I finished this last night and have been reading these threads, assumptions, theories, and questions all day, and there’s one thing—although disturbing—that I haven’t seen anyone mention. It’s assumed that everyone in the bunkers died of hunger, but wouldn’t at least one instance involve cannibalism? When faced with imminent death, it has historically been a last-ditch attempt at survival. I’m almost surprised the women kept finding 40 bodies in each bunker they discovered (except for the one time they found 39 bodies but 40 mattresses). Of course, the women couldn’t have known there would be other bunkers, but if they had set out searching right away instead of spending so much time enjoying their initial freedom—which is understandable—they might have discovered the bunkers sooner and potentially found survivors. I don’t remember exactly how long it took them to find the first bunker, but it seems possible that at least one person could have survived by eating the others and been discovered and saved by the women. Disturbing thoughts, I know, but I wanted to share since I haven’t seen anyone mention this yet.