|
A man is trapped one mile beneath the earth in a survival shelter following nuclear war. Upon realizing he's sealed in, he goes slowly insane.
Alone
Simplicity
Roger Denton had it all; president and CEO of Denton Tobacco, he's a walking beacon of power and confidence. This confidence is only part of his down fall.
The missiles are launched and the end of the world is less than an hour away. Roger had a survival shelter built in anticipation of this. He's also equipped it with cryogenic pods to carry him into the future. Little does he know an employee from his company found out about the shelter from computer files before they were deleted. When the end comes, Roger is faced with a desperate gunman. It is the beginning of his loss of control.
The shelter has been sealed shut and when it comes time for Roger to venture into the world once again, he comes to understant that he's been sealed into what is now his tomb.
Excerpt
The doors slid closed with a whisper and when they did, he fell to his knees. The decanter in one hand and the notebook in the other, he sat then on the floor of the elevator and wept while it descended toward the basement. At first the tears were hot and the whimpers silent, but by the time he reached the thirtieth floor, his cries were gut wrenching, to say the least.
This was not the way it was supposed to happen, he thought. Not like this at all.
Visions of Janet pulling the trigger blazed through his mind. Blood spattering the office as her skull disintegrated. Pieces of bone spinning out from the damage, turning end over end before smacking off the file cabinets. Her arms pumping outward as her body convulsed, the gun cast away.
How did this happen? He was Roger Denton. He was going to survive while the rest of the world crumbled around him. That was the way it was supposed to be, the way it had to be. No emotion. No feeling. Just the reality of Darwin’s theory at work. Janet’s suicide was not considered nor was Cassie's absence. How did variables like that come to fruition when he’d never so much as played with them in his mind?
The elevator continued its silent descent, moving inevitably toward the basement and the gateway to the shelter. He squeezed his eyes shut and tilted his head back against the wall, trying desperately to shut off the tears and bring himself back under control. Janet’s sunken eye loomed large in his brain as he passed the tenth floor. His limbs felt cold, but he didn’t break down again. Instead, his teeth began to chatter. He would survive, of that there could be no alternative. None of this was a game - it was do or die. The end was already decided for everyone else. Suddenly the walls of the elevator seemed much more confining than they ever had. He could feel his heart rate quickening and his eyes dried up. It felt like the entire office building was squeezing him out and down, like a giant colon pushing out a shit. He wondered where the missiles were and how much more time he had. He glanced at the dial above the elevator doors and realized that even though it said he was just now passing the second floor, that tin box could move fast enough.
|
Bookmarks
