2136: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel

by Matthew Thrush

  ‘Wake up, princess!’ he said in my ear.

  I’m already awake you fool! You don’t have to scream in my ear. But instead, I groaned as if I was waking up from a restful sleep. When they opened the sliding hatch a rush of cold wind swept into the compartment. I felt my body seize and I fell backwards instinctively. The man holding my arm clenched down tighter and pushed me ahead of himself.

  ‘A little cold never hurt anybody,’ he said.

  My boots pumped into the metal stairs leading up and out of the boat and found solid ground. My hood was ripped off suddenly and the wind bombarded my face. I immediately wished for the hood to be placed back over my head. It was freezing! I blinked numbly through the wind and saw two more men carrying Parker’s body out of the boat. Yup, it was a boat. Or some cross between a submarine and a boat. It looked like a small torpedo, completely encased in metal except for the two small horizontal windows at the front. I could see the captain’s face through the glass as he shut off the engines. The two men carrying Parker walked past me along a dock. I panned my head around to see where we were, but all I could see was the ocean.

  My driver ushered me forward, his gloved hand gripping my bicep tightly. Dr. A was talking with Dr. H up at the bay door when we arrived at a dome structure sitting on top of the water. The dock led straight to it. Other than that, there was nothing. Just ocean. I suddenly felt very small and vulnerable. The grey water ripped against the side of the dock. It was impossible to know how deep it went or what dangers lurked below. I walked more quickly towards the doctors then. The last thing I wanted was to accidentally fall into the water. Judging by how vicious the waves were and seeing the storm clouds brewing not far off, I’d be swept away before anyone even had a chance to notice I was gone.

  My nose and ears burned as the blood rushed to feed them with warmth. Dr. A turned to see me approaching.

  ‘I’m glad to see you’re awake,’ she said. ‘I hope the trip wasn’t too hard on you. Some find it to be rather sickening.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ I said.

  She analyzed my face for a split second then smiled.

  ‘Good.’

  She motioned to the bay door.

  Dr. H pulled up his sleeve and held his wrist by one of the scanners. The red light beeped and turned blue once it finished scanning. The locks on the door released and slid open with a hiss. The doctors led the way, Parker and I in tow.

  I stepped over the ledge into a circular room. It was barely big enough to hold all of us. White lights burned brightly overhead. Everything was grey. I guess they have a thing for neutral colors. Dr. H swiped his wrist again on a scanner inside the dome and the doors closed.

  ‘Where are we?’ I asked once the bolts sealed shut.

  Dr. A smiled at me from across the room.

  ‘You’ll see.’

  My stomach tried to crawl up my throat suddenly and my head felt woozy. The lights along the walls started moving, disappearing behind the ceiling.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Dr. A said. ‘It’s just an elevator. Your body will get used to it in a second.’

  The lights flashed by quickly until they were just a blur. I closed my eyes to hold back from throwing up. But then, just as it had started, the feeling of moving stopped and the lights on the wall were still.

  Another door slid open and the soldiers led me through and into a long white hallway. After twenty feet the hallway jutted off to either side.

  The soldiers carrying Parker turned left. I went to follow, and felt a jerk on my arm. I turned with fire in my eyes and glared at the soldier.

  ‘Stop doing that!’ I yelled. ‘Where am I going to go?’

  The soldier had an evil grin on his face. I didn’t want to know what was going on inside that head of his.

  ‘It’s fine, Sergeant. I’ll take it from here. You’re dismissed,’ Dr. A said.

  The soldier looked at me one last time and said, ‘I’ll be seeing you, sweetheart,’ and walked off in the direction of the other soldiers.

  I stood them watching them go.

  ‘Come with me, please,’ Dr. A said.

  I turned to see her walking down the white hallway that led to the right.

  ‘Where are they taking him?’ I asked, refusing to move.

  Dr. A stopped.

  ‘We need to run some tests,’ she said, and quickly added, ‘Nothing to worry about. Standard procedure for contaminates.’

