We have a CO2 scrubber, we have food storage for a year, medicine, clothing.” There could be a nuclear blast, we could be under 500 feet of water where we’re sitting right now and we will survive. “This facility is going to accommodate 132 people, for one year of autonomous underground survival,” says Vicino, sitting at a small table in one of the bunker’s cavernous main rooms.

This 10,000-square-foot space is the first in what developer and mastermind Robert Vicino hopes will be a worldwide network of multimillion dollar shelters with semi-private suites, communal living areas and even a gym. Dan Hotes’ primary job is to locate and investigate potential Terra Vivos bunker locations like this one across the country. It’s one of about half a dozen out-of-commission telecommunications bunkers scattered in strategic locations across the United States. The immaculate, cement-lined telecommunications bunker was built during the Cold War. Hotes leads me down a long stairwell and into the belly of what is actually an old AT&T routing station.

“So this is just like the upper housing area, drop down 30 feet into the heart of the facility,” says Hotes as we enter the bunker through a nondescript, though fenced in, outbuilding. It turns out the bunker is just a quick jog from the gas station. I meet my guide, Dan Hotes, an affable 40-something realtor from the Seattle area.

I got mine, along with a map and directions to rendezvous with a company representative at a remote Mojave Desert gas station. You’re unlikely to find the secret bunker without an invitation from the Terra Vivos Underground Survival Network. Investors believe it’s their best hope in the event of natural disaster, terrorist attack or worse. He’s building a string of luxury disaster shelters. Deep in California’s Mojave Desert, about halfway between Barstow and Las Vegas, a real estate entrepreneur is counting on a big catastrophe.

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