Kyle West - Darkness

Soon the corridor widened into an open space, so large that I couldn’t see where it ended. Ahead, several trees stood withered in beds of soil. Had we entered their Hydroponics Lab? That didn’t make sense — if this was like any of the other Bunkers, the hydroponics would be on the bottom level. And this wasn’t hydroponics, because it appeared that these plants had once grown in actual soil.

I paused, flashing my light toward the dead trees and plants. The foliage was as thick as it was lifeless. A disused, overgrown trail curved into it, disappearing from view. When the people had disappeared, it had given the plants time to run amok — before they, too, had died.

Julian and Michael took the opportunity to lay Grudge on the ground. His eyes were still shut. Ashton knelt beside Grudge, placing an ear over his chest.

“His heart is still beating, though faint,” Ashton said. “It’s a wonder how he’s still alive. This warmth will do him good.”

My attention was still riveted on the dead plants ahead. What was it? Why was it here?

“Maybe it was decorative,” Anna said. “Like a park or something.”

The amount of energy and water needed to keep something of this magnitude running seemed hard to justify. In the Bunkers, resources were stretched to the limits — and it was hard to imagine this Bunker having the luxury to support an entire park near its entrance. I guessed, however, it was possible. Whatever the point of these plants were, they were dead, now. This area had been offline for a long while — years, perhaps even a decade or more.

On the ground beside me, Grudge stirred.

“He’s moving,” Ashton said.

I shined my light on Grudge. He winced as the beam hit his eyes.

“Cut that out, will you?” his voice rasped.

“Not too thankful to the people who saved your sorry life,” Michael said.

Grudge turned on his side. He winced in pain. “I feel sick as a dog.”

“You’ve suffered a great deal of blood loss in the crash, and I suspect you are also suffering from mild hypothermia,” Ashton said. “You had a fairly deep cut on your lower leg, but I bound it up and used some congealer on it. With time, it will heal.”

Grudge, with great effort, managed to get himself to a sitting position. “Anyone have water?”

Anna handed him her canteen. He gulped from it greedily. Before he sucked it dry, I snatched it from him.

“That’s enough.”

Grudge opened one predatory eye, regarding me without emotion. I was beginning to wonder if we should have left him out in the snow.

“Where are we?” he asked, voice still parched.

“Inside Bunker 84,” Ashton said. “We’re glad you could join us.”

Grudge said nothing. It seemed clear that this information meant very little to him. His face was completely impassive. Either that, or he was still exhausted.

“Alright. How much longer until we get out?”

“Makara is on her way with Gilgamesh,” I said. “It shouldn’t be long. We’re only in here to shelter from the cold and for a bit of recon.”

“Odin…?”

“Gone,” Anna said.

Grudge nodded. Slowly, he moved to get up. To my surprise, he managed with little trouble on his hobbled leg. Everyone took a step back as if he were a viper about to strike.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I wanted to help,” Grudge said. “I’m tired of you guys leaving me out of things. I knew Makara would never let me on, so I found a place to hide.”

The fact that this was the reason Grudge came along was shocking — so much so that I had a very difficult time buying it.

“You wanted to help?”

I didn’t hide the skepticism in my voice.

He looked at me intently. “It’s like I said at the gang lords’ meeting. I believe in this mission. After what’s happened, I’d be crazy not to. And I’m part of this team now, too. Why did Makara come to us if she didn’t want us part of the team? We need to work this all out, together. That’s why I’m here. I don’t care what you or anyone else says. I’m a fighter, and I’m willing to do whatever to help out.”

“Well, we could use your help,” Ashton said. “But you damn near ended up getting yourself killed instead.”

“It could have happened to any of us,” Julian said. “Besides, he’s right, isn’t he? We wouldn’t have let him come if he had just asked.”

I guessed that much was true. I remembered the gang lords’ summit back in Vegas. Besides Boss Dragon, Grudge had been the one I was most impressed with. He seemed to be concerned with the xenovirus, and not with taking over Los Angeles as the others were. If I could have picked any gang lord to be here, it would have been him. Maybe this was his chance to prove himself.

All the same, I wasn’t going to let my guard down.

He chuckled. “No one would happen to have any food, would they?”

“Eating might be a good idea,” I said. “Then we can plan our next move.”

We all sat on the floor. I set my pack down, and rifled through it. Despite planning on being here for no more than twenty-four hours, we had enough food to last three days. I passed out our first meal — chicken sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, and onion, along with some apples. All the food had come direct from Skyhome, and was among the best we had. We needed all the calories we could get, especially after the cold we had suffered outside. The chill of that mountain air still hadn’t left me.

As we ate our food in silence, I gazed at the lifeless plants in the park beyond. So far, Bunker 84 had been nothing like I had expected. It felt very different from 108 — definitely not as dangerous. It was much bigger than any Bunker I had seen, except perhaps Bunker One. It still needed to be explored to determine its suitability as a home. So far, though, it seemed like a good bet, if you discounted the killer temperatures outside. We needed to find water, and hopefully there would be a stash of food somewhere. Perhaps, like Bunker 108, the power still ran. Maybe even plants grew, further down.

Within a few minutes, we had all finished eating. I found that I was still hungry. Even so, I felt much better with food inside of me. I wanted nothing more than to lie down and rest. The day so far had been exhausting. Checking my watch, I found it was only two in the afternoon. It felt as if it were two in the morning with all we had been through. The darkness inside the Bunker just made me want to sleep even more.

All the same, now that we were inside Bunker 84, maybe Makara could wait on picking us up. Since this place was apparently abandoned, it would make sense to take a look at every section we could. We definitely could not do that in the next hour or so, but we had to make the best of it, before we had to return to the entrance and try to contact Makara again. A full recon would take the rest of the day, and perhaps into tomorrow.

“We have about an hour until Makara arrives,” I said, breaking the silence. “I know after what happened outside the last thing we want to do is recon this place. But we’ve made it. We’re here. And it would be a waste if we returned to the Exodus without solid intel.”

Slowly, heads around the circle nodded. Grudge stared at me.

“First,” I said, “I need to go raise Makara and let her know what’s changed. We still need to recon this place, so I’m going to tell Makara to hold off on picking us up for now. That should give time for the skies to clear. I don’t want her running into the same problem as we did.”

It was hard saying all of that because I wanted out of here as much as everyone else did. But we had a mission to finish.

Thankfully, no one protested. We were all on the same page. I had expected Michael or even Ashton to start taking charge when things went south. But so far, I had kept a handle on everything — even Grudge. It was something to be proud of, at least.