Talk:Mountain Men/@comment-26269248-20150524165127/@comment-26247132-20150524183345

When they opened the door, it wasn't the main door opening (remember, it hadn't been opened in 97 years). I'm also fairly certain that they didn't allow everyone immediate access to the outside (otherwise, who rescued them and treated them?).

We know from Keenan that Sky People blood prolongs their radiation exposure past what they naturally have (4 minutes and 10 seconds before she starts blistering, which is "progress"). Extrapolating from that, I'm guessing that when they opened the door 56 years ago, it only took a couple of minutes for them to realize it was a bad idea and a couple more minutes to get everyone who was exposed back into a radiation-free zone (as we saw when Maya was exposed). Depending on the length and severity of the exposure as well as their response to treatment, a percentage of those people died (54 of them), including Dante's mother and sister, but Dante survived.