Life After: The Basement (© Bryan Way)
Page 2 "No risk, no reward." Mia smiles and looks down at her
skinny, jean-wrapped legs, then back at Eric as he ducks into the darkness.
Something he does in this moment echoes, forcing her to look accusingly at the
endless array of shadows coating the third floor of the four-level parking
complex. "Relax… when he shows up, you aren't gonna hear him." Eric
mutters. Mia returns her gaze to Eric as he lies back on a dirty sleeping bag. "You really think his network is
strong enough to get the word out?" Mia whispers. "He found us, didn't he? I'm more
worried about actually getting him the intel." "We could be in there for a week
and find nothing…" "MHC's the easy part… IBT's gonna
be a fortress." "…and even if we find anything
worth taking, it could take weeks to parse the data…" "Patience got us what we have
thus far." "That and hard work…" Eric smiles, lifting a plastic water
bottle in a makeshift toast that cuts her off. "No one's gonna forget
that." He takes a long sip as Mia smiles dismissively. "You asked me to keep the contingencies
in mind…" Mia continues. "I'm sorry, was I
interrupting?" "Dick…" "Seriously, go ahead." "We might not be able to get in.
We might get stopped outside. We might have to turn back. We might have to deal
with internal security. We might have to go in and out a few dozen times while
evading detection. We might get captured, and if what we're onto is as big as
we think, we might be killed. Or held indefinitely…" "Shipped off to Guantanamo Bay?
Anything's better than the US right now." "Eric…" "Just think of what'll happen if
we pull this off… I hope when we get interviewed, someone asks us about life
before this happened…" "Eric…" "…sorry. Then there's the
Z-factor." "…right, they tend to make
planning much more difficult." "Wait a second… are you saying…
that you don't think we should do this?" "Of course not… I'm not
questioning your convictions, planning, or research. You asked me to keep you
from spinning off the planet… all I'm saying is… we might reconsider the
timing." "If you're not ready for this…" "Don't do that… patience,
remember?" "We're right on the verge, we're
right on…" "If it takes another week, I'm
willing to make that sacrifice so we can get…" "…we have no idea what could happen tomorrow… right
now we still have water and power, but…" "…if we assume IBT and MHC are
responsible, we're going to keep
having water and power…" "Why don't you two just make out
already?" Mia and Eric jolt toward the dark
figure entering the conversation. "Lequire, jesus…" Eric mutters, still
shaking. "I told you, call me Chris… you're lucky you figured out how to
argue quietly." Lequire says, dropping to his knees as he removes his
backpack and opens it. "Just tell us what you got." "Got closer to IBT than before…
there's definitely activity inside, and isn't them." "Them?" Mia asks. "The Zs. I can't find a single
breach point, and considering the state of most buildings around here, that's
saying something." Lequire takes a hand-drawn map out of
his backpack and hands it to Mia. "What about Black Forest?"
Eric asks. "I'm still not convinced they're
in on it…" Lequire responds. "We did see the truck with the
paw print." "…right, and as I said before, he
could be retired, operating independently, or just have really unfortunate
taste in window decals…" [ Continue to page 3 ] |