“You didn’t see them, you didn’t see their faces, Max.”
“Jesus, Cindy, it wasn’t the air up there that killed them. They trapped themselves. There was nothing anyone could do.”
“This isn’t the time or the place for this,” Craig finally interrupted. “We’re discussing the here and now.”
“Who are you sending?” Melinda asked.
“We haven’t decided that yet.”
“So, let’s decide that now.”
“I’m going,” Alistair suddenly blurted out.
“You certainly are not,” Melinda replied as she turned and stared at him.
There was a long silence. Melinda and Alistair locked eyes and no one else in the room dared to intervene.
“I’m an adult,” Alistair finally said. “You can’t treat me like a kid.”
Melinda glowered. “You’re my son.”
“I’m going.”
“We--, we need him, Melinda,” MJ added in a cautious voice.
“Why? There’s no one else that can go?”
“The only person that knows this place better than Alistair is Max, and we need him here.”
Melinda turned her head and glared at Craig. He could feel her eyes burning through his soul. Swallowing, he fumbled his hands then cleared his throat.
“I’ll go,” he said loudly. “Alistair should stay with his family. I’ll go instead.”
“What? You can’t. Someone has to keep this place under control,” MJ protested.
“Max can handle that. This isn’t a debate.”
Alistair slammed his fist on the table and stood up. Biting his lip, he fumed then stormed out of the room and slammed the door.
“This isn’t right,” MJ said. “We need him.”
“Take your own son,” Melinda snapped back. “My family has paid enough.”
CHAPTER 4
BROKEN MEMORIES
Alistair leaned back in the chair and yawned. Ashley eyed him impatiently then threw a rolled-up piece of paper at him. It bounced off his forehead and fell to the ground, but he still ignored her.
She grabbed another sheet from the pile, crumpled it up and hurled it across the room. “I can’t believe you actually wanted to go,” she hissed as the paper ricocheted from his head.
“You just don’t get it.”
“Get what? That you were gonna leave me here? What were you thinking?”
“This place is done, Ashley. I was thinking I didn’t want to leave our future to someone else. I was thinking if anyone was gonna find a way out it’d be me.”
“Craig’s been doing this his whole life. Why not leave it up to him?”
“You trust him? After everything, you trust him? They tell us one thing and it’s always something else. It can’t be like that this time.”
Ashley sighed and held her hands up. “I don’t know. It sounds dangerous.”
“Staying here is dangerous. Max says we have weeks left.”
“What?”
“Yeah, weeks until we don’t have a choice.”
Ashley looked up as a knock sounded at the door. It swung open and Daniel walked in with Amber trailing behind him.
“Is this real?” Daniel asked and plopped onto the couch beside Ashley.
Amber fell onto his lap and ran her fingers through his hair. Ashley smirked and looked away and Alistair made a gagging sound.
“Whatever,” Daniel jabbed. “Is this really happening?”
“It is. But apparently, I’ll be here,” Alistair complained.
“What does that mean?”
“It means, Craig is going instead.”
“MJ asked for Daniel and Trevor to go,” Amber added casually.
“That’s bullshit!” Alistair growled.
Daniel laughed. “Don’t shoot the messenger dude.”
“Well, who else are they taking?”
Daniel shrugged. “I don’t know. Jacob, maybe, I’m not sure.”
“That idiot. He’ll get everybody killed. Where’s MJ?”
“Alistair, don’t,” Ashley warned.
“I just want to talk to her.”
Daniel glanced at Ashley and shrugged. “She was in the armory last time I saw her,” he said. Ashely gasped and cut her eyes.
“Really, Daniel?”
“What? He asked.”
Alistair stood up and gave Ashley a kiss. “I’ll be back.”
He hurried out of the door before she could object and rushed down the hallway. As he turned the corner toward the armory, MJ was walking away with her arm around Grayson.
“MJ!” Alistair yelled after her.
She stopped and turned around then sighed. “Go ahead, Grayson. I’ll meet you back in the room.”
“I’m gonna go and see Chloe,” he told her with a mischievous grin.
“Fine, but don’t stay there too late, and behave yourself.”
Grayson smiled then waved back to Alistair before leaving. Alistair nodded his head then turned toward MJ and gave her an exhausted look.
“It’s not my call, Alistair,” MJ started.
“It should be.”
“You mom has a point.”
“My mom is scared. But if we do nothing, if we just sit here, we’re good as dead anyway. I have to do something.”
“I’ll talk to Craig some more, but I can’t make any promises. He’s got his own demons.”
“I can help, MJ, you know I can. I’m not that scared little boy anymore.”
“Hey, I liked that scared little boy, and he was pretty bad ass.”
Alistair smiled. “Thanks.”
“Anytime. Now, I’ve got a dozen and a half checklist to run down and see if we can get some idea of the topography up there. Wanna help?”
“Why not?” he replied. “I guess it’s the least I can do…or the only thing I can do.”
MJ sneered at him then waved her hand for him to follow.
