When the Guard sees us coming, he jumps back and pulls out his gun. A nervous twitch shows in the corner of his eye as he raises the weapon, aiming it directly at me. Wanting to keep him from accidentally firing, I calmly explain the situation to the Guard, leaving out any mention of what was really in the passage. With a gun in my face and a shaky man behind it, I do not want to say anything to make him more suspicious. After absorbing my explanation, he calms down and holsters his weapon, realizing we pose no threat.
With his fears pacified, I momentarily consider telling the truth of what happened, but then decide against it. I cannot get past the uneasy feeling from watching one of the typically stoic Guards be so edgy for no apparent reason. That combined with the nagging thought of the symbol on the soldiers’ armor keeps me quiet. If they really were part of Leadership, all our lives could be in peril for having discovered them.
The more I think about it, the more I believe they have to be part of Leadership. None of the workers could ever attain the equipment those two men had. Since there are no other surviving colonies besides Securus, Leadership is the only real possibility.
Even if there was another facility we did not know about, it would be too far away for them to make it to these tunnels through the poisonous atmosphere. The nearest underground facility to Securus was being built nearly seven hundred miles away. Regardless of the murderers’ origin, my priority is to keep the others safe and retrieve Merrick’s body. In case I am wrong and the soldiers are not involved with Leadership, I need to convince them to bring a big enough rescue team so we will not all be in danger when we go back out there.
Chapter 4
Knowing the danger that waits in the tunnels, it feels wrong not warning the others. But with a large search party there will be significantly less danger if we encounter the soldiers again. My plan is to keep vigilant when we return for Merrick and warn the others of danger if need be.
I look back to the massive steel door that serves as the only entrance to Securus from The Caves. They can be closed at a moment’s notice. The imposing barrier is reassuring. If I am wrong and the soldiers are not part of Leadership, they would not be able to make it past those doors. Not even with their impressive assault rifles. Securus was intentionally designed to keep all else out. The facility was originally meant to protect for a nuclear threat, but when The Agent was released, it was modified to protect against the bioweapon. The builders knew panicked hoards would try to get in and overwhelm the capabilities of the facility. So the architects made it into a sturdy fortress. When we expanded into the depths, only this single entrance from The Caves was made with the same security in mind. Our people are only vulnerable when we venture away from Securus’ safety.
After hearing our plea for help, the Guard speaks into his communicator, requesting clearance from his superiors for the rescue mission. There is a long pause as he waits for a reply. After the voice in his ear responds, he informs us of the decision.
“We’re going to get a team here soon and attempt a rescue. You all need to return to your quarters immediately. If I were you I’d expect some punishment for breaking curfew,” he says, sounding like he was reading from a script.
“It’s not their fault,” Talia says firmly while stepping in front of the Guard and presenting her sample containers. “They wanted to return, but I insisted they stay to help me collect these samples.”
A spark of recognition crosses the Guard’s face. He suddenly becomes much more courteous, realizing he had been scolding Talia Vaden. “I apologize, Ms. Vaden. I’ll inform my superiors of this. I’m sure it’ll be accepted as mitigating circumstances. However, I still must insist everyone return to their quarters immediately.”
“You need us in there,” I demand while planting my feet into the ground. “You’ll never find Merrick if we don’t lead you to him. He’s deep in an unmarked tunnel system.” My frustration is mirrored in both Sayda and Hadwin, who stand beside me. The scowl on their faces makes them look as though they are ready to attack.
Aamon calmly steps between us and the Guard. “It’s okay, Kagen, I remember the way. I’ll stay to lead the search team.” He points to the Guard. “Contact your superior. Let them know Aamon Tiran is here, and I’ll lead them to where they need to go.”
After another prolonged consultation with his communicator, the Guard informs us his superior in Leadership finds this acceptable. For the first time, I am almost thankful to have Aamon around. At least he can lead them to Merrick. Sensing our frustration, Aamon assures us he will get them there quickly and make sure they give every effort to save Merrick.
Since the rest of us will not be allowed to return with the search party, I regret not telling them about the soldiers. Unfortunately, now it is already too late. Who would believe that tale now? It would sound like I was making a story up so they would let me join the search party. It would almost be worth telling them anyway, except the voice in the back of my mind keeps warning me to keep quiet. Something about the Guard is not right.
My friends and I stand motionless, not believing they are keeping us from helping. As we do, a small aftershock shakes the ground. The tremor would normally have sent us scurrying for safety, but with our attention being focused on the Guard, we barely notice.
“Make sure to bring a large group,” I caution. “There are multiple large boulders to move, and it may get worse with these aftershocks.” While this is true, my words are intended to make sure there will be enough members of the Leadership Guard present in case the soldiers are still around.
Growing impatient with us, the Guard again insists we leave, promising we will regret it if we do not comply. This time we finally do. As we turn to leave, Talia gently squeezes my shoulder while giving an empathic look to convey her well wishes for Merrick. Hadwin and Sayda do not make eye contact with anyone as they stomp off, their disgust with the situation blatantly obvious. Some of their anger is directed at me for not allowing them to stay with Merrick, but there is nothing I can do about that now. Their exasperation is understandable, with us being forced to stand helplessly by while others set out for Merrick. In their situation, I would also be incensed by being forced to abandon our friend. Only I know it is already too late for Merrick. Only I know why we had to rush away.
