PART TWO
Day 0 0 0
"What the hell?" Nick stared in astonishment at the enormous doors that had all but closed.
"Nick!!!" shouted Tomi, arriving out of breath.
Nick turned, and his eyes narrowed.
"Tomi, do you have anything to do with this?"
Tomi was catching his breath; running the stairs wasn't his thing.
He barely processed Nick's question, because his gaze was fixed on the girl, who was still staring, fascinated, at the massive doors that had, with one great slam, closed, severing several cables that until then had lain peacefully along the access road.
The noise of the heavy motors stopped, and silence descended onto the platform.
Nick noticed where Tomi's gaze was leading and quickly pulled him aside toward the staircase, away from the girl, who gave him a questioning look.
Nick waved his head at her reassuringly and turned his attention back to his companion.
"Tomi, I asked you something. Do you have anything to do with this?"
Tomi finally processed Nick's question.
"No, I don't, but we have a problem."
"I notice that the doors I thought couldn't be closed are now, wouldn't you know it, closed. And judging by the noise the whole process made, the damage to the access road is enormous. There goes my job — this can't be explained away." Nick clutched his head.
"Screw the job, Nick, we're in the shit," Tomi sat down on the stairs in defeat.
Nick looked at him.
"What happened? Everything okay down there?"
"Oh, it's not a problem with the party — though it's going to be."
"Come on, don't bullshit and don't be mysterious. What's going on?" Nick was losing patience.
Tomi sighed; he didn't know how to explain the situation they'd found themselves in. Finally he suggested:
"Look at your phone."
Nick gave him a questioning look, but took the phone out of his pants.
"Look at what?" asked Nika, who had come up to the staircase.
Tomi got flustered. Nika was gorgeous, and he didn't function well around such girls, unless they were naked on the monitor of his computer.
"No signal, what the hell?" Nick was fumbling with the phone's functions.
"What?" Nika took out her own phone, checked it, and the expression on her face confirmed Nick's words.
"As you can see, there's no signal, but that's the least of our problems in the sea of problems we now have."
The two of them looked at him. He took off his glasses.
"Outside, they've started shooting." He had his own pace of explaining, and Nick didn't rush him, because he knew it was no use.
Tomi had his own way of explaining, and it was best to leave him alone throughout the whole account.
"I mean, they've decided to screw the whole world. The Russians and the Americans and everyone."
They didn't understand, but he was in no hurry — he had all the time in the world to make them understand. He looked at them, still needlessly wiping his glasses, more out of habit than actual need.
"The last thing I saw before the internet went out was the American response to the Russian launch of its nuclear arsenal," he theatrically returned the glasses to his nose.
"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Nick didn't understand.
Tomi finally cracked under the pressure and shrieked, shaking uncontrollably:
"It means they've launched the nukes. This side, that side, and the third!!!"
His voice echoed through the empty space and bounced off the silent walls of the mountain, which did not care. A sob escaped him, the feeling was choking him, and his head was spinning. He forced himself to go on:
"And it means there's no more world. It's over," he lost his voice, put the glasses on his nose, and buried his head between his knees.
His words finally reached the brains in their heads, and understanding spread across their faces.
"You're bullshitting?" Nick tried pointlessly, but Tomi only shook his head.
Silence descended onto the staircase, and Nick sat down beside his friend on the steps. Nika paced the space, drifted toward the doors, still fiddling with her phone in disbelief.
He watched her sadly. So beautiful, so full of life, and now there was no future she'd prepared so hard for. Finally, she stopped wandering aimlessly and walked toward the enormous doors, then sat down on the bench beside the now-closed entrance and sobbed, covering her face with her hands.
Nick looked at his friend.
"And what about this?" he nodded toward the doors.
"I've got nothing to do with that, it seems to be automatic."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, from what I gathered, when everything started going downhill, all those gadgets began switching on in the room."
"What gadgets?" Nick didn't understand.
"The computers, servers, and god knows what else in the security room."
Nick nodded toward the room at the top of the staircase behind them.
"You mean inside?"
"Yes, you genius," Tomi said sarcastically. "All those old computers you never paid attention to are switched on."
Nick got up and started climbing the stairs. Tomi sighed and joined him.
