High Pressure System: First Season Underground (21 page)

I don’t know how long I was sick. Once I was up and barely dragging myself around, we searched through my clothes looking for chips.

“They sure did a great job this time.” Micah pulled the fifth one out of my shirt.

“I’m still having nightmares over it.”

Micah stopped what he was doing and stared at me long enough that I had to look away.

“What?”

“Part of my nightmare has come true. That stupid computer is after you. I don’t even want you to leave this room.”

“I don’t want to leave either.” I stopped looking through my sweatpants. “You know what? I don’t want the computer to win like that. We obviously can’t sit and hide in here forever. We won’t survive long if we don’t try to stop it.”

“That’s true. I thought it won a long time ago. That’s why I dug this place out.”

“We don’t know what all those computers have done out there.”

“We know what it has done to the people in the bunkers closest to ours. It said it saved us for last. I’m assuming the rest of the world is lost.” Micah stuck a piece of tape with all the chips on my wrist. “Leave it there until we’re done electrifying ducts.”

“You make it sound so exciting.” I gave him my best effort of a smile.

“It will be if we can kill a bunch at once. I’m actually kind of excited.”

I rubbed the tape on my wrist.

“Get ready. Our eradication team should be here soon.”

“Why?”

“To escort you to our next ‘event’.” He offered to help me up.

I let him pull me to my feet. I was still rather unsteady. He pulled me closer and I leaned against his chest. After he hugged me, he pushed my hair out of my face. “Good to see you’re feeling better.” He started to lean closer when there was a knock on the door. Far too readily, he let me go to answer it.

I hugged my chest as I followed, not quite as ready as he was to venture out.

Aaron and a few other men I didn’t know so well were waiting outside.

“Looky at what I made for you.” He held up a mud colored rubbery jacket and pants.

I eagerly pulled them on before heading out the door.

It was as if I had an entourage as they escorted me up the stairs. The bots scurried after us as expected. It didn’t bother me so much with my protective suit. I was hot though. The inner thighs stuck together as I stepped up each step. I pulled the pant legs tighter against my inner thighs until we got to the intended floor.

I dealt with the sticky pant legs until we got to the middle of the hall. Micah opened the door to an apartment and closed us in before the bots followed us in.

“So Chris is going to the end of the hall. He has the electrodes hooked up to the metal sheeting. It’s only powerful enough to run a current to the end of this floor. We don’t want to run the current too far. We don’t want dead bots falling in the furnace to clog it up or screw up the system. You are here in the middle. We’ll see how many we can nail. I can hear them collecting all ready.”

“They aren’t coming in, are they?” I was trying to look in the vent without getting too close as I took off my glove.

“There’s wire mesh covering the vents so don’t touch the metal. But if you can get those chips closer, it would be something to see how many bots you can attract.”

As I lifted my arm closer, the scurrying escalated.

Micah held a radio up to his face. “Get ready,” he said in the speaker.

“I thought we couldn’t use those things.”

“Usually not. In this case, while the storms aren’t hitting us, we are going to use them.”

“Does Brandon know?”

“What’s he going to do about it when he’s in a hospital bed?”

I trembled a little but still held steady.

“It’s a go,” was said in the scratchy speaker.

A buzzing filled the ducts along with multiple zaps and pops coming out of the vent.

“Oh wow, that’s kind of cool.” I backed up a step as sparks flew in the room.

It stopped for a few seconds. I wasn’t sure if we were hearing live bots clicking or just dead bots settling once the current was gone.

“Ready.” The scratchy speaker announced. “Going again.”

Micah gently pushed me closer. “Reach a little closer.”

“I don’t want the sparks to get me and I feel silly standing here. My arm is tired.” I shook my arm out before reaching for the vent once more.

Micah gave me a rather silly smirk and stood behind me. His warm breath tickled the back of my neck and gave me a shiver. His hand gently wrapped around my bicep. I thought he was being all warm and fuzzy until he moved my arm even closer to the vent. I swear, I could feel the current vibrations far too close to my hand. The hairs on my hand stood on end.

“Stop it.” I pushed against his chest to back away. He wouldn’t let me budge. I stomped on his foot.

