High Pressure System: First Season Underground (5 page)

“There’s a safe room in here.” The guard escorted us down to the center of a corridor of growing things until there was gap between the racks and sure enough there was a door. He pulled the heavy door open. The rumbling grew louder, and the growing trays and lights rattled. A big boom made me duck with everyone else as we all filed into the room. Most of the people in the bunker had to be on the same floor at once because we were almost shoulder to shoulder when security locked us in.

“If the ones closest to the walls will step back until your back touches the wall, we should have plenty of room for everyone to sit down.”

Jim and I stepped back until the cement wall touched our backs. I was careful not to squish Rocky. He was still chattering in distress. Dobbers whimpered and wriggled around in my arms until he could lick my face.

One by one the people sat down in the room. I couldn’t do it at first. I wanted to be ready to run. But there was nowhere go.

The lights turned back on. Thankfully the music didn’t play in our little room. However, the rumbling was even worse. Twisting metal from someplace high above made us cower.

The little ones screamed when there was a knock on the door. It sure made me jump and the dogs started barking. Jim and I struggled to close their mouths to silence them as the security guy opened the door. A couple of construction workers ducked into the room.

“That was kind of intense,” the older of the two said.

“Do you know what’s going on?” one of the crowd asked.

“Not sure what damage is going on topside. The transformer blew. We couldn’t close the emergency platforms in the stairway and elevator after that. We had to start up the new ground floor electricity converter that we’ve been trying to get online for a few weeks now.”

“What? We have an elevator?” Marjie asked, completely peeved.

“It’s an industrial unit only used for transporting large items. It hasn’t been in use much since we’ve been here. We still have an open shaft though and the platforms are there to shut the storms out. That could be the damage we are hearing. Hopefully, the storm didn’t find access to the shaft,” the younger one said.

The tension and distress in the room started to build.

“With the power back on, the platforms can close as long as there isn’t debris in the way,” the older construction worker reassured everyone.

“But what about the others in their apartments on the upper floors?” Mr. Anderson asked.

“We just have to wait this out before we can find out,” the security guard answered.

It felt like the longest lock-down ever. Probably wasn’t. We were just all far more fearful during this one than the ones in the past. That’s what I told myself. Soon it all quieted down. I realized when things calmed down and we were given the all clear to leave the safe room that I didn’t recognize the construction workers at all. I seldom encountered the guys in the bright yellow shirts. One of them was young enough and there was no ring. I wondered if it was dangerous for them to wear rings, but the other guy wore one. Oohh … Options. Mr. Option asked to pet Dobbers once I stepped out the door to Hydroponics.

“I didn’t know there were dogs here. I gave mine up when I started this job. I have regretted it ever since.” He rubbed Dobbers head and gazed into his eyes jabbering puppy talk to him.

He made me laugh and I wanted to say that I didn’t know I had more potential boyfriend options, but I didn’t. Maybe Brandon’s computer was wrong. I wasn’t sent here just for him. “I’ve never seen you before.”

“We’ve been working like a bunch of mole rats for weeks since you all came. The pay was good when this whole thing started. Now it looks as if all that doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” He shrugged and sighed. He kept petting my dog and I took the opportunity to check him out. Caramel colored hair curled out around his baseball cap. His face and arms were dark from the sun even though that would probably change in the coming months. He looked up at me and his eyes nearly sucked me into his soul. Green, green like a forest, fringed with thick dark lashes. Anything that reminded me of the outdoors was going to be my undoing. Or maybe it was the stifling climate in Hydroponics that was making me swoon. I smiled as best I could even though I understood exactly what he was getting at. I felt we were all doomed.

“I keep to myself when I do get time off. I’ve been working on a time consuming project of my own. Maybe I should come out of hiding more often.” He gave me a sweet smile.

“Kind of hard to figure out how life is going to be from now on. I’ve kind of been in hiding myself,” I said. I did my best to stick out my hand. “Rachel Gardener.”

He took my hand but couldn’t shake it much since my arms were full of Dobbers.

“Micah Stoddard.”

Rocky climbed up on my shoulder and chastised Micah for getting too close.

“Woah!” He backed up a step and then laughed. “You have a squirrel too?”

“I acquired him since we’ve been here before we were in permanent lock-down.”

“Oh, I know how I know your name now.”

I looked away as my cheeks flamed. I didn’t know what to say and we were the last two left in Hydroponics. I nodded at the security guy that held the door to thank him and went to join the crowd that waited for instructions of what to do next.

