by Taylor Buck
“Ok, then let’s do this. Do you have everything? The camera, flashlight…keychain?”
“It’s all here.”
“Then let’s go,” he said.
They opened the doors and stepped outside.
The forest was dead quiet. Not a sound except for the crickets chirping quietly in the bushes. The faint smell of saltwater stuck to the thick air and the moisture outside coated their skin in a soggy glaze. The moon peeked through just enough to cast a faint light over the landscape. “Keep the flashlights off for now,” Bennett said.
They walked along the road carefully, watching for potholes. The gated entrance came into view and Bennett spotted a receiver, on the left side of the road. It was mounted at driver’s door level.
“Good. They use the RFIDs for entry. We’re in luck,” he whispered.
They slowly crept along the gate and made their way to the entry. Bennett checked for cameras. There were two mounted that he could see, fixed on either side of the entry door.
“Ok. Masks on.”
“I feel ridiculous wearing this,” Kelly said.
“Yeah, I do too. But we can’t take any chances on this. We know they’ve got security cameras. They could be on,” Bennett said as he pulled his mask over his face.
“Fine,” Kelly relented— pulling the black mask over her head. It was a neoprene half-face mask, used for scuba diving. Small holes in the mesh around the mouth allowed for sufficient breathing. “Hmm…it’s not bad. I can actually breath pretty well,” Kelly said.
“Alright. Let’s move.”
They approached the fence. Bennett had dark shorts on and a tan, weathered, button-up shirt—the kind with multiple pockets. It was warm outside so Bennett had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He carried his field bag on his back holding a few emergency items, just in case. Kelly wore her usual safari field attire.
Bennett dashed across the entryway with the keychain in his hand. He reached the other side and held it up to the receiver. The door beeped, signaling access, and the gate slowly opened.
Bennett signaled Kelly to enter and they both ducked inside the gate. First obstacle passed, he thought.
They continued up the winding entryway, which snaked through the forest a couple hundred yards. Bennett led the way. They stayed close to each other, hugging the edges of the road as they walked. They came to a clearing among the bushes where a trail shot off to the left. Bennett stopped.
“Let’s take this trail. It should bring us right up to the back entrance. That way we can avoid the front cameras.” He spoke in a half-mumble through his neoprene mask. Kelly nodded.
The trail appeared to be an ATV path. It was just wide enough for a 4-wheeler to pass through and the tracks in the ground confirmed it. The trail wound deep through the forest. Tall palm trees and thick bushes lined either side, eventually opening up into the southwest entrance of the facility. The building came into view.
“Here we are,” Kelly said.
“There’s the door.” Bennett pointed to an entrance along the wall.
The building looked to be completely dark inside. A single light glowed amber above the southwest doorway. The moon above cast enough light down to highlight the edges of the structure. At night the building appeared even more foreboding. It stood out in the jungle like a fortress.
Bennett patted Kelly on the shoulder and motioned to follow then he stepped out from the trees and darted across the opening to the doorway. Kelly followed right behind him. When they had both reached the doorway Kelly took out the keychain. She glanced up at Bennett. He nodded. The receiver beeped and the door slowly slid open to the left.
Bennett clicked on his flashlight. They stepped through the doorway and into the dark building.
CHAPTER 29
CERTA GROUNDS, BETA SECTION
15 OCTOBER, 10:25 P.M.
Rick Danner breezed past the electrical shed, flooring the pedal to get up and over a small rise in the path. The Electric-All Terrain Vehicle, E-ATV, engine whirred quietly as it ascended the hill.
The electric vehicles were efficient modes of transportation around the facility grounds. Danner could cover a lot of ground quickly and they could handle most any terrain. They were surprisingly quiet, so much so that they were difficult to determine when they were actually on. Tegan followed closely behind Danner on an E-ATV of his own. They were heading out to the Beta Sector to fix some fencing that had been damaged.
“Up here!” Danner yelled out to Tegan. The E-ATV headlights bounced around in the darkness. They approached the east fence and Danner brought his E-ATV to a stop. He aimed the E-ATVs headlights at the fence and turned off the engine, and then he jumped off and approached the fence. Danner let out a whistle, as if seeing something disconcerting. “Well, that explains the burns on Covington’s hands. Take a look.”
The horizontal fence cables were bowed downward in a jagged line all the way up the fence.
“He climbed it,” Tegan said.
“Sure did. Probably didn’t even feel the electricity burning his hands,” Danner said.
Danner walked back to the E-ATV and pulled out a collapsible ladder strapped to the back. He unfolded it next to the fence and started climbing.
“You repair the bottom rows. I’ll do the top.”
“You sure its off?” Tegan asked.
“That’s why I brought you along,” Danner said and looked down at Tegan.
Danner smiled wryly. He pointed up to the light indicator at the top of the fence. “Its blue. We’re good. Now start fixing.”
CHAPTER 30
CERTA FACILITY, WEST WING
15 OCTOBER, 10:30 P.M.
The pungent odor immediately filled the air. Bennett and Kelly both noticed it right away as they crept around the dark room.
