Human Extinction Level Loss (Book 1): Nicole's Odyssey (31 page)

“Please.  My name is Nicole Bennett.  I am the daughter of Col. Steven Bennett.  I am here with my friends.  I am here at my father’s request,” she said. 

She waited several seconds for some kind of response but none came. Nicole turned to the others and looked worried.  Ruby smiled at her. 

“Maybe they’re just busy.  Give them a few minutes,” Ruby said.

Nicole looked at Ruby then back to the entrance where the bodies lay.  A voice reverberated in her head. 

“
Too busy to take care of the dead lying on their doorstep, too busy to even secure the door?” 

Nicole turned back to the staging area.  The others turned and looked at her, waiting to see what she would do.  Nicole stood and thought for a minute.  The worst had happened here and her father had been forced to order a withdraw into the bowels of the facility, that much was clear to her.  But the reason for nobody answering her call or even seeming to notice that they were here unnerved her.  She pushed the rising panic out of her head and made a decision. 

She marched back over to the bodies and scanned them.  Clipped to their lapels were their identification cards.  She gathered up several cards from off of some of the more high ranking military. 

When she had several, she went back to the large elevator and looked up into the camera again.  She hesitated several seconds, then ran one of the I.D. cards through the slot.  A harsh beep was the only response.  Above her, the red light did not change colors.  She tried the next one and got the same response.  Nicole dropped the two cards at her feet and tried another one. 

Two minutes later she had a pile of cards at her feet.  The light above still glowed red and the doors remained sealed.  Nicole looked up into the camera.  The camera eye stared back at her, silent and unmoving.

“So, What do we do now, man?” Walt asked. 

Nobody had a ready answer.  Eventually, all eyes came to rest on Nicole.  She studied their faces then sighed. 

“Seems there’s only two choices.  Stay or go…” she said. 

They all took turns looking at each other, waiting for someone to make a decision about what they should do next. 

“Well, it’s obvious this place is not the refuge we thought it was…” Paul said, not wanting to finish his thought. 

Nobody else spoke for several seconds. 

“Guys, I know things don’t look good right now, but I have to find my father.  I don’t know, maybe things went off the rails topside here, but things could be better down below.  I mean the doors are sealed, so, maybe, you know?” Nicole said. 

Ruby cleared her throat and all eyes turned to her.  From her wheelchair she looked at them all. 

“Well, what else have we got?  If we leave here now because things look bad, how is it different out there?” Ruby’s words sunk in. 

“Well, I’m in.  Nothing out there looks like a better shot than what we got in here,” Sam said. 

Paul looked at the group then at Jordan. 

“I was willing to stay in that stadium till… whenever.  That didn’t seem to hold as much promise as what we got here, so… Jordan, what do you want to do?” Paul asked. 

Without hesitation, Jordan responded.  “I think we keep going,” she said. 

Paul nodded.  Jordan looked at Billy, uncertainty on her face. 

“What do you want to do, Billy?” she whispered.  Billy looked at her and held her hand. 

“I go where you go,” he said, putting a big smile on her face. 

“Well, heck, man.  We’ve made it this far, right?  Let's finish it,” Walt said. 

Nicole took a deep breath and nodded.  “Okay,” she said. 

“Maybe we should check the rest of those bodies for their I.D’s.  One of them is bound to have clearance for this door,” Billy said. 

Nicole thought for a second then shrugged her shoulders.  She headed back towards the entrance.  The others fell in.

Several minutes later, Nicole tried the last of the I.D. cards.  None of them gained them access. 

“If they retreated deeper into the facility, it’s likely they secured the doors from inside and changed the codes or wiped the system of these cards,” Nicole said. 

Before anybody could respond, Sam came trotting up.  

“I was checking out those panels in the floor.  They’re freight elevators,” he said.  All eyes turned to Sam.  “They are all secured and won’t respond, all but one that is.  Maybe they forgot to secure it when… whatever happened here, happened.  We could try taking that down.  I mean if they are going to ignore us up here, let's make it so they can’t ignore us down there,” Sam said. 

