“And this unit will power this plant for a thousand years?”
Chuck nodded. “Crazy, isn’t it?”
They spent about twenty minutes poking around. Jack checked out the ventilation system, surprised it was still working. Nothing particularly useful was coming of this trip though, and he was disappointed. It was time to go.
On the way up, Emmet said, “So are you gonna build a new underground city for New Hope?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I suppose I’m going to try.” Jack was not optimistic. If anything, this trip had reminded him of how much trouble it is to build on this scale.
“Well, if you need a crew member, I wouldn’t mind workin for ya Jack. I’m getting tired of comin here.” His face was solemn; an expression Jack had not seen much from him.
“Emmet, I would be honored if you would be on my crew.”
* * *
The elevator stopped and the doors opened up. Emmet stepped off first, followed by Chuck and Jack. Two men appeared in the doorway, blocking the light coming in from outside. They had their rifles trained on Emmet. Nobody was expecting this, and Emmet had only one hand on his weapon, the other was carrying the frozen head. “Drop the weapons, hoppers.”
The three men froze. Chuck eased in front of Jack, his rifle hanging at his side, the other frozen head in his hand. Jack’s own rifle was hanging from his shoulder by the sling as well. Suddenly, Emmet threw the head toward the two men and pulled his rifle up, simultaneously squeezing the trigger down. The burst of bullets tracked from the ground at the men’s feet and up toward their bodies, but it wasn’t fast enough. The two men opened fire.
Emmet dropped to the ground. Jack was still reaching for his rifle when Chuck fell back into him, knocking him back into the elevator. Something kept punching him in the chest and helmet. He was on the ground and Chuck was on his back, lying on Jack’s legs. Chuck had his rifle up, firing a long burst, and one of the two men screamed and went down to one knee. Jack reached out and got hold of Chuck’s backpack, and in one movement kicked both feet out pulling them both back into the elevator. He reached up and punched the closest button. The doors closed and there was a very loud roar, followed by an even louder silence.
Chapter 23
The elevator was hazy with smoke. Both men lay on the floor of the elevator, Chuck was in Jack’s lap, unmoving with a wisp of smoke coming from both his rifle and his body. It didn’t take long for Jack to snap out of the confusion. The first thing he noticed was the smell of burning flesh accompanied by a faint sizzling sound. Not wasting any time, he pushed Chuck to a sitting position, which released a bigger puff of smoke from under his armor. He quickly got to his knees and examined the man. In front, there was a neat hole in the right shoulder, between the chest armor and the shoulder armor. He leaned Chuck’s body forward and reached down his back between his under suit and his skin. His hand slid right in as if lubricated with oil, and he groped around, feeling something small and sharp. Carefully pulling it out revealed a heavily distorted but complete .202 caliber round, covered in blood and still sizzling. He tossed the bullet aside and realized that the lubrication that allowed his hand to slide in between the suit and Chuck’s back was blood. “Oh shit, this isn’t good.” The elevator stopped at the first level and the doors opened, allowing the smoke to quickly clear. He judged that about twenty five seconds had passed since they stepped off the elevator into the maelstrom of gunfire.
Lying Chuck down, he stood up. Working quickly but trying to keep his nerves in check, he reached down and pulled off Chuck’s backpack, chest armor, and shoulder armor. He then unzipped the front of the under suit and pulled it down. There was a small hole right above Chuck’s armpit. Dark blood was steadily oozing out of the hole. Jack figured that the bullet went in, hit his shoulder joint, then diverted deeper down, and exited somewhere on his back. The hit was direct enough for the bullet to penetrate the material but upon exit was stopped by the back material and sat there burning another hole in his back.
