Distracted by watching Noah, Jose mistook the feint for a real attempt to take his head off. He screamed at the sudden motion and stumbled over his feet, falling on his ass. Ann, Marco, and James jumped back, all grabbing for the batons hanging on their belts. Raven didn’t wait for any of them to speak. She vaulted over Jose and ran out into the hall.
“Stay here and die if you want,” shouted Raven. “I tried. You’re not going to keep me away from Tinsley!”
Tyrone and Walter, the two largest men in the Arc—who also happened to be on the security team—formed a human wall in front of the door to the escape tunnel. She couldn’t hope to get past them without using the katana, didn’t want to hurt them, and also didn’t trust her ability to hurt them before they pinned her down. Either one of them could throw her around like a child.
James and Marco tried to run at her from Noah’s office at the same time, wedging themselves in the door together.
Shit. She stared at two immovable objects blocking her only way out. Unless…
“Screw it…”
Jose’s reaching fingers swiped at her hair. Raven dashed to the left, away from the escape tunnel and the security team scrambling out into the corridor behind her. Running as hard as if Tinsley’s life hung in the balance, she raced out from the admin hall to the central core, weaving around a handful of people who all stopped short to gawk at her. Evidently stunned by her appearance—or the naked blade waving around—none did more than stare as she zoomed past them.
Jose, Ann, Marco, and James rushed out of the hallway, shouting at people to grab her. Francis, an older guy in his late fifties up ahead, widened his stance as if he intended to try catching her. Fortunately, the stairwell entrance was in front of him by far enough he’d have to dive forward for any chance at touching her.
The older guy didn’t bother trying to leap at her as she cornered, her boot heel squeaking, and rushed up the stairs. Level two smelled even worse, but she didn’t leave the stairwell, not even sparing much of a glance down the abandoned corridor. Spray paint on the wall at the switchback to level one read ‘off limits’ and ‘quarantine – danger!’
She rushed up the first switchback to a landing midway between the floors and found the next set of stairs blocked off by a stack of junk she’d forgotten about in her haste. Filling cabinets, tables, chairs, and a coat rack or two. The sword wouldn’t help, so she rammed it into the sheath and started grabbing stuff. The first filing cabinet she threw down the stairs to level two knocked James and Ann down with it. She threw a chair to Jose more than at him, hoping he’d catch it. The security people jumped back from the second filing cabinet she sent bouncing down the stairs.
“Raven, what the fuck are you doing?” yelled Ann. “That’s off limits! You’re going to hurt yourself.”
She grabbed another office chair and threw it wildly to the right. It bounced off the wall and tumbled to the landing below. “Maybe it’s radioactive, but it’s the only way out. It’s bullshit! Topside is not dangerous.”
Jose charged up the stairs.
“No!” shouted Raven. She grabbed the barrier and flung herself headfirst into a gap, landing draped over a table turned sideways.
He grabbed her ankle and pulled; she braced her hands on metal cabinets to either side, roaring in determination while kicking at him.
“Almost got her! Marc, get up here. Need a hand,” yelled Jose.
“Stop this ridiculousness at once,” called Noah.
“Jose, you’re a reasonable guy.” Raven grunted, struggling to pull herself forward. “He thinks I’ve gone nuts. I haven’t. I can prove it to you all if you let me.”
He continued pulling on her.
“Do you think I pulled this jumpsuit out of my ass?”
Jose stopped pulling, but didn’t let go.
“I really don’t want to kick you in the face.” She growled, pushing against the cabinets. His fingers started to slip. “Right now, you’re keeping me away from my daughter. My heel’s about to tell your nose why that’s a bad idea. Please, Jose. Believe me.”
His grip let go, sending her forward, flat on the dustiest floor she’d ever seen. A dimly lit corridor spread out ahead of her, littered with furniture, papers, scraps of trash, and tables upended into barricades. Several skeletal bodies lay about, two hanging over the table-walls, three others sprawled on the floor. Long bullet-riddled windows ran down both sides of the hallway, revealing vast laboratories containing long-forgotten medical and computer equipment.
