Alone in the Crowd (The Chronicles of Anna Foster Book 3) (20 page)

“Do you want to help me find that recreation room? I really don’t feel like sitting through a class on basic math.”

Anna smiled, amused.

“What?”

She waved away her smile. “Don’t worry about it. Sure, I’ll help you find it. Come on.

“Bryce, we’re going to go to the recreation room. Can you tell us where it is?”

“Turn right as you exit this door. It will be approximately bikat meters down.”

Anna chuckled. “How many is that?”

“Fifteen twice.”

“Okay.” She waved as she opened the door. “See you later.”

“I wish they could turn the lights up in here,”
Jason complained.

“Don’t you have a flashlight?” Anna pulled hers from her belt. “Here, you can borrow mine.”

Jason grabbed the flashlight from her and, after switching it on, thanked her. They walked down the hall until Anna opened the appropriate door. They stepped in and looked around in childlike wonder.

The room’s smooth, metal walls were decorated with pictures colored in reds, oranges, and blacks. Over a dozen stools were attached to the walls. The center of the room was populated with a couple of dark, round tables on the far end of the ten-meter-long room with more stools around them. Closer to the entrance were a few smaller pedestals with what Anna determined to be lenses embedded in the top and at least two more stools set next to each of them. Anna noticed three small panels on the far wall, each with a single lens embedded in it. They were evenly spaced along the length of the room.

* * * * *

As Anna crossed the room to the nearest wall panel, Jason stepped up to the first pedestal and examined it. He sat on the closest stool and noticed another smaller lens on a panel facing him on the side of the podium. He furrowed his eyebrows and waved a hand over the small lens. It started to glow, while the sound of a mechanism revving up penetrated the silence. Seconds later, the smaller lens produced a holographic control panel in front of him with what looked to be directional controls and three separate buttons next to them. The larger lens on top created a three-dimensional screen with miniature holographic Altiki running around a bizarre urban setting.

Jason turned away for a second to ask a question. “Hey, Anna! Is this what the aliens look like?”

“Just a second, Jason.” She sounded distracted.

Curious, Jason looked at her through the hologram. His eyes took in her slender, athletic form, scantily clad in the leather halter top that hugged her torso and the ragged skirt wrapped loosely around her hips. Her long, bright blonde hair and naturally-tanned skin, a rare sight among humans in these times, gave her an exotic look that quickened his pulse. His gaze drifted down the length of her legs, and back up over her hips, arms, and back. Only the presence of the modern tool belt around her bare waist disrupted the image of wild beauty Anna portrayed.

As his gaze moved upward to her face, he noticed she had somehow opened a window in the wall. Snapping out of his fantasy, he rose from his seat and crossed the room to stand next to her, unaware of his shortness of breath as he felt her body heat close to his arm. He looked out the window, and his carnal thoughts fled. He gasped at the view.

Anna nodded. “I know. Who would have thought?”

They stared through the window into a huge cavern. It stretched down well beyond the limit of the dim spotlights that shone from somewhere above them. From their vantage point near the roof of the cave, they could see a group of ruins whose architecture was distinctly alien. The closest building, barely visible in the low-light conditions, resembled a gray stone mound with round windows, giving an unhindered view into the darkness beyond. At the bottom edge of their visibility was what appeared to be the rounded ceiling of another building, thinner and shorter than the first but constructed from the same stone.

Jason directed Anna’s flashlight out of the window toward the nearby structures. Though the added light did little to improve their vision, they could now discern some strange swirled carvings near the top of the first building. They reminded Jason of depictions of the wind from early pictographs found in humanity’s first printed books.

“This must be the archaeological research they are doing,” Anna commented.

Jason swept the flashlight to the right and spotted a thin metallic tower erected a short distance from the stone construction. It stretched up from the lower darkness up to, and possibly through, the roof. Beyond the tower appeared to be a wide catwalk made from the same material. It was attached to a side wall several dozen meters away.

“Anna, look!” Jason’s voice was barely above a whisper as he stared in awe into the cavern. “I see a walkway over there. Do you think it leads to the surface?”

Anna fell silent for a brief moment. “Yes, I see it. That might be the exit the computer system referred to earlier.”

He glanced at her. “When was that?”

“When I first discovered this place.”

Jason nodded and looked back through the window.

“We need to tell the others.” Anna patted his shoulder a couple of times. “Come on. Let’s head back and tell them.”

With a quick nod, Jason withdrew from the window and turned to follow her, but stopped when he saw Anna staring at the hologram he activated. She crossed her arms and watched the action taking place in the display: three Altiki ran together through a wide city street firing unknown weapons at incoming alien vehicles.

