Alluvium (27 page)

Luckily, the entrance, or in their case exit, was just where she had suspected. She laid Hollis down where they were, safe at the moment in the clearing, then she rushed to the door. Taking off into a full sprint, she nearly rammed herself into the door upon arrival, being difficult to decelerate in the awkward exosuit. She managed to stop just before impact, and regaining balance, tried the keypad, revealing itself lifeless as well as all the other electronics in the area. Thankfully, the manual locks were designed to counter an electrical failure. Autumn grasped the mechanical turn-handles and pushed. Nothing. She tried again, putting her entire weight on it for maximum leverage, but again nothing.

“Come on!" she screamed, attempting the handles again, but having the same effect.

Frantically, Autumn peered through the glass porthole on the door, and through it saw the resistance she was confronting. It seemed that Saul and Maven had activated the manual counter locks from the outside, used only for extreme cases of containment, thus proving to be impassable on their end. Hollis and she were trapped in the glass dome, with fire and without life-support systems. This would be where it all ends. The very place where, a few hours earlier, she felt alive, was now where she would die.

Terrified, Autumn turned back to Hollis who was turning about the grass in painful agony, extracting the lodged nails from his body. The fire was closing in, now having taken over the entire middle of the garden and illuminating it like a lantern in the night. Flames continued to consume all plants and life encountered, soon to consume Autumn and Hollis if nothing was done. She could feel the increasing heat even through the temperature regulated and air conditioned armor of her exosuit, and she could only imagine what extreme heat Hollis was experiencing in his exposed state. Concerned for his well-being, she ran back over to him as he was extracting the last of the nails from his thigh.

“Hollis- the door, it’s locked from the outside. I can’t get through," she cried.

Hollis tossed the blood painted nail to the grass at his side and sighed. "I know."

“So what are we going to do?! The fires coming!"

Hollis was oddly at peace while looking around at the approaching flames, studying his gardens death in an almost academic manner. It appeared time had slowed down for him, and only for him, as if their situation was not as urgent as Autumn professed so loudly. They had all the time in the world.

“Hollis!"

“You’re going to be okay, Autumn," he said stoically. “You’re going to get out of here."

“What are you talking about?" she urged.

Hollis stood himself up, bearing the pain. He pointed away from the flames to another place in the garden. “There, do you see it? That’s your exit. It’s something no one knows about but the builders of this place and myself. Come on."

Slowly, he made his way to the place in question with Autumn at his side. Once there, Hollis fell down to his knees and lifted an overgrown fern from its roots. A large clump of dirt and soil was gutted from its basin and revealed a shallow metal frame beneath. It was a hatch, just big enough for one.

“This is an emergency maintenance hatch that will lead you through an underground tunnel. It’s not oxygenated, so make sure you keep your helmet on at all times. At the end of the tunnel, you’ll see a ladder that will lead you to another hatch. Make sure you strap yourself to the ladder as you decompress, then you can exit onto the desert plain safely. You’ll be a few hundred meters from the garden. Once you get outside, you need to get to your Crawler as quickly as you can, but make sure you’re unseen if they’re still outside, which I’m sure they are."

“Hollis-"

“Then, when you’re in your Crawler, go straight to the valley. Go to the forest," he said, beginning to break his strong demeanor. “I want you to give birth to our baby there, okay? I want that to be the first thing our baby sees in this world, nothing but the trees and you.”

“Why-" Autumn cried. “Why can’t you come? Why only me? There has to be another way. A way both of us can take." The fire was drawing nearer.

“You’re the only one who can survive out there," he said sympathetically, stroking the side of her helmet as tears wet his ash coated cheeks. “Saul took everything. My suit. The backup suits in the garden and the colony. I won’t survive one minute out there, let alone make it out of the emergency tunnel. It’s better this way. It’s the only way."

“No. No why. Why can’t I stay with you? Why can’t I stay?” she mourned.

“You’ve got something better for you out there," he smiled through sad eyes, pointing beyond the glass walls. “The forest is waiting."

“But it’ll mean nothing without you."

He took her helmet in his hands and rested his forehead on the glass visor. “I’ll meet you there, both of you," he whispered sweetly. “And this time I won’t be late."

