We Who Remain

by Jacqueline Druga

  Mitch lifted his hand. “Transportation. Got it. I spoke to Buford.”

  “Of course, you did,” replied Bob. “You’re up that guy’s ass.”

  “Hey, him and I are gonna be great friends in this new world.”

  “Everyone needs a good yes man,” Bob said.

  “I don’t need a yes man,” said Mitch.

  “Not you. Him. You’ll be his yes man.”

  “Okay, stop,” Liv interrupted. “Before we start picking on Mitch and his bromance with the general. We need a plan. The general said he’d have people waiting. We just needed to let him know how much runway length we need, I have to get that from you. I can guess, but I want an accurate length.”

  Bob nodded. “It would be easier if the plane was smaller.”

  “I know. But we have twenty people. Let’s get them those answers ASAP,” Liv said. “We don’t have much time, and it will take us a good eight hours at least to get there. If it was only healthy people, I’d say let’s drive. But we have Trent and Rose, they won’t handle the long drive.”

  Bob nodded, poured one more small drink and downed it. “Hopefully, there will be an airstrip close enough.” He headed toward the door. “I want to check out the exterior again.”

  “Can’t see why not.” Mitch followed him out. “Why there wouldn’t be a big enough airstrip close by. I mean, it’s near Camp David.”

  “So,” Bob said, walking down the stairs.

  “So. Don’t they fly Airforce one to Camp David?” Mitch asked, “Isn’t this the same size?”

  “Oh, hell, I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know if they fly it there or if it’s the same size? Where’s Liv?” Mitch reached the bottom and turned around. “Liv, you coming?”

  Liv appeared in the doorway. “Yes, sorry, was just looking. How are we going to get Trent and Rose up the stairs? We’ll have to figure …” She paused on the second step and grabbed her ear, tilting her head.

  “What’s wrong?” Mitch asked.

  “Buzzing. Do you hear it. My equilibrium feels like it’s suddenly off or …”

  She never finished her sentence. The end of her words were clipped by the sudden vibration of the ground. It started out mild, swaying her from her footing slightly, then it increased in intensity.

  She held on for a moment and then the ground shook violently. Spinning back, Liv headed back toward the plane, when the portable staircase disengaged from the plane, dropping from beneath her, just as she was about to get inside.

  Liv dropped suddenly, instinctively and luckily, she grabbed on to the edge of the plane, dangling there. It wasn’t that far of a fall, but enough that she’d break something if she landed on the ground.

  She swayed back and forth with each jolt of the ground.

  Mitch teetered left and right, trying to remain upright. Walking was impossible. It was an amusement park ride he didn’t want to be on. He saw Liv hanging there and tried to get to her.

  “Hold on!” he shouted. But he knew she didn’t hear him.

  Bob hit his head. He didn’t know on what or if something flew into him. All he knew was he was under the plane when the ground beneath him shook and WHAM, he saw stars.

  Staggering out from the plane, he could feel the blood trickling down his face. He swiped his hand over his eyes, clearing his vision.

  He could see the terminal in the distance, hear the breaking glass.

  Then it all stopped.

  “Hold on,” Mitch yelled. “Bob help me with this.”

  Bob let out a confused, “Huh?” then saw Mitch grabbing for the portable staircase. He was confused at first why he was rushing, until he saw Liv.

  “Hurry,” Liv said. “My fingers won’t hold me.”

  “Can you climb up?” Bob asked.

  “What! No! I’m gonna fall,” Liv yelled.

  With Bob’s help, Mitch brought the staircase upright. It had rolled at least thirty feet and they pushed it with top speed over to Liv. While they were fast enough to get there before she fell to the ground, they weren’t fast enough to stop her from falling altogether.

  The second the staircase arrived at her feet, her hands released, and she dropped not only to the stairs, but tumbled all the way down.

