Asher chimed in.
“You let most of them out.”
Rowan’s cheeks flushed red as they glared at one another. Mia thought she might have to get between them.
“You should remember that’s part of the reason most of us are alive today,” he replied. “Some of us were prisoners here, not part of the monsters who controlled the compound.”
Mia slid her hand under the table and grabbed Asher’s arm as he tried to stand. Rowan stared at him for a moment longer before releasing his gaze.
“There’s plenty of dead down there and probably enough infected to wipe us all out,” he said then added, “I’ll go down first and scout out the way.”
Mia nearly snapped her neck trying to get her head around to look at him.
“You’ll what?”
“I’ll go with him,” Asher countered.
Mia ground her teeth.
“How can–?”
“I want to go too.”
All eyes turned toward the doorway to find the last volunteer. Jonah’s face was partially hidden by the darkness in the hall. He smiled at his sister and waved. Mia had heard enough. She popped up from her chair with much more emphasis than she intended.
“Everybody hold on.” She tried to calm herself. “Jonah, out of the question.” His face soured as he said something under his breath before disappearing into the hall. “If this is what we decide to do,” she paused a moment to see if anyone would object, “then let’s make sure we have the right people.”
The council started in, everyone talking at once. Mia focused on Rowan. He’d given up his spot at the table and was headed for the hallway. She rushed after him.
“Where are you going?” she asked. “We have to decide and I’m sure they would like to hear what you have to say.”
Rowan shook his head.
“No, they don’t,” he said, flatly. “Talk about it all you like, I’m heading down there.”
Mia was stunned by his brazenness.
“It’s dangerous,” she said, then blurted out a worry that’d been bouncing around in her head for quite some time. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
He didn’t answer right away.
“I want to get out of here,” he said.
That didn’t answer the question, but she didn’t stop him. She was surprised when he took her hand.
“I want us to get out of here.”
Mia grew mad, although she didn’t immediately understand why.
“We’re not the only ones here.”
His expression hardened.
“I’ve been down there before,” Rowan said, sweeping aside her comment. “I’ll make sure we can get someone down there and get the power back on.”
Mia knew he had no idea what that work would entail, and neither did she. Rowan made no effort to understand the technology of the old world and her own comprehension was rudimentary at best. She clenched her teeth again before getting out her suggestion.
“Asher needs to go with you,” she continued before he could growl at her, “he knows how the generators work. What if you get down there and they’re ruined? You wouldn’t be able to tell that.”
She took his silence as a sign that he was at least considering her proposal. Her hope vanished when he abruptly blew up at her.
“Can’t you give me some space?”
The shock of Rowan’s shout brought the ongoing conversations around the room to a halt. Mia locked up. It took her a moment to realize Rowan wasn’t yelling at her. He wasn’t even looking at her. She’d figured out the problem a heartbeat before Asher came to a stop beside her.
“I’m trying to help,” he said in a sheepish tone.
The trio stood in an uncomfortably close circle staring at one another. The rest of the tribal council gradually resumed their discussions. Mia took a long breath and let it out. She realized neither Rowan nor Asher were going to talk first.
“You’re right,” she gave in. “You should both go.” They looked at her in unison. “But you should take some support with you. Guns,” she added before walking away, “you should take plenty of guns.”
She’d had enough. If they wanted to run off and risk their lives, she wasn’t going to be able to stop them anyway. The Canaan tribe needed to get the power back on before the mindless horde of undead and their driving infected leaders came pouring into their home. Asher was qualified to inspect the generators and maybe even get them on again. Rowan could take care of himself. Moreover, none of it made her feel any better about it.
5
Bree and Gabriel stared in wide-eyed wonderment at the key. Bale and Tate were on their way. Jonah held it up for all to see; still trying to hide it from the two dozen or so other kids in the sleeping quarters. The key was a particularly coveted item. Jonah clasped onto it as if it might crack into a thousand pieces at the slightest touch.
“How did you get that?” Bree whispered.
Jonah smiled, proud of himself, and then his cheeks slowly sagged as he remembered where it came from.
“She has two of them,” he said. “She won’t even miss it.”
There were a handful of override keys found after the activation of Canaan’s security system. Mia had two of them, one she carried at all times, the other she kept locked away. The remainder were spread out among the tribal council representatives of the hives. She’d only ever shown three people where the spare key was hidden.
“Mia’s going to kill you,” Bale said when he got a look at it. “Don’t drag me into this.”
Jonah thought for the oldest and strongest of the group, Bale should be a bit more adventurous. Gabriel’s response was typical.
“We’re going to get into big trouble.”
Jonah shook his head. He looked to Bree for support, but her stern glare didn’t appear as inviting as he’d hoped. He decided to take a more diplomatic approach.
“Just hear me out,” he said then quickly relayed what he’d heard during the council meeting the night before.
“How come you didn’t say anything last night?” Bree asked.
“You were asleep,” he reminded her, “and besides, I didn’t make up my mind until this morning.”
