Half Lives (18 page)

I climbed over it, but my feet got tangled in the brambles and the thorns slashed at my ankles. I started to fall, but Chaske swooped in and caught me. I could smell the musky fragrance of his
body and long hair. I wiggled free, landing on one knee. I popped back up, not wanting to look like the total klutz I was. ‘Let’s keep moving.’

The air seemed thinner and cooler the higher we climbed. There was no infinity symbol that led to a secret hideout. Maybe someone had filled in my parents’ top-secret bunker. I was
starting to wonder if I’d led us on an imaginary, rabid wild-goose chase.

Midnight scampered between our legs, racing ahead and then waiting for us to catch up. The terrain was rocky. Spindly shrubs and massive boulders dotted the landscape. More chucks and wallies
scuttled and darted out of our way. I swear I saw a scorpion. After my near-snake attack, I strained my ears for rattling and slithering and hissing.

Tate incessantly asked Chaske questions, and he expertly evaded every single one.

‘Where do you live?’

‘Around.’

‘Why aren’t you in school?’

‘Why aren’t you?’

‘What sports do you like?’

‘Same as you, I guess.’

‘Are you in the military?’

‘What do you think?’

It reminded me of when we were forced to watch the presidential debates in history class. Chaske was well schooled in the non-answer. It was as if he had magically appeared on the mountain to
save me from the rattlesnake.

The mountain levelled. The ground looked as if it had been bulldozed flat to create a ring around the mountain. This must have been part of the path I’d spotted from the ground. And things
just kept getting weirder and weirder. A wall materialized in front of us. It was the same earthy colour as the rocky ground, so it took a 3-D form only when we walked closer. Stones of various
sizes were piled in a huge, continuous cairn maybe ten feet high. It appeared to circle the mountain. The rocks were dumped in a rough line that looked about five feet thick. This must have been
erected by humans – or possibly aliens. We had to be getting closer.

‘It’s like Stonehenge or something,’ Tate said, chasing Midnight, who was climbing up the pile.

Midnight had reached the top and was sitting pretty, her yellow eyes squinting in the setting sun. Her pink tongue flicked across her whiskers and then she meowed. The sound didn’t sound
like me-ow. She had a hoarse voice. She made the sound again, like mrrrroooow, and disappeared over the wall. We followed her, clambering up on all fours and half sliding, half surfing down the
rocks on the other side.

With every step, I became more and more despondent. We were never going to find the bunker. I’d brought these people here and we were all going to die. Our heads swivelled like
searchlights scanning for a symbol. Part of me wasn’t sure if I really wanted to find it. Was I really going to lock myself underground? Was that really necessary? Maybe we could camp out on
the mountain until my parents showed up.

‘Look,’ Chaske called suddenly. ‘Is this what you mean?’ He was pointing to a huge round stone that looked like a giant’s dinner plate. It was propped against a
rocky wall. The boulders stacked behind it resembled a large square about the size of a two-car garage. ‘I wondered what this was,’ Chaske said. Marissa, Tate and I filed in next to
him. An infinity symbol was chiselled into the centre of the stone.

This was it.

I stroked the rock face with my hand. I wanted to laugh, cry and scream all at once. We’d found it. Maybe we
were
going to make it. I had to have faith in my parents. They’d
got me this far.

‘Help me roll it away,’ I said, pushing on one side of the stone. It was heavy but I think it budged. Chaske found a strong branch from somewhere and wedged it under the rock.

Marissa moved in next to Chaske and gripped the branch so her hands were touching his. ‘Why’d they mark it with infinity?’ she asked.

Tate watched. ‘’Cause that’s how long that nuclear waste stuff lasts. That’s why my dad didn’t want it anywhere near this place.’

‘A “half-life” of up to ten thousand years or longer,’ I said. ‘That’s how long the stuff is deadly.’ My dad and I had had this argument many times. How
can we create something that’s hazardous for generations? He believed nuclear was the safest, cleanest form of energy. It doesn’t create carbon dioxide and other stuff that wrecks the
ozone layer. He said it was the only real option to meet the world’s electricity needs. ‘Just be happy they never got around to storing any nuclear waste here.’

Chaske, Marissa and I scrunched next to one another, pushing and prodding with all our might.

