I saw his eyes move to my bottle of brandy. “Did you want some?”
“Maybe later if it’s okay. I'm not a big brandy fan.”
“Neither am I but it works. Just come back, I’ll be here a while.” I pointed to the nutritional manuscript.
“Will do. Good night.”
“Night.” I glanced to the digital clock. It was pushing ten as I sat back in my chair, once again staring at the picture of Jackson and feeling so grateful that I had it.
“You realize ….” Tony’s voice carried in the room. “There is an extra office in Hive one.”
I didn’t see him, but I heard the clinking of glasses. He then emerged carrying an empty glass and walked to the table. “It’s right next to Pete’s office.” Tony poured some brandy. “You know, your buddy, the brilliant scientist. Then you can work side by side and yell through the walls how famous he is.”
I laughed out a ‘what?’
Tony pulled out a chair, but unlike everyone else, he didn’t sit across from me. He placed the chair next to me, angling it to face me and then sat down. “I’m making fun over your fan boy nature with him.”
“He’s smart, Tony.”
“I know.” As Tony brought his drink to his lips, he paused and looked at the tablet and to the picture. “That’s nice.”
“I know. I wonder if Gil is okay.”
“He’s too smart and on top of things not to be. When the antenna goes up, we’ll call out.”
“Where?”
“I know the codename for his bunker. We’ll use that. In fact I know a couple code names.” He took a big gulp and cringed.
“More than one.”
“I know of three.”
“So mankind isn’t buried?”
“No. It may not be the same, but there are going to be survivors.”
I lifted the bottle and refreshed his glass. “Are you still mad at me?”
“I never really was. Frustrated, yes. Mad. No. Are you mad at me?”
“No.”
He stared at me for a second, smiled and asked. “What are you working on?”
“Rations, stock, trying to come up with a plan.”
“In that plan, are you working on securing the food and storage?”
“Isn’t it already?” I questioned.
“Minimally.” He replied. “There wasn’t really a need to keep it safe before.”
“Is there now?”
Tony didn’t answer; he only shrugged and took a sip.
“Tony?” I waited. “You still think I made a mistake.”
“I think …. You have made a potential mistake.”
“Why do you say that?”
“My gut. Something isn’t right. I think we need to tighten things up.”
I laughed at the sound of it. “Tighten things up?”
“Yeah, lock up the supplies and have someone on guard. Turn on the interior video monitors. They’ve been off.”
“Tony, come on. Really? Over eleven people?”
“Really, Anna.” He said seriously. “I did this for a living. And again … my gut is screaming.”
“Okay, since you worked in a security field. Why is your gut screaming at you about a group with women and children?”
“It’s not the women and children. It’s the men. Two in particular.” He leaned forward. “The best way to get information is to pretend you aren’t getting information. So I helped Doc. While doing so, I asked questions.”
“What did you find out?”
“They came from town. Not far away, four miles.”
“That’s a hell of a walk in this heat.”
“According to the leader, and I am not sure he’s the leader I am just guessing, because he gave the least information. We’ll call him Survivor One.”
“No name?”
“I didn’t pay attention. Anyhow, Survivor One tells me they were able to jump start an old bus and drive here. Survivor Two …”
“No name either?”
Tony shook his head. “He says they were in a makeshift shelter at the fire hall. They had been talking about this place for a while because Survivor One knew they were building something up here. Everyone from the area in Elwood knew we were working on something, even though we covered the fences. Survivor guy Two and Survivor guy Three both said, Survivor One started the plan to come here. He even scouted the area for safe zones because they were thinking ahead for a more stable place.”
“I’m still not following you. What is causing your concern?”
“They had weapons.”
That made me lean back.
“Survivor One won’t say anything and denies he knew about it. He said he was only part of the group and they stumbled across this.”
“One would think they’d get their stories straight.”
“One would think.” Tony held up his finger. “Survivor One is the one who is lying. Survivor One is also the town bad boy.”
“Is that knowledge or a bad cliché guess?”
“Both.” Tony gasped. “Breast Milk mother doesn’t like him at all. Said he was trouble before it all happened. She came here for the baby.”
“It’s an awful big gamble if someone wasn’t certain we had something to offer.”
“Yes, it is. Someone was sure enough that he led ten more people here.”
“So what do you think?” I asked.
“I think Town Bad Boy and a few others knew about the place and only the strong survive, so he was designated the one to lead the pack. Test the waters. They brought weapons, so they had bigger intentions than just coming for help. Just my guess. I think they were the first party. The rest of the fire hall will show up. There’s not many of us. They may want to take the place.”
“They can’t, can they?”
“They could. But I won’t let it happen... But we need to watch out for one of them to disappear when the temperatures normalize. If they do, I’d look for a little trouble. In fact, I am watching ahead of time. They may not even need someone to slip out. We’re not secure. There’s not that many of us. I could take us all out in the middle of the night.”
“That’s comforting,” I grumbled.
