"And me," Linda said quietly. "I took the refresher just last summer."
It's a small town and we all support the team, Barbie thought. Ginny--her face still swollen from her own injuries--began chest compressions. She gave way to Twitch just as Julia and Norrie joined Barbie.
"Will they be able to save him?" Norrie asked.
"I don't know," Barbie said. But he did know; that was the hell of it.
Twitch took over from Ginny. Barbie watched as drops of sweat from Twitch's forehead darkened Ernie's shirt. After about five minutes he stopped, coughing breathlessly. When Rusty started to move in, Twitch shook his head. "He's gone." Twitch turned to Joanie and said, "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Calvert."
Joanie's face trembled, then crumpled. She let out a cry of grief that turned into a coughing fit. Norrie hugged her, coughing again herself.
"Barbie," a voice said. "A word?"
It was Cox, now dressed in brown camo and wearing a fleece jacket against the chill on the other side. Barbie didn't like the somber expression on Cox's face. Julia went with him. They leaned close to the Dome, trying to breathe slowly and evenly.
"There's been an accident at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico." Cox kept his voice pitched low. "They were running final tests on the pencil nuke we meant to try, and ... shit."
"It exploded ?" Julia asked, horrified.
"No, ma'am, melted down. Two people were killed, and another half dozen are apt to die of radiation burns and/or radiation poisoning. The point is, we lost the nuke. We lost the fucking nuke."
"Was it a malfunction?" Barbie asked. Almost hoping that it had been, because that meant it wouldn't have worked, anyway.
"No, Colonel, it did not. That's why I used the word accident. They happen when people hurry, and we've been hurrying our collective ass off."
"I'm so sorry for those men," Julia said. "Do their relatives know yet?"
"Given your own situation, it's very kind of you to think of that. They'll be informed soon. The accident occurred at one o'clock this morning. Work has already begun on Little Boy Two. It should be ready in three days. Four at most."
Barbie nodded. "Thank you, sir, but I'm not sure we have that long."
A long thin wail of grief--a child's wail--went up from behind them. As Barbie and Julia turned around, the wail turned into a series of harsh coughs and gasps for air. They saw Linda kneel beside her elder daughter and fold the girl into her arms.
"She can't be dead!" Janelle screamed. "Audrey can't be dead!"
But she was. The Everetts' golden retriever had died in the night, quietly and without fuss, as the Little Js slept on either side of her.
11
When Carter came back into the main room, The Mill's Second Selectman was eating cereal from a box with a cartoon parrot on the front. Carter recognized this mythical bird from many childhood breakfasts: Toucan Sam, the patron saint of Froot Loops.
Must be stale as hell, Carter thought, and had a fleeting moment of pity for the boss. Then he thought of the difference between seventy-some hours of air and eighty or a hundred and hardened his heart.
Big Jim scrummed more cereal from the box, then saw the Beretta in Carter's hand.
"Well," he said.
"I'm sorry, boss."
Big Jim opened his hand and let the Froot Loops cascade back into the box, but his hand was sticky and some of the brightly colored cereal-rings clung to his fingers and palms. Sweat gleamed on his forehead and trickled from his receding hairline.
"Son, don't do this."
"I have to, Mr. Rennie. It's not personal."
Nor was it, Carter decided. Not even a little bit. They were trapped in here, that was all. And because it had happened as a result of Big Jim's decisions, Big Jim would have to pay the price.
Big Jim set the box of Froot Loops on the floor. He did it with care, as if he were afraid the box might shatter if treated roughly. "Then what is it?"
"It just comes down to ... air."
"Air. I see."
"I could have come in here with the gun behind my back and just put a bullet in your head, but I didn't want to do that. I wanted to give you time to get ready. Because you've been good to me."
"Then don't make me suffer, son. If it's not personal, you won't make me suffer."
"If you keep still, you won't. It'll be quick. Like shooting a wounded deer in the woods."
"Can we talk about it?"
"No, sir. My mind is made up."
Big Jim nodded. "All right, then. Can I have a word of prayer, first? Would you allow me that?"
"Yes, sir, you can pray if you want. But make it fast. This is hard on me too, you know."
"I believe it is. You're a good boy, son."
