Impetus (17 page)

“
It’s a leap of faith,” Chester said, appearing from the back of the room. “Sometimes we must all make decisions that make us feel uneasy at the time.”

Greg said,
“So you’re okay with putting that stuff in your body?”

“
Not necessarily,” Chester said, slowly lowering himself onto a small pile of rubble. He took the Bible from beneath his jacket and placed it on his lap. “I realize that most of us that are left on Earth probably have a difficult time believing in a divine being.” He patted the Bible twice before looking toward the sky. “But as a man of faith, I believe you must practice what you preach.” He grinned, realizing his choice of words rang true. He then rolled up his sleeve. “I will be the first. If this is part of the grand plan, then so be it.”

Greg
said, “Chester. No.”

Chester held up his hand and smiled.
“I am fine with this, Greg. I have faith that this is the correct path for us at the moment. Of course, it’s not that we have many others.”

Mick wanted to question him further. To tell him how silly faith was in the
place they now inhabited. But then it occurred to Mick that having faith and being religious were not necessarily intertwined all the time. He could have faith in his decisions, in himself. He could have faith that the world was not out to get them, that maybe by thinking differently, they could alter their lives’ trajectories.

Mick removed the hard outer shell and pressed the green button on the injector
’s side. The device beeped three times before sounding a longer single tone.

A pleasing female voice sounded from the device.
“Please press the tip of the auto injector firmly against your skin. Wait for the solid tone to stop before removing the auto injector.”

Chester smiled a
nd held his arm out. Mick pointed it toward his own wrist and pressed it firmly against his own skin.

“
Mick,” Chester said.

“
Chester. Thank you for being brave. But I’ll be the guinea pig. I simply have to have faith.”

Chester nodded very
slightly.

Kathryn rushed to her
father’s side. Her saucer-size eyes were wide with fear.

Mick took his other hand and put it around her.
“Don’t worry, sweetie. It didn’t hurt.” He wasn’t lying. In fact, he barely felt a thing as the auto injector pushed the blue gel beneath his skin and into his bloodstream.

The rest of the group looked at Mick. Apprehension on some of their faces. Curiosity on the rest.

“Do you feel any different?” Greg asked.

Mick thought and felt before answering.
“Not really,” he said. He looked down at his wrist. The auto injector left a very faint red circle.

“
Device ready,” chimed the auto injector. Mick looked around at the group, unsure of what to do or say at the moment. Chester again volunteered his arm. This time Mick obliged. He waited for the long tone before removing it from Chester’s arm.

“
How do you feel?” Mick asked him.

“
Same as you, I suppose.” Chester rubbed his arm. “Amazing little device. I didn’t feel a thing.”

Injecting himself was one thing. But now that he had done the sam
e to Chester, it felt different.

Sandeep was next up.
“I guess I’ll be number three. I always did like that number.”

Mick looked at Sandeep. Doubt clouded his mind.

“What’s wrong?” Deep asked.

Mick said nothing. He simply shook his head, lost in a momentary thought. It
had all seemed so clear when left with no alternatives. But now he’d taken decisive action. He had leaned on faith, something he had no right to lean on. The gong of guilt rang and reverberated throughout his body.

“
Mick?” Sandeep said.

“
I’m sorry, Deep. Just having second thoughts, I guess.”

Greg said,
“It’s a little late for those.” Mick looked over, alarmed. But Greg smiled. “I’m just giving you a hard time. Listen, you’re right. We don’t have any choices left. And this seemed to come to us when we needed it most. I’m not saying this is from God”—he looked to Chester quickly and then back to Mick—“or anything besides good fortune. But we have to play the cards we’re dealt. And I’m hoping our hand is full of aces and not jokers.” Greg then rolled up this sleeve. “I’ll go after Sandeep.”

“
Count me in,” Laurel said, rolling up her sleeve, too.

But what
about the kids?

“
We’re in, too,” Kathryn said. Nate was now by her side.

“
We trust you, Dad. If you think this is what we should do, then so do I,” Nate said.

He wanted to
faint at that moment. He didn’t know if this was what they should do. And the word
trust
seemed a heavy one. Should they trust his instincts? Hell if he knew.

Mick nodded. He thought as he injected each member of his extended family. E
very injection felt like he was sentencing each of them to death. When all the injections were finished, Mick carefully placed the hard plastic case back on the outside of the auto injector, closing it slowly to prolong the finality of what he had just done. He then put it back into the red box, which he slipped into his pack.

“
So now we just wait?” Nate asked. “Isn’t that what the note said?”

“
It said that they would be in touch,” Mick said.

“
What does that mean?” Laurel asked.

Mick said,
“I have no idea what it means. If these people …” Mick paused, trying to remember the name of the group without having to dig out the note.

