Chapter 6
Waking up at eight o'clock, Ana blinked the sleep out of her eyes and started to climb out of her bed. The small room that they'd been assigned to was set up with two bunk beds on opposing walls, and the only door in or out in between them. The walls and floor were made of dark concrete and were cold to the touch. The lack of light kept the room in a constant dream-like state, and, with the exception of the light coming from the opened door, the dark swallowed most of the light.
She placed her feet down on the ground and a chill ran up her legs, across her spine, and ended with a shake back down the same path. The feeling pulled her from her cozy sleep and brought her to the reality of the day. Her eyes took in the surroundings and it showed that she was the last one to leave. Kenneth's bunk, the one on the opposite side of the room, was made and neat. The bed above her, Terry and Nicole's, was also empty, but it wasn't made.
The door had been left open by the last person to leave, and she slowly made her way in the direction. She had found a pair of pajamas in a small closet next to their beds. She hadn't thought to change back into her clothes as she made her way out the large, heavy door.
She entered the long stretch of corridor and realized that it was completely devoid of life. The amount of light was the same no matter what time of the day it was, and that, about all else, unnerved her beyond articulation. The only sound was that of water dripping onto metal pipes. The patter of it was like an undeveloped music.
A cold draft flowed through the corridor from an unknown source and it made the lights sway back and forth slightly. The shadows that were cast from the lights grew and shrunk as if they were alive and waiting for prey. Ana wrapped her arms around herself to retain some of her own body heat as she started to move down the hallway.
The first person that her eyes beheld for the day was Phil, walking in her direction with his assault rifle in hand. His eyes wore heavy bags under them that were dark and made him look years older than he was. His face was a mix of sorrow and anger; it was the only face Ana had ever seen him make. The fact that he reminded her of Michael made her uneasy around him. Seeing his face forced her to remember a dream that she'd had that night about the man that she'd started to fall for. The same man that had to take his own life because he was doomed to become one of the monsters outside.
"Hey, Ana, right?" He made it a question. By the time that his words came out of his mouth they were face to face. Up close it appeared that he'd been awake for hours.
"Yeah, have you seen any of my roommates?" Keeping her eyes on the floor, Ana didn't think that she'd be able to look at him in the eyes and keep the tears from falling from hers.
"Um, I think I saw that little red head in the Mass Hall talking to Scott. The conversation seemed a little heated, so I don't know how much longer she will be there though", he pointed his thumb back behind him. "I haven't seen anyone else and that's kinda my job for the time being." He repositioned his hands on the assault rifle.
"What do you mean 'your job'?"
"Wilkers gives us different jobs every day. Today, my job is to go around and keep track of everyone and make sure they don't go around snooping." There was a sarcastic tone that showed that he didn't think the job was necessary.
Without another word, Ana brushed past Phil in an almost disrespectful manner. She wouldn't admit it to herself, but she wanted to hate him for looking like Michael. Her feet patted on the ground as she made the distance between them greater.
The corridor looked the same as it had the night before, although she hadn't memorized its twists and turns yet. After a few minutes of walking she started to realize that there were a lot of rooms that hadn't been covered by Scott's tour and it made her wonder if Wilkers would have any reason to keep things from her group. Most of the doors that she passed didn't have any labels, and the few that she tried to open were locked. She shook off the idea when she heard voiced farther down.
The sounds echoed down the hall and made them sound closer than they were. Another few minutes of walked and she found Nicole and Scott having a heated discussion. He was setting at a table in an almost comfortable manner, but Nicole was standing, pointing a finger at him, and had a tense presence.
"You had no right to hurt him like that", she said as her finger moved around, always pointed at him. "You're freakin' trained for Christ's sake!"
"He lunged at me! I was just defending myself", Scott replied. "You can't tell me that you wouldn't have done the same." It was his turn to point a relaxed finger at her.
"What's going on here?" Ana spoke up. At the mall she'd become the median that kept most of the people in check for most of the time. The position spilled over onto the ship, and now in the silo.
A shameful look came over to Ana from Nicole's eyes and she remained completely silent. Scott's gaze flicked from Nicole to Ana then back to Nicole. His face had gone from defensive to a blank, unreadable mask. He seemed to watch from Nicole's reaction before he was going to say anything.
"Well?" Ana wasn't willing to give it up. From what she had heard, some one had gotten hurt and Nicole was upset about it, which meant that it was probably Terry.
