Apophis (13 page)

The girl, she told us her name was Maggie, led us to the shower room.  It was nearly the size of the women’s bunkhouse and looked like a horse stable or something with all the individual stalls.  There was a large bin full of clean towels and two other bins filled with various travel-sized toiletries.

Nora looked around the vastness of the room. “How did you guys harness the mineral waters to make electricity?  You’re not just pumping hot spring water straight in here, are you?”

Maggie shrugged. “I have no idea.  All I care about is when I turn on a faucet, hot water comes out.” 

I could feel myself practically salivating as we stood there.  The word “hot” had slipped from my vocabulary.

Nora turned to me. “Oh my God, let’s shower
right now
.”

I cleared my throat and hazarded a glance at Maggie.  She stared back at me with unblinking eyes. Normally I admired good eye contact, but hers was too intense; it made me feel small and shrinking.
 “Thank you for showing us the showers, Maggie,” I said routinely. “I think we’ve got it from here.”

Maggie shrugged. “Sure thing,” she said before disappearing behind one of the shower curtains.

“You really want to shower right now?”

Nora already had a towel tucked under her arm and was digging though one of the bins of toiletries. “Why not?”

“We’re supposed to be meeting up with our dads for lunch soon,” I reminded her.

“They’ll be fine if we’re a little late.” She peeled off her thermal shirt, the one she routinely wore under her heavy winter jacket, and sprinted for one of the shower stalls.

Left behind, I could either waste some time before lunch or I could take my first real shower in nearly two years.  It didn’t take long for me to make a decision.  I fished out two tiny bottles of shampoo and conditioner and a bar of hotel room-sized soap from one of the massive bins. It looked like someone had Supermarket Swept through the travel aisle in the beauty section of some store. Mini tubes of toothpaste were interspersed with the shampoo and conditioner bottles.  I felt the urge to fill my pockets, but no hoarding seemed to be rule number one in this place.  I hadn’t even been allowed to take back any leftover breakfast to our room; it had to all be eaten in the mess hall.

Clutching the twin travel-sized bottles and the tiny bar of soap, I shuffled from the corridor into the shower stall closest to me.  I pulled the shower curtain closed behind me and fastened it to a few metal rings that served as the only barrier between the main room and my modesty.  The shower stall was an open room with a shallow ledge at belly-button level upon where you could set your soap and other shower toiletries.  There was also a fold-down ledge far enough from the showerhead to set your clothes on so they wouldn’t get wet.

I quickly stripped, now suddenly eager for this shower. I made sure to carefully fold my clothes and the ace bandage that was holding my ankle together and tucked everything far enough from where I imaged the spray of the shower would reach.  My nakedness felt foreign. I hadn’t properly bathed since my family had been uprooted from Williston; when it’s sub-freezing outside, you put on
more
layers, you don’t take them off.

The shower knobs were an overly complicated system with one handle that controlled the water pressure and the other the water’s temperature.  After a few episodes of trial and error, I found the perfect combination of heat and spray.  The water pressure was underwhelming; a weak, tired stream trickled down on me and the water was lukewarm at best, but it was the first real shower I’d taken since everything had gone to hell.

Back in North Dakota the water had shut off earlier than other parts of the country, so we’d had to heat up buckets of snow if we wanted to get clean.  My mom had had the foresight to get dry shampoo that required no water and we’d been using that to freshen up on our cross-country travels.

“I’m just standing here!” I heard Nora announce from a few stalls away.  “I should feel guilty just standing under all this hot water, but I totally don’t!”

“How’s your water pressure?” I hollered back.

“It’s not too bad, actually.  I’ve probably stayed at hotels with worse.”

“Lucky!” I loudly complained over the spray of water.  “My shower sucks.  And the water’s not even that hot.”

“You should totally try mine,” she called back.

I was sure it wasn’t an invitation to join her right that moment, but it still made my stomach turn somersaults.  I chose to ignore her offer and concentrated on finishing my shower as quickly as possible.

