They moved up the stairs, and through the next rooms, taking out ghouls as they went. It wasn't always easy. Calli was almost trapped at one point and might have been seriously injured if Jack hadn't been there to help kill the Reaver that had attacked her. He realized a lone scavenger would have trouble even surviving in this place.
In one of the rooms they came across a computer that seemed to still be on as the screen was lit up. As Jack approached it Calli looked up.
"Don't touch it!", she ordered. Jack stopped. "See the little antennae on it? That's a trigger. Someone's rigged that thing to explode if you try to use it. Here, let me show you how to disarm it." She carefully moved in and pointed out some wires in the back. She cut one of them. Taking out the grenades from inside the machine she offered them to Jack. He placed them in his pack.
"Thanks. Do you find these things often?"
She shrugged. "Sometimes. Someone must have been here once, probably before the ghouls moved in. Ghouls are too stupid to use computers so they wouldn't set it off. It's a fairly common trap design."
The next room had a stairwell going down but Calli by passed it and went through a hole in the wall into the next room. This one was missing most of the floor. You could see down at least two stories. She studied it for a bit, but finding nothing moving, went back into the other room to take the staircase down.
They fought their way through more rooms, up a staircase, down a staircase, until Calli realized they must be in an entirely different part of the building. They came out in a room with most of the floor missing. There did seem to be a stairway down, but they could see a number of ghouls moving about on the floor below. Calli motioned for Hawk to cover the staircase. She took out a number of grenades. Jack lifted his combat rifle. She dropped the first grenade into a group of ghouls below.
None of the ghouls made it up the stairs. When the room was cleared they drew back from the edge and went down the staircase. Stepping over the dead ghouls they went out the door into the hall. It led to a dead end with just one door. Jack pushed it open and Calli stepped in.
The floor was almost entirely missing. Calli carefully made her way around the entire perimeter and across what remained of the broken floor. She had found more of Jamie's tapes and now had another one left on a desk in the middle of the destroyed room. Playing them didn't help her much with the quest other than to assure her there was indeed a hidden sanctuary of evil here somewhere.
"There's no way out. We either go back, or we jump for it." Calli said, looking up at Jack. "And I never go back." Jack stared at the floors beneath him. In many places the floors below them were also destroyed so that you could fall for two or three stories if you missed your landing.
"If we go down there, how do we know we can get back out?", he asked. Calli and Hawk exchanged glances.
"We don't.", Hawk said. Jack looked from one to the other then shrugged.
"All right then.", he said, shouldering his rifle, taking careful aim, and jumping.
Calli and Hawk followed. They jumped through the damaged floors until they had dropped down three stories. This floor was solid. Jack pointed and grinned. There was a steel door in the wall.
The door lead into an underground utility tunnel of the type the partners were very familiar with. The lighting was on which indicated there was still power. The air would have been very stale without the air handling system functioning. The scent of ghouls was heavy here so they moved cautiously, Calli taking lead and the men watching the rear.
They made their way down stair wells, leaving behind only a few bodies, and coming into a room where they had a choice. A stairwell lead up but a door on the other side beckoned. Calli chose the door. They went through the door and left the utility tunnel behind. They were now in an eerie, earth tunnel lit by torches. The smoky, stale air was choking with the scent of ghoul and death. Jack coughed, wondering how the partners never seemed affected.
Suddenly ghouls poured up a metal staircase toward them. Hawk hurled frag grenades down the staircase. Through the flying debris, smoke and body parts Jack recognized the distinctive gear of Reavers behind the first wave. There were three of them and they were intent on Calli!
"Run back!", she screamed, jerking out plasma mines. Hawk whirled and ran. Jack followed with Calli right behind him. As she ran she armed and tossed down the mines. Explosions shook the tunnel behind them. Suddenly she jerked out her rifle and stopped. As one Hawk, Jack, and Calli turned and faced the tunnel.
Two of the Reavers were still pursuing them. Though injured it still took all of their concentrated fire to bring them down before they could get close enough to do any damage. Calli moved forward again warily. Nothing moved in the tunnel or on the staircase. At the bottom of the staircase Calli found a ghoul who appeared to be dressed in human garments. This was usually the mark of an intelligent ghoul. She stopped to examine him and found some papers in his pocket. "Jamie.", she said, shaking her head.
