The door to the Comm Center opened, and Alyssa stood up, gun out. She'd taken the last few minutes to put herself together. She didn't like this, wanted the violence to stop – but that was a pipe dream. These people were trying to kill her, and all of the others, as well. If she didn't fight, all of them would die.
Thankfully, she didn't need to fight immediately. "I'm back," Theron's voice said outside the door. "Don't shoot."
She lowered her gun as he came in. As he entered, Kyle asked, "We okay? Are the guards all gone?"
"Yeah, they're all dead," Theron replied with subtle emphasis. She got the sense that he didn't want them shying from the reality they were faced with. "And we will be too if we don't get moving. Everyone ready?"
Ajay stood up. "This guy isn't. He can't be moved. Someone's gonna need to stay here and keep an eye on him. How attached are you to the idea of Gem tagging along with us?"
He'd been doing what he could for the security guard she'd shot – Gem's brother. He'd finally convinced her to listen to him, and he'd gone over everything she needed to know to keep the guy stable until she could phone for help.
Theron's head tilted to the side thoughtfully. Then he said, "She could be useful, but I don't like the idea of relying on someone who wants us dead. Anyways, she showed she was a risk when she went for that gun earlier. Good news, Gem, you're off the hook. Enjoy your family time."
Alyssa pursed her lips. Given how bad her brother's position was, that comment was callous in the extreme. Even Gem, who had been more or less in a state of submissive terror with regards to Theron since their first interaction, finally managed a defiant word. "Fuck you, you little monster. I hope you all die up there."
These words didn't really mean much to Alyssa. Gem wasn't a threat to them, nor they to her. She felt muted pity for the researcher – more for her brother, who had been injured trying to save her – but that was as far as it went. She couldn't bring herself to sympathize with an entire facility full of people who held with human experimentation. These people were all fundamentally morally flawed.
She was briefly worried that Theron would react violently to these words, but thankfully, they slid off of him as easily as they had her – like water off a duck's back. "Duly noted. Anyone else need anything here? No? Let's go."
Alyssa didn't need anything, but she did pause to take the radio from the man Kyle had killed just inside the door. She also took the notebook full of channels, and flipped the second radio to Command. If their commander sent out any messages to the staff, or vice-versa, she wanted to know about it. The other radio, in the opposite ear, was still set to security. Speaking of which…
"Did you get the last four?" she asked Theron as they took point heading out the door. They probably wanted to head to the elevator.
He nodded. "Yup. They were still partly blind. It wasn't too tough. You know we can't go easy on these guys, right? It's kill or be killed."
She sighed. "Yeah, I know this isn't Undertale. Mercy isn't really going to be an option moving forward, is it?"
"Nope. What's Undertale?"
"Video game. Don't worry about it. Are we going for the elevator?"
He nodded. "Yeah. I figure we take it to subfloor two, then get to the stairs. They'll probably have a bunch of guys with guns positioned outside the elevator on the ground level floor, assuming we'll try to escape that way. We'll want to be really strategic about how we move up. Maybe get off on subfloor one, or the second floor, and rush the stairs."
She nodded. His words, though not remotely optimistic, were calming. That was what she'd been worrying about. It was good to know he was thinking the same way, thinking forward to how their enemies might tackle them. This was scary stuff. They were at war, now.
He had Kyle pass the phone to him so he could navigate. A quick check showed him the way to the elevator, which was nearby. When they got to it, however, it didn't do them much good.
"What's the holdup?" Sarah said from the middle of the group as Theron stood in front of the elevator, staring up at the lights above it and listening for the sound of internal movement. He'd pushed the call button, but nothing had happened.
Alyssa, knowing it wouldn't help, stepped forward and pushed the button again. And again. She started just jabbing it repeatedly hoping it would work eventually while Theron said, "Elevator's down. Looks like we're taking the stairs."
Sarah swore bitterly, but said nothing else. David said, "That's fine. We'll just need to be careful, right? A shootout in a stairwell is kind of tough, right?"
"Very," Theron said darkly. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that. If it does, we'll have to think of something."
He checked the map for the stairwell. It was just past the security station. As they started in that direction, Kyle suggested, "Hey, let's drop in to the guard station, see if we can't find some equipment. Maybe, like, bulletproof armor or stun guns or something. I could totally use a stun gun, no problem. And if there's guards on the stairs, maybe we could come back to that supply closet and put together some kind of chemical weapon. A lot of gasses float, right? Maybe we could float up some kind of gas to them."
"Uh, yeah, maybe," Theron said. "But a lot of gasses – especially those heavier, toxic gasses –sink. Still, worth thinking about. And we'll definitely hit the guard's station. That's a great idea."
"Hey, maybe if we can get up to those labs with the B.O.W.s, we can set one loose on the researchers. All the security would go after a rampaging B.O.W. before a couple of kids with guns, right?"
"Wouldn't it just come after us?" Sarah asked rudely.
