Beginnings (Book 1): Future Apocalypse

by Gilbert, Barbara J.

  “It’s Mr. Lee, here to work on that safe you inquired about.”

  “One moment, please.” With a bit of noise and accidentally banging her knee into the desk, Susan made it to the door and opened it wide. “Welcome, and thank you for coming so quickly.”

  “My pleasure to be of service. Where is this safe you need me to work on?”

  “Oh sorry, it’s right over here in the corner.”

  “Thank you, I’ll get right to work on it.”

  Susan nodded and headed back to her desk to work on some paperwork while Mr. Lee worked on the safe.

  Mr. Lee set his tool bag down on the floor next to the grey Mesa safe and pulled out a few tools. He had worked on some of these in the past and found that most times a stethoscope could be used to work the dial, but sometimes a few extra tools were needed. He took his stethoscope, placed the earpieces into his ears, and the scope against the safe next to the combination dial. He spun the dial a few times before beginning. He slowly moved the dial so he could hear the mechanism inside. A little spin to the right, and he heard the familiar click. Stopping, he spun the dial to the left. After the third rotation and click, he moved the dial back to the left and heard the final click. Grabbing the handle, he pushed down and swung the safe door open. He smiled as he put his scope back in his tool bag. Chuckling, he grabbed his tool bag, stood up and faced Susan. With a mischievous smile he said, “Well, young lady, I’ve cracked your safe wide open for you.”

  “Wow, that was quick.”

  “Yes, well years of experience makes you somewhat of a pro. Anyway, I hope you find what you were looking for. I’ll see myself out.”

  “Okay, thanks again, Mr. Lee, for your prompt service.”

  “No problem, ma’am.” As he walked toward the door, he began whistling a familiar tune.

  Susan wondered if it was the tune to Spiderman. She shook her head in amusement and headed to the safe, anxious to see what she might find that could help them solve this debacle of a problem. Kneeling, she looked inside the dark safe, finding mostly paperwork, some money, a passport and a few other items. Her face dropped in disappointment, but as she continued to investigate, her hand brushed against a small object. Grasping it, she pulled her hand out to look at it in the light. “Eureka!” She screamed before realizing everyone could probably hear her. “It’s a USB drive. I hope it has what we are looking for on it.” Her scream startled Danni from her nap and caused her to jump up and make sure Susan was okay. Susan petted her on the head and assured her that everything was fine.

  With Danni at her side, she headed to the project room, entered the code, and they went into the room. She quickly slid up to the desk, while Danni lay down in her usual spot, and inserted the USB drive into the USB port on the computer. She went to the menu bar and clicked on the icon to access the drive. The screen went blank for a moment before flashing “Password Required”. She banged her head against the desk several times with tears of frustration streaming down her face. No, this can’t be happening! Now she had another, more difficult, problem to deal with. She cursed Greg for his stupidity.

  Chapter 19

  Future, Day 2

  Startled awake, Paulette jumped up from the seat, hitting her head on the side of the pod, and then came crashing down in a heap, still wrapped in her sleeping bag. Ugg, what could be making such a loud noise this early in the morning? Besides, it’s been eerily quiet the past two days, so what could that sound be? she thought as she rubbed her head. She untangled herself from the sleeping bag, stood up, and opened the pod door and stepped outside. The early morning chill took her breath away. Another thought hit her, It was spring, so why was it so much colder there than it was in the present that she had just left. She didn’t have an answer to that question, so she donned her jacket and sat down, slid her feet into her boots, and laced them up and tied them. She stood back up, reached into the pod and grabbed her go bag, rifle, and pistol, and headed out to investigate the noise.

