by Harley Vex
He was what? My twentieth body? Already, I had lost count.
“Shit,” Tony yelled, straightening. “Who knows how to drive large vehicles?”
No one said a word. With David throwing around terms like EMP, I doubted it would start. Then again, Dr. Shetlin had somehow left, and there were metal hangar-like buildings behind the Visitor Center. What if some vehicles got shielded and still worked?
“I don’t,” Mina said, rubbing her arms. “Tony? Is your skin burning?”
He looked at her and made a face. “I think so.” He held up his arms and studied them. They were pink, as if he’d spent an entire day out at the beach. “How the hell do I have a sunburn already?”
“A sunburn?” I stood up. Now that I focused on it, I realized my skin stung, too, and I had put on the strongest possible sunscreen earlier. I rubbed my arms. Salty fire sprang to life under my palms, and instantly my panic shot through the roof.
A sunburn. In under twenty minutes.
They were dangerous. I knew just how bad they could be, and everyone was standing here, exposed.
"We have to get inside,” I shouted. “Something’s wrong. We’re getting blasted with UV rays or something. Now!”
Even David, whose cheeks had gone pink, didn’t argue. I ran across the dusty parking lot as people followed, cussing, and I burst into the Visitor Center, shoving Alana ahead of me. UV light. People underestimated it. It could burn. It could kill.
We poured into the dim space and past the reception desk, and I was glad that most of the vile stench had cleared. But the long, narrow building looked like a giant coffin.
“She’s right. I’m burned,” Eric said. “What the hell?”
“Everyone. Listen to me. Just get inside,” David said.
I scrambled past the reception desk, not caring that David was trying to take over. Next to me, Alana pulled her sleeves down over her arms to shield herself. Not that it did much because they were short. “Are you sure this is just a sunburn?”
We stopped near the vending machine. Jerome rubbed his dark arms. “Even I got fried. That says something.”
Mina leaned against the vending machine, and I hung close to Alana. “We’re all sunburned. At least, I think that’s what this is. Are we feeling better now?”
David closed the door, casting us into even more darkness. “Well, it looks like whatever happened might have destroyed the ozone layer.”
“For once, I agree with you,” Jerome says. “Wow. I’ve never had a bad sunburn before. I didn’t realize they sucked so much.”
I ran my hands over my arms again, breathing out to hold down the panic. It was from the sun, right, and not from the cosmic radiation?
The sun in Arizona was bad enough.
But if David was right, and the ozone layer got at least partly destroyed—
No. No, no, no.
Everyone became a moving shadow and people stayed out of the dull light coming in through the windows. The light was streaming in through the west side now. Someone muttered something.
“Laney?” Alana looked at me, obviously wanting me to say something.
I had to hold down my panic. “You don’t feel sick?”
“No. Just sunburned. I mean, I don’t mean to make that sound like no big deal, of course—”
“We have to figure out what GRB means on this note,” I said, fishing it out of my pocket and putting it on the reception desk. “It might be nothing, but it’s all we have. I doubt the emergency radios work. Maybe there are some books somewhere that can tell us.” The last thing I wanted right now was a reminder of how my family fell apart. I had the feeling that Google was over, and had been before we even went down the elevator. The lights up here had only survived for a few hours after the burst, and there had to be a reason for that, but the Internet had been out when we came in.
“Would there be any emergency radios in the mine?” Jerome asked no one in particular. “So let’s assume we had an EMP that fried everything on the surface, because everything quit working up here while the stuff down below kept going for a bit. It might be worth a check. There are a lot of rooms down there, and we have to go back down for food, anyway.”
Eric cleared his throat. “Maybe we can check?” He looked at David.
David stepped in front of the counter and put his hand over the note, as if it were his. “Someone can go down in the mine again, but they’ll have to take that ladder now that the power’s run out from the underground generators or whatever. I saw some industrial flashlights down there at one point, and I think they were near the elevator, on a shelf. They must have them in case the lights go out. And we still need to find Dr. Marson. An electronic door might have locked and trapped him somewhere.”
“Then we send someone down,” Jerome says. “There’s a slight chance the computers are still working if they have some kind of backup power down there. I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t, because nobody would want to get stuck deep underground in total darkness.”
“The computers won’t be working,” David said.
Jerome didn’t pause, as if he expected this. “How do you know?”
"Since when did you become the valedictorian?" David asked. "You sleep in class most of the time."
Jerome widened his eyes. "I do not. Where did you get that idea?”
Why did I ever find David cute or attractive? I was now seeing a side of him I didn’t like, and I wanted to chalk it up to the stress, but I was smelling a bad undertone in what David was saying. Clearly, he wanted to be the problem solver here, and he needed to be right, just like he had since elementary school. So I stepped forward. “Look. Jerome is right. It’s worth a shot to look and we might even find a radio that will let us communicate. It’s possible they went on some kind of backup power down below. If they did, there could be a database we could look at, or something. Or at least, we could find an emergency radio and some food.”
