Life-After (7 page)

When the meteor was struck our sensors went off line. We lost all communication and could not see or speak to the outside world. By this time we had been confined to quarters as many of the men and women there demanded to know what had happened. I knew exactly what had happened. One of the scientists was a friend of mind and told me about energy detection in space headed towards the meteor. Unfortunately that information came too late as by then I had no way to reach Clara or anyone else.

Angry and distraught I could only think about Clara and what I had left her to. Many of the others did not know what had happened but were able to guess. Some were grieving knowing their loved ones were dead. Others were angry at the military for keeping them in the dark. We sat locked in our rooms for over twelve hours. When the door to the room finally opened many of the soldiers rushed the door ready to attack whoever was to come through. In an instant the room went from a loud ruckus to a dead silence. I looked up from my bunk to see everyone just standing still staring towards the door. I stood up to see who it was, that was when I saw General Davalos.

Richard helped me to my feet. The vehicle had spun of the road into a ditch. I must have been knocked out, my head was killing me. Richard put my arm around him and we began walking out into a large field. It was then I remembered the driver and turned back to look for him. I could see him slumped over the steering wheel. Richard just looked at me and then continued on towards the middle of the field. I did not know where he was taking me. I didn’t see any doorway or opening to a bunker.

In the center of the field was a large bolder. Richard stopped just in front of it and asked me if I could stand. I nodded and looked up towards the sky. It was like something out of the bible, David. Pieces of the meteor were streaming through the skies like shooting stars. I could see the smoke and fire in the distance. I knew millions if not more would lose their lives and I did not know why. Then there were my thoughts of you and what was going though your mind. In my heart I believed you were safe, but I could not be sure. I wanted so much to run back and try to get to you again.

Richard screamed my name startling me out of… well, I don’t know what happened. I looked at him and for the first time saw a look of fear in his eyes. Then I saw it, in the reflection of his pupils a fragment of meteor had hit the facility. I spun around screaming out to you, the impact caused a blast wave that was headed towards us. Richard was yelling something but I could not hear him. I felt him pull on me and I fell backwards. Only then I realized the bolder was the entrance to the bunker.

Inside Richard pressed a button on the wall sealing the door. I could hear the wave blow by and fell down to my knees crying. I thought you had been killed David. The impact was directly on the entrance. I just sat there crying, wishing I was with you. Then I felt Richard’s hand on my shoulder. He whispered to me that he was sorry, but we were not yet safe.

I was caught between two memories, my own and the one Clara was showing me. Everything she felt I felt. I was drowning, unable to separate them. Her thoughts were intertwined with mine as if she were accessing them, reading my memories while I was watching hers. That day the meteor fell, everything changed. Clara and I were less than a mile from each other, we believed the other dead and were both going through hell.

Richard helped me to my feet. I could barely stand. My will to live had been taken from me in that blast. Even the part of me that hoped you survived was pushed down with thoughts that even if you did, we would never see each other again. What I saw outside in that sky was the beginning of the end. What I saw when the piece struck the mountain was the end.

There was not much said as Richard led me down a small set of stairs to a large elevator door. He pressed a red button and a voice came over a speaker above our heads. The voice was from a man, he sounded young and frightened. His voice was trembling as he asked us to identify ourselves. Richard gave his name and service number. Immediately the young man’s voice changed to one of relief. The doors to the elevator opened and we stepped inside. There were no buttons to press there. The elevator began its decent on its own. After a few moments Richard began talking to me.

“
I’m sorry.” Richard said softly. “You need to know something. You need to know the truth of what I did.”

I didn’t understand what he was getting at, but his tone; it was as if he was guilty for what had happened. He looked at me like a prisoner repenting for his sins before execution. I don’t remember saying anything to him. I was still in shock and my mind was not right. After a pause he swallowed deeply and started talking again.

General Davalos was made head of Naxum Research soon after it opened. The job was to have gone to General Pierce who was head of Factor Twelve. The official story was that Pierce retired, but Luis believes he was forced out because of the incident with the Awakened Project. The little I knew of the general was that he was a war hero and a scientific genius. Most people believe it is impossible to be as strong and as smart as General Davalos was, but he was living proof they were wrong.

He did not look like a scientist, tall and built like a tank with a squared jaw he was almost action figure like in his appearance. He spoke like a commander in the heat of battle, but every world he spoke was well thought out. It was him and his team that helped to discover the new energy source and was tasked by President Gardner to work on the Global Science Initiative. General Davalos respectfully turned it down wanting to return to his work with the military.

I only personally talked with the general twice. Once was when I began my job at Naxum, the second was after Clara’s parents died. He took notice of my distraught and spoke to me for almost an hour. I respected him for that and looked upon him kindly ever since. Pretty much everyone respected General Davalos except the few who were loyal to Pierce, they were soon sent packing.

When I saw the general walk through the door I no longer respected him. He knew what was happening and would have had to sign off on keeping everyone in the dark about what was going on. Everyone else was trying their hardest to respect the man and the chain of command. I did not care anymore.

“
You coward…!” I yelled rushing towards him from my bunk. “You knew they would die and did nothing, said nothing. We could have saved them!”

A group of soldiers held me back but I could see they did so reluctantly. It was then I noticed he had come alone. There were no military police or guards of any kind. The barracks had cameras and he would have known how angry we all were and yet he came down there to address us alone. The general just looked at me and then panned over the crowd.

