The door closed behind Richard with a soft click that seemed to echo through the bunker. Jason remained frozen in his chair, watching the others as they sat motionless, the revelation hanging between them like a physical presence.
No one moved. The only sounds were the constant, subtle hum of air filtration systems and the occasional ping of cooling metal somewhere in the walls. These mechanical noises—once background irritations—now seemed to fill the void left by Richard's departure.
Elaine's face had gone sheet-white, her lips pressed into a bloodless line. Her hands trembled slightly before she clasped them tightly in her lap. Beside her, Marissa sat rigid, her knuckles white as she gripped the edge of her chair, jaw clenched so hard Jason could see a muscle twitching along her cheekbone.
Lily seemed the most composed, but Jason noticed her shallow breathing, the slight flutter of her pulse visible at her throat. Her eyes darted between them all, as if searching for cues on how to react.
It settled like ash after an explosion—heavy, suffocating, undeniable. A.M.O.N. The Collapse. Richard's role in it all. The nanovirus. Each revelation more impossible than the last.
Finally, Marissa broke the suffocating silence. "That fucking bastard," she whispered, her voice barely audible.
"He knew!" Elaine suddenly stood, her chair scraping harshly against the floor. "He knew all this time!" Her voice shook with rage, tears brimming in her eyes. "While we grieved for the world, for everyone we lost—he knew what happened and said nothing!". After a brief moment, she went on, "Fuck the past months, he never revealed anything about his actions even before then. He didn't have to disclose every detail about the project he was involved in, but don't people confide in their partners at all?"
Marissa slammed her palm against the table. "We deserved to know from the beginning! Not after…" she gestured wildly between them all, "all of this!"
"Maybe he was trying to protect us," Lily offered quietly, though uncertainty colored her words. "I mean, would knowing have changed anything?"
"Yes!" Elaine shouted. "It would have changed everything! Our choices, our grief—God, Richard let us think everyone just dropped dead for no reason!"
"And now he wants Jason to risk his life," Marissa added, her voice rising. "After lying to us for months …even for years!"
"He can't expect—"
"I don't understand how—"
"We never had a chance to—"
Their voices overlapped, emotions spilling out uncontrolled. Jason watched them, his own thoughts a chaotic storm. When Elaine began to sob, something in him snapped to attention.
"Hey," he said, raising his voice to cut through the noise. "HEY!"
"This isn't helping," Jason said firmly when they fell silent. "We need to focus on what we do next."
"What we do next?" Elaine repeated incredulously.
Jason nodded. "The nanovirus. The lab mission. Maybe his breeding plan was just a deception, an illusion to hide his real plan. We need to understand exactly what this involves."
Marissa's expression shifted, her analytical mind engaging. "He didn't explain enough about the risks. What are the side effects? How experimental is this thing?"
"And the lab—where is it exactly?" Lily asked, wiping tears from her cheeks. "How far? What's the environment like up there now?"
Elaine shook her head, still struggling. "I can't believe we're even discussing this. Richard lied about everything. How can we trust anything he says now?"
"We don't have to trust him," Jason said, "but we do need information. If we stay down here forever, what happens when systems start failing? When supplies run low?"
"He said it's the only way we'd ever be able to leave safely," Lily noted.
Marissa leaned forward. "So the real question is: do you take the nanovirus and go to this lab, Jason?"
"Absolutely not!" Elaine stood again, her voice breaking. "I won't let you risk your life based on Richard's word." She moved to Jason's side, placing a protective hand on his shoulder.
"Mom—" Jason began.
"No." Her fingers tightened. "We've already lost everything, Jason. Everyone we knew. The entire world. I won't lose you too." Her eyes blazed with fierce maternal protection. "Richard hid the truth for months. What else is he hiding? What if this nanovirus kills you? What if there's nothing left out there but death?"
She paced the room, gesturing emphatically. "We can find another way. We can... we can try the radio again. We can wait longer. The systems here are designed to last decades. We have time."
Her voice cracked as she turned back to him. "Please, Jason. Don't do this because he says you have to. He's manipulated all of us enough."
Jason felt the weight of her fear, understanding the depth of her protective instinct. After everything they'd been through together, her plea hit him hard.
"But Mom," Lily said quietly, straightening in her chair. "The bunker can't be our forever home."
Everyone turned to her, surprised by her steady tone.
"The systems might be designed to last decades, but they're already showing signs of strain. The water recycler needed repairs last month. The air filtration system is running at eighty percent efficiency." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her expression uncharacteristically serious.
"And our supplies aren't infinite. We have maybe five years of food, less if any storage systems fail." She looked directly at Elaine. "Dad wouldn't risk Jason unnecessarily. Whatever else he's done, he wants us to survive."
Elaine's expression hardened. "You're taking his side?"
"I'm not taking sides," Lily replied calmly. "I'm looking at our reality. If Jason has a chance to make it safer for us to leave someday, to find other survivors, to rebuild something..." She swallowed hard. "Don't we have to try?"
The tension between mother and daughter crackled in the air, two opposing views of protection colliding.
"We need more information," Marissa interjected, her analytical mind finding the middle ground. "We can't make this decision blindly."
