“Is that the first time I woke up?”
“Yeah, I had just poked my head in to check on you. You stirred, so I grabbed the water and medication. It took a long while to sort out the meds, since I’m the only one who was really any sort of knowledgeable. Though, whoever grabbed the meds did a great job.”
“That was Larry. Military medic, remember?”
“Yeah, I kinda figured. Anyway, Jessie—speak of the devil.”
16
June 15, 2033
Seattle, Washington, USA
70th floor, Illeni Building
-53°F
1210 Hours
“Devil, eh?” Jessie said with a smirk. She stood nearby, until I waved her to sit with us. She grudgingly sat down, not getting too close to any of us.
“I was just filling Dante in on what happened while he was down there.”
“I would love it if he could tell us what happened while they were down there,” replied Jessie.
“Let’s finish explaining any changes first. You can definitely do that better, since you were instituting most of the policies.”
“Yeah, I guess I can, Linda.” Jessie turned to me. “Okay, she told you about the bathrooms, cubicles, and tables?”
My eyes bugged a little.
“Relax, voices carry. I wasn’t spying, I could hear you as I was walking up. Didn’t want to bother you guys, so I waited a moment. Anyway, I made a few rules to keep things smooth. Most of the toys—” here Jessie looked at Eddie and his pile of Lego.
“And the books stay in the new communal area. The tables are pretty big and can fit sixteen people each. With all the chairs from the cubicles, we’ll never run short of seating.”
I nodded. It bothered me how well voices carried. Even at that point I could hear people quietly conversing in the lines for the bathroom, and in the kitchen.
“I made sure there was a five minute limit on the showers, so that nobody hogged it. We also put in a new rotation, starting tomorrow. Three shifts—zero hundred to o-eight hundred, o-eight hundred to sixteen hundred, and sixteen to zero hundred. There’s no day and night anymore, so we can split up responsibilities easier this way.”
“Feels like the military all over again,” I joked.
Jessie and Linda both nodded. “That’s the idea. We need regimented schedules and discipline. Otherwise we’ll be in complete chaos. I’m a little surprised we haven’t had anything too chaotic happen yet.”
“Does that mean I need to start calling you L.T. Again?”
Jessie glared at me. “No, just like I never made you call me boss. We’re not in the military. Anyway, Linda and Eddie signed up for sleep first, work second shift. Third shift is theirs to do with as they please. I’m on work first, sleep third. You can sign up for anything, since we have a pretty good balance across all three.”
“Yeah, I’d just like to think about it a bit.”
“That’s fine. We have food scheduled to be served for the third and fourth hours of every shift. That will start tonight. We also need a maintenance team to build things as needed, fix things, etcetera. Then we have the watch. They’ll be outside the walls, either here or across the building, looking out the windows for signs of survivors. They only need to be out a half hour every two hours. That’s a rotation in itself.”
“I’ll do that. I’ll probably help out elsewhere, but that sounds like something I’m suited for.”
“I figured,” sighed Jessie. “A few hours ago someone thought they saw lights down on the streets below, but it was hard to see for sure. It’s definitely possible. The winds are still pretty bad up here, and with the ice, snow, and debris, it isn’t the easiest job.”
“I’m sure we’ll see something. Is there anything else for now?”
“No. I’ll catch up Hillary, Geno, and Larry when they wake up. Enjoy the rest of the day.”
She stood and briskly headed off, probably to get everything up to her exacting standards. Had I not witnessed it the day before, I wouldn’t have believed she even slept.
Once we were all caught up, I scooted over to help Eddie with his lego model. Linda took all three plates and headed to the kitchen area.
“Thanks,” I called after her. She turned back and flashed a smile.
The rest of the day was uneventful, save for another team returning with more goods. They walked over and dropped the bulging packs on the tables, which were quickly unloaded and sorted. The next team put the bags on and headed for the store.
I helped with some organization in the supply room, making sure we had everything well cataloged. The next day I started filling in on the watch team. Each shift change the gossip was shared across both teams.
Usually nothing happened, but I noticed a small trend started up after the trips to the store became more regular. Someone invariably mentioned papers rustling, among other sounds that most wrote off as the building settling in the cold. Even so, nobody ever saw anything.
I took my turns on the windows, watching for lights. I kept a flashlight with me, but I had eyes well suited to darkness, and could usually make out shapes on the streets far below. It became easier over the next two days as the winds died down.
The temperatures outside had stabilized, and the winds had faded to silence. The lights inside were dim, but they must have shone like a beacon in the unrelenting darkness.
I heard from Linda and Jessie that most teams had completed their work. Expansion was finished, the office was warm. Lights were no longer an issue, with teams bringing up spare batteries from the store.
People frequently suffered from headaches, but Linda and Larry figured it was the pressure change from the falling temperatures. Ibuprofen and Advil were commonly taken throughout the various shifts.
