Combat Ready: Laura

Back on track with the story a wee bit here.

Laura left Mac under the watchful eye and katana of Lydia.
"I gotta go get some stuff, and round up some buddies."
Mac went into a hysterical panic. "NO! THEY'LL FIND AND KILL YOU! COME BACK!"
Laura closed the door behind her and the car could heard starting and leaving.
Lydia turned to the back-to-full-blown-panic Mac and pointed a finger not inches from her face. Mac flinched and whimpered.
"You're coming with me. Quit your punk bitch-ass crying and get the hell up."
She grabbed Mac by the wrist and dragged her for a few feet before she got up and followed Lydia into the basement.
Lydia grabbed the light switch on the wall and lifted the entire thing up, revealing a blue button.
"We've always had contingency plans in case shit goes sour. Chill the fuck out."

The side of her fist slammed into the button, and a section of concrete wall lowered like a draw bridge revealing a panic room.
The room was lined with monitors, keyboards, security cameras, and a rack of assorted rifles.
Mac was pale as the dead.
"Why would you need all this? Were you planning for something to happen?!"
"Nope. Gotta have a backup plan in case insurgents were looking for a place to stay."
Mac was free standing at this point. As if seeing this hardened panic room put her at ease. They walked in and closed the wall back up.
Lydia sat at one of the consoles and started running checks of everything in the room. Everything was cataloged and had RFID tags on them and readers everywhere.
"Everything checks out. There's beds and the kitchen that way."
She turned in her seat and pointed between two rifle racks.
Mac looked completely confused.

"There's a whole other house UNDER your house?!" She was walking between the racks of guns.
Lydia laughed an evil laugh.
"Ha ha ha! No silly! A house consists of a front AND back yard!"
Mac was at a loss of words. "Wait, what?"
Lydia laughed again and pointed to the left, as if around a corner.
"Over that way is the yard. We keep a field under here that is automatically mowed with an electric mower weekly, and the mulch is used to fertilize the actual outside grass."
Mac turned and stared into a fifty by fifty foot underground mini-field. "Why would you even need this?"
Lydia got up and walked Mac through the "yard"
"The grass recirculates the carbon dioxide we exhale and converts it back to oxygen. Two times a year large vegetables and ground vining fruit sprout up in mass amounts and provide us food."
The two turned another corner, where a small inground pool sat.
"This provides us bathing, water, and relaxation."
"Won't that water get stagnant just sitting there?"
Lydia turned and pointed to the ceiling above the yard.
The water pumps out there and waters the grass. Then the water seeps down into the soil, over a layer of carbon two feet deep, and into the pumping system that heats the water, kills bacteria, and goes back into the pool."
Mac was thoroughly confused, yet impressed. "What powers all this? Surely you can't run all this forever."
Lydia smiled.
"You're right, it won't run forever. It will run for about 395 years before the nuclear core gives out."
Mac started panicking again. "Will it explode?!"
"Nope"

The nuclear core on a single charge will run for 400 years. At that point, yes, it will give out.
But we've placed lightning rods miles away that not only jump-start the core, but ionize the air here and give fresh nitrogen to the plants.
The shelter can withstand a above ground nuclear holocaust and keep everybody in the tri-county area alive. Hell, we can even repopulate down here.

Lydia was the main engineer of this environment. Everything you saw and experienced there, she came up with.

A buzzing alarm was heard overhead. Lydia turned and ran back to the control room. There was a dark figure coming through the door, followed by a few more.
Mac became hysterical.
"Chill the fuck out and wait, I recognize these people." Lydia popped.
On one of the monitors, one of the figures shined a flashlight into one of the cameras. Off, then on. Back off, then on. a pattern.
Lydia grabbed a microphone. "You're cleared to proceed."
Mac grabbed a rifle and tried to pull it free from the rack. "WHO ARE THEY?!"
Lydia stared at her with a disappointed expression. "Those won't release unless I release them myself. Let go you ding-dong."

The wall started lowering with a low hum. Mac was practically holding a gun with both hands and pulling with both feet braced against the walls.
It soon lowered enough to show a red haired Laura standing there holding a modified custom TAR-21 in full fatigues.
"What the hell is she doing?"
Lydia laughed out loud. "The alarm went off when you came in and she thought she could grab a rifle and go commando."
"Child, let go of the gun. You look like a damned cartoon."
Mac released the gun and fell flat on her butt to the floor.
"Sorry."

Laura waved a hand towards the back entrance to the rooms and field. "Move in, put your stuff by a bunk, and meet in the yard."
19 more men and women in uniform walked by Laura and back to the rooms. Some tall, some short, all toned and looking combat ready.
Each one was carrying a duffel bag and backpack, with a TAR-21 rifle slung over their shoulder. They dropped their bags by a bed and went into the field with their weapons.

Laura turned to her sisters in the control room.
"Shall we go to work?"
Lydia jumped up. "Yay! The other half of the family!"