Jason directed Anna’s flashlight out of the window toward the nearby structures. Though the added light did little to improve their vision, they could now discern some strange swirled carvings near the top of the first building. They reminded Jason of depictions of the wind from early pictographs found in humanity’s first printed books.
“This must be the archaeological research they are doing,” Anna commented.
Jason swept the flashlight to the right and spotted a thin metallic tower erected a short distance from the stone construction. It stretched up from the lower darkness up to, and possibly through, the roof. Beyond the tower appeared to be a wide catwalk made from the same material. It was attached to a side wall several dozen meters away.
“Anna, look!” Jason’s voice was barely above a whisper as he stared in awe into the cavern. “I see a walkway over there. Do you think it leads to the surface?”
Anna fell silent for a brief moment. “Yes, I see it. That might be the exit the computer system referred to earlier.”
He glanced at her. “When was that?”
“When I first discovered this place.”
Jason nodded and looked back through the window.
“We need to tell the others.” Anna patted his shoulder a couple of times. “Come on. Let’s head back and tell them.”
With a quick nod, Jason withdrew from the window and turned to follow her, but stopped when he saw Anna staring at the hologram he activated. She crossed her arms and watched the action taking place in the display: three Altiki ran together through a wide city street firing unknown weapons at incoming alien vehicles.
“Interesting.” Anna smiled as she looked back at him. “It looks like you found one of their games.”
Jason moved next to her and examined the action on the three-dimensional screen. “It doesn’t look much different from some of our own games.”
“Maybe they’re more like us than we originally thought.”
“You’re starting to scare me.”
Anna grinned and tugged on his arm. “Come on. We need to go.”
They arrived at the infirmary a few minutes later. Nothing had changed since they had left. Cary, Tomomi, and Bryce turned to watch them rush into the room.
“What’s up?” asked Cary.
Jason took a deep breath. “We think we’ve found a way to the surface.”
The scientists’ eyes lit up, and they looked at each other briefly.
Tomomi lowered her head slightly as she turned back to Jason. “Really? How far away is it?”
Jason pointed over his shoulder. “Not far past the recreation room. Probably near that communications room we visited earlier.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” exclaimed Cary. “Let’s check it out.”
“You three go on ahead,” Tomomi stepped backwards toward the console where Bryce stood. “I’ll stay here to keep an eye on the others.”
* * * * *
Anna nodded and led the two men into the corridor. As they jogged down the hallway, she held her wristcomp gently, her finger ready to activate her communicator as her arms swayed back and forth while she ran. Jason and Cary were a few meters behind her. Their footfalls told her that they tried to keep pace with her without breaking into a full run.
Anna suddenly halted and touched the activation switch. The door to the communication room opened. With a quick nod, she moved past the entrance and continued down the hall. A short while later, she stopped again, activated her communicator, and another door opened to a dark room. She pivoted with her next footfall and darted into the room.
Anna stopped a few strides past the threshold and strained to see through the darkness. As the men reached the doorway, she released her hold on her wristcomp. “Lights?”
The room illuminated to the same intensity as the infirmary, enough to show them that it resembled a long, narrow airlock. Though the side walls were virtually featureless, except for a thin, dark stripe that ran the length of the room at eye level, the far wall held a small window just big enough for one person to look through. It was situated at the same height as Anna’s forehead.
Anna walked to the window and peered through it while standing on her toes. On the other side of the window was indeed the cavern. It was a struggle to see anything given her height, but part of the catwalk was visible. It extended along the wall just beyond the window.
“This must be the door.” She turned to the men behind her and pointed her thumb over her shoulder.
Out of breath, Cary shot her a dark look while he leaned with his hand planted on the wall. “What’s the rush? We’re not going anywhere for a while.”
“Sorry.” She frowned while watching him catch his breath.
“I’ll admit that I’m not as young as I used to be. But, damn! Give me a little warning next time!” added Cary after a few more breaths.
Jason pointed behind Anna. “Do you think you can open it?”
Anna glanced over her shoulder. “I’m sure I can.” Without a second thought, she toggled her wristcomp, but the door did not respond. She knitted her eyebrows as she glanced at her wrist and activated the screen.
“Maybe not,” Jason observed.
Anna’s fingers flew through the holographic screen floating in front of her as she checked and adjusted settings. “Give me a second.” She finally pressed the communicator button again as she turned to face the window, but nothing changed.
“It must operate under a different system.” She deactivated the screen and wheeled about to look at them again. “I’ll have to check with Bryce about this.”
Anna pushed between them to get past, and Jason moved to follow.
“Wait a minute!” Cary cried.
The other two stopped and gazed back at him.
“Can we wait for a minute? I’m not ready to run the marathon again just yet.”
* * * * *
The beams that had focused on Cooper’s body ceased as Anna walked into the infirmary. The tower at the foot of his bed transformed into a wire grid and vanished. Two smaller towers came into being on either side of his head.
Anna strode to the console. “What’s going on?”
“His injuries are healed,” Tomomi answered. “We’re trying to wake him up now.”
