Post History

The war was devastating but nobody thought it would be so bad they'd nuke all advanced technology from their memory. Even those who'd seen it happen couldn't believe their eyes, and those born after the war wouldn't believe their fathers.

The entrances are hidden... but that was not the original plan. Rather it is the inevitable consequence of the flow of time. Huge metal hatches eventually got covered in a layer of dirt, and then trees, and then wildlife. And yet they hold firm. The few extrusions to the surface that are still in operation are fully automated. And of course, none of them have any cameras above ground.

Originally the plan was to hunker down behind well-guarded doors, and since they rightfully thought so well of their defenses, they decided to keep their doors clearly visible to any stragglers that might want to join them. They even set up a beacon by each door, and a way to notify the guardsmen of their arrival remotely. All you needed was a smartphone with a Mid-range Field Communication.

That was centuries ago. The doors are now covered with dirt, and anyone who even knew MFC was a thing is now dead. Which the depth dwellers absolutely do not know. What they do know is that the beacons are operational, and have received no reply since the late XX00s. What _most_ depth dwellers know is what they heard in the history lessons, minus what they gleefully forgot five seconds after the final exam. 

As to the entrances being usable, it's complicated. A common citizen - if they even know where the elevator is - is told by a beefy looking official that the surface is off-limits due to the potential risk from the surface, which the government is keeping a close eye on. Beefy looking officials don't know much more. Any access to surface needs lots of paperwork and a very good reason. Somebody ringing a doorbell would justify populating the main security post and swinging out the big hatch. A civillian being unsure if just maybe actually we could open the surface already does not. And as far as they too do know, it is the government's duty to keep track of the status of what's aboveground. And the government, well... periodically releases a PSA that the entrances are still operational and closely monitored (in that the MFC receivers report status operational and that somebody's set up to receive a ping in case the receivers do receive a signal) and there has been 1 security incident (somebody scraping the big metal hatch while digging) last year.

Actually monitoring more than just the doorbells would require a mission to the surface... and nobody wants the PR disaster if a tech gets killed while installing an above ground camera, because of the war that's (maybe) going on. We do have thought of sending a drone a couple of years after the Hunkering, but the security protocols built into these doors prevent us from opening them without anyone being in the security airlock or somebody calling in from the surface and getting authorized. So yeah... no mission to the surface for the foreseeable future, tell the citizens that there's still war outside, and definitely kick out that journalist before anyone learns we don't actually know anything.