Chapter 10: The Warehouse
Cloud, Barret, and Shera ascended the stairs to the next level, and passed through the door at the top.
Before them was a long hallway with four doors on each side. There was one at the end as well. Looking up, Shera noticed that lights were on.
"I don't like this," she said. "These lights can only mean one thing."
"What?" asked Barret.
"This place is still occupied," she replied.
"Doubt it," Barret dismissed. "Abandoned places have their lights on all the time."
"Well," Cloud began, "if the alarm is here, it would have to be behind one of those doors."
"But which one?" Barret inquired.
"One way to find out," Shera announced.
Cloud opened the first door on the left.
Inside was, of all things, a library. There was a deer head mounted on the wall, and a fireplace on the far end of the room. The entire wall was brick.
"It's warm," Shera observed as she approached the fireplace. "Someone was here recently."
"So this place is still in use," Cloud observed.
"Why do I have a feeling it's Jack Balen?" Barret suggested.
"In any event," Shera continued, "there's no sign of the security system in here."
The three of them thus left the room.
The first room on the right was about sixteen feet square. It had one object that everyone could recognize.
"A goddam copier," Barret grunted.
Shera then opened the second door on the right. The room it revealed was only ten foot square, and had another very recognizable object.
"A water cooler," Cloud muttered.
The cooler bubbled, but nobody laughed.
Barret opened the third door on the right. Inside was a strange machine that was humming endlessly.
"What's this?" Barret inquired.
"The power generator," Shera answered.
"How can you tell?" Cloud asked.
"I'm an NWV," Shera replied.
Cloud then opened the third door on the left.
Inside, the floor had orange carpeting. Looking to his right, Cloud could see a stairwell leading to the next level.
"Where do these stairs go?" Cloud said aloud.
"Up," Shera replied sarcastically.
"I have a feeling the alarm will be upstairs," Barret suggested as he approached them.
"Wait a minute," Shera objected. "We haven't explored the other rooms on this floor."
"All we've been finding is standard office equipment," Cloud insisted. "I highly doubt the alarm would be down here."
"There's four more rooms," Shera insisted. "We need to be sure. Leave no stone unturned, right?"
"We have to go back this way on the way out, yes?" Cloud asked. "No worries. We'll leave no stone unturned."
Barret nodded as he approached the stairs.
When he was an inch from them, the carpeted stairs began to move automatically, like an escalator. As Barret prepared to step up, the sound of gunshots filled the stairwell, causing the three of them to jump back.
"What the fuck?!" Barret exclaimed.
Cloud looked carefully to see the ends of multiple guns coming from multiple places in the wall, prepared to shoot dead anyone who came too near.
"Jesus H. Christ!" he exclaimed.
"It means 'stay out,'" Shera commented. "Whatever's up there is quite precious."
"No shit!" Barret agreed. "And what if the security system's up there?"
"It's not," Shera dismissed.
"How'd you know?" Barret inquired.
"That's not valuable, at least compared to some of the other goodies that the Shinra put away for the years."
"Then what is up there?" Barret asked.
"I haven't the foggiest," Shera admitted.
"Guys," Cloud interjected, "we're wasting time. If it's not up there, it's on this floor somewhere." He then turned to Shera. "Okay, you win."
The three of them exited the room, and with the greatest eagerness.
"Let's waste no more time," Shera insisted as she opened the fourth and final door on the left.
Inside were three familiar looking figures.
"Great," Cloud sighed. "Not these guys again."
Barret glared as he saw them.
"One of those motherfuckers was enough!" he added.
"What are those?" Shera asked. "They look like giant bugs."
"They're scorpion sentinels," Cloud replied. "We ran into one at Reactor One when we blew it up."
"But these are different," Barret pointed out. "They're blue, and slightly larger. And what the hell is that smell?"
"Venom," Shera replied. "We're smelling actual scorpion venom."
"They're not alive," Cloud observed. "Thank God."
"Not active," Shera corrected.
"Not the security system," Cloud observed before shutting the door and turning around.
Barret opened the fourth door on the right to find six metallic androids standing there. There were immersed in cobwebs, and were rusted.
"Robot mummies," he observed before quickly closing the door.
Everyone then turned their attention to the final door at the end of the hallway.
The door read: "Priority Storage."
"Eureka!" Shera exclaimed.
Cloud cautiously opened the door.
