by RM Brewer
"I agree. Let’s go before they find out we’re missing and come after us."
Mei noticed the sad look on Leah's face as she helped her to a door at the back of the strawberry patch. "I'm sorry, Leah. I know you wanted to find Kari."
Leah nodded, her eyes still searching the strawberry beds.
"My mother watched and waited for you," Abbey said. "She said she was glad you weren’t here, but she missed you so much. I have a lot to tell you. But first, we need to let the world know what’s happening here."
"Exactly what is that?" Mei said. "I mean, why are all these people here to begin with?"
"They think they're taking a trip," Abbey said. "One that we don't want to be included on. It's very complicated. For now, we just need to get out of here."
Abbey led them to a small room with a freight elevator in the back. "Some security, huh? Everybody forgot about this elevator. We used it to distribute food to all the different levels. Now, we’ll put it to better use." Abbey reached down and pulled up a wooden gate that served as the door to the elevator. "Everybody in. I’ll drive. We have one stop to make, though. You both need some minor surgery." She pulled the gate back down and pushed a lever up, initiating their ascent toward the surface. Mei assumed Abbey would be extracting whatever had been placed in their necks, but how? And with what? She looked up and met Leah's eyes. They exchanged frightened glances.
"You're not part of this, whatever it is?" Mei asked Abbey.
"My mother ... she was stuck down here. She met my father working in the gardens and they were married. I guess I showed up not too long afterwards."
She shifted her gaze to her feet for a moment, then looked back up at Mei. "We were all prisoners, but we had a community of people who knew what was being planned couldn't be right. There were small groups of us who organized. We tried to find a way to get these bugs out of our necks. We lost more than a few figuring that out. Once we came up with a solution to that problem, about a dozen people escaped. They started a resistance movement above ground, but word got out and Gypsum started random scanning to make sure no one took their tracker out or went missing. We haven't been able to get in contact with the resistance for some time. We were worried Gypsum found out where they were, so two people escaped and made it to the elevators. They were going to try to find out what happened. They didn't have time to have their trackers removed before they left, but we hoped the resistance would be ready to help them when they got above ground. We never heard from any of them again."
"The trackers ... they're used for cataloguing people, right? Is there something about them that's dangerous? I mean, it sounds like they need to come out," Mei said.
Abbey nodded. "Definitely. We'll stop along the way and take care of that. They're radioactive. They'll kill you if they're not getting the Gypsum signal from down here. Don't worry, I'll help you both."
Mei turned to Leah, whose expression was one of surprise and shock. "The people who escaped last ... they weren't a middle-aged man and woman, by any chance, were they?" Leah asked.
"Yes. Larry and Evelyn Walters. Do you know about them?" Mei could tell by the hopeful look on Abbey's face that the news of their deaths would be a personal blow to her.
"Two people were found," Leah said. "An FBI agent we were with found a woman on a forest road and the man was found in a river by two boys. Neither of them was alive." Leah reached out to grasp Abbey's hand.
"They're the reason we're here, though. They had information with coordinates of a way into this place. We followed the trail they left," Mei added.
Abbey's eyes filled with tears. "They sacrificed their lives for us and now I'm about the only person to benefit from what they did. Actually, Leah, I wanted to tell you something. That day in the strawberry patch, when you were with my mom ... she found someone who escaped. He was in the forest next to the berry field and she tried to help him. He was dying because the disc in his neck was emitting radiation. Unfortunately, Gypsum was out there looking for the man, too, and they abducted her."
Mei reached over to help Leah, who suddenly looked unsteady on her feet.
"All that time I looked for her ..." Leah's voice trailed off.
The elevator came to an abrupt stop and Abbey pulled up the wooden gate. They entered a small stock room. "It's time to get those trackers out of you." Abbey lay down a cardboard box on the floor. "Not much of an operating table, I know. Who wants to go first?"
