High Pressure System: First Season Underground (10 page)

We couldn’t open the control room door and Jim didn’t answer. Micah had a master key, but with everyone still in official lock-down and the room being the most important room in the bunker, his key didn’t work.

“Do you have any credit cards on you?” I asked. Weird question since we hadn’t needed them for months.

“Funny you ask. I can’t seem to get out of the habit of carrying my wallet with me.” He opened it up and right in front were pictures of a couple of teenage girls. “My sisters.” He glanced at me while he flipped the pictures over and showed me where his cards were.

I pulled out two. “I’m not sure if this will work. I will slide this one in the door and you try the lock first. I doubt if Marjie’s method will work here.” I slid the card over the sensor just above the lock.

Micah turned the key and the door opened. Thank goodness I didn’t need the other one. I had no idea how she did that part.

I rushed to Jim’s side where he was collapsed on the floor clutching his chest. He was gasping and reached for me. Thank goodness he was still alive.

“Did the storm suck the air out?” I checked to see if his chest was okay.

“I think I’m having a heart attack. I did take some aspirin when the pain started.” Jim started to relax once we were beside him.

Micah examined Jim briefly before he went to the microphone.

“Attention everyone, we are releasing you from lock-down. Do not leave the floor you are on for now. If you see water on the ground, on the stairs, or on any other surface in the stairway, avoid it. It is acid and it will eat through your shoes and burn your skin. I need Jason and Martin from the construction crew to grab a stretcher and meet me near the control room. Doctors, prepare for a heart attack patient.”

“Man, you had to tell the whole bunker?” Jim whispered.

“Sorry, it is the closest thing to an ambulance we have. Rachel, stay here and I’ll hurry the stretcher along.”

I kneeled beside him and  held his hand. “I hope you took the aspirin in time. You were fine earlier.”

“I was fine. This storm got me stressed. I think the shock from learning about my family had me pretty high-strung to start with. I knew water was pouring in and when I left to check on what was going on, it did eat through my shoes. I wasn’t able to tell Brandon in a way that wouldn’t alarm everyone. He is rearranging all his equipment right now. Poor timing I guess. Then you weren’t where you were supposed to be. That’s not your fault. I just couldn’t handle the thought of losing another person I care about right now.”

I squeezed his hand tight and wiped off my tears that fell on his wrist. “Same here. Don’t you leave me.”

“I’m trying hard not to.”

Micah and the two workers entered the room with a hard board stretcher. They strapped Jim on it and the four of us carried him down the stairs to the medical floor. The medical team was waiting for us as soon as we reached the landing. They had him on a wheeled bed in no time and whisked him away, leaving the four of us standing in the doorway feeling a little lost.

“Hey, we need to get back to the clean up,” Jason said.

Micah nodded and waved them off.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the door where Jim disappeared. I took a couple of steps closer to Micah and reached for his hand. He squeezed it briefly before he let go and rested his arm on my shoulders, pulling me against his side to give me a hug.

“I hope he makes it,” I whispered.

“I hope so to.”

In the hall, we sat down on the floor across from the door and waited.

I had to keep drying my eyes. Once I had pulled myself together, I reached for Micah’s injured hand and turned his palm up so I could see his fingers. “They really need to look at this.”

He nodded but didn’t look at me. Micah was watching the same door I was. “You think we can go in?” he asked.

“Maybe we should. Your hand is a really good excuse.” I stood and held out my hand to help Micah up. When I pulled him to his feet, his chest was inches from mine. The urge to hug him overwhelmed me. I turned around instead. He followed me to the door. However, I didn’t want to be the one to open it. If Jim was dying, I couldn’t hack witnessing that.

Micah reached past me and only paused a moment before he turned the door handle. We exhaled in relief at the same time when there was a waiting room on the other side of the door. Brandon was already inside sitting in one of the chairs.

“Why don’t they have a welcome or come in sign on the door?” Micah mumbled.

Brandon was all bent over in his chair, holding his head.

I hesitated near the door as Micah took a seat and there was only one chair left in between the two of them. I leaned against the wall.

