High Pressure System: First Season Underground

by K. D. Kinney

  “What do you mean is this all there is? The walls are still crawling with them,” the man closest to her said as he smashed every little moving thing.

  “There are still so many getting past us,” I said, stomping to remove more from my legs.

  “As hard as we try to eliminate them, they are still getting away going under the doors,” someone said a few stairs up.

  Robot legs and parts piled up on the edges of the stairs. All of us were brushing pieces off as the onslaught slowed. I knew it wasn’t necessarily slowing because we were destroying them all. Many of the teenagers descended the stairs to chase the ones that got away. I followed even though I thought about going up to my floor to make sure my dogs were safe. It was too difficult to navigate past people smashing everything that moved. Going up sure didn’t appeal to me. Some of the adults left the stairs to battle bots down the halls. The longer we fought the invasion, and the more I realized how many were still mobile, the more I worried. I was starting to itch and swell where the blasted things had poked me where they passed by my sweatshirt on my neck.

  Someone grabbed my shoulder. “Did you get stung too?” Micah turned me around to face him. “You did.” He opened my hood and pushed my hair over my shoulder so he could see my neck.

  I only had a couple there.

  “I think everyone has been stung.” I could see swelling on his hands, on his cheek, and neck.

  “I’m not looking forward to whatever it is those bots shared with us.”

  One landed on my head. I cowered trying to knock it away. Micah took care of it for me.

  “I’m tired of this, come with me. We can work on this floor.” He pulled me though the doorway. We stomped and smashed robots. They were moving in organized chaos down the hall and up the walls to the vents.

  I stopped. “This just became as bad as a roach infestation. We will never get rid of all of them now.”

  Micah paused and turned. “I know it doesn’t feel like we are stopping enough of them, but the less there are that get in the vents, the better off we’ll be. They can’t breed.”

  Adrenaline had to be what was keeping us going. It felt like forever and they didn’t stop coming. When I was stomping on bots before they crawled under the door to the janitor closet, I got an idea. “Is this unlocked?” It wasn’t my floor and I knew each floor had different methods to accessing the shared cleaning supplies. Before Micah could answer, I opened the door. Grabbing the backpack vacuum, I ran over to the plug and had the thing running, sucking up as many moving bots as I could. Luckily that floor had two and Micah followed my lead. We sucked up bots and their bits and pieces. We even cleared a few out of the vents. I stayed near the door sucking up any the ventured through the cracks once we had a majority of the invasion on our floor under control.

  “I’m scared to turn these off,” I yelled over the vacuum’s whine.

  “We’ll find a way to plug it up. This was a brilliant idea,” he shouted.

  One of the people in the stairwell opened the door and saw what we were doing. Their eyes widened and they gave us a thumbs up before they left and the door closed. I only hoped they were going to share our discovery and do the same thing on the other floors. There was no going into the stairwell just yet. The cord wasn’t long enough and finding a plug in there wasn’t possible until the worst was over.

  The incoming spiders slowed to next to nothing. Even though we couldn’t go into the stairwell completely, we could stand in the doorway and vacuum parts off the landing. I didn’t like standing where spiders could fall on us in the stairwell. Micah’s reach was longer than mine so I happily stayed just out of the fall zone.

  It wasn’t much longer before there was little left for us to do. Micah plugged up the vacuum holes in our vacuums. Other people were vacuuming on the other floors as we passed each landing. Everyone covered in welts were ordered to go to the Medical floor, which had to be everyone.

  We all lined up in the hall as we waited to be examined. Micah had gone down with Aaron and some of the other people with vacuums to make sure no bots escaped the canisters.

  Marjie found me. “You were lucky you weren’t up higher. Everyone looks awful.”

  “I guess I’m lucky I was wearing my sweatshirt too.” I pulled a robot leg off the cuff of my sleeve.

  Marjie made me turn and she plucked a still moving bot out of my hood, threw it on the floor, and stomped on it.

  “Check it for more, please,” I begged trying hard not to wiggle in distress over what else might be hiding in it. While she looked for stray bots, I spotted Brandon. He entered the Medical floor with sagging shoulders. He had welts covering his arms, neck, and face. Swaying as he walked, he tripped over his own feet.

  I rushed to his side to catch him right when Marjie was pulling another off my head. I winced as she ripped out some of my hair. It wasn’t worth the pain. A few men much closer to him caught him before he hit the floor.

  He shrugged them off once he righted himself and he made eye contact with each person giving them a sympathetic nod as he passed.

  “You don’t look as bad as everyone else,” Brandon said when he saw me. He examined the biggest welt on his arm. “I’m sure a plague of some sort is about to his us all.” Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. I caught his arm as he went weak in the knees.

  The doctor was by his side right away. “This is going to be a long night,” the doctor said as he led Brandon into the clinic. “Come with me.” He motioned with his head for me to follow.

  I looked around to make sure he was speaking to me. Suddenly I was aggravated with myself for stepping out of line and drawing attention to myself. I was hoping that once I was given a quick look over, I could leave to check on the dogs and Rocky to make sure none of the bot spiders made it in my apartment.

  I grudgingly followed the doctor. “Why do you need me?”

