Nuclear Rising

by Christian Smith

“Codes,” Sledge replies. “Those codes apparently unlock the gate that gets us into the garage – keys should be in the car – from there it’s back to Vantage.”

  “Sounds too easy,” I reply, stuffing the paper back into my pocket. “I don’t trust it.”

  Sledge smiles, though it isn’t a happy one. “You’ve grown skeptical Quinn – what happened to the bright-eyed rich boy who just wanted to find his rich girlfriend?”

  I snort. “The rich girlfriend didn’t want her bright-eyed rich boy.”

  Bree locks eyes with me, only for an instant, but she gives me a strange look before her eyes dart away.

  Sledge says, “It’s the best play you got my friend.”

  I glance over at Vonn, who seems to be calculating something complex in his head. “What do you think Cap?”

  Vonn kicks his feet in the dirt and grumbling, replies, “Let’s make our way to the garage then. Sounds like the best way to not get you all killed.”

  “Speak for yourself Vonn,” I reply, examining his wounds across his body. “You’re in it just as deep as we are.”

  “Nobody’s killing me,” Vonn says, turning to walk toward the east, where the rising moon towers high above the mountain.

  ┈┈┈┈┈․° ☣ °․┈┈┈┈┈

  Night time settles in, bringing in the symphonic whispers of summer night as crickets and frogs break the dreary silence that settles over a day of bloodshed and tears. The mountain air from the north blows in a mix of pine and wildflower aroma so sweet as the sky clears and twinkling stars stare down at us with wondering eyes.

  We sit at the edge of the garage, a crescent-shaped metallic roof placed into a carved-out hillside with a tunnel that dips low underground. A lone guard sits dully staring from a tiny box like a phone booth, much like the parking garage attendants I’d see all the time at malls. It appeared the small box was lacking a metal-barred gate though, and if it weren’t for the occasional bug flying into the invisible gate and disappearing into an incinerated flash of light, I would never have guessed there’d be anything there.

  “So the codes are for this?” I say quietly as Vonn, Sledge, and Bree crouch behind a thorny hedge by my side.

  Sledge nods. “Let’s hope they work.”

  “What?” I say, a little too loud. “This isn’t the time to say that kind of thing, man!”

  “I mean,” Sledge purses his lips. “My source seemed pretty reputable…I think.”

  Rolling my eyes toward Bree, I concede, “Alright then. Let’s try not to die. Go kill the guard Vonn.”

  Vonn looks at me in a are-you-kidding-me sort of way and replies, “We’re not killing everyone we come across today.”

  “Then just lightly maim him or something.”

  “Problem is,” Sledge answers, “If we don’t get rid of him quick, there are about twenty guards close by he can call in with the push of a button. We gotta put the codes in without him calling in the cavalry.”

  “Oh,” I reply. “Any grenades or anything, Vonn?”

  He replies, “Too dangerous with all the electrical. We can’t damage the controls.”

  “How about,” says Sledge. “You just shoot him. Like a little bit. You know, not killing him.”

  Vonn shakes his head. “On a good day maybe. With my banged up shoulder, I can barely lift my arm waist high.”

  We sit in silence for a minute more until a tiny throat clearing sound rings out behind us.

  “Oh boys,” Bree says, smiling widely. “You know nothing.”

  “Say what?” I reply.

  “Boys always have one thing on mind. Lucky for you, I know a girl.”

  “Yeah but,” Vonn and I simultaneously object.

  “You two worried about me?” Bree says, snatching my blue laser pistol away from me and stuffing it down her top. “I just survived a lot worse than one little guard who probably hasn’t gotten any action for a while. I’ll be fine.”

  I don’t like the idea, but I nod anyway.

  Bree reaches up to her jump suit, ripping the top of it, exposing her bare shoulder and black bra strap. I feel that wanting feeling again but look away.

  “See,” Bree says, winking in my direction. “I’ll be fine.”

  She gets up from behind the bush, dragging a leg as she scuttles toward the guard, a dark curly-haired twenty-something year old who immediately stiffens as he sees Bree step into the spotlights emanating from the garage bay.

