Then I spotted Melissa. She took off, in fact, she started to sprint. I knew that could only mean one thing. She saw it.
I gasped out emotionally, hugged Joie and told her. “We’re here. We have to be here.”
And finally, I caught a glimpse of it, or rather the fence. It was the type of fence used for high security, and that invigorated me to keep going. My legs hurt, breathing was tough, a burning hit my gut from carrying the weight of Joie and my bag. Yet suddenly I had the energy. The fence drew more and more into my line of sight.
I couldn’t see anything beyond that fence. It looked barren, deserted and dark. Like a dismal winter day.
Melissa neared the fence and when she did, two armed guards raced over. They were covered completely, face and all, in some sort of military hazmat suits. They fiddled with the fence for a second and then they opened it.
Melissa pointed back and then one of the guards disappeared quickly with her.
The thick, high fence which reminded me of a cage, extended far and wide. It surrounded the circumference of the property.
Once I drew close enough, I was able to see more. It looked like an empty field. I wasn’t even sure there was any grass. Not that it mattered.
There were maybe four or five trees scattered around. Where did the others go?
I was one of the last to get to the gate. Everything came into view.
A good hundred feet away was a small beat up shack but that wasn’t where the others were headed. Beyond that, far beyond that, even with the ash in my eyes, I saw the unmistakable entrance to the bunker.
There was no hiding it. Not like it needed a sign. Just a small grade or hill of dirt and the thick concrete triangle entrance way that wasn’t very deep. The doors were wide enough for a vehicle to drive through. They were open and all I saw was black. No lights.
Our people moved toward the bunker.
The guard put his hand on my back, then pointed. But I waited. I waited until I saw Tony was close enough before I walked over.
Half way there, I noticed a light. It was orange and it lit the passage way. Probably a lantern, because it didn’t have the whiteness of artificial light. I would have assumed it was emergency lighting of some kind.
The guard took the blanket from me, then dusted off some of the ash from my body and I stepped inside and set Joie down.
“I want Daddy.” She ran to the entrance.
“Stay here. He’s coming.” I pointed then looked around.
From what I could see of the interior, it looked like a big garage with concrete walls all around. A single camping lantern sat on the floor. It only illuminated a short distance. There were unlit emergency lights all around.
Craig began to open his medical box, taking things out that he would need. He took the single unused blanket and laid it on the floor. “I’ll check the baby, after I check Jackson. I need water. Does anyone have water?”
The one guard handed him a canteen and Craig stood up to make way for Tony who carried Jackson. “Place him here,” Craig said.
Tony laid him down and I immediately raced over. My son looked bad. His skin was pale. “Is he breathing?” I asked Craig, my hands smoothing over his face. I just wanted to hold him, he was still my child, no matter how old he was.
Craig lowered the stethoscope. “Yeah. I need some room. I’m sorry.”
I understood. I was hovering and I inched back.
“Where are the lights?” Tony asked. “Why are there no lights? What happened? Did something go wrong?”
The guard removed his hood. “No, Boss. Not that we know of.”
“Did our engineer not make it?” Tony quizzed.
Another man stepped forward. He wasn’t in any protective gear and emerged from the shadows. He was a man in his late twenties, early thirties, and he wore a baseball cap. “That would be me. I’m Tom. Everything is below. Batteries are still encased so we couldn’t fire up any flashlights.”
Tony tossed up his hands. “Why not? We need to get these people below. We have a sick baby and an injured man. We have to get them to the medical setup.”
Tony was right. Why were we in a concrete hallway? I watched as Skyler tried to get Jackson to take water and Craig prepared an IV line.
“I’m on my last bag here,” Craig said. “I know we have some below.”
“That’s not the problem,” Tom said. “If we take them down, we take them down into a black pit. We had to wait for you to power up. We got the order to button the hatch. That locked it down as we powered down. This was the location with the fail safe. Because of its location being where it is and the general ability that people would have to find it, we installed the fail safe so the bunker would be useless if Anna Jenner wasn’t here.”
I moved forward. “I’m here. I’m Anna.”
“She’s here. Power up.” Tony instructed. “I don’t understand how identifying her would matter.”
“It’s not identifying her,” said Tom. “The fail safe is a lock. A manual combination code over the main door. Only she knows the combination.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know the combination.”
“The Senator picked it himself and said you would know it,” Tom stated.
“Did you think…” Tony said. “To… I don’t know… leave a man down there?”
No one answered.
“I didn’t think so. Ok, let’s unlock that door,” Tony said. “And Tom, you know what to do once we have it open.”
“Main room is first level; I’ll fire up the generators and get the power on.”
“You ready?” Tony asked me.
I sighed out and looked over to Jackson. “I hate to leave him.”
“It won’t take long,” Tom told me. “Really, you can come right back up.”
I nodded and held up my hand, then walked over to Jackson and crouched down. “Hey, sweetie. I have to go. I’ll be right back.”
Craig looked at me. “He’s pretty weak. I think… I think we may have some hemorrhaging. That explains him being out of it. I know we have rough surgical capabilities downstairs, but I need you to be aware. In case… in case I have to operate.”
“How… how did this happen? He was fine.”
“The injury was worse than we thought. It’s so hard to tell without an x-ray or scan.”
“He’s gonna make it, right? He’s okay; it’s just a head injury.”
Craig laid his hand over mind. “Anna, I don’t know. I really don’t. I won’t know until I get him downstairs and for that to happen, you have to get these lights on.”
“Mom…” Jackson called out weakly.
I gasped in happiness and shock, and clutched my child’s hand. “I’m here.”
Jackson tried with diligence to open his eye fully. “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. It’s okay.” I leaned forward and kissed him. “You don’t need to apologize. Just get better for me.” I kissed him again. “I love you.”
“I… I love you.”
Exhaling, I smiled in relief and my eyes met Craig’s. “He’s conscious. That’s a good sign, right?”
Craig closed his eyes for a second. “It’s a good sign.”
“Thank you.” The feeling of dread and concern over Jackson was replaced with some optimism. My son had opened his eyes, spoken and said he loved me. The best way to help him was to get those lights on.
I stood and finally looked around at everyone. They were waiting, watching, doing nothing much else. What could they do?
Tony had lifted Joie and embraced her.
Nelly took her hand, and brought the child into the folds of her protective arms.
“I’m ready,” I said.
Tom then announced. “We have to be careful. It’ll be dark.”
“Let me guess,” Tony quipped.”You only brought up one lantern.”
“My phone.” I reached down to my bag. “We can use it as light. It works, remember? And…” from my bag, I pulled a candle.