Kyle wasn't dissuaded by the tone. "Uh, I mean, if we're careful, I'm pretty sure we can just avoid it. I mean, we'd just be really careful about letting it out, you know?"
"No, I don't know. And don't you think they'd be way better at surviving the B.O.W.s they've made than we would be?"
They kept pausing briefly to check doors they came across, seeing if there was anything interesting or useful in any of them. Alyssa noticed a pack of full plastic water bottles on a counter in one room, and they all grabbed one. "It's worth thinking over different potential plans of attack," Theron said after a long drink of water. "We want to minimize the number of split-second decisions we have to make that we haven't thought through in advance. War is like a game of chess. You win by predicting as many possible moves in advance as possible. Yours and your opponent's."
Sarah set out a short, exasperated huff, and Alyssa silently rolled her eyes. This girl was not going to be easy to get along with.
They got to the security guard station. The first few rooms were just rec, dead security monitors, and another radio room (they found no more frequencies). Two more led off to the showers and some bunks. But one of the last ones read SECURITY SUPPLIES – AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.
"That'll be the ammo closet," Theron said. He had a pretty monotone voice under most circumstances, but now a hint of excitement crept into his tone, like a kid eyeing the Lolli and Pops store at the mall. He stepped forward, swiped their full access keycard…and it was rejected with a harsh beep.
He frowned, then swiped it again. Another beep. "You're kidding me," he said frustratedly. "What the hell did that lab rat think 'full access' means?"
"I think we're the lab rats in this scenario," David commented from the back.
Theron swore and kicked the door, then turned away from them and leaned against the wall, clearly thinking.
Kyle spoke up. "Hey," he said. "I bet one of those security guys had a keycard for this closet. I'll go back and see if I can get it."
Theron frowned. "By yourself? I don't think that's a good idea. We don't want to split up in here."
Kyle shrugged. He was a big guy, with broad shoulders. It was a big shrug, and highly unconcerned. "I'll be fine. I'm really fast. Besides, we shouldn't really waste everyone's energy trekking all the way there and back again if we can help it, right?"
It was a large facility, and it had been a bit of a walk to get here. "What about your energy?" Alyssa asked.
He grinned widely and began hopping lightly back and forth on the balls of his feet. "Oh, trust me, I don't have an energy shortage. I've been going crazy cooped up like this. I really, really wouldn't mind a run. Can I go? Please?"
"You're not scared to go by yourself?" Mal asked. It was the first thing she'd said in a long while.
Kyle faltered, smile falling. Then, as quickly as it vanished, it reappeared. "Nah. Theron said he got all the security guys, right?"
"Right."
"And if I see any more, I'll just run away," he said confidently. "I'm pretty much the fastest runner I've ever met. I'll be fine. Can I go?" he asked again, eagerly.
Alyssa thought about it. The idea of him going off on his own was a scary one, but he seemed capable of looking after himself. And with security on this floor cleared out, they were probably safe enough. If there was more security, they were probably upstairs, waiting to ambush them.
With that comforting thought in mind, she said, "I guess that would be okay. Theron?"
Kyle's confidence seemed to win out over his own caution. He passed him the phone in case he needed the map and said, "Yeah, I think so. Go for it, Kyle. Just keep your head up, and be careful!"
He had to finish this sentence yelling, because Kyle had started loping off at 'yeah'. In a few moments he was out of sight, heavy footfalls echoing down the concrete halls back to them for another minute. Then he was out of their range of hearing.
They waited. While they waited, Alyssa, Ruth and Sarah decided to use the time to freshen up, rather than just stand around worrying. They went to the restroom, found some towels, and took a quick bird bath in the sink. Mal joined them near the end. When she was done, David, Ajay, and Theron followed suit, recognizing that they wouldn't be likely to have many chances like this again. None of them had been able to get clean since their initial cold shower, so it was a very welcome opportunity.
When everyone was freshened up, they went to the rec room and sat down. Alyssa spent some time looking around the room, trying to remember exactly how far back it was to the Comm Center. It seemed like Kyle had already been gone too long, at least at the speed he'd been running. Of course, he might have taken a wrong turn or two, but he had the map, so he'd come out alright. And of course there was always the possibility that none of those security guys had the card, and he was still looking for something that wasn't there. All good, perfectly unalarming reasons for him not to be back yet.
She took a long draught of water and decided to make some small talk. She looked to Ajay. "So Ajay, did you say you grew up in India?"
He'd been leaning forward on his knees, brows lightly furrowed, staring at the ground. Now he perked up and said, "Yeah. We moved away when I was pretty young, but I remember a bit of it. Lots of cows. Lots of jungle. Kind of a dangerous place to live, where I was. Low caste, you know?"
"I don't really know much about the caste system," Ruth admitted. "How does that work?"
Ajay shrugged. "It basically just determines how high in society you get to go. You're at the top, you get to call the shots and you live really well. You're at the bottom, your life isn't worth diddly squat. That's why my parents were so thrilled to come to America. You guys might talk a lot about race problems and inequality, but trust me, this is pretty much the best place in the world to live. You have no idea how good you've got it here."
