Eve of Destruction (6 page)

“If you can't hear me as well as you'd like, use the big round dial. The one that looks like it belongs in a science-fiction movie.”

Mrs. Goring's voice was back.

“Give them a little time, they'll start moving around. Like mice trapped in a maze.”

She wasn't talking to me, or at least it didn't seem like she was, not just then.

“You can see them?”

“Sure I can. So can you.”

The room had six monitors inside: four on the wall directly in front of me, plus one on each of the side walls. Below the monitors there were control panels from what did look like a 1950s science-fiction movie. And there was the dial, below the center monitor on the far wall, just like she'd said. The monitor above the dial crackled to life and there was the bottom of the ladder, where we'd come in.

“This is starting to feel familiar,” I said, walking to the dial and turning up the volume on Mrs. Goring.

“Too loud,” she boomed into the room, and then with an audible click the screen changed and there she was, staring at me. The entryway on the screen was gone, replaced by wicked old Eve Goring. She controlled the monitors from the outside, or at least some of them.

I cranked down the volume to a reasonable level, then spoke:

“If you hurt Marisa—if you hurt
any
of them—”

“You're hardly in a position to threaten me. Better you listen and do as you're told.”

I screamed in frustration and pounded my fists on the metal door, then kicked it way too hard and screamed again from the pain. I sat on the concrete floor and felt like sobbing with anger. Sobbing from being controlled, for being dumb enough to fall into a trap, for fear I'd lost Marisa for good.

“Stand up, you coward,” Mrs. Goring said. “You've got work to do.”

I looked around the room once more and saw the dark, frosted glass above Mrs. Goring's face in the monitor, where a camera had to be positioned so she could watch me. I made a mental note to find something heavy so I could bash the glass in if the need arose.

You wanna play games? I'm good at games,
I thought.

I don't know, bro. This ain't air hockey. She's a crafty old warhorse.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Keith.

“Here's what you need to know,” said Mrs. Goring. “It's dangerous down there.”

“Ya think?” I mocked. From what little I'd seen of the surroundings, there were a thousand different ways someone could get hurt. “What is this place?”

“It was a missile silo, a long time ago.”

“Liar.”

“Oh no, I'm definitely not lying. You'd be surprised how many abandoned underground facilities like this there are. We were a jumpy bunch, back in the day.”

“And I'm in the observation room?”

I had managed to find the place where my key card would be inserted; unfortunately, the mechanism for accepting the card had been destroyed.

“I hit it with a hammer. You can't get out, Will. Not unless I let you out. And that's not happening until you get what I sent you down there for.”

“The vials.”

“Yes, the vials. And like I said, it's dangerous. There will be obstacles.”

“Like what? Rats?”

“Worse,” she said, turning my sarcasm into something I was actually worried about. I watched the monitor as Mrs. Goring disappeared and the screen returned to a view of the entryway. They'd returned there, and I tried to pick out Marisa in the group, but the camera was far away, so they were just bodies milling back and forth.

“There are still some, shall we say,
hot
locations down there.”

“What do you mean, hot?”

“Nuclear. It's why they put these things underground, Will. Also why I don't swim in the pond.”

“Are we being nuked down here, Mrs. Goring?” I couldn't think of any other way to ask a serious question.

“Only if you enter the wrong rooms or open the wrong doors. Watch the dials—they'll tell you if someone has gone someplace they shouldn't.”

I walked up to the control panel and found a series of round dials like speedometers on a car dash with words under them.

GREEN ZONE LEVELS

RED ZONE LEVELS

BLUE ZONE LEVELS

O ZONE LEVELS

The needles were all hovering softly around the number 2 out of a total of 10. At 6 the numbers turned red.

“There are also some electrical problems,” Mrs. Goring said. “Look to the left of the door, there's a schematic.”

I turned and saw a tattered piece of paper about a yard wide with zones and rooms and passageways. There were hazard lines all over it.

“The lines indicate places where the floor has caved. There's a lot of electricity pumping through the water in those holes. Keep your friends clear.”

When I turned back in the direction of the monitors, Mrs. Goring's face had returned. She'd moved from being only heard to being seen again, which had an unexpectedly calming effect on my nerves. Seeing her made me feel closer to the surface, closer to getting out alive.

“Look familiar?” she asked.

Part of me wanted to put my fist through the glass surface of the screen. She was staring at me like she held all the cards and knew it. And she was referring to the room she was in, which did look familiar. She was standing in the bomb shelter. Obviously she had more control over those monitors than I'd had a year before. My guess? There was a hidden panel of buttons I hadn't been aware of, controls she would now use to communicate with me at the times of her choosing.

