High Pressure System: First Season Underground (7 page)

BOOK: High Pressure System: First Season Underground
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He took me to Brandon’s control room next. Of all the places to be after another storm-related crisis. Jim and Brandon were in heavy discussion about something until they saw us.

“What happened to you two?” Jim asked with concern all over his face when he saw me.

Brandon looked at Micah, then me, and back to Micah.

“Let’s say the safe room on the floor above this one isn’t so safe,” Micah said.

“This storm was brutal. You wouldn’t believe the damage to the lobby.” Brandon turned to study the monitors.

“Why are you all wet?” Jim looked around the room to find something for me to dry off with and I waved him off.

“Since that floor wasn’t really finished, the ceiling tiles and drop ceiling fell on us first. The fire sprinkler shook loose and nearly filled the room with water. So there’s a bit of a flood in the hall up there now and the water is shut off. By the way, the storage room was rearranged by the storm too.” Micah glared at Brandon’s back when he finished talking and he tapped his foot when Brandon didn’t respond.

Brandon finally turned around and gave me a scrutinizing look before he addressed Micah. “So how is it you two were up there together? She’s not part of your crew. She’s already had experience with the storms. I would think she didn’t want to repeat that.” He was still giving me a hard look over. I wanted to crawl under the desk, or maybe running away would be best. My squishy shoes would trip me up though.

“I just brought her up there as an excuse to spend some time with her before I went back to work. I’m always working you know, so I don’t have much time for being social.”

Brandon’s surprised expression confused me a little. But I was flushing from Micah’s confession. I didn’t expect that honest of an answer and Brandon must have been bothered by it. Probably bringing me on one of the construction jobs didn’t sit well with him. Now I was involved in two disasters as well. I shaded my eyes with my hand. Yeah, like the lights were too bright or something. Maybe I could disappear that way.

“We probably need to get that move going ASAP,” Micah said.

“Yes, we do. Thanks for the information. I will get with your boss on those plans. But we need those buffering panels installed now. There was some signal somewhere in the building that didn’t stop that brought that storm on. That happened with the last storm that caused so much destruction. Doing security sweeps isn’t turning anything up.” Brandon messed up his hair in frustration. “You two should go clean up so you’re not leaving puddles everywhere you go.” Brandon turned to Jim and gave him instructions on what to do before he focused his attention to his tablet. Jim ignored him and followed me out of the control room.

“Are you really okay? How bad was it?” He massaged my shoulder lightly.

“I’m fine. It was scary, but we’re okay. At least Micah didn’t chew me out after we thought we were going to die.” I rubbed my eyes. There was no reason to cry about that.

“Please let me know if you fall into that dark place again.” He squeezed my shoulder gently until I looked at him.

I nodded. “I will see you sooner rather than later, okay?”

He waved before going back into the control room.

Micah walked me to my apartment. We didn’t have much to say to each other. Probably because we were both walking funny with our wet jeans, waterlogged shoes, and I was still shivering. I stopped before we got to my door and faced Micah. “I would invite you in but, you know.” I pointed at his wet self and then back at my drippy status. I rubbed my arms trying to stop the trembling. “Next time you stop by, I’ll let you in. I promise.”

Micah tried to stuff his hands in pockets, but he stopped when it was pointless with wet jeans. He looked at the floor a moment before he looked up at me. “Well, it was nice surviving with you this evening. At least it was a night we’ll always remember.”

I laughed. “That’s for sure. But let’s not try that again next time.”

“Next time we should do something much more low key.”

“I agree. You know what? I don’t even know where your apartment is.”

“I’m closer to the cafeteria than you, thank goodness. I think everyone needs to move down deeper in the bunker. Or at least you should be. I think you’re too close to the lobby.”

“It’s never been that bad on this floor.”

“You weren’t in your apartment the two times it was that bad. Today and that day in the Hydroponics safe room were the two worst storms we’ve had and I’m sure it will be getting worse than this one.”

“I’ll see what Jim can do for me.”

“Well, I’ll see you around.” He patted my shoulder before turning to leave.

“Okay,” I said softly. Such a wimp. I didn’t push for more information on where his apartment was. I could have tried to hug him before he left to thank him for being awesome, but there wouldn’t be much warm and fuzziness when we were still cold and dripping. I opened my door once he disappeared into the stairwell and let the dogs out to do their business.