Sarah scoffed. "Uh, that's debatable. We might not have a caste system in America, but we may as well have. I mean, have you seen theinequality in this country?"
"Yeah, and I've seen how easy it is to get out of it if you're willing to work hard and save," he said patiently. "My parents were low caste in India, so we came here with nothing. Now, we have a good life. That's not something that really happens back in the old country – starting low and working your way up."
"So what do your parents do?" Ruth asked.
Ajay's eyes lit up. "They own a little retail shop in Florida. We make clothing. I'm studying up on fabric design. I have this idea for a new fabric that I think will work really well with our stuff."
"That's awesome," Alyssa said.
Sarah shook her head and looked away. They lapsed back into silence for a while. Kyle had definitely been gone too long.
Just as she was getting ready to suggest they send a few people out to go look for him, they heard heavy, rhythmic footfalls start echoing up the corridor towards them. They became steadily louder, and finally Kyle burst back into the room looking barely winded. "Da-da-duh-da!" he sang triumphantly, holding up a keycard which dangled from a long lanyard.
Theron hopped up and went over to him, clapping him hard on the back and saying, "You rock, man. Let's give this a try."
They went over and Theron swiped the card. The door let out a soft beep, and then opened.
Theron and Kyle went in first, followed by Alyssa. As she stepped in and looked around, her eyebrows rose.
Theron surveyed the walls, which were loaded with weaponry, grenades, and, yes, stun guns. He nodded, lips turned down in one of those odd, satisfied frowns. "Yeah, I think we can use this stuff."
Chris, Sheva, and Reynard had taken a few minutes to confer and dole out the supplies remaining in the B.S.A.A. vehicles. There hadn't been any extra guns, and since Reynard only had the one, Sheva handed him her AR-15. He'd already insisted that, the way they were going, they'd come across his own rifle before too long.
Goodbyes took significantly less time. "Good luck, Reynard, and stay safe," she'd insisted. HQ's orders for him still perturbed her.
Reynard, however, had merely scoffed and gone back to working the jeep. "Bah, good luck yourself. I'll be just fine. Now get going – unless you want to give Irving time to set up another freakshow for you."
"Why not?" Chris as asked. "The first one went so well."
Now, with Reynard clunking away at the vehicle behind them, Chris pushed open the door, and he and Sheva stepped outside.
They were hit with the smell and sight of water as they came out on a port. According to the map she'd seen of the region, this was a large, saline inlet connecting to the swamp that the Ndipaya lived in. The wreck of a large boat stood crashed against a rocky outcropping some fifty feet away from the dock. She walked over and looked down at the smooth concrete dropoff. The water sloshed some eight feet below, but watermarks three feet down suggested that real flooding was possible in this area. The outcropping stuck about four feet out of the water. The ship had probably crashed during a major water event, when the rocks were a foot underwater and not visible.
They were in a storage yard. Huge shipping crates, the industrial ones that were as large of some single-family homes in the country, were stacked fifteen feet high all around them. There was a clear path through them, though. The train station was definitely nearby.
Around the corner was their first hint that they were still in a heavily guarded area, and that combat was inevitable. A very conspicuous and sloppily-placed tripwire spanned the gap between crates at knee height. If it had been a little later in the day, it might have been hard to spot. As it was, it was barely in shade in the late afternoon sun.
Chris walked over to it and checked it out, then stepped over it and motioned for her to be cautious. She nodded, keeping an eye above her for ambushers.
Chris stepped around the next corner, and a cry of alarm pierced the air. He fired his handgun once, skipped backwards, then turned and jumped back over the tripwire. They both moved away from it as two Majini came around the corner. They walked up to the tripwire, but one of them recalled it just in time and pulled the other one to a halt. They both grinned meanly.
As they went to step over it, Chris shot the explosive device it was attached to, eliminating that threat. Above them, Sheva heard a light, metallic click. She looked up and fired, fast as thought.
The assassin, who had been aiming his crossbow at them from the crate above, toppled with a cry and fell right beside Chris, who promptly raised a foot and stomped on his head. Sheva shivered at the raw force with which he did this – it was brutal. The man's skull actually cracked, and a couple of meager tentacles poked their way out of the wreckage. She kept an eye above them as they moved forward, trusting Chris to be an effective spearhead.
They pressed forward, him dealing with the Majini on the ground while she kept them from being taken out from above. She aimed for the knee any time the crossbowmen were right on the lip of the crates, and Chris tended to execute them once they were down, making excellent use of his raw strength and martial skills. Then, just a short ways in, they heard something that made her gut twist up in genuine fear.
"Dogs," she breathed as she switched to her shotgun. Dogs were never a laughing matter, as she'd learned growing up. Dogs killed painfully, and that was when they weren't biologically augmented by a vicious, mind-controlling parasite, as she assumed these likely were. She'd read the descriptions of the Colmillos in the Kennedy Report.
