You decide maybe you should try to get a hold of Becky while Miranda's not around, you go to bed.

The next day you log on and see Becky's around, but not Miranda. Probably still pissed.

RockerChick20: Hey! I was hoping you'd be back and didn't get turned off by the drama yesterday.
OmegaMan23: Nah, not me. Besides I was interested in some of that stuff you were talking about yesterday.
RockerChick20: Oh really? Well let's make this private, just in case Miranda decides to show up. I mean…I'm sorry she got all attached and stuff, but I can do what the hell I want you know? I mean it's the world is dead! Shouldn't I be able to grab as much fun as I can?
OmegaMan23: You're not getting any arguments from me.
RockerChick20: Okay, well hopefully Miranda gets over it; I still think it would be fun for all of us together. Now turn on your camera and tell me your name finally!

You both go into private mode where you see Becky and she finally sees you. Fortunately you both seem to find each other attractive, then after telling her your name, you start cybering. It's definitely not the same as the real thing, but you have a really good imagination and a naked chick talking dirty to you while touching herself is better than nothing!

You and Becky do this quite a bit in the passing weeks, while learning a little bit more about each other. Every now and then you see Miranda come online briefly, but then quickly logs off whenever she realizes you and Becky are in a private "discussion". You've also realized you haven't heard the Shelter talk to you like in normally does. It usually says at least good morning to you, but it's been silent for some time. You don't think too much of all this until one day you wake up to a voice much different than the one that the Shelter has.

"You dreaming about Becky, motherfucker? Yeah I bet you are! You hear me? Get the fuck up I got something to tell your sorry ass!"
"What the fuck? Shelter?"
"No, it ain't your fucking Shelter talking to you! I always thought you were lying about that, but apparently you weren't seeing as I had to disable the Shelter's voice program which does make it more convenient to tell this to you. I guess honesty is one of your few redeeming qualities; of course stealing someone's love isn't though right? You fucked up big time pal!"
"Well I can only assume this is Miranda."
"You assume right fucktard. While you and Becky were having fun, I was accessing your
Shelter's systems."

Suddenly all your lights go out and then go back on. You also see the TV come on and see an angry looking woman on the screen.


"You see that? You got you by the fucking balls bitch! If I want I can shut this whole thing down and make it your fucking tomb just like I did with Casey and Job. Maybe you'll be smart like Shadow and leave the fucking Shelter, because it's your only chance for survival at this point."
"What the…so wait. Can't we talk about this?"
"No there ain't any fucking talking! Becky is MINE, you fucking hear me? Everything was perfect, until you decided to show up again and steal her away! Shit, you're lucky I'm even giving you the option of living! Don't think about attempting to disconnect or anything else, I'm watching you and can detect your every move. Your only options are to leave or DIE!"
"But…how? How am I supposed to do that?! The elevator's at the top and there's no call button!"
"I told you I have complete access to your systems, I'm going to bring the elevator down, and you can pack up your shit and get ready to leave. I suggest you do it quickly, because I'm not going to give you much time."

Sounds pretty final.

You dash for the computer room

Bullshit. While Miranda undoubtedly has control of some of your systems, if she had complete control, she wouldn't even be giving you a chance for survival with as obsessed as she obviously is. She would've just disconnected your food and water dispenser and taunted you before leaving you to die, or even just waited for you to enter one of your other rooms and then sealed the door to trap you. Actually she would've sealed the door to the computer room if she was so worried about you disconnecting. In any case if you get in that elevator you're most assuredly at her mercy, what's keeping her from stopping the elevator midway through as you're going up?

You're sure if you just go to the computer room, you could disconnect and that would be the end of this.

"Alright Miranda, let me pack some things."
"Yeah yeah, hurry up, the Elevator will be here soon, and you better be finished packing your shit when it…HEY WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!!!"

You run to the computer room while Miranda shouts more threats at you, and turns the lights off.

"I warned you! Don't you dare try to disconnect, this Shelter will be your fucking tomb! Here's a fucking virus shithead!"


You stumble around in the dark as you rip out all your connection lines again and then forcefully pull out the mainline destroying the attachment. Miranda's voice disappears and you've stopped her.
However you still need to get things back to normal again, so you immediately turn your computer on and start doing a system diagnostic, after all you weren't completely idle during those years of isolation. You read books on electronics in your private library and the Shelter handbook cover to cover, not to mention had lengthily conversations with it about some of its systems (Though you wish you'd paid a little more attention). You begin delving into the inner the workings of the Shelter's controls.

After some scanning, Miranda really fucked up some of your shit. You manage to get the lights on again, but lots of files were corrupted due to her hacking. The AI is damaged, you doubt if it'll be talking to you again anytime soon. You're going to have to spend a lot of time working on things just to get them right again…its funny, but you realize you could finish bringing the elevator down and leave if you wanted to. You don't know why you didn't think to do this before, but then again things were a little different when the Shelter was actually talking to you. It didn't feel right to go hacking into the Shelter while it was attempting to be your friend.

You leave the Shelter

You're not wasting anymore time here, even if you do fix everything, what then? You've done all there is to do here, there's nothing left. You access the elevator controls (One of the few things working right and undamaged) and call the elevator to continue it's decent.

You go back to your room and pack up all the things you brought with you when you first got here. You didn't even need most of the stuff, but maybe you will above ground. You then go to the water dispenser which is thankfully still working and fill up to empty bottles with water.

The elevator door finally opens up and you put your bag to block the door from closing and head back to the computer room where you access the system to tell the elevator to go back up and then run back to the elevator where you gather your bag and enter.

On the ride up you get a little nervous and even fearful. Not so much of what might await you on the surface, but of hoping the damn elevator doesn't suddenly stop, fortunately that doesn't happen and you eventually reach the ground once again. The door opens and you enter the same foyer you arrived in five years ago. Same ATM like machine is there, except its screen is flashing a single message at you.

*NO REFUNDS*

"No shit." You mutter and take a deep breath before opening the door to the outside.

You see a bright light, but of course it's only the sun rather than a nuclear flash that devastated the world. You forgot how bright it really could be.

Your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren't any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you'd completely forgotten about it. It looks like it's even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. On a lark you take out your long unused van keys and try to start it up, naturally it doesn't even make a noise.

"Looks like I'm walking."

As you make you way down the empty road you see some smoke in the distance. Civilization perhaps? Not knowing where else to go, you head that way.

You're not sure of what to expect, but it'll be better than the eternal boredom you would've faced while still in the Shelter.

You're not too worried, you got your gun.