Awaken

by Linda Harley

  More scribbling. James looked up and said, “Aish Merahrah, Ajdov Kruh, Anadama bread, Anpan…”

  Anna raised a hand.

  James stopped his recitation of the list of bread. “I’m only kidding; we only have white bread. Will that be fine?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you do have your pick of orange, apple or grape. That is all that we have in season at the moment.”

  “Orange.”

  “All right, that should be it. Order will be up soon.” James said as he gave up the pretense of writing something down and dropped it all making Anna giggle. James winked at her and then rolled off into the fruit trees, presumably to pick an orange.

  Anna watched him go and commented, “He’s rather peculiar.”

  “He is a good man. He’s been with me since the beginning.” Nick replied.

  Anna soaked in the sun a bit more and soon noticed James return to the kitchen. His arms moved so fast that Anna could not keep up with what he was doing. He was so engrossed in the work that he seemed to forget about Anna and Nick.

  Anna focused instead on Nick, who also sat staring at the masterful James’s performance. “Will you tell me what’s going on now?”

  Nick leaned forward on the table, crossing his arms in a conspiratorial manner, “How much do you want to know?”

  “Everything,” Anna exclaimed.

  Nick’s laugh sounded metallic but jovial. “That would take too many lifetimes to tell. Would you settle for the highlights?”

  “Yes, as long as you don’t keep any secrets from me.”

  “Where do you want me to begin?”

  Anna considered the question. “Start with why it took 158 years to wake me up. I was only scheduled to be out for 3 years.”

  Nick cocked his head to the side, and his eyes went blank. Then he blinked and focused on her. “Two years and 78 days after you entered cryo, a cure was found for your cancer. They were planning on bringing you out of cryo when the McKlendle virus broke out. It resulted in a pandemic that nearly wiped out every two-legged human on this planet. Thousands of people were placed in cryo to preserve their lives, while others isolated themselves in facilities such as this one, in an attempt to find the cure. Sadly a cure was not found, and anyone not in cryostasis died.”

  “But my name is Anna McKlendle. Is there any relation?”

  Nick shrugged. “I don’t know. That information was not in your records, but it is highly unlikely.”

  James placed a plate of food piled high in front of Anna and a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice. Then he returned to the kitchen and started cleaning up the mess he had made.

  “Are you alive?” Anna asked while taking a bite out of her toast.

  “I’m a bot. All of us still here are bots. We were created to serve people in this facility, and if all else failed, continue the research until a cure could be found.”

  “Have you found a cure? Is that why you woke me?”

  Nick’s smile faded, and his eyes grew sad, “From time to time we wake one person to test our latest solution. There is only so much that we can do by running simulations before we need to test it out.”

  Anna gulped and nearly choked on her orange juice. “So then, you’ll be using me as a test subject?”

  Nick nodded, “We’ve already administered the test.”

  Anna looked at her half-eaten plate of food she had just gobbled down and pushed the rest aside. Suddenly she was not hungry anymore and even felt like throwing up. “What about my cancer?”

  “You’ll be pleased to know that your cancer is completely gone.”

  Anna was stunned. “Really. It’s gone. Like completely gone. Like I don’t ever have to take medicine again gone.”

  “Yes, it is gone.”

  “Just like that?” Anna asked in disbelief.

  “Just like that.”

  It took Anna a few moments to adjust to the reality that she no longer had cancer, but now could be dying of something else. “Okay, so what are my chances of surviving the McKlendle virus?”

  “The odds aren’t good, and I can’t know for sure whether you’ll live or die. In 158 years, we have not had one successful case of treating the virus.”

  “How soon will we know if I’ll live?” Anna struggled to hold back her fear. She felt excellent, heck even better than when she had entered cryo, despite her weakness. There was no way she was dying from some stupid virus.

  “If you haven’t shown any symptoms within a week, then it means that the medication worked or that you’re immune to the virus.”

