When Forever Ends (Part 1: A Game of Chess)

XIII

~{§}~

T h i r t e e n

An explosion roused me from sleep. A tremor shook the room and Maya and I fell off the bed on opposite sides.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, as I landed on something hard and lumpy.

"What was that?!" Maya wondered.

I pulled a round metal object with a handle from underneath me. "I landed on the frying pan!"

"No, not that, the explosion!"

"Oh," I replied. "I dunno."

Maya hurried through the side door and slammed it closed behind her.

I quickly got back in my own clothes and ran out into the hall, where Sofie and Will were already standing with worried looks on their faces.

"Where's Erin?" I asked.

Sofie shrugged in reply.

Maya joined us just as Erin opened her door and stepped into the hall. She was wearing the same white cloak as the previous day, but this time wore black leather combat boots as well. I also noticed that she had found the time to put a couple of dye streaks in her hair, one red, one black. It made her look dangerous.

"What was that?" we all asked in unison.

"That was something bad," Erin said. The look on her face gave me the impression that she could guess who or what had caused the explosion from past experiences. "Everyone go back into your rooms and grab the bag from the emergency locker."

We split apart again and I dashed back into my room and opened the white metal door marked "EMERGENCY" in big red letters.

I grabbed the handle on the duffle bag inside and heaved. I was surprised to find that it was heavier than I'd thought. As I pulled it out onto the floor, I was relieved when I noticed wheels on one end of the bag, so I could lift one end and drag it out the door and into the hall again.

When we had all gathered once more, Erin led the way down the hall to the garage we had parked the LT in, towing her large emergency bag behind her.

After the incident with the desert tiger last night, we had borrowed another one from the nearest garage and driven it to the living wing of the complex. This one was purple with kind of a pointy shape and a tiny windshield that only shielded the driver.

When we entered the garage, I asked the question we had all been wondering. "Where are we going?"

Erin glanced back at us briefly before tossing her bag in the back of the LT. "The control room. We need to find out where the breach is and what we're dealing with."

"Good idea," Maya agreed as she put her bag with Erin's and climbed in.

As we sped through the Transit towards the command centre, I took the opportunity to see what exactly was in the emergency kit. I unzipped a huge zipper and pulled out a funny looking device that was rectangular and had a long piece of metal sticking out from one corner.

Erin looked back and noticed my confusion at the object. "Two-way radio."

"Huh?"

"You can talk into it and others will hear you on their own radio. You can also hear what other people have to say. They're very handy in an emergency in case you get split up."

I put the radio back into the bag and reached in again. This time, my hand came back with a square white box with a red + on it.

"That's-" Erin began.