Are you going to push the button?
Okay, not so weekly. This comes from a Reedsy.com writing prompt. I found this one after the contest was over. Let me know if you like it.
“Are you going to push the button?”
“No, that’s crazy. I just read the sign to you. This button will open the door and also activate a quantum field and shut down all electrical power flow around the world.
“What are they going to do to you if you push the button? Who will even know?”
“You push it then.
“Charlie, I’m not in the room with the button. You are talking to me on the phone debating with yourself. If you aren’t going to push the button, then figure out how to get out of the room.”
“That is the problem, Philip. The note says the way out is to push the button. But that will shut down power everywhere. Hospitals will suddenly lose power; airplanes will lose control, and emergency pumps will stop pumping.”
“You said the entrance is sealed and you are locked in. So, you’ve decided to stay in the room and starve to death?”
“Philip, I’m looking at two skeletons that look like that is what they did. I want you to stop arguing with me and help me find another way out.”
“Okay Charlie, go through how you got into the room again. Go slow and focus on details, buttons, signs, handles, and everything. Then I want you to list everything in your pockets, then I want you to go through the room and list everything else. That includes the pockets of the skeletons.”
“Why, what are you trying to do?”
“Charlie, you solve puzzles all the time. We have done at least a dozen escape rooms. Did you ever consider that someone baited you to get into that room? This is just the toughest escape room you have encountered.
“Philip, this isn’t a game.”
“You are freaking out right now. I need you to focus. You need to find clues and information and let your brain devise a solution. Stop freaking out, save the phone battery, and call me in an hour to go through everything. I’m calling people to try and get you out. I would expect that with a doomsday button in front of you, it will take serious shit to get you out.”
An hour later Charlie calls Philip. The phone rang several times before Philip answered. “Sorry Charlie, I was on the phone with a rescue team. The place you are located is situated on the edge of three jurisdictions and they are all arguing about who has authority at the location. They will be having a meeting tomorrow to decide.”
“Great, I’m stuck in here and they will do nothing.”
“Charlie, tell me what you found, what you discovered.”
“There was nothing at the entrance for signs, handles, etc. There was one thing that I remember, but it was in passing. There was a stain running down the wall from drainage. I just thought it was an old building.”
“Where, how far into the entrance?”
“It was several feet into the tunnel of about six feet.”
“Okay, what else did you find?”
“One of the skeletons had a Swiss army knife. It has a screwdriver, knife, scissors, saw, bottle opener, and a pointy thing.”
“That could be a really good find. What else?”
“I don’t have anything else. But I was thinking about opening the door. There has to be a way signal to open the door that is separate from the doomsday thing. I just have to find it, find where it splits.”
“There we go! That is the escape artist I know. It won’t be easy. They would have made it hard and maybe with traps.
Six hours later Charlie activates the door circuit and hears a clunk. The sound doesn’t come from the tunnel he came into. The sound is from the opposite side of the room. Walking to the wall Charlie feels a movement of air. Just enough to register on his arm as he walks by a cabinet. Opening the wardrobe, he sees nothing. Pushing on the back he feels it move. “Shit, like the book “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”. Pushing his way through there is a short hallway to a set of stairs leading down.
The stairs are going in the wrong direction, but he follows. With no light, he is using his fingertips on the edge of the wall. At the bottom is a door, metal, with dogs like a ship hatch. He opens it and sees a light down a flat tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, he emerges in a small cave. The cave is on the side of a riverbank or drainage ravine. He calls Philip, gets no answer, and leaves a message.
Two months later Charlie, Philip and Philips’s younger sister are meeting for pizza. The discussion usually starts with people wanting to know about his ordeal, his mental state, and his frustrations. Claire has already heard everything so this dinner will be more normal.
They are enjoying the time, talking about escape rooms when the bartender changes the TV and someone yells to turn it up.
They hear a newscaster talking about nuclear tensions between China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. “The president has sent the secretary of state to Paris where they expect to meet with negotiators from the countries.”
Charlie says, “I don’t like the sound of this. It has never been this bad before. What happened?”
Claire says, “I heard that China and Iran had a falling out. Russia is backing Iran and North Korea is backing China. It will be okay. No one wants a nuclear war.”
The next day Charlie calls Philip saying, “Have you seen the news? The situation is getting worse.”
“Charlie, what can we do? Why are you getting upset?”
“Philip, I can stop it. The doomsday button is still there. It will shut down missiles, planes, everything.”
“It will send the world back to the dark ages.”
“And a nuclear war is better? We will be in the dark ages anyway, just without radiation fallout.”