Jack dropped his own pack from his shoulders, reached in and grabbed the medical kit. He opened it and took a quick inventory. Much of it he didn’t recognize, but he saw what looked like big band aids and grabbed two of those, a roll of gauze, a tube that said antibacterial, and a tube that said coagulant. He glanced at the instructions on the tube of coagulant. It said ‘squeeze liberal amount into wound, cover wound with skin patch.’ Jack opened the tube and shoved the tube nozzle into the small hole and squeezed. He then took some gauze and wiped the blood away. By the time he got the first band aid looking thing out of its package the bleeding in front had stopped. He slapped the patch on and rolled him over. His back was a mess. There were three large burns where the bullet had come to rest against his skin each time they had stopped moving, and one hole about the size of a nickel that was bleeding profusely. It was just above his shoulder blade, and Jack hoped the bullet hadn’t hit the lung. He shoved the nozzle in the hole and squeezed most of the bottle of coagulant in it. He wiped the area dry of blood, and waited for the bleeding to stop. It took about six seconds, and he wiped it dry again and slapped the patch on it. He then squeezed some antibacterial on the burns, which were easily third degree.
He then stripped the under suit down to Chuck’s waist and looked for more holes. There was nothing on his back, so he rolled him over again. His chest looked like someone took a hammer to it. He had at least two dozen small bruises, and three large bruises that had already turned dark red. Obviously he had been hit by more than one bullet but the material had saved his life. Unfortunately his body had to absorb the impacts, and it looked like he probably had three or four broken ribs and possibly some internal bleeding, other than the obvious bullet wound of course. The fact that the bullet had been more or less complete meant that the armor had slowed it down enough so it didn’t come apart inside the body. That was probably why Chuck was still alive, although there was no question he would need real medical attention soon.
He lay Chuck down again, using his pack for a pillow. He took a quick assessment of the situation, talking it through.
“Okay, there are bad men upstairs. They shot at us, probably killed Emmet, Chuck is hurt and unconscious. I think I hit the panic button when closing the elevator and judging by the sounds I heard, those turrets probably opened fire. I need to get up there and get to the flyer. Shit! I don’t know how to disarm the turrets, or to fly the aircraft.” Nodding as if confident he had everything straight, he checked Chuck’s vitals. His heartbeat was strong and he was breathing. Jack went to the medical kit again, looking for some smelling salts. He found what he was looking for and cracked the tube under Chuck’s nose. It took a second, but his nose wrinkled and he turned his head to the side. “Chuck, can you hear me?” He slapped his cheek a couple times trying to rouse him further.
Chuck moaned and quietly said, “What the fuck happened? Where are we?” He wasn’t quite with it yet, but Jack needed help.
“Chuck, wake up. I need the code for the key pad so I can get us out of here. There were soldiers at the door when we got off and they shot you up pretty bad. I think Emmet is dead and I need that code!” Chuck opened his eyes and tried to look at Jack. He closed them again and winced.
“Holy shit... did I get shot? I can hardly breathe.” Jack was worried he was going to slip out of consciousness again.
“Chuck, stay with me! You have some broken ribs, that’s why you are having trouble breathing. Listen to me Chuck, I need that code!” he was about to get another tube of smelling salts out when Chuck opened his eyes again, this time he focused on Jack.
“Jack, what the fuck! Where are we?”
“Come on Chuck, we are in the elevator on level one. I need that code to disarm the turrets. Stay with me Chuck.” Jack’s mind was racing. Perhaps five minutes had passed now, and he knew if there was a chance he was going to make it out of here alive he had to act now. He was thinking maybe he could take the elevator back up to the ground level and
call for help on the radio, then hole up here and wait for help to arrive.
“76362.” Chuck’s eyes were closed again but he repeated it. “76362. Those were Cali men, and they knew we were from New Hope.” Jack felt relief that Chuck was thinking coherently. “If it’s a patrol, there will be four of them, probably three on foot and one at the flyer. How did we get out of there?”
“I pulled you back into the elevator and punched the red button.” Chuck actually smiled.
“Those two won’t be home for dinner. Goddamn bastards deserved it though. You need to go up top and see if you can radio to base. If you run into any of them, aim for the throat, it’s the most vulnerable point and a shot there is usually a kill. Be careful.” He coughed once and then winced in pain. “Hand me the med kit, I need something for the pain.”