They stayed like that, for as long as they had, until the flames were nearly licking their backs. Eventually, Hollis had to push themselves apart. He unbuckled the hatchway and lowered Autumn into the tunnel’s entrance against her complaints. The cold and dirty air fought against his skin as the hatchway remained open, but he kept it open long enough to see her safely descend the ladder. He then smiled for her, and she beaconed for him, but without a moment's hesitation the hatch was shut. Now, with the only escape sealed, Hollis was locked alone in the dying garden. He turned back towards the fire, in awe of its greatness as it lifted itself high above him.

In watching the flames, Hollis decided he would not accept the fate of the garden as this one. He staggered around the domes edges to the facilitie’s control panel. He walked along the many machines until he reached the life-support system, taking note of all the functions that could have prevented the flames if it were not for Saul’s sabotage. Fortunately for Hollis, there was one fail-safe that still operated, unknown to Saul. It was dependent upon manual activation- a carbon dioxide flood. The lever idly remained pointed downwards, awaiting his guiding hand. With a deep breath and an overwhelming sense of absolution, Hollis wrapped his fingers around it and closed his eyes.

“I’m ready," he said to himself, and to anyone that might be listening. “I’m ready to go home."

Then, upon his relief, Hollis lifted the latch upwards, and he basked in the change of air as everything around him was torn from its stalks and stems into a whirlwind of emptiness. As the fire quickly disappeared in the overwhelming evacuation of the oxygen, so too did he. But before Hollis faded away completely, he found himself in a different garden, one still very much alive, with Rosa beneath the tree, and the warm rain cleansing and mending his once red scars.

The emergency lights guided her to the end. In between the flashing of the lights, the tunnel was drawn into an absolute dark, and she was forced to continue forward in a blind stumble. Into oblivion she threw herself because she could not afford to stop. She refused to stop. Her shoulder plating scraped along the sides of the tight shaft as she hurriedly pushed herself forward, ducking exposed piping and stepping over ventilation. Don’t stop, she was reciting to herself in her disoriented mind. Don’t stop. Don’t stop.

Don’t stop for him.

Autumn’s foot tangled with the other, and she fell forward. She impacted the ground without any brace for the fall. Her helmet's visor smacked on the metal flooring, bouncing back briefly into her forehead, knocking her nose against the glass, and sending her into a dizzy state. She shrieked in discomfort but made no attempt to reposition herself once she settled on the floor. She remained tangled into the shafts wiring, panting and sweating, gulping at the artificial air inflating her suit. Her O2 tank informed her it was only one-third full, limiting her to a measly 6 hours of air.

She slowed her breathing but still gave no effort to lifting herself upright. Her body’s energy was as depleted as the oxygen tank, having nothing left to give to her. The tunnel narrowed and darkened, its end seemed to grow farther and farther away, and Autumn decided to move no more. The shadows swelled around her lifeless form like vultures with empty stomachs, and then a profound quiet followed.

Thud. Thud.

Thud. Thud.

Autumn’s adjusting ears could suddenly hear the skipping of the dual-beating hearts inside her. One after another, in succession, the hearts jumped like a flat rock thrown parallel to still water. She was not one heart, but two, and although she thirsted for the end of her own pulse, there was still the other that must continue, no matter what. Selfish thoughts could destroy everything Hollis and the others had given their lives for. Even if Hollis’ sacrifice was fueled by the false dream of a possible escape to a fertilized valley, there still might be an alternative salvation for both of her hearts: The city.

There was no longer anyone she could trust at the Hub, but to her benefit, just recently the building crew finished directing the backup oxygen supply to one of the Refugee Settlements finished towers. Perhaps she could find safety in the rubble. If anything, it would make it harder for her to be found, considering all the spaces she could hide there. Yes, that was her only possible salvation. It had oxygen. It had places to hide. But how would she get there? How long could she survive before she was found?

The tunnel trembled and dust motes shook from the beams above. The garden sounded as if it was collapsing upon itself above her. All worry aside about her undetermined future, Autumn first needed to stand or else she would never leave. She could figure out a plan later when there was less risk of her being buried alive. So she did just that, wrapping her fingers around an exposed wire and pulling her broken body upwards. Her knees ached and she stumbled again, but this time in the right direction. Autumn found herself running, as best she could, to the tunnels end.

