Released

by Megan Duncan

  As we made our way further into the base down the main road, I kept waiting for a military jeep to come roling up to us, but nothing ever happened. I knew it was crazy to expect the entire base would be jam packed ful of people, and operating busily like it normaly would have, but I guess I secretly did hope that.

  We slowed our pace and it was obvious that we al were starting to worry. We walked further and further into the base and no one stopped us.

  “Where is everyone?” Taya asked.

  “I’m sure they have everyone concentrated in one area. This base is pretty spread out; they would want to be able to keep an eye on everyone,” Carter said.

  “Wel, where is the concentrated area then?” Taya snapped.

  “The radio tower?” I questioned. “I mean they use it for transmissions, so they would be nearby there right?”

  “Good point, Abs!” Max smiled at me.

  We each looked around trying to find some kind of radio tower or satelite dish on any of the buildings.

  “Over there!” Taya shouted as she jumped excitedly and pointed off to our left. We al squinted into the distance and could barely make out the sight of a large object turning around and around.

  ”That’s it! Come on!” Carter took off at a steady trot and we al folowed at his heels. As we ran, I wondered what it would be like to finaly see the military.

  Throughout history the military had always stood as a beacon of hope, protection, freedom and defense. I imagined formidable looking men dressed in military uniforms carrying massive guns. The thought brought a smile to my face as I ran.

  We al skidded to a halt when we made it to the radio tower. We glanced around us waiting for someone to show up. The satelite spun steadily as it towered above us and as the silence of the base came crashing down on me, I could feel fear threatening to break me.

  “There’s no one here. What are we going to do?” Taya was panicked.

  “They’re here. Don’t say that,” Carter demanded.

  “Let’s find the door to this place,” Max said rushing around the side of the building. I folowed him in silence, not wanting to admit to myself what I was slowly starting to realize, there was no one here.

  Carter tried every knob in a panicked state. It would crush him if he was wrong. We had finaly made it to the base, we had risked our lives to make it here and it could have been al for nothing.

  Max found an open door and we al rushed eagerly inside to an empty halway. There were papers and boxes lining the wals, but the disorder and clutter was a normal site. Papers crunched under our feet as we walked slowly down the hals. I squeezed Max’s hand for comfort as we al walked single file behind Carter.

  Some of the wals were smeared with blood that had dried a long time ago, leaving dark streaks. That was not what realy scared me. The claw marks that tore through the plaster confirmed my worst fears. The demons had made it here. I didn’t want to admit it aloud and I desperately tried to focus my thoughts elsewhere as we continued through the hals.

  We glanced into rooms, randomly making our way to whatever room was the control room for the satelite. There had to be someone there controling it, I thought to myself. We needed someone to be there. I tried to convince myself that we would find someone. Maybe he fel asleep on duty, or maybe they set it on autopilot.

  Those things run on autopilot right?

  “Maybe everyone is stil sleeping?” I said. It was a ridiculous comment but I just couldn’t let myself believe that we had come this far only to find the base empty.

  “It’s stil pretty early isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” Carter said not sounding convinced. I knew it was a sily thought. They wouldn’t al be sleeping, someone would be standing guard.

  As we turned a corner, at the end of the halway I could see a door that was clearly labeled as the control. At the sight of it, Carter ran down the halway vaulting for the door opening as he nearly burst into the room. It seemed as if the rest of us took a deep breath before we folowed after him.

  The room was lined with numerous workstations lit up with tiny blinking lights and odd looking keypads. The foreign electronic equipment wasn’t what confused me most; it was the fact that the room was completely empty and looked like it had been for quite some time.

  We each walked through the room silently surveying it. As if we had to look at every inch of it before we would believe that we were truly wrong about coming here.

  I took a seat at one of the computers and wiped the dust off the screen. I couldn’t make sense of any of the information I was seeing and looked up to see what Carter was doing.

