Origins (The Wasteland Chronicles, #2) (12 page)

Apparently, the man outside heard that. “That door moves so much as an inch, we’re firing.”

“Lisa, take it easy,” Samuel said. “Let me handle this.” Samuel turned back to the door. “Maybe we can work together.”

“I want to know who you are first, Raider,” the man said, “before I even entertain that notion.”

“We are not Raiders,” Samuel said.

“Really. Who are you? You’re Wastelanders, with guns and attitudes. That makes you Raiders to my eyes.”

“We are on a mission sanctioned by the United States government,” I said.

That made the man go quiet. There were more whispers.

“There is no U.S. government,” the woman said. “All the Bunkers are gone.”

Maybe that was true. Two of the remaining four had fallen in the last month, including Bunker 108, which had once been my home.

“There are two Bunkers left,” I said. “As far as I know.”

“Like I said, there is no United States,” the woman insisted. “The United States fell with the death of President Garland in 2048. There is only the Empire.”

“Quiet,” the man outside growled.

“So you’re with the Empire?” Samuel asked.

“It does not matter who we’re with,” the man snapped. “We’re the ones asking the questions.”

“We have more guns,” Samuel said.
“We
ask the questions.”

“You’re locked in,” the man said. “I’d like to see how your ‘more guns’ works out.”

“This is pointless,” I said, only loud enough for those with me to hear. “We need to get them on our side somehow so we can get out of here. Empire or not, all of us are surrounded by an army of monsters.”

“What if they’re going after the Bunker?” Lisa asked. “You remember what the Wanderer said.”

“I’m working on that,” Samuel said. “But we cannot appear weak. We have the numbers advantage.”

Samuel turned back to the door.

“Those things are outside, and we’re not getting anywhere by fighting. We need to work together. As soon as we can clear these monsters off, the sooner we can leave.”

The man laughed. “Clear them off? Maybe you haven’t noticed, but there are thousands of them out there. You’re stuck here, just like us. Coming into the Great Blight was a mistake. We’re all in so much shit that there is no hope of getting out.”

“Maybe working together isn’t such a bad idea,” the woman said.

“How many of you are there?” Samuel asked. “Sounded like more than just the two of you.”

“We’re three,” the woman said. “Drake doesn’t talk much.”

A deep grunt answered that statement – I assumed from Drake.

“So, we’re cool?” Samuel asked. “Are we working together?”

“Fine,” the man said. “There’s no point in fighting. Just know that when you came in here, guns blazing, I erred on the side of shooting first.”

“That’s understandable,” Samuel said. “Am I good to open the door?”

“Go right ahead,” the man said. “We won’t shoot. Just keep your guns to yourself.”

Makara grabbed Samuel’s arm.
“No.”

“Makara, I have to do this. Otherwise there’s no other way out.”

She bit her lip. I didn’t blame her for being worried. This could all be a ruse. Then again, what choice did we have?

“We’re here to back you up in case anything happens,” I said.

Samuel nodded. “Thanks.”

He turned to the door, holstering his pistol.

“Alright,” Samuel said. “My gun’s at my side, and I’m opening the door.”

He unlatched it with a clang. After taking a deep breath, he pulled it open.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. There was a moment of tension as we all watched to see what came next. Nothing did. A hand reached across the door’s threshold.

“I’m Harland,” the man who had been talking said. “This is Kris, and Drake.”

Samuel didn’t react much, not taking the offered hand. “I’m Samuel. There’s Makara, Lisa, Anna, and Alex.”

Samuel looked at us, motioning us to stand by the door.

Makara holstered her pistol, and the rest of us followed her lead. Lisa put her handgun away with a scowl, her sniper rifle still latched onto her back. Anna sheathed her katana, not looking too happy about it.

“So is there any way out of here?” Samuel asked.

“Not that we know,” Harland said.

Now that the door was open, I saw what each of them looked like. Harland was a black man, well-muscled and garbed in desert camo. He looked more government than I did. An AR-15 was slung across his back, and his face carried a hard and determined expression. Kris was a short yet pretty woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, also dressed in desert camo. Drake was large, muscular, and white as a ghost, wearing a stained white tank top and camo pants. He had two pistols holstered on either side, and, curiously, three long javelins pointing up from his back. His left arm bore a tattoo with simple Roman numerals: “XIII.” His face was tough, solid, and carried several deep scars.

