"How can they keep us here?" Marcus yelled, doing his best to reel in his voice as he realized his mother was not but two feet from him. Instead, he slammed his heel into the door detaining the two remaining Metiers. The impact reverberated off the concrete walls. Marcus gripped his head, fingers digging into his skull as he took deep breaths. Ingrid watched him as tears silently fell from her face.
"It's going to be okay, Marcus. Your father wouldn't have done this if he had any other choice," she eked out.
"After all you two have sacrificed the least those government D-bags could have done is saved him a spot! But noooo~" Marcus pantomimed with his hands and marched to an uneven beat. "They just had to get their little military men all lined up in a row!"
"That's enough!" Ingrid's voice cut through Marcus' tirade like a knife. The man was reeling, tears steaming from his own face as he looked at his mother, wounded. "Those people you are talking about had lives before the crystals fell. They probably lost just as much if not more. You cannot think a life is more valuable than another."
Ingrid was still crying, but her expression hardened. It hardened more than the cancer, more than the sky falling, had ever hardened it. The person who'd pulled her through both of those things was gone, and it was up to her to make it count. She embraced Marcus, holding him as he sobbed and cooled his anger. Unfortunately, she knew it only lay simmering. She just hoped it would be cold enough for them to make it through any other engagements with General Starden.
---+---
Elias led the two Metiers down to the bottom floor of the Bunker. They passed the greenhouse floor, which looked more like the dirthouse floor to Marcus, and the medical level. The water treatment plant and the primary generator sputtered in the center of the room. A man with jet black hair and a strained smile worked the console, reading out pressures and filtration rates while a woman attempted to rein him in. Marcus did a double take as the brunette looked over her shoulder to the approaching trio.
"Ah! Mr. Elias. Please, I'm trying to get my brother to take a break but he appears to have duct taped himself to this machine!" the woman said gently, while still nudging her brother.
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"Clara, you don't get it. The tape is for those pipes over there!" he gestured to one of the test drip pipes that was doing a little more than just dripping. "They turned this damn thing on without even checking the welds!"
"As you can see, we are having some issues. Mr. Elias, unfortunately I wouldn't recommend utilizing the kitchen or even seventy percent of the restrooms. The top floor has already been providing a greater volume than we anticipated,' Clara said.
"I understand. Please, no need to be so formal. This is Ingrid and Marcus. Ingrid, Marcus. These two siblings are Dale and Clara Terrigan. I am hoping you all will get us sorted out here," Elias said, barely keeping the frown from his face. The man was practically glaring at the machinery.
"I will look at the field around the generator. The radiation might be stronger than predicted against the electromagnetic shielding," Ingrid said after shaking Clara’s hand. Dale was thoroughly covered in gunk, shooting a meek smile her way instead.
"I know a thing or two about duct tape," Marcus added awkwardly.
"Snag a roll!" Dale said, already turned back to the control panel. Clara tossed Marcus some tape and he couldn’t keep the corners of his mouth twitching up slightly. It was the first hint of a smile that had crossed the man's face since he’d woken up in the Bunker over a week ago.
---+---
"Absolutely not." Ingrid crossed her arms. The scowl she kept out of her expression in front of Marcus returned in full force.
"We understand that you have an... Apprentice of sorts. A protegè if you will. It would be such a shame if something were to happen to him," Starden said evenly.
Ingrid Metier snorted, then full on laughed as Starden's face soured. The privates at the door looked between each other, shifting uncomfortably. Eventually the woman was able to get herself together. She ran her hand across the short hairs on her head, feeling the prickly sensation and remembering Raphael. Her expression darkened as she looked at Starden.
"I will work on the power issues for when we return to the surface, but my 'protegè' will continue to work on human adaptation to the growing radiation. Elias and that Ava woman have been working hard to pull him out of his shell and I won't have you messing that up." Without further preamble, Ingrid stood and walked past the privates. Before shutting the door behind her, she peeked her head through the door.
"I'm glad you understand that threatening Marcus will only cause you problems. However, if you threaten someone I love again, the Fall will be the last thing on your mind." The door shut with a quiet click.
Starden let out a breath he and the privates didn't realize they were holding. "Monsters, all of them..." he mumbled under his breath. The privates could only silently agree as they remembered Ingrid's face.