That night I stared at the ceiling when I couldn’t sleep. Flashing on Micah protecting me from harm, Micah holding me while everything crashed down on us, the fear, the noises of metal twisting and creaking, the relentless lightning and thunder, and Micah …

11
Blooming Wallflower

The next few days I immersed myself in teaching the kids. I struggled with my curriculum. I struggled to get Aaron Cooper, the seventeen-year-old know-it-all, to quit flirting with me in front of everyone. I also struggled with acting as if everything was fine and normal when lockdown happened while I was teaching. I was frustrated I never saw Micah and had no idea where to look for him besides the top floor storage facility. I wasn’t going there anytime soon.

On my table one morning, there was a note on my tablet.

Check out the classroom at the end of the hall.

It wasn’t signed by anyone, but I was intrigued. Cautiously though. Aaron had me on the defensive trying to block his immature, ridiculous advances. I opened the door and clutched at my chest in delight. The room wasn’t square anymore, it looked more like an octagon with the light blue sky and cloud painted walls that met the ceiling in a curve, much like a room modified into a planetarium. The floor was covered with artificial grass. Potted trees, real ones, were scattered around the room. A table in the center had a dome shaped thing on it.

When I stepped through the doorway, bird sounds chirped from speakers hidden somewhere and a citrus scented breeze fluttered my hair into my face from a fan above the door. Next to that was the only light. It wasn’t a commercial light fixture though, it was a big circle in the arch where the ceiling met the wall. It also radiated heat. I stood in that sweet spot in the room where the breeze and the sunlight warmth hit me. I closed my eyes and raised my arms to allow my body to take in the beautifulness of the indoor, outdoor simulator. Exactly like the imaginary notes Micah took when I told him what I wanted.

“What do you think?”

The voice was not one I was expecting and it startled me.

“It’s wonderful, Brandon.” I folded my arms across my chest. Maybe the burn in my cheeks was from the fake sun. Or at least I hoped that was what it looked like.

“I’m sure you know who was behind the design. It wasn’t me. But I did make this.” He stepped into the room and closed the door. “You might want to get comfortable on the floor.”

Piled up next to a wall was a stack of floor pillows. I grabbed one and sat down. He turned on the dome in the center of the room. With a remote, he turned off the sunlight. The darkened room filled with stars and there were cricket sounds in the corners of the room instead of birds. I couldn’t help it, I giggled with delight.

“So tell me what ones you can identify.” Brandon dropped a pillow beside me and sat down.

I had to lie down to see it all. “I see the North Star, the Big Dipper, and the Little Dipper. They are part of Ursa Major.” I always struggled with all the other ones. And this wasn’t a real night sky.

He settled in beside me with his shoulder nearly touching mine. “There’s Leo the Lion, Gemini the Twins.” I could barely see where his finger pointed, but I could identify them once I saw where they were. He pointed out a few more. “I even put in a little red light for Mars over there. Eventually, you’ll have a projector and a slide show of space pictures I’ve been putting together for you. You’ll be able to view it in here as part of your lessons. ”

I studied the stars, totally mesmerized by the loveliness of what was created for me, and the kids. I was reminded how much I missed nights under the stars.

“So are you and Micah a thing?” Brandon asked.

“What?” I was taken aback. That was totally unexpected. “No. I don’t even know where his apartment is. I haven’t seen him in days.”

“Oh. Maybe he feels bad about the mishap the other day because he was very instrumental in getting this done right away while he’s been working on all my assignments for the construction crew. And I have been keeping him very busy. I thought maybe you two were seeing each other.”

“We see each other upon occasion, have had a conversation on occasion, he pets my dogs, not me. I haven’t seen him since the other day though. Not a thing going on, really.” I sighed. A thing with him would be nice though. “Thank you for this. I love it.”

I rested my arms beside me to rub the funny texture of the fake grass carpet. His fingers brushed against mine, the next thing I knew he was holding my hand. I held my breath while my heart jumped in my chest as I tried to figure out if Brandon holding my hand was really a good thing.

“I’m glad you like it. Maybe it will keep you from trying to kill yourself up there.”

I rolled my eyes. “Maybe,” I answered. The magic of his touch dissipated until he squeezed my hand tighter.

“Because I would hate it if you weren’t around anymore. I’d miss you more than anyone else here.”

My heart might have skipped a beat or two. Crap. Was that something a friend might say? Why did my world have to get even more complicated? I should just go back to being a wallflower. I was good at that.