“Ow.” He backed off as he limped around the room.

“Don’t make me do something that makes me that uncomfortable again.” I glared at him. There was no way I was going to do what he wanted after that.

“I was just helping you hold your arm up.” He pouted as he rubbed his foot.

“You wouldn’t let me back up. The current was making the hairs on my arm rise and those stupid chips were vibrating.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“I did and you wouldn’t let me move.”

“Hey, maybe you don’t need to get so close. You just need to yell some more.”

The noise and sparks coming from the vent were even more intense than the time before.

“I hate those things.” I folded my arms and plopped down in a chair. “Is this another empty apartment?”

“Yes.” Micah wouldn’t look at me as he paced the room until his foot felt better. “Most of the apartments we’ll be in are vacant.”

“All clear,” the scratchy voice informed us.

Micah slid a large trash can under the vent before unscrewing the vent.

Bots tumbled out the moment he took off the cover. I scooted my chair back but quickly realized they were all dead. That motivated me to help. I was already sweating in the rubber suit before I even started. I pulled the gloves on anyway and scooped up the ones on the floor.

“There are so many.”

“There was another delivery last night. Even after we sealed up the window from the lobby, and went back over the door too, they still find a way in.”

“What can we do?”

“This here, it’s the big plan. We need to go floor to floor to fry them all. We might have to do this daily. It seems the new bots are programmed to find you without the chips.”

“Talk about disconcerting. I guess I’ll just walk silently through the halls from now on.”

“That’s not the worst part. Brandon’s concerned that when they swarmed your apartment, they took your DNA back to NALA. He didn’t say what he thought would come of that except that these bots seem to find you even better than the ones before and whatever they inject you with now might be specific to what will hurt you the most.”

“So the suit is my new best friend?” I asked as sweat dripped down my back.

“It looks like it.” He gave me a sympathetic smirk.

“Lovely.” I was about to take the jacket off when a few live bots tumbled out the vent. “Didn’t kill them all.”

“We should just hurry and head to the next floor before
you
attract more.”

I followed Micah out the door. The crowd of bots that came out to follow us was not so bad. Not until we were in the stairs again and heading through the door on the next floor.

“They’re looking for the party,” Chris said.

“I’ve never been the life of the party before.” I slapped my leg and quickly stifled my laugh when they gave me nothing. I just walked down the hall. “So now he can crack jokes and mine are stupid.”

“Yes, yours are stupid,” Aaron nodded before looking back at me and laughed. “I’m just kidding.”

Then they were busting a gut and I wasn’t. “This is why dogs are better company than humans.” I folded my arms and scowled at the floor.

“You think that’s why the bots wanna be friends with Rachel? Because she doesn’t like people?” His name was Kyle. I was going to rename him Pyle, more like pile of crap.

I shook my head and was done talking.

Micah tugged on the stupid rubber hood. I batted his hand away and followed him to the room while the others set up their electro shock unit in a different apartment.

“Hey, they didn’t mean nothing.”

“You didn’t either, right?” I wouldn’t look at him.

“Why are you so moody?”

“Why are you joining those guys in harassing me? It’s not funny.”

“Maybe because you stomped on my foot and didn’t apologize?”

“I shouldn’t have to say I’m sorry when you wouldn’t let me go when I was uncomfortable.”

“I was just taking a wild guess as to why you decided I was being a total jerk today. Maybe I’m actually just getting you ticked off so you’ll yell more and attract those bots. Hear them?”

Sure enough, there was so much noise from them gathering on the other side of the vent that I backed away.

“You guys ready? Because I think we’ve got a bunch ready to fry,” Micah said in his radio.

“Stand by.”

“Keep talking, or yelling. Whatever you want. Tell those bots how you
really
feel about them.” Micah motioned for me to get louder.

“Now I feel stupid. I’m sick of this rubber suit. It sticks when I walk. I feel like I’m in a sauna. It’s so fricken hot.” I pulled the jacket off and tossed it on the floor. The anger was building and I yelled, “I wouldn’t have to wear the damn thing if it wasn’t for all the little eight-legged-freaks crawling around this stupid hole in the ground. Get out of our ant hill!”

