| abstract
| - The Shelter is a non-profit recreation center for New Residents and Supporters of New Residents. Our Mission is to provide a positive & supportive environment for those looking for one in our overwhelming world. Whether you are looking for a place to socialize, play fun and exciting games, watch informative movies, listen to the latest live musicians, explore the world via hot air ballon, or sell your newest creations, the Shelter has what you're looking for! We are the oldest resident-ran help organization in continuous operation since 20th August 2004. One of the unique things about the Shelter is the friendly people, who seem to breed more friendly people. If you walk in the Shelter during a busy time, it's not uncommon for you to be barraged with a chorus of "Hi
- The Shelter was home to the 25 descendants of a survey team to Dagobah. A small island of dry ground, it held between 20 and 30 huts. The huts were made of dried mud, with roofs formed from gnarlwood branches coated with slime. In the center of the village was an open shelter without any walls. Inside it, the Children kept the broken log of the original survey team.
- From the CBS Video Library cover: "During a party for beloved Dr. Stockton shocking news comes over the radio: radar has detected UFOs heading southeast; citizens are urged to go to their fallout shelters. Fearing imminent nuclear war, Doc locks himself and his family in the shelter he's had the foresight to build in his basement. But his neighbors aren't so lucky; they didn't shelters. They plead with Doc to let them in. He refuses—there's only air and provisions for three...Whether the bombs come or not, these hapless men and women will discover their brutal trip through the Twilight Zone has destroyed them all."
- The year my parents got divorced was odd and uncomfortable. They argued a lot more in front of me, some days the tension was so tight it felt like they both might snap. When school ended, they decided to send me off to my Aunt and Uncle's house for the summer, so I wouldn't have to be there during all the court proceedings. They thought they were protecting me from learning the real reason behind the divorce, but I already knew. During a yelling match between them, Mom broke their unity candle and Dad lost it. He slapped her, hard, a couple times and she fell over the coffee table. The stress and injury caused her to miscarry the baby they planned to announce a few weeks later. I heard it all. I had come home early from a friend's house, and I sat on the porch to wait for them to stop yelling. When I heard her fall, I panicked and ran back to my friend's house. I made up a story about how they went out and locked the house so he wouldn't be suspicious. Later that week I heard Mom crying in the middle of the night about losing the baby. Out at Aunt Laura's, I had plenty of room to roam around and explore. She and Uncle Joe owned 200 acres of farm land and 100 acres of forest. Uncle Joe inherited it when his Aunt and Uncle passed. They never had children, but he worked on the farm and was like a child to them, so they left it to him. They added on to the farm house, made an additional bedroom and a library because Aunt Laura loved to read and they planned on having a child some day. For the first week or so, I spent most days reading books from the library and didn't venture too far from the house. I helped out with farm chores from time to time, but only when I was needed. They usually had an older boy from down the road do the chores for a little money. {C}I finally settled in to being around the farm so I started to wander more. Some days I stayed out from just after breakfast until dinner was ready. The pastures were easy to walk around, sometimes I found the remains of old fences and animal bones. One day I happened upon what I figured was the original farm site that was torn down some 40–50 years before. All that really remained was a very broken picket fence, a few lilac bushes, now almost trees, and a very beaten scarecrow lying on the ground where the garden used to be. Bored with wandering the pastures, I took to exploring the woods. My first day out was great, I watched a herd of deer walk through the woods, nibbling here and there, found a large creek with fish swimming in it and even saw an owl catch a mouse. On my way home I nearly stepped in an old bear trap, that kind of freaked me out. I used a heavy stick to push the trigger, and it kind of closed, it was too rusted to fully snap shut. I carried it back and Uncle Joe told me to keep an eye out from them and bring home any I find. He would take them to the scrap yard and turn them in for a little cash. The forest was a lot more fun to explore. I saw all kinds of critters, rabbits, skunks, opossums, raccoons, a variety of pretty birds and I would sometimes come across wild growing vegetables and fruits. I was casually walking deeper into the forest when I noticed that the trees seemed smaller, younger than all of the others. I walked further towards the middle of the new growth and eventually found a small cinder block ledge. Walking around to the other side, I saw that it had stairs that led down into the ground, and a door was visible at the bottom. Feeling uncomfortable I decided to head home early, not wanting to disturb someone living out there. I asked Joe about it and he said it was abandoned long ago. Before his Aunt and Uncle bought that section of the property, the man who owned it was a very paranoid person. He dug his own bomb shelter, fearing