by Ford, Lizzy
Brady reached the intersection and saw the tunnel running perpendicular opened into a crowded underground city. Four-story buildings had been built to the ceiling, flanking a narrow pathway and canal of water, siphoned from the Mississippi. The buildings held lights and people, and the canal curved to the left, hiding the size of the city.
“We don’t have anything this elaborate where we are from,” Dan said. “This is a bunker city.”
Brady stepped into the bustling world. By the level of activity and sophistication, he judged this place had been used for longer than the past few weeks. He was more intrigued by the sight of soldiers in PMF grays as well as those in the regular military’s black uniforms. He slung his weapon over his shoulder as they walked deeper into the underground city. They received some curious looks from the inhabitants. None approached, until one of the PMF soldiers caught his eye.
Brady stopped and waited for the soldier to approach. The soldier looked over his subdued rank then at Dan and Elise.
“Welcome, sir,” he said. “May I escort you to our commander?”
“Please,” Brady replied. “This place is incredible.”
The soldier flashed a smile as he started down the narrow pathway lining the canal.
“Did I see regular army-types with PMF?” Dan asked.
“Yes, sir. We are all that’s holding the world together along the river. We combined our headquarters in Arkansas, too. The surge of refugees created a problem and we heard … well, we heard the rest of the country was destroyed,” the soldier answered.
“Not destroyed. Everything west of the river is fine. Everything east of here is a disaster,” Elise said.
“No one who went west returned,” the soldier said with a curious look at her. “We assumed the worst.”
Brady’s eyes took in the occupants of the underground world. The strain was visible in the faces of many, though those he saw were in good health and fed. The city seemed to be over capacity, with people seated outside the buildings and even more packed inside.
The soldier led them up a set of stairs winding around smaller buildings and into a building apart from the rest. He knocked on the door briskly and opened the door, motioning Brady in.
“Charlie,” Brady said as he took in the familiar commander seated at a table. The quarters were small, with nothing more than a table, a few trunks, and a cot.
“Brade!” the barrel-chested man replied, rising. “What a surprise to see you here! Shouldn’t you be back east, blowing up stuff?”
“Things went crazy,” Brady said and grunted as the large man squeezed him in a bear hug. “This is my team. You remember Dan. Elise is one of the fed’s special security types.”
Charlie greeted Dan and Elise then motioned for them to sit. Brady lifted his chin to the rest of their team, and they obediently left the commander’s small quarters.
“What brings you here?” Charlie asked, sitting on one of the trunks.
“We’re looking for someone,” Elise said and handed him her micro, which displayed Lana’s picture.
“This little girl again,” Charlie said, studying it.
“What do you mean again?” Brady asked, exchanging a look with Dan.
“The feds and PMF headquarters both issued a priority one lookout for her. Neither said why. It’d be nice to know if she’s dangerous. There’s a hefty reward out for her, too.”
The way Charlie’s gaze glowed at the mention of the reward made Brady uneasy. He suspected General Greene had issued one lookout and Tim the other.
“We haven’t found her yet,” Charlie added. “But then again, there are so many refugees trickling into the cities along the river, it’s hard to say she’s not here. We’ve been rather cut off from the rest of the world. We formed our own networks along the river and joined forces with the Twelfth Army. They took up camp about a day south of here in Arkansas.”
“I heard they were headed back from Europe,” Elise said with a frown. “How did they end up here?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Tim rerouted them,” Brady said. “Greenie could’ve done a lot of damage with the Twelfth Army at his command.”
“We could’ve used some help.”
Brady glanced up at Elise’s hard tone, sensing she’d not yet absorbed the fact the government she served had splintered.
“What’s done is done,” he said. “We gotta move forward.”
“This is forward?” Charlie asked, tapping the screen of Elise’s micro before handing it back. “Seems an odd mission for someone of your rank, Brade, unless you lost that integrity of yours and are just after the money like I am.”
“I still got it and you still don’t. I think that’s why they stuck you in Arkansas,” Brady said. His gaze lingered on the picture of Lana. It was a recent picture, and she was smiling, her dark eyes dancing. “It’s an important mission.”
“Ah, I see,” Charlie said. “A little toy for you, I take it.”
Brady looked up. Charlie’s gaze was amused, though he said nothing of Brady’s long look at the picture. Brady began to recall why he never liked Charlie that much in the first place. It had nothing to do with Charlie illicitly selling PMF weapons overseas. It was Charlie’s seedy character that disturbed Brady. The thought of his Angel in Charlie’s reach infuriated Brady.
“Rest assured we haven’t seen her. I’m assuming she’s a fed. She’s not going to know about the underground railroad. You came from Texarkana?” Charlie asked.
“We did,” Dan answered. “She can locate and open the federal emergency supply depots. We’re trying to figure out which path she took. We thought she would be in one of them or at least, would’ve left some sign she was.”
“The supply depots we found open this morning?”
“That would be them.”