At the end was a rusty ladder rising high into the shadowed ceiling. A moment's pause, another rumble from above, and Autumn began to ascend. One rung after another, without looking back, she climbed into the tight vertical space. She had to pause to stabilize herself when the tunnel rattled around her but continued at a modest speed during the calmness in between. After a minute of this, she reached the top, which materialized itself as an old steel valve protruding from a small hatch. With one arm wrapped around the ladder's rung, she used her other to turn the valve. It was stiff at first, unmoving, but with enough force began to budge.

The hatch drew itself upwards, revealing a starry night sky. The air from the tunnel was sucked upwards and she held onto the ladder so as not to fall. The two sides equalized, and Autumn heaved herself towards the stars, fighting through falling sand and pushing with the force of her body. Once fully out of the hatch, she rolled over onto her back and took gulps from her dwindling oxygen supply. What would have been a walk in the park without her exosuit was made exhausting with it on. An additive of sixty pounds can do that to any menial task.

Autumn was enjoying her moment's rest when her ears attuned to distant voices. She rolled her body to the sounds, remaining prone to the plateau. A few hundred meters away from her current position to the side of the ash-blackened glass dome, Autumn could make out three figures alongside two Crawlers paying no attention to her. She had to find a way to hijack one of the vehicles, and if time allowed, a way to disable the other. Autumn had to be quick, knowing they might leave any moment or enter to garden to find her missing. She stayed low to the ground, using small dunes as cover, and moved towards the vehicles. A dozen meter sprint, leap to a prone position, recover, and again. She made her way close enough so that she could hear the words being exchanged.

“They’re dead. That much carbon dioxide would toxify their lungs to a point of no return," said Saul.

“But what about the exosuit they have with them?" returned a nervous Maven.

“What of it? There’s only one way out, and it’s right here in front of us. You two will remain here until I return, making sure no one comes through this door, got it?"

“Where will you go?" The third voice asked, it being Franco.

“Back to the Hub. I’ll sound an emergency alert, telling the others there's been an explosion at the garden, and I’ll bring in the first responders. With all the mad-scientist shit Hollis has been doing in here I’m certain nobody will be surprised that he managed to kill himself by mixing unmixable chemicals."

“And Autumn? The baby?" Franco pushed.

A pause. “A consequence of her betrayal to the colony. She was the one who ran to him, they all saw that. She didn’t want to come with us, and there was no convincing her," Saul said coldly.

“But what if she’s alive? She might have the exosuit," Maven added.

“Then we’ll trap her in there until she’s run out of air. Either way I won’t send anyone in until I can be assured they’re dead by natural causes."

“But Saul, you never said anything about killing her. You said we’d get her back, no matter what it took," Franco said.

“Yeah, we can’t kill the baby, it goes against everything we’ve fought for," Maven agreed.

“You heard me before, there was no convincing her. We already lost the baby before I came, but don’t worry, there will be more. So both of you will do exactly as I say. You will not let anyone through that door, got it?"

Autumn had heard enough long ago. She had crawled the remainder of the way to the backside of her Crawler, unseen by the Saul, Maven, and Franco. There was no time to electronically sabotage the other Crawler, but she had another plan, one much less delicate.

The Crawler jumped to life, shocking the three spacemen nearly out of their suits. The engine revved and shot forward, forcing the men to leap out of the way. The vehicle kicked up sand into their faces, throwing them backward as if they were in a sandstorm, and it continued to fly full force toward the second Crawler. A direct hit. The second Crawler fishtailed and flipped over onto its back side, and the first lost no speed as it endured the impact. It advanced away from the remnants of the garden, the three angry men, and the broken Crawler, and sped across the desert to the towers that illuminated high above the wasteland.

The passing of the next hour was uneventful for Autumn. Never once did she take her eyes off the distant city ahead. She saved her oxygen the best she could, breathing as much of the vehicles reserves as possible. Just before her arrival to the city, she was forced to reconnect to her own suits O2 tank, discovering there to be only five hours of oxygen remaining. Could she make it?

The Crawler rolled into the dark city streets. Few lights lit Autumn's path and made it difficult to navigate around debris. Most of the towers were unpowered and void of oxygen, but Autumn recalled Tower One should have already begun the oxygenation process. That meant Tower One must be nearly fully habitable, and at the very least, parts of its vast network of rooms might be safe. Autumn carved the Crawler around the ruins of Tower Twelve and continued into the grid of sandy streets towards Tower One. She past dozens of rows of hibernating builder drones as they recharged their solar cells for the work to be done at Saul’s command. Autumn craved to get as much rest as the sleeping robots. 

