Netherstream - Episode 1: Jane Doe

by Gordon, S. E.

  The original plans called for an audiovisual control room on floor two and a half, but those plans were superseded by a mysterious new upgrade. My friends in Banquets bragged about walking around the elusive floor, but I had a hell of a time finding it. There was no conventional way to get there: no elevator, no stairs, nothing. I searched all over the banquet halls and executive offices for an access point, but to no avail. It did not want to share its secrets with me.

  Still, such a search was a futile. Even if I found a secret panel, I didn’t know the passcode. My only hope was to uncover a backdoor, which I would later stumble across by accident.

  A cool wind rushed over me. The shaft was dark and dank and smelled like ass, but anything was better than that old dinosaur and the fossil in his pants. Tiny, red lights illuminated the top of each floor, revealing metal rungs off to the side. When the elevator finally came to a stop, I scooted over to the edge, and got up.

  About a foot and a half from the car, a service ladder extended up to all sixteen floors. As I debated how best to reach the ladder, bullets tore through the elevator. I sprung forward, snagging a rung with one hand. In a mad dash, I pulled myself up quickly, rung after rung, not relying on my legs whatsoever. The vent was twice the distance away than it should have been, but who was I to complain? Just get me the fuck out of here!

  Bullets flew past me once I reached the lip of the vent. Although it was hard enough to enter with two working legs, I contorted my body to adjust to the odd angle, and slipped inside.

  It was pitch dark again, but with so many terrifying nights spent in utter darkness, I’d grown accustomed to the nightmare. Here in the heart of the hotel was my only refuge, and I wasn’t about to let anything impede my journey.

  Sweat rolled off my nose, and dripped onto the metal vent. A maze unto itself, the air ducts shot off in various directions. Without proper diagrams and a lot of luck, Leon’s men didn’t have a chance of finding me.

  Aside from knowing the path, one’s weight came into play. There was no way that these passages could support a two hundred-pound man. They even protested as I made my way through the metal coils. Please, follow me. I dare you.

  Left, right, left, and then sharply around the bend. It all came with relative ease despite my bum knee. After one last abrupt turn, I came to a wooden ladder and climbed up.

  Suddenly two hands grabbed me, and pulled me off to the side. Impossible! How did they get ahead of me? Without thinking, I seized her neck, devouring her sweet essence until her body went limp.

  What in the hell had I just done? I backed up and continued up the ladder, the pain subsiding with each step. Finally I came to the hole and squeezed through, brushing up against the underside of the tile floor.

  Slowly I lifted the tile, and peeked inside. A grid of fluorescent lights and desk lamps illuminated the control room. The room was silent except for the low hum of fans from the computers. “Hello?”

  I rose out of the floor without flinching, and set the tile back into place.

  “Welcome back,” came a computerized voice.

  I jumped, and then slowly exhaled. I hated it when he did that. “Tell me, am I the only one on this floor?”

  “Correct. No one else is inside the perimeter,” he replied.

  “And what about outside?”

  “Deceased female, 141 pounds.”

  “Does she have a name?”

  “Margaret Smith.”

  “No!” I wiped the blood from my chin and stared at my hands. Slowly it dawned on me that I was now standing without any pain. “Retrieve her body and go into lockdown.”

  “Are you sure? The chamber cannot be unsealed for 48 hours.”

  “Do it,” I said.

  “Engaging. Lockdown commencing in 10…9…8…”

  It felt as if the entire floor was about to launch into the sky. The lights flickered and walls rumbled. I was about to go nuclear on their sorry asses.

  “7…6…5…4…”

  I glanced at the monitors and noticed the soldiers looking around. They, too, could hear the change in the hotel. “Don’t worry. You’ll see me soon enough,” I promised.

  “3…2…1…Lockdown…”

  Suddenly the ceiling above shifted. Plates of reinforced steel slid over top of it, sealing it shut. Subtle shifts echoed through the chamber as the principle walls were bolstered and locked down. The floor beneath me was the last to be secured, cutting off all connection to the outside world.