‘Yeah, well, I’m grateful for the stuff,’ Chaske said. We looked at him as if he had sprouted a clown nose, rainbow hair and a pair of deely-boppers. ‘No nuclear waste.
No underground bunker. No safe place for us.’

‘So thank God for nuclear waste,’ Marissa said with a fake laugh.

‘Amen to that!’ Tate chimed in, and finally joined us.

I found it a bit odd that Chaske was so willing to take our word for what was going on. But I didn’t question it. Not then, anyway. I was glad he was there. Maybe it was because he’d
saved me, but I trusted him and I definitely felt as if I owed him.

The stone rolled away inch by inch. I held my breath until I saw rock give way to a black hole. When we’d created a space big enough for me, I squeezed into the opening.

‘Why don’t I investigate first?’ I said. I felt protective of this place. After all, my parents had risked everything to send me here.

Chaske handed me a flashlight from his backpack. Midnight hopped from her perch on a nearby rock and peered inside. She sniffed the stale air, gave a loud meow and darted a safe distance
away.

I switched on the flashlight and shimmied through the hole. I tried not to think of snake holes or being buried alive. The space was filled with an airless heat, as though I’d crawled into
one of those big clay ovens that fancy pizza places have. I stood frozen in the shaft of dusty light that was filtering in from the outside. It was as if I’d been beamed into deepest outer
space. My body flushed with sadness. Tears of relief and grief flooded my eyes. I was being given this extraordinary chance to survive, but it meant leaving everyone and everything else behind.

‘Everything OK in there, Icie?’ Chaske called.

The darkness was closing in.

‘Ice?’ Marissa yelled.

‘Yeah.’ My voice cracked. ‘I’m fine.’ I remembered my flashlight and directed the beam ahead of me. What was hiding from me in this cave? My imagination exploded
with creepy crawlies, beasties, aliens and even the distorted white mask from
Scream
. My hand shook and the light flickered with a strobe effect.

Get a grip
, I told myself. My parents wouldn’t have sent me here if it wasn’t safe. I took in the space one circle of light at a time. The room was empty except for a steel
door on the far side that looked like an old-fashioned bank vault. I walked over and examined the door.

I slipped the key from around my neck. There was only one place it could go. I slotted it in and the door opened with the clunk of metal. I grabbed the door handle. It took all my strength to
inch it open enough for me to slip through. Cool air washed over me. It was as if the place had central air-conditioning. I shivered.

I stepped, flashlight first, into the pitch black. The light from outside dissipated to a thin slice of grey. I swept the flashlight beam around a cavernous room of solid rock. It was impossible
to determine the exact dimensions. I didn’t want to venture too far away from the door. The darkness felt as if it might swallow me up.

But then an eerie calm descended over me.

We might survive buried safely in the heart of the mountain. We had a chance. I sent my thanks to my parents – wherever they were. ‘I made it,’ I whispered and hoped I would
see them again soon. If we could make it, maybe others could too. There were bank vaults and sub-basements all over the place, right? The president had some sort of subterranean hideaway.

I scrambled back out again. ‘This is it,’ I said, trying to sound confident. Midnight was the first to greet me, gently knocking her head against my legs.

‘Can we do this? I mean, can we survive in there?’ Marissa asked.

‘I’ve got some food and water, which should last a little while,’ Chaske said, shrugging his shoulders and jostling the contents of his massive backpack.

‘I’ve got lots of supplies too,’ I said.

‘I have some water and stuff that I,’ Marissa blushed, ‘liberated from the airport.’

We all looked at Tate.

‘Yeah. Yeah, I know. I got nothing, but it’s not my fault,’ he whined.

‘So.’ Marissa bounced. ‘Are we going in or what?’

Tate cleared his throat. ‘I don’t think we should take the cat.’ Chaske shot Tate the most hateful look. ‘Well,’ Tate’s voice rose an octave, ‘how will
we feed it and stuff?’

‘Uh, pretty sure that’s not your problem,’ I said and scratched the cat behind her ear.

‘Do you think we really need to do it?’ Tate asked. ‘Why don’t we camp out here for a while?’

‘But what if the virus is airborne?’ Marissa asked, as if we might know the answer.