“This is different Charlie. We don’t know if the button works to shut down all electricity. It could cause something worse.”
“Philip, I am going to push the button.”
The next day Charlie finds the cave and goes back into the room. Philip is calling him. “Yes, Philip.”
“Charlie, where are you? Have you heard the news? The US military is now on DEFCON Four. That is just below full nuclear war. This has gotten worse.”
“I’m working to reconnect the button. I had to take it all apart, now I have to put It back together. If this works, I will meet you at the BMX track we used to run together.”
“If it doesn’t?”
“I’m in the equivalent of a fall-out shelter. There is no food or clean air, but we won’t get blown up.”
“You are NOT making me feel any better.”
“Get Claire and anyone else. Get food, water, and head to the BMX track. If this works or doesn’t work, I will get you there.”
Charlie hangs up and keeps working on the button. He removed a dozen wires before finding the door circuit. As he is working, he gets the feeling of foreboding. This is bad, really bad in every way.
An hour later Philp calls. “Charlie, they are issuing evacuation warnings and alarms. I have Claire and her friend Alex. We just grabbed what was left at the store. How are you doing?”
“I’m almost done reconnecting.”
Philip yells on the phone, “They just said we have a missile launch. If you are going to do this now is the time. It was great knowing you.”
Charlie throws the phone on the floor under the console and crawls back under the system. He needs the phone light to be able to see. Then he hears a noise, people. He scrambles up and tries to hide behind the console.
Three people enter the room from the trap side. They have assault weapons and are dressed in camo.
One man says, “Someone has been here. There is a light and the wires have been accessed. Fan out and see if they are here.”
Charlie raises his hands above his head and steps out. “Don’t shoot.”
The person closest to him is a woman. She has her gun pointed at Charlie and says, “Who are you? Are you armed? Why are you here?”
The other men come up next to her and with all three pointing their guns at Charlie the third man says, “Do you know how to make this work? ANSWER ME!”
“I think so. I was trapped in here and had to take this apart to get out. You know what this does?”
“We heard a report about this apparently, they came looking for you a couple of months ago and documented the room. We read the sign. We have about fifteen minutes before the first ICBM will hit. We are close to Philadelphia and will be a target. Put it together!”
The larger man walks toward Charlie saying, “Are you dense? We have one chance in hell, and this is it. If it works, it will be really bad. If it doesn’t work, it will be worse.”
At this point, the rifle barrel is in Charlie’s chest. “Do it.”
Charlie gets down and with his hands shaking is trying to get the wires he cut before back together. He must use the knife to strip off the insulation and then twist both sides together for a connection. With two wires left he can’t get the stripped wire together to twist. There is not enough slack or room.
The gunman is poking him in the thigh and demanding, “What is happening? We have ten minutes. If the nukes go off, I’m going to shoot you.”
“I’m having a problem with one wire.”
“What do you need?”
“Let me think, please.”
The woman says, “We don’t have time, if the nukes hit the top of their ballistic arc, they may not need electricity.”
Charlie says, “Let me do the last wire then we will do something.”
After a minute Charlie yells, “Push the button down. I will hold the last wires together by hand to make the circuit.”
The woman walks over lifts the button protective cover and smashes down the button with her palm. The button doesn’t move. She screams in anger, “FUCK!”
She pulls up her rifle and smashes the button down. Charlie is holding the wires together when they hear a buzz for a couple of seconds and then the light on the phone goes out.
There is no sound, there is nothing. They are in complete darkness.
The woman says, “That may have worked. We won’t know until we get out.”
The first man says, “How do we get out?”
Charlie says, “Bad planning on my part. Did anyone bring matches or a candle?”
“Dude, we are prepared.” All three pull out glow sticks, break them and shake.
“You were here before. How did you get out?”
Charlie leads them through the wardrobe, tunnel, and cave. They climb out of the raven and look around. They see three streaks in the sky heading toward Philadelphia. They can see more streaks further away toward New York. As they watch the streaks go to the ground.
Charlie is holding his breath watching. After a few seconds, there is no nuclear flash and he jumps up yelling, “YES!”
The woman looks at Charlie saying, “Good job whomever you are. Now what?”
“I’m meeting friends in that direction. If they can make it.”
“Sense you saved the world we will take you to them. Then we can decide. We can stay together or split up.”
“Who are you, people?”
“This is Duke, she is Abbie, and I’m Oscar. We are AWOL special ops trying to keep the world from dying.”
“I’m Charlie and I’m an advertising manager.”
They start walking toward the east watching streaks continue to come down from the sky. This would be the worst day in history, except for pushing a button.
