Reset

“But I’m guilty by association. I knew and said nothing. That guilt is the same reason I didn’t pack a survival bag, because I didn’t want to survive when we emerged. But unlike the president, where ever he went, I lack the courage to take my life.”

“Wait.” Grant snapped his fingers. “You sound like you knew it failed before we came up here.”

“If Genesis was a success none of us would have woken up in our room. We would have been removed from stasis before waking and brought to another facility in a nice cozy bed surrounded by family. That was the plan. Us waking up on our own was only the plan if things went wrong. Things went wrong and they knew it, so as a safeguard, they changed the setting, changed the wake up time, we were left here longer. Hence the supplies.”

“How long?” Jason asked.

Meredith lifted her hands. “That I can’t tell you, I don’t know. I can guess when the world went bad. Malcolm, what was the last date you read?”

“December Fourteen.” Malcolm answered. “Last date on that clipboard.”

“Then that was the day they knew they erred.  We talked about the world being reset, well, they knew there was no turning back and someone came in here that day…” Meredith paused. “And hit our reset button.”

TWENTY – Split Decisions

The first thing Malcolm did was take the four solar battery units and placed them out in the sun. If they had drained at all, the sun would recharge them. Or so he thought. If they were indeed a power source for the vehicles, they needed them. Transportation was vital. Malcolm couldn’t stay in Kentucky. Even if decades had passed he needed to have closure, find out what happened to his wife, Jenny, and their four sons. Malcolm supposed everyone else had the same goals and he would do what he could to help everyone to achieve those goals.

There was a flat folded case, and Malcolm opened it exposing the tools. “These will have to do.”

“That’s all they had,” John said. “Couple dozen of these, but basic tools.”

“I’ll make do. I’m resourceful.” Malcolm examined what he had and closed the case again.

“What are you doing?”

“Batteries are charging. Jason and Nora went out to look for life, and I’m going out to look for cars. Really how hard is this gonna be to find a garage around here. That’s where they’ll be stored if they’re here.’

Grant set down and opened up a map. “Marshal is located in Redstone Arsenal. Take a look. It’s big.”

Malcolm moistened his lips, then drew in his bottom lip in thought. “I’m gonna guess they are somewhere in the Marshal Flight Center section. Just a guess.” He tossed the tool bag over his shoulder and grabbed a bottle of water.

“Can I come?” Amy asked. “Please, I need to get out of this room, feel like I’m doing something.”

“I’m dividing supplies,” John said. “You can stay here and you won’t have to sell your soul.”

She shot daggers at him, then returned to Malcolm. “Can I? I do have a good level of mechanical knowledge when it comes to solar energy.”

“Sure,” Malcolm answered with an nod up to his head then reached for the map. “Can I?”

“Be my guest,” Grant said.

Malcolm took the map, folded it, grabbed a pen from the desk, scribbled on the corner of the paper until the pen worked, then he and Amy headed out of the office.

Despite the fact that it was hot, it felt cooler outside with the airflow. Malcolm walked to the center of the lot and started peering around. It seemed even more barren then when he stepped out to leave the batteries to charge. “If you were a garage, where would you be?”

“I’d be a warehouse,” Amy said. “Like there.” She pointed to a building across the lot and to the right. “How many do you think there are?”

“Well, if there are any.” Malcolm started to walk. “Not more than eight, because that is all the batteries there are.”

“You realize they can be used to start a car battery, right?’

“Oh, I know.” Malcolm forced a closed mouth smile. “See any cars.”

Amy stopped and looked around. “No. None. Maybe there are some on base.”

“If there are, we need to find a way to start them. I mean, gasoline, if it’s been over a year… and it looks like it has been, will be bad.”

“Diesel?”

“Depends on the time frame.”

“Military vehicles.” She snapped her finger. “My husband was in the Army. A mechanic, I remember he told me those things can run on anything.”

Malcolm bobbed his head in thought. “Maybe. But I do know we are not finding any solar cars.”

“Then why are we looking?”

“Because Meredith’s list to them said transportation. They left the batteries, there is something? I just know it’s not a solar car. The solar cars that were out used hydrogen and electricity. Some… even platinum.”

“Maybe the battery sources we have start them, and they are limited like the rovers used on Mars.”

“Not sure how they operated.”