  He jumps out of his telephone box, calling out. “Excuse me, ma’am. Do you need-“

  “Please!” Bree calls out, mimicking a terrible damsel-in-distress voice. “My leg. I-I don’t think I can w-walk home.”

  The guard runs toward Bree, at first with his rifle drawn out in front, but then breaking out in a full sprint as he sees she’s a helpless young woman in need of a strong man’s help.

  They’re about twenty feet away, but between the mumbles, we can pick up a few sentences.

  “I was attacked,” Bree says. “Some terrible, low life farmer boys came out of nowhere while we were at my friend’s tea party. Some of the girls didn’t get away, but at least I got away with my clothes on. See where it’s ripped?”

  Seemed plausible.

  The guard stares for a second, even going as far as licking his lips as he nervously shuffles his feet. “B-But,” he says, “Aren’t you wearing a prisoner uniform?”

  “Oh!” Bree says, feigning a high-pitched girl laugh. “Our theme was good girls gone bad. We were just going to get drunk, find some strapping young guards and just have some fun with them. But we couldn’t do it.”

  “Oh, well that’s a shame,” the guard says, resting his hand on Bree’s bare shoulder, immediately making my jealousy vibes tingle. “You know, as a strapping young guard, I can help you – it is my duty after all.”

  “You’d do that?”

  “S-Sure I would.”

  “Oh thank you,” Bree says, wrapping her arms around the guard, who only freezes, unsure of what to do, though a big smile breaks out on his face as he looks up into the sky.

  A flash of blue light silhouettes the guard behind him, eyes rolling back deep into his head and his body slumps to the ground. Bree waves at us hastily, and after we stash the stunned guard into some hedges, we run into the tiny guard booth.

  “You were pretty convincing there,” I say, a little green with jealousy. “I mean, not as good as I would be, but definitely a close second.”

  She punches my arm. “Well next time we come across a flashy, gay nighttime guard, you’re up Quinn.”

  Laughing, I watch as Sledge pulls up a small screen like a tablet, motioning to me for the codes. I pull out the paper he’d given me earlier and repeat the numbers written: 547892.

  This time though, I notice there’s something else written on the other side, but before I can take a look, Sledge closes my hand around the paper, and subtly shakes his head.

  “Now,” Sledge says as we step away from the booth, eyeing the large tunnel opening before us. “You’re all heading in, but I’m not. I still have to find Rose. She’s somewhere in the city and I’ve gotta make sure she’s good.”

  “Sledge,” I say, “You can’t go, man. This city is a mess – This is your chance to escape. Think carefully before you do something stupid.”

  “Too late for that.” Sledge smiles weakly, pauses for a second as he eyes each of us and turns abruptly to break into a quick pace down the path we’d just come from.

  “Sledge…” I mutter one last time as he disappears into the shadows.

  We all turn, glancing down the gaping tunnel that awaits as an earthy breeze rises into our nostrils.

  “So, who goes first?” I ask looking at Bree. “I mean, is there any chance the death-melting force field didn’t get deactivated?”

  Bree grits her teeth as Vonn chimes in. “Oh I’ll do it,” he says, his jaw muscles tight as he examines the area.

  So, forward Vonn steps as Bree and I trail silently behind him, a little mo
re reticent at the thought of being instantly incinerated.

  With one step left, Vonn turns and smiles faintly at us as he steps.

  Nothing happens.

  We all breathe a sigh of relief and pick up our pace, heading into the cavernous parking garage below. Lights switch on, greeting us automatically as we make our way down the sloping concrete tunnel, the air becoming more dense in our lungs as we reach the bottom, an echoey silence permeating the large room around us with only the sound of our footsteps bouncing off the walls.

  “Now what?” Bree asks, her eyes scanning left and right.

  At least thirty vehicles sit in a large circular chamber, spaced just enough to allow passage toward the open center platform. Military jeeps, motorcycles, two-door coupes, and even a small school bus sit unattended.

  “Wow,” I say, admiring the metallic room that looks like a spaceship full of auto-obsessed extraterrestrials.

