Human Extinction Level Loss (Book 2): Substation (The Last Stand of Gary Sykes) Read Free Page B

already looking at Gary.
    “Gary, I can’t get Carl on the phone or radio.  I need to find him and make sure he initiates lockdown procedures.  Things would go a lot quicker if you could do the safety walk while I’m waking Carl up,” Johnson said.
    Gary nodded.
    “Beverly, I know you need to get out of here and your job is just to push papers, but while we’re gone, it would be great if you stayed topside and kept an eye on the dials and man the phones in case we get a call from Homeland?  It will only be while we get this place battened down, Okay?” he said.
    Beverly  swallowed her anxious desire to leave, and nodded.
    “I could stay for a little while,” she said.
    “Good girl.  Gary, just walk her through what she has to look for,” Johnson said. 
    Gary nodded.  “Sure, yeah.  I’ll give her the basic course,” Gary said. 
    “Okay.  We do this right and fast, make sure the dark is not one more thing folks have to be scared of tonight and then you get to go home, deal?” Johnson asked.
    Four faces, no less panicked, but showing measured resolve, nodded.
    “Alright then, let’s go,” Johnson said.
    Everyone dispersed to their appointed tasks.
     
    * * *
     
    Beverly’s anxiety had grown by the minute.  She finally had to turn off the television.  She had tried to call, to let Mark know that she would be coming home just as soon as she could, but the phone lines were overloaded and she couldn’t get through.  With the lines jammed, it meant Mark couldn’t call her either. It also meant that one of the reasons she was sitting here was gone.  If she couldn’t call out and Mark couldn’t call in, nobody else could either.  She sat in taut frustration, her patience stretching to hair thin.  She kept looking at the clock on the wall, 15 minutes… 30 minutes… 45 minutes…    How much loyalty did she really owe to this place.  She only took the job to help pay bills and take care of her family and now something was happening that seemingly put her family in jeopardy and she had to sit in a chair staring at some dials?  The thin strand that was left of her patience snapped and she jumped out of her seat and grabbed her things. 
    “Screw this!” she said, turning to leave.
    She came up short, as standing in the doorway was Jason Johnson.
    “Oh, thank goodness!  Mr. Johnson, I’m glad you’re back.  I have to go, okay.  The phones are all down…”  Beverly’s word’s trailed off as she looked at Johnson.  “Mr. Johnson, are you okay?” she asked.
     
    Jason Johnson glared at Beverly.  He felt like his brain was being cooked.  As the heat was turned up in his mind, he could sense himself fading from his own consciousness, like the theater  lights going dark at the Act Break.  As his own self faded, he could feel an intense longing take its place.  He stared at Beverly.  It was as if nothing else mattered.  She was now the thing to be desired above all else, for which he would do anything to simply possess her, … to be one with her!   As the feeling consumed him and his brain cooked, his own self uttered its last gasping breath in his mind, … I’m so hot…”  Jason Johnson took a step towards Beverly.
     
    Beverly clutched her coat to her chest, as if trying to build a layer between her and the man that stood before her.  When he took a step toward her, she instinctively stepped back, her own subconscious mind telling her she needed as many things and as much space between them as possible, a cue that her conscious mind wanted to dismiss but instantly began to doubt it could.
    “Like I said, Mr. Johnson, the phones are down and the gages all seem to be normal…”
    Jason Johnson continued to glare at her.  Beverly’s eyes flitted past him, to the door and her escape.  She took another step back and Johnson’s eyes flared at her movement.
    “I, uh… I turned off the television.  I just couldn’t sit here and listen to all of that, you know…”