by Ellis, Tara
The five other Marines trailing behind Campbell looked back at the woman, lying dead next to her car, her purse still in her hand. A smartphone with a cracked screen was next to it. They all quickened their pace. The sooner they got out of there, the better.
As they approached the first group of buildings, the smell of death became a relentless stench, instead of something carried to them on the wind. Although James had been smelling it for days now, it wasn’t something you ever got used to. It saturated your clothes and hair, and he’d be smelling it for weeks, no matter how many showers he took. They had masks for when they entered the underground facility, but it wasn’t time to break that gear out yet.
Instead, James held a hand up to stop their march and removed a hand-drawn map from his pack. He’d already studied it for hours, but now that they were there, he needed to make sure he was oriented correctly to their location. “This way,” he barked, motioning to the right and down a road that lead to a large warehouse. The above ground complex was referred to as Area A. It housed FEMA’s communication headquarters, including FNARS—FEMA National Radio System—and was also said to be a training facility. The reality was that only a select few really knew what happened there, especially underground, in Area B. James suspected that whoever drew the map and given him some very specific directions was quite high up on the food chain.
The Marines Recon Unit breached the warehouse and quickly confirmed it was unoccupied. “Flores, O’Grady, you’re on inventory,” James ordered. “Make it accurate, especially the gross weight of the pallets.”
Flores and O’Grady looked at each other. While the assignment was daunting, it meant not having to go underground, so they were both clearly relieved.
The entrance to Area B was rather unremarkable and at first appeared to be like any other tunnel that had been cut into a mountainside. However, around fifty feet in, huge blast doors were the first indication that it led to somewhere other than the opposite side of the mountain. Fortunately, the doors were wide open.
There was an armored vehicle sitting just inside the doors, and James was hopeful for all of about two minutes that their walk might be shortened. While some armored vehicles at the bases in the west had survived the EMP, this one had not. Whether it was because the EMP was more intense, or perhaps because it was in operation and had an antenna up when the pulse hit, it really didn’t matter. James slammed the door with some frustration after finding the vehicle dead, and gestured to the three other Marines to keep walking.
Unlike Area A, there weren’t any bodies on the ground near the entrance to the underground facility other than two armed guards who had likely remained at their posts as sentries. James was thankful for that, because the blackness beyond looked impenetrable and he didn’t like to think about sharing the space with unseen corpses.
“You think there are people down there?” Jay asked, his voice barely more than a whisper.
“I read once that a couple thousand people worked down there,” Corporal Lance said hoarsely, making the motion of a cross over his chest.
“Wouldn’t they have working generators?” Staff Sergeant Lee asked. He stared wide-eyed into the darkness and his face was dripping with sweat.
“Pull it together!” James snapped. “We’ve gone over this. Yes, their generators were online last anyone got a message out via Q Code on the radio. I told you, Lee, that without anyone maintaining them for over a week, they likely wouldn’t be running. That’s why you and Lance are going to the utility plant.” James shoved a map into the man’s hand. “It’s called the power chamber and it’s about two klicks from here. I need the power on.”
Lee squinted down at the map. “This comic is going to get us lost in this pit for good! You’re just now showing this to me?”
“This is so—”
“Enough!” Sergeant Campbell snapped, cutting Lance off. “I was under orders not to share these maps with anyone until on site. None of us want to be here, so let’s get it done and get the hell out of here.”
“Amen to that.” Jay clapped his hands together, the sound echoing off the vast chamber around them.
“Jay, you’re with me.” His friend’s brief bout of positive energy evaporated.
“How come I don’t think I’m going to like where we’re going?” Jay crossed his arms over his chest and jabbed his chin toward the dark tunnel. “I don’t suppose we’re raiding the cafeteria?”
James held another map out to him. “Our primary mission.”
Jay glanced at Lance and Lee first, before taking the map. After scrutinizing it, he sighed heavily. “We better get started. It’s a long walk.”
“We need that power,” James said as they turned on their flashlights and began venturing deeper into the mountain.
“Yes, sir!” Lance barked, taking the map from Lee’s hand. “Give this to me, or we will get lost.”
An hour later, and James would have given anything to be back at the entrance. The complex was made up of a series of vast caverns, connected by tunnels. Although the ceilings were high, it did nothing to allay the sense of weight over their heads, and the fear that it would come crashing down at any moment. If the lights had been on, James figured it wouldn’t have been nearly as bad. As it was, the thick, inky blackness was cloying and played games with his head. He was certain he’d either seen or sensed movement, but each time he trained his light on the spot, there wasn’t anything there.
“Are we lost?” Jay asked, his voice muffled through his respirator.
“No,” James answered without a lot of confidence.
The question as to whether or not anyone was left underground was answered when they had entered the first chamber. It was unbearable without the masks and likely unsafe, given that no air was circulating. Most of the bodies were in the hospital, piled up on every available surface, including the floor. James had little time to marvel at the ingenuity of the place due to the hundreds of corpses masking it.