‘I think we need to hide out from other people. People are sick and dying. We’ve seen it.’ I was finally convinced. ‘Locking ourselves away is the only way we will
survive. We don’t have to decide right now how long we’re going to stay. We can just hide out for a while.’

‘I think I agree,’ Marissa said.

‘Yeah, OK, I guess,’ Tate said.

‘We can go inside in a second, but . . .’ What was I trying to say? ‘I’m just saying we don’t know how long we’re going to be trapped . . . I mean, um,
it’s getting late and we’re exhausted, but, I mean, um . . .’

‘How about one last look?’ Chaske asked, as if he’d read my muddled mind. ‘Follow me.’ We walked down and around the mountain. We weren’t far from the rocky
wall. Chaske led us to a stony outlook. He climbed up first and then instructed the rest of us on where to find the footholds. He had to help us the final few feet, taking each of us by the hand
and hauling us onto the ledge.

I was momentarily blinded by the glare of the setting sun. As my eyes adjusted, the skyline of Vegas took shape. It reminded me of the Lego towers I’d constructed with my dad when I was
little, creating multi-coloured and strangely shaped buildings. There were Xs and Os. Bronze blocks and thin needles pointing skyward. But something wasn’t right.

‘The lights,’ Marissa whispered as if her voice might have blown them out.

She was right. The buildings were there, but the normally brilliant skyline etched in rainbow colours had been snuffed out. A nearly solid line of white lights led away from the city. More
people like us, trying to run and hide and survive. There were no red lights heading in any more.

‘What do you think it means?’ I asked.

‘Nothing good,’ Tate said.

We watched the last flashes of the sun sink behind the mountains in the west. The sky beyond glowed the most brilliant shade of pink. Midnight rubbed against my legs.

‘The city looks dead.’ I didn’t mean to say it, but it was true. I loved the skyline of DC at night. The way the city looked fresh and sparkly framed by the dark sky. I’d
always thought there was something magical about the city after sunset. It was as if the darkness erased the rough edges and all you could see was the bright sparkling promise. Las Vegas was
disappearing below us.

‘Everyone should decide for themselves,’ I said, ‘but I’m going underground, at least for a little while.’

Marissa turned her back to us. She was taking deep breaths. I wasn’t sure if she was crying or having some sort of panic attack. I reached out to touch her but she stormed off.

Tate started drumming his fingers against something. All I wanted was a few minutes of silence to take it all in, to say goodbye. But I was being distracted by Tate’s tap, tap, tap. It was
as if he was counting down our last minutes.

‘Will you please cut it out?’ I shouted. Tate’s cheeks glistened, wet with tears. He ran the way we came, right behind Marissa. ‘Sorry, Tate,’ I called after him.
How could I be so insensitive? He was just a kid, after all.

‘You ready?’ Chaske asked.

NO!
I thought. How could anyone ever be ready for this?

I peered over the edge. Below was a sheer drop to a rocky ravine. ‘Just one more minute.’ I inhaled deeply, drinking in the fresh air. No hint of exhaust or Dumpsters or urine or the
million other smells that blended together on the streets of DC.

It was nearly dark now and I could see the first twinkle of stars overhead. I memorized the sight before me. I rarely saw the stars in the city. How long would it be before I saw the sky and the
stars again? What was going to happen to my world? What was going to happen to me? The sadness that gathered in my chest was overwhelming.

If I was going to survive there would be more bad days ahead. I was burying myself alive with three people I barely knew for reasons that weren’t completely clear, and for an indefinite
period of time.

But it wasn’t death. It wasn’t forever. My parents would come for me. It’s hard to explain the feeling that came over me. I was watching but wasn’t part of the drama that
was about to unfold.

A distant rumble filled the air. Within seconds, the roar was upon us, exploding in our ears and rattling our bones. Chaske and I dropped to the ground. We flattened ourselves on the rock,
Chaske protectively covering me, as fighter jets zoomed overhead. They passed us in a flash. Was this an enemy attack or were we retaliating? It didn’t matter. The terrorist attack was
escalating and I didn’t want to wait around to find out who was bombing who. As we got to our feet, we could see the V formation disappear at the horizon.

I ran as fast as I could. Soon I was flanked by Chaske, Marissa, Tate and Midnight. We didn’t talk. It was unanimous. We were going underground.