Jacqueline Druga - Protocol One

“If we can channel more power.”

“We’ll do it tonight, when we lower lights. You can take a break from it if you want.”

“Nah, I’ll keep trying. What else is there to do down here?”

Hearing Tom say that made me think and on our way back to Hive Two I said to Tony. “You know, thinking about it, Peter may have a good idea.”

“What are you talking about? A romantic fire with Pete is a good idea?”

“Not that,” I playfully hit his arm. “Going out. Everyone has been down here. He said this is the only night temperatures will be tolerable. Then they’ll drop. We should tell people to get air. Fresh air.”

“It’s not all that fresh by what Peter says.’

“But an hour won’t hurt and it may help morale.”

“Morale isn’t low yet. Not yet. And do you have any idea how dark it will be?”

“If we light up the bay it will cast some light. Then we can light fires.”

“And call every survivor in the area to our fences.”

“Little fires?”

Tony grumbled.

“Besides, I told you I want to witness every phase. Absolute dark is a phase, and what better way to see it than when it’s not too hot or cold?”

“Tell you what.” Tony faced me. “I’ll think about it. But before we tell everyone, and everyone heads out, we check it out. We go out there and make sure it’s okay.”

“We?”

“You and I. One thing is for sure. You want to experience absolute darkness? You will experience absolutely darkness.”

I didn’t understand why Tony was making such a big deal about it. It was dark. If he thought I was going to be bothered by it, he was wrong. Little did I realize, I was about to find out how ‘dark’ absolute darkness actually was.

We told no one but Tom and Duke, that we were going topside. I felt it was rude, because Peter kept on asking me to go outside with him. I also wanted to invite everyone. Tony handled that by saying he just wanted to make sure nothing lurked out there.

Duke broke apart two wooden crates that were down in storage, and helped carry them up to the bay. We placed them on the floor by the doors along with a small can of gasoline.

Tony reached for the doors and unlatched them. “Hang back, Duke. Give us a few.”

I figured at that moment, Tony and I would carry out arms full of wood. But he only opened the door.

It was black. Even though every light was on in the bay, it didn’t shine out that far.

“Oh, wow, it’s dark.”

“You think?” Tony took hold of my arm and we stepped outside the door.

I took a deep breath. The smell of ash and burning still filled the air along with a slight odor of sulfur, but the air felt good and the temperature was comfortable as we stood outside the open blast door.

“It’s not hot anymore,” I said.

“Seventy-eight.” Tony moved me a few feet.

“Oh, the wood.”

“Not yet. You want to experience absolute dark.” He reached back and with Duke’s help, the door closed. “Welcome to absolute black.”

There were certain things in my mind that I associated with complete blackness. Blindness, the uncertainty of afterlife, floating in the abyss. Never did I imagine it could be so dark. My heart instantly raced and the second I felt Tony’s fingers slip from my arm, I panicked.

I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.

I stepped into a black pit. It was so encompassing it was nearly mind blowing. It was a darkness my eyes would never adjust to. It had a foreboding feeling as if I were waiting for something bad to happen. Waiting for something to jump out at me.

“Tony.” I called his name.

“I’m here.”

“Where?”

He touched my hand.

I screamed and he laughed.

“I’ve had enough,” I said. “Okay. Let’s go.”

“Let’s take a walk. You wanted to experience it.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Come on, I got you.” His fingers gripped around my hand and he moved.

“How can you see?”

“Um, Anna? I can’t.”

“We’ll never get back if we go too far.”

“We’ll get back.”

Walking through the darkness was much more frightening than I thought it would be. Tony kept walking and I swore we would be too far out. I inched up closer to him, bumping into his back. “This wasn’t my best idea.”

“Nah, it’s a pretty good one. Pretty awesome if you think about it. There’s a beauty here, if you just let yourself feel it.”

“I’m good.”

A flash of light shot upward and it caused me to scream. It looked like it came from nowhere, when in fact it was Tony turning on a flashlight.

He laughed, and making sure he had a guiding hand on my arm, he aimed the light to the blast doors. We had walked ten feet. In the darkness, the unknown, it seemed like we had walked forever.

“Feel better?” he asked.

“Yeah, I do.” It was still odd. The darkness absorbed the light, it didn’t extend far at all. There was nothing for it to reflect off of.

Tony opened the blast door and I welcomed the bright lights and the sight of Duke.

“How was it?” Duke asked.

“Dark,” I replied with a nervous chuckle.

“What do we want to do?” Duke looked at Tony. “We nixing the fires?”

With a stammering, “Uh’, Tony glanced back out into the dark. “Leave it up to the people. If they want to go out, they can stay close to the bunker if we light a couple fires. Like Peter said, this is the last normal temperature we’ll have for a while. But, no kids. I don’t want to take a chance they run off into the dark. How fucking scary would that be?”

“Personally,” Duke said. “I think going out there is nuts. I’ll wait it out.”

“What about you?” Tony asked me. “Did you get enough?”

“Oh, no, I’m going out with a campfire. Maybe for a few minutes. I mean this was Peter’s idea.”

“Really?” Tony said snidely.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Before he could answer, his name was called over the radio and Tony lifted it. “Yeah, Tom. I’m here. We just came back in. I’ll be up if you want to step up.”

“No, that’s not it,” Tom said. “You may want to get up here. We made contact.”

Tony and I ran top speed down the stairs and to the switch room. There was a feeling of hope that consumed me. Yes, it had only been two weeks since impact, but to suspect life extended farther than our bunker was one thing. To know it was another.

We arrived and Tom looked as if he felt agitated.

“What’s wrong?” Tony asked.

“They aren’t saying much,” Tom replied.

“Bad signal?”

“It’s not great, but it’s there. They just aren’t saying much. Like they’re playing games.”

“Can it be local? Maybe the fire hall?” Tony suggested.

“I doubt it. They’re gonna need some power behind the antenna. Knowing the limitations with the cotton candy cloud, I’m gonna say this is not local. I mean it could be.”

“But you think it’s one of the three. Which one? Omega Man, Damnation Alley, or Threads?”

I interrupted. “Wait. You just named movies.”

“Yes,” Tony replied. “The secret bunkers were named after disaster and apocalypse movies.”

“That is so ridiculous. You probably just reached locals who are saying, Yeah, we’re Omega Man.”

Tom shook his head. “No. I did not call out to them. I just called out. They replied Damnation Alley.”

Tony’s eyes widened. “Oh my God.”

“What?” I asked.

“That’s the main one. That’s the one in Texas where Gil went.”

Another instant shot of adrenaline filled my body and I could feel the blood pump fast.