Chapter twenty seven

Adam

Entering into this ‘Bubble’ room was unlike anything he had ever imagined. All around him was a 360 degree view of the world outside. It was black, decaying and falling apart. He looked around for any survivors and saw a woman cowering under the remains of what must have been a building at some point. She was holding something close to her chest, it looked a lot like a baby and it was eerily still. He turned away immediately. He didn’t need to see that. 

Inside the Bubble was a large assortment of futuristic looking machines. Three men were sitting at a set of computers over at the far end of the bubble. They were talking quietly to each other and busy doing something with the machines, though what, he couldn’t see. The rest of the machines in the room lay empty and discarded. He wandered over to the largest machine which sat in the middle of the room, a large circular glass plate with a hole in the middle, for people to sit in presumably, stared innocently at him. It looked like something out of Minority Report. He went to touch it but then thought better of it and backed away. 

“Good choice.”

Adam turned round to see a woman in her twenties who looked vaguely familiar sitting, propped up against the glass wall. 

“They’ve saved you now but if you break it then they may just chuck you out with the others.”

Her voice was slightly slurred and she held a bottle of wine in her hand. 

“You must be Christiana.” He said. 

“Ding ding ding,” Christiana said. “And you win the prize.”

Adam smiled. This woman was clearly getting to the point of wasted. 

“Come, sit.” Christiana said, patting the empty space beside her. 

Adam did as he was told. 

“We have already met.” Christiana said. “Last night. Although you were completely off your face by the time I got to you. But I do remember that drunk me and drunk you had a pretty good time.”

Adam searched the recesses of his brain and, in amongst the fog, remembered vaguely sitting next to her and talking to her. 

“I can only apologise for whatever I did.” He said. 

“There was some flirting,” Christiana said. “And some light petting at times but I didn’t mind because, well… you’re Adam Gammon.”

“So people keep telling me.” Adam said. “Not that that means anything anymore.”

“Ah,” Christiana said. “This is true. But you never know! Perhaps there’s a secret film studio around here, they seem to have everything else.”

“Do they?” 

“Yup.” Christiana said. “I was given the grand tour this morning. You’ll be pleased to know that this place comes complete with pretend outside gardens and fields, you know for crops and smoking breaks, and an actual zoo!”

Adam looked at her, shocked. “Shut up, they do not have a zoo.”

“I kid you not, Adam Gammon.” Christiana said. “The people who built this place went proper biblical on this Armageddon. Two by two by two… okay so they may have cheated a little and got more than two on a few animals we need for sustenance and such… did you know there is a whole underground lair completely devoted to cows?” 

“How the hell have they managed that?” Adam asked.

“It’s huge!” Christiana said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this place goes underground most of London.” She looked down at her half-drunk bottle of wine. “Want some?” She asked. 

“I’m good thanks,” Adam said. “Still recovering from last night and… well… this.”

“You’ll change your mind.” Christiana said, taking a swig from her bottle. “You’d have to be sick and twisted to watch this without drinking.”

Adam looked around again. The cowering woman was still there, crying into her bundle. Christiana followed his gaze. 

“She’s been sitting there for about two hours now.” She said. “I’m pretty sure the baby’s been dead for longer.”

“Shit.” Adam said under his breath. 

“Tell me about it. I don’t know where she came from. Believe it or not, all of this is a hell of a lot better than what it was last night. I’m surprised anyone survived.”

“And the air’s toxic?” Adam asked.

“Yup. Some meteor went and skimmed across our atmosphere, shooting down a bunch of toxic air that is now killing every single person.”

“She doesn’t seem that affected.” Adam commented. “I mean, shouldn’t she be gasping for air and stuff?”

“Apparently it works a lot slower than that. Pretty soon she’ll start seizing and then screaming and then will just die.”

“How do you know?”

“You see that man lying on the floor next to her?”

“Yeah.”

“Happened to him half an hour ago.”

“Shit.” Adam repeated.

“Yeah.” Christiana said, raising her bottle into the air. “Lucky us.”

She took another swig and threw her head back against the glass, closing her eyes. A lone tear fell down the side of her cheek. She shook her head suddenly and opened her eyes once more, keeping them fixed on outside.