Now that the others are safe, the tragic loss truly hits me. My energy evaporates and tears come to my eyes while I drag my feet back to my quarters. This feels like a terrible nightmare I am unable to wake from. One of my best friends has been executed right in front of me. Why? Who are those soldiers? The questions return to my mind repeatedly. To make matters worse, I may have also alienated myself from my other friends in a desperate attempt to protect them. By the time I arrive to my quarters, my mother and Arluin are already asleep. Despite my attempts to be silent, my entrance disturbs their rest.
“Where have you been?” my mother asks while looking me over. Arluin remains silent on his bunk watching for my reply.
I brush her away. “I’m fine, but Merrick isn’t.” The words barely come out. I force myself to repeat my altered tale of the events one more time. Until I am sure there is no danger, it is best to conceal the truth, even from them. “There’s nothing more I can do tonight. We have to wait for the morning and hope they got him out.”
I collapse on my bunk and pretend to go to sleep, though my eyes remain open.
*
The scattered minutes I am able to sleep are restless. It feels impossible to come to grips with what happened. Visions of the blast replay before my eyes, leaving me unable to calm the fury of thoughts swirling through my mind. It all happened so fast. Merrick has been one of my best friends since childhood. Now he is gone, and with him, my grip on reality feels like it is fading away. None of this makes any sense. The only thing I do know is because of last night, everything has changed. I want to find the man who warned of the shadow-men that turned out to be soldiers. Did he see them in the upper tunnels? Is that what caused Leadership to close t
hem? Those are questions I will never be able to ask. He is locked away in a place very few ever return from, leaving me with no way to find out what he really knows.
The morning is nearly here, and I cannot force my eyes closed any longer. The lone blanket covering me on my hard bunk feels stifling. I get up, careful not to hit the bed above me. I do not want to disturb Arluin. Judging from the restful pattern of his breath, he must still be sleeping. My legs are ready to run, but have nowhere to go. I am stuck in my box-like quarters. Leadership would not tolerate me running the halls of Securus at this hour, especially after what happened last night.
The main power has not yet been activated, so I stand in darkness. Unable to adjust to the minimal light, I put on my illuminator and turn it to the lowest setting. Its faint glow now permeates the darkness. I look to the other side of the small room and see my mother, Cordella, asleep on the remaining bunk. The look on her face causes me to pause for a moment. A sense of sadness often shows on her face while asleep that she would never allow us to see otherwise. It mirrors my own emotions and the shoulder length, charcoal hair framing her face seems to intensify it. She is a warm, strong willed woman, but so much time in this peculiar environment has taken an emotional toll on her. Until now, I never understood why it always felt like she was trying to protect us from the effects this place.
Quietly, I maneuver into the only other area I can go, the small attached bathroom. The space in here is significantly smaller than the main quarters. The claustrophobic feel only adds to my anxiety. One would think living in an underground facility for my entire twenty-six years of life would make me immune to the cramped spaces, but right now everything feels like it is collapsing onto me. I fixate on the small mirror overlooking the sink, locking onto the face staring back at me. I see his familiar short black hair, olive skin, slightly unkempt facial hair, and eyes with a golden brown center encased by a green outer ring. The face is mine, but even with this simple fact, I feel a whisper of doubt. Apparently, things are not always what they seem.
My eyes remain anchored to the mirror, but they no longer see my reflection. Instead, I see the image of Merrick alone, collapsed on the floor in that tunnel. They killed him and I was powerless to stop it.
A spark in my vision snaps me back to the uncertain reflection in the mirror. Taking a deep breath, I try to calm my mind. Of course it is me. I am Kagen Meldon and I have not yet gone crazy. It is not my self-image that needs to be doubted, and this was not a bad dream. I need to figure out who those men are and make sure they pay for what they did. After his sacrifice, I owe nothing less to Merrick. There must be some clue out there I had not noticed.
A sudden creak from the pipes within the walls jolts me from my concentration. Deep in thought, I had not heard the footsteps behind me until now. I turn to face Arluin and his scrutinizing stare. He has always seemed to possess an uncanny ability to read others’ emotions, and he knows I did not tell him the entire truth last night. I desperately wanted to tell someone what really happened, but if my suspicions are right, doing so could put him in danger.
“What really happened last night?” he asks in a low whisper. “It wasn’t just some accident, was it?”
“I’m not sure what really happened. All I know is something isn’t right, and I need time to sort it out. You have to be patient and keep this between us. No one can know anything’s wrong. I’ll let you know when I figure this out, but for now it’s safer for you to let me deal with it,” I say firmly. Arluin narrows his eyes while preparing his rebuttal, but before he has a chance to speak, I place my hand on his shoulder and lean in to whisper. “Trust me on this. I need you to stay strong, especially for mom. I don’t want her to worry.”