She stood, beginning to pace methodically. "We need to know exactly what this nanovirus does. How it's administered. Success rates. Failure modes. Side effects." She counted points on her fingers. "And the mission itself—distance, terrain, security measures at the lab, equipment needed."
She turned to face them all. "Before Jason risks anything, we interrogate Richard thoroughly. No more secrets, no more partial truths."
"That makes sense," Lily agreed.
"And we need time to prepare," Marissa continued. "If—and it's still an if—Jason goes, he needs training. Survival skills. Navigation. Maybe weapons training." Her expression softened slightly. "We don't rush into this."
Jason shifted uncomfortably, then muttered, "I already know how to use a gun."
Everyone turned to him in surprise.
"You what?" Elaine's voice sharpened like a blade. "Since when?"
Jason scratched the back of his neck. "Dad took me to the range a few times before The collapse. It wasn't regular or anything, just... whenever he had time."
Lily raised an eyebrow. "And you never thought to mention this? Like, ever?"
"He told me not to," Jason admitted, avoiding his mother's eyes. "Said if you found out, you'd shut it down. I didn't want to lose that time with him."
Elaine crossed her arms. "So I'm the villain now?"
"No!" Jason looked up, his expression earnest. "Back then, I was just a kid who wanted his dad's attention. I didn't care about the guns—I just wanted him to look at me like I mattered."
Marissa exhaled slowly, her voice more measured. "Do you actually know what you're doing, or did he just let you hold a rifle once and call it a day?"
Jason nodded. "I learned how to clean, reload, identify misfires... He made me practice drills. I'm not some action movie hero, but I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot either."
Elaine's expression softened, though she still looked unconvinced. "You shouldn't have had to earn his attention like that."
"I know," Jason replied quietly. "But that's how it was. I'm sorry if I offended you." He embraced and kissed her.
"It's alright honey, I get it. We'll discuss this later," she said, glancing over Jason's shoulder toward Marissa before finally responding to her, "I still don't approve."
"None of us like it," Marissa replied. "But we need to approach this strategically, not emotionally." She looked at Jason. "What do you think?"
Jason pulled away from Elaine slightly and takes a deep breath, feeling their eyes on him. Something had shifted in the room—in himself. The boy who had entered the bunker months ago was gone.
"I appreciate everyone's concern," he said, his voice steady. "But ultimately, this has to be my decision."
He stood, looking at each of them in turn. "Mom, I understand your fear. I do. And Marissa, you're right about needing more information." He nodded to Lily. "And yes, we have to think about our long-term survival."
He moved to the center of the room, feeling a strange new authority in his stance. "I'm not rushing into anything. But I also won't hide from what needs to be done. If there's even a chance this mission could secure our future—could let us find others, rebuild something from this mess—I have to consider it."
The women watched him, their expressions shifting from concern to something like respect.
"I'm not Dad's pawn," Jason continued. "I'm making this choice for us—for our family. But I need your support, not just your permission. I need you all with me on this."
"I'm going to take the nanovirus," Jason said finally. "And I'm going to attempt the mission."
Elaine made a small sound of distress, but he continued.
"Not immediately. Not until we've prepared properly. But it's the only way forward that I can see." He looked at each of them. "We can't stay down here forever, slowly watching our systems fail, wondering if we're the last people alive."
He moved to his mother, taking her hands. "I'm not doing this because Dad says I have to. I'm doing this because I want us to have a future beyond these walls."
Elaine's eyes filled with tears, but she nodded slowly. "I hate this," she whispered. "But I understand."
Marissa straightened. "Then we prepare you properly. We learn everything we can about the nanovirus, about the lab, about what's waiting up there."
"We train," Lily added. "Every day. And we make Dad tell us everything—no more secrets."
Jason felt something settle in his chest—resolve, purpose. "We do this together. Every step."
They nodded, unity replacing their earlier discord.
The emotional storm had passed, leaving exhaustion in its wake. Jason moved to each of them in turn—a gentle touch on Lily's cheek, a reassuring nod to Marissa, a long embrace with his mother.
"Tomorrow," Elaine said, "we talk to Richard together. All of us."
She hesitated, then added softly, "Tonight, I don't want to be alone. None of us should be."
"Your room?" Lily asked, understanding immediately.
Elaine nodded. "All of us."
They separated briefly to prepare for bed, each needing a moment alone with their thoughts. Jason stood in his room, staring at his reflection in the mirror. The face looking back seemed older somehow, the eyes more determined.
Whatever came next, they would face it as a family.
———————❖———————
In his lab, Richard worked with meticulous precision. The blue-green liquid in the vial glowed faintly as he transferred it to the injection mechanism, his hands steady despite the weight of what he was doing.
He checked the his monitor again, comparing it to his notes, verifying each step. The memory of past failures flashed through his mind—animal test subjects who had suffered, experiments gone wrong. Not this time. Not with Jason.
The equipment hummed softly as he calibrated the final settings. This had to be perfect. He owed them that much.
When finished, he held the prepared syringe up to the light, watching the nanovirus shimmer with its own internal luminescence. Years of work, culminating in this moment.
"This time will be different," he whispered to the empty room.