What was happening to the small city was frightening to think about, but Dante also wanted to believe it was for the best. The crazy preppers that lived there knew how to handle almost any situation and the fact they were working together meant that everyone left in Poughkeepsie now stood a decent chance of survival. However this financial crash unfolded and expanded, they were in a strong position to deal with it and to adapt and grow. Dante could deal with getting Austin into the city when the time came, but until then, just like his mother said, he had to focus on his son.
Bowie was a beautiful and brave boy with a kind and inquisitive heart. Keeping him safe throughout what was to come was paramount to Dante, knowing that Austin too would put their son’s safety above everything. He didn’t want to let his husband and best friend down.
“Come here, kiddo,” Dante grinned as his son appeared in the room in front of him, a pair of dinosaur figurines clutched in his hands. “Do you want to play?”
“Yeah!”
“Which one can I be?” Dante asked as his son bounded toward him, an innocent smile stretched across his face. “Mister Long Neck?”
“He’s a Brachiosaurus dad,” Bowie rolled his eyes. “I told you before!”
Dante laughed. Neither of them had ever pushed him into this, but the little boy could name dinosaurs the two of them had never even heard of – it was seriously impressive at times.
“Okay, okay,” he apologized. “Sorry, can I be him?”
Bowie nodded and Dante picked up the toy and began to act out his part in the scene which his son dictated. Perhaps if their small family could maintain this innocence throughout the disaster, then they could get through it without falling apart. Dante was incredibly scared of what was to come and he definitely didn’t want to deal with it on his own. He smiled at his son as they played together, but inside he was begging his husband to return to them soon. Only once Austin was back in his arms, would he really feel ready to face the danger.
Chapter 10
KW glanced upwards once more at the very space where she knew one of the hidden cameras was located. After being in the underground bunker for as long as she had, there was very little about its secrets that she hadn’t yet uncovered. She knew which cameras were visual only and she knew where audio microphones were hidden too, having used that knowledge to devise a detailed map of the entire bunker and its few but precious dark spots.
That was where she, FM and DM gathered now – in one of the dark spots where their conversation couldn’t be overheard, though a camera still captured their whereabouts. So long as they kept their mouths hidden as they spoke and didn’t give anyone watching a chance to read their lips, they could pretty much hold any conversation they wanted there, though most of the time there were still topics which remained forbidden. After the latest revelations however, one of the rules that KW had put in place herself was finally about to be broken.
“Where are the others? Did you say anything to them about this?”
FM and DM both shook their heads; while none of them had anything against AC and FP, they weren’t trusted as wholly as the others were. The three that met in the dark spot were much closer and as a result, were the only people that KW wanted involved in her plan. She knew the fewer people that knew about it, the more chance it had of success. If it were possible, she would’ve tried it alone, but even she had to admit that three heads were better than one and there were some things that she couldn’t manage entirely by herself.
“Good,” she smiled. “I assume you’ve figured out what I want to speak to you both about?” She paused and waited for her two accomplices to nod, all of them trying to keep the conversation to a minimum just in case other cameras or microphones that they were unaware of had been installed recently. Though that was near impossible as no one other than the five of them had set foot in the bunker for almost a year. KW still didn’t trust the leader and the government who had locked them down there – especially since they had gone back on their word to release them once they had accomplished their mission.
“Do either of you have any ideas? I’ve gone over my plans again and still can’t find a better option than the chutes, they seem like the only unmanned way in or out of this place.”
KW was talking – rather unfortunately – about the waste disposal chutes which led out of the bunker from the communal bathroom and ended, so they all assumed, somewhere in the sewer system well below the city. Every other way out of the underground bunker was too well guarded. It would take them years of planning, on a private network they didn’t have, to crack the codes. Then intense training in hand-to-hand combat to overpower the guards that stood just beyond. Sadly, for the five people trapped underground, the only glimmer of a chance of escape that they had was squeezing through the waste chutes and navigating their way to freedom through the city sewers. The big problem with that however, was that the chutes were a mere fifteen centimeters across at most. A five-year-old child would have difficulty squeezing through them, let alone