  “There’s the jeep,” Vonn says, pointing to the second row of cars, about a hundred paces from where we stand. “Let’s hope your friend came through again.”

  “He will,” I say as we bob and weave between an old, stocky muscle car. “Just not sure where the exit is in this place.”

  Vonn looks across the raised platform where a large computer screen sits with a blue display, the Terra emblem floating across the monitor. Pointing, Vonn says, “I’m betting that’s our exit plan there.”

  We’re about halfway there when a shrill tapping noise echoes across the walls, freezing us instantly in our tracks as a cadre of shadows appear from the tunnel entrance, loud voices sounding out.

  We duck behind a large, military truck, the three of us breathing sharply as we press desperately against the cold metal.

  One of the voices is just loud enough to hear. “Weird the guard wasn’t on duty.”

  “Probably fell asleep again,” says another.

  “Either way, keep your eyes peeled.”

  I glance sideways at Vonn, who sits stoic-faced, his pistol vibrating slightly in his hand.

  The footsteps track down to the center platform, while Vonn tries to sneak a peek around the corner of the car.

  As he does so, I can hear a familiar voice hastily speaking. It’s beautiful, sharp, deadly, and haunts me every day.

  Celeste.

  “You have your orders, Francis,” she says, referring to who I imagine is Francis McDougall, one of her right-hand men, and now the only one alive since the robot Bastion met an untimely deactivation. “You’re in charge now.”

  “Don’t leave, your Holiness. We’ll survive this revolt easily.”

  “It’s not that,” she says, a hint of sadness hanging in her words. “There’s nothing for me here anymore. We’ve done great things all of us, but it’s time for me to leave and find myself again.”

  “I understand Matriarch,” Francis replies. “But you’re our Queen. You’ve created our tribe.”

  “And now you’ll lead it, Francis. My mind is made up – This will probably be the last time we see each other.”

  “But where will you go, your Holiness?”

  “I do not know,” Celeste says. “But I hope wherever I end up, I finally find my son.”

  My son…My boy.

  I feel the urge, much like I felt that day back at Al’s Electronics, to do something stupid.

  To run to Celeste.

  To run off with her.

  “Celeste,” I say out loud, standing up enough to peer through the car windows.

  Bree eyes me as if I’m crazy while Vonn reaches a tight grip over my thigh.

  I could do it.

  I feel the pull.

  But I don’t act on it.

  Not this time.

  One of the guards holds a button down on the screen, sliding his hand along the screen. Hydraulic noises reverberate on the walls as the platform cranks toward the ceiling, with Celeste staring blankly forward in a 2022 Tesla, a car I had been able to drive myself once upon a time. It was a car that was meant to travel a thousand miles without needing a single charge. It was a car meant to drive far, far away from here…

  A metal spiral in the ceiling opens up, the platform raising the car out of sight. Another few seconds pass, wheels are heard screeching against metal above us, and the platform descends again, now empty.

  Celeste…

  An emptiness begins to nag at me again, but I put it away, because right now I needed to make sure Bree got out, and we made it back to save Brig. After what seems like hours, the guards finally leave the platform, heading up through the tunnel again, and we’re able to make our way toward it with aching muscles and dead legs.

  “Grab the jeep,” Vonn says, nodding to Bree and I, while he hops up a series of metal steps, clicking something on the computer.

  We run back to the second row, and finding the black Jeep Wrangler, Bree and I jump in, find the keys sitting on the driver’s side seat, and crank the engine. It roars to life with a noise much louder than the electric car.

  “Buckle up,” I say, looking at Bree. “This might get a little rocky.”

  I weave the car through the narrow space between an old Ford truck and a black BMW and circle my way to the platform, waving at Vonn to hop in the back, but he doesn’t.

  “There’s no way to raise it automatically,” Vonn says, shaking his head. “It’s meant to be manned by someone.”

  “But you can’t stay,” I say. “How are you going to get out?”

  “I’ll just get you two out of here. Then I’ll sneak out the gate and meet you just east of here. There should be a forest-“

  He’s cut off as we hear a trove of heavy boots stomping down the tunnel, coming full speed while angry shouts ring out.

