Plagued (Book 1): The Girl Who Chased The Shadows

by Scott, Garrison

  The two traveled down the stairway in silence for a moment.

  Skyler stopped when she reached the last step. “There’s some sort of a door here.”

  She shifted her flashlight’s beam to take a closer look at the object blocking her path. In front of her was what looked to be an old bank vault door. Complete with a turn wheel.

  “Grampa, is this what I think it is?”

  Everett chuckled. “It sure is. They thought of everything when they put this place together.”

  He made his way past Skyler and approached the door. He turned the wheel and pulled hard. It swung open with a loud groan. “Go ahead in, darlin’.”

  Skyler and Buddy crossed through the threshold. Ahead she could see yet another stairway leading downward. She turned to watch as Everett closed the vault door behind them with a CLANK! He then spun the inside turn wheel to the right, sealing them in.

  They both continued down one more flight of steps until they met with another door. This one looked to be made of reinforced steel. Skyler reached for the knob and pushed it open.

  “I think we’re here.”

  “We are. Give me one minute to get some lights on.” Everett pointed his flashlight toward a utility panel left of the steel door. He opened the panel door and flicked some switches. The whir of a generator coming online could be heard as the overhead lights flickered on in the bunker. “Come on in and take the tour, angel.”

  Skyler and Buddy crossed through the doorway and into the main room of the bunker.

  “Wow.”

  In front of her the bunker looked like something out of a 1950s LIFE magazine spread. Everything was absolutely pristine although the furnishings and decor hadn’t been contemporary for years. It was the kind of setting you’d imagine when you thought of families watching shows like The Lone Ranger or Ed Sullivan back when TVs first made their way into America’s living rooms.

  The main room included a kitchen, a living room area and an office area.

  Skyler first made her way to the back left corner of the main room. That was the kitchen area. It was spotless with its white metal cabinets and matching appliances. She ran her hand lightly over the smooth red Formica counter top. The only modern thing in this area was the coffee maker. And for that she was grateful. The kitchen table was very similar to the one they had in the house — more Formica — with four matching red vinyl and chrome chairs. On the tabletop was a twin to the radio Everett had in the kitchen up in the house. Out of habit she reached over and turned it on.

  Jesse Jones and Bryce were still speaking about last minute preparations and safety protocols.

  "They're in it 'til the end," she said.

  "And God bless them both for it," Everett answered. "They are doing their best to save as many as they can."

  Skyler turned her attention to the living room area. The main piece of furniture was a large gray tweed covered sofa. On either side of it were matching over-sized chairs. Buddy hopped up on the sofa and immediately stretched out.

  “Is it ok if he’s up on that couch?” Buddy was clearly comfortable but everything looked so new she wasn’t sure if her grandfather would mind.

  “Davenport.”

  “What?” Skyler was confused.

  “Angel, that’s not a couch, that’s a genuine Davenport. And Buddy is perfectly fine where he is.” Buddy thumped his tail in response to Everett’s ruling.

  Skyler gave the room another long look. “Grampa, I love it.”

  “Glad you approve. She’s been sitting here nearly 80 years waiting for someone to use her.”

  “Eighty years!?” Skyler was incredulous. “So you didn’t have this built?”

  “No, I bought it from one of my retiring Commanding Officers from Delta Force way back when. He wanted to make sure he sold the house to someone who would appreciate all she had to offer.”

  As Skyler continued to wander around the main room, a 50s era steel office desk caught her eye. On top of it sat the only other thing in the bunker, other than the coffee maker, that seemed to be from this decade — an impressive looking computer, with its lights blinking and its fan whirring. A few flat screen monitors and several large hard drives were hooked up to it. The equipment seemed to be drilled right into the desk.

  “Grampa?” she asked motioning to the metal straps secured around the equipment.

  “I anticipate some earthquakes. Big ones. The desk is drilled into the reinforced cement floor. Actually,” he said sweeping his arm around the room, “all the furniture is.”