3
12
The Unraveling of Jim

I had been so busy teaching and spending most of my free time in the planetarium that I wondered what Jim was so worked up about when he mysteriously asked me to meet him at his apartment for dinner. He had me follow him into a dark corner on the community floor and the words fell out of his mouth so fast, I wasn’t sure if he was afraid someone would overhear him or catch us talking. That was weird. We always talked and he was always so relaxed while calming me down when I worked myself up over being locked away in our underground bunker apartment building with so many unhappy people while storms wanted to annihilate us overhead.

Perhaps he was trying to feign a crisis to set me up into having a quiet dinner with Brandon or Micah. Engrossing myself in teaching and stargazing kept me from having to make any decisions on the males that seemed interested in me. Fending off the hormonally charged teen, Aaron was a new problem. It was not so hard for me to be blunt when dealing with him. Unfortunately he wouldn’t take a hint or a blatant, “go away, I don’t like you that way,” as a clue to move on.

I held my breath when I knocked on the door anticipating someone I didn’t want to see was hanging out with Jim on the other side.

Fortunately, when the door opened, it was just Jim and the scent of spaghetti filled my nostrils. I inhaled as deeply as I could and my mouth watered. The cafeteria had not won me over with their version at all.

I was distracted by Jim’s skill in the kitchen when I walked in the room. I didn’t notice his haggard appearance at first. I was far too interested in what Jim was placing on my plate. When I finally looked at him to praise his cooking with my eyes while my mouth was full, I noticed his eyes were bloodshot and puffy. He struggled to maintain his composure.

“What’s wrong?” I set my fork down. Jim was never one to be unsettled. He looked as if he spent too much time watching the storms roll in on the monitors in the control room while we were assaulted above ground.

“You need to eat all you want before I tell you anything. So how’s teaching?”

I was practically inhaling the food on my plate. Slowing the pace of my silverware, I had a feeling I should savor what I had left because he was about to share something with me that would have me reconsider my relationship with amazingly tasty food. “Meh. I don’t mind the kids. The teens want to challenge my knowledge all the time. I’ve turned it around so they are sharing what they know with the class instead. I’m having trouble with the Cooper boy. Everyone is eating up his antics in the classroom so it encourages him even though I’ve told him I’m totally not interested.”

“You’ve seemed to go into hiding again.” Instead of eating, Jim moved the spaghetti around his plate.

“I’ve been studying the stars.” I evaded eye contact. “And I’ve decided to become a nun.”

Jim actually laughed. “No you haven’t.”

“Can’t I pretend?” I pleaded, turning my head to the side and giving him my best puppy eyes.

“Think of it this way, if one of those young men don’t suit you, at least you have a backup. Remember when it was looking pretty bleak when it was only Brandon and he didn’t seem interested in you at all when you were pursuing him.”

“I like wishful thinking over real life heartbreak though. And I wasn’t pursuing him. I was just curious.”

Jim sighed. “Fantasy worlds are always better than real life.” He looked up at the wallet-sized pictures of his three kids taped to the wall above the table. “I really wish I had one of my wife.”

I didn’t know what to say so I finished cleaning up my plate and knew I probably wasn’t going to like what he was about to share. When the silence was unbearable in the room, I went for it. “What has you looking like the werewolf version of Brandon tonight? Have you spent too much time with him and then checked out the moon? That’s forbidden, you know.” I smiled, trying to buffer the growing tension.

He focused on my face and gave me a little half-smile. “I think I’m starting to understand some of the things that were getting under his skin.” He scooted his chair back and acted as if he was going to remove our plates from the table. I grabbed them before he did.

“I need to show my appreciation for sharing your fantastic cooking skills with me. I’ve missed having decent spaghetti. You should take over on spaghetti days.” I washed off our dishes.

“I can’t make it on a scale like that. Feeding two hundred people at spaghetti feeds, it never tastes the same.”

I settled back in the chair across from Jim. “What has you so upset?”

He leaned on his elbows. “You can’t go into hiding again if I tell you.”

“It’s that bad?”

“Yes. I need to talk to someone and that’s why I’m telling you this. If I don’t get this out, I don’t know what I’ll do.” He lightly touched the pictures on the wall as tears filled the corners of his eyes. “You and I, we are the lucky ones. That doesn’t matter to me now. I wish I was with them more than ever.” Jim rubbed his face.

“I’ve known we were pretty lucky since they discovered that the ones in the other bunkers died.”

“No, it all depended on what lot you were assigned to. The ones in the other bunkers, they were supposed to be the lucky ones too.” His voice choked him off and he coughed to clear his throat. “Every city and town was set up the same way. They couldn’t make enough of these bunker apartments for everyone in the nation. There was no way. When our bus took us here, we won the lottery and we didn’t even know we were playing.”