“What is that?” Kelly asked.
“Smells like ammonia. This must be a supply room,” Bennett replied.
Kelly shined her light around the room. The white beam floated across cleaning supplies, mops, brooms, then glared back at her from atop a shiny surface. She moved in closer to see what it was.
“Tom. Look.”
Bennett came over to see what Kelly was pointing at and his eyes were immediately drawn to an AR-15 hanging behind a glass case. He looked closer and realized he was standing in front of an entire arsenal of weapons encased along the wall.
It’s like an armory in here,” Bennett said.
He could identify all of the makes and models of the firearms— an M4 Carbine, an AR-15, a .308 sniper rifle, two Benelli 12-gauge shotguns, four AK-47s and a half dozen 45-caliber Glocks. It was all gear he had been trained to use from his time in the military. He estimated it was roughly enough gear to arm a battalion.
“Is that normal?” Kelly whispered—referring to the fact that this place appeared to be heavily fortified.
“It is for a company backed by the DOD.”
Kelly held the keychain up to the receiver on the opposite side of the room. The door beeped open revealing a long, dark hallway. They pointed their flashlight beams through the doorway and entered the hallway. Bennett went right and walked quietly down the hallway past a series of doors—some of them open. He passed a cafeteria with a kitchen, a lounge holding a few couches and a giant flatscreen on the wall, a few offices and restrooms. It resembled the layout of a typical office building.
Kelly felt strange walking through the empty halls—she had the feeling she shouldn’t be there. It was an eerie, exciting feeling—one that she hadn’t experienced since long ago.
Kelly and her brother Colin once broke into their neighbor, Mr. Townsend’s, house. She had suspected Mr. Townsend of stealing her cat. Kelly had talked her brother into investigating and they ended up breaking in Mr. Townsend’s house while he was away. They
snooped around his house at night, roaming through the empty rooms. She remembered the smell of musty lavender in the house. She recalled the tingling feeling creeping over her body as she walked through a stranger’s house. It was a strange feeling. She remembered the hair on her arms standing up and how she jumped at every noise in the house.
They never found her cat that night. It turned out that Mr. Townsend had taken in a stray around the same time Kelly had lost hers. The colors were different enough to determine it wasn’t her cat. In the end, she felt bad for wrongly accusing him.
The memory flashed into her mind, then drifted away.
Toward the end of the hallway they approached a door labeled TEST LAB.
Bennett held up two fingers and pointed them straight at the door, motioning to Kelly. Kelly nodded and held the keychain up to the receiver. The door hissed open and slid to the left…Blinding light instantly flooded the hallway as the laboratory lights shone down on them. Bennett squinted his eyes and shielded his face to the unexpected light. He pulled Kelly backward and ducked into the hallway as the door closed behind them. They crouched down with their backs to the wall.
“The lights are on!” Kelly whispered. “Do you think someone’s here?”
“Shhh. Listen,” Bennett said holding his finger up to his lips.
They sat against the door listening, trying to hear for any signs that they had been spotted. They held still in the dark hallway for almost a minute—nothing but silence.
“Nobody’s here—maybe they leave the lab lights on at night.”
“Should we go back in?” Kelly asked.
Bennett paused, still listening. “Yeah, I think we’re good. Let’s go.” They got back up and entered through the door.
The bright fluorescent lights again shone down on Bennett and Kelly. The massive laboratory was laid out in front of them in a grandiose hall. Cubicles with computers, motion sensors units, and precision tools were placed at stations around the lab floor. Parts, cables and silicon boards were stacked in piles at the corner of the room. Kelly took out her phone. She started snapping photos of everything inside. To the left was a smaller set of rooms behind a large glass wall. To the right was a massive structure that looked to be some kind of training station or obstacle course—like one would expect to find as a set in an outdoor store. Kelly snapped many detailed photos of the course.
The interior was unidentifiable for the most part. Bennett couldn’t find any noticeable tie-in to robots of any sort, let alone any blueprints, plans or construct reference anywhere. The inside of the building came across as your everyday corporate, tech-development company. They could be manufacturing processors, for all Bennett knew.
They moved around quietly, covering the entire lab from end to end. Kelly walked over to Bennett who was holding some sort of optical lens piece in his hands. “The cats aren’t here. There must be another large room like this,” Kelly said. “There’s an exit over here. Come on.” She walked over to a set of double doors marked with a sign above.
EAST WING
CONTROL CENTER
Bennett followed her to the door. Kelly held up the keychain and the door opened revealing another dark hallway. They ducked out from the bright laboratory into the darkness. They both clicked on their flashlights as the door closed. Bennett heard the gears inside the door whine gently as the interior locking lever sealed the door shut behind them.
They continued on.
