Silo

Chapter 18

We spent nearly three hours assessing our stockpile of weapons and setting up. Evan and I were holed up in the supply room, loading every gun we had and sorting through the shoebox filled with hunting knives. I laughed as he pulled out one of the larger blades, its tip gleaming in the light of my lantern. I couldn't imagine Evan using it, couldn't even reconcile the way it looked in his hand. Yet here he was, trying to figure out exactly how to mortally wound someone with that wicked edge.

Keith, carrying more than his weight in weapons, was dragging a ratty, old duffel bag filled with ammo towards the tunnel that connected our supply room to the common area."Where you going?" I asked, checking the chamber of an old shotgun.

"Where do you think? I'm not gonna wait in here. I'm gonna sit under the shaft, blow their asses up the second they drop down!"

I couldn't fault his plan. I wanted nothing more than to gut each one of them as they silently dropped into the hall.

Evan stood up, shaking his head violently. "Bad idea, Keith. You'll be too far away from us. How will we know if you need us?"

"Uh, I don't know. A ton of gunshot blasts coming from the tunnel I'm in? Their screams as I rip them to shreds. The dark red stream of blood trailing down the hall. You think those things will tip you off to their presence?"

Choking back my laughter, I looked at Evan. Neither one of us was going to change Keith's mind, nor did I want to. Let's face it, of the four of us, only two were even remotely qualified to take on these guys. And if Keith wanted first shot, I wasn't going to stand in his way. Plus, I sure as hell wasn't going to drag Meredith down into those tunnels. They were dark, cramped, and scary even if you hadn't been through what she had.

I gestured to Keith's bag. "You got food in there?"

"Yup. Enough to hold me through the night."

"What about sleep?" I asked.

"What about it?" he replied, and I laughed, knowing exactly what he meant. We were all too keyed up to even contemplate sleeping. "Relax. It's not like I'm gonna be gone that long. They'll lose it and come in sooner than you think. I give them two days max."

"You could whistle," Meredith suggested. "That would travel down the tunnel and then Evan and Jake could maybe get to you before anything happened."

We all swung around at her words, wondering why the hell none of us had thought of that. For somebody who hadn't said more than two words in five days, she sure had a lot of useful ideas.

"I heard it when you came in the first time," she explained. "It echoed all the way into my room. That's how I knew to hide."

I glanced at her, those warm, brown eyes filled with a pain I never wanted to see again. I had whistled that first day we found her silo. It was my signal to tell Keith that the coast was clear, that it was okay to follow me down the ladder. Until now, I'd had no idea she'd heard me. "Whistle," I said. "Whistle if you get tired, or hungry, or if you just get sick of staring at the damn ceiling by yourself. One of us will come. I'll come."

Keith saluted; that arrogant smirk of his well deserved. For once, we were in control. For the first time since that accident ... since the entire world fell apart, we weren't at the mercy of the chaos around us.

"You want me to go with him?" Evan asked as Keith disappeared into the darkened tunnel.

I nodded. Sitting down there, staring at a grate in the ceiling, over-analyzing every non-existent sound was enough to drive even the most stoic person crazy. And if Meredith was right, Keith would be sitting there for a while.

"Here," I said, tossing him a deck of cards. "Let me get this place warmed up, then I'll come down and keep you guys company."

I waited until Evan rounded the corner before I stood back up and motioned Meredith toward the common area. It was cold as hell down here - my fingers were numb, and it hurt to think. Now that we weren't hiding, I was going to start a bonfire size blaze, cook up a can of soup, and not worry about who saw the smoke. With any luck, it'd get their attention, bring them looking sooner rather than later.