“So you don't see a problem with one or more of the six people you sent down here falling in a hole and getting fried?”

“Not really, no.”

“Is there a chance someone might find a drum of atomic sludge?”

“Only if they open the wrong doors, and you control the doors.”

That was interesting. Apparently I controlled the locks on the doors, which meant I could also limit where everyone could go.

“Any bombs down here?” I asked, moving in closer to the monitor, trying my best to remain calm while I searched the space around her head for anything that might help me get out of an abandoned missile silo.

“They've all been dismantled, but some of the parts are still down there. Someone much smarter than you might even be able to piece something together if they had the right tools.”

Yeah
, I thought.
And shove it down your throat.

“And you think I'm just going to agree to help you find these vials?”

“It's your call, Will.”

“And it's your war with this guy, not ours.”

“I'll find someone else to do it if you won't. But your friends won't last long without your help. There are a lot of wrong turns down there. I know the right turns; the ones that will keep them alive.”

I yelled at her and fell heavily against the door with my back, sliding down to the floor, where I sat staring at the concrete.

“Calm down, Will. They're not going anywhere until you unlock the doors.”

“Why are you making us do this?” I pleaded.

“I already told you. So I can kill Rainsford.”

“But you don't even know where he went! This is insane.”

“I have little doubt that he'll be back. It's only a matter of time.”

I stood up, reached into my pocket, and felt the thing that I had found in the woods.

He's already back, you fool.

He's back and he's going to kill you first.

I didn't know for sure he'd returned, but it was a possibility. One thing was for sure: Mrs. Eve Goring wasn't alone at Fort Eden.

She looked at her watch and then back at me, an icy resolve in her voice.

“You don't have a lot of time. Hours, not days, Will.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“There's no water down there you'd want anyone to drink. And there is some radiation, trace amounts, but enough to cause some problems if you stay too long.”

“I'm not telling them that.”

“I figured as much. You do like your secrets, Will.”

Maybe she was right. Maybe I did like holding my cards close to my chest, but what good would it do them to know they were gulping down mouthfuls of deadly air with every breath? It would be panic. Better they didn't know.

“How long do I have to finish this errand for you?” I asked.

Mrs. Goring glanced at her watch again, and when I expected an answer, she turned to the left as if surprised by something. I thought I heard a knock, but I couldn't be sure where it came from. Was it from outside the observation room door or from the bomb shelter?

“I have to go,” she said nervously. “Open the blue door first and send two of them through.
Only
two, no more. Once they're on the other side, lock them out. Don't send anyone else yet. The controls are self-explanatory. Do as you're told and this will all be over before you know it. I'll check back in half an hour.”

“Wait—I'm not locking anyone—”

The screen went dead before I could finish what I was going to say, and I listened as the muffled pounding outside the door continued.

Mrs. Goring was gone.

I didn't really have a choice, at least that's what I told myself. She'd leave us all to die if I didn't get what she wanted. But I also didn't think it was going to be useful to freak everyone out by getting into the actual gravity of the situation. If I managed to get everyone out alive, I could tell them later, when less was at stake, and they'd forgive me. At least I hoped they would.

The control panel for the room was like a giant surveillance system switchboard. If it hadn't been for the hazardous situation I was in, I think I could have spent all day checking that thing out. It was retro-cool, covered in mechanical doodads that hadn't been touched in ages. There were clunky, round knobs begging to be pushed, and levers that looked like gearshifts for tiny race cars sticking out all over the place. Dials, meters, buttons, and red glass covering bulbs designed to light up and warn someone if the world was coming to an end. The door features were marked with helpful notations:

OPEN BLUE ZONE DOOR

BLUE LOCKDOWN

O ZONE LOCKDOWN

OPEN RED ZONE DOOR

RED LOCKDOWN

It was obvious that some of the controls opened doors while others automatically shut and locked them without anyone having to do anything on the outside. The reason for this kind of mechanism, I figured, was to act as a failsafe if an accident occurred and something nuclear needed to be contained, lest the whole place end up crawling with atomic energy. There were switches for the six monitors on the walls. Each had a number, and lining them up with the printed map against the wall by the door, I figured out what they were. These were communication devices, ways for not just me to talk to them but them to me. I switched them all on and found myself looking at empty corridors, wide open rooms, the entryway.

“Hey, you guys, over here!” I yelled, trying to lure them to a communication station where they could hear me. But they just stood in the entryway, looking confused and scared. I started clicking random switches on the console, yelling into the monitors.