“EMP,” David said, unmoving, as everyone else watched. “No one is broadcasting.”
“But we don’t know if it hit everywhere. Maybe a signal could get through?” Jerome asked. “That flash of light was on the horizon, so we might be on the edge of whatever happened.”
I let some crazy hope flow into me. I looked at Alana, who leaned against the wall, going quiet. She needed to hear this. “It’s possible.” And Dad was in New York. The flash of light came from the west, away from that direction. No. I couldn’t let hope blind me again. I had to think logically because reality didn’t care what I thought.
And home—
We only lived fifty miles from here, in the town of Colton. That was north of here, not east, where it needed to be. I swallowed the truth because it would overload everyone. Our entire town could have died or burned in one of those fires on the horizon. And to my shock, the thought filled me with some relief. My guinea pig, Chester, wouldn't have to starve to death if we didn’t get rescued for a while.
Because we might have to stay out here for a while.
David said nothing at first, and neither did anyone else. “Laney? Do you have anything to add?”
We had backed him into a corner. And he was putting the pressure on me. Yes, he wanted to lead this outfit. He had to.
But Christina spoke loudly, as if to get David’s attention off me and onto her. "Maybe we should close the windows. Or put a cover over them, or something. I feel better now that we’re out of the sun. But the rays are going to come through the windows when it sets.”
Jerome swore. I did, too. Already, the late afternoon sun was coming through the west windows, casting reddish-brown squares on the carpet. The long windows were too big now. Too spacious.
Jerome moved out of the glow and squinted. Everyone crammed together as David crept towards the window, looked outside, and then backed away.
"Listen up," he said. "We need to cover them. I wish these people had installed blinds."
"Blinds might not even be enough," Eric said.
"If the
radiation burned us through that smog after just a few minutes, I can't see blinds working unless they're thick," I added. The builders had recessed the windows into the walls and made this Center look like the inside of an airplane. Then I got an idea. I ran up to one of the framed posters, one of the Collider itself, and yanked it off the wall. "How about this?"
"That might work," Alana said. At last, she had run out of tears. Most of us had, for now.
I squinted, even though the light was dull, and shoved the framed poster into the window. I had to push, but the poster fit right into the frame and darkness fell on me.
“Laney. Good idea,” Jerome said, pulling another picture off the wall.
"I think this will keep us safe. Let's get these moved." I reached for the next one, a picture of a ball of light in space. Two bright beams blasted away from it in each direction. I wasn't sure what it was supposed to be, but something about it gave me the creeps.
I yanked it off the wall as Bethany joined us. The three of us crammed it into the next window. The boys joined in, and together we got the west-facing windows all filled, leaving the east-facing windows free. We only had enough frames to block one side at a time. That would work. It would have to. In the morning, we’d switch if we were still here.
If we made it that long.
Narrow rays made it through the cracks between our makeshift blinds and the recessed walls, but most of the dangerous light stayed outside. We had bought ourselves a little more time. "I think we did it.” Then I bumped into someone as I backed away.
"For now," David added, pushing past me with a hint of vinegar. "We’ll move these posters to the other windows in the morning, when the sun's coming up. The last thing we want is to die from UV radiation.”
"No," I said. I wanted to turn around and pound my fists into the wall. "We don't want that. Ever.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
We had several problems, and we were only a few hours into the apocalypse. As a group, we stood there and discussed, and after just a few minutes, we came to our conclusion.
First, we'd have to send someone down into the mine, via a ladder, to retrieve supplies. That would include not only food, but flashlights so we could see when it got dark. Then that person, or people, would have to search the area down there for any working emergency radios or other supplies.
Second, we had to bring everything back up.
And third, once we heard from someone, we’d have to arrange for rescue.
My skin burned and stung as if I'd spent the entire day under the desert sun—and I had worn sunscreen. Plenty of it. My arms had gone pink, leaving obvious lines where my tank top started. David, who always wore his class jacket, had suffered the least, but his face looked like an apple crowned with blond hair. Christina now seethed with every movement, and Bethany had joined her over in the corner. We were all fried.
Sunscreen was useless now.
SPF 30 or higher could no longer protect us.
We had this metal, tube-like building, plus the mine, and that was it.
Once we had the general plan in place, Alana retreated to the vending machine and sat against it. “My mom. My brother.” She muttered those two words over and over, as if trying to make sense of a world that no longer had any. Then she made eye contact with me. “Do you think they had any chance?”
I fingered the paper now on the desk, the one with the three letters. “I don't know. If we could figure out what the letters on this note mean, we might have a better idea.” I looked around at the area, trying to figure out if anyone would go down and get a radio already. The door to the ladder, which was next to the elevator, was shut and clearly marked EMERGENCY USE ONLY.
Well, if this didn’t qualify, I didn’t know what did.
“Is anyone hungry?” David asked, motioning for Alana to get away from the vending machine.
“You heard what Dr. Shetlin said,” Jerome told him. “That food could be radioactive.”
I was with Jerome on that. And Alana needed answers. We all needed to know just what the hell had happened to the world and why.
