"I don't know what you mean," she began faintly, "I was trying to get the doors back there open and I must have hit some switch that started the train and locked me in; it took off and I couldn't stop it," she blathered as an excuse.
We didn't believe a word that came out of her wrinkled lips, of course, even though it was still a viable story. With that lingering doubt, it would be hard to kick her off the edge of the rift; besides, she might still have information we needed to get into the Lab. Roy turned away at the mention of her alibi, mumbling to himself with a furled brow. He and Thorn began to discuss the audacity of her claim out of earshot of Beatrice, who sat in the stalled train with a look of worry creeping upon her wrinkled face.
The factors we had to consider that Roy brought up were relevant. Since it had taken us almost an hour to reach this spot after we had heard the train crash, then it would be logical that the Lab location was still another hour away if that's equally how long it took for the horde of infected to reach us from that origin. Technically, that chasm would have kept them pretty well contained from the rest of the subway system; but that also could lead us to believe the Laboratory had entirely lost quarantine. If we ran into the number of weepers that were in that mob again, next time we would not have a convenient ravine to save our asses.
We needed Beatrice, at least for now. As much as we wanted to chuck her into the pit, she was the only one among us that knew what to expect when we got there. At the very least, we had not been on that train when it jumped the rails; more of us might have been dead or broken in ways that would have been disastrous when the infected swarmed upon us. Fate sure works in mysterious ways.
We had all our weapons loaded and were now carrying backups, as there was really nowhere to run if we got overrun by another wave of infected. Any retreat back to the fissure would end there, and we had no wish to join Felix at the bottom of that deep shaft. I was not entirely religious, but caught myself praying under my breath as the next hour dragged on while we helped our injured friends.
Grudgingly, we had helped Betty out of the train and tried to pry as much information as we could out of her. She began to clam up more than usual, since she was becoming suspicious that her usefulness was swiftly coming to an end. She certainly hadn't made any friends with that stunt she pulled by hijacking the train, and without any valuable advice to offer, the old woman knew she would be colored a liability; which was not a pleasant title to have in our current world. People who proved to be a risk to themselves or fellow companions were either dropped like a stone, or put down like a sick dog.
Beatrice was wise enough to realize that she wouldn't last long out here on her own. She had been all too used to the high life as one of the elite, living her preferred status back at Fallhaven. While she had been there, she didn't have to do a lick of work, just say a word or point her finger to get others to do her bidding for her. Out here, she was nobody, and Kane was no longer around for her to ride on his coattails.
I wasn't truly ignorant. I figured Betty only did what she had too to survive in that given set of circumstances. I could imagine many would have done far worse. The fact was though, that she could have done far better. Unfortunately, people do not usually remember the good things about others, but instead tend to dwell on their faults. Agreeably, that kind of attitude creates needless drama, but it also is quite effective at distracting others from your own flaws. More often than naught, humans were apt at being psychologically unbalanced on any given day.
Truth of it was, I did not want to think about what I would have done or how I would have personally handled things if I had been in her shoes. I might have very well made the same mistakes as she had. It simply was not healthy to dwell in that level of self-judgment in this fucked up world. There was no point of it really.
It wasn't as if we could run to a convenience store anytime and grab a bottle of liquor to drown our sorrows or watch the videos to escape from reality for a little while, as we had all been groomed to do in our past lives. We had to deal with our shit; and dealing with other people’s shit kind of came with the territory. Those that weren't flexible in that methodology, usually led very lonely and short lives. In my own a way, I felt sorry for the old woman. It wasn't like she had many choices left to change her direction.
I realized now that Betty had simply been grooming me as part of her personal crew back at the shelter; but she had been kind. It wasn't like we had any measure of compassion in our world today, and it was far too easy to be baited by even a minute show of decency; even though the ulterior motives could be quite the contrary. Thinking about it now, I really didn't see much better conduct by most people I knew even before Apophis had struck; which, I admit, was a sad thought.
There was almost no notice before we hit the end of the line. Beatrice had informed us we would arrive at the terminal but she had not been very elaborate about what to expect. What we had all been apprehensive about discussing was that none of us had ever seen a mob of weepers that large and in such concentrations; at least not in nearly the half dozen years since the beginning of the outbreak.
We had expected to find heaping piles of trash and human feces. Usually you could tell were a group of infected had nested by the lingering stench of it. Here at the terminal, there was no evidence that revealed any of the diseased had been loitering in the area. It was not entirely uncommon for them to cannibalize the weak or injured either, but you would at least find scraps of bones and trash that had been clawed open. The depot itself was all too spookily clean. We were all boggled, wondering where had that raging horde had appeared from.
The end terminal of the rail tunnel did have a strange design to it that still left our questions unanswered. A large circular steel frame that resembled an old-fashioned bank vault masked one entire wall. Several parallel stairwells to either side of it led off to a gate on one side, while several steel pockets that fanned around it had us guessing what they might be for. It was truly a bizarre example of architecture that left us baffled.
