by Hakok, R. A.
‘When you get back to the cavern fetch the other rifle from the roof and wait by the blast door. If you see anyone other than me you let rip. Tunnel that straight, it won’t matter whether you manage to shoot straight. Right, Randall?’
If Peck remembers that those were his words to me on the day we fled Eden, he gives no sign of it. His eyes drop to the pistol he’s holding, then return to me.
Mags looks from one of us to the other, like she’s unsure what to do.
‘Mags, take the map and go, now.’
She hesitates a second longer then bends down to pick it up, and just like that she’s gone.
Peck stares at me over the barrel of the Beretta.
‘Alright Gabriel, she’s safe. Now tell me, where are they taking the President?’
I don’t answer; in my head I’m counting.
He pushes the gun closer, until the muzzle seems like it’s only inches away.
‘I mean it now, start talking.’
I keep up the count, trying to not to let my gaze get drawn into the barrel; from this distance it looks about as wide and as dark as the portal must from the other side of that guillotine gate. When I think Mags has had enough time to make it to the blast door I tell him the soldiers are headed for The Greenbrier.
‘West Virginia?’
I nod.
He drops the pistol into the snow, scoops up a handful of powder and starts scrubbing his fingers with it, like that might somehow help. I keep the rifle trained on him while I explain the rest of it.
‘There’s five of them. I reckon they’ll be somewhere along I-81 by now. Angus and Hamish are coming down the Catoctin Mountain Highway. They’ll tell you everything I just did, save you going all the way back to check.’ I nod in the direction of the gate. ‘You’d best be on your way, now, before you lose any more of the light. There’s a farmhouse almost at the end of the ridge road, maybe a quarter mile back from the highway. It’s your best bet for shelter.’
He wipes his hand on the front of his parka and pulls on a mitten.
‘That’s twice I’ve underestimated you now, Gabriel. Best you don’t count on there being a third.’
He squeezes through the gate and joins the others. I watch as they hike up towards the control tower, and then one by one disappear into the gathering darkness. I stay like that for a while, just staring after them. At last I lower the rifle, sling it over my shoulder. Without something to occupy them my hands take to shaking. I have to press them together to get them to stop.
‘I’m not planning on ever seeing you again, Randall.’
*
‘HAVE THEY GONE?’
I turn around to see Mags and the kid standing behind me. I guess my attention must have been elsewhere; I didn’t hear either of them coming back through the tunnel.
‘Yeah, I think so.’
She looks past me, out to the control tower. I bend down to pick up the pistol Peck discarded. I wipe the snow from it then thumb the button to eject the magazine and slip it into my parka. I rack the slide to clear the round in the chamber, just like Hicks showed me, and pocket that too. The gun’s safe, but I spend a while longer fussing with it. There’s a question that needs asking, I know it; I’m just not sure I’m ready for the answer. In the end I just blurt it out.
‘Mags, what happened in there, with Kurt?’
The kid tilts his head to her, then back at me. She opens her mouth as if to respond, then stops and looks over my shoulder, back into the tunnel. For a long while there’s nothing and I’m working up the courage to ask her again, but then I hear footsteps, drifting up out of the darkness. They grow steadily stronger until at last I see the beam from a flashlight, jittering around the curve of the tunnel.
She turns and makes her way over to the mangled gate, leaving my question unanswered. The kid looks up at me then scurries off after her, just as Jake’s bulk separates itself from the darkness. He stops next to me, his chest heaving, like he’s been running. His hair’s still wet from the lake and blood trickles slowly from a cut above his eyebrow. More of it oozes from his lip.
‘You okay?’
He keeps his eyes forward, on the gate, where Mags is standing with the kid.
‘I’m fine.’
‘You should head back inside, have someone take a look at those.’
‘I said I’m fine, Gabriel.’
His voice is terse, like somehow what I’ve just said has annoyed him.
I slip Peck’s pistol into the pocket of my parka.
‘Alright, but turn that off if you mean to stay.’ I point to the flashlight he’s carrying. ‘If anyone’s still out there it’ll give them something to aim at.’
