Apophis (28 page)

I thrust my hand at her.  “I’m Sam,” I said.  It was awkward.  Everyone was so polite and so civilized.  I felt like an unwashed ogre.

Nora looked amused. “And I’m Nora.”  Her voice, which had always contained a velvety quality to it sounded even more plush than before.  I wondered if the altitude was affecting my hearing.

“Well, Sam, Nora,” Cynthia Hook nodded at each of us, “let’s get you to your bunk.  I’m sure you’re eager to get settled in.  But first, a little detour.”

A hidden door slid open along a long, smooth wall in the brightly lit hallway. A wide-set man stood on the other side of the panel.
 His bald head shone under the glare of unforgiving lights and his skin was the color of coffee beans.  He looked like he’d been a nose tackle in another life.  He crossed his beefy arms across his broad chest.

“What is this?” Nora demanded.  Her voice bordered on shrill.

“We just need to go through your bags before we can let you go any further, girls.” Cynthia explained, ushering us inside a small, windowless room.

“Why?” I asked.

“It’s all part of processing and getting you ready for life in West Genesis,” she said matter-of-factly.

I felt a sense of foreboding settle in when the automatic doors closed behind us.

“You’ll need to surrender any weapons and illegal narcotics,” the burly man announced in a deep, gravely voice.

“No weapons?” I openly challenged. “What about the 2nd Amendment?”

“We’re in a state of emergency, dear. Some rights have had to be suspended for the good of the whole,” Cynthia justified.

The security guard looked expectantly at me. “Weapons, please.”

I glanced over at Nora who could only shrug helplessly.  I cursed under my breath, but eventually unfastened my hunting knife at my hip and handed it, along with its protective sheath, to the man.

One of his eyebrows, which looked far too manicured for my liking, rose on his forehead.

“That’s it?”

“What did you expect?” I snorted.
 “A grenade launcher?”

He ignored me and unzipped Nora’s backpack first.

“The only weapon you’ll find in there are nail clippers,” Nora huffed.  She stood still while the man shuffled through the contents of her backpack. He seemed satisfied after only a minute of rummaging and zipped the bag back up.

“I gave you my only weapon,” I protested when the man made a move to open up my pack.

He grunted, but ignored my hostility. He unzipped my pack and immediately pulled out the bottle of moonshine.  The bottle was mostly still full as we’d only opened it up that first night in the cave.

“What’s in here?” he asked.

“Alcohol,” I said stiffly. I wondered if that would be considered contraband, too.

He opened the bottle and took a sniff. “Wooh,” he exclaimed, jerking his head back. “That stuff will put hair on your chest. You girls really drink that?”

“Do we get to keep it or are you confiscating that, too?” I huffed, ignoring his original question.

He resealed the bottle and slid it back into my backpack.

“Okay!” Cynthia clapped her hands together. Apparently our “processing” was complete. “Time to show you girls to your apartment.”

We left the security detour and continued down a hall.  After taking so many left and right turns, I was completely disoriented.  Finally, we came to our destination.  The ground shuddered slightly under my feet.

“This place is big enough that you have a subway system?” I gaped.

“There's an elevator system, too,” Cynthia chirped proudly. “There are multiple levels, each serviced by its own monorail system.” 

The monorail rolled to a smooth stop and the doors swished open.  A cheerful, robotic voice called out the name of the stop. “This is Madison.”

“All of the subway stops on the red line are named after U.S. Presidents,” Cynthia informed us as we stepped onto the train.  “The blue line stops, which is the entertainment section, are named after famous artists.”

Nora whistled under her breath. “How big is this place?”

“I’m not sure of the exact square mileage, but West Genesis is broken into sectors. Residential, commerce, and entertainment. All areas are open to residents except other people’s apartments, obviously.”

“Obviously,” I mumbled under my breath.

Nora gave me a sharp look, but Cynthia either ignored or hadn’t heard me. 