  “Go!” Vonn cries out.

  I drive the jeep to the center of the platform as a dizzying array of red and blue lights start flashing across the garage walls.

  With a sense of dread I glance toward the tunnel entrance.

  “There’s about ten of them,” Bree says, ducking just in time as a blue light smacks hard against her side window.

  “He can’t fight all those guards himself,” I mutter. “Vonn get in here!”

  But Vonn resolutely shakes his head.

  “Get in, you idiot!”

  This time he glares back as a streaking red light tears across the hood of the car, melting a line of metal.

  I see Vonn’s left hand reach up, clicking some control as the hydraulics roar to life while simultaneously firing his pistol into the crowd. The soldiers scatter as the bullets ricochet off the metal walls, one of them hitting a guard in the shoulder, dropping him to the ground.

  We can feel the jeep lifting off the ground as the gears crank below us, ticking like a clock that seems like it can’t tick fast enough.

  Another red light streaks through, this time hitting into Bree’s side door and heading through the open roof, leaving a gaping hole.

  “Vonn!” I cry out again, but he doesn’t hear me as we keep raising into the air, now twenty feet away from the top.

  I’m able to see a blue laser strike Vonn’s hand holding the pistol, immediately forcing the pistol to clatter across the metal grate floor of the platform, far out of his reach. Vonn shakes his hand as if he’s trying to wake it up, yet keeps his other hand pressed firmly to the screen.

  Laser after laser shoot up where Vonn is as he uncouples something with his mouth, throwing it into a crowd of cars where half the guards have run off to. A loud, rocking explosion shoots through the air as five cars fly up in the air with flame and shrapnel raining in all directions.

  Ten feet away.

  A red laser light strikes Vonn in the leg, making him drop to the ground in pain, still clutching the screen with his left hand.

  The metal spiral above begins to open.

  Vonn salutes with his free hand, and I feel myself saluting back as Bree fights back a stream of tears.

  Another red laser light fires, this time striking Vonn in the neck. />
  His hand still holds onto the screen.

  Five feet away.

  Three guards run to the bottom of the center platform, attempting to shoot up at us, but its all in vain as the laser bullets bounce off the metal.

  The last thing I see is a red light shooting directly at Vonn’s head, tearing through it like a piece of paper.

  Vonn slumps to the ground.

  His hand still presses the screen another second.

  I press the gas.

  We hit the ground hard like a large speed bump as the platform begins to descend below us, the back wheels sinking as our front wheels finally grab traction and pull us up onto the earthy ground.

  The spiral closes the ceiling off.

  Bree’s hand covers her face, hiding the tears swelling around them.

  “Vonn,” I mutter in the dark, pressing my numb foot against the pedal.

  A somber silence settles densely over the cool night air as we head north toward Vantage.

  “I’m sorry Bree,” I say at last as the car trundles over the rocky asphalt, the highway we had taken here just days ago. “Let’s get you home.”

  She only nods silently in reply.

  CHAPTER 24

  Unintentional

  About an hour later we actually speak.

  With the world covered in darkness black as coal, thick clouds blot out the moon, leaving only our headlights bobbing up and down over bumps to show us the way. Light sprinkles of rain begin to fall, a slight stinging sensation from the acid in the rain twinges across my scalp, but it doesn’t fully register. A sullen emptiness has fallen over both Bree and I as we do nothing but stare forward into the dark, hoping one of the many shadows that pop up don’t end up chasing us along the way.

  My eyes begin to feel heavy as the adrenaline wears off, so I open my mouth, feeling odd as the words come out.

  “Hey Bree,” I whisper dryly. “You awake?”

  Her head rests gently along the door frame, her chest rising and falling with deep breaths, but Bree turns her head and with puffy eyes peers over at me.

  “I am,” Bree says. “I just can’t believe it.”

  A shudder runs through me as I think about Vonn looking like a paper mâché doll when the laser passed through him. “I – I’m sorry Bree. He saved us and we will make sure his sacrifice isn’t in vain. Let’s get this battery back to your father and because of Vonn, thousands of people will be helped.”