  “Because you are the only one not covered in welts.”

  I pulled off my sweatshirt as I followed him and Brandon into an exam room so I could prove him wrong. Looking my arms over, he was right. I felt them poke my arms through the sweatshirt material. They weren’t bad at all, though. “I still have some.”

  He handed me a surgical mask and waved at me dismissively. “That’s nothing compared to the others. Wear this mask when you are around anyone until whatever this is blows over. And wash your hands. All the time” He handed me a box of latex gloves. “or wear these.”

  I pulled my heavy-duty rubber gloves out of my sweatshirt pockets and waved them at the doctor.

  “Those will work if you don’t mind bulky.”

  I set the box down to put my sweatshirt back on.

  Brandon’s face was flushed as he rolled onto the bed. He grabbed a washcloth from the bedside table. “Scrub it off.” He rubbed it all over his arm.

  The doctor took it from Brandon. “We will help you clean the welts. However, it is already too late to stop whatever you are infected with.”

  “Can I go?” If they thought I would be spared the worst of what was about to hit everyone, I really wanted out of there.

  “Rachel.” Brandon rolled over and waved me over.

  I only took two steps closer as I covered my face with the mask. “This is as close as I get.”

  “Will you check on Jim?”

  I sighed. “Of course.” My dogs will have to wait. I wasn’t sure how helpful I’d be to Jim. I had no clue how to run anything in the control room if he needed help. I pulled my rubber gloves on before I opened the door.

  “Young lady,” the doctor followed me to the door. “Come back here if you feel you’re coming down with anything. I don’t think you’re going to get hit as fast as the others.”

  “I hope not.” I tucked my chin down so I wouldn’t meet anyone’s gaze, as if that would somehow make me sick, and went down the hall nearly running to the doors. Once I was in the stairwell, I remembered why it was still an undesirable place to be. Even more so by myself and I froze. Looking
up, that was the last place I wanted to go. I went up a couple steps and stopped again. Maybe if I waited long enough I would hear Micah returning to the upper floors or maybe he was already checking on Jim up above. Waiting on the stairs wasn’t going to accomplish anything and it just left my dogs alone even longer so I pulled my hood over my head, cinched the strings tight and took the stairs two or three at a time until my thighs and butt burned. That was a mistake, I was completely winded and going slower just made me jump when anything moved. There were still a few straggler bots. With the protection of the gloves, I batted them off the walls with as much force as I could to destroy them.

  I was so close to the lobby when I reached the floor where the control room was. Bot parts completely covered the stairs. Some of them were still twitching. I stomped on them in case there were intact ones underneath but I almost slipped off the stairs since there was so much slope on the stair treads from all the acid water.

  I tripped through the doorway and slammed the door. When I turned, I really wished I waited for Micah. Bots were crawling everywhere. Most of them were concentrated on the door to the control room. The ones that weren’t changed direction coming right for me. Somehow I was no longer exhausted as I ran for the utility closet flailing my arms as I ran so they wouldn’t be able to fall on me easily. I slapped the light switch and shut the door until I could get the vacuum plugged in. They crawled under the door. I stomped them off my feet. The boots were great protection. I turned on the vacuum. They turned around and were fleeing before I had a chance to suck them up. But I was faster. I took a deep breath before opening the door. All of a sudden, I had all the power as they scurried for the vents and the doors as fast as they could and I chased them down. I might have cackled some with great satisfaction as they disappeared inside the tube. I vacuumed the door to the control room until the bots were gone. With great relief, I knocked on the door. That door was the most sealed and secure one in the building. I sucked a rag up in the vacuum from the janitorial closet before I turned it off.

  I knocked again. “Jim, it’s me. I cleared the area.” With the vacuum off, I was keeping an eye out for any bots I missed. I banged on the door again when I saw a couple venture out of the vent. “Hurry.” I begged.

  The door opened slowly. I almost knocked him down as I stepped though the doorway and slammed the door behind me.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. He didn’t look good.

  “That was a lot of stress just sitting here watching as all of you had to deal with that mess.”

  “You are in no shape to be out there.” I ran my hands over my head and shoulders to make sure there weren’t any stragglers. “The bots are poking us all with infected needles. Brandon is already sick.”

  “What about you?” Jim sat down in exhaustion on the skinny bed opposite the wall of monitors.

  “I fared better than the rest because of my sweatshirt and the gloves and boots I guess. They asked me to check on you since they don’t think I’ll get as sick as the others. I sure hope not.”

  “We’re lucky this time I guess.”

  I leaned against the door. All the adrenaline was gone, I was exhausted and suddenly very thirsty. I licked my lips but everything in my mouth felt dry and sticky.

  “I don’t know, Rachel. I don’t know if we will make it through this. And then it will be something else if we do. That computer, Brandon called it NALA, right? It’s going to toy with us until we are all dead. I think I’d prefer to just get it over with.”

  “Don’t talk like that.” I pulled up a rolling chair and rested my hand on his knee. He looked exhausted and pale. I had no idea how to talk him out of his despair and I was still trying to process everything that had just happened. “We’re problem solving. We don’t have a massive database to get information on how to fight it, but we can’t give up. We don’t have an off switch.”

