“It’s okay, keep going.” Richard says. His voice is oddly comforting. He’s not searching my words for information anymore. He sits and listens as I unload the trauma from the last few months.
“I killed him and I thought she was over it. We all knew she was angry about the attacks. They all were. We hurt so many people. She was losing control, everyone was. But Scarlet was spiralling hard. The burden of it really got to her and she began to plot again. She used Evan’s plans and maps. She would disappear for hours, sometimes days. She became obsessed.”
“So she did have Evan’s research?”
I look Richard in the eyes as a think through what I say next, “No. She has his bomb.” I clarify. The air grows still for a moment. Did I put her in more or less danger by telling him that?
“She has it here?”
I nod, “I didn’t think she’d go this far Richard. She’s not like Evan, she’s not ruthless and vengeful. But she has it here, I think it’s in her room.”
“That would be enough to complete the research needed.” Richard sighs. He checks his watch and then returns his gaze to me. “If he finds out about this, he’ll kill all of them. This would give him the power to kill millions more.”
“I know. I was planning to sneak into her room and get it out of here. While she was away at dinner.”
“Better hurry then, you have 20 minutes before dinner is over.” He walks towards the door.
“Hold on to that bomb once you find it. We may have another use for it. We’ll talk more soon.” He leaves the room. I wait a moment before going back to her room. I’ll have to be fast, she could come back at any minute.
“Shark?” I hear her voice as I begin to turn the doorknob, “What are you doing?”
“Oh, hey Scarlet. I…” I turn to look at her, my cheeks grow warm. What do I do now? Richard’s expecting me to get the bomb.
“Are you alright? Christopher said you didn’t feel like coming to dinner.” She reaches for my hand.
“I’m fine.” I sigh. Although I’m not, at all. I feel defeated. If Nathan thinks she knows something, it’s only a matter of time before he does something about it. I’m so scared that I’ll lose her to him. All because of that stupid bomb.
“What are you doing outside my room?” she asks suspiciously.
“I was just looking for you.” I answer. My face is tense. I hope she buys it, she has to. If she thinks that I don’t trust her, I’ll never get that bomb. I’ll never be able to keep her safe.
“Well, here I am.” She shrugs, smiling her sad smile. As I look at her, I feel myself softening.
“Yeah, here you are.” I find myself smiling slightly.
“You sure you’re okay? You don’t look good.”
I stare at her for a long moment. Her eyes so sad. I wish I could take all of this away from her. All the memories of the past few months. All her hurt.
I squeeze her hand, “It’s not important now.” I reply. As much as I know I have to get that bomb out of here. To protect her. I just want to be with her. To talk to her now. To not have to worry about all of this craziness.
“Do you want to come in and talk?”
I nod. I watch her turn the handle and follow her into the room. All of these rooms are identical except for whatever wall decorations are hanging on the wall. I scan the room quickly for her bag, spotting it poking out just from under her bed. I walk over to the bed and sit on the edge of it.
I find myself ranting to her about how worried I am for her. She promises she won’t do something stupid. I’m not sure if I believe her. I know the bunker wasn’t what she was expecting. I’m sure she’s second guessing herself. But this is Scarlet, she’ll do something impulsive eventually. I try to subtly warn her about the dangers of having a bomb under her bed. Hiding one in the bunker.
I choose to believe that for now, she won’t do anything. I kiss her gently.
“I’m sorry I scared you.” she apologizes as she pulls away. I know she’s sorry. She never means to hurt us when she does these things.
“I love you.” I tell her.
“I love you too.”
“I really do.” I whisper.
Maybe I should be the one feeling guilty here? She doesn’t even know who I am, not really. She loves Shark, caring, loving, protective Shark. But that’s not who I am. I’m Finn. A follower, a coward. Always caught on the wrong side of things. She wouldn’t love Finn, he’s not a good guy. I hope she never has to meet him. I hope that somehow this ends before she gets the chance. I sigh, laying down. I stare thoughtfully at the ceiling. She rests her head on my chest. I find myself wishing this was how things could be forever. I wish things could be this simple all of the time. Just the two of us, together. I drift to sleep, holding on to her.
14
Scarlet
I lay on the bed, Sharks deeps breaths tell me that he’s fallen asleep. I smile at the thought of my head on his chest. I listen to his steady heartbeat as if it’s a lullaby, the best lullaby I’ve ever heard. In the stillness of the night, I feel my mind begin to wander towards suspicion. I wonder what brought Shark to my room this evening. Was it really just to talk? Did he only come to tell me he loves me? A large part of me hopes so, what a dream that would be to have him find me just to tell me that. But, deep in my heart, I feel like that wasn’t the reason.
I come to the paranoid conclusion that he suspects something. He knows that I’m plotting and he came to find out why. He may have come to talk me out of it. But then why didn’t he? Why attempt to break in my room to talk me out of a scheme and not do it? I twist my head awkwardly to look at him, just for a moment. I supposed he could have just come to be with me. Perhaps he did just want to talk.
I push the worried thoughts from my mind and focus my senses of the rise and fall of his chest. I match my breathing to his, fully in sync with his breaths.
