End 5
The corridors wound and twisted, following stairs up and down all over the place. When they finally reached their destination, Sarah and Liz's room was small and plain. Two single beds faced the door and next to the door there was a table and a pair of chairs. A small door lead into a shower room and toilet and a huge bay window between the beds looked out onto what could have been any city seen from the top of a tower block. Only they knew it wasn't, because they were deep underground. Sarah watched the view out of the window bemused.
"There are people moving down there and the guy in the block opposite has just turned his light on."
"It's great isn't it. There's one in each room." Liz pushed a small panel open. "People used to complain that there wasn't enough natural light - I mean, what do they expect, we're under ground - and there were a hole load of holographic projectors dumped in one of the store rooms." She flicked a switch and the scene became the quiet countryside, again and it became a beach, once more and it became a show-covered mountaintop. "It only takes one to run one of these screens and it took hundreds to run whatever they had set up here before Ade took over. Every room had the best view in the hotel."
Sandra greeted all of the staff she recognised as she walked the halls towards the bar. David had already excused himself to the games room so she was sure he would be occupied for hours. Seizing the free table she had spotted in the bar, she didn't have long to wait before Adrian appeared, smiling and greeting people as he came. He sighed as he sat down beside Sandra.
"Hey Sand." He laughed. "Nice to see you."
"It's been too long Ade. You're looking tired." She frowned.
"This place is only getting busier, and things have been hard recently." She simply nodded, not ready to talk about her mother just yet.
"How's Tammy and your Dad? Are they still OK getting down here?"
"They're coming down slowly, they'll be OK. But" Adrian sighed again. "It sounds like Dad's getting ill, like you Mum did."
"How bad is it?"
"Oh, it's only in the early stages, but he's loosing control on a regular basis and Tammy says it's progressing faster than your Mum's did. He might not be with us for much longer." Sandra didn't need to ask what he was loosing control of. And it would have been too dangerous for Adrian to say it out loud, because to be a mutant - or a relation of a mutant - was an automatic death sentence, to be carried out by whoever felt they could. If you could prove your victim was a mutant all murder could be forgiven.
"Oh Ade, I'm so sorry." She took hold of his hands across the table, clasping them tight.
"I'm worried that that he might lose control during the funeral. It would put us all in danger."
"We'll just have to choose very carefully who comes, Ade. That's the only way we can do it. There are still people living here, aren't there? People who don't pay board?"
"Yes, there are ten. They'll all volunteer to help keep us safe without question, but I don't want to put them as risk, not for the sake of a funeral, Sand. Some of them are so sick they can't leave their rooms safely."
"We'll just have to be careful."