Out at the gate the kid shakes his head.
‘It’s okay. The dangerous man’s gone. They’ve all gone.’
Jake stares at him for a second, like this pronouncement hasn’t eased his mind any. He kills the flashlight, returns it to his pocket. Mags turns to face us.
‘Do you think they’ll be back?’
I shake my head.
‘No, at least not tonight. Did you see the look on Peck’s face when he heard Gilbey’s name? He knows her.’ I turn to Jake. ‘We should have someone stand watch, though, just in case.’
His eyes narrow at the suggestion.
‘We were posting guards, Gabriel.’
I’m not sure what I’ve done to piss him off; I’m pretty sure I just saved everyone. But right now I have other things on my mind. I hold my hands up.
‘Hey, I never said you weren’t. There was nothing you could have done anyway. Peck had the code for the blast door, and they had guns.’
He looks down at the snow and grunts, but he doesn’t seem mollified.
Mags makes her way back from the gate. She stops in front of Jake and looks up at the cuts on his face. ‘Gabe’s right, you should have someone take a look at those. We’ll take first watch, right Gabe?’
‘Sure.’
The truth is I’m exhausted, but my nerves are still jumping; I suspect it’ll be a while before I’ve any chance of sleep. And I need some time alone with her now, to find out what just happened in the cavern.
‘Are you sure you’re okay?’
I open my mouth to tell him I’m good, but then realize the question wasn’t meant for me.
She nods.
‘I’m fine.’
‘So you’re not…?’
‘Infected? No, not any more. I was, but Gabe got me back to Eden in time.’
He glances over at me, then goes back to staring at her. Eventually he says: Okay, then but makes no move to go back inside. I pull my parka tighter around me.
‘Jake, can you send Tyler and Eric out to relieve us in an hour?’
He doesn’t say anything and at first I’m not sure he’s heard me. When at last he delivers his answer he does it without taking his eyes off Mags.
‘We had a roster worked out. They pulled a shift earlier.’
‘Well, get them to do another. Unless there’s someone else in there you think can be trusted with a rifle?’
It comes out a little harsher than I intend, but it’s not getting any warmer out here. And there’s something about the way he’s looking at Mags that’s starting to piss me off now, too.
He looks at me like he means to argue some more, but then Mags steps between us, rests a hand on his arm.
‘Please, Jake.’
His eyes drop to her hand and the fight seems to go out of him. He nods once, says Alright, then turns and walks off into the tunnel.
*
THE CONTROL TOWER LOOMS over us as we make our way up to it from the portal. The door at the base is open; it creaks as it shifts back and forth in the wind. I step inside, digging in my pocket for the flashlight while Mags and the kid start up the narrow steps. I crank the handle, but as the bulb starts to glow it splits, swims in my vision. My head grows suddenly light and for a second it feels like whatever has been keeping me going since The Greenbrier, it might cho
ose now to desert me. I reach for the handrail, hold it for a half-dozen breaths, then follow Mags and the kid up the stair.
The smell of smoke hits me as I climb the last steps and when I sweep the observation deck with the flashlight the beam finds the blackened remains of a fire in the center. Mags is already at work rebuilding it from wood that’s been stacked nearby, so I make my way over to one of the large windows that lean outward from the consoles beneath.
I cup a hand to my brow and peer through the glass, already beginning to realize the futility of the task I’ve assigned us. In daylight from up here you’d be able to see every part of the compound, but now it’s dark I can’t even make out the tattered windsock by the helicopter landing pad, not twenty yards from the base of the tower.
The kid clambers up onto the workstation next to me. I catch his reflection in the darkened glass and for a moment I study him, just squatting there on his haunches. It doesn’t mean anything, I know; I guess he just got used to sitting that way from all the time he spent in one of Gilbey’s cages. But crouched like that, the pale skin stretched over his bare scalp, the deep shadows that still circle his eyes and darken his sunken cheeks, he reminds me of the thing that attacked Ortiz, in the basement of the hospital, in Blacksburg. I shiver inside my parka, an involuntary action not entirely prompted by how cold it is up here. If the kid notices he doesn’t let on. He presses his face closer to the glass.
