Age of Mystics (Saga of Mystics Book 1) (4 page)

Specialist Jordan Kane had barely made it into the botanical lab before he might have passed out from lack of oxygen. The power in “the Mountain” had gone out very suddenly, but the generators had not come on as they were supposed to come on. When everyone else ran in the dark toward the doors, Jordan remembered what he had learned in High School biology, plants produce oxygen. He also remembered that the lab was much closer than the doors that were across a huge area and up a couple of floors. In the pitch dark of the lab, he had breathed in the sweet oxygen the plants put off and realized he was not alone. Though he couldn’t see them, there were three others in the room – the research scientist, Dr. Pare; her lab tech Private Jose Rio and a guard who was normally stationed in another area, but liked to talk to Dr. Pare about gardening, PFC Donna Harris.

Jordan knew a lot about the survival aspects of the base, because it was his job to maintain many of them. He had switched from infantry to mechanical last year when he re-enlisted, and was responsible for generators, filters and such. What he didn’t understand was why none of them had worked. The power had simply disappeared. That was not supposed to happen.

“Dr. Pare, do you know when they will come and get us?” Rio had asked, but it wasn’t the doctor who answered, but Jordan.

“They aren’t coming. The generators never came on. The oxygen was depleted pretty quickly. I am sorry, there is no chance they made it.”

Dr. Pare answered him, “No, that’s not right. It is not oxygen depletion that is causing the problem you experienced.”

“Hey, Doc, I know what I felt. I couldn’t breathe out there.”

She continued, “It seems counter-intuitive, but it isn’t the oxygen. It is the carbon dioxide. With all of those people out there panicking, they are forcing carbon-dioxide into a sealed space. They are poisoning themselves.”

Rio popped in with a question, “Why are we okay?”

Jordan answered, “The plants, right Doc? They eat Carbon-Dioxide.”

Dr. Pare was quiet for a moment and Jordan wasn’t entirely sure whether she was sad or laughing at his stupidity. Eventually, she said, “Pretty much. They also consume more carbon dioxide when the lights are out, so they are eating up our refuse air at the moment.”

Harris spoke up suddenly, “Wait a minute. There are hundreds of people in this facility, are you saying they have all died?”

Jordan was just stunned as he thought about it, “On any given day, there are around thirty-two hundred people working in this facility. Unless this is some strange test, we are the only four who will still be alive in a very short period of time. People screamed in the darkness and all clamored to get to the main doors, which absolutely will not open in a power outage. That is not the way out.”

He heard her sob quietly, or it may have been the doctor, but the fear in Rio’s voice when he spoke was as palpable as the tears from the others. “But, it has only been what, an hour or two?”

Jordan had no good news to give, but he didn’t want to give false hope either. “With the doors closed and a full complement of workers, they will suck the air out…or I guess press the CO2 in, until they die. The panic levels I experienced on the way here make me think it was not a long time. There were people collapsed on the floor already by the time I got here. You know what they say on a plane, get your own oxygen before you help anyone else or you’ll both die. I thought there was plenty of time for the generators to kick in. But they didn’t. That is not supposed to be possible. I don’t understand it. But they didn’t come on. All of those people are gone.”

“Oh, Jesus,” was all Rio could say in response.

“We have these plants to thank for not being dead.” It was all he could think to say to give them hope, but the doctor dashed that hope in moments.

“The bad news,” she started, “is that these plants won’t last without the generators either.”

“What do you mean?” sobbed out Harris.

The doctor’s voice was calm and Kane realized that it must have been Rio who was the other crier. “Without power, there are no sun lamps. Without sun lamps, these plants will continue to put out oxygen, and take in carbon-dioxide for maybe a day. Additionally, we have no food. The edible plants are in the outside garden right now. We rotate them to give certain opportunities for growth.”

Jordan just hung his head, it seemed his escape into the lab was only a temporary reprieve from the angel of death. Even in his despair, though, his curiosity was peaked. “I have never heard of an outside garden, where is that?”

“Up the stairs two floors and out the door right there.” Rio was the one who answered. The wheels began to spin in Jordan’s head and a plan formed.

Jordan steeled himself, he knew he would have to motivate the others to his plan. It really was the only way they made it more than one day. “Okay, there may be a way out for us. There are reasons why power goes out here, it isn’t supposed to take all power, but that is actually a better scenario than the others. It probably isn’t a nuclear attack, because that wouldn’t affect the generators at all. In fact, this catastrophe may just be in the Mountain. If that is the case, or if anything is the case, other than nuclear attack, we are way better off outdoors. I think we should make a run for it.”

There was a long pause, clearly the others were thinking about it. Harris was the first to speak, “I am with you. I don’t want to die here without even trying to get out.”

