by A. L. Jambor
Andrew frowned. He wasn’t sure what she was asking.
"The outside of what? You mean the outside of this facility?” Mindy nodded her head. Her short waves bounced up and down.
"I can’t take you outside, sweetie. They’d never allow it. And besides, you’d have to go through decontamination, and that sucks.”
"But I really want to go outside,” Mindy said, just short of whining. She put her hand on Andrew’s arm to show how sincerely she wanted to go outside.
Andrew stifled a grin. He made his most serious face.
"There’s no way we’re going outside.”
Mindy lowered her forehead and squinted her eyes to show her disapproval. She made her deepest frown.
"But I really miss being out there. Please, please take me outside.” She was whining now and getting on Andrew’s nerves.
"Look, what if I show you around the whole facility, all the places in the biosphere? In the animal room there’s a screen that shows you what the pasture looks like. It’s just like being outside. What do you say I take you there?”
Mindy thought for a minute. If he took her to every room, she could imagine what it must look like from the outside. She could ask a lot of questions and figure out the lay of the land that way.
"Okay,” she said, nodding her head.
Andrew got up from the table and put his coffee cup in the trash. He folded up his wrinkled magazine and put it in the long leg pocket in his jumpsuit. Then they headed back toward the field with Baby Girl in tow.
*****
Mark had gotten up early that morning. He was excited about the prospect of leaving this place and he wanted to get a jump on the research necessary to do it. He showered and stuffed a couple of bags of chips in his mouth, downed a can of soda, and left his house. He headed for the field but at the last minute changed his mind. It was very early, no later than 6 a.m., so no one was around. He turned instead towards the stairs leading up to the labs on the top floor.
He climbed the stairs quietly. He decided that if anyone found him going up the stairs he would just say he was trying to get some exercise. He got to the top and walked toward the metal doors leading to the labs. He quietly opened the doors and listened. When he didn’t hear anything, he entered the hallway and gently closed the door behind him.
He tiptoed down the hallway. He noticed the labs were empty, so he kept walking until he got to the first chamber. The double doors were sealed shut. Mark knew the button on the right side wall would open those doors, but he didn’t know if it would sound some sort of alarm. He couldn’t remember from when they’d brought him in here because he’d been too pissed off and fighting instead of looking around. Now he wished he’d paid more attention.
Finally, he decided to take a chance and hit the button. The doors slid open. No alarm sounded, so Mark entered the first chamber and hit the button on that side of the wall. When that door closed tightly, he went to the next set of doors and repeated the process.
Finally, at the last chamber, he was standing underneath the hatchway to the outside. He knew that if he went outside, he would have to undergo decontamination, at least if he wanted to come back in for Mindy. He would have to decide what he wanted to do once he got out.
Mark climbed up the ladder until he could touch the hatchway cover. There was a button to his left that opened the hatchway. Mark pushed it. The hatch lifted slowly until it was standing straight up.
Mark stuck his head out the hatchway hole and looked around. It was a beautiful summer day. The sun was shining, and it must have rained because the grass glistened and the ground was moist. Mark continued to climb out of the hatch.
As he stood on the ground surrounded by nothing but air, Mark felt exhilarated. He looked to his right and saw the trucks the crew used to bring supplies to the facility. He turned around and saw that there was nothing in the back except a long empty field and woods. The woods surrounded the property.
There was only one road going in and out. The road ran through the woods. Mark headed for the road. He wanted to see how long it was and where he would come out at the end of it. He got to the road and walked away from the trucks toward the woods.
Mark walked for about a mile before the end of the road. He kept going for about another half mile. When he emerged from woods he found himself standing on an access road leading to U.S. 19 North. There was a sign reading “Palm Harbor 2.” Mark had to make a decision. Would he just start walking, or would he go back and get Mindy and Baby Girl?
It would be so much easier to just go. The responsibility of a girl and dog seemed overwhelming to the 10-year-old boy. But he did like the idea of company, and Mindy was different from any other girl he’d ever known. But then again, Mark hadn’t known any other girls. He hesitated for several minutes before deciding to turn around and head back to the facility.
Before heading into the biosphere, Mark walked toward the end of the facility. He walked quite a ways before he found the other hatchway door.
To his right was a large fenced-in pasture where the skeletal remains of animals lay roasting in the Florida sun. Mark wondered how they got there. There were big ones and small ones. There was a huge panel built into the ground that must have opened up to let them out. It was sealed tightly, but there were cameras mounted next to the panel, so whoever was inside could keep an eye on the pasture.
Mark also wandered toward the woods. He broke off branches of bushes and trees as he entered the woods so he could find his way back out. He was not more than a quarter mile in when he saw a clearing ahead.
In the clearing he saw several wind towers, their blades mounted high above the top of the woods. There were also solar panels mounted on tall towers.
"So this is how they get their power,” Mark said out loud. He turned to the right and saw another clearing not far into the woods. Mark walked towards it. When he reached the edge of that clearing, he saw mounted in the middle, the biggest satellite dish he’d ever seen.
