Origins (The Wasteland Chronicles, #2) (16 page)

“Yeah,” Lisa said. “Would have expected something to be attacking us in here. But it’s as if someone came in and cleaned everything up.”

“The lights are on, too,” Anna said. “Someone’s keeping house.”

Well, if anyone was here, they sure were keeping quiet.

Finally we arrived at the first floor.

“Well, we made it,” Makara said. “Thought all along we would have to bust in through the front.”

“It’s better this way,” Samuel said. “Stay alert. Who knows what surprises our friends left for us?”

Samuel forced the door open, and my breath caught. “Giant” did not even begin to describe the room we had entered. No, not a room. A chamber, a cavern, though manmade. It must have taken years to carve out.

It was basically a gigantic vertical tunnel. I looked up and saw the rock ceiling hundreds of feet above. It probably would take at least a minute to walk across the chamber’s entire diameter. The railed edges of floor upon floor ringed the tunnel’s circumference. It was like a circular skyscraper, only underground. Lights lit the place only dimly, so I couldn’t see its entire scope. Hundreds of doors and openings and archways lined the floors – things that looked as if they had once been stores, restaurants, dorms, places to relax.

This hadn’t been a Bunker. It had been an entire underground city.

“Home sweet home,” Makara said.

In front of us was a red stain on the rock floor, the remains of someone’s grisly death years ago. The body was gone.

“Labs are this way,” Samuel said.

We followed Samuel across the massive chamber, but I couldn’t keep from looking up. It must have taken an army of thousands of turned creatures to bring down a place like this. That army must have been controlled, somehow. I wondered what could be powerful and intelligent enough to do that. I didn’t want to think of the answer.

Samuel went through a large opening into a wide corridor. The corridor sloped downward. The echoes of our footsteps were painfully loud. Anyone or anything would hear us coming from a mile away.

A bullet whizzed past my head, forcing me to the ground. Falling to the ground had become an ingrained habit of mine.

“They’re right ahead of us,” Samuel said.

I looked ahead. Both Harland and Drake were kneeling behind a railing that served as a barricade. They were right in front of the vault door marked “Lab Levels.”

“Damn it, they’re guarding the entrance!” Samuel said.

“Because they can’t get in,” Makara said. “That thing is locked tight.”

“If they want me to open it again, they have another think coming,” I said.

“I don’t think anyone could open that, other than with brute force,” Samuel said.

“Well,” Makara said, “let’s take care of these guys, first.

“Wait,” I said. “Something’s wrong. They’re not doing anything.”

Silence. Then an explosion rocked the entire tunnel. It shook the ceiling, the walls, and the floor. Rock cracked and fell from the ceiling, threatening to bury us alive.

We all ran forward under a hail of bullets. They were forcing us out of the tunnel, out of cover, right into their sights.

A bullet nicked my boot and, lucky for me, it didn’t hit anything. But with a few more seconds of this, one of us would be dead. Maybe all of us.

I fell to the ground behind a rock that had crashed against the floor. Everyone else took their places beside me as the tunnel behind continued to collapse on itself.

I looked into the dark tunnel we had just run out of. Rocks buried the entire thing. That’s when I noticed there were only four of us.

Lisa was gone.

“Lisa?” Makara shouted.

“I don’t think she made it,” I said.

Makara shook her head in denial. Her eyes watered as her face turned red.

Samuel grabbed her shoulder. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Lisa!” Makara screamed.

She stood up and ran back to the tunnel. More bullets filled the air, threatening to end her life.

I jumped from cover, and landed on her, bringing her to the ground.

She turned around, and was so pissed that she actually bit me. Tears were in her eyes as she fought back. I pulled her back to the rock. She went limp.

“She’s gone,” I said. “I’m not letting you die, too.”

“We have to stay alive,” Samuel said.

Even if we got out of this one alive, we were stuck. The tunnel behind us had collapsed, and there was an inaccessible vault door in front. We were trapped in here, along with the two idiots who cut off the only escape.

Makara reached into her pack. Tears in her eyes, she held a grenade.

“This might work,” she said. “As soon as it goes off, charge the bastards and finish the job.”

She pulled the plug, waited a second, and lobbed it overhand. She closed her eyes, waiting for the boom.

