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Ok all, ready for this to take a spin. Bet you didn't see it coming. Hope you enjoy still.
The next day Fin and his team left early. Olivia was up to see him off but her young wife was still in bed warn out. She was informed by the Major of the Military Police that their new prisoner was still calling for a trial and that he was led on.
She paid him another visit and told him to pipe down and take it like a man, there were plenty of witnesses. He knew he was guilty and he was feeling gullible for being sucked in by his friend's lies. If he continued being a pain he would just prolong his stay. She also told him he was safe from the lashes and to stop panicking. She warned him further if he touched or even spoke to Alex again she would kill him. She then left him very quiet and subdued. She told the Major when he was released he was to return to the second camp as was not welcome in her territory. He nodded and she left.
Olivia helped around the camp a bit that day, checked on how her barge was going to take equipment across the river. She showed the engineers her new farm equipment and they assured her it would be big enough to handle it. They were the experts. At lunch the convoy who had the task to get more portable toilets arrived back with another load. They major showed her some more equipment too. Portable camp showers, which was great because currently the refugees were getting buckets of water from the river and sponge bathing. The portable showers were black bags you left out in the sun, the sun heated the water in the bag and allowed for a 5 minutes shower. He'd brought back hundreds of them. 1 was handed out per family, if they were vigilant a couple could have a shower at a time.
At 1500 she was requested to return to the compound, they had a bit of an emergency. Scowling she hurried back wondering what had gone wrong. She was met in the basement by Elliott who looked worried. As they walked towards the infirmary he told her that a maintenance man had been working on the generator giving it its fortnightly maintenance and had taken too long. His boss had gone down to see what the holdup was and found him unconscious on the floor. Elliott said he came around just before he called her and was making claims that the wall wasn't a wall and that the spanner went through. Olivia looked at him startled. What did that mean? He shrugged and said Abbie, Serena and Casey were sitting with him at the moment trying to get him to talk.
Olivia hurried into the infirmary and looked around. She saw Alex who had just come out from visiting her father and waved her to follow them as Elliott led them into another room. An older portly man with a blue uniform and a name tag that read Dave sat on a bed, his boss hovering nearby, her other friends and commanding officers there also. Dave looked pretty peaky and was sucking in the Oxygen. She turned to Melinda who was reading his chart.
"Is he Ok?" she asked the doc
"He has a concussion from where he hit his head, has some shock and appears to be suffering from delusions"
"I aint delusional, I'm telling you the spanner went straight through the wall" Dave shouted then looked at the General "You gotta believe me General, go look for yourself if you don't. The wall looks metal right, just a stupid wall. So in my frustration I can throw the spanner at it instead of hitting the generator and causing a disaster, so I do." He said then paused taking in a deep breath, his eyes wide "I put everything into that throw, I'm really angry, I think I may break the spanner but I don't care. Imagine my surprise when the spanner goes all the way through the wall. I hear a whistling, the airs being sucked out of the room and everything starts going black. I swore I heard a female voice before I passed out though and there was a light"
Olivia looked at the man who appeared to be speaking earnestly. His eyes weren't bloodshot, he didn't smell of alcohol so for now she would hold judgement
"What did the voice say Dave?" she asked
"Welcome" Dave replied "I swear General I aint loopy, please just go have a look"
"I will Dave, you just rest" she smiled at him then ordered everyone out. She even motioned for Dave's boss and led them into the corridor where they could all be alone. Dave's boss was called George and she asked him if he had seen anything unusual when he went down there.
"No ma'am. As soon as I entered the room I saw Dave on the floor, he had my whole attention. I called for assistance and then conducted basic first aid until help arrived and we came here"
"Alright, you go back inside and stay with Dave." She told him and he hurried off "Melinda does Dave have a history of this, is he a drinker, anything?"
"No, besides partaking in too much greasy food he has never shown any signs of mental breakdown"
"Hmmm, his anger?" Olivia asked next
"Says he's going through marital problems" Melinda told her. Olivia nodded and turned to Elliott next
"Go to the basement, get me 7 portable spotlights, 7 breathing apparatus and earmuffs. Meet me down in the generator room" he nodded and quickly hurried off. "Melinda you're with us on this in case we need some medical expertise"
"You don't seriously believe him do you?" she asked shocked
"Go hand over your shift for an hour" Olivia ordered in a stern voice and Melinda hurried off to do as ordered while Olivia looked at her wife and friends "I don't know what is going on but Dave is sane until proven otherwise. If he says there is a hole in the wall then there is a hole in the wall"
No one argued and Melinda came back. They hurried down to the generator room, Olivia eager to get inside, she loved solving mysteries. She didn't dare go in without ear protection though. Elliott hurried up to them with another soldier who helped carry the equipment. Olivia read his name tag. Cassidy. His rank showed Corporal.
"Corporal Cassidy. Stand guard at this door, no one enters understood" Olivia questioned as they took the torches he carried.
"Yes ma'am" he fired off a salute once his hands were free. Once everyone had their earmuffs and facemasks on they stepped inside the door and shut it firmly behind them. Outside Cassidy was praying there was nothing wrong with the generator, he liked his hot showers.
Olivia led the group around the massive generator and to the back wall. She instructed everyone to span out, the room was over 40ft long as they searched for the hole. Olivia had a feeling it would be like looking for a needle in a hay stack and as she looked at the wall she had a feeling Dave was going mad. There was no way that was anything other than metal. She moved forward and wrapped on it, sure sounded like metal. Seeing what she was doing the others moved forward and started doing the same.
The sound of ringing metal could be heard until suddenly there was a loud "Thump". Everyone turned and looked at Casey who was staring at the wall in front of her. Olivia hurried over and swept her torch over the wall. Dave wasn't mad, there was the hole. Olivia shone her torch through but couldn't see anything other than what appeared to be a corridor of some sort. She shook her head, maybe it just backed onto one of the other corridors in the compound? But surely they would have heard the generator in passing. The generator was on the lowest level and away from the rest of the compound due to the noise.
"Holy shit" Abbie muttered and Olivia shot her a look. "Man I have a feeling this is going to be like when we discovered the compound 15 years ago"
"Which begs the question why we didn't find it sooner" Elliot stated
"It wasn't on the map" Serena supplied
"We found other rooms not on the map"
"Who would have thought to check to make sure the wall in the Generator room was metal?" Casey asked exasperated.
"Stop bickering and help me figure out to open this" Olivia was knocking on the wall and figured the panel that appeared to be some type of mix of glass and plastic made to look like metal was about the size of a door. Everyone crowded around and those close to Olivia used touch to feel for a handle or a button or anything else to open the door. It was Elliott who found the little lever and cried out. They shone the torch on it to see it was quite well hidden but you could find it if you knew what you were looking for.
He gave it a quick pull and the door slid sideways with a whoosh. They stared in shock and looked at each other before Olivia shone her torch into the corridor and tentatively stepped forward. She knew the second she stepped from stone floor to smooth tile. They all blinked blinded by the suddenly bright lights that lit the length of the corridor and jaws fell open in shock as a female voice greeted them
"Welcome"
"Fuck me" Abbie breathed as they all stepped forward then jumped as the door shut behind them "I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"
Understatement of the century.