Level 7

Today P persuaded me to join her again in the little room in the psychology department, as we both happened to be free at the same time. I was not eager to go, but I could think of no excuse on the spur of the moment and so I agreed.

I lay down on the couch as usual, while P took the chair behind me and started to chatter. I hardly listened and really had no idea what she was saying, for my mind was moving around Levels 5, 4 and 3.

I was wondering how closely the enemy’s underground shelters resembled our own. The shelters for civilians, I mean. There seemed little doubt that the deepest levels would be reserved for the push-button military forces, as ours were. Ways of life and ideologies might differ, but bottom-level priority for the armed forces was an obvious military necessity.

But how about the civilian levels? What were the differences there? It seemed to me again that the enemy’s arrangements were probably very much like ours: who was more likely to be on their lowest civilian level than the politicians, administrators and retired generals? As for the other levels, there might be the difference that in one country the rich got better shelter, and in another country the mighty.

But was this really such a big difference? I wondered. The rich were mighty and the mighty were rich. And atomic scientists and technicians and engineers fitted both categories: nowadays they were well-off and influential in any part of the world.

Taken all in all, I decided, whatever the differences in ideology on the surface, the inside might look very similar. (I mean the surface and the inside of the earth, of course. Or do I?)

I became aware that P was trying to get me to answer a question. She repeated it several times until I grasped it: “Which do you like best, our official privacy room or this one?”

Still only half with her, I answered: “Oh, they look much the same.”

MAY 23

The ‘Know Other Levels’ talks have reached Levels 2 and 1.

These form another group, distinct not only from the military levels but also from 5, 4 and 3. They are to house ordinary civilians, not an élite. Eventually there will be enough shelters on these levels for everybody, but that goal is still some way off.

The technical arrangements on Levels 2 and 1 are different from those on all the previous levels.

To begin with, fresh air will be drawn down from the surface, not supplied by plants. It will pass through filters, of course, but how effective they will be in the event of a full-scale atomic war remains to be seen. Even the speaker did not sound too optimistic about that. “To supply so many people with air by means of plants was technically impossible—certainly in the time at our disposal,” he said. “It will be a stupendous achievement if, by the time the war starts, the entire population has been provided with shelters of any sort.”

The energy for Levels 2 and 1 is supplied by conventional generators and not by atomic reactors, which are too few to go round and which would have to be supervised by experts. The conventional generators, which are much easier for non-specialists to handle, will be fed by pipes from fuel reservoirs. Some of these are underground, but most of them are on the surface. In the event of a near hit the latter sort will be destroyed, and then the dependent shelter, even if not damaged itself, will be in a fix. But this cannot be helped.

Food for the top levels will be supplied just as it is lower down. But there will not be much of it: enough for six months on Level 2 and only enough for one month on Level 1.

“This may surprise you,” the speaker said, “but I think you will see how pointless it would be to make provision for longer periods—even if the storage space were available. Levels 2 and 1 are too close to the surface to resist an all-out enemy attack: 100 feet deep in the case of Level 2, and ten to sixty feet deep in the other. They may perhaps survive blast effects, provided the enemy uses no thermonuclear bombs of the underground-bursting type. If the war should be conducted in such a limited fashion, and if there is no excessive residual radiation, then after a month or so people may be able to go back to the surface without disastrous results. But if total war is waged, there will be so much physical destruction and air pollution that most living creatures so near the surface will not be able to survive. Possibly some of the Level 2 units, or even Level 1, will be lucky, if they are far enough away from an underground explosion. But this is not at all likely.”

The outlook seems grim; but one must agree that there is little point in giving shelters enough provisions to last for years if they are not physically strong enough to withstand the explosion of an underground-bursting multi-megaton bomb.