* * *
The SUV tore down the highway, moving toward Crescent City. They had to travel south before a connecting highway would take them east, away from danger. Jodie pointed toward a gas station down the road. "Better stop, while we can."
Isaiah steered the vehicle into the station and pulled up to the pump.
"Nick, fill it up, okay? I'm going inside," Jodie said. She jumped out of the front seat and ran to the convenience store attached to the station, where she pulled out her badge and demanded to use the telephone. The store clerk put his hands in the air and rushed out of the way, looking as if he didn't know how to react.
Isaiah ran up to Jodie, who stood next to the counter, holding the telephone in her hand.
"Who are you calling? I mean, we don't know who's safe to let in on this," Isaiah said.
"I'm calling everyone. I don't care if some of them aren't safe. I'm gonna start with AD McKinley and see what the response is. Can you see if that kid has a cell phone or two we can appropriate?" Jodie pointed over to the scared-looking clerk who stood still next to a rack filled with Twinkies. "Don't forget chargers. We've got a lot of calls to make." Jodie dialed the 800 number for the San Francisco office, announcing an emergency and giving the operator her security code.
Chapter 28
Evan Watts ran down the corridor, sweat pouring off his face. He found an access door to the train tunnel, yanked the door open and went through, standing still for a moment as his eyes adjusted to the dim green darkness. He jumped off the platform onto the rail bed below and ran, praying he wouldn't misstep and twist his ankle. He thought he must have little time. The residents of the underground installation were preparing for departure. Only, he knew the trip they would be making would be the transition from life to death in a massive explosion, if he couldn't get to car 49 first. He breathed heavy, calculating he'd run almost two miles, cursing himself for not keeping his body in better shape. He knew he was close.
The alarms continued to blast and Evan felt dizzy from the flickering and flashing of the lights. Yet, he was thankful for the illumination. Without the alarm lights, he would have been immersed in complete darkness, unprepared, no flashlight, much less food or water. But Evan assumed this would be a one-way trip for him, anyway. His last ride and last chance to derail Helen's project.
Up ahead, he could see a faint glow and knew his destination was within reach. He ran harder, knowing the car could lurch forward at any moment and leave him behind. He couldn't let that happen. Finally reaching the train car, he grabbed onto the back rail and pulled himself up on the deck. He entered the back door and ran to the control panel at the front of the car. Then, he saw it. The explosive device sat in a metal cylinder, strapped to the wall of the train car. He could see the timer counting down. 45:49, 45:48 ... there was still time.
He examined the bomb, wondering what he could do to stop the detonation. A broad spectrum of colored wires protruded from the cylinder at odd angles, attached to various parts of a circuit board. Evan had no idea which wire could disarm or detonate the explosives. He pulled up the plastic cover from the train controls and punched a key, exposing a panel display showing the train route. Only, this train had no route programmed. "We'll be changing that right away." Evan punched the new route button and a menu appeared with available destinations. What a terrible choice to be presented with. Any destination would result in catastrophic consequences above ground, but the choice he made might save people, too. He selected a route he knew to be the farthest from populated areas and pressed enter.
Then, a wonderful thing happened. The pilot menu appeared, providing a choice of manual or automatic pilot. "Oh, Helen. You weren't perfect after all, were you?" Evan laughed at the choice, pressed the illuminated autopilot button and ran for the back of the car.
By the time he reached the door, the train was already picking up speed, leaving the rail bed and making the transition to floating on its electromagnetic field. He jumped, landing on the rail section, slamming his shoulder into the ground and scraping his face as he slid along the gravel. Evan sat up just in time to glimpse the car moving out of sight. He stood for a moment and watched, trying to catch his breath. He checked his watch and set the timer for forty minutes, figuring that was all he had left before the explosion. Evan hoped there would be enough distance between him and the blast and ran for his life, back to his daughter. He wanted another chance.
