Succinct (Extinct Book 5)

by Ike Hamill

  “Over that hill?” Lisa asked, pointing south.

  Tim glanced at his map and nodded.

  They set off.

  A little beyond Amy Lynne’s truck, they found what must have been the road that had led him there. The pavement had been overtaken by grass and weeds, but there were still chunks underfoot. That path led over the hill and then, around a curve, to a ramp onto the main road. Someone—probably Merle—had busted down the gate that had once kept curious motorists from taking the exit. Tim kicked the fence as they passed it.

  Penny was still keeping a careful eye behind them.

  “She’ll be okay down there,” Corinna said, when she noticed Lisa looking back the way they had come.

  “I’m not worried about Ashley,” Lisa said. “She can take care of herself. I’m wondering what Penny hears or smells back there.”

  “She hated those bones,” Tim said. “Maybe that’s it?”

  Lisa didn’t respond. They started walking again. Tim said it was the same road they had driven on earlier. Lisa didn’t have any reason to disbelieve him, but she didn’t recognize any of it. Roads looked different, driving versus walking. She had time to study all the little details they passed—there was a creek that ran through the ditch beyond the shoulder and then took a sharp left turn to pass through a culvert.

  Penny froze. This time her hackles and her tail went straight up. The dog began to growl.

  “What is it?” Tim whispered.

  Corinna put her finger to her lips and then pointed at the place where the creek disappeared. They deferred to her when she made a wide circle around the entrance of the culvert. Corinna led them down the road for a bit before she finally spoke.

  “There are other things that hide from the sun,” she said. “I haven’t seen them in Donnelly for quite a while. They love those dark places, especially where water runs.”

  “What do they look like?” Tim asked.

  Corinna shook her head. “You don’t see them. If you do, you don’t get to tell the story.”

  Lisa could have asked a million questions. Corinna had been living alone forever, and yet she talked as if she had seen a hundred people make the mistake of trying to get a look at whatever was down there, under the road. None of it made sense—nor did it matter. As long as they stayed safe and found their way back to the vehicle, Lisa would be happy. There had been something down in the culvert—Penny had confirmed that with her growl. Any other information was superfluous.

  “That way,” Tim said, pointing at another exit as they rounded a gentle sweep.

  Lisa did recognize it when she saw it, and then everything made sense. They had come from the opposite direction before. Tim had said they were on the same road, but not the same section.

  Lisa rushed ahead, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ashley. It was too much to ask for. Ashley was likely still working her way through the underground maze.

  As they continued down the road and saw their own vehicle where they had left it, Lisa began to put together the idea of Ashley down in the bunker with the thing that had been in the culvert. What if the hatch and the culvert went to the same place? What if the thing that had spooked Penny had access to the bunker?

  A chill ran down Lisa’s back. Ashley could take care of herself, sure, but she wasn’t invincible.

  Chapter 115: Ashley

  “The system can make restrictions on exits,” Ashley said. “It is designed to make sure that people don’t act hastily and expose the whole population to whatever pathogen might be out there.”

  Her father nodded. “And it can be overridden?”

  “With the right code, yes,” she said. “Timing is important as well as the sequence. I can’t translate the time scale directly, but I know what has worked when I was knocking at the other places. While we’re trying to open this door, we need to choose these menu items from the panel and say the authorization keys.”

  “Let Liam do the keys. The Center trusts him the most,” Jim said.

  Ashley looked to his father. With a nod, he confirmed Jim’s assessment.

  “Jim should be the one trying to open the door,” Janelle said. “He has a trick.”

  “There’s a trick?” Ashley asked?

  “It works, like, fifteen-percent of the time,” Jim said. “It’s the way push.”

  “It’s true,” their father said. “I can’t even keep a door locked anymore.”

  “Okay,” Ashley said. She went to the panel with Merle and shared her translation of the keywords with Liam. “Everyone ready?”

  They all answered that they were. The adults were all standing in a line—Romie, Brad, and her father. They watched as all the younger people got ready to try to open the door. Liam had to start. When she nodded, Liam began with a greeting that wasn’t in the journal. She was glad he had been picked to do the job—the display seemed to really respond to him.

  “Center? I need to tell you some words,” Liam said.

  The screen swirled quickly, like it was ready and waiting to hear what he would say next.

  Liam began to speak the keywords, pausing for a moment between each one to make sure he was heard correctly. “Car. Bath. Walk. People,” Liam said.

  Fear pulsed through Ashley. She was unsure of her translations and not at all convinced that the words would even be understood in English. Still, as he talked, the ring began to tick off the words one at a time, marching around the circle. Each new word lit up a new segment.

  “I think it’s moving,” Jim said. He managed to sound both triumphant and surprised.

  Ashley and Merle both agreed on each menu item to press and then she was the one who actually tapped the screen. With each selection, the segments on the circle flared white. When Liam spoke the last word and Ashley touched the last item, Jim yelled and laughed.

  The door was open.

  “You have no idea how long it has been since we were able to get in there,” Merle said, clapping his hand on her back.

