by Matt Ryan
“You’ve been assigned rooms. Hank and Lucas here. Julie and Poly here. Joey, you are here. There are fresh clothes and linens on the beds. Please get cleaned up. If there is something else you need, let us know.” Compry turned on the last part of the sentence and started speed walking down the hallway.
“Um, yeah. I do need something else.” Lucas held one hand in the air, as if he was in school.
She stopped her quick pace and turned to face Lucas. “Yes?”
He lowered his hand. “Is anyone going to tell us what’s going on here, or where we even are?”
Compry took a few steps toward Lucas and then regarded all of them with a concerned expression. “I’ll let Harris explain everything to you. Now, it looks like you kids have been through some bad stuff, and I think it’s best if you get cleaned up. Everything’s in your rooms.” She regarded Hank and his zombie blood soaked clothes. “There is an incinerator in the room as well, right next to the hamper. Use it.”
“When’s Harris coming?” Julie asked.
“He’ll be back soon. Now go on.” She pointed to the rooms. “Get going.” Compry turned and strode down the hallway and into the elevator.
Joey dragged his feet to his door, staring at his nametag. He felt the grime on his shirts and the oil in his hair. Was that blood? He smelled his shoulder and winced.
“Let’s get cleaned up and meet in the hallway in thirty minutes,” he recommended.
The others nodded and disappeared into their rooms.
Staring at his door, Joey searched for a handle of some sort. His fingertip touched the door and it slid open, revealing a small room with a bed and a tiny kitchen in the back. Another door led to a bathroom with a shower.
He stepped inside the room, and the door slid closed behind him. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and felt the velvet box in his pocket. Was she okay? It had only been a few days since he’d given her the present. The memory of them on the balcony seemed a lifetime ago.
He let go of the box.
Fresh clothes draped off the edge of the bed with a note on top.
Please place soiled clothes into laundry cabinet
He turned around to the cabinet on the wall marked Laundry. He emptied his pockets, placed the velvet box on the nightstand, and his guns and holsters on the bed. He peeled off the rest of his clothes and placed them in the plastic box in the laundry closet. A red button blinked on the face of the laundry closet door. He pressed it and it changed to a green light. It hummed from behind the door. He gathered the new clothes and headed to the shower.
After a few minutes of staring at the control panel in the shower, he figured out the digital screen and the small metal pipes coming out of the walls dispensing soap and shampoo.
HAPPY TO BE IN CLEAN clothes, he strapped his guns back on. The laundry drawer dinged and a green light blinked above. He opened the door to the laundry closet. Steam and the smell of soap puffed from the cabinet. Yanking the jacket out, he inspected it. It appeared clean . . . clean enough, anyway. He closed the door and put on his jacket to cover the guns. He grabbed the velvet box off the nightstand, stuffed it into his pocket and went into the hallway to meet his friends.
Poly stood in the hallway. She smiled when she saw him exit. He couldn’t help but notice her black outfit. It was similar to his, but she wore it well—nothing like the black dress though.
“What did you think of the showers?” she said, feeling her hair. “The auto dry was amazing.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t really get it going,” he admitted. He’d given up trying to figure out the menu and dried off with a towel. “How you doing?” He pointed at her leg.
“All better now,” she said and kicked the air.
“How’s Julie?”
“She’s fine. She found some kind of computer in there. So, she’s basically in heaven.”
“We should go check on Hank and Lucas.” He knocked on their door.
Hank opened it and had on a similar outfit to his. “Joey.” His face lit up. “How are the ribs?”
“Good, how about you guys?”
Lucas came to the door. “My leg feels good,” he said. “But we should be talking about the real hero here,” he thumped Hank hard on the back.
The big guy looked at the floor. “It was nothing.”
“Breaking through that floor and taking on those zombies . . . that wasn’t nothing,” Joey pointed out.
“Yeah, thank goodness you have the massive amount of weight it took to break through concrete.” Lucas swiped his forehead.
