“What I want to do now is divide everyone up into manageable teams under each of our officers. We will be in mixed company to learn to communicate with each other better. You will obey the orders of your appointed officer regardless of uniform. We will spend the rest of this day getting ready for the move.
“We’ll need to go into the town and secure any wheels, or wheeled vehicles, which we can use to transport our equipment and supplies as well as any viable supplies we can find. I’ll want all of the specialists to look for materials of their trades to include medical supplies. If you think we need it, and we can transport it, bring it.
“Any questions?” There were none. The gravity of the situation maintained control of the general attitude for the time being. What was incumbent upon their officers was to prolong that control.
“Very well; Chief Stewart has the list and he’ll break you down into your respective groupings. We have a lot to get done today, so let’s be serious about it,” he finished with a tone of authority, but without an acknowledgement of his rank, which is customarily followed with an ‘aye aye sir,’ or a ‘yes sir.’
Two-hundred fifty-seven naval personnel, which included ten enlisted women from the Texas, set out to find the answers to what had caused such devastation in such a short period of time, and to find anything resembling the life they left behind.
THREE 
After several weeks of reconstruction projects, the people in the mountain complex turned their attention to daily routines. It was a grim time where activity of any kind provided needed distraction from the tragedy they had survived. Emotions ran high and tempers were short. The best therapy was work and time. Everyone lost loved ones, and while it was human nature to want to survive, that survival provided little comfort as time passed. Not only did the loss of family and friends weigh upon them, the loss of a life they had envisioned was now gone. Uncertainty and the unknown prevailed.
Several of their number, however, were not plagued by such thinking. They were the ones preparing for an event such as this, knowing long beforehand that it was a certainty. The preparations they made went far beyond their initial survival. They planned for all contingencies involved for an indefinite stay underground, and what would follow. They knew people needed structure, routine, and satisfaction in accomplishment. But most importantly, they needed hope. Hope of a return to what had been, hope of a future not living underground. Hope for themselves. Hope for their children. They gathered many of the best and brightest into the complex under the guise of an exercise. These were the ones who would shape that hope. The scientific advancements known to the government and military establishment were much farther along than those whose progress was hindered by the many bureaucratic layers that existed in private industry. Geneticists, biologists, pathologists, and engineers of all sciences were recruited without their knowing their actual roles. They were assigned to labs with technology and equipment with which even they were not familiar. This served to both placate them, and make them useful for the promotion of the goal to inhabit the surface once again.
Without the ability to grow food underground, geneticists built upon the already available science to engineer designer foods. These foods resembled protein bars. They could be made to taste like any known food, and shaped into different forms. It was one more thing to which people needed to adjust. It was more nutritious than food grown naturally, and it tasted great, it was just unusual.
A fresh water supply was no problem. They had tapped into separate underground aquifers many years prior, and while the sources were pure, they also maintained a filtration system. Power too was unlimited. A geothermal power plant had been in operation providing electrical power, hot water, and steam to power most of their earth moving equipment. Natural gas was also integrated into the facility, though the decision was made to limit its use to necessity.
These basic needs, however, were not enough to maintain order. The people had to appreciate and understand life in a new light. This would be accomplished in a variety of ways. Just like basic trainees in any military, they had to be trained to forget their former lives. Their dress changed, their vocabulary changed, and their thinking changed. While people both in and out of the military pursued advancement based on authority, recognition, titles and money, those were to be a thing of the past. Self-advancement was not conducive to the ultimate goal. A collective effort was. The challenge here was in stimulating the initiative with new rewards, a different mindset. This was all taken into consideration by those few who were actually controlling the sum total of all the parts. They would accommodate the needs of people as much as they could, they would reason with them when necessary, and they would punish them when warranted. Nothing would interfere with their main objective. In time, they would once again walk upon the surface of the earth. If they succeeded, it would be a world made in their image.
The last time he and his father talked, it had been brief. Keith did not entirely forgive his father for his brother’s fate, and his attitude did not improve after having to deal with his wife. She was inconsolable for the first couple of weeks. She managed to deal with the catastrophe itself, the loss of her family, and the understanding that her father-in-law knew it was going to happen but did nothing to help them. She eventually made progress, and had accepted the consequences of the first two. He did not think she would ever forgive his father. But then again, he did not know if he would either. The two of them just viewed matters from different perspectives. He could not completely fault his father’s actions, but there were still some things that could have been handled better, at least in his mind.
Terri benefited from her work in the lab. She was assigned as an assistant to Dr. Maddow. Keith still did not know what to make of him; he just couldn’t quite figure him out. Terri said she would become a doctor herself in a matter of time through the work she was doing; Maddow had promised that. She said she was also learning things she never even heard of before. Nothing in comparison to what college or her work at the hospital had offered. She worked and studied beyond her assigned eight-hour days. He did not mind that this encroached on their time together. Anything to help her recover from the trauma was worth it.
Keith received a call to report to his father’s office. When he arrived, he noticed some changes. His junior aide, who had initially brought them to the mountain, was not wearing a uniform, but rather a pair of blue overalls with only a name patch affixed to them. No title or rank was indicated. He was offered a seat and waited until his father was ready to see him. He started to ask about the uniform change when his father’s voice came over the intercom letting his assistant know he was ready to receive his guest.
“How’s Terri doing,” he asked as he stood to greet his son when he walked through the door.
“She’s doing okay now. Work has been good for her, but I think it will be some time until she is anywhere near her old self again.”