“Wait.” Micah kept pace with me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

I shrugged and couldn’t look at him again. He did get my mind off what impending disaster might have happened up above for a few minutes. Thankfully, this time it wasn’t my fault.

He hovered near my shoulder as Brandon gave a status report over the intercom. “There’s been some damage to the stairs and elsewhere. Watch where you step and watch your heads in the stairwell when you go back to your apartments. We are looking into why the storms were so severe this time. Please be prepared for potential relocation to lower floors during subsequent lockdowns for everyone’s safety.”

I took Yodel from Jim and went for the door. I glanced back at Micah. He was watching me leave. I wished I was able to say something to him before I left but if I had never seen him before and he already knew what an infamous celebrity I was, I needed some space. I was better off alone.

The lockdowns over the next few days were more intense but nothing as severe as that one day. I still didn’t leave my apartment much. I could handle eating a big meal once a day and I varied when I showed up at the cafeteria, never going at the same time ever.

Jim finally caught up with me. “You still in hiding?” He patted my back.

I shrugged.

“Brandon thinks the damage done the other day was because someone had to be doing something they shouldn’t. He can’t quite figure it out. At least he knows it wasn’t you.”

“That’s a relief. At least my little mess up didn’t cause all the damage that one did.”

“Yeah. You know that young man that was visiting with you the other day? He’s been on the cleanup crew on the stairs and he keeps asking about you when I go meet with Brandon.”

I shrugged again.

“You need to snap out of this. Even when we got here and had to leave everything we knew behind, you weren’t like this.”

“I guess I don’t see the point. I’m sure we will eventually wind up like the other bunkers, dead. It’s just a matter of time.”

“We are all going to die eventually, that’s true. It doesn’t mean that it will be tomorrow and it could be years from now. You are a valuable person in this little community. What do I need to do to show you that?”

“I want to go outside. I miss the sun and I miss the stars.” I sighed, grasping at something to feel sorry about.

“That’s not it.” He shook his head and tried to look deep into my soul when he looked into my eyes. He shook his head again in bewilderment. “You need a job. Come with me to talk to Brandon.”

My eyes filled with tears and I slumped in my chair.

“Let’s go. This isn’t going to get you anywhere.”

“What? We are going somewhere? Did this suddenly become a space ship?”

“Ha!” Jim laughed. “Come on, maybe we’ll run into that kid on our way. You need more people in your life and less dog hair.” He plucked a few hairs off my sweatshirt. I let him pull me up a dozen or so flights of stairs heading for Brandon’s control room.

Of course, we ran into Micah. He held a welding torch and wore a Sci-Fi looking helmet on top of his head, standing near the railing where it was badly bent far away from where it should have been. He was very distracted from whatever he had been doing as he watched us. However, he quickly diverted his attention to the dogs, kneeling on the stair and patting his leg. Even though he was giving the dogs lots of love, he kept glancing up at me.

“How you been?”

“I’m fine.” I didn’t want to talk about me. “Was there a lot to fix?”

“Yeah, but that’s a good thing. I think the boss was just inventing crap to do before all this happened.”

I climbed a few steps even though I was sure Jim would have waited all day for me if I wanted to keep talking to Micah.

“See you around?” he asked, hopeful.

I just nodded and maneuvered around tools and other debris on the stairs. A few of the other construction workers acknowledged us as we passed.

Jim led me down the hall muttering about me missing out on life and then he suddenly stopped. “If something did happen tomorrow or the next day, you want to live your life dreading everything? I mean, this isn’t all that bad. This place is nice, we have plenty to eat, we aren’t in some tunnel like in World War II. The bonus going for you right this minute, there is someone that wants to get to know you that isn’t an animal. Are you just going to sulk your life away?”

“You don’t know what he’s like when he’s alone. He could be a creeper or even a werewolf. But you would never find out because he will never see the moon.” I couldn’t help it, I smiled, giving Jim a wink.

“Got me. Ha ha.” He gave me a gentle shove to Brandon’s office.

When we got there, Brandon looked a little crazed. His hair stood on end like Einstein in his youth, a beard was trying to manifest itself along his jaw. Surprisingly, with all his dark hair, he didn’t grow a beard all that well. It just made him look even more unstable.

“How’s it going?” Jim practically shouted. He whispered in my ear, “There’s your werewolf.”

I stifled a laugh.

