"I was thinking, since young blood swung the vote, he should have the honor? What do you say kid? Want to give it a test drive?"
Spencer eagerly reached for the wire cutters before pausing. As if asking for permission, he turned to look at Jason. Jason nodded, although again he knew that he shouldn't. Spencer beamed and took the cutters.
"OK, I'm going to go and radio to Bravo. I still want to see what the deal is here. Kurt, you watch him. Make sure he does it right."
Jason glanced at Spencer one more time before turning back and walking out of the room. The real reason that he left wasn't to call Bravo, but to escape the room and the sickening feeling he felt in his stomach. Jason was the leader of the corps, but he had never felt that way. He had gotten there with great test results and a smart head -- one people mistook as the head of a leader. But that wasn't him. Just the way he was unable to talk Kurt down was proof enough of that.
"Hey!"
Jason jumped in the air, spinning on his heel to see who had called him. Of course, it was Kurt. He was standing right behind him, bent over in hysterics.
"What the hell, Kurt?"
"You should see your face," Kurt chuckled to himself. "For a highly trained killing machine, I have to say you are one hell of a --"
"I mean what are you doing out here? You're supposed to be watching Spencer?"
"The kid? He's fine. I wanted to talk to you. You seem off? Are you OK? You know I don't like seeing you like this." He reached up and pinched Jason's cheeks in a condescending manner.
Jason slapped the hand away. "We can talk about it later. You need to be back in there and --"
He never finished the rest of the sentence.
An earth shattering explosion boomed from the control room and rocked the entire submarine. Jason flew backwards, his back slamming against the side of the vessel. He tried to stand but couldn't. He tried to see what had happened, but was unable to open his eyes. All he could do was lie on his back, very aware of the heat that was pouring through the room.
What happened next was a blur. Jason remembered someone pulling him to his feet. He remembered being dragged from the submarine and the fresh breeze blowing over his face, cooling him down. He remembered the feeling of the water as he was pulled back to the rig and he remembered being asked a series of questions to make sure that he wasn't concussed and that he was OK.
The only thing that he couldn't remember, despite how hard he tried, was seeing Spencer. Among all the ruckus, the explosion and the after math, he couldn’t remember once seeing Spencer. There was no way the kid was OK.
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Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction: The Missing Ones: A Dystopian Adventure Page 14