The fact that I knew Nora was naked, like me, just a few feet away with only a flimsy barrier between us was torture.  I needed to stop being so attracted to this girl.  Life was hard enough without an unrequited crush.

I turned off the water when the last of the conditioner and soap was rinsed away.  I twisted my hair over my shoulder and squeezed away the excess water.  It was only then that I realized I’d forgotten to grab a towel.  They were all sitting in one of the giant bins near the entrance.  It was like I was living in a junior-high gym class nightmare.

I had two options.  I could put my clothes back on without toweling off, or I could quickly grab a towel and hop back behind the cover of my shower stall, hopefully before anyone saw me.  I was fairly confident that Nora and I were the only ones showering besides that girl Maggie, and I could still hear the water running in her stall near mine.  I unfastened the metal rings that held my shower curtain closed and gingerly poked my head out like a prairie dog peering for predators.  There wasn’t a person in sight.

I quietly tiptoed out of the shower stall.  My swollen ankle still ached, and walking on my tiptoes seemed to heighten the pain, but the tub full of towels was close.  I quickly grabbed one from the top of the pile.  I suppose I’d gotten too cocky or had let my guard down; my ankle wasn’t quite strong enough for all this added stress.  When I turned on my heel to return to my shower stall, it buckled beneath me and I fell hard to the tiled floor.  My wet, naked body made an obvious slapping sound as it came into contact with the floor. 

I laid still, staring at the whisper white ceiling mentally assessing if I was okay or not.  Before I was able to take stock of all my body parts, the water shut off in Nora’s stall, and I went on high alert.  I scrambled to my knees and tried to get back up on my feet, towel now forgotten.  Nora’s shower curtain was crisply thrown back and when she stepped into the bathroom corridor, fully dressed, I froze. 

Her eyes seemed to take their time traveling from the floor, up my naked body, before making eye contact.

“What are you doing?” she asked in a calm, even tone.

“I slipped,” I said lamely. 

“I see that.”

“I forgot to grab a towel and my ankle gave out when I came out here to get one.”

She didn’t comment on my nakedness, for which I was thankful.  I was sure she was saving this moment in her memory banks to tease me about later though.

“Do you need help?”

I was still halfway sprawled on the floor in a kind of sprinter’s stance as if I was waiting for the gun to go off and signal the start of the race.  In other words, I looked ridiculous.

“No.  I’m fine.”

She frowned and pushed wet locks made darker from her shower behind her ears.  “Don’t be so stubborn, Sammy.”

To my horror, instead of leaving me to my shame, she swooped down.  Her head went beneath my armpit, her arm wrapped around my waist, and she helped me right myself just as she had when we’d been startled by the group from Hot Springs.  Only this time we were both damp and I was naked.  Repeat – I was naked.

“This could only happen to you, you know.”  Her voice echoed in the bathroom as she helped me stand up.  She didn’t seem to mind that I was getting her clothes wet. 

I frowned and tugged at my lower lip with my top teeth. “It’s not like I forgot my towel on purpose.” 

“You should see Dr. Allyse again.” Her breath against my ear produced a warmth in my belly like no campfire could ever hope to recreate. “Your ankle must be hurt worse than she thought.”

“I need clothes,” I awkwardly pointed out.

“Oh, right,” she said absently as if she’d completely not noticed.  “Which one’s your shower?”

I pointed to the stall with the curtain cast aside and she helped me hobble my way back.  She picked up my carefully folded clothes, looking amused, and helped ease me down to sit on the fold-down shelf.

“Um, can you get me a towel?” It had been the reason I’d re-twisted my ankle and I’d forgotten it again outside my stall.

She left and returned a short moment later.  “This one’s a little damp,” she seemed to apologize.  “I could dig around and find you a drier one.”

“No, this is fine,” I said, gratefully taking the towel from her.  It was soggy at the edges, but it would serve its purpose.  I immediately wrapped it around my torso to cover up my naked body.

