|
Scribe
Join Date: Aug 2005
Gender: Male
Posts: 83
|
Buried Part I: Memories, chapter 2
This is the second chapter, we are now in the 'before' part, as would've been deducible by the transition. As always, serious criticism is welcomed. When the first chapter ended, Edward was standing in Junction B of the Morena facility, trying to direct people to the right hall. That brings us to:
=======
"…and you go left down here," concluded Raymond, showing the way with his laser pointer on the map of the Morena base underground floor.
"Now this is very important," joined Edward from the side, face towards the large group of people that gathered to listen to their evacuation plan, "what we're talking about is the main corridor, the one designed for the workers, not the one that's attached to it which is the maintenance passage. It shouldn't even be open but it is so I ask you to remember that, left corridor, workers' passage."
"That's right," continued Raymond, "once you go down that corridor you will see the room that was discovered and inside there'll be 4 elevators, Lisa will be there to sort you all out into the elevators. We ask you to listen to her instructions, because excessive mass might collapse the elevators, and then no one would survive this. So if you are being told to wait for the next ride please do so, pushing inside might result in your death if the elevator collapses while you're in it."
"Once you're down there," continued Raymond, "you are to group at the sides of the caverns. Everybody should find their assigned supervisor, which by the way, are still at a shortage so anyone that wants to volunteer is welcome to. When you are down there you are not to touch the panel that controls the gates even if you think you know what you are doing. That stuff is 20 years old, it's well preserved and is operational, but 20 years old, and is custom technology too, so electricians and hackers stay away from it, because you won't get it open, I literally had to ping through the sub routers to hack that thing open."
He paused for a few seconds and looked at the audience. The audience stared back.
"Anyway, you are very well defended down at that cavern, so there's no need to rush. Edward and I will go down with the last group to open the gates for you."
"What if the bomb reaches you too soon and kills you?" Interrupted a man from the crowd.
The question stomped Raymond who hasn't thought of that option with Edward.
"That's a good question," he started after a pause, trying to buy a few seconds to think it through, "now… Are we going with the second plan?" he turned to Edward as if for reassurance.
"Yeah," he confirmed. Raymond opened his mouth to speak but Edward continued, "We have put the instructions in a small locker, and the code would be provided to qualified supervisors. Should an impact claim our lives the supervisors will assume command roles and will open the doors for you."
"Once the doors are opened, you will be brought through a corridor into a central hall, and there you shall wait for us to guide you. That should be about it. Questions?"
What followed was a 30 minutes series of questions, most of them repeats of previous ones on points where people wanted to feel more secure. When the briefing ended in an achieved impression of professionalism on behalf of Edward and Raymond, the people got up and began to clear Edward's garage which was emptied of the junk that used to be in it and transformed into a lecture hall with a stage, a flat crystal screen of the type lecturers used, and a series of chairs.
They waited for the last person to go out, and then Edward pressed on the panel to close the garage doors, and turned towards a wooden door that led to the house, walking through it with Raymond. Behind them the lights turned themselves off once the sensor noticed that the room was empty.
"I can't believe we haven't thought about it," exclaimed Raymond when they were passing the hall into a nearby room.
"I can't believe you lied about it," replied Edward with a hint of anger, "what would've happened if we couldn't think of something to say?!"
"Look, people are really not too thrilled with some aspects of this plan," said Raymond, "especially with the fact that it's being run by some computer analyst and a programmer, it reeks of amateurism, we can't show them that some things didn't even cross our minds."
"Yeah, but what would've you done if I wasn't there to pull you out? Being on the spot and looking embarrassed looks even more amateurish. Don't do that anymore, the next time something like that happens just say that the details for whatever are being finalized and that it'll be explained in a follow up meeting."
