Escaping the Sun

by Rhett Goreman

  ‘Well, no. The Elite were trusted to act responsibly.’

  ‘And did they?’

  ‘Well, er, no,’ she said wrinkling her nose.

  Ellie, Gerland and Tom started looking through their own backpacks. The first item they came across was supposed to be a nutritious cereal bar but it was a billion years past its sell by date. Only the aluminium wrapper remained. The contents had turned into a powder dry fungus. It was the same story with all the other sachets of food and drink.

  Gerland took a small battery operated torch out of his backpack. It didn’t work. He thumped it on the bench. It still didn’t work. Frowning, he shouted over to Tom, ‘Where did you get your torch from?’

  Looking rather pleased with himself, Tom shouted back, ‘I acquired it from the utility belt worn by that driver we tied up.’

  Ellie was the first to find a small plastic box containing a shaving kit. Then Gerland and Tom found theirs. I asked Ellie if I could purloin it, and she happily passed it over to me.

  Gerland, Tom and I, sat cross-legged on the floor, our backs against the tank of oil. Opening each of the boxes, we discovered a mirror in the lid, a double edged razor, a few spare blades and a small tube of gel. The three of us started shaving and we began to talk of old times back at the Academy.

  In hushed tones, I asked Gerland, ‘Why did you steal those daffodils? Were they for Ellie?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I had a bit of a crush on her at the time. Got me nowhere though. She can’t stop thinking about her old boyfriend. Apparently, he vanished on the day of her graduation and has never been seen or heard of since. His name was Kalim, I think, Kalim Doman. She said he came from a family of war heroes.’

  Thankfully, Tom managed to change the subject and we soon found ourselves raucously speculating on what might have happened to Perkems. It’s a wonder we didn’t cut ourselves with the razor, we were laughing that much.

  Tukarra was fascinated by the spectacle of men shaving. She turned to Ellie, holding a strip of pills between her fingers and informed her, ‘They only need take one of these to remove all unwanted hair for a month.’

  Ellie touched the strip and said, ‘Those Scavengers could have done with these.’ Then she nodded in my general direction saying, ‘But no, leave them be. They seem to be enjoying themselves. It must be a male bonding thing.’

  Tukarra smiled, and continued to watch the ritual for a while longer, before showing Ellie another wonderful object from out of the Elite survival kit. It looked just like a drinking straw.

  As I finished shaving, I was dumbfounded to see Ellie sucking what appeared to be a sample of oil, from the tank, through the straw. Ellie saw the look of concern on my face and told me, ‘This straw thing turns any liquid you suck through it into something tasting like strawberry milkshake!’

  Tukarra confirmed, ‘A tiny component, in the middle of the straw, rearranges the molecular structure of virtually anything you pass through it, to become a carbohydrate and protein rich health drink.’

  Tom asked, ‘Supposing you don’t like strawberry milkshake?’

  Ellie drew another mouthful, gulped it down and then said, ‘Tough. It’s a minor miracle as it is. If it is a matter of life or death, then I can think of worse things than strawberry milkshake to have to survive on.’

  Gerland and Tom found a couple of glass beakers and filled them with oil. When Ellie had finished, Gerland and Tom took the straw in turns and drank from their beakers. Gerland fetched a refill of oil, and drank some more, before he somewhat reluctantly offered the straw to anyone else.

  Tukarra and I declined his offer. We had lost our appetite after eating that Scrab stew, and the idea of drinking oil was not exactly appealing, even if it was reprocessed into something potable.

  I stood up to look around the room in more detail. Apart from the tank of oil and the workbench, there was not much to be be seen. Anything loose, and especially if it was made of metal, must have already been robbed out by previous generations of Scavengers.

  There was a map on the wall showing how tunnels joined this room to a number of bunkers. The dark-neutrino detector, now behind me, was most likely controlled remotely from one of those bunkers. Stepping up to the map, to get a closer look at it, I noticed that one of the bunkers was our lucky Bunker 7. The tunnels shown on the diagram connected directly into level minus thirty three.