Nora continued to linger in the stall. “Do you need any help getting dressed?”

I cleared my throat. “Ah, no.  I can handle that.”

“Okay.  If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.” 

“By the way,” she said, a wide lazy smile stretching across her face, “nice tattoo.  It’s very unexpected.”

I’d wanted to do something rebellious and unlike me, so for my eighteenth birthday I’d gotten the outline of bird, tethered to a long string, tattooed on my right hip.  It was located low enough so my parents would never see it.
 

I ducked my head, unwilling to make eye contact again.  “Thanks.”  For some reason her seeing me naked and floundering on the floor hadn’t been nearly as embarrassing as the compliment.  It was still embarrassing, but in a different way.  Something about her seeing my tattoo made me feel more vulnerable than when I’d been naked.

“Okay, well just give me a holler when you’re dressed and I’ll help you get to the infirmary.”

“I’ll be fine, really,” I insisted as I started to gingerly re-wrap my ankle.

“I’m helping you, and that’s final,” she said with equal stubbornness.   We were quite the pair – two rams continually butting heads.

“Fine, fine,” I grumbled.  Nora slipped out of the stall and I began to dress, careful this time not to slip again.

+++++

We found the doctor in the sickbay room by herself, reading a book.  When she saw the two of us, Nora with her arm around my mid-section, and me favoring my ankle again, she leapt into action.  Unfortunately, it could only be a limited action.

“I’m sorry, Sam,” Dr. Allyse apologized.  “The best I can do is set you up with an air cast and crutches.  It’ll at least keep your ankle immobile until it can heal itself.  I’ll also give you some more painkillers, but don’t expect anything like Vicodin that’ll actually work.  We have medical supplies,” she said apologetically, “but they’re painfully primitive and short-sighted.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” I said. “This is great.” I tried to flex my ankle, but the air cast kept it securely in place.  It was a significant upgrade from the ace bandage and butterfly clips.

Dr. Allyse’s solution wasn’t good enough for Nora though.  “It’s not like the world above ground was decimated,” my feisty travel-mate pointed out.  “Can’t we just round up some people, head on over to the closest hospital, and lug an x-ray machine and other supplies back here?”

Dr. Allyse ran her hand over her face.  “I wish it were that easy.  But the closest hospital with equipment like that is in Plains, over 20 miles away.  We’d have to find a vehicle big enough for transport and then siphon off gas from someplace.  Honestly, even if I thought it was worth the trouble, I’m sure my fellow townsfolk wouldn’t agree.”

“Well, who do we have to talk to in order to make this happen?” Nora demanded.

“The Mayor,” Dr. Allyse said with a small frown.  “And the four council persons.  They say it’s a democracy down here, but it’s been more like a theocracy with those men in charge.”

“The air cast will be fine,” I said awkwardly.  I hated being such a bother.  My ankle wasn’t broken.  It just needed some time to heal and I’d be better. 

“Why are there separate bunks for men and women?” Nora asked the doctor.

“Why do you ask so many questions?” I threw back at Nora.

She glared at me. “Because I’m curious. And so far, Dr. Allyse has been the only one willing to answer my questions.”  She snapped her attention away from me and looked expectantly at the doctor, waiting for her answer.

“Population control, I suppose,” Dr. Allyse guessed. “Life underground can be pretty boring. That’s why conception rates are always highest in cold states during winter months, you know.”

“I suppose sex does help to pass the time,” Nora noted thoughtfully. “So even married couples have to sleep in the separate bunks?” 

“Married people were kind of a minority in Hot Springs before Apophis,” Dr. Allyse revealed.  “There’s a separate bunkhouse for them, but I hear it’s a bit of an orgy.  I myself steer clear of that part of the compound and I’d suggest you girls did, too.”

As much as I might have wanted to join the conversation to feel included, it was too embarrassing to my sensibilities to be talking so frankly with a stranger about sex.  Add Nora to that equation, and I’d turned into a blushing adolescent.