Inside was a small forest of cardboard boxes in a small, well-lit room. There was a desk at the other end, although it was impossible to tell whether it had been sat at lately.
"I suppose it's in one of these boxes," Barret suggested.
Cloud, realizing that they had wasted enough time already, took out his knife and sliced open the nearest box.
Inside was none other than a pile of plug-in security systems, each wrapped in plastic, and each with a decal warning that they were for "executive use only."
"That was easy," Cloud mentioned.
"We should probably take a few," Barret suggested. "Just in case."
"No problem," Cloud agreed. "I'd rather not return to this place, no matter how easy the security system was to find."
"Agreed," Barret said. "I just can believe it was that easy."
"Half of the quest is finding what you're looking for," Shera pointed out.
"Since when did you get philosophical?" Barret asked as he stepped back into the hallway.
"I didn't," Shera replied. "It's just a flat fact."
"So what's the other half of the quest?" Cloud asked.
Suddenly, the lights turned red.
The alarm began to sound.
"Escaping," Shera replied.
The three of them began to run down the hall.
When they were halfway to the stairs, they heard the sound of a door slide open.
Shera turned around to see the six androids pursuing them.
They were slow, and seemed to struggle to walk.
"They haven't been maintenanced in years," Shera pointed out. "If we can just-"
One of the androids fired a laser, striking an inch away from Shera's feet.
"Shit!" she exclaimed.
Barret immediately cocked his gun-arm and fired.
The offending android exploded.
"These things gonna chase us?" Barret grunted.
"I'm chasing you!" one of the androids responded in a primitive, robotic voice.
Cloud cast lightning on another android, causing it to explode, and, in turn, causing the android next to it to explode.
Barret then fired his gun-arm like mad.
All three remaining androids exploded.
The three of them then reached the stairs.
Cloud took one step down when he head a hideous noise.
"Bogey on your six," Barret announced.
Cloud turned to see the three blue scorpion sentinels bearing down on them.
Barret fired his gun-arm.
It had no effect.
"Shit!" he exclaimed.
Cloud cast lightning.
It also had no effect.
"We're fucked," Barret sighed.
Just then, Cloud saw Shera throw something at the sentinels.
Moments later, all three exploded.
Cloud and Barret immediately turned to Shera.
"You brought grenades?" Cloud inquired.
"I may be an NWV, but I'm not stupid," she nonchalantly replied.
"What's an NWV, anyway?" Cloud asked.
"Nerd with a vagina," Shera answered.
"I say we get the hell out of here," Barret insisted.
LATER…
Tifa was dozing on the couch in her pajamas when Cloud entered the parlor. It was now very late at night.
"Cloud!" she exclaimed as she sprang up. "You scared the crap out of me! Where were you?"
"Nowhere," he replied.
"Bullshit," she dismissed as she folded her arms. "I was worried something had happened to you!"
In response, Cloud took the alarm out of the box and plugged it into the wall. He then turned to his wife and smiled.
"What's that?" Tifa asked him.
"A Shinra alarm," he replied with a grin. "All you have to do is plug it in. Now, none of Jack Balen's connections can get in here. And they can't hack our internet or even our electronics. You're one hundred percent safe in this house."
"Where did you get that?" Tifa asked.
"The warehouse north of Rocket Town," Cloud replied. "It had a supply."
"Cloud, that place is dangerous," she reminded him.
"You don't need to tell me," he said. "I found out the hard way."
Tifa put her hands on Cloud's shoulders. Tears began to well up in her eyes.
"You risked your life for me again, didn't you?" she asked.
Cloud nodded.
"But it was nothing," he insisted.
Tifa immediately wrapped her arms around her husband and squeezed him tightly.
"I love you so much, Cloud!" she whispered.
"I love you, too," he whispered back as he rocked her gently. "Tomorrow I can join you. You'll be safe from now on."
Tifa did not respond.
"Tifa?" Cloud asked.
And then, he realized she had fallen asleep in his arms while standing.
You thought they were going to have sex again, didn't you? Sorry, but Cloud plugging the alarm into the wall was the closest thing to sex that occurred in that house that night. Marriage isn't all about sex and nudity, you know.
Which reminds me, this is around the time I started wearing pants to bed. I mean, I realized if Tobin saw my naked lower half every night, it wouldn't be as special. He understood.
So, Cloud did the chivalrous thing and carried the sleeping Tifa upstairs and laid her down on their bed.
Tomorrow, the battle would continue.