by K. D. Kinney
Micah stepped carefully over the metal pieces until he was under the sprinkler. He stood on the bench working on the sprinkler head, struggling to figure out how to stop the spray. It just sprayed with even more intensity right in his face.
I opened all the cupboards, but there was nothing in them. I pulled off my saturated sweatshirt.
“Here. Tie this around the spray head.”
“It won’t stop the water.”
“It will keep it from spraying on us, though.”
“True.” He wound the sweatshirt around the sprinkler head and soon the water was running straight down as a steady waterfall in the center of the room.
However, the tiles we placed around the door trapped the water in the room and the storm was still pulling the tiles against the cracks. We had to carefully step our way through the sharp strips of the metal grid to the door so we could remove some tiles to let the water out. It already covered our feet.
“Either way we suffocate,” I said.
“No, we won’t. It will be over before that happens.” He made sure I looked him in the eye.
The tiles near the floor were so water logged that we could only pull small chunks off. But the chunks weren’t over the cracks.
“You work on that side. I’ll keep at this one,” Micah said with the panic rising in his voice. The water took no time to get to our shins. I pulled a dry one off. Then I went for the one below it that was partially water soaked. I got the driest part off and air instantly sucked out of the room. It also acted like a vacuum taking water with it. I tried to get my fingers through the soggy section of tile. I couldn’t pull enough of it away. Some dry strands of my hair sucked through the crack in the door and must have gotten stuck on the hinge. I couldn’t pull away.
“Micah!” I panicked nearly ripping my hair out. Water sprayed in my face as it was sucked through the crack.
He tugged on the strands until I wasn’t stuck anymore. When I could stand upright again, Micah moved some wet hair off my face before pulling me into his chest. I was shivering.
“I don’t want to pull anymore tiles off, it’s already hard to breathe, and we have stopped the water from getting any higher. Why won’t this end?” He looked up as if he was asking the storm directly.
It sounded as if heavy metal was being yanked across the floor above. I stood there shivering in Micah’s arms while we waited out the rest of the storm with the water plunging down beside us, soaked all the way through.
When the storm finally eased up, the tiles dropped one by one from the door frame, floating on top of the water.
I jumped when the canister lights dangling from the ceiling came back on.
Micah struggled to open the door and when it did open, water flooded out into the hall, taking us with all the metal pieces and tiles. “Good thing it opened out instead of in.” Micah stopped himself from falling on the opposing wall and grabbed me before I landed on the floor.
“What a mess. Not really much of a safe room is it?” I asked as I stumbled over the tiles.
“None of these top floors are considered safe anymore. There is a team making a new control room just above the cafeteria and community floors. A new storage warehouse is being planned too. This bunker is about to spread further underground. Even more like an elaborate ant farm.” Micah jogged down the hall. He opened a panel and turned a red handle on a pipe. “That takes care of the flooding for now.”
My tennis shoes squished with every step I took. I salvaged my sweatshirt and wrung it out with my trembling hands. My jeans clung to my legs. I pushed my wet hair out of my eyes and wondered if I should just go straight home. Micah startled me when he grabbed my shoulders.
“We made it! I told you it wouldn’t last forever. Nothing is injured, right?” He looked me over.
“I don’t think so. I’m so uncomfortably wet, I can’t tell.” I sighed. We stood there gazing at each other for what felt like a really long time. I looked away first and held out my shaking hands. “Still shook up pretty good though.”
He showed me his hands. They were trembling too. “I’m sorry I brought you up here. You already went through something like this once already.”
“If I wasn’t here, you would have gone through this alone.”
“True.” He ran a hand through his wet hair, flinging water off it afterward.
We both leaned against the wall trying to collect ourselves.
“I want to check what damage was done upstairs real quick.”
“Don’t you think it might still be close? Maybe it hasn’t blown over yet and it’s like the eye of a hurricane or something. I’ve been reading up on those.” I wanted to go home, but I was reluctant to leave Micah and did want to know what had happened up there. Curiosity was about to get me again. Cats and I would probably get along real well. At the moment, I probably used up two of my nine lives since living in the bunker.
“Come on.” He motioned for me to follow him.
I held the rail, determining whether I would go up or down.
“We won’t stay long. Just long enough to know what to write down on the damage report.”
I squished up the stairs behind Micah. He turned the hand crank to the platform that had closed during lockdown. Once it was open enough for us to pass, he made me wait while he moved some debris out of the way.
The storage room was a disaster. There was no way to even get in the door. No wonder there was so much racket during the storm. Once Micah could see the windows were still intact, we headed back down the stairs.
He took me to Brandon’s control room next. Of all the places to be after another storm-related crisis. Jim and Brandon were in heavy discussion about something until they saw us.
“What happened to you two?” Jim asked with concern all over his face when he saw me.
Brandon looked at Micah, then me, and back to Micah.
“Let’s say the safe room on the floor above this one isn’t so safe,” Micah said.
“This storm was brutal. You wouldn’t believe the damage to the lobby.” Brandon turned to study the monitors.