Tess mentioning ‘there had been violence’ made her briefly imagine two large groups of people having a shootout in this corridor. That certainly explained how the medical equipment puked cesium everywhere—a bullet hit it.
Whether Jose let go on purpose or merely lost his grip, she couldn’t tell—nor did she care.
Perhaps Ann might be able to squeeze through the gap, but none of the guys could. Raven shoved herself upright and scrambled up to as much of a run as she could manage on the slippery dust. Remembering the doc mentioning radioactive powder, she held her breath while fishing the filter mask out of her satchel and pulling it on. Getting cesium on her skin would be bad, but inhaling it had to be much worse.
Behind her, banging and clattering announced the security team clearing the barrier.
Flailing her arms for balance, she ran-skated a few hundred feet down the big corridor to a four-way intersection on a level she’d never seen before. Hatch is on the north end, so I had to go south to the admin hall. Went right at the middle, then down a west hall. Big entrance is at the south… gotta go south. She fished the compass out, trying not to let the crashing of metal freak her out. If they caught her, she’d end up in jail and Tinsley would think her dead when she didn’t come home—not to mention Kyle would be screwed.
Her compass needle whipped violently to the left, pointing at a big white machine in one of the labs.
The filter mask made breathing the already thin air intolerable. Maybe it would protect her from the cesium dust. Somewhat loopy, she stared at the shaking needle, wondering how it had broken.
Shit! Oh, that thing’s gotta have a giant magnet in it. Compass is useless here. Uhh, south, right turn, left turn… I…
She chose left, running down another corridor with almost an inch of powdery dust on the floor. Doors, some open, some closed, some wedged on furniture or skeletal remains zoomed past her on either side. Yellow-and-black stripes on a double door at the end of the corridor gave her hope, as did the biohazard sign.
Raven tried to stop, but ended up skiing forward in the thick dust. She bounced face first off the door and landed on her ass. Ignoring the pain in her tailbone, she leapt up and jammed her fingers into the rubber gasket between the two halves. Like the outer door, this one appeared to open by sliding apart. Alas, it refused to move.
She kicked a maintenance panel out on the left side, exposing the control circuitry as well as hydraulic lines for the door actuators.
“Guess I gotta fix it first.”
Raven drew the katana and slashed the hoses. Viscous fluid dribbled out. She speared the sword into the gap between the doors, using it as a pry bar to wedge them apart. A spurt of fluid shot out of the severed hoses in response to her shove. The gap widened. Since the left panel moved more easily, she leaned all her weight against it, shoving it aside to create a space she could wriggle by.
Her tool satchel slipped off her shoulder as she squeezed past the door, but she caught it and dragged it through, emitting a gasp of awe as she spun to face the room. The huge chamber had all sorts of machinery hanging from the ceiling, most of which resembled ventilation ductwork and fans. None of it made a sound.
The designers already built exterior venting! Screw it. Too late.
Forty feet away, the inside of the massive metal door glinted in the feeble light from a handful of operating LED bulbs, the Arc’s backup system. Nowhere in the tunnels should be pitch black. A metal cabinet to the right of the huge door hel
d the controls: buttons for ‘open’ ‘close’ ‘stop’ as well as an intercom to the outside and a monitor screen that had most likely been connected to an exterior camera.
A mural spanned most of the left wall showing happy families in pre-Great-Death clothing standing in a flowering meadow under the words: Arcology 1409 – humanity’s hope for the future. If she’d seen that painting two weeks ago, she’d have cynically mocked the overly cheerful faces on the men, women, and children smiling at the painted sun. Now, she knew exactly how they felt.
The first time she looked up at the actual sky, she’d probably made the same stupid face.
Tromping boots echoed out in the hallway. Marco yelled in alarm seconds before a loud whump followed.
Careful out there. It’s slippery.
Raven sprinted across the cavernous chamber to the control box and mashed the ‘Open’ button. Even though she didn’t expect it to do anything, when nothing happened, she still screamed in disappointed frustration. Out of spite, she mashed it again.
