The Compound

Chapter TWENTY-ONE

“No!” ON MY KNEES, I POUNDED THE METAL WITH BOTH fists. “Open it! You can’t do this!” I yelled and pounded until I was hoarse and could take no more of the pain shooting up my arm. I sat on the hatch, cradling my wrist.

The night was quiet. Too quiet. Shouldn’t there be search helicopters all over this place? If Eddy and Gram…

If.

That was the word.

What if…

Eddy and Gram were really gone? What if I’d been IM’ing Dad all the time? What if this was just some twisted game, some way to get me out of the hatch? Except he took the code back and truly didn’t expect me to decipher it again. So that there was no chance of me going outside.

Then I gasped and really looked around. Except for the night sky, which would still be there anyway, how did I know there hadn’t been a nuclear war? Dad had admitted so many things, but he could have said anything, made it up. I wrapped my arms around my knees and sunk my head into them.

Why wouldn’t he want me in there, after trying so hard to keep me from finding the way out? I was the only one who could match him, physically. Now that I had found my way out, was there something he had to do without me around? Something I would have stopped him from doing?

The night was chilly, and I wasn’t dressed for it. After a while I got hungry, and I was thirsty, too. It was almost funny, in a way—longing so much to get out, then wishing to be back in.

A whipping sound got louder as a light came toward me from the sky. A helicopter. I was on my feet in one second, jumping up and down and waving my arms. “Here! Over here!” I started to run toward the light, and then realized I might never find the hatch again. So I stayed where I was.

The helicopter moved toward me and landed about fifty yards away. The dust whirled around me, getting in my eyes, my mouth. I covered my face with my hands, peering through my fingers.

As I waited, the propeller gradually slowed as the whining of the engine grew quiet. The night was silent again as the searchlights stayed on. Backlit by them, a figure strode toward me.

“Hey, over here!” I waved my arms again, even though it was obvious the person saw me.

A flashlight shown in my face as I started spilling everything. “I’m Eli Yanakakis, my family is down in the hatch, and we—”

“Man, you got pretty big down there.”

The voice was familiar. I tried to shield my eyes from the flashlight.

Finally he turned the light on himself. Hair a bit grayer. Phil. Dad’s accountant. And, evidently, erstwhile helicopter pilot.

My hand dropped to my side. “What the hell are you doing here?”

He shrugged. “Safety net. You know, your dad was panicked when he called me, he really didn’t expect you to figure out that code.”

I took a step back.

“So, I flew all the way out here to… rectify the situation.”

I glared at Phil. “What are you going to do?”

He ignored me and leaned over the hatch. He rapped the flashlight on it three times. The hatch flipped open. Phil reached into it and helped my father, who stepped out into the night. Phil’s jaw dropped when he saw Dad’s face, already swollen and bloodied from where my foot had connected. Phil asked him if he was okay.

Dad nodded, even though his walk was a little unsteady as he gazed up at the starry sky, just as I had done. He took a few deep breaths and half-smiled, half-winced. “I think it’s time we moved this operation aboveground for a while.”

Phil laughed. “Above or below, you still make more money than anyone on the planet.”

Dad reached over and gripped Phil’s shoulder. “Good to see you.”

Phil leaned his head toward me. “He didn’t get into too much trouble out here. Everything set in there?”

Dad nodded. “We just need to get my family and we’ll be ready to go.”

“Go?” I looked from Dad to Phil. “Go where?”

Dad spit some blood into the dirt and focused on me. “I think it’s time we all got some sunshine. Remember that South Pacific island I bought when you were younger? Phil here has been building us a very nice place. Where we can be a family.”

“I’m not going!”

Dad scratched his neck. “So what are you going to do? Run?” He spread his arms out wide. “There’s nowhere to go.”

I looked on either side of me, as far as I could see. Nothing. I could outrun both of them, I knew it. But it wouldn’t change the fact that no matter what I did, my mother and my brothers and my sisters down below were still in the hands of my father. If I ran, and even if I found help, I might lose my family forever.

Phil chuckled at my distress. I realized at that moment he could have arranged for our food supply to be replenished, if only Dad had asked him. If only.

Phil turned to Dad. “You really don’t look so good. Have any trouble with those charges?”

Dad shook his head as, with a slightly shaky hand, he handed a small black box to Phil.

“What charges?” I looked from Dad to Phil. “What did you do?”

Phil held up the box. “Once we’re airborne, I simply flip the switch. There’s enough explosives down there to turn this place to dust. And then you’re off to a new compound in the South Seas.”

