“Welcome to your new home, General,” yelled Drake.
Elizabeth hesitated.
“Welcome. Please, come in. Don’t be nervous. You’re with friends now,” Drake grinned.
“Thank you, Roger. Let me introduce my family. This is Elizabeth, my wife, and you’ve heard me talk of my daughter, Allesandra. Now you get to meet her, albeit under strange circumstances.”
“How do you do, sir. Thank you for letting us stay here,” Allesandra said.
“You’re welcome, my dear, and let me say, the general was far too conservative when he said how beautiful you were.”
The teen blushed; the words of such a handsome man sounded mature and sensual to her. Out of the corner of her eye, she found Drake’s girlfriend Sonya wasn’t pleased.
“I’ll show the girl to her room, Roger,” cracked Sonya, emphasizing the word “girl” as she picked up two of the suitcases. “Come on with me, hon. You can freshen up with a quick shower. Roger has restricted each shower to just three minutes. How’s a girl supposed to get her hair clean that fast?”
The general nodded the approval to his daughter and that left the three adults standing there with an awkward moment of silence to share.
Elizabeth knew in within seconds that Drake was a cad. She theorized that her home in the plush suburbs of the capital was overrun with wild animals, contained no edible food and probably no running water at this point, and their chances of survival were dim. Given that assumption, she put on her best face and vowed to never give Drake a reason to end their relationship.
Drake raised his glass in a gesture for a toast. “Come, general, let us celebrate our success. Together we have forged a new beginning for the country.”
They downed the first drink.
“Quite a fortress you’ve built here, Drake. You are the first person to convince me to live in a home without ever seeing the floor plan or a security layout. You can imagine how Elizabeth feels. She hasn’t seen the closets,” he chuckled and continued laughing when he saw his wife enjoyed the humor of the joke, too.
The general raised his glass to offer another toast.
“To Rex Templeton, and his wife Sara, may she rest in peace.”
“Who are they?” asked Drake.
“Just some old friends.”
Glasses knocked as the first bottle of wine from the private collection of Roger Drake’s expansive wine vault was finished.
“General, my lady Elizabeth, pardon my flair for the dramatic, but I give you….”
Drake stood near the bookcase that lined the library. A dark sheet of cotton was covering a plaque. Drake swept away the material and underneath was a golden plaque with the words The Elizabethan Hotel. “I named it in honor of your lovely wife. This is the name I have given our humble abode.”
Neither Taft knew quite what to say.
“What do you think of it? It’s sounds noble. ‘The Elizabethan’. It sounds expensive. I love it,” boasted Drake.
Elizabeth broke the silence and was her gracious self. “Mr. Drake, I’m flattered.”
“I thought it was a modest gesture to show you how pleased I am that you decided to join us. I’m going to check on Sonya and Allesandra. I’ll be back shortly. I’m sure they’ll be fast friends. You know my little sex kitten isn’t much older than your daughter.”
“I’m aware of that, Roger. You haven’t brought in any single men to The Elizabethan have you?”
“The security men have their own dwelling down the road. It’s located one mile from here. There’s an underground tunnel that connects those two buildings, but they can’t get in unless I let them and I have sole possession of the key. There will be no funny business in this house, not on my watch. I don’t have kids, but oh boy, she’s a looker general. You’re going to have your hands full when this is over.”
“Let’s wait until that day arrives before we even think about that.”
“You can think about that day anytime you wish, general. This house was built with every conceivable sanitary safeguard option. Nothing’s coming in and we’re not going out.”
Sonya, coming into the conversation from the other room, couldn’t help her interest in joining.“Hey, what are you guys talking about? By the way, Mrs. Taft, your daughter is great. We’re going to get along famously.”
Drake was disgusted that he had to re-do part of the conversation. He hated that. But, not wanting to be the selfish creep that Sonya was already suspecting, he answered anyway.
“We were just saying how this building will protect us while the world reworks the master plan.”
“What’s the master plan, hon?” she asked.
“That’s where the general here becomes president of the country. He’ll emerge from our dwelling here and step into the presidency. I’ve built twelve of these impenetrable buildings around the world. Each is connected to a series of self-contained power grids that are impervious to whatever is going on out there. Come on, let’s take a walk and I’ll show all of you hi-tech gizmos I’ve put into these places. Allow me to boast about what I’ve accomplished the last two years. Sonya, you may have thought I was cheating on you and I was. But not with another woman. It was these twelve safe houses I was building.”
“Roger,” began Taft, “how sure are you the design functions and the ability of these twelve fortresses, or shelters, or whatever you call them will be able to withstand outside interference?”
“General, as we discussed in our meetings, these buildings are sealed tight. If anything did happen in one of the other facilities, I’d be shocked.”
Allesandra re-entered the room, fresh from her quick shower.
Her hair was tied back in a bow and her full figure gave her the appearance of being older than she was. Drake would have to wait several years before she was fair game. Perhaps her transition from girl to woman would occur within these walls.
“Great! We’re all here now. I promised you a tour. Follow me.”