“Micah said something like that to me the other day.” I didn’t like what I was feeling growing in my chest. “What kind of lottery?” I was sure I didn’t want to know.

“Some of the other buses were sent to random locations. Some were basic dugouts, or abandoned military bases. The bus drivers didn’t know. No one actually knew where they were going or that they weren’t on the chosen list to survive. Those people were basically shuttled to their death, sacrificed because there wasn’t enough of these. They did it because it was easier to give everyone hope in the midst of chaos. I don’t get it though. Why shuttle everyone away from the comforts of home? No one knew exactly what we were evacuating from so why did they have to die
that
way?” He couldn’t hold back the sob as his fingers trailed over the pictures of his kids. “Why couldn’t I chance going home so they didn’t have to go through that on their own? Why did I win the lottery and they didn’t?” He rested his head on his arms and he cried.

I’m not sure if I forgot how to blink. I wanted to touch his arm, but I couldn’t. Things that Brandon told me and Micah’s anger were fitting together. No wonder Brandon didn’t tell me why he couldn’t find Jim’s family on any of the bunker lists. Micah said I won a lottery being here. Somehow, my family did too. Little good that served some of the evacuees in the other bunkers. The ones closest to us were dead. If it depended on the lot you were assigned to, did that mean Corbin was sent to his death? Was Micah’s family assigned to their deaths but Brandon knew and helped him save his family somehow? My mind was racing even though my body was frozen.

“Do you know for sure that your family was sent to die?” I gripped the edge of the table.

“I put the pieces together. My skills on the computer in no way rival Brandon, but I’ve had plenty of time to navigate through the archives in his system. I found the final evacuation plan. It was so massive though, it took me days to figure out where the bunker lists were. Brandon has been reviewing them and creating files on us all. He has all of our histories, our family connections, and where those family members were sent. Even though no one really knows him, he totally knows all of us and the people we’ve left behind. Maybe that’s how he deals with the guilt. He knows us all like he’s our best friend and none of us have had a clue.”

“What do we do with this information? Do we tell the others?” My head was reeling. I had a good idea what might happen if the news got out. The fact that Brandon knew them all like family wasn’t going to matter to anyone at all. I could feel the heat rising from my chest into my cheeks.

Jim grabbed my hand. “It’s not his fault. You need to understand that first of all. He was only in charge of building bunkers. I’m just sick he didn’t tell me himself. When I think about it, honestly, how could he?”

I was finally able to gather myself. I stood and paced his apartment. “So why was my family spared?”

“What does your father do?” Jim looked at me as if I was dense.

“He’s a scientist. At a pharmaceutical company. Oh.” I stopped wearing out the carpet and sat back down in my chair.

“Some special privileges there. I don’t know why I was special enough to be here and how my family didn’t rate on that list over there. Except there are more in my hometown who could buy their way into a safe place.

“Not everyone here was someone special out there. Only the Harpers had any money. We have several doctors and vets, but everyone else seems pretty average. Like the perfect community population.

“Think about it. How diverse are we all in here? Not very.” Jim rubbed his face hard. “You need to spend more time with Micah. I believe he knows some things about this place that everyone else doesn’t know.”

“Do you know what? If you do, you should just tell me.” I never could find Micah. He was probably hiding from me more than I was hiding was him.

“No, I actually don’t know. I tried. He hints at stuff and then he won’t tell me. Somehow he found the time to build you a special room that you asked for when he was putting in twelve hours a day on the construction crew. He might tell you.”

That bit of information just made me feel guilty. I didn’t realize Micah was working such long days while he built it. He wasn’t the one that shared it with me when I saw it for the first time. “Did you find your family after all?”

“I did, sort of. I can only assume they didn’t survive. You know what? No one may survive when all of this is over. I just wish I wasn’t alone.”

“Now I’m going to console you the way you have me. You’re not alone.” I gave him a big hug. “If anything does happen to me here, I want you by my side.” Jim hugged me with the same warmth I’d felt from my dad’s hugs. I hoped I helped a little bit even though I was poor replacement for his family. I was overcome with even more guilt over the fact that my family was sent to a bunker like ours and I at least had some hope that they were still alive.

There was no denying that Jim could eventually be right about one thing. It might not matter that we’re still alive. We could just be putting off the inevitable.

BOOK: High Pressure System: First Season Underground
10.29Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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