From Within

by Brian Delaney

  “Which is it going to be?” Dominski yelled at Will. He pounded his fist down on the metal table again.

  Will looked over at the glass. The look of anger subsided. A look of sorrow, sympathy, and longing took over his face. He mouthed the words, ‘I love you,’ towards the glass. He hoped she could see it and hoped she was saying it back.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Marcus wiped away the tears from his face with his sleeves. Will had been taken about five minutes ago and all Marcus had done was cry. He regained himself.

  “Crying isn’t going to do anything,” he muttered to himself.

  He needed to figure out a way out of the cell and to save Will. He walked up to the cell door and tugged on it. He didn’t have much hope for that plan anyway. He walked back to the bench and sat down to think. The hallway door opened again and this time, it closed quickly and quietly. Whoever just walked in made sure the door didn’t make any noise as it shut. Marcus’s face immediately turned to a scowl. The thought of anyone who worked for the CMA now enraged him.

  “Marcus,” a whisper came from the dark figure in the hallway.

  “Who’s there?” Marcus asked.

  “Keep quiet, Marcus,” the voice said, still a whisper.

  Marcus furrowed his brow out of confusion now and walked all the way up to the bars. Kenneth stepped forward. He still stayed near one end of the hallway by the door.

  “Ken?” Marcus was surprised to see him. He almost became happy and then he realized that Kenneth probably knew that Marcus was being sent to his death on that flight. It was all the more evident since Ken was here just like Ava was. His scowl returned.

  “You disgust me, Ken, you know that?” Marcus said. “How can you go along with these people? You probably knew that Marek was sending me to die in a plane crash. How convenient for all of you. Get rid of me and then play heartwarming stories about my life so people keep thinking you care about them right before you bomb them and their homes.” Marcus cursed at Ken.

  “Shut up, Marcus,” Ken said in a low voice. “Would you just listen to me for once? I’ve been trying to get you to keep your mouth shut since this all started. If you would have never done that speech on the news this all would have worked out better.”

  “What do you mean?” Marcus asked.

  Kenneth kept looking back at the hallway door. “I don’t know what you were told, but I received the messages. It has just been impossible for me to respond.”

  “What?” Marcus asked, still confused. “You aren’t making any sense.”

  “Jackson!” Kenneth was getting louder, “Marcus, I’m Jackson. I’ve been in contact with Thomas for years. You know those groups I always hung around that you hated? That was me spying for the ARF.”

  Marcus’s head was beginning to spin. He almost felt like he was going to faint. He had so many emotions flowing through him recently that he was also getting a splitting headache. He stepped forward and held on to one of the cell bars.

  “Are you okay?” Kenneth said. “Marcus, we need to finish this. The bomb, Marcus, where is it? Is it on a timer? Can we get out of here in time?”

  “A timer,” Marcus said with a sigh. “Wouldn’t that have been a good idea.” He shook his head. “No timer Ken...or Jackson...whatever your name is.”

  “It’s still Ken. Jackson was a code name. What do you mean by no timer?”

  Marcus took a deep breath. He knew he didn’t have time for all the questions he wanted to ask Ken. “We were planning on remotely detonating it. We never got the remote detonator in time. We heard the bombing started and we came straight here. We have a spool of wire and a detonator.”

  “Who’s the kid?” Kenneth asked.

  “Kid?” Marcus said. “He’s no kid. He’s one of the bravest guys I know.” He paused for a moment. “Apparently you are too.” He gave Kenneth a half smile. “Will. His name is Will. He rescued me from the plane crash out in the wilderness in California. When he found out about what the CMA was going to do he joined up with me immediately.”

  Kenneth took a set of keys from his pocket. “We have to blow this place up, Marcus.” He unlocked the cell door. “Come on, we have to be quiet.” He motioned for Marcus to come out of the cell. “They are bombing the country in planned waves. They don’t have the forces they had expected. Once a lot of the troops found out what they were going to be doing, they either abandoned the CMA or tried to sabotage the operation. It’s got to be all out civil war out there right now. A lot of those guys joined up with the ARF or one of the other militias. The bombers that already went out destroyed all the major cities on the west coast. Another wave started hitting all the major cities from Florida to North Carolina. Marek only needs to give the order for the next wave.”

  “Why hasn’t he?” Marcus asked.

  “Because of you,” Kenneth said. “You’ve got him spooked by showing up here. He thinks that the ARF and other militia forces have a way into the mountain. He’s on edge with so many of his troops abandoning him. He could still accomplish his plan, though. We can stop him from giving the order for the next wave of bombing if we blow this place now. Your friend will crack for sure. He brought in his girlfriend.”

  “What!?” Marcus said too loudly. Kenneth shushed him. “Lea is here? We need to get them.”

  Kenneth sighed. “I don’t think we have time. I don’t see any way of doing it without getting us caught again. Marek has himself surrounded by armed guards now. Marcus,” Kenneth paused, “he is feeding him a line about getting a chance to live and save his girl but he is going to kill them no matter what.”

  Marcus’s heart sunk to his feet. How could he have brought Will into this? Now Lea was brought in and he felt like it was all his fault for telling them about the CMA in the first place.