  ‘Ah-Ha,’ I exclaimed, attracting everyone’s attention. I poked the map with my index finger. ‘The explosion back at the bunker would only have destroyed the upper floors of the structure. I remember now, the deeper floors were protected by an internal geodesic dome. My father may still be alive in there. I remember him saying I would either find him there or my salvation. We must go back.’

  Ellie came over to the map and pointed out an asterisk, against the entrance to Bunker 7, that I hadn’t noticed. Our fingers raced over the paper in search of a key to the diagram. Ellie found what we were looking for and read out loud, ‘Access no longer permitted. Door welded shut 10/12/2611 by order of Colonel Myers.’

  By now Tom and Gerland had come over to look. Gerland said, ‘We are going to need cutting gear or explosives to get through that door.’

  Then Tom chipped in, ‘And we’ll need more light sticks if we are going to venture that far into the tunnel system.’

  Tukarra, who had been listening carefully, made a suggestion, ‘I am not sure about cutting gear, but I think I know were we can get explosives and light sticks from.’

  ‘Where are they?’ asked Gerland.

  ‘Vidora,’ she said.

  ‘Your home city,’ I threw in to benefit the others.

  ‘Yes. They are stored in the lower levels where the humans were digging deeper extending the city downwards.’

  ‘Surely we can’t just walk in and ask for explosives? Can we?’ challenged Ellie.

  Tukarra looked delighted to say, ‘Well, yes. I think we might be able to. There are no Elite left in Vidora. The whole place has probably been evacuated. They are all in Endimian 389, which is the very last shuttle transport mission to the Moon. A friend of mine is booked on that flight. They are waiting for launch, and the countdown is running.’

  Now it was Tom’s turn to say something, ‘No offence, but why we should we trust you? What’s in it for you?’

  With that Tukarra replied, ‘I ought to be on that shuttle. We all should have been on it. I think that driver you tied up and myself are probably going to end up being the very last two Elite left on Earth. For all I know, the four of you could well be the only humans left on Earth, apart from the Scavengers that is. And you may have noticed, they don’t like me very much. So this plan of yours, is the only plan, and I am curious to see where it takes us.’

  Tom, clearly liking the the idea, asked, ‘Right then, how are we going to get to this Vidora place?’

  ‘Well,’ said Tukarra, ‘I happen to know that a fire fighting robot has been dispatched to put out the fire in one of the tunnels. The fire is in an old coal seam. It was started by our gun battle earlier. We can hitch a lift on that when it returns to its compound, located just a few miles away from Vidora.’

  Before anyone had managed to ask how she knew such things, she suddenly called out, ‘In fact, you had better grab your helmets and guns right now. The robot must have finished what it needed to do and it is about to go right past our door.’

  With that, we speedily gathered together what we could. In the heat of the moment, Tom and Ellie donned each others backpacks. Tom was first at the door. Slowly turning the handle, he asked Gerland and Ellie to reload their guns, and get ready.

  *

  As the door swung open, Gerland and Ellie ran outside. They pointed their rifles in opposite directions up and down the tunnel. Sure enough, something large could be seen coming from the hub, where the Scavengers had camped.

  It didn’t look like a robot. It was more like a cross between a lorry and a tube train. There were two dazzlingly bright headlights
coming straight towards us. It had a cylindrical body that fit to the walls of the tunnel with only a few centimetres to spare. We all had to dive back into the anteroom and close the door again, to let it pass.

  The moment we heard it go by, Tom flung open the door and Gerland and Ellie ran outside. As before, they pointed their weapons up and down the tunnel.

  Tell-tale puffs of dust spattered all around, and a hail of bullets zipped by them. Ellie quickly checked that the back of the robotic fire truck posed no threat to us, and she spun around to support Gerland. He was already returning fire at a group of Scavengers trying to start down the tunnel from the hub.

  Grabbing hold of my shoulder, to make me look at him, Tom shouted, ‘Run for it. Take Tukarra with you. You two are no use to us here without any guns. Don’t worry. We’ll catch up with you later.’ Then he crouched down between Ellie and Gerland so he could join in with them, trying to keep the mob at bay, trying to stop them getting a clear shot at us.