“This way! Follow my voice! Hey! Hey!”

I could see them all standing around the exit, looking perplexed and saying things I couldn't hear, and then Connor seemed to understand as he pointed toward the red zone and ran off camera. Everyone followed but Ben Dugan. He watched them leave, then looked up the tube leading to the top of the way out.

“Don't do it, Ben,” I said, but he couldn't hear me from where he stood. There was no audio, only visual at the entrance. “Don't be an idiot.”

Ben started climbing up the ladder and out of my line of sight just as one of the monitors filled with four angry faces staring back at me.

“What the hell is going on, Will?” Kate asked.

“This is good!” I said. “I can see you. I can hear you. Can you hear me?”

“Where are you?” asked Marisa. She was curious and scared, her eyes focused on mine.

“You can see me, that's excellent,” I said. “I'll be able to tell you where to go.”

In hindsight, it was not the right thing to say at that particular moment.

“You're out of your mind if you think we're taking orders from you,” said Alex. “Just answer the question—where are you?”

I searched the different monitors for signs of activity and saw none. Ben was still missing.

“I'm locked in a room at the end of the green tunnel. I can't get out and you can't get in—it's how she planned this. I had nothing to do with it.”

“Oh really?” asked Kate, pushing Alex aside and filling the entire screen with her face. “It feels more and more like you two set this whole thing up. How'd you know to go down there?”

“I didn't—I mean, she gave me a green key card, but still—you guys left me . . .”

“Yeah, right. Whatever you say, Will.”

“Either way, we're all stuck down here until we get the vials and bring them to Mrs. Goring. That's the truth. I know as much as you do.”

“Where are the vials?” Connor asked, leaning in close next to Kate, which made Kate move off as she rolled her eyes.

“Everyone just listen carefully, don't freak out—and first things first: if you see a hole in the floor anywhere do not—I repeat,
do not
get anywhere near those things.”

“You're scaring me, Will,” Marisa said. Everyone else started shouting about what a jerk I was and why didn't I come out there so they could hold me down and take turns punching me.

“I'm locked in, okay? I can't get out or I would. And Goring's not letting any of us out until we get what she sent us down here for.”

“Why does this feel familiar?” asked Kate. “Us in the middle of a huge mess and you off somewhere hiding in a corner.”

I didn't have time to fight with Kate and figured my best play was to dive right into the instructions.

“I have a map in here, it tells me where to go and how to get there. She's giving me instructions as we go. I'll relay them to you and before we know it we'll be out.”

“No way I'm trusting you or that lady,” said Alex. “No way.”

He glanced around, searching for something, and mumbled to the others, “Where's Ben?”

“He's trying to climb out,” I said. “I saw him go up, but he hasn't come down yet. I have a feeling he's not going to be very much use.”

“Ya think?” asked Kate sarcastically. “He's barely holding it together.”

“Just listen to me!” I yelled. The only way they could hear me was if the S1 button on the console was switched to the
ON
position when I was talking. I knew this because the next thing I said was “Shut the hell up, Kate!” after I turned that button to
OFF
.

“I can read lips, you know,” she said, and this, for some reason, made Connor laugh.

I turned the audio back on.

“While we're on the subject of the area around the exit, I can't hear you guys from that position—I can only hear you when you stand next to one of these stations.”

“How many stations are there?” asked Marisa.

“According to the map, there are five. Is there a metal box behind you, to the left?”

I'd seen the box on the map marked
emergency
and wondered what was inside.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Connor, vanishing from the screen. A few seconds later I could hear but not see him telling me what was inside. “Two flashlights, and they work! And a first aid kit, too bulky to carry around.”

“Great, maybe take some basics out—Band-Aids or whatever—the flashlights are an awesome find.”

Things were looking up.

“Two of you need to go back to the entrance and follow the way toward the blue zone/O zone. That's what Goring told me—just two people, the rest will probably be going in the red direction, I'm not sure. And before you ask, I don't know why. On the blue side you'll find a door, which I can open from in here. Once I've got two of you on the other side, I can guide you to another communication station.”

“What's on the other side of the door?” asked Connor. “What's the map show?”

“Hold on,” I said, because, really, I had very little idea myself. I'd only had a few seconds to look at the map and hadn't really taken it all in. I backpedaled across the room while they took turns yelling instructions at me I didn't listen to. The blue zone/O zone led through the door and down another round corridor.