“Tower One, please have what I need," Autumn whispered as she approached its entrance.

Just the same as the others, the tower looked dead from the outside, but she hoped she had made the right choice. She drew the Crawler around the side of a nearby tower, hiding it amongst construction wreckage in hopes to throw her pursuers off, then unlatched herself from the cockpit.

“Less than four hours," She panted looking at her O2 gauge as she hopped onto the desert basin. She bounded towards the entrance, sidestepping even more sleeping Builders, and at last made it inside. There was no atmospheric seal to decompress. The gate was halfway open already, letting plumes of sand comb their way into the apartment lobby, and Autumn resisted the urge to rip off her humid helmet for just a little while longer. She traversed into the half-built entrance, studying the electrical cords coating the ceiling. If she followed them, they would lead her to the circuit board in the power distribution center of the tower. There, she could use her basic knowledge to divert power throughout the complex, including oxygen and temperature controllers.

She did just that. After a minute of following the wiring down into the sub-basement of the building, Autumn inspected the oversized circuit panel. She was forced to tinker for a bit, but luckily she was knowledgeable enough from her basic training and additional lessons from Saul. She harnessed power from three unused solar generators and sent it to the top four floors of the tower.

Power system restored.

If the others did come to find her, it would give her enough time to escape while they searched all the floors. Autumn double checked the oxygen readout, indicating the successful sealing of all fifty-eight apartments on the four floors as well as their full oxygenation, and then she locked back up the control panel.

The climb to the top was the toughest part. Autumn passed six floors before taking a break, checking to the rapid beat of her second heart, and she moved again when she felt it slow. Another two floors, break, and then she was in the powered top section of the tower. She made it to the second to top floor, floor eleven, before deciding upon a room. The room was barely built, showing exposed insulation and broken flooring, and it featured no other furniture or amenities aside from a dusty mattress, but the oxygen compression and decompression operated perfectly, and that was all that mattered. Once locked safe inside, Autumn tore off her helmet and breathed hungrily. Whether it was the effect of over-breathing to the brain, the traumatic events of the past few hours, or the sheer relief of finding a temporary safe haven, she fell instantly into a deep and uninterrupted sleep.

Autumn could not comprehend her dream, only that it unnerved her greatly. Something was in the dark, with her, nearby and growing nearer. There was also a low vibration accompanying the pursuer, but nowhere for her to run. What was that vibration, that sound? Growling? It overtook her body. She awoke, but to her dismay the vibration was still there, swelling into the room.

“What now!" she screamed in exhaustion. “What fucking now!"

The vibration quickened and rattled everything around her. The overhead lighting sparked and flashed until all went dark in the complex. Autumn turned herself to a crouched position and took hold of the wall. A loud hum overtook all other sounds and suddenly all the bulbs burst like a firework. Then, the vibration halted and a soft hissing followed.

Power system decoupled. Reverse-oxygenation in progress. Alert. Power system decoupled. Please put on your exosuits. This is an emergency alert.

“No, no, no," Autumn ranted. “Just give me more time! I need more time!"

The low hissing continued to gather strength, and Autumn could feel her lungs tighten. She threw herself to her exosuit, reluctantly drawing herself back inside. From there she secured her helmet and read the oxygen readout.

“Just under two hours," she sighed, and she pushed herself from the room and into the dark hallway. Red lights flared on the apartment floor and illuminated pathways directed her to the emergency stairwell. It was a descent she did not look forward to making again. It seemed that one of the tower’s generators was failing, an issue she could resolve back at the circuit board downstairs in the basement. Now that she had more energy from her sleep (How long was she out? Minutes? Hours?) she might also try to start searching for extra O2 canisters left behind by the engineers. There might be a way for her to make it til morning in her exosuit if she finds the canisters, but it would be an extra precaution to stabilize the buildings power first. At this point in its construction, the tower’s O2 system was highly underdeveloped, and she must take heed to this for now on. She cannot assume she is out of the woods just yet.

Autumn turned the hallway’s corner and jumped, finding a hulking figure standing there, motionless beneath the black and red lights. She squinted her eyes, trying to focus on who was there beneath the exosuit, but as hard as she looked, she could make out no distinguishing features from within the darkened helmet.