  Tukarra shouted, ‘No. Come with us. We can all hang onto the back of the robot.’ But no-one heard her over the gunfire. Tom broke his concentration for a moment only to wave his hand dismissively, and bawl, ‘Go,’ at us.

  The brilliant cone of white light coming from the rear of the fire truck was fast receding into the distance. Realising it was now or never, I tugged at Tukarra’s hand and we ran for all we were worth towards the light.

  Reaching into that blinding veil of light, we both managed to grab hold of a handrail, and jump up onto a small stepped ledge on the rear of the speeding truck. Once we had steadied ourselves, we found there was ample room for us to turn around, and sit down.

  Looking over my shoulder, I could see the body of the cylindrical fire truck was comprised of several large rings. Presumably, each ring could be detached and installed into a section of the tunnel. Once in position, I guessed the ring must expand to make a seal, so starving any fire of oxygen.

  Then a fierce exchange of gunfire broke out between the three we were leaving behind and the Scavengers. The darkening tunnel lit up with sparks caused by bullets ricocheting off the walls. The sound of the guns firing, being magnified by the confined space, was deafening, hurting our eardrums.

  I became aware of a strange whining noise and Tukarra gripped my knee. I squinted back down the tunnel and saw some kind of projectile coming straight towards us. The Scavengers must have acquired a rocket launcher from somewhere. The missile had to have flown right over the heads of Gerland, Tom and Ellie.

  As the projectile came nearer, it grazed the sides of the tunnel and started behaving more and more erratically. It suddenly pitched downwards at an awkward angle and exploded.

  A wall of fire surged towards our robot vehicle and it looked certain to engulf us. But just then, I guess the robot’s own self-preservation programming must have kicked in. A well choreographed chorus of small explosive charges suddenly ripped around one of the sealing rings behind us: firmly anchoring the ring to the surrounding wall. It felt like the now completely stationary ring whistled past our ears at high speed. Both Tukarra and I instinctively ducked for cover, although in truth the ring was nowhere near our heads. Then, with a loud snap the ring suddenly inflated, like a huge piece of popcorn, sealing off the tunnel and stopping the advancing wall of fire in its tracks.

  As we raced along, the lighting on the back of the fire truck only lit the walls just behind it. Any last glimpse of the fast receding ring was soon consumed by total darkness.

  Apart from the sound of the electric motor, and the wind rushing around the sides of the robot, the tunnel became completely silent. My friends might just as well have fallen into a black hole.

  Then the realisation dawned on us that Tom, Ellie, and Gerland had met far more resistance than they had expected and their only exit had been very effectively cut off. We could only assume they had been killed trying to ensure that Tukarra and I got away.

  It seemed like I had been thumped in the pit of my stomach and I suddenly felt very weak and alone. I dug my elbows into my knees and I buried my face in my hands, unable to speak.

  Tukarra tried to comfort me by putting her arm around my shoulders, and we exchanged a painful look at each other. I took hold of Tukarra’s hand once again. She would give me the strength to carry on.

  *

  It was some time before the fire truck slowed down enough for Tukarra and me to jump off it. In fact, we only managed to jump clear, rolling along the dirt, within a few feet of the entrance to the compound.

  The compound turned out to be just another hub of tunnels, hewn out of the rock. Unlike the previous hub, this one was lit with electric light, and a number of the fire fighting robots were hooked up to recharging stations, positioned around a central concrete core. Built into the core was a lift.

  There was no-one around to either operate or guard the facility. The robots must have been remotely controlled or working fully automatically.

  We had just managed to run into the hub, following our robot into a recharging bay, when a metal shutter descended, closing off our exit. Tukarra took hold of my hand and led me between the robots to the lift.

  Somehow the lift knew we were stood there and the doors opened. We stepped inside. The doors closed and the next thing I knew, we were speeding upwards towards the surface. Through the glass walls of the lift I could see a number of store rooms, workshops, and offices on the way up. There were lots of vacant desks and workstations on every floor. The building must have employed many people in the recent past.

  The lift soon came to a standstill and the doors opened.

  *

  We walked out into an empty reception area and across to an airlock. Tukarra touched a panel by the side of the airlock and the first door swung open. We strode in. The door closed and then the second door opened.

