Kyle West - Extinction

“Tell me who you are, first,” Makara said. “For all I know, this is a trick. And I need you to put your weapons down.”

“You don’t have to worry,” the man said. “Former Lost Angel under Raine, and now I’m one of Char’s Raiders. I’m setting my gun on the floor, and stepping forward. My men will do the same.”

Before Makara could say anything, I heard the thud of guns being set on the floor. A moment later, the man stepped out of a doorway, hands on his head, into Makara’s flashlight beam. Makara’s arms stiffened.

“I’m Lionel,” he said. “Lionel Pierce. We’re all Angels who’ve been hiding up here since the Lords betrayed us.”

I watched Lionel as he spoke, trying to figure out if we could trust him. He certainly looked like he’d grown up in the Old World, and his face was familiar to me. He had a grizzled white beard, and the wrinkles on his face told me he was at least in his late fifties. Maybe even younger, given the harshness of the world.

“I recognize you,” Makara said, “though we’ve never spoken. How many do you have with you?”

“Here, I have nine. If you mean how many Angels are left…there’s no way of knowing that. There’s less every day. They turned on us three days ago, during lights out. Forced the rest of us up here. They keep pushing us back, and we keep going further up. This place is big…far bigger than we expected.”

Makara nodded. “Alright.” She relaxed a bit, lowering her weapon. She motioned us to do the same. “Where are you headed, now?”

The man pointed upward. “We were trying to find a way out of here.”

“Don’t do that,” Makara said. “We have to take this place back. That’s why we came.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Lionel said, “what happened to you guys?”

“We lost the spaceships in an air battle with dragons. We found another one. As soon as we did, we came back here to clean up this mess.”

“Everyone thinks you’re dead. But now that you’re here…if we could somehow band together, we might have a shot of pushing them back. It’ll be hard, though. They have most of the supplies, and they’re working together.”

“We have some extra guns, if your men need them,” Makara said. “And yes, we need to work together…focus on finding other groups and taking the fight to them.”

“Alright,” Lionel said. “We’ll join up, then. This Bunker still has lots of supplies lying around. Weapons. Even food, sometimes. But the Lords still outnumber and outgun us.”

“The only way we can win is by taking the right fights,” Makara said. She nodded at Lionel. “You can take up your weapons again. Let’s get out of this corridor and find a safe spot to make a plan.”

Lionel nodded. “Alright. There’s a corridor nearby that we haven’t explored yet.”

“Lead us there,” Makara said.

Lionel gave a nod and ducked into an open doorway. The men who had waited in the darkness brushed past, acknowledging Samuel and me with nods. They looked thin and tired.

After they filed after their leader, we followed them.

We followed Lionel and his band of Angels into a room that must have once been a dormitory. Several bunks lay angled from the wall, stripped of sheets. A soiled mattress lay haphazardly on the floor. A bulletin board still had yellowed announcements tacked to it. Seeing the evidence of life in this fallen Bunker was haunting.

Lionel turned left. The dorm stretched a long way, and we passed row after row of bunks. In Bunker 108, we had full apartments, but here, it was more austere and militaristic. Beside each bunk was a small, metal nightstand, and at each one’s foot was a metal trunk. Some of the trunks were locked, but others had been busted open, revealing empty interiors.

Once we reached the end of the dorm, another doorway opened on our right, leading into darkness.

“This is the corridor I was talking about,” Lionel said.

“Where do you think it goes?” Samuel asked.

“Guess we’re about to find out.”

Lionel and his Angels went through the doorway. We followed.

The corridor was dark and claustrophobic. There was about a foot of space above my head, and hardly room for two people to walk side by side. The hallway took a sudden ninety-degree turn to the left. We walked a moment longer before it turned ninety degrees to the right. It was a strange bit of planning, and I had no idea what purpose it served.

Ahead, the corridor opened into a wide, cavernous space. Everyone filtered out and stood in the open area, gazing at the room in wonder. Makara, Lionel, and I shined our flashlight beams around. Banks of silver servers lined the wall directly to our left. Ahead, glass windows separated us from a large, conference-style room with rows of computers. The computers were down one level, in a sunken control center accessible only by steps leading down. We stood on a balcony overhanging that room. It looked like a place from which military operations would be conducted. A gigantic screen spread across the far wall of the control room. The display screen, along with all the computers, was dark.

“What is this place?” Makara asked.

“The Command Center,” Samuel said. “Bunker One had a similar setup. I’m surprised there’s one of this magnitude in Bunker 84. It’s nearly as large as Bunker One’s.”

Lionel pointed to a couple of Angels. “Secure the corridor. Raise the alarm if you hear anything.”

The Angels followed Lionel’s command as Makara wandered off, brushing her hand along the servers.

“They’re warm,” she said.

Samuel placed his hand on one of them. Several of the men did the same.

“What does it matter, if it’s not going to help us find the others?” Michael asked.

Both Samuel and Makara looked at Michael thoughtfully, but it was Samuel who spoke.

“Who said we couldn’t do that?”

Michael frowned, wondering at Samuel’s words. Samuel walked to the glass door separating the overhang from the control room below. He pulled it open, walking down the metal steps.

“Leave your men here,” Makara said to Lionel. “We’re going down with Samuel.”

She motioned for Michael, Julian, and me to follow her.

While Lionel and the Angels stood guard, we went down the steps. I was the last one through, letting the glass door close automatically behind me.

The room was surprisingly warm; these computers were also running. They had to be powered, only I didn’t know where from. When the Community lived here, they had gotten their power from the fusion generator aboard Aeneas. But there was no spaceship in Bunker 84, so Jade and the Lords must have devised an alternate power source, or maybe they were using backup power. Whatever the case, they needed power to grow food, pump water, and supply ventilation.

Samuel stood in front of a thin, sleek monitor in the center of the Control Room. He pressed a random key. The monitor came to life, displaying a login screen.

“So it is on,” Makara said.

“We might be able to access the Bunker security system from here,” Samuel said. “If so, we could use the cameras to find other Angels.”

“And enemies,” Julian said.

“Not just that,” Makara said. “We might even be able to communicate. I’m sure an intercom system is built into this entire Bunker.”

“Probably,” I said. “Ours had one, so I imagine they all would.”

Samuel logged in with his username and password. Instantly, the desktop screen loaded.

“Surprised it took it,” Michael said.

“It did at Bunker One,” Samuel said. “It must have updated at every Bunker still online.” Samuel paused, thinking. “Don’t know much about computers, actually. All that stuff I said…I have no idea how to do it.”