Origins (The Wasteland Chronicles, #2) (15 page)

My attention homed in on Bunker One. There it was, right there...Cheyenne, Colorado. According to the map, we were at the halfway point.

I touched the red dot of Bunker One. The screen responded, and flashed.

“Location selected,” came a female voice from the dash. “Initiating launch sequence.”

“Oh, shit,” I said.

I searched the screen madly for some way to abort it. But the screen had faded, and I could feel the plane thrum as the engines roared to life.

Samuel burst into the cockpit.

“Alex, what the hell is going on?”

I turned around. “I...I don’t know. I just pressed it, and it looks as if it’s going to take off.”

Samuel scanned the screen. It had come back on, showing the map again. On top of the screen, it read, “autopilot engaged.”

“Autopilot,” Samuel said. “They weren’t flying it at all. The plane’s computer was doing that.”

“Is that where they’re going?” I asked. “Bunker One?”

Everyone else ran into the cockpit.

“Alex, what the hell did you do?” Makara asked.

“I don’t know, I...”

“Wait,” Lisa said. “This might be our way out. We have no other chance with those monsters out there.”

“Shit, the hangar doors!” Samuel said. “They’re still closed. We can’t leave if someone doesn’t open them...”

“Whoever does that might die,” Makara said. “They wouldn’t be able to get back on the plane.”

The plane started moving.

“Well,” Samuel said. “We’re screwed.”

The plane wheeled toward the doors and stopped before them. Slowly, they rolled back on their own.

“They’re opening!” Samuel said.

“Must have been programmed into the hangar somehow,” I said.

As soon as the doors opened even a crack, the monsters started pouring into the hangar. They could do nothing to us as the plane wheeled forward, crushing them beneath the front wheels.

“We can’t take off as long as any of them are blocking the runway,” Samuel said.

The plane’s landing lights flashed on, revealing a sea of crawlers, their white glowing eyes staring back at us from the darkness. They pushed toward the plane as if of one mind.

“We’re not going to make it,” Makara said.

As soon as she said that, the plane stopped. In the back, I could hear something moving.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Obstruction noted,” the voice said. “Engaging in vertical launch mode.”

We all fell to the ground as the floor lifted up from under us.

“Find a chair and strap in,” Samuel said. “We’re taking off!”

I found the seat behind the copilot’s chair, and strapped myself in. As everyone else found seats, the plane paused, levitating in midair. The thrusters turned again and engaged. We surged forward, the acceleration pushing me back into my seat.

We arced upward, toward the night sky, leaving the Great Blight under us. I looked out the window to see the dark world fall away.

I could only hope there was a runway to land on when we got there.

W
e had been on the plane an hour. I headed to the back, out of the cockpit and into the cargo area. I found a seat where I could get a moment of peace before the plane descended.

Next to me was a circular window, and I could not stop looking out of it. For the first time in my life, I saw the moon and stars. They sparkled, countless, dotting the midnight sky. I never imagined there would be so many. Though beautiful, they made me feel sad, in a way. We had lost so much because of Ragnarok. It would take decades for the fallout to dissipate enough for them to be seen again from the surface. How many generations would that take? Would there even be another generation to watch them?

“You look quite pensive.”

I nearly jumped out of my seat. It was Anna.

“You snuck up on me.”

She sat next to me. My heart raced as I felt her shoulder touch mine.

“Sorry if that was weird, earlier,” she said.

It took me a moment to realize she was talking about holding my hand.

“No, it wasn’t weird at all. I guess I just didn’t realize...”

I trailed off, and looked into her eyes. She wanted me to go on, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I didn’t want to assume too much.

“I almost wish we didn’t have to go back down,” Anna said. “The stars are better company than those monsters.”

Anna seemed distant, for some reason.

“You alright?” I asked.

She sighed. “I don’t know. Guess we’ll find out here in a few, right?”

I smiled. “Guess so.”

She smiled, too. I felt a moment of tension, of expectation. I really wanted to hold her at that moment.