An electric buzz came from the ceiling. The floor shuddered under the weight of a massive electric motor winding up.
“Holy shit!” She kept holding the button down.
“Stop!” shouted Noah in the hallway. “You’re going to kill everyone in the Arc. Is that what you want?”
The room vibrated. Dust fell off the ceiling.
“You’re wrong!” shouted Raven. “I’m not the one who’s lost their grip on reality.”
Grunts and thuds rushed up to the busted hydraulic door.
A loud thud rocked the floor under Raven’s boots seconds before the low, demonic whine of a huge electric motor struggling to turn emanated from overhead. The giant door gave off a creak. Centuries of gunk crumbled out of the seam. Whining, the electric motor increased pitch, clearly overloaded.
She mashed the ‘Open’ button again.
Jose tried to squeeze into the room, but couldn’t fit past the gap in the split door. He backed up, giving Marco room to grab the other side. The men shoved at the panels, forcing them apart.
An ear-shattering screech made everyone cringe, grabbing their ears. Two multi-ton slabs of metal broke apart with a bang like Kyle’s shotgun going off, the force of their motion creating a mild earthquake. Raven ran to the gap, staring past the inches-wide opening at the tunnel leading to the surface. She bounced on her toes.
Come on. Come on. Come on. Move.
Marco and Jose stumbled into the outer chamber and ran at her.
An explosion near the middle of the ceiling showered the room in sparks, knocking Raven forward like a hard shove. She kept her balance, frozen in momentary horror at the gap no longer widening. The massive door had stopped moving, all the mechanical noise gone. The motor hadn’t simply failed, it had catastrophically failed.
Jose screamed.
She peered back. Both men lay on the floor amid a cloud of smoke. Small fires littered the floor around them as well as burned on Jose’s left arm. Marco swatted at him, trying to put the flames out. She turned back to the door, staring at a gap not even large enough for her to stick an arm into.
No… dammit! She bonked her head against the ten-ton metal slab.
“Wait… failsafe.”
Images of the schematics she had studied for so long danced around in her mind. She rushed past the control box to an access panel at the corner. Behind her, the security people and Noah coughed on the smoke from the burning motor. She couldn’t see them, which meant they couldn’t see her.
As fast as she could move, she crouched low behind a large machine box and rummaged a screwdriver from her satchel. Fighting her shaking hands, she attacked the access panel.
“Haven’t you done enough damage?” asked Noah.
She jumped, looking up and back, but he hadn’t come out of the smoke, so she kept removing screws. “Ask yourself that.”
Noah emerged from the grey billow, fanning his face while suppressing a mild cough. He noted the two-inch separation between the halves of the great door, and stepped back, covering his mouth. “You’ve killed us. You destroyed the seal.” Trembling, he paused to look around and up. “Maybe it’s not too late. Maybe we can patch this.”
“I’m not the one who sounds crazy now.” She removed screw number six and started on the seventh. “You’ve been sending people out there, the Saints, for years. You have to know the outside is not deadly.”
“The contamination is slow! Two breaths is a death sentence. Just because it takes a few years to kill does not make it any less lethal.” He waved at her. “Move away from that. The damn thing exploded. You’re not going to fix it.”
Raven yanked the last screw and jabbed at the top edge with the screwdriver until the panel popped open. “I’m not trying to fix the motor, Noah.”
His eyes widened in horror.
She smiled at him while flicking the safety interlock open and grasping a horizontal handle. “I have a present for you.”
Noah cringed.
“It’s nothing bad. I promise.” Grinning, Raven twisted the handle, disengaging the main door from the motorized drive train. “Noah Hayes, I give you sunlight.” She pulled the handle toward herself, unlocking the massive counterweights in the walls.
Again, the whole room shook like an earthquake. Both ten-ton slabs of steel forming the Arc’s primary door jerked away from each other, ramming open amid a thunderous crash that sent cracks racing across the concrete around the doorway. An unobstructed twelve-by-twelve foot opening inhaled the smoke from the destroyed motor, clearing the room.
