Read High Pressure System: First Season Underground Online
Authors: K.D. Kinney
The whole event played through my mind as I was waking up. Micah diving, looking straight at me. He was telling me to move, wasn’t he? The bright blinding light just as I was blasted across the room. The agony coming to. Micah in tears. A warning. Then nothing.
Not nothing now. I felt pain in my arm and all down my side. I scrunched my face. That hurt too.
“Are you waking up?”
The voice was familiar yet muffled. Was it the one I wanted to hear? Or the one that made me want to keep my distance? It wasn’t Jim. Jim was who I was trying to help. Because he was hurt.
I could only moan slightly. Why couldn’t I speak easier? Why did everything sound off? Nothing on my head. Bright lights made the inside of my eyelids pink. I had been in the dark as everything happened. With bots and drones.
“Brandon?” That was his name. I opened my eyes. I’d been in that room before. I shifted my body slightly and the amount of pain was far too enormous.
“Well, you’ve had quite a nap.”
“I hurt so bad. What happened?” I didn’t want to move at all. “Jim! How’s Jim.”
“You insisted on being a hero,” Brandon chastised me as sat down next to the bed. “You have a very broken arm that required surgery and some broken ribs. Some shrapnel from the drone and bots were embedded in your cheek. However, you are very lucky. That rubber suit you hate, it saved you and Jim. It caught most of the shrapnel. Jim’s ankle is broken. He did lose an eye and part of his ear. He’s going to make it.”
“I can only remember parts of what happened. Did I mess up?”
“Jim’s foot was stuck under the container. You were helping him when the third drone was about to land. The moment it detected your presence, it blew up.”
“Oh no. Are Micah and Ashton okay? Did the other drones blow up too?”
“Those two are fine. A few cuts from shrapnel. Nothing serious. Not as serious as you and Jim. I have no idea about the drones. A storm rolled in right after. We were afraid we were going to lose all of you. Micah and Ashton broke the foam insulation seal on the lobby door with help from the inside. Good job sealing it up tight by the way. It was quite a group that came to rescue you all. We got all of you in, the door was shut barely in time when the storm blew through.
“Almost losing you guys, the severity of how injured you and Jim were, it lit a fire under us all. You’ve been out for more than twenty–four hours and we’ve been busy. Micah has kept us on task, brought us plenty of new bots, caught more with your healthy dog, and we sent another round off last night. This next round of bots we’re sending off tonight, it’s a bit more serious.”
“Why’s that?” I asked. My head really hurt.
“The bots we’re sending back are little bombs.”
“What about infecting the system? Blowing it up, you’re only going to shut down one of the computers that way.”
“We’ve sent plenty to do that job last night. Tonight we’re sending the bombs so if the viruses don’t work, hopefully bombing the place will buy us the time we need to seal up the lobby so we’re better protected. Even if the bombs explode where the drones are, that will possibly make things easier for us. The drones are also responsible for controlling the weather so if the drones are destroyed or the computers, either way, it’s a win for us.”
Brandon checked his tablet. “I need to go. I’m already missing my best Control Room replacement.” He patted my arm. “Let this be the event that tells you that you and Jim’s hero days are over for now.”
I nodded in defeat and instantly regretted moving at all. It might be some time before I could volunteer again, but I survived. We’re ready to fight back so my hero days weren’t numbered. I would be the one to decide that.
Micah came to see me not long after. “You have quite the look going there.” He attempted a smile as he crossed the room. His eyes teared up. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you awake.”
“Were they worried I wouldn’t wake up?”
Micah sat down in the chair and gently stroked my hair out of my face and gazed at me. I was mesmerized. I probably hit my head too hard.
“
I
was scared you wouldn’t wake up and I’d lose the one last person I let get to know me.” He sighed. “I’ve tried to keep my distance from everyone so it wouldn’t hurt so much to lose people in here. But you. You’ve crawled into my headspace. Every time I feel my attachment to you grow stronger or let it happen naturally between us, I feel compelled to stop it. When I saw you get tossed across the room and you were broken and didn’t move after, I knew without denying it anymore. I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you.” He closed his eyes tight. His thumb gently stroked my forehead.
I watched him for a long time. No wonder I was confused. The whole ‘he likes me, he likes me not’ was on replay in my mind all the time. “So what are you going to do about it now?”
He opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling before making a face at me that he was thinking hard. “I really don’t know.” He cracked a smile before leaning in to kiss me. The rush that washed over me was slightly painful as I kissed him back. It was worth the pain. Good thing the lips weren’t injured.
When he pulled away, I gave him a good hard look. “Good thing you didn’t miss my mouth this time.”
“Good thing, huh? What were you planning on doing about it?” He challenged me, folding his arms.