“Goodnight.” I whisper to him, though I know he’s in too deep a slumber to hear me. I close my eyes and allow myself to fall asleep there, protected in his arms. Feeling truly safe for the first time since the attacks.
* * *
Morning comes fast. I wake to the sound of someone banging on the door. I groan, reluctantly getting myself out of bed. Shark sits up slightly, he looks a little disoriented.
“It’s probably just Christopher getting us up for breakfast.” I tell him, looking at the clock hanging on the wall next to the door. I open the door, expecting to see the young, blonde boy standing outside but it’s not him.
“Ally!” I greet her, surprised. She peeks her head into my room, seeing Shark on the bed.
“Morning Scarlet. Shark.” She winks at Shark. She seems more hyper than she has been in a long time, much like the day I met her and Kat.
“Morning Ally.” Shark replies uncomfortably.
“Scarlet, I need your help.” She pushes past me into my room and sits down on the bed. I shrug at Shark.
“Okay?” I close the door.
“So, there’s this boy.” She starts. I sit close beside her on the bed. “I ran into him last night…like literally. And just, Scarlet his smile and his eyes were so green and Scarlet, he’s my age and you gotta help me!” She grabs my hand and squeezes it.
“I’m gonna go back to my room and get a shower.” Shark says, rolling out of bed. I hear him say it, but I’m too caught up in what Ally is saying to remember to respond. He slips quietly out of the room, leaving us alone.
“Tell me more.” I giggle. It’s fun to be able to talk about a boy like I’m in high school and everything’s back to the way it was.
Ally goes on telling me all about him, explaining every detail she noticed. It’s cute seeing her so excited.
“What’s his name?” I ask once she’s done.
“Oh… uh, I didn’t think to ask.” She blushes.
“Come on.” I look at the clock and pull her up off of the bed. “Breakfast should be going on now. I bet he’ll be there. You can ask him then.”
&nb
sp; “Uh.” She scoots slowly behind me. “Ask him?”
“Yeah, for his name.” I pause, “Come on.”
“Fine, But I’m only coming because I’m hungry.” She agrees, allowing me to continue pulling her in the direction of the cafeteria.
Ally stops abruptly before walking through the door to the cafeteria.
“What?” I ask her, slightly annoyed, completely starving.
“He’s in there.” she whispers. I look around the room as if I know what the boy looks like.
“Where?” I ask her after realizing that there are two teens that look the way she described.
“Right there,” She points subtly, “At the third table.”
“Okay, well go in!” I pull the door open, practically pushing her through. “I’m hungry.”
Awkwardly, she grabs a plate, trying to look like she isn’t staring at him. He notices her standing in line and keeps stealing a look in our direction every couple of seconds, she doesn’t catch him.
After serving our breakfast, I lead her to the second table and sit down right in front of him, facing away.
“What are you doing.” She mouths to me as she sits down across the table. I just shrug and begin shoveling food into my mouth. She looks up at him, makes eye contact and smiles nervously at him. Quickly she looks back down at her plate. Her face flushes bright red.
Not too long after the others come and sit with us. Reese sits beside Ally, Shark beside me.
“What’re we talkin’ about?” Kevin asks, instantly sensing that something was up.
“Probably the boy Ally likes.” Shark says loudly. I elbow him, spilling the food on his fork in his lap.
Ally rests her forehead on the palm of her hand and laughs nervously.
“Oh? Who’s that Ally?” Kevin teases. At this point all of us are trying not to laugh at poor Ally’s reaction to us picking on her.
“Okay, don’t look.” I begin. Ally’s glaring at me. “But the guy directly behind me, facing Ally.” I tell them as quietly as I can. Reese looks up for a moment.
“Oh he is cute.” She leans in towards Ally.
“Oh, you like Sam?” Christopher says as he sits on the other side of me. I hadn’t even seen him come in.
“Hey Sam!” The kid shouts to the boy behind me.
“Morning Chris!” Sam replies.
“Come over here and meet the newbies.” he calls back, waving him over.
“Oh no.” Ally groans. At this point Kevin is laughing so uncontrollably he’s trying not to spit his water all over the table.
Sam walks over and stands at the end of the table. Ally was right about his smile, it is precious. He’s pretty well in shape, a little on the short side but he’s cute.
Christopher introduces us all, emphasizing Ally. Sam greets us, his eyes not leaving Ally. Not that she could see him staring at her as she was pretending to have a conversation with Reese.
“Sam’s the coolest.” Christopher says, grinning wide. “He lets me hang out with him when my parents are doing…whatever it is that my parents do.” The pride Christopher takes from just knowing Sam is adorable.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you Sam.” I say to him. “Do you want to sit with us?”
At that Ally has stopped pretending to have a conversation and is frozen, her eyes wide.
“Sure.” Sam shrugs.
“You can sit here.” Kevin says, scooting over to make room for him next to Ally. Now Shark and I are laughing. I grab his hand and squeeze it, he squeezes back.
“Oh, um.” Sam stares at the empty seat for a long moment. “Okay.” He blushes a little as he takes his seat next to Ally, who is desperately trying to non-verbally get Reese to scoot over so she can scoot away from him. Reese doesn’t budge.