  She glanced around the room and noted what she had not seen before. Every piece of furniture had been affixed to steel strips that were themselves drilled into the floor. Skyler was impressed. “Grampa this is amazing.”

  Everett chuckled. “Angel, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

  Her grandfather headed through the main room and stopped at a pair of closed doors off of the kitchen.

  He indicated that she should open the door on the left.

  “We can let Buddy do his business in there.”

  Skyler opened the door and flicked on the lights. She was surprised to see that the room was dedicated to indoor gardening. There were a few unused raised beds with soil in them, a small hydroponic set up and a dozen special lights in ballasts hung from the ceiling. On the back wall were large plastic tanks filled with water. A set of shelves near the door housed fertilizers, nutrients and dozens upon dozens of seed packets.

  “Unbelievable.” She grabbed a handful of seed envelopes and flipped through them. Tomatoes, squash, spinach — all of the healthy essentials.

  “This space here is for more of a long term event. But, yeah, like I said, they thought of everything.” Everett beckoned Skyler to follow him out of that room and in through the other door. She put the seeds back on the shelf and trailed after him. “Come on in here. We need to conserve the generator fuel. No need to waste it on lights. There are lanterns, batteries and other supplies on the other side of this door.”

  Everett turned the knob and opened the door, revealing a storage room at least as large as the main room.

  Skyler followed her grandfather through the door but stopped in her tracks when she entered the large room.

  “Oh my God.”

  Other supplies was such an incredible understatement. Every wall of the bunker’s storage room was covered with shelves with enough supplies for a group of people to survive in there seemingly for an eternity.

  Cases of batteries, MREs, canned everything, coffee, paper towels, toilet paper, first aid kits, and more were packed onto those shelves. One entire wall was filled with hundreds of gallon jugs of water.

  Skyler had not been expecting this. “Whoa. Is there anything we need that you don’t have in here?”

  Everett laughed. “I surely hope not. Here, take this.” Everett handed Skyler a lit lantern. “Go check out what’s behind door number 2 while I turn off the generator.”

  Skyler looked around the storage room, and sure enough, there was yet another door on its back wall.

  “Just how big is this place?” She called out as she walked toward the second door.

  “Ten thousand square feet, same as the lot the house sits on.”

  “Holy crap!” she yelled back.

  She arrived at the second door and put her hand on the knob. She couldn’t imagine what could possibly be waiting for her on the other side.

  She took a deep breath and pushed it open. She thrust her lantern in ahead of her and squealed at what she saw.

  The bunker had a weapons room. While this room was not nearly as big as the storage room it was packed with weapons of all kinds, along with ammo and safety gear. On the wall hung semi-automatic rifles, machine guns and what looked to be a rocket launcher. Hung right next to them she spotted a rack of bullet proof vests, eye wear and noise cancellation headphones. In the middle of the room stood a waist-high Lucite case.

  Skyler couldn’t help but laugh as she called out “Grampa! This
is an insane amount of gear.”

  With the generator now off, Everett had made his way back to the weapon’s room. “You know me, Darlin’ ... go big or go home,” he said with a wink. “Check out that case, I’ve got somethin’ special in there for you.”

  Skyler walked toward the case in the middle of the room and set her lantern down on top of it. On the top shelf was an array of hand guns placed neatly side by side. One weapon in particular caught her attention. She slid open the display’s door and removed a Ruger P90 from the shelf.

  She smiled as she ran her fingers up and down the barrel.

  Everett walked up behind her and put his hand on Skyler’s shoulder. “I thought it made sense to keep that down here for you. Your mom never did have a taste for firearms, best to keep it...”

  While Everett was speaking Skyler handled the gun expertly, ejecting the magazine and performing a chamber check on the weapon.

  She finished Everett’s sentence with “... our little secret.”

