by Greg Cox
They were going to die, unless they made it to safety in time.
* * *
Takashi was alone in the control room. The rest of the staff had already deserted the premises, including Hayato. The older man had volunteered to stay behind, but Takashi had convinced him to take charge of the evacuation instead. Hayato was a family man, with a wife, children, and several grandchildren who needed him, while Takashi had put his career ahead of any serious relationships so far. The young engineer stared in horror at a hallway schematic of the lower levels. Blinking red icons indicated the rapid spread of radiation throughout the corridors. His eyes widened in dread as stayed at his post, torn between his duty to contain the disaster and his purely human concern for his friends and co-workers. He could only imagine how excruciating this must be for Joe Brody, even as Takashi worried whether the American engineer would really be able to do what was necessary, no matter the cost.
Takashi wasn’t sure he could, not if it was his true love at stake.
* * *
Joe stared anxiously past the threshold, frozen in fear. He listened numbly to Takashi’s fractured voice over the intercom. Static interference mangled the transmission, rendering it barely comprehensible:
“Brody—we—ah—each—”
“What?” Joe asked, straining to make out what was being said. “Say again?”
“Catastrophic radiation breach!”
Joe had thought he couldn’t be any more scared, but this nightmare just kept getting worse and worse. Utter horror transfixed him. This couldn’t be happening…
“Seal the corridor,” Takashi pleaded, “or the whole city will be exposed!”
* * *
Keep going, Sandra thought. Just a little further!
Terror overcame exhaustion as she and her crew sprinted down a corridor, despite the best efforts of the earthquake to slow them down. An earth-shaking rumble caused the floor to quake beneath their feet, tossing them from one side to another. Yamato tumbled headfirst onto the concrete floor, forcing Sandra to turn back and help him to his feet. His visor had survived the fall intact, thank goodness, and they were about to resume their flight when—
The air rippled behind them as a billowing cloud of radioactive vapor and particulate matter blew in from the far end of the corridor. The oncoming vapors set off the radiation sensors in the ceiling, causing the emergency klaxons to sound directly overhead. Flashing red lights accompanied the sirens. The hot gases and steam rushed toward Sandra and the others with frightening speed. Unable to outrun it, her eyes wide with horror, she braced herself as the cloud blasted past them like a red-hot gust of wind, knocking them all to the floor. Buffeted by the blast, she felt the heat of the vapors through the multiple layers of her protective suit. She held her breath instinctively, despite the gas mask protecting her air supply.
Oh my God, she thought. Have I been exposed?
But that wasn’t the worst part. The cloud kept on going, triggering sirens further ahead. It flooded down the corridor toward the containment threshold. Sandra and Yamato traded stunned looks. They all knew what would happen if the irradiated cloud reached the checkpoint first, what would have to happen for the safety of the entire community. They needed to be on other side of that boundary before it was too late.
Panicked, they all scrambled to their feet and ran madly for the checkpoint.
* * *
“Five seconds… four seconds…”
Takashi counted down over the intercom as Joe stood like a statue right outside the containment area, staring bleakly at the empty corridor beyond. He remembered kissing Sandra in the car less than an hour ago, tried to remember the last thing he said to her before they went their separate ways this morning. Had he said he loved her, or even said goodbye?
He knew he couldn’t wait much longer.
“Joe,” Takashi said, reaching the end of his countdown. No doubt he was tracking the progress of the radiation leak as it spread through the lower levels. “You have to shut it down… now.”
Looking away from the entrance, Joe stared at the manual control button on the wall. He tried to step toward it, but his feet didn’t want to move. He forced himself to take one step toward the button, two, three… until the button was within reach. He raised his hand, clenched his fist.
God forgive me, he thought.
Static squawked from the walkie-talkie. Fragmented bursts of his wife’s voice came over the speaker:
“—Joe—ear—an—”
His heart surged in his chest. He clutched the walkie-talkie hard enough to turn his knuckles white. Desperation filled his voice.
“Sandra?… Sandra?”
Perversely, the static abated long enough for him to hear her clearly at last, perhaps for the last time.
“Joe. It’s too late! We’re not going to make it!”
Her words hit him harder than any earthquake, shattering his world. “No, no!” he shouted into the walkie-talkie. “Don’t you say that! Don’t you stop—!”
“You have to do it!” The signal began to break up again, pops and crackles threatening to consume her final words. “You have to live! For Ford!”
The radio sputtered and died. He smacked it furiously, trying to get her back.
“SANDRA!”
Klaxons blared as a swirling cloud of discharged vapor came gusting around a bend at the far end of the corridor. Red lights flashed in alarm. The radioactive gases rushed toward Joe… and the boundary.
“You have to seal it!” Takashi shouted frantically over the intercom. “JOE!”
Joe thought of the unsuspecting city outside the plant. Ford would be at school now, maybe playing at recess… along with dozens of other kids. And thousands of other men, women, and children were going about their business, unaware of the hell that had been unleashed from the damaged reactor, the hell he was trapped in now.
