Black Dove (Watty Awards 2012)

Chapter Seven

            I stare incomprehensively at the flashing red lights on the ceiling until Darran pulls me. “Come on!” He’s already grabbed Zoe, who looks sick. 

            “Where do we go?!” I scream over the flashing lights and ringing bells. As soon as I say this, I hear something over the speakers, loud enough to drown out the other noises, so loud that I clutch my ears.

            “ATTENTION! Green Trident missiles have just been sighted approaching the town above. Everyone on base should immediately head to the bunkers. Approach in an orderly fashion, and do not panic.” The disembodied voice ceases and Darran, obviously not heeding the order about moving in an orderly fashion, sprints down the hall pulling us along.

            We turn the corner to the bunkers. People are shoving themselves into different ones, children are crying, the bells and alarms are screeching. Darran puts us in Bunker V-4, where Essie and her mother are already crouching, wide-eyed. The sound of the alarm reverberates off the thick concrete walls, making my head ache from the noise.

            Darran returns to the bunker, “It’s full! Mine is full! The new family filled it, it’s already shut.”

            I see Essie give a quick glance at a cupboard in the corner. Of course, I think They don’t have enough food. Zoe and I are straining them already. But Essie’s mother beckons him in. “Of course you can share, dear boy. Come in, quickly.” As soon as he’s through, Essie’s mother shuts the door and locks it. The cramped space falls into blackness.

            “What about Perth?” I whisper in the darkness, “Doesn’t he go with his family?”

            Essie turns on a small oil light that casts a flickering light in the bunker, which has fallen eerily quiet, the thick steel doors and concrete walls blocking out the noise. “No,” she says, “My father is in the command bunker with the other leaders…so they can still command the group. This is the smallest bunker, reserved for me, my mother, and any visitors who haven’t been assigned to a bunker yet.”

            BOOM. I feel it in the floor. I see dust rain down from the ceiling, settling on us like rain. I hear Essie take a sharp intake of breath. Darran just sits there, staring at his knees.

            BOOM. The room shakes harder. Although very muffled, I can hear screams from the other bunkers. I find that Zoe is grabbing my coat. I swallow hard. Then I hear an unearthly crash, right outside. I hear little pebbles of concrete hitting our door, and know that there was an explosion outside.

            “W—Why is the Green Trident doing this?” Zoe says, her voice strained.

            Instead of Darran, Essie answers, “They couldn’t let the war be over. They couldn’t let everything be normal again.” BOOM.

            We huddle in the darkness. I try to make small talk, trying to ignore the fear that is clutching at each of our hearts, like a steel glove.

            “What do you do everyday then? The rebellion?”

            Essie speaks first, “I don’t do much…we have the shop upstairs, but that’s really just a cover up for what really goes on. My job is usually to staff the shop, sell things, just so people don’t get too suspicious. It’s dull, for the daughter of a rebel.”

            Zoe taps Darran, who is staring at the wall angrily, “What about you?”

            “Messenger boy. I also assimilate people into the organization.” He says dully.