“So, how are you guys liking it here?” Sam asks us all.
“I mean I’m liking it a lot so far. It’s nice having electricity and good food.” Kevin replies. “What about you Ally? You like it here?” Kevin directs the attention to Ally. I hear her gulp. Her wide eyes shift towards Sam.
“Oh um, it’s nice.” she replies. Her knee begins to bounce nervously.
“I’m glad you like it.” Sam smiles again, staring at Ally.
“How long have you been here Sam?” I ask him. Hoping to relieve Ally a bit by taking his attention off of her for a moment.
“Oh, since maybe three days before the bombs hit New Mexico.” he says.
“You here with your family?” I ask.
“Just my mom and my little sister,” I try to not be jealous that his family is still alive. “What about you guys?” he asks.
“No, this is it. Our families didn’t make it.” I tell him, my heart sinks a little.
“Oh. I’m sorry.” He frowns. There’s awkward silence for a moment after.
“Hey Sam, you should show Ally around.” Christopher suggests. Sam thinks for a moment, waiting for Ally to say something. She doesn’t. She’s probably too nervous to think about it.
“Would you like a tour?” he asks her. She finally looks at him for the first time.
“Uh…yeah, okay.” She accepts reluctantly.
“Awesome.” He grins. “Let’s go.” He stands up, she follows suit.
“Cool.” She giggles uncomfortably.
“Have fun you two.” Kevin says, trying to sound as much like a mom as he could. We all watch as Sam leads Ally out of the cafeteria, holding the door for her and asking her questions.
“Ah, young love.” Kevin chuckles. “Isn’t that refreshing?”
We all turn to look at Christopher.
“What?” He shrugs. “It looked like they needed a little help.”
Our table erupts in a fit of laughter. My stomach aches, but I can’t stop laughing, and I don’t want to.
* * *
“So…Ally’s got a boyfriend now.” Alec chuckles lightly. The two of us are sitting in the cafeteria, while the others are exploring the bunker.
“I guess so.” I smile. “We probably scared the poor kid pretty bad though.”
“No, Kevin scared him.” He corrects me.
“Well, yeah. Poor Ally didn’t look very happy.”
“No, but I’m sure that’s changed by now.”
“So, maybe you were right.” I say. “Maybe this place isn’t so bad. I haven’t seen Ally that happy in a long time.” Swallowing my pride and admitting that isn’t quite as painful as I thought.
“Neither have I.” He frowns thoughtfully for a moment. “I know you wanted to find something wrong with this place Scarlet, and I understand. But I don’t think you’ll find it here. I think this place is what it looks like.”
“Maybe you’re right.” I agree doubtfully. “So, you think we should stay?”
“I don’t see a better option.”
“Well, then I guess this is home, at least for now.”
Part of me does feel defeated, but mostly I’m hopeful. We’re not alone anymore, we don’t have to fend for ourselves anymore.
“Come on, let’s go explore with the others.” Alec stands up. “I hear there’s a gym.”
“Yeah. It’s a pretty nice gym.” I stand with him. “Let’s go.”
I find myself leading him on a tour of the bunker, remembering everything Christopher told me to the best of my ability.
“And this is the library.” I tell Alec as I lead him into the last room.
He gasps, taking in the giant room filled to the ceiling with books.
“This is huge!” he exclaims.
“I know.” I laugh a little. “It’s pretty big. I wonder when they had the time to build this.”
“Scarlet.” He shoots me a look.
“I know, I’m sorry.” I raise my hands slightly. “It’s just a little suspicious.”
On the other end of the room, I see Doctor Fowler talking to Richard. They’re sitting at one of the ten large, square, oak tables in the back of the first floor of the library.
The doctor notices the two of us and
waves. I wave back, but quickly walk over to the closest shelf and pretend to look through the titles.
“What’d you do that for?” Alec asks me, puzzled.
“I don’t know.” I shrug, still looking at the books. “He just makes me uncomfortable.”
“We should go say hi.” he suggests. I stop and glare at him.
“Why?”
“I don’t know, cause it’d be polite.”
“Since when are we worried about being polite?”
“Since he’s the guy who’s in-charge and it’d be good if he liked us. Not to mention you managed to tick him off already after you’ve only been here two days.”
“You make a good point.” I roll my eyes.
I begin walking slowly towards the two men.
“Good afternoon Doctor Fowler.” I greet him. “Richard.”
Richard smiles warmly at me.
“Good afternoon Scarlet.” Doctor Fowler replies dryly. “How’ve you been enjoying your time here?”
“I think it’s growing on me.”
“Well, I’m happy to hear it.” he replies. Something about his tone makes me uneasy.
“I’m in love with this library.”
I can almost hear Alec’s thoughts telling me not to ask.
“How long did it take to build it? It must have taken ages.”
“Well,” The doctor’s eyes narrow, “We had a rather large crew so it didn’t take all that long actually.”
“And everyone from that same crew is still here?”
“Quite a few, some of them went to California or Nevada to help with those shelters.”
“Wow! Other shelters?”
“Yes, there are many other shelters. Four just in California.”
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