“Won’t that dissolve the layer of nickel on the plutonium?” asked Lee.
“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. But it does mean we can’t separate the components anymore. There—done.”
“So I can lower the stuff into the hole now?” asked the engineer.
Dr. Dressel nodded and Lee slowly turned a switch on the winch control system. The steel cable with the half of the bomb was slowly lowered into the hole. After a few seconds it had disappeared into the steel pipe. “Precision work,” said Albert, standing proudly in the background.
“I never dreamed that one day I would help to build an atomic bomb,” said Lee drily.
“It’s certainly strange,” remarked Russell. “On Earth we built nuclear weapons in the hope that we would never have to use them. And here we’re building an atomic bomb on which our lives depend.”
“I wish we’d been able to find another solution,” said the physicist. “Then Ty would still be alive.”
“But he still is!” said Lee, indignantly.
“No,” said Dr. Dressel with conviction. “He died the moment he was exposed to the radiation.”
Lee shook his head but didn’t say any more. Suddenly the winch stopped. Lee looked at the digital display and nodded in satisfaction. “The bottom half of the bomb is now in position. I’m going to release the wire and pull up the steel cable. Then we can lower the graphite.”
“Alarm!” screamed Maxwell Lindwall, as he came stumbling back into the tunnel. He looked frightened. Russell knew immediately what was happening.
The observation post!
“I just had Marlene on the radio. The next wave is approaching the post.”
I knew it! “I’d hoped we would have more time.”
“Me too! We’re nowhere near done here. We need more time.”
But time, thought Russell, is precisely what we don’t have!
Chapter 45
“Everyone in position!” Marlene shouted into the megaphone. “They’re coming!”
Travis Richards and Sammy Yang immediately finished their conversation in front of the door to the narrow barrack, hurried to the earth wall that separated the entrance to the canyon from the open grassland, and took up their positions. Thirty men and women lay behind the cover of the barbed wire and the earth wall waiting to take aim at the first wave of beasts.
Marlene looked over to the other two lookouts. Dr. Cashmore was on the next one, fumbling with the flamethrower. The chemist hadn’t wanted to miss the opportunity of putting one of his constructions to use. He seemed nervous—perhaps not surprisingly since he had never been involved in a battle. Marlene turned around to Eliot Sargent, who was leaning casually behind the flamethrower of their lookout. His rifle was slung over his shoulder. “Is that thing good to go?”
Eliot nodded. “The pump is running. I’ll ignite it as soon as the first creatures come running out the forest.”
“We don’t have much fuel. The vat with the napalm will be empty in a matter of seconds,” said Ernie Lawrence, whose weapon was propped on the railing.
“That’s why we’ll only use the flamethrowers one by one and only on my command,” replied Marlene.
“Then I hope that Cashmore doesn’t lose his nerve. I’m guessing he isn’t particularly reliable in battle.”
“For that reason I’ll let him shoot first. Also to test the effect it has on the oncoming herd. Our flamethrower has to cover our retreat. So don’t even think of using it before you hear my command,” said Marlene, looking at Eliot. “In fact, leave it standing there for now and grab a weapon. We need to defend the observation post until the bomb is ready. At all costs.”
“I only hope they manage in time,” Ben commented grimly from behind.
“I just spoke to Max. He’s with Russell and Lee. He reckons they still need a while.”
“Oh great,” said Eliot. He picked up the binoculars that lay beside him on the ammo crate and peered over the railing. Marlene squinted into the sun, her eyes focused on the edge of the forest. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was warm, but a light, cool breeze blew down from the mountains into the valley. It was hard to believe that the fate of their entire colony would be decided on a day like this. And yet a blanket of fear, heavy as lead, enveloped the men and women. There were only two possible outcomes: either the plan worked, and they could defend the observation post until the bomb was ready, or they would all die here in the next few hours.
Marlene looked down at the colonists with a grim expression.
Not all of them will survive this day!
“I don’t see or hear a thing,” said Ernie quietly. “Are you sure Jenny didn’t make a mistake? Where is she, anyway?”
“Somewhere down there. She didn’t make a mistake. I saw the drone’s infrared photos. Anything and everything with legs is heading this way. She couldn’t say exactly how far away they are, but it’s only a few miles.”
“Be quiet!” said Ben. “Can you feel it?”
Marlene stopped talking and concentrated on the silence. Ben was right. The whole lookout was shaking slightly. And it was getting stronger.
She looked at him and nodded. “This is it. They’re coming.” She leaned over the railing and tried to see something through the trees on the edge of the forest, but it was impossible. But now she could hear the trampling. Like a gigantic herd of buffalo, getting ever closer.
“They still seem pretty far away,” remarked Eliot, white as a sheet. “But it sounds terrifying.”
“Like every goddamn animal on this planet is headed this way,” whispered Ernie. Ernie rarely lost his cool, but now he looked terrified.
The trampling noise turned into a droning that drowned out everything else, accompanied by the sound of thousands of branches being trampled to the ground.
“There!” screamed Eliot. “They’re coming!”
