And right there, I saw my opening. He’d set himself up perfectly. I put down the plunger of fertilizer and moved to him, putting my hand gently on his arm.
“Uncle Jeff, what if you could have that again? I know you miss it—the soil, the air, the sun. You were outside for most of my childhood. Being cooped up in here can’t feel right.” I paused, wondering how far to push this, then pushed on. “It can’t be good for a body that wants to be outside. I’m worried about you. I don’t want to see you losing that spark.”
Yeah, so maybe it was unfair. I wanted to get up top so badly that I was willing to do anything—even use my uncle’s affection for growing things and life. That didn’t make it a lie. Me getting back to the surface was only half of my goal. Okay, maybe two-thirds.
Taking my uncle back up there was the other piece, though. And it was a big one.
I just needed his logical mind to re-engage. Needed him to remember what it was like up there. Needed to get through to the rational man I’d known—well, the somewhat rational man I’d known—for long enough to explain to him what Simone had told me.
He looked at me, his eyes soft and fuzzy with memories, and for a moment, I thought it had worked. I thought I’d managed to get to him in the one place where he could actually hear me.
But his face changed so suddenly that I didn’t even see it happen. One moment he was wearing a big, goofy grin, and the next he was raging. At me. At what I’d said.
“What are you talking about, girl?” he barked. “What nonsense are you talking? Are you actually suggesting I want to go back up aboveground?” He paused, and his face turned even icier. “You want me to go up there so you can take control of the bunker. You want to be the leader here. And to do that, you have to get rid of me. That’s it, isn’t it? That’s what you’re doing!”
He lunged at me, towering over my small frame. For a split second, I was too shocked to react. But then I got myself together and my brain started working again, and I ran. I mean it, I turned and hauled ass out of that room, my mind on two things.
One, the man I’d known as my uncle was well and truly gone, and replaced by some sort of maniac. And two, I couldn’t let myself be cornered by him again.
There was a third point, there. Something about how the man I loved was losing it, and how there was a chance that I’d have to leave him behind. But I didn’t look at that part. Not yet. Instead, I focused on getting down the hall and to my bedroom before he caught me.
Chapter 14
I spent the rest of the afternoon in my room, damn the consequences. Yes, there were probably chores I was supposed to be doing. Yes, I was probably in trouble. Yes, my uncle was almost inevitably looking for me—not that I would have been hard to find, being in my room and all—but I didn’t care.
I needed some peace and quiet. Because for a huge bunker that only held five people, this one was starting to feel awfully crowded. And noisy.
I’d lived most of my life alone in a room that held a chair, snacks, and a computer. I’d communicated with people through the digital world. I’d been better friends with people I knew from the internet than people I knew in real life. Hell, I could have counted the people I interacted with in real life on one hand. I’d been a creature of the dark—both in terms of staying up all night with the lights off and in terms of spending much of my time on the dark web.
I wasn’t used to human company. I definitely wasn’t comfortable with being trapped down here—underground!—with other people, most of whom I barely knew.
So, I’d already been working up quite a bit of stress. And now I was starting to think that my uncle was losing it, and even worse, there was little to be done for him. I’d been positive that if I could just get him by himself, away from the influence of Bob the Construction Guy and Oliver the Know-It-All Doctor, I could talk some sense into him. Get him to remember what it was like up top, and how close we’d been. Get him to see that I really only wanted the best for him. That I was worried about him, and trying to help.
I could see what my own two eyes were showing me. And it wasn’t good.
I shut my eyes and tried to do some deep breathing before I let my mind go to the next thought. Because it was the really tough one.
When I felt like I had a handle on my emotions, I opened my eyes again.
“And he’s not going to let you save him,” I said out loud, hoping that the sound of my own voice would help me get it through my thick head. Hoping that if I said it out loud, I’d actually realize that it was real, rather than something I could somehow fix.
Shaking my head, I sighed.
Some hero you turned out to be. You fail at spreading the word about a terrorist attack, then you fail at saving your uncle, I told myself.
But I bit my lip after that last line and put it out of my mind. I couldn’t sit here harping over Jeff like that was the only thing that mattered. Besides, maybe everything would turn out fine. Maybe he would continue to live down here for who knew how long, happy to live out his doomsday paradise.
That didn’t change the fact that I needed to get back to the surface. I couldn’t allow it to change that. I had to get out of here or I was going to go crazy. And I’d realized something else—something I’d considered but never really fleshed out. I might have failed at spreading the word about Ilk Krallik the first time around.
But that didn’t mean I had to fail a second time.
Even though there’d been an attack up there, surely someone had survived. Surely the government had top-secret bunkers where they’d stashed all the important people. Hell, maybe the attack had only killed one city-full of people or something, and everyone else was still up there, carrying on with their lives.
If they were, they had to be told about Ilk Krallik. And as far as I knew, I was still the only person who could name the cult and tell law enforcement where to find them.
