V #2
"I agree, the water is heated, but something tells me we'll soon find out how. Let's go on," Nick suggested, and they agreed.
The rest of the apartment consisted of a large bedroom, tastefully but old-fashionedly furnished, and one clearly intended for two children.
Everywhere, posters of the Party, of workers, of the hammer and sickle, and, of course, Tito's picture had to occupy the place of honor above the television.
A very functional apartment, about seventy square meters.
The only strange thing in all of it was the fact that all the furniture was bolted to the apartment's floor.
The only movable piece of furniture was the armchair, which could be adjusted freely.
Nick could live here if it came to that, but he wondered how long he'd last under that harsh neon light.
Claustrophobia might catch up with him sooner or later.
Apart from the now-empty pantry, the apartment had nothing new to offer them, so they returned to the corridor.
They went on down it, only occasionally peeking through the odd door to notice a completely identical apartment that, after a few inspections, wasn't worth exploring.
They were all made the same, with the same decor and the same amenities.
Communism supposedly demanded equality, and Nick wondered whether the residential spaces on the other side had the same comforts as these they were passing.
Finally a large staircase appeared on the right.
Railings of massive oak and decorative balustrades, and marble on the wide steps.
They led one floor down, but the sheer scale of the stairs didn't induce a feeling of confinement or claustrophobia.
Artificial plants decorated the staircase, which ended beside something resembling a shopping mall.
The friends looked at each other and went down the stairs.
And it was a shopping mall, in a way. The shelves were filled with technical items like walkie-talkies, televisions, radios, and tools.
Nick grabbed three walkie-talkies and pressed the transmit button. Nothing happened.
"Here, let me explain," Tomi pointed at something on the device, pressed a small rubber button, and a crank popped out; he took hold of it and turned it energetically a few times.
"These are old walkie-talkies, they don't run on batteries — you have to wind them to get power to talk. The more you wind, the more power. Practical, isn't it?"
Nick repeated what Tomi had shown him, and soon they were splitting up like boys to talk, even though they were within sight of each other.
Nika watched it all, amused. She wound her own walkie-talkie and went on exploring.
Apart from functional household items, nothing interesting could be found in that space.
Finally, Nika came upon a door marked SECURITY.
She paused for a moment, then went in. Soon she called over the radio:
"Guys, you have to see this."
It didn't take them long to find the girl, who greeted them with a leveled rifle. Both of them froze.
"Nika!!! What the hell?" a frightened cry escaped Tomi.
Nika laughed and said:
"Look, it's empty and full of grease, and besides, here are its brothers and sisters."
Nika led them into a spacious room of familiar shape and familiar electronics.
The only difference was that, instead of showers and lockers, in the depths of the room were rows of neatly arranged rifles and pistols.
All neatly packed, and on every barrel gleamed the grease that prevents corrosion.
Nick approached the weapons in admiration, looked around a bit, took the odd item in his hands, and then carefully returned it to its place, wiping the grease off his hands onto his pants.
"With this you could start your own private war," he whistled.
"Or end one in a hurry," Nika added.
Nick looked at them with panic on his face.
"People must not know about this. Imagine what would happen if people found out there were weapons available nearby."
Both of them agreed. Thousands of people in a relatively cramped place — there'd be friction and trouble.
And if on top of that they had access to weapons, it wouldn't take long for it all to escalate into a small war, because, wouldn't you know it, people are still an aggressive species and love to quarrel.
Nika went up to the racks and set the rifle back in the spot where it had lain undisturbed for decades.
Nick watched, amused, as with a small look of disgust she wiped the grease off her hands onto the wood of the rack.
She loves to be clean — and how could she not, working with clean electronics, spores, and seeds in some botanical laboratory.
Nick looked around the room, went up to the familiar shape of a console, and found what he was looking for.
In a small glass case hung a bunch of keys and old-fashioned entry cards.
He opened the cabinet and took everything out of it, arranging it carefully on the console.
Each key had a tag clearly marking the room it locked or unlocked.
The old-fashioned cards were already an enigma, so Nick called his two companions to work out their purpose together.
