I knew one thing.
There was life.
The garage allowed a great view of the main part of the city located across the river. Bridges were white from snow and ice, the tall buildings there clearly scorched by the heat wave after the comet. Some were even damaged.
I began my scan of the area for the Humvee and I realized I was at a severe disadvantage. The fast falling snow blocked a clear vision, and also covered the entire area in white. Not only did the stadium and ramps block a clear view of vehicles on the street, looking for the Humvee was like searching a needle in a haystack.
The Humvee was white. More than likely it was camouflaged and seeing it would be like determining the truth behind an optical illusion. I imagined how I would look in the distance. Surely, if Tony was looking for me, I’d be spotted. My suit would make me a moving red dot in a sea of white.
As good of a view as it was, I was finding nothing up there and wasting time.
On foot would be my only answer. I prayed at that moment that Tony was one of those streaks of smoke, that he took cover somewhere because he lost his way, got confused with the snow. I knew for a fact he was without his map, but he did have his small personal sack, like I did. He didn’t drop that.
When I turned to leave that was when I caught just a glimpse of it. I thought maybe I saw wrong, so I moved across the level of the garage to the corner that faced the river.
Asking myself “How did I miss that” was an easy question to answer. It was located near the river shielded by a hillside. The white of the huge satellite blended in nicely with snow, there was a building there as well, but that wasn’t what caught my attention.
Was it a ship? A long boat? Lifting the binoculars again, I saw that it was neither, but rather a submarine. It was long and narrow, and could have passed for a ship-sub hybrid.
What the hell as a submarine doing in the river? After focusing again, I saw it was not only docked there, but connected to some sort of peer or walkway.
An attraction of sorts? However in the aftermath of the comet it wasn’t a tourist attraction, it was a vessel of life. I knew this when I saw a small amount of steady smoke emerging from the conning tower.
I knew the name ‘conning tower’ because Tom called the safe room that since we were able to raise our own video periscope. The conning tower had ventilation.
The smoke meant heat, life … Tony.
Would he be there? It was so close to the casino building, yet, neither was visible to the other because of placement.
Like I had thought before, Tony lost his way, maybe he was even injured. With that on my mind, and knowing where to go, filled with a little bit more hope, I left that parking garage.
Seven – Anchored
Time was my enemy and like most enemies, I underestimated it. From walking back and forth, changing my clothes, taking the stairs, scoping the area, I used up a lot of time. By the time I reemerged from the garage, I had an hour, if that of daylight left. Which meant I couldn’t go too far.
The next day I would do better, manage better.
Hopefully, that wouldn’t happen, I’d find Tony, tucked in the control room of the submarine, burning something for heat and using the scope as a means to vent the smoke.
After leaving the garage, I walked down the road toward the river and literally slid my way down the embankment. The building with the satellite dish was just about a block ahead. I suppose there was a road or driveway to get to it, an easier way other than sliding down a hill. The building was not my goal, the submarine was and it was located at the wharf near that building.
There were no footprints leading there. Then again, Tony could have come from the other side or his prints quickly covered by the falling snow.
A long dock near the building led to the deck, if that was what it was called, of the submarine. The blue and yellow entrance sign was covered and the words hidden. The long dock was snow covered, but in one piece, I began my crossing.
The submarine, like the military truck wasn’t encrusted in ice and frost. It was covered with fresh snow, but other than that it was in great shape.
The dock led to a plank, which brought me to the ‘Deck’. While I couldn’t see what lay beneath the snow, I knew I didn’t walk on a submarine, but rather a tourist walkway.
Drawing closer I could see the smoke. Again, like the other smoke streams it was thin. Almost as if it was deliberately being hindered. I headed to the conning tower and prepared to call out, when I heard the man’s voice.
“Stop right there or I’ll shoot.”
It wasn’t Tony’s voice. Where was he yelling from? I peered around.
“Hands in the air.” He ordered.
I lifted my hands then my eyes. The falling snow made him hard to see. Wearing a thick dark coat, armed with a rifle, the man stood on the conning tower.
“Let me make a suggestion. You have five seconds to turn around and leave, or I will shoot,” he said.
“Please don’t,” I replied. “I’m just looking for my friend. We got separated. He may be injured I don’t know. Is he there?”
“You’re a woman,” he stated.
“Last I checked. Is he here?”
“Hold on.” The man shouldered his rifle, then climbed down the exterior ladder. How he did so without slipping or falling was impressive. He obviously sensed I wasn’t a threat, then again, maybe he was just as naïve as I was.
Figuring it was safe to lower my hands, I did.
He approached me, pulling his rifle forward in his grip. “You alone?”
At that point I wondered if I made a mistake. His face was hard to make out through the thick hooded fur. He had a beard, I saw that. “I just need to find my friend.”
“I haven’t seen anyone,” he said. “I only saw you because I was scoping, and I spotted that red suit. You stand out in that red suit. Are you alone?”
I was at a loss as to what to say, how to answerer, when I saw the round door on the tower open, and clearly a woman peaked out. She wore a coat, but not the hood.
“Larry, everything okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, fine. She’s safe. You’re letting the heat out. Get in.”
