by K. D. Kinney
“There. You won’t have to wonder about all the ‘what ifs’ if my hand causes all my internal body parts to fail in the next few hours.”
My eyes widened in horror.
“I’m just kidding. Travis fell in the water. I barely got my hand wet when I grabbed him and pulled him out. I didn’t really reach in it or anything. It was just what he had on him already. None of us had a clue the water was that toxic. I never would have thought Travis was going to die. I’ll admit I’m totally freaked out. It is just my hand, though. It wasn’t drenched in it.” He kept rubbing my arm. “I’m sure I’ll be fine and won’t lose my hand.”
I tugged on his shirt not wanting to let go. Stepping away from him was going to be much harder. If only he would kiss me again when I might have a clue he was actually going to go for it.
“You look exhausted.”
He was right. I hardly had any sleep the night before and this was the second one running me into the ground. Once he pointed out I looked tired, I finally felt it.
I nodded and leaned against his chest. He didn’t disappoint. He hugged me and kissed the top of my head. Micah whispered in my ear, “I promise to come find you tomorrow.”
He let me go and led me to the door. I was probably grinning like an idiot and I turned and waved. I bumped into the nurse on my way out the door.
“Is he your boyfriend now?” she whispered.
“Maybe so.” In an exhausted daze with only thoughts of that unexpected kiss, I walked back to my apartment. When I went to bed, I sure hoped that Micah would still have his hand when he kept his promise to come find me in the morning.
4
20
The Chosen Ones
It took everything I had in me to drag myself out of bed and to the school. I was late and it wasn’t time to teach the older kids but they were all there, beaming with boots lined up on the tables.
“We did it.” Aaron rushed me when I entered the room and swung the rubber boots in front of my face.
“How are you so sure?” I flexed the rubber. They looked like ordinary waterproof boots.
“Don’t worry, I was really careful. I tested them during the lockdown last night.”
All my curiosity was swept away with fury. “You can’t do stuff like that.” I hit the side of his head to hopefully knock some sense back into his brain. “You’re lucky you’re still here. Did you get any of the acid water on you?” I dropped the boots and checked his hands.
He pulled his hands out of mine. “I said I was careful.”
“Don’t you dare lie to me. The construction worker that fell in the water died last night. You can’t play around with this stuff.” The room was suddenly silent.
“What do you mean?” one of the girls in the back of the room asked.
I racked my brain, trying to remember if anyone was related to the young man that died. I had no idea. The construction workers’ families were still a bit of a mystery to me. “I know that someone helping with clean-up fell in the water. It didn’t seem that serious at first. But for some reason he didn’t make it.” I rubbed my face. If only I could have called someone to come in for me. I was far too tired to be there.
Aaron’s excitement shifted to somber. “I was very careful. I never touched the water at all. No one else was there but me. I needed to see if they were safe to use. We worked hard on these, I wanted to make sure they performed as expected, and I believe we came through. It sounds like it’s a good thing too.”
“I’m so sorry.” I pulled out a chair from under the table and eased my weary body down onto it. “You guys did wonderful. Last night was a long one. My friend Jim needed help. When I was done there, I checked on my other friend. His hand was burned by the acid and when we returned to the medical ward after the lockdown, they made him stay. That’s when we found out the other person died. It was far more serious than we realized. I’ve had little sleep. Yes, this is a very important material you have developed especially if the construction workers, and the rest of us, can wear these until they can stop the water crisis.”
“I think there’s another purpose to the acid water. The fact that it poisons us has to be a bonus.” Aaron picked up the boots and studied the texture of the rubber.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s eating away the concrete around the lobby doors, like it is opening it up.”
The silence from earlier was long gone as fear stirred up the room from Aaron’s speculating.
I glared at him. “I don’t think we need to talk about that now.”
“No, you do. Everyone wants to act like this is just our new home and locking ourselves away whenever crap happens up above is the new normal. It’s not normal. We are old enough to know that the weather means business and we may not make it.”
The panic in the room started to build.
“Staying calm and problem solving will get more done than creating fear mongering.”
I was startled by the unexpected voice in the room. When I turned around, I was surprised to see Brandon standing in the doorway.
“I’m actually down here for two reasons. The first is to see what this science class has created to deal with the new crisis. The second, everyone will be meeting in the Community Room shortly for some announcements and Q and A.” He sighed when he met my gaze.
Brandon was finally going to do it. He was about to make the big announcement and shed some light on what was going on outside. I sure wasn’t in the best shape to handle an emotional afternoon though.
“Did I miss the announcement?” I asked.
“No, I haven’t made it yet. I was hoping for some good news first.” He rested his hand on my shoulder. “It looks as if your class has that for me right now.”
I stayed out of the way as he listened to Aaron and the other students explain the materials they combined to make the boots. Brandon tried on a pair and walked around the room.
“Who knew we would need something like this down here?” He rocked back and forth. “I think these will work. There needs to be a pair manufactured for everyone in the building. Do you think you all can handle that?”
