It's the End of the World as We Know it (Silent Moments Series: Book 4)

Chapter 6

Bellamy and I shared a look, both of us instantly sensing something amiss. Without a word, we moved towards the rover, taking our positions at the driver and passenger sides.

Bellamy, authoritative and direct, demanded, "Out of the vehicle."

Jaha, inside the rover, seemed resolute. "I need to make a run," he declared, his tone suggesting an urgency he wasn't willing to elaborate on.

Raven, not one to be easily sidestepped, questioned his intentions. "All supply runs go through me, and shouldn't you be working on the patch to sector 5?"

Jaha, realizing his covert attempt had failed, sighed and cut the engine. His frustration was palpable as he opened up about his concerns. "A patch for a ship that can only save a hundred people? Why are you surprised? I am an engineer. We have no way to generate water. The harder number is 400. Can you really sentence 400 more of our own people to death?"

"We don't have a choice," I argued, feeling the weight of every decision we were forced to make.

Jaha, however, presented a tantalizing possibility. "What if you do? What if I told you there might be a fallout shelter less than a day's drive from here, a fallout shelter built to sustain thousands?"

Raven was skeptical. "We've been through the chancellor's files. All the bunkers you considered for the hundred were listed as compromised or unviable, and now Mount Weather is, too."

Jaha, undeterred, revealed his discovery, showing us the tablet. "Those were government bunkers," he explained.

"A doomsday cult?" Bellamy asked, trying to piece together Jaha's revelation.

"That's right. They were called The Second Dawn," Jaha said, offering a piece of forgotten history.

"They built a bunker?" I asked, intrigued yet cautious.

Jaha nodded. "Their whole theology was based on riding out the end of the world. We couldn't prove it existed."

"So why are you considering it now?" Bellamy pressed.

"Because before now, we didn't need it," Jaha answered simply.

I felt a glimmer of hope. "You found it, didn't you?"

Jaha hesitated. "We can't be sure unless we check it out."

Raven, practical as ever, interjected. "No. No way. We need that rover for hauling pieces of a three-ton patch we're building."

I cut in, seeing the potential in Jaha's plan. "Yeah, but what if we wouldn't need the patch?"

Raven pulled us aside, her frustration mounting. "Can you please remind Kegan what happened the last time Jaha went looking for salvation?"

I tried to reason with her. "Raven, if that bunker is real, we can save a lot more than a hundred people."

"If it's not, we've lost another day," she countered.

I reached out to her, trying to bridge the divide between hope and practicality. "Hey, look. If it's not, I'll make the list. Okay?" I said, placing my hands reassuringly on her arms.

Raven, resigned yet committed to her task, muttered, "Do what you want. I've got a ship to seal," before walking back inside.

Left alone with my thoughts, I felt the strain of our strained relationship. Raven was more than just a friend; she was family, one of the few constants in a life marked by loss. The thought of losing her, too, was unbearable.

Bellamy broke the silence. "I'll drive."

He took the driver's seat, I got into the passenger side, and Jaha settled in the back. As we drove off, the possibility of finding the bunker loomed large in my mind. This could be the salvation we desperately needed, a chance to save not just a hundred, but possibly all of us.

***

We gathered around the screen, watching the archival footage of a man from the past, his words echoing through time. "The end is coming. Hear me as I say it this time. The end is coming, and it's coming soon," he proclaimed with a fervent intensity.

Jaha, standing beside us, provided context. "He gave this speech two weeks before the bombs," he explained, his voice carrying a hint of reverence for the historical moment.

The man on the screen continued, his speech a blend of despair and hope. "The world is dark and getting darker all the time. Everything we once trusted has turned on us, government, religion. Even technology has become a weapon in their hands used to poison our minds. I know you're in pain. I know you're afraid, but it doesn't have to be like this. There is a way out of the darkness. I can show it to you. You can be saved. Join me. Join us, and together when the horsemen come, from the ashes, we will rise."

I turned to Jaha, a sense of urgency in my voice. "Please tell me you have more than this," I said, practically pleading for something concrete, something that could lead us to salvation.

Handing Jaha the tablet, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. The video, while intriguing, offered no tangible evidence of a bunker. It seemed more like the ramblings of a doomsday cult leader than a clue to our survival.

Jaha, seemingly unfazed by our skepticism, continued with his theory. "In the two years before the bombs, Cadogan sold off most of the Second Dawn's real estate holdings, generating tens of millions of dollars, but there was one thing he didn't sell." He paused, looking between Bellamy and me as he handed back the tablet. "I found this in his autobiography. It's his childhood home. His father built a bunker there to save his family. I think Cadogan used the church's money to expand it."

Bellamy, trying to make sense of it, suggested, "He grew up there. Maybe he kept it for sentimental value."

Jaha, however, quickly dismissed that idea. "Mmm. His father beat him almost daily in that house. He hated living there," he said, casting doubt on the sentimental theory.

I chimed in, trying to piece together the puzzle. "Why keep it if you're liquidating everything else?" It was a question that seemed to have no clear answer, only adding to the mounting frustration.

Jaha, steadfast in his belief, insisted, "Because that bunker is there. I can feel it."

Bellamy, visibly skeptical, remarked, "This guy sounds like a religious fanatic to me." It was clear from his expression that he wasn't convinced by Jaha's arguments.

Jaha, undeterred, countered with a comparison that struck close to home. "Maybe. Or maybe he was just a leader willing to do whatever it took to save his people."

As we stood there, the weight of the decision before us was palpable. Could we afford to follow Jaha's hunch, based on the scant evidence of a fanatic's ramblings? Yet, in our desperate situation, even the slimmest chance of finding a viable shelter could not be easily dismissed. It was a gamble, one that could either lead to our salvation or be yet another misstep in our fraught journey for survival.