“Interesting.” Anna smiled as she looked back at him. “It looks like you found one of their games.”

Jason moved next to her and examined the action on the three-dimensional screen. “It doesn’t look much different from some of our own games.”

“Maybe they’re more like us than we originally thought.”

“You’re starting to scare me.”

Anna grinned and tugged on his arm. “Come on. We need to go.”

They arrived at the infirmary a few minutes later. Nothing had changed since they had left. Cary, Tomomi, and Bryce turned to watch them rush into the room.

“What’s up?” asked Cary.

Jason took a deep breath. “We think we’ve found a way to the surface.”

The scientists’ eyes lit up, and they looked at each other briefly.

Tomomi lowered her head slightly as she turned back to Jason. “Really? How far away is it?”

Jason pointed over his shoulder. “Not far past the recreation room. Probably near that communications room we visited earlier.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” exclaimed Cary. “Let’s check it out.”

“You three go on ahead,” Tomomi stepped backwards toward the console where Bryce stood. “I’ll stay here to keep an eye on the others.”

* * * * *

Anna nodded and led the two men into the corridor. As they jogged down the hallway, she held her wristcomp gently, her finger ready to activate her communicator as her arms swayed back and forth while she ran. Jason and Cary were a few meters behind her. Their footfalls told her that they tried to keep pace with her without breaking into a full run.

Anna suddenly halted and touched the activation switch. The door to the communication room
opened. With a quick nod, she moved past the entrance and continued down the hall. A short while later, she stopped again, activated her communicator, and another door opened to a dark room. She pivoted with her next footfall and darted into the room.

Anna stopped a few strides past the threshold and strained to see through the darkness. As the men reached the doorway, she released her hold on her wristcomp. “Lights?”

The room illuminated to the same intensity as the infirmary, enough to show them that it resembled a long, narrow airlock. Though the side walls were virtually featureless, except for a thin, dark stripe that ran the length of the room at eye level, the far wall held a small window just big enough for one person to look through. It was situated at the same height as Anna’s forehead.

Anna walked to the window
and peered through it while standing on her toes. On the other side of the window was indeed the cavern. It was a struggle to see anything given her height, but part of the catwalk was visible. It extended along the wall just beyond the window.

“This must be the door.” She turned to the men behind her and pointed her thumb over her shoulder.

Out of breath, Cary shot her a dark look while he leaned with his hand planted on the wall. “What’s the rush? We’re not going anywhere for a while.”

“Sorry.” She frowned while watching him catch his breath.

“I’ll admit that I’m not as young as I used to be. But, damn! Give me a little warning next time!” added Cary after a few more breaths.

Jason pointed behind Anna. “Do you think you can open it?”

Anna glanced over her shoulder. “I’m sure I can.” Without a second thought, she toggled her wristcomp, but the door did not respond. She knitted her eyebrows as she glanced at her wrist and activated the screen.

“Maybe not,” Jason observed.

Anna’s fingers flew through the holographic screen floating in front of her as she checked and adjusted settings. “Give me a second.” She finally pressed the communicator button again as she turned to face the window, but nothing changed.

“It must operate under a different system.” She deactivated the screen and wheeled about to look at them again. “I’ll have to check with Bryce about this.”

Anna pushed between them to get past, and Jason moved to follow.

“Wait a minute!” Cary cried.

The other two stopped and gazed back at him.

“Can we wait for a minute? I’m not ready to run the marathon again just yet.”

* * * * *

The beams that had focused on Cooper’s body ceased as Anna walked into the infirmary. The tower at the foot of his bed transformed into a wire grid and vanished. Two smaller towers came into being on either side of his head.

Anna strode to the console. “What’s going on?”

“His injuries are healed,” Tomomi answered. “We’re trying to wake him up now.”

Anna nodded and shifted her gaze toward Cooper. The two towers pulsed a dark purple aura a few times, until a groan escaped the sergeant’s mouth.

Anna moved to stand next to his bed. “Sergeant?”

Cooper wiggled his fingers before bending a leg and propping himself up on his elbows. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times. He cocked his head and looked at her. “Jane?”

She smiled in spite of herself. “Please call me Anna. It is my name, after all.”

“What happened?”

“Your pistol exploded in your hand.”

The sergeant looked at his undamaged hand and wiggled his fingers again before turning back to her. “Are you sure? My hand would be gone.” He looked up and around the room, squinting slightly as he did. “Why is it so dark in here?” He paused on Anna’s face, studying it for a second. “And, what happened to your face? Half of it is blue.”