“Thanks Harris,” Jordan replied, “Anyone else have thoughts?”

“What if the door has sealed in some way?” Rio asked.

“Due to accidental shut down, the doors of the facility are made to open from the inside and only seal to the outside. Most people don’t know that because they didn’t want anyone to try. However, it would help to have something to bust the door down just in case.”

The doctor finally spoke. “There is an axe in the fire extinguisher area in this room. That could help. If we hurry, we should be able to get up there and out the door just holding our breath, it really isn’t that far. But, if we have to bust down the door, with no air? It won’t be good.”

Jordan considered the doctor’s words. “I am willing to take those odds.”

“Me too,” said Harris.

“Okay,” the doctor replied, “It sounds like our best option.”

There was a long pause. The doctor then asked, “Jose?”

Rio sniffled, “I am not going.”

Dr. Pare pleaded with him, but in the end, he would not change his mind. He said he would seal the room up, but be inside to let them back in if they could make it back. The three of them gathered their items near the door, crawling and reaching out in the pitch black. Jordan took the axe. In the dark, they had traced in each person’s hand the route they would take and had tied a string to each person’s belt to keep them together.

Jordan did a last check and they were all ready. “Rio, there is no way to come back for you. This is the last chance. Are you certain this is what you want?”

Jose Rio patted him on the shoulder and just said, “Go.”

They opened the door and quickly walked to the right, opening the first door into the stairwell with the simple push bar. They headed up the stairs in pitch black and Jordan tripped over a body that he tried unsuccessfully to steer those following him away from and Harris gasped. This little intake of a bad air mixture made her short on breath, and Kane had to pull her up the last flight as he kicked open the door with an axe in his left hand and his right arm around Donna Harris.

As they collapsed onto the ground, gulping in the fresh outdoor air, they would have been in relative darkness. But the few hours (it had really only been close to two by this point) in the pitch black of the facility had made the darkness of the outdoor lab in the afternoon seem downright bright in comparison. Though it could not have been more than four in the afternoon, it was pretty dark, because this section of the facility was right up against a cliff. Its small openings were not enough to compensate. Jordan was surprised that enough light came in to keep the garden alive. The stress, the lack of oxygen, and the run for life from the lab had exhausted all three of them and they decided to wait until morning to plan out their next move. They were each able to lie down in the dirt, close to one another. They barely knew each other, but they were together now and had a bind that would last.

Kyle heard the rattling and knocking at the store door, but with all that had just happened, he was not very interested in opening the door at this point. It seemed that he and Jessica were better off with that particular barrier between them and the outside world. He looked back to where his boss, Jeff, was tied and gagged in the corner. Jeff had tried to attack them, maybe even kill them, when the power had gone out. Kyle just didn’t understand it; he had always got along with Jeff. Then the power goes out, and after a short period, Jeff just went nuts. He had gone to the gun section of the store and opened the cases, loading a shotgun and a pistol with ammo and ordering Kyle and Jessica out.

He heard a muffled call, “Kyle!” It was his dad. A huge relief washed over Kyle as he ran forward, yelling out to Jessica that it was okay, and unlocked the security gate, then the door to let Kyle’s dad Cal in. Along with his dad were his Dad’s friend, Adam, and two blonde women he had never seen before. He let them all into the store. After letting them in, he immediately locked both door and gate back up. Once he had done that, he turned and gave his dad a long hug.

“Pop, it is good to see you. Some crazy shit is going on.”

Cal just nodded calmly, looking around the store. It was as if there were nothing unusual about the day. Kyle never ceased to be shocked at his dad’s ability to remain calm under stress. He assumed that is what had made his dad such a great soldier. Calm under fire is what people always told him about his dad. Cal turned toward those following him.

“Kyle, you know Adam.” Kyle reached forward and shook each hand in turn. “These young ladies are Erica and Ellen. They have decided to come with us, as this thing, whatever it is, seems to call for people to stay together.” Kyle agreed and let his Dad know. “Do you have anyone else here with you, son?”

Kyle was pretty surprised that he had suddenly forgot his friend. “Oh, yeah, sorry.” Turning toward the back he yelled out, “It’s okay, it’s my dad.” The young brunette with big blue eyes came out from her hiding place behind some shelves. She was obviously terrified. “Dad, this is my friend Jessica, she works here.” Turning back to the group he said, “This is my Dad, Cal. This is Adam, and, I am sorry…”

The taller, skinny lady with long blonde hair said, “Erica.”

He shorter, fit woman with short blonde hair said, “Ellen.”

Everyone shook hands and Kyle stepped close, “Dad, my boss is tied up back there, he tried to shoot us. I disarmed him and took him down.” Cal just nodded and put his hand behind his son’s neck, pulling him close into another hug.