  “The bomb, Marcus?” Kenneth was urging on. “We are wasting too much time. I’ve worked too many years to bring a stop to Marek’s crazy plans to slip up at the end.”

  Marcus knew Kenneth was right. He somehow had a stroke of luck that Kenneth was on his side and was able to break him out. The explosives needed to be set off. If he tried to go after Will and Lea then it was most likely that he would just get caught again and then the explosives would never get blown. Marek would continue to obliterate all the population centers around the country and then he’d have his camps full of slaves and he and all the other CMA scum leaders would get their way.

  Marcus sighed. “We need to get back towards the engineering department. We placed a ton of C4 plastic explosive against the water storage tank.”

  “Water tank?” Kenneth asked raising his eyebrows.

  “A military guy that used to work in here said there are over six million gallons of water storage,” Marcus said. “It was meant for long term survival from nuclear winter. He said it should flood a couple of the floors. The explosion will trigger the automatic closing of the main blast door, which is what we want to hold the water in. The inner blast doors should still be on manual operation. There is a natural spring that fills the water tank. The water should keep pouring in and eventually fill the entire air tight mountain. Once we use the extra spool of wire, we might be able to hurry after triggering the detonation, maybe we have a chance of making it through the blast door before it finishes closing. It should bring us somewhat close to it.”

  Kenneth looked at Marcus as if he wasn’t believing they had any chance of survival at all. He nodded his head. “Let’s go.”

  They snuck out of the prison area and headed towards the engineering department. As they hurried along, Kenneth spoke with Marcus in hushed tones.

  “By the way, I had no idea that you were working with the ARF,” Kenneth said.

  “Really?” Marcus asked. “I thought I was being blatantly obvious. Especially around you. You know, the whole worthless news stories so I could get to the cafe.”

  “Made up? What was at the cafe?”

  “There was a transmitter at that table we were sitting at with Anthony.�
�

  “A transmitter? What do you mean by a transmitter?” Kenneth looked puzzled.

  Marcus explained that once the CMA moved the WWNL staff to the camp and tightened their leash on him, the ARF had to come up with a different way for him to pass information to them. He divulged the process of how it worked and how stressed he had been the day he was trying to pass the information about the bombings with Anthony sitting right across from him.

  “Wow,” Kenneth said. “I had no idea. This whole time, even back in New York at WWNL, I was only trying to get you to walk a straight line to keep any heat off of myself.”

  Marcus laughed. “I wondered what was going on with you. I couldn't figure out why you were always acting weird. Wish I would’ve known.”

  “You and me both, buddy,” Kenneth said.

  “Look,” Marcus said and pointed down the hall at the floor. They had just turned down a hallway in the engineering department. “There’s our stuff still laying on the floor. It is some kind of miracle those idiots missed this.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Will turned from the mirrored glass and stared down at the floor in defeat. Dominski began yelling at him again that he needed to start talking or he was going to kill Lea.

  Will turned to Dominski. “We placed explos-”

  He was cut off by an explosion. He felt everything shake. Dust fell from the ceiling. A ceiling tile dropped and hit Dominski on his head and shoulder. He let out a sound of disgust and brushed dust from his forehead. Blind rage engulfed his face again. He threw his chair away from him as he stood up. The chair slid across the floor as he bolted for the door. He threw the door open and ran off to the left out of sight. Alarms started to blare all over the underground bunker.

  Will started working the knot that was tied to the chair up and down along the metal. He was hoping the metal chair would have a sharp enough edge to it that it could cut through the rope. He pulled and tugged with all of his might to try to get his hand out from the rope as well. Seconds were ticking by and he knew that the level below him would be quickly filling with water.

  Will strained his neck to see behind him to his tied wrists. It appeared there was absolutely no progress made to the rope. He roared in anger as he pulled against the knot with all his strength. Nothing. He was probably only tightening the knot further by pulling against it. He wasn’t going to be able to break free. He would spend his last moments in life knowing that Lea would also die nearby. She would most likely suffer the same drowning death that he would once the millions of gallons of water filled this level. Not only that, he would know it was all because of the bomb he helped to place.

  I hope we at least stopped them, he thought.

  “Lea, I’m sorry!” he cried out in the hope that she would be able to hear through the walls. “Lea?” he said puzzled.

  Lea stood in the open doorway. He was still trying to come to terms with the fact that they were going to die today. How was she standing there?

  “How did...” he was in too much awe that he couldn’t finish speaking.

  “Luckily, I wasn’t tied up,” Lea said as a big smile formed on her face. “I had to fight the guard to get the keys to get out of the room.”

  She went behind the chair and started working on the knot. Will had, indeed, tightened the knot with all of his straining. Lea reached into her pocket and pulled the set of keys she had fought the guard for. She had planned to use a key to pick into the knot. She was elated to find a small pocket knife attached to the keyring.

  “How did you beat the guard,” Will asked as she began to cut.

  “What? You don’t think I’m strong enough?” Lea asked in a sarcastic tone.

  “That’s...not what I meant,” Will said.

