High Pressure System: First Season Underground (2 page)

After a few weeks, the dogs and I settled into a rather boring routine. There wasn’t much to it. I roamed the halls on all the floors with nothing better to do but plot how to “accidentally” run into Brandon and trying to come up with something smart to say once I captured his attention. Maybe I would have to rebel a little bit so I wouldn’t blend into the stark white walls quite so well.

I explored the floors with no residents, touring the unfinished apartments, hoping someday I would have one of the larger, family-sized ones. They totally saw us living here for years to come, expanding the population. Fantasizing about a future with Brandon was all I had. Honestly, I wasn’t interested in anyone else because Brandon was in charge of everything. Might as well aim high when all other prospects for me were close to nil. If only I could find out how old he was.

I smiled at my boys, Yodel and Dobbers, as they scampered and wrestled around my feet. We headed up to the lobby to see if Jim would allow them outside for a romp. Jim Rupp reminded me of my dad so I enjoyed visiting with him. He also was the only person besides Brandon that spoke to me the first day.

Jim was the self-designated lobby security guard. He was one of those people that needed purpose or he would go stir crazy. I kept wondering where he found the silly, old, oversized, policeman hat, but if it made him feel important as he guarded the doors to the outside, I wasn’t going to give him any grief about it. We all needed a little something to help us feel useful with our new lives, restricted in the bunker – oh wait, apartment complex – far too often. For me, since I was alone, it was tending to my dogs every whim. Brandon still wouldn’t give me the time of day, so hence, I remained jobless.

Even though Jim was a good twenty years older than me, being alone and far from our families was our common bond. Jim had been on a business trip. Of course, I was living it up in college, or more like suffering through mind-numbing lectures and endless homework. It all seemed totally pointless to me now. It still frustrated me that there had been no way for us to return home the day all cross-country travel stopped with no warning.

“What are you reading today?” I asked, looking over his shoulder. We both liked retro books and old movies. There was plenty of that around since most technology was still banned outside the safe room. Everyone was always in there hogging everything.

“Hmm?” He looked up at me and smiled. “Hi, Rachel. Oh, something from a long time ago. I find it funny that in this book the phones were attached to walls with long cords and the only thing they could do with them was talk.”

“Well, we don’t even have
that
anymore. What is that thing?” I pointed to the rusty metal contraption on a wooden stand sitting on the desk.

“Brandon likes his museum artifacts. This one is even older than the phone. It’s a telegraph. He wants me to learn how to use it so we can hopefully communicate with the others. I don’t see the point. There’s no way to use it if we can’t string wire lines to the other bunkers. We can’t even be outside for a half hour now before the clouds roll in.”

“We need something to look forward to. Especially since every other form of communication has been banned. He’s found every computer or phone related device that anyone thought they could hide from him. Oh my gosh! The Harpers are the worst. They are
still
complaining how Brandon went through that woman’s lingerie to find their phones.”

He sighed. “I know. We’ve only been here a few months and I’m already going nuts from those two. Well, there’s more getting to me than just them.”

“I’ll do my best to keep you sane.” I squeezed his forearm. I reminded Jim of his teenage daughter and I accidentally called him dad once. We didn’t talk about it anymore, but all we wanted to know was if our families survived. “Can I let the dogs out for a run? I’m sure it won’t be much longer before we can’t go out at all.”

“Let’s have a look.” Jim slid his rolling desk chair back and set his yellowed book with the tattered cover down on the desk. He headed for the back door made of heavy metal, fitted with oversized sliding bolts that disappeared into the wall. A piece of metal covered a small window in the door. He slid it to the side and peered out.

“The sun is shining. Let me double check.” Jim pulled back the bolts. The sound echoed in the lobby. The industrial sized hinges squeaked as he heaved the massive door open. He stepped into the passageway to climb the stairs that led to the next steel door with a small, uncovered heavy glass window inset in the steel to view the weather. Jim waved for me to follow as he unlatched the locks. “Don’t let them out long, though. I can’t see what’s rolling in over the bunker.”

