A gentle click-clack of heels echoed down the empty grey hallway. Miss Pauling had seen nothing but tinted windows and locked doors on her way down here and at each one she had spared a glance, only to be greeted by her own reflection.
At the end of the corridor she was met with a steel door, identical to the ones she had passed. She stopped and patted down her skirt.
"As I said," A voice crackled out of a speaker, "These vaults are of Dell Conagher's design. They will withstand a robot invasion with ease. Though why he wants to use them to protect the public I will never know."
It was true. The vault door alone could withstand a tank, if Gray could even get a tank this deep underground. Miss Pauling had felt her ears pop in the elevator down.
The steel door slid open with a hiss and Miss Pauling was allowed to continue.
"Of course, this is my vault, Miss Pauling. No members of the public are permitted to be down here and any that end up here will be disposed of. You'll be perfectly safe."
Miss Pauling noticed a change in her scenery: yellow and silver pipes followed her route overhead. Shortly after, she stopped by another door.
"Now," The voice said as the door slipped open. "Before you go any deeper into the vault, you'll be decontaminated and depressurized."
The new room was not a corridor. Instead, Miss Pauling found herself in a box-like room. Above her, the silver and yellow pipes married with a reflective silver dome, more pipes fanned out and led to some kind of pod. The assistant approached the pod with no hesitation.
"Bidwell will meet you deeper in the vault. And Miss Pauling?"
Pauling took her seat in the pod, "Yes, Administrator?"
"Do you trust me?"
"Of course."
"Good."
The pod door slid shut. Miss Pauling felt a cold rush, like a draft, blow over her head. A hissing noise filled her tiny space. The only other sound she could hear was her own breathing, she only began to worry when she could see it as well.
"5… 4… 3… 2…"
Miss Pauling's world turned white before fading to black.