Allesandra shrugged, but her parents whole-heartedly agreed that they should check out their new surroundings. Every room that they passed was pristine and covered with white paint.
Drake was proud of his new domain. “It looks more sanitary in white, don’t you think?
“I think it’s too stark,” said Elizabeth. “You should have added color elements for contrast.”
“How rude of me! We named the place after you and we didn’t have the decency to ask you how to adorn it,” chuckled Drake. “It was done this way by design. If we have any security breaches, whether by man, or in this instance, by nature, the slightest dark spot on a white wall will be easily seen. Or perhaps water damage, staining, etc…it’s done for our protection. This dwelling is a temporary location for us. When we leave here, you can find that magnificent home with any color walls you wish.”
“You certainly don’t lack confidence, do you, Mr. Drake?”
“Please, Elizabeth, call me Roger. I’m a self-assured man by nature. I’m lucky that way.”
“You’ve never been disappointed?” asked the general’s wife.
“My first marriage didn’t work out the way I planned,” Drake smirked. “In business however, I would say they all have worked out, but like I said, I’ve been lucky. Let’s move on to the hub of the building. I want you to see the communications center. Please, follow me.”
Drake, Sonya, and the Taft family headed down a long hallway until it came to a dead end. There were doors to either side of the dead end. The door on the left led to the control room where the communications center was housed. The door on the right had a huge red letter X painted above it. In the middle of the door, a sign read: “EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY”.
Drake stopped two feet from the door. He raised his hand and a loud siren above the door blasted their ears. The general, his wife and daughter cupped their hands tightly over their ears. Drake shouted through the sirens.
“This is a one-way exit out of the building! If you get within three feet of the door, a
n alarm will alert security! The worst part about this door is you can’t get back inside once you leave! Don’t ever open this door. As a general rule, you ladies shouldn’t be even heading down this hallway, but if you do, don’t go near this door.” Drake waved his hand to his employee and the room fell silent.
More white walls greeted them as they passed by a room that had eleven video monitors hanging on the walls. Each monitor was paired with the city where a safety bunker was located.
“If you look at the monitors, folks, you will see the people who are living at the other bunker,” said Drake. “We have two-way communication with them, at least at this point. We’re counting on the integrity of our satellites to maintain orbit, which could be tricky depending on how much power we can get to them. Each of the twelve bunkers has backup generators that have enough juice to last up to six years. If it’s necessary to stay in here longer than that, I’m guessing we’d be going a little bonkers by then anyway, but if we absolutely had to, then we could divert power from the systems to keep our life support running for another two years. I don’t even want to think about staying in here that long. Let’s keep the tour moving.”
Red diodes and small speakers affixed on the video monitors were designed to light up and sound an alarm in the event that one of the safety bunkers had a security breach. As the group passed by monitor eight, located on the East Coast, the frantic look of the man on the other side of the screen spoke volumes. Fear didn’t need an explanation.
The man in the white lab coat was shouting at the monitor, but his words couldn’t be heard.
Drake forgot his guests and went into crisis management mode without hesitation. “Problem in Building Eight, cross checking voice parameter settings in the system, Code Three, people, Code Three. Let’s go! Get me answers!”
Drake barked more orders to the men running the lab. The men were indistinguishable to the Taft family. They both were tall, muscular, and covered from head to toe in white coats.
”Did you see the look on that man’s face on the monitor? He’s terrified,” said Elizabeth.
“I see that too, but we don’t know anything. Take Allesandra and keep her away from the monitors.”
“Dad,” said the girl, “you can’t lock me away forever. If there’s something going on, I have the right to see it. You always treat me like a baby.”
“I do no such—”
His daughter wouldn’t let him continue. “Please, daddy, I hear it in your voice, the things you say. You may not realize it, but I hear it. I’m not going anywhere. Mom? A little help here?”
Elizabeth stood side by side with her young daughter. “You military types don’t get it, do you? You need to treat her more like your daughter and less like one of your new recruits.”
While the argument ended, the red light over monitor eight began spinning and sounding an alarm that made Drake reach for the volume button and silenced the audio portion of the alarm. That didn’t stop the emergency situation in Sector Eight, but there was no reason to listen to the sound of the alarm any longer. Its purpose had succeeded.
A crackling sound came from the speaker attached to the monitor. The words were hard to decipher, but Drake knew what the man had said. Drake snatched a clipboard off the desk and slammed it to the ground. It shattered into hundreds of pieces, dozens of them flying at Elizabeth.
“What did the man say?” asked Elizabeth.
“Cotramtion and fold radge lantaner, cameer rant incestion found,” said the General.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” said Elizabeth.
Allesandra repeated the words to her mother and father.
“Mom, Dad, I can read lips. I had a speech class last semester with Professor Dachner. I’m pretty sure the man said ‘Contamination in food storage container. Severe rat infestation found’.”
“Oh, dear,” her mother said.
“I’m afraid your daughter is right,” said Drake. “We can expect Building Eight to go offline within a month. If those little critters found there way in, then they’re bound to have other problems soon. That’s troubling because the facilities were built with the same specs and same design. We were the prototype that the others were built upon.”