"So that’s how they found us.”
Mark couldn’t wait to tell Mindy what he’d found.
*****
Mindy and Andrew entered the door leading to the field.
"The door to the animal room is this way.” Andrew turned to the right and Mindy followed. When they went through the door, the smell almost knocked Mindy over.
"Ugh, what is that?” she said, holding her nose.
"We still have chickens here, and we never finished the filtering system so we can’t open the vents just yet. But since the chickens are the only ones in here, it’s not too bad.”
Andrew went down the stairs that led into the animal room. Mindy reluctantly followed. She wanted to see as much of it as she could, especially the screen that showed the outside. They came to the bottom of the stairs and Mindy noticed a row of empty pens.
"There used to be cows and sheep in there,” Andrew was saying.
"What happened to them?” Mindy asked.
"Gerald left them outside and they all died. Dumbass.”
Mindy’s eyebrows shot up. Andrew looked at her face.
"Sorry, sometimes I forget about kids’ delicate ears.”
He walked over to the chicken coops and said hi to the chickens. The chickens were clucking happily and scratching the ground. Their pens were wide open affairs built with plenty of room for each hen. They had access to grass in the front and a trough of water to the right. There were 20 hens and three roosters. Andrew was leaning over the fence and poking a rooster.
"Lucky dogs.” He said with a smile. “I wish I had those odds.”
"Odds for what?” Mindy was looking up at Andrew.
"The odds of having a date with 6 different women every week.” Andrew smiled. He pointed to the roosters. “That’s Sakima, Buster, and Jackson.”
They walked over to the wall, where a panel had been built leading outside. There was about a half mile between the chicken coops and the outside wall. That would have allowed plenty of room for the cows
and sheep to wander.
When they got to the wall Andrew pointed out the screen. Mindy had already seen it. She looked at the trees blowing in the soft breeze and could also see the corpses of the animals.
"Why didn’t anybody bury them?” Mindy looked sad.
"Because we couldn’t see any point in it. The sun is doing a good job of returning them to the earth. Besides, we were so messed up that first week, we never thought of it. Then Gerry found Maria Elena and that gave us something else to do.”
Mindy didn’t like to look at the animals. She and Baby Girl headed back towards the chickens.
"What’s out there?” Mindy pointed to the back of the animal room.
"That’s where Calvin lives.”
"Where else can we go?” She was looking up again at Andrew.
"You know, there is a place we can go. And there is something there that you’ll really like. Do you want to invite some friends to come too?”
Mindy thought for a minute.
"Yeah, I’ll have to go find them.”
They walked up the stairs and out of the farm area back into the city to find Maria Elena, Katie, and Alyssa. If they saw Mark along the way, they would bring him too.
*****
Mark looked at the satellite dish. It was huge and had U.S.A. written all over it. As he looked up, he noticed that it, too, was high above the woods. From what Mark could decipher from this vantage point, the wind machines and satellite dish were viewable only from an airplane. They would have been totally invisible from the road. If Wilmer had owned this land too, then he could have kept this all a secret.
Mark turned around and headed back to the facility. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a body lying just to the right of the Satellite dish. He walked over to it. The body had on shorts and a polo shirt.
The polo shirt had a logo on it that said “Wilmer Biosphere” and the name “Jasper” written underneath it. The guy must have been out here working on the lines when the poison hit him. Mark backed away and again headed toward the facility.
He followed his broken twig trail until he was out of the woods. When he reached the front hatchway, he pushed the button and the lid slowly rose. As Mark climbed back in, he took one more look around the compound. Then he lowered himself in and pushed the button to close the lid.
When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he noticed Gerald going into his lab. He ducked to the side hoping to remain hidden. He waited but didn’t hear the doors sliding open. No one would want to touch him anyway, not without the decontamination shower. He peeked around the wall and didn’t see Gerald. Then he pushed the button to open the doors. This chamber was the decontamination chamber.
Mark turned on the showers. He figured he would have to go in clothes and all, so he plunged into the stream. He knew they were on a timer so he just stood there until the shower turned off automatically. He peaked out the door and still saw no one.
The doors were timed to open after so many minutes of the shower turning off, so Mark had to stand there and drip dry. When the doors opened, he slowly entered the next chamber and waited for the doors behind him to close. Then he pushed the button for the next set of doors. He was about to go through when he looked up and saw Gerald glaring down at him.
"Don’t you dare move,” said Gerald. “SIMON!”
Gerald was yelling for Simon to come and help “handle” this boy. In the meantime, Mark and Gerald stood watching each other. Mark figured he could outrun this old man, but if Gerald caught him he wasn’t so sure he could win the fight. So he stood and waited for Simon.
Simon came down the hallway from one of the labs. He didn’t seem to be in any hurry.
"What’s up Gerry?” He asked.
"I found this boy coming out of the decon chamber. He’s soaking wet.”
"You been outside, kid?” Simon asked Mark.
"Yeah. That’s why I took a shower, moron.” Simon suppressed a smile because when Mark said ‘moron’ he was looking at Gerald.