“Good thing Brandon didn’t hear you insult his pride and joy.”

I shrugged and wiped sweat off my forehead. “I’m starting to feel gross again. Did I actually swear? I think I’m really losing it.”

“Have a sit and make sure you holler about how annoyed you are they made you sick.”

I really wasn’t in the mood anymore. The noise from the bots on the other side of the vent was starting to concern me.

“You got something on your foot.” Micah pointed to a bot crawling up my boot. There were a bunch crawling under the door. “Hey, why are they coming in this way?” I searched for something to block the crack. The apartment had nothing useful. I smashed all I could.

“Go,” the scratchy speaker said and sparks flew from the vent.

“Fireworks!” Micah laughed as I backed up. The bots on the floor scurried out of the room.

We did the same thing on every floor for the rest of the day. As Micah and I went back to his apartment, I started to feel guilty that I had been so cranky. He didn’t say a word. With the number of bots greatly reduced, I gave up on wearing the rubber sauna suit. The cool bunker air was a welcome relief and I could handle the small numbers of the bot fan club following me around as we walked down the stairs.

The dogs were happy to see me when we arrived. I stayed on the floor and let them romp over my legs while Micah went to the kitchen area. I kept an eye on him. He was still giving me the silent treatment. Or maybe he thought I was.

“I have something to show you.” He handed me a cup of water and nodded at me to follow.

We walked to the very back of the cave. The place where he planned to keep his chickens and where he had a stack of boxes covered with plastic. He pulled a new curtain aside. All the boxes were stacked against a wall and there was a new bed in the center of the room instead.

“I set this up and stayed in here while you were sick. But this space is for you. I especially felt it necessary after the bots started targeting you, I figured you’d feel better about staying here if you had a place that was your own.”

My eyes blurred and I grabbed Micah and hugged him briefly. “Thank you. I’m surprised you even bothered to show me this today after how grumpy I was.”

“It hasn’t been an easy day, that’s for sure.”

“How come you’re always so … even. Like you never fall apart. Even Jim and Brandon have had their moments. Not you.” I tilted my head to the side as if that would help me figure him out.

“I feel all the things you all feel. See these pick marks?” He ran his hand over the uneven marks on the wall. “There’s my anger. It’s my pain and frustration over everyone that I miss and mourn. The plants, there is my hope and somehow chipping away at these walls takes away the helplessness. I understand what you feel even though I can’t see it. But you’re the only one that has seen how deep my grief is.” He hung his head.

There was a giant lump in my throat. I had to swallow hard before I could speak again.“Thanks for putting up with me.” I turned up the corner of my mouth when he gave my shoulder a squeeze.

When I sat down on the bed, all I wanted to do was sleep. Falling back on the pillows, the dogs thought it was an invitation to join me and lick my face. I pushed them away and opened my eyes, Micah was laying beside me with his head propped up on his arm. He didn’t usually wear button down shirts, probably because he seldom wore anything with long sleeves. I fiddled with one of the buttons so I didn’t have to look him in the eye. He was staring at me and making me wilt.

“You know what I could use right now?” I plucked a piece of fluff off the bristly scruff on his chin.

“What?” He leaned a little closer.

“Pizza. One with all the fixings.” I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. The color of the stone overhead reminded me of bubbly cheese melted over the sauce “I could even eat a cheese pizza. I just love pizza. I sure miss it. When I’m sick, I think about all the foods I can’t have.” I turned on my side to face Micah again. He wasn’t looking at me anymore. In fact, he was on his back. I scooted a little closer and rested my hand lightly on his chest. “What do you miss?”

He was quiet. His hand rested on mine and he sighed. I could feel how fast his heart was beating and then it slowed. “I’ve tried not to think about fast food. I’ve been here longer than you though so I started missing it long ago. I’m sort of over it now.” He rubbed the back of my hand as he thought. “I miss burgers and fries. Chinese food. Going to the movies and having popcorn.”

“I miss soda. There was one place I loved to go to because they got the ice and soda mix just right.”