Level 7

SEPTEMBER 22

This morning we picked up a radio message from the enemy suggesting that we should conclude a peace treaty. It also informed us that the entire civilian population over there, including the government and its various officials, is gone. They were all killed at one time or another by blast, fire or, finally radiation. All that is left is the military level—about a thousand people, self-sufficient for centuries.

As a reason for making peace they pointed out that there was no longer anything to dispute: no territory, no strategic positions, no wealth, no markets, no uncommitted areas—nothing. “And,” they added, “peaceful relations may add some fun to life underground, which is not very interesting.”

So the enemy’s lot is similar to ours. We have not been told exactly what their system of shelters was, but they are all graves except for the military one, which must correspond to our Level 7. Our enemy has shrunk even more than we!

And now we should make peace for the fun of it. As good a reason as any, though it is the queerest political motive I have ever struck!

After lunch today we were told that our radio staff were trying to get in touch with Level 5. They were asking for instructions.

On Level 7 there is no recognised authority to decide matters of such moment as peace treaties. We waged the war at the command of a gadget, except for the two orders which had to be given locally for purely military reasons. We could have been told what to do by the political leaders on Level 5—who may still be able to give us orders. Not the same leaders, of course, but the men who hanged them.

Level 7’s internal affairs are managed on Level 7, naturally. Our own administrative officers deal with such things as timetables for the use of the lounge, marriage arrangements and so forth. But they cannot take any political responsibility.

So we are trying to get instructions from Level 5. They may have heard the enemy’s radio message themselves, of course, though it was addressed to “Our comrades in pushbutton war on the other side of the globe.” That is why we have taken the initiative in the matter of the peace treaty—in case Level 5 does not take it.