  “We have a dead switch. We are right on the edge.”

  “You have been but it’s obviously not your time yet. So you need to give it all you got, for yourself, and for me.” I rested my other hand on his and waited for him to look up.

  He gave me a weak smile. “Let me find you something to drink.” He grabbed a water bottle from the small fridge in the corner of the room and handed it to me.

  “Thank you.” I rubbed my parched lips.

  We sat in silence for some time. As I drank the water, I kept glancing at him.

  He was lost in thought.

  “You say Brandon is sick already?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “Let them know I’ll keep an eye on things here. The last thing I want is to get sick after the health crisis I just had. I wonder if the weather will come in while those little spiders are here.”

  “Whatever ones are left are all in the vents and they don’t like the vacuums. I’ll bring you food as long as I can stay healthy.”

  “Did everyone get stung by the spiders?”

  “Most everyone. All the children and a few of the mothers were locked in the classrooms. I hope someone has given them word on what has gone on.”

  “I bet the doctors will agree that they should probably stay there until this is passes.” The color was returning to Jim’s face.

  “Those bots could still get to them in the vents though.”

  “That’s the first priority. Get some help covering the vents in the rooms down there so they can stay safe.”

  “All right.” I nodded. That was all the energy I had left in me.

  “Only bring me food if you have time. I have a feeling that if you stay healthy, you are about to the busiest person next to the doctors.”

  “I didn’t need to know that.” I slumped my shoulders.

  “If you feel you need redemption, well now is the time.”

  “I never felt I needed that.”

  “You’re about to get it anyway.” He patted my knee. “You should probably go check on the children down below.”

  I nodded, pushing myself up off the chair. “Promise me I don’t have to worry about you here.”

  “You saw how secure that door was. Kept those little beasts out of here.”

  “Well, what you were watching wasn’t helping though.”

  “My ticker will keep ticking. Wait a second, you have a straggler.” He pointed on my shoulder.

  I pulled on my glove and squished it, giving Jim my most ruthless expression.

  “That-a-girl. Go save the bunker.”

  I laughed at the thought of me becoming some sort of superhero underground exterminator as I stepped out the door. I grabbed the vacuum and headed for my apartment.

  23

  Rachel the Gopher

  My dogs and Rocky were fine, a little stressed though as if they knew something wasn’t right. I searched through the apartment until I could find something to cover the vents to keep the bots out. All I could come up with were hand towels. I became the master of a screwdriver as I hustled to cover the vents before I ran downstairs. There was strength with imagined power.

  The vacuum was feeling heavier and heavier as I ran down the stairs. The moving broken bot parts made me flinch even though I was the reason they were tumbling down the stairs. When I entered the Community Room, it was empty with the exception of bot pieces strewn across the floor close to the door. Giggling was coming from the classrooms so that was where I went.

  “Miss Gardener!” the kids chimed when I opened the door.

  I smiled as a few of the little ones mobbed me with a hug.

  “We’ve heard only a few details of what’s going on. Do you know anything?” Pamela asked.

  “Yes. Have you seen what invaded the bunker in here yet?” I looked under a table.

  Sarah Haines shot me a warning look.

  “This can’t be all hush hush.” I crossed the room to the sink and pulled out a towel from the cupboard before climbing on a table beneath the vent. Good thing I brought my screwdriver. Once the vent was covered and reset on the wall, I jumped off the
table and realized all the kids eyes were on me.

  It took me a second to regroup and figure out what to say. “There are little robots that invaded the bunker. They have little pokers and can make us ill. Brandon was at the front when the invasion started and he’s already sick. Since you all have been spared from being poked, everyone will have to remain here until the sickness is over.”

  There was mixture of celebration and moans at the same time. The mothers looked peeved.

  Was I the new Brandon? I was about to sound like him for sure. “I happen to be one of the lucky ones. I was poked only a few times. My sweatshirt spared me the worst of it. They think I won’t get as sick as everyone else. The stairway is filled with robot parts and a few live ones are still crawling on the walls and trapped under debris. You really want to risk taking the kids anywhere else while this is going on? Plenty of them have survived and are in the vents right now. That’s why I covered it. You will want to cover the cracks under the doors as well. I will find out if I can get you a vacuum. The bots will run from them so that will protect you for now. ”

  I did it. I got through to the moms. The kids were scared enough to follow directions to stay put. There was plenty to keep them entertained so it wasn’t all that bad for them to be stuck where they were.

  It was quiet for far too long. “Any questions?” There was still silence.

  “Our husbands? What are they sick with?” Christa Anderson asked.

  “They aren’t sure. It will take time to wait and see what everyone’s symptoms are before we know.” I stuffed my hands in my pockets so I would stop wringing my hands. “One of you will need get food for everyone in here. My sweatshirt, my boots, and gloves spared me from getting hit as hard as the rest of them. So whoever gets food should be prepared before leaving this room. I will bring you stuff shortly. There is no kitchen staff so you will be on your own in there.”

  The mothers spoke amongst themselves.

  I figured it was good time to leave. “I’ll be back after I get you some boots and gloves.”