The Time from Before

Risk

About a week has passed since Allen explored the city. He thoroughly explained everything he saw, albeit leaving out minute details. After a bit of discussion, Allen and Harper came to a general consensus.

Finding the Orion Facilities is not only the safest bet for the future of the Arctos Dominion, but also the safest bet for allowing the human race to exist. However, the biggest problem, or detail really, is the cephalopods.

Allen managed to explore the city further; making more outlandish moves while remaining hidden to increase his search radius. Allen roughly knew the center point of the city, and where the city ends. There was a coastline to the west, maybe southwest, but the other cardinal directions led to land. However, a large city doesn't mean a stable one. With almost a quarter of the buildings being abandoned, at least in Allen's experience, he was unsure how stable their civilization really was. Perhaps an event shifts the general populace around? It's hard to be sure.

And there was another factor. The different variations between the tentacles on their heads. Not the color or shape, but the placement of their suckers. Harper did some digging, and after finding a biology book in a storage room, she finally made the difference clearer.

Marina, for example, must have evolved from an octopus. And the others must have evolved from squid. Although, it looks like they evolved in a much different path than normal. And the fact that only five thousand years passed meant their evolutionary rate was incredibly quick. But they modeled after humans. That was worrying. Perhaps their evolution was artificially conducted. Perhaps influenced in a certain way.

Not like he could tell, nor find out. The one responsible, if anyone, would be long gone. However, to further this...

Allen wasn't sure if they had any internal conflicts between races, but he hadn't seen more than two of the octopus variety. Only two. Out of the potential millions of squids. It's a little strange... Perhaps octopuses are less common? Can the two reproduce freely, or are reproductive means race-locked? On the topic of reproduction, have their methods changed? Surely it couldn't be modeled after humans, considering the aquatic nature of them both...

However, that's not the only creature in the city. Allen didn't get a great look at them, but he was certain that there were floating jellyfish in the streets. They looked conscious enough to hold a conversation, but without enough research and other factors, any conclusion was guesswork. 

He had to inspect them further.

And, under Allen's orders, Harper delved deeper into the bunker. With this bunker being one of the largest ever built, surprisingly, she came back rather quickly. She managed to find a few storage rooms, one residential district, and a medbay, but nothing more. Any other path had collapsed, and any further could lead to asphyxiation. Allen needs to flush the air further down.

So, the biggest issue that now plagues the three is food and water. For now, filtering ocean water is fairly easy. Find an old filter and hope it does its job. Food, on the other hand, was much harder to come by. There were still hundreds of MREs, but well over half of them were compromised. The ones that were still sealed still ran the risk of mold and other nasty things growing inside.

In other words, MREs are unsafe. Not especially surprising, considering how long they were supposed to last in storage.

"Allen, I just looked through our food supply, and... Well, it's not good?" Harper sighed, glancing at Allen.

"We have no choice. If you don't want to resort to farming, we somehow have to make a living in the city." Allen leaned against a table.

"What do we do about Sasha's education? Moving to the city would be a nightmare. Imagine the culture shock. And language barriers." Harper scratched the back of her head, her eyes staring at the ground.