The door closed.
Larry. I guess that was his name.
“Come on in.” He moved to the door.
“I have to get back out and search.”
“A huh.” He nodded. “Alone. Right now? It’s gonna be dark in less than an hour. You don’t look like you’re from one of the camps. And from that flashy snow suit, I’m gonna guess you ain’t from around here. Come on in.” He reached for the door.
If Tony was with me, he’d say I was out of my mind. I had this habit of trusting people. The guy Larry could have shot me. If he wanted to harm me, I was an arm’s reach away. He kept his distance, spoke matter of fact. He wasn’t alone, there was a woman with him.
Possibly even more people. The thought did cross my mind that a man and woman duo took our Humvee. Obviously, it wasn’t them. Why would they take it to go a couple blocks? Plus, it wasn’t around anywhere. Unless Tony got it back and left me in Pittsburgh.
Trusting my gut instinct, which had failed me before, I followed Larry inside the submarine.
<><><><>
Immediately I sensed the temperature change when walking into the submarine. I removed my hood and my goggles. Larry hung his coat next to the door.
“Sections are cold. You’ll get used to it, if you want to remove that stuff.”
“I’m fine. Thank you.”
He led the way, not waiting on me. I paused to look at the blue and gold sign that indicated ‘control room’ with an arrow. We walked down a set of narrow and steep stairs.
Larry told me to ‘watch my step’ and I did. It took us to the control room, or rather what used to be the control room. Most of the equipment was moved to make room for old bench seats.
Center of the room was a makeshift heater. It was made from a trash can with an exhaust tube that
led up to the ceiling. The temperature changed when I walked in there and I undid my coat.
The woman sat in there, her blonde hair in a sloppy ponytail pulled to the side. A little girl, with the same color hair, no older than three perched on her lap. Still holding the child, she stood and extended her hand. “Gail,” she said.
“Anna,” I told her.
“Have a seat. Do you want something warm to drink?” she asked.
“I’m fine. Thank you. Is it just you three?”
Larry answered, “There’s others. They’re here and there. About twelve of us. Four are kids.”
“That’s amazing,” I said with eyes that danced around the room. “You have a radio.”
“Yeah, well, there was an entire room filled with them. We can’t call out, only listen.”
“You said you spotted me on the scope. Have you spotted anyone else around here?”
“No.” He shook his head. “We caught you on the hourly. You were on top of that garage.” He reached to the small pot on top of the heater and poured whatever was in the pot into a mug. “Sure you don’t want something to drink.”
“No, really I’m …” I caught the aroma of the beverage, it smelled warm and fruity. “You know, maybe a little. That smells really good.”
He handed me the mug. “Gail, here, made this fruit tea. We dehydrate the skins. Try it.”
The first sip crossed my lips and stung from the heat, but I was able to enjoy the flavor. It was truly an ingenious thing. “You mentioned ‘camps’. Do you mean around here in the city.”
“All about the city. Small ones,” he said.
Gail added, “A lot of people left though. Once the weather warmed up, they packed what they could and headed south. People remain though. Some waiting longer, some hoping this will pass and we can start a normal life.”
“Is that what you’re doing?” I asked.
“No,” she replied. “We want to move out. Hopefully find Protocol One. It’s around here somewhere.”
Mid sip, my eyes lifted over the rim of the mug. “Protocol One?”
Larry pointed to the radio. “We pick them up, a couple other big bunkers, oddly named after apocalypse movies. But they are farther way. Protocol One is closer from what we gathered. Wish we had a way to communicate with them.”
“How are you gonna get there?” I asked.
“Wait until the weather breaks, if it does and walk,” Larry said. “Would help if we knew where they were. We’re thinking Elwood City. Just by some of the locations that have been mentioned. If we could reach out, maybe get them to grab the kids at least. We’re a good bunch of people,” Larry said. “Have a lot to offer. I was maintenance for the museum here and did the upkeep on this sub. Gail is a nurse. We wouldn’t be trouble. Not like what they had. We heard about that over the radio.
“Why do you want to join them?”
“Aside from them not sounding like a totalitarian so—”
I laughed, cutting him off.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing, please, go on. Just thinking of my friend.”
“The radio guy is funny. It’s the only entertainment we get. When they play those games, we try to play along.”
I nodded and sipped my beverage.
“So are you or aren’t you gonna tell us you’re from Protocol One.”
Slowly, I lowered the mug. “How did you know?”
“The fancy outfit. Mainly your voice. We listened to you every day for months. We know your voice. I recognized it as soon as you said a few words.”
“I’m sorry,” I said in a humble manner. “I’m just being careful. Please don’t take offense.”
“None taken. Who’s lost?”
“Tony.”
“Tony?” Larry said with shock. “How long?”
“He’s been gone two hours.”
Larry whistled. “What happened?”
“We were on a search, to gauge for survivors, actually Gil, who has taken over the control, needs more hands. Try to get an idea of how many, who we’ll transport and so forth. Then when we were turning, someone cried for help. We stopped. Thank God we took our stuff from the Humvee, because it was a ruse. She yelled from one door of the casino that someone was hurt, we ran in and someone took the vehicle. I’m guessing she ran through and met them. Tony decided to chase after and I haven’t seen him since.”