  She hadn’t gone but about a hundred feet when she heard it again. Suddenly, she realized what the noise was; it was the crack of a thirty- aught- six rifle in the distance, which meant there was someone else alive out there in the hell she had found. Knowing someone was shooting a rifle, she proceeded more carefully. Heading out in the shot’s direction, she proceeded with caution and continued to trek northeast through the woods. Eventually, she came upon a clearing and stopped at the edge of the woods to inspect the area. She looked out into the clearing for several minutes to make sure nobody was there. Satisfied, she crossed the clearing and hiked back into the woods. A mile further, she heard a noise that sounded like human laughter and talking. She slowed down and quietly maneuvered through the trees till she could get close enough to see and hear the others without being spotted. Getting herself into position, she carefully looked around the pine tree she stood behind.

  She saw people for the first time since arriving. There was a small group about hundred feet in front of her in a small clearing. The group was composed of two males, three females, and one child. They were rough looking, with scraggly hair, dirty, worn clothes, and teeth that looked as if they couldn’t possibly chew any of the meat they were cooking. She spent close to an hour observing the group before deciding that, despite her need for information and companionship, she wouldn’t risk trying to join them. She quietly retreated the same way she had come. It took several hours for her to get back to the time pod. Having forgotten to eat breakfast, she was now starving. She sat down and prepared lunch and decided where she’d explore for the rest of the day. She immediately decided against going northeast, at least for now, while that group was still hanging around. She’d explore southeast and see what she could find. Hopefully, she’d run into more survivors that could help her determine what had happened and where she could go to get the help she needed. In her mind, there had to be a place that still existed that would have the technology she needed to get back home.

  Finishing up lunch, she gathered the things she’d need to do a wider search. She placed everything in a pile and packed it into her go bag and strapped the sleeping bag to the bottom. She grabbed a few extra clothes, as well, just in case it got really cold at night. If the temperature warranted it, she could build a shelter of things she found in the surrounding area. With the bag packed, her pistol on her hip, and the rifle slung over her shoulder, she was ready to take on the world, or at least she hoped she was. This was a different world than the one she had grown up in. There would be dangers, even she, might not be ready for. Shrugging her shoulders to get the straps squared, she began her hike southeast.

  Her hike was not as easy as she had thought it would be. Years of undergrowth was making it hard for her to get through the woods, not to mention having to avoid downed and rotted trees. The scenery was beautiful, with all the green pine trees, purple wildflowers, and other greenery on the floor of the forest, but beautiful wouldn’t make her trip easier. An hour into her hike, she stopped and checked her compass. She pulled the compass out of her pocket and oriented the needle, so it showed true north and read her direction. Puzzled at the reading, she shook the compass and tried it again. It still read the same. It showed her going Northeast, when in fact, she knew she had started out heading Southeast. Either her compass was broken or something else was wrong. She turned in several different directions to test the compass further and found that the readings were upside down from normal. I don’t understand why this compass is reading everything wrong. I guess I’ll have to adjust my thinking for now and travel based on the new readings. I must remember that it’s backwards now, which means that Southeast is now Northeast. Which means my true direction of travel is Northeast, toward my old hometown of Buckley, Washington. She placed the compass back in her pocket and continued hiking. She figured if she could make it to a town between her time pod and her old hometown that maybe she’d find someone who could give her answers.

  A few hours later, she broke out into a clearing, where s
he found an old road nearby. She headed toward the road to see if there was anything that could tell her where she was. The road headed south—which in this world was north—so she followed it as far as it would take her before she had to head off into the woods again. As she was walking down the pitted and graveled road, she came across an ancient sign. She walked up to it and pulled away some vines and dusted the dirt off so she could see what it said underneath. She was pleasantly surprised that she could make out enough words to know where she was. The sign showed that she was in the Cougar Mountain Wildlife Preserve. She had planned to land in a higher-up region, but not one that would have been so popular. Unfortunately, popularity wasn’t in the scheme of things in this future. In her hours of walking, she hadn’t run into any people and had barely seen any wildlife. She was keeping an eye out for smaller wildlife so she could supplement and, eventually, replace her rations. She only had enough supplies left to last about three days.

