“Ah, ha! You understand. In an eternity of monotony the only thing that keeps a leader mentally healthy and sharp is the challenge of unpredictability. We took Allen—I mean the Commander’s idea and made an entire level of our bunker devoted to entertainment.”
Alex nudged me. “She means killing.”
Her smile was wicked. “We used to have a lot of men. Groups went out looking for help, as I said. We didn’t let them back in. Those that stayed were easy to seduce and neutralize. We rounded them up with selfless women who threw themselves at the men to trap them before they could enslave us. And then, some of the men chose the easy way out: this wall.” She pointed to the horrible scene above us.
“But some of them wanted the opportunity to test themselves in the Mile of Miracles. We told them we’d let the winners go.”
“You didn’t, did you?”
“Sure we did. We aren’t liars and cheats. There is an exit at the end of the Mile.”
I was beginning to understand her line of reasoning.
“And where does the exit go?”
She looked off into the distance. Maybe at the men suffering on the wall or maybe toward the sisters on their cozy hill.
“Xandrie,” I said firmly. “Where did the victors go? Are they free?”
“Let’s go find out, shall we?”
Chapter 12
We walked through the command level and through Xandrie’s office. Alex was given his shirt and the top half of his armor, which helped remove that distraction from my sight. Uh, because of all his bruises.
Xandrie led us to a side hallway with a pair of doors side by side, just like the elevator at Hoover Dam.
She pressed a button and turned to Alex and I. “This will take us down to the prototype bunker. Some genius thought it would be a good idea to make bunkers deep in the earth with no means of escape. Even the construction crews went crazy with worry they would be sealed in forever. So I’ve been told.”
A light above the doorframe came on and the doors opened. She stepped in first, then indicated we should follow. Several sisters had accompanied us, including Felicity and Patience, but once we boarded they stayed put.
“Goodbye, sisters,” Xandrie began, holding up her good hand. “I will restore your faith in me by removing this burden from you.”
I took no offense at the slight against us. I was beginning to hate her as well.
The sisters offered forlorn waves. I waved back out of habit, though they weren’t for me.
“We’ll watch your progress in the Cathedral,” one of them added.
When the door shut, I had to respond.
“Our bunker had no exits. Our people lived for decades thinking they were deep underground. So did your sisters. At least we didn’t go crazy.”
“Ah, yes. If you consider losing all your young people to experimentation and having a cadre of workers with the brain power of toddlers to be normal, then you are correct. But, more seriously, your bunker survived because at least some of the people knew the truth. The bunker wasn’t as deep or as cut off as residents were told. The Commander knew. You knew.”
“Not until the end.”
“No, you knew from the beginning. You ran right in, remember?”
I wanted to argue that that memory had been stolen from me until just recently, but I didn’t feel like arguing with her.
“I do remember,” I said with doubt, “but how did you know?”
She smiled. “I know all about you.”
Meg.
I sighed heavily and leaned against the metal wall of the lift. Alex took up a position next to me, making me feel a lot better.
“You’re a popular woman,” Alex beamed.
I met his eyes and couldn’t help but smile. At least until the computer started to speak.
“Attention: Game mode activated. Residents will have a four-minute ride to the lowest level. Each team will have two minutes to summarize the causes of the collapse of human society. Results will be logged and compared with data from over eight-hundred prior game reports. The most accurate storyteller will be given a 30-second head start.”
I shot up off the wall.
Broken! Broken quantum host. Broken quantum client machines in every being on earth.
Xandrie beat me to a response. “How is that fair? We weren’t there at the start. My sisters and I were ushered from the forest of Colorado directly here. We had no contact with the outside world.”
“Subject: Xandrie Ellison has chosen to go first.”
“Aw, hell. Uh, let’s see.”
She paced around the small box we rode in, apparently thinking. I thought she let a lot of time go by, but I wasn’t going to tell her otherwise.
“Okay. It all began when an alien rock tumbled into our universe, emitting a unique type of radiation—kind of like electricity—but the shock of that piece of debris could reach all the way down to planets like the earth. When it passed by, the stuff got inside our power plants, wires, and computers. It infected people who got too close to it, which was just about everyone.”
She put her hands on her hips and planted her feet. “And the most important part is that only people who escaped the trapping of high technology were able to find refuge from the disease. That’s why our ancestors built these bunkers deep underground and removed all advanced technology. Including the deepest bunker, which is the one we’re going to right now. The end.”
She looked at me like an adult would over a child.
“Subject: Xandrie Ellison. Story 816 logged.”
“I’ll do our story,” Alex spoke up, surprising me.
“No, I got this. I, uh, feel like I know the answer.”
“But you weren’t there, Elle. I was. I know exactly how it all happened.”
His crooked grin and brown eyes had his “I got this,” vibe. I couldn’t argue with that.
The computer seemed adept at reading the same cues. “Subject: John Doe #11,050 has chosen to go last, representing his team.”