Carter, who hadn't cried since he was fourteen, felt a prickle in the corners of his eyes. "Calling me son won't help you."
"It does help me. And seeing you're moved ... that helps me, too."
Big Jim shuffled his bulk off the couch and got on his knees. In the act of doing this, he knocked over the Froot Loops and uttered a sad little chuckle. "Wasn't much of a last meal, I can tell you that."
"No, probably not. I'm sorry."
Big Jim, his back now to Carter, sighed. "But I'll be eating roast beef at the Lord's table in a minute or two, so that's all right." He raised a pudgy finger and pressed it high on the back of his neck. "Right here. The brain stem. All right?"
Carter swallowed what felt like a large dry ball of lint. "Yes, sir."
"Do you want to get kneebound with me, son?"
Carter, who had gone prayerless even longer than he'd gone tearless, almost said yes. Then he remembered how sly the boss could be. He probably wasn't being sly now, was probably beyond that, but Carter had seen the man at work and was taking no chances. He shook his head. "Say your prayer. And if you want to get all the way to amen, you really have to make it a short one."
On his knees, back to Carter, Big Jim clasped his hands on the cushion of the sofa, which was still dimpled from the weight of his not inconsiderable fanny. "Dear God, this is Your servant, James Rennie. I guess I'm coming to you, like it or not. The cup has been raised to my lips, and I can't--"
A large dry sob escaped him.
"Turn out the light, Carter. I don't want to be crying in front of you. That's not how a man should die."
Carter extended the gun until it was almost touching the nape of Big Jim's neck. "Okay, but that was your last request." Then he turned out the light.
He knew it was a mistake the instant he did it, but by then it was too late. He heard the boss move, and he was Christing quick for a big man with a bad heart. Carter fired, and in the muzzle-flash he saw a bullet-hole appear in the dented sofa cushion. Big Jim was no longer kneeling in front of it, but he couldn't have gone far, no matter how quick he was. As Carter thumbed the button of the flashlight, Big Jim drove forward with the butcher knife he had filched from the drawer next to the fallout shelter's stove, and six inches of steel slid into Carter Thibodeau's stomach.
He screamed in agony and fired again. Big Jim felt the bullet buzz close by his ear, but he didn't pull back. He also had a survival-watchman, one that had served him extremely well over the years, and it was saying now that if he drew back he would die. He staggered to his feet, pulling the knife upward as he rose, eviscerating the stupid boy who had thought he could get the best of Big Jim Rennie.
Carter screamed again as he was split open. Beads of blood sprayed Big Jim's face, driven by what he devoutly hoped was the boy's last breath. He pushed Carter back. In the beam of the dropped flashlight, Carter staggered away, crunching through spilled Froot Loops and holding his belly. Blood poured over his fingers. He pawed at the shelves and fell to his knees in a rain of Vigo Sardines, Snow's Clam Fry-Ettes, and Campbell's Soups. For a moment he stayed that way, as if he had reconsidered and decided to say a prayer after all. His hair hung in his face. Then he lost his grip and went down.
Big Jim considered the knife, but that was
too labor-intensive for a man suffering from heart problems (he promised himself again that he would get that taken care of as soon as this crisis was over). He picked up Carter's gun instead, and walked to the foolish boy.
"Carter? Are you still with us?"
Carter moaned, tried to turn over, gave up.
"I'm going to put one high up in the back of your neck, just as you suggested. But I want to give you one final piece of advice first. Are you listening?"
Carter groaned again. Big Jim took this for assent.
"The advice is this: Never give a good politician time to pray."
Big Jim pulled the trigger.
12
"I think he's dying!" Private Ames shouted. "I think the kid's dying!"
Sergeant Groh knelt beside Ames and peered through the dirty slot at the bottom of the Dome. Ollie Dinsmore was lying on his side with his lips almost pressed against a surface they could now see, thanks to the filth still clinging to it. In his best drill sergeant's voice, Groh yelled: "Yo! Ollie Dinsmore! Front and center!"
Slowly, the boy opened his eyes and looked at the two men crouched less than a foot away but in a colder, cleaner world. "What?" he whispered.
"Nothing, son," Groh said. "Go back to sleep."
Groh turned to Ames. "Unbunch your panties, Private. He's fine."