“Strength. It’s called strength.” Hank stretched out his arms and flexed.
“Or sheer mass. . . .” Lucas pushed his point.
“Yeah, well, we wouldn’t be here if he didn’t have mass or strength,” Joey added.
“Speaking of here, where the heck are we?” Lucas asked.
Joey looked to the ceiling. “Must be some kind of bunker.”
Julie, who must have heard the talking, came out of her room. She still wore the clothes she arrived in. “I’ve been reading about this place on their computer. This is an old complex, discovered and dug up partially, until some war happened. Harris is the one who found it and now he’s rebuilding it as a base of operations.”
“Yeah, but where is here?” Lucas asked.
“We’re basically at their south pole. I believe there’s miles of ice above us.” Julie looked at the ceiling.
“South pole?” Joey swallowed and looked up again. He felt heavier, the miles of ice pushing down on his shoulders. He controlled the expression on his face, keeping a calm appearance. He didn’t want the others seeing him freak out.
“Okay great, so we’re at some secret south pole base with a group of rebels,” Lucas said, throwing up is arms.
“I don’t know if we’re rebels. . . .” Harris interjected, coming up behind them. “You all should be getting something to eat and then catching some sleep. You’re going to need it for tomorrow.”
Tomorrow. Joey’s eyes widened and his thoughts went wild with anger. He wanted to get home now. He didn’t want to wait another day to see if Samantha was okay.
“We’ve been fighting the man who’s hunting you for a long time. We’ve lost great people along the way.” Harris shook his head and looked at the floor. “As long as he’s around, you won’t be safe. What you guys did back in the basement of that casino was pretty impressive for people your age, but you need training.”
“Training, but what about going back home? We need to see if Samantha and our parents are okay,” Julie said.
She had taken the words out of Joey’s mouth. He didn’t care about training.
Harris frowned. “That zombie-filled room will take days to clear out and days more to sanitize. If your planet was exposed to one drop of blood, we could have another Ryjack.”
Joey felt a twitch in his eye as he struggled with a valid argument, but failed. “I want to know the second it’s cleaned out.”
“Of course,” Harris said. “In the meantime, I encourage you to consider training with us. I think we have something that would interest each of you. You’ll need more than your current skill set to defend yourselves against MM.”
Poly held a dagger in her hand. “You just get me in stabbing distance.” She had a fire in her eyes.
“Good, you’ll need that determination to get past the defenses they’ve put up.” He continued, “There are a few rules while you’re here.”
Lucas rolled his eyes and paced next to his door. “Great, what are the rules? No colors allowed?”
“No, but you will stay in your rooms or this hallway, no wandering.”
“Why? Is there something you don’t want us to see?” Julie asked.
“Yeah, what’s up with this place?” Lucas added.
Harris sighed and then smiled, as if visiting a fond memory. “Your parents had trouble following the rules, as well.”
“Wait, our parents were here? All of them?” Julie asked, step
ping toward Harris.
“For a time, yes.” Harris lowered his head. “We had hoped to keep them safe, but with six pregnant women, they wanted to get back home.”
Poly studied the walls and floors, touching the grey paint. Joey knew the feeling; their parents had shared this same space at some point. Each looked around with wonder.
Joey thought about his mom and dad running down these halls around his age, breaking the rules. “They stayed right here, in these rooms?”
“Yes and a few on the other side as well,” Harris took a deep breath and crossed his hands at his waste. It was the first time Joey had seen him look uncomfortable.
“You knew my mom?” Lucas asked.
“Tamara, yes. I knew all of your parents. Each one of them was an amazing person.”
“You should have kept them here, locked them up or found a place to make them safe,” Julie said with tears building in her eyes.
“Free will is necessary. Otherwise, they were just prisoners. Your parents chose to return and face Isaac. They did it for you. Every one of them was ready to sacrifice their life to ensure you kept yours. I don’t intend on letting their sacrifice go in vain.”
