Nathan Magee stared at his uncle's corpse without emotion.

He knew he should feel remorse right about now. He had just witnessed his Uncle Louie throw himself off a hundred foot high cliff. That would usually scar somebody for life, under normal circumstances.

It was just so difficult to care now. He had seen friends and family die before, and in more gruesome ways than Old Louie. In a way Nathan almost envied him. It had been over in a second. That was more than most people could say any more.

Nathan sighed and stood up. He had long since gotten used to moving in the bulky environment suit he had been given by his father. With one last glance at the messy dot that was his uncle, he retrieved the shopping cart and started his long trudge back to the shelter.

He was fourteen years old.

Five years ago, Nathan and his parents constructed a bomb shelter out of some aircraft parts on the outskirts of New York city. Nathan's father, Richard, kept rambling about how "those North Korean bastards are going to blow us up."

A few of Nathan's relatives had moved in soon after the shelter's completion. Grandma Sue came, along with Richard's brother Louie. Louie was divorced, but he maintained custody of his only daughter, Cassandra. They all lived together in the shelter for months. The outsiders thought they were crazy.

Most people didn't expect a nuclear war. Sure, U.S. relations with North Korea were deteriorating, but the nations' leaders were still working out the situation in a civil way. Well, civil might not be the correct term, but at least they weren't trying to bash each others' heads in.

Eventually the Magees began to think they were just being paranoid. Nathan's mother, Margaret, noticed that despite having so many supplies when they moved in, they were already running low. She decided to run across the street to their old home and gather some more.

That's when New York blew up.

Nathan, nine at the time, was screaming. Just screaming. He thought he might scream his head off if he had to. The Magees didn't bother trying to shut him up, they just huddled in the corner and covered their head. Even inside their large metal box, they could feel the raw power of the bomb as it shook the ground. Anything on the other side of that door was surely vaporized.

It was all so noisy... It was as if the entire world was screaming with Nathan. The world was screaming in pain. And then... It was silent. The only thing Nathan could hear was his own hoarse breathing.

Nathan did not mourne his mother for long. Perhaps just a few seconds. He didn't have a chance to, really. He was suddenly a survivor of one of the most horrifying things a person could ever experience.

Richard turned on the radio. Amazingly, he managed to pick up a faint signal from a broadcasting station in Washington D.C. Reports were coming of bombings all over the country. Chicago, Los angeles, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Toronto, and hundreds of others. All gone. Suddenly, the signal was lost.

Nathan, even at the fragile age of nine, understood what he would be forced to in the years ahead. He would have to learn to be a man fast, and help provide for his family. The Magees put on their environment suits and opened up the Shelter's door three months later.

Hell was waiting for them.