Chapter 2: The Brody's, The Accident

The Date: August 5th, 1999

The Time: 0630

Location: Janjira, Japan, The Brody's Home

The sun shone through a shōji window of a traditional Japanese style home into the eyes of a young boy slumbering peacefully within. He had been roused by the voice of his father in the next room having an argument on the phone. He rubbed his eyes and let out a long yawn as he slid towards the edge of the bed. However he had misjudged his position in his sleepy state and ended up falling off the bed and to the floor. He let out a small "oomph!" and shook his head as he got to his feet.

Wearing a set of blue pajama pants and a long sleeve pajama shirt, the young man picked up a sign from his floor. It was a "Happy Birthday Dad" sign he had made the night before. Using multi-colored construction paper as his medium, he cut out large ovals in one color and cut out letters in another. The effect was most festive, and he was proud of his work though in his sleep state you'd never know it by the way he dragged it behind him on the floor. He finally managed to shake off his sleepiness when he reached the room where his father was having the argument on the phone.

"No, I don't care what they're saying. Something is wrong here… I know that!… No, we need to run more tests… No, they're not going to prevent us from shutting down. I'm not going to allow something like this to take place at a nuclear plant where I'm responsible. You talk to them and tell them I need a meeting!"

The boy listened and hid by the doorway, hoping to find an opportunity to surprise his father with his sign as his mother walked up from around the corner.

She was wearing her business attire, and smiled at him. Her short hair had only recently been cut for her work at the nuclear power plant which his father had recently been put in charge of. His father was getting strange readings from the sensors, and it was causing tension between him and the other members of staff as well as their superiors.

"He's awake," the boy whispered.

"Oh, sweetie I'm sorry. He woke up early," his mother responded.

"What do we do?"

"Hmm. Well, for now you need to get ready for school. Go take a shower and get dressed. I'll fix you some breakfast in the mean time all right? If I get the chance to break him away from the phone to see you, I'll do so okay Ford?"

Ford nodded, but was a bit disappointed that he didn't get to show his sign to his father. He made his way to his room and put his sign out on his bed before going to take a shower. Once finished, he got dressed in his school uniform and went into the dining room for the breakfast his mother had made for him. Both she and his father had to leave a little early today, so she only had time to make him a sandwich, some orange juice, and a soft-boiled egg. He ate as quickly as he could, and ran back to his room while his father had temporarily stepped out of his "office."

Ford dragged the chair from his father's desk and used it to prop himself up and used a tack to stick one end of his sign on the wall before repeating the process on the other side. The sign "Happy Birthday Dad" was now on display in his father's office room, hanging fairly nicely for how quickly Ford had to work. He ran out of the office as his mother walked with him. His father was still on the phone by the car putting on his jacket somewhat awkwardly with one hand as the two of them kept going.

"Have a good day at school sweet heart. I'll talk to your father for you all right?"

"Okay mom. See ya!" He called.

She waved goodbye with a smile as he made his way to the bus that was waiting to pick him up. He ran around the side and climbed in, taking a seat at one of the first few windows and watching his parents. His father gestured to his mother about the car and she unlocked it before handing him the keys. Together they climbed in the car and his mother blew a kiss at him as the bus drove away.

"No, Hideto. I don't care what you have to do this has to stop! Just get me that meeting alright!" His father said, finally hanging up the phone.

He looked at his wife, who smiled sadly at him.

"You know, Ford made you a birthday sign."

"He what?" His father asked, looking out at the bus as it disappeared around the street corner.

"He made you a sign."

"Oh God… I'm so sorry," he said as he shook his head and rubbed his forehead.

"That's alright. He'll forgive you."

"I hope so. It's just that those tremors have been continuing lately and-"

"I know, dear. I know," she said, putting her hand over his mouth.

"By the way dear, happy birthday!" She said with a smile.

"Wait… Is it? Is it today?" He asked, genuinely surprised.

"Yes!" She said excitedly.

"Oh," he said in shock.

His wife leaned forward and gave him a hug, kissing him on the lips before he turned his head and chuckled as she kept kissing his cheek.