I know what you’re thinking, and yes, I did have access to a computer—four, actually!—and internet down in the bunker. Yes, theoretically, I could have done the work from that electronics room. But I wasn’t stupid enough to believe I’d be left alone for long enough to do it in peace. Jeff would have a field day about potentially giving away our location and whatever other paranoid delusions he had currently about the above-ground and making contact with it.
I needed privacy. And an ally. As strange as it was, I’d have better privacy—and better luck at saving the world—if I was up on the surface. As far as an ally went…
I jumped to my feet and made for the door, checking my watch as I went. They would have had dinner already, but the kitchen was open to all of us. And it was a wide-open enough space that no one would be able to hide and spy.
It was the perfect place for me to have a meeting with the ally I had in mind.
Simone shoved a snow pea into her mouth whole and closed her eyes in bliss. “I absolutely adore these,” she said around chewing. “And they taste so much better down here than they do up there.”
“My uncle’s a genius in the garden,” I said honestly. “Grows better fruit and vegetables than anyone I’ve ever seen, and they always taste like heaven. I don’t know how he does it, but it’s been true since I was a kid.”
“And unfortunately, to continue eating these little pieces of heaven, we’ll have to agree to being trapped down here,” she said, putting the bowl of snow peas down and bringing the meeting abruptly to order.
“Sure looks that way.” I leaned in toward her, my voice dropping. “I had hoped I could just get him to agree to going back up top, given what you know about the weapon they used, but I’m not having much luck. He won’t even hear of it. Thinks I’m trying to send him back up so that I can take over the bunker and become the leader. No idea why.”
“It seems to me that he’s been planning this for most of his life, and assumes that you must have been doing the same thing,” she replied. “When you’ve achieved the goal you’ve been working on for much of your life…”
“You think everyone else must have been doing the same thing. And you definitely don’t take kindly to people telling you it’s not working,” I agreed. “You’d think he’d at least realize that he's losing his marbles a bit, though. That he’d want to go up and get some help.”
She gave me a shrug at that, and I wondered what it would have been like if we’d known each other in the real world. Whether we would have been friends—or whether she would have been one of those people who judged me for doing what I did.
I liked to think that we would have been friends. The kind who went out for burgers and shakes at midnight and spent hours discussing the world around us.
“People in situations like your uncle’s don’t realize when they’re unwell, Michelle,” she said gently. “You believe you’re trying to help him. He just sees you pointing out flaws in his plan and himself. He feels threatened by you questioning his ability to lead people and his ability to successfully run the bunker that he’s spent his whole life building and preparing.”
I pressed my lips together and exhaled heavily through my nose.
“Well, when you put it that way, I almost feel guilty. Though… not really. I can’t force myself to feel guilty for trying to save his life. No matter what he thinks of it. And anyhow, that doesn’t change the fact that we need to get out of here. The sooner the better.”
“You think it’s going to get worse.”
It wasn’t a question, but a statement, and I nodded.
“Oliver and Bob don’t like me. Jeff no longer trusts me. I killed one of his plants. Might as well have killed his kid with the way he reacted. They’re going to have eyes on me constantly, and I wouldn’t put it past them to decide to lock me up or something.” I met her gaze with my own. “I refuse to become a prisoner down here, Simone. I want to go back to the surface and see if there’s anything I can do to help. As far as I know, I’m the only one who knows how to find the people behind this. If I can help stop another attack, I’m going to do it. I might have failed the first time. I don’t mean to fail a second.”
She gave me a small smile at that.
“You must have really been something before you came down here, huh? Someone to reckon with, I mean—a little firecracker, taking on the world on her own.”
I snorted.
“If you call roaming the dark web and finding ways to make as much trouble as I could starting when I was a teenager, then yeah, I guess that’s who I was. Constantly out making war against the system. Thumbing my nose at authority. But I got sent to Juvie when I was seventeen, and it… changed something in me. Or, rather—no, I think it was after that. Juvenile Hall didn’t teach me a damn thing. When I got out into the real world and started actually working, and that didn’t change me, either. Just made me feel bored and restless. When I found out about the group planning an attack on the world…” I stopped and tilted my head to the side, thinking about it.
Yeah, that had been the moment. The moment I’d decided I needed to be a hero, make a difference in the world.
“That was when it changed,” I finished. “I knew I had to do something. No one else was going to. Maybe they weren’t brave enough, or maybe they were too smart. Whatever it was, I ended up being the only one who had the information and was willing to do something with it. I knew I couldn’t just sit back and let it go by. Up until that point, I don’t think you would have cared for me much.”
“And now?” she asked.
I gave her a quick grin.
“And now that I’ve agreed to be a hero, I guess I don’t have much choice about going forward with it. I have that group’s name, and I know where they’re based—and I can find out a whole lot more if I can get back to my apartment and to my equipment. They attacked once. We know that much. But give me my equipment, and I can make sure the FBI has enough information to keep them from attacking again.”
She grinned back at me and reached out to grasp my shoulder.
“Count me in. I’ve always wanted to play 007. We’ll get you out of here so you can save the world. As long as I get at least partial credit.”
