by K. D. Kinney
Jim was my salvation. “Hey, guys. Let her have some room. I smelled her kitchen failures all the way down the hall. I’m sure she’s here to eat something and maybe then she might be willing to talk to you.” Everyone backed off as Jim escorted me the rest of the way to the stuff that wasn’t unintentionally black or undercooked.
I plucked vegetables from the salad bar and stuffed as much in my mouth as I put on my plate.
“Don’t let Amanda see you do that. She might banish you for a week.” Jim nudged my side.
Amanda Worden did take her job as kitchen manager seriously as if she was getting paid out in the real world. I would have followed Jim’s advice if hunger wasn’t overriding common sense. I still felt guilty for lying to him about being sick. It was easier to let him worry about a measly cold than have him try to work me out of my mental frailty.
“Brandon said everyone was starting to freak out over me. I guess it was true judging by that welcome,” I said once I swallowed at least half of what was in my mouth.
“What are you talking about?” Jim asked in mock disbelief before winking at me. “I think there are a few who are trying to find anything to freak out about. But there has been concern about you and lots of rumors.”
“Did they think Brandon put me away?” I finally filled my plate with all it could hold and we made our way to an uninhabited corner of the dining hall. I could feel eyes watching me, though. Whenever my name popped out of the constant murmuring, it seemed to echo off the walls.
“There was a lot of speculation. I told them you were sick. But even I didn’t believe that.” He smiled and patted my arm. “I probably would have stayed in my apartment for a few days too if it had been me. However, you’ve been in hiding for over two weeks now.”
“Well, it was easier to just stay there.” I tried to smile as if it was no big deal, but I couldn’t do it. “I was safe and didn’t cause anyone any trouble.”
“You saw it, didn’t you?” Jim whispered. “You know why he locked the lobby down.”
“You helped save me, you were there.” I frowned at him in disbelief.
“I’ve heard it rattle the roof plenty of times. But I never saw it. The storms are getting more powerful and focused more around where we are. I don’t know what exactly is happening or what it looks like though.”
I clamped my jaw down tight. I couldn’t believe with all the time he’d spent with Brandon helping him with security that he wouldn’t actually know what was out there. Even though I knew, I had been trying to convince myself it was one of my nightmares and not real.
When Jim realized I wasn’t ready to share, he sat in silence, picking a muffin to pieces. “The food they’re offering is changing. More reconstituted stuff and canned products. There are more greens though, just like Brandon promised on the first day. They said egg production is increasing so there will be more of that soon.”
I was close to finishing my food when Dobbers and Yodel sat at my feet, looking for handouts. I tossed them a couple of carrots when the two people I disliked most crossed the room, headed straight for me.
Living underground for several months hadn’t changed the Harpers at all. T.J. Harper was decked out in a polo shirt and Dockers as if he was headed out for a day at the golf course. There wasn’t any of that here. His wife Britta wore designer whatever from her glitter painted toes poking out from her fancy stilettos to her poofy, fake blonde hairdo that was losing its fluff and showing some much darker roots. She was mortified when she learned there were no licensed cosmetologists in our bunker. I laughed so hard that day over her tantrum that outshined any of the little kids. They sure liked to blast their self-importance on everyone and they were about to target me.
“Nice of you to show your face after all this time. So now we can get to the bottom of why we are all locked up in this place.” T.J. stuffed his hands in his pockets trying to look like a GQ cover, which he was not. Too much combover.
“These dogs and that rodent shouldn’t be in the cafeteria. I’m sure there are sanitation violations.” Britta pushed Dobbers off her leg when he was looking for a pet from her. He was a poor judge of character, looking for love in all the wrong places.
“Brandon asked me to come here and that means the dogs come too. Besides, Alison and Maddy have asked to see them.” Just as if I had summoned them to come to my rescue, the girls called the dogs from the other side of the room, and the dogs obediently chased after their little girl playmates.
“So what happened?” T.J. was rather obnoxious with his bossy demeanor.
I wasn’t going to submit to that. I focused on my plate, and I was going to answer in my own time. After I polished off the rest of the hot stuff, I was ready to engage. “I figured Brandon filled you in.”
As soon as everyone that mobbed me earlier realized that the Harpers were prodding for answers, they all gathered around. My bravado with T.J. flittered away and I nearly hyperventilated. Jim squeezed my arm and I exhaled slowly before I selectively chose my words. I could feel the tension coming from everyone and I understood why Brandon was looking for me to help him with settling down the contention. Calmly, I asked, “What did he tell you?”
Maddie and Alison’s dad spoke up, “He said that there had been a safety violation in the lobby during a storm. A few days later he said it had been you and you were safe when no one had seen you.”
“So he didn’t tell you it was me from the start?” I asked and a few people shook their heads. I wasn’t sure why, but that surprised me and it redeemed some of my respect for Brandon since he didn’t tell everyone it was my fault right away. I felt a little foolish for hiding from everyone for so long, brooding over the injustice I suffered from Brandon’s wrath that day. No one would have learned it was my fault if they had at least seen me. Of course, he kept me in the dark so how would I have known.