I’m sorry, Sandy… I’m so, so sorry…
Screaming in rage, he drew back his arm and pounded his fist into the emergency control button. A transparent barrier, more than six inches thick, instantly slammed down like the blade of a guillotine, sealing off the contaminated corridor. The advancing red lights halted right on the other side of the barrier. The screaming sirens faded away, echoing into silence.
Dear God, Joe thought. What have I done?
* * *
Alone in the control room, Takashi sagged in relief, sinking into his seat as he watched the blinking red icons tail off at the checkpoint. A message flashed upon the screen:
“BARRIER SECURE.”
Takashi kept looking at the message, almost afraid to believe it was true. He felt like he’d aged twenty years in the last few minutes. They had come so close to a total catastrophe. If Joe had been just a few seconds slower…
“Radiation is contained,” he reported over the comm. He paused before asking the question he was afraid to ask. “Is… is Sandra with you? Joe?”
* * *
Joe couldn’t answer. He felt destroyed by what he had just done. The finality of shutting the barrier on his wife. The walkie-talkie slipped from his fingers, crashing unnoticed onto the floor. Unable to stand, he slid limply to the ground, his back against the thick plexiglass barrier. He buried his face in his hands.
“Joe?” Takashi continued to harangue him. “The barrier will only hold so long. We have to close the lead shield, too.”
Joe knew he was right, but he couldn’t cope with that right now. He needed a moment, just to try to come to grips with what he had lost, with what his life had just become. He and Sandra had been together since college, even gone into the same industry together. He had always assumed they would grow old together, watching Ford grow up…
A dull pounding reached his ears, coming from the barrier behind him. Dread gripped his heart as he realized what the pounding meant. Oh, God, he thought. I’m not sure I can stand this…
He didn’t want to turn around, but, of course, he had no choice. Lifting his face from his han
ds, he forced himself to turn slowly toward the barrier and the ghastly sight waiting for him on the other side of the transparent wall. Maybe this was his punishment for failing Sandra and the others. He needed to come face-to-face with what he’d done.
Toyoaki Yamato was there, pressed up frantically against the barrier, pounding with both hands against the unyielding plexiglass. Behind his visor, his face was a portrait of sheer, unadulterated panic. Joe couldn’t hear Yamato’s screams through the soundproof wall, but that wasn’t necessary; the fear and desperation in the man’s eyes spoke loud enough. The doomed technician was begging for his life, even though he was already as good as dead.
I’m sorry, Joe thought. It’s too late. There’s nothing I can do.
Part of him envied Yamato. At least his suffering would be over soon. He wouldn’t have to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life. He wouldn’t have to tell his son that he would never see his mother again. For a moment, Joe was relieved that it wasn’t Sandra pounding on the barrier, and felt ashamed for his cowardice, but then the rest of the work crew rounded the corner, catching up with Yamato. The other men threw themselves against the barrier as well, blind animal fear overcoming their reason. Their frenzied faces shrieked behind their masks. Their fists pounded relentlessly at the impenetrable wall between death and survival.
But Sandra didn’t try to break through. Instead she merely slumped in exhaustion on the other side of the wall. Anguished eyes sought out Joe’s and they stared at each other hopelessly. Only inches of solid plexiglass divided them, but it might as well have been a continent. Joe tried to speak, to push the words past his throat, but they wouldn’t come. His throat tightened. His eyes burned with tears that had yet to spill down his face. He couldn’t imagine how they had possibly come to this unthinkable moment. It wasn’t fair…
“Joe,” Takashi interrupted. “I’m closing the shield.”
No, Joe thought. Not yet! He looked around frantically for the fallen walkie-talkie and snatched it from the floor. Tears began to fall as he held it to his lips. “Sandra? Can you hear me?”
There was so much he needed to say, so much he had to apologize for, but only static answered his agonized entreaties. She shook her head sadly, holding his gaze with her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he sobbed.
She couldn’t hear him, but she didn’t need to. His pain and anguish and guilt were written all over his face. The fear faded from her eyes as a strange calm appeared to settle over her. He could tell she knew what he did, what he’d had to do, and what it had cost them both. She placed her palm up against the glass. He reached out to place his own hand over hers, only to hear a jarring buzzer inform him that their time was up.
The second barrier engaged. Two solid-lead doors slid in from both sides of the doorway. Joe yanked his hand back just in time. For a few final moments, their eyes met in silent communion. Her lips moved, as though she was trying to comfort him, or perhaps just say goodbye, but he would never know what her last words were.
The doors slammed shut, cutting her off from view… forever.
Goodbye, Joe thought. May God forgive me.
He wasn’t sure he ever would.
A violent tremor jolted him from his grief. The building quaked all around him. Dust and debris rained down from the ceiling. The floor bucked beneath him.
“The entire plant is collapsing!” Takashi shouted from the comm. “We have to get out… NOW!”
Joe placed his hand on the lead door, exactly where he knew Sandra’s face must be. It tore him apart to know that she was still there, still alive, less than a foot away. Entombed inside a radioactive deathtrap, facing the end without even her family beside her in her final moments. And it killed him to know that now he had to leave her.
“You have to live!” she had said. “For Ford!”