“
The Initiative,” Deep interrupted. “I believe that is what they called themselves.”

“
The Initiative. Right. Thanks, Deep.” Mick gave him a quick pat on the shoulder. “Anyway, the gist I get from the note is that they will know when we inject ourselves. So I’m guessing they must have the technology to find us.”

“
Okay,” Greg said. “But who knows how long that will be? And we have nothing left. No water. No food. Nothing.”

Mick had the answer to that.
“I already gave that some thought. I didn’t have time to tell any of you this.” He then looked to Chester, who looked back and nodded. “But I found someone when I was out scavenging the other day. His name is Solomon. And he led me to a yellow house near the crucifixion zone. I wasn’t able to confirm it, but he told me that there are supplies there.”

“
Mick,” Greg said, startled. “You shouldn’t be going around those parts of town without me. You’re lucky you made it back alive.”

“
I wish that wasn’t true. But you’re right. I was lucky. And stupid for even going there. Unfortunately, that was also where I bumped into that crazy guy that came looking for me yesterday. But what’s done is done. And at least something came out of it.”

“
The Rubble King,” Greg said, thinking back. “That guy was an asshole with a capital
A
.”

“
That’s putting it mildly,” Mick said.

“
So, we’re going back to the house where you saw this guy?” Kathryn asked.

Mick looked at her over his
shoulder and nodded reluctantly. Like most of his ideas lately, this one did not seem like the best one on the surface.

“
Oh,” she said, pondering Mick’s response.

“
So let’s go,” Greg said. “Who cares about that guy? We’ll take care of it.” He cocked his rifle that had been damaged superficially by the storm, but still in working order.

“
It won’t be that easy. It’s not just him and his two buddies that came calling yesterday. You should have seen the look in Solomon’s eyes when they showed up at the house. It was fear. Real fear. The kind you can’t help but show when you feel it.”

“
Okay,” Laurel said, following along. “Who is Solomon again?”

“
I don’t really know anything about him. He doesn’t say much. I could tell the world hadn’t been kind to him, though.”

Nate asked,
“Do you think he’s one of them?”

“
No,” Mick said. “I don’t think so. He didn’t seem to want to leave with them.”

“
So they took him?” Greg asked.

Mick nodded.
“Sort of. He voluntarily left with them. But he didn’t want to. I could see it in his eyes. They must be holding something over him.”

Mick had no idea just how right he was.

“Let’s gather what we can from The Shelter,” Mick said. “Anything useful and easy to carry. Once we get that settled, we’ll head out for the yellow house.”

CHAPTER 21
 

“See you for the lab meeting tonight?” asked a young woman in the hall as Sid hurriedly rushed by.

“
See you there,” Sid lied.

He tried to keep as cool as he could on his way out.
Keep calm
, he kept telling himself.
Don’t act like anything has changed.
Of course, that was easier said than done. Alex knew the truth. But that was because Sid wanted him to know. He needed him to know. And he trusted Alex. But Sid knew it wasn’t as simple as that. He was an integral part of the executive research team. His experience was needed. His ideas and experiments were constantly probed. Phillip would know he had left as soon as he opened the secondary door. And then there was no turning back.

Sid flashed a few more smiles to those he passed in the sterile white hall.
He then quickly banked right and into the men’s bathroom. No sooner had the door swung shut when the toilet flushed. Followed by broken whistling, as if done through dry lips.

The stall door opened.
“Ah, Sid,” Phillip said. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

Of all the people
, Sid thought, frozen in the moment. “Ah,” he spit out.
Say something.
“I just got here.” He realized it was stupid but hoped it would suffice.

Phillip smiled and walked over to the bank of sinks.
“I’m sorry about earlier, Sid. No one ever said science was easy.” He waved his hand beneath the soap dispenser. It burped out two foamy piles into his hand, which he quickly lathered in the steaming water. “I should have been more open from the start about what I was doing. I have a bad habit of keeping things inside. It was my fault for not clueing you in. And for that, I apologize.”

Sid leaned against the stall behind Phillip. His immediate reaction was to debate Phillip, not to let him off that easily.
And Sid fully understood that Phillip was trying to tell him what he wanted to hear. Phillip no doubt wanted this to be swept under the rug as quickly as possible. But things had become clearer since finding out about the accelerant. Sid wasn’t there for that, however. He’d come there to leave. And what he said now was meaningless.

“
It’s all right,” Sid said. “We’re all under a lot of pressure.”

Phillip turned off the water. He shook the excess water
from his hands and then reached below the paper towel dispenser, which promptly ejected one clean sheet. “I’m glad you aren’t angry, Sid,” Phillip said as he dried his hands. “It’s important we all stay on the same path. You’ll see. In the end, what we’ve done will be celebrated throughout human history. We are on a cusp of a new age.”