~~***~~
“You sure you’re up for this?” Daniel asked.
Trevor glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “I’m fine.”
“This is serious, Trevor. A lot is depending on this. I told MJ you could handle it.”
“It was serious before. I’m fine. When are we leaving?”
“Few days. They’re still getting supplies ready and plotting out logistics.”
“What the hell do they think we’re gonna find up there?”
Daniel shrugged. “Beats me. Hope?”
“Not a whole lot of that lying around.”
“It’s not your fault Trevor. You’ve gotta move past it.”
“If everyone stopped telling me how it wasn’t my fault, maybe I would.”
Daniel stared at him for a moment, not knowing exactly how to respond. He stood up and paced around the room, swinging his arms back and forth.
“Sit down,” Trevor growled. “You’re making me nervous.”
“Well, I’m nervous. I’m gonna go, I’ve gotta help Max with the suits. Chloe is in the game room with Grayson. Keep an eye on them,” Daniel said then opened the door to leave.
“Daniel?” Trevor called.
He paused. With a deep breath, he turned around and tilted his head to the side. Trevor was glaring at him, biting his lower lip, struggling with what he was about to say.
“I was supposed to go with them,” he started. “That’s the only reason Sherry left, I told her I’d go. But…but, I overslept. She’s dead because of me. It really was my fault.”
Daniel didn’t respond, he didn’t know how. He wished he could fix everything for Trevor, that he could change the past, but all they could do now was keep moving forward. Crossing the living room, he placed his hand on Trevor’s shoulder and knelt beside him.
“We all thought that we knew better. We all played some part. But you didn’t make her go. You didn’t make any of them go. That was their choice.”
Trevor wiped the tears from his cheek then stared Daniel in the face. “Yeah…yeah, you’re right. Get
out of here already. I’m sure Max is waiting for you.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. You’re right…I know you’re right.”
Daniel grabbed Trevor and pulled him forward into his arms. “I love you man. It’ll get easier, I promise it will.”
Trevor collected himself and watched Daniel leave. Once he’d vanished down the hall, Trevor closed the door and sat down at the kitchen table.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled to himself and pulled a pocket knife from his jeans.
Flicking it open, he moved the placemat from the table, revealing a string of grooves that had been carved into the top. As he wiped the tears that rolled down his cheek, he dug the tip of the knife into the wood and finished his message.
“I couldn’t save you, I couldn’t save myself. Mckinsey, Keyon, Hanson, Antonio, Sherry & Trevor”
~~***~~
Alistair opened the door to the apartment and crept inside. He moved as quietly as he could, but his mom was awake and sitting in the living room with a worried look on her face.
“Don’t know why you’re sneaking around,” Melinda said.
“I wasn’t sneaking.”
“Oh, you always tip-toe now?”
Alistair bit his lip and walked into the kitchen. He grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water. Gulping it down, he set the cup onto the counter and turned to face his Mom. “Why did you do that?”
“Do what, Alistair?”
“Back there with Craig?”
“Keep you alive? Why don’t I want my son going on a suicide mission? Is that what you want to know?”
“Suicide mission? Staying here is a suicide mission. You know what’s going on, don’t you?”
“Why don’t you fill me in.”
“This place is falling apart. In a few weeks we’re all gonna suffocate. The ventilation systems are gonna shut down and we’re gonna die, stuck down here in the dark.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.”
“What! Dramatic? Mom, this is happening. And you want me to wait down here and die? What about David and Charlie, you want that for them? I’m sorry I can’t do that. I have to find a way to keep us alive. It’s what Dad would’ve done.”
“You’re not your dad. You can’t keep running into every disaster, chasing after your father.”
“At least one of us still chasing after him.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean, Alistair?”
“I saw you with Thomas! You think people don’t know?”
Melinda gawked at him as the words lodged in her throat and strangled her esophagus. She turned away, trying to quell her response, but her anger had been building for a while. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” she snarled.
“So, you haven’t been sleeping with Thomas? Tell me I’m lying.”
“It’s none of your damn business who I sleep with. And your father is dead! He’s not coming back!” she yelled as tears rushed down her face.
Alistair took a deep breath and held it. With his jaw clenched, he slammed the cupboard shut and rushed toward the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Anywhere but here,” he snapped then marched outside.
CHAPTER 5
DON’T WAIT FOR TOMORROW
“You sure these things are gonna work?” Craig asked as he rifled through the closet of bio suits.
“I don’t see why they wouldn’t,” Max replied.
“That doesn’t instill much confidence. This isn’t a fucking game.”
“Yes, yes they’ll work. Jesus, calm down.”
“So, what now?”
“We move the egg to operating level and bore out a path. There’s not much to it, we’re halfway there since the…” he paused.
Craig wrinkled his face and ran his fingers through his thinning red hair. “How likely is that to happen again?”
“Not at all. That wasn’t a mistake. Those kids had no reason to be in the shaft, it wasn’t operational.”
“All the same, could it happen again?”