“These are the ones we searched.” Charlie pulled up a geospatial depiction on his micro and passed it to Brady. “None of these had been touched in years, from what we can tell. There was one in Randolph, according to our patrols, but the people discovered it a few weeks ago and have been using the supplies. North of Randolph, we have no idea.”
Brady studied the map. There were five within two days of the underground city. He passed it to Elise, who looked at the sites Tim had identified.
“You found all but two,” Dan said, looking over Elise’s shoulder. “So we have three to check in the box we identified, if we include the one in Randolph.”
“This definitely helps. Can you contact us if you find anything else?” Brady asked.
“Of course. You all are welcome to stay here for the night.”
“We can’t stop,” Elise said.
“Then you’re welcome to supplies.”
“We’re fine.”
Brady looked at her pointedly, and she crossed her arms.
“If you can spare someone to guide us to the first of the emerops facilities, we’d appreciate it,” Dan said. “Or send several and take whatever looters haven’t gotten to.”
“Deal,” Charlie said. “Good luck finding your girl, Brade.”
“Thanks, Charlie,” Brady said. He ignored the loaded words, rising instead.
Charlie stood and opened the door, speaking to the soldier outside.
“What do you think?” Dan asked, gazing at the micro. “These two are about fifty kilometers apart in different directions.”
“We’ll have to split up,” Brady answered. “You and Elise take this one in the south. I’ll take the northern one. We can meet up tomorrow at Randolph, unless you can’t run that fast.”
“Damn right I can run that fast,” Dan said. “Elise won’t let me stop.”
“Not until we find Lana,” Elise said.
“Tony here will take you out of the catacombs,” Charlie said, returning his attention to them. “Which direction do you want to go?”
“We’re splitting up. One north, one south,” Brady answered.
“Tony will go north. I’ll pull in someone to go south
. Whoever is ready, go with Tony.”
“Thanks, Charlie,” Brady said. “When we find her, we’ll be in touch again.”
“We’ll keep looking until then. A lot of money up for grabs, Brady.”
Brady signaled to the two team members going with him then looked to Tony. The soldier led them down to the canal. Brady couldn’t help the feeling that they were still shooting in the dark. There was no way to know where Lana was; he had to hope to stumble upon her. He followed Tony through the underground world and up to the town above. The sky was dark, the stars bright without competition from man-made lighting in the streets. He breathed deeply, not realizing how musty the underground world was until he breathed fresh air.
On instinct, Brady opened the channel to Lana’s net. After a brief hesitation, he spoke.
“If you’re there, I’m coming for you. Just give me some sort of sign you’re out there.”
Chapter Fifteen
“SO WE’VE DETERMINED YOU have no physical coordination or skills. You don’t cook, either.”
Lana flushed at the matter-of-fact tone Mike, Kelli’s husband, took. The towering, slender man was looking over a list with a frown.
“We have a lot of things we need people to do, but you possess virtually no skills. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were a fed.”
“She’s a student,” Kelli said. “Your family must’ve saved their whole lives to send you.”
“I’m not sure where to put her,” her husband said with a frown.
“I was a technology major,” Lana offered, unaccustomed to feeling skills sought after by feds were inadequate everywhere else. “You said you have a generator you need help fixing, right?”
“You can’t do anything else.” Mike smiled to soften the words. “We have someone from Harvard here who can’t figure out the generator. But, if it’ll keep you busy …” His look was doubtful.
“She made it across Tennessee,” Kelli pointed out. “She’s got something in that head of hers.”
“Give it a try.”
“Thank you,” Lana said awkwardly, recalling Elise’s words that she’d never make it on the outside. She wasn’t certain what kind of skills these people had that she didn’t.
“We’ll think of something,” Kelli said as they walked down the street. “I don’t think you can fix the generator, so don’t worry about it if you can’t. If you didn’t notice, we have no technology here outside the hospital. We even had to learn to start fire from scratch.”
“I never thought the world would come to this,” Lana said. “Or there were people like you.”
“You probably got some of that brainwashing in college,” Kelli said. “You were probably the only non-elite there.”
“I was,” Lana agreed. “It’s a different world.”
“At least we have a chance to start over.”
Lana gazed at her, unable to shake her surprise that those in this small community were the opposite of what she expected.
“If everyone is reduced to the same level, it might help people remember we’re all the same,” Kelli added. “Do you think so?”
“I think the elite class will never understand that,” Lana said honestly. “There are good among them, but they just aren’t like … this.” She gazed around.
A handful of people were building an annex onto one of the buildings with their hands rather than with the technological tools she’d seen create structures. Some people dug trenches while others placed pipes in the trenches and covered them again with dirt. Men and women worked over large cauldrons of food in one building while young men and women focused on making blankets, clothes, and other textiles in another.
With their hands. Lana glanced at her own palms, which were soft and slender. She knew the manual labor class worked with their hands, but she didn’t realize they used them to do more than serve the elite. Warmth crept up her face as she thought how stupid she’d sound to someone like Kelli.
“Here it is.”
Lana looked from her hands to the massive, seven-foot-tall Tesla generator. It sat between the boardwalk and one of the buildings where the people had dragged it. Much like her, the generator sat useless. Yet it was the only familiar thing to her in the town. Lana’s hand went instinctively to the pocket with her micro before she dropped it.
