High Pressure System: First Season Underground

by K. D. Kinney

  Micah didn’t answer his door when I knocked. I listened, there was no sound except for little spider robots heading for me, clicking their little legs as they crawled down the hall towards me.

  I knocked again. “Micah? I know you didn’t go to the medical floor.” I stomped on the bots around my feet. “Are you okay? Please, will you let me in?”

  I heard his voice but I couldn’t tell what he said. More bots crawled out of the vent. They must be drawn to my voice. “I can’t hear you and the spiders are coming after me.” I marched in place and shook my free hand in desperation to either get inside or leave.

  I tried the door handle. It was locked. I swung my backpack around and wore it on my front so I could find my wallet. I slid my card down the crack. I tried undoing the latch with the second card. It didn’t work as easily as it worked for Marjie. Spiders were crawling up my legs. I had to concentrate. There was a crash on the other side of the door and Micah swore.

  I shook my legs one at a time while I worked on the lock. “Micah, are you okay?” My voice escalated and he could probably tell I was panicking. It was for more than one reason. He was probably hurt and the spiders were surrounding me. I really wished I had a vacuum.

  “Rachel, hold on.” He was finally on the other side of the door. The dogs barked when they heard his voice.

  I picked up the carrier to shush them. When the door opened, I was practically dancing. Micah looked awful, but he laughed at me anyway. I probably would have laughed too with my backpack still on my chest, the dog carrier swinging at my side while I was trying to see my legs as I stomped, checking each one before I took a step inside. He took the carrier, I swung my backpack over my shoulder while I checked for bots. Micah was about to step on one running into his apartment when he wavered. I thought for sure he was about to fall and I caught his elbow, nearly falling on top of him. I managed to catch myself in time and slammed the door.

  Micah winced and held his head.

  “Sorry about that.” I stuffed the towel back under the door, smashing about seven bots as I was stuffing.

  He carried the dogs across his apartment and into the cave room. I followed and helped Rocky out of the backpack. He barked at me for I don’t know what and it ended when we entered the garden. He ran up my arm and down my backside as he scampered around on the ground and immediately found a tree he liked.

  “Go ahead and close that door,” Micah pointed at it as he staggered to the far end of the cave and collapsed onto a platform bed.

  I did as he said and let the dogs out the carrier. They immediately ran around the garden and sniffed everything in their path.

  Approaching Micah slowly, I wasn’t sure if he really wanted me there. He was shivering as he piled blankets on top of him.

  I dug through my backpack to find the facemask and gloves. On my way to his bed, a bee scared the crap out of me and I flicked it off my shoulder. “Micah, I don’t know if I can handle real insects right now.”

  “Before I felt this bad, I was jumpy too. Now I don’t care. Unless one decides to crawl in bed with me and sting me. I’ve been stung enough already today. I might have to do away with this whole bee idea.”

  I didn’t even need to touch him. Heat was radiating from his body. “Why didn’t you go to the medical floor? You have a really high fever.”

  “I have what I need here already.”

  “You can’t even walk across a room. How did you expect to take care of yourself?” I felt his forehead. His eyes were as bad as Brandon’s, puffy with red rings around them, flushed cheeks. He shivered whenever I touched him. “I’m really about as bad at nursing as I am with cooking.”

  “Good thing I didn’t expect you to bring me back to the living then, isn’t it.” He tried to smile. He folded his arms tighter to his chest and tucked his chin under the blanket.

  “What can I do?” I didn’t want to unsettle him so I rested my hands on my knees.

  He closed his eyes and rocked for a moment. I thought he was done talking to me.

  “I have some pain and fever medicine back there on that counter. There is some vitamin C powder there too. If you mix some in that orange drink, I’ll drink it.”

  I found the counter he was talking about in the back of the main room. At least it wasn’t as big of a mess as the one in his apartment. There was a fridge like the one in the safe rooms.

  “Ow!” Micah yelled. “Rachel, Ow.”