“Or in this case, the same design flaws?” asked the general.
“Don’t rush to judgment, general. You’re not going anywhere. Let’s wait and see before we panic. I have complete confidence in my staff.”
“I bet you Rex Templeton isn’t worried about a rat infestation right now.”
Drake was perplexed. “Who is this Rex Templeton you keep referring to and why should I care?”
“Tell me, Roger,” continued the general, “are you surprised that Building Eight has been compromised?”
Drake didn’t like the tone of the question. He didn’t answer it either.
“One last question, Mr. Drake…
“What is it?” replied a disgruntled Drake.
“Can you please tell me more about the emergency exit?
CHAPTER 36
The men from Dead Bugs were long gone (in one case, gone for eternity), but the bugs were not. The chemicals in the cylinders temporarily defeated the infestation. These bugs were a resilient group and the reserve troops overwhelmed the stream of poison that killed the thirty thousand of their brethren.
Massey first noticed the tiny sharp pains in his feet. The bugs found their way to the soft tissue of Massey’s toes by climbing up his comforter, which had fallen to the edge of the bed.
Massey leapt from his bed and landed on a carpet of insects, each of them squishing beneath his bare feet, which were now covered with tiny red sores from the stinging attacks. He knocked over the knee-high sofa table on his way to the bathroom, and immediately jumped into the shower, peeling his clothes away from his body as fast as he could.
Water blasted his torso for a minute and then slowed to a dribble as Massey recalled the message about the water line break. The bugs fought to stay out of the drain, clinging to anything they could. Massey turned the faucet head downward.
“Get off me, you damn bugs!” He waved his arms furiously in a feeble attempt to remove the insects from his hairy arms.
“AHHHHYYYYYYY!” he screamed. The bugs were not scared off by his cries. They buried themselves closer to his skin. Massey clawed at his arms, killing dozens of the pests and small specks of their blood collected under his fingernails.
“Damn this place!” he yelled.
The water came to a complete stop. It was hard to distinguish where the skin had turned red from the frigid cold water or from the hundreds of bites. Massey flicked away a few stragglers clinging to his chest hair and sent them to a watery grave.
Massey slid his body against the wall of the bathroom and moved across the room until he reached the sofa. He was naked, covered in bites, fresh out of water, and hundreds of miles from home. The man with all answers to many of the world’s toughest scientific questions was out of solutions, petrified, disgusted, and ready to leave the building.
Certain the worst was over, he edged his way to the closet and found a clean shirt and pants. He dressed and tried to call Dr. Goldman’s room. She didn’t answer. Instead a voice on the line said, “All operators are busy now. Please try your call again in a few minutes, thank you.”
He slammed the phone down, found his keys and wallet, and headed next door to Dr. Goldman’s room. She met him in the hallway.
Tiny red bites dotted her face.
“Dr. Massey, I’m scared to death. You wouldn’t believe what’s happening in my room. I turned on the television and the entire screen was black. Bugs covered the entire area. Then they seemed to jump off the screen towards me. Some of them bit my leg. It hurt like hell! I screamed so loud I hurt my throat. I got out of there just in time. There must be a million of them in my room right now. The sound of them crunching underneath my feet almost made me throw up.”
She stopped talking long enough to see Massey’s red face and terrifi
ed expression.
“Where’s Professor Jenkins when you need her? This would be the right moment she would tell us that there was a scientific explanation for all of this. She’s not here and I haven’t a clue what to tell General Taft. I’m going to his room and see if he can help us.”
“I’m right behind you,” Massey said. Sweat poured from his blotchy face.
The two scientists, one clad in a nightgown, the other in a thrown together mismatched shirt and pants, arrived at the hallway where they were confronted by two sentries.
“Sorry, folks, no access allowed in this hallway,” said the taller of two men. In a crisp shirt, sharp edges on his hat, he could have been in a fashion magazine, not the military.
“We want to speak to General Taft right now!” demanded Dr. Goldman.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible, ma’am. The general’s not here.”
“What do you mean he’s not here? What is going on around this place? First Drake, now the general. Young man, insects infiltrated our rooms and attacked us. Do you see these grotesque bite marks on my face? What are you going to do to protect us?”
The Guard looked away from her face and failed to respond to her question.
“Is there anywhere in this building that’s safe to go?” Massey asked.
The guard hesitated. “I don’t think I can answer that question in the affirmative, sir.”
“Ahhh, of course you can’t. Dr. Goldman, let’s get out of here. Morales. We have to get him.”
When they reached Roberto Morales he was on the phone, talking so fast in his native tongue that neither Goldman nor Massey could understand a single word. When he finished his call, tears filled his eyes.
“I just hung up with my wife. Our neighbors attacked our home and stole our food. Our own neighbors! What is happening to our society? I must get back home. I’m afraid for my wife’s safety. I never should have left her. None of this would have happened if I was there.”
“You don’t know that, Bob. How many people came to your house?” asked Goldman.
“I don’t know for sure. My wife said eighteen or twenty people. She was scared and there was nothing I could do to help her.”
Escape to Canamith Page 20