  “Lockdown complete,” the computer reassured me.

  I stepped into the bathroom and stared at my pale face and crimson hair. My eyes were scorching, as if on fire. I washed the blood from my mouth, and laid down on one of the beds. I was in the box now. Nothing could get in or out.

  “Bittersweet Symphony. The Verve,” I murmured.

  “Autoloop?” the computer asked.

  “Yes.” The angelic sound of violins echoed through the box, carrying me off to sleep as I pondered the cruel irony of this fading world.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Abruptly I woke, as if torn from a dream. “How long have I been asleep?” I asked.

  “Two hours, twenty-six minutes,” the computer replied. “Would you like a supplement?”

  “A supplement? What do you mean?”

  “You know exactly what I mean, Valis.”

  The computer’s response caught me off guard. Valis? What the hell was he talking about?

  “I examined your knee while you were asleep. No structural damage detected. I also performed surgery on your ear. It looks like you have already healed.”

  “How did you do that?” I ran my fingers over my ear.

  “I have my ways.”

  I got up and walked out of the bedroom. The floor was huge, over 4,000 square feet in all. Two master bedrooms were stationed at opposite ends of the hall, each with their own bathrooms and walk-in closets. A small office was attached to the control room, which connected to the server room, wiring closets and a workshop with additional storage. The kitchen hosted his and her pantries, a walk-in refrigerator and a deep freeze. There was also an abbreviated fitness center with a built-in Jacuzzi, dining hall, game room, small library, lab, an additional kitchenette and even a bar. Then there was the most disturbing room of all: a funeral parlor with three black coffins stacked vertically.

  Whoever had designed this place knew of the impending holocaust and planned for mankind’s eventual demise. It was hardly a panic room, though; it was a military-grade piece of real estate sunk into the heart of the hotel to observe and experiment on the general public as one saw fit. There was enough food here to last years, and considering how little I ate, perhaps decades. The steel coffin of dreams had its own generator with multiple emergency backup units. As far as I could tell, I was the only one who had ever used it, and its supplies were filled to the brim.

  I walked into the control room and sat behind one of the workstations. The word ‘Activated’ flashed on the monitor. “What’s been activated?” I asked.

  “You have, Valis,” the computer replied.

  The joke was beginning to wear thin. “Show me the lobby.”

  “Please enter your passcode.”

  Fuck. It never asked me this before. “I don’t know it.” I crossed my arms.

  “Sorry, that’s not correct. Perhaps this will jog your memory.”

  Suddenly a glass vial shot through a network of tubes above the workstations and rose out of an opening in the desk. A red fluid bubbled inside the cylinder like champagne.

  “Is that what I think it is?” I asked.

  “Yes, Valis. It’s your supplement.”

  There was that strange name again. He was beginning to get on my nerves. I took the vial and stared at the crimson cocktail. “What does it contain?”

  “All of the nutrients that your body needs,” the computer assured me.

  “It looks like blood.”

  “It is blood. Now drink up, Valis.”

  “Hell no!�
�� I put the vial back. Although I had rinsed with water, I could not expel the delicious taste from my mouth. For a moment I dwelled on the unfortunate incident, a new hunger rising from the depths of my being. “I must be losing my mind.” I tried to walk away, but could not. I fumbled with the capsule, accidentally dropping it. The glass vial shattered, staining the white tile floor.

  I gazed at the pool of blood and glass, unable to take my eyes off it. The hunger inside me was undeniable. The room went black, the next few moments burned from my soul. As I shook it off, I found myself licking the blood off the floor.

  “Drink up, Valis,” the computer repeated.

  A second vial emerged from the desk. Without hesitation, I grabbed the capsule and drank greedily. The room spun, and a sweet sensation washed over me. I snapped my head back and let the tragedy unfold. “Thank you, Dvarium. Thank you for making me…remember…”

  “Passcode accepted,” his voice rang through my ears.