"It might be a heat sink," Haiti said aloud.
"What?" Roy asked; a bit confused by his flat statement. Tasha stood beside him and put her hand to her chin as if judging a work of art in a gallery.
"Yes, I see it. It could very well be..." she concurred with the island man to our further bewilderment.
"I'm sorry, you lost me," Roy snapped back, a little annoyed at the two companions. Thorn agreed quietly as did I. The rest of us were getting agitated with Beatrice who was keeping tight-lipped the closer we got to the lab.
"What is this," I asked her kindly, trying to get the old woman to cooperate as we motioned to the strange attachments. We were stuck here on this side of the chasm anyhow if we couldn't find a way in. I attempted again to be diplomatic, trying to clarify to her that pushing our patience any further wasn't exactly in her best interest at the moment.
"That's the entrance vault to the laboratory topside," Betty finally blurted out while waving to the giant circular door, "and that gate leads to the cargo conveyor."
Her curt comments plainly left us unsatisfied. Searching the entry to the vault, we found no access lock, though there did seem to be a telltale socket in the cement floor where a control board might have once been; but which had been permanently removed. Tasha discovered a panel above the conveyor door that was a complete bitch to pry apart; but after half an hour of cussing and brute force, we finally managed to bust it open.
Haiti had some limited expertise to bypass the lock on the gated hatch, which swung up to allow us entry. That was when we were hit by a wave of foul odor that divulged where all those infected had originated from. Even if the railway had been intact, and Betty had made it down here alone, she would have still been stuck here without us.
"It appears as if a redundant electrical systems released this door to the conveyor the same time the rail car was activated on the other end of the line," Roy mentioned as he scanned the circuitry map on the back of the panel we had sn
apped off.
"Aye, dis here transportation is all automated, man," Haiti agreed as he peered over Roy's shoulder.
"Personally, I would rather go in through the front door," Serena commented while holding her nose, trying to pinch off the reeking stench drifting from the interior. After conferring with Beatrice, it became painfully clear that there was no other way in. This facility had been specifically designed to allow for secured entry, and it was obvious the back door had been locked down tight. We had not other choice, and would have to gain access through the cargo port.
The interior of the cargo bin was awash in red light from the numerous emergency beacons lining the hall within. A number of us tied on bandanas to ward off the horrid smell wafting through the corridor. A wide conveyor belt led the way inward, and apparently, this system could accommodate large amounts of cargo containers for transport from the terminal floor to whatever loading bay they had at the end of this line. In all honestly, we were not exactly comfortable entering such a confined space that had only one known exit.
The hard red light made it difficult to distinguish outlines at any given distance, and if this is where the infected had came from there were likely more wandering within. Turning on our white flashlights would only manage to draw attention and make us walking targets. None of us wanted to be boxed in or find ourselves surrounded in such tight quarters.
Betty wasn't much help at this point; as the cargo conveyor was just a glorified baggage trolley and claimed she didn't have a clue where it went. Roy was getting aggravated with the old woman when she attempted to be elusive about the layout of the complex beyond the large bulkhead doors in the depot. It had been nearly a decade since she had been locked away in the confines of Fallhaven, so he tried not to get too pissed about it when she said she couldn't quite remember.
Thorn didn't know whether to believe her either; and truth be said, neither did I. Beatrice had made a life of being a manipulator, after all. Sometimes I found myself feeling ashamed for the way we were treating her; but then I had to wonder if she was just putting on an act and playing me to feel that way whenever she glanced my way with a doleful look in her eyes. It kept eating away at the back of my mind though; wondering how had she been familiar with this Lab if it was a classified military facility?
Maybe she had just been on some tour of the entire system as a presentation to the egocentric elite who had given themselves a free pass for their god given right to survive above all others, which was at the expense of the lower class citizens who had actually paid for this complex network. Whenever I thought about that, it made me angry.
Tasha was finally getting to complete the mission her father never finished, by delivering the meteor sample. We all wanted to know if it truly contained some type of biometric information that could be used to create a vaccine and help find a cure. It wasn't as if we had anywhere else to go. After Apophis had struck Earth, the following haze of wars and riots that erupted from the event had destroyed what was left of our supposedly civilized world. When the MN4 virus reared its ugly head, nations were already locked in bitter conflict as they began to blame one another as if it were an intentional act of aggression spurned by one country or another.
Tensions rose while treaties dissolved and international borders became a wild free-for-all while soldiers of every flag shot each other as the disease spread its poison across the globe. Unfortunately, a huge amount of resources and healthy lives were wasted while the human race was trying to kill one another instead of helping the sick and working together towards a cure; until it was far too late. Those countries and governments that were too busy accusing one another for the fallout quickly dwindled away into silence as their populations succumbed to the malady. Now the meek ruled the earth in the form of weepers.
Here I was with a bunch of other ruffians, risking our lives to bring a little chunk of rock from space to an over bloated military lab in the middle of nowhere; and without a real fucking clue as to why. It was all too depressing when I let myself dwell on it. Daily life had gotten so desperate that nothing made sense anymore; it was so sad that it was almost laughable.
