CONTAMINATE

25. Claire & Her Attic Bedroom

The three stay inside the Jeep, unmoving at first. The vehicle was filled with Missy's openly cries and Jamie's muffled sobs. Gareth clenched his teeth at what was happening. BCDC was in ruins. He can't think of how everyone can recover after this dilemma. That is if there will ve survivors left to recover. Harrison is dead. So is his only heiress. They will have to tell the government about BCDC's existence and eventually close it down. The contaminated people can't go up in the outside world. It will have to be contained within the underground walls of BCDC.

"Gareth, we have to go." Jamie said in between sobs.

Gareth nodded, looking back at Missy through the rearview mirror. "Everybody okay?"

Missy nodded and Jamie said "Uh-huh."

Gareth started the Jeep and drove into the darkness of the underground night.

〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰

The horde reached the home of Mr. and Mrs. Rosenbaum in the dead of the night. The couple were sleeping in their bedroom while their fourteen year old daughter Claire lie awake in her makeshift bedroom in the attic. Like most teeneagers, Claire was at that rebellious stage. Her parents were the newest recruit of the BCDC company, her father being the bar examination topnotcher five years ago and was a hotshot attorney appointed by no less than the President of the United States as one of his paralegal counsel in the U.S. mission to North Korea. BCDC tripled what the United States governement was paying Mr. Rosenbaum and he found himself unable to refuse. Mrs. Rosenbaum was her husband's legal aid and researcher so his employment contract came as a package deal.

Claire resented their moving from their Connecticut home at the beginning of her sophomore year. She will be away from her school, from her classmates and from her best friend Shirley. All she wanted was to go back to their old home and her old, normal life, away from this stupid underground place.

She had to admit that the house given to them (that was one of the perks of her parents' job here, free housing, free water and electricity on the top of hefty salaries they receive) was quite nice. It was a two-storey colonial house with large pillars in front, pristine white walls, marble flooring and a beautiful, hand-carved french doors and windows. Her room was fit for a princess. It was twice as big as her old room in Connecticut, with a four-poster bed fringed with pink canopy and pink silk sheets. It has a pink dresser with an oval mirror and a settee cushioned with soft foam covered in gold cloth material. The room was covered in light pink wallpaper with splash of hand-painted white baby's breath flowers. The flooring of her room was carpeted, wall-to-wall. She loved it. But she wanted to show her defiance to her parents and asked for the attic to be her room. Her Mom was clearly frustrated with her and she heard her Dad muttering to her Mom: "Just let her use the attic for her room. We both know she's at that difficult phase as a teenager. Our snatching her away from a world she was familiar with was a big sacrifice on her part."

"Fine! That is the reason why she's becoming more stubborn than ever. You always bow down to her wishes. You need to put your feet firmly on the ground sometime. You always get swayed by her tantrums!"

Claire did not bother listening at what else her mother had to say. She went up to her attic room and plugged in the headset of her iPod and listened to old classic metal music which were her favorite.

She thought about her Dad, always being the soft-hearted one. She smiled. It will be quite a while before she can forgive them for ruining her life.

She calls her BFF Shirley everyday and they promised each other that when school ends they will meet somewhere. Shirley kept asking for her new postal address but she told her she couldn't tell her just as yet. She detected a hint of disappointment in her tone when she told her that. Part of their seminar and preparation for the transfer in their new underground dwellings was a signed, sworn statement that they could not divulge their whereabouts to any outsider at all cost. She needed to keep that promise unless she wants to go to an undergound jail. But at the back of her mind, she made a mental promise that one of these days she will let Shirley know where her new home is at and might even ask her to visit. That is, if she herself finds out where the opening of their underground world is located.

Claire was writing in her diary when she heard faint groaning sounds from their backyard. She peeped through the small window beside her bed. There was a group of men and women pushing at their white picket fence until it gave away to their collective weight. There was something odd about those people.

They seem dead!