  ‘What do you mean contaminate?’ I said. ‘We’re not contaminated with anything.’

  ‘How can you be so sure?’ she asked. ‘If you’re right, then there is nothing to worry about. Come now, I want to show you something.’

  The doctor continued walking away. I stood there unsure of what to do. The white hallway must have veered off some distance down for the soldiers and Parker’s body had disappeared.

  There was nowhere to go. I turned and walked after the doctor. Don’t worry, Parker. I’ll find you and get us both out of here. I promise.

  ≈ Chapter 39 ≈

  The white hallway zigzagged and branched off into more hallways. I tried to keep track of all the turns, but after the twelfth turn, I lost my bearings.

  ‘Lost yet?’ the doctor teased just beside me. I didn’t answer and tried to remember the next turn.

  ‘Don’t bother trying to map out the place,’ she said. ‘It’s no use. It took me a year just to remember how to get to my office.’

  ‘You’ve been here for a year?’ I asked. Was that two lefts, right, right, left, right, left, left, left, right, right, and right? I had my fingers up and counting.

  ‘I’ve been here eleven years,’ she said.

  I lost count and stared up in disbelief.

  ‘Eleven years! That’s a long time to be…here,’ I said. ‘Wherever here is.’

  She smiled and stopped by a door.

  ‘That would be Ozark,’ she said.

  ‘Ozark?’

  ‘It’s one of SIND’s secret research facilities.’

  I was looking down one of the hallways leading away from where we were. I was pretty sure if I went now, I’d be able to find my way back. But any further and I’d get lost in the maze of hallways, or be blinded by all the white in the process.

  ‘And,’ she added, ‘if you’re thinking about escaping, I’d advise against that.’

  I swiveled to see her staring at me.

  ‘And why is that?’ I asked, resolute in my rebellion.

  ‘Because of this,’ she said, and walked over and typed a few strokes on a keypad along the wall. It might as well have been invisible. I hadn’t even seen it there. It blended in with the white background. A section of the wall lifted, revealing a thick, blue-tinted shield.

  I walked over to it and peered through. It was dark on the other side of the glass, but I could see lights positioned all along the outside of the compound. It gave off an eerie ambiance. Something black and huge suddenly swept across my line of sight, blocking out the light. I jumped back with a screech.

  ‘What was that?’ I said. My neck was throbbing with my heartbeat.

  ‘That would be a whale,’ she said, with a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

  ‘A whale? Why is there a whale outside this window? Where are we?’

  Dr. A’s face was firm, but strangely genuine.

  ‘We are a mile beneath the Atlantic,’ she said.

  I stumbled against the inner wall. My throat tensed up and I found it hard to breathe. It felt like the walls were closing in on me.

  Dr. A’s hand was on my arm.

  ‘It’s okay,’ she said, ‘we are perfectly safe. The outer steel sheath is over two hundred millimeters thick on either end in case of a breach, with an additional five feet of syntactic foam in the middle as a buffer. And in the rare instance that the outer steel is compromised, each hallway turns into its own pod and the syntactic foam acts as a flotation mechanism so we don’t sink.’

  ‘Is that supposed to make me feel better?’ I asked. ‘Because it doe
sn’t.’

  ‘You’ll get used to it,’ she said. ‘After the first week, you won’t even notice the difference.’

  I doubt it, I thought. How can anyone get used to being a mile under water?

  ‘How big is this facility, anyway?’ I asked.

  ‘That’s confidential,’ she said.

  ‘Figures.’

  ‘But let’s just say, it’s big.’

  ‘Does it go any deeper than where we are now? I noticed in the elevator chamber that there were various depths indicated.’

  The doctor’s eyes lit up.

  ‘Very attentive,’ she said. ‘Yes, the sections of the facility the research team works in are only a mile deep, but there are other parts that can extend all the way to the ocean floor.’

  ‘Why all the secrecy?’ I asked. ‘I mean, if it’s so safe here, and out in the middle of the ocean, how would anyone ever get in?’

  I thought I saw a flash of doubt in her eyes.