  Stepping outside, the sky was a little brighter now, still a dirty yellow, and it was still raining. Stair-rods of hot acerbic rain thrashed our bodies and scalded our faces. There was a rumble of distant thunder.

  Sensing the trauma, our wafer thin suits quickly stretched and expanded some more. It was fascinating to watch the smart material growing over our hands, seamlessly extending the sleeves to create gloves. Although, I admit becoming a little alarmed as it grew over our heads, entirely covering our faces. Transparent patches over our eyes, allowed us to see, and air filter sections, over the nose and mouth, allowed us to breath. Tukarra’s white suit was shining brighter than ever now, and my suit was giving off a vivid electric blue. Every droplet of rain boiled off our outfits as steam, within an instant of hitting the glowing material.

  Tukarra shouted over the wind, ‘The outside surface, of our uniforms, is getting even hotter than the air around us. It’s the only way the suits can radiate heat away, keeping us cool inside. Be careful what you touch. You could melt things or even set them on fire, if it wasn’t for the rain!’

  Visibility was not great, but Tukarra seemed to know where she was going. Apparently, her amazing brain had built in Satellite Navigation. However, the technology was not as accurate as it used to be, because the orbits of the associated network of satellites had not been maintained in recent years.

  It turned out that we were still a few miles away from Vidora, and our trek would not be easy.

  True, our suits protected us from the worst of the wind and hot torrential rain; but we had to walk, and sometimes crawl, along sharp desert rocks, avoiding deep pools of boiling mud and quicksand.

  At one point we passed close to the edge of a rift valley. An steamy brackish swamp nestled in the bottom of the valley. I could just make out a few Scrabs scuttling around in the swamp.

  Then from between the dense clouds came shafts of a fierce flickering light. This was followed by a deafening roar similar to the thunder all around us, but a hundred times more intense.

  Although I couldn’t see the source of the light, the rays from it were becoming more vertical. It had to be a rocket rising into the sky. Then, wi
thout warning, we were knocked down to the ground and held there for what seemed like an eternity, by a long series of pressure waves. With each wave, there was an optical illusion of the surrounding terrain being stretched and squashed, and I felt like I was going to throw up.

  ‘What was that? What’s happening?’ I shouted against the wall of sound.

  Tukarra shouted back, ‘Looks like we are stuck here, on Earth for good. That rocket was Endimian 389, and our last hope for a lift off this world.’ She stared at me. ‘You look confused’ she said.

  ‘I’ve seen rocket launches before, but I have never felt squashed and stretched like that,’ I observed, with the noise of the launch still ringing in my ears.

  Tukarra explained, ‘I think we were being hit by gravity waves. The initial rocket motors were only required to get the craft moving. My guess is the shuttle was also fitted with Dark Matter engines, which I admit seems a bit over the top. With such power and acceleration, the rocket will soon pass by the Moon and escape the Earth’s gravity altogether.’

  ‘I assume the count down, you told us about, has stopped now?’ I queried as the sound and light show faded away.

  The reply was not quite what I expected, ‘Yes. But a new count down has started. It will reach zero in a few hours time.’

  ‘Can you ask the Ether, what the new countdown is for?’ I requested.

  Tukarra answered by saying, ‘I’ve tried to find out, but apparently, I am not high enough in the hierarchy of the Elite to have access to such information. It is beyond my need to know as an anthropologist.’

  ‘Perhaps, they are going to blow up Vidora,’ she offered.

  With a furrowed brow, I had to agree with her, ‘I suppose that is a possibility, given what has happened to Bunker 7.’

  We looked at each other and together chorused, ‘We’d better get a move on.’

  As we picked up our pace, the thunder grew much louder, and the lightning seemed to be closing in on us.

  Chapter 20 – Vidora

  Tukarra and I lay flat on our stomachs, peering over the brow of a slight hill. We were overlooking an expanse of rain lashed solar panels, that gave away the location of the underground city of Vidora. Tens of thousands of the glossy wet black panels stretched as far as the eye could see, which actually was not all that far in the torrid downpour.