She circled the generator. It was the size of a greencar—large enough to power the town. Aside from the chunks missing along the edges from the townspeople dragging it, it looked like it was in good shape.
“Don’t worry if it’s too much,” Kelli said. Lana couldn’t help feeling irritated at the assurance in Kelli’s voice, as if the town had already decided she wasn’t likely to hold her own.
She was tired of feeling that way.
Lana went to the side opposite Kelli and pressed her thumb against the keypad. The control panel opened. Though hibernating, the Tesla generator displayed no error messages. She flew through the options on the command panel. The metal panels on top of the generator opened like a flower, automatically adjusting themselves to catch the most sun. Lana looked around to make sure no one was watching then pulled her micro free. She set it on top of the control panel and assessed the results, then activated the generator’s artificial intelligence so it would adjust as needed to power the town. She returned her micro to her pocket.
“There’s nothing wrong with it,” she said, returning to Kelli. “It’ll take a couple of days to charge. There’s no energy stored in it right now. Once it’s charged, it’ll power the town for two weeks without a new charge or indefinitely, if I set it to recharge as needed.”
Kelli was quiet for a moment in surprise. “We’ll have to check the Tesla receivers in all the buildings,” she said. “I can’t believe you know what to do. The Harvard guy didn’t!”
“I was a good student,” Lana said, afraid to say more. Without her micro, she doubted she could do much more than turn it on.
“Now we know what to tell Mike!” Kelli said. “You can check all the receivers.”
“Kelli, I really need to get to Colorado,” Lana said. “My family is there.”
“Lana, Mike won’t risk sending anyone over there, not after the three who went and never came back,” Kelli said. “And the soldiers say the same: don’t try it.”
“Please, Kelli. It’s important I see my … my father again. He needs me,” Lana begged. “I’ll check all the receivers and make sure the town will have energy before I go. Just please ask Mike to help me get across.”
Kelli’s gaze went to the generator. At last, she nodded. Lana almost sighed in relief. All Mike had to do was get her across the river. The rest, she’d figure out when she got there.
“Mike’ll be happy about this,” Kelli said, smiling. “He said only a fed could turn this on. I’m happy he’s wrong.”
“Me, too,” Lana forced herself to say.
“I’m going to let him know. You’re welcome to explore the town,” Kelli said as she started away.
Lana looked back at the generator, dread in the pit of her stomach. She trailed Kelli. Jack trotted ahead of them back into the town. By the time Lana caught up, he’d had been lured into one of the buildings by a little girl with a handful of uncooked rice. Lana stepped through the doorway, patting Jack.
“You must be Lana,” a woman said, rising from the corner with a sleeping child cradled in her arms. “This is the nursery. We watch the kids during the day while everyone is working!”
Jack was obediently following the girl in yellow that fed him rice. She led him to the other side, where a group of toddlers were playing with toys carved from the forest’s trees. Another corner contained crates full of sleeping babies while older children sat reading antique books in the center of the room. The children were monitored by a few teens, who sat in one corner laughing and talking.
Lana watched the toddlers greet Jack excitedly. They surrounded him, offering him whatever food they had and petting him.
“They love your dog
,” the woman said. She moved to the nearest empty crate and placed the baby inside it. “I was just getting ready to head over to get their midmorning snacks. Want to come?”
Lana nodded.
“I’m Melissa.”
“Lana.”
“You came at a good time. It’s taken us a few weeks to get everything running smoothly. Well, mostly smoothly,” Melissa said. “Still a lot of us trying to deal with not having light at night or our favorite foods.”
“I can imagine,” Lana said. “But this is so much better than anything I expected.”
“Mike says along the Mississippi, all the towns are like this. We’ve been trading experts with the neighbors. No one here knew how to plant crops, but the next town over was made up of farm laborers. It’s working out better than any of us expected.”
“Winter will be rough,” Lana said.
“It will be. We’ve got plenty of wood, though, from the forest. That’s how they did it in the olden days.”
At least now they’ll have real heat, she thought to herself. The generator would be more than the town needed, even for winter.
“Has Kelli showed you around?” Melissa asked.
“A little.”
“These are the kitchens. These buildings here each have a different purpose. Meat preparation there, breads and everything else there, then the last building is where we cook. We centralized all the ovens from the town into one area. The kids get snacks twice a day,” Melissa explained, leading them into the building smelling of bread.
“Where do you get fruit and vegetables from?” Lana asked, gaze skimming over the oranges in crates.
“We trade for them or get them from the military. Not sure how they ended up with so many oranges.”
“So the PMF and military really are helping.”
“They are. We invite them for dinner, but for the most part, they just do patrols and bring us supplies. Mike handles the coordination with them.”
Melissa motioned to a crate of oranges. Lana took one side and the redhead the other. They carried the crate back to the building acting as a nursery.
“I still can’t believe how nice it is here,” Lana said. “It’s not what I expected.”