They were sizing us up, too. I’m sure they thought I wasn’t tough, based off my age, but I had learned a lot in the past three weeks. I’d grown tougher in the past three weeks than in the past three years.

“How long have you guys been here?” Samuel asked.

“Two weeks,” Kris said, shaking a blonde bang out of her eye. “And we’ve been trying to figure out how to get out ever since. The land will look empty occasionally. But every time we try to leave,
they
come out, sending us back here.”

“You guys Empire?” Samuel asked.

The three looked at each other for a moment.

“Yeah, we are,” Harland said. “No point in trying to hide it.”

“Bunker crawlers, are you?”

“What does it matter?” Harland asked. “I can see you guys are the same. No other reason for you to be here. I don’t know if you are working for the United States, as you claim, but whatever
we
find in the Bunker is ours.”

Anna, Lisa, and Makara stepped forward, reaching for their weapons. The three Novans backed off, reaching for theirs.

“Stop!”
I said. “You all are going to kill each other – over what? No one’s making it to the Bunker anyway unless we can get out of this.” I looked from our group to the other. “Maybe we can help each other out.”

“Well,” Harland said, “the Bunker isn’t far. Just downstairs, in fact. You guys were right on the money as far as making it.”

“Wait,” Samuel said. “What do you mean, right downstairs?”

Once again, the Novans looked at each other, confused. An uncomfortable silence hung over the two groups.

“Yes,” Harland said. “There is a door, in the basement. Only we can’t figure out how to get it open.”

“A door?” I asked. “What kind of door? I might be able to help.”

“I doubt it. It’s the entrance to Bunker 40. I’m sure you guys know about it, if you’re already here. One thing is for sure: whatever’s in there doesn’t want anyone else coming in.”

“There’s probably no one inside,” I said. “Might just be locked from the inside. If there is, no one would be there to open it.”

Harland shot me an annoyed look before turning back to Samuel. “If we could somehow bust that thing open, we might have a shot of getting out of here. There could be an exit somewhere outside where the monsters aren’t. Meanwhile, we could just split whatever we could carry. Only we’ve been trying to open that door ever since we got here. It’s sealed tight.”

“No harm in our taking a look,” Samuel said.

“No chance of blowing that thing off,” I said. “It was designed to withstand a hydrogen bomb.”

I noticed Drake was staring at me. If he was trying to get to me, it wasn’t working. I stared back, letting him know he wouldn’t intimidate me.

“Alex,” Samuel said. “You’re from 108. Any ideas on how to get into this one?”

I shook my head. “Unless they’re opened from the inside, there is no way to get in.”

“So we’re really stuck here,” Makara said. “Still hundreds of miles left to go.”

Makara realized her slip, but showed nothing on her face to reveal it. The Novans knew we weren’t here for Bunker 40, but something else.

“Where are you headed?” Harland asked casually.

“That’s classified,” Samuel said. “Besides, even if there were a way out through this Bunker, we’d still need to get to the Recon. There would be no way to cross the distance we need without one.”

“Recon, huh?” Harland said. “You guys’ve got lots of fancy toys. Maybe you really are government.”

I gave the man a hard stare. “As such, whatever’s in that Bunker belongs to us.”

Harland smiled. “We’re working together. Why not reap the spoils together?”

I turned from Harland to Samuel. “What do you propose? The Recon is in the garage, surrounded by hundreds of monsters. There’s no busting out unless they leave.”

“If
they
don’t get in first,” Kris said.

“All the ways out are shut off,” Harland said. “You guys were lucky to try the garage first. That was the only way we left open.”

“We could at least try to get into the Bunker,” Anna said. “See what our options there are.”

“Regardless,” Makara said, “we’re not getting out of here unless all those things outside die. There’s eight of us, and thousands of them. This might sound crazy, but I think we can do it.”

“How?” both Harland and Kris asked at the same time.

“We fight,” Makara said, simply. “But we’re going to need more than what we have here.”

