Chapter Three
“To think that we once assumed reservoirs were driven entirely by the consumption of healthy grey matter. It is now undeniable that the Hollowing is far, far more complex than we could have ever imagined.”
–Mother, “Notes on HBRS-15.21”. 3 Years After.
* * *
“Oh, give it a rest,” Liam snapped.
Evelyn scoffed. “What? You get to name all our kids now?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. If we have another daughter, we’re not naming her after Mother.”
“It’s not a question of if, Liam, but when we have another daughter. Or have you forgotten the mission?”
How could I ever forget? “Here we go again with ‘the mission.’ Have you ever considered that there are more important things in life than making babies, especially when we’re struggling with one? Bloody Hell, Evelyn! I still don’t accept what we’re supposed to have them do when they get old enough.”
Her face reddened. “We’ve talked about this. They won’t have a choice.”
“Well, if you want to be the one to tell our children that they need to sleep together to keep the human race going, then be my guest. A real birds and bees story, yeah? I’m sure seeing ‘Marquise’ and ‘Mother’ fuck each other is just what’ll get your jollies going.”
She dodged the bait. “Oh, so now you are fine with calling our son after my father.”
Liam grit his teeth. “I never said we couldn’t! I just said that we should talk about it later. But for pity’s sake, forget about Mother already.”
“All I’m saying is that it would be nice to honor the woman who made all this possible! No, I obviously don’t want to call one of my children ‘Mother,’ but we could at least do something simple like Ava.”
“Ava is a lovely name. A beautiful one, really. Though I’d still prefer not to pay homage to the mad scientist who destroyed the world.” He grimaced. “If you don’t want to name our future daughter ‘Mother,’ then what the hell are we arguing about?”
“I don’t know! You’re the one who got in my face.”
“From across the room? Should I have stepped back all the way to the blast doors before responding?”
Evelyn clenched a fist. “Stop being such an asshole! You know what I meant. I don’t care where you’re talking to me from, but how you’re doing it. Like I’m a fucking child and not your wife.”
Second wife, and not even a real one at that, Liam almost corrected, but the words thankfully got trapped beneath his tongue before slipping out.
“I’m going out for some air,” he decided instead.
Evelyn bristled behind in silence.
Liam wanted nothing more than to stop, turn around, and reconcile their differences. He wanted to cut through his pride and the absurdity of their argument.
But he couldn’t.
* * *
“Out” was hardly the best term for where Liam went, nor was he getting much in the way of “air.”
The better part of their home remained situated beyond a narrow passage leading to the caverns that had once been the home of NORAD’s central command. Unlike the inner bunker, only the dimmest of lighting still flickered here. The electric cost was too great to keep more than the bare essentials in operation, and the space was too vast for its own good. The recycled air held a musty stench, and spiders had spanned vast networks inside the cold, vacuous crevices that always clung to the edge of sight.
It had taken weeks to wrestle these caverns back from the hollows after Mother lured their horde into Cheyenne in one final gambit to use against Hades. Weeks of systematically driving them in and out of hibernation until they lacked the energy to resist, followed by going through the painstaking effort of removing the bodies, one after another after another.
Liam and Evelyn were quite the pair back then too. Not even knowing more than each other’s names, yet compelled by mutual self-interest alone to accomplish such an insurmountable goal. Together as a duo and not hostages of unavoidable circumstances.
Liam let out a sigh as he passed the dorms. Like the rest of Cheyenne, it had been modified from a three-story building that dated back to the Cold War. The full construction rested on giant springs to absorb the impact of a nuclear bomb, a strategy that would have served the first tenants of this space well had their threat been nuclear and not biological. The interior of the dorms held more than a hundred bunks, all wrapped in plastic until there were enough bodies inside these walls to need them.