“It’s the truth. When Spencer gets well, ask him. He was a cop. He’ll say the same thing.”
“Why would they do that? We have plenty.”
“Because we have plenty. It’s ours. If we control it, they are under our control.”
I exhaled heavily. “Do what you need to do.” I spoke those words with a heavy heart hoping Tony was wrong in his assessment. However, a part of me felt that he wasn’t and I had not only opened our door to strangers, I had opened our door to trouble.
30 – Signal
August 14
In the two weeks after impact, things were honestly normalizing for me. Well, about as normal as it could be. I still missed Jackson... that would never stop. I still cried for him. But I had settled into a routine, a daily routine that made me feel as if I were a contributor to it all. I ran rations and inventory. Every day I walked each floor twice, checking on things. Inwardly, I felt as if I were healing. Slowly, but still healing.
Out of the eleven survivors that came to the shelter, ten remained. An older woman passed away the second night.
The children had returned to being children and ran about constantly. A few of the survivors, pretty much never came out of their rooms and did only what was required to pull their weight.
Some offered to help cook and others spent their time in agriculture with Melissa. Including Town Bad Boy. His name was Lenny.
Tony grew increasingly frustrated over the fact that as they days rolled by, his assumption was more than likely wrong. But he wouldn’t let it go about Lenny. He stared him down and watched him so much, it was making me uncomfortable.
Spencer was the one I worried about in a different way. The ash settled into his lungs and that turned into pneumonia. He was fighting it, but it would take time, Craig said.
He walke
d the floor to get oxygen moving in his lungs, but that wore him out. I had to wonder if it was all his health or maybe something else.
It was ‘call to lunch’, and once again, Spencer didn’t’ make it to the dining area. I fixed him a plate and after doing so conveyed my concern to Tony.
“Oh, it’s more,” Tony said. “He didn’t want to live anyhow.”
“What can we do?”
“Nothing.”
“You know, his was the only story I never got.”
“He doesn’t have one and he won’t have a hot meal if you don’t take that now.”
“Walk with me?” I asked.
“Sure.”
Spencer’s meal in hand, we headed out of the dining area. “So I am thinking he has this huge tragic story. Like his wife and kids died.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because he wanted to stay behind and die. He said he had no one.”
“Did you ever stop to think he had no one because he was always working and never met anyone?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so.”
As we reached the end of the walk way and were just about to Hive One, Peter emerged from the switch room.
“Oh, lunch. I’ll go get some.” He said. “Must have missed the call. I was busy with something fascinating. Wait until …”
Tony interrupted him. “We have to get this to Spencer.”
“Poor guy,” Peter said. “At least he should feel better when he sees your lovely face.”
Tony said. “Thanks.”
“I think he was talking to me.,” I nudged Tony. “And thanks Peter. I can’t wait to hear about your fascinating find.” I could feel Tony’s impatience and he was bodily trying to move me.
“You’ll love it. Make time about an hour after dinner. Temperatures will be not only normal, but pleasant. Short lived, only a few hours and then they’ll plummet, so it is the prime time to take one more breath of fresh, tolerable air. We’ll build a fire.”
Tony gave him a quirky look. Then moved me along. “He’s so strange,” Tony said.
“You’re really not nice to him.”
“He doesn’t need me to be nice, Anna, you are nice enough to everyone.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. And what do you think about his suggestion?”
“It’s dark. It’s so dark that the night vision doesn’t work correctly. He’s nuts. He wants to build a fire with you. Please. He’s got romantic intentions. He gave you some time and now he’s gonna be suave about it.”
I laughed.
“I’m serious. That notebook he carried has your name all over it.” Tony said. “Little tiny hearts. I heart Anna. Kind of scary.”
“Stop.”
“Besides,” Tony held the door for me as we entered the second floor of the Hive. “I believe you and I are still technically pretend dating. Neither one of us ended it. Not sure what Senator Gil’s rules were on that one. Whether we should still be pretend dating for the apocalypse for the sake of your safety.”
“You weren’t supposed to be here. But thanks. Thanks for making me laugh. I need that. And Peter is harmless. I know you’re only watching out for me.”
“Yeah.” He reached up and knocked on Spencer’s door. There wasn’t an answer. Tony knocked again. “I hope he’s not dead.”
“Oh my God.” I gasped in shock.
“Come in,” Spencer called.
“See?” I said to Tony and opened the door. “Hey Spence, we brought you lunch.”
“Thank you.” He sat up in bed.
“It was hot,” Tony commented. “But then Peter stopped us on the way here. You know him. Doesn’t shut up. He invited Anna out for a romantic black out walk.”
“Stop it, he did not.” I laughed and handed Spencer his lunch and plumped up his pillows. “How are you feeling?”
“Better, much better. This thing kicked my ass. But Craig said I have to get out of here tomorrow for a couple of hours and do something. Nelly invited me to peel boiled eggs. I think that’s easy enough.”
“Good,” Tony said. “You haven’t really met the new people. I want to get your take as a officer of the law.”