The boys pushed in closer and Tate asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.
“Make up your mind about what?”
Bree cringed as if the answer might hurt. Jonah puffed his chest out and responded with bravado.
“We’re going to go down to hive five and look for the rest of that missing crew.”
There was a long bout of silence and Jonah wasn’t sure they’d heard him. He was about to repeat himself when the entire group burst into laughter all at once. He lowered his brow as he scanned their chuckling faces. He considered stomping on their feet, but decided that it wouldn’t help his fight.
“I’m not kidding,” he insisted. Something about his face got his point across. One by one, the others went quiet. “We need to do this.”
“You mean go down there with Rowan and their crew, right?” Bree asked.
Jonah shook his head.
“This is our chance to show them that we’re as good as they are,” he explained. “Isn’t that what we wanted?” The worried looks didn’t confirm his initial thought. “So, we’re all talk then? The Knights of Rowan are like everybody else?”
The challenge was enough to get a reaction.
“We’re the only ones that go out with Rowan,” Tate said. “I don’t see anyone else doing that.” He looked around at the rest of the bay where most of the inhabitants were in some state of dressing. “I’ll go if you go.”
Jonah smiled, but Bree crossed her arms. Jonah knew she was the key. He fancied himself as the leader of the group, but he knew they wouldn’t do anything without her. Quietly, he wouldn’t want to do anything without her either.
“This isn’t a game,” she said. “If we get stuck, there won’t be anyone coming to save us.”
Bale puffed out his chest to mat
ch Jonah.
“I’m not afraid.”
Bree pursed her lips. Jonah kept quiet and let the peer pressure stew for a moment. She tapped her foot nervously. Jonah knew he’d won.
“Fine,” she said. “I can’t let you guys run off without me. Who knows what would happen.”
All eyes went to Gabriel. He was the deep thinker of the group and waiting on him to make a decision was a common occurrence. Jonah was willing to allow the natural process to take its course. Bale, however, spurred it on with an elbow to Gabriel’s side.
“All right,” he said, “But I want everyone to note that I don’t think this is a good idea.”
Jonah smiled and the entire group responded together.
“Noted.”
♦
Jonah adjusted his grip on his knife. The feel of it helped to calm his nerves. He was doing his best to control his breathing. He was scared, but he refused to show it.
The override key worked perfectly. It gave them access to the locked maintenance passages in hive four and helped them get around the guards the tribal council put in place. They worked their way down eight levels worth of stairs to the personnel walkway between the hive four and five and then stumbled across the newly discovered opening. Stepping beyond the breach in the passage took a great deal more courage than Jonah imagined. He realized they were on their own from that moment on.
The small personnel lights slung around each of the kid’s necks produced enough light to see a few feet in any direction, but not much else. Long shadows stretched out in from of them, teasing their minds with hidden terrors. A sudden dose of reality hit Jonah square between the eyes the first moment they turned off the main hall. He made a quick decision.
“Someone should stay back.” The announcement brought everyone to a stop. Jonah gazed into the darkness ahead of them. “Bree was right,” he admitted with a hint of pain. “No one’s going to know where we went.”
The decision was obvious.
“Who’s it going to be?” Bree asked. “Not me.”
Jonah looked from one face to the next, settling on Gabriel’s.
“I’m not scared,” Gabriel announced, in an unconvincing tone. “I’ll go with you.”
“It’s not that,” Bale said. “We need someone with a clear head to be able to go get help just in case we get into some kind of trouble.”
“Give us some time, enough to look around,” Jonah said. “And if we’re not back here, you go tell Rowan.” The instructions weren’t as clear-cut as he’d hoped, but he didn’t have much of a choice. The fear of Rowan finding out what they’d done would encourage them to get in and out as fast as possible. “Go back to the hive and we’ll meet up with you there.”
Gabriel nodded reluctantly as if he somehow knew the request was coming. He glanced at his wrist. The watch was an old world technology, one he’d attempted to explain to the other members of the group several times without much success.
“I’ll give you a few hours,” he said.
Jonah nodded as if the notion made sense to him. He’d heard the reference enough times to know it was long enough to snoop around. Gabriel gave a half-hearted smile before heading back through the breach. Jonah waited until his light disappeared around the turn in the hall before refocusing on what was ahead of them. He moved forward and it wasn’t long before something on the ground froze them all in place.
The lamp was a standard issue item. The kids had seen them in nearly every cleared room in each of the hives. This particular lamp was broken. The bloody footprints stamped on the ground around the lamp produced a haunting image. The view forced a sudden dose of reality on the group. A response slipped from Jonah’s mouth in a whisper.
“The crew didn’t say anything about that.”
Jonah started again and the memory of the lamp kept the group to a creeping pace. Their general bravado drained away as they crossed an adjoining tunnel linking hive five and six. They reached a split in the main hall and Jonah made the decision on his own. Tate followed through with an idea to mark the walls at every turn with his knife to ensure they could find their way out. The process continued until the first unusual option revealed itself.