“No! Nothing happened. We were venting toxic gases through that shaft. No one was authorized to be in there, okay? I’m really sick of hearing about this.”
Craig cut his eyes then pulled a suit out. It was heavy and made of a dense, rugged material. Thick metal O-rings connected the helmet and gloves and a flexible solar strip ran across the back.
Craig tugged at the sleeves then set the suit back down. “How long can we breathe in these things?”
“Depends on the air quality. Each suit can carry six hours of fresh air, but with the built-in scrubber we could probably double that.”
“Then it’s settled. We need to get going.”
Max nodded in agreement then whipped around as a loud buzz rang out through the facility.
“What the hell is that?” Craig shouted.
“Air sensor. There’s been another failure.”
At a quickened pace, he left the armory and rushed toward the main utility room. Craig hurried behind him and when they arrived, they found the room full of dense, black smoke, billowing into the hallway.
“Get the extinguishers!” Max yelled.
He ran inside and shut off the main breaker. Sparks were shooting from the back of the recirculation unit and the metal around the carbon scrubber was charred and melted.
Craig yanked an extinguisher from the wall and started spraying it from side to side. The foam retardant sizzled as it doused the fire and filled the room with more smoke.
“Shit!” Max grumbled. “This thing is done.”
Craig dropped the empty canister and surveyed the damage. “Will it still run.”
Max laughed. “It was barely running before.”
“What does this mean?”
“It means you guys have a week to find us a way out of here.”
Craig stared at Max with a strained face. He took a deep breath then nodded his head and walked back into the hall. “Get the egg ready to move. I’ll make the announcement.”
“Tonight?”
“Yeah, we’re gonna leave in the morning.”
“Okay. I’ll bring us up to operating depth.”
Craig headed to the command center, leaving Max alone with the smoldering equipment. He stared at the burnt pieces of metal and charred wiring while a million thoughts rushed through his head.
“I don’t want to die down here,” he mumbled to himself then left the room.
The egg moved on something like a massive tank track and was fixed with a drill on either end. It allowed them to navigate the substrate, burrowing deeper or shallower when needed. A nuclear reactor powered the entire facility and that along with the oxygen farm, rebreathers, water tanks and food storage could’ve kept twice as many people alive for ten years. Unfortunately, things seldom went to plan.
Equipment was falling apart left and right. Mistakes early on cost them redundancies and years of extended down time. Every day their options dwindled and if they didn’t find an agreeable atmosphere, the egg was likely to become the final resting place for them all. The entire mission was a first of its kind and a contingency that should’ve never occurred, but when you’re left on a dying world, you don’t have too many options.
“Prep us for departure,” Max ordered as he walked into the control station.
Jacob turned around with a puzzled face. “Departure? I thought they weren’t leaving for three more days?”
“Time table has changed. We need to get them out of here as soon as possible.”
“Um, okay. You’re the boss,” Jacob said as he swung his chair around and started banging commands into the computer. “You gonna tell everyone we’re going mobile again?”
“Craig’s already on it. Just get us ready to move.”
~~***~~
Daniel wrapped his hands around Amber’s waist and pulled her close. She giggled and he pressed his face into hers and kissed her. When they finall
y came up for air she gasped and let out a little chuckle.
“What was that for?”
“Good luck, I guess.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Daniel. You’re not going off to war.”
Daniel laughed. “I know, I know. Just…you know with it being so out of nowhere…I don’t know. Maybe I’m over thinking everything.”
“It’s okay. I’m sure you’ll be fine. Besides, MJ is your chaperone. That lady is legendary, nothing is gonna happen to you.”
“I saved her life before, you do know that right?”
Amber smiled. “So, you’ve told me.” She kissed him again then leaned her head against his chest.
“I’ve gotta get my stuff ready.”
“Ok. You still sleeping over tonight, right?”
“Yeah. Just gotta make sure Trevor is okay with Chloe. Grayson has been spending a little too much time around our place.”
“Cut the kid a break. You were worse.”
“I’ll cut that kid.”
“Oh, whatever. Just go finish what you have to and meet me at my place. I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“What kind of surprise?”
“Hurry up and you’ll find out.”
Grinning, Daniel kissed her on the forehead and hurried off. His room was on the other side of the facility away from the other residences. He moved there half a year ago, when he started working night and day to keep the scrubbers online. It meant he didn’t have to navigate the twisted corridors when he was half asleep, but it also meant he was far enough from Amber to send a postcard.
He hummed to himself as he walked the lonely halls. Anything to keep his mind off the upcoming mission. He was terrified, and for good reason. They had no clue what to expect once they left the facility. They’d sent drones, cameras, small tracked vehicles, and nothing had come back. The world above them was a mystery, a black hole that swallowed everything it touched.
“Trevor?” Daniel called out as he swung open the door to his apartment. “Trevor, is Grayson still in here? Are you sleeping?”
He passed through the living room and poked his head inside Trevor’s bedroom, but it was empty. He made his way to the game room, but that was empty too.
Deconstruction- The Complete series Box Set Page 87