As I looked over the boxes of random supplies, I had an idea. Larry walked in while I thought over the heavy sheeting.
“What’s up?” he rumbled. His voice was as deep as he was big. He dug through the extreme winter gear box, swapping everything but his base layer out. Then he started handing layers to me to help deal with the cold. I nodded and changed while I explained my idea.
“I think if we mount the heavy sheeting to the ceiling and floor, and keep it tightly shut with the tape, we can expand our living area. If we double it up, it’ll act like an airlock, or double pane windows. Keep the heat in.”
“That’s a pretty good idea. Why plastic sheeting though? Isn't there anything better?”
“Nah, when I was a kid, my family lost power during the winter for a few days. My dad hung plastic like this in one room and we stayed in there. Without building something permanent, this is a great way to keep heat in. Hopefully, rescue comes soon. It should hold until then. This is really only a matter of getting it warm in the first place. Help me out with these rolls.”
He nodded, and we started wrestling the rolls of heavy sheeting out to the main office. After we had the first half dozen out, I went searching for the staple guns and tape that I had seen earlier.
I hauled a box of supplies out. Larry set to work while I continued to poke through what we had. A few hours later, Jessie called to me as I was buried deep in the boxes.
“Dante, come eat already. If you’re gonna be messing around and doing a bunch of crap, you need food.” I grunted in agreement and started climbing back out. A moment later I stood at the threshold and looked at Jessie.
“Well, where’s my food?”
“It’s in the server room, idiot. You can’t eat food out here, it would freeze before you finished.”
I grunted and walked into her office, where the cold once again hit me. Apparently I had been working so hard in the storage room, I had managed to raise the temperature by a few degrees.
I turned to glance out the windows at the city as I walked out of her office. Frost coated the inside of the window, so I took a moment to scrub a hole with my sleeve.
Small lights from a few cars still flickered on the streets, far below. Mostly, the hulks of the towers rose up, dead and dark. There was plenty of movement, but it was mostly debris being whipped around by the winds.
The building constantly swayed a little bit, just detectable at this height. This close to the windows, I could just make out the screaming of the wind. It sounded horrible, shrieks and moans blending together with glass shattering and metal rending.
I shook myself and walked back to the airlock. A few sheets had already been attached on the south side, covering the windows. They sat about eighteen inches from the glass, with a second layer already added an inch from that. At four feet wide, we would need a lot of sheets to cover the entire office.
I stepped into the airlock and it cycled. Cold air immediately fogged in the much warmer server room.
When I put them back on, I spotted Linda and Eddie, eating nearby. I walked over and sat with them. Linda had an MRE and two bottles of water waiting for me. Jessie must have known where I would go.
Night fell. Or so we guessed, based on the watches that were wound and the cellphones that still had battery. Signal had dropped out hours before, probably due to the windstorms.
Debris regularly hit the windows beyond the airlock, creating loud pings that were attenuated by the glass and metal in the way. It disturbed me, knowing that stuff was swept off the ground more than seven hundred feet below and hitting the windows that kept us safe. In the end, it became an almost soothing rhythm, like wind chimes.
Fancy sleeping bags were broken out of storage on the second round of storage room scouring. They even had pillows built in, and were designed for below zero temperatures.
I removed my shoes and socks, determined that even if I had to sleep in my clothes, I would be as comfortable as possible. Though, I doubted anybody zipped up, since the room was fairly warm with that many people shoved in.
The fans whirred away endlessly, taking away the humid heat and replacing it with cool dry air. Everybody ended up drawn to their closest friends and family, often resulting in small groups of two to four.
I ended up with Linda and Eddie on one side, and Jessie on my other. I was her closest friend, even after all these years.
I lay there for a long time, contemplating what had happened in the sixteen hours since I got up.
Eventually, quiet talking fell to quiet breathing. Then the breathing deepened across the entire room, and people fell off to sleep.
An explosive snore suddenly tore the room, causing a few people to twitch. A second ripped through, and then a thud echoed through the cramped room. There was an ‘oof’ of someone getting whacked awake, and the snoring stopped. It never returned.
The lights never shut off, though they did dim if nobody moved much. I never really fell asleep. At least, that’s what I told myself.
7
June 28, 2013
Pleasant Valley, New York, USA
71°F
0900 Hours
I found myself standing in the woods I had often explored as a kid. It was sunny, the air was pleasant, and surprisingly quiet. I wondered for a moment why I would dream about these woods, when I something caught my attention.
I strained my ears for a moment, then heard it again. It was the sound of an object being dragged over dirt. A moment later, a young boy crested the small rise, using a rope to drag a crate full of what looked to be water balloons behind him. He had a squirt gun slung across his back.
It took a moment, due to the decades that had passed, before I recognized myself as a kid. I watched as the younger version of me carefully hauled the crate into a nearby tree, then staged his ambush. I could remember this day, but only vaguely.