“The pups always come in before we even see it.”

The dogs burst out the door, running in circles around the small grassy area to play a game of chase.

“Brandon has been letting me in his office to occupy my time. Us single men need to stick together, you know. I found something in his archives. I keep thinking how lucky we are that we’re so far inland when all this happened and that we were in a small city. I knew there was a worldwide crisis, but I didn’t know how bad it was. I was so busy working, I had no clue.” Jim shook his head.

“I never watched the news. I was always doing homework when I wasn’t in class. I was sitting through the most boring lecture when everyone’s phones went off at once. It was freakishly scary when the professor didn’t lose it and turned white as a sheet. He trembled when he gathered his notes, dropping them all over the floor while he waved us all out of the classroom. The whole school gathered in the field outside of the student union building. That’s when they told all the local kids to go home and the rest of us to call our families because if we weren’t within driving distance of the school, we wouldn’t be going home. I think I went into a daze while I frantically tried to call home. The lines were busy for hours. I finally did get through late that night, but my phone wasn’t working the next day. I didn’t expect that to be my last phone call home. The only thing I heard after that was the announcement to prepare for evacuations. Then I had twenty-four hours to prepare to come here.” It was weird that those days felt like they were part of a bad dream. I was still scared but not like I was a few weeks ago.

“It must have happened so fast that I missed the news or maybe it was kept from us. The past few years there have been planes that occasionally disappeared or crashed with no survivors over the oceans. Recently, large numbers of them went missing all at once. I read in the news archives how they ended all airline flights, boats, and trains when all people and animals were found dead on the islands too, even Australia. The autopsies showed they all died over the course of a day. It wasn’t even an illness or anything, totally sudden. Then the coasts of Asia, South America, and Africa were hit. Our coasts had to be next. Someone here knew it was coming. How else would they have all these bunkers ready for occupation in time? Still haven’t figured out why they wouldn’t let us go home though. If they knew to prepare bunkers, why didn’t they make sure everyone was with their family before they gave the evacuation orders?” Jim rubbed his face the way he always did when he brought up his family.

“I thought maybe there was some sort of invasion. The news said we were under attack and the worst was yet to come. Maybe alien? Isn’t Brandon always watching the sky? Is something hiding in the clouds when they roll in?”

“I think they thought that at first. It isn’t aliens. There’s no sign of UFOs. Only storms that come out of nowhere. Hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, and drought are all a part of history. You don’t even know what all those things are, do you? That’s because global climate change has been regulated by meteorologists for years now. Hasn’t it been ingrained in you that freak weather happenings were all in the past? We’ve lived in a weather utopia for years now with plentiful abundance of perfectly scheduled weather, no fears of famine or destruction– until now.”

“What do you mean until now?” I patted Yodel as he took a break from chase to say hello to me by stretching up on my leg. Dread was building in my chest and tightening around my heart. I didn’t realize that the crisis was as big as it was.

“Every one that died, died from asphyxiation. That is not just some old-fashioned stormy weather bringing planes down, out of the sky. It’s exterminating entire populations of people and animals. I doubt the weather is being run by meteorologists or the government anymore.”

“That’s just crazy talk.” I couldn’t look at Jim. Mainly because what he said sounded crazy, but I had the feeling deep down in my gut that he was speaking the truth.

“You know it’s not. The storms unexpectedly roll in, the alarms go off, and we are locked in tight. We might still be in the dark as to why we were forced to evacuate here, but no one has fought it. Most of us heard on evacuation day that the numbers of the dead were astronomical. In Brandon’s archives, many of the people that tried to evacuate on the California coast didn’t make it to the bunkers. Too many people trying to leave at once were gridlocked in. I think there was something about computer glitches in the cars that added to it. You don’t want to read about that. It was awful. That’s why we had to leave on foot to get to the buses. Oh, and don’t worry too much about your family. I double checked to be sure, but the East Coast fared much better.” Jim patted my arm.

