1. Mrs. Franklin: Swedish white female, age 35, who is a part-time secretary for a large company. Quiet, keeps to herself. Non-practicing Christian Baptist. Is married, has one child.

A mother-figure to the rest of the group. Able to reproduce. Hopefully the genes that led to the mentally handicapped child were her husband’s.

2. Mbumaga Linn: Japanese male, age 23, organic food store clerk. Member of green party; above average experience with gardening. Political anarchist and an atheist. Unmarried.

Gardening skills make him invaluable in sustaining food and medicine supplies.

3. Adam Li: Chinese male, age 30, engaged. Quiet personality, is a cook for local oriental restaurant, studying culinary arts. Practices Buddhism faithfully.

Cooking skill is useful, though not essential. He has the good fortune to be engaged to a breeder while not having any notable vices like Mr. Franklin.

4. Susan Cho: Chinese female, age 28, engaged to Adam Li. Slightly snobbish; comes from money. Practices Taoism half-heartedly; is good with children.

A breeder with parenting potential; like Mrs. Franklin, can provide guidance for the younger women as well as bumist in raising the children that will inevitably be popping out of the other breeders.

5. Amy Youngston: English female, age 17, gothic personality. Raised Roman Catholic, converted to Atheism. Wants to be a clothing designer.

Young female; in essence, a breeder.

6. Juli Mohammed: Saudi female, age 16. American patriot; vegetarian. Practices Islam half-heartedly.

Young female; in essence, a breeder.

7. Mike Preston: French white male, age 39, technology fiend. Loves books and artwork; outstanding computer programmer and gifted intelligence. Left-wing politics and agnostic. Single.

Intelligence and resourcefulness are good traits to have.

8. Hermann Huntington: white male, age 45, an Englishman and aristocratic-looking doctor who is unmarried. PhD in field; unable to reproduce due to sterility. Cold personality, religion unknown.

Can’t reproduce, but the group needs a medical professional.

With my group I attempted, first and foremost, to capitalize on good genes and a lack of history with drug use or other “risky” behaviors that could contribute to birth defects. After I narrowed down the field in that fashion, I further narrowed the selection to those with non-existent or moderate religious beliefs, because I have no interest in putting up with that sort of nonsense when it does eventually arise.

Hermann made the cut because he has valuable skills as a doctor. In addition there are 9 people total, and I wanted the most diverse gene pool possible while limiting the overall amount of quibbling over mates. Final tally is 4 virile males (myself included), 4 virile women, and 1 sterile male.

Once I got down to that point, I tried to ensure that the people with traits and occupations that seemed to suggest a level of high general intelligence remained. No matter what skills people bring into the bunker, we’re going to need to pick new skills up (and people will need to be able to learn skills from the others to make everyone’s job easier).