He handed Chuck the med kit, and Chuck dug through it until he found a small tube. He broke end off of the tube which revealed a small needle, and he poked it into his waist and squeezed. Relief washed over his face within seconds and he settled back onto the pack he was laying on.
Jack had dropped his rifle and helmet next to his pack when he went for the medical supplies. He picked it up, and pulled the bolt to load a round in the chamber. After putting his pack back on, he pulled Chuck’s under suit back up, zipped it, and carefully put the chest armor back on. He stuffed the various medical supplies in Chuck’s pack, then scooted him to the side wall under the controls for the elevator and put his pack and his rifle next to him. Chuck was semi-conscious but wasn’t moving.
He took a deep breath to clear his mind and pressed the top button for the ground level. He moved quickly to the other side of the elevator so he would have some cover if someone was ready for him up top. As the elevator headed to the surface, he put his helmet on and shouldered his rifle. The doors opened and he tensed up, ready for anything.
The room was full of smoke and Emmet’s corpse lay face down in front of the elevator. Jack scanned the small room and stopped on what must be the remains of the two Cali men. Aside from their armor, nothing much was left. Bits and pieces of flesh and bone painted the walls and left a swath of red on the ground outside the door. He reached up to the panel just outside the elevator and punched in the code. There was a beep and a red light turned green. He put his pack in front of the elevator door so it wouldn’t close when he left.
Hugging the wall, he made his way to the entrance, stepping over the remains of the two Cali men. He peeked around very quickly but didn’t see anyone out there. He went back to Emmet’s body and checked for a pulse. Nothing. Dammit. He looked him over and saw that there was a bullet hole in his throat and his left arm was nearly severed at the shoulder. He now examined the two men at the entrance. The heavy turret guns were large caliber with armor piercing rounds that had gone through their body armor as if it were cardboard. He turned his attention back to the door. Are they hiding or are they back at the flyer or did they leave when the turrets armed? He listened carefully for a few seconds, but didn’t hear anything.
Remembering the camera in his rifle, he thumbed the switch to turn on the video. A small window popped up to the upper left of his field of vision showing what was in front of the rifle. He reached out with just the rifle and scanned the right then the left. He didn’t see anyone. Shit, I’m going to have to go out there and look. The surrounding hills were great for hiding the entrance, but were just as good at keeping an ambush out of sight until it was too late.
Steeling himself for the run, he adjusted the butt of his rifle on his shoulder and took a quick breath. He sprinted out the door, and immediately juked to the right and spun around to look on the hill above the door. Just as he turned, about forty rounds landed right where he would have been if he hadn’t broken right. He already had his rifle trained and he eased into the trigger. A small burst burped out of the gun and a cloud of dirt was kicked up in front of the person lying prone on the hill. Without stopping to see if he had hit him, Jack turned a quick one eighty, checking all his vulnerable points, then started running around the side of the door to get on top of the hill where his enemy was. He kept a hill to his left and kept checking his cover to the right while simultaneously watching the rear view feed in his helmet with his peripheral vision to make sure someone didn’t try to come up from behind. He crested the hill that covered the door, took a quick look around before breaking cover, and went to the body. He had nearly taken the man’s head clean off with his shot starting just above the chest armor and ending at the man’s chin. Keeping a close eye on his surroundings, Jack dug in the man’s pack to see if there was anything he could find that might help him. The man had pretty much the same gear as Jack had, so he grabbed the PDP and dropped it in his pocket.
Now that he was outside the complex, he grabbed his PDP to call for help. He found the icon that represented New Hope and pressed it. The message made his heart sink. ‘laser link down’. Shit, they must have gotten to the flyer. This is not good.
From the top of the hill he was exposed to anyone watching, but he also had a line of sight for miles in every direction. He thought for a second about binoculars, then remembered his little training session with Chuck the previous day. He pressed a button on the side of his helmet and a screen popped up in the center of his vision, overlaying what he could see. He fiddled with the controls, working the zoom in and out until he had it set to ‘8x’. He scanned a full circle again, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing. He pressed another button and the zoomed screen went away.
