, and there's only one woman left on the planet, I'm happy it's you."

Zoey smiled at her father as we wiped her tears away. "I love you, dad. Thank you for always being there for me."

"I always will be. You know, I have an idea that might cheer you up," said James.

"What is it?"

"As far as the meteor and its fallout are concerned, it's been a year, and I think that what's going to happen has happened. Somehow despite it all, you and I are perfectly healthy. So I'm sick and tired of wasting away in here. Let's take the next few days and clear out all this death and finally turn this place into a home. The shelter has everything we need. Everything is running at peak performance. Hydroponics, water reclamation, food replication, the Table-Top, it's all good. Let's stop existing and start trying to live again. What do you think?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Let's get to work! I can't wait to see this place turn into a home! Where do we start?"

"It's pretty morbid but we need to clear out the, well, the mausoleum. I... I can do that by myself if you want."

"What are you gonna do?" she asked, so quietly that he almost didn't hear her.

He just breathed in and shook his head gently.

"You shouldn't have to do that on your own," she said, her eyes tearing up.

"Yeah, and you shouldn't have to do something like that at all," he said.

"Why? Because I'm a girl?"

"Yes, because you're a girl. This isn't girl's work, and I hope it never is." He turned and walked away. "Just start deciding what we want to throw away, okay?" he added as he turned the corner and left.

These vaults had been funded and built by the Governments of the world as soon as the meteor was confirmed to be on a collision course with Earth. NASA and the US Space Force, along with the Global Space Alliance had all confirmed that the object would impact with Earth in less than 19 months, and there was nothing on Earth that could stop it.

As it got closer and NASA could do more precise measurements, it was found that the meteor was smaller than expected. Subsequently, people broke into two camps: One group believed that the meteor would end life as we know it. The other believed it was no big deal... a few days of dust, maybe some inconvenient cellular disruption and that would be it. Both sides had respected scientists supporting their opinion. The stakes were dire: The world had no way to destroy or deflect the asteroid. The world collectively decided to hedge its bets in two directions.

They poured money into the Planetary Relocation initiative, also known as the Mission to Mars. Massive spaceships were built not to go and come back, but to go there, land if possible, and stay if they could. Nothing was guaranteed, and scientists, builders, architects, and other professionals from around the world were considered and welcomed. If successful, humanity might live on, on Mars, though casualties were expected.

The other initiative was to give humanity on earth their best shot at survival. Stay here and ride out the nuclear winter in self-sustaining bunkers. The technology was certainly there. The Japanese had provided the world clean, plentiful, and practically free electricity when they perfected cold fusion. The United States eliminated hunger by perfecting hydroponic farming, increasing yields by hundreds of per cent. A Russian lab tech working at a Texas meat packing company cracked the code to make plant-based meats indistinguishable from actual animal flesh. And that early version of 3-D printing from the 21

st

Century had finally matured, and Table-Top Workshops, could create anything you could program, from clothes, to tools, to complex machine parts. If you needed it, it could make it, typically in 5 minutes or less.

Contractors building the bunkers were heavily incentivized by the governments of the world. For those that felt the Believers were right, and that the world would be destroyed, their payment for building bunkers was guaranteed seats on the Mars initiative for themselves and their families. For builders who felt the world would stand, and believed that riches would be valuable in a post-meteor world, they were paid handsomely, in gold. The incentives worked. Thousands of bunkers were built. The Non-Believers had prevailed and taken hold, and most people opted to stay at home and tape up their windows and doors to keep out any 'interplanetary radiation.' Believers signed up in droves, and most bunkers had extra room.

Sato Yamasato had been a brilliant software engineer before the Impact. His skills allowed him to make machines do things that were indistinguishable from magic. His daughter Kiri was a mechanical engineer. Between her ability to fashion practically any tool or machine, and his ability to breathe life into it via software, the two often worked together making futuristic tools and devices. During the first year after the Impact, they spent nearly every waking hour in each other's company. Rather than get tired of being around each other all the time, they seem to grow closer. Their affection for each other became palpable in the close confines of their shelter.

Not wanting their bodies to atrophy, Sato insisted they spend some time each day working on their bodies as well as their minds. He and Kiri spent at least an hour each day in the gym, keeping fit. In the gym as in their lab, they pushed each other hard. Within months, the results were clearly visible. Twenty-five-year-old Kiri had a body as hard and tight as an adolescent girl, capped with the smooth curves of a woman. Sato, now 47 years old, appeared to be barely out of his twenties. His body was now chiseled, a veritable specimen of masculinity. His daughter approved mightily.

