Broken Mirror: Apophis 2029

by Michel Savage

  We checked our weapons and packed our belongings to begin our return descent into the underground labyrinth. None of us were too keen on the idea either, especially the others, after hearing our tall tales about hordes of infected and enormous mutants. We were also a tad concerned about bringing a child into that type of danger, but we certainly weren't willing to take the chance of getting separated again.

  The harsh evening storms had dissipated and a light drizzle filled the day, the shimmering rain glittered in the beautiful morning light. Dew washed the dust from our boots as we made our way to the hatch and into the dark stairwell beneath the surface. From the silo entrance, we had a front seat view of the blown walls from the adjacent turbine room where the hydrogen generators had been set. From within, a monstrous column of steam billowed up into the sky, almost appearing as if was feeding the clouds far above.

  Felix had the bright idea that maybe some of the valves in the pump room might be able to shut off the flow of water to the generators and stop the process, but a few of us also thought that might be more risky than doing nothing at all. Besides the fact, that if there was even one turbine still running underneath all that debris, then we wouldn't want to take the chance of cutting off the only available power supply to the transportation tubes in the rail system below. Beatrice was adamant about leaving the generators alone, and we readily agreed to take her advice since she had far more knowledge of the subterranean tram system than all of us combined.

  We snaked our way down the long ghostly stairwell as system lights flickered and errant echoes taunted us from below. With our small band making slow progress, it was nearly an hour before we hit the first pair of shafts. The large round hatches had previously been sealed when we had first passed this way, but they were now propped wide open. Farther down the stairwell, we could see that the other pair of hatches on the level below had also been left ajar.

  It was now the old woman's turn to lead the way, and we followed Betty as she entered the first shaft and down the massive tunnel that led us to a anti-chamber with a familiar design. Here another set of alcoves sat with a robotic effigy sitting at a counter, its circuitry was dark and was apparently without power.

  "This rail should take us to Brookhaven," Beatrice mentioned while wiping away the dust from a system chart on the wall. Kel unfolded our map and laid it beside the frame; we all noted how the color-coded lines met up with our destination when they were superimposed.

  "Brookhaven is here, but how do we get to the Lab topside on the other side of the mountain?" Tasha inquired to the elderly woman while she referenced the chart.

  "Here," Beatrice pointed, "at the station we have to cross to the blue route that will take us to the end of the line were the Laboratory is stationed above it."

  "What are these cross sections on this route just before the stop?" Ava inquired with interest towards the additional markings that apparently had been crudely drawn onto the diagram prior to our arrival.

  "I'm not sure," was all the old woman could muster, "but we need to take these tubes to Brookhaven first," Beatrice affirmed as she made her way over to the first bullet car and cracked open the hinged door. We were troubled that these rail cars could only hold four of us at a time. We realized we would have to split up. Looking at the map, we aw that there were several other bunker communities that interconnected along the system. We began to consider the possibility that there could also be thousands of other survivors who had been left isolated in their separate shelters all along this subterranean network.

  "Beatrice, isn't there a chance that Brookhaven and these additional stations on the map here, Sundance, Springwood, and all these others might still have people residing in them?" I inquired with a spark of interest. Everyone was hopeful that there were still people who had survived out there, though hopefully, they had been under better management other than the likes of Kane's regime. There must be untold stocks of food, clothing, gear, or medical supplies; or almost anything we could use to ease our burdens, if only we could only a decent amount of useful provisions back up to the surface.

  "All I know is that several years ago these other communities went silent one by one, we at Fallhaven were the last ones left on the grid," Betty replied with a serious look, and we could see the note of surrender in her eyes as she spoke.

  "By chance, could it possibly just have been a break or failure in the communication lines between the shelters?" Ava inquired; noting that the bunkers were pretty far apart from one another.

  "I doubt it," Beatrice answered bluntly, "each station command can monitor power flows to the others along the system grid to regulate power consumption. Some of the Shelters mysteriously dropped off the system charts overnight, while some stayed static for weeks with no response until they also went dark."

  "There's no telling what we might find," Thorn cut in, "it could've been the result of a collapse or maybe they were overrun by infected that somehow got below like we had seen them do," His words were harsh but rational. If we went chasing these wild theories, we might just waste our time running into dead ends, or find ourselves in deeper shit than it was worth.

  "We will send the first scouting party through, and return to relay what we find," Kel suggested.

  "The rail system doesn't work that way," Beatrice snapped back, "each rail car kicks forward in a sealed vacuum tube and is followed by the next. Currently, it appears that all the terminal communications are down," she mentioned while motioning to the dead console radio.

  "So this is a one-way ticket," Tasha clarified for us all.

  "Well I hope this piece of crap still works," Roy smirked as he made his way to the tube car, "I'm calling front seat!" he grinned while he stomped over to the vehicle, just like one of those pricks at a carnival who would always shoulder their way past everyone else in line just to get the best seat a ride.

  Kel joined him, as did Haiti and Felix, who personally struggled to get his girth into the tiny seat in the rear. Betty frowned as she tried switching the console on, only to have it whimper back at her in return as the voltage failed. The four of them sat in the tiny car trying to glare at us through the oil-streaked windows as we tried to fiddle with controls to get the system working.

