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Ruth retreated, grabbing her pole once more. Anna’s grip tightened on her katana, but Ruth merely turned.
“Come on,” Ruth said. “You woke the whole Bunker up and we’ll all be dead if we don’t make it back in time.”
“Back?” I asked.
Ruth didn’t answer. She walked away into the darkness. Before I could follow her, Anna grabbed my shoulder.
“What are you doing?”
“Ruth is alright,” I said. “I know her.”
“You sure?”
From somewhere in the Bunker, I heard the distant yowl of a Howler. Two more Howlers took up the first one’s cry.
“Not like we have a choice, anyway,” I said.
“Come on!” Ruth called from ahead, insistent.
Anna and I ran after Ruth. More howls pierced the air. When we caught up, Ruth led us down the rest of the rock tunnel with surprising boldness, using her pole and hook as a walking stick. Her pace was brisk, but not a jog or all-out run. I wondered why she was taking her time about it.
“When it’s dark,” Ruth explained in a whisper, “they are most attracted to movement. They see well enough in the light so it does you no good to sit still. But when it’s dark, you have to give them a little help before they charge after you.”
As we entered Bunker 108’s atrium, Ruth extended her pole, pointing it outward. Feet shuffled toward us about thirty feet distant. Still, Ruth did not run. Instead she walked to the security door that led downward toward the Hydroponics. It was the same door Khloe, her parents, and I had taken during our escape. That door, normally locked, opened when Ruth pulled on it.
At this sudden movement, a few high shrieks sounded.
“Inside,” she said. “Hurry!”
As more inhuman yips came from the darkness behind, Anna and I rushed inside. Quickly, Ruth followed us and slammed the door shut. She reached toward the corner and lifted a metal bar, which she placed across the handle. Bare feet rushed into the atrium on the other side of the door. Several bodies slammed into the metal door, but it held in place with the bar.
“Too close,” I said.
Ruth nodded. “The story of my life, since that day.”
I saw that Ruth carried no light of her own. I didn’t know if she actually had one, or if she had chosen to make her way around in the dark without one. She must have known Bunker 108 better than anyone. I suppressed a shudder as I pointed my light toward the stairwell ahead, pushing back the darkness.
“Turn that off,” Ruth said. “They’ll see it.”
I snapped the light off, leaving us in pitch blackness.
“Slowly, carefully,” she said. “Put your hand on the rail. When you get to the bottom, follow the wall all the way to the end. You’ll see the light.”
Her voice was so quiet that I could barely hear. We followed her, spiraling down the stairway as more inhuman yowls sounded from the atrium.
“Usually you can make your way around the Bunker if it’s dark enough,” Ruth said. “And if you are slow and patient enough. Not that I try anymore. I have everything I need in Hydroponics. Everything.”
Neither Anna nor I responded. I saw nothing in front of me, and could only hear the breaths and steps of Ruth and Anna ahead. Of all the people to have survived the xenoviral infestation, I would have picked Ruth last. We weren’t close or anything, but I knew her well enough to know her as bubbly, happy, and innocent. I saw none of that, now. Like the rest of us citizens, she could fire and fight as well as anyone. All that latent training must have kicked into gear as soon as the Bunker fell.
Ruth led us down with purpose until we reached the bottom. The corridor led dead ahead. At the end of the tunnel I could see pale yellow light glowing.
“I only have the power on to grow food,” Ruth said. “I don’t want to test it any more than that.”
“You’ve been living here by yourself?” Anna asked.
“Yes.”
Her voice was thin, as if parched. I first thought she might be sick. Then, I realized that her voice was probably weak from lack of use. Existing three months on her own, especially given how extroverted Ruth was, must have been torture. No wonder she had risked her life to rescue us like that.
“Thank you,” I said. “For saving us.”
Ruth didn’t answer. My words seemed to have no effect.
Her silhouette was outlined by the light coming from the Hydroponics Lab. From my position I could smell the thick aroma of vegetation – spicy, sweet, and earthy all at the same time. It instantly took me back to my old life and the memory wasn’t exactly welcome.