All eyes went from Sam to Nicole.  Nicole looked beyond Sam towards the entrance, then back up to the camera. 

Turning to Sam and the others, she said, “Why not?  If they arrest us, at least that will be something.” 

Sam led Nicole and the others over to the only large panel in the floor that wasn’t secured.  Mounted on a pole on the floor panel was the control pad consisting of a large yellow button marked “lower” and a large black button marked “raise.”  Underneath these was a key slot.  The slot was facing towards the right and a green light glowed.  They all stared at the freight elevator.  Nicole sighed then stepped onto the panel.  Sam and the others followed.  Jordan pushed Ruby in her chair onto the panel.  When everyone was on board, Nicole pushed the yellow button and the large panel jerked into motion and sank below the floor.

Forty-Seven

The steel of the elevator shaft gave way to rock. The only light they had was from the control pad on the lift.  After what seemed an eternity, the lift emerged from the shaft and came to a stop in a massive cavern.  It mirrored the level above in that it too was a staging area, this to receive the supplies being delivered from above.  The noise of the lift stopping echoed in the tomb-like silence of the cavern.  Filling the space were rows upon rows of steel racking.  Each bay had an alphanumeric identifier.  Along the cavern wall to their right, a set of train tracks disappeared into a darkened tunnel.  A series of flatbed train cars sat on the tracks, each of the cars in various stages of loading.  As above, forklifts sat haphazardly throughout the cavern.  On the floor were painted colored lines, Blue, red, green, white, and yellow.  They stretched across the floor in the direction of a wall of glass with two large glass swinging doors. A blue hue from overhead lights shone through the glass.

“What are the lines, man?” Walt asked. 

“They tell people where they can go.  Gold for command, blue for R&D and medical, Red for engineering, Green for supply, and white for Administrative,” Nicole said. 

Walt nodded.  “Like Star Trek, huh?” he said.

Nicole stepped off the lift.  “Yeah, Walt.  Like Star Trek.”

“What lines do we follow,” Paul asked. 

Nicole gripped her rifle.  “We follow the gold.  They should lead us to the HQ and my father,” she said.  

They moved slowly across the floor. This area too appeared abandoned.  Supplies were spilled haphazardly across the floor.    Nicole had expected a gruff reception at the gate.  Finding the area as they had, her hopes were hanging on there being some sort of battle, with the bulk of the military including her father holding up securely deeper within the compound.  Now with each step, she felt the noose tightening around her dream of a secure refuge.  She continued to shove these thoughts aside as she moved toward the glass enclosure ahead of her.  When they reached the wall of glass, they could see cubicles that formed a maze of clerical spaces. 

“Walt, Sam, get the doors. I’ll cover the front.  When I move in, Paul and Billy you come up front and take Walt and Sam’s positions.  Walt, Sam, as we move through, you close the circle again at the rear,” Nicole said. 

Walt and Sam each grabbed a handle on one of the tall doors and pulled them open.  As Nicole moved forward, Paul and Billy ran and joined her at the front on either side.  Jordan hurried Ruby through.  When they were in, Sam and Walt quickly turned and formed the rear guard of the circle.

The room was huge.  From within this room one could forget they were inside a mountain.  The room had walls, a ceiling from which rows of fluorescent lights buzzed, and a floor of gray carpet. Inlaid in the carpet were strips of colored carpet matching the lines painted on the cavern floor.  The maze of cubicles stretched off to the right and left of a long path that led to a set of double doors set in the wall at the far end.  The group advanced down the carpeted channel and headed for the doors.  From inside the cubicles that Nicole could see as she passed, computer screens flashed with streams of numerical data, graphs, charts, whatever the previous occupant had been working on before they fled.  The only thing that seemed to be on every screen was a red warning.  The word “Breach” flashed in and out.   Nicole guessed that this was the workspace of those who now lay dead by the entrance. 

As Nicole, Paul, and Billy moved past, Something jumped up from behind one of the cubicles and fixed its sunken eyes on them.  Nicole’s thoughts were cut short by a cry from Sam behind her. 