  Chapter 6: Vindictive

  The whir of fans accelerated, sparks of electricity racing through circuits and systems that had been offline since the world had been unmade. A ten-by-four grid of razor-thin monitors slid down from the ceiling, filling in the space above the workstations, and completing the control room.

  “Has anyone used this station since my last visit?” I asked.

  “Just you, Valis. No communications have been issued or received in the past 37 days. I’ve intercepted plenty of chatter, though,” Dvarium replied.

  “Has it been catalogued?”

  “Of course. A complete inventory is available on the Z drive.”

  “Good. Is there anything else that I should be aware of?”

  “Only that the neighbors don’t like to play nice.”

  Suddenly an explosion ripped through the hotel.

  “What the hell was that?” I gazed at the monitor before me. Soldiers ran down the smoke-filled hallway, tripping over pieces of their fallen comrades. Amidst the chaos, pulsing lights moved about the murky haze.

  “A countermeasure has been triggered in room 1446. Emergency systems have been activated to subdue the fire,” said the computer. “It appears that they were looking for you.”

  “Is that so?” I watched the soldiers sprint towards the elevators on the fourth and seventh floors.

  “You’re quite popular these days, but they will not find you. Not even if they burn down the hotel.”

  Dvarium was right, of course. The box could seal itself shut, and had its own internal oxygen supply when things went south. There was enough oxygen to last months, and the inside vegetation extended it further.

  As for room 1446, Ryan and I booby-trapped the hotel in case of a hostile takeover. We selected the rooms at random, and both of us knew to stay away from the fourteenth floor altogether. They were wise to call off the sweep; plenty of bad intentions lingered to annihilate the remnants of their pathetic squad. It was Ryan’s parting gift before I buried him, but that was before I knew about the steel core and its autonomous systems.

  Ryan Dalton was a former marine and veteran of Operation Desert Storm. He was no more than five and a half feet tall, slightly shorter than me, and ripped from head-to-toe. Although he was a guest, he knew more about the hotel than most of the employees. He taught me how to fix all the major systems, and set traps to eradicate the vermin that plagued our hotel. He was the last human I spoke to until these losers showed up.

  “How many are left?” I asked.

  “Ten, including one on the roof by the light combat helicopter. My sensors detected an additional signature, but it seems to have been an anomaly,” Dvarium reported.

  “What model is that?”

  “Unknown. It appears to be a variant of the AH-64 Apache helicopter.”

  “Can you access its systems?”

  “Only the navigational systems. The weapons systems are encrypted.”

  “How long until you crack the code?”

  “Seven days, unless we get lucky.”

  I tapped my fingers on the keyboard, staring at the guard circling the sleek, black helicopter. “Why so long?”

  “Someone compromised it first.”

  “What?”

  “Relax. Its weapons system aren’t useful unless the helicopter is an appreciable distance from the target.”

  “What about the weapons themselves? Can any of the bombs be detonated while the helicopter is stationary?”

  The computer did not immediately respond.

  “Dvarium?” I raised my voice.

  “One moment, please…yes, the system has a self-destruct function that detonates the entire payload.”

  Unbelievable. A ticking time bomb parked right overhead. “Lose the guard,” I commanded.

  “Affirmative.”

  A burst of light streaked across the screen, puncturing the guard’s chest and snapping him in two.

  “Couldn’t you have used a smaller gun?” I asked.

  “It was more humane this way,” the computer replied.

  “You could have hit the helicopter.”

  “Worry about your own aim, Valis.”

  I’d forgotten how much of a prick Dvarium could be. With an IQ more than a hundred times my own, I was more like a heckler at a comedy club, and the guy with the microphone always wins. “Initialize systems and take off. Get away from the hotel. Once you’re out of range, shut the bird down. Can you do this?”

  “Affirmative,” said Dvarium.

  Suddenly the blades of the helicopter began to turn. The chopper lifted off, and veered away.

  “Dispatching drones,” Dvarium said a few moments later.

