Chosen Survivors

Mary Louise Borden: May I have your attention, please? On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, I would like to welcome you to the beginning of the greatest adventure of your lives. You are all sedated to ease the shock of what has happened. Faced with the threat of world-wide development of atomic weapons, a special government committee set into action a plan to provide for the continuation of the human race, in the event of global, thermonuclear war. You are here because we are now engaged in such a war.

Mary Louise Borden: [she continues] Foresight on the part of this nation's leaders has allowed us to make limited survival possible. In twelve locations within the borders of this country, installations such as this are now operational. Those of you in this room, along with the 168 men and women in the other installations, were computer-selected for the special knowledge each of you can transmit to the future. Other considerations were, sex, age and physical superiority. Within the 26 rooms and more than 18,000 square feet in this self-maintained installation, you will find all necessary life-support supplies, allowing for up to five years confinement, and all necessary instructional material. You can view any part of North America in detail via a synchronous, observational satellite to which you are linked.

Mary Louise Borden: [she continues] Ultimately, when your computers indicate that the radiation level on the surface has fallen below the safety threshold, the elevator in your complex will become automatically operable and you will be able to return to the surface. It is our hope that you, and the 168 chosen survivors like you, will find the strength to transcend this greatest of all tragedies so that humanity will not perish because of the actions of a few but will flourish again because of the courage of a few. May God bless you. This message was pre-recorded and automatically programmed.