some type of attack, and didn't trust construction companies to build it properly. His house was the one that was torn down out in the pasture, the forest was off to the south from the home. Thinking more about it, I realized that I was south of the old homestead I came across. Joe's Aunt and Uncle tore the house down since it was in disrepair anyhow, and he stumbled upon the bomb shelter when he worked on the farm. Feeling less disturbed about the shelter, I asked it if was okay to look around down there. Joe okay'd it, saying the structure was very well built and after dinner he helped me find several lanterns to help light the place up. He joked that I probably shouldn't eat any of the food, but if I find anything interesting I should bring it back. Aunt Laura said to definitely bring books back if I found any. The next morning, I was really excited about exploring the shelter, I scarfed my breakfast down, grabbed the lunch Laura packed for me and headed out with a backpack full of lanterns. {C}I found the site quickly enough, took a deep breath to steady my nerves, then went down the steps and pushed against the door. It took a little might, but I eventually shoved it open. I stood there for a minute, opening and closing the door to loosed the hinges a bit, then lit a lantern and hung it just inside the entrance. From there I could see a short hall that opened into a larger room, but the light wasn't enough to see past the doorway. I lit another lantern and moved forward into the large room, it must have been 10 feet by 15 feet at least. A long table sat against one wall, shelves took up two others, and the last wall had another doorway. I ended up hanging two lanterns just to light to room decently, and started to look around more. On the shelves there were dozens of cans of food, as well as boxes of powdered food and emergency kits. I ran across a box with three gas masks tucked in it, decided they were neat enough to take back. I unloaded the remaining lanterns on the table and put the masks in my bag. On the wall above the table there was a map of the shelter's layout, which was handy. It looked like there were 5 rooms total, 3 more attached to this room and one set off down a hallway. The farthest room was labeled 'lavatory' so it made more sense for such a design. At the end of the other shelves I found a few books, they appeared to be nuclear preparedness guides and old first aid instruction manuals. Laura would love these, so I packed them away. I grabbed a few more lanterns, lighting one, then went on to the next room. This room looked to be more of a general living space, a couch was covered in dust along with a couple recliners. On the coffee table there were a few old opened food cans and a coffee cup. Someone must have stayed down here long ago, considering the amount of dust on everything. I hung up the lanterns and wandered a bit more. I found more books, some light novels and a couple encyclopedias. In a cabinet there was a small chemistry set, an abacus, and a few educational books. I guess this guy was set to continue his kid's education if doomsday came around. There was an old Erector set, a small one, so I tucked it in my bag. As I lifted my bag up to move on to the next room, I realized how much I had packed away. Figuring I had spent quite a few hours here as it was, I decided to head home. I doused the lanterns as I left and walked back through the woods, excited to show off what I found. Laura was instantly engrossed in the books, Joe and I laughed about it. We examined the gas masks further and he told me more about them. When I showed him the Erector set, his eyes lit up and he went on for an hour about the sets he had as a kid. As we ate dinner, we continued to discuss the bunker a bit and Joe remembered that he had bought some electric lanterns,extra lamp oil, and extra wicks so I wouldn't left in the dark if I lost track of time. The next day I ventured back out to the shelter and refilled the lanterns I used before relighting them. I moved on past the living area into what appeared to be the kitchen. A crude sink sat above a bucket, which I assumed would hold the waste water until they could dump it. Several boxes of camp stove fuel sat untouched under a metal table. Certainly not a gourmet kitchen, a small icebox took up one corner, nonelectric. I peeked inside to see a pool of stagnant, awful smelling water. Quickly closing the lid, I noticed two doorways to choose from. Glancing into one, I saw it was a hall, so that must go back to the bathroom. Not really interested in the shelter's pooping hole, I moved on into what ended up being the bedroom portion of the shelter. 2 beds took up one wall, a double bed for the parents, and a single bed for their kid. The dresser on the parent's side was empty aside from a change of sheets in the bottom drawer. The kid's dresser appeared to be the same, but as I closed the small top drawer, it sounded strange. I reopened it and looked a little more carefully inside and realized it wasn't as deep as it should be. I removed the false bottom and found what looked to be a cheap leather bound diary, a rosary and a small bible. I put the rosary and bible in my bag, but the diary held my attention more. I sat on the bed and flipped through the pages quickly. It was a bit dusty, yellowed and some pages were ripped, the leather was worn and scratched with a few holes here and there. Intrigued, I turned back to the beginning of the book and started to read it.
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