“Sorry,” she said. “I know I seem like a crazy person for sitting in here, it’s just I can’t bring myself to sit in there when all of this is going on.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy for doing this.” Adam said, and he knew he meant it. “I’m actually surprised there aren’t more people in here.”

“They’ve come in and out in drips and drabs all day, but none of them manage to stay for longer than a few minutes. It’s all too traumatic to look at.”

“What’s all this stuff?” Adam asked, gesturing to the equipment in the room. 

“It looks like it’s straight out of Star Trek don’t it?” Christiana said. “People are calling this room the Bubble but I like to call it the Enterprise.” 

“What does it do?”

“Idiot’s guide is, that big glass thing in the middle controls these weird pod machines that come out of the ground. You see that big lump of metal out there?” 

Adam followed Christiana’s pointed finger to see what looked like a massive metal rock.

“People get into the pods and then get telepathically linked to the metal which turns into these huge statues that walk around and do stuff. That glass plate controls the whole thing. You know who designed and made this?”

“Who?”

“That kid that looks like she’s barely out of her teens, Daniela.” 

“Daniela made this?” 

“I know right? Shocked the crap out of me as well.” She smacked Adam’s arm as she remembered something else. “And if that isn’t enough to get your head around, look over there. Those giant tiger looking animals?”

Adam looked and saw the dead body of a massive cat. 

“That’s a tiger?” He said. “It looks way too big to be that.”

“Ha!” Christiana barked. “You couldn’t be farther from the truth. That ‘tiger’ was an average household cat 48 hours ago.”

What the hell? “How?”

“Something about the toxic air affecting the animals differently than us. It’s been seeping into our atmosphere in small pockets apparently for months. They were too small and too diluted by the time they reached the ground to do any permanent damage on us but the animals? They’ve been affecting them for ages. That’s why all those pets were being sent back because they were maiming their owners.”

“So, how long have people known about this?” Adam asked. 

Christiana pursed her lips shut, tears brimming in her eyes. She took one more swig of her wine, finishing it off and turned her gaze to his. 

“4 years.” She said. “Congratulations Adam, you have officially been classified as more important than everyone else on this planet. Well, in this country anyway.”

“Other countries have these places as well?” 

Christiana shrugged. “Connor says that Kelly doesn’t know, it was decided early on, that each country would do their own thing. The only thing they agreed on was that, no matter what was decided, people wouldn’t be told prior to it happening.”

“But, why?” Adam asked. “I don’t understand why they didn’t just make a bunch of these places and save as many people as possible.”

Christiana turned her attention to her hands, fiddling with a button on her shirt. 

“Apparently it was thought that there was no way that everyone could be saved so they had a choice to either save as many people as possible and shove them all underground for an undetermined amount of time, or to save a limited amount of people and put all the funding into making sure that it is the safest and most comfortable place for them to live in. Our country chose the latter.”

“How long are we expected to stay in here?” Adam asked, his heart now in his mouth. He hadn’t even thought of this before now.

“No one knows for sure,” Christiana said, her gaze still downcast. “But they do know that it will be at least 400 years before the air outside is habitable again.”

Adam felt his head go light, this couldn’t be right. 400 years? But that meant…

“Christiana, are we all going to die here without ever being outside again?”

Christiana looked straight into his eyes then, her mouth a thin line. She held his gaze for a few moments before she spoke. 

“Do you want that drink now?”

Adam didn’t move, he just looked into Christiana’s eyes. 

“Yes, please.” He said.

Chapter twenty six

Connor

Connor pulled up a chair next to Duncan and Adam. Duncan was sitting back in his chair, looking a little awkward whilst Adam sat there staring into space.

“Is he okay?” He asked Duncan.

“He’s good,” Duncan said, his voice low. “He’s just adjusting. Mind you, I almost got a bullocking from Kelly when she found out he was roaming around on his own.”

“Where were you?”

Duncan shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “Nowhere really, just… you know… helping out and stuff.”

