Desperate Measures
Chapter IV
Kat reached out and touched the rusting sign hanging next to the loading dock door. "VerroChem… I've heard that name before."
"Yeah," replied Barney as he struggled with the corroded lock on the door. "They were all over the news a couple of years before the Combine showed up. Some big scandal about illegal research or something. It put them out of business. Ah…there!" The lock finally gave in with a sullen snick.
The three others followed him into the cavernous interior. Removing his mask and pulling out a flashlight, Barney continued. "Anyway, early on when the resistance was just getting started, we stumbled onto a guy who used to work here. He told us about this huge underground complex where all the illegal research went on. VerroChem had kept it a secret through the whole uproar, so there was a good chance the Combine didn't know about it. So, we checked it out and he was right. There were even supplies and equipment left behind."
They had moved from the warehouse-sized storage area into what appeared to be the equally vast manufacturing floor. Moldering machinery filled the room, much of which had been cannibalized for parts. Picking their way across the dark, cluttered floor, the group traveled towards the front of the building.
The administrative section of the factory was comparatively empty. They advanced quickly through the unlit hallways to a large conference room. Barney walked to the back and pressed on one of the acoustic wall panels lining the wall. It swung open to reveal a tiny room containing only an elevator door and security console. He entered a code and the door slid smoothly open.
On the silent ride down, Kat observed the three men. They all looked tired and Josef had grown rather pale. He cradled his wounded arm but the bleeding appeared to have stopped. He leaned his stout body against the wall and stared at the ground. Nolan seemed to be incapable of stillness. He looked as if he was taking an inventory of the numerous pockets on his uniform.
Kat turned her gaze to Barney and found that his attention was already on her. He gave her a friendly smile and turned to the door as a soft chime rang. "Here we are."
They stepped out into a large circular reception area. Eight hallways radiated outwards at equal intervals, each outlined in a different color. The walls were decorated with city maps, anti-Combine propaganda and old family photos. A large clock on the wall read 11:49. Painted in the center of the floor was a large yellow lambda symbol within a circle. Kat followed the men as they walked towards the yellow hallway. Near the entrance a small sign read "Infirmary Hall".
"This place must be enormous," Kat commented as she saw the length of the hallway.
"It's big, but it's really easy to get around," replied Nolan. "It's just like a huge wheel with eight spokes. Everything is grouped together and color-coded. Hey, Barney, you want me to take this equipment to storage since were over here anyway?"
"Yeah," Barney handed his pack to Nolan. "Get this stuff put away, let Maria know we got the filters and then get some rest."
Nolan took the packs and continued down the hall as the other three entered a room labeled "Triage: Room 1". A tall, thin black woman stood up from a desk where she had been doing paperwork. "Ah, Josef, what have you done to yourself this time?" Her voice lilted with the rhythms of Africa.
As she guided Josef to a bed, she turned back to Barney and Kat. "And who is this new face, now?"
"This is Kat Orovjek," Barney replied. "She has a few issues she needs to work out with the Combine. So, it looks like she might be joining up with us. Kat, this is our favorite health professional, Dr. Amina Mbani."
Amina chuckled as she examined Josef's wound. "Always the charmer, Mr. Calhoun. Is your face hurt badly Ms. Orovjek?"
"No, it's just a scrape. Please, call me Kat."
"Very well, Kat, and you can call me Amina. Here, let me take a quick look at it." She moved away from Josef and took Kat's face in her long, slender fingers. She probed gently for a moment. "Yes, I think that you will survive. We'll just get it cleaned up after I'm done with Josef."
Barney turned to Kat. "If you're okay here, I'm going to take off. I've got to get some sleep before tomorrow. Amina will find someone to get you a place after she's done with you."
"Okay," Kat nodded.
As Amina tended to Josef's wound, other resistance members came and went through the room despite the late hour. Several were there to work in the infirmary, but they all stopped to chat with Amina and Josef. Kat watched these simple human interactions with mixed feelings of longing and envy.
Finishing with Josef, Amina sent him off with another health worker. She gently cleaned Kat's wound and announced that there would be no need for any sutures. She snapped off her latex gloves and stood decisively.
"Now, come with me. My shift was over a little while ago anyway. We'll find you a room and some clean clothes. And there are showers, if you'd like one." Walking to the door, she turned back to Kat with a smile, "We even have hot water."
Kat realized she must look awful, but she grinned at thought of an actual hot shower. "That would be… I don't know if I have the words for how wonderful that would be."
Amina laughed. "It's been awhile, eh? Well, we'll get you settled in and let you get some rest. The council will want to meet you tomorrow morning and decide what to do with you."
