The Aegis Solution (57 page)

Crabill had finished welding the frame to one of the lower plates and was working on the second
when the impact came. The crash was deafening and the door and frame shuddered from the force, but
it all held. Unruffled by the violent distractions, he finished the bead on the second plate as they heard
the truck back up for another run.

"Add this!"

Turning, Crabill saw Clements holding a three-foot-long piece of angled steel he had retrieved from
the debris pile. "Weld it to the frame as a cross-brace, like this." He held it up to the door, showing
Crabill what he meant. With a downward jerk of his head, Crabill flipped down the mask and touched
the welding rod to the steel where it rested against the jamb. Clements and the others shielded their eyes
just in time.

The truck slammed into the door a second time, bulging the metal inward. Elias and Sweezea ran
to the pile and scrounged for more steel struts. They returned to the door and dropped them at Crabill's
feet. He had finished with the first and selected another, positioning it lower on the door, closer to the
height of the bumper on the truck. After welding the left side, he shouted for Sweezea and Elias to push
the free end of the strut against the doorjamb. The bulge from the second impact was holding it away
from the frame. They both put their weight into it and forced the face of the door back in, allowing the
strut to touch the frame. The instant it made contact Crabill welded it, finishing the bead as the truck
hit the door for the third time. The frame, the door, and the struts all held.

The tension having lessened, they worked as a team and added five more struts. The truck battered
the door twice more before the driver either gave up or had damaged the truck so badly that it would
no longer run.

Hutson looked at Matt. "You didn't leave the key in the backhoe, did you?"

Clements reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a single key on a small ring, and answered,
"No, I've got it."

"Good."

Now that they had done all they could think of to do, Elias, Crabill, Sweezea, Wilson, and Leah
moved back from the former exit, physically distancing themselves from the sporadic pounding and
shouts, trying to do the same with their emotions. Tillie, walking somewhat unsteadily and pressing a
rag to the side of her head, emerged from the utility room, accompanied by Sam. She made a point of
averting her eyes away from the direction of the barricaded exit door and walked to the group. The two
of them joined the others as they sat on the floor. No one spoke.

Soon the banging on the door gradually tapered off, until it stopped completely, as did the shouts
from outside.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The group, less Hutson and Crabill, who had decided to remain behind and keep an eye on the exit,
walked slowly through the corridors which had been Kreitzmann's lab. The area was quiet and deserted.

After their tumultuous episode, Elias' voice sounded unnaturally loud in the silence. "I wonder
where they are."

"Perhaps we should check at Madison," Wilson offered.

Lisa Clements came to a halt and said, "Do you mind if I ask a question?"

Wilson came to a stop beside her. "Of course not."

The rest of the group stopped as well, circling around them.

"I've been thinking about what you said before, about how all of this could have happened. I know
you didn't mention God in your explanation...or theory...or whatever it is, but I believe there is a God,
and I can't imagine anyone else able to do what you've described. Do you really think that God would
cause that poor girl, Neve Walker, to put a gun to her own head? And do you believe that He would
hand the monsters behind this plot a disease which would kill everyone on Earth? Not to mention all
of the other horrible parts of the so-called script."

Wilson looked at her intently for a moment, a gentle smile on his face, before he answered, "I only
look at the facts, Lisa. I take them in, and I sort them out until, eventually, I can ascertain a pattern. My
theory, as you described it, makes no value judgments. To answer your question in the same vein, and
assuming that your belief is valid and there is a God, there are only two logical possibilities. Either all
of the participants, including Neve Walker and her father...including the man who concocted the
doomsday bug...including Boehn when he ordered the extermination of the residents of ZooCity...and
including all of us, are merely actors in a script penned by the hand of God, a cold and pragmatic being
who could wipe out essentially all of the people on Earth, if it served His purpose....

"Or God is a more benevolent being, someone who watched with agony as the cataclysm unfolded
and knew that He could, perhaps, intervene this time; but also knew that His actions would only delay
the inevitable, that the tendency of man to destroy himself had reached a point of no return. And at
some point in the procession of parallel events, He saw an opportunity to salvage a small piece of His
creation, an opportunity to throw a group of us a life raft in the form of Aegis."

Lisa absorbed what Wilson had said before she asked, "Which do you believe?"

With a subtle shrug, Wilson placed his hand on her shoulder and said, "If there is a God, I much
prefer to see Him in the latter role."

None of the others had anything to add, and they resumed their trek.

Walking slowly, as if they had all just finished a marathon, the eight of them trudged through the
reception area and out into the main Aegis corridor, which was also absent any residents. With Sweezea
walking point, carrying his rifle at the ready, they traveled through three connecting hallways without
encountering a soul.

"Madison is around the next corner," Sweezea muttered over his shoulder.

"I think I heard voices," Tillie remarked with a tinge of relief.

The rest of them heard the voices, too. It sounded as though a relatively large gathering had
assembled ahead. Immediately upon reaching the intersection, Sweezea motioned for the rest of the
group to stay back as he edged forward and carefully peeked around. Signaling an "all clear," he lowered
his rifle and proceeded, the others close behind.

Ahead of them lay one of the zig-zag entrance barriers. As they came closer, the voices coming
from the other side grew louder. No one was stationed at the barrier, and they passed through the series
of switchbacks, still not encountering anyone.

Emerging from the final corner, Elias, following Sweezea, saw that they were entering a larger open
area he had not visited before in his earlier travels. It was almost filled with people, far too many for him
to be able to determine a count. They were all facing away from him, looking in the direction of a man
on an elevated platform, whom Elias recognized as Milton Pierce. He was obviously in the middle of
addressing the crowd when he spotted the six newcomers.