Anna stepped away from the bed. “Long story. I’ll explain in a bit.”

Cooper sat up cautiously, steadying himself as he moved. He cringed for a few seconds once he reached a sitting position and placed a hand over his stomach.

“I’m feeling really hungry right now. Anyone else famished?”

* * * * *

Jason leaned toward Cary. “Is it just me, or does he seem awfully friendly right now?”

Cary nodded with a frown. “He does seem a bit out-of-character right now. I wonder if it’s a side effect of the extended treatment.”

“That can’t be,” Tomomi said, turning to face them. “I didn’t act any different when I came out from under the knife, per se.”

“But, you weren’t affected by it as much as him,” Jason noted, a grim look on his face.

Tomomi shook her head, pursing her lips. “No, but I would think that I would’ve been affected somehow, if the device does have that affect on us.”

“Well,” Cary shrugged. “What if he’s like this whenever he wakes up? We don’t have anyone else to talk to about it right now.”

Jason nodded. The idea made sense to him. With no one around to confirm or deny the odd behavior, he figured that may be the case.

“Regardless of your postulations, your friend is in need of nutrients,” Bryce said as he continued to monitor Cooper’s vital signs.

Jason fished through his backpack, producing a snack bar after a few seconds. “It’s not much, but it’s a start.”

With Cary and Tomomi’s nods of approval, Jason took the food over to the sergeant. Cooper looked him over for a few seconds before silently accepting the offering, wearily removing part of the wrapper and taking his first bite.

“Good thinking,” Anna whispered to Jason while leaning toward him.

“I’m probably going to need another one of these, Jason.”

Noticing that Cooper had already consumed half of the bar, Jason turned to see Cary and Tomomi pulling out a couple more from their own packs. Within seconds, they had tossed them to him. He handed the one he had caught over to the starving Cooper and scrambled to pick up the other one from the floor.

“Thank you…Fuller?” Cooper questioned with a hint of confusion. “What?”

* * * * *

Anna bit back a smile while she watched Cooper’s peaceful exchange with Jason.

Cooper looked around the room more rapidly and stopped on Anderson.

“What the hell?” Cooper whipped his head back around and stared hard at Anna. “Where the fuck are we?”

“Sergeant,” Anna raised her hands in front of her. “We’re inside the facility that I was leading us to. We…”

Cooper pointed to Anderson. “
And, what the fuck are they doing to Anderson
?”

“We are…”

Cooper sprang from his bed and rushed to Anderson. He grabbed his arm and started to lift him from the bed. “
This ends now! I will not allow him to be experimented on by these freaks!
”

Anna chased him to the bed, but Jason reached him first. He pulled his arms away before the fallen grunt could be moved any more. Cooper struggled against the hold and was winning the wrestling match, when Anna stopped on the opposite side of the bed.

“Sergeant! We are not experimenting on him! We are trying to bring him back to life!”

“
That’s not possible! He’s dead, you cocksuckers!
”

Cooper broke free, shoved Jason to the floor, and lunged for Anderson again. Expecting it, Anna reared back and slammed a fist across the soldier’s jaw. He sprawled back on the bed behind him.

“
Would you shut up and listen to me for once?
” She screamed as she shook the pain from her hand. “
Anderson is being healed…right now! And if you move him, you will disrupt that, and he may truly be dead. Do you want that, or do you want to have him walk back into the colony under his own power?
”

Cooper’s eyes shot straight at Anna. She could have sworn that steam blew out of his ears as his skin darkened and his jaw clenched. He pushed himself back up to his feet. His chest heaved, and he clenched
his fists. “
What if they’re turning him into some sort of freak
?!”

Anna gave him a withering look and crossed her arms. Looking him over for a brief second, she answered, “They didn’t do that to you.” The silence that followed her quiet statement was deafening. She could see on Cooper’s face that her words had sunk in.

He shook his head in denial.

“Or Tomomi. Her broken arm is healed, and so is yours.” Anna pressed her advantage.

Cooper turned his head toward Tomomi and lingered there for a brief moment. Then, he shifted his gaze to his own arm.

“And, your hand was made whole by this same treatment Anderson is going through right now.”

Cooper slowly returned his gaze to Anna as she continued, “He will not be a freak. He will return to us as if he was never injured in the first place.”

Cooper looked down at Anderson and the beams focusing on various parts of his body. He frowned. “I hope you’re right, for your sake.”