  "Well fuck, maybe it doesn't have any more power," Thorn scowled as he referred to the destroyed hydropower plant on the surface above whilst Roy could be heard mumbling to himself at the front of the closed car, losing his patience.

  With an electric whine, a dim green light blinked on weakly above the rail and the car began to slide forward as it picked up speed and disappeared into the darkness beyond the breach. We could hear Roy whooping in joy just before a curved plate closed over the tube to seal the vacuum pressure.

  We realized that there must be at least one turbine still running back up top, though it was clear that the power supply had been severely handicapped by the damage it had sustained. Hopefully it wouldn't fail entirely on us along the way. Personally, I couldn't imagine how a person could traverse down the tube line without a tram car considering the way it had been constructed. Either it was a gross oversight and the result of bad engineering or it the system had been intentionally designed in that manner to restrict foot travel. However, in hindsight, it would act as a security measure, which would isolate each of the shelters if there were an outbreak along the network. This worried us more than a tad, as there would be no escape if the rail car came to a stop at its destination, leaving us only to be greeted by a horde of Weepers.

  "Are you okay with this?" Thorn asked gently while he put his hand on my shoulder just as a new bullet car slid in from the rear of the rail. I looked back at him softly, considering how empty life had been lately without a kind touch.

  "Well, there's one way to find out," I grinned with my goofy smile, and stowed my rifle into the seat of the secondary car as Thorn and Serena slipped in the rear with Tasha. I hated myself for a moment, blowing my chance to kiss him just then. I was such a chicken, it wasn't even f
unny. I had always found myself having to act tough just to sneak past that bit of awkwardness.

  Ava was holding the boy’s hand, as he stood there quiet as a mouse, always staring at the floor and never meeting our eyes if he could avoid it. Betty, Ava and the boy would follow in the next car; the controls allowed a few seconds after activation before the tram doors locked shut. We waved at them like idiots going on a family vacation, mostly for the child's sake; but I doubt he even noticed. It made me wonder if he was autistic, which would explain his removed behavior.

  I felt sorry for him, but I guess all of us did in their own way. There was little future for children in his condition within this new world. His was a similar symptom to the infected victims who would simply be left to die on their own. In a way, I guess the only difference was that we cared. It was this lingering sense of responsibility we held for another human being that let us continue to cling to our virtues. However, in reality, that distorted sense of hope either that made us compassionate, or it made us weak.

  This rail line was on low power and zipped along much slower than the first ride we had taken weeks prior. I began to become fearful of what would happen to us if the transport lost power halfway through the system, sticking us like a cork in a bottle. There would be no way to open the doors, and I certainly wasn't going to assume there would be breathable air in the vacuum chute. With that thought bouncing around in my head, I found myself getting slightly anxious to get this unpleasant ride over with and getting myself out of this small cylinder as soon as humanly possible.

  There were slight moments of paranoia when the subway car almost came to a standstill. It was an aching amount of time before we slid into the landing platform at Brookhaven station. Honestly, I was a bit giddy to get out of that cramped seat to a place where I could stretch my legs. We made a quick scout of the terminal as it took another twenty minutes before Ava, the boy and Betty's transport finally arrived at our station.

  Within this complex, there was a constant drip of moisture echoing down the empty halls. We counted a few locked doors while we had waited, but we didn't want to make too much noise breaking them open if they didn't actually lead in the direction we were heading; so we figured it would be better to wait until Betty arrived in the last car to guide our way. We found a significant amount of mold growing on the floor of the landing that made the air here stuffy and unpleasant to breathe. If there were infected loose here, we certainly didn't wish to arouse any that might be hibernating in the blanketing darkness that lingered beyond the dim glow of our flashlight.

  I was skeptical about our ability to reach the Laboratory, considering that if the tunnel on the roadway above had been collapsed by design, then whoever was responsible would certainly not have likely missed applying the same tactics to any subterranean access. We had already been sidetracked a great deal over the past few weeks, so I didn't want to jinx us somehow along the way by being overly worried on every inch of progress we gained. Betty headed straight to a covered booth in the center of the chamber that Roy had already broken into. There was no robotic attendant poised within as this particular booth, as it had been designed solely for manual use by human personnel.

  "The blue line is a restricted transport," Beatrice mentioned as she pointed across the divide to the wide metal doors branded with a large military seal, "this should bring the access car to take us the rest of the way."

  Throwing the switch within, we waited patiently as we heard a metallic click in the mechanism but there was no juice flowing to the device itself. In all sincerity, it made me wonder just how stupid of a design this was for a redundant system that apparently relied so heavily on electrical power; which did not make much sense for a full catastrophe scenario considering that the purpose of this whole subterranean system was meant for an 'Aftermath' event. Whatever wiring was being used for the subway tubes by the crippled hydro station power lines, it apparently wasn't connected to this secondary system.

  "Crap!" was all she uttered, it was almost funny the way the old woman said it.

  "Well, have you got another plan?" Roy inquired, since she was acting as our guide for the moment.