Marlene grabbed the binoculars. At that moment, thousands of creatures came running out of the forest into the open grassland. They could see wotans, snipers, hyenas, and some other kind of beasts that they had never seen before. These ones, in particular, filled her with fear. They were as big as cows, had razor-like rows of teeth and sharp claws that looked as if they could tear apart a whole human with a single blow. And they were definitely powerful enough to tear down the barbed wire fence.
From down below she could hear screams of horror from the ranks. Young Nicole Grant threw her weapon to the ground and ran into the canyon. Rhonda Fiedler screamed at her to come back.
Marlene grabbed the megaphone. “Everyone stay in position. Start firing only on my command. Flamethrower one at the ready.”
She looked over to Dr. Cashmore. He was white as a sheet, but nodded. With trembling hands he brought the flamethrower into position.
Marlene looked over the railing again. The oncoming herd had already crossed a third of the open grassland. In less than a minute they would be at the barrier. And more and more animals were streaming out of the forest.
Marlene shook her head.
There must be thousands of them!
The animals had turned the plain into a sea of brownish-green. The creatures would simply steamroll through the barbed wire. With so many animals, even the mines would be useless.
Now they had almost reached the barrier.
“Flamethrower! Now!”
A fountain of liquid fire shot out of Cashmore’s flamethrower and burst over the rampaging animals. The fire was so hot and bright, that Marlene had to force herself not to look away. Within seconds, dozens of animals were on fire and fell to the ground, where they rolled around in the dirt helplessly. Thick, black smoke rose up into the air. The chemist screamed as he swung the flamethrower to the right and the burning napalm spread across the whole width of the canyon entrance.
“My God,” whispered Marlene.
It was an inhuman, ghastly sound. Marlene knew that she would never forget the appalling howls of the dying animals for as long as she lived. The whole entrance to t
he valley was up in flames. It was so hot that Marlene had to cover her face, and the stench of charred meat was unbearable. She breathed in the remains of unburned napalm, making her retch.
But the flames stopped the monsters from advancing, while the animals coming up behind were driven into the burning cadavers and immediately caught fire themselves. The black plumes of smoke rose high into the sky and partially blocked out the sunlight. The observation post was now illuminated only by yellow and white flames. Marlene shuddered. It was like a scene from the apocalypse.
With a final fizzle, Cashmore’s flamethrower went out. The vat was empty. It had lasted no more than fifteen seconds. But the gel continued burning on the three-feet-high pile of dead animals.
It will provide us with a few minutes’ breathing space, thought Marlene. But no more!
Chapter 46
“Ready! It can go down!” said John Dressel, who had carefully angled the graphite into the bracket.
Lee nodded, and let the ring of graphite glide slowly down the borehole. It encircled the steel pipe almost exactly.
Russell watched the work and shuffled his feet nervously. It was taking too long. He wondered if the observation post was already under attack. What was happening to Ellen, Jim and Grace? He would have much preferred to be at the observation post and help fend off the attack. There wasn’t much he could do here. He briefly considered disobeying Marlene’s order and heading down on foot. He bit his lip. Marlene trusted him. She needed him here. “Shit,” he said under his breath.
“What is it?” asked Lee, without looking up.
“S’alright. It’s just taking too long.”
“If we don’t do it carefully, we might as well leave it altogether,” said Dr. Dressel. His pessimism had given way to fierce professionalism. The work was obviously doing him good.
“It’s down,” said Lee. “I’ll release the steel cable and pull it back up.” A few seconds later, the loose end of the cable was dangling on the winch above their heads. Lee rolled a huge plastic container up to the hole and opened a spout. Sand poured into the borehole around the steel pipe.
“That’s to fill up the empty space. It should help to keep the graphite in position during the early stage of the explosion,” explained Dr. Dressel, who had noticed Russell’s confused expression.
When the hole was filled up to the top, Lee closed the container and rolled it to the side.
“Now comes the tricky bit,” said Lee. “Help me!”
Russell and the others followed him to an approximately six-foot-long steel cylinder that Albert had welded together in the cave. He had carefully filed down the weld seams, so that there were no protruding parts. They rolled the cylinder to the borehole.
Coughing, Russell watched as Lee connected a hook to the steel rope of the winch.
At the same moment, Maxwell stormed into the cave. He was holding the radio in his hand and was very pale. “The animals have reached the observation post; they’re at the barrier. They’re fighting. I could hear the sound of the fighting in the background. It was horrendous!”
Russell’s eyes met Dr. Dressel’s. “We have to hurry. Every second counts!”
Cursing, Lee turned the switch of the winch control and the steel cylinder was pulled upward until it hung exactly over the borehole. The engineer stopped the swaying movement with his hands and waved over Dr. Dressel, who had taken the second plutonium half out of the lead container.
Russell felt nauseous, and he pulled the box of pills out of his pant pocket. He flipped open the lid with his thumb and gulped down one of the pills. It must be the fifth one he’d had that day.
Groggily, he watched as Lee hooked the second bomb half to the bottom end of the steel cylinder and screwed it in place with two wing nuts.
“What’s with the long steel cylinder?” asked Maxwell from the entrance to the cave.