Chris had also heard the vicious growling, and was stepping back and pulling out his rifle. The beasts came around the corner up ahead, narrow-bodied greyhounds that looked as though their muscles had swelled considerably in a short period of time, leaving large bald patches on their shoulders and chests. The instant one came around the corner, Chris put a large rifle round in its head and it went down. Two more were right on its heels, however, and leapt for him.
He stepped back and swung with the rifle, driving the heavy stock into the first animal's head and sending it off course. The other one got in before he could wind up another defensive blow, however, and he was forced to drop his rifle and grab its neck to keep its jaws off his throat.
Sheva shot the one Chris had knocked away before it could regain its feet, and more or less tore its head apart with the blast. But she couldn't shoot the one attacking Chris without risking him catching a few pellets, so instead she swapped gun for knife and slid the blade smoothly between the beast's ribs. She'd learned how to dispatch such animals before. She'd often helped the guerillas hunt when food supplies were short.
Into the heart, my desert hawk, then step back to let it bleed.
The dog yelped and twisted around to get at her, but Chris held its throat and foreleg, keeping it from reaching her. This presented a safer angle for a shot, and she pulled out her handgun and put a bullet in its head, sending it toppling.
"Thanks, partner," Chris said as he kicked the thing away and reclaimed his rifle, which was lying beside the last, stirring hound. He was eyeing the animal warily, in case it should get back up and come for them again, and as a result he did not see when Sheva shut her eyes hard against the memory that his words had inadvertently conjured up in the wake of her attack.
Partner. My desert hawk.
Will this old pain ever go away? she thought wearily as she opened her eyes to the sickening sound coming from the dog on the ground. The thing had gotten to its feet, and its head, partly ruined by her strike, seemed to be coming apart at the seams. Had her mental faculties not been preoccupied, she might have been disturbed by the image. As it was, she got her shotgun out again and stepped forward, ready to fire when it sprang.
Chris shot it point blank down the gullet, which had opened up longways, up-down rather than side-to-side, splitting the dog in half to the neck to reveal teeth and tentacles jutting out of the whole sick, crimson mess. It shuddered, but did not topple, and Sheva walked up and fired as well.
It went down, leaving her briefly to her thoughts. This was twice in as many hours that she had thought of Hatsa and the other guerillas, and it left a bitter taste in her mouth. Grief was a cold pain, but an honest one. This pain was nothing like honest.
No time for that. Chris was moving forward. She followed him, vowing not to spend any more time today looking backwards. Those days – what she had done – what she had left behind – those things were no longer relevant.
It was a tense few minutes, navigating their way through the shipment yard, and when they came out, it was to a courtyard full of enemies.
Sheva's mind bucked the last vestiges of unease and went into combat mode as she pulled out her handgun and lined up the sights with one of the two crossbowmen standing up on the crates lining the courtyard, ready to shoot them. It clapped a hand to its head a moment before the report split the air, and the fight was on.
A dog that had been standing next to the crossbowman leapt down to come for her. Another crossbowman was aiming at her, and both she and Chris ducked back around the corner before the bolt flew, denting the container beside them. Sheva swapped handgun for shotgun and waited for the hound, which came around the corner and was promptly euthanized. Chris stepped out with his handgun and fired long for the crossbowman, got him in the neck, and fired once more as the man showed no signs of toppling. This one caught the head.
Now they had to contend with a very ugly opponent. Taller than Chris, all bulging muscles and snarling aggression, a large Majini dressed in nothing but a filthy pair of short grey pants strode forwards them, arms out to either throw some hooks or sweep one of them up in a crushing hug.
Chris tried his handgun, but the guy took two bullets to the skull without flinching. They both swapped to more powerful weapons, but even a couple of rifle rounds only had the big man Majini grabbing its head and growling angrily. This one was tough.
Chris looked around, perhaps for a way to get it down without wasting too much ammo, but saw nothing at a glance. Spotting nothing at a glance, he said, "Let's move on. Maybe we can find an explosive barrel or something."
She nodded. This one would be easy enough to avoid, as he – it – did not look very agile. That said, if they encountered too many forces up ahead, they could end up being surrounded. Still, risks needed to be taken. They ducked around the Majini and moved on.
Dogs and crossbowmen, they'd need to get down as they appeared. Anything else, they'd want to try on evading for the sake of ammo conservation. Now they made for a large, heavy gate across the yard, heaving on it together as the Majini came up behind them.
As soon as the gate was open a couple of feet, they slipped through and slammed it closed again. Chris spotted a heavy chain on the ground nearby, attached to the wall, and just as the Majini started heaving on the gate, he looped it through the handle and tied it off.
The gate opened an inch or two, then stopped. The Majini howled. They were through.
To their right, the northeast, stretched a large bridge. She thoughts this was the river that fed fresh water into the swamp, and the main source of water for the town. She'd heard the locals talking about the bitterness of the water in the swamp recently, which she thought safe to attribute to saltwater intrusion. The more freshwater they took out of the swamp, the more saltwater seeped in to replace it.
