William Johnstone - The Doomsday Bunker

“Yeah.” Larkin squeezed her shoulder. “But it’s safe now… until they’re activated again.”

“That’s right,” Deb said from the Jeep. “So we’ve got to get out of here. We can’t afford to leave the perimeter unprotected for long.”

“But I told Trevor and Bailey to come in this way,” Jill protested. “They never would have made it to the gate in time by staying on the road.” She saw the look on her dad’s face and knew there was something else she wasn’t aware of, something bad. “What is it?”

“The Russians have nuked England,” he said. “And there are missiles from them and the North Koreans targeting the west coast right now. It looks like they may try to march those missiles right across the country.”

“You mean right across us,” Jill said. Her insides felt more hollow than ever.

“Yeah. We’ll try to knock them down with anti-missile defenses, of course—”

“But some of them will get through.”

Larkin sighed. “More than likely.”

An explosion sounded not too far off, making all five of them jump. It wasn’t a nuclear blast, though. Deb looked toward the main road and said, “That was one of the mines along the front of the property. Someone made it over the electrified fence, although I don’t see how. We’ve got to go, so the command center can turn these mines back on.”

Susan said, “You mean someone died over there, just because they were trying to get to safety.”

“There’s nothing right or fair about it,” Larkin told her. “But that’s just the way things are. If Graham let in all those people out there, then we’d all die. It’s that simple.”

Susan caught her bottom lip between her teeth. A couple of tears rolled down her cheeks. “I know,” she said. “It’s just—”

“I’m telling command to activate the mines,” Deb said as she held up the walkie-talkie. “Come on !”

Larkin pushed Jill and Susan toward the Jeep. “You girls get out of here,” he said. “Take Chris with you. Deb, how far back does the mined zone extend?”

“It’s fifty yards wide along the entire perimeter.”

Susan clutched at Larkin’s sleeve. “Patrick, what are you going to do?”

Larkin didn’t answer her directly. Instead he told Deb, “Tell command to reactivate the mines, then leave the walkie-talkie with me while you take my family back to the bunker. I’ll stay here and wait for Trevor and Bailey. When they show up, I’ll call command and they can turn off the mines again until they get over the wall.”

Deb looked skeptical. She said, “I don’t know if Graham will approve that…”

“You’ve got to give the rest of my family a chance to get in,” Larkin argued.

“What if people who aren’t residents here try to come over the wall?”

Larkin went to the jeep and picked up his AR-15 from the back of it. “I’ll stop them,” he said.

Susan stared at him in horror.

Jill was more pragmatic. She took her mother’s arm and urged her into the Jeep. “Come on, Mom,” she said. “We need to get inside while we still can.” She had to swallow hard. She was heading for shelter without knowing if her husband and daughter were going to survive. But they were beyond her help now. Their fates were in the hands of God… and Jill’s father.

They had to make it.

Larkin watched the Jeep jolt off toward the buildings and the entrance to the underground bunker. The worry crossed his mind that he might never see his wife, daughter, and grandson again, but the knowledge that they had a good chance of survival bolstered his spirits some.

Not many had even that much of a chance, he thought as he looked around the hills. He was up just high enough to catch a glimpse of the skyscrapers in downtown Fort Worth poking up from the southeastern horizon, about ten miles away. It was mid-afternoon, and by nightfall the city might be a flattened, smoking, radioactive ruin. These hills could be swept clean of vegetation, all of it burned away by the blast wave. Radioactive fire would consume everything above ground, leaving only ash. Not even memories, because no one would be alive to have them.

From where he was, he could see part of the old gas company road Trevor would have to use to get here. He forced his attention onto that short stretch and kept it there, praying he would see his son-in-law’s car come bumping along the gravel lane. Trevor was a smart guy. He would be able to find the road…

The walkie-talkie Deb had left him crackled. She said his name.

“I’m here,” Larkin replied as he keyed the mike.

“Patrick… there are reports that missiles aimed at Texas have been detected in the upper atmosphere. You have to get back here now .”

“Trevor and Bailey aren’t here yet.”

“The bunker will be sealed in fifteen minutes or less. There’s no more time.”

Larkin felt sick, but Deb was right: there was no time for that. He said, “Are Susan, Jill, and Chris safe?”

“They’re all down here, and they won’t be allowed to leave.”

“Good. I’m staying put for a while longer.”

“Patrick—”

“Deb, tell Graham I really appreciate what the two of you have done. And if things don’t work out, tell my family I love them.”

“Patrick, you need to—”

A flicker of movement from the road caught Larkin’s eye. He interrupted Deb again, saying, “Wait a minute! I think I see—Yeah! That’s Trevor’s car. Tell command to deactivate the mines.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I recognize the car. Please, Deb.”

For a moment, there was silence on the walkie-talkie, broken only by the faint crackle. Then Deb said, “The mines are deactivated. But the time is very short, Patrick.”

“Got it. I’ll let you know when we’re clear.”

“No need. Surveillance cameras, remember? Just get out of there and back here as quickly as you can.”

“Will do.” Larkin turned the walkie-talkie off. He didn’t need any more distractions now.

He got them anyway, as more movement caught his attention. Trevor’s car was out of sight from his position by now, but he could still see that other stretch of road.

And several vehicles had just roared along it, obviously following Trevor, no doubt in the hope that he knew where he was going and that there was some sort of sanctuary at the other end of the gravel road.

Larkin’s heart sank even more. For those people, it was a false hope. They were doomed and didn’t know it yet. All along, Larkin had tried to keep his emotions hardened against what might be coming. Now that it was actually on the way, that was even more difficult.

Maybe… maybe it would be better to stay out here and die along with everybody else. What kind of world was it going to be for the survivors? Empty, devastated, depopulated. Humankind had never dealt with the sort of disaster this promised to be.

Not since the last extinction event, anyway.

But that was why the success of the Hercules Project and other, similar projects was so important. So that this wouldn’t be an extinction event. So that the torch of humanity on Earth wouldn’t be extinguished. Even if only pockets of people survived here and there, life would continue and one day the world would be fit for living again. Education, history, some semblance of culture could be preserved. It was all a slim chance, of course… but better than no chance at all.

Larkin heard car doors slam not too far off and ran toward the wall. “Trevor!” he shouted. “Trev, over here!”

“Patrick?”

The sound of his son-in-law’s voice made a surge of relief go through Larkin. “This way!” he called. “Throw your bags over the wall!”