"Early this morning, I went to take a shower and Scott was in there", she started and then took a deep breath as if she didn't know whether she could finish or not. "Terry followed me in and thought that I was staring at him and so he got furious. He tried to hit Scott and got hurt instead." She took a long pause and Ana thought that her story was finished. "Terry told me to leave the shower and I did because I knew that he was going to be unreasonable, and then when I went back to find him he wasn't there. That was about four hours ago and I don't know where he is." By this time she had a single tear rolling down her cheek. Her beautiful blue eyes were sparkling with the moisture of pain and sorrow.
"I offered to help find him, but she refused. She said it would only make him angrier", Scott piped in.
"That was probably a good idea, but it could be dangerous in here if we don't find him. I think we should all go out and search this place until he turns up", Ana said.
The trio stood up in preparation to go out, and then they all split up.
Dr. Moran was getting dressed, eyes locked on Christina. She was completely nude with the exception of blood and thicker fluids that were coming out of several wounds. Her eyes stayed focused on Moran as he moved around to get he clothes.
"Christina, give me my pants", he said it as he buttoned up his white, collared shirt. Her eyes stayed on him as if she hadn't heard his command. "Damn it, why must you be so difficult?" He tried to think of a way to rephrase his words so that it would process with her. Of the two trained reanimated people that he had, she was the slowest. "Christina, bring my pants", he said.
Something flicked in her dead eyes and she searched the ground. Like a dog that has just spotted a steak, she focused on the pants and walked over to pick them up. With them in her hands, she walked over to Moran and handed them to him.
"Thank you, Christina." He smiled and tried to run his fingers through her hair but it was too tangled. "Soon, it will be just you, Bub, and I. Sgt. Wilkers wont even see it coming." His smile broadened just a bit as he looked at her.
Kenneth had found a wall that aroused an intuition in him that he couldn't explain. All of the walls were the same color throughout the silo, but this one was just a few shades lighter. He'd waken up at seven o'clock to take a shower, there he found Terry. They'd decided to take a walk around the compound to become familiar with it. For Terry it had been a chance to take his mind off of Nicole, for Kenneth it had been a chance to learn as much about the silo as possible.
The two men stood in front of the wall, looking at it. Terry didn't think that it was anything to get excited about, but Kenneth had a different opinion. He had both hands placed on the cool surface, feeling it for differences in the other walls. He knocked on it a few times and found that it was hollow on the other side.
"So, how did you notice this anyway?" Terry was trying everything to get the picture of his girlfriend looking at a naked guy out of his head.
"When I was a pilot in the Army they thought us to notice everything. If you go out on a rescue mission, you have to be able to see everything."
"You were in the Army? You never told us that", Terry looked at the walls from a distance to see if he could pick up on the difference in color.
Kenneth got a smirk on his face. "There's a lot about me that yall don't know", he replied. It was true; Kenneth had kept to himself in the mall and on the boat. "There is defiantly something on the other side of this wall. The million-dolla question is, what is it?"
Sgt. Wilkers looked at the many screens in his control room. There were over one hundred and fifty hidden cameras scattered throughout the silo, and he could access any of them from his personal room. His fingers were busy typing on the small keyboard that sat in front of him. The largest of the screens zoomed in on Kenneth and Terry. A large frown showed on the reflection of the screen where Wilkers was very disappointed.
Jones was standing behind Wilkers and she could see the frown on his face. He was sitting, so he only came up to her chest. Wilkers and Jones were the only two that knew about what was behind the wall and they knew what it would mean if Kenneth found out.
"...I was a pilot in the..." Wilkers' face grew even more uneasy.
"You know what this could mean? The helicopter is on the other side of that wall. If they access the hidden elevator, they can find the only fucking way out of here."
"I know, honey", he said. As his words dripped out of his mouth her body shook in disgust. "It was a good idea, right? I mean, keeping the helicopter from everyone else was a good idea." He was searching for reassurance.
"Of course it was. Scared rats will always try to desert a sinking ship. Keeping it to ourselves insure our safety without having to risk someone else trying to take it from us", she paused for a second. "It was your best idea."
"I thought you were the one that thought of it." He spun his swivel chair to face her.
"No, remember babe, you came up with it", she smiled as she said it.
"Oh yeah."
"Listen, he is a pilot and he is on the verge of finding the helicopter. What are you going to do?" The gears of paranoia started to turn in his head as she spoke to him and his frown got even bigger. "He is stronger and smarter than we are and he wants us out of the picture." She was stroking his weakness and it was working perfectly.
"I'll get right on it."
Author's Notes: Hey, Chase's Aces here! I hope you guys like the revelations that I made in this chapter. The plot is thickening, no? Where could this all be going? Only I know and you can only read to find out. I can't wait to get this one done because I am keeping myself in suspense! Please read and review and tell me what you think. A special shout out to SparkingDiamond, themightypen, and maul!