After a few more stops and a line transfer (onto the yellow line, which Cynthia informed us serviced the residential section of West Genesis), we were finally at our new home.  It was disorienting not knowing where we were going and how deep we were under the ground.

“Don’t lose this,” Cynthia warned.  She handed us both a rectangle piece of plastic that looked like a motel keycard or a credit card. “This is both your apartment key and your money.  You can use it at any of the stores or restaurants in the commercial areas.  It works just like a debit card.  But spend your money wisely,” she cautioned. “You get a weekly allotment for food and another amount for miscellaneous things – clothes, entertainment, anything you might want for your apartment. Honestly, there’s not a lot of things to spend your money on, but the limit cuts down on hoarding.”  She laughed at some unspoken joke.  “But I’m getting ahead of myself.  You’ll learn all about that at your orientation tomorrow morning.”

I was feeling overwhelmed by all this information and our new surroundings, but I didn’t know what to do about it.

“Enjoy your first night in West Genesis, girls,” Cynthia smiled.  “I’ll be back at 9am tomorrow to bring you to orientation.”

“So we can do whatever we want until then?” I asked.

She spread her hands out at her sides.  “If it was legal above ground, it’s legal down here.”

“No, I just mean we don’t have lights-out or a specific dinner time?”

“This is still America, Miss West.” Cynthia smiled mildly.  I thought it odd she’d reverted to our more formal names even though she herself had insisted we use her first name.  “You may come and go as you please.  Just be sure you’re back by 9am for orientation.”

Nora used her keycard to gain entrance to our room.  I didn’t know what to expect, but I wasn’t mentally prepared for what was on the other side of the door.  I’m not sure what I’d been anticipating, but Hot Springs’s accommodations certainly had influenced my expectations.   In Hot Springs we’d all slept on uniform military-issue bunk beds.  We’d eaten in a communal mess hall and had showered in community bathrooms.  When Nora opened the door to reveal our living quarters, one thought popped into my head – there was an apocalypse above ground, but you’d never know it.

Nora whistled. “This is...”

“Amazing,” I finished for her.

The main room was an open floor plan divided by three types of flooring, carpet for the living room, hard wood for the dining room, and tile for the kitchen. Unlike Hot Springs where the furniture had come straight from people’s houses, it was clear that everything in our quarters was brand new.
 Everything was updated, stylish, but also kind of stiff.

Nora shook her head. “It’s too much. Three people don’t need all this space, let alone the two of us.”

“I bet it’s just extra plush because of your dad.  He made this place. Why wouldn’t they give him the best digs?”

“Maybe.”

“Something’s been bugging me.”

“What’s that?” Nora hummed.

“If your dad helped design this place and knew they were saving a spot for your family, why did you guys wait so long to start coming over here?  You could have moved in right away instead of waiting two years after Apophis.”

Nora’s face fell and I knew I shouldn’t have asked that question.  “It was my fault.  I didn’t want to go.  I thought all of this was just a phase and if we waited long enough the Frost would pass.” She sighed miserably. “I don’t know why they didn’t just leave me behind.”

“Because they loved you.” The L-word felt funny coming out of my mouth as if my tongue wasn’t used to shaping that word anymore.

She gave me a sad smile. “And look what good that love did them. It got them killed.”

I sat down next her on the sofa. “You can’t let yourself think that way.  Nothing guarantees that they’d still be alive if you'd left earlier.”

Nora fiddled with a throw pillow, picking at the material. “My dad wanted to leave before Apophis hit. We would have flown in the company jet from Connecticut straight here.” She looked up and her eyes were wet. “They would still be alive,” she said thickly.

I bit my lower lip.  Shit.  I didn’t know what to say to that.
The airplane could have crashed and then you'd all be dead?
I was grasping at straws.

When words failed me, I stumbled on an apology. “I’m sorry, Nora. I shouldn’t have pried.” I was shit at consoling people, especially her. I had a talent for making things worse.  I tentatively reached out to rub her back, but before my hand touched her, she hopped up from the couch.