According to the rough map, they had almost reached their destination. At the heart of Area B was a command center. There was no tell-tale label on the space, or other details giving it away, but James figured it was the infamous secondary site from which the government would be run in the case of a nuclear attack or other event causing the president and his cabinet to be whisked away. Next to the command center was a room. Again, James assumed it was an office meant for a high-level official, because it was there that he was to use a code to enter it, and where he was to retrieve a file called The Survivors List.
James paused at the threshold of the large antechamber. Countless monitors reflected the light back from their flashlights, creating a dizzying display like some macabre disco. Only no one was dancing and the party-goers were all frozen in grotesque throes of death.
Jay took a step back, reaching automatically for his face, which was blocked by the respirator. His breath came in ragged gasps as he tried to control his anxiety. “Lee better get that—” he was interrupted by the whir and beeping of machinery. Something deep in the mountain groaned as air units kicked in and then finally, the overhead lights flickered and then flashed on.
Not wasting any time on celebrating, James headed straight for the office door on the far side of the chamber. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the coded keypad was glowing with a soft, blue light. It took three tries, but he finally got it open. Inside, James discovered a simple blue folder sitting in the middle of the desk. Thankful that whoever left the list hadn’t stayed in the office to greet him, he snatched it up. He had no idea why it was so important, given what was going on in the rest of the world, but James was a soldier, and following orders was what he did.
After mustering back at the warehouse, Campbell was more than happy to lead his men away from Mount Weather. As they approached the woman next to her car, he stopped and knelt next to her. According to her license, her name was Sarah. James removed a small sheet he’d taken from the underground hospital and gently covered her with i
t. The six Marines stared silently at the sheet, a small gesture of humanity in a situation where it was easy to lose it.
James stood. “I’m sorry, Sarah.”
Chapter 2
DANNY
North of Idaho Falls, Idaho
“You need to keep still.” Danny attempted to keep the growing frustration out of her voice, and failed miserably.
Tom raised his eyebrows. “My nose itched.”
Grunting with disdain, Danny tried to place yet another Steri-Strip across the cut above Tom’s right eye. She’d been treating him for over two days and he didn’t make a very good patient. The bullet wound in his shoulder was healing nicely, and there wasn’t anything she could do about the concussion, other than watch for signs of it getting worse. The wound over his eye, from where he was hit with the gun, was the worst of it and it was pretty nasty when she first cleaned it out. “I think the infection is finally clearing up, but it’s going to leave a scar.”
Tom shrugged before standing and then stuck his cowboy hat back on his head. “Thanks, but I’m not too concerned about scars right now.”
Danny looked up at him and hesitated a moment before stepping back out his way. There was something about the man’s eyes that always gave her pause. She didn’t know if it was because of his rugged handsomeness, or the fact that she’d been awoken by nightmares about him for the past two nights. She couldn’t get past seeing him as the crazed killer who attacked her the first time they met.
Tom gave an awkward smile and then went to get their horses ready to ride, after having stopped for a lunch break. Danny watched him walk away, irritated by her inability to read him. She was normally very good at first impressions, and typically had someone pegged in minutes. She wasn’t sure how much the concussion had to do with it, but he was a quiet man who didn’t say much. When he did speak, it was clear that he expected you to listen. Danny didn’t know if she was put off by or attracted to that, which only added to her unease around him.
“You know, he’s already apologized at least half a dozen times,” Sam said, stepping up next to her.
Danny realized she was still staring at Tom, and abruptly turned away and busied herself with packing up the first aid supplies. “You don’t really think I still blame him?” she accused. “I would have done the same thing.”
“Right.” Sam hefted the pack from the table and waited until Danny looked at him. “But that doesn’t change what happened and how close the two of you came to killing each other. Maybe an honest conversation about it would go a long way towards…easing some of the tension.”
The two men became quick friends over the past three days, and had an easy way of communicating with each other, although they never said much. Between Grace’s continued infatuation with Ethan and Sam’s new BFF, Danny was struggling with feeling left out. It was ridiculous, and she knew it, but it didn’t change how she felt. Their worlds were reduced to basic survival, without much room for anything else, and she cherished both Sam and Grace.
Without anything else to distract herself with, Danny let out a pent-up breath and decided to give Sam what he wanted: honesty. “You want the truth, Sam? The past two nights I’ve woken in a sweat after dreaming about being attacked and staring into the eyes of a savage killer. His eyes,” she hissed, pointing to where Tom stood, and then pressed her fingers against the scabbed-over scrape and the bruise on her cheek. “It isn’t about understanding or forgiving, or liking or disliking. It’s just going to take time for me to process this. I’ll get over it, but you also need to realize that I saw up close what he’s capable of, and I can’t unsee that.”
Sam frowned before reaching out to put a comforting hand on her arm. “I know, Danny. It’s just that…I think he’s a good man. He’s been through so much and is still struggling with a lot of lingering symptoms. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to have someone like him around.”