"See Gerry, he took a shower. Everything is fine. Now, can I go back to my game?” Simon was addicted to the computer’s solitaire game and could play only when he had a day off. Gerald was wasting precious playing time with this bullshit.
"Simon, we can’t have these kids coming and going as they please. He has to be punished. We have to make an example of him.” Gerald was a nice shade of red by this time.
"Look Gerry, I ain’t their father so I don’t have to punish them. I’m their indulgent uncle who visits on weekends and takes them to the boardwalk. If the kid took a shower, then there’s no harm done. You want to keep them in, install a lock. Now, don’t bother me with this shit again.” Simon headed back to his game.
At that moment Christie entered the hallway from the city.
"What’s going on here?” she asked.
"This boy went outside.” Gerald was trying hard not to smack Mark’s face.
"Well, it looks like he took a shower, so what’s the harm?”
"What is wrong with you people? What if they all want to go cavorting outside, bringing their germs and contaminants back inside? Don’t any of you have a brain in your heads?”
"Oh Gerald, shut up. Mark is the first one to even try to go outside. We’ll just have to activate the lock on the doors to this hallway and that should solve the problem. The locks are there, I just have to have Andrew create the security codes. Come on, Mark, let’s get you into some dry clothes.”
"He doesn’t leave this hallway. Do you hear me?” Gerald moved to the hallway doors. Christie stood and thought for a moment. She then turned to the right and entered Gerald’s lab. Gerald looked anxiously at the door of his lab. When Christie emerged, she had a headshot of a Guernsey cow in her hand.
"You put that back this instant!” Gerald screamed at her.
"I will hand it to you as we walk out that door.”
Christie put her arm around Mark and headed toward Gerald. She could see his eyes going from side to side. His anxiety was peaking. When they reached the door, Gerald grabbed the picture out of her hand and headed for his lab. Christie smiled at Mark, and they both walked out of the hallway onto the porch overlooking the city.
"Was that a picture of a cow?” Mark asked.
"Yup,” said Christie. “That was Martha.”
They walked down the stairs and into the city. Mark had missed breakfast, and as Mindy was meeting the chickens in the animal room, Mark and Christie were eating a late brunch and discussing the glories of the outside world.
Chapter 17
When Jacob Wilmer hired Martin Prevost to design his biosphere, he told him he had to have an area for himself and his wife that would replicate their Rumson, New Jersey, home. Their Dutch colonial house sat on a small incline, with a large sloping yard on the right and absolutely flat land on the left. The house had been built into the incline, creating this odd effect.
Over the years, rooms had been haphazardly added to the house making it hard for the uninitiated to navigate the huge residence, so Martin Prevost spent many days in the Wilmer home sketching rooms and furniture. With his sketchbook filled, he believed he had all he needed to reconstruct the Wilmer residence.
Preovst received fabric swatches and carpet samples from homes the original designer. The designer had kept them “just in case.” This is the type of service Jacob and Emily Wilmer were used to receiving when they were footing the bill.
Jacob accompanied Martin to Palm Harbor, Florida, to show him the land he’d purchased to create his underground city. The land he had acquired was huge, several hundred acres of flat land with good drainage and acres of woodland.
Together they plotted the position of the underground areas that were to be built – three laboratories, four hospital rooms, a “city” with a main street, cafeteria, library, and store, a mile long and mile wide growing field, a mile long and one half mile wide animal room, housing for the scientists and other experts, and 200 tiny houses, one for each member of his exten
ded family. There would also be the aforementioned living quarters for Jacob and Emily. Jacob reiterated the importance of the residence replicating his home. Emily had insisted upon this.
When Jacob first mentioned his dream of living underground to avoid nuclear fallout, Emily thought he was joking. Their life in New Jersey was everything an elderly matron could hope for. She was a member of several committees; she belonged to a garden club and attended several charity balls a year.
Emily had no desire to leave her comfortable home and her beautiful sloping gardens to take up residence in a hole in the ground in Florida. It took many months and a promise of the replication of her home to get Emily to agree to Jacob’s folly.
So as he and Martin walked the grounds of the Wilmer 21st Century Biosphere, he chose the section just left of the “field” to build his home. He told Martin that he would need a special room for Emily, a room where she could go and feel as though she were outside surrounded by nature and her garden. He just didn’t know how he could do this if the whole residence was underground. Did Martin have any ideas?
"Well, we could build a virtual reality room.” And so, Jacob Wilmer’s underground home had a room with a view of his New Jersey garden, or rather, a room that was his New Jersey garden, where his Emily could sit and enjoy a simulated breeze while watering some beautiful hot house plants.
*****
Andrew took Mindy and the girls to the back of the building. Mindy thought they were going to the field, but Andrew turned right and led them to a door Mindy hadn’t noticed before. It was hidden behind some potted plants.
Andrew had to get the key for this door from the labs. He turned around and asked the girls if they were ready to enter this amazing room. The girls all jumped up and down and yelled “YES!” He unlocked the door and bade them enter with his hand outstretched toward the room.