  “Jesus,” Mitch rushed to her. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I think.” Liv nodded, and groaned when Mitch helped her to her feet. She caught her breath and immediately sat back down on a step. “Trying to process. I don’t think anything is broke.” She glanced at Bob. “Are you okay?”

  “Whacked my head on something.” He wiped the blood again and sat next to her. “I don’t know on what.”

  “I’m fine, though,” Mitch said. “In case you know, you guys are wondering.”

  Liv smiled slightly and shook her head. “That was unreal.”

  “It was. Not sure. Not an expert,” Mitch said. “But I think that was an earthquake.”

  “No shit,” Liv said. “This is Cleveland. We don’t get them. So what the hell was that?”

  Very seriously, Bob looked at Mitch, then Liv. “Olympias.”

  <><><><>

  Raven Rock Complex, PA

  It didn’t feel quite so awful, but Buford knew if he was feeling the ground move that deep into the bunker things were bad. Maybe he had it all wrong, maybe being underground was worse.

  He wasn’t an expert in that field. Actually no one was. Not around him.

  He regained his footing after things rattled and shook from counters and desks.

  “Any word?” Buford called out to his skeleton staff that manned the radios.

  “Not yet,” one soldier answered.

  “Looks like a seven point two,” another said.

  “Colorado is reporting an eight.”

  “Any damage?” Buford asked.

  “None so far.”

  “Seals?”

  “Checking now.”

  “Jesus.” Buford grabbed the phone, lifted it and dialed. “George. You okay up there?”

  “Yes. We’re fine. Nothing seems broken. Just toppled,” George replied.

  “What the hell was that, George? Tell me that wasn’t Olympias closing in.”

  “I’m going to guess it was.”

  “Nothing is supposed to happen for another two days, that’s the time frame you gave,” Buford said.

  “I know. I know. But she could have sped up or we underestimated her speed.”

  “Get on that. Reach out to whoever it is you talk to. Get me intel.” He hung up and spoke loudly. “Listen up. I want the word out to anyone out there, now is the time to dig in. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but now.” He turned to a soldier. “Get a hold of USS Billings, tell them to ship out. They can’t wait. Everyone needs to amp up the plan. If the quakes are starting early …” Buford paused, placing his hands on a counter, taking a moment to calm down. “Lord knows what else can happen early as well.”

  <><><><>

  Cleveland, OH

  Ollie had gotten to know Trent over the last several days of his healing. A guy in his early thirties, who looked younger, was resilient and healed fast. Unlike Rose who was elderly. The difference between them was Rose never complained, she bitched a lot, but didn’t whither in pain.

  Trent was always asking for something. Then again, unlike Rose, aside from his legs he was also missing the fingers on his left hand.

  That probably played into the fact that Trent could not hold on when the earthquake began. Ollie was glad he had moved Trent and Rose outside to get some sun, because when his cot toppled, Trent fell hard to the grass. Little bitty Rose, held on.

  It took Ollie and another man to lift Trent, all the while he screamed in pain. His healing wounds seeped blood. It was a good thing that Donna had returned the night before and was able to tend to Trent.

  She was a bit perturbed with Ollie. Donna was looking for items, and Ollie played ‘clueless’ when he knew he and Liv had packed them away in the ‘Amputation’ box in case
their services as amputators would be needed.

  “Sorry, I don’t know where those sutures went,” Ollie said.

  “We had them.”

  “Don’t know what to tell you.”

  To Ollie it was just a little opening in Trent’s sutures, nothing that needed a major overhaul.

  Trent was emotional and rightfully so.

  The earthquake and the tremors that followed not only rattled the ground, it rattled everyone.

  They seemed constant and consistent, like labor pains. Coming at regular intervals and building to something big.

  Just as Ollie, Gwen and another woman got everyone settled, a tour bus pulled up. The brakes squealed some alerting its presence.

  Liv stepped out first, followed by Mitch. Ollie knew they were going to bring something back for transportation

  Ollie approached them. “You guys are okay? You been feeling the quakes?”

  Liv nodded. “Unfortunately. And we need to start packing the bus now.”

