Insolation

by Bradlyn Wilson

  “What?” he hissed at her, hitting the back of her shoulder with the front of his rifle.

  “Shhh, I saw something.” Hadley said becoming increasingly frustrated; she lifted her hand to signal him to be quiet.

  Jeremiah sidestepped beside her and they both peered forward into the darkness. A thin beam of light shone across the linoleum floor. They started to walk slowly towards the end of the dark hall with their guns up. Hadley’s finger had the slightest pressure on the trigger, ready at any moment to pull it and shoot. The doors were eerily closed. She peered in one room and saw a man’s face pressed against the window through the dust and debris.

  She jumped back, her heart pounding. She looked back at him only to realize he was dead, there was no life left in his eyes. Jeremiah shook his head in disdain. Hadley took her eyes off the man and back to the task at hand.

  They neared the end of the hall. There were double doors leading to a stairwell. Hadley reached out to open the door, shaking, but was distracted as something rolled in front of her feet. She looked down just as Jeremiah flung himself at her, trying to get them both out of the way.

  The canister exploded in a cloud of gas. They coughed and everything went fuzzy in an instant.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  It took Hadley a while to refocus when she finally came to. Her nose and throat burnt as though they were on fire. She coughed and gagged. She desperately needed water but even more so she needed air. She gasped for breath as she was suffocating slowly. The inside of her lungs felt scorched.

  Her surroundings slowly came into focus. She was exactly where the canister had gone off. Nothing had really changed. She looked to her side to ask Jeremiah what had happened but he was gone. There was a pang of fear throughout her and for the first time ever she was wishing he was there. She instinctively brought her hand to her holster, only to find it empty.

  She looked around and saw three people talking in hushed tones. She pushed herself into a sitting position then took a deep breath, trying to fill her lungs. Her throat burnt as though it was covered in battery acid.

  She pushed herself to her feet and started backing away from the people, careful to not take her eyes off of them.

  To her left she noticed a steel pipe. She sidestepped and reached down for it without breaking her gaze on the trio. Her clammy fingers grasped it tightly and she stood up feeling the cold metal in her hand. She started to walk backwards faster. It was pure luck that they had not noticed her yet and she knew it.

  She took a step back and ran into something hard and solid. Thinking it was a building post she looked back over her shoulder.

  She immediately jumped into the air. It wasn’t a metal pole; in fact, it was a man. He had to be almost seven feet tall and the biggest man Hadley had ever seen. She took a step away from him looking him up and down. She raised the metal bar to take a swing but he grabbed it out of her hand and threw it aside.

  “Going somewhere?” He said with a southern twang. He reeked of tobacco, a banned substance that she only knew of from a distant memory she couldn’t quite remember. He spat a mouthful of dark black liquid onto the ground. He raised an eyebrow at her. She was flustered and started to back away.

  “Who are you?”

  “The real question is who are you?” a woman’s voice said behind Hadley, the trio coming over to them. Hadley looked at her. She was thin, her dark features were beautiful. She exuded confidence and grace. But she also held her gun too professionally. She had probably lost count of how many men she had killed.

  “Who’s asking?” Hadley shrugged. She took a tally of the two men behind the woman. Both were large and muscular with no characteristic features.

  “I am Liani. I am the leader of the Eastern Americas RFE’s.”

  “Did you kill all these people? Are you going to kill us?” Hadley asked plainly, immediately regretting the verbal vomit she had just mustered. She really needed to get that habit under control, it was as if she couldn’t help but say every single thing that came to her mind. If the woman was going to kill Hadley though then she would no matter what anyone said.

  “Oh yes, we did kill them. We have no plans to kill all of you though. Hemmer needs a message and we need a bargaining chip. You however will die here.”

  “Why?”

  “That’s what RFE does; we kill the government to save the people. It’s war: we have to kill or be killed. Win or we will lose.” She looked at Hadley as though that was common knowledge. Hadley couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

  “Where is Jeremiah?!” Hadley hissed.

  “He’s alive. He’s Hemmer’s man; he’s our best bet of getting what we want.”

  “Why did you take him and not me?”

  Liani looked Hadley over. She raised an eyebrow, “Because there was something about you, I can’t put my finger on. I want to know before I kill you, because I’m not taking you with us. We have enough hostages and I don’t have any information on you.”

  Hadley just studied her. Liani and Saul were completely different with completely different motives. Saul wanted to save the people whilst Liani was exactly the same as Hemmer. She was out to kill the GOVs whilst Hemmer was trying to kill RFEs. They both wanted the other group dead.

  Hadley looked around desperately and then she saw it. Her escape route. To her left a door was slightly ajar, hanging off its rusted metal hinges and she could see the stairs leading down. Another staircase, another way out. She casually took one step to the side. They didn’t grab a hold of her so she knew she had a small chance of making it.

  “I’m not sure that was what RFE was supposed to do.” Hadley stated, taking another side step.

  Liani studied her for a moment and she took a step towards her, “Really? And who are you to tell us what our organization does. Aren’t you just a little government rat?”