Nothing happened. It was a dud.

No one said anything. It was as if everyone had given up.

“Nice try,” Harland said. “Just open the door, like last time. We’ll spare your lives.”

“I’m not opening that damn thing for you,” I yelled. “You just killed one of our own.”

“Those Black Files are ours,” Harland said. “This is the sovereign territory of the Empire, and anything in it belongs to us.”

“You’ll have to kill us first,” I said.

“We’re working on that,” Harland said. “Serves you right for Kris earlier.”

“That was no one’s fault, and you damn well know it,” Samuel yelled.

Harland didn’t respond to that. It was another moment before he spoke.

“It seems we have reached an impasse. One of us is going to have to back down. Those Black Files are not going to be yours.”

“We need them,” Samuel said. “With that info we can find out how to stop the Blights. Maybe even the xenovirus. You have no idea what you’re doing by taking those files back to the Empire.”

“I don’t understand,” Anna said. “Aren’t the files digital? Why can’t we both have them?”

“The Empire doesn’t want anyone privy to that info,” Harland said.

“Well, you can’t get in there unless we open the door,” I said. “You need us, and you’re not getting anywhere without us. And guess what? We’re not helping you. If you had joined up with us like we had planned, we wouldn’t be dealing with any of this, and our friend wouldn’t be dead.”

“I’m tired of this,” Makara said. “They die.”

“No,” I said. “You’ll get yourself killed.”

Makara sighed. “I don’t care. Someone has to attack them. There’s four of us and two of them. No one’s getting out of here alive, so we have to make a move at some point.”

A loud shot rang out in the room. It came from the rubble in the tunnel. I heard Drake scream from behind the barricade.

“Lisa,” I said. “She’s alive!”

Another shot fired. It zinged off the metal. I heard Harland curse from the direction of the door.

“Now!” Samuel said.

We all followed Samuel’s lead as he ducked from behind the boulder and charged for the door. Harland was still in shock at being sniped at, so he didn’t react fast enough. As he was raising his gun, Samuel, Makara, and I all shot him. He gave a raspy groan as his eyes widened. He fell to his knees, right beside Drake, who had a bullet in his forehead.

We all turned around. Lisa was not in sight. We ran to the tunnel and saw her.

She was lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. A sharp rock had gashed into her from above.

Makara ran and knelt beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Lisa...Lisa, you hear me?”

“Yeah. I’m here. I’m alright.”

She was not alright. She was battered and bruised all over, and her blue eyes were shut in pain. Her rifle was cradled in her arms.

“Lisa...”

Samuel took a shirt from his pack and placed it on a nasty gash on Lisa’s abdomen. She hissed in pain as pressure was applied. Too much blood was pouring out.

“Don’t bother,” she said. “I don’t have long. The old man was right.”

“What do you mean?” Makara asked. “You can’t die. I need you.”

Lisa smiled. “He said there would be a time where I thought I was done. He said that was when I had to try harder, or everyone else would die. I tried, Makara. I got strength from I don’t know where to finish the job and crawl out of those rocks. I have no strength. I can’t go on.”

Her voice was raspy. Makara shook her head fiercely.

“No. You’re wrong. You still have to try. You can’t give up.”

Samuel’s face was pale. Lisa looked at Makara, tears in her eyes.

“Take my gun,” she said. “Don’t leave it here with me, in this place.”

Makara shook her head again. “No. You’re not going to die. Quit saying that.”

“The old man was right. I did my part. Finish...”

“Lisa, no...”

Lisa’s haunting blue eyes stared upward. She did not complete her sentence. She relaxed against the hard ground, her wavy brown hair fanned and matted to the floor from her blood.

Makara’s shoulders shook. Her face was a mixture of anger and devastation. She still held Lisa’s lifeless hand. It looked as if she would never let it go.

No one said a word. No one knew how Makara would react. I just stared at Lisa, tears in my eyes.

Finally, Makara stood, her face hardening. She grabbed the sniper rifle. No one knew what she was going to do with it.

“Makara.”

She turned to face me. Her face was harder than the rock of the walls. She didn’t say anything. She strapped the rifle to her back.