Mentioning our mother helps to melt his resistance away. Arluin returns to bed. I cannot let him become involved in this. It is far too dangerous. Even so, I can only keep him in the dark for so long before his patience runs out and he ends up doing something impetuous. That makes it even more urgent for me to figure out what really happened and what to do next.
There were a couple things about the trip to The Caves that was unusual from the start. Talia’s presence with us was unexpected, and she is a major figure in Leadership. But it is hard to imagine her having anything to do with this because, in my heart, I feel there is no malice in her. Aamon, on the other hand, was acting odd the entire time. My trust in his motives is not so strong, even if he did help out in the end.
From the other room, I hear the morning alert. With it, the main power has been activated, so I take off my illuminator and turn on the bathroom lights. I am no longer standing in the shadows, but my thoughts feel as if they still are. I long for the warm glow of the lights to bring me clarity, but they do not. I am no closer to the truth of why Merrick was murdered or understanding why those soldiers and rail tracks were even there. With the fatigue from the lack of rest, my concentration falters. I begin to dress and await the morning announcements, hoping Leadership will have found the answers that have eluded me. My mother and Arluin are both already dressed and ready for the announcements by the time I emerge from the bathroom. In silence, I take my usual place beside them. We hear the familiar tone and watch as the screen comes to life.
“Good morning, I am Mr. Vaden. Unfortunately, I bring sad news this morning. As you are all certainly aware, there was seismic activity last night. There was no structural damage to Securus or to our energy generation equipment from this. However, some of our people were in a structurally unsound passageway deep within The Caves at the time the seismic activity occurred. There was a cave-in and Merrick Dunn was caught among the falling debris. By the time the rescue team was able to reach him, it was already too late. He had been trapped under the falling rocks and the resulting injuries were fatal. We are unsure if his injuries came from the initial collapse or if they were a result of further falling debris caused by the aftershocks. There will be a funeral service planned for this evening. Specific details for the service will be disseminated later in the day.
“As a result of this tragic accident, it has become necessary to restrict all access to any unsecured sections of The Caves. Leadership and our research workers will continue to further explore The Caves. We will open new areas for general purposes only after the safety of these passages have been confirmed…”
The words echo in my mind, “He had been trapped under the falling rocks and the resulting injuries were fatal.” I do not know what I expected Mr. Vaden to say, but that was not it. Standard procedure dictates that Merrick’s body be examined by the Healer on duty at the time. Even if the soldiers tried to stage the death as an accident by piling boulders on top of Merrick, they would not have had enough time to fully disguise the gun blast. There is no way the injury could have been missed by a proper exam. Either the exam was never done or Mr. Vaden is purposefully lying to us. If he is lying, that confirms Leadership’s involvement.
This is disconcerting. Even though I suspected it, I did not want to truly believe it. If Leadership is up to something in The Caves, I need to find out what. I owe it to Merrick to discover the truth and make sure everyone knows the real events that led to his death.
Seeing my internal struggle, my mother and Arluin come over to console me. Even though I had already known Merrick’s fate, the inexplicable circumstances surrounding it has kept me from fully facing the loss. My thoughts were preoccupied with concern for the others as well as my struggle to understand the presence of the unknown soldiers and hidden tracks. There is something about this moment that strips away all of my defensive mental barriers, forcing me to confront the reality that Merrick is gone. For a while I just sit there, my head tilted down and my eyes closed. Our mother and Arluin simply embrace me. No words are spoken. My family knows I prefer it that way.
Our mother is the first to get up. “I’ll meet you two for breakfast.” She remains stoic as usual, but I sense the grief she hides. Merrick was like family to all of us. As she exits the quarters, Arluin turn
s and looks expectantly at me.
“I know, Arluin, you want answers, and so do I,” I say carefully. “Whether intentional or not, information was withheld in the announcement. I don’t want you to even go near the entrance to The Caves.”
“You can’t say something that cryptic and expect me to just accept it,” Arluin interrupts.
“Look, something bad is going on, and I’m worried Leadership’s involved. That’s why it’s better for you to stay out of it until I figure this out,” I sternly reply. “I promise, as soon as I do, I’ll let you know. For now, you can help me by just keeping an eye out. I don’t know what you should look for, just anything that seems off.”
“Okay, I can do that,” Arluin says. “But promise you’ll be careful. I don’t want you to do anything that’ll get you in trouble.”
He is obviously not happy with my request and even less so with me withholding information, but I think he will go along with it for now. With this temporarily agreed on, we leave to start our daily routine. Even with tragedy, Leadership demands we maintain productivity. Maybe I will be able to get some answers from the night Healer when I get to the infirmary.
Chapter 5
The atmosphere at breakfast is somber and the hall is completely absent of its usual chatter. I finish my meal quickly before going to the infirmary. Rana is already inside the appointments room, so I head to my usual exam room. This area has the same general layout as Rana’s exam room, except the equipment is strikingly different. I take stock to make sure everything is in order. We have a range of diagnostic machines to scan the body for different abnormalities as well as a host of devices designed to heal. Many of these devices are so bizarre in appearance they could easily be mistaken for tools of torture to those unfamiliar with their use.
The Death Detail (The Securus Trilogy Book 1) Page 4