The bridge was partly broken down. They ran for the gap and jumped it easily enough, but as they did, a loud, blaring horn sounded from the far end. A moment later, a battered old van belching black exhaust pulled around the corner, heading straight towards them.
"It's coming right for us," Sheva remarked.
Chris grunted, and she noticed several barrels lining the structure. One word was stamped across them in Swahili. Kerosene.
"Incidentally, those barrels may be full of kerosene," she added conversationally. Chris grunted again, this time more optimistically, and took aim as the van approached.
It had passed mere feet from the barrel, which must have been completely full of the explosive liquid. The ensuing blast sent the vehicle crashing into the side of the bridge and toppling onto its side. Smoke billowed out from it. She saw someone stirring in shotgun, but they probably wouldn't be getting out easily, since their door was now up against the ground. Behind the van, however, many more shouts rang out, so there was no shortage of enemies.
Chris ran for the van and quickly climbed up it, avoiding the burning parts. Sheva followed him. From up there they had a good view of the approaching mob. Three crossbowmen stood sliding bolts into their weapons, but they weren't far enough away to be out of range of simple handgun fire. In a moment they were all clutching their eyes and faces, and as the last half dozen foot soldiers reached the vehicle, Chris said, "Let's see if we can't make it into that building up ahead without wasting more than…oh, half a dozen more bullets on these guys?"
"Half a dozen together, or apiece?" she asked.
He smiled tightly, but did not clarify. Instead, he jumped clean over the mob's head, she followed him, and before they could regroup and come after them he'd fired at the next barrel of kerosene, which was just a few feet from the van's wreckage.
A couple of the Majini went flying over the side of the bridge, and the rest were either running around on fire or unmoving on the ground. More were coming up, though, some from the building and others from the left side of the bridge, but not so many that they couldn't get past them. They ran forward, Sheva popping off a shot to get through the thick of them, and got into the building with no further trouble.
Sadly, the building was a bust. Storage crates rose all around them, walling them off from the rest of the room. They could scale them given enough time, but not with a dozen enemies on their trail. Outside there was another explosion as Chris fired off his second shot – no doubt hitting the last kerosene barrel – and she came back out and said, "Alternative route?"
Chris fired once more – that made four between them – and punched another Majini off the bridge. Then he took off to the right, as the left was blocked. Sheva followed and hoped for the best. There were still eight enemies behind them.
A set of stairs led down to the water, but along the concrete walkway there was a tall sewer-grate. An unpleasant proposition, but it was their only way forward, so they both started in.
"Take point," Chris said gruffly. She did. "And get out your shotgun. I've never met a sewer that wasn't full of monsters. Literally, never."
Sheva frowned and did as he advised. "How many monster-ridden sewers have you been in?"
"Too damn many."
Her mouth twitched up a moment before the first dog came splashing around the corner.
Chris fired from behind her, sending the dog skidding down in the four or so inches of water they were now stepping in. She noted with relief that it did not smell like sewage, so she suspected this was actually just a drainage pipe from the inlet. Greywater at the very worst. She wanted to stab the dog as it thrashed in the water, but she stepped aside and left this to Chris, as one of them needed to keep their gun forward in the event of further attack.
The Majini were coming up behind them. Four more dogs came around the corner up ahead. This was not good.
Then, behind her, Chris said, "Frag ahead. Take cover!"
Her eyes widened and she stepped well back. Chris tossed the frag grenade towards the oncoming pack. Then he positioned himself between her and it, pressed them both into the wall, and covered his head with his arm. She heard him grunt lightly in discomfort as the blast went off. Behind his bulky form, the concussion barely even ruffled her hair.
Water sprayed over them and the dogs were torn apart with short, canine screams. Sheva fired her shotgun at the approaching crowd when they drew close, sending them reeling back. That made six bullets on the mob. Then Chris pushed off the wall, said, "Let's go," and pushed onward.
Ugh. Good lord, it had been a long time since she'd been exposed to a grenade in an enclosed space. She'd forgotten how wretchedly jarring it was, and she'd caught the least of it. Ear protection aside, her whole head was ringing.
They turned a few corners. Up ahead, light shone down a hallway that rose a few inches out of the water. A gate stood between them and it, but a push from Chris found it unlocked, and once through, an examination from her found it lockable. She threw the bolt, Chris kicked it in to warp it for good measure, and the last of their pursuers found their pursuit stopped cold.
They stood panting a moment. Then Chris said, "So, six bullets and a grenade between us? Not too bad."
"Factoring in the dogs, not bad at all. Are you alright?"
He reached back and winced. "Mighta caught a bit of shrapnel. Think you could check it out before we run into any more…Majini?"
She nodded, and clicked on her light to check his shoulders as he turned away from her. She bit her tongue upon seeing a shard of metal poking through a small gap in his vest. Thankfully, pulling it out revealed it to be very small. A centimeter past the skin at most. Painful, but not damaging, not for a man as heavily built as Chris.