The forty-foot passageway outside didn’t let much sun reach the Arc’s first chamber, but a little patch did manage to fall on Noah’s tread socks. He looked down at his toes for a second, then stared at her, mouth agape, his cheeks as white as her new undershirt.
“What have you done?”
42
Rubble
When I said ‘it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission’ I meant me. Not you. You can’t use that philosophy until after you turn eighteen. Got it, young lady? – Ellis Wilder.
The security people ran up to her, Marco and Ann grabbing her arms.
Noah braced a hand to his forehead, shaking as if about to vomit.
“Will you stop being such a drama queen?” Raven struggled, looking back and forth from Jose to Ann. “Seriously, guys. You’ve known me my entire life. Do you honestly think there’s even the slightest chance I could have hurt Tinsley or the other kids? Or Sienna?”
Ann looked down. “No, not really, but you didn’t seem like yourself.”
“Since you guys are here and just got a face-full of outside air, you have nothing to lose at this point. Come with me and look for yourselves. This door is never going to close again. The air you are breathing right now is safe.” Raven tugged at their grip. “Kyle’s trapped and is going to die. If I am hallucinating like Noah thinks, no one will be there. Come see for yourself. If there’s no one there, I’ll accept that you’re right and I imagined everything. But if he’s there, you have to help me convince Noah he’s being a moron.”
Ann let go. “She’s got a point. If two breaths really are going to kill us, we’re all dead.”
“If she’s so sure, why is she wearing a filter mask?” asked Marco.
“Didn’t want to inhale cesium dust on level one.” Raven pulled her mask off and pointed at the door back into the Arc.
“Doomed,” rasped Noah.
“It’s bullshit.” Raven tugged her arm away from Jose. “The spot where we fell isn’t far. It will take twenty minutes to prove me right or wrong. Unless you don’t wanna run, then a little longer. If you guys aren’t willing to help him, then I have to run all the way back to Oasis and that means Kyle is going to stay trapped there for days.”
Noah let out a manic laugh. “All right. Fine. Since you’ve basically killed us all anyway…”
Drama queen. Shaking her head, Raven strode up the passageway to the surface.
/> The security people followed cautiously, all gasping when they reached the top and got a view of the forest south of the Arc. Raven stuffed the filter mask in her tool satchel.
“Shit, I’m blind,” muttered Jose.
Ann moaned in pain.
Marco sucked air past his teeth.
“Give it a few minutes.” Raven folded her arms. “Your eyes aren’t used to daylight.”
“Crap it’s hot.” James fanned himself. “Like crawling under the solar lamps in the hydro farm.”
Noah paused at the opening, a hand over his eyes, squinting.
“You might want to take those tread socks off.” Raven smiled at him. “You’ll only ruin them out here.”
He sighed.
“So is that cesium story right or were you just hiding proof that a rebellion happened?” Raven tapped her foot.
“A stray bullet hit a diagnostic machine. The cesium release is true.” Noah frowned and pulled his socks off, shaking dust out of them. “They sealed off all the ventilation ducts feeding level one to keep it from being sucked downstairs.”
“Saints… it’s so pretty,” said Ann. “Have you ever seen so much green?”
The men wandered away from the tunnel, gazing around at the world.
“Noah?” Raven approached him.
He glanced sideways at her.
“I believe you honestly are convinced you’ve been exposed to some contamination that will cause you to die in two years. I’d like to prove to you that your fears are based on lies or maybe just misunderstanding. If you see a man my age who has spent his entire life outside, will that be good enough to prove that you’re not going to drop dead in two years? You don’t need to be afraid.”
“That would be nice,” said Noah, “but I’m afraid you’re suffering delusions.”
“Well, you’ll be going crazy soon then, too. Come on.” She marched off toward the ruins of the suburban neighborhood. “Don’t walk on the roads here.”
“What’s a road?” asked Marco.
The Girl Who Found the Sun Page 41