“We got something here!” he called. 

On her right, Billy began to turn to see.  Nicole saw Billy out of the corner of her eye. 

“Billy! Eyes forward!  Sam, it’s your piece of the pie, what do you see?” Nicole asked. 

Sam gripped his rifle.  “It’s a Shuffler!” he called. 

“Everybody keep moving.  Sam, clear your zone.  Three round burst.  Two is better,” she commanded. 

Sam sighted down the barrel at the Shuffler and a red dot danced on the center of its forehead.  Sam kept steady as he continued to step back,  keeping up with the group.  He fired twice in quick succession.  The Dead’s head snapped back and it froze for a second before it fell and lay unmoving on the floor. 

“Are we clear, Sam?” Nicole asked. 

Sam nodded.  When Nicole didn’t hear him she called back to him. 

“If your zone is clear, say zone is clear, Sam.” 

“Oh, yeah, right.  Zone is clear,” Sam said. 

Nicole sighed as they moved towards the set of double doors at the far end of the room.  The colored lines ran up to and disappeared under them.  What her mind was telling her, and what she didn’t want to believe washed over her in a cold sweat.  Their refuge had been breached by the Dead.

Forty-Eight

Nicole kept her eyes locked straight ahead at the double doors.  As they approached, she called out. 

“Same as before with the doors.” 

Paul and Billy grabbed the door handles and pulled them open.  Nicole advanced in as Walt and Sam ran up to take the left and right.  As they moved through, Paul and Billy took up the rear. 

Through the double doors was an amphitheater.  Seats rose on their left and right.  Down at the front of the room was a stage with a podium.  A large screen hung suspended from the ceiling.  Beyond the stage to their left was a wide hall leading deeper into the base.  The only light came from the spotlights on the stage.  Nicole and the group moved through the shadows to the front.  As they passed the midpoint of the room, they came upon a large control board. 

“Sam, check that board.  See if we can get some light in here,” she said. 

Sam went over to the board and scanned the controls.  To the right of the board were several sliding controls marked lighting.  Sam pushed them to the max position all at once. Everyone squinted as the room was bathed in bright light.  As their eyes adjusted, they made a gruesome discovery.  Scattered across the floor and slumped over seats were more of the fallen.  Paul stared at those closest to him. 

“More people trying to escape?” he asked. 

Walt looked at one practically lying at his feet.  With his foot he shoved it over. 

“Whoa! No, man.  These ones here weren’t trying to escape,” he said. 

Everyone risked a glance at the body.  Chunks of flesh were missing.  Bone and rotting organs were exposed, in some places, wounds roughly the size of a human mouth were evident.  Down its back long strips of flesh had been ripped away. 

“Back in the circle, guys,” Nicole said.  

The group slowly formed back up and moved towards the large passage on their left of the stage. 

Leaving the amphitheater, they made their way down the wide corridor.  Fluorescent lights flickered from the ceiling, creating a disorienting strobe effect.  As they got to the end, they stood facing another set of doors.

Sam and Walt reached out and pulled the doors open.  A long passage way curved away, its terminus hidden around the curve.

On the floor the red, blue, gold, and green lines continued. Only the white was missing. The green continued down the hall, veering off from the others, terminating at another set of wide double doors. 

 The group moved cautiously  down the corridor.  As they came around the curve, a second set of doors appeared.  They stopped in front of it, then Sam and Walt each grabbed a door and flung them open. A rush of wind wafted passed them.  The air was humid, permeated by an earthy smell. 

As they entered, they saw that they were now in a massive greenhouse.  All around them was a tapestry of color reflecting a myriad of plants, fruits, and vegetables.  A huge smile appeared on Walt’s face as he scanned the room.  Laid out in a grid pattern that stretched hundreds of yards in all directions in front of them, the vegetation was grouped by the type of care and environment needed for optimum growth.  Walt rushed into the room and over to a nearby section.  A path led deeper into the grid, over which was a sign that read “Medicinals.”  Nicole was about to call out to him, but was cut off by his exuberance at what he saw.