“Yeah, but look at what happened in the end,” Julie said.
“Yes, look.” He pointed at them. “They kept you alive. However, the dangers are much greater now. Marcus and MM know you exist and they have sent Simon to fetch you. They know I have you. They will do everything they can to find us. So please, stay in this area unless you’re with me or one of the trainers.”
“You going to hold our hands to cross the street and cut our food up for us while were here?” Lucas asked.
Harris laughed. “Now everyone back to your rooms and get some sleep. Tomorrow, you can decide on how you want to train.”
JOEY WANTED TO TALK TO his friends, but Harris stood in the hallway until they all were back in their rooms. Being alone in the room didn’t feel right with so much to talk about. He was the only one by himself. Jealousy crept in, but he pushed it away and sat on the edge of his bed. He wouldn’t allow for such petty emotions.
Had his parents sat on this very bed? He felt the soft comforter and looked at the lights above. Thinking of his parents here, in another world, in an underground bunker, made his head hurt. They had kept so much from them.
Joey couldn’t begin to understand what his friends were feeling. They were sitting on what could have been their dead mom or dad’s old bed. They might be walking on the same floors their dead parent had walked on so many years ago.
One thing was for sure, his parents were far more interesting than they were letting on.
He stared at the door and thought about checking on Poly. He wondered how she was doing in the next room, and if she was okay. It would’ve been nice to check on her before they went to sleep.
A bell rung and a green light lit on the wall near the bed. Below the light, a small door slid open, revealing a plate of food. Steam streamed from the plate. His urge to eat overtook his cautious mind and he bounded to the plate, taking it and sitting back on the bed.
He ate the mashed potatoes and meat. Half way through, he placed the plate on the nightstand. Even a small pleasure, like eating a hot meal made him feel guilty. The unknowns weighed on him.
Joey took the small jewelry box out of his pocket and rotated it in his hands. Rubbing the smooth velvet surface, he opened the box. The two earrings slid around as he moved it. These were supposed to bring him and Samantha closer, an icebreaker he had hoped would open the door for something more; and it had.
He spent most of the summer searching for the earrings, searching for an impossible find, until finally he had them. Now, Samantha felt as far away as the earrings had at the bottom of the lake.
He snapped the box closed and placed it on the nightstand. Swinging his legs over the bed, he stood. His mind raced with too many thoughts to stay still, so he strode to the door and touched it. Forget the rules. It slid open and he stepped into the hallway.
“Thought you might step out,” Harris said.
“I’ll go back to bed. . . .”
“Why don’t we go for a walk?”
“What about my friends?” Joey asked.
“Come on, just you and me.” Harris led the way down the hall and onto the elevator. He pressed a button on the panel and the doors slid closed.
“How’s the zombie cleaning going?”
“Slow.”
Silence filled the moving elevator and Joey put his hands in his pockets, staring at the side of Harris’s head. “Where we going?” Not that Joey cared. Anything would be better than lying in bed, trying to capture sleep.
“I think you’ll like this.”
The elevator came to a stop. The doors slid open and the icy air swept in. He stepped from the elevator with his mouth open, gazing at the huge cavern, large enough to fit an entire mall in. Along the ceiling and flowing down one wall, was a huge ice sheet. There were a few people working in heavy coats, shooting a beam of light into the ice.
“Wow, what is this for?”
“This is the bottom of the ice sheet. We collect all our fresh water here.”
A metal platform stood off the elevator and Joey walked to the edge and placed his hands on the cold steel railing. The ice glistened from the light beams. A stream of water ran down the ceiling like an upside-down river, collecting on the floor, and down to a drain.
“It’s beautiful,” Joey murmured, but he didn’t think Harris wanted to talk about ice and water.
For a bit, Harris was silent.