"Everyone…I see that we have a few new arrivals. If you would bear with me for a moment, I
would like to speak with them. Perhaps they can shed some light on what is happening."

The members of the assemblage began looking over their shoulders and saw Wilson, Elias, and the
others, as Pierce came down from the platform and worked his way to the back. Breaking through the
last of the crowd, he strode up to them, a nervous smile on his face. "Wilson, it is good to see you and
your friends. Rudy Kreitzmann was brought to us earlier for medical care and he has been telling us
some very bizarre things. Frankly, I'm not one hundred percent sure he isn't delusional."

"I don't know for certain what he has told you," Wilson responded, "but I would venture to say that
he is not."

Pierce's brow furrowed with concern. "He was talking about the end of the world."

Wilson glanced over Pierce's shoulder for a moment before turning back. "We should probably find
a quiet place to talk."

Reading the seriousness of Wilson's face accurately, Pierce turned to the gathering and, in a raised
voice, said, "If you could all excuse me, I will be back shortly."

The people murmured and began breaking into small groups as Pierce led Wilson and the others
to a nearby room.

As soon as they all entered, he closed the door behind them. The room was filled with tables and
chairs, arranged cafeteria-style. "Please, everyone, have a seat."

They did, and Wilson, augmented occasionally by Elias and Tillie, told Pierce everything, including
the final standoff at the exit. Elias could not get a good read on the man, who attempted to absorb both
the facts and Wilson's theory, and whose face remained impassive throughout the narrative. They
finished, and Pierce sat back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. No one spoke, giving him an
opportunity to assimilate what they had said.

After minutes of silence had passed, he looked back down and leaned forward. "Well, it looks as
though we have some work to do."

At that moment, Elias' respect for the man multiplied exponentially.

As calmly as if he were planning a family vacation, Pierce began, "We have already formed a salvage
team to sift through the damage on the roof. We have found a surprising number of intact solar panels,
and we have a team of electricians struggling to segregate them from the debris field and connect them
to the grid. The winds are making their work incredibly difficult, not to mention the suddenly cold
temperatures."

He paused for a moment and a slight smile crossed his face. "But now, I do not believe we will be
referring to them as the cursed winds any longer."

"More like blessed winds," acknowledged Matt. "I'm the contractor who built Aegis, by the way.
I'd be happy to help with that project."

"Excellent. We are very happy to have you. To continue, a large contingent of our citizens
volunteered to clean up ZooCity. The bodies have all been moved to the nearest atrium in that part of
the complex, and we have steadily been performing ceremonial burials."

"A most onerous task. I'm impressed," Wilson commented.

Pierce shrugged as if it had been a minor undertaking. "It had to be done. Medically, we are in
excellent shape. Our stocks of antibiotics, asthma inhalers, and other medications are high. At Madison,
we have encouraged the practice of monthly blood donations for quite some time and have built up an
excellent bank. Now that Rudy Kreitzmann's staff have joined us, we have three physicians and two
surgeons as a part of our community, as well as a number of researchers with skills and training in the
areas of biology and psychology."

"In the coming days, I suspect that a few trained psychologists will prove to be invaluable."

"I'm sure you are correct, Wilson. On the subject of supplies…at our current level of population,
even with all of today's arrivals, we have enough stored water to last for well over a month. We have
turned off the pumps to preserve battery power. But when the solar panels come back on line,
maintaining an adequate reserve will be a high priority."

Tillie's interest was piqued by one of his statements. "Today's arrivals? Did we get a lot of newbies
today?"

"Hundreds. We don't have an accurate count yet, as many of them are still wandering about within
Aegis, but we had quite an influx – that is, until the entrance was destroyed."

"We've never had that many in a day."

"I know. It's odd. But we've had too much to deal with to be able to take the time to interview them
all. I have no idea."

Wilson glanced at Elias, meaningfully.

"What about food?" The question came from Sweezea.

"As it turns out, we have a higher than normal level of stored food."

"How could that be? With the wind as extreme as it's been in the past few days, I thought that our
supply helicopter couldn't make a drop."

"You're right," Pierce answered. "They haven't been able to, and we were four days overdue for
supplies. Apparently, the logistics people at Davis-Monthan decided to solve the problem rather than
wait for the gusts to subside. Early this morning Aegis received a much larger than normal supply
delivery on the roof, more than double the usual quantities. We had no idea that it was coming or that
it was delivered. We found it when the salvage crew went topside to work on the solar panels. It was
near the perimeter wall and had been placed directly on top of the rubble of broken metal and glass.
Packed inside several of the containers was a message that they had decided to utilize a crane to make
the drop. Due to the travel time and other factors, they informed us that the deliveries would be spaced
farther apart. Hence, the additional supplies."

Wilson caught Elias' eye and winked, murmuring under his breath, "Another coincidence?"

"With the stored goods on hand and the addition of this morning's delivery, under normal
circumstances we would have enough food for approximately two months. Assuming that we
immediately sequester all of the food and begin rationing, I would guess that we can all eat for double
that period of time."

"I hope that's enough," Leah said softly.

Pierce's eyes turned to her, but he did not respond to her comment. "The Air Force was aware of
the damage to our solar panels, so there were also two generators placed on the roof, along with a
supply of fuel. Some of the containers of food must be refrigerated after they are opened. Between the
existing battery reserve and the generators, I believe that we can accomplish this until we get a part of
the grid back on line. And lastly…obviously, there are more than enough living quarters for all of our
residents."