Sato and Chiwa, his wife, had two other children. His youngest daughter Sun was 20, and his son Jason was 18. Before the Impact, Sun aspired to be a doctor. She'd just completed her undergraduate pre-med courses when the meteor hit. She was continuing her classes with the bunker's Advanced Learning System. Jason's primary interest pre-Impact was video games. That skill was not of much use in the new world, so he tried studying coding under his father. He was not proficient at it and seemed to have no head for the analytic thinking required to build effective programs. He was no good in biology, either, but at least Sun tolerated him. The only Learning System program that caught his attention was Game Design. When he wasn't playing his existing games, he was studying Game Design, writing new ones. This, he had a talent for.

Despite being a member of a family of scientists, his wife Chiwa fell prey to the manic ravings of the Non-Believers. As the meteor approached, she decided to stay in the house, tape up the windows, and ride it out. She planned to reunite with her family and gloat about how they were worried for nothing. Some crackpot on television had convinced the masses that the biggest threat posed by the meteor was radiation. And he just so happened to have this special tape that when taped up around the seams around the windows and doors, would protect you. Amazingly, "Radar-Tape" sold like crazy. Predictably, everyone who used it died.

The family had been in the bunker for a year. A year since their mother died. A year since they'd seen or talked to anyone outside of their little nuclear family. Sun and Jason found themselves together more often than not. Their father and their older sister seemed preoccupied with each other. Meanwhile, Jason and Sun were both healthy young adults. In fact, they noticed that their health was actually better after a year of being cooped up indoors.

Sun figured it was just good genes, Jason thought it was working out, since like their father and sister, they spent at least an hour every day in the gym. Jason had always been the typical skinny Asian gamer, but somehow over the last year had filled out to be quite the beefcake. Sun saw him without his shirt in the gym, and was captivated by the 8-pack he sported. She herself, just 21 now, had the tight, sleek body of a professional athlete... perhaps a swimmer. At family dinner every night, they all sat and enjoyed the evening meal secretly admiring how incredibly attractive they were all becoming. Whatever the reason for their excellent health, healthy young adults have healthy libidos, and theirs were making themselves known.

Sun decided it was time for action.

Two days before impact, Believers were all hunkered in, doors closed and fused. They had even disconnected from earth's air and water supplies... each facility had a large canister of compressed air that was constantly being recycled and refreshed, as well as large cisterns with water recycling technology designed by cruise lines for their mega-ships. They started their lock down with a large supply of food, water, and supplies, and detailed instructions on how to create more.

Two days before the impact, Non-Believers shopped, got their hair cut, picked up their kids from softball practice, and made Target runs. "Impact? Is that this week?" Both sides were preparing for their last laugh.

'Look at this destruction, yet we survived!'

'You guys gave up everything to live in a box?! For nothing!! Hahaha!'

The truth ended up being.... Something altogether different.

As expected, the asteroid made landfall in the Sahara. The dust cloud from the impact was well over two miles high and cast the world into permanent darkness for months. It turned out the dust cloud was also radioactive. The radiation was of an unknown type and frequency, and at first, it went unnoticed because there were no apparent effects. That is, until, in the darkness of the perma-gloom, people started dying. No sickness, no symptoms. They just went to sleep and never woke up. Scientists trying to isolate the cause died themselves before they could finish work. Bodies left exposed to the lethal levels of radiation were completely dissolved down to nothing, blowing away in the dust without a trace.

By one month after Impact, the dust cloud had completely encased the Earth. From space, to the people who'd left the planet a month earlier and were speeding towards Mars, the Earth looked uniformly brown and featureless. Within two months, everyone who was not safely inside some type of shelter, was dead. Two months later, the first people inside the bunkers started to die.

Initially, there had been 18 people in James and Zoey's shelter. Two months after impact, two people in the bunker suddenly died. No illness, no symptoms. They just went to sleep and never woke up. After the first two, people started dying faster.

In a matter of weeks, eighteen survivors became two. After the fourth death, Zoey and James started sleeping together, terrified that each night would be their last. There was nothing romantic or inappropriate. Zoey was simply scared and, like a child, sought comfort in her father's arms. James didn't want to see anything happen to his beloved daughter, and he was also afraid of leaving her all alone in the world gone crazy. The bunker had been well-equipped with the latest communications equipment, but since two weeks after the Impact, there hadn't been a sign of an other soul outside the walls of their shelter.

The Yamasato family was not aware that people in the bunkers were dying. Their shelter was smaller and built for only two or three families, and no one else had joined. They had always been the only family in their bunker. As far as they were aware, whatever killed everyone, only killed those outside their safe walls.