Waking up at eight o'clock, Ana blinked the sleep out of her eyes and started to climb out of her bed. The small room that they'd been assigned to was set up with two bunk beds on opposing walls, and the only door in or out in between them. The walls and floor were made of dark concrete and were cold to the touch. The lack of light kept the room in a constant dream-like state, and, with the exception of the light coming from the opened door, the dark swallowed most of the light.
She placed her feet down on the ground and a chill ran up her legs, across her spine, and ended with a shake back down the same path. The feeling pulled her from her cozy sleep and brought her to the reality of the day. Her eyes took in the surroundings and it showed that she was the last one to leave. Kenneth's bunk, the one on the opposite side of the room, was made and neat. The bed above her, Terry and Nicole's, was also empty, but it wasn't made.
The door had been left open by the last person to leave, and she slowly made her way in the direction. She had found a pair of pajamas in a small closet next to their beds. She hadn't thought to change back into her clothes as she made her way out the large, heavy door.
She entered the long stretch of corridor and realized that it was completely devoid of life. The amount of light was the same no matter what time of the day it was, and that, about all else, unnerved her beyond articulation. The only sound was that of water dripping onto metal pipes. The patter of it was like an undeveloped music.
A cold draft flowed through the corridor from an unknown source and it made the lights sway back and forth slightly. The shadows that were cast from the lights grew and shrunk as if they were alive and waiting for prey. Ana wrapped her arms around herself to retain some of her own body heat as she started to move down the hallway.
The first person that her eyes beheld for the day was Phil, walking in her direction with his assault rifle in hand. His eyes wore heavy bags under them that were dark and made him look years older than he was. His face was a mix of sorrow and anger; it was the only face Ana had ever seen him make. The fact that he reminded her of Michael made her uneasy around him. Seeing his face forced her to remember a dream that she'd had that night about the man that she'd started to fall for. The same man that had to take his own life because he was doomed to become one of the monsters outside.
"Hey, Ana, right?" He made it a question. By the time that his words came out of his mouth they were face to face. Up close it appeared that he'd been awake for hours.
"Yeah, have you seen any of my roommates?" Keeping her eyes on the floor, Ana didn't think that she'd be able to look at him in the eyes and keep the tears from falling from hers.
"Um, I think I saw that little red head in the Mass Hall talking to Scott. The conversation seemed a little heated, so I don't know how much longer she will be there though", he pointed his thumb back behind him. "I haven't seen anyone else and that's kinda my job for the time being." He repositioned his hands on the assault rifle.
"What do you mean 'your job'?"
"Wilkers gives us different jobs every day. Today, my job is to go around and keep track of everyone and make sure they don't go around snooping." There was a sarcastic tone that showed that he didn't think the job was necessary.
Without another word, Ana brushed past Phil in an almost disrespectful manner. She wouldn't admit it to herself, but she wanted to hate him for looking like Michael. Her feet patted on the ground as she made the distance between them greater.
The corridor looked the same as it had the night before, although she hadn't memorized its twists and turns yet. After a few minutes of walking she started to realize that there were a lot of rooms that hadn't been covered by Scott's tour and it made her wonder if Wilkers would have any reason to keep things from her group. Most of the doors that she passed didn't have any labels, and the few that she tried to open were locked. She shook off the idea when she heard voiced farther down.
The sounds echoed down the hall and made them sound closer than they were. Another few minutes of walked and she found Nicole and Scott having a heated discussion. He was setting at a table in an almost comfortable manner, but Nicole was standing, pointing a finger at him, and had a tense presence.
"You had no right to hurt him like that", she said as her finger moved around, always pointed at him. "You're freakin' trained for Christ's sake!"
"He lunged at me! I was just defending myself", Scott replied. "You can't tell me that you wouldn't have done the same." It was his turn to point a relaxed finger at her.
"What's going on here?" Ana spoke up. At the mall she'd become the median that kept most of the people in check for most of the time. The position spilled over onto the ship, and now in the silo.
A shameful look came over to Ana from Nicole's eyes and she remained completely silent. Scott's gaze flicked from Nicole to Ana then back to Nicole. His face had gone from defensive to a blank, unreadable mask. He seemed to watch from Nicole's reaction before he was going to say anything.
"Well?" Ana wasn't willing to give it up. From what she had heard, some one had gotten hurt and Nicole was upset about it, which meant that it was probably Terry.