“Anna, I just wanted to say...it wasn’t weird at all. In fact, I....”

She waited for me to finish. Why were these things always so hard?

“I’m glad you decided to stay,” I said. “Because...”

Anna smiled. She touched my face with her right hand, and I was glad for the darkness, because it felt like my face was on fire from blushing. That was when I wrapped my arms around her. She leaned into me, the warmth of her body nestling into mine. My heart raced; I couldn’t
believe
it was happening, that this beautiful girl might actually
like
me.

She leaned her head against my shoulder and closed her eyes. She seemed content to just be held.

I held each of her hands with my own, and rested my head on top of hers. As I felt myself dozing off, I felt happy and peaceful for the first time in a while. I just hoped we survived whatever it was that waited down there, because I didn’t want this to be the last time I held her.

***

M
y stomach suddenly lifted as the plane descended, rousing me from sleep. Bleary-eyed, I saw Anna next to me also getting up.

“Already?” she asked.

“We should probably go back up front,” I said.

We both stood, but Anna did not take her eyes off me. She stared into me, as if searching for something. I brushed a strand of her hair from over her eye. I grabbed her hands, and was about to lean in and kiss her...

Some turbulence rocked the plane, sending us both to the floor. The plane rocked for the next few seconds before it steadied.

Anna heaved an exasperated sigh. “We better get up there.”

I was frustrated that the moment was shattered by something as mundane as turbulence. My main fear was that we would all die down there before I even had the chance to kiss her.

Anna and I stood and went to the cockpit. We strapped ourselves in, and readied ourselves for what promised to be a rough landing.

Within fifteen minutes we would know whether we were going to live, or die.

***

W
e entered a layer of red clouds, and the stars above were lost for good. I didn’t know if I would see them again.

The LCD map showed that we were above Bunker One. I had no idea how that thing could even position us. I thought that most, if not all, satellites were no longer operational. But apparently there was
something
up there positioning us.

The clouds broke and there was a mountain right in front of us, coated in snow. We would hit it in seconds.

“What the hell?” Samuel grabbed the control stick and tried forcing it left. But the control stick was locked in place.

Makara grabbed his hand. “What are you doing? You can’t fly this thing!”

“Better me than crashing into that mountain.”

“Stop,” Anna said. She pointed. “I see something.”

There was a straight line on the mountainside. At first I couldn’t see what it was. I realized that a long landing strip was built into the side of the mountain. It was illuminated with lights along its length.

“It’s taking us there,” I said. “It was right all along.”

Samuel let go of the control stick. The plane veered to the right, arcing toward the runway.

“I can’t believe we’re back,” Makara said. “It’s so long ago that it happened.”

“Yeah,” Samuel said.

Makara and Samuel were both from Bunker One. They had escaped it as kids from this very landing strip, back in 2048 when it fell to an attack of monsters. During the attack, both of their parents died, as well as most of the other Bunker inhabitants who could not escape.

The landing strip was empty. The lights suggested that someone was inside.

“Looks like they’re already here,” Samuel said.

“I wonder if they know we followed them,” I said. “Did they go to Bunker 40 because they knew about the planes?”

“Maybe,” Lisa said, “but we need to get ready. We’re almost there.”

The long runway stretched out before us. I could hear the plane’s wheels deploy from the bottom of the hull. We descended toward the mountainside.

That’s when I saw that the runway was not completely empty.

A few crawlers covered the runway. We landed with a thud, the skidding wheels nearly sending me out of my seat.

The brakes automatically slowed the plane, but from time to time a crawler crunched under the wheel, rocking the plane and throwing it off-kilter.

The edge of the runway was fast approaching, and there was nothing but darkness beyond. We were slowing – but it would not be enough.

“We need to jump out,” Samuel said. “Come on!”

We got up and struggled our way to the door. Samuel reached it first and popped it open. Below the plane, the tarmac glided by. We were still going too fast.

But the plane tilted forward. We all had to jump.

“Here I go!”