  “I guess— technically—”

  “Exactly! Now what’s your name?”

  Hadley contemplated for a moment. For some reason the only thing she wanted to do was tell her, her real name so she did, “Hadley Evans.”

  Her mouth fell open in awe. She was flabbergasted. Hadley had never seen a name cause such a reaction. She looked at her in wonder.

  “You— you can’t be— you’re dead. I made sure of it.” Liani laughed but there was difference in her tone. She was talking faster and higher. The words were getting caught in her throat and she was having difficulties getting them out. She was just staring at Hadley’s face.

  “No. I’m not.” Hadley took another step and was within reach of the door. After a moment’s pause, she went for it, knowing the four of them were reeling with her information. She felt the gust of wind as the 7-foot-tall man barely missed her arm as she bolted down the stairs. The hairs on her arm stood straight as arrows and a cool tingle ran slowly up her spine.

  Hadley raced down the stairs and heard them running behind her, so she went faster and faster. She catapulted herself around the corners, grasping tightly on the rail, her feet leaving the ground. Two flights later, she crashed through a door into another hall.

  Sprinting, she hurried down the narrow passage, which hadn’t been entirely destroyed. She leapt over a man’s dead body, glancing down at his torso, which had been severed in half. She took multiple turns, right, left, right, left and as she got to the end, she grabbed the door handle pulling sharply. She looked forward and could see the main museum, and her way out. It was locked. She pulled harder. But it wouldn’t budge. She could hear their footsteps rattling after her in the distance.

  She looked around and after a moment’s decision flung herself into the nearest room, a large old fashioned chemistry lab, full of placards explaining what the traditional equipment was used for, Hadley noticed one sign dating to 2010. There was a closet in the corner and she pulled herself inside. The door squeaked as they walked in a moment later and she slowed her breathing as well as she could. Hadley placed her hand over her mouth to stifle her breaths. She looked o
ut through the thin slit between the wooden doors.

  Liani and a man walked into the room. They looked around.

  “She can’t be Hadley Evans!” Liani muttered angrily.

  “What if she is?” The man said.

  “Then we really have to make sure she’s really dead this time.” Liani stated as a matter of fact. They looked around the room but she could tell they were distracted. Hadley’s name had shaken them. She frantically looked around the closet. She noticed a whiteboard pointer on the ground and grabbed it. There were lab coats hanging on old metal hangers, leaving spots of rust on the collars of the white linen. Broken vials lay misplaced on the ground.

  There was a loud bang outside and a car honked its horn repeatedly. They frantically looked around, trying to figure out what to do. Liani threw her hands in the air in disdain. They were throwing everything around and they flung open cupboards and looked under desks.

  “That’s the signal Li.” The tall man said grabbing Liani’s arm. Liani looked out the window towards the billowing sky.

  A glimmer caught Hadley’s eye above and she noticed a ventilation shaft. The cover was already removed and sitting sideways over the shaft. She reached up but was too short to reach and her hand flailed awkwardly above her.

  “Liani, we need to go.” The man said, he had stopped his search and now was standing by the door.

  Liani’s eyes flashed crazily, “We have to find her.”

  She looked around like a maniac, pulling every cupboard open and pulling everything out in fail swoop. She was shattering equipment everywhere. She violently threw test tubes against the cupboards, spraying the room with shards of glass.

  Hadley looked at her feet and saw a box hidden in the back corner. Liani continued with her destruction of the room and started screaming at the top of her lungs. Hadley took it as a sign and pushed the lab coats aside. She stepped up on the box with a squeak that was drowned out by the squeals in the room. Just so, she was able to reach the opening.

  But the man heard her movement, “what was that Li?”

  Liani stopped her rage in an instant and stood stark straight. She looked towards Hadley in the closet, though unable to see inside. Hadley watched Liani, her heart pounding and her breath caught in her throat. Liani started to walk slowly towards the cupboard.

  “We might have her Ric.” Liani said with a sly smile.

  Hadley started to panic and quietly tried to pull herself up but only was able to get the top of her head through the opening before her arms gave out. She put her feet on the box and without a care jumped and using all the adrenaline and the strength she had pulled herself into the roof. Just in time too.

  She heard the closet open just as her feet made it through the roof. She lay completely still. The only thing moving was her heart beat against the metal ventilation shaft.

  Liani shuffled through the closet pulling the lab coats out and onto the floor. She screamed a primal yell before she slammed the door closed. Hadley rested her ear on the metal of the ventilation system, listening while her heartbeat pulsed through her ear.

  “Liani, we have to go, we have all the rest of them. We will have to leave this girl. No matter who she is,” Ric stated cautiously.

  “Fine!” Liani huffed. Hadley listened to their fleeting steps as they left the room.

  Then she reached down towards her pocket and pulled her phone out. She rolled into a sitting position and she expanded the phone holographically. She opened one of the GOV’s satellite apps and zoomed in on her position. Then she watched the camera get closer and closer to the parking lot outside of the buildings.

  There was a brigade of cars and she watched horrified as Jeremiah, Vanya and the other members of her team’s limp bodies were drug out and thrown into the vehicles mindlessly like sacks of potatoes. Kristen’s head was hit brutally against the corner of the trunk of one car.