Connor looked around the room. There were a lot of crying people, a lot of hugs and support. It all seemed a little awkward though, which, after he thought about it, did make sense given that they were all just a bunch of strangers thrown into one place. The only link that held everyone together was that they were all picked individually for survival. It was a bizarre feeling to have, to simultaneously mourn everyone and everything you knew whilst also feeling the overwhelming relief that you had survived it.

“Where’s Christiana?” Duncan asked.

Connor nodded his head towards the bubble. “She’s made herself a picnic. I tried to talk her out of it but she’s adamant that she wants to watch the whole thing.”

“Does she think it’s some kind of show?” Duncan asked.

Connor gave him a look. “What do you think?” He said. “This happens to be one of the most empathetic people I have ever met. She’s torturing herself.”

Connor felt his stomach twist as he said the words. He wished he could just drag her out of there, but she was having none of it. She was of the opinion that as long as there were people out there suffering then she would suffer too.

And bizarrely enough, now that most of the fire had seemed to have abated, there seemed to be a lot more people still out there surviving. It was clear that they were all suffering horrifically but they still seemed to be running for safety, presumably because their initial refuge had eventually given up. Connor could only stand to watch it for a moment. Not when he couldn’t do anything about it. Kelly had said that they weren’t to use Stylo 1 unless it was completely necessary and they didn’t appear to be in any immediate danger, as such, all there was left to do in the bubble was to watch others die, this seemed fine for Christie but not for him.

“You would think that she had worked with enough Post Traumatic Stress Disordered patients to know that sitting in there isn’t doing her any good.” Duncan said.

“You know Christie,” Connor said. “Ever the martyr.”

“What’s in there?” Adam asked.

Connor looked round in shock at his voice.

“Oh hey man!” Duncan said. “Welcome back, you doing okay?”

“You can be a real prick sometimes Duncan,” Adam spat back. “What’s in that room?”

“It’s sort of like our observation deck,” Duncan said with a wink. “It lets us see what’s going on out there.”

“You can see outside?” Adam asked. “Aren’t you worried people are going to try and break in?”

“We can see them, but they can’t see us. It would be pretty reckless of us not to have a way of seeing what was going on now wouldn’t it?”

Adam looked at Duncan for a moment, his head cocked to one side.

“Duncan, are you actually affected by any of this?” He asked.

Duncan shrugged and gave him a grin. “Shit happens.” He said. “What’s the point of stressing over it? I deal.”

“Emotions are for girls apparently,” Connor said with a small smile.

“Too right. I mean, if there was something to be done then I’m there, I’ll fix it. But if not? Why worry? Life is too short my man, just ask any of those people out there.”

“I can’t decide whether to be inspired or offended by that comment.”

Connor looked to see Daniela sit down at the table opposite them. Her face was pale and her eyes looked blood shot but she wore a determined look on her face that seemed ready to attack anyone who might ask her if she’s okay.

Duncan grinned at Daniela. “Hey Daniela, sleep well?”

“Piss off.” Daniela said and turned to Connor. “How’s Christiana doing after last night?”

“She’s drinking wine in the bubble.” Connor said.

“She deals in a very special way,” Duncan added.

“Are we dropping the Nathan pretence now then?” Adam asked.

“I’m surprised you remember,” Duncan said. “And yes, we are. She had the joy of watching me save her arse last night… after she threw a few punches.”

“Oh right,” Adam said. “Of course, Duncan mentioned something about you helping last night.”

Daniela rolled her eyes and took a sip of her bottle of water.

“So what’s happening?” She asked.

“I’m going to go and check that bubble thing out.” Adam said, standing up.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Duncan asked.

“No.” Adam said. “I want to do it alone.”
Connor got up and pulled Adam to one side.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Connor asked. “Because once you see what’s going on out there, you can’t unsee it.”

Adam shook his head. “It doesn’t seem real to me right now. I need to see it for myself.”

“Okay, just… keep an open mind okay?” Connor said. “A lot has happened since the last time you were out there.”

Adam nodded and Connor let him go, sitting back down again to see Duncan edging his way towards Daniela. Ah crap, he thought, if he starts pissing off the girls in this place, he’ll have nowhere to hide. And with that, he grabbed the chair in between Duncan and Daniela before Duncan could get to it and sat down.

