The man grabbed a comically huge key from his pocket and unlocked the scratched and dented mahogany door. The rusted hinges made an eardrum bursting screech as the door swung open. He led me upstairs and I was greeted by the people who had been staring at me through the window. I was in the midst of physicists and astronomers, it seemed that every genius who survived the apocalypse resided in this room. Alongside the scientists was a troupe of heavily armoured bodyguards. It disturbed me when I wondered why they needed so many weapons. The old man led me into what seemed to be the master bedroom, but there was no bed. In its place was a massive construct at least eight feet tall and wide. It was a metal ring, on the table in front of it was a set of ten electrodes connected to the ring. Something seemed wrong."What is this?" I asked the old man. He smirked and replied "You'll know soon enough"

Later that night we all sat on the long table and the old man cooked us the bacon we had been promised. The smell of the bacon was a welcome break from the stench of death I had grown used to. Tearing into the bacon's crispy interior reminded me of when the world was whole, and I felt a little bit better. Once the bacon had been wholly devoured the old man stood up and began speaking, though we were all reeling from our tastebuds recent journey, and didn't process much of what he said. All that I got was something about getting a good nights sleep for the expedition tomorrow. We all slept on bunk beds for the night, and for the first time in a while,I fell asleep with a smile.