“I would stare at you so hard and give you my most seductive eyebrow raise that you’d be compelled to kiss my lips.” I squinted one eye so I could raise the other eyebrow. I quickly winced instead because it hurt. “Maybe it will have to wait.”
“Oh, I can’t help myself,” he said in a monotone voice and kissed me again. “Hey, I want to show you something.” He left the room and came back with my rubber jacket and he turned it around to show me it was covered in bot parts and drone pieces. “I looked you over once they cleaned you up and fixed your arm. I couldn’t believe you didn’t have more shrapnel injuries on the rest of your body. Jim is pretty messed up on his face but you spared him the brunt of the blast and the debris. This thing saved your life and you saved his.” He turned away to set the jacket down and he rubbed his eyes.
“I feel like it’s my fault though. I’m really sorry. They said a storm came in too? Was it bad?”
Micah sat down in the chair beside the bed and looked me in the eye. “It was one of those situations where we can’t place blame. It could have detected us before any of that happened. I think it might have because of the delay of the third drone. Yes, a storm came in so fast after the explosion. It was sucking the air out of the lobby before we got the doors open. That’s why I was afraid you wouldn’t wake up. We had to strap you and Jim on those hard board stretchers and with you we had to move you faster than was ideal after the possible injuries you might have had. We couldn’t breathe as it blew in. I know you said before it was frightening.” He shook his head at the memory of it. “It really was. Everyone and I mean everyone was responsible for helping get you guys out. Once the doors were opened, you and Jim were passed from person to person down the stairs to get you to the hospital as soon as possible. The deaths have hit everyone hard, there was a big shift in everyone wanting to know the status on you and Jim. The fact that you two survived has given them all hope.” Micah cleared his throat. “I have to go. We need to send out containers full of bots for this evening’s exchange.”
“I don’t want you risking your life out there again,” I said.
“It’s not so risky now. I was traumatized enough that I talked Brandon into using short wave remotes to open the doors. It took some engineering to set it up but it worked like a charm last night. All we do now is take the boxes out and set them up.” He headed for the door. “I have to go.”
I gave him a little wave with a couple fingers as he left.
It was a couple of days later when Micah brought my dogs and settled in to visit me in my room for longer than he had since I was injured.
“They’ve been really depressed. It’s like they know something is wrong with you. They’re awful happy now.” He held Dobbers tight against his chest so all he could do was lick my cheek and not disturb my sore body anywhere else.
“What happened? How come you have so much time now?”
“The drones never came last night. It’s a bummer because we had another nice set of exploding bots ready to go.”
“You think they’ll be back?”
Micah held Yodel within reach of my good hand. “Who knows. But those bots are ready and waiting for the drones if they do.”
“Do you think the ones we sent are doing their job? Is that why?”
Brandon leaned against the door frame. “I overheard your conversation as I was leaving Jim’s room and to answer that, I don’t know. We hope so. All we can do now is wait and see what happens.”
Thank you for reading Season One to High Pressure System. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Rachel needs time to recover and it will be some time before they know if the bots were successful so I’m taking a hiatus before continuing to Season Two so I can publish some other things. You can
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Available now:
The Legend of Little Sharpshooter
Historical Young Adult with Romance. The story of 16 year old Miranda Carter as she travels with her horse, her guns, a reformed horse thief that saves her life, and an old family friend that exploits her sharpshooting skills while outlaws chase them across the West in the 1880’s.
The Children of Dragons: Awakening
The beginning of an epic Young Adult fantasy tale about Robin and Raven, the human and dragon children of Draden, the dragon exiled from Dragon Rule by his power hungry brother Lithdore. It’s a tale of family love as the siblings try to find their place in a world where neither of them fit in and yet they might be the ones that can bring their dragon father to power and save mankind.
There have been a lot of readers that helped give me the push I needed to continue this serial until I completed the first season. Thank you for the encouragement with reviews and letting me know you were reading and waiting for the next part. I do listen and it helps motivate me.
I would like to dedicate this story to my ever patient family.As I’ve pursued my writing, my family have been so supportive.
My husband has always believed in me far more than I have believed in myself, and without his support I would have probably not pursued my writing as persistently as I have over the past few years.
My five daughters are an endless source of inspiration. It is wonderful that my teen daughters have such strength and have been their own “boss” and will pursue the things that they know are right for them.
There is much more to come…
K.D. Kinney is a mother of five daughters. Surrounded by far too much estrogen, shoes, and ponytail holders, they are the inspiration for many of her characters when writing for Young Adults. K.D. Kinney lives in the heart of Boise, Idaho and spends her days writing with her Chiweenies, Dobby and Yoda, sleeping at her feet. That is when they aren’t chasing squirrels or barking at every thump in the house.
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