by Alex Gunwick
“There are a lot of things wrong, but I’m mostly worried about Derek.” She leaned a hip against his worktable.
“What about him?”
“I’m afraid he’s going to attack the Children of the Bomb before we’re ready. If he’s not careful, he’ll lead them right back to us. We’re safe here. They have no idea where to find us. Can’t we just wait out the winter here?”
“You know our water supply won’t last. We’ll have to go out eventually.”
“I just don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”
“I get it.” He set the gun aside and stood to pull her into his arms. She sighed against his chest. “I’ll go on recon tonight. Derek and I already talked about this earlier. He’s not going to leave without me. I told him if he did, I wouldn’t let him back in the shelter.”
“You did?” She looked up at him.
“Absolutely. I want the COB gone, but I’m not going to put our family at risk. Patience is prudent in this situation.”
“Thank you. I guess I just needed to hear that.”
“Don’t worry, honey. After tonight, we’ll know how to proceed.”
“Okay.” She stepped back.
“I’ve got to finish cleaning these guns. We’re taking extra with us tonight in case we need it.” He held up his hands. “We’re not planning on using them, but it’s better to bring more than we need.”
“Be careful.”
“I promise.” Luke gave her a soft kiss.
She took one last look at him before heading out into the hall. She had the beginnings of a tension headache. Aspirin would help.
Liz headed into the main room, and the smell of boiled black tea reached Liz’s nostrils. Sandy sat on a crate with her back to the door. She turned as Liz approached.
“Hello, dear.” Sandy’s smile faded when she saw Liz’s pained expression. “What’s wrong?”
“My head feels like a nuke went off in it.” Liz rubbed her temples. “I need headache meds.”
“We should try to preserve the medication for as long as possible. How about some tea instead?”
“I don’t want tea,” Liz grumbled.
“Hush now, sit down and have some tea.” Sandy gently but firmly settled Liz into one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs and poured her a steaming cup of the brew. “Some people get all snooty about only drinking Earl Grey, but I’ve always preferred a simple English breakfast tea.”
“I don’t want to talk about tea right now.”
“Drink up, and you’ll feel better in no time.”
Liz sighed and sipped the tea. It was still a bit too hot, so she blew on it until it cooled. After several sips, she was able to relax. Her headache eased enough to make it bearable.
“Now, what’s got you so riled up?” Sandy asked.
“It’s Luke. And Derek.” Liz sighed and rubbed her eyes. “They’re both dead set on attacking the cultists, and I’m running out of arguments as to why they shouldn’t. They’re so focused on eliminating any potential threat that they don’t seem to be considering the inherent danger.”
Sandy nodded. She stirred a cube of sugar into her tea. “That’s what they were trained to do. Search and destroy.”
Liz took her cup in both hands, letting the soothing warmth travel through her body. “I’d prefer they didn’t take such a direct approach.”
“You know, it’s not just about eliminating a potential threat, real or imagined,” Sandy said.
“How do you mean?” Liz set down her cup on the crate they were using as a table.
“At the end of the day, it’s about exerting a sense of control.” Sandy looked down at her teacup then gave her a wry smile. “It’s the same reason I brewed this tea. It’s a routine I used to have before the bombs. Engaging in it makes me feel like I have some degree of control over my universe. I may not be able to wish away my problems, but I can at least brew a good cup of tea.”
“I guess I do the same thing. I’ve been trying to inventory everything and plan for every contingency. It makes me feel better. Like things aren’t a total disaster.”
“We don’t really have control over our lives. Not completely. It’s an illusion.”
“I don’t like where this is going.” Liz frowned. “Are you saying nothing we do matters? I might as well walk under ladders and go swimming in a thunderstorm because it doesn’t mean anything anyway?”
Sandy chuckled and shook her head. “That’s not quite what I mean. You plan things and take precautions, but you really can’t control your destiny. That’s not for you to decide.”
“Well, it’s not for the Children of the Bomb to decide either.” Liz chewed her lower lip. “One way or the other, that cult is ruining our lives. Even when we try to ignore them, the knowledge that they are out there hangs over everything we do. I can’t stop thinking about them. We should have destroyed them the first time. I feel like I failed.”
“You didn’t fail. You’re not the kind of woman who shoots men in the head. But that’s what you’ve been doing ever since the bombs dropped. We take control when we can, however we can. You took command of the situation, and you killed the original leader of the cult. You did what you had to do. You made a choice. The right one if you ask me,” Sandy said.
“But I’m just barely holding it together. I feel like one little nudge will send me over the edge. How can I protect my family when my husband is so damn determined to get shot at?” Liz put her face in her hands.
“The men aren’t stupid. They won’t take unnecessary risks. They want safety as much as the rest of us. Try not to worry. Edwin told me Derek and Luke are going to look over the COB’s headquarters tonight. We’ll know more after they get home.” Sandy smirked. “Home. Can you believe this place is home now?”
Liz shook her head.
“Me either. But it is what it is. No sense getting all upset about it. At least we have stuff that passes as food, and we have enough water.”
“For now.”