"Council? What will they want with me?"
"Oh, don't worry. They'll just want to evaluate your talents and figure out where you will fit best in our little family here. The council members are just representatives of the different divisions of the resistance: militia, research scientists, scavengers and so on. It's not nearly as official as it sounds. Most likely, it will just be Dr. Werner, Susan Holmes and maybe a couple of others. Werner fancies himself as the unofficial head of the council. Susan is the one to watch though. She knows every little detail about what goes on down here. Werner would be lost without her."
Amina laughed again at Kat's overwhelmed look. "Relax," she patted Kat's shoulder amiably. "It all seems a bit much at first. You'll fit in before you know it."
X X X
Kat stepped out of the shower, wrapping herself in the coarse towel as two weeks worth of filth spiraled down the drain. The hot water had made her feel relaxed and sleepy; a long forgotten sensation. She padded over to the sinks and wiped the condensation off the mirror. A stranger looked back at her. Kat had never had any illusions of being called beautiful, but she hadn't let it bother her. She always had found that there were more important things to life than makeup, hairspray and obsessing about her body.
She hadn't seen her own face in a mirror for quite some time. Her gray eyes had developed a haunted look and her once glossy chestnut hair was ragged and dull. There was a large scrape and a bruise developing at her left temple.
The scars on her body were a catalogue of the dreadful events she had experienced since the arrival of the Combine. Her right upper arm bore a small pucker where a Combine bullet had pierced it as she tried to flee the initial onslaught with her fiancé. The long scars on her left calf were courtesy of a zombie attack in a ruined building she had tried to shelter in after escaping the troops. Both forearms were mottled from cuts inflicted by headcrabs as she had tried to defend herself and conserve precious ammunition. The worst of the lot, though rather nondescript, had nearly killed her.
She had encountered a pair of strange creatures in a forest clearing while in search of other humans. They were the size of small deer and had long, slender legs. A short neck ended with a low-slung, flattened head sporting two enormous nostrils and a pair of compound eyes. Muscles rippled under the hairless, green and gold dappled skin. The creatures had fluted softly to each other and started trying to flank her. As they stalked closer, a double row of long golden spines rose ominously off their backs.
As soon as she realized their intent, Kat had drawn her weapon and fired on the closest one. Before she could turn to the second, something had slammed into her back, knocking her to the ground. She rolled over, expecting to find snapping jaws, but the creature was still crouched several yards away. It suddenly arched its back and sent a volley of spines hurtling at her. Kat flung herself back onto her stomach, feeling several more spines pierce her back and thighs deeply.
Rolling up onto a hip, Kat fired on the creature before it could attack again. It had fallen to the ground with a hissing shriek. Sobbing in pain, she had removed the barbed spines but the wounds continued to burn.
She had hobbled along for two more days, feeling the infection grow. On the third, she reached the edge of the forest and had been unable to continue. She had wandered into an open meadow, and decided it would be best to die where she could at least see the sky. Blazing with fever, she couldn't quite remember how to remove the safety on her weapon. Her hands felt swollen and useless. Kat sank to the ground, weeping in helpless frustration.
The sun was sinking and Kat thought she heard the voice of her fiancé, "…no, it's coming from over here…"
"I'm here… I'm here…" Her dry throat rasped unintelligibly.
Suddenly, huge figures were looming over her. They looked human, but their features slid around disturbingly on their distorted heads. Kat flailed at them fruitlessly. One pushed its face into hers and boomed, "Well, she still has some fight left. Let's get her back to the farm and let Doc have a look at her."
It had taken over two months for her to recover her strength. The small farm community had supported her until she was able to become a productive member. For two years she felt as though she had a home and a small semblance of normality. Two whole years of security, companionship and freedom.
Then the Combine had come again.
Kat shook herself from the painful memories. She toweled off her damp hair and turned to the pile of clean clothes Amina had left for her. This time would be different. There were others, all working towards the same goal. This time it wasn't just about survival. This time it was about freedom.
X X X
Kat sat cross-legged on her bed and surveyed the tiny room. There was the narrow bed, a footlocker and an old crate functioning as a bedside table. An unforgiving fluorescent light blazed from the ceiling. She smiled to herself. It felt like a suite at the Ritz.
She had awoken a few minutes ago and dressed quickly in the tattered but serviceable jeans, gray turtleneck and oversized black sweater. Her old clothes sat in the footlocker. Her hair was pulled back into it's customary thick braid. To keep from fidgeting while she waited for her escort, she meticulously cleaned her pistol.