Chapter twenty five

Jason

Jason hadn’t left the bar all night. He was told that he had a room to go to but he couldn’t bring himself to find it. Instead, he had found some spare pillows, made a small space behind the bar, away from anyone, and had settled himself in. The moment he had laid down, he had found himself paralysed. The notion of movement seemed completely foreign to him and all memory of how to do it was lost. He just lay there, letting his entire world collapse in around him. He listened to the crashes and explosions and general disasters coming from the glass bubble, allowing the full destruction to completely envelope him. 

The room had gone quiet after a couple of hours. No more people walked in and out of the bar, everyone was either in the bubble or had gone to bed. The noises from outside that had been at one time loud and constant were now intermittent and less threatening. Someone must have left the door to the bubble slightly ajar however because whenever a noise was made, he could hear it clear as day. 

Jason’s mind seemed consumed. He had every person he ever loved running on loop around his brain, a new stab of pain entering his chest when he would remember another person that he hadn’t thought of yet. He was crying, he had been crying for hours. He didn’t want to make a sound however. Instead he had his hand clamped over his mouth, his whole body tense in a constant strain to keep his sobs to a minimum. 

All through the morning, he had heard the different people coming in, he had listened to countless tales of what had happened and heard all the varied reactions to it. Credit where credit’s due, everyone in this building seemed to be covering all the bases. Emotions tended to range from silence, to anger, to despair, to hysteria and even in one case, uncontrollable laughter. He kept his ears trained on the people outside of his bar, using their reactions as a way to push out his own. 

Luckily it seemed that people were staying in the main section of the restaurant and no one ventured as far in as where his bar stood. As such, he wasn’t disturbed by anyone coming behind the bar to drown their sorrows. 

The noise from people was beginning to die down and turn into a steady slow series of whimpers when he heard Michelle’s voice. Hers was cheery and chipper, she seemed to be talking to someone, asking them for an update on the night’s activities. He didn’t know why he hadn’t noticed before, but he could hear the constant mocking undertone in her voice now in everything she had to say. A stab of anger ran through him and he realised that he really hated that woman. She had lied to him in the cruellest way possible, raising his hopes in order to manipulate him to do her will. He wondered if this anger and hate was enough to move his body out of his hiding place. He tried a muscle but no movement came. He gave up after one try and resigned to staying put instead. 

It didn’t matter however, as soon the gentle tapping of Michelle’s high heels were making their way around the bar. She didn’t see him at first, she was humming a bright tune to herself whilst turning on the cappuccino machine. Jason still couldn’t work out how to use his legs but he knew categorically that he did not want her to see him like this. A determination unlike anything else he had experienced ran through him and he forced his body to move. With a groan it complied and he quietly shifted out of his hiding place, looking for a place he could move to before she saw where he had in fact been hiding. He got up and started to move down the bar away from Michelle.

“Oh Jason!” She cried. “You gave me a shock! I didn’t see you there.”

Jason felt a shiver run down his spine and considered making a run for it, but decided against it and instead turned around, fixing his gaze on hers, his expression set and grim.

“Ah.” She said, taking in his expression. “Yes, Kelly did mention to me about your little discovery.”

Jason didn’t say anything, he just continued to stare. 

“Look,” she said. “Yesterday was a very stressful day, there were a lot of emotions running in the air and a lot of things that needed to be done in order to keep everyone alive. As such, there may have been a few errors in judgment made on my part. I really was only thinking short term and I needed your cooperation. I probably shouldn’t have brought your boyfriend into it.”

“You lied.” Jason said icily. “You looked me in the eye and promised that he was safe. You made it seem as if it were out of your hands and that you were as disgusted about it as I was.”

“Yes,” Michelle said nodded, “I did do that. I thought that it was the best way for you to comply with what had to be done. Granted there are now long term issues with this, I really don’t want this to damage what could be a wonderful friendship.” She let out a little chuckle and tapped him on the shoulder. “After all, we’re in this for long haul aren’t we?”

“Are you kidding me with this?” Jason said, his voice raising. “You think that you can just apologise and I’ll be okay with you?” Jason moved closer so his face was inches from hers. “I hate you. With every cell in my body. For as long as I am breathing, you can be certain that that will never change.”