‘What are you looking for?’
‘Any sign Peck’s coming back.’
He looks up at me.
‘Which way will he come?’
I point towards the far side of the compound, in the direction of the steel gate.
‘That way, I think.’
He looks puzzled.
‘You mean where we came in, earlier?’
I nod.
‘It’s over there.’
He raises an arm, one small mitten extending to a spot to the right of where I know the guardhouse to be. I open my mouth to correct him. I can’t see the gate now, of course, but I’ve been here all winter and I know this place like the back of my hand. But then I remember tracking the soldiers as they took the Fairfax Pike off I-81, and how he had been able to follow Jax’s prints in the snow, long after I had lost them.
I stare out into the featureless darkness.
‘Johnny, what can you see out there?’
He looks up at me again, like he doesn’t understand. Then he just says: ‘Everything.’
Mags has a fire going, so I make my way over to it while the kid keeps watch from his perch up on the workstation. There’s a crate of MREs sitting next to the firewood. I pick a couple from the top, open them up, shake out the contents. I get the chemical heaters working on the food pouches then I toss the kid a HOOAH! He doesn’t seem fond of regular rations, but since he came through the scanner he seems to like the candy bars just fine. He snatches it from the air and busies himself with the wrapper. As soon as he’s got it open he takes a bite and goes back to staring out of the window.
When the heaters are done hissing I tear the top off one of the pouches and start poking around at what’s inside. The question I asked down by the portal went unanswered, and I haven’t yet worked myself up to asking it again. I keep glancing over at Mags. She doesn’t seem much interested in her food either. After a while she sets the MRE aside and reaches for the chain around her neck. She pulls out Truck’s dog tags, turns them over in her fingers. The light from the fire plays over the metal. It’s dull, tarnished by age, but otherwise fine, with no sign of the virus.
‘You want to know what happened, back in the cavern.’
I nod.
‘I don’t know. It was weird. When I saw what they were doing to Jake, up on the roof, I got so mad. I …’ She pauses, like she’s searching for the right words. ‘Part of me knew what I was doing, and that it was stupid. But I was so angry.’ She hesitates again. ‘I just couldn’t help myself.’
She looks at me for a moment and then away, and I get the feeling that whatever she’s told me isn’t the whole of it. I glance over at the kid. He’s staring down from his perch on the workstation, like he’s suddenly developed an interest in the conversation we’re having. She slips the tags back inside her thermals.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘It’s okay. It all worked out.’
She shakes her head.
‘It’s not, though. We need to be smarter than that. I need to be smarter than that.’
I’m not sure what to say, so I don’t say anything. She picks up her mug, swirls the coffee.
‘What do you think it means?’
Truth is I’m not sure. I tell myself her anger has always been a quick thing, long as I’ve known her. It can burn hot and high, like a gasoline fire, but it dies down after just as fast. There’s a small, faithless voice inside my head that’s not content with that explanation, however. It starts to whisper that this was different. I hush it and it goes quiet for a moment, but then it shows me an image: her standing over Kurt, like an animal over its kill, transfixed by the sight of the blood spilling from between his fingers.
She’s looking at me, waiting for my answer. I reach for the empty MRE carton, feed it to the fire. The cardboard curls, blackens as it’s consumed.
‘I don’t think it means anything. You’re fine, the tags prove it.’ I say it with confidence, like there could be no doubt. But I can already hear the voice inside my head, getting ready with its next objection. I have no interest in hearing it, so I keep talking.
‘It’s been two days now, more than enough time for the virus to show. If it’s anything it’s probably just an aftereffect of being infected. I suspect Gilbey could tell you.’
I realize I’ve started to babble so I stop.
She looks into the flames then raises the mug to her lips, drains the last of her coffee, sets it on the ground.