Anna nodded and shifted her gaze toward Cooper. The two towers pulsed a dark purple aura a few times, until a groan escaped the sergeant’s mouth.
Anna moved to stand next to his bed. “Sergeant?”
Cooper wiggled his fingers before bending a leg and propping himself up on his elbows. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times. He cocked his head and looked at her. “Jane?”
She smiled in spite of herself. “Please call me Anna. It is my name, after all.”
“What happened?”
“Your pistol exploded in your hand.”
The sergeant looked at his undamaged hand and wiggled his fingers again before turning back to her. “Are you sure? My hand would be gone.” He looked up and around the room, squinting slightly as he did. “Why is it so dark in here?” He paused on Anna’s face, studying it for a second. “And, what happened to your face? Half of it is blue.”
Anna stepped away from the bed. “Long story. I’ll explain in a bit.”
Cooper sat up cautiously, steadying himself as he moved. He cringed for a few seconds once he reached a sitting position and placed a hand over his stomach.
“I’m feeling really hungry right now. Anyone else famished?”
* * * * *
Jason leaned toward Cary. “Is it just me, or does he seem awfully friendly right now?”
Cary nodded with a frown. “He does seem a bit out-of-character right now. I wonder if it’s a side effect of the extended treatment.”
“That can’t be,” Tomomi said, turning to face them. “I didn’t act any different when I came out from under the knife, per se.”
“But, you weren’t affected by it as much as him,” Jason noted, a grim look on his face.
/> Tomomi shook her head, pursing her lips. “No, but I would think that I would’ve been affected somehow, if the device does have that affect on us.”
“Well,” Cary shrugged. “What if he’s like this whenever he wakes up? We don’t have anyone else to talk to about it right now.”
Jason nodded. The idea made sense to him. With no one around to confirm or deny the odd behavior, he figured that may be the case.
“Regardless of your postulations, your friend is in need of nutrients,” Bryce said as he continued to monitor Cooper’s vital signs.
Jason fished through his backpack, producing a snack bar after a few seconds. “It’s not much, but it’s a start.”
With Cary and Tomomi’s nods of approval, Jason took the food over to the sergeant. Cooper looked him over for a few seconds before silently accepting the offering, wearily removing part of the wrapper and taking his first bite.
“Good thinking,” Anna whispered to Jason while leaning toward him.
“I’m probably going to need another one of these, Jason.”
Noticing that Cooper had already consumed half of the bar, Jason turned to see Cary and Tomomi pulling out a couple more from their own packs. Within seconds, they had tossed them to him. He handed the one he had caught over to the starving Cooper and scrambled to pick up the other one from the floor.
“Thank you…Fuller?” Cooper questioned with a hint of confusion. “What?”
* * * * *
Anna bit back a smile while she watched Cooper’s peaceful exchange with Jason.
Cooper looked around the room more rapidly and stopped on Anderson.
“What the hell?” Cooper whipped his head back around and stared hard at Anna. “Where the fuck are we?”
“Sergeant,” Anna raised her hands in front of her. “We’re inside the facility that I was leading us to. We…”
Cooper pointed to Anderson. “And, what the fuck are they doing to Anderson?”
“We are…”
Cooper sprang from his bed and rushed to Anderson. He grabbed his arm and started to lift him from the bed. “This ends now! I will not allow him to be experimented on by these freaks!”
Anna chased him to the bed, but Jason reached him first. He pulled his arms away before the fallen grunt could be moved any more. Cooper struggled against the hold and was winning the wrestling match, when Anna stopped on the opposite side of the bed.
“Sergeant! We are not experimenting on him! We are trying to bring him back to life!”
“That’s not possible! He’s dead, you cocksuckers!”
Cooper broke free, shoved Jason to the floor, and lunged for Anderson again. Expecting it, Anna reared back and slammed a fist across the soldier’s jaw. He sprawled back on the bed behind him.
“Would you shut up and listen to me for once?” She screamed as she shook the pain from her hand. “Anderson is being healed…right now! And if you move him, you will disrupt that, and he may truly be dead. Do you want that, or do you want to have him walk back into the colony under his own power?”
Cooper’s eyes shot straight at Anna. She could have sworn that steam blew out of his ears as his skin darkened and his jaw clenched. He pushed himself back up to his feet. His chest heaved, and he clenched his fists. “What if they’re turning him into some sort of freak?!”
Anna gave him a withering look and crossed her arms. Looking him over for a brief second, she answered, “They didn’t do that to you.” The silence that followed her quiet statement was deafening. She could see on Cooper’s face that her words had sunk in.
He shook his head in denial.
“Or Tomomi. Her broken arm is healed, and so is yours.” Anna pressed her advantage.
Cooper turned his head toward Tomomi and lingered there for a brief moment. Then, he shifted his gaze to his own arm.
“And, your hand was made whole by this same treatment Anderson is going through right now.”
Cooper slowly returned his gaze to Anna as she continued, “He will not be a freak. He will return to us as if he was never injured in the first place.”
Cooper looked down at Anderson and the beams focusing on various parts of his body. He frowned. “I hope you’re right, for your sake.”