“Well, what do you think?” Bree tilted her head toward a set of descending stairs.
The smooth door that should have closed off the stairway was fixed in place midway across the opening, the power apparently having shut off in the midst of closing. The light from Jonah’s lamp shined midway down the stairs, but didn’t reach whatever awaited them on the floor below. Chunks of stone and metal from the collapsed ceiling blocked most of a wide opening directly across the hall from the stairs. The explosion of the compound’s security system had produced similar results throughout all of the hives, on most of the levels. The hallway beyond the stairs came to a dead end. The stairway appeared to be the only option except for the large open storage area across the hall. The storage area was vaguely familiar but Jonah couldn’t place it in the dark.
“You think the missing crew would have gone down there?” Tate asked.
“I think we know what happened to them,” Bale said.
“He’s right, Jonah,” Bree said.
Jonah scanned their faces. He knew they were right, but he didn’t want to admit it.
“You want to leave now?” he asked. “We didn’t find anything. The crew might have tried to get down there and hide.” He motioned at the stairs. “Just because we found a little blood doesn’t mean they’re dead.”
“It wasn’t a little blood,” Tate reminded him.
Jonah gauged his support by their souring expressions. If he lost Bree, the others were sure to follow so Jonah settled on a compromise.
“All right, let’s check this out,” he said. “If we don’t find anything, then we’ll follow Tate out of here.”
The bargain appeared to work. Bree nodded, then Tate. Bale shrugged. He was the biggest of the boys and Jonah needed him to watch his back in case everything went sideways. Bree made the announcement.
“Lead the way,” she said then punched him in the arm for good measure. “And don’t whine on the way back.”
The grin on Jonah’s face quickly fell away. He stepped through the half-open doorway and started down the stairs. The bottom of the staircase revealed itself once they reached the midway point. Jonah waved off Tate’s groaning disapproval. He set his sights on the control box beneath the access panel on the wall.
“That’s what this is for,” Jonah said, holding up the override key. “I’m going to need help with the door.”
The idea worked, however, the implementation was much more demanding than any of them imagined. The override key unlocked the sliding door, but it didn’t produce any power to move it from its closed position. The task was left to the strength of Tate, Jonah, and Bale while Bree stood watch at the top of the staircase. The grunting grew loud as the frustration flared. The boys managed to produce a foot-sized gap in the doorway before they sat back exhausted.
“I don’t know if I can get through there,” Bale admitted.
“Well, you’re welcome to try and push it farther,” Jonah said. “But you’re on your own with that.”
Jonah was first, slipping through the opening and out into another long corridor. The light didn’t produce much of a view. The hall curved in both directions, neither way giving a hint at what lay beyond. Jonah waited until the others joined him. They had to tug on Bale’s arms to pull him out into the hall.
“There’s nothing here,” Bree said. “We can’t keep this up.”
Jonah was stuck in the middle of considering their direction and trying to ignore her suggestion.
“Just a little more,” he said.
Bree glared at him and he pretended not to notice. Jonah had spent a good amount of time over the past few months trying to get her to notice him, but this wasn’t what he intended. He picked a direction then started off again. He worked himself halfway around the bend in the hall before he realized no
one was following him.
“Hey?”
The lack of response told him everything he needed to know. He’d lost the fight and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He took one last look before turning back. The light from the lamp reached the edge of a panel in the wall. Jonah gave in and spun on his heels then took two steps before something echoed through the dark behind him. It took a moment for the sound to register, but the voices continued for several seconds. Jonah was surprised when Bale, Tate, and Bree rushed toward him.
“Did you hear that?” Bale asked, whispering.
Jonah nodded and waved him off. The conversation picked up again, shifting from time to time, indicating a number of speakers.
“Why are we whispering?” Bree asked, much too loud for Jonah’s comfort. He put a finger to his lips and she complied. “It’s just the crew,” she said. “You do remember that’s the whole reason we’re down here.”
Jonah nodded, but something in his gut kept him from calling out. Instead, he put out the lamp, leaving the small lights around their necks as the only illumination. Jonah motioned for the others to follow then turned back for the control panel he’d spotted. The volume of the voices grew louder with every step, and the glow of a distant soft light pierced the darkness from somewhere near the door.
They were surprised to find a wide-open entrance at the end of the hall. The hidden light beyond the opening exposed the edge of a circular chamber. The light shifted erratically and the voices quieted. Jonah brought them to a stop before they cleared the opening.
“This entire section should go,” a man said. “Don’t argue with me,” he continued, obviously aggravated.
There was a garbled response, followed by the shifting of several feet. Jonah slid his face along the wall, beneath the control panel and took in as much of the space as his fear would allow. His eyes locked on to the front side of a long row of cells, the barred doors facing out toward the exterior wall. The cells were empty, but he got his first glimpse of the speaker near the center of the massive space. Another series of cells edged around the other side of an open column running down the center of the chamber.
The Decaying World Saga (Book 2): Season of Decay Page 4