The room was now filled with the humming of the fans of the outdated electronics that still, miraculously, worked.
The screens were filled with countless columns of data.
The servers hummed, and on the console in front of the great bulletproof glass, Tomi's electronics looked pointless.
The screens still showed the uninterrupted party underground. Nick went pale.
"The party — we've got two thousand people down there, dear God."
"That's the other problem," Tomi added, resigned. "When they realize they can't get out, or that there's no more 'out there,' we'll have a riot."
"God!" Nick cried out, looking at the screens one by one.
"Then don't tell them," a third voice cut in. "If they don't know, they won't riot, at least not until you come up with some kind of plan."
They both turned toward Nika, who was walking with interest past the humming electronics.
She looked as if she'd pulled herself together.
And her quickened breath, along with the flush on her face where her makeup had run, said she'd hurried after them because she didn't want to be alone at this moment.
There was truth in her words. Nick's brain kicked into gear:
"Okay…" he pushed some electronics aside on the console, found a scrap of paper and a pen, and began to write. "First of all, we need communication with the underground."
"And someone who won't panic," Nika glanced gratefully at Tomi, who had handed her a crumpled paper tissue, and wiped the traces of makeup and tears from her face.
The two of them looked at each other, and almost simultaneously it burst from their mouths:
"Ana!"
"Who's Ana?" Nika asked.
"A friend, and just the person capable of keeping panic in check," Nick explained.
Tomi busied himself around the table, trying not to think about that grateful look Nika had given him. He couldn't get it out of his head as he secretly watched the girl.
"Okay, so how do we contact this Ana?" she asked them as she sat down on the concrete support of the table.
Grasping the logic of the question, Nick took out his phone, but shook his head in disappointment.
"I have no idea. The phone still doesn't work."
Tomi looked at him as if he'd lost his mind, but noticed that Nick was still a little shocked by the events and wasn't functioning as he should.
Nick was drawing something unrelated on the paper, clearly rattled.
Tomi stared at the screens. His eyes widened.
He was no longer thinking about the girl but about an idea taking shape in the depths of his brain.
"The surveillance system!" he finally announced.
They both looked at him, not understanding. Tomi quickly approached the console and began shifting components around. He was obviously looking for something.
"The surveillance system has to have a P.A. system too. The whole complex has speakers scattered everywhere."
"That could work," Nika agreed.
"But isn't the goal to contact only Ana?" Nick's brain had finally gotten going properly. He set down the paper on which he'd unconsciously drawn a star.
Tomi paused a moment, absorbing the information, but went on searching the console and the nearby area for an old-fashioned microphone.
At least that was how he'd pictured a means of communication forty-odd years ago, and his mild autism wouldn't allow an idea, once conceived, to die without being carried out.
"Well, nothing for it, I'm going down," Nick jolted suddenly, ready to move.
He started for the exit, but Nika stopped him:
"No, you mustn't go down."
He stopped at the door, not understanding. Nika continued:
"Even if this Ana is a great woman, there's going to be trouble and probably some kind of riot."
Nick nodded his shoulders in agreement with that and went on listening as Nika continued: "And from what I understand, you're the only one here who knows the complex."
She lifted her gaze to Nick, who now stood calmly at the entrance.
"And what about us if something happens to you in the panic?" she finally asked.
Nick had no answer to that. He knew panicked people could do anything and blame anyone. And in their eyes he was the party's organizer. Without realizing it he came back into the room. He leaned on the console.
"So what now?" he looked at them.
Tomi was still fiddling with the electronics, dodging an answer.
Nick knew Tomi dreaded crowds and would panic in a throng.
Nika didn't know Ana and wasn't much use.
He looked at the screens, hoping to spot a familiar face.
But he had no luck. Ana had vanished somewhere in the mass of people still partying, unaware of the drama above them.
He weighed the options. Panic had to be avoided, at least at first, until he could get his thoughts and the security in order.
The people had to be confined to their current level.
For now they had everything they needed on the fourth level — food, water, and a toilet.
The problem was that the space would soon become too small and that people would want to go up to the surface. Nick pulled himself together.
"Tomi, do we still have the external video?" he looked at his friend, who was triumphantly holding an old-fashioned microphone with a useless wire dangling from it.