by Ike Hamill
Brad took a chair and brought it close to the panel.
“I’m going to take a break,” Merle said.
“Give me a few more minutes?” Robby asked.
Merle shrugged and stayed put.
The control room had felt stuffy with all the people packed into it. Now that Romie and the kids had left, it felt a little empty. Robby scanned across the screens. They showed him everything that the system was willing to let them know at the moment. It wasn’t much. He had views of a few interior rooms and one long shot from the overpass outside.
Brad leaned forward, still trying to make sense of the symbols that made up the menu.
“You think one of these options will open up access to the storeroom again?” Brad asked.
Robby shook his head.
“It would be here,” Merle said, pointing to one of the screens. “If there was an option, this is where it would be.”
“So, why isn’t it there?” Brad asked.
“The Center is punishing us,” Robby said.
“Punishing?”
“For trying to escape,” Robby said. “I wanted to force its hand—to show us that we weren’t allowed to leave. In addition to blocking our access to the stairwell and the ramp, it also cut off access to the supplies that we brought with us. Now, our only provisions are what it allowed us to find in the pantries. It controls our movements and our food. The only things we have free access to are air and water.”
“Light,” Merle said, pointing.
“Right. And light,” Robby said. “Although there are enough people carrying flashlights that maybe the Center doesn’t see the need to create a showdown about that.”
“So, if we can’t get access using these controls, what’s the point of going through these menus over and over?” Brad asked.
“We’re trying to see what’s missing. That’s the key,” Robby said. He pressed on a part of the control screen and the video images on one of the other monitors shifted. Robby was focused on the one view they had of the outside. He was sure that it wasn’t live. The cycles of light and dark that they saw through the camera weren’t matching the clock. At the moment, the sun was rising on the monitor and the long light was reflecting diamonds off the shattered glass of one of the trucks.
“Wait,” Merle said. “Can you go back?”
“Sure,” Robby said, but as soon as he lifted his finger from the option that he had just selected, it disappeared. He no longer had the choice to go back to.
“Ah. Yup,” Merle said. “See?”
“No,” Robby said.
“I get it,” Brad said.
Robby looked between them.
Chapter 111: Lisa
“Slow down,” Corinna said. “It’s one of… Here.”
Lisa turned the wheel and steered around a small mudslide that had almost made the exit impassable. The tires crunched over rocks and mud and then they had a clear shot down to the stop sign at the bottom of the ramp.
“Now, take a left.”
Lisa did. Before she made the turn, her turn signal ticked on and off. The kids made fun of her for still using the blinkers, but she couldn’t help it. Even after all the years, the instinct was still burned into her muscles.
They passed under the overpass, but Lisa hardly even saw it. Her eyes were focused on the trucks in the distance. Those were the vehicles that her people had taken to get to the bunker. If she could go back in time, she would see Robby, Janelle, Jim, Brad, and Romie moving out of those trucks and seeking safety underground.
An image sprang into her head—it was her whole family under the wheels of the car, deep below the ground, as dusty skeletons. She shook the idea away.
“The entrance has to be around here somewhere, but I searched and searched and didn’t find it.”
“No,” Ashley said.
“But those are the trucks they used to get here,” Lisa said.
“Yes, but they didn’t go in through the entrance,” Corinna said. “There are the ruins of houses over there. You wouldn’t put a secret entrance right near those houses. If anything, this would be the place where the emergency exit was located. I would think the entrance would be somewhere more private, and perhaps close to somewhere they could have landed a cargo plane.”
“Helicopters,” Tim said. “They would have brought them in with helicopters. Where’s that map?”
Lisa rolled to a stop while Ashley handed the map over the seat to Tim. He rejected it and asked for the other map—the one without the notations. That second map had elevation lines and buildings marked on it.
“I think she’s right. There’s another place east of here. We can walk,” Tim said.
Lisa shut off the vehicle, leaving it several yards from one of the trucks. Ashley jumped out and headed quickly toward the trucks. The rest of them got out slowly. To Lisa, the place almost felt like a cemetery. There were bodies buried here—maybe not too deep.
Ashley glanced in the back of one of the big cargo trucks and then climbed into the cab. Rust and weather were returning the big hulks to the dirt, one molecule at a time. The opposite door groaned on its hinges as Ashley climbed down from the other side.
“We can climb up over there,” Tim said, pointing a little to the north and twisting his map around to make it match the terrain.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to backtrack to the road?” Lisa asked.
“I’m afraid we might miss something,” Tim said. “See this hill. It’s almost like it’s strategically placed to shield this flat area from the road.”
“It very well might have been,” Corinna said.
“Ashley,” Lisa called. The young woman was climbing into another one of the trucks.
“These were left at different times, I think,” Ashley said. There were two rows of vehicles. The big moving trucks made up one and a collection of vans, SUVs, and pickups made up the other.
“Come on. We’re going to hike east and see if we can find that flat area,” Lisa said.
Tim and Corinna were already climbing the hill that was just north of the overpass.
“Wait a second,” Ashley said.
