“Worst case scenario, Dr. Hassleman,” the director asked her. “What would be the situation if six astronauts returned from space to find the earth had been wiped clean from a plague?”
“That would be impossible,” Meredith said. “Everyone on earth? No. There would be survivors. There would be those who didn’t get it, It would appear, though, that the world was empty.”
“What would be the obstacles for them?”
“How long are we talking about? Is the plague or virus still in the air, are they completely safe from being victims. If it were long enough for it to be safe, then they face a whole different battle.”
“How so?”
“First let’s look at the emotional side. Their family, friends, civilization in general, gone. They will be desperate and in disbelief until faced with the reality and that reality would be to seek the truth and find resolution with family. Therein lies the next problem. Every resource, already in place, will be useless. If it is years, then food on the shelves is bad. Water is a problem. They’d have to rely on ground sources. Any animals that remain are deadly and they could possibly be without weapons. How would they find their families? Unless every member of every family is within walking distance of their landing site, they’re out of luck. Gasoline will be bad, batteries… dead, horses, if they could find them would be wild.”
Meredith emerged from her recount of the meeting and said, “Then they asked me to make a list. What would be needed for them? Honestly, I thought they were doing a just in case scenario with all the recent space exploration.”
John said, “Plausible. I’d think the same way. Did you do the list?”
“Of course. It took me months. I was thorough. I told them the supplies would have to be stored airtight or some way to preserve. Everything down there was on my list, John, everything in that storage. Those solar batteries are for vehicles somewhere on this base. Where? I don’t know.”
Jason asked. “So you knew all along?”
“No.” Meredith held up her hand. “I’m guessing on the solar batteries because they were on my list. Power vehicles similar to the rovers they place on planets. If the batteries were there, the vehicles are somewhere. All those boxes were in an airtight preservation room, that door opened when the units released. The design is called the time capsule vault.”
John spoke up. “Summer’s design. She did it years ago, so that in case the world was destroyed and aliens found it or people in the future, they could taste and experience all that we had. You acted like you didn’t know her.”
“When we discussed Summer,” Meredith stated. “I was frightened to say anything. And I would have, had the president not stepped in and talked.”
“So he was lying,” Jason asked. “When he said you weren’t part of the plan and that you didn’t know.”
“No, he wasn’t lying because he had no idea that I knew. I knew Summer. Summer knew.” Meredith faced John. “She knew. It was her cryogenics design, her units down there. She gave me enough information about the plan, problem was neither of us knew when it was going to be implemented. For it to remain secret, no one was told. She found out hours before the event. That was why she didn’t show. In fact, my phone died and when she finally sent me a text, I didn’t have time to leave. Or else I would have. I didn’t want to be a part of this.”
Exhaling slowly and loud, Nora moved to Meredith. “You didn’t plan this. You were just part of the plan.”
“But I’m guilty by association. I knew and said nothing. That guilt is the same reason I didn’t pack a survival bag, because I didn’t want to survive when we emerged. But unlike the president, where ever he went, I lack the courage to take my life.”
“Wait.” Grant snapped his fingers. “You sound like you knew it failed before we came up here.”
“If Genesis was a success none of us would have woken up in our room. We would have been removed from stasis before waking and brought to another facility in a nice cozy bed surrounded by family. That was the plan. Us waking up on our own was only the plan if things went wrong. Things went wrong and they knew it, so as a safeguard, they changed the setting, changed the wake up time, we were left here longer. Hence the supplies.”
“How long?” Jason asked.
Meredith lifted her hands. “That I can’t tell you, I don’t know. I can guess when the world went bad. Malcolm, what was the last date you read?”
“December Fourteen.” Malcolm answered. “Last date on that clipboard.”
“Then that was the day they knew they erred. We talked about the world being reset, well, they knew there was no turning back and someone came in here that day…” Meredith paused. “And hit our reset button.”
TWENTY – Split Decisions
The first thing Malcolm did was take the four solar battery units and placed them out in the sun. If they had drained at all, the sun would recharge them. Or so he thought. If they were indeed a power source for the vehicles, they needed them. Transportation was vital. Malcolm couldn’t stay in Kentucky. Even if decades had passed he needed to have closure, find out what happened to his wife, Jenny, and their four sons. Malcolm supposed everyone else had the same goals and he would do what he could to help everyone to achieve those goals.
There was a flat folded case, and Malcolm opened it exposing the tools. “These will have to do.”
“That’s all they had,” John said. “Couple dozen of these, but basic tools.”
“I’ll make do. I’m resourceful.” Malcolm examined what he had and closed the case again.
“What are you doing?”
“Batteries are charging. Jason and Nora went out to look for life, and I’m going out to look for cars. Really how hard is this gonna be to find a garage around here. That’s where they’ll be stored if they’re here.’
Grant set down and opened up a map. “Marshal is located in Redstone Arsenal. Take a look. It’s big.”
Malcolm moistened his lips, then drew in his bottom lip in thought. “I’m gonna guess they are somewhere in the Marshal Flight Center section. Just a guess.” He tossed the tool bag over his shoulder and grabbed a bottle of water.
“Can I come?” Amy asked. “Please, I need to get out of this room, feel like I’m doing something.”
“I’m dividing supplies,” John said. “You can stay here and you won’t have to sell your soul.”
She shot daggers at him, then returned to Malcolm. “Can I? I do have a good level of mechanical knowledge when it comes to solar energy.”
“Sure,” Malcolm answered with an nod up to his head then reached for the map. “Can I?”
“Be my guest,” Grant said.
Malcolm took the map, folded it, grabbed a pen from the desk, scribbled on the corner of the paper until the pen worked, then he and Amy headed out of the office.
Despite the fact that it was hot, it felt cooler outside with the airflow. Malcolm walked to the center of the lot and started peering around. It seemed even more barren then when he stepped out to leave the batteries to charge. “If you were a garage, where would you be?”
“I’d be a warehouse,” Amy said. “Like there.” She pointed to a building across the lot and to the right. “How many do you think there are?”
“Well, if there are any.” Malcolm started to walk. “Not more than eight, because that is all the batteries there are.”