My hands curled into fists. “I’m not trading this prison for a new one.”

Phil started to climb down the hatch. “You don’t really have a choice.”

He concentrated on the stairs, so much so that he didn’t see me coming, and I hit him broadside, knocking him down that first set. His body cushioned my fall, and the remote flew out of his hand as I got him in a choke hold.

His body stiffened as a loud, pulsing beep sounded from the Compound.

I let him go as my hands went over my ears.

Phil screamed several choice words and then poked a finger in my chest. “Stupid kid! You set it off!” He scrambled to his feet and climbed back out of the hatch to where Dad was leaning over, looking down at us.

Dad shouted over the blaring of the alarm. “How much time do we have?”

Phil held out his hands. “The warning only sounds in the last ten minutes!” He grabbed Dad by the arm. “Let’s get out of here, Rex!”

“No!” Dad yelled back. “I have to get them out!”

Phil held up a hand. “I’m starting the chopper! And I leave in nine minutes, with or without—”

Dad clutched Phil’s collar, the veins in his arm bulging with the strength of the grip. His voice was a roar, even over the alarm. “You’ll leave when I say so!”

And then I turned and ran, as fast as I could, throwing myself down the stairs, trying to jump down whole flights as the warning signal blared raucously all around me. I had no idea how long I truly had. I hoped Dad would help, but I couldn’t wait for him.

My first stop was the yellow room, and I slammed into the door with my shoulder. The dresser was still in place, so I could only reach through with my arm.

“It’s me! Open the door!”

The little ones were crying, as Terese and Lexie tried to reassure them. Lexie stood up. “What’s that sound?”

“Help me move this!” I could barely breathe enough to speak.

I shoved as Lexie pushed, and we got the dresser out of the way so the door could open. I was still panting. “Get out! You’ve got to go.” I pointed at Lucas until I could get more words out. “He knows the way. Lucas, take them outside, up the hatch and out. Then run as far away as you can.”

Terese started to say something, but I shouted, “Go! This place is going to explode!” Not waiting to make sure they complied, I headed for the infirmary at a sprint.

I turned down the hall and nearly collided with my mother as she staggered down the hallway, clutching her stomach with one hand and covering an ear with the other. There were bloodstains on her nightgown. “What’s going on?”

“Dad wired the place to explode, we’ve got to go!”

Her eyes widened as she yelled, “Where are the children?”

“On their way out!” I moved to pick her up.

She tried to shove me away. “Leave me!” She motioned toward the direction of the yellow room. “Get them out!”

“Mom—they’re ahead of us already!” With one arm around her and the other under her legs, I lifted her, just as Dad rounded the corner.

He stopped, trying to catch his breath. He put one hand on the wall, and looked at my mother.

“Rex?” Mom reached out a hand to him. “What have you done?”

He didn’t answer, but stood up straight and started to push by me.

“Dad! I need your help to get everyone out.”

Hesitating, he looked one more time at my mom. “I need to get my research!” And he continued down the hall.

I paused.

Mom yelled in my ear, “GO!”

There was no time to waste, and as we headed for the exit I felt stupid for thinking he would actually help. Mom tried to put her arms around my neck as I jolted her along. I had no strength left as I started up the stairs, jogging them as fast as possible, praying the others were already out.

My pace was not one I could sustain for long, and I had to stop several times on the way up to catch my breath. Mom’s arms tightened around my neck each time I stopped, and I understood it meant we needed to hurry.

At the hatch I had to stop and gather my strength for the last push up and out. The warning signal got faster then, and I shoved Mom out, followed her, then picked her up again and began to run in the night, away from the helicopter. If Phil wanted us, he’d have to work for it.

My lungs felt as if they would burst, and my arms and legs burned as I just kept running. For all I knew, it wouldn’t be enough. I might be running right over the Compound. Then a series of quakes ruptured under my feet, a huge one rippling the ground beneath me, pitching us forward. Several other blasts in succession sent trembles under me. And then the ground was still.

My mother lay a few feet away from me. I crawled to her. “Mom?”

She moaned.

At least she was still alive.

I heard the whirring of the helicopter as it lifted off. It was nearly three hundred yards away and quickly disappeared from view. Was Dad on it? I was quite certain Phil didn’t have the nerve to leave without him.

Silence.

“Lexie!” I yelled. When I got no answer, I began to scream, “Lexie! Terese!” I screamed their names in every direction before stopping and putting my head in my hands. “Oh my God, what did I do? I should have made sure…” I started to sob.