Sid bit his tongue.
Phillip appeared to be bordering on maniacal now.
A new age? Celebrated throughout human history?
This was what power did when put in the wrong hands. It corrupted the already misguided.

“
I’ll see you at the lab meeting later?” Phillip asked.

“
See you there,” Sid said again.

Phillip tossed the paper towel in the trash
and left, whistling.

Sid
closed his eyes and took a breath. That was way too close. And certainly not what he had expected to find waiting for him in the bathroom. But it was good in a sense. It took him out of his comfort zone. And that was where he needed to be once outside the protected walls of The Facility.

He went to the far
thest stall against the bathroom’s back wall. He put his bag down, which thankfully Phillip had not questioned. Why he needed his bag while using the bathroom was not something he could answer on the fly. He then removed a small clear plastic case with different size screwdrivers in it. For all the high-tech gadgets located within the walls of The Facility, the plumbing maintenance was located behind a rather archaic piece of painted plywood, affixed by six screws. The only reason Sid even knew about this was because one of his source pipes for clean water ran through this wall. A leak had ultimately led him there a little less than a year ago.

After
he removed each screw, Sid would pause and listen. The last thing he needed was more company. The sixth screw fell into his palm and he pushed the plywood off to the side. A labyrinth of pipes was now exposed, twisting in on itself, weaving and bending out of sight far into the wall. Below the pipes was a grate. This was what he had come for. The maintenance crew who had been summoned to fix the leak after Sid tracked it down had told him that it led to the boiler room two stories below The Facility’s main level. He had never envisioned needing to go down there until now.

Four more screws and that grate came off. He then lowered himself into the opening. He listened again. Thankfully no one had to heed the call of nature
while he was doing this. He wasn’t about to wait around for that to change. Sid slid the plywood back over the opening the best he could. He then slid the grate back over his head.

The climb down the narrow ladder was quick. The underbelly of
The Facility knocked and clanked to the point where he could not hear himself think. However, he did not need to think. He needed to act. He had memorized The Facility’s schematics before even attempting this. He understood there would be others down there, mechanical engineers, namely. But they would be few and far between. The maintenance crew was not nearly the size of the research team.

Down a long pipe-filled tunnel he went. Yellow banners that read
“steam” lined his right side, white “sterile” was written in the blue banners on his left. This was the way out.

Whoever designed
The Facility had taken its evacuation very seriously. The obvious way out was through the two large main doors that kept the outside out and the inside in. They were rarely opened and also in plain sight. And when they were opened, it was always under proper procedural guidelines with a full security detail. But what if those doors malfunctioned? That was a question apparently posed and answered by way of this second emergency exit. The one Sid now neared.

The hallway ended
abruptly and emptied into another one that ran perpendicular. He slowly peeked from behind a gathering of valves. Seeing no one, he darted quietly out and to the left. At the end of this hall stood a menacing door, two stories in height and large enough to drive a truck through.

This was it. As soon as Sid
put in his exit code, others would know right away. The Facility’s security system was sure to rat him out. He again checked behind him, nervous about the whole damn situation. Closing his eyes, he made sure this was what he wanted. By doing it he would permanently change his life, and most likely for the worse. But would it really? he wondered. He certainly could not live here any longer. Not knowing now what Phillip had hidden from them all. So there was really no choice to be made. It had already been made for him. He was just speeding it along.

Sid
reached out and entered his twelve-digit exit code.
What if my code doesn’t work?
He hadn’t thought of that. How could he overlook something so obvious? What if Phillip was one step ahead of him already?

There was only one way to know.

He pushed Enter.

“Disengage lock
?” appeared on the small security monitor next to the keypad. A green
yes
flashed next to the more foreboding red
no
.

H
is bag began to beep. He reached in and removed the mobile tracking device he had “borrowed” from Phillip’s lab. The last remaining large green dot blinked several times and vanished. It was quickly replaced by a small blue dot. One by one more of the smaller dots blinked into existence, seven in all.

Dammit. I
’m too late.

His heart sank. This meant that the last group had injected themselves with the accelerant. His mind pleaded with him to hit
the flashing red
no
on the screen. It would do him no good to leave now. There was still time to salvage what he had here. But his gut told him otherwise. His dusty sense of morality made him aware that there was always hope.

With a shaking hand, Sid reached out and tapped
yes
. Flashing yellow lights burst into action. The walls became bathed in their light. Surprisingly there were no sirens or audible alarms, just the lights and undoubtedly a security warning to those that monitored such things. The door’s strong steel pins slid free, and the door swung open. Sid looked behind him one last time before vanishing into the darkness beyond.