Danny knew exactly what Sam meant. In the past two days of their journey, they’d encountered more than a couple of groups of questionable travelers. With three of the four of them armed, and a pack of five horses, it made them a formidable crew. And Tom wasn’t just a large man. He also had a dangerous air about him that made others give them all a wider berth.
She nodded without replying and went to gather her things. They’d taken a longer-than-usual lunch break after getting a very early start that morning. They’d made it around Idaho Falls late the night before, and had wanted to get as far away from the city as possible before it got too light out. Conditions in and near the city continued to deteriorate and random camps and clusters of people were developing farther out.
Danny thought back to one of her and Sam’s earlier conversations about society falling apart after seventy-two hours of darkness, and she choked back a ragged laugh. It was such an inadequate statement, in light of what they’d experienced and were continuing to see evolve. Her only concern now was to make it to Mercy.
Sam and Tom studied the map for more than an hour the previous night and determined they had around two hundred and seventy miles to go, give or take twenty. That worked out to six or seven more days in the saddle, so to speak. It was ten days since the event, so if Danny wanted to put a positive spin on it, they were more than halfway through their journey.
The thought prompted Danny to eagerly shrug on her backpack, and she looked around for any sign of Ethan and Grace. They’d gone to refill the filtered water bottles and should have already been back. Danny held a hand up to shield her eyes from the sun as she searched the tree line. It was then that the wind shifted, and she smelled smoke.
They were in a sort of gulley, with the ground veering up into a sagebrush-covered hill to the east side of the road. It sloped down to a tree-covered creek bed to the west before also rising sharply into another rolling ridgeline, creating a wide ravine, with them in the middle. Before dipping down into the long stretch of more secluded roadway that morning, they’d spent several hours on a vast, open plain. Fires were a constant occurrence and concern, but had always been in the distance, glowing as orange ribbons at night and dark splotches during the day. The sky was often choked with smoke, first from the city fires and then from the continued plains and forest fires that kept burning. It was something they’d become used to and perhaps a bit too complacent about.
That morning, Danny had commented on how the one to the west of them looked closer but no one else was concerned. The winds were from the east at the time and they were traveling away from it, to the north. As a firefighter, Danny had a huge amount of respect for fires and a healthy dose of fear. She’d seen up close how it could become like a living, breathing beast that was both unpredictable and merciless.
“Ethan!” Danny yelled. She jogged over to Sam and Tom, who were also sniffing at the air. “Fire,” Danny barked, announcing the obvious. She climbed up into the saddle of her mount and then pulled at the reins harder than she should have. The horse threw its head in agitation, before moving in the direction Danny urged her. As they started down the hill toward the trees, Ethan burst through the foliage.
“Fire!” Ethan screamed, tripping over a rock and nearly falling. His face was red from what must have been a frantic sprint, and he was clearly winded. Grace barked and ran in a circle around the teen. He pointed desperately back toward the hills to the west and gulped in more smoky air. “I climbed up to look around and it’s there, Dad!”
“What do you mean?” Sam asked, not sounding too alarmed. “The nearest fire was miles away, last we saw it.”
Danny noticed white swirls beginning to waft over the hilltop. “The winds have shifted. Get on your horse!” she yelled at Ethan. While she had never gotten certified in wildfire firefighting, she’d had the training. Out on the open plains, and especially on steep hills, wind could push fires along at surprisingly fast speeds. “We need to run!”
No one argued and Tom led the way up the road at a fast gallop. In spite of their efforts, within minutes, the air around them continued
to fill with smoke as the wind picked up and pushed it in their direction.
Danny coughed and her eyes began to water, making it even more difficult to see. After twenty minutes, the conditions were almost unbearable and she relied on her horse to follow the others in front of them.
“Grace!”
Danny was suddenly alongside Ethan, and it looked like he was trying to slow Tango, who wasn’t having any of it. The horse tossed his head and rolled his eyes as he whinnied in protest to the smoke.
“Ethan! We have to keep moving,” Danny urged, refusing to even consider that Grace was lost. She was a smart dog. She’d be okay.
Sam and Tom appeared then, looking like ghostly apparitions in the haze. Tom grabbed at Tango’s reins, yanking them out of Ethan’s grasp. Without a word, Tom expertly spun his horse around and took off without a word, leading Tango and Ethan away. They disappeared in seconds into the dense smoke.
“I’ll get her,” Sam yelled, before slapping Danny’s mare on the hindquarters.
“Sam!” Danny didn’t have a chance to stop him. He was already retreating back the way they’d come, calling for Grace.
Danny’s horse turned in a circle, unsure of which way to go. She clung to the saddle horn, tears of fear adding to the burn in her eyes. She couldn’t lose Sam and Grace. She just couldn’t. “Sam! Grace! Please…come back!” her voice cracked, burning from the smoke and projecting as barely more than a whisper.
They were gone, and in their place a red haze was beginning to tinge the smoke, like someone had opened the gates of hell and it was beckoning to her. Danny had no choice but to turn away from it and urge her horse in the other direction, where Tom and Ethan disappeared.