"In all this chaos I'd forgotten what day it is… I should have birthday's more often," he said jokingly as they continued to enjoy the moment.

They finally composed themselves as he turned the ignition of the car and began driving down the road. They sat in silence for a moment before he let out a sigh and spoke to her, though he kept his eyes on the road ahead.

"Listen, Sandra. I need to know it's not the sensors," he said in a serious tone.

She nodded to him.

"When we get to the plant, get a small team together and go to sector 5. Just do a quick sweep and make sure they're in working condition. I need to prove that this is not a malfunction."

"I understand Joe. I'll take care of it," she responded, putting a hand on his.

"Thanks honey."

They enjoyed the rest of the drive to the plant, and upon arrival they were greeted by Hideto, one of Joe's associates. He ran out to meet their car, papers in hand and a frantic look on his face.

"Doctor Brody!" He called as he ran to the car.

"What is it Hideto?" Joe asked.

Sandra got out of the car and looked a bit concerned, looking between the two men as they both looked at the paperwork Hideto was carrying.

"It's getting stronger, and the intervals are decreasing."

"Oh God…"

Joe looked at Sandra.

"Honey, get your team together. I'll get to the control room and try to figure this out."

"Alright dear."

Sandra entered the building and took a different path than the two men who now walked to the control room with a few other employees and one of their superiors who had managed to come down to see what all the fuss was about.

"So tell me again Joe, what is going on? What's the problem?" He asked.

"The problem, sir, is that these tremors are not natural. Earthquakes are random and unpredictable. These are coming in patterns, and they're becoming more frequent as well as more powerful. Take a look."

Joe held up one of the graphs that Hideto had printed of the tremor, but his superior didn't seem to understand or care.

"What am I looking at Joe?"

"The height on the graph is representative of its power. The width is the time of the tremor," Joe answered.

"And this is a graph of the tremors over time. The horizontal line here represents time in minutes. These are coming in minutes sir, not hours or days. This is happening all right now."

Joe's superior was perplexed, but nodded in acceptance of the facts and continued to the control room with the others to see what was going on.

Meanwhile, Sandra had gathered her team and they were preparing their hazmat suits. The sector they were searching was radioactive, but the suits would provide adequate protection from the radiation while they searched. Some of the others were finished and waiting, and Sandra approached with her mask in her hand.

"All right. Let's make this quick," she said, putting on her mask and securing her suit.

Together they made their way to the doors leading to sector 5 in the plant, walking through together and keeping their eyes on their surroundings just in case. With all the strange happenings going on, they weren't taking any chances.

Back in the control room, Joe was discussing what was happening with Hideto when another tremor shook the plant. Joe and the others braced themselves as it subsided, looking at their instruments and trying to control the situation as Joe kept running through his mind to try and figure out what could be causing such disturbances. Finally, he turned to his superior.

"Listen, if things go horribly wrong I'm shutting down the plant."

"That's not your call Joe."

"The Hell it isn't! You and the others put me in charge here, and if something goes wrong this entire area will become a sea of nuclear waste if I don't shut the plant down. Do you understand the lives that are at risk if this plant fails?"

"I understand perfectly Joe. I don't need a lecture from you to understand the significance of a reactor meltdown or any other catastrophic failure."

"Then why don't you seem to understand that shut down is necessary. Yes, your company will lose money for a while, but it's a small price to pay for doing the right thing and shutting down this facility if something goes wrong."

Joe turned away from him, tuning him out as he tried to make arguments to the contrary when one of the other employees gave a shout.

"Another tremor is incoming!"

They all braced, and the tremor struck. Joe and the others began to panic, looking left and right as warning lights began going off. It was a signal that somewhere in the plant there was a failure, and that it was time to begin evacuation. Joe grabbed a nearby walkie talkie and dialed in the frequency.

"Sandra… Sandra are you there? Honey?"

Back in sector five, the tremor struck Sandra and her team. Two of them fell to the floor and were promptly lifted to their feet by the others.

"What's happening?" One of them asked.

"I don't know," Sandra answered.

Then, the sound of snapping metal echoed through the corridor, and a sudden plume of smoke began to emerge before them.