She pulled the superglue and disinfectant spray out and treated the wound rapidly. As she did, she said, "Thank you for covering me like that."
"Don't worry about it," he said casually. "I figured there wasn't any point in both of us catching the blast."
This made sense. It still didn't lessen her appreciation. He'd interposed himself without hesitation to blunt the shock for her. It may have been second-nature to him, and only to be expected given their dynamic, but it wasn't the sort of thing she'd been raised with. The guerillas would never—
Stop, she told herself harshly. Three times was too much. She could not allow that fear, that self-centered anxiety, to prey on her now. Times were different. Her situation was different. Chris was different. And above all, she was different.
She wasn't a traitor.
She waited a few moments for the superglue to dry. Once it had, she stepped back and said, "Alright, you're good. Let's move on."
When they approached the stairwell, Theron held up a hand for silence. If there were more guards out there, they needed the element of surprise on their side. Alyssa felt a bitter taste of fear as she realized that things could potentially be about to get hairy again, and gripped her gun a little tighter.
They'd stocked up like mad in the security supplies closet. Theron and Alyssa were both armed to the teeth, ammo filling every extra pocket. The grenades, as it turned out, were only flash grenades, but still useful. There had been a rifle on the wall, but it was only a tranquilizer gun, loaded with sedatives. This was something she felt comfortable with, so she'd taken it. And it would come in majorly handy if they had any security dogs around. Larger animals could take a shocking amount of damage without dying, but a tranquilizer in the shoulder would have them snoozing in moments. She also had a lightweight, spacy backpack into which the access cards and a few spare implements had gone.
Kyle had opted to take two stun guns; Sarah, a taser, in case anything got up close and personal with her. There had been pepper spray, but they hadn't offered her any. If they gave it to Sarah, who no doubt would have snapped it up, she might have been tempted to use it willy-nilly. That stuff was dangerous if you didn't know how to use it, though, and she might have been just as much a threat to them as to their enemies.
David had also tentatively accepted a taser, but Ruth and Mal hadn't wanted anything. Ajay, too, was adamant. No weapons, even non-lethal ones. Devout pacifist. Theron had seemed irritated with him over this. Alyssa was a bit disappointed that he was to utterly unwilling to fight for any of them, himself included, but she'd said nothing.
There had also been two combat vests. They would have been absurdly bulky on her, but Kyle and Theron were able to wear them. Kyle's fit him perfectly. Theron, who was a bit more narrow-shouldered, found his just a touch baggy. Armed and armored, they'd moved along.
They'd gone over what to do when they reached the stairs while they'd gotten equipped. Now they were here, and Theron stepped out into the well and began sliding up the stairs quickly, gun aimed upward, keeping to the wall.
Alyssa was also aiming upward, at a different lip than Theron was covering. The stairwell wasn't the switchback kind, but rather, went up in a square, leaving four ledges to cover on each level. She waited until he was up one full rise, opposite her, before she started up as well. He slowed down a bit, and they started moving at the same pace, facing towards each other, weapons aimed upward to cover the ledge directly above the other. They had each other's blind spots.
Theron was in the most dangerous position, taking point. Alyssa respected him for this, and appreciated it to no end. If the worst came for them, it would likely hit him first. Thankfully, the worst did not come for them as they made their way up the three risers to the next floor. Indeed, nothing came for them at all.
Unfortunately, the reason for this was plain. This stairwell did not go all the way up to ground level. The short ascent ended in a doorway labeled Subfloor Five, Stairwell Access.
Theron said, "Well, looks like this'll be a longer trip than I thought. Hope they aren't all like this. Ok, guys, come on, move up!"
Kyle yelled, "Is it safe?"
Theron replied, "No, we're in the middle of a shootout and we need backup. Yes, it's safe! Come on!"
Alyssa chuckled drearily. Going by the odd burst of boyish humor, it sounded like Theron was invigorated by the prospect of advancing through enemy territory. She, however, had been a lot more comfortable sitting on the sofa back in the security rec room. He was much more cut out for this than she was.
As the others came up, they conferred. "Okay," Theron said. "Here's the plan. We'll try to locate a map like the one we found on the first story. That was near the middle of the floor, close to the elevator, so that's what we'll try for. Alyssa and I will take point moving out of here, but once we're in the halls we'll go back to me taking the front and her covering the rear. We'll stick to the 'if trouble's coming, hit the floor' plan, okay?"
"Okay," Kyle said. He was bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet again. "Do you want me anywhere?"
Theron thought about it. "Hm. Yeah, up front with me, but be ready to reposition if I need you to. I might ask you to cover the rest of the group if we get attacked, so be ready to defend them. You good with that?"
Kyle flexed impressively. "No problem. Leave it to me."
"Good. Let's move."
Theron stood with his hand against the door, ready to push. He looked at her, and she realized that she ought to be with him. She swallowed thickly, stepped up, and they pushed on.