Alex stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, reminding me very much of Mr. Bracken when he was in lecture mode. I wanted to ask why Meg couldn't identify him, but that would have to wait.
“The problem was with a group of malcontents called the Patriot Snowball movement. They crossed the old country of America from Colorado to the capital in Washington D.C., killing everyone who disagreed with their brand of so-called freedom. They chose the polar bear as their mascot, simply because they stomped over everything in their path.”
He winked at me, causing me to blush.
He is wrong. You must stop him.
The voice was strong inside my head.
You again? How? What is this?
He is wrong, the voice repeated without further explanation.
I almost said something, but Alex was on a roll and well into it. I didn’t think there was any way to stop him, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
“When the group got to the capital they had brought much of the country with them. They were agitated they couldn’t get the President to step down so they tried to kidnap him. They were thwarted, but it threw everything into chaos. The leaders of the Snowball movement adopted a very unorthodox method of attack when they dropped a deadly disease on their own members. They quickly blamed it on the President as retribution for foiling their overthrow attempt, and it was enough to put both sides into open warfare—at least until the blood virus infected almost everyone no matter their politics. Then it was every man for himself. The government built these bunkers and directed as many of its last loyal citizens inside as it could. That’s why the Commander claimed that red, white, and blue flag as his own. That was the flag of the United States of America. That’s exactly why we are here.”
He was practically shouting at the end. Even Xandrie seemed to take a step back. Her smug look wiped from her face.
“Subject: John Doe #11,050. Story 817 logged. Computing.”
If I had to pick a winner based on con
fidence alone, it would have been Alex. He carried himself like he was actually there—at the Snowball whatever.
There was no point in whispering in a land of mind readers, but I had to ask: “Alex, why did she call you John?”
He grinned. “I guess I have a common face.”
I cocked my head in surprise, waiting for more, but he tilted his head to match the angle of mine. Even without reading his mind I knew he wasn't going to add anything. He didn't know.
“The 30-second award goes to Xandrie Ellison. You will be allowed to debark prior to the other team. Thank you for riding with Six Companies Combine, today.”
Alex looked like he’d been stabbed in the gut. I touched his arm to console him, but he ignored me and questioned Meg, “Computer. What is the correct answer? How did the world really end?”
Quantum computer malfunction.
I had to know where this was going. “It had something to do with a quantum computer, didn’t it?”
“Subject: Elle Valentine is correct. Computer system below Hoover Dam became corrupted by unforeseen interference. Self-diagnostic is in progress. Host-client quantum link is in standby mode during internal systems check.”
The lift shuddered and it seemed to slow.
“How long is this check going to take? Are you the quantum computer? Can we fix you?”
The elevator did come to a halt.
“Internal checks are conducted across all nodes in the network. At current loads my predictive analysis suggests a wait-time of approximately 651 years, 12 months, 14 days, 22 hours.” It added, “No. No.”
“My God,” I whispered as the doors opened. “Is that how long we have to survive before all this chaos comes to an end?”
Alex grabbed my hand. “I’m sorry, Elle. I don’t know how you knew, but I should have trusted you.”
“No, it’s all right. You couldn’t have known. I didn’t even know. This is horrible.”
Xandrie was at the edge of the open door. “My sisters and I can make it another six hundred years. You two aren’t going to make it another fifteen minutes. This is where we say goodbye.”
She ran into a dimly lit narrow rock tunnel, though there was a lot more light a short ways ahead.
When she stepped out a blue beam shot between the two doors of the elevator, making it clear we weren’t to leave.
“Six hundred years. Alex, I think she’s right. I don’t think I can survive for that long.” I stood and watched Xandrie run down the hall and turn left into a doorway. I felt a twang of jealously that she knew what she was doing. Knew her people counted on her. Was confident she could endure such a long span of time.
Alex put his hand over my shoulders as he pulled up next to me. He banged his hip against mine and got me to look at him. “Hey, there’s only one way to approach something this big. You have to change how you look at life. Take it one day at a time. That’s how I survived eighty-seven years locked in with a bunch of teens who often forgot who they were. Talk about crazy.”
“I’ll try,” I whispered.
“That’s a start.” He squeezed my shoulder as the blue light dropped from the doorway. Our race was finally starting.
2
We ran together to the lighted doorway and got our first look at Xandrie ahead of us. She stood on the opposite end of a round pit with strong lights overhead. A single beam of steel linked one side of the pit to the other. She’d obviously run across it.
“That was fun!” Xandrie said with a dismissive wave before turning and running through the next door.
“Let’s go,” Alex said with excitement. He walked onto the beam, but froze two steps out.
I was hit by a sickly sweet stench. Whatever was inside the pit below us stank beyond belief. I nudged toward the edge and saw what Alex saw.
“No!”
There were twenty or so dead men down there, all reaching up for us from the floor ten feet below. They all wore ripped pink shirts, like they were part of a sickly sports team.
Alex wobbled and I stepped out to support him. That’s when I got a good, deep breath of it.
“Alex?”