“Promise,” I replied.
We both jumped at the sound of a bang at the door of the kitchen and whirled around to see Bob standing in the semi-darkness, his mouth hanging open in shock. It didn’t take much to figure out that he’d heard at least part of our conversation.
Probably the important part. The part where we talked about escaping.
He jerked into motion, turned, and then rushed down the hall—right towards Jeff's room.
Chapter 15
We had two more days to spend in this bunker. The next night, we’d be able to leave. That thought alone got me out of bed, into my clothes, and to the dining room so I could eat. I hadn’t had dinner the night before and I was starving—and I needed to know what the mood was in the bunker itself and to find out how much trouble I was actually in.
And how good a chance I had of sneaking out of the place tomorrow night.
I met Simone at the door of the dining room and we walked in together, shoulder to shoulder, like compatriots going to war together. In a way, I guessed we were. We both knew it wasn’t going to be a pleasant breakfast. Though neither of us realized just how bad it was going to get.
He waited, at least, until we were both seated and digging into oatmeal for what felt like the millionth day in a row. Still, I hadn’t eaten dinner last night and I would have swallowed dirt if it had been offered to me.
I’d taken two hearty spoonfuls when Jeff started talking, his tone cold and dark.
“I hear you two have been making plans,” he started. “Plans about leaving the bunker. And not only that, but also discussing my health and using it as one of your reasons for leaving.”
Crap. I put my spoon down, knowing that this wasn’t going to be a conversation I could eat through, and looked up at him.
“Uncle Jeff,” I said, striving to sound calm, “you know I want to leave. I told you that right from the start. Hell, you didn’t even ask me if I wanted to come down here. You just grabbed me and shoved me into this situation. Me and Simone both.”
“And you’d rather I had left you up there to die?” he snarled, his eyes flashing.
I straightened at his words, getting ready for the fight, but before I could say anything, he took a deep breath and seemed to at least make an effort to get a handle on himself.
“Besides, that's neither here nor there. The truth is that you’re down here now, and down here you must stay. I’m afraid you have no choice in the matter. None of us do.”
Okay, I’d tried to stay calm, but now, I was officially through with that. What the hell did he mean, we didn’t have a choice? I mean, I got what he meant, but there was no way I was going to stand for that.
“What do you mean we don’t have a choice?” I asked, my voice rising with each word. “Each one of us is our own person, Jeff. We should get to choose what we do with our own lives, don’t you think? I’m not telling you what to do with yours—and I doubt you’d thank me if I did. In fact…” I put a finger to my chin, “I’m pretty sure I did tell you what I thought you should do—go back up to the surface to get some medical help—and you essentially told me to shove it! But now you think you can tell me what to do with my life? Simone what to do with hers? We’re creatures of free will, Jeff. You don’t get to decide how we live our lives!”
By the end of my little speech, I was shouting, all attempts at being rational completely forgotten. When it came to being told what to do, I’d never been what you would call flexible. Jeff had pushed my buttons. And I was going to let him know it.
Unfortunately, raising my voice had given him a reason to do exactly the same thing.
He brought his fists pounding down on the table, making the silverware and bowls jump, and everyone else scooted back quickly, leaving us facing each other over the table, the lone combatants in this particular fight.
That was fine. I was ready. I was more than r
eady. I’d had some weakness the day before, when I got all emotional about who he’d been in my life. But that was over. He had no right to keep me trapped down here. No right at all. It had been fine when I was concerned about his health, but that time had passed.
“Don’t bang your fists at me, old man!” I snapped. “You know I’m right. You know I’ll do more good up there than I’m doing down here. You know I could at least be helping society get back on its feet! You know you can’t keep me here. Or, at least, you know you shouldn’t.”
He jumped to his feet and leaned over the table, practically foaming at the mouth, his eyes raging fire at me.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, little girl! You don’t know the half of it. You have no clue what happened up there on the surface, or whether it’s even safe. And you would risk all our lives on the gamble that it is! You haven’t thought about that, have you? You haven’t thought about the fact that as soon as you open that door, this entire place will be contaminated. In this ludicrous attempt to claim independence, you might risk all of our lives!”
“The half-life of VXM is only a week!” I said, reaching for civility but really too frustrated to care too much about it. “As of tomorrow night, the outside world will be safe! How many times do we have to tell you that, Jeff? How many times before it gets through your head? Didn’t you kidnap Simone and bring her down here so she could answer scientific questions for you? Didn’t you want her for her experience and knowledge?”
He gave me a begrudging nod, and I ran with it before he could take it back.
“Then why the hell won’t you listen to her when she says that as of tomorrow night, we’ll be in the clear? Why are you so hell-bent on staying down here?”
He leaned even further forward, until his face was no more than a foot from mine, and I could see that the mania had truly taken hold now. My heart sank at the realization. I might have had a chance to talk him down, at the start.
Survival of The Fittest | Book 1 | The Fall Page 9