  Continuing to walk down the road, she turned a sharp corner and almost fell into the water lapping at the road. She stared at it, in surprise and shock, for some time and wondered how water had gotten on the road. It stretched as far as the eye could see, and when she looked to the west, all she could see was more water. “Crap,” she muttered. All the land that used to be southwest of Seattle was now completely under water. There was nowhere she could go in that direction. Even though she had corrected her direction to take her more southerly, now northerly, she still ran into water. This wasn’t good at all. It meant that her old hometown was probably under water. Sitting down on a nearby log, she took her time to think about where she should go. At this point, she’d have to head due east toward the mountains to get enough elevation to get away from the water. She was also assuming that the Cascade Mountains were still there. If not, she at least hoped that there would be enough elevation to escape the ocean. While figuring out her next move, she broke out a granola bar and munched on it for some extra energy and washed it down with a few sips of water. Maybe as she traveled due east toward the mountains, she’d find fresh water to replace her rapidly depleting water supply.

  Frustrated with her whole situation, she stood up, adjusted her backpack, and headed due east toward the Cascade Mountains. She struggled through more forests and undergrowth, and it was becoming even harder to navigate. She cursed every time she’d smack a shin on a downed tree or step into a puddle of murky, dirty water. She had hiked for a little while when she came upon a thinning of the forest. It was getting late, and she had been hiking for hours, so she decided to make camp in that area. She searched out a place large enough and flat enough for her to make camp for the night and, eventually, found a suitable location. She pulled off her backpack and leaned it against a tree. She had a little work to do to make the area usable. There were branches and twigs she had to pick up and a rotted log she needed to maneuver out of the way. Once she got the site cleared, she walked around nearby looking for some rocks to use as a fire ring. It took several trips for her to bring back enough rocks to the campsite. She stacked the rocks up in a circle to help contain the fire she’d build. Next, she collected twigs and dry pine needles, and placed them in the fire ring, pulled out her box of matches, struck a match, and held it to the twigs and pine needles till they caught fire. While the fire was getting going, she used some soft pine needles to make a small area for her sleeping bag. I sure hope it doesn’t rain tonight because I’m too exhausted to build a shelter, she thought. She unhooked her sleeping bag from her go bag, unrolled it, and laid it on the bed of pine needles. After that, she brought over a small stump to sit on next to the fire. Grabbing her bag, she pulled out a freeze-dried meatloaf camping meal and her cooking pot. She added water to her pot, brought it to a boil, then ripped open the package, and dumped it into the pot. Fifteen minutes later, she was eating meatloaf and potatoes, in the forest of a future she had never expected to be in.

  When she finished eating, she cleaned up the area and began the ritual of settling in for the night. It had been a very long time since she had been camping in the woods. She flashed back to the time her father took her to the Appalachian Trail and they hiked and camped along the trail. She had so much fun that trip. She missed her father, and now she missed her friends, her job, and, well, right now, even all of humanity. It was just too quiet here. She continued to daydream about better times for a while before deciding it was time to get some sleep. She wanted to get an early start the next day, when she hoped she’d find some wildlife, and maybe even people. Dousing the fire and covering it with dirt, she headed over to her sleeping bag and sat down on it to undo her hiking boots. Once she had her boots off, she slid into the sleeping bag, zipped it up, and rolled over, hoping sleep would come quickly.

  Chapter 20

  Present, Day 2 Continued

  Greg screamed into the phone, “What?”

  “Hey, calm down; it’s just me, Susan. I was wondering if you had figured anything out yet, and if you were planning on coming to work soon. Also, I thought I’d update you with what I found.”

  “Well, to the first question: no, I haven’t figured anything out yet. And the second: yes, I plan on coming in today. What did you find?”

  “I found a safe in the project room. I didn’t have the combination, so I had to hire a locksmith to come and open it. Once the safe was open, I found a USB drive. I figured maybe she’d put a backup, or at least her project notes, on it. I took it into the project room and plugged it into the USB port. However, as soon as I clicked on the icon in the menu, it came up with “password required.” You wouldn’t happen to know the password would you?”

