Page 115 - KCMAGAZINE 20230717

“What do you mean, you dried out the soil?” She demanded.

He sighed. “Back on the surface, when the Netherlands got flooded, that was the

first sign of the apocalypse. That was when we started investing in building bunker cities.
But people weren’t ready to move underground yet. And some environmentalists started
saying dumb things like if we tried hard enough we could still save the surface. If we
worked harder on replantation and restoration.” He sneered. “So we made sure that they

failed.”

“You… what?”

“We drained the soil of nutrients, so all the plants started dying off. No one ever
found out it was us. It really freaked everyone out, and the government finally agreed to
moving the whole nation underground. People had to be convinced that the surface was
beyond saving to be willing to let it go.”

She shook her head, trying to take it all in. “That’s - so, in a way, you and all those
other… accomplices of yours… doomed the surface.”

“Accomplices?” He waved his hand and laughed. “Oh, come on. We were doing
the right thing! All people wanted was a comfortable life. No one wants to go back to
farming and living off vegetables and chickens. They thought they needed plants and
organic stuff, but they really didn’t. Mankind didn’t need nature the moment oxygen-

synthesising technology was invented. See how far mankind’s come with technology!
People needed to get over the crap environmentalists had been feeding them with. So I
helped them realise that there was no way to save Earth. Or rather, there was no point in
it. And you make me sound like a bad guy. What does that make you, thief?”

“Like you’re not a thief yourself,” she spat. “And what about hiding all the seeds
away and leaving the surface and everyone who didn’t get a ticket to the bunkers to die?
Huh?” The blade of her knife glistened in the dim light.

“Whoa, girl, chill. Look. You wanted some seeds, and I showed you where they’re
at. Now just- just let me go, alright?”

“No,” she snarled. “Bunker cities… they were part of your plan, weren’t they? I read
up about you before I got here. You’re one of the Fathers of the Underworld. You built the
bunker cities. You took all the seeds, killed off the plants, made restoration impossible.
So people had no choice but to move down here. Must’ve made a lot of money selling

the tickets, huh? All the people who made it down here are rich people, so you can make
even more money selling rare seeds to them.”

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