S. Bodeen - The Compound

Although I was tethered to the hatch by my arm, I was able to bend one knee so he could get a foothold to clamber up to my shoulders.

“Thataway. Now, go on up to my neck.”

He seemed hesitant.

“Lucas, you can lean right on that wall with one hand.”

He was in place, his legs twisted around my shoulders. He hardly weighed anything. “Good job. Okay, here’s what you need to do. Try and reach through the opening where my hand is. See if you can’t push some of that away. Pull it in if you have to.”

My face was tilted up to check his progress. I was rewarded with a clump of dirt right in my open mouth.

I spit it out. “You’re doing great.”

A few more minutes and he had freed my hand. I rubbed the raw wrist. Nothing broken, but it still hurt like hell. I would deal with the pain later. Both of my hands went to hold his legs. I urged him to keep moving dirt. Finally he’d moved enough for me to get my hands through the opening. I set him down so I could work. But I got to a point where I couldn’t reach any more dirt. The hatch was nowhere near open enough. At least not open enough for me.

I looked at him. “Lucas, do you think you can squeeze through there?”

“I think so.”

“You might get a little more dirt on you.”

His eyes widened. “Real dirt? Like where the worms in my book live?”

I laughed. He hadn’t ever seen real dirt. Didn’t realize that’s what he’d been shoving aside for the last half hour. “This is real dirt.” I picked some up from the floor, sifting it through my fingers.

He grinned.

I lifted him up on my shoulders.

“Here I go.” He squeezed through the opening. I felt funny watching his little legs kick, then disappear from my view. Maybe I was feeling protective.

“Okay, Lucas. Now, can you kick all the dirt off the hatch?”

Silence.

“Lucas?”

His muffled voice was loaded with wonder. “Are these real stars?”

My hands clutched the edge of the hatch harder. I leaned my head on the wall. It was nighttime. My voice quivered. “Yeah, buddy. Those are the real thing.”

Kicking sounds started.

Shoving even harder, I needed to see the night for myself. I felt the hatch give way, creaking upward until it flopped over, lying flat.

My head emerged into the summery air, fresh and heavenly. I breathed deep. The breeze blew cool against my face.

Lucas stood there, looking up. His mouth was wide open.

I stepped all the way out. My eyes shifted upward, seeing what he saw.

The night sky seemed like it was there just for us. I’d forgotten how beautiful stars were. And the moon. It wasn’t much more than a sliver. I knelt beside Lucas and pointed it out. He was seeing it all for the first time. It was like the first time for me as well. I stood, and took a few steps as I smiled up at the sky.

There were so many things I’d taken for granted. So many things I hadn’t appreciated. So many things I’d missed. Too many to even comprehend. “There’s so much for you to see. I can’t wait to show you.”

The light from the hatch went out.

I turned around. “Lucas?” The moon wasn’t bright enough to light the night for me. “Lucas?” I reached out, took a step toward where he had last been. My foot brushed the edge of the hatch. I knelt down to touch it.

The hatch was closed. And I was on the outside.

“No!” ON MY KNEES, I POUNDED THE METAL WITH BOTH fists. “Open it! You can’t do this!” I yelled and pounded until I was hoarse and could take no more of the pain shooting up my arm. I sat on the hatch, cradling my wrist.

The night was quiet. Too quiet. Shouldn’t there be search helicopters all over this place? If Eddy and Gram…

If.

That was the word.

What if…

Eddy and Gram were really gone? What if I’d been IM’ing Dad all the time? What if this was just some twisted game, some way to get me out of the hatch? Except he took the code back and truly didn’t expect me to decipher it again. So that there was no chance of me going outside.

Then I gasped and really looked around. Except for the night sky, which would still be there anyway, how did I know there hadn’t been a nuclear war? Dad had admitted so many things, but he could have said anything, made it up. I wrapped my arms around my knees and sunk my head into them.

Why wouldn’t he want me in there, after trying so hard to keep me from finding the way out? I was the only one who could match him, physically. Now that I had found my way out, was there something he had to do without me around? Something I would have stopped him from doing?

The night was chilly, and I wasn’t dressed for it. After a while I got hungry, and I was thirsty, too. It was almost funny, in a way—longing so much to get out, then wishing to be back in.

A whipping sound got louder as a light came toward me from the sky. A helicopter. I was on my feet in one second, jumping up and down and waving my arms. “Here! Over here!” I started to run toward the light, and then realized I might never find the hatch again. So I stayed where I was.

The helicopter moved toward me and landed about fifty yards away. The dust whirled around me, getting in my eyes, my mouth. I covered my face with my hands, peering through my fingers.

As I waited, the propeller gradually slowed as the whining of the engine grew quiet. The night was silent again as the searchlights stayed on. Backlit by them, a figure strode toward me.

“Hey, over here!” I waved my arms again, even though it was obvious the person saw me.

A flashlight shown in my face as I started spilling everything. “I’m Eli Yanakakis, my family is down in the hatch, and we—”

“Man, you got pretty big down there.”

The voice was familiar. I tried to shield my eyes from the flashlight.

Finally he turned the light on himself. Hair a bit grayer. Phil. Dad’s accountant. And, evidently, erstwhile helicopter pilot.

My hand dropped to my side. “What the hell are you doing here?”

He shrugged. “Safety net. You know, your dad was panicked when he called me, he really didn’t expect you to figure out that code.”

I took a step back.

“So, I flew all the way out here to… rectify the situation.”

I glared at Phil. “What are you going to do?”

He ignored me and leaned over the hatch. He rapped the flashlight on it three times. The hatch flipped open. Phil reached into it and helped my father, who stepped out into the night. Phil’s jaw dropped when he saw Dad’s face, already swollen and bloodied from where my foot had connected. Phil asked him if he was okay.

Dad nodded, even though his walk was a little unsteady as he gazed up at the starry sky, just as I had done. He took a few deep breaths and half-smiled, half-winced. “I think it’s time we moved this operation aboveground for a while.”

Phil laughed. “Above or below, you still make more money than anyone on the planet.”

Dad reached over and gripped Phil’s shoulder. “Good to see you.”

Phil leaned his head toward me. “He didn’t get into too much trouble out here. Everything set in there?”

Dad nodded. “We just need to get my family and we’ll be ready to go.”

“Go?” I looked from Dad to Phil. “Go where?”

Dad spit some blood into the dirt and focused on me. “I think it’s time we all got some sunshine. Remember that South Pacific island I bought when you were younger? Phil here has been building us a very nice place. Where we can be a family.”