Extensis Vitae (7 page)

“Please remain outside, we need to speak in private,” she told the security team.

The duo looked at each other. “Ma’am, our orders are to not let him out of our sight,” one of them said.

“Well, then you can look through the window. I’ll be fine,” she said and walked inside. The room lit up as she entered. Reznik followed, and the door slid shut behind him. He saw the guards exchange a look through the window, but they remained outside.

The large room was bisected by a long counter covered with flasks, vials, and various instruments. A pair of microscopes sat near each end of the counter. A couple of computer terminals were against the right wall. In the back left corner of the lab was a comfortable looking sofa and a couple of easy chairs with a coffee table between them. Myrna gestured to the sofa and chairs.

“Make yourself comfortable,” she told him. She walked over to a counter where a chrome box sat next to a stack of dishes.

“Are you a chemist?”

“Biochemist. My responsibilities primarily involve maintaining the integrity of the food supply, among other things.”

“Well, my compliments to the biochemist on lunch, then. Although, the mystery meat could use some work,” he teased as he sat down on the sofa.

“I’ll get right on that,” she said with her pleasant laugh. “Would you like a cup of coffee? This might take a while.”

“Sure,” he replied. “Just curious: why do you trust me enough to leave the guards outside?”

“I read your file. You seem to be the type of person who does what needs to be done not because you are ordered or forced to do it, but because it’s the right thing to do. I just have a good feeling about you.”

“Thank you for your faith in me,” Reznik said.

“Well, just don’t let me down again like you did with the ‘don’t get in trouble’ thing, okay?”

He laughed. “It’s a deal.”

She pushed a button on the chrome box and it hummed for a few seconds. She placed a couple mugs into the machine. After another couple seconds, it beeped and she pulled the mugs out. The rich aroma of coffee filled the lab. She brought him his cup and sat in the easy chair facing him.

The coffee tasted pretty good, considering that it was probably a lab-produced reproduction of the real thing. Myrna took a sip and watched him over the rim of her mug. “Where shall I begin?”

Reznik shrugged. “Might as well start at the beginning, I guess.”

***

And so Myrna began. “The year was 2079. There—“

“Did you say twenty SEVENTY-NINE?” Reznik asked in shock.

“That’s right. So you have no idea what year it is right now? How long they kept you on ice?”

“On ice? It’s all murky still—my memory still hasn’t come back all the way. I remember…some sort of special project I went to work on…but that’s all.” He shook his head in frustration. “I hope it will come back to me. Sorry to interrupt—please continue.”

“In the year 2079, there was an impact event on earth—some call it the Cataclysm. The international space agencies detected the asteroid with enough time to give only about three months’ warning. It was estimated that the asteroid was approximately two and a half kilometers across—large enough, according to most experts, to create an extinction event. The last one of these occurred roughly 65 million years ago.”

“That’s what wiped out the dinosaurs, right?” he asked, wide-eyed.

“Yes, that’s correct.
Extensis Vitae—
the corporation that built these facilities that they called the ‘Colonies’—had already planned for some type of cataclysmic event, be it global war, extreme natural disasters, nuclear terrorism, etc. The ‘Extended Life Solution,’ they called it. At the time, nobody paid any attention to them but a few survivalists and some of the ultra-rich who didn’t have anything better to spend their money on. People had better things to worry about. After the alarm was sounded about the impending impact event, however, that all changed. Panic broke out and everyone was desperate to have a place in one of the thirteen Colonies. There were thirteen new Colonies to start a new society, representative of the thirteen original colonies of the U.S.A. The rich and powerful controlled the most powerful corporations, which, in turn, controlled the weak central governments of the world’s nation states. The board members of
Extensis Vitae
conveniently were chosen as the administrators who would govern the Colonies. It was all about political connections. So the rich and powerful literally had the power to choose who would live and who would die by selective admission to these great Colonies. They strategically chose some of the brightest minds of the time along with their families, so that they would be able to establish a new society one day. Many other corporations, governments, and private individuals tried to set up their own survival shelters, of course, but most started late with their preparations. These other shelters were likely incapable of withstanding the sheer destructive power of the impact; also, they would have been unsuitable for the long duration of quarantine necessary after they buttoned-up.
Extensis Vitae,
on the other hand, had planned and built the Colonies to withstand the worst-case scenario. It is unknown how effective these other efforts were. Nobody knows how many people outside of the
Extensis Vitae
Colonies were able to survive the Cataclysm and, if they did survive, for how long.”

Reznik was in shock. He couldn’t even think of where to begin asking questions. “How long have you been down here?” he finally asked her.

“It’s been twenty years now. I remember just a little bit of the surface world when I was a little girl. In the final months, it was not a pretty sight. Anarchy reigned, the few surviving governments collapsed, the military was called in to put down the anarchy, and a lot of blood was shed. It got so bad that the Colonies secretly summoned everyone who had been chosen. They brought all of us inside a month earlier than the publicized date and sealed the vault doors. By the time anyone realized what the Colonies were doing, it was too late. The asteroid was projected to strike in the Atlantic Ocean, creating a mega tsunami estimated to be nearly 250 meters high that would wipe out the east coast of the United States, as well as Western Europe. An estimated one to two billion people died from the effects of the initial strike and the resulting earthquake and tsunami. The power grid collapsed, and nuclear reactors went into meltdown. The survivors of the impact fought and killed each other over the scarce resources as society totally crumbled. The rest eventually died of sickness, starvation, exposure, radiation poisoning, et cetera.”

