Broken Mirror: Apophis 2029 (28 page)

  The noise of the running equipment would be enough to get the attention of any infected left in the tunnels, and we would be fools not to expect another horde to swarm upon us at any moment.  We bit our lips as anxiety set in.  I began to feel lightheaded as we anticipated the oncoming mob. 

  It struck us that the conveyor belt floor was moving inward, rather than in the direction of the train tunnel, and it began to pick up speed that would exhaust anyone trying to run against it.  Wherever we were heading, this was a one-way trip unless we could shut the conveyor down.  Roy barked up for us to be ready as we were quickly approaching a light up ahead.

  Several large windows were glazed with a bright green light into the red washed transit belt, and we stood with our mouths gaped open in awe as we passed within its glare.  Through the grime covered glass glittered the countless spotlights of a massive superdome.  Our conveyor lined across its upper edge, gently curving along the wall of the enormous structure. 

  Beneath us were cranes and building platforms and an indescribable jumble of scaffolding jutting like a forest of black spikes silhouetted against the floodlights.  The sheer scale of the site was impressive.

  "What the..." was all that fell from Roy's lips.  It took a long moment for him to turn his attention back to Beatrice, who also appeared a touch astonished while she stared with wide eyes out into the construction pit. 

  "What is this place, really?" Tasha asked, beating Roy to the punch.  The hold below us was so enormous that several dozen facilities the size of Fallhaven could have easily fitted into it.  It must have taken decades to build this hidden complex under the remote mountainside.  Our transit belt was slowly approaching an isolated tower that fanned out from the interior wall to overlook the arena.  Thing were about to get interesting.

  "This ...this is the VEIL project site," the old woman finally admitted, "it was to be the central command for all the base shelters linked to it." 

  "And what about the laboratory?" Ava asked in response.

  "What about it?" Betty shot back with a cavalier tone, "It's all interlinked, I have no idea if anyone is still in control of this place.  The automation is still working to some extent; but I don't know who might be ...or if anyone at all is still running the place," she finished with a glazed look in her eyes.

  "Where does this conveyor belt actually lead?" Thorn demanded, grabbing her by the arm, as if to affirm that she would follow the same fate as us all if we were overrun by another mob of weepers.

  "A cargo bay I would assume, young man," Betty chastised Thorn as she jerked her shoulder back out of his grasp to retain what little sense of dignity she had left.

  We braced ourselves as the belt approached the upper echelon and a wide steel door opened after we passed through another laser wall that detected our presence.  The cargo room was unremarkable except for the interlaced storage rings that lined the walls.  There were several toppled containers knocked askew upon the floor noting that this section of the facility had been left abandoned in a hurry.  It was not a good sign.

  The only way we saw out was through that conveyor system that led back to the train terminal.  That huge mob of infected that attacked us must have used that to escape, which was the way we had just entered.  We had to be on our toes if there were more of them wandering about.  This facility looked like it could hold many hundreds, maybe even thousands of personnel staff.  If they had all been turned by the KRI virus, then a significant percentage of them would be hostile and dangerous.

  "How do we get to this laboratory topside?" Tasha inquired, as we all drew our attention back to Beatrice. 

  "Sure, I'll be your tour guide," she remarked with an unusual sense of humor lost upon us, "don't go wandering off, children."

  "Maybe she hit her head a little too hard back in that train," Thorn whispered under his breath to me as we let the old woman take the lead. 
  The doors to the cargo room were wide open.  The facility had power, but it was intermittent in places that apparently had suffered significant electrical damage.  We advanced quietly through a series of confusing hallways, noting blood smears and weapons fire that scorched that decorated the walls.  Some serious shit had gone down here at one point, in a bad way. 

  There were no corpses though.  That worried me more than if the place had been left littered with them.  They had been either cleaned up and disposed of, or entirely consumed.  There was no way to tell by the mess left behind.  Someone had put up a fight, and we had no idea who the victor was.  That horde that attacked us in the tunnel made me lean towards the darker side of the two scenarios.

  "Come on, chop, chop, boys and girls," Betty snapped at us as she headed straight for a transit elevator, and motioned to usher us inside.  Roy advised her to keep her voice down, considering the overwhelming evidence that this place had been overrun.  Oddly enough, her attitude was flippant, as if she didn't give a damn anymore.  Roy shed us a glance like he wouldn't mind just cutting the old woman's throat if she put us in jeopardy like that again, shaking his head in displeasure while he quietly fumed as we stepped into the broad elevator. 

  "This might not be the best idea," Tasha offered, referring to taking a lift up to a floor where it might be a serious tactical disadvantage not knowing what lies beyond the elevator doors when they finally opened.  She had learned not to take unnecessary risks, and her two comrades agreed with her.

  "How high do we have to go up?" Roy asked Betty before her hand could reach the control panel to pick a floor.

  "How rude," the old woman blurted as she stared him up and down, her behavior becoming even more erratic than usual.  She was acting very strange, and we had all noticed it.

  "How many floors up to get to the laboratory level?" Roy demanded again from her.

  "It's too far to walk.  Besides, I have no clue where the stairs are here," she spat back in contempt. 

  We could tell Roy was getting weary with her attitude and was making mental notes if he was willing to take the risk of letting the old woman to continue to be so reckless with all our lives at stake.  She might know her way around this vast facility, but that blown rail system and the removed control panel at the back door screamed that this place was on lockdown for a reason. 

  "Look, lady, I don't know what your game is, but you're starting to become a liability," Roy clarified to her.  We all stood by his statement.  Our group was tired and exhausted and we were not in the mood for swallowing her psychotic bullshit anymore. 

  "Maybe we can find the lab on our own," Tasha remarked with a glare towards her.  Betty waved her hands in surrender and finally said something sane.