‘Let’s not go back and ask her.’
There’s a silence that stretches on for longer than it ought, and then from somewhere below the groan of a door being opened, followed by the sound of boots climbing the stair. A few moments later Tyler and Eric appear, bundled up in their parkas, their breath smoking in the cold. Tyler steps into the observation deck, but Eric hangs back by the door.
I get to my feet. My legs have stiffened, sitting by the fire; they protest as I stretch them out.
‘Sorry to make you guys pull another shift.’
Tyler holds up a hand. When he smiles his teeth are surprisingly white against his ebony skin.
‘It’s all good, Gabe. I reckon Eric and me were next in line for the treatment Jake was getting. We were glad you showed up when you did.’
His gaze shifts to the windows and for the first time he notices the kid, crouched on one of the consoles underneath. The smile falters.
‘Not sure what you expect us to see out there, though.’
I step over to where Johnny’s looking out through one of the large panes and tap him on the shoulder, tell him to shift over. He looks up at me, like he doesn’t understand: there’s windows on all sides; I could choose any of them to look out of. I want the Guardians to see I’m not nervous of him, though, so when he doesn’t move I shoo him out of the way. He shuffles across to the next console, goes back to staring out. I lean closer to the glass, but all I can see is my own reflection there. I cup a mitten to it. It makes no difference. Beyond there’s only impenetrable blackness.
‘Yeah, I’m sorry. When I asked Jake to send you out I hadn’t thought it through.’
Tyler keeps his eyes on the kid a moment longer, like he’s still distracted by him, then they return to me.
‘No worries, Gabe. Like I said, we were just happy to see you.’
I start to make my way back to the fire, but then an idea comes to me. I turn to the kid.
‘Johnny, how’re you feeling?’
He looks at me uncertainly.
‘Okay.’
‘Not too tired?’
He shake
s his head.
‘Want to keep Tyler and Eric company for a while?’
He hesitates for a moment and then nods, but I catch the two former Guardians exchanging a look. Eric steps away from the door.
‘Nah, Gabe it’s okay. Really. We can manage.’
Tyler turns to me.
‘Gabe, seriously, we got this. Sounds like you guys have had a long day. I’m sure…Johnny…needs his rest.’
The kid stares at me with those solemn eyes, waiting for a decision. The Guardians really don’t want to be left with him and I can’t say as I blame them; I’d be nervous too if I’d just met him. At least Tyler used his name, which is more than he got from me on our first encounter. What Mags said earlier is right, though: we need to be smarter now, and having someone up here who can actually see would make a lot of sense. The wind picks up, gusts against the glass. Peck’s not coming back tonight, however. I’ll give it a couple of days, let them get used to him; maybe catch Tyler by himself, explain the situation. I beckon the kid down.
‘C’mon Johnny, let’s go back inside.’
He jumps off the console and hurries over to stand next to Mags.
I take one last look out into the darkness and then make my way towards the door.
*
MY LEGS HAVE SEIZED worse than I thought; I hobble down the control tower’s stair, clutching the railing for support. Mags asks if I’m okay, but I tell her I’m fine; just a little sore from the hike. The truth is we pushed hard getting back here; hotfooting it all the way from Eden has taken more of a toll than I had figured.
She holds the door open for me at the bottom and I follow her back to the tunnel, jealous of her easy, loose-limbed gait. I watch as she slips effortlessly through the ruined guillotine gate. I squeeze myself between the charred, twisted bars, wincing as I stand on the other side. She holds an arm out, says I can lean on her, but I shake my head and tell her I’ll be fine; the walk will do me good, stretch out the muscles in my legs a little. The truth is I just want to snap my fingers and be back in our apartment.
She sets off into the darkness, the kid trotting along beside her. I flick on the flashlight and limp after them. The tunnel seems to have lengthened since I walked it with Peck earlier, but at last we reach the blast door. I shuffle through, leaving her to close it up. Just a little further and then I’ll be able to take off my boots, lie down in a bed, an actual bed, and sleep for as long as I care.
