The Desolate Guardians Read Free

mantra." I thought about that, and…
my hope slowly began to ebb as I realized something. "If you're not
with them, then who are you? I haven't heard from my commanding
officer in over a year."
    "The TVs look fine…" she answered.
    "They could be faked," I countered. "They're
just signals. If the politicians told the enemy - whoever or
whatever the enemy is - and the politicians would have told
them, because the doomsday suicide pact is useless unless the enemy
knows about it - you know, Doctor Strangelove style - then those
signals could easily be fake. Everyone on the surface could be dead
right now, or being kept alive as brains in jars, or being
enslaved."
    "Then how do you know anything at all about
the situation up there?"
    I glared at her. "My CO is supposed to check
in every so often over a secure line. I haven't heard from him in
over a year. The equipment broke. Goddamn government
contractors! But I fixed it. I thought I fixed it. But he's still
not out there."
    She looked down at my uniform for a moment,
thinking. "If the signals are being faked, then the enemy up there
has complete control of the planet, and masterful deception
abilities. In that situation, would you detonate the system and
destroy all life on the surface?"
    I nodded. "In a heartbeat. If They killed
everyone, or enslaved them, or worse... well then They can all go
to hell."
    "What if there are still human beings
fighting for survival?" she asked, her tone quiet. "What if there's
even one person left up there?"
    I smiled weakly. "All thoughts that I've had.
In an endless mad cycle. Over and over. Every day. The fate of the
world literally rests on me." My gaze drifted. "Can you please take
me out of here?" My hope rekindled in a burst of warm fire as she
finally just nodded.
    "Alright. No man should ever have to make
that choice, let alone by himself."
    Almost sobbing, I nodded in agreement.
    She began to move toward the access tunnel
when red lights began to blare and a loud noise echoed through the
chambers. "What the hell is that?"
    Why did it have to happen then? I was
almost out! Despair coiling around my heart, I carefully walked to
the seventh chamber in my underground bunker. The heavy metal doors
slid open in response to my handprint, and a single button lay
within. Above, large red numbers counted down. 21… 20… 19…
    Coming up behind me, she studied the room,
and shouted over the alarms. "What is this?"
    I said nothing. Instead, I pushed the
button.
    The alarms ceased, and the chamber slowly
resealed itself.
    Standing outside, I could only look at the
cold concrete beneath my bare feet.
    She figured it out on her own. "It's not
something you activate, is it?" she asked, her words horrified.
"It's something you don't do. "
    I nodded absently. "The alarm goes off at
random three times a day. I have sixty seconds to push the button
and stop the process. If I'm dead - if the forces worse than death
have managed to disable or kill me - then it'll go off
automatically. That's the only way to be sure."
    She backed away from me. "I can't take you
with me…" She began moving down the service tunnel backward, her
eyes on me, as I slowly followed her. "God… I can't take you with
me… how long have you been down here?"
    She'd have known if she saw the bathroom, and
the thousands of marks on the walls that each marked a single day.
She shook her head for nearly ten seconds, probably trying to
comprehend what she was condemning me to. "I'm so sorry…" She
slammed the door to the furnace room behind her.
    Just like that, I was alone again. Had I ever
really had company? Had I ever really had a guest over?
    I did eventually manage to get through the
door, but there was no trace of her by then, and no trace of an
escape route.
    I knew, then, that I was going insane.
    What if the signals are fake? What if they're
not? What if there's one single person still alive and
fighting for the fate of the human race? What if there isn't, and
I'm alone on