“Why would he chase them?”
“Because, I think, he believed he’d run to the front and catch up with her. I think he did because there were multiple footprints in the snow, then they got covered.”
Larry stood. “It had to be Michael and Gina’s crew. There’s three of them.” He looked at Gail. “What do you think?”
“Did you drive in from the West?’ she asked.
“Actually, we came from the north taking the west ramp in. So yes.” I replied.
“Has to be,” Gail said. “They shelter in that building just off the ramp. Probably saw you coming in. Wasn’t thought through. They wouldn’t have time.”
“Are they dangerous?” I asked.
Larry groaned in thought. “I want to say desperate. Ralph is. He is a short man with a short fuse. Was a lawyer or something. But whether they’d hurt him. I don’t know.”
Gail said, “Those who remain were those who were more prepared and could wait it out. Those three were the least prepared that we knew of. Didn’t have enough to pilgrimage nor enough to stay. They’ve been asking around for food.”
“Gotta whole city afoot,” Larry added. “Doesn’t make sense. Go out and salvage. We did.” He poured himself some of the fruit beverage. “It’ll be dark real soon. If you want, first light, I’ll help you look for him tomorrow. We’ll grab Horace make him check out Mike and Gina’s place. We’ll find Tony.”
I didn’t want to be dependant or ask for help, but I couldn’t turn down Larry’s offer. I was glad to have it, not for safety’s sake but navigational purposes. His help would save me time and he knew the area much better than I did.
Though I felt defeated in not finding or knowing anything about Tony on the first day, I was confident I’d find the answers in the morning.
At the Bunker – Peter
I was happy for the visual distraction. The right side of my bottom lip bled from biting it. No one told me anything. On top of that, the space station sent new photos. It wasn’t good. Before we sent out Anna and Tony, the gray cloud formation lingered between Minnesota and Northern Ohio. Had it taken the predicted course, it would have moved right on by us.
But it didn’t. It swept down and stalled. The massive storm front moved across our area. But that wasn’t the worst of it. The pretty picture of the earth wearing a snow beanie, quickly changed when the space station said they were watching massive cloud formations.
While I am not familiar with the terms, basically the arctic air was moving down and mixing with some sort of warm air, causing the cloud to produce more snow.
It could miss us and stay north.
For that we had to wait, wait to see what it did. The snow was already a hinder in getting Anna and Tony. But it did show signs of slowing down.
Tom and Skyler returned, they had trouble with the weather as well. Tom was anxious and wanted to go straight to Pittsburgh to find Tony. I wanted him to go, but Gil put the brakes on that.
“For as much as I want them back here, I can’t afford to lose two more people,” Gil stated. “We have what? Almost a foot of snow. Yes, we can make it there, but if the new storm hits, what are we getting, Peter?”
“They said about three feet maybe more.”
“You’ll get stranded too,” Gil said with a point to Tom. “They have supplies, they’ll be fine.”
“You say ‘they’,” Tom argued. “We don’t know where Tony is. We haven’t heard from Anna in hours. I can make it there before the storm hits.”
“Let me give it some thought. You won’t get there tonight before nightfall anyhow. If the storm hasn�
��t arrived by morning, maybe you can go out and try to beat it.”
Tom thanked him. I didn’t understand why. Why did we need Gil’s permission? Gil operated under the guise that he made all decisions in the best interest of everyone. Had Anna not been out there with Tony, I would have assumed he just wanted Tony gone. But Anna was out there and that just tossed a wrench into my theory.
Then after more lip biting, the visual distraction appeared in the monitor.
Gwen.
Was she still, all these hours later, trying to clean herself? Her hair was a mess, matted and wild. It made me laugh.
She took a seat in the dining area and kept looking at her watch. What was she waiting for? Her fingers tapped on the table and she appeared irritated.
“You can leave if you want,” Tom said. “I got this.”
“Yeah, but you’re gonna need rest if you go out,” I said. “Say, what do you think she’s up to?”
“Gwen? Who knows?”
“Here comes Nelly,” I pointed. “They’re talking. “ I watched Gwen’s lips move and I interpreted. “Gwen just said, ‘I bit my thigh.’
“What?” Tom laughed.
“Yeah, and Nelly said, ‘Fur wart’”
“You are the worst lip reader I have ever known.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m sure that’s what she said. Oh,” I laughed. “Gwen just told her, ‘Canada uses wings.’”
“Oh my God.”
“Why is Nelly flipping her off? Oh, here comes Gil.”
“Why don’t you go down there and grab a drink or snack, then you can really find out what is being said.”
“You know what?” I stood. “That is a good idea. Need anything?”
“No thanks.”
I myself needed a break from the safe room. I was there all day waiting for news. I was divided between hopeful and gloomy. The gloom came when Melissa radioed that Joie, Tony’s daughter wanted to know when he was getting back, a normal question for a five year old. It was something I didn’t want to answer over the radio. Melissa came to the safe room and I told her.
Deep Freeze: Protocol One, Book 2 (Protocol One Saga) Page 3