“No more moping,” she coached herself. She rubbed her eyes roughly with her palms. “It’s time to focus on finding your father.”

I was slower to get to my feet.  As much as I wanted to find my dad, I was exhausted and wanted to sleep.  But more than that, right now there was still the possibility that my dad was alive and safe and underground with us.  If we went searching for him, that kernel of hope could be extinguished. He might not be here at all and then what?

“Do you have any ideas?” I asked.
 “Just ask everybody we see if they know my dad?”

“There’s got to be a master list of who all is down here, like a phonebook or something.”

“Maybe we should wait until orientation and ask then.” To be honest, I was a little nervous to walk around and explore before we’d gone through a formal acclimation.

“Do you really want to wait?”

I couldn’t tell what her tone was – if she was judging me for delaying or if she was telling me the decision was entirely up to me. “Does that make me a horrible person?” I grimaced. “I’d really love a shower and fresh clothes.  And maybe a long nap.”

“You’re not a horrible person, Sam.
 We’ve had some really hard days since leaving Hot Springs. Why don’t we freshen up and recharge?” she suggested. “Then we can start looking for your dad in the morning.”

“I like that idea.”

Nora yanked her top off, revealing her taunt torso and sports bra. When her hands went to the snap on her snowpants, I spun on my heel and looked away.  I knew my cheeks were flushed, and for once, I couldn’t blame the weather.

I could hear the swish of her snowpants rustling and coming off, followed by her deep chuckle. “Getting shy on me, Sammy? It’s not like you haven’t seen all of me before.”

“Yeah, but that was different.”

“You looking for a repeat performance?” she pressed.

My jaw opened and closed a few times, but no response came except for a ridiculous choking noise.  I could tell she was pleased with my reaction.

She stalked toward me, only clad in her sports bra and the black tights she always wore beneath her snowpants.

“I’m gonna test out the shower if you change your mind,” she winked.

She sauntered off in the direction of the single, but spacious bathroom.
 I couldn’t help but admire her tight backside and how the muscles in her shoulder blades coiled and flexed as she strode away at an even gait.

I hated not knowing what this thing was between us. Nora could go from somber to flirty in no time at all, but that didn’t mean she liked me or wanted to pursue a relationship. Was she just having fun with me or would she want more than just something physical?  Did she even genuinely like me or was I the recipient of her flirtations because I was conveniently here?

I listened for the telltale sounds of a faucet being turned on and then the shower starting up.  Rather than allow myself to be distracted by mental images of Nora naked in a shower, I busied myself checking out the rest of the apartment.

Besides the bathroom, which was currently off-limits, there were three other rooms.
 The large living area included a couch, love seat, coffee table, and flat-screen TV mounted to the wall. There didn’t appear to be a true kitchen besides a thin refrigerator, stove, and single sink, but there was plenty of built-in storage and a square wooden table with four chairs. Everything looked new, but uniform and functional, kind of how I imagined dorm room furniture being.

Out of curiosity I opened one of the top kitchen cabinets. It was stocked with an assortment of dishes enough to host an impressive dinner party.
 The fridge and range stove were smaller than the ones my parents had had, but the fridge was stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables. I immediately grabbed a green pear from the crisper drawer.  It was small and hard and tasted a little woody, but I couldn’t have been happier.

I peered up at the overhead lights.  They weren’t traditional track lighting or even halogen bars.  They instead resembled skylights.  You’d never know we were deep beneath the earth’s surface from the look of them.  There was a panel of light toggles near the entrance and a touch-screen panel.  I touched a few buttons experimentally and discovered you could change the settings of the overhead panels to mimic different environments and weather patterns.  One minute it was sunny, the next it could be overcast.  It was a neat trick, one I’m sure the residents appreciated.  I’d underestimated how inventive Mr. West and his team had been when they set up this place.