John Krygelski - The Aegis Solution

“Jay,” Leah said, “you shouldn’t have gone out there.”

He shrugged and answered, “It’s the least I could do. Besides, I didn’t want the two of you wandering around in the cold, trying to get one started.”

“You didn’t go near the circle of vehicles the outside people used, did you?” asked Elias.

“No, sir. Just the parking lot.”

Elias smiled at him. “Thanks. And stop that ‘sir’ stuff, will you?” They shook hands and Crabill moved back, pausing at the doorway. Tillie was jammed next to him in the tight opening, shivering in the cold and staring at her two friends, a look of profound sadness on her face.

Elias and Leah both waved. Tillie, and the others visible through the open door, returned the wave. The two turned and climbed into the yellow SUV parked near the door, its engine running.

Tillie stood clutching Crabill’s arm, watching her two friends as they pulled the doors closed. She had to fight off the urge to run to the truck and jump into the back seat. She knew that if she did that, Elias would only make her get out. After a minute’s hesitation, the truck pulled away, slowly skirting the perimeter of Aegis. She leaned out farther and farther from the door, watching the receding taillights for as long as she could, until they disappeared around the gradually bending arc of the wall.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Wilson, standing behind her and gently trying to pull her inside so the door could be closed. Reluctantly, she gave in, not taking her eyes off the last point where they had been visible. Crabill closed the steel door with a loud slam, dropping the crossbar into the new saddles he had welded on the frame.

None of the gathering had yet dispersed. They were all standing as if rooted to their spots, unsure of what to do next. Tillie, in a daze, worked her way through the people. With a silent nod of her head, she accepted the occasional comment of reassurance that she would soon see Elias and Leah again. Once she cleared the back of the group, her pace quickened and she walked briskly. After putting another turn of the corridor behind her, she broke into a full run, dashing down one hallway and then another, until she reached the access ladder she was seeking. Almost flying up the rungs, she found herself in the mechanical system. Running again, she sprinted all the way to her old den…her, now empty, home for many years, where she collapsed to the floor, sobbing.

Tillie stood alone at the west end of the roof, her body pressed against the inside face of the parapet wall, which stopped at her shoulders, her eyes fixed on the distant point where the road from Aegis disappeared at the horizon. Before coming to the roof, she had added extra layers of clothing, and found some heavy gloves and a parka with a thick, furry hood; yet, the cold still penetrated, chilling her and making her shiver. With the constant roaring of the wind, she did not hear Sweezea approaching, startled when she felt a sudden touch on her arm. Turning, she saw him standing beside a fifty-five-gallon drum, which he had rolled to her spot on the roof using a hand truck.

“Hey, Tim.” She had to shout to be heard.

“Brought you a present.” He slid the flange of the hand truck out from under the barrel. Tillie glanced inside and saw that it was full of chunks of wood. It looked like dimensional lumber, rather than something simply cut from trees.

“Where did you get the wood?”

He smiled sheepishly. “I took apart a few pieces of furniture, mostly sofas, a couple of bookcases.” As he spoke, he pulled what looked like an old-fashioned oilcan out of his jacket pocket, removed the rubber stopper, turned the can upside down over the barrel, and squirted a fluid onto the wood, soaking it. Setting the oilcan aside, he pulled out a book of matches he had been carrying from his last MRE, lit one match and tucked it into the rest, igniting the entire book, which he dropped onto the wood. In spite of the wind, flames leapt up instantly.

Sweezea gave a lopsided grin to Tillie. “I know we can’t talk you into coming inside tonight, so we did the next best thing. Now you can warm up.”

Before she could thank him, she saw Hutson approaching, doing an impersonation of Santa Claus, with a huge bundle over his shoulder.

Despite her mood, she managed a smile at her two friends as he dumped the bundle next to her feet, spilling out a mound of additional wood for the fire.

“Guys, thanks.”

“Least we could do,” Hutson shouted. “Sure you won’t let one of us take a watch for you?”

She shook her head. “I’m sure.”

“Suit yourself. This should hold you through the night.”

She thanked them again and they retreated to the access hatch, rolling the empty hand truck with them. The metal side of the barrel was now radiating heat generously, and she stood as close as she dared, not wanting to ignite the fur on her parka. After she had absorbed enough of the warmth to stop her shivers, Tillie turned back to face the west, again remaining as close to the barrel as possible while keeping her vigil. She watched the sun set and the stars come out for the night, moving occasionally to capture a bit more of the heat from the fire on one side of her body, then the other.

Her wristwatch was under far too many layers of clothing to bother with, so she had no idea what time it was when she felt another tap on her shoulder, startling her once more. This time it was Wilson.

“Hi,” she barked over the wind.

Leaning close to be heard, he shouted, “Hello, Tillie. The others told me you were up here. I don’t understand why. You know that Elias and Leah won’t come back sooner than twenty-four hours from their departure.”

She shrugged. “I know. They want to give the bug time to kill them, if it’s going to, before they come back. I was thinking they might change their minds, that’s all. Anyway, it’ll be twenty-four hours in the morning.”

Wilson began to argue with her, then decided against it. He turned and gazed out to the west, resting his arms on the top of the parapet wall.

They both stood without speaking for several minutes before Tillie broke the silence. “They aren’t coming back, are they?”

“Of course they are,” he replied quickly, trying his best to sound sincere.

“Why? Why would you say that?”

“Elias and Leah are two of the most clever, resourceful, and adept people I’ve ever known. If there is a way to gather food from an uninfected origin and bring it back to us, they will find it.”

She did not respond for quite some time. Finally, she said, “Thanks.” With a single word she conveyed that she did not believe him for a moment.

Wilson fumbled to find something else to say, when she placed her hand on his arm. “Wilson, I’m fine. Okay? There isn’t anything you can say that will make it any better. And there isn’t anything you can say that will make me decide to come inside. Please understand, this is where I need to be. I tried it inside and I couldn’t stand it. Looking at walls with no windows…knowing Elias and Leah might be driving up while I was in there and I wouldn’t know about it the minute…the second it happened…was driving me crazy. Besides…what difference does it make, anyway?”

Wilson began to speak, but Tillie put a gloved finger to his lips. “Please don’t. You might say something that’ll turn on these water pumps behind my eyes again. And as cold as it is out here, I’d have icicles on my cheeks. So go back down where it’s warm. I’ll be fine.”

Despite the fact that much of his face was covered, she could see the concern he had for her. She knew that he was desperately trying to think of the right thing to say that would change her mind. And she could see the exact moment he gave up. “Do you need anything?”