Brandon spun around in his chair and jumped up when he spotted me, flattening his hair. I bit hard on my lip so I didn’t smile over the fact I just got him back for his visit when I was a mess. His attention to his unkemptness didn’t last long. He darted over to the monitor.

“You need to train someone to share this job with you. You’re a nervous wreck.” Jim moved Brandon back to his chair. Checked what Brandon was looking at before reassuring him it was nothing.

“I can’t. There is something, I’m trying to find it. That something is why the storm nearly collapsed the stairs and nearly sucked the air off this floor. I’ve come close to tracking it though. Whatever it is brought the last few storms to us, but it went away when I put us in lock-down.”

Jim pulled Brandon out of his chair. “I’ve been here enough times to know what to do if a storm comes. You need out of here. Go for a walk with Rachel and give her job so the whole building doesn’t go lunatic because they’re worried she’s not walking those dogs enough.”

I stuffed my hands in my pockets once Jim shoved us both out to the hall. Brandon stood staring at the door with his jaw wide open.

Leaning in to get his attention, I was ready to push his jaw shut, but he came to and focused on me.

“Are you well enough for a job?” he asked in an overzealous manner.

“Probably better off than you.” I was actually very concerned about him. He had even lost weight and he was already thin to start off with. “Did my presence calm everyone down like you hoped?”

Brandon motioned for me to follow him. He just walked to the end of the hall and turned around to head back to his office. I guess we were going to pace.

“Since the disaster, everyone has settled down. A job …  A job … ” He clasped his hands behind his back and studied the floor as he paced. I walked alongside him until he paused, looked at me, and paced again.

“Those kids … Those little girls seem to really like you.”

“I don’t know. They just showed up unannounced to play with the dogs.”

“I think that’s it. What do you think about teaching? The moms have been trying to organize some schooling for their children. A few want to teach and the others just want a place to send their kids during the day because they are going nuts with the lack of structure. I don’t have enough people lined up to teach and can’t change some of the current assignments.”

“If that’s the case, why haven’t you given me a job before now?”

He stopped pacing and wouldn’t look at me. “I guess I thought if I didn’t address you at all, I wouldn’t think about you and that was easiest.”

“Why? You already told me the computer wasn’t going to be in charge of you pairing up with me and you even said you weren’t interested in me like that. So what was there to think about?”

“Well, you got in my head and I had to get you out. I had other things to think about and you were a distraction. Then that thing happened and it made everything worse.”

“What thing? The ‘I almost
died’
thing?”

“Yeah, that thing. It made me mad.”

“I knew that.” I turned away. He tugged on my sleeve so I would look at him.

“No. It made me mad that it bothered me so much. It made me mad that I had nightmares about you dying right in front of me and I … and I … and I don’t even know you. Why would I be so upset that you were hurt? And so concerned when everyone wanted to know what happened to you? I noticed before they did that you never came out afterward. I kept checking to see if you ever left your apartment. The reason you got the little patch of grass for the dogs was because I went to your door a few times. I couldn’t knock though. I didn’t want you to know I was worried. Because then the computer was right. And why am I babbling like this?” Brandon was the one that turned away that time and pressed his head against the wall. He spread his fingers out until his palms met the wall as he rocked on his heels.

I was in complete shock. He honestly was a mess. I leaned against the wall next to him and waited for him to look at me. When he did, his eyes were bloodshot.

“You haven’t slept since the other day, have you?” I asked softly.

“No. I need to keep everyone safe.” He sighed and whispered, “Sleeping brings the nightmares. I can’t handle the nightmares.”

I rubbed his shoulder. “I will do my best to help with some sort of school for the kids. But you need to train Jim to do your job so you can get some sleep. By the way, somehow you need to make it so the rest of us can sleep even when we are in lock-down. I hate that song you play. No one has had a full night’s sleep since our first week here.”

“I know I need to train someone. Jim is a good candidate. I need to come up with one more person though. The music has to stay for now. I’m not sure if I should change what we’re doing just yet. That one storm was dangerous and I don’t want to change anything too quickly.”

I paced with Brandon a few more times. It was funny how Dobbers followed me, but Yodel just rested near the office door. He really liked Jim.

Now that Brandon was thinking more about me, I realized he was indifferent to my dogs and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Maybe it was because he was preoccupied all the time. He said I was in his head. That news was probably flattering. I had to admit, it really wasn’t. When someone tries hard to forget you, that had to be a sure sign a relationship with them was bound to be doomed. As far as friendship went, he
was
making an effort.