  Ashley smiled and gestured to the journal. In truth, it wasn’t any of her doing. The book had laid out the precise sequence. All she had done was translate it from the symbols. Her father could have done the same if he had found the journal. She was just glad that it had worked.

  When they moved through the door, the lights above began to slowly ramp up to full brightness.

  “Mike should be here,” Merle said. “He was just starting to get somewhere with these machines when we got locked out. I think he could learn some of this technology and use it up in the real world.”

  Ashley nodded and looked down the rows of machinery that populated the big room. Jim and Janelle were already making their way across the space—their father called and went after them. Ashley stayed back with Brad and Romie. They were living in a different world down in the bunker. It seemed like the “real world,” as Merle had referred to it, had already moved beyond the capabilities of these machines. Up there, time had run over all the industrial breakthroughs of man and had left behind nothing but rust and decay. The vehicle that they had resurrected in order to drive to the bunker had been one last burst, and would probably never work again.

  She didn’t mention any of that to Merle. It wasn’t up to her to give up on technology. When they got out, they would all have to wrestle with that on their own. Ashley could imagine them all living up on the surface again, but she figured it would be simpler life, based more on survival than progress.

  “This one is locked too,” Jim called across the huge space. “Is it the same process?”

  Ashley scanned the journal as they walked. As far as she could tell, it would have to be. She didn’t see another procedure outlined in the book.

  When they all reached the far side, they set up in the same positions again. This time, when the door opened a bell also rang. Merle jogged down and reported that the elevators were online.

  “We need to go this way,” her father said, pointing at the door that Jim had just slid open.

  It was d
ark inside. As soon as they entered, the lights gave them just enough illumination to see the stairs winding back and forth, up into the darkness above.

  “Why do we need to go this way?” Ashley asked.

  Liam was the one who answered. “Charlie is going to have to let us out.”

  They all climbed the stairs and then paused at one of the landings. Romie and Brad sat on one of the steps and Brad put his face near the wall.

  Ashley looked to her father but he only put his finger near his lips to tell her to stay quiet.

  When he spoke, Brad whispered.

  “Hello? Are you there, old friend?”

  Ashley cocked her head and looked around, wondering if anyone else could hear the hiss that seemed to be rising. Jim moved to her side and whispered so quietly that Ashley could barely hear him.

  “That hissing sound is Charlie,” Jim said. “He’s the reason that we lost access to these stairs. The Center got mad because we were conspiring with him.”

  Ashley wanted to ask what that meant, but then the hissing turned into a voice.

  “Brad?” the voice asked.

  “Yes, it’s me, Charlie.”

  “Is Liam there?”

  Brad waved to Liam, who approached the wall cautiously.

  “Hi, Charlie,” Liam whispered.

  “Why haven’t you come to talk with me for so long?”

  Brad slid over to make room for Liam to sit down near the wall. Ashley found that if she turned her ear slightly, the hissing was much easier to make out. Everyone else seemed to be concentrating to hear it as well. They all held perfectly still, staring at nothing as they listened.

  “The Center wouldn’t let me,” Liam said.

  “I told you it would happen,” the hissing said.

  “I know. You predicted all of it, but we had to try.”

  “Then how did you get back here?”

  Liam paused and his eyes went to Ashley.

  “Charlie, we need to open the door to the outside. We have some friends out there and they might be in trouble,” Liam said.

  The hissing swelled, like it was angry at what Liam had just revealed. “If they’re outside, then they’re definitely in trouble.”

  “Can you open the door?”

  There was a long pause where the hiss grew so quiet that Ashley could barely tell if it was still there. Finally, it swelled back into her ears.

  “Are you going to leave forever?” the voice asked.

  “No,” Liam said, shaking his head. “Not all of us. Not forever.”

  “You can’t promise that,” the voice said.

  “I know, Charlie.”

  Ashley watched as her father moved to say something to Merle and then waved Brad over into the conversation. The two of them began to descend. By the time the hissing came back, Brad and Merle were already disappearing on the platform below.

  “I’ll open it,” the voice said. “I’ll open it, but you better block it open because I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold it.”

  “Thank you, Charlie,” Liam said.

  When Liam stood, Ashley watched her father gesture for everyone to start climbing again. Jim ran ahead. Ashley stayed next to Romie as she slowly made the long climb. The stairs seemed to go on forever. The lights got brighter overhead, slowly warming up to their presence.

  With a glance back down the stairs, Ashley was sure that she couldn’t hear the hissing anymore. She asked her father, “Why did we need his permission? You don’t think the process from the journal would work on the exit door?”

  “I’m pretty sure that it wouldn’t,” her father said. “From what I can tell, Charlie has sole control of that door. It’s one of the only things he managed to keep control of when he broke off from the Center.”

  Ashley decided to hold her questions for later, when they were farther away from the hissing voice. Jim was at the top of the stairs in the doorway to a bigger passage.

  “This one opened pretty easy,” he said.

  They waited for Liam and then they all moved through.