"Early this morning, I went to take a shower and Scott was in there", she started and then took a deep breath as if she didn't know whether she could finish or not. "Terry followed me in and thought that I was staring at him and so he got furious. He tried to hit Scott and got hurt instead." She took a long pause and Ana thought that her story was finished. "Terry told me to leave the shower and I did because I knew that he was going to be unreasonable, and then when I went back to find him he wasn't there. That was about four hours ago and I don't know where he is." By this time she had a single tear rolling down her cheek. Her beautiful blue eyes were sparkling with the moisture of pain and sorrow.
"I offered to help find him, but she refused. She said it would only make him angrier", Scott piped in.
"That was probably a good idea, but it could be dangerous in here if we don't find him. I think we should all go out and search this place until he turns up", Ana said.
The trio stood up in preparation to go out, and then they all split up.
Dr. Moran was getting dressed, eyes locked on Christina. She was completely nude with the exception of blood and thicker fluids that were coming out of several wounds. Her eyes stayed focused on Moran as he moved around to get he clothes.
"Christina, give me my pants", he said it as he buttoned up his white, collared shirt. Her eyes stayed on him as if she hadn't heard his command. "Damn it, why must you be so difficult?" He tried to think of a way to rephrase his words so that it would process with her. Of the two trained reanimated people that he had, she was the slowest. "Christina, bring my pants", he said.
Something flicked in her dead eyes and she searched the ground. Like a dog that has just spotted a steak, she focused on the pants and walked over to pick them up. With them in her hands, she walked over to Moran and handed them to him.
"Thank you, Christina." He smiled and tried to run his fingers through her hair but it was too tangled. "Soon, it will be just you, Bub, and I. Sgt. Wilkers wont even see it coming." His smile broadened just a bit as he looked at her.
Kenneth had found a wall that aroused an intuition in him that he couldn't explain. All of the walls were the same color throughout the silo, but this one was just a few shades lighter. He'd waken up at seven o'clock to take a shower, there he found Terry. They'd decided to take a walk around the compound to become familiar with it. For Terry it had been a chance to take his mind off of Nicole, for Kenneth it had been a chance to learn as much about the silo as possible.
The two men stood in front of the wall, looking at it. Terry didn't think that it was anything to get excited about, but Kenneth had a different opinion. He had both hands placed on the cool surface, feeling it for differences in the other walls. He knocked on it a few times and found that it was hollow on the other side.
"So, how did you notice this anyway?" Terry was trying everything to get the picture of his girlfriend looking at a naked guy out of his head.
"When I was a pilot in the Army they thought us to notice everything. If you go out on a rescue mission, you have to be able to see everything."
"You were in the Army? You never told us that", Terry looked at the walls from a distance to see if he could pick up on the difference in color.
Kenneth got a smirk on his face. "There's a lot about me that yall don't know", he replied. It was true; Kenneth had kept to himself in the mall and on the boat. "There is defiantly something on the other side of this wall. The million-dolla question is, what is it?"
Sgt. Wilkers looked at the many screens in his control room. There were over one hundred and fifty hidden cameras scattered throughout the silo, and he could access any of them from his personal room. His fingers were busy typing on the small keyboard that sat in front of him. The largest of the screens zoomed in on Kenneth and Terry. A large frown showed on the reflection of the screen where Wilkers was very disappointed.
Jones was standing behind Wilkers and she could see the frown on his face. He was sitting, so he only came up to her chest. Wilkers and Jones were the only two that knew about what was behind the wall and they knew what it would mean if Kenneth found out.
"...I was a pilot in the..." Wilkers' face grew even more uneasy.
"You know what this could mean? The helicopter is on the other side of that wall. If they access the hidden elevator, they can find the only fucking way out of here."
"I know, honey", he said. As his words dripped out of his mouth her body shook in disgust. "It was a good idea, right? I mean, keeping the helicopter from everyone else was a good idea." He was searching for reassurance.
"Of course it was. Scared rats will always try to desert a sinking ship. Keeping it to ourselves insure our safety without having to risk someone else trying to take it from us", she paused for a second. "It was your best idea."
"I thought you were the one that thought of it." He spun his swivel chair to face her.
"No, remember babe, you came up with it", she smiled as she said it.
"Oh yeah."
"Listen, he is a pilot and he is on the verge of finding the helicopter. What are you going to do?" The gears of paranoia started to turn in his head as she spoke to him and his frown got even bigger. "He is stronger and smarter than we are and he wants us out of the picture." She was stroking his weakness and it was working perfectly.
"I'll get right on it."
Author's Notes: Hey, Chase's Aces here! I hope you guys like the revelations that I made in this chapter. The plot is thickening, no? Where could this all be going? Only I know and you can only read to find out. I can't wait to get this one done because I am keeping myself in suspense! Please read and review and tell me what you think. A special shout out to SparkingDiamond, themightypen, and maul!