Jacqueline Druga - Protocol One

“Then count on it.”

“Music to my ears.” He turned again.

“Can I ask something dumb?” I said. “Can I ask how long you wanted to do that?”

“Honestly?”

“Yes.”

He looked over his shoulder, then turned again. “Since the first day I met you.”

“Even though you labeled me fairly attractive?”

“I was being professional.” Tony winked. “Goodnight, Anna.” He leaned forward, kissed my cheek and headed back for the door.

I reached out and grabbed his hand. “Do you have to leave? I know you’re tired, and I understand.”

“I’m not tired,” he answered almost too quickly.

“Then, can you stay?”

“No.” he exhaled. “I cannot. Doing that, and leaving my daughter alone it another room, even for fifteen minutes, because let’s be realistic that’s pretty much the time frame, would make me a bad father.”

“Tony?”

“What?”

“Shut the door.”

He smiled, reached back, and he did.

August 18

My room as a mess. Tony became worse with making sure every exit was covered, at all times. He even started quizzing Tom and Peter on things on the monitors just to make sure they were paying attention.

In doing so, he was out on the floor, the bay and below a lot. My guilt over implying that he didn’t do a good job with his daughter, manifested with me taking over the role.

Being a sitter for Joie wasn’t a chore, it was what I needed. She was fun. I never had a daughter. She worked diligently on her pre-comet world poster. She cut pictures out perfectly, and pasted them on a huge piece of cardboard. I believed it would take her months to finish it. She worked at a slow pace and positioned things like a perfectionist.

Because Joie was an artist she reminded me of Jackson. She was so meticulous about her work, yet disorganized with everything else.

She worked on the little table in my room, and when she left in the morning or went to bed, she left it a mess.

Scissors, glue, pieces of paper everywhere. Every morning before I started my day, I cleaned up her mess so it was tidy and neat for her to begin working on again when she returned.

Tony came back and got her. Nelly was taking a field trip with the kids down to agriculture. They were going to collect eggs and get some sun.

Well, ultra violet light.

I was also guilty of that.

There was something pleasant about it, even with pecking chickens at my feet and that horrible smell. It was some variation of the sun. Something we hadn’t seen in weeks. If it hadn’t been for the fires burning, the world would have been dark long before it went black.

I thought about joining them on the field trip and then head up to monitoring to work with Peter on watching… nothing. Nothing but black. We continuously tried to use night vision, but it didn’t work.

Damnation Alley station turned out to be not a bad connection. The radio guys lightened up, at least when Peter and I called them.

Getting ready to leave, placing the final marker in the box, I noticed Joie had left her sweater.

I dressed her warmly, but it was cold in the bunker. There was nothing we could do about it, and Duke cautioned against pushing the boilers.

Craig said if we kept it at a cool temp and wore warm clothes we would be safe from hypothermia.

The nights were increasingly getting colder, and on the previous two evenings, I had stolen Joie and brought her into bed with me to cuddle and keep warm.

Tony looked at me strangely, even offering to help out there, but I said that wouldn’t be fair to Joie who needed the body heat. Plus, I didn’t want to deal with Joie asking why Daddy and Anna were in the same bed.

I already had to deal with, “Why did my father just kiss you?” comment, and that was over only a peck to the cheek.

I changed the subject with Joie.

Thinking of her made me think how cold she would be. She was so thin as it was. I couldn’t believe Tony forgot the sweater. It irritated me, but then again, I wouldn’t say anything to him. It would only fuel the ‘I’m a bad father’ comments which still popped up intermittently.

I also knew the reason Tony forgot it.

He was pretty excited.

He seemed less tense and smiled. “It’s D Day.”

Thinking he was getting excited about the prospect of trouble, I asked him to clarify.

“It’s the day where I believe, I will be proven wrong. And you know, what? I’m happy about that.”

It took a second and I finally understood what he meant. It was already a few degrees below zero with temperatures rapidly dropping. Peter predicted that by the end of the day, by the time we had dinner, it would be somewhere around thirty degrees below zero… if not more.

Unless they had arctic gear, they weren’t making it the four miles.

There was a possibility that an impending attack was waiting right outside out walls, maybe even hiding out in the pharmacy down the road. They could have lit a bonfire, but it was so dark light didn’t carry.

Thirty degrees below was possible. But any lower was highly improbable.

Peter and Craig both agreed that if those who remained and survived outside weren’t somewhere protected and with heat, then they weren’t going to survive.

Ten minutes of exposure meant death.

Breathing in the air… was deadly as well.

Until the sun came back, and that was a long ways off, things would be nothing but a big deep freeze. Even after the sun returned, it would be like living in northern Canada.

So it was D-Day. If nothing happened, nothing would. Not yet and not for a while. And when it was possible again, for example when the sun came back out, we wouldn’t be blinded by the dark and we would see them coming.

I didn’t sweat it. I didn’t worry about an attack. Tony had things far too well covered.

While Tom and Tony talked about having a little relaxation party, unexpectedly, I cautioned against it.

“Let’s just wait,” I told them. “When temperatures are stable at an unsurvivable level, then we will celebrate.”

They looked at me strangely, but agreed. They were indulging in wishful thinking more than I was before they prepared.

Even though it was only a few days, Tony was tired. He worried a lot, barely slept and constantly checked on things.

He needed a break and some relief and I prayed he’d get it soon.

By the time I took Joie her sweater, they had gotten bored with the chickens and were on their way back to the lower floor of Hive Two.

Nelly said she was going to read with them.

I went to the switch room and was somewhat dismayed because Peter was already on the radio with Damnation Alley.

“You didn’t wait for me,” I said as I entered.

“They radioed us,” Peter replied.

“Anything new?”

“Nope. No other contact.”

“What’s the surface temperature?” I asked.

“Negative eighteen. Tomorrow at this time we will be at a chilly negative thirty.”

I peered up at the monitor that showed the outside. It was black. “It is even on?”

“Yeah it is. We had to retract it to clear the frost. That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Any good gossip?”

“Nope. It’s boring. We need you and Tony to fight again.”

I shook my head. “I’ll pass. That stressed me out.”

I leaned back in the chair watching the monitor. That was our job. Just watch the black screen. See if a speck of light danced around, something. The day before, watching a black screen actually made me sleepy.

Four hours and counting, I thought, until Tom showed up to take over.

I wished I had a more important role to play in the ‘protect the community’ plan. But I suppose monitoring a black screen was a big deal.