That was another thought that always twisted his stomach in a knot. Because of their diverse genetic backgrounds, with Liam’s family having a long history rooted in the United Kingdom, and Evelyn’s a split between Jamaica and India, the chances were minimal that Leah or any of her future siblings developed a genetic complication. But the same couldn’t be said for their children. Were she to have a child with a brother, then whatever recessive defects in their collective genetic background would have a significantly greater chance of presenting in them, from color blindness to missing limbs at birth. If Mother was to be believed, then one in three of Leah’s children might have to be murdered upon delivery due to a lack of long-term viability. She’d even installed an incinerator for this purpose.
Of course, this cruel calculus was all part of her plan, for Leah’s children’s children would have better odds, so long as she had a sister who produced children of her own. Four children from us. Two boys and two girls. That was the “golden number.” This tactic allowed for the next generation to interbreed as first cousins, decreasing the chance for these recessive defects to manifest by a factor of four each. As few as one-in-thirty of his great-grandchildren would have to face that same incinerator as long as they followed Mother’s breeding program to the letter.
As Liam studied the dorms and the hypothetical settlement it might one day hold, he could only shake his head at the insanity of it all. So cruel and uncaring. He kept walking.
Next came the Operation Center, where Mother had programmed an automated system to detect and alert them to any threat, no matter how minuscule. Of course, not all hardware functioned after so much time, but the system had done its due diligence up until now. Ops had thus become the anchor that their lives were built, serving as the electronic eyes and ears they lacked. Hopefully, it would survive long enough to serve their children just as well.
Liam reached the range next, where he practiced his shooting thrice a week to keep his marksmanship intact. Evelyn built it into a daily routine and often encouraged him to do the same. Sadly, the sound of a rifle going off in such close quarters was quite the torment for his aging ears, and he preferred to stick to a minimal approach to keep tinnitus at bay.
The gym had been placed right past the range. This building was perhaps the closest the two had to normality out here. They made certain to clean the area after each session to keep the place sanitary, and an old boombox sat in the middle, ready to pop a fresh beat. Sometimes, when they were in the gym together, Liam could close his eyes and almost picture life from before.
He reached the greenhouse next. From what he’d heard, this location had once been the space control center, but no trace of that environment remained. The interior walls had been gutted, the furniture swapped with troughs filled with nutrient-rich soil, and UV lamps flooded the space with artificial sunlight, or would have, had they not been growing their vegetables topside to save on power.
Another blessing and a curse. Liam had helped foster this decision. Mushrooms could be grown in darkness and were easier to farm, while lentils thrived strongest in natural sunlight and rain. That gave him an excuse to head topside and try his gardening hand again. But Liam had not accounted for the loss of moving their vegetables up there. No longer could he enter this room and taste the fresh aroma of budding plants. That sensation was replaced by the moldy odor of fungus, and his underground world became so much smaller because of it.
Liam doubled back across the barren passageways between the northern and southern wings. This was the calmest and least lit, as they only used the space for storage. The walls were lined with more storage crates than he could count. Though many of their supplies became trashed when the hollows ran rampant here, there were still more tools and resources in this place than he could ever track, so he learned long ago to defer to Evelyn’s judgment when it came to sorting and pulling from this mess.
Finally, Liam reached the reservoirs. There was four total, but only one of them was still accessible. The hollows had polluted the other three beyond repair during their invasion, and they dared not risk attempting to purify them, even this long after exposure. The jet-black water had been blocked off ages ago.
Liam stared into the last surviving reservoir, his eyes struggling to gain purchase in the dim light. Rezzers believed that every thinking creature held its own mental reservoir that grew and waned with time. The older one became, the more their experiences flourished.
But as Liam looked into a pool of water nestled inside a dark cavern, he questioned the value of it all. What would their lives be like if they remained confined to this space? Better yet, what would their children become? Alone. Isolated. No more than creatures trapped inside their little hole for fear of the light that lay beyond. Life was more than this pocket of mindless procreation, and all he’d wanted was for Evelyn to understand the same. Did it make him such a bastard to wish for his family to strive for those same heights again?