  "We have to get past those doors," she snapped back, "it's just a common railway car, not one of those vacuum tubes," Beatrice added.

  "You mean it's large enough to go by foot if we need to?" Kel asked as she peered inside the small booth to the both of them.

  "Yes, we can take one of the transport cars if it has power, but I guess we could hike it all the way there if we had to," she answered.

  There was a small problem of note. While hopping across the small grated bridge to the broad sliding doors; as both Roy and Tasha noticed that there were gun turrets embedded in the ceiling to either side of the entry point. That made us worry; for if we somehow got the power switched on in this section those robotic gun ports would quickly become a serious problem.

  "We should disable them gizmo's while we can," Haiti suggested, and we couldn't fault his logic.

  There were scraps of stone and metallic bars we could jam into the rotational gears to keep the turrets from spinning, but it was Ava who suggested it would be far safer to simply disable them entirely by removing their embedded wiring and visual lenses.

  Being the smallest of the group, Tasha was the one we slung up by a rope we were able to grapple into the niches along the roof. They fashioned a pulley made with a few carabiners to hoist her up; while I tried to help Felix and Thorn figure out a way to unlock the door to the blue line. It was an aggravating search in the dark until we finally stumbled across an lone access panel far around the back side of the hallway that circled the doors. Betty mentioned that the other locked corridors led to extensive walkways to engineering rooms, but it would be wise not to try to tamper with them and we loathed the idea of making too much noise in these hallways. Any sound would be amplified and give away our position to any Weepers in the area; also considering that the others were a bit spooked by our stories of the horrifying mutants lurking down these dark halls.

  Both Kel and Ava were helping Tasha with her chore of dismantling the turrets while the other men were keeping watch for trouble. Betty assisted Thorn and I with opening the access panel that led to a small winding duct beyond.

  "Damn, it's never easy," Thorn sighed, as he and I were a tad too tall to fit into the small vent, but Beatrice was of slight enough stature to give it a try.

  "This looks like it goes into the ventilation and out into the rail line on the other side," she mentioned, "give me your knife and I'll take a look."

  "What do you want my knife for?" Thorn asked while focusing a suspicious glare towards her as he put his guarded hand onto his utility blade.

  "If there's a locked grate on the other end, how do you expect me to pry it open, with my good looks?" Betty snapped back, as we both almost smirked at her wrinkled face.

  She was worn and tired, and we could tell she was losing her patience at this given moment; but she did have a point. Going in head first, there would be no way to turn around or attempt to kick open a panel on the opposite end. With little argument, he handed her his blade and a spare flashlight. Betty got down on her knees and jimmied her way into the ductwork; she slowly wiggled around a corner until we lost sight of her. Several minutes passed until we heard her muffled cry that she had found another panel and her weak attempts to get it open.

  Within the tight vent, Betty had slid her way over to the opposing wall and almost snapped the blade while trying to wrench the locking clip open from the inside. She finally busted the latch on the panel, which swung open with a creak. It was dark as death in the tunnel beyond as she crawled out of the duct and back onto her own feet. The air here was cold and there was a strange stench to it that left her feeling light-headed. Stumbling backwards over a loose block of concrete, she found herself falling into a pile of splintered muck.

  It took a dizzy moment for her to realize what she was looking at as she held up her hands from the fal
l; the shredded clothing and broken bones lined with tattered flesh. Turning her flashlight, she gave a startled scream as the twisted faces of the dead glared at her through rotting sockets. Dozens of cold grey bodies surrounded her, and for a terrified moment of panic she thought she saw them move. Having disturbed their embrace, the pile of corpses fell upon her.

  Grisly arms flopped upon her shoulders and a loose head rolled into her lap as tattered clothing veiled her face. The old woman jumped in fright to escape their grasp, frantically shining her light around to escape the horror. It took long moments for her weak heart to settle down from its rapid pulse as she heard Caitlin and Thorn calling at her from the other side of the vent.

  Scanning the area there were corpses everywhere piled up at the end of the tunnel, at their stage of decay it was impossible to tell if they had been survivors or infected. On a sidetrack sat a rail car in stasis off the lead turnstile. She found herself on the other side of the broad metal doorway where there stood an identical booth as the one stationed in the main terminal, though this one had a several sets of handles poised within. With a guess, she gave one a pull.

  At first, nothing happened; just a familiar click of connections meeting without the electrical power. Looking closer she saw a key slot and fanned the light around until she found one carcass wearing a uniform. Timidly searching the corpse, she found an access key hanging from its neck. With a harsh tug, she removed it; then wiping it off on her shirt she placed it in the slot and activated the core. With a whir the power pulsed on as sparks flew wildly from the bottom of the panel. Beatrice had an idea to herself while standing there in the cold dark, perceiving an opportunity to take this last railcar to her freedom and leaving her captors far behind.

  For a brief moment, Thorn and I looked at one another with concern as we heard electricity spark through the wires in the hallway beyond the vent met by a sudden yelp from one of the girls around the corner. Tasha had dropped to the floor with a thud as the turret she was trying to dismantle spun around with its gun ports open as an automated female voice came over the terminal speakers.