“What happened? It must have been bad if you stayed in hiding.” Marjie Cooper asked. She was a few years younger than me, a high-school gossip and had been trying to get in everyone’s business since we arrived at the bunker. I didn’t care for gossips.
Everyone crowded a little closer, eager to hear what I had to say. I wanted to crawl under the table.
T.J. folded his arms and squinted at me. His skepticism flooded from him as he looked me over as if I was the most distasteful creature in the room next to my dogs.
“I think it was nothing,” T.J. said. “This is doomsday talk taken to a new level. All made up to keep us in line and make us fear what’s out there. This is all the government’s doing, enforcing Martial Law on us all when there’s no need, keeping us suppressed, forcing us to live in our new underground prisons. I’m sure she’s just Brandon’s pawn as he plays prison warden. Or maybe she’s been in hiding because those two are having a fling and want to keep us in fear while they fool around during lock-down drills.”
My face burned with humiliation and I couldn’t answer. Brandon’s nightmares were on the mark.
“That’s out of line.” Jim stood up between the Harpers and me. “I was there when Rachel was rescued from the stairway. She would have died if we didn’t pull her out when we did and she is rightfully traumatized. I still don’t know what she saw. It was past time to close off the lobby anyway. Why do you think it was my job to guard the door? I know Brandon better than anyone here and Rachel is just another evacuee Brandon is trying to protect, the same way he’s trying to protect all of you.” He motioned for everyone to back off.
Once I had more space, I knew I had to tell them. I was trembling all over just from remembering it all over again. “I never went outside but I did see what’s out there and it tried to kill me by sucking all the air out of my body. The door to the outside never opened so I don’t know how it did that while I was still safe in the stairway. The clouds form tornado like tentacles that search the ground for living things. It was searching all over the bunker in front of ours before it must have discovered me. It sucked me to the door to the outside. Yod
el fell limp in my arms and I couldn’t breathe. Not until they pulled me out. My chest hurt for days afterward. That has to be how all the other people in those other bunkers died.”
A hush came over the room.
“They’re dead?” Marjie asked.
“How do you know they’re dead?” someone asked.
“Is Brandon keeping that from us too?” another person chimed in.
“Brandon is the reason why we aren’t dead too. Everything he has done has kept us alive this long.” I was trembling and wondered if I said too much. Maybe not. Everyone needed to know.
“The entire construction crew knows. They made the discovery. Brandon wasn’t keeping it from us. He’s devastated that the others are gone when he was trying to link our bunkers together so we weren’t all stuck here underground with just our small group of evacuees. But I guess we are safer if we work together on staying put for the time being, and follow Brandon’s rules,” Jim said.
T.J. and Britta were the only two that looked skeptical and they left in a huff. Everyone else started to murmur. A few people patted my arm to let me know they were glad I was all right. Soon their interest in me faded and I was back to sitting alone with Jim.
“I said too much.” I ran a carrot around my plate making dressing trails.
“You were fine. Brandon doesn’t know how to deal with people very well. They had to know. It has been getting tense down here. I was afraid to say anything myself. It was best it came from you. You are one of us and you actually experienced the threat. They don’t see Brandon the same way. If the construction crews weren’t so busy then maybe word would have gotten out sooner or maybe the ones that dug the tunnels are all still in shock. Who knows. ”
“I guess.” We sat in silence as I finished eating.
The dogs ran up to me to cower under my legs when Brandon’s booming voice played out over the intercom. “Stay in your location while we go into lock-down and check in at the nearest recognition pad.” There was a high level of tension in his voice.
“That’s unusual.” Jim was quick to follow Brandon’s instructions even though a crowd surrounded the spot where we needed to check in.
“He did tell me I could share what happened. I wouldn’t have mentioned the other bunkers though if he bothered to tell me that nobody knew.” I couldn’t stop mulling over everything I shared.
“It was a good time to tell them. Like I said, coming from you helps the news sink in better.”
“It makes it look like I have an in with Brandon that no one else has.”
“You and I are the only two that have been friendly with him. The growing tension has prevented the others from even trying to treat him like a fellow evacuee. You heard T.J. He’s been working hard to convince everyone that Brandon is acting like a prison warden. ”
We pressed our fingers in the pad when it was finally our turn. The rumbling was unlike any time before as the music blared. Suddenly the music went silent and the room went dark at the same time.
The children started to scream.
One of the dogs yelped.
“Sorry,” someone said.
“What do we do?” I whispered to Jim.
“Silence,” he said and held my arm. “Everyone, quiet.”
The room filled with shushing before it silenced. Emergency lights slowly warmed up and we could see just enough to not bump into each other.
The rumbling grew louder and it was even more frightening since we were floors below the surface and it sounded as if the thunder from the close lightning strikes were much closer. Creaking metal echoed down the stairwell. We weren’t that close, but I still clung to Jim’s arm and backed away. Rocky climbed up my leg and burrowed into the hood of my sweatshirt. I could feel him shivering against my back. Dobbers and Yodel stretched up on my leg and whimpered. Jim picked up Yodel and I held Dobbers. Jim pulled me farther away from the door when something big and clunky tumbled down the stairs.