Michelle’s smile immediately dropped and a flash of hatred flashed through her eyes. 

“Now listen here, you little shit.” She said, her voice low. “I couldn’t care less what you think about me. You are nothing but a glorified drink pourer. You should be kissing my arse for getting you in here and saving yours. It’s not like anyone sees the point of you being here anyway.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jason asked. 

Michelle’s smile was back. “Oh come on Jason, work it out love. This building holds the only survivors this country has. One might think that in a world that desperately needs repopulating, filling one of the spaces with a gay man constitutes as a waste.”

Jason’s mouth dropped open, his anger boiling red in his face. Michelle continued before he could retort. 

“With that in mind my sweet, you might want to save all the friends you can. It would be absolutely dreadful if someone were to start making your complete redundant nature a public state of affairs. I mean it’s not like this building would fall apart if they were short of one queer barman and I’m sure that once people catch wind of what’s going on they are going to be gunning for someone to blame. Who better than the man who’s existence in this place makes no sense? Perhaps you bought your way in?”

“But I didn’t...”

“It really doesn’t matter Jason. That’s the beauty of gossip, especially when there’s no evidence to contradict it.” Michelle gave his arm a little squeeze. “That being said, perhaps you might want to reconsider who you’re throwing your little tantrums with. So, no hard feelings huh?” 

Jason kept quiet. 

“Good.” Michelle said with a little giggle and she leaned in and kissed Jason on the cheek before walking away.

Chapter twenty four

Adam

Adam was vaguely aware of a noise somewhere within his vicinity. He was aware that whatever it was, had been making this noise for a while now. Once he became aware of it however, that was it, his awareness of the noise just increased further and further, reaching to full consciousness. He grunted, refusing to open his eyes. There was a light behind them however and he knew that it was day time.

He opened his eyes to see the view from his New York apartment in front of him. It really was the most spectacular view he had ever seen, almost every famous landmark New York had to offer all in one place and he had the home that saw it. Right now, however, he was not in the mood to look at it. He was knackered and he wasn’t ready to get up. He searched for his remote to close his blinds. He found it on the bedside table. When he looked at it however, it looked different. Gone were his normal control buttons and in it’s place was a small plasma touchscreen with two options: Day or Night. He shrugged, the building must have been getting complaints about the system being too high tech so they had decided to dumb it down a bit. He hit the ‘night’ button, hoping that would close his blinds. The room was thrown into darkness, however no blinds had been drawn. No, it was the sky outside which had changed. It had turned from day to night in a split second; all the tell-tale lights of New York city shining bright. 

Adam sat up straight at that and took a glance around his room. He immediately saw the difference in this place, he wasn’t in his flat; this room was completely new to him. It looked a lot similar to his home but it wasn’t the place. He looked back at his window and noticed that it wasn’t actually a window but a large plasma screen, giving off the image of New York City. Where the hell was he?

 

He found the remote control again and hit ‘day.’ The screen changed to the day image of New York once more. He looked at it closely, it was truly bizarre, that image looked exactly like the view from his flat. He shook his head, deciding not to dwell too much on it and looked around for any of his things. He went into the living area to find his coat folded on a sofa and another plasma screen with a welcome message on it: 

Hello Mr Gammon.

Welcome to Utopia. We hope you enjoy your stay.

Utopia? Adam searched through his memories and remembered Duncan taking him to a restaurant called the same thing. It must be a hotel as well. He didn’t remember booking a room though. He checked his coat for his wallet. It was in there, credit cards and all. 

“Damn it Duncan.” he said irritably, “Why the hell did I give you my pin?”

He searched the rest of his coat, looking for his phone. He had given over his official phone at the entrance to the building, but he always kept his personal phone on him. He dug deep into one of his inside pockets and pulled out his blackberry. He had 50 missed calls. 

What the hell? He checked his watch and saw that it was 2pm. Suddenly, all sleep had left him. He was late. He was meant to have been on a plane at 10am this morning. He groaned and threw on his coat, finding his agent's number and dialling him straight away. All he heard was a bleeping noise, he checked and realised that he had no signal. 