All of a sudden, I became aware of the closeness of the walls, the weight of the earth above, this cage of metal known as Bunker 108. I remembered the old stories about how a lot of the first residents went crazy after moving underground – when they realized they couldn’t get back out. It was small wonder that so many Bunkers had fallen. Human beings weren’t meant to be caged like animals. We were meant to be free, even if that freedom meant wandering a Wasteland.
We all stood inside the Hydroponics Lab. Though the lighting was dim, coming only from the grow lights set above the plants, it was still enough to see by. The plants overran their lanes, though small areas appeared to be cultivated. I realized that Ruth could only tend so much of the lab. Back when Bunker 108 was online, dozens of people worked these lanes, all presided over by Khloe’s parents, who ran the lab. Things were different, now. From all appearances, Bunker 108 was now a one-woman operation.
And here stood Ruth, staring at us both. I realized then that she really had been living here when I’d thought for sure everyone was dead.
“How did you survive here?” I asked.
Ruth smiled grimly. “Do you really want to know?”
Something from her tone made me wonder if I did.
“Yes. If you survived, maybe there are others, too.”
Ruth shook her head, her hair falling in front of her face. She brushed it out with her free hand, tucking it behind her ears. She set the pole against the wall, heaving a sigh. It was like she didn’t know what to do, or say, with people around. It was the opposite of the Ruth I once knew.
“If you want to know...” Ruth said.
“You don’t have to,” Anna said. “Why don’t we sit down? Relax a bit.”
Ruth gave another smile, this one bitter. “Relax?”
“Yeah,” I said. “You do that, don’t you?”
Ruth shook her head. “I try to stay busy. It helps to keep my mind off things. I tend all the plants, even when I don’t need to. I make sure the irrigation lines are maintained. I’m trying to figure out how the recycling tanks work, how the hydroponics itself recycles.” She sighed. “If I relax, I’ll start to go crazy.”
Anna and I both watched Ruth. She was starting to get fidgety, wringing her hands.
“Let’s just sit down and talk, alright?” Anna said. “About anything. Doesn’t have to be about this place. Actually...it shouldn’t be about this place.”
Ruth blinked. “This place is all I know.”
“Let’s change that, then.”
Ruth didn’t answer – she looked away, her blue eyes blank. Living alone under these conditions had taken its toll.
“Maybe we can eat,” I said. “I have some grilled chicken in my pack.”
“Chicken,” Ruth said, saying the word as if it were new. “Haven’t had that in a while.”
Bunker 108 did have a chicken coop separate from Hydroponics, though it was mostly for the eggs the birds laid. Killing and eating the chickens was out of the question, except during special occasions, as they were too valuable a commodity. Those chickens were probably all dead, now. Their food had come from this very room, after all.
“Fine,” Ruth said. “Let’s sit down and talk.”
She turned, pushing her way through several tall tomato plants. Anna looked at me, her eyes questioning. I shrugged before motioning Anna to proceed me.
Ruth led us to a corner of the Hydroponics Lab. There, she had arranged several blankets to make a floor of sorts, something to take away from the hard, cold linoleum. There were several polyester sacks, filled with produce. My stomach rumbled – it had been hours since breakfast. Ruth sat on the blankets, leaning her back against the wall, stretching her legs out. Her hands became fidgety, not used to being idle.
Anna and I sat down with her. Nothing was said for a long moment. I took off my pack, reaching inside of it. I pulled out the chicken – two grilled breasts wrapped in a reusable plastic bag.
I handed mine to Ruth. “Here.”
“I don’t want it.”
Even though she said that, her eyes told me she did.
“You haven’t had protein like this in a long time,” I said. “You need it.”
“We have a walnut tree in here,” Ruth said. “Or did you forget?”
“What happened to the others?”
Ruth shrugged. “There were three, but I only take care of the one. Just me, after all.”
Ruth reached into one of the polyester sacks, retrieving a plastic container filled to the brim with walnuts, already husked for their kernels.
“You’ve been busy,” Anna said.
Ruth, at last, gave a smile. “Nothing but time down here.”
