Jacqueline Druga - Protocol One

On our return trip back to my room, I spotted Tony opening my door. I called for him and hurried his way.

He handed me a cup of coffee and lifted Joie.

“Oh, wow.” I looked at the cup. “You brought me caffeine. What’s up?”

He motioned his head to my room and we stepped inside. After setting Joie down, he told her, “Hey sweetie, why don’t you go get some clothes and get out of your pajamas? Daddy needs to speak to Anna.”

Once Joie made her way through the adjoining door, I asked Tony. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“Honestly, you were sleeping and there was nothing you could do.”

Tony released a soft growl as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Hating to say so, but I think I was right.”

“You never hate saying you’re right. What’s going on?”

“During our little campfire pow-wow, one of our fire hall disappeared into the darkness.”

My mind immediately went in a different direction. “Oh my God. You were worried about that happening. Tell me it wasn’t a child or one of the women.”

“No, Anna, they didn’t get lost in the dark, they slipped into the dark. Snatched up a flashlight from the bay, and we don’t know what else. They took off unnoticed.”

“Who?”

“Our bad boy Lenny.”

I suddenly felt tense and angry with myself. My insides twisted and turned. Tony was right, he called it all along. One of them would leave. He said it and I refused to believe it. “Do you think they went to get others?”

“Yeah, we are the only means they will have to beat this cold front.”

“Maybe he just wants to get them help,” I suggested.

“At some point you need to stop looking for the good. This survival shit isn’t the time to search for the good in humanity. Not now.”

“That’s not fair,” I defended.

“I’m sorry. But if he was worried about the others at the fire hall, why not ask for our help? He didn’t. He took from us and slipped away. This isn’t good.”

“So you think they’re coming here.”

“Without a doubt. It’s not a matter of if, but rather, when. And in my opinion, knowing the impending weather.” Tony exhaled slowly from his mouth. “We’re looking at soon. Real soon.”

I felt bad for Joie. She didn’t ask to be bounced around like a ping pong ball. Yet it seemed as if life wasn’t much different for her. I had learned that the entire month that Tony pretended to date me in Texas, he had flown back and forth to see her. Joie stayed with a relative while Daddy worked out of town.

Now ‘Daddy’ seemed to be working again and the child was getting bounced around from person to person in the shelter. From Nelly to Spencer to Melissa.

Even to me. I didn’t mind. They always said it takes a village to raise a child. We were the new village in a pretty bad world.

After Tony briefed me on what he knew, he went back out again to look for more information. He called for a switch room meeting at ten. What about Joie?

I asked Nelly if she minded taking Joie while we had our meeting and she didn’t mind. She told me that Joie and the fire hall boy and girl were working on collages of life before the comet. Plus, she was fast falling in love with Joie.

I didn’t blame her.

After I had my coffee, I began to process everything a little better and my mind wandered in my ‘see the good in people’ way.

At the meeting was Tony, Peter, Tom, Abe and myself.

Not that we were the ‘big wigs’, but the office was small and Tony had acquired all the information he needed.

We finished watching some of the interior security footage. In it, Lenny walked round very blasé. Because our bunker was so big, no one saw him walking around with the backpack. The footage didn’t capture him doing everything, which made me suspicious. It did however catch him climbing up the hatch shaft with the black bag and returning without it. He also walked right by the switch office at the same time as Tony and I were there.

He walked right by us and we never knew.

“So,” Tony said. “According to Skyler, everything he took was taken from general consumption. He didn’t touch storage. Only unsecured areas. When we checked the hatch this morning, it was locked.”

I asked. “So he secured the hatch?”

“Looks that way,” Tony said.

Peter questioned. “Do we know what all he took?”

Tony, like some sort of detective, whipped out a little notebook. “Two flashlights from the bay. The remaining boxes of matches that were there. Three cartons of granola and one case of five ounce water packets. He left the boxes. He also took two large beef packs of jerky and a case of twelve vials of morphine.” He closed the notebook and snapped his fingers. “Oh, and the ‘you are here’ map down near the generator areas.

Tom mumbled. “And we know why he took that.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Obviously, to get back in.” Tom said.

“What if it was just to find his way around topside in the dark?”

“Anna, please.” Tony said.

“Please, what? I am just throwing out suggestions. Isn’t that why we’re here?”

Tony exhaled and stared at me for a moment. “Yes. But realistic suggestions. I think one man on foot made it those four miles pretty quickly. He had two spotlights and if he was familiar with the area, he knew the way. My guess is they are coming before the weather gets uninhabitable topside. Pete, when will that be?”

“Temperatures are falling at a couple degrees per hour. Once it hits zero, they better get a move on. For it to reach zero or a little below, we’re looking at two or three days. After that, they’ll never make it longer than five minutes out there.”

“Three days.” Tony said. “What I suggest are round the clock guards on the Bay area and the Hatch. Also vital security monitoring, round the clock. Someone to walk the floors as well. It’s a lot, but it’s the only way. I also want to keep an eye on our fire hall people.”

“What if…” I spoke up. “What if that isn’t the reason he left? What if he isn’t that bad and he just wanted to help those at the fire hall and didn’t think we would, so he took and did it himself?”

“What?” Tony laughed. “Anna, I told you, you are gonna have to lose this ‘people are good’ attitude.”

“And do what? Assume all people are bad?”

“Right now, yes.” He nodded.

“Are you bad? Am I? How about Pete? Not everyone went bad because the world went to shit. I refuse to believe humanity slammed into the ground when the comet did.”

“And right now, thinking that nothing is going to happen, puts you and everyone else in danger. He knew our routines. He learned our weaknesses. He took a map of the complex, for crying out loud, Anna. What else do you need?”

“Has anyone talked to the others from his group to see what they know? To find out his motivation for this?” I asked.

Abe answered “Anna, all due respect, they wouldn’t say anything if they knew.”

“Did we try? No. We don’t even trust them and yet we didn’t give these people a chance. We call them vague names. Fire Hall people, Breast feeding woman, Survivor Two.”

Tom muttered. “Burn girl.”

“Birthmark guy,” said Pete.

“See? The only person whose name we bothered to find out or remember was the man who you singled out, Tony.”

Tony tossed up his hands. “What do you propose we do? Have a chat?”

“Yes. Talk with them. We don’t even know how many are remaining at the fire hall…”

“Every second we waste not getting together a strong defense is another second we put lives in danger.”

“It’s not a waste of time to get more information.”