  “We’re leaving tomorrow, right?” Ollie asked.

  Mitch shook his head. “We need to leave as soon as we can. This wasn’t supposed to happen yet and we can’t take a chance that Olympias will get close to us sooner than predicted.”

  “Bob is checking the plane now.”

  “Now?” Ollie asked. “As in he’ll fly us out soon.”

  Liv nodded.

  “He can’t possibly be sober,” Ollie said.

  Mitch looked at Ollie. “He probably isn’t.”

  “Uh!” Ollie shrieked.

  “On a positive note.” Liv reached out to Ollie’s arm with a confident squeeze. “He can’t remember the last time he flew sober, so he’s experienced.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Ollie said. “Are we able to take off with these crazy earthquakes? Will that effect flying?”

  Liv shrugged. “I guess as long as the ground isn’t shaking too bad when we roll.”

  “Maybe they’ll stop,” Mitch said.

  “Ha!” Ollie fake laughed. “Doubtful. I counted twelve so far. Only one has been really bad though.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” Mitch said. “Liv nearly died.”

  Ollie spun fast to look at Liv. “Again? You must have a death wish.”

  “Actually I do.”

  “That’s not cool,’ Mitch replied. “Really that is not cool. You don’t have a death wish, you just don’t realize it yet.”

  “And I didn’t almost die,” Liv corrected. “That fall wouldn’t have killed me, probably with my luck just crippled me.”

  “Yeah, but,” Ollie added. “Metaphorically it would have killed you.”

  “Then for sure I’d have a death wish.”

  Mitch shook his head. “That’s a shame. Right now life is so important. Surviving is important, legs or no legs. Look at Trent.”

  Ollie snapped his fingers. “Oh. Speaking of Trent. He fell.”

  “He fell?” Liv asked.

  Ollie nodded. “He fell.”

  “He wasn’t trying to use those prosthetics yet,” Mitch asked. “Was he? I mean we found them, but they aren’t for him to use yet. We have to fix and adjust them.”

  “No,” Ollie shook his head. “The quake shook him from his bed. Donna is repairing him.” Ollie dropped his voice in a whisper to Liv. “She didn’t find our box.”

  “Good.”

  “What box?” Mitch asked.

  Liv waved out her hand. “Don’t worry about it. Something Ollie and I put together for the future. And … speaking of which. We need to start loading. I want us to take the supplies out to the plane. We can’t take too much because we don’t know what kind of transportation the general is going to send to the airport for us. Space could be limited.”

  “I’ll get on it and grab a couple of the guys. I know the pastor has been moving stuff all morning,” Ollie said.

  “Thanks,” Liv told him, then watched Ollie as he walked off.

  Mitch noticed that she blanked out. Stared forward and didn’t move. “Hey.”

  Liv jolted in surprise.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I am. Just kind of drifted into thought.”

  “Well, it’s a lot to do.”

  Liv facially grimaced. “Yes and no. I mean … we have been getting ready to head out for days now. I just have been so busy focusing on everything else and where we are going, I keep forgetting what I am leaving behind.”

  Mitch crinkled his brow. “I thought you got stuff from your house when we went back. Did you need to go back home again?”

  Liv shook her head. “I’m not talking about pictures and items, I’m talking about memories. Like …” she pointed to the hospital. “Mark worked there. Danni was born here. Three blocks away, Mark and I were married at the church. That Marriott by the airport … the one where we waited that day? We had our reception there. And the zoo …”

  “Cleveland has a great zoo.”

  “Oh, God I hate the zoo.”

  “Then why’d you bring it up?” Mitch asked.

  “I just remembered that I hated it so much, that I had my daughter convinced Cleveland didn’t have a zoo. I successfully managed to not take her to the zoo until she found out we had one when she was nine.”

  “That’s terrible.”

  Liv shrugged. “It’s not when you hate the zoo. But that ... and everything isn’t something I can stick in a backpack. I won’t be able to drive down town and think about this or that.”