Calli studied the ominous structure in the middle of the room. It wasn't much taller than Hawk but it was made of a glistening black material, carved with a half embedded figure of a pleading woman and wrapped about by stone ropes, decorated with a line of human skulls. Remains and skeletons scattered about the room gave evidence of unholy rituals. It gave off an emanation that made Jack feel uneasy.
"According to Marcella if I press this book against this it should destroy it. The book I mean. She said the obelisk is evil and so is the book so they would cancel each other out. I don't know what will happen. Maybe nothing, but why take chances? Why don't you guys go back up on the stairs?" , she asked, pulling off her helmet to study the carvings.
"Why don't you let me do it?", Jack offered. Calli was still staring at the carved black column, her eyes brilliant with excitement.
"Thanks, but no. I need to do this for Marcella." Jack didn't like it but he went to join Hawk on the stairs. Calli reached out and pressed the book to the obelisk.
A blast of power pulsed out from the column and the book exploded in a sheet of flame. "Ow", Calli exclaimed, jumping back and pulling off her gloves to examine her hands. Jack rushed forward to take them in his own. "Good thing I was wearing gloves.", she said breathlessly, her heart racing with adrenalin, her body trembling from reaction. She stared at Jack with wide, excited eyes.
"Hawk", he said, staring back at her. "Why don't you go to the end of the tunnel and keep a watch for any more ghouls? Calli and I can handle this." Hawk glanced at them.
"Sounds like a good idea", he agreed and headed up the stairs.
Jack jerked off his helmet. He crushed her to him, his lips taking hers savagely as his fear for her life found outlet in his need to possess her. She responded with equal fervor, her arms going around his neck. His hands went under her pulling her up to him as he shoved her up against the wall. Armor is specifically designed to allow access for certain bodily functions without undressing. Surrounded by death they reaffirmed the powerful emotions of life pulsing through them.
"That was fantastic!", Calli exclaimed, as Jack pulled back from her, their heart rates slowing, his strong arms still supporting her. "I can't say that's ever happened before." Jack held her a moment longer as his body calmed.
"This never happened to me before either. Do you think it's going to be a thing with us? After life threatening battles?", he asked.
"I sure hope not!", she said fervently. "It could get embarrassing! At least not unless we're alone.", she reconsidered. He laughed nervously, lowering her to the floor.
Calli adjusted her clothing as she went over to the column. She hesitantly reached out and touched it. "I don't feel anything. I think it's dead."
"Good.", Jack said. "Now let's get the hell out of here." She agreed.
They went back up the rock tunnel into the metal service tunnel. When they reached the room with the stairwell going up they took it. It was the only chance of getting out since they couldn't go back the way they came. The stairwell went up several flights to a room with a closed door.
"A bobble head", Calli exclaimed delightedly. She picked up the toy and examined it before wrapping it and carefully placing it in her pack. She collected them all over the wasteland.
As soon as they went through the door they could hear the radio playing. They were in a room with a destroyed floor and no other exit. Calli stared at the room below.
"Of course.", she said and jumped down. It was the room with the destroyed ceiling near the entrance they had noticed when they first came in the building.
Calli replayed all the holo tapes in order. "How sad. He just wanted to find his Dad and look what happened to him. The book did it, I guess. He became a ghoul and descended into the madness of evil, talking of flaying and eating flesh. I wonder why the book didn't affect me? I carried it for several months. It seems he didn't have it long at all."
"Maybe it's because you're a good person.", Jack said. "He sure wasn't since he travelled with raiders."
Calli considered this. "Do you think I'm really such a good person to be immune? Or maybe because I also carried Marcella's bible with me and she was a truly good person. I don't really believe in the power of good and evil, you know. I only did this because Marcella asked me to and she was my friend. I did it for her."
"How do you explain that book bursting into flames then?", Jack asked curiously.
"Chemical reaction, maybe? Anyway, we need to clean this place out as much as we can in the time we have left. We don't want to hold up the ship.", she said, dismissing the conversation.
Calli said good bye to Jack at the dock and walked off toward the west with Hawk. Jack didn't ask her what her plans were. Usually she didn't have any and when she did she wouldn't share them with him, as things almost never worked out as planned. Today they were going back to Entrance Cave.