Joe knew she was right. If not for their son, he would have gladly stayed behind to perish with Sandra. At least they’d be together, even if a wall of lead separated them, but he had to think about Ford now. The boy couldn’t lose his mother and his father. He owed it to Sandra to make it out of this alive… for Ford’s sake.
Tearing himself away from the lead doors, he scrambled to his feet and ran for his life.
* * *
The control room was empty now. Not even Takashi remained to bear witness to the plant’s final moments of operation. Unattended monitors captured real-time video surveillance of the last wave of plant personnel fleeing the complex. Joe could be glimpsed on one monitor, barely making it to the parking lot in time, along with Takashi. Squealing cars and trucks sped out of the gates, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the plant. Power lines snapped and whipped about, spitting showers of sparks. The sky-high transmission towers in the switchyard tottered.
Another screen watched over Reactor Room One, deep in the heart of the abandoned plant. The five-hundred-ton pressure vessel containing the reactor core was shielded by dense layers of steel and concrete, but hot gases continued to leak from the ruptured casing. Silence reigned over the compromised chamber until the massive vessel suddenly toppled over, crashing onto the reinforced concrete floor, as something huge and inconceivable burst up through the floor. A violent discharge of radiation wreaked havoc with the transmission so that the screen caught only a fleeting glimpse of a large, blurry object that vaguely resembled a claw…
Then an immense pulse of energy, indescribably powerful, swept through the entire plant, disrupting every electronic circuit and knocking out all the lights.
The screens in the control room went black.
* * *
The Janjira International School was a one-story building boasting traditional Japanese architecture, complete with bamboo shutters on the window. Sitting in class with his fellow students, facing the blackboard, Ford found it hard to concentrate on Miss Okada’s language lesson. He couldn’t wait for the day to be over so that his dad could finally see the surprise he and Mom had prepared for him. Ford was also hoping for some chocolate cake and ice cream. His mouth watered in anticipation.
Emergency sirens started wailing outside, distracting Ford from his sugary daydreams. The sirens sounded like they were coming from only a few miles away. Frowning, Miss Okada turned away from the chalkboard. “All right, children,” she said in Japanese. “Let’s practice our safety drills.”
Ford figured it was just another duck-and-cover drill as well, until a fearsome metallic groaning penetrated the thin walls of the classroom. Both teacher and students stopped what they were doing and turned their heads toward the window, where the nuclear power plant could be glimpsed not far away. Ford instantly thought of his parents—and how stressed his dad had been that morning.
Did this have something to do with that problem at the plant?
He rushed to the window, even as Miss Okada tried to herd the rest of the class out the door. Boys and girls in matching blue uniforms poured out of the school onto the grassy lawn outside, even as the ominous rumbling grew louder and louder. His teacher called to him, but Ford barely registered her anxious voice. Unable to look away, he stared out the window as…
The entire plant collapsed before his eyes. With a deafening roar, all three containment buildings dropped out of sight, as though suddenly swallowed up by the earth. Billowing clouds of dirt and debris rose up where the towers had once stood. Children, and even a few teachers, screamed as, in a matter of minutes, the looming nuclear power plant ceased to exist.
Mom! Ford thought, all thought of cake and birthdays forgotten. Dad!
The roar of the disaster consumed his entire world.
FIVE
PRESENT DAY
A high-pitched hydraulic whine roused Lieutenant Ford Brody from an uneasy slumber. A sliver of light hit his tired brown eyes, causing him to blink and look away. The twenty-five year old Navy officer sat in the cramped-but-spacious hold of a C-17 Globemaster transport plane, surrounded by dozens of troops f
rom other branches of the armed services, all returning from recent tours of duty in Afghanistan. Ford knew he ought to be more excited about finally touching down back home, but, to be honest, he was mostly worn-out, jet-lagged, and even a bit apprehensive.
“Family waiting for you?” Captain Freeman asked, eyeing Ford. A career soldier in his mid-forties, the older man had a seen-it-all air about him. He had been dozing beside Ford for the last several thousand miles.
Ford shrugged. “Hope so.”
Freeman nodded. “How long you been away?”
“Fourteen months.”
“Take it slow,” Freeman advised, gathering up his kit, which was resting at his feet. “It’s the one thing they don’t train you for.”
Tell me about it, Ford thought. The long separation had been hard on everyone.
Daylight flooded the hold as the large cargo doors at the rear of the plane glided open, offering a view of the tarmac beyond. Ford gathered up his own things as he joined the procession of weary, homebound warriors exiting the plane two by two. He quickly lost track of Captain Freeman in the crush of uniformed bodies. He wondered what, if any, kind of reunion the battle-hardened veteran had in store. The call of duty could be hard on one’s home life, as Ford was already learning for himself.
Outside the hangar at Travis Air Force Base, a mob of eager friends and family waited impatiently behind a cordon for the first glimpse of their loved ones. The crowd displayed flowers, yellow ribbons, waving flags, and enough handmade signs to stage a political demonstration. The brightly colored signs, often boasting stars, stripes, and generous amounts of glitter, greeted the new arrivals with countless heartfelt variations on the same theme.