“Show me to him. Adam, just in case, will you come with me? Ladies, if you don’t mind keeping Jessica company? She looks like she could use some.” Cal followed his son back to the corner, where Jeff was being held. “What happened?” he asked.

“When the power went out, we all sort of hunkered down to wait it out. I mean, it happens, right?” Adam and his dad both agreed that it did sometimes happen. “But, then the phones didn’t work. Our cell phones didn’t work. We saw all of the cars stop, some crashing like their brakes didn’t work. We locked up, because it is policy in these types of situations, if there are these types of situations. We had locked the front, and pulled the gate down, we were watching people act weirdly out the window and we see these people get in a fight right outside. A cop ran up to stop it, he must have been right there, and he pulled his gun at some point. The guy beat him up and sent him running back that way. It was crazy. But, Jeff…he just went wild. He ran to the back and pulled a shotgun and a pistol out of their cases and began loading them. Jess and I ran back to see what was up and he pointed the gun at me and told us to get out. He said it was the ‘beginning of the end.’ I told him to calm down, it was okay, this was just a power outage and the power would be back soon. He pulled the shotgun on me and pulled the trigger, twice. I was so shocked, I just stood there, and then he pulled the pistol and I had to act. I disarmed him and knocked him out cold. Then Jess helped me tie him up, and we have sat here for the whole time since that. She is really freaked out.”

Cal nodded. “Adam, would you check on this man, and make sure he is okay? Kyle, take me to the gun case.”

Leading his dad to the case, he unlocked it and his dad took out various weapons and ammunition, loaded them and pulled the triggers. The first two times he did this, Kyle recoiled, waiting for the inevitable sound of the guns discharging. But, they just made clicking noises. His dad repeated this with about ten different weapons and then stared off in deep thought.

“This isn’t just a power outage, is it?” Kyle asked. His dad was the smartest, and most deductive person he knew. If anyone could figure this out, he could. But his Dad just looked at him and shook his head.

“No.” is all he said and then he headed back to where Adam and Jeff were. Arriving, he bent over Jeff and removed the gag from his mouth. “You told my son this was the beginning of the end. What did you mean?”

The man looked up wide-eyed and whispered a single word, “Armageddon.”

Adam let out a little chuckle and Cal shook his head, as if to say “don’t make fun of the crazy guy”, but Kyle wasn’t sure it was that easy to dismiss the guy’s ideas.

“Dad,” he started, “what if he isn’t far from the mark?”

Cal looked at his son with a very reassuring smile. It was the first time since the lights went out that Kyle had felt that everything was going to be okay. His Dad clapped him on the shoulder, “I don’t know what this is, but I am pretty sure it isn’t any kind of apocalypse.”

The three men walked back up to the front, and Cal gathered the six of them together. It would be seven with Jeff, but Cal had left him bound up in the back of the store. “Okay,” he began, “we won’t be able to figure this out from here, but I think it is safe to say that we will be without power for a while. We have some decisions to make.”

The skinny girl, Erica, spoke up, “Mr. Ward? Why do you think the power won’t be on soon?”

Cal seemed to consider her question for a moment, not like he didn’t know, but like he didn’t know how to communicate it. “There are a lot of reasons. I will be more than happy to elaborate later, but we have to get to the rest of my family. You two have to decide if you are coming with us, or if you want to venture out on your own. You are both more than welcome, and I would strongly advise staying in numbers, but I have no hold over you if you want to go.”

The women looked at each other, but it was Jessica who spoke up. “I don’t have anyone in this area. Can I come with you? I would rather stay with Kyle; he is the only person I know…except Jeff.”

Kyle really hadn’t thought about Jeff. “What are we going to do with him?”

“We can’t leave him inside. At some point he will figure out there are more than guns in this store. We can give him the option of joining us too, but that will mean continued restraint. My guess is he will head in the direction of his own home. We will keep his keys to keep everyone safe.”

“I want to go with you also.” Ellen offered “My family is all the way in Walsenburg. If the cars don’t work, I can’t get to them. Friends are important; I would rather stay with you guys.”

“Me too, I guess.” Erica added, “I didn’t really think about that, but I am here for school. My family lives in Nebraska.”

Cal nodded again, as if accepting that what he thought would happen is just what happened. Kyle had seen his Dad do this before. He allowed people their own choices, but always seemed to know what those choices would be. “Then we come to the harder choices. I believe we have a long haul ahead of us. I would not normally suggest this, but I think we need to take some items from the store.”

Cal’s head jerked up and his dad was staring right at him. “Pop, I am responsible for this stuff, for the store. I can’t just take things.”

