The Variables

“Mick! Advise! Advise! Two intruders and Grant and Blair are making their way from elevator one to the outside lift. Do we fire?”

“Yes, dammit!” Mick answered.

“But...Blair...”

“If they get to the surface, we give them all the advantage. Do what you need to do. Take them all out, you hear me?”

“Mick...are you sure.”

“Fire at will. Indiscriminately. Take out the elevator.”

“Turn the elevators off, dammit.”

“Working on it...” Mick said, and the communication was cut short.

Blair choked out a mixture of a gasp and a sob and clutched Frank’s neck. “Who are you?” she asked, her eyes darting between everyone around her. Grant had pushed his back against the climbing elevator. He could hear the gunshots ring out below. Little pings echoed around them; the bullets were landing against the metal.

Darla took her gun and put it against Blair’s head, and Blair screamed and cowed.

“Don’t kill me,” she screamed. “Please, please, don’t kill me. I’ll do whatever you want.”

“How do we get out of here?” Darla asked.

“If we ma-ma-make it to the main lift...then we just go. Once that elevator is going, they, they, they’d have to wait to come after us until we reached the surface.” Blair said, looking at Darla through her tears. “But—” she stopped. “If they come after you, you’re toast. Look, we’re toast no matter what. If the elevators stop...I can’t control that...”

The elevator churned to a slow stop. The sides rattled. Dean swore under his breath.

Together, Darla and Dean pried the doors open and saw two feet of light pour into the box; they had been so close to their destination.

“You first,” Darla said to Dean and he listened without hesitation and crawled through the small open space, depositing himself on to the ground below. Grant went next. Then Blair pushed Frank through and then herself. Darla was last.

Darla grabbed Blair and propped her up on her feet, and they took off ru

“They’ll be right on your heels,” Blair said. “There are hidden stairwells to this portion...in case of an emergency.”

And sure enough, just as they reached the elevator to the surface, they saw a blur of uniforms appear. The guards began to fire. Jorge and the redhead raised their guns and fired. The bullets ricocheted off the walls and the sound made Grant’s ears hurt. They climbed aboard the lift and pushed the button. It began to rise. Its exposed top made Grant feel woozy; he could see the reinforced dirt walls and feel the warm stagnant air. A single lightbulb illuminated the area and cast their shadows on the wall. A bullet pierced the bottom of the small elevator and Blair screamed. Dean grabbed her and held her close, pushing her toward the side. Another bullet tore through the bottom.

They traveled upward slowly.

The gunshots began to get softer, further away.

“They’ll just come after you,” Blair said. “You won’t get away.”

The walkie-talkie crackled again, but the voices on the other end were too jumbled to understand. They were slipping out of range.

Dean embraced Grant and put his hand on the back of his head. “Son,” he said. When he drew back to look at him, he was crying. “I can’t believe this…I don’t have the words…”

“Son?” Blair whispered and she looked between Grant and Dean, her arm still wrapped around Frank’s neck. “Oh my God.” She clamped her mouth shut and stared off at the dark wall surrounding them. “Oh my...”

“Blair—” Grant started and she looked at him, her eyes big.

“I don’t understand,” she replied. “You know them.” It wasn’t a question. She closed her eyes tight. “I’m so confused. You know them.”

“Blair,” he said again. “This is my dad. And this is Darla...” he stopped. “Teddy’s mom.”

Blair inhaled like all the air had been punched out of her and she was struggling for breath. When she looked at Grant, she was a piteous mess; all her fear and anger had morphed into a penetrating sadness. He wanted to go to her, but he kept his distance, assessing her confusion from the safety of his corner. Blair’s head dropped to her chest and she put her hand over her heart.

“My dad told me his mom was dead,” she said in a whisper.

“I’m very much alive,” Darla answered. “Much to everyone’s chagrin, I’m sure.” She looked up as the elevator continued its climb. They could see the light now from the opened elevator doors on the surface; daylight crept downward, and the air was lighter, more breathable. “We need a plan. Stat.”

“They will realize that they can’t waste time waiting for this lift and they’ll go the emergency lifts at the other end of the System,” Blair said weakly. “That’s probably why they didn’t kill the elevators...they’re heading to the hidden ones…”

“Hidden ones…” Grant repeated. He realized how much he hadn’t understood about his short-lived home.

“We can’t shut those down?” Darla asked. “The power source outside…the solar panels.”

“Won’t make it in time.” Blair covered her face with her hands. “But…”

Darla put the gun to Blair’s head, but Grant stepped forward and put his hand on her forearm, pushing the gun to the floor. Darla took a deep breath and kept the gun pointed away from Blair. She shifted her weight nervously and watched the surface above them with rapt interest.

“I can shut it down,” Blair said. “I’m the only one with a direct line to Kymberlin. Mick gave me the phone. He thought it would be the easiest task...to keep me included...to let me be the one to call when the operation was over.” She closed her eyes. “I can call...I can take the whole System offline...”

“What does that mean?” Dean asked.

Grant looked at his dad. “It means that they shut the power off remotely. And it would trap everyone.”

“The Copia people are already...” Blair trailed off. “Shutting down the System would trap the guards. It would…it would…”

“Do it,” commanded Darla.

“Is that the only way?” Dean asked. He reached out to Grant’s neck and he gave it a comforting squeeze. It was instinct to pull away, but Grant didn’t. He let his dad’s hand linger there. Grant couldn’t remember the last time his dad had shown him affection. They had spent so much of their time together at odds, dancing around their own grief and never allowing the other person to create any sort of stronghold in their life. Here he was, eighteen years-old, and all he wanted was to feel his dad’s comforting hand; he wanted to hear that he had been missed and that everything was going to be okay.

After a pause, Grant nodded. “It is. It’s the only way.”

“Do what you need to do to get Darla back to her boy,” Dean said. “We’ve been through a lot to get here. And we don’t have much time.”

Blair looked up at Darla. She shook her head and cried. Frank licked her face and she pushed him away. “It had to happen to me,” she mumbled. “Of course. It had to. It was too much to ask for...”

Darla closed her eyes, the elevator climbed upward. She crouched down next to Blair and tenderly touched her on the hand. “You don’t know me. But you know my child. Please look at me...please look at me,” Darla said. She couldn’t help but cry. She looked up into the darkness above her to quell the tears. Blair turned and faced Darla. “I miss him,” Darla continued. “I need him. I’m not the enemy...I’m just a mom who needs her boy.”

“Dammit,” Blair cried and wiped her nose. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. You were supposed to be dead...”

“I’m alive,” Darla whispered.

“I know those men,” Blair said. She whimpered and buried her head in Frank’s fur.

Darla was undeterred and she tried to speak again, but it was Grant who dropped down to Blair. “You heard Mick on the radio. He didn’t hesitate to say that you would be collateral damage. Don’t pay them the respect they couldn’t pay you. This is my family...”