  “No you can’t. But you’re wrong,” Mitch said. “They’re memories. You can take them everywhere with you. Because they are right here.” He tapped her head. “They are what will pull you through.”

  “For what purpose?” Liv asked. “Pull us through to what?”

  Mitch tilted his head. “What do you mean? The future.”

  “Mitch, we don’t even know if we as a species are going to survive Olympias. She’s bringing more with her than just the ability to disintegrate every living being on the earth.”

  “We don’t know that.” Mitch shook his head. “We don’t know if she’s bringing the same thing.”

  “Yeah, considering the other two broke off from her, I’m going to say she is. She’s a huge ass body zipping by so close to us, that melting people shit may not even matter.”

  “After Liv, after she passes, after all that. That’s it. If we survive and I know we will, then we have a new world to face and rebuild.”

  Liv shook her head with a slight huff.

  “What?” Mitch asked.

  “It just seems so pointless. I mean, you, the general, everyone is talking about Olympias like it’s the grand finale of some super event. It’s not, the world ended nine days ago, Mitch. Everything and anyone we loved, held dear was already lost. Olympias is just salt on the wound.”

  “Okay so, why bother? Why are you doing so much then? If you think this is pointless and hopeless why bother helping?”

  “Because you’re right. I don’t have a death wish. I don’t want to die. I just … I just don’t want to live. I’m hoping that doing all this will somehow give me a reason. So far it hasn’t. And I’m gonna go help Ollie.”

  Like she had done with Ollie, Mitch stood there in thought, watching Liv walk off. She put on such a great front she was believable. She passed people, smiled at them and helped them. All the while behind that front, was a woman who was empty. He wanted to grab her, tell her that it was still early. She just lost her family, there was no way she was going to find a positive so soon.

  But the more he thought about it, the more he wondered if she’d ever really find that positive. She had to want to find it. He wasn’t sure Liv was that inspired, and it wasn’t anything he could show her. No one could.

  He supposed Liv wouldn’t be the only person he’d encounter like that.

  It was easy to get a person to want to survive, but to live … was a whole different thing.

  21 – ARRIVAL

  Raven Ro
ck Complex, PA

  Mallory was told to lock it down.

  Anything breakable, any samples she brought from the CDC labs, secure it and make sure it was in shock proof containers. Even though they would be underground, the earth would still shake. Perhaps not as bad as topside.

  It didn’t take her long, maybe an hour or so. She hadn’t unpacked much in the days since her arrival. She took special care of her framed photographs, to her they were more precious than anything.

  When she was done, she went to the room next to her area to see how George was getting along securing his personal items. He wasn’t there.

  She left and moved about the floors aimlessly, looking for familiar faces to see if they were below and at what was taking place, feeling privileged she had such a large space to call her own. Her and others like George and the general were in Building A, two subfloors below the main bunker area. They were treated like the Elite, all of them on the same floor. All with their own rooms. She had the biggest area, even if most of it was a lab.

  The soldiers and personnel who were at Raven Rock, along with the civilians that made their way there, either through the rescue trucks or on their own, they were crammed into small spaces. The complex was large enough to hold ten times as many people. Several floors with residential living quarters, it was a city in a mountain. But until they figured everything out, individuals were just placed in rooms with blankets.

  According to George and other experts, along with her own calculations, everyone was going to be below for months. There was plenty enough time to sort things out. It was still early in the save humanity project. Thoughts weren’t focused on where John Smith or Jane Doe called home, they were focused on making sure they stayed alive first.

  It seemed to be going smoothly. Even after the earthquakes there were very few panicked outbursts. Because she wore a lab coat, she was often stopped and asked where something was or directions to a section.

  Mallory really didn’t know much about the compound, her time there was spent in the lab.

  She did know how to go topside. She made her way up and out, driven by her curiosity to find George and see how things progressed out there, along with seeing the sky just one more time before she retreated underground for a while.