  “What?” I rushed over to him.”

  “Fricken stupid bee. It was my good hand too.” He held out his hand. There was a stinger imbedded in his palm.

  My backpack was at the foot of his bed. I pulled out the card I used trying to get in his room. At least I could successfully remove a stinger with it even though I obviously couldn’t buy anything with it anymore or break into apartments with it.

  “I’ll be right back.” I made a baking soda paste to go with everything else he asked me to bring him.

  Once I was done exercising my limited nursing skills, I was exhausted. It had been such a long day.

  The dogs settled in the bed beside Micah. He petted Yodel until he felt the stinger in his hand again.

  “See that big mass of fabric over there? I was making a big curtain thing to hang from the ceiling to cover the bed. I fell ill too fast and couldn’t finish it. It will keep the bees out. Can you hang it?” Micah asked as I plastered more paste on his palm. “You are a far better nurse than you think.” He squeezed my hand as he fell back into his pillow. “Thank you.” He closed his eyes again.

  With exhaustion I had never felt in my life consuming me as I stood, I found the fabric drape thing. I searched the back room for a ladder. Once I had hooked the loop to the hook in the ceiling, the lights went out.

  “Whoa.” I wobbled on the ladder and almost fell. The room was only dark for a minute or two as the garden lights slowly lit up. “Micah, is the power out?” I felt my way down the ladder. My eyes hadn’t adjusted yet.

  “No, they are on a timer. Sorry.” He groaned slightly as he moved. “I hate feeling like this.”

  I pulled the curtain around the bed and stopped to look at him with the soft garden lights illuminating the white fabric. I could see his face faintly while I held the sides. “Do bees fly around at night?”

  “Not usually.”

  “Not usually?”

  “This isn’t really the outdoors so they don’t always behave the way bees in the wild behave.”

  “Oh.” I closed the drape around his bed and wondered if I could sleep on the sofa knowing that the room still had creepy crawly things in it that could sting. At least the dogs were safe and happy to hang out with Micah.

  Imagining bees crawling in my mouth was too much for me. I left the facemask on while I tried to find a comfortable position on the sofa. It was long enough for my body but not comfortable at all. I tossed one way and felt as if I was suffocating with the backrest in my face and my backside was exposed. The other way, I couldn’t curl my back as much as I wanted to.

  Once I started to doze, Micah mumbled in his sleep and then he yelled stop.

  I accidentally rolled off the sofa. My legs were wound up in my blanket and once I was untangled, I yanked the curtain open. There was barely enough light to make out his outline.

  Micah rolled over and was talking incoherently when he shouted again.

  “Hey, wake up.” I shook his shoulder gently, afraid he was going to hit me.

  He yelled when he finally did open his eyes and backed away from me.

  “It’s me, Rachel.” I pulled off the facemask when realized I was still wearing it.

  He sat upright and pulled me against his chest, holding me tight. His hands tangled in my hair as my face pressed into his sweaty shoulder and neck.

  “You are here. That was awful.” His heart was pounding so hard in his chest, I could feel it against mine.

  “I think your fever broke.” And if I really wanted to avoid getting sick, it was now a lost cause. He
was rubbing his germs all over me. Obviously I didn’t mind all that much because I let him.

  “There were spiders everywhere trying to get in the room while I was too sick to do anything but lay here.”

  “You’re acting like something happened to me.” I pulled away to wipe his sweat off my forehead.

  He was still breathing hard as he looked at me. Opening his mouth a couple times as if he had something to say, he shook his head, and rubbed sweat off his forehead. “Oh, that was gross. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s fine.” I unburied my facemask from the blanket. It was pointless to wear it around Micah anymore. I straightened it out and smoothed it on my thigh. Then I didn’t have to meet his gaze.

  He relaxed and moved my hair away from my eyes. “I don’t feel like I’m freezing anymore. I do feel hot though.”

  “That means you’re fever is easing up.” I yawned so hard my eyes watered.