  ‘We aren’t worried about keeping people out,’ she said. ‘As you might have noticed, we are quite a long way from the shore, and not easily visible to any aircraft or ships that might accidentally come upon us.’

  She waved her wrist under one of the scanners and the white door hissed open, revealing a science lab. The doctor motioned for me to follow her in.

  ‘It’s to keep them from getting out,’ she said. The door hissed closed behind me with a snap.

  I pounded on the door with my fists.

  ‘Let me out!’ I shouted, but it was no use.

  I heard the locks activate from the other side as the doctor scanned her wrist again. I heard the sound of her three-inch heels clicking on the glass floor as she walked away.

  ‘Help me,’ I wept, but the doctor was already gone and now here I was—a prisoner to whatever plan they had for me. I wondered if Parker was okay. I tried to keep my mind from dwelling on what torturous acts they could be doing to him, or would do to me, but it didn’t help. Fear took over my imagination and curtailed me into a pit of helplessness. My body slid to the floor and I sobbed. For Parker’s sake, I hoped he never woke up.

  ≈ Chapter 40 ≈

  ‘Are you okay?’

  I lifted my head from my chest the moment I heard the cracked voice.

  ‘Who’s there?’ I shouted. ‘Show yourself.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,’ the voice said.

  I watched as a small girl’s head peeked over one of the lab tables and gazed at me. Her deep brown eyes were streaked with tears and nearly swollen shut.

  ‘Who are you?’

  As the head continued to rise, the rest of the girl’s figure materialized and came into view. She was wearing a white apron that looked a lot like the ones the doctors were wearing, but hers was torn along the sleeves and smeared with something that looked like dirt.

  ‘Come out from there,’ I said.

  ‘Are you sure you won’t hurt me?’ she asked.

  ‘Hurt you? Why would I hurt you?’

  Her brown eyes darted to the door.

  ‘You think I’m one of them, don’t you?’ I said, realizing the reason for her hesitation.

  She nodded and dropped a little lower behind the table.

  ‘I’m not,’ I said. ‘I promise. I don’t even know who they are. They just kidnapped me from the beach, put a hood over my head, drugged me, and next thing you know I’m here.’

  The little girl’s face seemed to relax marginally.

  ‘Why were you hiding?’ I asked. ‘That’s what you were doing, right?’

  Her eyes puckered in an attempt to cry again, but the tear ducts were all out of moisture and swollen dry. I heard her whimpering.

  ‘Don’t cry,’ I soothed, ‘it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. Come on out.’

  I could see the little wheels turning in her mind.

  ‘My name’s Willow,’ I said. ‘What’s yours?’

  She made up her mind and walked slowly around the table. I felt my mouth drop, and my body press into the door to try and flee when the lower half of her body came into view. She had her hands hanging by her sides. They, as well as the rest of her white robe, and bare feet were covered in blood and something brown.

  ‘I’m Zoey,’ the little girl said.

  ‘What happened to you, Zoey? Is that blood?’

  I found myself looking for a means of escape if things turned south. I didn’t know why this little girl was here, let alone covered in what looked like blood. I couldn’t tell if it was hers or someone else’s.

  She nodded.

  ‘Are you hurt?’ I asked.

  She shook her head.

  ‘What happened?’

  She didn’t step any closer, which was fine by me.

  ‘They tried to kill me,’ she said.

  ‘Who did? Who tried to kill you? The people in the white robes?’ I asked.

  She shook her head.

  I guess we weren’t going to do much talking. The little girl couldn’t have been more than eleven years old. If the ‘white robes’ had taken Parker and I, I could only imagine why they had her here.

  ‘How old are you, Zoey?’

  ‘Ten,’ she said.

  ‘Do you know why you are here? Why I’m here?’

  ‘They told me you would come,’ she said. ‘That there was no escape for me. I would pay for my sins.’

  Zoey started crying again. If she didn’t stop she’d end my blinding herself.

  ‘What sins, Zoey? I don’t understand. Why would they tell you I was coming?’