We didn’t resolve anything else, but the walk was good for Brandon. He looked a little less crazed when he went back to the control room and his focus shifted to sharing everything he knew with Jim. All Jim was able to do was give me a head nod to say his goodbye when I said I was going to leave. Brandon didn’t notice.

I walked back to the stairs with the dogs. Micah would be there and I hadn’t prepared an excuse to make sure I didn’t linger. But I didn’t need one. He wasn’t there. Unfortunately, the music started and echoed down the stairwell at an ear-shattering level. The bunker was in lock-down and I had quite a few flights of stairs to go to get to my apartment. I started to panic when the wind whooshed in the stairway and I felt my hair pull away from my back. There was Micah bounding up the stairs.

“Come with me.” When Micah reached the landing, he opened the door and called my dogs. My eyes watered and I couldn’t hide the panic that consumed me. I nearly stumbled down the last few steps, but he caught my hand and pulled me through the doorway to the hall on the vacant floor.

“I got in trouble once for staying in an empty apartment during lock-down.”

“The lock-downs aren’t the same anymore. He wants us somewhere safe and it doesn’t matter where.” He pressed a thumb on the wallpad next to a door that looked like it went to a janitor closet. The door unlatched. “Yours too.” He held the door waiting for me to press my thumb on the wallpad.

I did and called the dogs into the long room that was nothing like what I thought it was. A bench ran along each side of the stark white room. There was just enough space for us to stand together and walk to the end. The back wall was covered with cupboard doors and the room even had a small fridge.

“I thought this was a closet full of cleaning stuff.”

The music wasn’t playing in the room, but we could hear things shaking above like before. I was doing my best to subdue my panic.

Micah squeezed my arm and he was concerned when I did look at him.

“I felt my hair get sucked back.” My eyes watered again.

“This is a safe room. There’s one on every floor and one of these fancy closets is where I go if we are in lock-down while I’m working.” He guided me to sit on the bench. He sat on the one opposite me. When he noticed Yodel trying to cower in a corner, he picked him up and set him on his lap.

Dobbers jumped into mine. Rocky crawled out of my hood and curled up under my arm close to Dobbers.

“Are you Okay?” he asked.

I was trying hard not to cry and really wished I was in my apartment while dealing with my flashbacks.

“Trying to be.” I nuzzled my dog so I could wipe my eyes.

“You want something to eat?” Micah opened a cupboard and named off a few packages of crackers and cookies that were inside. He tossed me one and then gave me a juice from the fridge.

The storm was powerful. Lightning strikes shook the building and the lights flickered off longer than I liked. I cowered on the bench.

Micah stood up and turned on the dome battery powered LED light on the wall before turning off the main light. It cast odd shadows in the corners and bright light in the center of the fancy closet. The steady light sure helped. I sighed, releasing some of the tension in my back.

“Okay, I know you’re nervous so I’m going to start talking. Jump in when you feel like it. I just don’t want you to think I’m all full of myself.” He waited for me to nod before he went on. “I lived in Boise all my life. I don’t have a wife or a girlfriend of any sort. Too busy working all the time. I do have a mom I care about very much. Dad never has been around. I have a couple of younger sisters and I’ve helped raise them. Also why I’ve worked so much.”

“Are they here?” I asked.

He shook his head, frowning at the floor.

“Do you know where they are now?” I sat up a little higher. The frantic feeling I had over not knowing if my family was okay overtook me.

“No.” Micah focused on petting Yodel and stroked the dog’s face with both hands. “I had hoped I could get them out here. I didn’t know I had to put in the request from the start. They were already assigned elsewhere by the time I tried to bring them here. That’s my biggest regret. That’s why I’ve been working so hard to preoccupy myself with other things when I’m not working or sleeping.” He sniffed, never looking at me directly.

My turn to ease the discomfort. “I’m from New London, Connecticut. I came out here for college. I got some great scholarships and the lower cost of living out here made it so I could keep my dogs with me at an off-campus apartment. Well, as long as I had a roommate. My roommate got to go home though and I was stuck here. I talked to my family only once when I knew I couldn’t go home. My mom and dad are still together and I have a younger sister and brother. I really miss them. I have no idea where they are now. I can’t stand not knowing if they’re okay. Brandon told me he saw they were in a bunker over there, but he doesn’t know anything more.”