“I said run it again,” she interrupted.
Nathanial got up from his seat as Geoff and Jeremy entered the room. He didn’t notice them, too focused on Sheena. “You run it again! I’m through for today. Until we get more data, we’re just wasting our time.”
“Ahem.” Troy cleared his throat and pointed over Nathanial’s shoulder at the newcomers.
Nathanial turned to face them, his features red with frustration. “Who the hell are you?”
“His name is Jeremy,” Geoff responded with an edge to his tone. “He’s not infected by the radiation, so you might as well just go ahead and welcome him aboard.”
“I hope to God he knows something about astrophysics and computers because I fuckin’ quit!” Nathanial stormed out of the room through an opposite entryway.
“That’s Nathanial,” Geoff informed Jeremy. “You get used to him. That guy over there slacking off is Troy. He’s military like me.”
Sheena rolled her chair up to them, and it was clear from the way her arms strained that she was not yet accustomed to her disability. “Do you, Jeremy? Do you know computers?”
He stared at her. Even wheelchair-bound, this tiny woman with flakes of gray in her black, pinned-up hair seemed tougher than Geoff. She met his stare, her eyes unwavering through her thick glasses. “Well?” she urged.
“Um… no, ma’am, I don’t.”
“What did you do before…?” she let her sentence trail off.
“I was an artist.”
Sheena cackled. “You sure know how to pick them, Geoff. What use is he going to be? And more importantly, who’s going to give up their share of the food to feed him?”
Troy hopped to his feet and moved between the doctor and Jeremy, sticking out his hand. “Glad to have you along for the ride. I promise not all of us are as crazy as we seem.”
Jeremy took Troy’s hand and shook it firmly.
“Bring him to the lab later,” Sheena ordered. “We need to make sure he’s clean.”
Troy winked at Jeremy. “Gotta go. Duty calls.” Then he grabbed the handles on the back of the doctor’s chair and rolled her out of the room.
“Who was that?” Jeremy asked as the pair disappeared down a corridor.
“That’s our doctor and science whiz, Sheena. She was in charge here before things went to shit. She still thinks she is, most of the time.”
A pale man, dressed in black and only slightly older than Jeremy, wandered into the control room. He wore thin, sleek glasses and carried himself with a flare of style. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed the two of them.
“Oh God,” Geoff muttered, “not Ian.”
“Good afternoon, Geoff,” the man said with a soft British accent and a smile. “And who might this be accompanying you today?” He didn’t wait long enough for a response, jumping back in as if hoping to interrupt any reply. “You don’t actually have to answer that. I couldn’t help but overhear your encounter with our resident witch doctor. She’s rather narrow-minded these days, obsessed with death you might say.”
“Death?” Jeremy asked.
Ian nodded, waving his hand effeminately as if dismissing Jeremy’s concern. “You’ve heard about the wave, I’m sure. It broke apart when it hit the earth, you see, and our good doctor is worried that a piece of it will hit the sun. If it did, it could disrupt the fusion reactions inside the star like it did the energy sources here; it would start a chain reaction and act as a booster as well, causing even our tiny sun to become a supernova. The sun would simply explode. It would be the end of our solar system. Of course, given our limited resources at the moment, it’s impossible to know where the fragments of the wave are headed.”
Jeremy blinked, stunned to silence. Ian laid a hand on his shoulder. “Carpe diem, young man. Don’t worry about the future, only be concerned with the time you have now.”
“What brings you out of your private coffin, Ian?” Geoff asked.
“Coffee, my good man, Coffee. I was just on my way to the mess to brew a pot while we still have some left. Would you two care to join me?”
“I think we’ll pass,” Geoff said without giving Jeremy a chance to respond.
“Have it your way then.” Cheerfully, Ian continued along on his quest.
“Come on, kid.” Geoff literally pulled Jeremy out of the control room. “Let me show you to your bunk.”
They rode a nearby lift down to the military living quarters, a row of twenty-four rooms lining a long corridor. According to Geoff, only three of the base’s survivors lived down here: himself, Troy and the repair tech Wade. Nathanial, Dr. Sheena Leigh (when she could be pried away from her projects), and the base’s communications officer, a woman named Toni, stayed on another level in the civilian section, whereas Ian made his home in makeshift quarters he’d set up inside the armory, despite all the available space. Ian had been the CIA liaison and was, in Geoff’s opinion, the only complete psychopath left in the complex. There was also a woman named Lex, who was in a coma, Geoff explained. She was kept in the medical labs so Sheena could keep a close eye on her; they weren’t sure whether she would wake up normal or be affected by the wave.
For the time being, Geoff assured him, Jeremy could stay with the “normal” people in the military quarters. The room he gave Jeremy was rather Spartan. It contained only a bunk, a small bathroom, and a single table supporting a computer tied into the mainframe.
“It’s not much,” Geoff said, “But it’s a hell of a lot safer than living out there with those things.”
A memory of Luke’s deranged, hungry face flashed through Jeremy’s mind and he shuddered.
“The creatures don’t come around here much. It’s rather secluded and very few people knew there was even anything up here in the mountains. We do get a few wanders now and again. Nothing we can’t deal with so far. Besides, even if the things flocked up here in droves, there’s no way they could get inside the complex proper.”
Jeremy nodded as he shrugged off his backpack and placed it on the bunk.
Geoff headed for the door. “You look like you could use some rest, so I’ll leave you to it. We’ll worry about finding you a job tomorrow. Everybody here contributes somehow for the good of us all—except maybe Ian. We have to work together if we want to stay alive.”
As the door slid closed behind Geoff, Jeremy slumped into the chair at the table and rested his head in his hands. It was true: he felt safer here than he had in days, and it was good to see people again, no matter who they were, but he still wondered if coming here had been the right thing to do.
Jeremy awoke to someone pounding on his door. He rubbed his eyes and climbed out of the bunk as a short, hideously muscled man entered the room. The man’s bald head gleamed from the light shining through the open doorway behind him.
“Time to go, new boy. We’ve got work to do.”
“Who… who are you?”
“Name’s Wade. I keep things working around here, but today I’m going into town and you’re going with me.”
“What? I just got here. Why me?”
“You’re not that dense are you?” Wade walked over and rapped his knuckles on Jeremy’s skull. “Hello in there.”
Jeremy backed away, and Wade glared at him.
“None of us other than Geoff have really left the complex since the wave. Hell, you lived through the shit out there. I need a guide, Jerm, and you’re it.”
“But I don’t know anything you don’t,” Jeremy argued.
“Daylight’s burning, new boy. Get your shit together or get out.”
Jeremy had slept in his pants, so he pulled on his Rush T-shirt and reached for his .38.