“Why are you all wet?” Jim looked around the room to find something for me to dry off with and I waved him off.
“Since that floor wasn’t really finished, the ceiling tiles and drop ceiling fell on us first. The fire sprinkler shook loose and nearly filled the room with water. So there’s a bit of a flood in the hall up there now and the water is shut off. By the way, the storage room was rearranged by the storm too.” Micah glared at Brandon’s back when he finished talking and he tapped his foot when Brandon didn’t respond.
Brandon finally turned around and gave me a scrutinizing look before he addressed Micah. “So how is it you two were up there together? She’s not part of your crew. She’s already had experience with the storms. I would think she didn’t want to repeat that.” He was still giving me a hard look over. I wanted to crawl under the desk, or maybe running away would be best. My squishy shoes would trip me up though.
“I just brought her up there as an excuse to spend some time with her before I went back to work. I’m always working you know, so I don’t have much time for being social.”
Brandon’s surprised expression confused me a little. But I was flushing from Micah’s confession. I didn’t expect that honest of an answer and Brandon must have been bothered by it. Probably bringing me on one of the construction jobs didn’t sit well with him. Now I was involved in two disasters as well. I shaded my eyes with my hand. Yeah, like the lights were too bright or something. Maybe I could disappear that way.
“We probably need to get that move going ASAP,” Micah said.
“Yes, we do. Thanks for the information. I will get with your boss on those plans. But we need those buffering panels installed now. There was some signal somewhere in the building that didn’t stop that brought that storm on. That happened with the last storm that caused so much destruction. Doing security sweeps isn’t turning anything up.” Brandon messed up
his hair in frustration. “You two should go clean up so you’re not leaving puddles everywhere you go.” Brandon turned to Jim and gave him instructions on what to do before he focused his attention to his tablet. Jim ignored him and followed me out of the control room.
“Are you really okay? How bad was it?” He massaged my shoulder lightly.
“I’m fine. It was scary, but we’re okay. At least Micah didn’t chew me out after we thought we were going to die.” I rubbed my eyes. There was no reason to cry about that.
“Please let me know if you fall into that dark place again.” He squeezed my shoulder gently until I looked at him.
I nodded. “I will see you sooner rather than later, okay?”
He waved before going back into the control room.
Micah walked me to my apartment. We didn’t have much to say to each other. Probably because we were both walking funny with our wet jeans, waterlogged shoes, and I was still shivering. I stopped before we got to my door and faced Micah. “I would invite you in but, you know.” I pointed at his wet self and then back at my drippy status. I rubbed my arms trying to stop the trembling. “Next time you stop by, I’ll let you in. I promise.”
Micah tried to stuff his hands in pockets, but he stopped when it was pointless with wet jeans. He looked at the floor a moment before he looked up at me. “Well, it was nice surviving with you this evening. At least it was a night we’ll always remember.”
I laughed. “That’s for sure. But let’s not try that again next time.”
“Next time we should do something much more low key.”
“I agree. You know what? I don’t even know where your apartment is.”
“I’m closer to the cafeteria than you, thank goodness. I think everyone needs to move down deeper in the bunker. Or at least you should be. I think you’re too close to the lobby.”
“It’s never been that bad on this floor.”
“You weren’t in your apartment the two times it was that bad. Today and that day in the Hydroponics safe room were the two worst storms we’ve had and I’m sure it will be getting worse than this one.”
“I’ll see what Jim can do for me.”
“Well, I’ll see you around.” He patted my shoulder before turning to leave.
“Okay,” I said softly. Such a wimp. I didn’t push for more information on where his apartment was. I could have tried to hug him before he left to thank him for being awesome, but there wouldn’t be much warm and fuzziness when we were still cold and dripping. I opened my door once he disappeared into the stairwell and let the dogs out to do their business.
That night I stared at the ceiling when I couldn’t sleep. Flashing on Micah protecting me from harm, Micah holding me while everything crashed down on us, the fear, the noises of metal twisting and creaking, the relentless lightning and thunder, and Micah …
11
Blooming Wallflower
The next few days I immersed myself in teaching the kids. I struggled with my curriculum. I struggled to get Aaron Cooper, the seventeen-year-old know-it-all, to quit flirting with me in front of everyone. I also struggled with acting as if everything was fine and normal when lockdown happened while I was teaching. I was frustrated I never saw Micah and had no idea where to look for him besides the top floor storage facility. I wasn’t going there anytime soon.
On my table one morning, there was a note on my tablet.
Check out the classroom at the end of the hall.
It wasn’t signed by anyone, but I was intrigued. Cautiously though. Aaron had me on the defensive trying to block his immature, ridiculous advances. I opened the door and clutched at my chest in delight. The room wasn’t square anymore, it looked more like an octagon with the light blue sky and cloud painted walls that met the ceiling in a curve, much like a room modified into a planetarium. The floor was covered with artificial grass. Potted trees, real ones, were scattered around the room. A table in the center had a dome shaped thing on it.