  “He and the other guard were scrambling at the door to unlock it,” she said. “I was pretty sure they were going to leave and close the door behind them and leave me locked in. I grabbed a chair and hit one of them over the head. The other guard had just opened the door and saw what happened. He slammed the door behind him. Almost got this knot,” she said with a grunt.” I found a set of keys on the guard and walked right out. Got it!”

  Will’s hands became free and he quickly stood up. He moved the chair and pulled Lea in. He immediately kissed her and she pulled him in more tightly. He pulled away after a few moments.

  “This can wait,” he said. “We better figure out if we can find a way out of here.”

  “Was that the bomb that you and Marcus placed?” Lea asked.

  “Yep,” Will said.

  “How come this place didn’t collapse in on itself?” she asked. “How are we still alive?”

  “We found out that this place could probably survive a nuclear bomb going off inside,” he said. “We joined up with Marcus’s group. A guy that used to work in here said we needed to blow the massive water tank and fill the place with water. Drown everyone inside. The explosion should automatically close the main blast door.”

  Lea’s eyes shot wide open.

  “I know how we can get out,” she said. “The guards were saying there’s an emergency airlock exit on the next floor up.”

  “Let’s go,” Will said as he grabbed Lea’s hand.

  They dashed to the open door and then stopped. They were startled by a rushing flow of water running into their feet. There was already a couple of inches and it seemed to be increasing at a rapid pace.

  “Do you know where that exit is?” Will turned and asked Lea.

  “Just the next floor up is all I heard them say,” she answered.

  They turned out of the room to the left. Will subconsciously decided that the upstairs would be to the left since he remembered seeing Dominski run out of the room in this direction. They sprinted down the hallway. At least a couple of inches of water had filled the entire length of the hallway in the few seconds they paused at the doorway. Sprays of water flew up with each footfall. The lights began to flicker. They could see a stairwell just ahead.

  All of a sudden, they heard someone emerge from the water and heavy strained breathing. They turned back towards the stairwell behind them that led down to the first floor. In the flickering light, they could see two bodies crawling away from the stairs. Water was rushing up around them. They hacked and coughed as their lungs fought for air. Will’s first instinct was that these were CMA employees coming after them. He paused for just a moment longer. Lea, not caring to find out, tried to tug Will along. He thought in one of the dim flashes of light that he saw Marcus. He let go of Lea’s hand.

  “Marcus!” Will yelled. He was almost positive that it was him.

  He ran back towards the men and back towards the deluge of water filling the hallway. In what seemed like only thirty seconds, the water was now up to his knees. He could see the two men push themselves up from their crawling position to keep their faces out of the water. Another dim flash of light brought relief as he saw it was Marcus.

  He helped Marcus up and then turned to the other man that stood.

  “I found Jackson,” Marcus said through deep breaths. “He’s been my boss for the last decade and my friend for the last thirty years.”

  Will shot an eyebrow up. “Explain later. We need to find an emergency exit up the next floor.”

  “I’ll get us there,” that man Marcus called Jackson said.

  They waded as quick as they could through now waste-deep water. The water was reaching that depth where they couldn’t decide whether it would be easier to keep walking or start swimming. They had decided on wading and reached Lea who stood on the first step of the stairwell.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Their shoes squeaked and squished as they ran through the third-floor hallways. The lights on this level flickered some but not as much as the floor below had been. Marcus had explained who Kenneth was as they left the stairwell. Kenneth, in turn, explained that the CMA hadn’t been using this floor for much other than storage so they shouldn’t run into anyone.

  “Mar
ek and the guards that were with us came this way,” Will said.

  Kenneth cursed. “I guess we better be on the lookout then. They probably went to the same exit we are heading for.”

  Kenneth opened a door to an empty room. He rushed across the room to what looked like a closet door. He threw that open. The emergency airlock exit was hidden behind the door. It was wide open.

  “Marek must have escaped,” Kenneth said. “We have to stop him if we can. He can probably still send the command to continue the bombings. He has all kinds of safe hiding places being as rich as he is.”

  They slowly stepped out, checking all directions. They started down the trail when Kenneth abruptly stopped everyone.

  “There,” he whispered.

  Kenneth pointed down the winding trail to a group of four men and one woman. It was Dominski, Ava, and three armed guards accompanying them.

  “We need to get them,” Marcus said angrily.

  “We don’t have weapons,” Kenneth said holding Marcus back from charging down the mountain. He thought for a moment. “Here’s the plan. You three need to cut through the trees down the mountain.” He pointed further to the right of where Dominski and his group were on the trail. “I’m going to catch up with them. They still don’t know that I’m not really on their side. Once we approach you on the trail, we’ll jump the guards and capture Marek.”

  The others agreed to the plan and headed down the mountain. Kenneth ran down the trail towards Dominski. He waved his arms and yelled out Ava’s and Marek’s name as he neared them from behind. The three guards turned quickly and trained their pistols on him. Dominski had them lower their guns as he realized it was Kenneth. He joined them and they began a quick pace down the trail. Dominski said he had a helicopter waiting about a mile ahead.