Chapter 22
“This filet mignon sucks, Bryce!” Anna slammed her fork on the table as she chewed her food. She looked at the others sitting around the table in the recreation room, curious as to their reactions to the food provided by the facility’s food preparation system. “Did it taste like this the last time?”
Jason curled his nose after he swallowed his first bite and muttered with distaste, “My ham tastes like butter…and not the sweet kind, either.”
“I think I’m going to puke.” Tomomi groaned and clutched her belly.
Cary pushed the pile of brown food on his plate around with his fork. “Are you sure this is chipped beef?”
Anna watched Cooper, who was silently shoveling in bite after bite of the food assembled on his plate. She remembered him ordering beefsteak, corn, green beans, and the same garlic mashed potatoes as she had requested. “How can you eat this, sarge?”
Cooper stopped with his fork clamped between his lips and rolled his eyes up toward her. After slipping the utensil from his mouth, he swallowed his mouthful. “Ja…Anna, when you’ve been through boot camp, you’ll eat just about anything put in front of you.”
Everyone else shoved their plates in front of Cooper and got up from the table. His eyes darted from one dish to the other before he sighed. “I don’t think I’m that hungry.”
“I’m so sorry the food wasn’t to your liking, Anna.” Bryce’s apology carried a sincere tone that seemed uncharacteristic for him, at least according to what she remembered of him from high school. Bryce never apologized for anything, which was part of the reason why they had broken up before graduation. She quickly reminded herself that this wasn’t the real Bryce, just a manufactured look-alike. Though most of his mannerisms were identical to her memories of him, it was still the facility’s computer speaking, much like Kate back on her ship.
Kate!
“Oh, god!” Anna’s vision dropped, and she looked at Cary’s feet as he walked toward the gaming area of the room. “She must be worried sick about me.”
Jason turned and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Kate. I haven’t talked to her since we left this morning.”
Jason frowned and shook his head. “I don’t think you can reach her from here. Do you really want to risk another go with this place’s communications?”
Anna looked back at him, then sighed and nodded. “You’re right. Kate can be rather patient. I suppose she can wait a little longer. Besides, it’s not like I’ve been gone a month. Right?”
Jason smiled. “Right.”
“Okay.” She sighed again, released the tension she had created, and looked across the room to where Cary and Tomomi sat across from each other at a black pedestal. They were playing what appeared to be a holographic video game of tennis in a zero-gravity environment. Their laughs and banter as they played, by swinging their hands to bat at the insubstantial ball, brought a cheery atmosphere to what would otherwise have been a gloomy room. Jason’s smile grew on his face as he watched them play like a couple of kids. Wanting a closer look, he grabbed a nearby stool and sat next to Tomomi.
Anna crossed the room and leaned against the wall next to the open window, checking out the three gathered around the new form of amusement. Seeing them experience a moment of fun despite being in a foreign location brought a smile to her face, something she did not expect to happen when she had first fallen into the caverns with them.
“Almost like they’ve forgotten about the world outside,” she noted under her breath.
Turning her attention to the cavern outside the open window next to her, Anna peered into the darkness, straining to discern any details beyond what she already knew of the nearby buildings and the catwalk along the wall. She pulled out
her flashlight and scanned the area again with its bright beam, but her efforts proved to be futile.
“What’re you looking for?”
Anna switched off the flashlight and turned to regard Cooper standing behind her, still chewing on some food. Trying to ignore the scents of butterscotch and tomatoes, she smiled. “The cave on the other side of this window is our way out. Or at least, I believe it is. I was just scouting ahead, so to speak.”
Cooper moved past her and stared out the window for a few seconds. Swallowing his food, he grunted and stepped back. “Looks like quite a drop. Hope you’re not planning on rappelling down from here.”
“No.” She shook her head as he turned and leaned back against the wall next to her. “There’s a walkway against the far wall that reaches across to the passage to the surface. I’m just concerned…”
“You’re concerned about any possible dangers that may be lurking out there,” interrupted the sergeant. “Me too.” He glanced over his shoulder into the cavern again before facing her. As long as we work together as a group, we should make it out. Between you, me, Anderson, and Fuller, we have the firepower to defend ourselves. But, we’re sitting ducks out there in the open. How far is it until we reach cover?”
“I don’t know. I’d have to ask Bryce.”
“Yes?” asked the teen as he walked in front of them.
“Pardon me,” Cooper interrupted as Anna opened her mouth to speak. “But, who are you anyway?”
“My name is Bryce. I am Anna’s bilsintik, while she is within this facility.”
“Bilsintik? What’s a…”
Anna cut him off with a wave of her hand. “It’s a computerized personal assistant.”
Shifting to look at Bryce and then back at her, the sergeant prodded, “How did you get…”
“Long story.”
“You’d better start talking then.” Cooper crossed his arms with a tight-lipped expression on his face, waiting for her explanation.
Anna told him of the time shortly after her crash on the moon when she had wandered through the underground caves and the resulting month missing from her memory. She deliberately left out her initial encounter with the Altiki, which had followed the trip through the caves.
Alone in the Crowd (The Chronicles of Anna Foster Book 3) Page 17