The entire class nodded.
“Wonderful. Be thinking of other ways you can make this material useful if we have to come up with more items to protect us from what is still to come.”
“Because that water can kill us, can’t it?” Taylor asked. She was one of the youngest girls and could hold her own with the older kids.
Brandon hesitated at first and looked to me for what he should say. I nodded for him to go on.
“Yes. Yes, it can. We are doing the best we can to adapt to whatever happens next. This time you all have a huge roll in that.” He headed for the door. “I need to make an announcement. Thank you for all your hard work.” He left.
I followed him out the door. “You’re going to tell everyone, aren’t you?”
Brandon nervously rubbed his hands together in front of his chest. “I have to. We have had our first casualty, almost our second. Everyone needs to know. That man’s young wife doesn’t deserve to learn this now that he’s gone. Who will she turn to? Not sharing this news sooner is my biggest regret.”
“She’ll cope the way you and I have. Or she’ll have a crisis like Jim. She’s young so she’ll probably fare better than that.” However, I was worried that Brandon was the one that was about to be stoned to death. Good thing there were no stones. However, there were plenty of chairs.
I waited for him to make his announcement. He really struggled to pull himself together before he turned on the intercom. I stuffed my hands in my back pockets while he announced when he wanted everyone to meet. The robot spider leg in my pocket poked my finger . I held onto it until Brandon finished.
He rubbed the top of his head and walked away as if I wasn’t there.
“Hey,” I grabbed his arm. “You need to see this.” I held up the leg.
Brandon squinted at it before taking it from me. “Where did you get this?
”
Shoot, I hadn’t come up with my lie yet. “That thing the security guard discovered in the ducts, the thing giving off the signals, or whatever? This leg came from it.”
He was very interested in the leg as he extended and retracted it again. “This is disconcerting.”
“Why?”
“It’s a spy and I know why it’s here.” His face reddened. “Now I have something else to do first before dealing with this and that’s throw myself under the bus.”
“What?” I hoped he wasn’t going lunatic. He was always so literal that it was uncharacteristic for him to talk in metaphors.
“You know what I mean. Tell everyone the truth.”
The people already on the Community floor were beginning to gather. The other teachers brought in all the kids and they found their parents if they were already in the room. The construction crew showed up, security, the doctors, the vets, even the farmer couple down below.
Murmuring built into lots of discussions and the room sounded like everyone was having quite the social.
Brandon stood on the table.
I hadn’t seen Jim or Micah yet when Brandon started taking a headcount. I had already looked at the clock fifty times waiting for Micah to come find me to reassure me he was going to be all right. I exhaled completely for the first time that morning when he entered the room with a couple of nurses. He looked miserable with his hand wrapped with lots of gauze. He scanned the room. I stood on my tiptoes so he could see me if I was the one he was looking for. It didn’t help much. I was still an average height on my toes and surrounded by men that were inches taller than me.
Micah skirted the crowd and I backed up casually until I was on the outer ring of people on the far side of the room and pretended as if I didn’t know he was there when he finally discovered me.
“Oh, hey. You’re here,” I said with all the just discovered he was there surprise I could muster.
He grunted.
“Is it that bad still?”
Micah didn’t look at me. He stared hard at Brandon. “I almost want to swear you off as my friend.”
“Why?” My heart dropped to my feet.
“Because the method you suggested to get the acid off my hands hurts like hell. It is rather effective, though. I think they’re finally done scrubbing them down. It still feels like the baking soda is eating my skin away.” He sighed. “You did come up with a viable solution. Thank you. I get to keep my hand, even though I’m the one that wants to cut it off now.”
“Oh.” I chewed on my lip. He tugged on the back of my sweatshirt with his good hand and stepped a little bit closer to me. When he didn’t let go, I allowed myself to smile a little as relief washed over me.
“He’s going to do it, huh?” Micah whispered in my ear. His breath on my neck gave me a chill.
“Umm hmm.” Now I was staring hard at Brandon. I couldn’t tell if my heart was pounding because of how close Micah was to me or that Brandon was about to drop a bombshell.
“It seems most everyone is here now so I’ll move this along. I can’t be gone from the control room long.” He’d jumped off the table and paced along the wall before he went on.
“Who do you think is in the control room?” I asked.
“There are only two others he lets in there when he leaves the room.” Micah answered.
“I don’t think Jim is up to that yet.” I felt bad enough that I was running so late I couldn’t stop and check on him.
Brandon stepped up on the table again and took in deep breath before he spoke. “As you know from yesterday, we have a new situation we are dealing with. Because we were caught unaware, we have our first casualty. Almost two. You heard the announcement regarding the crisis in the control room. Jim had a heart attack.” Several people gasped. “The good news is he will recover. However, one of the members of our construction crew was not so lucky. Travis fell in the water while they were trying to sandbag the farm yesterday. The acid is was far more harmful than we anticipated and even though the medical team did all they could, he didn’t make it.”