Lisa yelled to them and Tim yelled back that they would wait at the top of the hill. Lisa went to see what was holding up Ashley.
She approached slowly, seeing the way that Ashley’s shoulders were hunched as she looked down. Lisa was about to ask her what the issue was, and then she saw what Ashley was looking at.
Beyond a rock wall, there were piles of bones. One or two had the remnants of synthetic fabric clinging to them, but most were naked under the sun. Not too far from Ashley’s foot, a skull stared up at the sky with empty eye sockets.
“That’s not them,” Lisa said.
Ashley simply stared.
“I don’t know anyone with gold fillings,” Lisa said, pointing. The flash of yellow was obvious in the closest skull. “Dentists used to drill out a person’s teeth if they had decay and…”
“I know what a filling is, Aunt Lisa,” Ashley said. “Dad has them, remember?”
“But not gold. He didn’t have gold.”
Ashley finally turned away and Lisa led her toward where Tim and Corinna had climbed.
Their hike was slow. Tim tried to keep them on the right heading with his compass while they pushed through the brush. Eventually, they emerged between branches and came to the edge of a long field on a slight hill. Ashley and Tim conferred over the map and decided that they were in the right place.
“The entrance is here?” Corinna asked. “Where?”
“Could be anywhere in this area,” Tim said. “We can start by setting up a grid and stomping straight lines in the grass. Then we can search each square for something that looks like an entrance.”
“That’s going to take forever,” Corinna said.
“Ashley?” Lisa asked. The young woman had started walking through the grass, headed southeast. Lisa was still worried about her. She had been quiet ever since seeing the bones. Lisa knew what
she was thinking—those were the remains of people they had known.
“What is that?” Tim asked. He put his hand to his face to shield his eyes and looked in the direction that Ashley was headed. Then, he was chasing after her.
Corinna and Lisa exchanged a glance and then followed.
They were halfway across the field before Lisa finally saw what they were headed toward. Something metal was visible just above the tall grass and bushes. Ashley circled right as she approached. Tim circled left.
By the time Lisa got there, Ashley was climbing up into the tall truck. She opened a cap and put her face over the can in the bed of the vehicle.
“This is the same fuel—Merle’s fuel,” Ashley said. “This truck belonged to someone from Donnelly.”
Lisa went to the driver’s door of the truck and tugged at the handle. It wouldn’t budge. Even though the tires were flat, the truck was huge.
“There are bones under here,” Tim said. He was kneeling by the front of the truck. “They’re not human.”
Lisa leaned over, but couldn’t see what he was looking at. Lisa stepped back and felt something underfoot—maybe a rock.
“I think I saw Amy Lynne driving around in a truck like this. If this is her truck, then I would bet that there’s an entrance here,” Corinna said. “I think you’re right, Tim.”
“The skull under there looks like it belonged to a big cat,” Tim said.
Lisa picked at the grass next to the rock—if it was a rock. It had such a straight edge to it that it almost looked like concrete.
“Let’s start our search here,” Ashley said, “and work our way outwards.”
“Look in the truck,” Tim said. “Maybe he left some kind of map or something in there.”
“Good idea,” Ashley said.
When she pulled on the grass near the edge, the grass and soil came up in a sheet. What she had thought was a rock was the concrete edge of a shaft in the ground. The hatch was made of metal.
“Hey,” Lisa said. She tugged on the handle.
“What is it?” Corinna asked, coming around the corner of the bumper. Penny came to her from the other side and sniffed at the edge of the hatch.
“I found it,” Lisa called.
Using tools from Merles truck, they dug and scraped at the dirt until the entire hatch was exposed. Freed from the dirt, it seemed like it wanted to move but was stuck. Ashley tied a rope to the handle and they all pulled. With a grinding groan, it finally gave. The hatch opened on a small space.
Before Lisa could warn her to be careful, Ashley jumped down in and clicked on her light.
“It widens out below the hatch, but there’s not much to it,” Ashley said. “There’s something on the floor—old stains. Could be blood.”
“This has to be it, right?” Corinna asked. “There has to be another door or something—some way to get into the real bunker.”
“Maybe this isn’t even it,” Tim said. “Maybe this is a decoy and the real entrance is elsewhere. We could keep searching, just to be sure.”
“No,” Lisa said. “There’s a reason that the truck is parked right here.”
She pushed up slowly and tried to see the field and truck with fresh eyes. She imagined Merle pulling up and prying open the hatch. Maybe he would have needed to pry it. Maybe when Merle found it the first time, it wasn’t yet covered in grass and dirt. The bones underneath the truck didn’t fit into her picture. She wondered if maybe he had run the creature down, or even hunted it.
“Wait,” Ashley said. From down in the hole, her voice sounded strange. “There’s a seam. I need my book.”
Tim backed out of the way so Ashley could climb up out of the hole.
“I’ll be right back,” Ashley said. A second later, she was running through the grass. Penny ran after her for a few paces and then the dog stopped and barked once after her.