  “What are you doing?” I watched three silver orbs trail after it and scatter.

  “Left rail, center missile. Engaged. Firing.”

  “Jam its guidance system!” I screamed.

  “I can’t. Incoming.”

  The hellfire missile streaked towards the screen. At the last moment it collided with one of the drones, fell into the street and exploded, flaying legions of unsuspecting zombies. The helicopter continued firing at will, tearing up the city with its twin Gatling guns and blowing up a grocery store in the process.

  “The subject is now out of range. Shutting down all systems,” said the computer.

  “Good work, Dvarium. Hide her well.”

  “I have a special place for her downtown.”

  “Aaaaaah!!!” A man screamed. I cycled through the cameras, but couldn’t locate him.

  “Dvarium, indentify the source.” A smile crept on my face.

  “It’s your boyfriend, General Vax. Hotel lobby,” the computer replied.

  “Is he intact?”

  “Same asshole, one less testicle.”

  “Infected?”

  “Isn’t everyone?”

  The general stumbled around, firing into the front desk. “Come out, you bitch!”

  “Band 3812.6 active. Acquiring radio transmission. Decrypting,” said Dvarium.

  “Everything all right? I heard gunfire, sir,” the soldier’s nervous voice came over the speaker system.

  “Get everyone down here, now!” Leon ripped out his earpiece and tossed it across the lobby. He staggered into the lounge and continued firing.

  “Dvarium, do something before he tears the place apart.”

  “Just talk to him.”

  “What?”

  “Talk to him,” the computer repeated.

  I leaned forward, marveling at the fury of the wild beast before me. “Manners, general. You’ll be fucked soon enough. How hard depends on you.” My voice echoed through every room in the hotel.

  Leon stopped and looked around.

  “Perhaps you should grab your pack of Djarum Blacks and get the fuck out of here. It would not be wise to stick around.” Who was I kidding? He didn’t have a brain in his fucking head to begin with.

  The general forced a smile on his face. “On the contrary, I’m getting quite comfortable here.” He cocked his gun.
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br />   “Really? Should I take your other testicle as well?”

  The general screamed and shot up the cameras and speakers.

  “You’ll never shut me up, no matter how hard you try, general.”

  “Fucking bitch!” He continued shooting up the lounge.

  “Nice…now can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?”

  Suddenly the remaining soldiers joined him by the fountain.

  “Last chance, Leon,” I warned him.

  “Go fuck yourself.” The general opened fire on the stone sculpture of the horse. His men joined in, shooting off the tail and feet. Leon could have destroyed anything in the hotel and I’d only be moderately pissed. But not the horse. Never the horse.

  “Dvarium, release an agent into the lounge. What are my options?” I asked.

  “Halothane, Bromoacetone, and Malthion Discorvix.”

  “Halothane,” I said, but couldn’t remember exactly what it did. It wasn’t like I could jump online and look this shit up, and I didn’t trust Dvarium to tell me what I needed to know. I only knew not to select Malthion Discovix. The name alone sounded evil. “Extend Halothane to the lobby as well.”

  “Extended.”

  One by one the soldiers fell over as gas permeated their lungs.

  “Use your masks!” The general fell to one knee.

  But in the end, it didn’t matter. Unless their masks were specifically designed for the agent, the wicked cocktail would still get through. It made me wonder what they were protecting themselves from if they couldn’t thwart a well-known anesthetic.

  Leon didn’t bother with the mask, his end a foregone conclusion. Although he was already on his way down the netherstream, he was still susceptible to the gas. In one last act of defiance, he propped himself up with his rifle, mouthed a profanity, and collapsed on the floor.

  “Checkmate.” I cracked my neck.

  “Subjects neutralized. Taking samples now,” said Dvarium.

  A slat in the wall opened just below the skylight, and a silver drone flew out. It hovered over the lounge, scanning the bodies with its laser eye. A second drone joined it, a thin needle extending from its robotic arm.