Free Twilight Earth by Ben Winston

same time as the Sal'andori.
    “I can’t reach the satellite to confirm surface conditions, but I am going to take the warning seriously. I got the impression they knew about the first awakening, but not the second,” Ben replied.
    “What if they do?” Jon asked.
    Shrugging, Ben answered. “It won’t matter; we can’t sleep more. Once we all awaken, we’ll stay down here until we can figure out what’s happening on the surface and take the appropriate action from there.”
    “Ben, we’ll go insane down here. I love my family and the rest of the folks seem real nice, but we’re gonna need to get outta here, or people will start to flip-out.”
    “Is that the clinical term for it?” Ben asked smiling slightly.
    “Damn right it is, now answer the question!”
    “We’re not isolated down here. Every pod is connected through a transport system that is constantly maintained. There is also the communication network and the entertainment database. Don’t worry, with the replicators and the hydroponics, we could live down here for a very long time,” Ben explained.
    “It sure seems like we’re relying on the technology more than we should,” Jon said halfheartedly. He knew that they were relying on it completely. If any of it failed, people were going to die. Jon knew that as well as Ben. Jon just needed to complain about something.
    “Did you get to eat something?” Ben asked.
    “First thing I did. Damn, I was hungry! Damn freezers don’t feed you like they should.”
    Ben chuckled at his friend. “Come on then, let’s go take our last nap. A whole new world awaits us.”
    “Provided we live long enough!”
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    S urvival Pod 0001a
    Fulton's Prairie, Missouri
    Former United States
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    E ven in the best computers systems, or the best designed equipment, there is always the possibility for failure of some kind. Someone once said, the more complex the piece of equipment, the more likely the event of failure.
    The most complex computer system ever built was the one developed as the master computer for the Pods. Each pod had redundant systems of course, and multiple safety protocols to ensure that the chance for loss of life was reduced to the absolute minimum. But failure is always an option.
    When the primary computer went down due to component failure, the back-up system immediately came online to assume control of the network, but the original failure took place during a data back-up to the memory store, which corrupting the data.
    The new system did the best it could with the information at hand and successfully assumed control of the network and all the smaller computers connected to it; including the ones controlling the Hibernation Chambers.
    The new computer was intelligent enough to realize some of the data was bad and corrected it, but since it was unable to contact the surface, or the satellite to verify the date, it was forced to accept that the current date was accurate and proceed from there. It had no way to know the date wasn’t June 23rd 5235 BC.
    Since the computer could only use that date as a reference, it waited until the originally programmed released date arrived. Finally, April the twenty-second, 3020 AD arrived; it began the long awaited process of awakening the remaining members of the human race on the planet.
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    Waking up was far more difficult than it had been the first time. Again, the first thing Ben noticed was the cold. This time though, he felt like he imagined he would feel after being rescued from freezing. He felt like his blood was only slowly beginning to flow in his body. Making his extremities burn and hurt.
    He was stiff. He tried to lift one hand to look at his fingers and it was like trying to pull it out of concrete. When he did get it high enough for him to see it, it took a few moments to realize the reason his fingers hurt so much was because his fingernails had grown so long.
    He pushed on