  He was standing at what looked like the main workstation; both his hands were twisted through his hair. Max was nearby noisily rummaging through papers. He must have sensed something and he caught me staring at him. I quickly tried to mask the fear on my face, but he knew me too wel for that to work.

  “Maybe they had to move? There has to be something here. They wouldn’t keep the transmission running if no one is here.”

  “It’s not stil running!” Carter snapped. “Just look. It’s been shut off. What we heard must have just been the signaling bouncing off of something, or maybe someone else was broadcasting it. That’s probably why it’s been so weak. Someone shut it off, which means they didn’t want people to keep coming here.” Carter started thrashing around in anger, kicking a chair over and sweeping al the papers off the workstation as he kicked the desk and sat down heavily in defeat.

  “You don’t know that,” Taya said rushing to his side. She tried putting her arms around him but he pushed her away. Her face took on a hurt expression, but she quickly removed it and placed a hand on his arm, which he alowed.

  I franticaly tried to understand what was going on. I didn’t know anything about computers or transmitters, but I wanted to do something, to say something but I didn’t know what.

  “Yeah man, we don’t know that for sure yet. Maybe they shut it off cause they needed to conserve power. We can’t just give up when we’ve come this far.” Carter just sat there, his head in his hands, shaking. “There is no one here.”

  Seeing my brother so defeated brought tears to my eyes. We had come al this way and been through so much and it was al for nothing. I walked over to Carter and sat on the floor across from him.

  Taya looked up at me her eyes clearly pleading me to say something, but I couldn’t. Hot tears ran down my face as al the terrors of our journey fel onto me in giant waves.

  “We came al this way for nothing. I’m sorry you guys, I’m so sorry. It is al my fault.” Carter sounded so ful of anger at himself it almost scared me.

  “It wasn’t al for nothing. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.” Taya pleaded. She smiled when he looked at her, but he didn’t return it.

  “She’s right Carter. We saved her and that definitely counts and you didn’t make us come. We decided as a group we were going to do this, so don’t take it al onto yourself,” I said.

  We weren’t getting through to him and I could see his grief building as he continualy shook his head and cursed himself under his breath.

  I couldn’t let us fal apart; we needed each other now more than ever or maybe I just needed them. I looked over to Max and he was busily flipping switches and turning knobs, trying to find anything that would be of help to us. I knew he was desperate to find something not wanting to accept that Carter was right.

  “What are we going to do?” Taya asked me.

  “What’s wrong with you guys? Don’t you get it? There…is…no…one...here!” Carter shouted at us. He quickly stood up and stormed out of the room and slammed the door in his wake sending picture frames crashing to the floor. Taya sat frozen for a moment and then ran after him.

  I couldn’t help myself and buried my face in my hands. I cried like a baby, not caring how I looked and holding none of it back. I didn’t want to bury my fears any longer and finaly let myself be weak and vulnerable.

  Max was quickly at my side
trying to pul my hands away from my face.

  “There’s no one here,” I wailed through my sobs.

  “You’re wrong Abs, your wrong. Look at me.” I reluctantly let him pul my hands away and looked into his chocolaty brown eyes. “There are people here Abs.” He said as a smal but reassuring smile spread across his lips.

  “What? Where? How do you know? We need to tel Carter.” My heart pounded in my chest and I couldn’t believe he didn’t say anything sooner. I looked at him expectantly, wiping the tears from my face.

  Max brushed wet strands of hair away from my face and smiled at me again. “We’re here Abby. We’re here.” My body shuddered as I realized the truth in his words. I took a deep breath and squeezed his hand as I brought it to my lips. “I love you Max.”

  “I love you too,” He said as he kissed my forehead. Then he stood up and without a hint of hesitation he turned the transmission back on.

  I stood up and walked to his side, letting him take me under his arm. I stared at the orange blinking light that showed the transmission was on and watched the monitor that displayed the familiar text of the message we had al prayed would lead us to salvation.

  “Do you think people wil come?” I asked him.

  “I hope so.”