“Ashley! Where are you going?” Lisa called. Aside from a casual wave, the young woman didn’t respond.
“Maybe she had to use the bathroom,” Corinna said.
Lisa looked down. Tim was climbing down into the hole and asking for Lisa’s light.
“Be careful,” Lisa said.
“There’s nothing to be careful of,” Tim said. “I mean, unless the whole floor drops out or that lid closes on its own.”
With the idea spoken, it seemed to suddenly bother him.
Tim looked to Corinna. “Do me a favor, would you? Could you tie that hatch open somehow?”
Lisa moved to help Corinna. One end of the rope was attached to the handle. They pulled it tight and tied the other end around the suspension of the truck. It wouldn’t be able to close itself easily and Tim felt free to get back in there and examine the interior of the hole. Penny draped her paws over the edge and watched him work.
Chapter 112: Robby
“You get what?” Robby asked, looking between Brad and Merle. “What are you guys seeing that I’m not?”
“It’s a clock,” Brad said. He reached toward the screen and then pulled back his finger before he touched it.
Robby tilted his head.
“I’m still not seeing it.”
“These symbols are all lined up, see?” Brad said.
Robby had been spending all of his effort trying to understand what the symbols represented. They were a language and he had figured out the meaning of many of them. The basics were pretty easy based on where they were located. Robby understood the characters for water, light, and air. He knew some of the verbs and the way that the shapes would be combined to conjugate them.
What Merle and Brad saw—probably because they weren’t trying to read the meaning—was that there was significance in the way that the symbols themselves were aligned. He didn’t have to read them straight across, like sentences. There was meaning in the way the various parts of the display were aligned.
“When you chose that item there, it…” Merle started to say.
“Advanced the clock,” Robby said. “In trying to control the system, I was actually moving it forward.”
“I guess,” Brad said. “Or maybe it only moves forward on its own based on time.”
“I don’t think so,” Robby said. He ran back through the sequence in his head, remembering when the menus had changed and the items that had disappeared. “If that were true, then the time it’s keeping wouldn’t be linear.”
“Oh?” Brad asked. “That’s interesting. What are the ramifications of this?”
Robby sat back and thought.
“I’m not sure of the ramifications. I don’t know if the options are disappearing forever, or if there is a way to turn back the clock, you know? If they are disappearing forever, then that would suggest that there’s no way to get back the control that we’ve lost. I hate to say it, but…”
“You think that by interacting with the system, we’re actually trapping ourselves in here?” Brad asked.
Robby looked at him and answered with a nod.
“That’s a dark thought,” Brad said.
“What do you guys mean, trapping ourselves?” Merle asked. “That’s impossible.”
“Why do you say that?” Brad asked.
“Because, it’s like before, you know? Before, whenever the control would disappear from one place, it would always appear at another. I could just go to a different screen and I would be able to find the option and restore control. Even if we don’t have the control here, then we’ll have it somewhere else.”
“Is that true?” Brad asked.
Robby turned to Merle. “But what if the somewhere else is at the top of the stairs, or at the back of the storeroom that we can’t reach?”
“Oh,” Merle said. “I didn’t think of that.”
“We need more people,” Robby said. “We need more people and we have to cover everywhere at the same time. Let’s see if Carrie can get that organized.”
“I’ll go,” Brad said. “I know right where she is.”
Chapter 113: Ashley
Ashley grabbed the book from her pack and then grabbed the rest of her notes as well. Sprinting away from the vehicle, she doubled back and also took the diary that Tim had found. She had everything with the odd writing on it.
Running up the hill, clutching everything to her chest was awkward. Ashley stumbled and fell to her knees. She jumped back up and plunged into the brush.
Halfway back to the field, Ashley realized that she could have taken the road now that she knew where the truck was located. There was no reason to claw and scrape through the bushes. It was too late—she kept moving and eventually burst out into the field. Corinna and Lisa were standing there, watching her run back across the field. When she reached them, she piled all the documents into Lisa’s arms and took back only the field notes from the stack.
“Honey, you’re bleeding,” Corinna said. She reached out a thumb and wiped across a scrape on Ashley’s cheek.
Ashley caught her breath and swallowed. “Yeah. I should have taken the road. Remember that when you guys go back to the vehicle.”
“Go back?” Lisa asked.
Ashley nodded as she flipped through the notes to find the page she remembered.
“Yes. I’ll go down alone. I’m going to find my way through and I’ll open the door at the other side. It will be somewhere near those trucks—I’m sure of it. Merle would have gone in here and then…”
She trailed off when she saw the symbols that she remembered. It was coming back to her slowly as she deciphered them again. The scientists from the observatory had been the same ones who had documented the entrance to the underground lair where they eventually fled. It wasn’t clear to her whether they had built the bunker or if they had simply decided to utilize it once they identified the risk from the skies. It didn’t matter. What mattered is that they had documented the control system that was built into their hatch. Ashley thought she understood it, but she didn’t have words to precisely equate to what the documentation said. In her head, she translated the hatch opening as a “cistern.”