* * *
"You don't understand," Jodie screamed into the phone. "We have to evacuate the city immediately. Get whoever we can out." She snapped the phone cover shut when no answer came from the other end. Since their first stop at the convenience store, Jodie and Isaiah had been on the phone constantly, calling their superiors, fellow agents, local law enforcement, even a San Francisco television station. The response from the bureau was disappointing and somewhat illuminating. AD McKinley was nowhere to be found, having taken off the previous day, not letting anyone know his whereabouts. Jodie had a funny feeling McKinley was waiting for departure at the very gate she'd just left.
Few others seemed willing to listen to their warnings. Most everyone was already dealing with a major natural disaster off the coast of Cuba. Jodie and Isaiah switched between radio stations as they drove, listening to the horrific stories being told by survivors. The news was unclear, but all of it bad. The entire island of Cuba was now covered by seawater, as was all of south Florida. Incomprehensible numbers of casualties were assumed along the entire east coast of the United States.
A massive tsunami had blasted the Atlantic coast, obliterating everything in its path for miles inland, from Florida all the way to Nova Scotia. Jodie felt numb, learning that loss of life was assumed to be in the millions as the ferocious wall of water slammed into the New York City harbor, quickly overwhelming infrastructure.
Jodie looked over at Isaiah, who stared straight ahead, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. "Isaiah, where does your family live?"
"My parents passed away a couple of years ago. My sister lives in Maine. I just hope she got away from the coast," Isaiah said.
"It sounds like they might have had more warning that far north," Jodie said, trying to dish out some shred of hope to Isaiah that his sister would be okay.
"Yeah. She's pretty sharp. She would know what to do."
Jodie thought Isaiah appeared hopeful until more news started coming in. Thousands were assumed dead in tunnels, drowned as they rode to work in subway trains, immersed in seawater and debris as they sat in their vehicles, waiting for the stalled traffic of rush hour. Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens were literally scraped off the map and washed into a deep sea tomb. Almost immediately, looting began at an extreme level. People trying to escape the deluge were pushed further inland. Without food or shelter, the millions of desperate homeless pillaged, stealing whatever they could find, in some cases, killing whoever got in their way.
Disaster relief was close to non-existent, with the Red Cross, state and federal emergency response agencies all overwhelmed with calls for assistance. Hospitals were overrun within hours by incoming victims. Just when Jodie thought things seemed at their worst, news of the aftershocks began, destroying hope where it still existed for the remaining coastline.
The news from the coast was interrupted by a special bulletin concerning the shut down Indian Point nuclear reactor north of Yonkers. The newscaster stated that once the power to the pumps supplying the cooling system at the reactor shut down, the emergency generators kicked in, only to be overwhelmed by inland flooding created by a second tsunami. Federal Emergency Response swept into action, evacuating a zone fifty miles from the reactor. The infrastructure was now so damaged that the response team could only approach the submerged reactor by helicopter, where they found a massive pile of debris lying on top of the containment area. The newscaster stated they had to retreat quickly as they observed the first of many nuclear contaminated clouds rising from the hydrogen explosions occurring underground, knowing that all life would be lost within miles of the reactor and much of the surrounding land and ocean would be contaminated with nuclear waste. New York City, what was left of it, was now a toxic waste dump filled with nuclear material and burning pools of gas and oil.
Further reports came from other parts of the country affected by tectonic activity. For a while, Jodie wondered if anywhere in the United States was left untouched. News reports indicated that communication across the North American continent was spotty, at best. The release of energy from shifting tectonic plates underneath the Atlantic Ocean was so massive that a continuous movement of the earth’s crust was occurring, sending tsunamis to blast Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and onwards to the coast of Mexico where the water traveled inland far enough to wash away evidence of every form of civilization east of the Sierra Madre mountain range.
They rode in stunned silence, thankful to be alive, but terrified at the same time. Given the news on the east coast, Jodie and Isaiah decided they needed to split from the rest of the group and meet up with the Bureau, so stopped and rented a van. Jodie sent their friends on their way, east, away from California. They decided to meet at Nick’s family cabin in Lake Tahoe within a week.
