Hugh Howey - Shift

‘Can you buzz me—’ Jimmy started to ask, nudging the turnstile.

Yani grabbed Jimmy by his collar. Jimmy was no small boy, was growing into his adult frame, but the massive guard practically lifted him over the turnstile as if he were a sack of dirty laundry.

Jimmy struggled in the man’s fierce grip. Yani pressed the end of the pistol against Jimmy’s chest and dragged him down the hall. ‘I’ve got his boy!’ he yelled. To whom, it wasn’t clear. Jimmy tried to twist free. He was hauled past offices in disarray. The entire level looked cleared out. He thought of all the overalls in silver and grey on the stairway earlier and feared for a moment that his father had been among those he’d passed. The crowd had been littered with people from this level, as though they’d been leading the charge — or were the ones being chased.

‘I can’t breathe—’ he tried to tell Yani. He got his feet beneath him, clutched the powerful man’s forearm, anything to take the pinch off his collar.

‘Where’d you assholes go?’ Yani screamed, glancing up and down the halls. ‘I need a hand with this—’

There was a clap like a thousand balloons popping at once, a deafening roar. Jimmy felt Yani lurch sideways as if kicked. The guard’s grip relaxed, allowing the blood to rush back to Jimmy’s head. Jimmy danced sideways as the large man tumbled over. He crashed to the floor, gurgling and wheezing, the black pistol skittering across the tile.

‘Jimmy!’

His father was at the end of the hall, half around a corner, a long black object under his armpit, a crutch that didn’t quite reach the floor. The end of this too-short crutch smoked as if it were on fire.

‘Hurry, son!’

Jimmy cried out in relief. He stumbled away from Yani, who was writhing on the floor and making awful, inhuman sounds. He ran to his father, limping and clutching his arm.

‘Where’s your mother?’ his dad asked, peering down the hall.

‘The stairs—’ Jimmy fought for a breath. His pulse had blurred into a steady thrum. ‘Dad, what’s going on?’

‘Inside. Inside.’ He pulled Jimmy down the hall towards a large door of stainless steel. There were shouts from around the corner. Jimmy could see the veins standing out in his father’s forehead, trickles of sweat beading beneath his thinning hair. His father keyed a code into the panel by the massive door and there was a whirring and a series of clunks before it opened a crack. His dad leaned into the door until there was room for the two of them to squeeze through. ‘C’mon, son. Move.’

Down the hall, someone yelled at them to stop. Boots clomped in their direction. Jimmy squeezed through the crack, was worried his dad might close him up in there, all alone, but his old man worked his way through as well then leaned against the inside of the door.

‘Push!’ he said.

Jimmy pushed. He didn’t know why they were pushing, but he’d never seen his dad frightened before. It made his insides feel like jelly. The boots outside stomped closer. Someone yelled his father’s name. Someone yelled for Yani.

As the steel door slammed shut, a slap of hands hit the other side. There was a whir and a clunk once more. His dad keyed something into the pad, then hesitated. ‘A number,’ he said, gasping for breath. ‘Four digits. Quick, son, a number you’ll remember.’

‘One two one eight,’ Jimmy said. Level twelve and level eighteen. Where he went to school and where he lived. His father keyed in the digits. There were muffled yells from the other side, soft ringing sounds from palms slapping futilely against the thick steel.

‘Come with me,’ his father said. ‘We’ve got to keep an eye on the cameras, have to find your mother.’ He slung the black machine over his back, which Jimmy now saw was a bigger version of the pistol. The end was no longer smoking. His father hadn’t kicked Yani from a distance; he had shot him.

Jimmy stood motionless while his father set off through the room of large black boxes. It dawned on him that he’d heard of this place, that his father had told him stories of a room full of servers. The machines seemed to watch him as he stood there by the door. They were black sentries, quietly humming, standing guard.

Jimmy left the wall of stainless steel with its muffled slaps and muted shouts and hurried after his father. He had seen his dad’s office before, back down the hall and around a bend, but never this place. The room was huge. He favoured one leg as he ran the full length of it, trying to pick his way through the servers and keep track of where his dad had gone. At the far wall, he rounded the last black box and found his dad kneeling on the floor as if in prayer. Bringing his hands up around his neck, his dad dug inside his overalls and came out with a thin black cord. Something silver danced on the end of it.

‘What about Mom?’ Jimmy asked. He wondered how they would let her in with the rest of those guys outside. He wondered why his father was kneeling on the floor like that.

‘Listen carefully,’ his dad said. ‘This is the key to the silo. There are only two of these. Do not ever lose sight of it, okay?’

Jimmy watched as his father inserted the key into the back of one of the machines. ‘This is the comm hub,’ his dad said. Jimmy had no idea what a comm hub was, only that they were going to hide inside of one. That was the plan. Get inside one of the black boxes until the noise went away. His dad turned the key as if unlocking something, did this three more times in three more slots, then pulled the panel away. Jimmy peered inside and watched his dad pull a lever. There was a grinding noise in the floor nearby.

‘Keep this safe,’ his father said. He squeezed Jimmy’s shoulder and handed him the lanyard with the key. Jimmy accepted it and studied the jagged piece of silver amid the coil of black cord. One side of the key formed a circle with three wedges inside — the symbol of the silo. He teased the lanyard into a hoop and pulled it down over his head, then watched his dad dig his fingers into the grating by their feet. He lifted out a small rectangle of flooring to reveal darkness underneath.

‘Go on. You first,’ his father said. He waved at the hole in the ground and began unslinging the long pistol from his back. Jimmy shuffled forward and peered down. There were handholds along one wall. It was like a ladder, but much taller than any he’d ever seen.

‘C’mon, son. We don’t have much time.’

Sitting on the edge of the grating, his feet hanging in the void, Jimmy reached for the steel rungs below and began the long descent.

The air beneath the floor was cool, the light dim. The horror and noise of the stairwell seemed to fade, and Jimmy was left with a sense of foreboding, of dread. Why was he being given this key? What was this place? He climbed down mostly using his good arm, made slow but steady progress.

At the bottom of the ladder, he found a narrow passageway. There was a dim pulse of light at the far end. Looking up, he could see the outline of his father making his way down.

‘Through there,’ his father said, indicating the slender hallway. He left the long pistol propped up against the ladder.

Jimmy pointed up. ‘Shouldn’t we cover the—’

‘I’ll get it on my way out. Let’s go, son.’

Jimmy turned and worked his way through the passage. There were wires and pipes running in parallel across the ceiling. A light ahead beat crimson. After twenty paces or so, the passage opened on a space that reminded him of the school stockroom. There were shelves along two walls. Two desks as well: one with a computer, the other with an open book. His dad went straight for the computer. ‘You were with your mother?’ he asked.

Jimmy nodded. ‘She pulled me out of class. We got separated on the stairs.’ He rubbed his sore shoulder while his father collapsed heavily into the chair in front of the desk. The computer screen was divided into four squares.