"He's not. Just look at him!"
Groh took Ames by the arm and helped him--not unkindly--to his feet. "No," he agreed in a low voice. "He's not even slightly okay, but he's alive and sleeping and right now that's the best we can ask for. He'll use up less oxygen that way. You go get yourself something to eat. Did you get any breakfast?"
Ames shook his head. The thought of breakfast hadn't even crossed his mind. "I want to stay in case he comes back around." He paused, then plunged. "I want to be here if he dies."
"He's not going to for awhile," Groh said. He had no idea if this was true or not. "Get something out of the truck, even if it's only a slice of bologna wrapped in a slice of bread. You look like shit, soldier."
Ames jerked his head toward the boy sleeping on charred ground with his mouth and nose cocked to the Dome. His face was streaked with filth, and they could barely see the rise and fall of his chest. "How long do you think he's got, Sarge?"
Groh shook his head. "Probably not long. Someone in the group on the other side already died this morning, and several of the others aren't doing well. And it's better over there. Cleaner. You have to prepare yourself."
Ames felt close to tears. "Kid lost his whole family."
"Go get yourself something to eat. I'll watch until you come back."
"But after that I can stay?"
"The kid wants you, Private, the kid gets you. You can stay until the end."
Groh watched Ames double-time to the table near the helicopter, where some food was laid out. Out here, it was ten o'clock on a pretty late-fall morning. The sun was shining and melting off the last of a heavy frost. But only a few feet away there was a bubble-world of perpetual twilight, a world where the air was unbreathable and time had ceased to have any meaning. Groh remembered a pond in the local park where he'd grown up. Wilton, Connecticut, that had been. There had been golden carp in the pond, big old things. The kids used to feed them. Until one day when one of the groundskeepers had an accident with some fertilizer, that was. Goodbye fishies. All ten or a dozen of them, floating dead on the surface.
Looking at the dirty sleeping boy on the other side of the Dome, it was impossible not to think of those carp ... only a boy was not a fish.
Ames came back, eating something he obviously didn't want. Not much of a soldier, in Groh's opinion, but a good kid with a good heart.
Private Ames sat down. Sergeant Groh sat with him. Around noon, they got a report from the north side of the Dome that another of the survivors over there had died. A little boy named Aidan Appleton. Another kid. Groh believed he might have met his mother the day before. He hoped he was wrong about that, but didn't think he was.
"Who did it?" Ames asked him. "Who wound this shit up, Sarge? And why?"
Groh shook his head. "No idea."
"It makes no sense !" Ames cried. Beyond them, Ollie stirred, lost his air, and moved his sleeping face once more to the scant breeze seeping through the barrier.
"Don't wake him up," Groh said, thinking: If he goes in his sleep, it'll be better for all of us.
13
By two o'clock all of the exiles were coughing except--incredible but true--Sam Verdreaux, who seemed to be thriving in the bad air, and Little Walter Bushey, who did nothing but sleep and suck the occasional ration of milk or juice. Barbie sat against the Dome with his arm around Julia. Not far away, Thurston Marshall sat beside the covered corpse of little Aidan Appleton, who had died with terrifying suddenness. Thurse, now coughing steadily, was holding Alice on his lap. She had cried herself to sleep. Twenty feet further on, Rusty was huddled with his wife and girls, who had also cried themselves to sleep. Rusty had taken Audrey's body to the ambulance so the girls wouldn't have to look at it. He held his breath throughout; even fifteen yards inland from the Dome, the air became choking, deadly. Once he got his wind back, he supposed he should do the same with the little boy. Audrey would be good company for him; she'd always liked kids.
Joe McClatchey plopped down beside Barbie. Now he really did look like a scarecrow. His pale face was dotted with acne and there were circles of bruised-looking purple flesh under his eyes.
"My mom's sleeping," Joe said.
"Julia too," Barbie said, "so keep your voice down."
Julia opened one eye. "Nah sleepin," she said, and promptly closed the eye again. She coughed, stilled, then coughed some more.
"Benny's really sick," Joe said. "He's running a fever, like the little boy did before he died." He hesitated. "My mom's pretty warm, too. Maybe it's only because it's so hot in here, but ... I don't think that's it. What if she dies? What if we all do?"