David kicked the vending machine. “Tony. Help me.”
“Are you that bullheaded?” I asked, unable to hold back. “The safest food will come from deep underground. The rock must have stopped the radiation. And I’m pretty sure there were break rooms down there. If we were fine down there, any food and water would be, too.”
David narrowed his eyes on me. “Do you want to go off on your own, Laney? Because it sounds like you don't want to work with the rest of us.”
Ugh. I had stepped on David’s ego without trying. I liked him less and less. But I was glad when Jerome stepped up. “She has a point. We don't want to get sick from poisoned food. If we break that glass, it should be to throw all that stuff in there out. I'm not dying to a Snickers bar. I can think of less embarrassing ways to go.”
A few people forced a laugh, me included. We needed someone with a sense of humor right now. Heck, we needed someone with sense.
I spoke. “Well, none of us can leave during the day, and even if we do, we'd have to hide again before the sun comes up, just like all the scorpions and tarantulas and other small desert creatures. If any of them are still alive.” If I saw a scorpion or spider, I'd rejoice. It would mean that the world might not be totally stewed.
I looked out through the east windows and at the distant orange glows on the horizon.
Brush was still burning, casting smoke into the air. That the sun was setting just made the orange glows more obvious. I was glad there was almost no brush around the Visitor Center. Without fuel, the fires probably wouldn't reach us.
But what about town?
Colton?
They built it up, with plenty of irrigation and plant life, thanks to being next to the river. Colton was an oasis in a world of dry brush, cacti, and heat.
“We're going to need light soon,” Alana said.
David pulled his jacket up over his shoulders. “Then Laney? Jerome? Go down and bring up some flashlights and the safe food you’re talking about. I found the key to the ladder door in the receptionist's desk.” David pulled it out of the pocket and twirled it.
I couldn't help but wonder if this was a punishment. David held it up, letting us know he was in control.
I was realizing why no one dated him for long.
But I snatched the key, heart pounding at the prospect of descending that very long ladder with nothing but an empty elevator shaft on one side of me. Alana looked at me with wide eyes, but she could not help. I knew that if she opened her mouth, David would probably send her down, too. I shook my head at her.
A shattering of glass announced the success of Tony in breaking the vending machine open.
“Wait,” Alana said to him.
“We’ll use this food as a backup. In case these two can’t bring up the supplies,” David said, standing over Tony. “While they’re going down the ladder, we stash everything behind the reception desk, and we ration it out to make it last.”
Unease filled my gut. David was holding other things over our heads for our insubordination. Would he really poison the rest of the field trip just to make us feel like we screwed up?
I forgot about my fear of closed spaces and walked to the ladder door. The elevator cage still hung there, empty, over the monster hole that led to the Collider. And worse, I could see through the cracks and into the void.
Heart pounding, I unlocked the ladder door and pulled it open to reveal the ladder.
“This looks fun,” Jerome said over my shoulder.
I swallowed. “Someone has to go down there, or we’re all spending the night in pitch darkness.” Mr. Ellis was down there, and we’d probably have to step over him while looking for a radio.
“I’ll go first,” he offered, giving me a sheepish smile as he lowered himself onto the metal rungs.
They were metal rungs that led straight down into pure black.
Jerome’s footsteps made a series of
clinks as he vanished into the floor’s open mouth.
“Laney?” David asked.
I waited for someone to volunteer to go instead of me, but no one spoke. No one else wanted to get on David’s nasty side. Why wouldn’t the others just put him in his place?
I was up against the future valedictorian. Or who would have been the valedictorian. I was just Laney, a no-name member of the Math Club.
Behind me, no one spoke.
Okay. I had to go down there. The others were depending on me. By staying up here, I was doing no one a favor. Alana stayed quiet. I knew she didn’t want to tell anyone I hated small spaces, in case anyone else wanted to use that as a weapon against me. As friends, we had always kept secrets well.
Turning around, I crouched and forced myself to descend the terrifying ladder. A breeze blew up on me from below, and Jerome said, “I see you. You’re just a shadow. Oh, and this whole thing is sturdy.”
“That’s good,” I squeaked, hoping that David hadn’t heard my tone.
David knew I hated enclosed spaces. It took a fellow claustrophobe to know one, and he was sending me down here, anyway. I had a few choice words for David in my head already, but uttering them right now wouldn’t help my case. Reality didn’t care about emotions, either.
Down, down.
Don’t think.
You’re only asleep. In a dream.
Yes. Keep denying it, Laney.
Deathdeathdeathdeath…
I stopped and gasped, gripping the rungs so hard my knuckles tingled.
“Laney?” Jerome asked from somewhere below me in the darkness.
“I’m okay,” I lied. The faint, ruddy light of the surface had almost faded into the dark by now. We’d descended a long way. Palms sweating, I tightened my grasp on the ladder.
“This sucks. I know this really sucks, and David is being a dick about everything,” Jerome said in a low voice, after we had descended for another few minutes. “I think we’re halfway down. I’m right below you.”