Sutherland let out a groan and moved his hand to the lump on his head. He winced at the pain and felt blood soaking his hair.
“He’s waking up.”
Sutherland heard murmurs and tried to open his eyes, but his head was still pounding. He felt hands on his shoulders as someone lifted him into a sitting position. Sutherland almost wished they had left him on the floor, but he didn’t have the energy to even protest.
“Are you alright?”
“Never… been… better.”
Sutherland finally forced open his eyes and looked around the room. He was in a cell, which made him wonder why there was a cell in the bunker to begin with, and there were more of them on his left and right that he saw as his eyes wandered. There was a man, the one who had been speaking to him and a woman in the cell with him.
“Where… where’s Wheeler?”
The man and woman looked at each other and then back to Sutherland.
“Sorry… I don’t know anyone named Wheeler.”
Sutherland felt dizzy and closed his eyes again. He was sure having two hard knocks to the head in as many days wasn’t great, but he didn’t have time to worry about that. He needed to find out what had happened and then find Wheeler.
He tried to stand up, but felt so weak that he gave up and returned to a seated position with the help of the man in his cell.
“Who are you?” the man said.
“No one.”
Sutherland felt bad about not being honest, but he was still trying to figure out what had happened and he didn’t know yet if he could trust the people in his cell. He opened his eyes and saw the man whispering something to the woman and they seemed to stop as soon as they noticed he was watching, but Sutherland wasn’t sure.
“Back up!”
The man and woman in his cell backed up until they were flanking Sutherland. The man who Sutherland had given a ride to the bunker was standing outside of the cell with a wicked smile on his face. He pushed a key into the lock of the cell door and pulled it open with an irritating metallic creak.
“Let’s go… get the fuck up.”
Sutherland pushed his hands against the floor and cringed as his head pounded.
“C’mon.”
Sutherland stumbled toward the open cell door. The man pulled his pistol out and held it to Sutherland’s back as he locked the door again. He prodded Sutherland with the pistol to get him moving.
He blinked a few times as he tried to clear the fuzziness in his vision. Sutherland tried to slow his pace, but the man jabbed the pistol into his back again.
"Hurry up... I don't have all day."
They finally reached the end of the cell block and the glass door in front of Sutherland slid open.
"First door on the right."
Sutherland walked through the open door and into the white room. There was a table with a chair on the far side and two on the close side. The door closed behind Sutherland and he heard the click of a lock.
The room was empty except for the table and chairs. The sterile feel of it gave Sutherland the creeps. He sat down in a chair and closed his eyes while he waited. His head was still foggy and he knew there was no point in even trying to figure out a way to escape.
The lock clicked again and the door opened. Sutherland opened his eyes and sat up straight as the door opened. A man walked in, pulled out one of the chairs across from Sutherland and sat down. He slowly took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. The man pulled one out and lifted it to his lips while taking a lighter out of his pocket. He lit the cigarette and blew the first puff of smoke at Sutherland. The smoke hung in the stale air of the room as Sutherland stared back at the man.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?" Sutherland said.
The man took another drag from his cigarette and leaned back in his chair.
"Who are you?"
"I told that other guy... Jones told me and my friend that you guys could use a hand taking this place. We thought we would be here in time to help."
The man shook his head and leaned forward. He blew a cloud of smoke right into Sutherland's eyes and let out a sickeningly giddy laugh.
"Jones? Jones?"
"Yes... Jones."
The man leaned closer to Sutherland plucked the cigarette from his mouth and threw it into Sutherland's face. Sutherland closed his eyes as the cigarette bounced off his cheek. The man stood up and took a swing at Sutherland, connecting with his nose. The punch knocked Sutherland back as his chair tipped over and he hit the ground.
"I think you're lying... and if you are... well... you're fucked."
Sutherland rolled onto his stomach, pushed his hands against the floor and opened his eyes. He looked down at the ground as blood from his nose dripped onto the floor. As Sutherland tried to get up the man walked around the table and kicked him in the ribs. The force of the blow sent the air from Sutherland's lungs and he collapsed to the floor.
"That's for bleeding on my floor, asshole."
Sutherland choked as he gasped for air. The man pushed the table out of the way and squatted down next to Sutherland.
"Nothing to say? That's what I thought."
Sutherland closed his eyes and blocked out whatever the man was saying to him... he instead thought about Cynthia. He hoped she was OK... he wished he could tell her one last time how much he loved her.
The man stood up and gave Sutherland a parting kick to abdomen before leaving the room and locking the door behind him.
Sutherland rolled onto his side and wiped blood from his top lip. He knew it was the end. These people clearly knew he didn't belong here. A tear rolled down his cheek as he closed his eyes and thought about the last morning he saw Cynthia and Nicole... it seemed like such a long time ago, but he could remember every detail of the morning. Cynthia was standing at the counter packing Nicole’s lunch and she turned her head to give him a kiss as he grabbed his coffee and headed for the door. A kiss. The last time he would ever kiss her.
The door of the interrogation room swung open and Sutherland didn’t even bother looking up. He closed his eyes and readied for the beating that was about to come. Whatever the people wanted from him… he wasn’t going to tell them a thing. Sutherland didn’t want them to know about the other Districts because they seemed to be the only hope of the United States rising from the ashes.