Liam supposed that it did. This cavern stood as a utopia compared to the world beyond. Mother had specifically tailored this bunker so that humanity could stand a chance against the pandemic that still burned so powerfully beyond its walls. Every aspect had been manufactured in a way that allowed Liam and Evelyn to live and raise children comfortably, along with their children, and their children’s children, should the need arise. All until such a time came when mankind could safely reclaim the surface as its own. No one else had been gifted this privilege.
So why couldn’t they make this work?
Liam knew the answer. For all her ingenuity, Mother had never considered the humanity buried beneath it all. Sure, it was easy to imagine that if she placed a man and a woman in a room long enough, they’d churn out an army of babies on their own. But they weren’t just a man and woman. He was Liam Fenix, and she was Evelyn Jones – two people with their own unique stories, personalities, and beliefs. The two would never have so much as glanced at each other in passing were it not for the end of the world, and now they were expected to breed back a civilization together!?
Liam let out a deep breath. He really, truly wanted to make Evelyn happy and enjoy what lives they had together down here. Yet so often, the task became impossible. His well-intentioned actions were always perceived as an existential threat, while she could seldom relate to his wants and needs. It wasn’t surprising. The two were from different worlds, and not just by age. Liam might have lived a full life with his first wife and daughter before the Hollowing came, but Evelyn had been fourteen at the time of the outbreak. She had barely seen the cusp of adolescence before having it thrust away. Now she was a beast of a woman, forged from the fires of Hell itself.
But Liam also had his own faults to consider. His patience and empathy could only last for so long, and he had a habit of being more opinionated than he had the right. Still, as Liam stared into the cold, dark pool of the last remaining reservoir, there was no denying the truth of it all.
His absence might have destroyed his first marriage, but this one would collapse because of his presence.
* * *
“Evelyn, my love,” Liam began. “I’m sorry.”
She said nothing from the kitchen, instead continuing to dice their meal together. It was a mix of mushrooms and spam, with an attempted reduction of spices and soy sauce to give the mess some flavor. Liam’s tongue retracted at the sight, knowing it would weather the fifth variation of the same attempted recipe this week. Why couldn’t she just leave the cooking to him again?
He shook his head, remembering the words he’d been formulating. “I know that things have been more difficult than normal lately. We both knew there’d be extra trouble once your pregnancy became too much, and I am hardly a worthwhile substitute for your expertise in maintaining our home. We are still recovering from my mistakes in that time, all these months later. That, compounded with the care that we must spend on our daughter, it does not take a genius to see that Cheyenne has never been in worse shape than now.”
She continued to ignore him.
“I also know you are feeling intense pressure for what is to come. Your biological window is only open for so long, and if we miss that window, then this will all have been a waste. Between the post-birth complications and my own… Performance issues of late, we are behind schedule. I know that the only way to ensure that humanity can safely repopulate assumes that we have as many children as possible. But if Leah is any clue for our future, this will create more complications since more children will need more attention from us, which means that less can be focused on our security. That we are currently in a state of decline with just one child is worrying, to say the least.
“I want to be clear, though, that you should accept no blame for how we’re doing on these fronts. They are entirely my failure as a man to provide what you need.”
Evelyn stayed in place, though the knife had stopped in her hands.
Liam took a step forth. “But please, love, try to understand this from my perspective. All I want for us is to be happy, and that won’t ever happen if we cling to this idea that our lives are defined by how thick our walls are or how much longer our food supply lasts. Our children can’t exist under those terms. We have to be willing to close our eyes and embrace the peace sometimes. If not for our sake, then Leah’s. What will she become if this keeps up? A woman who appreciates the life that she’s been given? Or will she be some mindless creature who hides in the shadows and murders anything that gets too close?”
“You mean like me?” Evelyn said, her eyes watering.
Liam grimaced. “Of course n–”
“Tell me that you love me, Liam. Tell me that our marriage isn’t some godless sham cobbled together because you had no other choice.” She closed her eyes. “Tell me that you’d rather spend your life with me and not that you wish you’d died with her.”
