Chapter 42
Later that night, Adara wrapped herself in her sleeping bag and lay down on one of the couches they had found in one of the lounges. Around her, other people were also bedding down. She let her mind float to all that they had accomplished that day. She couldn't believe that they had found this bunker only this morning, it felt like they had been here a few days. Murphy was shaping up to be an excellent security officer. He had rosters made of who would do sentry duty for the week. He had made four watches of six hours each. Six people on each watch. That made for 24 per day, almost a quarter of their people. It was a good start.
The biggest problem was food and water. They had enough cold food left for the morning, but she knew that they needed to find fresh food tomorrow, but with the mountain men roaming around, they had to be extremely careful. She would make sure Octavia kept her people on the lookout while others hunted or foraged. Hopefully, the maunon ceased being a problem soon.
Atom was going to search for a hidden tunnel out of the bunker. If he found it, they could use it for the hunters too. Adara was convinced that there was a way to get to Tondc without going above ground, they just had to find it.
She fell asleep with thoughts of what was still to be done on her mind.
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The next morning, she was eating her meagre rations and talking to her cabinet.
"Atom, search for the tunnel today," Adara said. "I want it found and see if it can be used to reach Tondc. If it is, we'll have a way for us to reach them and for them to reach us if needed. We don't know what's happening out there." Atom nodded while he continued to eat.
"Murphy, keep the scouting teams looking for other rooms we need like a comm centre or medbay. Kitchens and mess hall too, please." Murphy nodded, swallowing the last of his meal.
"I hear and obey," he said with a bow.
"Goofball," said Raven, good-naturedly. Everyone smiled.
"Monroe, make a start on picking your team and then go to that first storeroom and grab paper and pens and start making an inventory of it all."
"On it," said Monroe, wiping a few drops of water from her lips and getting up and leaving.
"What are you going to do?" asked Raven.
"I'm going to join one of the scouting teams and have a look around. Don't want to miss out on all the fun." Adara ate the last of her meal and drank the last of her allotted water. "Right, I'm going to the bathroom and then join a team. Have fun." She stood up and left the room.
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Two hours later and she was heading down to the fourth level. Murphy decided that two teams would search each level. As there were two teams searching level three, they moved down a level and started walking to their right, going in a large circle anti-clockwise. They found several locked rooms which they marked with one of the marker pens and moved to the next room.
"Who's good with picking locks?" asked Adara of Atkins, the scout leader.
"Erm… I think Angela, Lisa, Justin Giles and maybe Hannah. I'm not certain about Hannah, but I think she was in for stealing from a locked room."
"Okay. I think tomorrow I'll get them to start picking these locks. We need to know what's in the rooms." Atkins nodded.
"What's your first name, anyway?" Adara asked.
"James, but I prefer Jim."
"Alright, Jim, let's carry on. Who knows, maybe the next room is an important one and unlocked." Jim nodded and led the way.
Jim put his hand on the door and pushed the handle down. It opened and he pushed it all the way open. He stepped inside and the lights came on automatically like usual. What wasn't usual was the bank of computers around the perimeter of the room and the large console in the middle.
"Is this the command centre you were looking for?" Jim asked. Adara stepped through and looked around.
"I think so. Send one of your people to find Monty and get him down here ASAP. If Raven's there, bring her too." Jim nodded and sent one of them back. Adara took a closer look at the console and went over to it. She bent over it. There was a light blinking in the corner of the monitor. "Shit! This thing's still getting juice from somewhere!" she exclaimed. Jim came running over.
"Hot damn! How?"
"Don't know. We're underground so I don't think it's solar power. What else is there?" Adara asked. Jim shook his head, not knowing himself what it could be powered by. They stood there for a few minutes until they heard feet pounding down the corridor. Monty skidded to a stop in the doorway and looked around.
"There's a light on this monitor, Monty," Adara explained. "We didn't touch anything except the door." Monty made his way over and sat down on the relatively dust free chair.
"Okay, come to Papa," he said as he got to work waking the computer up.
"You okay with this, Monty?" asked Adara.
"Hmm?" said Monty, distracted by the computer.
"Never mind. We'll keep looking at the other rooms on this level. Shout out if you need anything." Monty kept working, already lost in the computers.
Adara shooed the others out of the room and back to scouting the level.
"There will be plenty of time to find out what he uncovers." Adara stated, moving back to the corridor and walking down to the next door.
She pushed it open and looked in. Another small storeroom, it was filled with computer paper, motherboards and other components that Adara didn't have a name for. She headed back to Monty.
"Monty… MONTY!" she raised her voice. Monty looked up at her.
"There's a storeroom next door with computer components in it." she told him. Monty grinned and nodded, then went back to work.
Adara shook her head and left. She caught up with her team as they looked into other rooms. Offices and conference rooms were all along the side with the command centre. They moved on to the next side and found more store rooms and some single bedrooms. Good, more beds for her people. The rest of that side were the same - stores and quarters.