Distressed murmuring filled the room. I glanced over at Micah. He rubbed his eyes. I leaned back a little until my shoulder touched his. The hand holding my shirt rested against the small of my back.
“I’ll address this new situation in a few minutes. Because of the death of one of our own, I feel I need to shed some light on what took place on evacuation day.”
The room quieted down with only some whispering from the smallest of the children and the parents shushing them.
Brandon scanned the room. “I feel this news would be best shared with the adults and older teens only. Parents, it is up to you if you want your children to stay or return to the school.”
The children happily left the room to entertain themselves in the massive playroom while everyone else stayed. Once the children were gone, the room was silent.
“I have something to tell you before anything else happens. First of all, you need to know I had nothing to do with any bunker assignments. I only designed and supervised the building construction. I had a list of your names before I got here. That was it. Ever since I learned how evacuations were going to take place, I have been sick over it. The only consolation I have is I only met all of you that day no one else. I am sure the next bit I’m about to share will come as a tremendous shock to you all.” He kept his voice low and everyone crowded closer to hear.
“You are the ‘chosen ones’. I don’t know why, I don’t know how it was determined you all would come here. I designed the software that helped organize the bunker populations so I thought I had more control over who was selected to take up residence in my bunker. After researching a little more, I realized that was not the case. They either didn’t use my software or it was tampered with. I just can’t access any of those computers anymore to find out. But it really doesn’t matter at this point. I do know there was a plan that those who came here, and if we all survived, we would be the ones that would make sure everything on Earth would not perish. There should be some comfort that we were chosen to be the survivors. This building plan was called the Ark in the beginning. I know that sounds rather pretentious but it is appropriate.”
Whispering stirred in the room.
“Like I said, computers made all the assignments. You all happened to load up on bus four-fiftyseven to come here where you’d be safe. The ones sent to the other bunkers out here were intended to be safe too. The others, they got on buses to caves or abandoned buildings, just random locations and not necessarily safe at all.” The whispering escalated. “Some buses went to the middle of nowhere where there was no protection except for the bus they were on.” Now there was silence. “That basically means some were actually selected to be the first to die and they never knew.”
One of the women in the crowd fainted.
Brandon waited until she was taken care of before he went on. The reality of what he shared was setting it. There were people sniffing and muffled crying in the room.
“Of course I haven’t been able to access any current information to tell you if other members of your family are still alive. However, I do have limited information on where your families were sent. If you really want answers about your friends, I can open up what I have in my database for you. I don’t recommend obsessing over the potential cause of death for those you know. It may drive you mad as it has made me. And as it is, being alive right now is proving to be challenge and may wind up being more of a curse.”
Everyone began to speak at once as they crowded closer. I tugged at Micah’s sleeve and we kept an eye on Brandon, hoping they wouldn’t turn on him. The crowd closed in around him but all they really wanted were answers, saying his name almost at once.
Brandon held up his hand to silence everyone and cocked his head as if he heard something before turning around. “What is that?”
Bossy Pants the security guard heard it too. “I’ve got it!” He ran for a chair and was on it, prying of
f the vent off while holding a small flashlight in his mouth. He yanked something out of his back pocket that looked like a miniature crossbow and he aimed it in the duct.
Brandon and Bossy Pants’ disinterested sidekick, who wasn’t disinterested anymore, hovered nearby as they waited to see what Bossy Pants was after.
“What’s he doing?” Mr. Anderson asked.
Micah rushed up to the front of the room and I followed.
“Hey, that thing is dangerous.” Micah pushed Brandon back and made sure the sidekick stepped out of the way too.
Bossy Pants pulled the string and the screech of scraping metal echoed in the duct. “I have it! I have it.” He yanked it out of the duct.
A robot spider that was about the size of a rat landed on the carpet. A rope was wound around some of its legs. It didn’t hinder its ability to scurry across the floor. Micah pressed everyone back as it headed for him. The rope stopped it. It changed directions and went right for Bossy Pants. It coiled the rope around its first two legs until it was dangling below his hands and some sort of needle apparatus appeared, coming out from the underside of the body.
“It has a stinger. Drop it now,” Micah yelled.
Bossy Pants reacted too slow as the needle went into his hand. He yelled, flinging the spider against the wall. The needle dislodged. After hitting the wall, the spider couldn’t turn itself upright from the damage to its side with only three legs.
I ran for the rolling metal cart with a basin full of picture books instead of dishes. I dumped the books on the floor and rolled it to where everyone had circled the broken robot. It had rolled over and it used the legs from its good side to scoot across the floor. I turned the cart over on the spider, trapping it, and held it down.
Bossy Pants leaned on the cart. Of course he would want to pretend to further aid the capture of the robotic beast that poked him. When I looked up to glare at him, his face was red and beads of sweat formed on his brow. He fell to his knees.