Mask by C.C. Kelly

said.
    “Yes, good thinking, Wally,” the Doc said, patting him on the shoulder.  “What do you have in mind?”
    “I think Lane is on the right track.  The Expansion Driver should work.  I think we can leverage it up and mount it to the wall,” Wally said.
    Doc Larson asked, “What’s an Expansion Driver?”
    Lane said, “You know the larger machinery, the oxygen scrubbers, heat exchangers and power cores, that’s what I was talking about.  They need to be anchored in place.  The Expansion Driver is a pneumatic powered machine that forces an expansion shaft into the granite.  We just call it the Punch .”
    Allen slowly pulled his hand away and walked back to his chair and sat down.  “I like Wally’s other idea better.  Lane, why are you against using the Bunker and waiting on an EVAC ?”
    Doc Larson sighed and shook his head.
    “Al, you have to get your head around this.  We’ve been over it and over it,” Lane said softly.
    Allen looked away, trying to conceal his fear and frustration.
    Lane looked at him and leaned forward.  “Al, hey Al, look at me.”
    Allen turned.
    “What do you know about Outpost 3?”
    The others stared at him as well.  Lane let the question hang as they sorted it out.  Slowly, each in turn, dropped their heads in understanding.
    Allen was the one to say it out loud and confirm their suspicions. “They were in the Bunker, huh?”
    “Most of them.  It didn’t matter at all.  I’m not even sure it bought them any more time,” Lane said.
    “Okay.  Okay,” Allen said sniffing away his emotions, “so how does this punch work?”
    Lane took another glance through the blinds and then stood up and leaned against the desk.  “Like I said, it’s a simple pneumatic punch, about one and half inches in diameter.  The throw of the shaft can be calibrated down to about twelve inches.  The punch is fast,” he looked up at everyone, “very fast and very powerful.  I think this will work just like turning off a light switch.  We don’t need the anchors, just the Punch, and it should work sort of like coring an apple.”
    “Yeah, we can set it up at the right height off the floor and use a box or something as a variable platform and we have the Bunker through the other door, you know, for after,” Wally added.
    Doc began stroking his Van Dyke again as he thought it through, and then said in a clinically detached tone, “Twelve inches is too wide for the children.  We’ll have to hold their heads tight.  We’ll need something that won’t frighten them.  The punch needs to go through just in front of the ear.  If we miss, they won’t die and the pain would be terrible.”
    Light suddenly exploded in the room.  The other men shielded their eyes as Lane jumped from the desk and pushed the newcomer out of the way, kicking the door closed as he turned off the lights.
    “Have you lost your mind?” he shouted.
    “No,” Glenda Fields screamed, “but I just heard that you’ve all gone insane!  Do I have this right?  Your amazing plan for defending the Outpost is mass suicide?”
    “Look, Glenda,” Lane began.
    “Don’t even try to patronize me, Lane.  We are not going to kill everyone.  You are not going you kill my Polly.”
    “No one is going to kill your daughter or anyone else,” Doc Larson said calmly.
    Glenda glared at him, trembling with rage.  “Semantics?  A time like this, and you’re offering up semantic platitudes?”
    Doc Larson just shook his head.
    “Lane, what about your kids?” she asked.
    “What about them?”
    “Just like that, you’re going to murder them?  You know you can’t.  Lane, you’re kind, and gentle.  You’ll never be able to go through with it.  You can’t, you just can’t.”
    Lane grabbed both of her wrists and pushed her back against the door and leaned into her face.
    She stared back through disheveled red hair with increasingly wild eyes.
    “I can and I will.  You know the