  She shrugged her shoulders.

  ‘They’ve always told me someone would come and take away my pain. They said you would save us.’

  ‘How are you sure it’s me they were talking about? I’m stuck here just like you,’ I said.

  Zoey raised her hand and pointed at the wall. I followed her finger to the projector screen on the wall.

  ‘Because you’re her,’ she said.

  I picked myself up off the white floor and walked in front of the screen. The screen itself was blank. Its dull black emitted no images and looked more like a mirror than anything else. I could see my reflection in the screen and that of the little girl’s behind me. My face was smeared with dirt and my hair was tangled and jutting out to the sides. No wonder the little girl was afraid to come out. I’d be scared of me too.

  My eyes shifted to one of the pictures on the wall beside this wall-sized mirror and I felt my heart stop. The little girl was right. It was me, except, it wasn’t.

  ‘Do you know who this is?’ I asked.

  I walked towards the picture and saw the familiar face, the brunette hair with streaks of red, and those blue eyes. She wasn’t smiling in the photo like she used to, but there was no mistaking it. It was her. My own warm tears fell down my cheeks as my trembling fingers stroked her face through the glass.

  The door to the room hissed open and two white Hazmat suits rushed in. They bypassed me and went straight for Zoey. I saw her face in the reflection ignite with terror and her tiny body ran behind the table to hide.

  ‘NO!’ she screamed. ‘Don’t hurt me! I didn’t mean to do it. I promise I won’t do it again. Please, don’t hurt me again.’

  The suits grabbed her by the arms and ripped her from behind the table. Her hands were torn free from the edge of the table and left a streak of reddish brown all along its stainless steel surface.

  ‘Willow!’ she cried. ‘Don’t let them take me.’

  I stepped in front of the two men.

  ‘Where are you taking her?’ I demanded. ‘She’s done nothing wrong.’

  ‘Ma’am, please step out of the way. This does not concern you. We are under strict orders.’

  ‘I won’t let you take her,’ I said, and stood there defiantly.

  The voice behind the second suit sounded female.

  ‘We are not going to hurt her. We just need to take her to quarantine for some additional tests. We will bring her back after evaluation.
’

  ‘Where are you taking her?’ I asked. ‘Why does she need to be quarantined? What is this place?’

  The first suit spoke up.

  ‘That is confidential. Get out of our way, or we will have to force you.’ His tone wasn’t harsh, but direct.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘You’re not taking her.’

  I felt a sudden jolt of pain in my arm. I looked in time to see the syringe leaving my skin along with another white glove. That now familiar wooziness swept over me and I tumbled to the ground. I watched the two white suits take the little girl away. The third suit stood over me.

  I blinked through the glare of the light shining from the ceiling.

  ‘Why are you doing this?’ I groaned.

  ‘Because it must,’ the suit said, then stepped out of the room, swiped the scanner, and the doors sealed shut again.

  I lay there motionless, the stinging sensation in my arm working its way through my body. I heard Zoey screaming down in the hallway, her voice gradually getting quieter until it was too far away to hear.

  ‘I’m sorry, Zoey.’

  A lone tear dripped down the side of my face as the drug took its full effect.

  ≈ Chapter 41 ≈

  The door hissed open and Zoey was tossed inside.

  The door hissed shut, leaving us alone once more. Zoey’s body lay on the floor, not moving, but her back was heaving.

  The drugs they had injected me with had worn off just enough for me to regain some of my mobility. I crawled over to Zoey. My legs refused to work as they dragged behind me.

  I placed my hand on her shoulder, and propped myself up on my other.

  ‘Are you okay?’ I whispered.

  I could hear her rasping breath behind her dangling hair.

  ‘Zoey, can you hear me?’ I asked.

  She raised her head slowly and I saw her bloodshot eyes gazing through the hair that hung over her face.

  ‘Zoey?’

  Her back started convulsing and her body sprawled out onto the white floor, all muscles constricted and tight. She jerked around like a fish out of water her hands bent and crooked stretching towards the light, grunting all the while.