Introduction

It was the first half of the 21st Century, resources were scarce and the Third-World nations held the, entirely justifiable, view that they ought to have the lion's share of them. As usual, they did not. The "United European Republic" and the "U.S.A." were tight and needed to be with the "Sino-Arabian Alliance" pulling in almost all of the nuclear Middle-East states.

Paranoia reigned, fuelled by the appointment of the neo-Maoist fundamentalist ministers to the Chinese government. Their defence policy seemed rooted in the conviction that if the last man alive on planet Earth was Chinese then the nuclear war would have been worth it and a glorious victory for the "People's Republic". Tension mounted when the United Nations Peace Division suffered a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of the "Republican Army of New Mesopotamia". A hard line approach was taken by the new President of the "U.S.A.".

As if there had not been enough to worry about, the increased activity of UFOs had reached a level where official sources had finally been forced to acknowledge the likelihood of their alien origin. However, people had more pressing things to worry about.

You were employed by the Ministry of Internal Security as a civilian programmer for the Northern District Civil Police. You kept quiet about it. The pay was as bad as in any other public sector job but the perks were good: a guaranteed hot meal once a day and, towards the end, weeks at a time away from the city on exercise in the "Municipal Shelter", where you actually had your own room. Secretly you thought that the people you worked with were "no-neck" fascists. Only one kindred spirit attracted you, a robotics technician by the name of Rachel Simons, who made your stay in the shelter less isolated. In fact, you spent the entire "Twelve Hour War" huddled in your room, with her, waiting for the world to end. It did end, in a way, and your long stay underground began ...

As time passed your sense of purpose dissipated, the guilt grew and the hours stretched. There was only so much work to do, only so many hours to sleep away and still there was time left to sit and think. Rachel used to help soothe away the anger but since she had become the partner of Jon Ritchie and borne his child she had little time to succour her friends. It had been a bad week and the prospect of a 48 hour statutory rest period filled you with dread. You visited the pharmacy and then, once in the comfort of your room, jammed the locking mechanism of your door and swallowed the contents of the large phial of Somnux.

As the world began to recede, the last thing that registered before the warm blackness came was a distant mechanical voice declaring it to be ... "18:00 hours, Thursday, April 5th".

Notes

To swap between the two sets of character fonts, use SET1 and SET2. Use RAMSAVE and RAMLOAD to save/load a position to memory (RAM) and use SAVE and LOAD to save/load a game position to tape.

Hint: To pass through an open door, simply GO THROUGH DOOR, but remember to open it first! To do this it will be necessary to use the correct pass, so be specific and SHOW RED PASS or whatever colour pass it is you have. This also applies to the use of any coloured buttons you may have to press ... PRESS BLUE BUTTON to operate it.

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