  It almost reminded Ashley of the ramp at the far end of the bunker, but this one was clearly built for loading. There were some scattered carts around, one of which her father moved into the doorway that Jim had opened. Ashley saw elevators near the entrance to the stairs. One of those doors had been propped open as well. Once more, Jim ran ahead, down the curved passage. Moments later, he ran back, shouting.

  “It’s open!”

  “Grab a cart and make sure it stays that way,” their father said.

  Jim moved fast.

  “We’re going to see the sun again,” Romie said. “I don’t know if my eyes can stand it.”

  Ashley smiled.

  “I wish Brad were with us. Then it would be a real reunion,” Ashley said.

  “He will,” her father said. “I just sent him and Merle down to get everything moving.”

  Ashley nodded.

  When they did see the sun, it made Romie and Liam both slow down considerably. Ashley wondered if the light really was hurting their eyes. Liam slowed to a stop and Romie began to move quickly once more.

  Ashley couldn’t wait any longer. She was dying to know if Lisa had made it back around. Jogging by Romie and her father, she caught up with Jim as he was moving the cart into the doorway. She blinked at the bright light and her eyes fell on the vehicle that they had left near the trucks. There was no sign of Lisa, Tim, Corinna, or Penny.

  Janelle came out and stood beside her. She took in a deep breath.

  “It looks almost the same,” Janelle said.

  Ashley cupped her hands around her mouth. “Lisa!”

  “We’ll find her,” her father said.

  “She should be here by now,” Ashley said. She pulled in another breath to shout, but Janelle stopped her with a single word.

  “Listen,” Janelle said.

  The call came on the wind from the south. “Ashley?”

  Ashley ran out into the road, followed close by her brother and sister. The three of them were coming down the ramp from the road. Lisa was practically running. With a huge smile, Ashley began to run toward Lisa. Her brother and sister passed her on either side. They all met at the far side of the road, Lisa opening her arms wide and closing them around all the kids.

  “You’re so big!” Lisa said. “What happened to you?”

  “You’ve been gone forever,” Janelle said.

  “Oh! Robby! Romie!” Lisa said.

  From both directions, people joined their mob. Tim and Corinna came down the ramp and Romie and the others came out of the shadows. Even Liam came out into the sun, but he squinted uncomfortably up at the sky as he did.

  Ashley felt tears escaping down her face as she watched the reunions. The tough one to watch was her father approaching Corinna. He was swallowing rapidly and working his hands together as he went to her. She put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him into a quick hug. Corinna turned and went to Liam.

  Liam looked like he didn’t know what to do with his hands as he and Corinna came together. She hugged him and he reached around delicately to pat her back.

  “Are you okay?” Liam asked.

  “I’m fine,” she said.

  He gave her a shy smile and then looked away from her face.

  “I have so much to tell you about,” Corinna said to him.

  Ashley turned back to Lisa and Romie, who were talking back and forth so fast that their words collided.

  “Wait!” Lisa practically shouted. “Where is Brad?”

  They all turned back toward the big opening in the concrete wall. Her question seemed to summon him from the mouth of the bunker. Brad came out into the sun with his slow, limping gait. A dog came right behind him, sniffing at the new world with hunched shoulders and a curled-under tail. Just behind them, a whole family emerged. Everyone moved through the doorway in the same way. They all looked like they were ducking down and blinking up at the sky with suspicion. Then, when the sun hit their
faces, they would straighten and smile.

  Ashley joined Lisa and Romie as they went to Brad.

  Their family was finally back together, out in the sun.

  Chapter 116: Robby

  “I want to say that the elevators shouldn’t be a problem, but I agree with your caution,” Robby said to Carrie. “Better safe than sorry.”

  They were going back into the bunker in groups, carrying bags and backpacks. Hauling their food up the stairs was the bottleneck, but there was no getting around it. They wouldn’t be able to forage for enough to feed everyone. It was difficult enough to find shelter for the night.

  “I’m going to divide up the groups again,” Carrie said. “We have some capable people who object to going back down. I think if we take some of the folks who have already gone back and make them leaders of new groups, their confidence will be contagious.”

  Robby nodded and left Carrie to that organization.

  The bulk of their group was camped out in the shelter of the overpass. The clouds overhead threatened rain overnight and they had limited options. Robby walked to the bonfire where Lisa and Ashley were having a quiet conversation.

  “How’s it looking?” Robby asked.

  “There’s a house nearby that has a decent roof,” Lisa said. “A group is going to stay there. We’re going to set up our tents in this patch of grass. Jim and Janelle are stomping it down.”

  “We need to post guards, Dad,” Ashley said.

  “For?”

  “We’re not sure.”

  Ashley gestured toward Lisa.

  “There was something that spooked Penny. I got the impression that it was hiding in one of the culverts. Maybe it was just a wolf or a coyote, but I don’t know. I would be happier if we could all be indoors tonight, but at the very least I think we need to have guards posted.”

  Robby nodded. “I’ll talk to Jackson. He was on a night schedule down in the bunker. I’m sure he’s rested. Come on, Ashley.”

  He put his arm around his daughter.

  “Do you need me? I was going to go hunting with Merle before it gets dark.”

  “I do need you,” Robby said, smiling at his daughter. “I missed you.”