I tried to smile. His family lived on the East Coast too. “I hate the thought of not being able to come outside to see the sun.”

“I do too. But seeing your smiling face will work as my sunshine every day.”

“That is so nice of you to say.” I don’t know why, but his corny words brought tears to my eyes. He was so much like my dad, it made my heart ache. If I didn’t get to see my dad again, Jim could ease that pain some. I wiped under my eyes discreetly as I bent down to grab a stick to throw for the dogs. They didn’t play fetch. It was pointless to try, but I got my mind off feeling sad. “Have you seen Brandon today?” I changed the subject, closing my eyes to enjoy the sun’s rays on my face and tried to appear only slightly interested in details about the elusive Brandon. I couldn’t deny that the young genius guy in charge was hot. He was also playing hard to get. Hard to see in the flesh. Hard to even find in such a confined space. I was starting to wonder if he was still around.

“Only when he came to give me the daily rundown on new restrictions. He’s adding more every day. Pretty soon there will be no point for me to sit up here behind the desk. I suspect he might ban you from coming up too.”

“I hope I can let the dogs out a few more times.”

“The way the storms are rolling in now, I’m sure it’s just a matter of days.”

“Does Brandon know what all we’re hiding from? Is it just black thunderstorm clouds?”

“He hasn’t given me any clues. I’m sure he knows, though. There are a lot of restricted files in the archives that I can’t get into.” Jim gave my shoulder a push when he remembered something. “I didn’t believe Brandon when he said that he designed this bunker. He looks so young I had to ask him how old he is. He’s twenty-six. In the end, they used his plans on a quarter of them. They used several different bunker designs because they didn’t want to depend on one style in case they all failed. Isn’t that disheartening? The construction crew has been busy with all his modifications before we got here. Oh, here they come.”

The wind picked up as the dogs ran through the doorway with their tails tucked between their legs. They weren’t the only animals to come in the door. A few birds and a squirrel followed. Jim and I put our weight into shutting the heavy metal door. Two more birds flew in and a rabbit squeezed through before the door slammed shut. We shoved the heavy bolts into the wall just as the thick, dark clouds blotted out the sun.

“That’s more than last time,” Jim said, as he shooed the birds and the rabbit into the lobby.

Loud music blasted overhead like it usually did when a storm rolled in. It helped distract from all the rumbling. The dogs freaked out, barking at the squirrel and the rabbit. I grabbed Yodel. Jim scooped up Dobbers. We held their mouths shut, whispering for them to stop barking. I had to bite my lip so I wouldn’t scream as the squirrel climbed up my leg to my sweatshirt before it burrowed in my hood.

The lobby lights rattled. The birds hunched down in the fake ficus trees, nervously looking about.

“The little guy is scared all curled up in your hood,” Jim whispered in my ear, handing me Dobbers. He collected the rabbit that hid in the corner then placed it in an animal carrier. “You should take the boys to your apartment. I can catch these guys. I’m well practiced now.”

“Do you think Wanda and Ben mind the extra animals?”

“They haven’t minded yet. I think they like to hear the bird songs. You should go down and hang out in
Live Food Management
sometime.”

“Okay, they seriously need to rename it. Why not just call it
The Farm
?”

“I don’t know. You should talk to Brandon, I bet he named it.”

“I can never find him and I can’t stand the smell down there anyway. Maybe that’s where Brandon’s been hiding.”

“You want to take the squirrel down there?”

“I’ll just take him to the vet. I might ask if I can keep him.” If my arms weren’t full of dogs, I would have plugged my ears as I descended the stairs. The blasted music echoed even worse off the cement walls in the stairwell.

I wasn’t allowed outside with the dogs anymore. I went to the vet every day and begged her to let me keep the squirrel while he was quarantined. The vet gave in to my pleas telling me Rocky was easy to handle and he seemed to have bonded with me quickly. The Agriculture Floor gave me a dwarf lemon tree for Rocky the day I brought him home. I hung a plastic bowl on a branch with zip ties and he promptly made a nest out of cotton balls.