"Oh my God!" Sandra exclaimed.

"Run! Run! We're getting out of here!" She yelled.

They all began running as fast as they could to escape the cloud that was now chasing them through the halls of the plant.

"Joe! Joe are you there?!" She yelled into her microphone.

Joe heard her voice and looked to another walkie talkie that was sitting nearby and threw the old one away as he picked up the one which Sandra's voice was coming from.

"Sandra! What's happening?" He asked.

"Joe, there's been a breach!"

"Run honey! If that gas reaches you then you won't last five minutes with or without the suits. Do you understand? Run as fast as you can!"

"I am! We're coming!" She screamed.

Joe kept the walkie talkie with him and looked to Hideto.

"Hideto, put the doors on manual override and signal the evacuation!"

"But Brody, if we do that then-"

"Just keep those doors open, my wife is still in there!" He yelled, running out the door of the control room.

Hideto hit the evacuation signal, sending an alarm through the plant. The instant Joe was out of the control room he was knocked to the ground by another fleeing employee. Several dozen of them hadn't waited for the evacuation alarm and were already filling the hallways as Joe pushed himself to his feet and ran in the opposite direction. He rounded several corners and had to dodge oncoming escapees. He flailed his arms while yelling at everyone to get out of his way. Running as fast as he could, he finally made it to the doors where Sandra and the others would be coming.

"Sandra. Are you there?"

"Joe we're coming!" She yelled.

"Keep going honey!"

Sandra tried to respond but another tremor shook the plant causing her and two others to fall to the ground. Sandra shook it off and stood up, looking to her teammate as she tried to help him to his feet. However, when she looked up, she saw the plume of gas racing towards her. She and her teammate were both knocked once again to the floor as the gas engulfed them.

"… Sandra?" Joe asked.

There was mild static on the line.

"Joe… It's too late…" She said weakly.

"No, no! No! No don't you say that honey! Just keep going! Keep running! You can still-"

He was cut off by the sound of collapsing metal and concrete as he saw a wall of white gasses round the corner and begin racing at him. His lip quivered and his eyes began to water. His mind knew what was coming. It knew what was happening. But it didn't want to know. It fought not to know.

"AAAAAAAHHH!HHHHHHH!" He yelled before finally slamming his hand down on the switch to close the doors.

The doors closed just in time to prevent the gas from reaching him, but Joe slumped forward against the wall next to him. Weeping bitterly, he opened his eyes when he heard the sounds of fists hitting the door. He turned around slowly to see the faces of a few members of Sandra's team yelling from behind the door for him to open it.

He shook his head sadly.

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry," he whispered.

The next face he saw was Sandra's as she pushed passed the others to look at Joe. He put his hand over his mouth, struggling to breath through his sobbing. Sandra too was crying on the other side, knowing full well what was going to happen to her now that she'd been engulfed in the gas. She took off her mask, gasping for a few breaths before smiling at Joe and putting her hand on the window.

"Take care of Ford," she said, her microphone still picking up her voice.

Joe could only nod to her as his lips quivered.

"Tell him… Mommy couldn't make it."

The extra set of doors began to close, slowly cutting off Joe's view of his wife on the others side. Despite everything, she smiled at him through her own tears as the door sealed itself shut. Joe fell forward against it, his face pressed against the cold hard steel as his tears began falling like rivers down his face. He slumped to his knees and wept, but was brought out of it by another large tremor. This time, from the plant itself.

Over the course of the next five minutes or so, the plant came crumbling down.

At the school nearby, Ford was sitting in class listening to his teacher giving directions about their upcoming assignment when they all felt the newest tremor and heard an alarm go off. The teacher ushered all the children into the hallway, but Ford remained behind as he caught sight of the plant going down in the corner of his eye. He walked over to the window, watching in silence as the plant fell to the ground bit by bit. A tremendous plume of dust billowed up from the wreckage, and young Ford's mouth slowly opened.

He ran to the nearby phone on the teachers desk and tried to call his father's mobile phone number, but the number was now disconnected. He looked up at the scene unfolding before him as his eyes started to water.

"Mom?… Dad?" He whispered.