  Skyler was six and dressed for her Saturday with Grampa. At that age her favorite outfit was a Hello Kitty pink t-shirt, a denim skirt, pink tights and pink Chuck Taylors. Her outfit also included safety glasses and noise cancellation head phones. Not exactly what you’d picture a six year old wearing, unless of course she was at a gun range.

  Yet there she was, safety gear and all, holding a Ruger P90 in her small hands and aiming it toward the target practice sheet that hung in the distance.

  With every round she fired off she was knocked back a few steps. But still she moved back into place and did it again and again.

  An inspection of the target sheet showed each of the 3 bullets found their way through the target. This was the first time she’d been able to do that.

  Grampa scooped her up and gave her a big hug.

  “That’s my girl! You’re gettin’ better every time, angel.”

  “I am! Thanks Grampa!” And then, “Should we tell Mom this time?”

  “Well, you know how I feel about lyin’, but I’m pretty sure your mama wouldn’t be too thrilled with me bringin’ you to a gun range on our Saturdays. Hell, she may cancel our Saturdays all together. But one day we’ll tell her, just not today.”

  Six year old Skyler thought it over. She really did love going to the gun range with her Grampa, but she knew her Mom probably wouldn’t approve. “Ok Grampa. ”

  And then she was twelve.

  Gone was the Hello Kitty outfit, replacing it a denim skirt, a mid-rift baring sweater, thigh high socks and Uggs. Also new was makeup, glitter nail polish and lip gloss. Very typical of a twelve year old Long Island girl.

  What wasn’t typical of a twelve year old girl was her stance while aiming at the target.

  Thumbs married at the grip of her Ruger, arms straight out in front of her, but relaxed to reduce fatigue. No backing up each time a round was fired this time.

  After she emptied the magazine, Everett retrieved the target sheet. All of her shots passed through the head of the target, another first. He hugged her and kissed her on top of the head.

  “Great job!”

  “Grampa can you hold it up for a second.” Skyler took out her phone and snapped a selfie of herself with the target sheet.

  “Who’s that for, angel?”

  “Bryce. I send him texts and pics now and then so he can see what I’m up to. I update him on Mom too. ”

  Grampa nodded. “How’s he doing? Where is he this time?”

  “I guess he’s okay? I don’t think he’s allowed to say much about what he’s doing over there, wherever over there is. I’m pretty sure he’s in the mid-east but he hasn’t told us.”

  “That’s life with Delta Force.” He remembered it well. “Let’s go see your mom.”

  “So I guess today’s definitely not the day to tell her, huh?” They still hadn’t told Jeannie about their Saturday outings and it had become a tradition for her to ask while they walked toward Grampa’s pickup truck in the parking lot.

  Skyler’s mom had been diagnosed with cancer a few years back and though she’d gone through her fair share of treatments and remissions, it didn’t seem like she would ever win her battle with the disease. Most recently she was admitted to the hospital, again, for additional surgeries.

  “I think she’s got enough to worry about these days, darlin’.”

  And then she was 15.

  Skyler was a popular member of the varsity cheer-leading squad. Her blond hair tipped with pink. And although there were often high school football games on Saturdays, Skyler and Everett still always got together, sometimes before, sometimes after a game.

  As a matter of fact, the time she remembered most from back then she was wearing her blue and gold cheer leading outfit with white socks and saddle shoes. Near her feet her pompons laid on the floor.

  The novelty of having a young girl at the gun range had long since faded with the regulars, but every week new comers would stop and watch her practice.

  On this particular occasion, Skyler was in her regular push/pull stance and rapid fired her Ruger three times at the target at the end of her lane. This time when the target sheet came back there was just one hole, with singed and smoking edges, dead center, in the forehead of the figure.

  Everett could not have been more proud. The regulars all clapped and cheered for Skyler.

  One of the new random onlookers made his way up to Skyler and patted patted her on the shoulder and then rather condescendingly announced “Aww don’t feel bad, little lady. One outta three ain’t so bad, for a girl. At least you got your looks goin’ for ya ... heh heh.”

