In Situ (26 page)

It had taken
over three hours to make the flight. Tom nervously watched the digital clock in the cockpit clicking off the minutes as they made their way back into Utah, willing the Chinook to go faster, fighting unexpected headwinds. Beneath him, the terrain was mostly desert and lots of open land crisscrossed by an occasional highway with very few cars on the road. He tried not to think about the panic that was undoubtedly ensuing below. From his current vantage point, the world seemed no different. When they passed through to MST, Tom adjusted the clock and his wrist watch to the new time zone. He could not afford to make a mistake-there would not be a minute to spare.

Alex stayed in the back, trying to comfort Mot and Ara as much as possible.
The Arzats had both been stoic, clutching each other’s hands the entire time, never relaxing. Alex tried to assure both of them about the overall safety record of flight, but neither one of them seemed to be buying her story, even though they knew she was telling the absolute truth. They looked better when she finally announced that they were almost there.

Alex left them and climbed up into the cockpit with Tom, throwing on some headphones in the process so she could talk to him without screaming.
“What do you think?” she said, noticing that they were almost directly over the site.

“Looks like Batter
was right. The main door is sealed and the place looks deserted. I guess we’ll just have to get down there and see. He gave me all of the emergency access codes but I’m starting to wonder if we are going to make it Alex,” he said, not looking at her, knowing how much she frowned on any negativity. Tom knew it would take at least half an hour to get the huge main door open, but he was most worried about getting it closed again. He was trying to remember how long it had taken when they had tested it. The cockpit clock read 1743. They had thirty four minutes. There was no way.

“We’ll make it,” she said, patting him on the shoulder.

As Tom brought the chopper in for landing he noticed a familiar pickup parked outside the main control room. What is Andy doing here, he wondered, worried. He landed and quickly unstrapped himself and tossed off his helmet, purposely leaving the helicopter’s engines running, his years of military training taking over. It was protocol never to shut down your aircraft before you knew an area was safe and secure. “Alex, stay here for a minute, would you? I’ll be right back.”

Alex looked at him curiously
, but figured this was no time to bug him with a bunch of questions.

Tom climbed out of the
Chinook and ran over towards the control room. He was met by Andy at the door. “Tom, what in the hell are you doing here?” Andy said, looking curiously out at the chopper, its blades still spinning.

“Same to you
, my friend,” Tom responded, glad to see his familiar face.

Andy shrugged, “Batter put me in charge of closing the place
down…, and, well, I’ve got really nowhere else to go. Seems like this is as good a place as any to watch the world end,” he said, obviously aware of the news.

“Well, did you think about maybe going inside?” Tom asked more sarcastically than he meant to, gesturing towards the ARC.

Andy looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. “It’s not for me, Tom. I get claustrophobic enough when the doors are open.”

“Andy,
” he said, grabbing both of the man’s shoulders, “Alex is alive. She’s in the chopper. We need to get in.”

Andy smiled and then his face darkened. “That’s great Tom,
but…,” he said, checking his watch, “I’d never be able to get the main door open for you and then shut back down in time. That thing takes forever. And don’t forget, there is another huge lock out at the bottom of the ramp.”

“What about the emergency exits?”
Tom said, having completely forgotten about the second interior door.

A frown crossed Andy’s face.
“Tom, don’t you remember the big argument we had with the designers? The exits only work from the inside. There is no way to access them from the exterior. We’d have to cut through a couple inches of solid steel.”

“Andy, did you guys seal the entrance to the caves?”
Tom asked, looking for another way, knowing he was making a life or death decision.

“Well, we were working on it when Batter called us off.
I gotta tell you, Tom,” he said, scratching his head under his cap. “I’m not sure. We got the last reactor in, but the boys ran out of here so fast, I never did get a briefing on their progress with the breach.”

“Did you get the caves pumped out?”

“Yeah, dry as a bone as far as I know. Never did find Alex. Now I know why,” Andy said, smiling again.

“Is there any heavy equipment still inside?”

“Well, as I said, the boys ran out as quick as they could. So, maybe,” Andy said, looking around the large construction area.

“How about gear?
Where did you put the gear those scientists were using?”

“Oh, that stuff is still in the back of my truck.
Never did take it out.”

There is a god, thought Tom, but he’s a mean bastard.
He ran to the back of Andy’s truck and grabbed a couple of flashlights and a long climbing rope. Tom remembered Alex’s story about the crevasse. This is going to have to be enough, he thought. “Andy, sure you won’t come along?”

He shook his head.
“Never fancied living underground like a rat. No offense, Tom,” Andy said.

“None taken,” Tom said, forcing a smile.

Tom wanted to say more, but there just was not time. He said goodbye to Andy and ran for the chopper, dumping the gear in as he passed through toward the cockpit. He avoided Mot and Ara, knowing they were going to be very upset when he took off again.

“Alex, do you remember where you came out of the caves?” he said as he strapped himself into the pilot seat.

“I think I could find it. Why?”

“Looks like we are going to have go in through the back door,” he said, running up the throttles on the Chinook
’s huge turbines. Come on baby, Tom thought, willing the giant helicopter off the ground. The clock turned to 1800. They had seventeen minutes.

“Alex, go back and calm down Mot and Ara. We’re just going to the area where you and Mot came out.
Tell them to be ready to run when we land and then get back up here.”

“Got it,” Alex said, throwing off her headset.

“Wait,” Tom grabbed her arm, “which way?”

