“He shot himself. I’d say he did it a couple of hours ago. At least we won’t have to worry about giving him a trial,” she huffed.
“Good,” Zach muttered. “Don’t anybody move him. I want everyone to see what happened so there won’t be any wild conspiracy theories.”
“Yeah, you got it,” Priss said.
“You know this means your father is now the acting president,” Zach said.
Priss scoffed. “Lord help us.”
“What’re we going to do now?” Flash asked.
“Everyone else has to be down in the bunker,” Priss said. “When the attack first came, I expected people to come pouring outside to help, but there wasn’t anyone. Something has happened.”
“Let’s go check on them,” Zach said and turned to Flash. “Get with my team and distribute ammo to the guard posts. Also, see if you can get comms restored.”
“Roger that, boss,” Flash said.
“And talk to them. Reassure them,” Zach said.
“I’ll let them know you’re on top of it, Zach.”
Zach nodded and headed off with Priss. Two minutes later they were standing in front of the entrance to the lower floors. The blast door was closed, along with the guillotine gate in front of it. Zach had lived at Mount Weather for a few years, and during that time neither door nor gate had ever been closed.
“Something tells me we’re going to need more than a key,” Priss quipped.
Zach grunted in agreement. The gate was composed of thick steel bars and the blast door alone weighed over thirty tons.
“Obviously, the power is out,” he said. “The power room is down there, along with two generators. I sincerely doubt anyone down there is twiddling their thumbs wondering what to do. So, that means it has probably been disabled. I wonder if he set off a charge or something before locking them in.”
“Does he know how to do that?” Priss asked.
“I don’t think so, but D-Day certainly does,” Zach said. “Let’s go check the status of the power room up top.”
Zach led Priss to a plain square concrete structure on the west end of the compound. He explained.
“The power lines from Philpott Dam come to here. Then they go underground into the bunker.”
He walked up to the thick steel door and used his flashlight to inspect the two heavy padlocks. One of them had a key broken off in it.
“That’s going to slow us down a little,” he grumbled.
“But you have a plan, right?” Priss asked.
“Don’t know if it’s a good plan, but I can’t think of anything else.”
He led her to the motor pool and ten minutes later they were back with a battery-operated cutting tool with extra blades. The lock was of high quality and it took him almost thirty minutes to cut it off. Once inside, they discovered the high-voltage circuit breakers had been disengaged. When they reset them, the lights immediately came to life.
When they returned to the blast door, it was already moving. Not fast, a thirty-ton door does not move fast, but it eventually opened. William Rhinehart was the first one to emerge. He stared at Zach a second before focusing on his daughter.
“What’s been going on here?” he demanded.
Priss began explaining as more people emerged from the bunker. When Priss got to the part about Gil VanAllen killing himself, William ordered her to take him to the body. Priss complied and almost everyone followed. There were some surprised gasps when they went outside and saw all the zed corpses. Priss gave a running commentary to the group as they walked toward the TOC.
Zach stayed out of it and stuck with his team.
“We aren’t driving all the way back tonight, are we?” Dax asked. “I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m worn out.”
“Nope. There are some dorm rooms down below where everyone can shower and bed down for the night.”
“I think, under the circumstances, I’d rather not go down into that bunker tonight,” Dax lamented.
This got a few chuckles. An armored vehicle approached the main gate and drove in. Slim got out, along with Fred, Rachel, and Nikki. Zach walked up and hugged Rachel.
“Glad y’all are okay,” he said.
“We didn’t have any trouble at all,” Fred said. “I’ll check my trail cameras in the morning, but I thought I’d keep Rachel here tonight.”
By now, everyone had gathered up around Zach and Fred. Zach did not hesitate.
“Alright, listen up. As you all know by now, Gilbert VanAllen did a little sabotaging, which trapped most of you in the bunker, and he killed Trucker Troy before killing himself. I saw D-Day among the dead out here with all the zeds, but I don’t know who else is missing. Lydia?”
“Right here, Zach,” Lydia said from within the crowd.
“Get a roll call of everyone and let’s see who is missing and unaccounted for. We also need to double the manpower to the guard posts, and we are going to have a roving patrol for the rest of the night. Volunteers would be wonderful, but if we can’t fill the positions, some of you will be voluntold. In case you are wondering, Vice President Rhinehart is the acting president pending him formally being sworn in. He is going to have his hands full, so in the meantime, let’s help him out as much as we can.”
“What are you going to do, Zach?” William asked.
“If you like, I’ll do my old job and direct operations.”
“I would be grateful,” he said.
“Alright, does anyone have any questions?” Zach asked.
There were a few, which Zach answered. In the end, mothers took the kids back down in the bunker to calm them and get them back to sleep. The rest of the Mount Weather members stayed awake and helped with the guard duties and getting everything else back to normal.
Chapter 57 – Ruby
Ruby was found hiding in the closet of the president’s office by the O’Malley brothers. She was brought into