“For now,” Sandy agreed. “Let’s take things one step at a time. It’s really all we can do anyway.”
“You’re right.”
Liz peered into the teacup as if it held secrets from the future. Sandy was right. Ultimately, Liz wasn’t in control. It was a foreign feeling. She was so used to having a routine that not having one was extremely agitating.
Maybe she needed to get back into her meditation practice. She’d had to leave her yoga mat at home, but it didn’t matter. She’s spent plenty of time being uncomfortable. She might as well get used to it.
Kyle couldn’t wait to attack the second of the three locked doors in the shelter. Riding the high of his first success, he skipped toward the door. After unlocking it, he pushed as hard as he could. The doorknob turned, but it wouldn’t open. He studied the hinges. They were slightly rusted. Probably stuck.
He’d seen his dad deal with a similar problem once when their shed’s door wouldn’t open. He needed to grease the hinges. As he scratched his head, he remembered seeing several cans with spray nozzles in a nearby supply room.
“I’ll start looking over there,” he said under his breath.
When he walked into the other room, he spotted rows of cans on an upper shelf. Unable to reach it, he pulled a chair over. He tested his weight on it before fully standing on it. It didn’t feel very stable, so he quickly snatched as many cans as he could grab.
He jumped off the chair. It toppled over behind him. He set his haul on the floor and bent to study the labels. A can of WD-40 stood out. Kyle was pretty sure that was what his dad used to loosen up the shed.
Back at the door, he sprayed a generous amount on each of the hinges. He waited about a minute before testing the door. He felt some give for the first time, but the door remained stuck. He grabbed the bottle and resprayed the hinges. This time he decided to wait longer for the stuff to work.
He leaned against the wall opposite the door and glared at it. There was no doubt something amazing behind that
door. Perhaps there was a cool military weapon, like a bazooka. Or maybe this was the secret door to a nuclear missile. Kyle had always wanted to see one up close. The bombing of his country only served to pique his interest further. He wanted to see the weapon that had changed his life so profoundly.
But those weren’t the only options he considered. He thought there might be another hidden entrance to the bunker. Or perhaps the door protected something even cooler, like proof that aliens existed. Maybe it even had alien bodies inside!
These were the thoughts running through his mind as he attempted to push the door open again. He strained until spots danced before his eyes.
“Open up you fuc—”
Suddenly, the stubborn door gave way. He couldn’t shift his weight back fast enough. He flew forward, sprawling into the passage on the other side.
Kyle scrambled to his feet. His eyes went wide. A pair of massive metal tanks dominated the room. They stood about ten feet apart and had to be almost fifteen feet high. A series of pipes connected the two containers at different intervals.
This could be it! It could be the water purification system.
He moved toward a dusty control panel. He studied it for a second before looking around the rest of the room.
Another passage led out of the chamber. It didn’t have a door, and it was dark. He kept a wary eye on it, hoping monsters wouldn’t come running out of it. They hadn’t seen zombies yet, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t. He knew a little bit about radiation and how bad it was. His best friend’s mom had it, and all her hair fell out. She looked like a zombie until she got better. Thankfully, she’d been doing fine the last time he’d seen her. He hoped she and his friend survived.
He quickly shook away the thought. He didn’t like remembering his friends because there was a good chance they were all dead now.
Kyle returned to the control panel. He blew across the keyboard, kicking up a cloud of dirt that made him sniffle and cough. Wiping his nose, he sat down in the rolling chair nearby.
He examined the buttons. One had the word ‘intake’ scrawled across it, while the others were unmarked or the writing had degraded over time. The steel console and large raised buttons were a complete mystery. Why didn’t they have some sort of screen with a menu you could choose from? People in the Cold War sure were stupid. Even the cheapest mobile phone game had a better interface.
Over time, he managed to decipher a few more of the keys. It could be the fallout shelter’s water purification system, but it was hard to tell. However, one button said “water,” so maybe he was right.
Kyle’s heart beat faster. His mother would be so happy. Now they wouldn’t have to worry about running out of fresh water.
Elated by his find, he wrestled with the idea of going back to tell his mother the wonderful news. His gaze drifted to the short, gloomy passage. Could there be monsters locked up in another room down there?
Standing, he shook out his shoulders. He wasn’t a kid anymore. Darkness didn’t scare him. He’d already killed a man, and he’d do it again if he had to. Kyle decided to fully explore the secret passageway before he left.
He pulled a small penlight out of his back pocket. His dad told him never to go anywhere without it, so he always kept it on him. The minuscule light didn’t do much to illuminate the darkness, but it was better than nothing.
As he inched his way down the corridor, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He felt a breath on his neck, but when he spun around, no one was there.
“This is creepy as hell,” he muttered.
He slipped deeper into the hallway until he looked back and couldn’t see where he’d come from. Unnerved, he was just about to turn around and run when he spotted something glinting ahead. He tiptoed toward it.
“Whoa.” Kyle stood before another door. This one was thicker and looked heavier than most of the others in the shelter. In fact, it looked like it might be an exit. Maybe that breath he’d felt was actually air from outside.