  A cold, wet tear plopped into Anna’s lap. She hadn’t even realized she was crying. “What about my parents and little brother? What happened to them?”

  Nick glanced at James, who was puttering around the kitchen. He leaned over and took Anna’s hand. “I don’t know what happened to them. Perhaps they are in cryo somewhere, or perhaps they found a different way to continue living.”

  The lights in the kitchen flickered as an incessant alarm rang from the depths of the mountain. Nick jumped up and ran for the door leading into the Cryoplex. “Not again.”

  James rolled over and swooped up the dishes. “Go on, then. I’ll take care of this.” He nodded for Anna to follow Nick, who had run through the kitchen door.

  Anna thanked James and stumbled after Nick. “Wait!” Anna yelled, “Nick, wait up!”

  Nick appeared in the kitchen doorway. He picked Anna up and ran. Nick burst at top speed through the waiting room, veering to the left southeast corner and flung open the door to a different set of stairs than the ones before. Together they bounded down the steps into the depths of the mountain.

  Anna clung to Nick’s neck as she was jostled around like a milkshake. “What’s going on?”

  “The power generators are old and dying. If we can’t fix it, then everyone in cryo here is going to die from the McKlendle virus.”

  Chapter 3

  Nick barreled down the steps with Anna cradled in his arms. She ferociously clung to his neck with every ounce of strength in her as she bounced up and down. “Slow down” she yelped once when he nearly dropped her after jumping down five steps to a landing, turning sharply and hurtling down the next set of stairs.

  “Sorry, but we don’t have time. Just hold on, I promise I won’t let you fall.” Nick said, not even needing a breath to get the words out.

  Where were they going, and why couldn’t they use the elevator to get there? Anna’s mind began to wonder, and she nearly spilled out of Nick’s arms again. So instead she decided to focus all her efforts on clinging to Nick. She could wonder about the details later.

  Finally, they made it to the bottom of the stairs and turned down a tunnel. The tunnel was creepy dark, and Anna could not see a thing. She was floating through outer space at lightspeed only secured by the arms of a man who was a robot. The tunnel opened into a gigantic cavern with stalactites and stalagmites all around the edges. The floor of the hall was polished smooth. High above her, Anna saw hundreds of thousands of caskets dangling from cables. About half of the caskets had blinking lights on them, and it looked like stars in the night sky. Anna shivered to think that she had been in one of those caskets less than 24 hours before.

  Nick ran for a large building that sprouted from the center of the cavern floor. As they drew nearer to the building, Nick slowed to a light jog. Anna could see the words Power Station printed in faded red ink on the side of the building. She guessed this was where the power generators were. As they reached the door to the power station, Nick slowed down and finally stopped. Nick put her down and yanked open the power station door. Anna’s heart was still thundering from clinging to Nick’s neck for dear life, so she took a moment to collect herself.

  “Come on, we don’t have all day,” Nick said, urging her on.

  Hesitantly Anna entered the Power Station. The dim lights in the corridor flashed slowly on and off and illuminated the way for her to go. The smell of rust, oil, and the rank odor
of sweat and 1-week old unwashed gym socks filled the air, but she pressed on.

  Nick closed the door behind them. Without any hesitation, Nick headed down the corridor, not bothering to see if Anna was following him.

  The rumbling noise in the air became louder with each step Anna took. Every instinct in her body told her to run away from the tremendous sound, but her trust in Nick kept her moving forward.

  “Come on,” Nick said, looking over his shoulder as he disappeared into the room at the end of the hall.

  Anna poked her head into the room, and all she saw were machines littered all over the place. Anna had no idea what all the pipes, wheels, belts and gears did, but knew these things were the reason they had electricity in the mountain. If she had to guess, the room was about 10 feet high, and 20 feet wide and long. She had no idea what she was looking at or for. But Nick paced back and forth in the cramped space, oblivious to the junk that he was stepping on.