“Unbelievable,” Reznik breathed. He was still struggling to get his mind around the catastrophe and trying to imagine what a post-apocalyptic Earth would be like. “So what’s it like up there on the surface now?”

“Nobody knows for sure. The aftermath that I just mentioned is all based on our best estimates. The vault door has never been opened since it was sealed twenty years ago. Swanson refuses to open it. There are rumors that some of the other Colonies have sent explorers up there, but it’s not known for sure what they found. Some say that it is totally desolate; that mankind has been wiped out and Mother Nature has reclaimed the planet. Some say a new civilization has been founded that’s based on the control of natural resources. Others claim that it is a radioactive wasteland from sea to sea, and murderous gangs prey upon the weak. There has even been some wild speculation about mutants and monsters roaming the surface. Who knows what’s bullshit and what isn’t. Unless you can find somebody that has actually been to the surface, it is all just a bunch of theories.”

“I’ll bet Swanson has a pretty good idea what is out there since he is in contact with the other administrators. Do you think he will let me leave the Colony like he says?”

“No,” she replied without hesitation. “Not to the surface, anyway. I don’t think he will open the vault door until he has confirmation that it is safe to repopulate the surface, or if his hand is forced.”

“I have a feeling his hand will be forced. It’s all well and good to think that the world has been swept clean of whatever corrupt society he thinks was out there, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. Eventually, he will have to take a gamble and open the vault door. I, however, have seen humanity in its worst and most desperate state, and I know that survival instinct is incredibly powerful. I think the people sheltered inside these bunkers would be shocked at what the surface world could be like.”

“Not everyone,” she said. “It takes quite a bit to shock me. As a scientist, I like to observe and measure things for myself, not take others’ words as gospel. A growing number of people have become more and more vocal in recent days about opening the vault door. Of course, there are those who have grown complacent in the safety within these walls, and are afraid of the unknown. I am firmly in the ‘lets open the door and see what it’s like on the surface’ camp. The effects of impact winter should have ended years ago, so why not get started rebuilding up there?”

Reznik nodded slowly. “You have wisdom beyond your years. Someone like you should be leading these people.”

She laughed. “I’m no politician—I’m blunt and honest to a fault, as I’m sure my father or many others here could tell you.”

Reznik reached out and patted her hand as he saw the sadness in her eyes at the mention of her father. “It will be all right. I’m sure your father is fine.” The lie wasn’t as easy to voice as he had hoped and he knew she could see through it, but she nodded and gave him a sad smile.

“So what is this surprise that Swanson says you have for me?” Reznik asked, anxious to change the subject.

“Surprise? Do you mean the augmentations?”

Reznik looked puzzled. “I’m not sure—Swanson just said it would be something that would give me an advantage over whatever I might find at Colony 13.”

“Must be the augmentations, then. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you see it,” she said, deep green eyes twinkling.

Just then, her eyes lost focus and she cupped her ear with her hand. As she swept her hair behind her ear and turned her head slightly, Reznik saw what looked like a couple small blue LED lights glowing beneath the skin just behind her ear. Myrna was silent for a moment, then nodded and spoke in a low voice. “Keep him calm and bring him down to the med bay. I’ll meet you down there and see what I can do to fix him up,” she said.

The blue lights winked out and she turned back to him. Seeing his puzzled look, she explained, “Datalink implant—it’s pretty standard these days. You don’t have to carry a comm unit or mobile phone, or whatever they called them back in your day.”

“Look, I have to head back to the med bay for a little while to patch up one of the workers that got injured outside the reactor chamber. I would invite you to tag along, but it might make people nervous. You’re welcome to stay here, though, and I’ll be back when I can, or you can return to your chambers, if you prefer.”

Reznik stifled a yawn. “I think I’ll turn in for the night. I have some thinking to do since my whole world has been pretty much turned upside down in the last couple of days.”

Chapter 5

R
eznik woke up at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after eight months in a coma. The doctors told him they thought the only reason he survived was that he had fallen from the chopper an instant before it had crashed and exploded into the mountainside. ‘Survived’ was about all they could say about his condition. He was paralyzed from the waist down due to the shrapnel that had severed his spinal cord. It had been necessary to amputate his left arm just above the elbow, since it had nearly been torn off and had been hanging from a shred of flesh. He had been blinded in his right eye; an ugly scar stretched from his eye socket back to where his right ear had been sheared off. Severe burns covered about sixty percent of his body. He later found out that all his comrades were dead and buried.

Amanda eventually showed up to visit him after he was awake. He could see the pity in her eyes as they spoke awkwardly for a short time. After about a half hour or so, she told him that she had moved on with her life since she hadn’t known how long it would take or if he would ever come out of the coma. He knew that it was more than her uncertainty about the coma. It was more about him being just a ruined shell of the man he had once been. At least she had the decency to not mention that part of it.

“I’m so sorry, Michael,” she had said before fleeing the hospital room, her blue eyes filled with tears. That was the last time he ever saw her.

They fitted him with a prosthetic arm, but it was fairly crude and awkward. He had been placed on the waiting list for one of the more advanced models.