AGE OF INSANITY

Chapter 14: The Found.

In four quick, long strides i was airborne as Phillip lifted me clean off the floor engulfing me in a bear hug. His deep melodic laughter vibrated from his chest cocooning me. He smelt like sandlewood with a hint of citrus and lavender. I held onto him for dear life as he twirled me around the room his enthusiasm nothing short of infectious. Phillip had the self obsession of a teething toddler. He was the most selfishly caring man I had ever met. His self obsession crossed out the rest of humanities problems off his worry list. He had this insane ability to be ignorant about the most obvious things and yet became obsessed with the things or people who drew his attention.

Being with him had been equally thrilling and relaxing. With him I did not have to pretend to worry about anyone else and he was always up for challenge. If anything he lived for the edge. He was a wild card and my father disliked him for that. With him we could either be throwing stones at glass doors or volunteering at an animal shelter. The suspense was addicting which was why we had dated on and off for three years making it the longest relationship I had ever been in.

He set me down as the office doors opened up one by one letting out the occupants. They all joined us until six people stood next to us. I recogonized Eric and Patrick Phillip's younger brothers. The twin brothers separated from the group and each one took his turn lifting me off the ground. I let them for no other reason than the fact that I knew that those sweet smiles were far from genuine but their hugs were. Despite the fact that they were younger than their brother, the  twenty year olds stood at six foot four an inch taller than their brother.

Unlike their brother, they had light skin and curly hair making them popular with the ladies. The twins played professional basketball and would have made it to a big team if the world had not been upturned. Phillip on the other hand had opted or rather had been forced into the family business. His birthright,as his father had once said.

"So..." Phillip walked to the rest of the group "...the gang is all here. This is Irene."  he looped his hand around the shoulders of the only female in the group. It was therefore safe to assume that she was the one who had shouted for us to remove our suits. He dropped his arms making his way to next member.

"This is a James. He and Irene are incharge of monitoring the compound. They are our former
I.T guys but now we are basically family. This was their first time at our show room and I guess it was too good because they haven't left since they set foot in here!" His poor attempt at a joke was greeted with uneasy silence followed by scattered laughter. He was not even slightly discouraged as he went on with the introduction.

"This is Marcel. Marcel is our resident mechanic. If you need help with any of the cars, he is your guy. Last but not least this is Nigel, he was and still is our head of security. Used to work as a mercenary before retiring. If there is anyone I would have chosen to stuck with during the apocalypse then it is him."

Eric and Patrick groaned in unison at their brothers open betrayal. They huffed in unison before storming out. I always envied twins. Despite the fact that they had different personalities, they had a bond that most people could only dream of. It did not mater what happened, they would always have each others back.

"Well you know those two rascals and that's everyone." He clapped his hands once moving to stand next to me.

"Everyone this is Melissa, the love of my life."

Marcus made a loud strangled sound drawing everyone's attention. He tried to play off by clearing his throat, but nobody was buying it.

"And you are?" Phillip asked his hands tightening around my shoulders.

" My name is Marcus and this is Charles." he replied choosing the highroad as I had come to expect from him.

"I don't know if you heard but in around two weeks the entirety of Africa will be nuked. Along with the rest of the world in due time."

There were collective gasps of horror as the message made it home

"What do you mean nuked?" Irene asked her hands pulling at her braids.

"Why would they nuke Africa it's not like there is nothing left to take or people left to colonize."

Marcus opened his bag of tricks handed them a pamphlet before zipping it up. He then gave them a run down of the events that had occurred and were set to happen. By the time he concluded his debriefing, the gang, as Phillip had referred to them were in full panic mode. Marcus let them sweat it out for a few minutes as he and Charles headed for the big monitor at the far corner of the room.

Charles set to work and in less than ten minutes had deployed a drone to the shelter. With nothing else to do but wait for the drones to arrive at the underground shelter, Marcus decided to put the gang out of their misery. He explained to them about the bunker and the underground shelter. The twins were summoned as everyone else crowded the monitor with bated breath.

It took the drone twenty minutes to get to the underground shelter. With a bit of manuvering the drone was brought to the entrance of the shelter. On top the shelter was an enormous bungalow that Patrick immediately recognize. Their discovery lessened Marcus' hostility as he stepped aside to let the confirm if it was indeed their coach's house.

For some reason Marcus had an obvious disapproval of the gang. I wrote it off as him being overly cautious. If anything I was also taken back by the presence of other people. More people meant more supplies and a bigger space. As long as the shelter worked out it would be fine. They had managed to survive on Thier own so they were not going to be a liability and they had a personal connection to the shelter. If it was occupied by the coach and his family then we would need thier help.  The coach had told them it was a family inheritance and had been in their family for generations. They were not aware of the existence of the underground shelter but proved their usefulness by locating the entrance.

The drone hovered infront of its final destination that was obstructed by an intricate lock. Unlike the steel door the shelters lock was antique. The kind of locks that guarded safes and required a lot of expertise to even crack. Charles seemed to share my concern as he turned to Marcus clearly stumped.