High Pressure System: First Season Underground (22 page)

“Wait here,” Micah got up and sorted through a few boxes. He left the room with one. When he came back, I was ecstatic.

“Brown bubbly goodness on ice!” I let the bubbles tickle my lip before I took a drink. “Now I know I love you.” I closed my eyes and tried to make every sip imprint in my brain. “If only I had known how much I’d miss soda, I would have packed some. This is wonderful. Do you have a stash?”

Micah grinned at me funny and nodded. “Another secret of mine.”

“Since you shared some of this with me, I wouldn’t want you to have to share it with anyone else. You’re secret is safe with me.”

“Well, I’ll leave you. You’re probably tired. I wouldn’t want you to rebound and fall ill again tomorrow. Today was probably a bit much.” He started to leave.

“Wait.” I grabbed his arm.

He turned to face me.

“I’m really sorry I was crabby today. You keep surprising me with things like this little room of my own so I’ll be safe, the soda that made my day. I feel terrible. I can’t seem to do nearly as much for you. Maybe my problem is I feel like I don’t deserve to be friends with someone as nice as you.” I tugged on the bottom of my shirt.

“I don’t even think about that. I just do things. I don’t expect you to do anything back.”

I studied my socks. But I could do something. He was about to step away again and I grabbed his shirt. I had never done anything like it before, not initiated it all on my own. My heart was pounding and flipping all over in my chest when I was getting the nerve to go through with it. When he looked at me to see what I wanted, I quickly slid my hand around the back of his neck and pulled him closer until my lips met his.

I’m sure I surprised him. In the rush that consumed me, fear also trickled in. Then he kissed me back, really kissed me. I had to stand on my toes to wrap both my arms around him.

He held me tight and that felt even better. I didn’t intend to make out with him, and he seemed to pick up on that well enough. I rested my head on his shoulder, he rubbed my back. I could feel his stubble on my scalp as he rested his chin on my head. There was no disappointment coming from him. Just comfort and I was reluctant to let him go.

The next morning we electrified the ducts again since there was an influx of new bots. They were after me even more if that was even possible. We were interrupted in the middle of the day for a bunker meeting.

“That’s great. It gives the bots time to spread out through the bunker again,” Chris said as we jogged down the stairs to outrun the bots.

It was the first time everyone in the bunker had been together since the big spider invasion started. I was in my rubber suit so I couldn’t slide down the rails and I was out of breath trying to outrun the creepy crawlers that took shortcuts down the walls.

I eagerly pulled the jacket off when I was sure they had the community room secure. It wasn’t hard to tell how badly the residents had been hit with all their illnesses. A few appeared to be on the mend. I noticed some of the parents looked quite weary and thin as they were finally reunited with their children that had been in quarantine.

Brandon looked far more frail than ever. Gaunt and hunched over, his eyes appeared abnormally large. He, along with many of the others, sat in a chair. He waved me over.

I pulled up a chair next to him so he could talk to me easily.

“Are they still after you?” he asked.

“Yes, I feel like I’m a fishing lure in this rubber thing, but it’s doing its job and we’re killing thousands of the little invaders.”

“We’re done killing them. We need to capture them instead.”

“What?” I couldn’t have heard him correctly. He had to be kidding.

“I’ll explain to everyone in a minute.” He scanned the room. People were still coming in and settling on chairs or crunching bots that came in through from the stairs. “You look as if you didn’t get as sick as the rest of us.”

“I guess not.” I didn’t want to tell him how Micah had helped me. The two of them still gave each other looks even though they never said anything to each other.

Once it appeared everyone was there, Brandon stood and held onto the table to steady himself. “We’ve been lucky that we haven’t had any more casualties with the current round of sicknesses. I’m not sure we’re done with it yet. The doctors say some of us could be ticking time bombs of something worse. And Rachel has suddenly become the focus of the bots. So that might be relief for some. Not her of course. We have a somewhat risky new plan. We are looking for volunteers. Please discuss with your loved ones before you volunteer.”

The murmuring escalated.

“We have sealed up the two primary areas where the bots are getting in. We have a crew that has killed a large number of bots that have been arriving nightly. Here is the new plan. We need to capture all the bots we can. Steve has created boxes for everyone. You will need the big tweezers he’s supplied or the heavy rubber gloves to stuff them in the boxes without breaking them, no missing parts.”

“But there’s usually so many,” I interrupted.

“Around you lately. That’s why we want everyone else to collect them. Our plan is to collect all we can, reprogram them, and send them back on the drones that come to switch out bots. Every round of bots seems to have a different agenda than the round before.

“I’m not going to announce in this setting what our entire plan is right now. What I need are some volunteers to risk their lives to go outside the building for a specific task.”