  A door on the other side of the room crashed open. A 6-foot tall, burly man, with shoulders like an ox and hands as big as watermelons, lumbered in. “It’s about time.”

  Nick rushed to the stranger’s side. “How bad is it, Robert?”

  “Reactor 3 is gone. 1 and 6, are barely hanging on. Unless we do something immediately, we are going to lose them all.” Robert wiped his grease-stained fingers on a dirty cloth. “There’s nothing I can do about 3.”

  “But we must still have some parts left?” Nick pleaded. “Can’t you use the parts from reactor 3 on 1 and 6? We can’t give up now, not when I’m so close to finding the cure.”

  Robert threw the cloth on a work table littered with gears, wrenches, nuts, and bolts. All of a sudden, he slammed his fist onto the table, rattling the tools and scaring Anna. Anna backed up into the hallway again, not sure she wanted to face Robert’s wrath.

  “If we had the parts, don’t you think I would have done everything I could?” Robert growled. “Waking up that girl may have cost us everything. I told you not to do it.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I know you’re just doing the best that you can,” Nick said dejectedly.

  All the anger seeped out of Robert, and he said, “I know. I’m sorry.” Robert sank onto the floor and held his hair in his hands. “It’s hopeless, Nick. We’re on borrowed time as it is. We’re all going to be gone in a matter of hours unless we do it.”

  Silence lingered between the two men as they considered what to do.

  Her dad had made her promise to be strong and courageous and be kind to others. The least she could do was find out what they were talking about and figure out if there was a way to help them. After all, it seemed that they were in this pickle because of her. Anna mustered up the courage and walked into the room.

  “Do what?” Anna asked, placing her hands on her hips, the way her mother had always done when she was quizzing Anna and Dave about what had happened when one of them would get injured by their rough play.

  Her question startled both men. Nick had forgotten they had an audience, and Robert had no idea that she was even there.

  “Robert, allow me to introduce Anna McKlendle,” Nick said, waving Anna over.

  Anna dropped her arms to her side and went to stand next to Nick, staring down at Robert who still sat deflated on the floor by his workbench.

  Robert nodded at Anna, but his eyes contained a bitterness that Anna had not expected. Perhaps he was just upset because of the station failing, but she felt there was more to it than that. There was no time to explore that, and she would have to table any ill feelings he may have towards her for later pondering. Her list of things to contemplate was steadily starting to grow. She missed having her pen and notebook nearby. She always had to jot these things down, but she doubted she would find any such supplies in this place.

  “Anna, this is Robert. He’s the only remaining Cryoplex engineer and thus responsible for keeping the power station up and running.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Robert.” When Robert did not respond, Anna turned to Nick and asked, “What are you going to do?”

  “There’s only one thing we can do. We have to open some of the cryo pods.” Robert stated as he slowly rose to his feet. “It’s them or us.”

  “No! Those people will die from the virus,” Anna protested, staring between Robert and Nick not believing that they were so casually discussing murdering people by cutting off their life support and exposing them to the virus.

  “Do you have a better idea sweetie?” Robert growled at her.

  “Uh… um… the…” Anna stuttered.

  “I thought so. You don’t know the first thing about what’s going on here, and yet you think you have the right to dictate to us what is moral? Let me spell it out for you dearie; there is no alternative. Either we drop some dead weight, or the entire Cryoplex goes down with everyone in it,” Robert towered over her, and Anna hoped that she was not about to be pummeled.

  “Easy there, Robert. It’s not the child’s fault. If you want to blame someone, blame me.” Nick said, stepping in between them, and gently backing Anna up a few steps to give them some more space.

  “Can’t you cut off some other electrical systems?” Anna asked.

  Nick turned around and gave Anna a surprising hug. Then he held her at arm's length and peered right into her eyes, his hands gently resting on her shoulders. “Anna, look around you. We’re falling apart. We had to run down here because the elevators have been shut down to all levels except between the arrival area and the medical ward, and we only use those when we must. We’ve been running on only the utmost necessities for the past 40 years. The only thing we can do is open the cryo pods.”