  "Okay, fine," she muttered aloud, "the laboratory is only four stories above ground, but I assume we are..." she paused as she wiggled her head around Roy's body to take a glance at the control elevator panel, "thirty floors or so below ground level at the moment," she answered directly, "...so, if you all want to walk and take the scenic route, you go right ahead; but I'm taking the damn elevator," she declared stubbornly.

  We couldn't presume why she was acting so saucy all of the sudden.  It could have been as Thorn suggested, and she was suffering from a concussion as she wasn't being her usual herself.  Maybe a few screws in her head had gotten knocked loose back in that train wreck after all.

  We discussed the situation with Serena and Kel who would be hampered by their wounds if we took a stairwell some thirty to forty stories up.  It was a better plan, since weepers didn't have the mental capacity to operate the lift, and that we would be inviting thirty times the risks of confrontation at every floor if we took an emergency stairwell.  Without much debate at that fact, it did make more sense to use the elevator, as long it didn't break down and leave us entrapped.  Roy stepped aside and let Beatrice have access to the panel.  Oddly, it lit up when she put her hand near it and she pressed in a code.  Strangely enough, the floors weren't labeled.  She put in a numeric sequence followed by depressing one of the color-coded keys, and the doors chimed shut.

  The rest of us were mildly amused and astounded when soft elevator music began to play as the lift began to ascend towards the upper floors.  Haiti smirked, while Roy seethed.  I liked it on a personal level though, because it was a nice tune.  It made me wonder if the reason for elevator music in the first place was to distract you from dwelling over the reality that you were willfully risking your life by stepping into a small tin box set over a deep shaft, which was being held secure by nothing more than a thin cable.  Maybe it was to take your mind off the effects of claustrophobia for those who suffered from it.  Whatever the psychology behind its purpose, it did help to relax us, even if it was just for a few moments. 

  On the ride up we heard banging on the doors as we passed several levels.  Other floors had severe electrical failures that sparked the panels as we crossed and we heard the lift stabilizers grind in anger beneath our feet.  With nervous relief, the car finally slid to a gentle halt as a recorded female voice came over the speaker: "Blue Level," while the doors slid open.

  It was clear something had gone awry even on the upper floors.  There was equipment and packages strewn everywhere.  Long shadows cast through the tall glass windows that let in the light of the setting sun as it neared the horizon.  At least there was no sign of blood splatter or weapons fire here; the place was merely trashed. 

  Beatrice marched out in front of us and turned back to us with an awkward smile then headed out towards a central hall without taking any tactical precautions.  There were clearly infected people wandering this facility, yet she acted as if didn't matter in the slightest.  The old woman just strolled out and around to a main foyer and spun around once more with a hand on her hip and a furl in her brow, as if she was wondering why we were still all standing at the elevator door, poised with our weapons drawn. 

  "I swear, if she gets jumped, I'm not saving her wrinkly ass..." Roy grunted.  Truth be told, we all were beginning to agree with his logic. 

  "Are you coming or not?" Betty chastised from across the room.  Timidly we checked our corners and did a visual sweep, realizing that there weren't any tell-tell signs of weepers on this level. "Trust me, this is a secured level," the old woman urged, "there is nothing to worry about." Needless to say, we didn't put much value in her words. 

  "This section does seem quiet," Thorn finally affirmed after a drawn moment. 

  We were still on edge after our last encounter in the rail tunnel, but it was getting tiring lugging weapons on the draw.  We were all wounded and drained, and were attracted to the idea of getting a chance to recoup.  Kel's leg needed to be rebandaged, and a few of us were getting more than a tad strung out from hunger, so we decided to play along.  Betty led us straight to a sizeable rest area that appeared to be a staff breakroom. 

  We plopped down on the stiff couches and rifled the cabinets for anything to eat.  Unfortunately, there wasn't much present to impress anyone, as it had all been previously looted.  The mercenary girls took their time to get some medical attention to Serena and Kel, while I roamed back out to the main hall near the elevator.  In a rare break in the clouds, the sun was just setting and warm orange light glared through the windows of the lobby.

  Looking down at the entrance through the glass it seemed we were three or more stories above the ground level.  Outside there were lighted pylons and a wide yard full of military trucks parked in a jumble.  It was hard to make out any details in the failing light, but I was relieved not to see any infected wandering within view.  Even if we were able to jack one of those trucks, there was still the matter of the collapsed mountain tunnel blocking the only road out of this place. 

  Someone had locked down this facility, and we all wanted answers as to what had happened here.  Tasha, I assumed, would want them the most since her father had disappeared somewhere on this base.  We barely got the rock sample here in one piece; now we just had to figure out what to do with it.  Distracted by the view and with the shadows casting behind me, I was almost startled when I heard a voice speak just over my shoulder.

  "Nice view," Thorn noted as he took a step beside me.

  "I really miss seeing the sunset; being stuck down in the dark like we were, really ...really isn't for me," I admitted, "I grew up on a ranch in the boonies, and when I finally moved out to a big city,
the first place I got was this tiny basement apartment," I giggled out loud in embarrassment, "I don't even think is was actually legal for them to rent out.  It was like a boiler room where all the water heaters for the rest of the apartments above me were right beside my bed; and I had one teensy window that wasn't even at ground level.  Oh, jeez..." I smirked.

  "That bad huh?" Thorn offered with comedic sympathy, "Well, I can understand not wanting to live underground.  It was hard enough for us when we were stuck back in Fallhaven," he granted with a cute smile.

  "Yeah, that apartment I had was like a cave ...but, it was
my
cave," I smiled faintly while he gave particular notice, "It was a space of my own.  That was a strange time in my life," I reflected in tearful honesty.