That made my heart beat faster and it made everyone fill the room with questions. They were impossible to understand with so many coming at once.

“Why?” I whispered and I turned to Micah. I couldn’t read him and I didn’t know him well enough yet. He was fearless yet was prepared to shut himself away from all of us if he needed to.

Brandon held up his hand to silence everyone. “This is not to be taken lightly. We don’t know if the storms are waiting to ambush us when we leave. The storms have been uncommonly quiet while the bots are here, probably because of how fragile they are and they have a job to do. They are doing it well. However, I feel things could be changing soon. Before you volunteer, understand it is risky. However, it could change everything if it goes well.”

I closed my eyes when Micah was the first to say, “I’ll do it.” My heart about jumped out of my chest in protest.

“I’ll do it,” Aaron said.

“No, son.” His mother crossed the room and yanked his arm to turn him around. “You’ve already had me scared for your life with everything you are already doing. I won’t allow it.”

“Aaron, discuss this with your family first and we’ll come back to you.”

The room was silent for a very long minute. I was feeling it tug at me. A few of the couples whispered to each other, I could tell some of the men were wanting to volunteer, their kids were in tears, the wives were scared.

I knew scared and I knew what was out there. Unlike the rest of them. Maybe that was where their courage came from. Aaron wasn’t convincing his mother. Marjie was in the middle of the conversation. She kept looking at me. She motioned for me, wanting to know if I would do it.

I couldn’t respond.

“We need about three more volunteers if Aaron can’t do it.” Brandon was going to wait as long as it took.

Families were getting even more stressed. That was bothering me more than the flashbacks. The Anderson girls, Alison and Maddy, were hugging their father’s legs as he raised his arm to volunteer. His wife Christa turned away and hid her face against her toddler son’s shoulder.

“I’ll do it.” Mr. Anderson peeled his daughters’ arms off his legs as he stepped forward.

“No.” I blinked several times before I realized that it was me that protested. “I’ll go in your place. Your family is too young for you to take that risk.”

“
You’re
too young to take that risk.” He protested. “I won’t let
you
.”

Brandon grabbed my arm and shook his head slightly. “You had a hard time after, you know.”

“I know what’s out there. I don’t have any family ties in here.” Besides, if something happened to Micah, it had better happen to me too. “Mr. Anderson, your kids, your wife need you more than anyone needs me in here.” I bit my lip so I wouldn’t tear up acknowledging who wasn’t in my life anymore. “I don’t take volunteering for this lightly.” I twisted my gloves round and round in my hands.

“We can tell,” Micah said as he took the gloves. He frowned at me.

“I volunteer.” Marjie pulled her arm away from her mother. “I’m older than Aaron. If Rachel is going to do it, you won’t let Aaron, then I’m going.”

The Coopers protested again. Everyone else started to argue, taking sides.

“Everyone, be quiet,” Micah shouted. No one noticed Brandon had been trying to get our attention.

“I don’t want strife. Unless the Cooper adults consent, the kids may not go,” Brandon said.

“Then let me,” Ben Cooper, their father spoke up.

Everyone turned on him and said, “No!” at once.

“Micah and Rachel have already done so much for everyone. There has to be someone else that will volunteer.” Brandon shifted in his chair until he could push himself up onto his feet. “You can see I’m not strong enough yet.”

“I will,” one of the younger men volunteered. I didn’t know his name. He was quiet and married to a young woman whose waistline had been expanding noticeably lately.

I touched Brandon’s arm and shook my head.

“Someone with family is going to have to volunteer.”

I didn’t even notice he was there, but Jim crossed the room. “I’ll do it.”

Then I slouched deep into my chair. He was the last person that should volunteer. Jim squeezed my shoulder once he was by my chair. “I’m doing much better.” He handed a tablet to Brandon. It had several views of the outside in little squares.

“All right. I have a few more of you I will consult with on our plan. In the meantime, I hope we can get back to normal while everyone collects wayward bots. I need them all brought to the new control room down below daily. Our plan is going to be going into motion as of right now so I need as many as you can find.”

The main meeting was dismissed. Brandon, those of us that volunteered, and his computer smart techies, including Aaron, all went to Brandon’s new control room. Before he opened the door on the landing, he made us stop while bots migrated towards us.

“Collect any that climb on you. Leave Rachel be. Don’t take any off her yet.”

“No, take them off me too.” I started to stomp.

He grabbed my hand. “Be still.”

I fought the urge to stomp and closed my eyes. I didn’t feel them at all on the rubber suit.I could hear their little clicky legs crawling all over me.

“They’re getting those little stinger things stuck in the rubber,” Brandon said. “Get that one that’s near her chin though.”

