UNDERWANDERERField archive
Case file O-010ObjectsAll levels

The Metal Shelving Unit

A tubular wire rack with sixteen fixed slots. What you store is visible on the shelf, and visible to anyone who walks by.

Testimony

“Sixteen slots and everything shows from outside. If you can see it, anyone can.”

The metal shelving unit is the first storage piece a wanderer can put up with their own hands. It is an open tubular wire rack, not a closed chest, and everything you store can be seen sitting on its shelf.

What it looks like

  • Measurements: 1.45 m wide, 1.90 m tall and 0.60 m deep.
  • Four open compartments, all identical, with four slots each: 16 slots in total, each with its own physical spot on the shelf.
  • Cost: 4 metal. It is a free-standing piece with no snapping, so you can place it wherever and at whatever angle you like.
  • It opens like any container, with two panels: your inventory on one side and the shelving unit on the other.

One slot, one item

The world's own items don't stack: each bottle takes one slot, and what limits how much you can hoard is weight, not space. That is why Almond Water takes one slot per bottle. The shelf looks full at first glance, without opening anything.

Hoarding is held back by the cost in metal and by something worse: outside a stabilized chunk, everything you leave can be stolen. See Stabilization.

The shelf fills in plain sight

Each time a slot changes, the item appears or disappears in its place. Cans and bottles stand upright, bags lean, and from the corridor you can tell what's there and what's missing. That is an advantage if you want to find your food at a glance, and a problem if anyone else passes through your shelter.

Survivor tips

  • Put the shelving unit inside a shelter and in an anchored chunk. A shelf out in the open empties itself.
  • Spread things out. Don't leave anything on it you can't afford to lose.
  • If you have to run, what's on the shelf stays behind. Work out with Backpacks and Weight what you're taking with you before you leave.

What people report

  • The story goes that the contents of a shelving unit put up by another group show up empty to anyone arriving late, even if the owner has filled it. Nobody knows why or when it happens.
  • Some say you can take an item straight off the shelf, without opening the panel, just by looking at it up close. Nobody has repeated it where others could see.

Mentioned in

O-001 · ObjectsAlmond WaterThe only flask that restores sanity. It removes hunger, thirst and wounds, but it only turns up in rooms almost nobody sets foot in.O-005 · ObjectsSurprise BoxesSealed cardboard boxes that promise something and may be empty. If another wanderer got there first, they will already have been opened.O-018 · ObjectsScrap PilesMetal isn't everywhere. It gathers in heaps of six pieces, in corners of warehouses and service areas, and without it you can't put up a single wall.O-004 · ObjectsFrame and PanelsCatalog-style improvised structures, with beams from dismantled furniture and seven kinds of panel. This is how you close an opening when there's no door.O-012 · ObjectsThe Survivor’s InventoryWhat you carry is your body, your clothes and their weight, not an endless list. Every pocket comes from your clothing.