The conveyor aisle was mostly clear of debris until we hit a laser wall. Several horizontal green laser beams fanned from one side of the wall, and we had to cautiously test it with an object it might burn through. We were relieved to discover it wasn't a high energy security barrier at all, but some type of advanced scanning device for incoming containers.
However, the second we broke the beam a horn sounded and we all froze in place. Moments later, the noise of machinery whirred and the conveyor we were standing on began to lurch forward. Even thought it was a gentle tilt, Kel almost lost her footing because of her injured leg. The rest of us readied our weapons as we were transported through the conveyor system.
The noise of the running equipment would be enough to get the attention of any infected left in the tunnels, and we would be fools not to expect another horde to swarm upon us at any moment. We bit our lips as anxiety set in. I began to feel lightheaded as we anticipated the oncoming mob.
It struck us that the conveyor belt floor was moving inward, rather than in the direction of the train tunnel, and it began to pick up speed that would exhaust anyone trying to run against it. Wherever we were heading, this was a one-way trip unless we could shut the conveyor down. Roy barked up for us to be ready as we were quickly approaching a light up ahead.
Several large windows were glazed with a bright green light into the red washed transit belt, and we stood with our mouths gaped open in awe as we passed within its glare. Through the grime covered glass glittered the countless spotlights of a massive superdome. Our conveyor lined across its upper edge, gently curving along the wall of the enormous structure.
Beneath us were cranes and building platforms and an indescribable jumble of scaffolding jutting like a forest of black spikes silhouetted against the floodlights. The sheer scale of the site was impressive.
"What the..." was all that fell from Roy's lips. It took a long moment for him to turn his attention back to Beatrice, who also appeared a touch astonished while she stared with wide eyes out into the construction pit.
"What is this place, really?" Tasha asked, beating Roy to the punch. The hold below us was so enormous that several dozen facilities the size of Fallhaven could have easily fitted into it. It must have taken decades to build this hidden complex under the remote mountainside. Our transit belt was slowly approaching an isolated tower that fanned out from the interior wall to overlook the arena. Thing were about to get interesting.
"This ...this is the VEIL project site," the old woman finally admitted, "it was to be the central command for all the base shelters linked to it."
"And what about the laboratory?" Ava asked in response.
"What about it?" Betty shot back with a cavalier tone, "It's all interlinked, I have no idea if anyone is still in control of this place. The automation is still working to some extent; but I don't know who might be ...or if anyone at all is still running the place," she finished with a glazed look in her eyes.
"Where does this conveyor belt actually lead?" Thorn demanded, grabbing her by the arm, as if to affirm that she would follow the same fate as us all if we were overrun by another mob of weepers.
"A cargo bay I would assume, young man," Betty chastised Thorn as she jerked her shoulder back out of his grasp to retain what little sense of dignity she had left.
We braced ourselves as the belt approached the upper echelon and a wide steel door opened after we passed through another laser wall that detected our presence. The cargo room was unremarkable except for the interlaced storage rings that lined the walls. There were several toppled containers knocked askew upon the floor noting that this section of the facility had been left abandoned in a hurry. It was not a good sign.
The only way we saw out was through that conveyor system that led back to the train terminal. That huge mob of infected that attacked us must have used that to
escape, which was the way we had just entered. We had to be on our toes if there were more of them wandering about. This facility looked like it could hold many hundreds, maybe even thousands of personnel staff. If they had all been turned by the KRI virus, then a significant percentage of them would be hostile and dangerous.
"How do we get to this laboratory topside?" Tasha inquired, as we all drew our attention back to Beatrice.
"Sure, I'll be your tour guide," she remarked with an unusual sense of humor lost upon us, "don't go wandering off, children."
"Maybe she hit her head a little too hard back in that train," Thorn whispered under his breath to me as we let the old woman take the lead.
The doors to the cargo room were wide open. The facility had power, but it was intermittent in places that apparently had suffered significant electrical damage. We advanced quietly through a series of confusing hallways, noting blood smears and weapons fire that scorched that decorated the walls. Some serious shit had gone down here at one point, in a bad way.
There were no corpses though. That worried me more than if the place had been left littered with them. They had been either cleaned up and disposed of, or entirely consumed. There was no way to tell by the mess left behind. Someone had put up a fight, and we had no idea who the victor was. That horde that attacked us in the tunnel made me lean towards the darker side of the two scenarios.
"Come on, chop, chop, boys and girls," Betty snapped at us as she headed straight for a transit elevator, and motioned to usher us inside. Roy advised her to keep her voice down, considering the overwhelming evidence that this place had been overrun. Oddly enough, her attitude was flippant, as if she didn't give a damn anymore. Roy shed us a glance like he wouldn't mind just cutting the old woman's throat if she put us in jeopardy like that again, shaking his head in displeasure while he quietly fumed as we stepped into the broad elevator.
Broken Mirror: Apophis 2029 Page 24