And then I realized maybe they were on the helicopter with Dad and Phil.

Would that be the worst thing? I turned around the way I’d come, where an acrid smell drifted toward me. My brothers and sisters being on the helicopter, safe, would not be the worst thing.

Mom was silent, but I felt her throat and found a strong pulse. I rolled her on her side so she could breathe easier. My sigh was loud in the night, and as my lungs filled with fresh air I wanted to just keep breathing in more and more. She moaned a bit, but didn’t wake up.

Would it just be the two of us from now on? Or was it just a matter of time before more helicopters showed up to take us away?

I lay down on my back beside her on the dusty ground and stared up at the sky. A satellite went slowly across. That had to be a good sign, if the satellites were still there.

And as I listened to the nothing of the night, a faint scream bit into the silence.

I sat up.

The scream got louder.

I jumped to my feet.

And then it became a shout. “Eli!”

Out of the dark to my left, becoming more visible as they neared, was the rest of my family. Lexie carried the two little ones and Terese held Lucas.

I ran to them, enveloping Lexie and Terese in my arms, getting the rest of them at the same time. My face smashed in Lexie’s shoulder, my words were a mumble. “I thought you all were gone.”

Terese admonished me. “You said run. You didn’t say which way.”

Lexie was breathing hard as she set the little ones down. She shook out her arms. “We saw the helicopter and ran the other way.”

Terese put Lucas down and pointed at Lexie. “She made us keep running and running. I thought we were lost.”

I had to smile.

Lexie lowered her voice. “Where’s Dad?” I shrugged, then shuddered. “Either the helicopter or…”

She looked in the direction of the hatch. “Did it blow?”

“You didn’t feel it?”

She shook her head. “We smelled it, though.”

I took a deep breath, hoping it would clear my head. “We need to take care of Mom.”

Lexie clutched my arm. “And then what do we do?”

“We wait.” I grabbed a hand of each of the little ones, while Lexie and Terese each took one of Lucas’s hands. Once we reached Mom, I plopped down beside her and spread out my legs, trapping Quinn between them. He leaned back into me and pointed skyward. “Pitty. Pitty.”

I looked up at the stars. “Yeah, they are pretty.”

Within moments, the sky grew lighter in the east, and I could see everyone more clearly.

Mom still seemed to be resting okay. Her hair had drifted around her face and she looked peaceful.

Lucas found a stick and drew in the dirt, humming as he worked.

Cara took handfuls of dirt and screeched as she threw them up into the breeze.

Terese held her arms out to her sides and spun and spun and spun, until she got so dizzy she fell, giggling, to the ground.

Lexie undid her braid, spread her hair out on her shoulders, and stood, eyes closed, as the wind softly blew her long hair out behind her.

I saw a couple of lights in the still dark sky to the west. As they neared, I started to hear them. On my feet at once, I said, “Helicopters.”

Lexie came to my side.

Terese stood on my other side and leaned into me, linking her arm in mine. She was shaking. “Are they good or bad?”

I put an arm around her. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

The choppers landed about a hundred yards away. The dust rose in swirls around them. One was very big and nearly a dozen people got out. Several wore flak jackets and carried weapons.

I nudged Lexie. “Get the little ones.”

They were just a few feet away, and she quickly hustled them over to where we stood.

Other men got out of the helicopter and started our way.

I took a few steps in front of my family, arms out to my sides. “Stay behind me.”

Through the haze of dust, we saw someone leap out of the helicopter. Someone not in uniform. There were shouts, and one of the uniformed men grabbed him immediately, trying to restrain him, but his arms and legs thrashed, and he broke free, running in our direction, the others giving chase.

But they couldn’t catch him. He would reach us before they did, and I had no way of knowing his intentions.

My stance became wider, firmer.

But as he got closer, I saw he was me. With longer hair.

My arms wavered where I held them.

But he couldn’t be me. Because he was screaming my name, long and drawn out, almost mournful.

He sprinted closer, arms pumping, legs nearly a blur, and I began to tremble.

When he got within twenty yards, he started to slow, until he was jogging, and then he was walking.

He was there, in front of me, and halted only a step away.

From behind me, in reverent tones, Terese and Lexie spoke his name.

My shaking arms dropped of their own accord. I stepped forward to close the gap between us and found myself wrapped in a tight embrace.

An embrace that smelled blessedly familiar of jerky, smoky and greasy.

Eddy.

My breaths became sobs that matched his, shudder for shudder.

We were saved.