An iron bar lay across the center of it. He heaved it up and set it aside. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open. To his surprise, it opened easily, as if someone was pulling from the other side. He stumbled a few steps into the next room and collided with another body.
“Oh, shit!” Kyle stared up into the bearded face of a strange man. The golden crucifix on his neck suggested he might be one of the cultists, but Kyle didn’t wait around to find out. He took one look at the man’s holstered pistol and turned to run for his life. He sprinted back toward the water purification room.
“Hey! Get back here!” The man’s feet pounded on the concrete behind him. “I ain’t gonna hurt you, kid. I just want to talk to you.”
“My mother says don’t talk to strangers,” Kyle shouted without turning around.
He cleared the door and ran into the main hallway. Instead of leading the guy back to his family, he lunged toward a stairwell. He leaped onto the railing and slid down it, picking up speed as he went.
The man had to slow his pace to take the stairs the old-fashioned way. Without a plan, Kyle fought against the panic threatening to strangle him. He came zipping off the rail at the bottom much faster than he’d expected. They made it look so easy in cartoons, but cartoons didn’t skin their knees and bruise their elbows.
When he hit the landing, he bounced across the floor. He scrambled to his feet and took off running again. A scream of pure terror burst from his lips. His attacker drew closer with each passing second.
Kyle glanced behind him. His pursuer drew his pistol.
Kyle returned his gaze forward. He almost fainted with relief when he came around a corner and saw his father. Luke took in the situation, drew his 9mm automatic pistol, and sent a short burst down the passage. The cultist didn’t even have time to realize he’d been shot before he tumbled to the floor. Bullet holes tore up his face. He was obviously killed instantly.
“Dad.” Kyle threw himself into his father’s arms. For a moment, they held each other, and then Luke held Kyle at arm’s length.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine. I found a water purification system, and I think it still works. But I found a door too. A passage. And then I—there was a metal bar. I opened it. But the guy was there!”
“Slow down. Tell me again what happened. Where did that man come from?” Luke asked.
“There’s another way out. I unbarred the door, and he was on the other side.”
“Shit.” Luke went to the corpse and picked it up, grunting with the effort. He tossed it over his shoulder and turned to face Kyle. “Show me the exit.”
In short order, the two of them stood outside in the snow, staring in dismay at the steel door set into a small cliffside.
“A blind man could spot that, Dad.”
“I know.” Luke set the corpse down in front of a rock. He rested the dead man’s back against it. “We need to think of a way to hide it, somehow.”
“The door or the dude?”
“Both.”
“What about camo netting? I saw some in the shelter,” Kyle said.
“Maybe, but I don’t know if we have enough. And even that won’t stand up to close inspection. Obviously, the cult is searching this area.”
“Hey, Dad! I saw a movie once where the good guys caused an avalanche to block a cave so the bad guys couldn’t find it.”
“We’d never be able to predict how far the avalanche would run or what effects it might have on us underground.”
“Oh.” Kyle visibly deflated. “Well, at least I found the water purification system.”
“And an exit. You did good, Kyle. I’m sure your mother will be able to relax now that we have a source of fresh renewable water. We still need to make sure it works, but with any luck, it will.”
Kyle looked at the corpse a few steps away and swallowed hard.
“Uh, what are we going to do with him? I mean, won’t the cult go looking for him if he goes missing?”
> “There’s a gulch about a few miles from here. If I throw him down that, they won’t bother climbing down to retrieve the corpse. It would be impossible to bring the guy back up without a lot of effort. And they might never find him there. But if they do, it should throw them off our scent.”
“Great! Can I come with you?” Kyle bounced on his toes.
“No. Go back and tell your mother what you found. Lock the door from the inside for now. Make sure you put the bar back down to brace it, too. I’ll come back in the other way.”
“But I want to—”
“Kyle! Don’t make me ask twice.”
“Fine.”
Kyle watched as his father hauled the body over his shoulder. His dad trudged off through the snow, carrying the man to a final resting place.
He waited until his dad was gone before heading into the bunker. He sealed the door and ran down the hall to look for his mom.
24
Luke glanced across the central room to where Liz paced. Ever since Kyle had told her about the man infiltrating the bunker, she’d been on edge. There was only one way to calm her down. He had to get rid of the Children of the Bomb once and for all.
He stood with arms folded across his chest. He couldn’t wait for this to be over. Winter would be hard enough. If they could eliminate this threat, they might have a real chance of making it to spring.
Derek and Edwin spread out their crudely drawn map across the table. They’d used old, rolled-up blank scrolls found in the computer room. The paper kept trying to roll back up, so Edwin set a canteen on one corner. Luke added a box of .38 FMJ rounds to another. Derek thrust his trench knife into another to hold the paper flat against the table.
“All right.” Derek pointed a ragged fingernail at a square drawn on the map in blue marker. “This is the main compound. It’s a fairly large building originally used by park rangers near the lake. There are at least fifty cult members there at any given time, maybe more.”
“Fifty?” Liz gasped. “I only counted a few dozen.”