“I think maybe Alex and Connor would be best for this,” I said, hoping mostly to keep Marisa safe from two hazard areas that ran along the path behind the blue door. There were two pitted-out floors in that direction, two chances to fall in and die.

“Must be bad,” Kate said fearlessly. “Or you'd send your girlfriend that way.”

“I'm not his girlfriend,” said Marisa.

“Oh, I think you are,” Kate said, grabbing Marisa by the arm and dragging her off screen.

“Marisa!” I yelled, but Kate had either overpowered her or talked her into it, because Marisa didn't return as Connor leaned his entire fat head into the screen.

“You want me to chase after 'em or what?”

A huge moment of indecision swept over me. Connor was the biggest and strongest of the group, so I wanted him with Marisa in case anything happened. But he was also vying for her attention, and being Connor, he presented a serious threat to my getting her back. And adding him would make three, which exceeded what Mrs. Goring had told me to do. It would be risky defying her orders.

I watched as Kate passed in front of the camera at the entrance and Marisa willingly followed, the two of them quickly past my ability to see in a few short seconds. The blue door would stop them soon enough, so technically I had as long as I wanted to think.

“Start by getting Ben Dugan out of that shaft before he falls and breaks his neck,” I told Connor. “Let me look at the map again.”

“Roger that,” said Connor. He could be surprisingly agreeable when there was something important to do that required his attention. He and Alex took off down the hall and I used the few seconds I had to look more carefully at the red zone tunnel, which told me all I needed to know. That direction held even more hazards to fall into. I returned to the controls, trying to understand as fast as I could how everything worked. It wasn't like the bomb shelter, where only one monitor could be on at a time, and with all of them on it was mostly disorienting, too much information coming at me all at once. I realized what it must feel like to be a night security guard watching a bunch of black-and-white monitors of what essentially amounted to nothing moving. The images were all grainy, oversaturated color.
⁸
All six monitors projected views of haunted, unmoving space. Long, round passageways of rusted-out metal and missing sections of floor, empty rooms strewn with garbage and manuals and old office furniture, a wall of closed doors, giant empty spaces with looming, curved silos. It was the view of a place forgotten, filled with a hundred ways to die, crumbling slowly and silently into oblivion.

I forced myself to look away from the monitors and focus my attention on the map one more time. I took a deep breath, really drinking in the whole of the underground facility.

Marisa and Kate would be standing at the blue door, waiting for me to open it. Connor and Alex and Ben, they'd be leaving the main entrance and going back to the communicator near the red zone door.

While I was lost in the details of the map, a familiar voice filled the observation room without warning.

“Send the two girls together, they'll be fine.”

I felt a blinding urge to rip the door open, but of course I couldn't, and turning around I saw that Mrs. Goring had returned.

“I'd appreciate it if you could stop sneaking up on me like that. It's freaking me out.”

“You've been down there for almost forty-five minutes. Progress needs to speed up.”

“I'm working on it,” I said, watching her but also watching the other monitors in case Connor and Alex returned. “Which way is safer, blue or red?”

“Smart boy. You see by the map there are two ways around.”

“Just answer the question, will you?” I asked, peering back at the map and running a finger along the red path.

“Red is safest,” she said.

I'd come to see Mrs. Goring as a liar and a cheat. I didn't trust her.

“Why do I have to close the blue door once they're on the other side?”

She wouldn't answer me and seemed, once again, distracted by something I couldn't see.

“Only one door can be open at a time,” she finally said, her attention returning. “That's the trick. Otherwise you get a wind tunnel full of something you don't want to be breathing in. It's especially true once you open the O zone.”

As best I could tell, the O zone was comprised of a gigantic room at the end of the blue tunnel.

Still, blue was safest, not red. I felt it in my bones.

“Once you get two of them on the other side of the blue door, get the rest through the red door. Same thing, close it when they're through. I'll be back with more instructions. Don't fail me, Will. I'm watching.”

She was gone in a flash, and the central monitor switched back to a view of the entrance, which seemed to be its resting position when Mrs. Goring wasn't bothering me with instructions. There I saw Connor and Alex, yelling up into the tube, trying to coax Ben back down to earth.

“There has to be a way to turn on some audio in there,” I complained.

I flipped switches and turned dials but there was nothing, just silence from the place where we'd entered, but I did discover something important in all my tinkering. The switches for the cameras swiveled, which I hadn't realized at first. Each switch had a round knob sitting on the end of a metal rod—the shape and size of half a straw with a marble for a head—and swiveling one to the side like a joystick, the camera whirled slowly into a different position. It was like moving the side mirrors on my mom's car back home.