“If we let the upper bomb half drop straight onto the lower half, it will start the chain reaction right away,” explained John Dressel, as he worked out the correct alignment of the plutonium hemisphere with a measuring device. “The pressure of the released energy will try to drive the upper bomb half explosively upward through the pipe. The inertia of the steel mass plunging down will counteract this pressure and ensure that the two bomb halves stay together in the first nanoseconds of the explosion and create the necessary number of neutron generations for our explosion.”
“And what happens with the C-4?” asked Russell, pointing at the explosive, which was ready and waiting.
“We’ll get that to explode twenty inches over the ground. As a result, the steel mass with the top half of the bomb will be fired into the lower half with even greater force. Right, I’m done, it’s perfectly positioned.”
“Okay, then I’ll start,” said Lee, and lowered the long steel cylinder into the pipe in the borehole. First the plutonium hemisphere disappeared. After a few seconds only a small part of the steel cylinder was still sticking out of the hole. Lee immediately got to work on it. “I’m going to attach the explosive bolts. Then we’ll ignite them from a safe distance and the steel mass and plutonium will plunge down into the hole.
“What happens if the thing falls down now by accident?” asked Russell. He had to think of Ty and how he had sealed his own fate in the space of a second.
“Then all that will remain of us is atoms,” replied Dressel drily.
“Quiet!” said Lee. “I’m attaching the detonating wires, and don’t want to make a mistake.”
Dr. Dressel stepped back and stood next to Russell. He wiped the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief.
“Okay, that’s done. The explosive bolts are doubly secured. They’ll only ignite if there is tension on both cables. The cables lead to the bunker at the upper end of the canyon.”
“So we’re finally ready?” asked Russell.
“No, not quite. I’m going to screw the lid on the contraption and then we have to evacuate the borehole.”
“Evacuate? You mean, pump out the air?” asked Russell. “Why?”
“Because otherwise the air down in the pipe will create resistance and counter the pressure of the falling plutonium,” said John.
Lee rolled a petrol-driven pump up to the hole and connected the hose that was hanging out of it to a nozzle on the steel pipe. He flipped a switch, and the pump sputtered to life. The exhaust fumes were conducted out of the cave by another hose.
“How long will it take?” asked Russell nervously.
“About quarter of an hour. Then we’re done.”
Chapter 47
The wall of flames had protected them for ten minutes. But gradually the flames began to die down. The harrowing sound of animals being burnt alive could be heard across the battlefield.
Soon the first beasts will start storming through the remaining flames.
She grabbed the megaphone. “Get ready to fire!”
She put the megaphone aside and reached for her automatic rifle. Less than ten seconds later she heard the first firing of guns. Cookie Shanker shot at a hyena that came rushing through the fire. It was unnecessary, because the animal burned and stumbled before it had even reached the minefield.
The animals now came one by one through the wall of flames that was starting to fizzle out. A sniper stepped on a mine and was torn to shreds. Its innards shot several feet up into the air. Next to Marlene, Ernie fired at a wotan that had made it through a gap in the fire unharmed and was rushing toward the barbed wire barrier. Struck and killed, the animal rolled over and came to a stop just before the fence.
“Motherfucking beasts!” cursed Ernie.
Further detonations caused the ground to shake. In dozens of places, wotans, hyenas, and snipers broke through the smoking heap of dead animals.
Marlene heard Camille Ott scream loudly. Directly in front of her, one of the cow-like beasts had broken through the fence. It had simply ripped it down. The animal was bleeding from dozens of wounds, but still continued its rampage. Doroth
y Moore shot it, while Camille jumped to the side to escape the dead body flying in her direction.
A few seconds later, the barrier had been broken through in two more spots. Beside one of the gaps, Jack Neaman was lying on the ground in a strangely distorted position. He didn’t move. When Marlene looked more closely, she noticed with a shudder that the boy no longer had a head.
We don’t stand a chance! There are too many of them!
Marlene grabbed the megaphone. “Flamethrower three: fire when ready!”
She looked over at Andrea Phillips on the furthermost lookout. Beside her stood Grant Dillon and his son Eric. Both of them were firing at animals that were approaching the fence. Andrea waved to Marlene, then opened the valve of her flamethrower.
There was a dull bang, and the three-feet-high jet of flame engulfed the entire watchtower. It rose into the air like a little mushroom cloud.
“Andrea!” screamed Ernie. He threw his weapon to the ground and swung down the ladder, wailing in despair.
All that remained of the lookout was a burning wooden frame. Colonists who had been standing beneath it ran off in all directions, screaming.
“My God!” gasped Eliot. “What happened?”
“The flamethrower obviously malfunctioned,” murmured Marlene.
We’re dead.
Chapter 48
Damn, damn!
Russell paced back and forth beside the vacuum pump. Lee kept checking the pressure gauge, followed by a shake of the head.
“Still not enough.”
“We’re losing valuable time,” moaned Russell. “Can’t we just let the pump run and in the meantime make our way to the bunker?”
“No,” said Lee sharply. “Afterwards I need the generator of the pump as a power source for the explosive bolts.
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