A woman in scrubs stepped out of a room as she studied the tablet in front of her.

We were all focused on her and she jumped when she saw us.

“Are you here for a patient or need assistance?” She looked at Micah then at me like an afterthought.

“I’m here for Jim,” I said and was ready to tell her to check out Micah’s hand if he wasn’t going to mention it.

“I’m here for Jim too. As much as I hate to admit it, I think my hand needs assistance.”

“You are part of the crew? I think we have one of your co-workers in the other room. If you can wait a minute, I will check on Jim.”

Micah nodded.

“I thought you were bringing Jim down. What took you so long?” Brandon asked.

“We didn’t know this was a waiting room. We were waiting outside.” Micah was rather gruff.

I wanted to ask Brandon about Jim. It was probably better to wait. Competitive conversation was not something I wanted to get in the middle of with them both in the room. Micah was still pretty upset.

The woman returned and smiled at the three of us. “Jim did the right thing taking the aspirin when he did. Good thing you got there when you did. He looks as if he’s going to pull through.”

It was as if we were all deflating balloons at the same time with the sound that came from us all.

“He needs his rest and we need to keep an eye on his vitals to be sure. If all goes well, you can come back later this evening to visit if you want.” She kneeled down in front of Micah.

I was all too aware she was young and attractive as she looked at his hand and a rush of envy flowed through my body until I saw she had a ring. I glanced over at Brandon. He was watching me. I leaned back on my hands against the wall. She led Micah to a room. It was only Brandon and me with nothing left to do except wait for Micah or leave. I wasn’t going to run away. I decided to stay and deal with what Brandon was going to dish out.

He stood and walked over to me with his head hung low. Brandon looked as dejected as a homeless puppy. My shoulders relaxed.

“You were right. I should have said something to everyone sooner. Maybe Jim wouldn’t be here.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“Or maybe it would have happened sooner if he knew, before you had a chance to get some decent rest.” I flashbacked to the crazed Brandon before he shared the control room storm watching responsibilities with Jim. “He knew I was out of lock-down before the crisis was over. It could have been my fault.” I had to take responsibility yet again.

“It was probably coming with all the stress.” Brandon was about to leave, he paused. “You coming?”

“I thought I’d wait to see how bad Micah’s hand is. How is Marjie? Did you tell her what she wanted to know?”

“I told her I would look into it. That I didn’t know she had a serious boyfriend so I didn’t have answers.”

“It’s not that hard for you to look up, is it? Since we were all evacuated from the same city?”

“No it’s not. She was so shook up, I wasn’t prepared. Don’t worry. She will come see me later tonight.”

“Is that a date?” I asked with a mischievous smile, potential buffer there.

He looked at me mortified. “I never thought of that. She’s awful young.”

“Not much younger than me. I’m just teasing. If I behaved like her though, there would be rumors flying that you two were a thing. Because I’m not like her, you don’t have to worry about that.” I patted his arm to reassure him.

He gave me a little nervous laugh. “Do you think I should wait for Micah?”

“It would be the friendly thing to do. He was risking his life when he took care of the flooding. He does that so you don’t have to.” I stuffed my hands in my sweatshirt. It was the nice thing to do. It sure was awkward though having to deal with them both when I’d been trying so hard to avoid that very thing.

“Oh! No one is in the control room now, are they?” He turned as if he was about to run for his life.

“No, there isn’t.” Why was I so relieved? There could have been a storm about to get us again.

He jogged for the door. “Will you tell Micah to come see me later? I just want to know he’s going to be all right and he had some good ideas on how to deal with this new water issue.”

“Were those his ideas or mine?” I sat down and started peeling the foil off my legs.

“Perhaps yours. There were some other things he said we needed to take care of.” He gave me the briefest wave as he left.

I leaned back against the chair and let out another huge sigh. Alone time was very welcome.

It took a while before Micah finally came out of the back room with a bandaged hand.

“Like I thought. No work for me.” He announced when he saw me. “Big boss man is gone now?”