Two days after my trip, the second day of the new shift cycle, a group carefully brought up several large racks of beer. They had evidently found a large stash in the store. I was amazed it hadn't all burst in the cold. It was all terrible, but it was the first respite since the darkness descended.
Of course, Jessie immediately confiscated all of the beer and put it into supply. That was a good thing, because the beer would have disappeared in short order without rationing. Every crew after that made an effort to bring up beer and water in addition to whatever else was retrieved.
After three days, the office was well supplied. Trips dropped to once per twenty-four hour period with a list of things to look for. Items on the ground floor were becoming scarce, since most of the good stuff had already been scavenged.
Jessie forced us onto a one MRE per day plan, to stretch the fresh food further. People grumbled, but it made the fresh food that much better.
Board games became very popular, and one was going almost all the time. Someone got extra adventurous and went all the way into the first level garage. They pulled their pen and paper RPG books from their car, though the car wouldn’t start due to the cold.
When questioned, they said there were no bodies anywhere down there, though there were a few cars missing. Most were still present, according to the thirdhand account I received.
After that trip, Jessie banned going to the garage, for safety reasons. Even though the winds were relatively calm, every member of that trip had small injuries. Most were superficial cuts, but one had a bad gouge on their hand from some glass. The rumor was the doors were frozen shut, so the team had to break the windows.
The one who had the books started running RPG games for anybody that wanted to play. Characters were rolled up constantly, dice making a racket on the tables. Felt was procured on the next trip down and laid on the games table to deaden any noise. After that, nobody complained.
People constantly changed in and out on that game, looking for some absurd humor to make the situation more bearable. I considered joining a few times, but always ended up heading onto a shift or getting pulled into something else by Linda or Jessie.
Everything was going really well. People had settled into a routine. Nobod
y was overly stressed, despite the extraordinarily strange situation we found ourselves in. The only common complaint was headaches.
Seven days after my first trip to the store, the main door opened, causing the airlock in front of it to shudder a little at the sudden temperature differential. A ghost from the past had shown up.
17
June 21, 2033
Seattle, Washington, USA
70th floor, Illeni Building
-59°F
1200 Hours
Tracy stepped into the office. I watched her walk casually in, wearing the same light jacket as before. My jaw hit the ground as she appeared, and I noticed she was not even rosy cheeked.
I stood from the table I sat at with Linda and Eddie. I began to walk toward Tracy. She beamed at me, something she had never done before.
Jessie was beside me a moment later, once again showing her preternatural boss skill to know when something was up. We approached Tracy, examining her. She stood there, just inside the airlock.
“Tracy, you’re back. Where have you been?” I finally managed to say. I was still getting over the shock of her sudden appearance.
We had forgotten her, written her off as dead. Every trip for the last week had kept an eye open for any evidence of her. Nobody had found anything.
“Yes, I am back! So good. It was a little chilly out there. Strange, you seem to have changed quite a bit in the last few minutes,” she replied.
“Few—no you’ve been gone way longer than a few minutes.”
“No, no. I remember, distinctly, that Geno and Hillary had their little accident and one of you told me to run for help. So I came straight back here.” She frowned.
“How did you beat me back up here? Why... why do you have a beard? You didn’t have a beard an hour ago.”
“That’s what I’m trying to say—” I started, before Jessie cut me off.
“Tracy, you’ve been gone for a week. Where the fuck have you been?” Jessie was near to blowing, her temper rising with the carefree nature of Tracy’s responses.
In fact, her whole temperament was so different from what I remembered. The more I thought about her sudden appearance, the more I grew freaked out. The hairs on my neck and arms stood fully upright.
“Jessie, language. So unfitting for such a filthy mouth on such a pretty woman.”
“Answer the fucking question, Tracy,” Jessie growled.
“Hmph. I was climbing the stairs. Like I said, as soon as the floor collapsed, I ran back here. You’re not making any sense. There’s no way I was climbing the stairs for a whole week.”
“That's all you remember?”
Tracy's smile faltered for the smallest fraction of a second.
“Why, yes. Of course, I was climbing the stairs. Then... well I suppose my flashlight failed for a moment. I was wrapped in darkness. Then it came back on, and I was right outside the door. I must have made my way up the stairs. That's when I walked back in. Like I said, only minutes.”
Tracy turned the smile back to maximum.
My head started to ache something fierce. I could hear something, at the very limit of detection. A barely perceptible mosquito-like whine.
I put a hand up to my temple, rubbing it. Jessie appeared to be doing the same, though Tracy continued with her thousand watt smile.
“Excuse me, if it’s okay, I would like to use the little ladies’ room.”
Jessie grunted, waving her farther into the office. I found the pain distracting. I couldn’t make sense of it, the headaches were too frequent.
“Headache for you too, Jess?”
She nodded. The pressure in my head started to relent.
“Must have been the cold air from outside the office,” I offered as an explanation.
“Yeah. Weird how that happens.”
“Anyway, I’m picking up an extra shift on watch, I’m going to get ready. Talk later?”