  “How many?” Anna asked whimpering. “How many will die because of me?”

  “We’ll have to go ask Betty. Come on.” Nick picked her up and headed for the door. Anna cradled her face in the nook of Nicks' neck, not wanting to face reality. Not wanting to think about the fact that because they had given her the chance to live, all of these people were about to die. But the more she tried not to think on it, the louder it banged around her head.

  “Hang in there Robert. I’ll figure something out,” Nick said as he headed down the tunnel towards the exit.

  As they passed through the hall, underneath all the caskets, Anna could hear the screams of the people who were about to die, pleading with her to save them. But she was helpless; she was only a child after all. She tried to tell the voices that there was nothing she could do, but their shouts of murderer and traitor rocked through her body as she wept.

  She was relieved when they got to the stairs and focused on holding onto Nick as he headed back up the stairs at breakneck speed. As they reached the main level, Nick headed in the opposite direction from the Kitchen, through the waiting room and stopped outside a door on the west side of the core, labeled control room.

  Nick put her down and hesitated for a moment with his hand on the doorknob. “Betty is a bit eccentric and cynical. She’s been around since the beginning with me. Don’t take anything she says personal, okay?”

  Anna stared at Nick with round eyes. She shrugged. “Okay.”

  “Also, try not to stare too much. Betty hates it when people stare and comment on how she looks.” Nick prompted and then pushed the door open.

  “What took you so long to get here, you sluggard. Don’t you know we’ve got a situation on our hands? You’re supposed to be the leader here, so why am I chained to this desk making your decisions for you?” Betty berated Nick before he had even stepped through the door.

  Anna followed Nick into the room and quickly shut the door behind her. Then she peered around Nick, who was blocking her view of Betty.

  Anna stood shocked with her mouth agape. Hastily she closed it shut, remembering the warning that Nick had given her. But how could she not look? It was impossible not to look. Where was she supposed to look, if not at Betty?

  Betty was fused to a chair that swiveled and moved on tracks. Sh
e had no legs, but multiple arms manned multiple work stations all at once. She had multiple wires attached to her like umbilical cords connecting her to the computer. Her arms flew over the keyboard interfaces. Anna didn’t understand why she needed the keyboards when she was almost one with the entire Cryoplex but dared not ask.

  “Oh no, that is not coming in here,” Betty said, pointing at Anna, “I will not have her invading the control room.”

  Anna gulped, not knowing what to say. “I like your hair,” Anna squeaked out, for it was the only thing she could think to compliment. Indeed Betty had gorgeous red auburn hair, that was thick and voluminous.

  Betty only quirked a suspicious eyebrow at Anna.

  Nick placed his hands on his hips. “Betty, we don’t have time for this. We’ve been over this. Anna can go where she pleases.”

  Betty harrumphed. “Fine, but she better not touch anything.”

  Anna nodded. “I won’t.”

  Nick walked over to the largest computer monitor that was front and center of where Betty sat, “What are our options?”

  Betty swiveled to stare at the monitor. “Depends on how long you want to live.”

  Chapter 4

  Betty brought up a diagram of the Cryoplex on the monitor. In the center of the mountain was the core that ran the entire length of the Cryoplex. The core contained the elevators and the stairway. The Cryoplex consisted of 2 sections. The top section, which as far as Anna could tell was above ground, held the living and operation spaces that encircled the core. She recognized the cryo rehabilitation room, the medical ward where she had spent the night, the waiting room, kitchen, and control center on the diagram. Above these, there appeared to be many more levels containing living quarters, bot charge stations, a flight deck, and an observation deck at the tippy top, all contained inside the mountain.

  The bottom section, below ground level, contained many levels labeled cryogenesis stasis machine rooms. At the bottom was a vast space marked Pods. Anna assumed that was the big cavern she had seen from where the caskets hung from the ceiling.