“No one was in the control room otherwise he would have stayed.” I looked at his enormous bulky wrapped hand.  “Wow.”

“Yep.” His shoulders slumped.

“Do you have someplace to go now?” I asked.

“Why, do you have something in mind?”

“I could use a little help getting my dogs to my apartment. I don’t want them walking up the stairs and I don’t think they’ll let me put the aluminum foil on their paws.”

“That would be funny to see.” His face lit up when he smiled. “I can do that.”

I didn’t need all the foil on my legs anymore. I did need the hardhat to protect me head from the occasional drips that fell from the landings. The stairs looked like they had survived some harsh winters with an immense amount of salt. They were pitted and the stair treads were even more rounded than I thought they were. I had to slow down so I didn’t slip on the sloping edges.

On the community room floor in front of the media and education rooms, everyone had gathered and were having intense discussions in small groups. I slowed down when I had to weave through the clusters of people to make my way to the room where Dobbers, Yodel, and Rocky were still locked up.

Micah was following close behind and he bumped into me when Davis Marshall stepped in my way. I only knew him because he had a couple of rambunctious boys at the school.

“What do you know about all this?”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” I wanted to step around him but a few more people fanned out beside him.

“Aaron says there are secrets about evacuation day. He says the information came from you and Brandon confirmed it.”

“Who told him that, his sister? I believe that is Brandon’s news to share. I don’t know much.” I tried to back up. Micah was too close. Marjie was going to hear from me when I saw her again.

“You know enough.” Harper the harpy chimed in. Always one to stir the pot of contention.

“She barely knows enough. It looks as if you’re trying to incite a riot. You guys, let us go get her dogs. They’ve been locked up for a long time.”

I wasn’t ready to relent yet. “All of you are worked up over rumors. Did you not hear the announcement earlier? Are you oblivious to the fact that someone had to be taken to the medical ward?” I wasn’t sure what came over me as I shoved everyone out of my way so I could get to my dogs. I discreetly wiped away my tears over Jim’s condition.

“What happened?” Carol Wheaton lightly touched my arm.

I shook my head. Changing my mind, I stopped and clenched my fists as I turned to face everyone. “Getting worked up over what you don’t know and creating stress isn’t going to help us survive. You see Micah’s hand? Why don’t you worry about that and how you’re going to keep that acid water from burning your skin and eating through your shoes when we don’t have access to any stores to replace them. How about you all concern yourselves with what happened to Jim. He learned what might have happened to his family and it proved to be too much for him during the storm. Fortunately, he is recovering in the medical wing. That’s only because Brandon was aware something was wrong and we got to him in time. We have to help each other. It is stressful enough. Be prepared. Because when Brandon does tell you, you may find yourself where Jim is now. I need to get my dogs. They are the only family I have left. Be thankful for the family you have. There are plenty of us here that don’t have any.” I turned pressing my sleeves against my eyes. The dogs were yipping at the door. As soon as I opened it, I kneeled on the floor and they jumped up on me to lick my salty face.

Micah squatted beside me. “You’ve been telling a lot of people off today.” He gently touched my elbow. “I’m really impressed. You’ve been right every time.” He turned around on one foot and sat against the wall.

“I think Jim’s distress and his health crisis today has me amped up. I look to him like family now. If something happened to him, who would tell me to quit hiding from one of the nicest guys I’ve met?” I glanced up briefly at him and smiled.

“That’s what he tells you, huh?”

I bobbed my head back and forth. “Something like that.”

He cleared his throat and stood up. “Let’s get your dogs home.”

I had hoped sharing that little detail would help Micah’s hurt feelings and maybe encourage him to stick around once we got to my apartment. In fact, because I was so mortified that I couldn’t let him in last time he walked me home because of the mess, I had been extra diligent keeping it clean. I really wanted him to stay.

He only stayed long enough to play with the dogs outside my apartment. “I have to take advantage of this unintended time off. Maybe I’ll see you later tonight if you go see Jim.” Micah gave me the ‘see ya later’ head bob and walked away.