“Damn it Duncan!” Adam said loudly. 

He started checking through his missed calls, he was right, 15 of them were from his agent. The rest though baffled him, 10 from his mum, 7 from his dad and various others from friends and family that he hadn’t spoken to in a while.

He went to his messages, he had 20 of those. The first few were from his agent: 

“Where are you Adam?”

“Pick up the phone now!”

And so on and so forth. There were then two from his mother, he opened the first one: 

“Adam, please let us know you are okay.”

That was weird. Why did she want to know that? Then he remembered he was meant to be on a plane, she worried too much. He opened the next one:

“I don’t know if you will get this but, I just wanted to say your father and I love you very much.”

Adam stared at the message suspiciously, it wasn’t like his mum to get all emotional with him over text like that. She was one of those people who always liked to see the expression of the people she was complimenting, it made her feel nicer about doing it. He put his phone back in his pocket and made his way to the suite’s phone, hoping to be able to dial out from that way. He tried dialling a number but once again received the same beeping tone.

“Stupid underground lair,” Adam mumbled to himself, “They can’t even gettheir own phones working.”

He dialled 0 for reception and finally got a ringing tone. He waited for an answer but didn’t receive any so after a few minutes hung up. 

“This is just getting ridiculous.”

He looked at his watch again. It was now 2:10. He tutted loudly to himself, making a mental note to lay into Duncan badly the next time he was in the country. He searched for his room key, found it by the bed, made sure he had everything and headed for the door.

As he tried to find his way out of the maze of corridors, he almost fell onto a couple arguing in the corridor. The woman was crying uncontrollably and smacking her fists against the chest of the man. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She cried, “Why?”

The man took hold of her and hugged her tight. Adam raised his eyebrows as he passed, it was a little too early for that kind of melodrama. He carried on his way until he finally came to a door that led out to a lobby area. Just as he reached the desk, several people ran past him screaming at each other. Adam watched them go, completely baffled. For a place called Utopia there seemed to be a lot of angry people. 

He rang the bell at the desk and waited, fishing out his Blackberry to see if he could at least get any emails. He couldn’t get anything. 

“Can I help you?” A small voice asked. 

“Yeah,” Adam said, his concentration still on his phone. “Can you call me a taxi to take me to Heathrow airport please? I’m running late and the signal in this place is crap.”

There was silence for a moment. Adam assumed she had gone to make the call until he heard her small voice speak once again. 

“Are you in shock or something, sir?”

He looked up quizzically and saw a woman in her early twenties with mousy brown hair, arranged in a mess around her shoulders, and bloodshot eyes.

“I’m fine,” Adam said, giving her a reassuring smile; it had obviously been a tough day. “Just running late. You look like you could use a drink though.”

The girl shook her head and stepped backwards, her lips pursed tight. “I’m not going to be the one to tell you.” She said, with that she turned on her heel and ran out through the door. 

“Um, excuse me?” Adam called out after her. “I still need that taxi!”

He received no answer. He looked around, trying to find the exit and resigning himself to the fact that he was going to have to get his own taxi. He saw the entrance to the restaurant area. At least he knew he could get out that way. He got to the door and was knocked backwards as a crowd of people burst through, running away from the restaurant. 

“What is up with people today?” Adam said loudly enough for them to hear. None of them noticed however and continued to run towards the hotel rooms. He growled loudly and pulled the door to the restaurant open, his gaze still on the retreating people. 

He heard the noise before he saw anything. He heard the wails of people, the countless cries and despair. Turning to see what was going on, he saw a whole room full of people in huddles, holding each other and crying. Members of staff were moving from group to group, handing out tissues and bottles of water. 

Adam moved slowly around them, looking for someone that he recognised. His stomach was twisting more and more into knots. People looked terrified. Something horrific had happened. 

“Ad?” 

He heard Duncan’s voice behind him. He turned to see him running to him.

“I just came from your room! I didn’t know where you were.”

“I had to get going,” Adam said, his concentration still on the crying people sitting around him. “I missed my flight, Duncan what the hell is going on?”

“Ah,” Duncan said. “About that. I need to tell you something Ad, it’s not good.”