Their guns were out, but they were once again met with no resistance. The halls here were just as dark as the ones downstairs. They were just the same pale concrete lined with doors, red emergency lights glinting faintly off the windows, and the halls went both to the right and straight ahead. Straight was probably the way they wanted to go, if they were aiming for the center of the floor.
They started down that way. Every now and then, Theron would pause, try a door – most of them were locked, but a few weren't – and look around for supplies. There hadn't been any food in the security station, and they were all getting hungry. Combined with how on-edge they were at the thought of getting swarmed by more security guards, or heaven forbid B.O.W.s, the mood was steadily shifting towards severe negativity.
They came across what looked like a break room, but it was locked. It had a window on it though, that Tricell logo plastered across it, and Theron raised his gun and knocked the glass out. The sound, shockingly loud after the last ten minutes of silent creeping, made Ruth gasp and David jump.
Theron reached through and unlocked the door from this side, then pushed it open. Once they were all in, he said, "Look around for food. I'll keep an eye on the door."
They did. Most of the cabinets only held coffee and filters and stuff (the coffee machine was powered down, the pot empty), but in an adjoining room was a refrigerator. Opening this revealed a few Tupperware boxes, one rather large and labeled LASAGNA – 03/04.
David asked, "What's the date today?"
Kyle still had the phone. He pulled it out and said, "March sixth, why?"
"This lasagna's probably still fresh."
Alyssa wasn't a big lasagna fan, but she'd take it if there was nothing else. That said, as David started pulling the Tupperware boxes out and setting them on the table, it started to look like there would be enough variety for everyone to have something they liked. All the food except for the lasagna, which seemed to have been a community dish, was named, so this was probably all the researchers' lunches. Mal picked at one of those big snack platters – cheese, meats, veggies, hummus, all that jazz. There was an extra-large sweet pecan salad that suited Ajay just fine (it didn't surprise Alyssa to learn that he was a vegetarian). David and Kyle tore into the lasagna, Alyssa tossed Theron a big ol' turkey sandwich, which he thanked her for kindly, and she got to enjoy a huge bowl of some kind of cheesy, tuna pasta. All of this was eaten cold, but that was fine by her. She'd noticed that microwaving took the flavor out of a lot of foods. Nothing quite like leftover bacon fresh out of the fridge.
Sarah and Ruth were both bothered by the idea of eating food that they hadn't prepared, but a search of the upper cabinets revealed a few cans of soup. Sarah wasn't thrilled with cold soup right out of the can, but Ruth managed a smile and sat down to drink some chicken noodle, happy to enjoy a nice, processed, run-of-the-mill meal. Sarah finally settled with two cans of vegetable beef. The remaining can, one clam chowder, went into a bag, which David offered to carry. They also took a box of crackers, a dozen granola bars, and a jar of instant coffee in case they stumbled across some hot water. They refilled their water in the sink. Stomachs and larders full, they moved along.
The halls were totally silent as they walked. After a few more minutes, Kyle asked, "You'd think they'd have, like, security cameras or something?"
Alyssa expected Theron to shush him, but instead he replied, albeit more quietly, "I'm sure they must have them somewhere. It's possible that they went down with the partial lockdown, though. Sometimes wires get crossed on things like that, the wrong things lose power. That, or they know where we are and are just out of security to throw at us."
"Let's hope," David said emphatically. "I mean, I'd never heard gunfire in my life until today. And, you know, that first day we were here. Ugh."
Ruth made a small, distressed sound as David's words reminded them all of that incident. "Why are we even here?" she asked. "What did we do to deserve this?"
Sarah joined in. "I don't think there's any reason in particular we're here," she said flippantly. "No reason at all. They just happened to pick us up because they needed people to test out their sick bio-shit on. Lab rats."
Ajay spoke next, rubbing the stubble on his chin. "Actually, I don't know if that's true. I was raised to believe that everything has a purpose, even if we can't understand it from where we're standing. I mean, they've gone through all the trouble of separating and classifying us. What's the deal with our labels, for instance? What makes 84-A-1 different from 84-B-1, or 84-C-1?"
Alyssa considered this, looking between Theron, David, and Mal. They were all the 84-X-1s, but they were all completely different. But it's not like there's any immediately discernable link between any of us based on the other numbers, she thought. She, Ajay, Sarah, Theron, and Kyle were the A's. David and Ruth were the B's. Mal was the C. Ajay made a good point – why? What characteristics were being used to classify them?
"Who cares?" Sarah asked. "Probably just serial numbers, so they can reference us without having to use our names."
"Names are one of the first things to go when you're dehumanizing people," Theron pointed out. "It's a lot harder to hurt someone when you see them as a person rather than just a specimen or a number."
"Or an enemy combatant," Alyssa added. Theron did not respond to that.
Ajay shook his head. "Maybe that's part of it; but if it was just serial numbers, they'd probably use a string of digits, like 34761 or something. But I've seen them write down our designations. We have number-letter classification, divided by dashes. That's some kind of organization. I think we're here for a purpose. Us, specifically."
