Jacqueline Druga - Reset

“Ok.”

“No, it’s this uppity gala and she’s texting.”

“Yes, Nora, people text.”

“She knew the whole thing. Her behavior is odd.”

“If you want to discuss odd behavior.” Jason nodded once toward the door.

Nora looked over.

Exhaling heavily, John sighed out as he dropped yet another box by the door. “They were stacked there.”

Malcolm followed and placed a box down. “Last one or you wanna grab one more?”

“This should be good.” John said. He opened the flap of a box and pulled out an object. “I only took four of these, they are heavy. Any idea what this is.” He lifted it up. It was half the size of a car battery, with a handle and reflective top.

Malcolm took it and examined it. “It’s a solar battery. It’s a backup source for solar powered equipment. But it can be utilized elsewhere…”

“Sweet. We will need these.” John smiled.

Guiding Nora toward the door, Jason stepped to them. “John, what are you doing?”

“In case this door opens and nothing is there. I want everything out of here before the timer ticks down.”

Jason drew up a quirky look. “Are you that convinced things are bad?”

“I’m smart.” John said. “And this is my plan B. Seriously, if it is bad. It’s best to be prepared. If it’s early, we could emerge to a violent world, if we overslept, nothing will be good anymore.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Jason said.

“Call me what you may, but you’ll be calling me for food when you’re hungry.” John stated smug.

“Guys,” Amy said and pointed. “Twenty seconds.”

The digital time counted down while the eight of them waited by the door. Jason, Nora, Malcolm and Grant had two backpacks each.

John, of course, had what he could grab from the storeroom.

Amy, Meredith and President Thomas optimistically had nothing.

Ten seconds…

John inhaled deeply and bounced from heel to toe. He was closest to the door and he turned to look at those behind him. Each had placed on the clothes that were in their locker, no longer did any of them wear the comfortable drawstring pants. No longer did they look like lab experiments.

“Aren’t we all going to look silly with all this stuff when this door opens and people yell ‘welcome back’?” John asked the group.

Jason tossed a serious stare his way.

“Maybe not,” John cleared his throat.

Five.

Four.

Three… Two… One.

A deep buzz rang out and the door slid open.

John’s allergies, would act up for sure, after all, according to Dr. Harrison, it was April. At least he missed those dreadful winters in Connecticut. Those were some of the thoughts that raced through his mind. None of them ever considered an elevator was behind the countdown door.

Yet, sure, enough it made sense why they couldn’t get it open, when it slid from left to right.

The opening of the door exposed a huge freight like elevator, one everyone hesitated in entering.

Using his foot, John pushed a box to ensure the door remained open, they started moving their belongings in there.

“None of you are gonna help?” he asked. The others just entered, moving to the side of the items John shoved inside.

Appearing frustrated, Jason set down his backpack. “I’ll help. Only because you’re so darned adamant about this. You’re scaring me.”

“Little voice of your savior not chiming in and telling you give it to him?” John asked with sarcasm. “Get it, the big Christian saying, Give it to God.”

A slight growl rolled from Jason’s throat, yet he continued to help move the boxes inside.

Soon enough Malcolm and Grant joined in, along with Nora. Meredith was agitated and the president urged them to hurry because he just wanted to get topside.

They got what they could inside, not everything fit, and John didn’t want to waste time, especially knowing the lab would be decontaminated.

The door to the elevator closed. John turned and faced the rear of the lift. Another door was there and he was willing to wager, that was the one that would open once they were lifted to the top.

With a shift, the elevator moved and they began to rise. It moved slowly and steadily for a long time. John figured they were deep in the belly of the complex.

Very deep.

Supplies surrounding him, John waited impatiently but didn’t show it. Even with his doomsday attitude and ‘just in case’ ways, John was optimistic. To him, when the elevator doors opened those supplies wouldn’t be needed, he’d be the butt of all jokes when the group of scientists, along with his pissed off wife, were there to greet him.

The spark of nerves fluttered in the pit of Jason’s stomach when he thought about reaching the top. He closed his eyes and said a prayer. To those outside the elevator it was seven months, to Jason it was only five days, but he missed his wife as if it were a year. His daughter, just a baby at the time he left, was probably walking.

He had missed so much.

Jason spent five days not only mentally preparing, but losing the anger. He was angry, someone took control of his life, his family’s life, and he wasn’t given a choice.

He wanted answers and those answers were just moments away. After he greeted his family, Jason was going to demand the truth. Why was he chosen? What made him special? Why would they do this to the world?

Who exactly was it that released the virus? Whose decision?

Mind racing, eyes glued to the door, the elevator jolted to a stop and Jason’s stomach flopped once more.

Hundreds of feet below they spent days with white, fluorescent style lighting. The elevator had the same clinical white lights. Jason expected when the doors opened to see the same light.

Instead… there was no light.

The door slid open and there was a wall of darkness. The elevator lamps cast enough light into the room for them to see it was empty.

No one was there.

No group of scientists, no family… not a single soul.

Tiny particles of light pushed through the slats of the tightly closed blinds on the windows to the room, doing very little to brighten the lab.

A large lab, void of people, filled with the stench of ‘stale’ was abandoned and apparently had been for quite some time.

Jason caught the sound of Amy’s whimper when he himself groaned out a quiet ‘no’ stepping from the elevator.

‘Someone jump out and yell surprise’, Jason thought. ‘Please jump out’.

No one did.

“This is a mistake,” Jason said with rushed breath. He spun and looked behind him. The others barely moved, they were in some sort of state of shock. “This is a mistake.”

Using the glow from the blinds as a guide, he hurried through the lab, bumping into chairs and other items as he made his way to the end of the lab.

He heard the call of his name, but he ignored it.

He had to see.

Where was everyone? Where were the scientists waiting to greet him? His family? Perhaps they actually woke up early. After all, Malcolm said the door timer started once the first Genesis unit revived.

At the end of the lab, to the left, was a door. A solid door with window panels on the side. He pushed on the door and stepped into a small reception area.

No bigger than a bedroom, the room had four chairs and a desk that contained a computer, no power of course. As Jason moved toward the next door, he paused and trailed his fingers across the surface of the desk.

Dust.

So much dust his fingers created an embedded mark. He rolled the dirt between his fingers and walked to the double doors in the reception area. He turned the handle.

“Jason,” Nora called his name.