My heart pounded so hard that my chest actually hurt. For a moment, I thought for sure I couldn’t breathe when I watched a few papers from the kids tables fluttering until they slid off the tables to the floor. They skimmed slowly across the floor at first and whirled while they slid faster as they got closer to the stairway door. I was sure I couldn’t catch my breath when they were sucked through the crack and disappeared.
“What do we do? Where do we go?” I gripped Jim’s arm so hard he gasped.
A couple of the security guards startled us with their arrival and whispered for everyone to go to Hydroponics. Metal creaked up above with each thunderous boom and it was so loud, I was afraid the upper floors were going to collapse on us. Whimpering from the little kids and some anxious whispering followed us into the massive growing operation of Hydroponics. The guards shut the door once we were all in the room. The emergency lights in Hydroponics were much better than in the cafeteria, but it looked as if we were in a very structured tropical forest with all the greens that leafed out from their grow boxes. The humidity and earthy scents made it feel that we had been transported to a jungle.
“There’s a safe room in here.” The guard escorted us down to the center of a corridor of growing things until there was gap between the racks and sure enough there was a door. He pulled the heavy door open. The rumbling grew louder, and the growing trays and lights rattled. A big boom made me duck with everyone else as we all filed into the room. Most of the people in the bunker had to be on the same floor at once because we were almost shoulder to shoulder when security locked us in.
“If the ones closest to the walls will step back until your back touches the wall, we should have plenty of room for everyone to sit down.”
Jim and I stepped back until the cement wall touched our backs. I was careful not to squish Rocky. He was still chattering in distress. Dobbers whimpered and wriggled around in my arms until he could lick my face.
One by one the people sat down in the room. I couldn’t do it at first. I wanted to be ready to run. But there was nowhere go.
The lights turned back on. Thankfully the music didn’t play in our little room. However, the rumbling was even worse. Twisting metal from someplace high above made us cower.
The little ones screamed when there was a knock on the door. It sure made me jump and the dogs started barking. Jim and I struggled to close their mouths to silence them as the security guy opened the door. A couple of construction workers ducked into the room.
“That was kind of intense,” the older of the two said.
“Do you know what’s going on?” one of the crowd asked.
“Not sure what damage is going on topside. The transformer blew. We couldn’t close the emergency platforms in the stairway and elevator after that. We had to start up the new ground floor electricity converter that we’ve been trying to get online for a few weeks now.”
“What? We have an elevator?” Marjie asked, completely peeved.
“It’s an industrial unit only used for transporting large items. It hasn’t been in use much since we’ve been here. We still have an open shaft though and the platforms are there to shut the storms out. That could be the damage we are hearing. Hopefully, the storm didn’t find access to the shaft,” the younger one said.
The tension and distress in the room started to build.
“With the power back on, the platforms can close as long as there isn’t debris in the way,” the older construction worker reassured everyone.
“But what about the others in their apartments on the upper floors?” Mr. Anderson asked.
“We just have to wait this out before we can find out,” the security guard answered.
It felt like the longest lock-down ever. Probably wasn’t. We were just all far more fearful during this one than the ones in the past. That’s what I told myself. Soon it all quieted down. I realized when things calmed down and we were given the all clear to leave the safe room that I didn’t recognize the construction workers at all. I seldom encountered the guys in the br
ight yellow shirts. One of them was young enough and there was no ring. I wondered if it was dangerous for them to wear rings, but the other guy wore one. Oohh … Options. Mr. Option asked to pet Dobbers once I stepped out the door to Hydroponics.
“I didn’t know there were dogs here. I gave mine up when I started this job. I have regretted it ever since.” He rubbed Dobbers head and gazed into his eyes jabbering puppy talk to him.
He made me laugh and I wanted to say that I didn’t know I had more potential boyfriend options, but I didn’t. Maybe Brandon’s computer was wrong. I wasn’t sent here just for him. “I’ve never seen you before.”
“We’ve been working like a bunch of mole rats for weeks since you all came. The pay was good when this whole thing started. Now it looks as if all that doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” He shrugged and sighed. He kept petting my dog and I took the opportunity to check him out. Caramel colored hair curled out around his baseball cap. His face and arms were dark from the sun even though that would probably change in the coming months. He looked up at me and his eyes nearly sucked me into his soul. Green, green like a forest, fringed with thick dark lashes. Anything that reminded me of the outdoors was going to be my undoing. Or maybe it was the stifling climate in Hydroponics that was making me swoon. I smiled as best I could even though I understood exactly what he was getting at. I felt we were all doomed.
“I keep to myself when I do get time off. I’ve been working on a time consuming project of my own. Maybe I should come out of hiding more often.” He gave me a sweet smile.
“Kind of hard to figure out how life is going to be from now on. I’ve kind of been in hiding myself,” I said. I did my best to stick out my hand. “Rachel Gardener.”
He took my hand but couldn’t shake it much since my arms were full of Dobbers.
“Micah Stoddard.”
Rocky climbed up on my shoulder and chastised Micah for getting too close.
“Woah!” He backed up a step and then laughed. “You have a squirrel too?”
“I acquired him since we’ve been here before we were in permanent lock-down.”