Nia Johnson sat reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The book was old, but Nia liked it. She could immerse herself in the world that J. K. Rowling created, full of magic. Her grandfather had encouraged her to read it to stave off the boredom.

Darnell on the other hand was not at all in the mood for reading. He was listening to national public radio for the news. Darnell was a bit of a news junkie, especially after retiring early to help care for Nia.

Darnell had been a school teacher, but he knew that the writing was on the wall for his profession. Teachers had been asked to do less and less as the years progressed, as AI was seen as capable of doing the job better. Darnell hated the idea of school children being taught by machines, but the world seemed to disagree with him. Many of the teachers who had retired alongside Darnell, including Darnell himself, were never replaced, deemed unnecessary.

Darnell truly had enjoyed being a school teacher. He taught ELA, and was always happy to see his students discover a book they truly loved. Darnell always gave his students a wide range of options for books for required reading. He wanted the students to be able to choose something they really loved to read, rather than forcing some literature that they hated on them. Of course he wanted them to know the classics, but even then he would give them options. It didn't matter to Darnell if you chose Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Great Gatsby or Moby Dick. What was important was that you were reading.

How could an AI ever give such flexible assignments? Darnell didn't believe it was possible. Rather he believed the creativity was being taken out of teaching in favor of uniformity. Frankly, Darnell was a bit relieved to retire, the joy of teaching had left him because of what he was seeing.

Another thing Darnell had done was to assign reading of the news. It had become challenging to discern good sources from bad ones and he wanted his students to practice this. The printed newspaper was all but gone, and the only ones left were local papers in small towns. Everything had gone digital. This presented a problem though, if you searched the internet how did you know what was a real news source and what was not?

Thankfully old large papers still existed, though only online. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post were all still around and still producing good information. The problem was they were drowned out by all of the misinformation produced on the internet. This problem had only become amplified over time, especially since the younger generations had essentially stopped watching television news, and stopped reading newspaper articles.

This is why Darnell had forced his students to read at least one non-opinion news article a week from a reputable news agency. This way they could see actual fact presented, in place of the garbage information that was floating around. He had just started doing this with Nia as well.

Right now Darnell was listening and hoping to get information. But the major news story at the moment was that the President had held a news conference in which he had been signing Code Blue. What Code Blue was no one seemed to know. So now the speculation had become rampant.

"Grandpa I really do like this old book! You said there are more of them right?" Nia asked.

Darnell was a bit startled by her talking to him. But he reached over and turned down the radio.

"Why yes Nia, there are a whole series of those books. I know it is different from the modern day writing, but this series is a good one!" Darnell said.

"Do you think that daddy is OK?" Nia asked, feeling uneasy.

"Oh of course baby girl. No one in the world is tougher than your father. I think he got that from your grandmother." Darnell replied, chuckling at the thought of his late wife.

"Grandpa, is the world going to end?" Nia asked, worried from the conversations she had overheard between her father and Qi Lian.

"No, the world isn't going to end. Your father will make sure of that. He won't let the bad people win." Darnell said reassuringly, though he wasn't fully convinced of it himself.

"I really like Qi Lian, she is a very nice lady and she is so strong!" Nia stated, trying force her mind to focus on something positive.

"She is a very nice young lady and her brother is a nice young man. The three of them will make an unstoppable team I think.

"I love you grandpa, I am glad I am here with you. I would be scared if I didn't have you here with me."

"I love you too baby girl. You are my favorite person in the whole world, you know that?" Darnell asked with a playful smile.

"Yes grandpa." Nia responded, smiling too.

Nia went back to reading her book. It was better to be in a fantasy world at the moment than being in the real one.

Darnell smiled while looking at her reading. He truly hoped he was right. For the moment at least he knew the world was still out there because NPR was still playing. He reached over and turned the radio back up, his hearing wasn't as good as it used to be.

Then Darnell looked around. This bomb shelter was definitely old, and things seemed to be in disrepair. Darnell did believe the metal shell was in good shape, and should allow them to survive a hit so long as it wasn't a direct hit with a nuclear weapon. The shelter was very dark, with little lighting and had a dirt floor. It was quite desolate, with the exception of the supplies.

Clayton had seen to it that Darnell and Nia had plenty of food, mostly canned food. The stock would last them quite a while. The same went for water, there was a large stack of gallon sized water bottles in one corner. Clayton had prepared them for nuclear war, and this was what worried Darnell. It seemed as though even Clayton wasn't sure he could win this fight.

All Darnell could do was pray.