"Well, whoop-de-freakin'-do for us, specifically," David said, waving his hands and twiddling his fingers sarcastically. "I'd have been just perfectly happy if they'd picked some other nice guy, myself. But hey, it's good to know I'm wanted."
Alyssa laughed, and David looked pleased.
They fell back into silence. It took maybe another twenty minutes to find what they were looking for, and the whole walk was tense and boring. Still, nothing but empty halls and mostly-locked rooms, the creepy red light of the emergency lighting strips lining the walkway. Finally, they found the map showing the outline of this floor, and as below, it was more or less in the middle of the facility.
Kyle took a picture, then handed the phone to Theron so he could lead them right. Nothing was said besides, "Stairs are this way. Not too far. Looks like there's a big lab between us and it, though, so we'll need to be careful about that. Let's go."
They made their way to the lab and stopped outside of it. Theron crept up to the doors and looked through the double windows, and whatever he saw made him tense. He crept back to them and said, "There's someone in there. Looks like a researcher."
"Just one person?" Ajay asked. "And not a guard? We should be able to get past him without having to kill him, right?"
Theron's eyebrow twitched, but Kyle quickly said, "Yeah, totally. Worst case scenario, maybe I can use my stun gun. But it would be way better if we could get some information out of him, right?"
Theron sighed. "Yeah, no doubt. But I don't like this. From what I can see, we're mostly in a straight run at this point, going stairwell to stairwell. This could be an ambush. There are a lot of places for more guards to hide in there. Just because we haven't heard anything on their channel doesn't mean they aren't there."
Alyssa had remained tuned in to both Security and Command on her radios, and she'd promised to let them know if anything came on the line. Nothing had so far, though.
"Well, is there a way around the lab?" She asked. "I'd rather not go in there if we don't need to."
Theron checked the phone, then nodded. "Yeah, actually, there is. And I don't like the idea of walking into an ambush, either. That guy is probably just there to lure us in, make us think there's nothing to worry about. There are two halls that bypass it, though. Let's take one of those."
It was no use, though. They went one way, and upon reaching the hallway that Theron mentioned, they found it blocked with a pair of heavy metal doors. No key card access. The floorplan being symmetrical, it wasn't surprising to find the same impediment down the other hall.
They returned to the lab. "Well, no choice," Theron said gravely. "Through the lab it is."
Alyssa looked at him closely. His voice was grave, but his eyes were bright. He really was invigorated by the idea of a fight.
Or maybe he was psyching himself up for it, and was just as scared as she was. There was something about Theron that was making it hard for her to get a bead on him. Everyone else she could understand to a certain degree. Ruth and David were scared witless, but trying to keep calm and positive for everyone else's sake. Sarah's fear, also clearly potent, was manifesting as stress and anger. Kyle, she thought, was too hyper and distracted to maintain continuous anxiety like the rest of them. As for Ajay, she suspected that he might be more scared than his outward calm was letting on…but then, maybe he wasn't. He possessed an innate tranquility that she was frankly envious of, one that was only disrupted by violence.
But Theron? She just wasn't sure. Was he afraid, or excited? Was he confident, or uncertain? Angry, depressed, neutral? She just couldn't figure him out.
Nevermind. It didn't matter now. What mattered was getting through the next room alive, and moving on from there, and he was the best guy to get that done. To that effect, she asked, "What's the plan?"
He didn't even hesitate before replying. "Simple. You and I will go through first, with Kyle just behind the doors, ready to join in if we need him. There's very little cover in the center of the room, but it looks like there are counters and tables set away from the walls, making a sort of alley that rings the whole lab. Guards will most likely be there. Unfortunately, if they are, they'll be on both sides of the room, which means we'll need to split up to avoid being pinned. I'll go right, you go left. We'll each sweep the sides, shooting to kill. We'll ignore the scientist, but Kyle, you keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't try anything. If you hear gunfire starting up, come in and be ready to use your stun guns to hit anyone that pops up from the edges. Stay low, avoid return fire. As for the rest of you, be ready to run if things go south. Head back to the security room and…well, the rest will be up to you. Clear?"
Alyssa and Kyle nodded. The rest of the group looked about the same way they had in the Comm Center downstairs – petrified at the idea that the two people they were relying on for protection might be about to get themselves killed.
Alyssa sighed, but nodded. She didn't know exactly what to expect of the next room, but whatever it held, she knew it wasn't going to be good.
OoO
Haha yeah, Irving is totally chill. The chillest. Can't find a chiller guy. Well, my athletic friend is in town, so as much as I'd like to edit a few more chapters of this story, find the secret room in Samsara Room, and spend the rest of my day getting ready for my big expedition in Subnautica, I'm going to go for a jog instead.
Dang athletic friend.
Glad, as always, that you're all enjoying the story so far. Have a delightful day, and I'll see you in a couple more.
Sincerely,
The Topaz Dragon