The building was silent, and Bennett felt as if his footsteps were echoing throughout the entire building. He attempted to walk more softly, only to realize it didn’t make any difference. The hallway seemed to go forever, and there weren’t quite as many doors along the way as the other hallway. Bennett realized they were passing in front of the enormous windows that he had seen earlier today when they stumbled upon the building. He looked through the glass. It was pitch black outside. The moon was now covered completely by clouds. They finally approached the end of the hallway and came to a door labeled above:
TEST ENCLOSURES
CONTROL CENTER
Bennett glanced to the right. There was an office at the end of the hall with its door slightly ajar. As he walked past he noticed a faint light flash inside. He pushed the door open gently and revealed an empty office overlooking the front parking lot. The office was dark.
There it was again. The light.
Suddenly Bennett noticed the light again, this time moving along the wall. The light flickered and then filled the room briefly, just for a moment. Bennett’s heart sank and a feeling of panic shot through him as he realized what it was.
“A car!” Kelly shouted. She looked at Bennett with a terrified expression. “Tom! What do we do?”
Bennett’s mind raced. They were deep within the building; he didn’t know any other way back than the way they came in. It would take too long to run back out. By the time they got back to the southwest entrance, the person would already be inside. On the other hand, if they stayed up in the room, they ran the risk that someone would come up to that very office.
“Come on.” He grabbed Kelly’s hand and they ran out. They entered the hallway and Bennett lifted Kelly’s hand up to the receiver. The door hissed open.
“In here,” he said.
They entered the den.
The door shut behind them as they entered the room. It was dark and surprisingly cold inside. Bennett couldn’t see a thing, but he could tell by the interior acoustics that they were in an immense environment. He felt suddenly miniscule—disoriented. Every move they made echoed off the grand walls around them. Bennett flicked his flashlight on and pointed the beam up the wall.
The sign above read: Control Room.
They were inside the den.
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Kelly began to see faint traces of moonlight shining in from above. She looked up and saw what appeared to be a skylight above them.
“This is the room. This is what we were looking into today. The cages must be along the walls here.” She walked over to the glass factions and shined her light into one of them. Bennett was walking the perimeter of the room looking for an exit. “Kelly, we need to find a way out of here. Help me look for a door or something.”
“Tom! Look.”
Kelly froze and stared into the containment with her flashlight beam steady in front of her. Bennett walked over to her. A pair of glassy eyes stared back at them from deep within the enclosure. It was a cat…a large black cat, laying down in the shadows, staring at them. It just stayed there on the floor, head resting on top of its front legs. It was a massive creature, more the size of a lion than a panther, Kelly thought. It had an odd build too. Strange muscle definition around the shoulders and it appeared to have a slightly raised back. It’s fur coat was beautiful and reflected light in colorful fragments that seemed to play tricks with Kelly’s eyes.
“Can you believe it?” Kelly was so entranced with the cat she didn’t think to take a picture.
“I don’t know Kell…it’s not moving. I don’t think it’s—”
As soon as Bennett spoke, the animal perked its head up and stood up on its forelimbs. Bennett and Kelly both took a step back away from the glass.
“I’m not—so—sure about that,” Kelly said. Amazement written all over her words.
“Alright, take a picture and let’s get out of here. Whoever got here will be inside any second,” said Bennett.
“Tom, I want to be sure.” Otherwise, why did we come in here?” She crouched down and called softly to the cat. “Come here girl. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to get a look at you.”
Bennett backed away and continued searching for an exit. They needed to find a way out, quick. He shined his light up the south face of the room. The light met up against a steel ladder leading up the wall. It ran all the way up t
o a level of scaffolding below the A-frame roof. Bennett walked over to it and grabbed the metal rungs, giving them a tug to check the stability. The metal was cold in his hands but felt strong and sturdy.
“Kelly, over here. This ladder goes all the way to the skylight. I think we can actually get out from here,” Bennett said.
Click.
The synthesized shutter sound on Kelly’s phone clicked loudly and sent a blast of light that filled the space around them. Immediately after the camera flashed, a sound echoed from inside the building somewhere. It sounded like a loud thud.
“Kelly, now! Let’s go. They’re here.”
Kelly ran over to the ladder and began climbing quickly up the wall. Bennett followed behind her. The ladder rose at least forty feet off the ground. Kelly reached blindly to each rung, unable to see in the darkness. The moonlight illuminated the scaffolding above helping guide her to the top of the ladder. She pulled herself onto the dangling aluminum platform. It swayed slightly, causing her to grab the side railing with both hands in order to steady herself. Bennett came up right behind her and pulled himself up.
“Ok, there should be an access door or something here.” They both looked around. Kelly spotted an exit.
“There. In the corner.” Kelly pointed to an opening in the roof. An entire window panel was missing from the skylight. The scaffolding they stood on led to that side of the room and right past the opening.
“That’s it. That’s our exit,” said Bennett.
They began making their way carefully across the walkway. The aluminum paneling beneath them squeaked occasionally as they walked. The moon above lit their silhouettes and cast their shadows down to the floor below. Bennett looked down to see the black figures moving like shadow puppets across a bridge.