She nodded and wandered away. I headed to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water, then sat with Linda and Eddie again.
“Was that Tracy I just saw,” asked Linda.
“Yeah, she seems okay. No idea how she managed out there for a week. My head is killing me though, I think I’ll go lay down until it’s time for my shift on watch.”
Linda looked me over. “Alright, Dante. Drink that water and make sure you set an alarm.”
I stood back up and trudged to my tent. I slugged back the water, and felt the headache ease a little.
I lay down, one arm over my head. What seemed to be only a moment later, my watch started to quietly chirp. I silenced the alarm.
I rolled out of the sleeping bag and dressed. Then I grabbed my heavy jacket and left the tent.
Larry was at one of the tables, setting the rotation for the day. I approached and sat down near him.
“Dante, you’re on first rotation, lobby.” With that, he was done giving instructions to me. Warm and cuddly all the way through, that guy.
I headed through the airlock and opened the door, allowing a gust of freezing cold air in. My eyes watered from the frigid blast, droplets immediately hardening into beads of ice that broke off as I blinked. Thankfully, the rest of my skin was well covered. The air outside the office had to be nearly twenty below zero. I didn't even want to think about the temperatures outside the building.
“Yo, my turn,” I said as I stepped into the lobby. “Anything happen? Weird noises?”
I looked around the deserted lobby. “Hey, where are you?”
I poked my head into the office across the lobby, but it was also deserted, save for rubble from our office. Mounds of computers, monitors, and broken bits and bobs were scattered around the floor.
I played my flashlight around the whole room, just to be sure. There was nobody in there, and nothing was moving.
Stumped, I headed to the fire stairs. I tried the western stairs first.
“Yo!”
My voice echoed back, but otherwise there was no sound. I tried the eastern stairs, the ones we usually used.
“Hey, anybody in here?”
Again, nothing but my own voice and dead silence.
I stepped back to the lobby door and pushed it open. It stuck for a moment, probably from the cold. I knew the electromagnetic locks no longer worked, with no electricity to power them.
I stepped back through the airlock into the warm office. The exposed skin near my eyes and mouth immediately began to prickle from the differential.
Jessie happened to be walking by, so I flagged her down.
“Hey, do you know who’s on watch in the lobby?”
She shook her head. “No, but Larry should know, he’s the watch super right now. Want me to ask?”
“Yeah, please do.”
A moment later she walked back, “Should be Geno. Why, what’s up?”
“He’s not in here, is he?”
“Do you hear him,” she asked in a deadpan tone.
“Fair enough. He doesn’t seem to be out there.”
“Okay. Just go look around again, and I’ll send Larry out if we can’t find him. He’s pretty responsible, so I can’t imagine he walked away for a nap.”
I nodded, and she left to look around. I headed back out into the frigid air of the lobby.
I passed the next ten minutes wandering the lobby. I headed into the office across from ours again, where I picked my way around the piles of debris. A moment later, I stood at the windows, gazing out at the streets far below. The watch had started issuing binoculars for each watchman. I had left my pair in the empty office for anybody to use.
A chair was set up near one of the full length windows. I sat and gazed out at the dead world beyond the windows. The clouds had finally started to disperse over the last few days.
The permanent darkness was great for me, because of how sensitive my eyes were to light. Most of the others struggled to see anything in the dim starlight. I could see the hulks of wrecked cars with my bare eyes.
Wind was still common an
d debris still swirled in the street, but nothing like it had been. It was never easy to determine if something was alive seven hundred feet below, even if common sense dictated that any perceived sign of life was simple fantasy.
No artificial light had been seen in the last week. Starlight glinted off of the steel and glass corpses of the world past, and I often found myself sitting and ruminating on how drastically the world had changed.
Something rustled behind me, but when I turned around, I saw nothing but a few sheets of paper, splayed against the other side of the far windows by the wind. I was confused- the windows were far too thick to transmit the sound of a few sheets of paper. I ran my flashlight over the room, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
When I turned back to the windows directly in front of me, starlight nearly blinded me. I craned my neck to look up toward the sky, but the bit I could see didn’t have any exceptionally bright stars. Then the light caught my eye again.
I searched the skies for a moment, before I inevitably started looking lower. The light flashed a third time, and my eyes were drawn right to the source.
Across the street, a few hundred feet away, I saw flashlights. They were waving around in a room some forty stories below me. I excitedly grabbed the binoculars to look closer. I could make out shapes in the gloom, one in particular against a window. That was where the light was coming from. I turned on my flashlight and started trying to signal them back.
For a moment, it seemed like they were responding, but then the lights shifted away. I looked all over the building for further signs. Nothing.
I turned my flashlight back on and set it on the chair to point out the window. It would be a beacon in the dead world, since the office was sufficiently shielded that it didn’t even reflect off of the near buildings.
I sprinted through the lobby, slipping once before I slid into the door. I shoved it open, and stuck my head through the airlock.
Darkness Trilogy (Book 1): Winds of Darkness Page 10