Level 7

JUNE 23

In the lounge today, in the dining-hall, in corridors and rooms where people met and passed the time of day, the same question was on everyone’s lips or unspoken, in their eyes: how long will the surface be radioactive?

On other levels they go so far as to ask the question over the air, time and again. Perhaps because they are not so well adjusted to living underground.

Anyway, no one on Level 7 can give them the answer they keep asking for. Somebody on Level 5 must be able to, and Level 5 has been specifically requested to supply the information. But they give evasive replies, not a clear answer.

They advise Level 3 against begetting children, certainly; which must mean that in twenty-five years the deluge will not be over. They also say that living underground is safe and that we should not think about the surface; which implies something about how long the radioactivity will last.

They say it all depends on what kind of material the enemy used for his rigged bombs. What they do not tell us is what stuff we used. All this sounds very mysterious. Why the hell can’t they tell the truth, or at least that part of the truth which they know?

If we could contact them, those leaders of ours, we would get the truth pretty soon. There are ways of squeezing it out of men without using atomic bombs. But we are here, and they are there, and the only contact is by radio. So there is nothing we can do.

It is obvious that they do not want to give us this information. It is equally clear that for immediate practical purposes the information is of no significance: we are down here for life.

My guess is that the truth is worse than many people think. Otherwise our leaders would tell us all they knew. But they do not, perhaps because they are ashamed. Or maybe they are repentant.

To hell with them, anyway! We cannot get a thing out of them.