  “No! I don’t. She never trusted me with stuff like that. I wish she had so we could fix this, but she didn’t.”

  “Just great, we are stuck.”

  “Not necessarily; maybe we can find someone good at hacking passwords. It would be a very sensitive matter since they might have to be in the project room. Or do you think we could crack it outside of the room?”

  “I can try it on my computer. If the USB drive is the only thing with a password, maybe we can hack it from there, then take it in the other room and see what we can find.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll be there around noon; see you then. Oh, again, I’m sorry for screwing this all up.”

  “Yeah, you should be. See you at noon.”

  Greg stumbled around his apartment trying to get a grip on what he needed to do. Finally, he headed to the bathroom to get a shower. Once showered and shaved, he got dressed and strolled over to the kitchen to find something to eat. Opening the fridge, he looked inside to see what he had and was disappointed that he had not gone shopping in a while. There was nothing eatable in the fridge, so he slammed the door shut in frustration. Guess I’ll have to get something to eat on the way in, he thought. He gathered up his briefcase and set it near the door and sat down on the bench to put his shoes on. Once he was ready, he grabbed his lightweight brown coat and headed out the door. He walked over to the elevator and pushed the down button. He grew impatient while waiting for the doors to open. When they finally opened, he stepped into the elevator and punched the button for the parking garage that was under the apartment building. A few minutes later, the elevator suddenly came to an abrupt stop. “What the heck is going on?” Hey anyone out there? This dang thing just stopped between floors. Hello! Hello!” he yelled. He grew more desperate as time passed.

  Greg dug out his cell phone and dialed 911.

  “911, what is your emergency?”

  “Yes, my name is Greg Moretti, and I’m stuck in the elevator to my apartment complex.”

  “Can you tell me the address, please?”

  “Yes, it is 11245 North 76th Street, Seattle.”

  “Okay, I’ll have someone there to help you as soon as possible.”

  “What do you mean as soon as possible?”

  “Sir, we’ve got a lot going on right now with the small earthquake that just hit.”

  “Oh crap, is
that what caused this?”

  “Probably, sir. I’m sorry that you’re stuck in the elevator; but as soon as someone becomes available, they’ll come over and get you out.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome, sir.”

  Greg hung up and decided he’d better call Susan. If he didn’t, she’d be mad as hell. He quickly dialed her number and waited for her to answer.

  “Hey, Greg. You okay? We just had a small tremor.”

  “Yes and no. I’m physically okay, but I’m trapped in my apartment complex’s elevator. The 911 operator said it could be awhile before someone gets here.”

  “That sucks.”

  “Yeah, you’re telling me. Have you made any progress on the password situation?”

  “No, not yet. I even asked some higher-up employees, and no one has any clue what it might be. I’ll have to hire someone, but hackers aren’t necessarily the trustworthy kind.”

  “No, not usually, but maybe we can find one who can be helpful without compromising the situation.”

  “I hope so. I guess you won’t be in at noon.”

  “No, I won’t; and if it takes too long, I may just go back up to my apartment and chill for the rest of the day. You know with traffic and all, it would be a waste of time trying to get over there.”

  “True. Well, good luck. Hey, call me when you get out of there, okay?”

  “Sure thing.”

  Greg hung up and looked around the small space he was forced to reside in for who knew how long. Silly me, I didn’t eat anything before I left, and if this takes too long, I’m going to get hungry, or worse. Ugg. Eventually, he sat down on the floor to wait for his rescuers. He hoped that they wouldn’t forget about him. At least an hour went by, and it began getting hot in the elevator, so he stood up and took his coat off. He paced around in the small space and became more agitated the longer he was stuck there. “This is ludicrous!” he yelled out loud. “Why hasn’t anyone come yet?” He checked his watch and saw he has been stuck in the elevator for four hours. His patience having run out, he pulled out his phone and dialed 911 once again.