  Hadley tapped on one of the vehicles and placed a tracker on it. She leaned back and stared at the metal tube surrounding her. Her ears strained to hear any noise. But there was only silence. She closed her eyes, feeling every bump and bruise on her entire body, the pain settling to a dull ache, and her lungs burning from the gas.

  What seemed like a second later, she opened her eyes. Her phone was letting off a quiet ping. She looked at it and saw the vehicles were stopped outside a hatch like structure. She copied the location and put it on a GPS route.

  It was 200km from her current location. She mapped the storm. She would be going straight into it.

  She sighed and shuffled back to the opening. She jumped down and left the closet.

  The place was eerily quiet as she walked through the abandoned halls. Every once in a while she opened a door to gather supplies. Though she had no clue what she was getting into. She noticed a door with a well-worn sign and walked into a storage room. Fully stocked to her surprise. She looked around wide-eyed at the perfect rows of supplies. Maybe her luck is changing-- she thought hopefully.

  Hastily she grabbed a backpack off a hook and threw in a sleeping bag, a knife and some food tablets. She cringed at them but knew six droplet-sized tablets would sustain her for a week. She ripped open a packet of water tablets and popped two in her mouth. She immediately felt the cool sense of hydration. She threw the rest into the bag. There was a cabinet of medical supplies and she opened it. She found an anti-chemical gas spray and inhaled it. The burning in her lungs almost immediately subsided. She grabbed handfuls of medical supplies and thrust them in her bag.

  She was hoping she didn’t need more than a few hours to find her team, but she decided to over pack just in case. Legitimately she packed everything that she could possibly need.

  She went to the end of the room and saw a padlocked cabinet. She looked around and saw a hammer. She grabbed it and swung it above her head and brought it down hard so the lock fell to the ground. She dropped the hammer and opened the cabinet.

  Before her, there was a large selection of weapons, all in perfect mint condition. She grabbed two automatic rifles and four hand guns. She shoved as much ammunition as she could into the backpack and her pockets.

  Hadley’s clothes were dirty and blood-soaked. She contemplated for a moment just wearing them as is, but decided against it. Even though she knew anything new would end up looking exactly the same. She undressed and grabbed a new pair of cargos and a tank top off one of the shelves. She grabbed a long sleeve top and pulled it over her head. There was a longer length waterproof anorak jacket, which she pulled tight around herself; it shielded her from the cold metal feeling of the room. A baseball hat sat on a shelf and she put it on, pulling her ponytail through the opening as she did. She looked around once more and spotted military grade combat boots. She browsed until she found her size. Then she sat down on the ground and pulled on the boots and laced them up carefully. Then she stood back up. She holstered two of the hand guns to her thighs. She tucked one into an ankle strap and grabbed a body strap off the wall to holster the last hand gun by her left rib cage for ease of access. She slumped the backpack onto her back and tightened the straps. Finally, she put the rifles’ straps across her shoulder hanging it across her chest.

  She caught her reflection in the metal of the cabinet as she was about to leave. She looked ready for battle, which made her smirk. Then without a second glance she left the room. She thought about what she had told Pax earlier. He had asked her to be careful and she was doing the opposite. But she knew she couldn’t abandon Vanya and the others. She even felt a need to help Jeremiah. Though she wasn’t sure he would ever accept her help.

  She walked through the halls until she emerged into the parking lot. There were a couple cars but as she inspected them she saw the tires were slashed and no good. She looked around and saw a motorcycle. It was black and shiny in the glow of the streetlamp above. She walked up to it and saw the keys were surprisingly in the ignition.

  She picked up her leg to swing it over the bike when she saw him. Lying on the ground w
as a man, and his empty blue eyes stared right through her.

  Hadley shuddered. No wonder the keys were in the ignition. She pushed him the rest of the way off the bike.

  She swung her leg over the seat and hopped on. With one last look at the man. She pulled the clutch, turned the ignition and started the bike. She felt the power around her and she rode into the impending storm.

  There was electrical energy in the air.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  2228

  Hadley desperately struggled against two large men as they walked down a deserted hallway, following the swish of Alice’s ponytail, which was waving in time with her steps. Locked door after locked door they went through, the men scanning their clearance as they went. Hadley kicked and screamed, trying to get free. It really wasn’t any use though, she was smaller and they barely blinked at her excessive struggles. Finally, they got to a large room with various boxes filled with liquid.

  She gulped, almost melodramatically.

  Cryosleep. She knew it the instant she saw the chambers, lying neatly in a line. Two people already

  This was the second time she was going to be forced into a chamber where she would lay for years until someone decided to wake her up. The first time she was forced into this she’d been knocked out before it started and didn’t realize anything until she woke up 120 years later. There was no way that she was going to let that happen again! She started fighting as though her life depended on it.

  She had heard that in the first moments it felt as though you were going to die. It was peaceful after that as you lived in a dream world, letting time pass around you. But waking up was the hardest… She already knew that. She had done it once before.