After working to track down the teens’ parents, he headed to the apartment he and his wife Carley shared with their two sons. When he arrived, he saw that the boys were already in bed and Carley was sitting in the recliner, reading from her bible.

After greeting his wife and pressing a kiss to her forehead, Gary lay down on the bed and thought about what the next few days would bring. The last ten buses would be arriving over the next two days. Then the following day their long imprisonment in this underground shelter would officially begin.

Chapter Thirty-Two

DAY3

Brad Warren woke feeling tired and unrested. He noticed Jill was already up and gone. Throughout the night, he'd been awake as much as he'd been asleep. He washed up and dressed in the gray jumpsuit which would be the official uniform of the command staff.

Leaving his quarters, he walked down to the main level; RJ was already in the mess hall eating breakfast, she wore an identical jumpsuit. He collected his tray and sat down across from her. RJ looked as tired as he felt.

“Morning. You look tired,” he said.

She smiled. “Check in a mirror, you look pretty rough yourself.”

“It would explain why I feel this way,” he agreed.

“Did you hear Carter arrived last night?”

“No, I hadn't heard. How was his attitude with you?”

RJ smirked when she answered. “When I saw him, Amy had just kicked his ego around a bit, so he was okay. I sent him right to engineering, to get settled in.”

“Good, I'll check on him later. Is everyone else here?” Brad asked.

“Yeah, Carter was the last one to arrive.”

“That figures. Are we still scheduled to shut the doors today?”

“There's a last-minute delivery expected. Apparently, we're waiting on a bunch of seeds and grains for planting crops. They're almost here, and then we should be able to seal the tunnel doors around noon. We estimate it'll take forty-eight hours to completely conceal the two entrances.”

“Good. Sounds like we're on target,” Brad stated.

“Amy is working on getting most of the remaining personnel into their capsules. We need to start our final tests of all the systems.”

“Okay. If you don't mind, I'm going to make a quick stop at engineering. I want to make sure there are no problems with our friend.”

“Let me know how it goes,” RJ requested.

Brad turned to the right when they left the Mess Hall and headed towards the elevator at the end which would take him to engineering. On the way, he stopped at the sleep chamber that housed the capsule he'd be entering in a few days' time.