One look was enough for Tomi, and he announced triumphantly:
"These are mechanical key cards."
Both of them looked at him questioningly, so he explained:
"Look, modern cards are coded via a magnetic strip in them to open the corresponding magnetic locks, get it?"
They nodded, confirming they were following, so he continued with satisfaction:
"In the early eighties, such locks weren't yet in use…"
he scratched his head, thinking. "Well, maybe they were at the Pentagon, but that doesn't matter to us now. The rest of the world had something similar. Mechanical cards like these."
He picked one up from the table and studied it carefully.
"Look, the arrangement of holes on the card corresponds to only one lock, which has teeth shaped to fit perfectly into that same lock. If the teeth don't seat into the holes, the lock stays locked. If even one of the teeth catches on the lock, it stays locked again," then he laughed.
"Oh, they realized this was a silly technique and that such locks were very insecure, because the material wears out with use and some locks would simply jam. But those are mechanical problems — what matters is that back then a lock like this was the very best of the best,
and that anything locked behind one was considered VERY secure."
Nick carefully studied the card he held in his hands. He noticed the pattern of holes, seemingly random, but he understood what Tomi was talking about.
"You say they wore out and degraded?"
Tomi nodded.
"So how many uses can we count on them working as intended, without problems?"
Tomi thought and answered after a short pause:
"Well, say the first hundred or so uses should be in the green, another fifty in the yellow, and after that it's only a matter of time before the lock jams."
"Okay, it'll work for a while — that's what matters," Nick concluded and took the cards and keys from the console.
He realized he wouldn't get far carrying them in his hands like that, so he looked around the room for some kind of container or something to store the newly acquired treasure in.
He soon found an ancient RAP fanny pack, which he readily slung over his shoulder, and put all the cards and keys into it.
In his hand he kept only the card marked SECURITY and headed for the exit.
"Let's go, people, maybe these things will unlock the gates on the upper floors."
He went out and let his companions pass out of the room.
Chatting, they went on down the corridor, which turned sharply, and vanished from his sight.
Then he closed the door and inserted the card into a small slot beneath the lock.
Something clicked and the lock jammed. Nick, satisfied, put the card with the others in the pack and set off after his friends.
Passing down the corridor, he noticed that this part of the shelter was literally designed to imitate normal life.
Tomi approached the gate on the stairs and stood beside it, waiting for Nick to find the right card in the pack.
It didn't take long, and through the space, which until now had known only silence, spread the metallic scream of the gate finally opening on its somewhat rusty hinges after decades of disuse.
A moment of indecision on the staircase.
"What are we waiting for, people?" Nika almost exclaimed, and immediately startled at the echo of her own voice in the empty staircase.
Nick stood indecisively, then finally said:
"We still don't know where the power comes from. The upper floors are still without electricity, and I haven't seen a fuse box anywhere."
Nika frowned, but immediately, with renewed vigor and a smile on her face, began enthusiastically descending the staircase. In passing she tossed at them:
"Well? The power won't turn itself on. Let's go!"
They hadn't descended long when they came upon a small niche where there was a desk, a heavy, black old-fashioned telephone with no dial, and a gate that blocked the passage. Tomi approached the desk, lifted the telephone receiver, and a moment later returned it to its place.
"No signal," he stated shyly.
Nick was fumbling with the cards, looking for the right one, which was no easy task.
Finally he found one marked MAIN STAIRCASE 1.
For a moment the number confused him, but then he noticed that on the staircase there was an additional gate with a space between and a new niche, clearly cordoned off in yellow.
You could literally picture a guard who would check passes and only then open the second gate for authorized persons.
Nick handed the card to the girl, who immediately unlocked the gate while he looked for the card for the second gate.
Finally he found it too, and a moment later he was unlocking the second gate as well.
He put the cards in the pack and started down the stairs.
It didn't take long before the trio found themselves in front of massive metal doors above which was written MAINTENANCE.
Of course, that's why there was extra security, because the space where the soul of the shelter lay must not be exposed to the public, and only authorized persons may enter.
Nick noticed keyholes on both sides of the door, as well as a card slot right in the middle of it.
"What now?" he asked.