She took a handful of kernels, popping them into her mouth. She then passed the container to us. I took a few of the kernels in my hand, looking at them for a moment before eating them. Walnuts were one of the many amenities I missed from this Bunker. As they crunched in my mouth, I reached for more.
Ruth had already unzipped her chicken and was eating it, mixing it with some of the walnuts.
“It’s good,” she said.
We ate for a while in silence. I grabbed some tomatoes in one of the sacks, handing one to Anna and placing the rest in a pile before us. I bit into it; the flavor was sweet and juicy.
Ruth licked her fingers and took another handful of walnuts. She began to talk.
“When everything happened,” Ruth began, “I hid in a closet in the Caf. Mark...he died, but told me to run right before those monsters got him.”
I remembered that Mark Massey had been an Officer, and Ruth’s husband. He was tall, broad-shouldered, known for his smile and laugh as much as Ruth was. Charismatic. People believed he had a bright future among the Officers in Bunker 108. So many bright futures had been dimmed that day.
“I locked myself in a pantry in the kitchen and didn’t come out for two days. I only came out after everything went quiet.”
Ruth stared ahead. She recited this clinically, as if it had happened to someone else.
“When I came out, I found this pole in the hands of a dead Officer. I picked it up just in time to kill a few monsters I didn’t realize were there. Then I ran.”
“To here?” Anna asked.
Ruth nodded. “I had my pole and I just jabbed any one of those things I saw and tried not to look at them.” She paused. “I didn’t want to know who they were – who they had been. That just made it worse.”
“Were there any Howlers in the Hydroponics Lab?”
“No,” Ruth said. “One small miracle. Maybe they didn’t have time to spread that far. Still, after I barred myself in, I checked every single lane at least three times, every square inch of this place. Only then did I sleep.”
“And you’ve been here ever since?” I asked.
Ruth nodded. “For the most part, yeah. I’ve come out a few times. Once, to try and escape. That’s when I met him. I should have said...there is another survivor. A man.”
“Who?” Anna asked.
Ruth shook her head. “I’ve thought about this a long time. I’ve never really gotten a good look. But one time, I did – it was the time I tried to escape. He was no one I’d ever seen before. Which confused me. I mean, I knew everyone in this Bunker. Everyone. We all did. And I had never seen that man before.”
“Who could he be?” I asked.
“A few weeks ago, I realized who he was. Which explained why I’d never seen him before.” Ruth looked at me, her eyes intent. “Old Darcy.”
Old Darcy. That was a name I hadn’t heard in a while. Fifteen years ago, there had been a man named Clyde Darcy who was said to have gone crazy. He had killed his entire family, the only murders to have ever occurred in Bunker 108. The aftershocks changed the fate of the Bunker forever. Clyde Darcy, or Old Darcy as he was later called, wasn’t just any man. He had been a Colonel, Chan’s superior, and had been in charge of Bunker 108 before he was executed.
No one knew what caused Darcy to snap, and if you knew what was good for you, you never brought it up, especially around Chan. There was a rumor that Darcy really hadn’t been killed, that Chan had kept him alive for one reason or another. There were many tossed about. Several centered on the belief that Darcy had known something so critical to the survival of the Bunker Program that he couldn’t be killed, and maybe it was the thing that caused him to go crazy. Another rumor was that he was the highest ranking official in the United States, effectively making him President. Or, so the speculation went.
Whatever the reason, Chan kept Darcy from being executed, locking him instead deep in the Officers’ Wing. Kids told stories about seeing Officers carrying food down to the cells when they were thought to be vacant.
I had thought it all ridiculous. It sounded like a rumor, something we kids made up to scare the crap out of each other. There had been a Clyde Darcy; that was fact. But him being kept alive for fifteen years because Chan somehow needed him?
“You really think it’s Clyde Darcy?” I asked.
“It couldn’t be anyone else,” Ruth insisted. “He was old, and I’d recognize anyone from this Bunker. The fact that I didn’t recognize him was proof enough for me.”
“What did you do when you saw him?” Anna asked.
“I ran. I ran as fast as I could and locked myself back in here. He beat on the door for a while, but those monsters came after him. I heard him curse and run off.” Ruth shuddered. “I haven’t heard him since.”