Brandon ran lock down drills far more often than was necessary over the next few weeks, driving everyone nuts. Mainly because of his choice in music. The drills started with
The William Tell Overture
blasting over the PA. We stopped whatever we were doing, returned to our apartments right away, and pressed our thumbs into the simple recognition pad on the wall to trigger the door to lock us in.

When I was exploring one of the vacant floors one day, I tried staying in one of the empty apartments during lock-down. I pressed my thumb in the recognition pad as if I was in my own home. It was quite nice too because the music wasn’t blasting as loud as it did in mine.

I sat on the floor waiting for the all clear when the door swooshed open. The dogs barked protectively at the intruder. When I got a hold of them both, I wanted to die when I looked up.

Brandon stood in the doorway with clenched fists, glaring at me with fire in his eyes and fury reddening his face as if I had committed the ultimate sin, defied the laws of God, and anything else he thought was holy. I broke one of the Brandon Commandments.

“If you pull something like this again, anyone that wants to see you will have to come to your new room in the security hall.”

I stood up so he wasn’t looking down at me. I wasn’t going to let him intimidate me like that. “Geez, Brandon. Lighten up a little. It wasn’t like I tried to defy you by roaming the halls. I still locked myself in a safe place. It would have taken me much longer to go all the way back up to my apartment. I thought this would have been better to help your timing stats that you are so obsessed over.” I didn’t waver when he seemed to fire up at me even more.

He closed the door behind him and it hushed the music in the hall. My chest tightened when I realized I was alone with him and the situation was less than ideal. I had no idea what Brandon was like as a real person when he wasn’t bossing a group of people around. I was still in close proximity to him and his fury. I flinched when Brandon stepped even closer and I held my breath so I wouldn’t breathe in his face. Did I have onions for lunch? I couldn’t remember.

His face unexpectedly softened.

“I need you to follow my rules because if something happened to you or anyone else, I would never forgive myself. Pulling something like this could compromise everyone’s safety.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground. “I’m not the kind of person that likes to be in a position of power, but I have to be. You could make this so much easier if you follow the rules. I don’t even know if these drills will keep us safe. Please don’t be the one responsible for encouraging the others to rebel. There is so much contention already. It won’t take much for it to unravel.”

I bit my upper lip and stared at my feet. I felt like a fool. Brandon was so sincere that all I could do was nod and whisper, “I’m sorry. Should I go to my apartment now?”

“Sure. I’ll walk you back since your apartment is on my way to the control room.”

The walk back was silent and completely awkward. I spoke to the dogs and Rocky. Even then I felt like a dork so I only said something if I had to.

Brandon briefly touched my arm to get my attention as I pressed my thumb against the recognition pad. I looked up at him hoping he couldn’t tell his touch just electro-shocked my heart as my door unlatched and opened.

“If there is a next time, I will hunt you down again, and I won’t be as nice as I was this time. You understand?” The open, sincere Brandon was no more.

I nodded even though I wanted to rage at him for being such a jerk right then. And I had all those warm fuzzy thoughts about him. At least I knew he had it in him to be nice. Sadly, he wasn’t warming up to me at all though. I didn’t want to get his attention by aggravating him even more so I resigned myself to follow the rules.

When the drills happened after my little run-in with Brandon, I begrudgingly followed the dogs and Rocky as they raced to our apartment when they heard the music. I loved to watch them sabotage each other as they raced for the door, and it broke up the tediousness of each drill.

When we weren’t in lock-down, I hovered where Brandon frequented in the cafeteria. He was finally making appearances outside of his control room as the weeks wore on. Mostly he had his eyes glued to his checklists and was all business all the time. I really wanted to make amends so I tried to be friendly with him when he was in the nicer dining hall.

