Speculative Fact #347: Billionaire Bunkers

As the doomsday clock nears midnight, some are actively planning ahead. The survivalists take the nihilistic route and believe that a failure of government will come after a large disaster, and then the inevitable collapse of social order. Some of the wealthiest clients from Silicon Valley to Wall Street have caught the doomsday survivalist bug and are lining up to swap gas mask advice and buy large underground bunkers.
     A company named Vivos is leading in bunker construction, the sales of which have increased by 300% since Donald Trump was elected President. Some of these bunkers are planned with the long term in mind with schools, churches, and even a full time staff of servants.   
            In many ways, these billionaire bunkers are a statement about wealth and class in their own right, but that could be used in your story. Mood can help enhance a story – it could fuel tension between characters or inject emotions into your tale. The setting often shapes the narrative, so perhaps even a lush bunker may eventually feel like a claustrophobic tomb for the survivors.
           What if the only survivors of a coming apocalypse were part of an elite class? Will class still remain and drive social divisions? Could conflicts arise within the bunker on a smaller scale, mimicking the strife outside? What if it became a prison, and the pampered inhabitants could not find a way back out?

Jonathan Hernandez

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