Chapter 36 Safety First #2
Dashing from one crate to the next and weaving around several currently-unlit spotlights, I take them down the staircase into the hole’s entrance.
At the bottom, the dirt is padded into a ramp to partially meet the road inside.
With the spotlights off, everything gets dark really fast. Creeping forward to the edge of where the last of the midday sunlight reaches, the remaining noises of gunfire and shouting fades away.
“Where have you taken us?” Benjamin asks.
“Someplace I think we’ll be safe. For now. At least until things calm down.”
I turn on one of the spotlights deeper within, and the tunnel before us opens up to a larger road that leads to a big, open area with…
old cars and vehicles in it. They’ve all been pushed to the sides to clear out the space leading up to another large hole in the wall.
There’s a hallway on the other side, so I assume a door used to be there. A door that’s been blown wide open.
Between us and that are stacks upon stacks of old world computers, servers, and all types of unfamiliar machinery and technology. There are more crates and some of them have been left open. Heading towards the nearest one, I peek inside to find, to my surprise, preserved grains and seed.
“What do you think they’re doing down here?” Olivia asks as she comes to my side to look inside the crate.
I shudder and remember the lurker Shelby told me about. My gaze lifts from the crate to Olivia. “If I had to guess, they were looking for anything that could help us against the Ketts. I saw some weaponry in the tent outside earlier.”
“Is that what they told you when you still served?”
Olivia knows I was a soldier stationed on Earth, it was easy to tell when we met, but she also knows that I’ve renounced the military.
“Yes… To a degree. My job at the time was to help establish the encampment and secure its perimeter. I was only told what I needed to know.”
“Guys! Come take a look at this!” Quinton calls from across the room beside the blown-out door.
Olivia and I walk towards him, and together we step through the opening after him, into the hallway beyond. Benjamin follows closely behind.
The first thing I notice is that some of the lights are on and that the walls are white with a dull-gray overtone.
There are old signs on them covered in faded wording I can’t read.
Along the walls deeper down the hallway are doors, all of them wide-open.
Surveying the first few, I discover old furniture: desks and chairs.
Everything is meticulously clean.
Something hums up ahead. I walk towards the noise, seeing a couple of normal cleaning robots organizing dusty bookshelves.
Searching deeper into the room they’re in, it becomes clear this one is unlike the rooms at the beginning.
It’s bigger than the rest and has a bed at the back of it, partially hidden by canvas curtains.
There is a large seating area with a table in the middle covered in tablets and computers.
There are also several desks lined up along the walls sporting open books and projectors.
A badge on the table in the middle of the seating area has Graft’s name on it.
This has to be his room, or his office. Or both.
“What is this place?” Benjamin calls out from the hallway. Stepping out of Graft’s room, I spot him peering into the next room beside it—another living space like Graft’s, but smaller, and with two beds on opposite walls. Desks with equipment set up on them sit beside each one.
“It looks like the rooms and offices of the upper command and the few researchers stationed to work down here.”
“Yeah but what is this place?”
“It’s an old military research base.”
Huffing, he walks further down the hallway toward Quinton. “Of course it is.”
We explore the facility as a group. The hallways turn several corners but the rooms stay the same. As we get deeper, crates reappear along the walls. Opening one of them, I find it filled to the top with bags labeled seeds. I run my fingers over it before moving on.
We come to a large sectioned-off area hosting the empty shaft of an elevator. Traveling past it and following the crates lining the walls instead, we eventually end up at another blown-out wall.
“There’s a stairwell on the other side,” Quinton says, jumping down several feet into it. He turns back to face us. “It only seems to go down. We’re at the top.”
Misgivings fill me. Last time I ventured underground, it didn’t go well. I shake my head and stop Quinton before he steps down the first stair, walking forward and grabbing his wrist. “Don’t.”
“Why?”
I release him and step back, giving him room to come back across. “Because we need to conserve our energy. Graft is dead,” I remind him, all of them. “We have no idea what’s happening outside right now. What we need to do is find a place to lie low until things blow over.”
“Do you think things will blow over?” Olivia asks.
We’re all quiet for a moment before I can stomach the answer I have to give. “No,” I tell them honestly. “But none of us have weapons to defend ourselves with and none of you three are trained for combat. It’s best we head back to Graft’s room and wait awhile. We can decide what to do from there.”
I turn and walk away before I can see the fear and dismay on Olivia’s face. I’ve grown to care about her, I wanted this to be a safe place for her. I wanted this to be a safe place for Benjamin and Quinton too.
I wanted a safe place for us all.
But I’m not going to let them venture down below on my watch, especially not knowing what could be waiting for us down there.
I can only hope that the violence ends before anyone else gets hurt; that person who killed Graft is quickly apprehended and taken care of; that there’s a second officer willing to step up and do the hard job that’s ahead.
I hope… but I’m not optimistic.