The side opposite the command centre was different. There was a huge medbay taking up the entire length of the side. There were two wards and several individual rooms - no doubt for the higher ups - a surgical area with an operating theatre and washrooms and a recovery room beside it. At the other end were treatment rooms for less serious injuries. There were also medical storerooms and a small shower room with two showers, a toilet and a closet.
"Better find Clarke as well," said Jim. Adara nodded and he detailed another scout to find Clarke and bring her down. Adara opened one of the storerooms and pulled out several vacuum packed items. She looked at them and realised they were scrubs. There were different colours and Adara didn't know if that signified different medical practices. She put it back and picked up another package.
"Hospital gowns," said Clarke's voice from over her shoulder. "These will be useful for my patients. I'm gonna be down here awhile sorting through things. I left Raven in charge up there. I'll send for Tomika as soon as I've figured things out." Adara nodded and went back to her searching.
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Adara spent the rest of the day checking out the rooms on the fourth level. They found nothing new and determined that this was the central command centre. The offices would be given to the heads of each department for either meetings or actual work. The bedrooms would be used as extra hospital beds or for the hospital staff themselves if they needed to be near their patients.
Adara made her way back to Monty. She walked in to find him on his back under one of the computer consoles. She waited until he came out to speak.
"Got anything?"
"Not yet. These are old computers and so are their operating systems. I think I'll have something for you tomorrow," said Monty.
"Don't stay up all night with this, Monty. I need you fresh in the morning. One more hour and then I send Jasper down to get you with instructions to bring you back up to level two for lunch and further instructions to make sure you get some sleep tonight." Adara admonished.
Monty reluctantly nodded his head and went back to work. He was close, he could feel it, now if only he could find that loose wire or connection, then he would have it working.
Adara went up to the second level where Octavia's hunting group had found some nuts and berries as well as brought down a large deer. They had dressed it out in the woods and brought it back. They had skinned it just outside the hatch and then brought it and the pelt inside. They were debating on how to cook it when Tony, one of the other scout team personnel came rushing in.
"We found a kitchen!" he said, excitedly. Adara and Octavia ran after him as he disappeared back through the doorway. They ran down to the fifth floor. "Over there!" he said, pointing. They ran up to the door and stopped. The kitchen was huge! A door at the far end led into a mess hall with over 60 seats. Adara went one way and Octavia went another. They both checked out the equipment, making sure that any knobs or dials were turned back to where they were after they had tried them.
They were sure that the piece of equipment in front of them was a food heater of some sort, but not having actual ovens on the Ark, they didn't know for certain. They would have to go by trial and error. They checked the taps to see if they worked, but they heard a loud groan coming from the taps as a trickle of dirty brown water came out. They shut it down immediately.
"Someone go get Raven and bring her here, please," Adara said to the scout leader who nodded and sent Tony back to find her.
Raven came in and asked what she was here for. Adara just turned on the tap again, and again there was a horrible sound and a trickle of water. She shut it off immediately.
"That's the problem. The toilets on the upper floors work along with the sink taps and showers. This doesn't. Can you check it out please?" asked Adara, sweetly.
Raven knelt down and opened the cupboard under the sink. She held out a hand behind her.
"Light," she said and waited until someone handed her a light. She shone it around the cupboard, mentally tracing where the pipework should be and followed it. It turned right and went through the cupboard walls into the next one. Raven opened cupboards until she found where the pipe disappeared into the floor.
"It goes down to the next floor. I'll need a team to go with me to find out where it's at. I may need to follow the pipes right down to the bottom of the complex, though," Raven said, thoughtfully.
"Take this one," Adara said, pointing to Jim's team. "Go where you need to. If you find anything else of significance, tell me."
Jim and Raven nodded and they set off with the rest of his team. Adara decided to meet up with the other team on this level to see what they had found.
When she met up with them, Del - the leader of the team - said that there were just more offices and a few empty rooms that had nothing in them. Adara nodded and followed them as they went to the next room. This room was a bedroom, set up more like a child's room than an adults.
"Did you find any more bedrooms on this level?" Adara asked. "I mean, other than the empty rooms."
"No, none," replied Del.
"Okay, we're halfway down this side, maybe some more further on."
They didn't find any more bedrooms on the level though. It was a mystery why there was a child's bedroom set up on its own in the middle of a level with no other kids rooms around it.
After that, they moved down to level six.
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It was several hours later and they were getting ready to pack it up for the night when Megan shouted excitedly that she'd found more dormitories. Everyone rushed over to look. There were twenty four bunk beds in a huge room. There was a small cupboard for each bunk and plenty of room to move around. The bunks didn't have any bedding on them, though, but that didn't matter. There were now enough beds for everyone. Now all that was needed was for the room to be cleaned before it was used. A list was needed for who would sleep where.
"Okay, guys, until Raven gets the water sorted out, I don't want those toilets used in case there's no water to flush them." They all made faces of disgust and agreed to leave them well alone. It was all dependent on Raven. Megan said that she thought there might be other smaller dormitories further along. They checked them out and saw that they were rooms for ten people each. There were three such rooms. They left them and went back up to the second level for food and sleep. The cleaning of these dorms would wait another day.