I flinched big time when someone brushed against my face.

“Open your eyes, Rachel,” Micah said softly.

I did, very slowly. Their legs were flailing even though they were unable to move. However, when I moved once they opened the door, I could feel little pokes on my arms. “The needles go all the way through and I can feel them.” I froze just inside the door.

Brandon grabbed my arms where the bots needles were bothering me the most. I wailed out in pain and in shock. Micah shoved him away, which didn’t take much.

“What the hell are you doing?” Micah stood between me and Brandon.

“Take it easy.” Brandon steadied himself. “That was just enough to give them what they were after.”

“It hurts.” I couldn’t pull the sleeve off with the thick gloves on.

Everyone plucked the stuck bots off me.

“Put the ones I just pressed into her arms in this.” Brandon held out a box for them. Bots were still crawling up my legs.

“Feeling better?” Brandon asked.

“Nope. Not really.” I fought the urge to smash Brandon in the nose as we walked down the hall to the new control room. “When did this get finished?” All the dangling wires were not dangling anymore. The monitors were running and the room was fully functional.

“I finally recruited some help.” Brandon eased his body slowly into his chair.

“That’s good. Is it sealed off and as safe as the one upstairs?” Jim asked.

I took the jacket off and rubbed my irritated arms.

“It’s getting there.” Brandon looked over at me and I turned away.

“You could have warned me. Why did you do that anyway?” I swallowed hard to get rid of the lump in my throat.

“Is everyone in here yet?” Brandon leaned to get a view of the door.

“I believe so,” Aaron said.

“Are all the bots in boxes outside?”

“Oh, no. Sorry.” Aaron left the room to put his box on the floor. When he returned, the door was shut. Brandon turned knobs on his control panel until some of the monitors shut off.

“We are on a really tight time frame here. Thankfully, I have a programming crew. We need all the bots we can get our hands on. The crew’s job is to reprogram them with some sleeper viruses while the rest of you help collect bots until we’re ready for the other task. Rachel, you are the bait so to say. We discovered that the new bots are here to collect DNA samples of some of the residents. Mainly they are after you. We aren’t sure what NALA is after. She might be trying to find what makes you tick, what will make you sick, or something grander. Since we don’t have that information, it is her information seeking about you that is going to be NALA’s fall. We hope that when the bots that have collected what she has been waiting for return, the viruses and other tasks we’ve hidden in the bots will be NALA’s fall. We hope they will be most effective while she is preoccupied with her plans.”

“But that sounds so simple that it will probably fail,” Micah said.

“What if it doesn’t work? You’ve given NALA exactly what she wanted and since you don’t know how serious that is, isn’t that risking a lot? You could be sacrificing Rachel for all we know,” Chris said. He was my new best friend.

“We’re not sacrificing anyone. All it does is buys us time to prepare. Time is the one thing we have not had enough of.” Brandon messed up his hair and finally looked me in the eye. “I’m grasping. However, this is the best plan we’ve come up with. The bots are the only tangible thing we can send back. We can’t do it with anything else she sends to us. If we did try something of our own, it would take more time to prepare and resources we don’t have unlimited access to. All we’ve been able to do is struggle to survive through what she throws at us. Don’t you want to try and fight back?” He looked from one person to the next until he stopped at me.

“Of course I do. That’s why I volunteered. I’m tired of being the bots target.” I leaned against the counter and examined the pricks on my arm. They were very itchy. I squeezed my skin so I wouldn’t scratch.

“What are we to do?” Jim asked.

“The four of you will need to be out there when the drones come in, hopefully tomorrow night. I’m trying to come up with a feasible plan to load the altered bots in the drones and send them on their way before NALA has any idea that something is amiss.”

“Aren’t they still dropping off hundreds of bots programmed to find Rachel? Isn’t that risky to have her out there close to the drone?” Micah asked.

I frowned at him. Sure, he would find a way to keep me from going outside.

“Actually, I’ve been picking apart their programming. Once they’re released from the drones, their only task is to get inside. It is after they accomplish that they begin to search for residents. It is very simple but effective. That’s why we’re keeping it simple sending them back. Suitable too. Send us human viruses, we’ll send viruses back. And short circuit power cords and internal wiring. The great part is, these little guys have some great battery life. So it’s not easy for NALA to turn them off at once. So we need all the bots we can get our hands on.”

“We killed a bunch today.”

“I know. There will be more. Asking the residents to collect them all seems tedious when we know where they spend most of their time. We need to come up with a better method to clear the ducts since we can’t electrocute them.”

Aaron raised his hand.

“This isn’t school, kid.” Brandon waved for him to speak up.

“Can I work on that? I have some ideas.”