A sharp knock sounded at the door. Kat opened it to find a short young woman standing outside. "Glad to see you're up already. I'm Diane. Ready?" Without waiting for an answer, she turned and headed off down the hall.
Taken aback by the woman's brusque manner, Kat closed the door and hurried after her. "I'm sorry, did I…"
"I have a lot of work to get done today," she huffed, her short brown ponytail bouncing with irritation as she marched down the hall. "Shepherding new recruits around is not real high on my priority list. Just because someone else has the sniffles, all the work gets dumped on me."
Kat gave a mental shrug and followed in silence. She wasn't about to let someone else's bad mood dampen her slowly growing sense of hope. Leaving the blue-tiled dormitory hallway, they turned right to travel clockwise around the outer ring of the facility. They passed only a few others who were also hurrying about on their own tasks.
Upon reaching the hall trimmed in a vivid orange, Diane came to a halt. She waved vaguely in the direction of the hall, "Just head down that way. It's about five or six doors on the right. You'll see the sign for Dr. Werner's office." With that, she turned on her heel and continued on her way, mumbling under her breath.
Kat shook her head and turned down the orange hallway. Nearing the office Diane had directed her to, she realized she could hear a deep voice with a German accent coming from the open door.
"…can't just bring in any stray that approaches you on the street. We need to have some security here!"
Kat couldn't hear the muffled response to this statement. The original voice continued.
"Your instincts are not in question. It's a simple matter of whether or not she can be trusted. Think of what you may have put at risk!"
Slowing her pace, Kat realized that they were talking about her. The second person responded clearly enough for her to now recognize Barney's voice.
"Claus, we won't get anything done if we don't take some risks. That's what the whole resistance thing is about! And as far as trust goes, how do you know you can trust any of us down here? I could be a spy for all you know. That's exactly what they want. If we start to think that way, we may as well just head on over to the Citadel and turn ourselves in."
"He's right, Claus," a female voice responded. "We'll just need to keep an eye on her for a while."
Sensing a lull in the conversation, Kat cleared her throat and gave a couple small coughs in the hope of announcing her presence in the hallway. She reached the office and tapped on the doorjamb.
"Come in, please." The German man Kat assumed was Claus waved her into the small meeting room. "Have a seat." He was a tall, burly man with an undisciplined head of thick reddish-brown hair and a comparatively tidy beard. This, along with a pair of small eyes and an unfortunately large nose, gave him the appearance of a half-groomed bear.
Kat stepped into the room and moved towards one of the several empty chairs. Across from her sat Barney, who gave her a nod of greeting. Next to him was a small, fine-boned woman. She wore a pair of owlish glasses that accentuated her sharp gaze. In front of her sat a stack of files and an open notebook.
"Welcome, Ms. Orovjek. I am Dr. Claus Werner, this is Susan Holmes, our record keeper and you have of course met Mr. Calhoun. I apologize for the sparse turnout, but the others are unable to attend for various reasons. In any case, we like to meet and interview any new recruits so we can make the most use of the talents they have to offer.
"As you know, we are all here to work against the Combine. Barney has filled us in on what he knows of your story. But your entrance into the resistance was a bit…unorthodox." He ran a hand though his hair, sending it into further disarray. "Perhaps you will give us a quick explanation as to why you are in City 17 and what you plan on accomplishing."
Kat gave a brief narration of her past two weeks. Susan took a few notes as she talked. "I understand that I probably can't accomplish my original goal, but I'll do whatever I can to hurt the Combine," she concluded.
"Good," Susan said. "We need to have a unified front against them. Now tell me, what is your background?"
"My background?"
"Yes. What did you do before the attacks?"
"Oh. I was an ethologist." Kat paused at their blank looks. "I studied animal behavior. I did mostly field research: time budget studies, group interactions, social cues… I wanted to work on my doctorate but there was always another study to work on."
Dr. Werner leaned forward eagerly, "Have you any interest in xenobiology?"
"Well, I do now. I haven't had any time to seriously study anything, but I think any knowledge we can gain would be to our advantage. I have some ideas about how headcrabs attack…"
"Excellent," Dr. Werner interrupted. "We are sorely lacking in trained xenobiologists. And can you handle a gun?"
"Yes," Kat said. "I was on my own in the field for weeks at time. I carried a gun when I was in areas with large predators. And I needed to be able to tranquilize animals on occasion, so I had to be a good shot. I've gotten even better in the last few years"
"Perhaps you would be willing to do field work again?"
"I guess so."
"Perfect." Dr. Werner sat back in his chair and smiled broadly, "I think we may have just the job for you."