Makara hopped, tucking in and landing with a roll. Anna followed after her, then Lisa.

Samuel nodded. “Go, Alex!”

I jumped, feeling the cold wind rush past my face and butterflies rise in my stomach. God, this was going to hurt. I landed with a thud, tucking in like Makara, rolling forward to break my fall.

Surprised I was still in one piece, I stood, finding myself at the edge of the runway, mere inches from the cliff. I saw Samuel, to my right, roll to a stop.

With a thunderous creak on my left, the plane tilted forward, sliding down the mountainside. The giant vehicle crashed into the rocks below, sending up an enormous plume of flame. The reek of jet fuel stung my nostrils and lungs, the fire heating my face with its glow.

A hand pulled me back.

“Stay
alive,”
Anna said. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”

“The colors were too pretty, I guess,” Lisa said.

“We need to get inside,” Samuel said, stepping forward. “Those crawlers are on the way.”

He pointed toward an open door built into the mountain. In their haste, Harland and Drake had not even seen fit to shut it. Their plane was parked neatly just a few feet away.

“We have to reach the Black Files before they do,” Makara said.

“We know this place like the back of our hands,” Samuel said. “We have to make it to the research lab and access the computer.”

The cold ring of steel echoed in the air as Anna drew her blade. “We have company.”

Three of the crawlers loped toward our position. Their long necks and heads undulated back and forth, and jagged teeth jutted from their mouths. Their white eyes burned. I would never get used to seeing those.

The first crawler shot for Makara. Anticipating its move, she dodged to the side in a fluid motion, arching back her knife to deliver a killing blow in its neck. The monster squealed as purple goo sprayed from the wound. It convulsed before growing still.

Anna charged for the other two. They broke, surrounding her on both sides. I ran forward, Beretta in hand, firing at the one on the left. It hissed, and charged after me.

Samuel stepped beside me. The crawler ran toward us, and together, Samuel and I fired at it. With a shriek, the crawler fell dead, its momentum carrying it forward before it stopped at our feet.

Several of the bullets connected. The creature went limp, rolling on the ground with its momentum and stopping dead at our feet.

Anna handled the last one with an expert swing of her blade, severing its head from its body.

“That takes care of that,” she said.

“Inside!” Samuel said.

We ran for Bunker One across the tarmac. The cold wind tore at my skin. It must have been way below freezing in the frigid mountain air. If we were out here for even an hour, we’d die of exposure.

We stepped inside the darkness of the Bunker and slammed the metal door shut behind us. Samuel latched it, and a few seconds later the creatures that had been chasing us slammed against the door.

“I can’t believe it,” Makara said. “We’re actually here.”

Someone had left the lights on in here, too. Before us was a long hallway, with no doors on either side.

“This tunnel goes on for a while,” Makara said. “It leads to some stairs and a bank of elevators.”

“Is this the only way to the runway?” I asked.

“There’s a large hangar, but this is the way Samuel and I came when we escaped. More of a side entrance.” She paused. “Ten thousand people used to live here, and not even ten percent of them survived that night.”

Her eyes were distant. I knew what she was thinking – her parents might be in here, somewhere. Hopefully, they rested in peace and hadn’t turned into Howlers.

“We have to go,” Samuel said. “Get the Files, and bury the past once and for all.”

Samuel headed forward, into the tunnel. We followed.

M
akara was right; Bunker One was huge.

We made it to the elevator bank, continued on to the stairwell and descended...down and down and down. I stopped counting after twenty flights.

“There are fifty-two floors,” Makara said. “Not counting the L Levels.”

“L Levels?” I asked.

“The labs,” she said. “Only scientists were allowed in. It is protected by a huge vault door, not unlike the ones that guard a typical Bunker from the outside. They didn’t want anyone getting in that wasn’t supposed to be there.”

“I wonder what they were hiding,” I said.

“We’re about to find out,” Samuel said. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this moment.”

“It’s too quiet,” Anna said. “I don’t like it.”