Late Information

Raze stepped out onto the metal catwalk, her footsteps echoing throughout the massive server room. The destruction she had witnessed outside had mostly missed this place. Whether it was because it was underground or better built she didn't care. All that mattered was that it was still here. Raze put her hands on the cold metal railing and shivered slightly, this is what her father had died for. She reached up to open the heart shaped locket at her neck. It was a little smaller than her palm and the polished silver glinted in her hand as she stared at the contents. It was a small USB with a dirty piece of tape stuck to it. The tape had the coordinates of the building she was currently in scrawled messily over it. Raze closed the locket, rubbing her fingers over the surface, for what felt like the hundredth time today. She pushed it against her chest, holding tightly to it for a moment longer and looked to the end of the catwalk. It ended on a semi-circular platform filled with monitors and wires hanging haphazardly from the high ceiling. Most of them hung askew, shaken sideways by the blasts that had rocked the ground. White light filtered through the spiderwebbed cracks in the ceiling bathing everything in an early morning glow. She was lucky the building hadn’t collapsed on her. Raze eyed the forgotten monitors and hoped there would still be backup power running through the facility. Her father had given her the locket a little over a week ago with instructions to make it here as fast as possible. There had been talks of war and being the Vice President's daughter had her and all the other higher ups placed into a protective bunker, escaping from that bunker had slowed her down and cost her father his life. Raze had been angry that only the top elite had known of the coming danger, her anger seemed a waste of her energy now. It hadn't saved them, any of them. Anyone who had tried to leave the bunker was placed on lockdown for ‘their own safety’. The lockdown however was more than just a lockdown. Her father had told her they were fine to leave, but the hushed tones he had used told her otherwise. The people who were supposed to protect them, were the same ones to hunt them down and kill him. Raze had only gotten away because he’d sacrificed himself. He’d pressed the locket into her shaking hands and commanded her to go as she watched the life fade from his eyes. Raze let her fingers fall from the railing and the sound of her footsteps echoed around the room again as she walked toward the platform. Her father had said she should make it here a day ago, she hoped she wasn't too late. Raze had been on track to make it in time, but that was before the bunker guards had caught up. She had had to spend extra time hiding from them, and after she had lost them, the war found her. Sirens split the air and Raze realized it hadn’t been just talks of war, it was here. That night she wished she’d never left the bunker, surely they were safer. She truthfully didn't know how she had survived the night. The first of the blasts had knocked her off her feet and drove the air from her lungs. The sky filled with an ugly red and she ran. She’d spent the night in a basement she had found, the night was filled with distant screams and booms shaking the earth with a ferocity she had never seen. Raze had curled into a ball covering her ears and crying for what she knew was lost. Sunlight streaming through the ruined basement had woken her. That morning was deathly still, and no more explosions assaulted the ground. The world she’d emerged to in the morning was alien to her. Smoke from fires still burning choked the air, and cries of pain sounded in the distance, everything she had known was rubble and dust. Raze didn't know where else to go and was hoping the locket led to a survival bunker her father had. The basement she had hid in that night was close to the final coordinates and she would have reached it before the bombs if not for the guards slowing her down. Raze brushed her fingers lightly through the dust over one of the monitors and wiped a tear away. "I did it dad" she said to the quiet stale air. She shouldered her back pack off and let the memories fade away. Raze followed the wires and searched for a way to turn the monitors on most of the day, splicing them together and feeding them into a small power cell she'd dug out of an abandoned desk. The white light burrowing its way from above turned to deep orange before she had a steady power source. Raze wiped her brow with a dirty arm and booted up the main computer console. She reverently took the locket off holding it in both hands and opened it for the last time. She took the USB out and fingered the scrap of tape, taking a deep breath she tried to prepare for anything. Raze slowly pushed the USB into the slot. A small whirring sound accompanied the blue light from the monitor, it washed over Raze and spilled out past her onto the floor. Lines of text began appearing on the screen in white and her heart stopped. ‘Welcome Mr. Balker, confirm nuclear launch cancel codes?’ Raze stared at the screen, a hand moving to her mouth. “No,” she whispered. She took a step away from the console, suddenly dizzy. She looked at the ground and her ears rang with the screaming and destruction of yesterday. She took another backward step, hand to her stomach and tried to suck in air. Raze dropped to her knees and held her head in her hands. "No, no, no, NO!" She choked back a sob and then screamed into the empty room, her echo the only response. She let go of her head, her hands dropping limply to her sides. Raze looked at the screen again feeling sick. "I was too late." The words dripped out of her like tears.