"You take care of each other," Christy said, hugging Jodie tightly. "We'll be waiting for you."
"We'll be fine. You just watch out for yourselves. And, keep an eye on David. I wouldn't trust him." Jodie thought if he brought any harm to anyone of her friends, she would kill him with her bare hands.
Nick stepped over by Jodie. "Now that we've got more room in the SUV, I think I'll put him in the back and tie him to the spare tire. If that's okay, I mean," he said.
Jodie and Christy laughed. "Whatever works is fine with me," Jodie said, knowing she'd miss his sense of humor for the next week. She would need whatever levity she could find after she made the call to Bob's wife. "We'd better get to it, then."
Jodie wanted to keep trying to warn as many people as she could of the impending disaster in California, though she was well aware that she and Isaiah might become casualties themselves if they didn’t get out of the area quickly. They followed the van east for about fifteen minutes, hoping the couple of miles of distance from the coast would provide them some level of safety. Jodie waved as she turned south toward San Francisco.
* * *
Evan Watts doubled over, trying to catch his breath. He ran toward the elevator and punched the button. The door opened and he reached inside his breast pocket for the envelope that held Helen’s handprint, but it was gone. Then he remembered. He’d given the Mylar film to Isaiah, thinking he wouldn’t be leaving. Evan stepped out of the elevator and started running again, coming to a series of metal ladder rungs leading up to a vent. He hoisted himself up, rung by rung, until he reached the vent and grabbed at the grate covering it, swinging it open. Pulling himself inside, he realized he would have to make the trip in complete darkness. He shoved his fear aside and started moving as fast as he could through the vent. He kept running, clawing his way through the inky darkness, webs covering his face and mouth, things unknown skittering off into the distance, the clicking sound of tiny feet on metal the only sound other than the roaring of his own heart and wheezing of his breath. He had to make it.
He needed to find Jodie. He knew he couldn’t go on without her. He’d foiled Helen’s plan, but knew equally as well that Gypsum would try again. Wherever there was a plan, there was a backup plan. And, he needed Jodie to help him bring that plan to ruin, too.
* * *
Mei held the small disc
up to the light with tweezers, examining the markings on the shiny metal. Her neck felt numb from the incision Abbey made.
"Hey, careful with that," Abbey said. "Throw it in the garbage and don’t touch it. It’s going to start getting hot soon."
Mei dropped the disc in the garbage. "Shouldn’t we store it somewhere? I mean, someone might come in here and … oh yeah, there will be no more 'here' pretty soon, if what you tell us is true."
"Yeah, I don’t think we need to worry about disposing of them properly. I’m finished with Leah. Can you help me get her on her feet?" Abbey asked. The two women brought Leah to a standing position and they helped her back into the elevator. "Feeling okay, Leah?"
"Yeah, but I think when we get outta here, I’m gonna try another one of those little pink pills," Leah responded.
"How about you? I mean, don’t you have one of those things inside your neck, too?" Mei asked.
"Nope. I took it out myself, the day before yesterday, using a mirror. Had to avoid the readers ever since," Abbey said. Mei grimaced at the thought of her performing surgery on her own neck. She suspected there might be an ugly scar forming under Abbey’s thick red hair. The elevator came to a stop and Abbey pulled the wooden gate up. The area before them was dark and she reached out and flipped a switch revealing an underground garage.
Abbey walked over to a wall cabinet, opened it and grabbed a set of keys off of a peg. "Let’s get our ride and get going," she said, leading them to a white van with gas cans strapped onto a rack on the back. Once Leah was buckled into the back seat, Mei looked behind her, seeing a storehouse of medical supplies, food, water, blankets, clothing and some unmarked boxes strapped to the inside wall of the van.
"Wow, you’ve been preparing. What’s in the boxes?"