I approached the table slowly. I always felt out of sorts and fidgety whenever I left the dogs behind in my apartment. They were always my buffer. This time it was only me as I slid onto the chair across from him. He never looked up. I picked at my nail as the words all jumbled up in my mouth. Brandon might have looked like he was close to my age, but he was sure skilled at intimidating me with his ‘in charge of the world’ attitude. Usually, I would have dismissed him long ago. Working on getting him to like me even a little bit was the only goal I had in life at the moment.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” I squeezed my eyes shut. He probably would have asked me some time ago if there was. But ‘How’s it goin?’ had an obvious answer. Being cooped up with everyone for so long and hearing all the anti-Brandon rants, I already had a clue.

“Nope,” he said dismissively.

The silence was so painfully awkward that I couldn’t come up with anything else to say.

“Umm, do you want company?” I knew what he was going to say the instant I stopped talking. Maybe he would surprise me with something else.

“Nope,” he said.

My face burned as I turned in my chair to leave. He grabbed my hand.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like that. I’m working on something so now is not a good time.” For the first time since the first day I arrived, Brandon actually met my gaze when he wasn’t mad at me. I was so out of sorts that it did nothing but humiliate me more. I could only nod and wait for him to release my hand so I could go. I probably needed to reevaluate my life goals.

“Try me again next time.” He gave me a sorry attempt at a smile.

However, there was no next time. Tension was growing. Brandon avoided me and everyone else that wanted to know what was going on above ground. He tightened restrictions even more. What was worse was he refused to answer questions as to whether we would ever get to go home again.

I finally had enough of listening to everyone gripe about all the things I wanted to know too. I was going to do something about it.

Brandon headed down the hall to the control room late one night when I stepped in front of him. He nervously ran a hand through his dark brown hair that had grown into wavy, big tousled curls all over his head in the weeks we had been there. When his bright blue eyes met mine, they made me forget why I was so upset for a second. He actually looked sad. If only he wasn’t so infuriatingly disinterested in me. That thought brought the fury back.

“Why won’t you explain to us why we’re stuck here, why we can’t go outside, and how long this will last?” I stepped in his way again when he tried to step around me.

Brandon looked me in the eye before he relented in his abrupt way. “Well here’s the run down. Something will kill you when you step outside, and no one knows how long it will last.”

“I already know
that
much. What’s out there?” Not backing down, I watched his eyes intently.

“We don’t know exactly.” He glanced away.

I pressed my finger in his chest. “You know more than you want to tell. Why the music all the time? Why all the lockdown drills?”

Brandon looked past me as the Andersons and their three kids headed up the hall.

“Everyone is getting their nights and days mixed up.” He gave the Andersons a brief wave and token smile before he nodded at me to follow him to his control room. After he closed the door, he offered me a chair.

“I know what it is. But I’m not allowed to say.” All color drained from his face and he trembled as he lifted his tablet from the table to study the screen.

“What’s wrong?” I stood up to see.

Brandon clutched the tablet against his chest, shaking his head and his shoulders slumped. He let out a big sigh. “Here’s what I’m dealing with, maybe you can help get everyone off my back. The construction workers finished the tunnel to thirty-eight ninety-eight. They’ve been working around the clock. One of them must have dropped this off while I was out. I wanted to connect bunkers so we weren’t so isolated. It looks like the one closest to us has no survivors.” Brandon showed me the picture on the tablet. The people died clustered together with terror all over their white frozen faces, their chests oddly compressed, and their mouths wide open. “They are filling the tunnel as we speak. I know that the feeling of being cut off from the world is hard on everyone’s morale if we are to stay here long term. And it looks as if we will be here for a long time. They will try thirty-eight ninety-nine next. That’s all I can tell you for now.” Brandon faced the screens on the wall and turned off the monitor that showed a storm rolling in. Flipping on the music, he sunk down in a chair. He didn’t say another word or even acknowledge that I was still there.

I quietly left the control room for lockdown.

The picture of all the dead people kept popping up in my mind for the longest time and the odd, swirling clouds from the storm gave me constant nightmares.