Cal sighed, but not with dismissal, more with the knowledge that his son was going to have to make a hard choice. “I know, bud. You are a responsible and honest young man, and I am very proud of you for it. Maybe I am wrong, and we won’t need anything. But, if I am right, we will need some help with survival and I don’t want to have to come back without a car to try to get stuff. Does that make sense? If I am wrong, I will pay for everything we take when the power comes back up. But, if I am right, it really won’t be an issue.”

Adam stepped in this time. “What do you think is happening?”

Cal looked at Kyle and Adam, from one to the other multiple times before answering. “I will explain it all when we get somewhere settled. For now, I need to ask you to trust me.”

Adam just nodded like that was all he needed. Kyle just said, “Of course.”

Cal then broke down what they needed to take and assigned each person to grab specific items. He listed backpacks, dried trail food, compound bows and arrows, and some clothing items. He told each person to go to the shoe area and pick out the best, most comfortable, hiking shoes. He also picked some out for family members in sizes he knew they wore. He had the group grab assorted camping gear, climbing gear and other items which made no sense to Kyle. But he trusted his Dad. When Cal had checked everything was there, and they had all packed backpacks for themselves, he brought Kyle back to where Jeff was.

Cal knelt down by Jeff’s side. “I understand that you have beliefs about our current surroundings. I may not believe the same things, but I do believe we are in a perilous circumstance. I am offering you the chance to come with us. We are going to meet up with my family in Black Forest. There will be room for you. Do you want to go with us?”

The man looked back at Cal with suspicion. “If I say no?”

“We will let you go, outside. We will keep your keys to make sure you cannot access the firearms, but you can leave of your own free will.”

“Then I choose go.” Jeff looked like he had fooled Cal, but Cal just looked resigned and sad. He rose, and lifted Jeff to his feet. “Kyle, let’s take him out front.”

They walked back up front. The day was turning to dusk and the light was growing dim outside, but it was considerably brighter out there than it was in the store. They all filed out the front and Kyle locked the gate behind them, and then did the same with the front door.

Cal turned around to Jeff. “Kyle, cut him loose. Jeff I wish you the best of luck.” Cal stuck out his hand to shake and Jeff just looked at it before walking off to the south, not even giving the inch that would be a friendly handshake. Cal grinned over at Adam at some inside joke that Kyle assumed related to their time serving together in the army. “Alright, we have a little light. Let’s walk.”

They walked up the back road that passed the police station and they could see no movement inside, no lights, and no people. Just on the edge of turning to night, they came up to the main regional hospital. There they saw a few people crying on the front drive, where the emergency vehicles normally would be. Kyle’s group walked right up to them.

“Ma’am?” Adam asked as they came close to what they could now see were nurses. “Is everything alright?”

“No.” the woman responded bitterly, as she looked up to Adam’s face, “We lost so many. So many.”

Cal walked up and tried to comfort the woman, “May we ask what happened?”

The woman just sobbed, so one of her companions answered. “Nothing. Nothing happened. The generators didn’t come on. The pain meds didn’t work, none of them. Our patients just died, all of them. I don’t understand what is happening.”

Cal said, “I am sorry for your loss”, and waved everyone on to follow him. The clouds built up in the afternoon, and shortly after passing the hospital, it began to rain. This was not unusual on the front range in the summer. It being July, they were just thrilled it wasn’t thunderstorms. Within a mile of walking, though, it just began to pour. The rain and wind pelted them, stinging their skin and drenching them. This was unusual, and the group knew they needed shelter. Additionally, the clouds were blocking moonlight and it was close to pitch dark out here. They trudged on ahead until Kyle remembered a place nearby.

“The pool house.” He shouted out and everyone just looked at him, peering in the deepening darkness to see if he had perhaps gone insane. “Dad, the pool house is just up here. The neighborhood rec area.” His dad nodded and they picked up the pace, finding their way in the darkness to the pool house of the neighborhood homeowner’s association. As they approached, they found the place unlocked. It was fortuitous, and unusual. The best bet was that someone must have left it when the power went out. The six of them filed in, wet to the bone and cold, even in the warm afternoon. They searched through the small building, finding no other occupants.

The night continued to be warm and their clothes mostly dried out quickly. None of them were prepared for the walk and everyone except the two recent soldiers did not have the stamina yet for the excessive trek. The result was that the group was exhausted and most of them fell right to sleep. Having done their very best to lock up the pool house, they had some semblance of security, but there were no guarantees. Kyle had the impression that his father was sleeping lightly, ready to jump up if the situation called for it. Luckily, it did not. They all got a great night’s sleep, or as great a sleep as one can have with no blankets or pillows, on a hard rec room floor, with the sound of torrents of rain beating down on the roof of the building.