William Johnstone - The Doomsday Bunker

Jill’s heart seemed to twist painfully in her chest. She swallowed hard and said, “I hope nobody gets blown up, including all the dogs and cats.”

“That’s what some of the kids said was gonna happen. They said the bad guys were coming to blow us all up. Is that what’s gonna happen, Mom?”

“No,” Jill said firmly. “We’re going to be just fine, Chris. You have to believe that.”

He nodded and said, “I’ll try.” He didn’t sound convinced, though, and his obvious fear made Jill feel that awful pang in her chest again.

It just wasn’t right. The grown-ups in the world owed it to the kids not to do stupid shit like this. Somebody should have realized what was going on and never let things get this far.

But that would have required the politicians and the media to act like reasonably intelligent adults, she thought bitterly, and nothing in the past seventy or eighty years indicated they were capable of that anymore.

Jill had been out to the Hercules Project several times. She and Trevor had taken a few things out there and stored them in their unit. She knew the roads, knew there was only one way to reach their destination. At this rate, they might not get there in time.

Of course, there was no way of knowing just how much time they had, she reminded herself.

Since they were moving so slowly, she pulled out her phone and opened the maps app. It didn’t take long to find the map of the area where they were. She switched to satellite view and zoomed in on the Hercules Project.

What she saw made Jill catch her breath. She zoomed in more just to be sure she wasn’t imagining things.

A number of years earlier, with the advent of fracking, a natural gas boom had swept through north central Texas as companies tried to reap the bounty of a geological feature known as the Barnett Shale. That had resulted in scores of gas wells popping up all over the countryside. In order for the gas company trucks to get to those wells, roads had to be put in. Most were just primitive gravel roads, but they crisscrossed the area and didn’t show up on maps.

Very few drilling rigs were to be found these days, but the wells already put in were still producing and there were dozens of storage tanks. The companies still needed access to them, as well, so the roads were still there.

Those narrow gravel lanes showed up on satellite view, and Jill saw that one of them led from the road she was on up into the hills alongside the property occupied by the Hercules Project. It came close enough that she and Chris could reach the boundary on foot… if they could get in that way.

Jill lifted her eyes from the phone and realized she was almost to the spot where the gas company road turned off. In fact, she could see the gate that closed it off up ahead. The gate was fastened with a lock and chain, but they didn’t look like they were meant to keep anyone out who really wanted to get in.

There was only one way to find out.

As she drew even with the gate, which was set back about forty feet from the road, she turned the wheel, poised her foot to press down on the gas, and told Chris, “Hang on, kid.”

“Whoa!” Chris exclaimed as the crossover leaped toward the gate. Jill floored the accelerator to get up as much speed as she could before the front end of the vehicle crashed into the wood and aluminum barrier.

The chain snapped under the impact and the gate flew open. The crossover lurched through and came to a stop as the airbags deployed.

Jill was shaken but still clearheaded. She pushed against the airbag and said, “Chris! Chris, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” came the muffled reply. “Dang, Mom!”

The engine was still running, so she pushed the airbag down until she could see again, then started up the gravel road.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” she asked Chris.

“Yeah. I saw what you were gonna do, so I was ready when the airbag came out. It didn’t hit me very hard.”

“Good. I hated to do that, but I think this way will get us to the project quicker. I’m just glad the engine’s still running.”

There had been a chance the collision with the gate would damage the vehicle so much she wouldn’t be able to drive it. The cars on the road were barely moving, though, and her impatience had gotten the best of her.

Trevor had told her many times that she was a little too reckless and impulsive. Under the right circumstances, it could be an appealing quality, but it could also get her into trouble.

This time, the gamble had paid off… at least so far.

The little road twisted and turned through the hills with their scattered clumps of trees. It went past leveled-off clearings with three or four or more natural gas storage tanks on them. Those clearings were usually near large, muddy wallows that were the remains of pools where water from the fracking process had been collected. The gas boom had left its scars on the landscape, but right now Jill was grateful for all the drilling. Without it, this road wouldn’t be here.

“Can we get in this way, Mom?”

“I don’t know, kid, but we’re gonna try.” Jill thumbed the phone on, and said, “Call Trevor.”

All she got was “Call Failed” on the dashboard display.

“Crap.”

“That’s a bad word.”

“I could’ve said worse. We were probably doing good to stay in touch as long as we did. I’ve got to let your dad know about this road, though. He may need to take it, too.”

“I can try calling Bailey on my phone while you drive,” Chris offered.

Jill had never been a strong proponent of giving little kids phones, but everybody did it these days, and for once she was glad she had gone along with a helicopter parenting technique.

“You do that, Chris. This road is narrow and has enough holes in it, it’s probably better if I concentrate on where I’m going.”

Chris’s call to his sister wouldn’t go through, either, he reported, but he kept trying. When they had gone a half-mile or so on the gas company road, Jill spotted a high brick wall on her left, a couple of hundred yards away. That had to be the edge of the project’s property, she thought, remembering how the terrain had looked on the satellite map.

“Mom, I got her!” Chris said as Jill braked to a stop.

She reached over for the phone, took it from him, said, “Bailey, honey, give the phone to your dad.”

“Okay, Mom,” Bailey said, and Jill felt a pang of relief just hearing her daughter’s voice again. She wished she could have talked to Bailey for a moment and tried to reassure her, but there might not be time for that.

“Jill, are you and Chris still all right?” Trevor asked as soon as he had Bailey’s phone.

“Yeah. Where are you?”

“We just passed… let’s see… Verna Trail, but the traffic’s barely moving now.”

“All right, listen close. In another mile or so, you’re going to come to a gas company road on the right side of the road you’re on. It had a gate blocking it, but that gate is broken open now.”

“Did you do that?” Trevor asked quickly. He knew her pretty well, all right.

“Yeah, I did.”

“Jill, are you crazy—”

“I told you to listen to me,” she cut him off. “Take that road, follow it until you come to my car, then get out, bring all the gear if you can carry it, and hike toward the brick wall you’ll see off to the left. I’m pretty sure that’s the border of the project’s property.”

“‘Pretty sure’? Jill, our lives may be at stake here!”

“Stop that. You’re probably scaring Bailey. If you stay on the road until you come to the main gate, it’s going to take you an hour or more. You can cut that time in half by coming this way.”