Page 47 of Anarchy Chained: Alpha Thomas

Sadie steps in. I step in after her, and then I type in the code to make the doors shut.

Another alarm screeches outside the car and green gas starts to fill the tunnel.

“Well, that was a little too close,” she snaps. “We almost got gassed!”

“Relax,” I say. “I got this. We’re fine, right?”

“Two seconds, Thomas. That’s all the time we had to spare.”

“I told you we had to be quick. Just do what I say, the way I tell you to, and you’ll be fine.”

She doesn’t like that answer, I can tell. But she doesn’t say anything else.

There’s two seats up front for a driver and passenger, even though once I program the car, it will drive itself. I take a seat in the driver’s side and start punching in codes to wake it up.

Sadie sits down in the passenger seat and looks out the window. “What if the gas seeps in?”

I roll my eyes. “I think of everything, Sadie. Just relax and enjoy the ride.”

She mutters curses under her breath, but I ignore it. Just start up the computer and get things going.

“Where are we going?”

“To the west tower. The north tower is too close to the asylum for my taste. And there’s nothing over on the east side, so I’d rather not be there unless we have to. So west it is. At least we’ll be closer to Lincoln. When we get there, I’ll contact him and have Sheila come pick us up in the helicopter. Then we’ll just go up to his mansion in the mountains and try to figure out what’s going on with you.”

She huffs out some air. “Better order a double of that. You’re not exactly in your right mind either.”

“What?” I laugh.

“Forget it. How long will it take?”

I look up at her and smile. “About eight minutes.”

She looks impressed, if I do say so myself. “How the hell did you build a fucking high-speed train down here without anyone knowing?”

“Who said no one knew about it?”

“Oh,” she says, taking her attention to the window again.

“I hired workers from out of town. They each worked on different phases. Phase one did the tunnel, phase two the track and so on. So it is secret. As secret as something like this can be, anyway.”

She just stares out the window at the green gas. It’s all around the car now, the thick cloud falling down the windows like slow, twisting tentacles of an octopus.

I study her for a moment as I wait for the operating system to run through all the necessary checks before we get going. She’s not looking much better than the first day I found her. Her skin is still slightly pale and she’s hardly eaten at all.

“We’ll get some real food when we get to Lincoln’s. I’m sure you’re starving.”

She shrugs. “I don’t think I eat much. I’m not really hungry.”

Right. “Well, generally speaking, people need to eat.”

The system checks are over and the engine starts. Less than a minute later we move forward. It’s not like a regular train. It’s quiet for one. Sadie leans forward in her seat, then glances over at me. “Are you driving?”

“I don’t need to drive. It’s only one stop.”

She leans forward again, just as we begin to really pick up speed. “What’s that?”

She’s pointing to the first of many metal gates that will spiral closed like an iris less than a second after we pass through.