  The regulars fell silent as Everett approached the man and forcefully removed his hand from his granddaughter and stepped in between them.

  “Friend, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. You see, all three bullets traveled through that same hole.”

  The regulars shook their heads as the newcomer slinked away in shame.

  On the way out to the parking lot Skyler asked her grandfather, “Can we stop by and see Mom? I want to tell her about today.”

  “Sure, Darlin’. Let’s go.”

  On a hill, under an old oak tree and overlooking a lovely pond surrounded with wild flowers was the final resting place for Jeannie Campbell. Skyler approached her mother’s grave and laid a bouquet of flowers on the ground in front of the headstone. Her fingertips traced the Irish blessing they had engraved on its face, a poem her grandfather had shared with her years ago. She turned toward Everett who handed her a folded blanket and then retreated to a nearby bench.

  She carefully spread the blanket and took a seat atop Jeannie’s grave. Everett watched over her from the bench, giving her the privacy to speak freely with the memory of her mother.

  “Hi Mom ...”

  Skyler took the Ruger and placed it in the back of her waist band. She turned toward Everett with a sad smile.

  “She may not be around to say it, but I know she is so proud of the young lady you’ve become. And so am I.”

  “Thanks.”

  FOUR

  After leading a sizable line of cars away from Great Neck and to the airport – Jack, Karen and Alissa parked in the nearly empty first level of the underground parking garage and began preparations to make their way down to the lower levels.

  A group of military officers in uniforms were manning the storm gates at the entrance of the underground parking lot. They were waiting for the last stragglers to seek shelter before shutting them and fortifying them with the hundreds of sand bags that were near by in a huge pile.

  Karen nodded toward the sand bags and the storm gates. “Think it will be enough?”

  “I surely hope so,” Jack answered.

  Jack and Karen were both weighed down by an assortment of duffle bags, backpacks and tote bags all filled with various supplies they thought they’d need to survive 'XF11.

  Even on this first level, the cement walls seemed to suck up any light that tried to make its way into the parking structur
e. Nearer to the entrance faint rays of sunshine could be seen fighting off the darkness, but 50 feet beyond the entrance Jack had to put down his bags and search for his flashlight.

  Karen took the opportunity to put her bags down too, her arms were aching already. Alissa tugged on her mom’s sleeve to get her attention.

  “Mommy why did we stop?”

  Jack had just found what he was looking for and held it up for Alissa to see. “My fault Alissa. I needed to find the flashlight. It’s pretty dark in here, don’t you think?”

  Alissa looked around and nodded solemnly. “Are there monsters?”

  “Nah probably not. Maybe some rats. And bugs. Creepy crawly type stuff. Well, bats, there could be bats. It does look a lot like a cave in here.” Jack glanced around the parking structure blissfully unaware of the terror he was striking in the little girl. “I think snakes like caves, so maybe there are snakes in here too.”

  Alissa was not at all happy with his answer. Her eyes widened and she began to back away from Jack while trying her best to look into every shadowy corner and crevice of the dark parking level. “Mooooommmmmy!?”

  Jack looked over at Alissa and realized immediately that he had said every wrong thing possible. “Oh God. Alissa.” Her face was turning red and she was on the brink of the kind of weepfest only a terrified four year old could produce.

  “No honey,” Karen came to the rescue. She reached out and smoothed Alissa’s hair. “There are no monsters here. There’s nothing to be afraid of. We’re having an adventure, that’s all.”

  Alissa was dubious, but chose to believe her mom. This time.

  Jack mouthed “I’m so sorry” to Karen over Alissa’s head. Karen smiled and nodded toward the flashlight in his hand.

  Jack took the hint and held the flashlight out for Alissa to see. “’Lissa? Do you want to hold the flashlight? It’s kind of an important job.”

  “It is?” Uncertain if she should trust Jack with any information at all, she looked toward her mother for some sign of confirmation.