When I stepped through the doorway, bird sounds chirped from speakers hidden somewhere and a citrus scented breeze fluttered my hair into my face from a fan above the door. Next to that was the only light. It wasn’t a commercial light fixture though, it was a big circle in the arch where the ceiling met the wall. It also radiated heat. I stood in that sweet spot in the room where the breeze and the sunlight warmth hit me. I closed my eyes and raised my arms to allow my body to take in the beautifulness of the indoor, outdoor simulator. Exactly like the imaginary notes Micah took when I told him what I wanted.
“What do you think?”
The voice was not one I was expecting and it startled me.
“It’s wonderful, Brandon.” I folded my arms across my chest. Maybe the burn in my cheeks was from the fake sun. Or at least I hoped that was what it looked like.
“I’m sure you know who was behind the design. It wasn’t me. But I did make this.” He stepped into the room and closed the door. “You might want to get comfortable on the floor.”
Piled up next to a wall was a stack of floor pillows. I grabbed one and sat down. He turned on the dome in the center of the room. With a remote, he turned off the sunlight. The darkened room filled with stars and there were cricket sounds in the corners of the room instead of birds. I couldn’t help it, I giggled with delight.
“So tell me what ones you can identify.” Brandon dropped a pillow beside me and sat down.
I had to lie down to see it all. “I see the North Star, the Big Dipper, and the Little Dipper. They are part of Ursa Major.” I always struggled with all the other ones. And this wasn’t a real night sky.
He settled in beside me with his shoulder nearly touching mine. “There’s Leo the Lion, Gemini the Twins.” I could barely see where his finger pointed, but I could identify them once I saw where they were. He pointed out a few more. “I even put in a little red light for Mars over there. Eventually, you’ll have a projector and a slide show of space pictures I’ve been putting together for you. You’ll be able to view it in here as part of your lessons. ”
I studied the stars, totally mesmerized by the loveliness of what was created for me, and the kids. I was reminded how much I missed nights under the stars.
“So are you and Micah a thing?” Brandon asked.
“What?” I was taken aback. That was totally unexpected. “No. I don’t even know where his apartment is. I haven’t seen him in days.”
“Oh. Maybe he feels bad about the mishap the other day because he was very instrumental in getting this done right away while he’s been working on all my assignments for the construction crew. And I have been keeping him very busy. I thought maybe you two were seeing each other.”
“We see each other upon occasion, have had a conversation on occasion, he pets my dogs, not me. I haven’t seen him since the other day though. Not a thing going on, really.” I sighed. A thing with him would be nice though. “Thank you for this. I love it.”
I rested my arms beside me to rub the funny texture of the fake grass carpet. His fingers brushed against mine, the next thing I knew he was holding my hand. I held my breath while my heart jumped in my chest as I tried to figure out if Brandon holding my hand was really a good thing.
“I’m glad you like it. Maybe it will keep you from trying to kill yourself up there.”
I rolled my eyes. “Maybe,” I answered. The magic of his touch dissipated until he squeezed my hand tighter.
“Because I would hate it if you weren’t around anymore. I’d miss you more than anyone else here.”
My heart might have skipped a beat or two. Crap. Was that something a friend might say? Why did my world have to get even more complicated? I should just go back to being a wallflower. I was good at that.
3
12
The Unraveling of Jim
I had been so busy teaching and spending most of my free time in the planetarium that I wondered what Jim was so worked up about when he mysteriously asked me to meet him at his apartment for dinne
r. He had me follow him into a dark corner on the community floor and the words fell out of his mouth so fast, I wasn’t sure if he was afraid someone would overhear him or catch us talking. That was weird. We always talked and he was always so relaxed while calming me down when I worked myself up over being locked away in our underground bunker apartment building with so many unhappy people while storms wanted to annihilate us overhead.
Perhaps he was trying to feign a crisis to set me up into having a quiet dinner with Brandon or Micah. Engrossing myself in teaching and stargazing kept me from having to make any decisions on the males that seemed interested in me. Fending off the hormonally charged teen, Aaron was a new problem. It was not so hard for me to be blunt when dealing with him. Unfortunately he wouldn’t take a hint or a blatant, “go away, I don’t like you that way,” as a clue to move on.
I held my breath when I knocked on the door anticipating someone I didn’t want to see was hanging out with Jim on the other side.
Fortunately, when the door opened, it was just Jim and the scent of spaghetti filled my nostrils. I inhaled as deeply as I could and my mouth watered. The cafeteria had not won me over with their version at all.
I was distracted by Jim’s skill in the kitchen when I walked in the room. I didn’t notice his haggard appearance at first. I was far too interested in what Jim was placing on my plate. When I finally looked at him to praise his cooking with my eyes while my mouth was full, I noticed his eyes were bloodshot and puffy. He struggled to maintain his composure.
“What’s wrong?” I set my fork down. Jim was never one to be unsettled. He looked as if he spent too much time watching the storms roll in on the monitors in the control room while we were assaulted above ground.
“You need to eat all you want before I tell you anything. So how’s teaching?”