  “Did I wake you?” He rested his hand on mine.

  “I was just dozing. I was having a hard time sleeping over there.”

  “Please stay here. I don’t want to be alone after that dream. Now I’m so thankful you figured out where I live.” He leaned onto his pillow, closed his eyes, and held my hand.

  “Did something happen to me in your nightmare?”

  He refused to answer and let my hand go as he rubbed his eyebrows.

  I slid down the bed, wildly aware of being so close to him, and yet wanting to keep my distance from his sickness. How unfair. I pulled my blanket up over my shoulder. Dobbers had to move and he settled in the bed behind my knees.

  “Man, it was awful. I don’t want to tell you anymore than that.” His hand covered mine again.

  Our heads rested on our pillows facing each other.

  I looked away first. “I hope you aren’t sick for long.”

  “I only hope I didn’t give it to you.” He squeezed my hand.

  Somehow his touch was all I needed to pass out.

  I didn’t want to open my eyes. I couldn’t quite remember where I was. I sure had lots of vivid dreams. Waking up was not something I wanted to do. There was light in the room and it took a minute for me to remember that I was in Micah’s apartment, in his cave room… in the same bed with him. My heart skipped a beat and there was no sleeping anymore. I opened my eyes and everything came flooding back. The fear was the worst.

  Micah was watching me sleep.

  I covered my mouth with my blanket, suddenly very self-conscious.

  He smiled at me. “Good morning.”

  “Are you feeling better?”

  “Not running a really high fever. I still don’t feel good. I tried getting up. I was really lightheaded.”

  “You’re probably dehydrated.”

  “That, and I didn’t want to wake you if I fell on you.”

  “Oh,” I rolled onto my back as Micah crawled over me to leave through the opening in the drape.

  I held his hand until he could stand upright without wavering.

  As I was left alone with my thoughts, my fears were running amok. By the time he came back, I was trying to hold back tears.

  “What’s wrong?” He sat on the edge of the bed. I scooted over so he could have some room.

  “I must be overwhelmed. Besides you, and you don’t count on the healthy list anymore, the children, and the mothers at the school, only three other people didn’t check in on the Medical floor. Marjie was one. I’m not sure why Marjie didn’t check in. She was there but I guess she wasn’t sick and left. Of all people, the Harpers are the other two. I don’t remember seeing them on the stairs.” I rubbed my face hard. “You know what? I don’t want to be Brandon. How am I going to fight off all those little bots if we get another round? Or what if we have more flooding with the acid water? How am I going to deal with that? What if I get sick now because I spent the night so close to you? Who is going to take of everything then?”

  “I’m sure I’ll be feeling better soon. You’ve been doing fantastic. I had no idea you were so sharp. You’ve come up with a lot of solutions already. You aren’t alone worrying about how to keep us all safe from another invasion. I’ve been thinking all morning how to seal off that lobby door. I’ll tell you how. But you need to have breakfast first.”

  Micah stood and held the curtain open for me. Once I was on my feet, he didn’t let go of my hand. He rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb. “Thank you for staying here. I’m still not sharing my dream with you. I am going to have a hard time letting you go out there on your own today.” He pulled me closer and hugged me.

  I closed my eyes so I didn’t cry. “I’m starting to wonder why there are so many nightmares about bad things happening to me.”

  “Who else has had nightmares?”

  I bit my lip and wished I hadn’t said anything.

  “Myself. But that was from all the… stuff… things that have happened.”

  “That’s not all, is it?”

  “No, Jim has. So has Brandon, he’s had the most nightmares that were about me. That was around the time he saved me in the lobby, though. Now you. Now I’m even more scared.” Getting a hug was very helpful until I was afraid of him letting me go because of mentioning Brandon.

  “Perhaps I understand his concern for you a little bit better now.”

  Micah and I made breakfast together before I said goodbye to the dogs. I was off to go find all the things on the list he gave me. Nothing big. I only had a door to seal off with all sorts of construction crap I’d never used before to save us all. And there were spiders.