“Bunkers are loaded with weapons and supplies,” I said. “If we could get in...”

Harland and Kris looked at each other. Drake grunted, squinting an eye. I guess that was his way of agreeing.

“Let’s try to figure this out,” Harland said. “Maybe you will have more luck than us. Follow me.”

H
arland led us downstairs. The only sound in the building’s cold halls was footsteps echoing off metal. I could hear the muffled wails and screams of the monsters outside. I tried not to think what would happen if those thousands of creatures somehow found their way in.

We reached the ground floor we had come in. Still, Harland kept going down to the building’s basement. The air grew wet and dank. Once we reached the bottom, we followed Harland down a dark hallway, my footsteps splashing through puddles. This would be the perfect time for them to ambush us, but our hands were not far from our weapons of choice.

“Keep moving,” Drake said, in a deep, gravelly voice.

The hallway opened into a large room. We shined our flashlights around it. The room was empty and square-shaped, the walls of gray brick. The only feature of any importance was a large, circular vault door, made of thick metal, set into the brick wall. The number
40
was impressed in its center. The door was smooth. There was no mark or scratch on it, nor any handle. The crack between door and wall was the width of a human hair, so exactly measured that the door could open and close, but only from the other side. That door was never meant to be opened from our side.

“This is it,” Harland said. “Bunker 40.”

Samuel stepped forward and placed his hand on the smooth metal. He did not speak.

“Any ideas on how to open this thing?” Makara asked.

I walked up to the door, joining Samuel. There was no secret way to open the door – at least, not that I knew of. Like Samuel, I ran my hand across the cold metal, as if that might give me some clue in opening it. Everyone looked at me as if I were performing voodoo magic on it.

“These things were designed to never be opened,” I said. “Except from the inside.”

My statement was met with silence. I looked around the door, and noticed a camera sitting above the bunker door. Its lens gazed down at me.

I pointed to it. “That thing still work?”

Harland shrugged. “I’d be surprised if it did. We’ve tried talking into it, but nothing happened.”

I looked into the camera. Bunker 108 had a similar camera, though it was not as conspicuous as this one. Ours had been built into the rock, and could not be found by the casual observer. The camera was how the doorman knew whom to let in, and out.

If there were a doorman for Bunker 40, I had to try speaking to him.

“Bunker 40,” I said to the camera, “this is Alex Keener, son of Dr. Steven Keener, deceased, of Bunker 108 in the Mojave Sector. If anyone is in there, we are on a mission from the United States government, sanctioned by Chief Security Officer Chan, now deceased.” I paused, and waited for a response, if any. When nothing happened, I continued. “We are on a mission to find Bunker One,” I went on. “We are surrounded by monsters on all sides, and we could use your help. If anyone is in there, please open the door. We are not hostile. We only need your help.”

I didn’t know what else to say. I knew Samuel didn’t want me to give away the mission, but if this was our only shot of getting inside the Bunker, I had to say the money words that would get the door to open.

“This isn’t working,” Makara said. “No one’s in there.”

“We are looking for the Black Files,” I said. “We want to stop the xenovirus.”

“Alex,” Samuel said sternly. “Enough.”

I had given away our mission, and the Bunker door
still
wasn’t opening. I felt like a complete fool.

“Well,” Harland said, “looks as if you won’t be getting those Black Files. Whatever they are.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “We’re trapped in here. Like I said, unless someone opens that door, we’re stuck here.”

At that moment, a loud thump sounded from the door, causing me to jump back. A thunderous echo reverberated throughout the room. Anna crouched beside me, drawing her katana. The echo faded, and the door was still.

“It’s unlocking,” Kris whispered.

From the other side of the Bunker door, I could hear a low screech as the wheel on the other side turned. The door was opening, and as it did so, cold sweat bathed my skin. Now that it
was
opening, I somehow didn’t want it to.

“Be ready for anything,” Samuel said.

The wheel stopped turning, and the room went quiet. All I could hear were the breaths of the eight people standing before the Bunker door, weapons ready. The circular vault door cracked open with a groan, revealing a sliver of darkness within. A wave of fetid, stinking air issued from the gap, like the opening of a fresh crypt.