"Edward, I really doubt people will look at this in our favor. This kind of attitude would've worked maybe 40 years ago-"
"And this is exactly the kind of attitude we need to return to," Edward insisted, "people are tired of politicians and corporations lying about their inability to fix problems just because they don't want to lose support. Now every time they make a promise everybody become cynical because they know it's another false one. Admitting our imperfection instead of hiding them will create credibility."
Raymond still looked skeptical. "That wouldn't have convinced me if I was them. I think you are being too unrealistic about what people are willing to put up with now days, times have changed, people are not that trusting anymore, they want to see results, even companies like Microsoft can't make promises anymore… Not that you could trust them to fulfill anything before," he added as a side note, "but you get what I'm saying."
"We don't have to be completely open about it, like I said- details are being finalized. Do you agree that it sounds good?" Asked Edward.
"I guess it's riding on both worlds," admitted Raymond, "but some people are still not going to like it."
"That's their problem," said Edward, "if they don't like it they can just go sleep next to our assigned nuclear shelter and get beaten up by cops for camping in a restricted zone."
Raymond didn't answer. That last sentence was an obvious indication to how Edward changed over the past 3 months since they started to work on the plan. He became cynical and irritable, and sometimes from the way he spoke it sounded like he was tired of the whole thing. It was obvious that there would be problems, but in an era such as this one it turned out that the biggest problem was the constant and unbreakable disbelief in them and their plan from the same ones that they tried to save. It was like giving first aid to someone who shoots the leg that you're trying to bandage.
"Anyway, let's discuss this some more tonight," said Edward, "I need to go arrange that locker briefing and then find one."
"Fine, I'll be back at 8 PM…" said Raymond." By the way, did you get the sub router joke?"
"Yeah, real clever," said Edward mockingly.
Five minutes later Raymond was outside. The noon sun was shining through the mist of polluted clouds, the sound of cars greeting Raymond who walked to his own blue Honda and slid the door open. He put his finger on the fingerprint scanner and the car was ignited after a few seconds. Turning on the radio he switched away the music stations which played all sorts of cheesy Greek Pop bands and stopped on DDK News which was just advertising his own Honda car and telling about its improved acid rain protection. He pressed the pedal and was on the way.
The roads were as impossible as ever, he took a few shortcut turns but was unlucky and lost all the time it saved him when one of them turned out to be traffic jammed. Eventually he got to the university 15 minutes earlier in an unprecedented event of not being screwed over by the traffic, and as it turned out, so did half of the people who came there for the same reason he did, though theirs were different motives.
He paid the gate keeper 100$ and reached for the glove compartment while the skinny, retro neo punk looking guy was searching for an empty pay parking slot on his register.
Inside the glove compartment was a picture of him standing next to the female professor that he and the others around him came to hear lecture. They were both smiling, hands crossed. He was in a tux, and she in a wedding dress, on the bottom was written a happy marriage logo and the date- 2109. That was almost two years ago, the marriage itself lasted for only a year and a half, the separation was now 4 months old.
Things haven't been perfect for a while when they were still married; they fought over money and they also fought due to the stresses of the money problems, but Raymond always thought that it wasn't the fights that were the problem but the situation. He truly believed that all the arguments were due to stress and frustration of the situation and that at the end of the day they were still best friends, partners for life.
But apparently things weren't that way for Mary. He began noticing it after they were fighting about their children, their possible children. Raymond didn't want to bring children to the world, at least not this world. School violence, financial crises, pollution and dwindling resources, and at the cream of it all- the horrible horrible political conditions that were constantly one step before war. He didn't want to bring children to such reality, but Mary insisted. She didn't fear the state of this world, and wanted to maintain normal life despite it. Raymond thought it was naïve. Eventually that last dispute finalized the tear between them, Mary wasn't sure she wanted a divorce, but not sure if she wanted to stay with Raymond either. They ended up separating.
"You are free to go to parking slot C2," said the retro neo punk.
Raymond looked up and put the picture back into the compartment. "Thanks," he waited for the barrier field to be deactivated and then drove off.
|