He stood on the edge of a sun-drenched beach, looking out at the bluest, clearest water I’d ever seen. He had no shirt on and I innocently placed my hand upon a tattoo on his left shoulder blade. His skin was electrified, though I acknowledged it was more from fear of actually touching him rather than anything more deadly.
“Alex, are you all right?”
He turned to me with sunlight reflecting in his eyes. His hair blew in a faint breeze that cooled us even while under the warm sunlight. “Oh, Elle. I’ve never been better. I finally found the one thing that has made suffering in that bunker worthwhile. Here, on this beach, right in front of me.”
I didn’t know what to say. I desperately wanted to draw up in his arms and have him swoop me off my feet and plop into the surf with a romantic kiss.
Quantum foam.
“What the? What’s Quantum foam?”
Alex blinked. “What did you say? Elle, I’m trying to tell you how special you are—”
I put my finger to his lips to silence him. I scanned the beach and nondescript line of trees behind it. The water was clear and the white beach was inviting. But there was something else. In the water.
I pulled at him. “We have to stay away from the water.”
“No, Elle, I need to kiss you.”
The beach shimmered, and for a moment I saw pink.
“Did you see that?” There’s something there.
He turned, but only for a brief instant. “I only have eyes for you, not any of those other spotty youth.”
I wanted to kiss him. It was almost irresistible. Until I saw more pink.
“Alex! We’re sleepwalking. Wake up!”
“No, I’ve never been as awake. I know what I want. It’s y—”
I slapped him as hard as I dared.
“We’re over a pit of dead men, you have to wake up!”
He staggered back a half-step. As the beach scene dropped away I saw him as he was on the walking beam. His half-step was along the beam, but a little to the side. One more step and he’d fall, dragging us both down.
I hugged him and pulled him to me. “Wake up. Please.” I squeezed as hard as I could.
“Whoa! I’m here, Elle. I’m here.”
“Don’t step back. We’re in a situation.”
“I see. I’m with you.” He gently pushed me so he could look me in the face. “That was nice. Maybe we’ll go to the beach someday.”
“Anywhere but here,” I replied.
He turned around though he held my hand as I walked behind. It only took a few moments to get to the far side. I wasted one more look down and saw all the men had moved from one side of the pit to our side, as if following. Their hands remained up, reaching forever upward.
Alex pulled again. “Let’s go and see what’s next.”
The next chamber was a similar spectacle. It was a much larger rectangular pit about a hundred feet in length, but a metal framework had been built on the two long sides, and it met in an arch thirty or forty feet above. It reminded me of a giant birdcage without a front side or a back side, save one narrow set of bars a person could use to climb up and down from the top of the cage. Xandrie had climbed up and swung from bar to bar across the top as we watched.
“Those are some sick monkey bars,” Alex said with awe.
“Monkeys?”
“Yeah, you jump from this ledge, grab those bars, then make your way up to the top and along the ridge until you start down the other side. These were common on playgrounds, back in the day. For children.”
“I bet kids didn’t have to worry about those things.”
On each side of the latticework men clad in yellow shirts had begun to climb to meet Xandrie. I guessed there were twenty or so on each side. She swung from bar to bar over the top, and was about two-thirds of the way across. The men scaling were almost as fast, but they seemed to ha
ve no notion of how to lead the target. They’d reach her far too late to stop her.
“How is she doing that? Her hand was cut off!” I emphasized those last two words. I searched for evidence she was suffering, but however she was doing it—she seemed fine to hang from the bars.
Alex had little to add. At least nothing I wanted to hear. “She’s good.”
“We have to go down there,” I suggested.
If we climbed to the top behind Xandrie, we’d have no chance of avoiding those men getting near the summit. They were very skilled at holding the bars, just like the person they were chasing.
“I don’t know, Bells. It looks dangerous.”
“Is there another way?” I knew there wasn’t.
He looked over the edge, chuckling softly. “Better get that staff ready. It’s like a swimming pool of death.”
He dropped down before we had a chance to plan. I gritted my teeth and dropped down after him. It was about eight feet from the edge to the rock floor.
“Now, we run,” he said beckoning me to follow.
We jumped a four-foot trench that reminded me of the pits on the edges of zoo exhibits—another of the random memories I’d gained. I had my staff out, though it seemed like a hundred-foot run wouldn’t be bad because all the men were up on the metal truss over our heads.
Of course I realized I was way wrong as soon as the first man dropped with a thud onto the ground next to us.
3
“Oh, crap!” I shouted, gripping my vibrant blue staff. Another crunch happened just behind us. A man fell a few yards in front of us. A white shard of bone shot out of his lower leg as he landed in just the wrong way.
I swung my bar to knock the man down, afraid he was going to grab me.
More fell all around. I checked above and discovered Xandrie had almost cleared the entire course. At the very end she had to swing herself a couple times to build enough momentum to jump the final gap to the far edge. A man close behind tried to make the same jump but he and his yellow shirt dropped to the floor of the pit, same as the others.
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