“Spot trouble in the bunch?” Spencer asked.
“I feel it coming.”
“Be happy to give you my opinion.”
To me, Tony was just bound and determined to have one of them be bad. In fact, I think he was secretly hoping for it so he could have some fun.
We stayed and talked to Spencer a bit more and then headed back out. Though Spencer did seem more ill than depressed, I wasn’t ruling it out.
We stopped by the switch room to check on Tom.
Tony asked him how it was going. Since Tom couldn’t see much, he was working the radio.
“Nothing. Despite how powerful this thing is, it isn’t penetrating,” Tom said. “I thought since the orange left the horizon and the fires were dying down and we’d get something.”
“Can we boost the signal?” Tony asked.
“If we can channel more power.”
“We’ll do it tonight, when we lower lights. You can take a break from it if you want.”
“Nah, I’ll keep trying. What else is there to do down here?”
Hearing Tom say that made me think and on our way back to Hive Two I said to Tony. “You know, thinking about it, Peter may have a good idea.”
“What are you talking about? A romantic fire with Pete is a good idea?”
“Not that,” I playfully hit his arm. “Going out. Everyone has been down here. He said this is the only night temperatures will be tolerable. Then they’ll drop. We should tell people to get air. Fresh air.”
“It’s not all that fresh by what Peter says.’
“But an hour won’t hurt and it may help morale.”
“Morale isn’t low yet. Not yet. And do you have any idea how dark it will be?”
“If we light up the bay it will cast some light. Then we can light fires.”
“And call every survivor in the area to our fences.”
“Little fires?”
Tony grumbled.
“Besides, I told you I want to witness every phase. Absolute dark is a phase, and what better way to see it than when it’s not too hot or cold?”
“Tell you what.” Tony faced me. “I’ll think about it. But before we tell everyone, and everyone heads out, we check it out. We go out there and make sure it’s okay.”
“We?”
“You and I. One thing is for sure. You want to experience absolute darkness? You will experience absolutely darkness.”
I didn’t understand why Tony was making such a big deal about it. It was dark. If he thought I was going to be bothered by it, he was wrong. Little did I realize, I was about to find out how ‘dark’ absolute darkness actually was.
<><><><>
We told no one but Tom and Duke, that we were going topside. I felt it was rude, because Peter kept on asking me to go outside with him. I also wanted to invite everyone. Tony handled that by saying he just wanted to make sure nothing lurked out there.
Duke broke apart two wooden crates that were down in storage, and helped carry them up to the bay. We placed them on the floor by the doors along with a small can of gasoline.
Tony reached for the doors and unlatched them. “Hang back, Duke. Give us a few.”
I figured at that moment, Tony and I would carry out arms full of wood. But he only opened the door.
It was black. Even though every light was on in the bay, it didn’t shine out that far.
“Oh, wow, it’s dark.”
“You think?” Tony took hold of my arm and we stepped outside the door.
I took a deep breath. The smell of ash and burning still filled the air along with a slight odor of sulfur, but the air felt good and the temperature was comfortable as we stood outside the open blast door.
“It’s not hot anymore,” I said.
“Seventy-eight.” Tony moved m
e a few feet.
“Oh, the wood.”
“Not yet. You want to experience absolute dark.” He reached back and with Duke’s help, the door closed. “Welcome to absolute black.”
There were certain things in my mind that I associated with complete blackness. Blindness, the uncertainty of afterlife, floating in the abyss. Never did I imagine it could be so dark. My heart instantly raced and the second I felt Tony’s fingers slip from my arm, I panicked.
I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.
I stepped into a black pit. It was so encompassing it was nearly mind blowing. It was a darkness my eyes would never adjust to. It had a foreboding feeling as if I were waiting for something bad to happen. Waiting for something to jump out at me.
“Tony.” I called his name.
“I’m here.”
“Where?”
He touched my hand.
I screamed and he laughed.
“I've had enough,” I said. “Okay. Let’s go.”
“Let’s take a walk. You wanted to experience it.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Come on, I got you.” His fingers gripped around my hand and he moved.
“How can you see?”
“Um, Anna? I can’t.”
“We’ll never get back if we go too far.”
“We’ll get back.”
Walking through the darkness was much more frightening than I thought it would be. Tony kept walking and I swore we would be too far out. I inched up closer to him, bumping into his back. “This wasn’t my best idea.”
“Nah, it’s a pretty good one. Pretty awesome if you think about it. There’s a beauty here, if you just let yourself feel it.”
“I’m good.”
A flash of light shot upward and it caused me to scream. It looked like it came from nowhere, when in fact it was Tony turning on a flashlight.
He laughed, and making sure he had a guiding hand on my arm, he aimed the light to the blast doors. We had walked ten feet. In the darkness, the unknown, it seemed like we had walked forever.
“Feel better?” he asked.
“Yeah, I do.” It was still odd. The darkness absorbed the light, it didn’t extend far at all. There was nothing for it to reflect off of.
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