“You see the water runners over there?” Harris pointed and Joey nodded. “The motors on the lights broke yesterday and to keep water flowing through the compound, we have to manually melt the ice. This old place is breaking down more every year.”
“Why did you bring me down here?”
Harris turned to face him. “Marcus is ill, he’s dying. He needs you, if he wants to keep living. Simon has had the terrible task of finding you amongst countless worlds. It’s driven him over the edge of rational thinking; he’s a dangerous man.”
Joey frowned, watching the water runners melt the ice. Its shiny surface reflected some of the light back to him. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I need you, Joey. I see your wavering commitment. I don’t think you guys realize what is after you. And if you do not at least train and learn some of the basics, you won’t be able to protect yourself or your friends.”
He shook his head and glared at the water runners. His parents had spent eighteen years running from this. And now, when the same offer was placed at his feet, he felt a wavering. “Do you think we can end it?” That’s all he wanted. He wanted his safe home back.
Harris crossed his arms and his warm breath flowed out in a quick cloud. “If we can keep them from getting to you, then eventually, he’ll die.”
“Why don’t you kill us?” Joey studied Harris’s face for a reaction. They must have thought it. How could they not? They just kill the problem and Marcus would wither away.
Harris raised an eyebrow at him. “If he thinks you’re dead, what do you think he’d do with the new, shiny planet they just discovered?”
New planet? Joey gasped. “You think he’d go after earth?”
“No question about it. Marcus would play with your world like a kid in a sandbox.”
“Ryjack.”
“Exactly.”
Joey stood in silence for a while, watching the water melt. It fascinated him. He wanted to go down there and operate one of the lights, carve his name into the wall and watch it melt away.
“You think we can learn enough to stop them?”
“Together? Yes.”
Joey took his hands off the ice-cold steel and rubbed them together. His whole body felt like it needed a thaw. He glanced back at the elevator.
Harris turned to face him. “There’s one thing I want to ask you. Do you think you can control your accelerated movement?”
Joey turned from his gaze. He didn’t want to talk about his mutation. It made him feel like a freak exhibit. “It seems to happen without my control, so I don’t know how I’d control it.”
“If they find out what you can do, they may try and use it.”
His breaths floated out in front of his face. “They can have it. I don’t want it.”
“If they figured out how to replicate what it is you do, they’d be unstoppable. I know I’m dumping a lot on you all at once, but time is not in our favor. We don’t have the time to waiver. Joey, I need you to back this.”
The cold air numbed Joey’s hands and the feeling crept up his arm. He rubbed his wrists and breathed into his hands. He’d had enough of the cold room. “I’ll do what I think is best for my friends. If we are stuck here, it seems foolish not to learn from you.”
Harris nodded his head. The cold didn’t seem to bother him. “Let’s go.”
“Please.” Joey rushed to the elevator. “You think you can train me to shoot like you?”
“If you can do what I think you can, you should make me look like a child with a dart gun.”
Joey shook his head. The idea of being better than Harris seemed ludicrous. “I just want to shoot straight.”
“It’s not just about the weapon in your hands.” Harris pointed to his head. “Up here is the real weapon. I hope you’re ready.”
A LIGHT TAP ON THE door woke him up. Joey smoothed out the wrinkles in the jacket he slept in, and felt for his guns. Another light tap on the door, too dainty for Harris. He touched the door and it slid open. Compry stood on the other side.
“Time for breakfast,” she said matter-of-factly and strode away.
He looked at the small door that delivered his dinner—no green light. Then he spotted his friends in the hallway. Was he the last one awake? He stepped into the hallway, glad to be out of his room and back with his friends. He smiled and felt better about the day. He wanted to put as much time between him and the zombie world as possible.
Compry led them to a pair of doors marked with a fork and knife. The cafeteria was large and circular, filled with rows of empty chairs and tables. At the edge of the circle, he saw more doors with numbers on them. He looked back at the door he came through and it was marked 2.