There it was. The truth unearthed. While some reason came with everything else that Liam had said, it was all empty noise compared to the root of it all.
Liam loved his first wife, Nelly. Even to this day, he could close his eyes and picture her smiling back. He could feel her blonde hair flowing in the wind and taste the smell of her organic perfume at the base of his nose. The two had met in high school and found a shared passion for the natural kingdom, and their relationship had grown stronger with each passing day they had spent together. Only when Liam had made the mistake of abandoning her did their relationship fall apart. If there were any moment to take back in his life, it would have been to avoid his intercontinental trek and spend his final days with her.
And with Evelyn, it was the opposite. The longer they were together, the more of a stranger she became. When he awoke in that post-sleep, pre-awakened miasma and looked to his side, she always rested miles across the bed, if still there at all. Never could he find her in his arms.
But that was Evelyn Jones. Sure, she desperately wanted to believe she could be the dutiful wife after a deeply religious upbringing with her single father, but her time under Mother had all but expunged those impulses. Regardless of her spiritual troubles, she threw up barriers rather than allow herself to feel the least bit exposed. Even in this moment, as she played the vulnerable spouse in search of a hug, her body language betrayed her words. She had twirled her kitchen knife in hand and angled it in front. A defensive reverse-grip posture that could easily slice open his throat, should she suddenly decide the need. Perhaps a subconscious maneuver in her juxtaposed world, but readily apparent to anyone else who’d pay her mind.
How could Liam ever love a woman like that? How could he be expected to open his heart to someone who refused to do the same? In the end, his feelings for her came in waves, and only when no crises were at play. The more complicated their lives evolved, the longer apart those waves became, and the shorter they grew in intensity. There was only so much he could do to bridge this gap if she was unwilling to resolve them herself.
“Evelyn…” he began, but no more words came out.
She gripped her knife tighter, the wall between them hardening stronger still.
A distant beep broke the tension. Before either could fully pay it mind, the wider alarm system activated. The room went dark, replaced with oscillating red lights that sprung to life every couple seconds. Liam’s ears filled with the screech of the base-wide alert, interspersed by the sound of Leah crying out from the other room.
Both nodded before launching into action. Evelyn went straight for the door to the outer bunker while Liam rushed for Leah. There was no way to quiet her until they deactivated the alarms, but he preferred to have his daughter in his arms first.
Leah squirmed against the loud noises and bright lights, trying in vain to shield herself from both. Liam scooped her with both arms and wrapped her tight, bobbing her back and forth before following in Evelyn’s wake. The alarm’s strength dwindled as they hit the outer bunker.
She was working at the computer terminal in Ops when he arrived. The system closed down, and Leah’s crying dwindled.
“Looks like we got two pings out in Section K,” Evelyn said, clattering the keyboard. “Both less than a minute apart.”
“Section K?” Liam tried to tie the location to his cognitive map of the outside world but came up short. “Where the hell is that?”
“Southern entrance. Mountainside.” She pulled up the topographic map of the surface world. They had an established network of strategically-placed motion sensors, broken up by zone to act as an advanced warning system should anything have broken through the fences. Two red dots appeared in a sea of blue. “K-2 and K-3 were the ones that got tripped.”
Liam rubbed his chin now that he could visualize the intrusion. “Might be a mountain goat. If I recall correctly, Section K is an open zone because of the steepness of the terrain. Nothing else would be able to get through there.”
“Nothing intelligent, anyway.” She let out a deep breath and leaned back. “But you’re probably right. I can do the sweep if you want, Liam. Today’s been stressful enough as is.”
Another light flashed red. This alert came from K-1 – back a hundred meters from the others. Before Liam could float the possibility of a second mountain goat passing through, K-2 got triggered again, along with K-4 entering the mix. He gulped as more lights flared, now spilling in from Sections H and L.
Within a minute, the entire southern entrance was alive with red lights.
LISN
This is getting very intense!