  25

  Becoming Popular with the Eight-Legged Crowd

  It took some time to convince Marjie that her mild case of the sniffles didn’t constitute a quarantine for her as much as it applied to the rest of her family. I had to admit, her family was in pretty bad shape.

  We collected what we needed and Marjie led me to the Harper’s apartment.

  “You really need me for this?” Marjie whispered.

  I couldn’t even knock. “What do you mean? I can’t even make a fist to knock on the door. They are the last people I want helping us, but we can’t do it alone. It’s not right for them to hide out here healthy while the rest of us are in danger.” I was trying to convince myself as much as Marjie.

  “Go ahead then.” Marjie nodded at me to knock.

  “I will,” I said rather impatiently. When I was ready. It wasn’t at that minute. Maybe not the next one either. I heard giggling on the other side of the door. I clenched my jaw and knocked.

  “Who is it?” T.J. yelled.

  I looked at Marjie. She just nodded at me again to answer. I glared at her.

  “It’s Rachel and Marjie.” I studied the toes of my rubber boots. Another bot. I squished it.

  “We don’t want to let any sick people in.”

  “We aren’t sick and we know you aren’t either. We need your help,” Marjie finally spoke up. She covered her nose when she sniffed.

  I motioned for her to keep her sniffing silent. She gave me apologetic wide-eyes.

  “How do you know we aren’t sick? Everyone is in quarantine, aren’t they? You’re just out breaking rules again and want us to get in trouble too,” Britta said.

  “Fricken excuses.” Marjie slid the cards along the crack in the door and opened it.

  She and I both stood in the doorway taking in the sight of the fancy decorating in their apartment.

  “You must have brought a lot of your trinkets along.” Marjie nudged me with her elbow nodding at the jeweled giraffe on a shelf across the room.

  “Excuse us, what makes you think you can barge in?” Britta tightened her robe around her tiny waist.

  I dropped the two pairs of boots I brought with me on the floor of their apartment. “We need your help sealing off the lobby door before more of the bots get in. Marjie and I can’t do it alone.” I stomped on another bot before it crawled into their apartment.

  “No. No. I am not going out there with thos
e spiders.” Britta was adamant and she sat back down at the table.

  “Look, everyone is sick because they fought off the bots while you two hid in here. There are only the four of us that can try to fix it so we aren’t overwhelmed with next invasion. This is the longest stretch without a lockdown. You know as well as I do, it is never only one round. If I don’t get help, it will be much harder to keep thousands of bots out of your apartment compared to the hundreds there are right now.”

  T;J. held the edge of the door as if he was going to shut us out. He stomped on another bot.

  “I’m having a hard time keeping the little beasts out of here as it is.” T.J. finally looked me in the eye. “How come you two aren’t sick?”

  “I was wearing my sweatshirt. So wear layers so you don’t get poked.” I reached into the bucket I brought with me. “Wear these gloves and you can smash them with your hands.”

  He was waiting for Marjie to answer.

  “I got poked. Not as much as everyone else.” She glanced at me before finding something really interesting on the floor. “I couldn’t take it. I went back to the school first and then I supervised the kids monitoring the doorway on the community floor.”

  I looked at her in shock and didn’t know what to say.

  “It sounds like a few of us need to earn our keep. We’ll meet you on the stairs as soon we layer up.” T.J. attempted to smile at me. It wasn’t much of one. At that point, I was happy with whatever as long as I didn’t have to defend myself. Perhaps he felt he was the one in need of some redemption.

  I tugged Marjie’s arm. We collected our supplies, a few vacuums, and went for the stairs.

  There was nothing I hated worse than being near the lobby.

  We swept the stairs but that only stirred up the buried bots. Marjie manned the vacuum while I laid out everything Micah told me to bring to seal up the door.

  Flexible wire fencing from the farm. Foam insulation in a can. A variety of tools, facemask, and eye protection.