High Pressure System: First Season Underground Read Online Free PDF

Flipping on the music, he sunk down in a chair. He didn’t say another word or even acknowledge that I was still there.
    I quietly left the control room for lockdown.
    The picture of all the dead people kept popping up in my mind for the longest time and the odd, swirling clouds from the storm gave me constant nightmares.

5
Locked Down Forever
    I hadn’t visited Jim for a while. Dobbers, Yodel, and Rocky scampered about in their usual fashion as we entered the lobby. I was caught off guard when Jim threw his hat on the ground and stormed off.
    On Jim’s desk next to the telegraph was a piece of scratch paper with‘3899 deceased’ scrawled on it. My heart sank. I couldn’t tell where the wire from the telegraph led once it went through the floor. More than likely Brandon had given Jim the bad news.
    Something scratched at the front door. The dogs sniffed all around the bottom edge. The scratching intensified. Jim was gone and whatever it was desperately wanted in. I stared at the door and wrung my hands, unsure of what to do. One of Jim’s great causes was saving all the animals he could. He would have let it in. So I slid the first latch over, hesitating before I pulled the other one. The frantic scratching escalated as the animal yowled in panic. I pulled the latch and opened the door. Chaos ensued as Fred the cat darted in, and the dogs went out.
    In a panic, I headed up the stairs after the dogs to the second door. The roof overhead started to shake. Dobbers ran back inside, but Yodel cowered on the ground, frozen in fear near the door. When I picked him up, I saw the ominous clouds through the small window. A cold sensation washed over me and pooled into a tight knot that twisted in my gut.
    Dark gray clouds swirled in the sky. Wind whipped the grass flat to the ground while tree limbs swayed from side to side. Tornado-like cloud tentacles reached for the ground. They searched around the trees. More cloud tentacles touched down near the concrete entry to the bunker in front of ours. It was as if the clouds had arms and they were searching everywhere.
    My heart raced before I even ran down the stairs for the lobby. Wind sucked me back, pulling me closer to the closed door. Fighting the pull, I struggled to reach each stair, gripping the rail with one hand. I hugged Yodel tight against my chest. The pull was so strong. He whimpered some. I did too as air sucked out of my lungs. I was so close.
    The William Tell Overture
blasted from the PA system in the lobby. My eyes watered when I realized not only could I possibly die, opening the door would probably allow whatever it was to kill everyone in the bunker because of my carelessness. Brandon had warned me. I almost reached the last step. My chest was compressing and I couldn’t inhale. Yodel wilted in my arm.
    A hand grabbed hold of my wrist. I was flung into the lobby. Jim and Brandon slammed the door shut and shoved the latches closed. The music reverberated in my ears as I gasped for air.
    Brandon shoved my back into the wall. “What were you thinking?” he screamed in my face.
    The roof shook. All the light fixtures rattled and flickered.
    Before I could catch my breath to answer, he pulled me through the lobby to the stairs. Jim held Dobbers and the cat, running ahead of us. Rocky leaped onto my leg, climbed up my side until he reached my hood and burrowed deep into it. I stumbled after Brandon and struggled to breathe as he yanked me through the door into the stairway. He pressed several buttons on a keypad next to the door. The keypad popped open. Brandon slammed his fist on the big red button. A heavy metal slab came out of the wall and latched over the door opening. He pulled me down the stairs to the second floor. He did the same there. Brandon brought me to the third floor, heading for his control room. I almost ran into him when he stopped abruptly.
    “Give Jim that dog.” Brandon folded his arms and waited.
    I suddenly felt five-years-old again. My