Back at the elevator, Chuck was still lying where he left him. When he approached, his eyes opened. “Well?”
“Emmet is gone. The two men were cut to pieces by the turrets. There was one waiting for me on top of the hill above the door. I took care of him.” It had been a long time since Jack had killed a man, and he was trying not to think about it. Thankfully, there were more important things to worry about than his emotions right now. “I tried the radio but it says the link is down. What do you think we should do?”
Chuck tried to push himself into a sitting position, winced in pain, and stopped. Jack reached over and helped to pull him and scoot him against the wall. He took a few painful breaths and finally said, “We have two options. Either we can wait here and hope that a rescue team will be here in a couple hours, or we – I mean you, can go back out there and make your way to the flyer to see if you can find the other man and his transportation.”
He weighed the options and then said, “How sure are you there is only one more Cali out there? Any chance there are more?”
Chuck shrugged, which made him wince again. “One of two things happened. Either this is a patrol that just happened to spot us, follow us here, and then wait until we came out to capture us, or Cali followed us with their satellite and sent a party to the landing site and then tracked us to here. If it’s the first one then there is only one person left, they always have teams of four. If it’s the second, then there could be more out there, and-”
“And they could be waiting for us to return to the flyer.” Jack finished for him. “Worse, they could be waiting for our rescue party to come so they can capture them too.” Jack cursed under his breath. He took a deep breath, again weighing the options. “Look, I don’t want to risk losing a rescue team here, but even if I can make it to the flyer, I don’t have a clue what to do from there. I can’t fly it, and I don’t even know how to re-establish the laser link.”
Jack remembered the PDP he got from the dead man on the hill. “Is this of any value to us here?” He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to Chuck. “I got it from the guy on the hill.”
Chuck looked it over, a faint hint of a smile on his otherwise pained face. “Nice. This will be linked to whoever is left out there. Help me get over by the door so we can get a signal.” Jack carefully helped him slide over to the door, careful not to drag him through the remains of the two men. Chuck tapped the little screen a couple times and a map came up of the area.
There was an icon that looked like a side profile of a four man flyer. It was about seven miles south of their location, right where their own flyer was parked. There were no other icons on the screen.
Jack looked at Chuck and said, “Let’s see if we can get them to come up here. Call them and tell them that you have two prisoners. I am going back up to move the body out of sight. I’ll be right back.”
“Wait. Check those bodies and see if you can get a name.” He tapped some more on the PDP and said, “This guy’s name was Larry. It will be easier to fool whoever is out there if I have some names.” Jack carefully went through the dead men’s pockets, but nothing was in them. Their PDP’s had both been destroyed by the turret gun. He shook his head at Chuck.
“Okay, go get the body, I will call it in.” Jack went to the door and checked all around, then sprinted out and to the right. He made his way to the hill again, and, making sure there was still no sign of movement around him, began to drag the body down the hill. He dragged it down to the bottom, and covered it with some of the low brush that was all around. He put a couple rocks on the brush to keep it from blowing off the body in the light wind. Satisfied it would be well camouflaged from the air, he went back to the entrance.
“Body is covered. Did you call in?”
Chuck nodded. I told him we had secured two prisoners but there was a fire fight and we killed one of them. I also told him I was injured and we needed to get back home to get me stitched up. I think he bought it. He told me he would be here in a minute or two.”
Jack looked around, quickly forming a plan in his mind. He dragged Emmet and the two other men’s remains into the elevator. He striped one of the men of his chest armor, which was orange and black, as opposed to just the plain black of their own. He looked at Chuck and said, “How about you wear this and as soon as I hear the flyer land I will go out and hide around the corner.” He finished telling Chuck his plan and helped him get the armor strapped on. He sent the elevator with the corpses and the armor down to level one, and finally kicked some dirt over the pool of blood on the floor where the bodies were. From the door, most of the evidence left by the turrets was hidden. For good measure, he turned off the lights in the room.
The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1) Page 24