“
I am not going to blame what happened on global command.” General Davalos said sternly. “The meteor the science teams were tracking was on a collision course with earth. The order was given to secure specific citizens and personal in the bunkers. This was kept from the public and from you. This facility can only support a specific number of human beings. Therefore, we were unable to bring anyone else into the facility.

What you need to know is the meteors course was changed. As of yet we do not know who is responsible, but we do know it is not any of the remaining factions on earth. Just as the meteor entered earth’s orbit it was struck with something powerful enough to shatter it. However, the blast only broke the meteor into smaller pieces which rained down upon the earth causing massive damage and casualties. One of the pieces struck this facility trapping us inside. We have teams working on a secondary exit, but we need your help. You have two choices, stay here and think about what you have lost or help us dig our way out so we can avenge those who were killed.”

General Davalos was always one to tell you how it was and accepted the consequences. I am sure many of the people there wanted to stay in their bunks and grieve, but we were soldiers and as such you fight first and grieve later. It was not that easy, it never is, but that is what we did. Nobody stayed behind. I had a job to do and that would have to keep my sadness at bay. Once the job was done it would be hatred and anger that would take over.

Just as Richard was about to speak the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. I stared ahead in disbelief of what I was seeing. There were all the military families, our neighbors David. They were all huddled in a small storage room. The young man ran up to the elevator, he looked no older than nineteen. He saluted Richard and nodded at me. The room was small, no bigger than our living room. At the far end of the room was a massive steal door. At first I thought that they were waiting for us before they would go further in. Richard could see by the look on my face that I had many questions and turned to me to answer them.

“
I first want to apologize for lying to you.” Richard said. “I am, was, with Naxum Research. My name is Captain Richard Dixon. I was transferred to work under General Davalos head of Naxum Research only a few weeks ago. I will cut to the chase. We knew about the meteors change of course and measures were taken to preserve human life, but only specific people. You and the families of the military personal of Naxum Research were not among them. I fought and eventually pleaded with command to do something, but was rejected.

Once it was clear nothing would be done I took it upon myself to save as many people as I could. I found the records on this facility and used my access to gain entrance and then began rounding up the families. You have to understand once your husband entered Naxum he could not leave. They told him nothing and kept him in the dark. Only now is he realizing what happened and most likely believes you are dead.

This facility is far enough underground that it will protect us from any further impact, but that is all it can provide. I did not have time to gather many supplies and this room is the furthest we can go. That blast door head of us has been sealed and cannot be opened. There was an experiment that went wrong and contaminated the entire facility. We are safe from it here but this is all we got.

There may be hope, since it appears the meteor was broken apart, but that hit at Naxum Mountain created a blast wave that has caused unknown damage. In a few hours I will take the elevator up to see if we can leave.”

I couldn’t believe what he was telling me. After the service the men and women of the military had given, after all the lives loss in the war, after all the sacrifices made by their families. In that moment I hated the military, the government, everyone. You had told me so many stories about your time in the service, what happened to your country, your grandparents. I understood it would be impossible to save everyone, but what they did was inexcusable.

I felt faint. Richard led me over to a crate to sit down on. Richard and the young solider began talking. I could hear every word. There were not enough supplies to sustain everyone for very long. It was estimated that if we were not able to get to the surface within a few weeks we would run out of food and water. I was already prepared to die, but I did not want to die like that. Thinking about all the people brought down there just to die of hunger and thirst brought another question to my mind.

“
Why the charade…?” Clara yelled out to Richard. “You called me up and told me a story. Then you picked me up and took me to Naxum. Why? Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?”

“
Because I know what can happen when someone with family attachments find out they are in danger.” Richard said turning toward Clara. “I did not begin my plan with the best intentions. Originally, this bunker was to be only for myself and my wife. When I told her the truth she wanted to try and save her family. I told her she would never make it to them and that we had to go. She cursed me and ran off to them. I knew she would never make it, but I couldn’t go with her.

It was then I decided to save who I could and gather the list of families. As you can see, not everyone listened to me. I had to wait until everyone was deployed or it would never work. I knew I would be separating families, but there was no other way. You were the last one and I went to Naxum hoping to gather more people, but by then the crowd was in a frenzy. We were out of time and now we are what’s left.”

There was much more that I wanted to know but I did not have the heart to continue asking. Over the next few hours I spoke with the families that were there, twenty six people in all. We talked about our spouses and how we hoped they were okay. We tried to comfort each other and when that failed cried in each other’s arms. I prayed that you had someone to support you. I knew about your friend Jonathan at Naxum. Thinking about him, I was jealous, his wife worked at Naxum as well so they were together.

Hours had passed and it was so quiet. Richard and the young soldier took the elevator up to the surface. The families came together hoping that it would be safe to leave. They were gone less than ten minutes. They returned to give us the news. The entrance door would not open and they believed something on the other side had blocked the exit. Everyone started shouting questions, many of them were crying, ready to give up.

In the midst of our panic the entire room began to shake. It felt like a bomb had exploded above us. Everyone was in a panic. Richard and the young solider were trying to calm us down. The shaking continued, we thought it would never stop. Richard had everyone duck behind a group of metal crates near the steel door. The young soldier was walking over to the elevator when there was an explosion. It was only then that I learned the soldier’s name.

Barry, Richard screamed his name out and ran over to him. He was lying underneath one of the elevator doors that had been blasted from the shaft. I could see the elevator shaft had collapsed. There was metal and rock spread out in front the elevator. Some of the families got up to help dig Barry out. He was seriously injured. We knew there was no escape now. That room was to become our grave.