"We won't," Barbie said. "They'll figure something out."
Joe shook his head. "They won't. And you know it. Because they're outside. Nobody outside can help us." He looked over the blackened wasteland where there had been a town the day before and laughed--a hoarse, croaking sound that was worse because there was actually some amusement in it. "Chester's Mill has been a town since 1803--we learned that in school. Over two hundred years. And a week to wipe it off the face of the earth. One fuckin week is all it took. How about that, Colonel Barbara?"
Barbie couldn't think of a thing to say.
Joe covered his mouth, coughed. Behind them, the fans roared and roared. "I'm a smart kid. You know that? I mean, I'm not bragging, but ... I'm smart."
Barbie thought of the video feed the kid had set up near the site of the missile strike. "No argument, Joe."
"In a Spielberg movie, it's the smart kid who'd come up with the last-minute solution, isn't that right?"
Barbie felt Julia stir again. Both eyes were open now, and she was regarding Joe gravely.
Tears were trickling down the boy's cheeks. "Some Spielberg kid I turned out to be. If we were in Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs would eat us for sure."
"If only they'd get tired," Julia said dreamily.
"Huh?" Joe blinked at her.
"The leatherheads. The leatherhead children. Kids are supposed to get tired of their games and go on to something else. Or"--she coughed hard--"or their parents call them home for dinner."
"Maybe they don't eat," Joe said gloomily. "Maybe they don't have parents, either."
"Or maybe time is different for them," Barbie said. "In their world, maybe they only just sat down around their version of the box. For them the game might only be starting. We don't even know for sure they're children."
Piper Libby joined them. She was flushed, and her hair was sticking to her cheeks. "They're kids," she said.
"How do you know?" Barbie asked.
"I just do." She smiled. "They're the God I stopped believing in about three years ago. God tur
ned out to be a bunch of bad little kids playing Interstellar X-Box. Isn't that funny?" Her smile widened, and then she burst into tears.
Julia was looking toward the box with its flashing purple light. Her face was thoughtful and a little dreamy.
14
It's Saturday night in Chester's Mill. That's the night the Eastern Star ladies used to meet (and after the meeting they'd often go to Henrietta Clavard's house and drink wine and break out their best dirty jokes). It's the night when Peter Randolph and his buddies used to play poker (and also break out their best dirty jokes). The night when Stewart and Fern Bowie often went to Lewiston to rent a couple of whores at a pussy-parlor on Lower Lisbon Street. The night when the Reverend Lester Coggins used to hold teen prayer meetings in the parsonage hall at Holy Redeemer and Piper Libby used to host teen dances in the basement of the Congo Church. The night when Dipper's used to roar until one (and around twelve-thirty the crowd would begin chanting drunkenly for their anthem, "Dirty Water," a song all bands from Boston know well). The night when Howie and Brenda Perkins used to walk, hand-in-hand, on the Town Common, saying hello to the other couples they knew. The night when Alden Dinsmore, his wife, Shelley, and their two sons had been known to play catch by the light of a full moon. In Chester's Mill (as in most small towns where they all support the team), Saturday nights were usually the best nights, made for dancing and fucking and dreaming.
Not this one. This one is black and seemingly endless. The wind has died. The poisoned air hangs hot and still. Out where Route 119 used to be until the furnace heat boiled it away, Ollie Dismore lies with his face pressed to his slot in the slag, still holding stubbornly onto life, and only a foot and a half away, Private Clint Ames continues his patient watch. Some bright boy wanted to shine a spotlight on the kid; Ames (supported by Sergeant Groh, not such an ogre after all) managed to keep it from happening, arguing that shining spotlights on sleeping people was what you did to terrorists, not teenage kids who would probably be dead before the sun rose. But Ames has a flashlight, and every now and then he shines it on the kid, making sure that he's still breathing. He is, but each time Ames uses the flashlight again, he expects it to show him that those shallow respirations have stopped. Part of him has actually started to hope for that. Part of him has started to accept the truth: no matter how resourceful Ollie Dinsmore has been or how heroically he's struggled, he has no future. Watching him fight on is terrible. Not long before midnight, Private Ames falls asleep himself, sitting up, with the flashlight clutched loosely in one hand.