“Let’s go,” she said.

She looked at Lisa one last time. For a minute, it seemed her composure would break. Her lips quivered before they stilled. She knelt down one last time, and closed Lisa’s eyes, her hand shaking.

We watched as she walked to the vault door. She ignored the bodies of Harland and Drake, not even minding their blood. Her boots made a sticky sound as she stood before the door.

“This is Makara Neth, citizen of Bunker One. Open.”

The doors did not respond. Makara stood, her arms flexing. The doors stayed shut, immovable as mountains.

“It’s no good,” Samuel said. “We don’t have clearance. None of us do.”

Makara pounded on the door. “Cornelius Ashton, I know you’re in there. I know you didn’t die. You need to open this door.
Now.”

Anna and I looked at each other. Cornelius Ashton, author of the Black Files...
was
he still alive?

“Cornelius?” Anna whispered.

“Dr. Cornelius Ashton,” I said. “But he’s dead. He’s not here...”

“Someone’s here,” Samuel said, almost in a growl. “Someone has the lights on. Someone cleaned up all the bodies.”

Makara was screaming. “Open this goddamn door or I’m going to...”

The vault door hissed, creaking open inch by inch. The lab within was dark. Makara continued standing in front of the door, not seeming to care that her voice command had actually worked.

She turned to us. “Come on.”

She walked into the darkness of the labs. We rushed to join her.

Lisa’s body was still. It seemed so wrong to leave her here, but we had no other choice.

The Black Files awaited us. But to Makara, they would never be worth the price.

W
e entered the main part of the lab. Hundreds of computers, powered off, sat in long lines in the middle of the room. Chairs still sat in front of most of them. Unlike the rest of the bunker, this part was clean. No one had been in here since it had been evacuated. Or someone had been in here and had been keeping things tidy.

Against the far wall was a large screen. As soon as we entered the room, a computerized female voice spoke.

“Powering on.”

In a flash, the fluorescent lights powered on, temporarily blinding me. The computers in their long lines snapped on one by one, filling the room with an iridescent glow. Large machines against the walls – probably more computers – powered on with low hums. The entire lab was starting up. I wondered where the power source was, and how it was still running after all these years. Maybe it had been designed to do so.

Samuel walked to the big screen, and stood at a terminal before it.

Of the doctor, there was no sign. The lab looked as empty as it probably had for the past twelve years.

“He’s not here,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Samuel said. “The Files are ours.”

The computer was already on, ready to go. All Samuel had to do was do a search for the Black Files. He would have them in seconds.

Samuel typed “Black Files” into the computer’s search bar. Instantly, a link appeared:
Black Files, The. Dr. Cornelius Ashton. Compiled Xenobiological Research, 2042-2048, property of the Government of the United States of America. CLASSIFIED. Security Clearance Omega
.

“Security Clearance Omega?” I asked.

“It means the U.S. does not want us accessing these files,” Samuel said. “But I’ll try.”

Makara watched, not speaking. Anna stood nearby with katana in hand.

“I’ll try my log-in credentials from Bunker 114. Maybe that will be good enough.”

Samuel logged in. The computer paused for a moment, as if thinking. It flashed its message across the screen:
Access granted. Welcome, Assistant Chief Scientist, Samuel Neth.

“Assistant Chief Scientist,” Anna said. “Sounds serious.”

“That was not my station,” Samuel said. “Someone’s updated this to recognize my name. Or maybe the computers at Bunker 114 recorded the deaths of the scientists there, so it automatically gives me clearance to these files.”

“Congrats on your promotion,” I said.

Makara remained silent, her face like stone.

They were on the screen: the Black Files we had all been waiting for.

“They are only eighty pages long,” Samuel said, with a frown. “I was expecting more. Much more.”

“You sound disappointed,” I said.

Samuel shrugged. “Just not what I expected at all. Then again, a lot can sometimes be said with a little, but that’s typically not the case with research papers.”

“Read it,” Anna said. “This is what we’re here for. Let’s see how to beat this thing.”

Samuel sighed. “Alright. Reading.”

Samuel scanned the pages furiously. He showed no reaction as we waited. Occasionally, he mouthed something to himself. At the end of ten minutes his face darkened.