Soon after, two more kids came into view. I dug through my memories, before finally settling on their names. Thomas, or Tommy, and Nathaniel. They had been my best friends back when we lived in New York state. They were heading down the trail I stood on. Neither saw the younger me hiding in ambush.
As they drew closer, young Dante began throwing water balloons. Squeals of outrage came from the two land-bound boys as they were drenched. Young Dante laughed uproariously, before losing his balance and falling from the branch he was perched on. I watched as his arm folded in half, breaking with a sickening snap.
Young Dante passed out, and the other boys turned white as sheets. Nathaniel immediately ran down the path, disappearing from sight. Tommy stayed with Dante to make sure he was okay. He turned Dante over, checking to see if he was awake. A short time later, Nathaniel returned with a young woman.
My breath caught in my throat when I saw her. My mother had passed some years before in my life, but she was young, healthy, and vibrant in my dream. I watched as my mother gathered up young Dante, then carried him down the path. I could see his arm hanging limply, still at a strange angle. While I watched, it seemed to straighten itself out. I followed, not wanting to lose sight of them.
She loaded Dante into the back seat of her car. I sat in the passenger seat, and she drove the car to the nearest hospital. We arrived at the emergency room, and she hurriedly took Dante in. They sat while he cradled his arm and she filled out paperwork. A short time later, they were ushered into another part of the hospital.
Dante held still while x-rays were taken of his arm. They returned to a room and waited until a doctor showed up. He pulled up the x-rays on a monitor and looked them over.
“Yes, I can see a small re-fracture here. Looks like the break is maybe six months old. The fall must have caused it to fracture again.”
I watched as my mother worriedly looked at young Dante. He had been given something for the pain, causing him to be slightly out of it.
“Doctor, are you sure it was six months ago?”
“Oh yes, quite sure. This here,” he circled a dim spot with his finger.
“This is indicative of an old break. Looks like it healed nicely, but there's a hairline fracture running through the old break. Your son should wear a sling and be careful for the next six weeks or so.”
“No cast?”
“No, we hardly do those anymore. Only for the worst breaks that require surgery. Your son will be fine, though it will hurt for a few days as it begins to heal.”
“Thank you, Doctor.” She gathered young Dante up, and walked out of the hospital. I trailed after. All of this was new, but the most shocking part was what the doctor had said. I watched my younger self break his arm less than an hour before. However, the doctor claimed it was months old.
“Dante, honey, wake up.”
Young Dante stirred from his seat in the back. He looked with bleary eyes at my mother. She smiled, worry written across her face.
“Dante, you can't mention this. If your friends ask, it wasn't a bad break, just a little fracture.”
“Okay mom...”
8
June 14, 2033
Seattle, Washington, USA
70th floor, Illeni Building
-22°F
0548 Hours
My eyes snapped open. Memories ached at the back of my mind. I hadn’t thought about Tommy and Nathaniel in years.
Even stranger, I couldn't really remember that day. I remembered my mom talking about the fracture, but it was always a quiet thing.
I lay on my back in my sleeping bag. I could feel Linda’s back pressed against one side of me, and Jessie was about a foot away on my other side.
I extracted my arm from my sleeping bag, and checked my watch. It was a ‘smart watch’, which meant it had a billion other functions I didn’t need at the time.
Unsurprisingly, most of them didn’t work. The network was completely gone. I lay in silence for a while.
Just about everything mankind had made in the last seventy years was disappearing by the hour. No internet. No cellphone. No television, no radio, no power save in select spots.
Thoughts raced through my head as I let my arm fall back to the sleeping bag. Life as we had known it had ended. These were the actual end times.
Apocalypse.
I shook my head. I was lying in a shelter in a government sanctioned building, seventy floors above the street, surrounded by what were likely to be the last surviving people in the city. And I was hearing voices.
That did not bode well. My reverie was broken by people suddenly stirring.
“Mooom, I need to go to the bathroom,” said a small voice from the other side of the room. The acoustics were not exactly desirable, since everything was practically amplified by the hard surfaces.
A few groans were loosed, as others realized they desperately needed to use the facilities as well. I struggled up, causing both Jessie and Linda to snuffle in their sleep.
Normally Jessie was up before me, but the past day must have been even more draining for her than myself. I stood carefully, making sure not to disturb either woman.
A small pile of my warmest winter clothes lay beyond where my head had been, and I stooped and scooped. I had always been a warm person, but the cold outside was deadly. I couldn’t run around in business casual.
I saw other people quietly standing and making their way toward me. I was very near the doors to the airlock, thankfully they didn’t open immediately.
The night before, Jessie had shown me how to enable and disable the doors manually to prevent accidentally leaking warm air into the office.
I walked over, opened the relevant panel, and tripped the switch. The doors hissed open, and the air beyond was surprisingly warm.
It was maybe twenty degrees cooler than what it was inside the server room, which only put it a few degrees above freezing. Still, based on the fact that ice had grown on the inside of the glass, I thought it was fatally cold beyond the outside doors.