Alex scanned the countryside, knowing that she could not make a mistake.
“There,” she said squinting to see, recognizing her canyon. The sun was about to set, just lingering on the horizon above the site. She headed to the back and passed Tom’s message to Mot and Ara, which was met by frightened silence. By the time she returned to the cockpit, Tom was practically over her original dig site.

“That’s it,” she said pointing down.

“Are you sure?” Tom said, eyeing the narrow canyon.

“Yes, I’m sure,” she said, recognizing the boulder Mot had placed on the spot where they buried the escaped prisoners, her pulse quickening from the thought of her altercation with them.

Tom swooped down into the abyss, maneuvering between the solid walls of rock the best he could, but the rear rotor caught part of the mountain.
It screeched sickeningly as steel struck stone and pitched the chopper sideways. “Hold on Alex,” Tom said with a fantastic note of calm as he fought the controls. He managed to get the helicopter almost completely upright before it hit the ground hard, snapping the legs off the landing skids. The main rotors bit into the desert throwing sand and rock until they finally lost momentum and stopped.

“Not your best landing
, Thomas,” Alex said, when the chopper had stopped moving, amazed again that she was still alive. She looked back and could see that Mot and Ara appeared to be unharmed as well. They were wide-eyed, but OK.

“You should have seen my last one,” Tom replied matter-of-factly, tossing off his helmet, preparing to exit.
He glanced for a last time at the clock. It had just turned to 1811. Seven minutes.

“Sorry about that landing guys,” Tom said as he helped Alex get Mot and Ara unbuckled.
They looked white as sheets beneath their reptilian skin but said nothing. “Alex, grab as much gear as you can and let’s go. We’ve got to hurry.”

“Roger that,” she said, appreciating Tom’s statement of the obvious.
She was madly in love with him all over again and scared to death they were not going to make it.

As they emerged from the helicopter, the canyon walls had already grown dark grey in the dusk.
Mot and Ara instinctively sniffed the air for danger, still trying to shake the effects of the horrible fumes from the helicopter fuel, their bodies adjusting to solid ground.

“Mot, we need to get to the entrance,” Alex said to him.

“This way,” Mot said.

“Ne,” Ara said aloud.
She grabbed Mot’s hand and stopped him as he started forward. “I smell death here, Mot,” she said, concerned.

Mot had sniffed out the odor as well, remembering the two humans.
“Never mind, it poses no danger. I have been here before,” he said, carefully blocking the recollection of the event from Ara. He could see the cave entrance as they started up the hill and naturally broke into a swift trot, bounding effortlessly over the terrain.

When he was halfway, Mot turned and realized that Tom and Alex had fallen back.
Mot had no real sense of how much time they had, but his instincts told him that there was not much. “Ara, we must help the humans. They are too slow.”

“How?” she said, looking back down the path.

“I suppose we will have to carry them,” he shrugged.

Ara looked at him doubtfully, but she knew he was correct
. She turned to follow Mot back down the hill.

Tom and Alex were shocked to see the two Arzats running back towards them at full speed.
It seemed impossible that they could have stopped when they reached them.

Mot turned his back to Tom.
“Climb on, Tom son of Richard, or I fear we shall not make it.”

Tom threw the climbing rope over his shoulder and handed two flashlights to Mot.
“This is embarrassing,” he said as he hoisted himself up. Mot’s back was rock solid. It was like climbing on a Brahma bull. No sooner was he on than the Arzat took off faster than any horse he had ever ridden, and Tom struggled to hold his grip.

Ara watched, shaking her head.
She swept Alex up into her arms like one would a small child, and set off after Mot—determined to beat him to the caves. Though the terrain was strange and barren, she sensed she was almost home.

Ara managed to set Alex down just as Mot arrived with Tom.
She had somehow passed Mot, although Alex had no recollection of it. Neither of the Arzats seemed winded, while she and Tom had to bend over to catch their own breath just from the ride up.

Tom managed a look at his wristwatch, still bent over.
They had two minutes left. They had made it.

“Oh my god,” cried Alex.
“I forgot Pete’s cryo bag! The canisters!”

Tom was not concerned, even a bit relieved. “Alex, we don’t need them.
I told you,” he said, beginning to recover.

“Yes
, we do, Tom,” she said, obstinate.

“I will go,” Mot said, not wishing to waste any more time, remembering the bag Pete had given to Alex.
Even on the surface of her mind, it was clear to Mot that the bag was important to Alex. As he turned to go, he saw Ara was already halfway down the path.

“Stay where you are, Mot son of Url,” he could hear her saying as she ran, her beautiful long legs carrying her easily down the mountain.
“There is no future for me without you.”

Ara remembered the bag as well.
If Doctor Pete thought it was important, that was good enough for her. She reached the helicopter and found the bag, mildly irritated at Alex for forgetting it in the first place, and headed back toward the cave, managing to run faster uphill than she had down. When she was almost to the top, she stopped, dead in her tracks.

Ara
had smelled it and heard it before her sharp eyes had seen it. A rattle snake had slithered onto the path and was blocking her way. Ara was very familiar with snakes, they could be delicious or deadly depending on the circumstances, but she knew she had no time for this one either way. The snake was poised to strike, just beyond the range of Ara’s powerful legs, its black reptilian eyes boring into hers. Ara spread the mantle on the back of her head and flicked her tongue as a challenge. The snake continued to look at her, sizing her up, then quickly lowered its head and moved on.

As they watched from above, Ara’s movements had been so swift that Tom and Alex had a hard time following her with their eyes.
Why had she stopped? Mot was just about to go after her when, miraculously, she had continued toward them. One minute to go, Tom thought, looking at his watch as Ara reached the entrance for the second time. Impossible.