Sutherland felt hands on him as someone tried to lift him to his feet.
“C’mon… get your ass up.”
He couldn’t believe it… it was Wheeler. Sutherland stood up, with considerable help, and looked at Wheeler. He wasn’t in much better shape than Sutherland, but he had a smirk on his face.
“You look like shit, Sir.”
“Thanks… it’s good to see you.”
“Let’s get out of here.”
Sutherland nodded and they headed for the door. Wheeler pulled a pistol out his belt as he opened the door and looked up and down the hall.
“Any idea where we should go?” Sutherland said.
“All the bunkers have an identical layout.”
That didn’t mean anything to Sutherland since he hadn’t been in the bunker at District One long enough to really learn the layout. Wheeler turned to the left and quickly checked a hallway on the right. They kept going until they reached a dead end and Wheeler paused.
“Do you know which way to go?” Sutherland said.
“Yeah… that’s not the problem.”
Sutherland stuck his head around the corner, looked up and down the hall, but he didn’t see anything.
“I… I must be missing something.”
“I’m trying to decide if we try and rescue everyone that’s being held.”
Sutherland wrinkled his forehead. That wasn’t a decision for Wheeler to make.
“We need to rescue them,” Sutherland said. “They can help us take back the bunker.”
Wheeler sighed and peeked around the corner again. This time he pulled his head back quickly and readied the pistol.
“I’m not sure if that’s going to be an option.”
Wheeler stepped into the hallway, fired two shots and ducked back as they returned fire.
“Let’s go,” Wheeler said.
They took off running back toward the interrogation room. Sutherland wasn’t sure what Wheeler had in mind, but he trusted the man to guide them to safety.
Sutherland felt dizzy… his head was pounding… and he forced his body to try and keep up with Wheeler. They took a sharp left, followed twenty feet later by a right. Wheeler stopped and closed the door behind Sutherland.
Both men paused to catch their breath as Wheeler pressed his ear against the closed door and listened for footsteps.
“Did you tell them who you are?”
“No,” Sutherland said, “you?”
“No. Let’s go.”
Wheeler took off running down the dimly lit corridor. Sutherland assumed it was some kind of service tunnel because it didn’t match the sterile feel of the rest of the bunker… instead it was just damp and creepy.
They ran in a straight line for the next twenty minutes and Sutherland finally slowed as they got close to a door. Wheeler stopped, opened the door a crack and peered out. Light came through the crack and Sutherland shielded his eyes.
Wheeler pushed the door open the rest of the way and they walked out into a grassy field. Sutherland looked back over his shoulder as they walked up a small hill and he couldn’t see the barn that marked the bunker. He hoped they didn’t know about the service tunnel because he wasn’t sure how much more running he would be capable of.
Sutherland and Wheeler walked in silence until the sun dropped behind the horizon. There was no cover or trees and they had to hunker down behind a large rock as the temperature quickly dropped.
“What are we going to do, Sir?”
“I don’t know.”
It was the truth. Sutherland was physically exhausted and he was hungry. The only thing he could think about was sleep. He closed his eyes and let sleep come to him. Sutherland knew there would be plenty of time to figure out their next move in the morning.
Sutherland didn’t sleep much—he had dreams of Cynthia and Nicole for most of the night and they weren’t pleasant. He felt so torn, maybe because he had seen the joy on Wheeler’s face when he was with Nancy… but Sutherland felt like he should head back and look for his family.
He knew it was his duty to the United States, or whatever it was now, to keep going and try to take back District Four… it just seemed like an impossible task.
Sutherland stood up and brushed the dirt from his clothes and looked around for Wheeler. He finally spotted him on top of the next crest where he was flat on his stomach. Sutherland approached him and went prone next to him.
There was a house not far off, maybe a half a mile, and there was movement at it. There were two barns, one large, white one right behind the house and another smaller one a few hundred feet from the house. Sutherland watched as two people walked from the large white barn to the house.
Sutherland also noticed there was a road in front of the house, which he assumed would least west… back toward the main road. They needed transportation and then they could head that way.
They backed down the hill before standing up. Sutherland and Wheeler both knew if they started talking on top of the crest, it would be possible for their voices to carry all the way to the farmhouse and they didn’t want their position known.
“I’m thinking we need to commandeer a vehicle from them,” Sutherland said, trying to keep his voice down.
Wheeler nodded, took the pistol out of his belt and checked the magazine for an ammo count.
“I’ve got six shots left.”
“Don’t fire on them unless they fire at us… I don’t want any collateral damage.”
Wheeler nodded.
“Where are we going to go?”
Sutherland yawned as he thought about where they should head. There was no point in heading back to Pierre… there was a chance people from the bunker would be looking for them, not to mention the people holding the bridge.
“I think there’s an Air Force base in… I think it’s in Rapid City.”
“You think we should head there?” Wheeler said.
“I’m not sure what we should do….”
Sutherland hoped there would be some men still holding the base and he would be able to take back the bunker at District Four with their help.
“Let’s go get a car,” Wheeler said, as he walked away from Sutherland and readied his pistol.