“You think he’s still alive?” Anna asked.
Ruth shrugged. “I hope not. Crazy man like that, who knows. I’m still alive, aren’t I?”
I had difficulty believing this. Yet again, sometimes rumors existed for a reason. If Darcy were alive, it meant we just didn’t have the Howlers to deal with. We had a crazy, murderous man.
“Whatever the case,” I said, “we need to find a way out of here.”
“The door lost power,” Anna said. “I switched it to auxiliary.”
Ruth shook her head. “Bad move.”
“What?” Anna asked. “Why?”
“The main power is spotty,” Ruth said. “But the auxiliary power is kaput. As soon as you switched it, everything went dead. You should have just kept it on the main line.”
“Crap, how was I supposed to know that?” Anna asked.
“You couldn’t have,” Ruth said. “I arrived too late to stop you. I did the same thing with a section of grow lights that went out. Now, that section is dark for good. The plants are withering.”
“How did you know we were up there?” I asked.
“I could hear you guys talking from behind my door. It’s so quiet in here. Things carry surprisingly well. I hear weird clicks and clacks all the time. You learn to ignore the sounds or you go crazy. But when I heard you guys talking, I knew you had come from the outside and that you didn’t know about the danger in here. So I came out.”
Anna reached out to touch her arm. “Thanks. As Alex said, we wouldn’t be here without you.”
“It was what I had to do. But the bigger question is what we do now.”
“We can’t go out the front anymore,” I said. “That means we have to try for the motor pool.”
“I didn’t say we couldn’t go out the front,” Ruth said. “You can open the outer door manually, of course. That’s how it was usually done, right? The computer thing is just an automated system. The inner and outer doors can’t be open at the same time. The inner is open right now, so we could still get into the tunnel and manually open the outer door once we close the inner one.”
“Of course,” I said. “I should have known that, because every time I’ve gone out I had to open the door manually.”
“Should we leave now?” Anna asked.
“No. We should wait for things to calm down a bit, first,” Ruth said. “Those...Howlers, did you call them?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Howlers. They take a while to go away. An hour or two at least.”
We all sat quietly. Maybe getting out wouldn’t be so hard after all. Just wait out the Howlers, then go back the way we came in.
“Why did you only try to escape the one time?” Anna asked.
“I’ve actually been preparing to leave,” Ruth said. “I’m trying to work out a plan. I know it’s cold out there so I need more clothing than this. Only, that requires me going to the apartments, which are pretty far from here. It’s too dangerous.”
What she said was true. Her camo pants and wear-resistant polyester shirt might be sufficient for summer, but they were insufficient to survive a Wasteland winter.
“Not only that,” Ruth said, “but I want a better weapon than this pole. The few times I’ve been outside Hydroponics I haven’t even found a security baton. It would be nice to have a gun or something. This pole works well enough, I guess. We have several of them in Storage. We mainly used them for reaching shelves that are too high up.”
“Well, you don’t have to wait for all of that now,” I said. “We have a whole team out there that you can stay with. Hell, even Michael and Lauren Sanchez and their kid are with us.
Ruth’s eyes widened. “What? They’re alive?”
I nodded. “Yeah. They took one of the Recons and made it to Vegas. That’s where we met them.”
Ruth’s eyes looked hopeful for once. “Lauren...she was my best friend. I thought she was dead. You’re telling me she’s alive?”
“Yeah,” I said. “She’s with us right now. Not here, obviously, but with the rest of the group outside.”
“Outside the Bunker?” Ruth asked.
“Up in Pyrite,” I said. “It’s this small town and...”
Anna placed a hand on my arm. “Maybe we should tell her the whole story first.”
Ruth looked from me to Anna.
“Alright,” I said. “Just to warn you: it’s a very long story.”
“We have time,” Ruth said. “But first, tell me: Lauren is alright? Callie?”
I nodded. “Yeah, they’re both fine. They’ve been through a lot, but so has anyone who survived this.”
Ruth nodded. The news brought peace, softening the features of her face.
“Okay,” Ruth said. “Tell me everything. Why you’re here. How you go out. Everything.”