I stepped into the airlock and looked back. The few that had wandered over toward me had hesitation written on their faces. Larry was among them though, and he looked angry. Or determined. Or constipated.
Hard to tell, actually. He wasn’t especially emotive.
Larry crouched a bit, and stepped into the airlock. It still shocked me how tall he was, despite having been one of the first employees to Jessie’s company.
He turned back and waved the others in. Scary dude or not, he was somehow able to convince the others to join us. They donned their jackets, mittens, and beanies.
I didn’t have the accessories, but I figured it would be okay. We walked the two feet or so to register on the outside door sensors. It clicked, hummed, and went silent. Nothing changed. I tried again, with the same result.
So, I turned and checked the panel set in the side of the airlock. It had a flashing red message. ‘Doors Blocked’. I scratched my head, when Larry lumbered over.
He set the airlock to manual and turned back to the outside doors. He had to be uncomfortable, since the ceilings were only seven feet inside the airlock, instead of ten feet like the room beyond.
We both went back to the outside door and tried to get a handhold. My hands kept slipping on the ice, and his hands were too massive to grasp anything as small as the door.
I turned around and mule kicked the door seam. Ice splintered with a loud sound. I tried again and we heard something grind and hum.
I looked to Larry and he nodded. One more kick and the doors shuddered and moved a quarter inch. It was all we needed.
I dug my fingers into one side of the gap, with Larry on the other. We grunted, and strained.
Strange crackling and popping sounds emanated from the entire frame. The metal began to creak, then something emitted a crack and pop.
The doors crunched, then grudgingly slid free, and air poured in from beyond.
Frigid could not even begin to describe the air that touched my exposed skin.
The air hit me like a physical force, attempting to sap the life from me. It had been a hundred degrees yesterday.
Now, it was twenty below. It was the most extreme temperature differential I had ever heard of occurring ‘naturally’.
The storms were raging outside, evident even through the ice and debris caked on the windows. There were still patches with a clear view to the world beyond.
My breath fogged, and my nose immediately began to hurt. We moved as a group through the quiet and dark room.
Very little light came from the server room, and the main office was dark besides. I made a mental note to find flashlights.
We continued across the length of the office along the windows until we encountered the women’s bathroom. Half of our group broke off and entered.
The rest of us continued on, turning left and heading to the northern end of the building.
A moment later we found the door for the men’s room, though light was extremely scarce at this point.
I was thankful my eyes were so pale, because I could see far better than anybody else left in our party. Larry and I were escorting two boys and one other man that had woken with us.
I pushed the door open and a light clicked on with searing brightness. Apparently the light sensor was much more sensitive in the men’s room than the women’s.
Then again, there was little power available anywhere at this point. I was curious as to why the lights even worked. Then I stepped into the room, and it was like being hit with a wet towel across the face.
The room was a balmy sixty degrees, with decently high humidity. I didn’t even realize the air had been drying out due to the cold until I walked into the bathroom and my nose started to burn.
I shook my head, and the others filed around me. They had similar reactions to the intense air change. I wanted to brush my teeth to get rid of the gritty feeling in my mouth, but had nothing.
I made another mental note about things needed from the store far below. I headed to a stall and took my time with the morning business.
I didn’t have Bledder or any other aggregate
site to browse, but I had a few games left on my phone. Signal was gone and I figured that would drain battery faster. I had sixty percent left on my phone, though I was sure it would never be useful again.
Some time later, I left the stall and found a small group of people waiting impatiently in the front area of the bathroom.
Time limits would have to be involved, since we all had to share the limited resource. More and more notes for the mental ledgers.
I noticed small drains in the floor. The floor was also angled to lead directly to the nearest drain. The warmth still present in the bathroom puzzled me for a moment. I looked around, and found a few different grates set into the wall. Some were high and others low. I hadn't bothered looking at the restroom in depth since it was remodeled.
The registers had heated air pumping in, keeping the bathroom warm. Further examination allowed me to spot a tankless water heater under the sinks. It was obviously what was providing the hot water. I was amazed the water made it this far up without freezing, but Jessie had mentioned the trunk line was insulated.
I stepped up to one of the eight sinks and hurriedly washed my hands, then rinsed my mouth and washed my face.
Once I was finished, I walked out of the restroom. How quickly I had forgotten reality.
I had my breath stolen from my chest as I walked from the warmth of the bathroom the deadly cold of the office. It stabbed like tiny daggers into my face, nose, lungs, and eyes.
Anything exposed instantly broke out in goosebumps, my flesh drawing tight in the hostile cold. Larry was already out, looking around at the office.
Only a few panels were hung towards the west side of the office. As such, sight was blocked but nothing was done for warmth. I made a quick executive decision, since I was endlessly making unnecessary plans in my head.
“Hey Larry, let’s get the first ten feet or so closed off. That way we have a steady transfer path between Jessie’s office and the server room, and we have somewhere to heat up food. The break room will be great for spreading us out. If we have double walls, this might actually become bearable.”
Winds of Darkness Page 4
