The jack hammer operator grunted and climbed slowly out of the hole, returning much later than it should have taken. Navus made a note of it so when pay day came around, he’d be able to justify withholding his currency. The worker presented the equipment to Navus, and became more inquisitive than he should be. “You really going to cut into that thing? What if it’s a power line or toxic waste?”
Navus grabbed the face shield and welding gloves out of his hands, and shot him a glare. “What, you uh expert now? Stand back and don’t get in the way!”
Navus donned his face shield and popped the firing switch for the plasma cutter; carefully cutting along the seam of the metal. He raised the plasma cutter up after about a minute; the metal must be incredibly dense, the tool had just barely began to cut through. “Get another plasma cutter fired up, and you better be fast about it!”
The worker donned the appropriate gear and began to cut in the opposite direction of Navus. The two continued to cut painfully slow for almost an hour, when about a 6x6 portion of metal finally dropped free and fell into the hole. The metal dropped for a good four seconds before landing on what obviously sounded like a metal deck hidden in the darkness below.
The worker leaned in toward the hole and began to examine it with a flash light, then cracked and tossed a series of orange glows sticks around the distant bottom. The entire interior was made of the same dense metal, and warm musty air bellowed up out of the hole and made the two cough. Navus grinned widely and stood up to call to more workers. He’d found something a hell of a lot more valuable than a regular salvage load, this was the big payoff he’d been waiting for! “Hey! Someone bring the crane over! And bring my harness bag!”
About a dozen of his workers, who were already eating their lunches and relaxing by the drop ship, began to argue over who was going to do the job. It wasn’t even noon yet and they had food out? The workers ended up settling the issue with an angry game of rock paper scissors. The two newest workers ended up losing of course, and carefully hauled the equipment and the crane over to begin the setup.
Navus carefully eyed the jack hammer operator, a skinny kid no older than twenty he’d never seen before, and the new gal who was a short and stocky gal in her thirties he’d guess. How strange…he was seeing a lot of new faces today. Most of his regular employees weren’t here, and that would probably explain why Navus was having such trouble with the ones he had. They hadn’t been broken in yet. Oh well, as long as they do their damn jobs even remotely at this point. Navus threw a harness at the jackhammer operator and the new female worker that had brought the crane over. “Put those on. You’re going with me.”
The two workers exchanged both curious and apprehensive glances with each other, but shrugged and moved down into the hole, hooked their harnesses to the crane with Navus, and all three lowered themselves down into the dark abyss. Navus pulled the flashlight from his belt once he reached the bottom, and began to search around the metal interior. It seemed to be a storage room of some sort; it was about 20 feet across and 20 feet in length, with a towering ceiling at least triple of that. The light from the surface barely illuminated a thing down there.
There were multiple hallways and doorways running along the length of the walls, most of which immediately turned into other doors or hallways. The lower walls were all coated in a dull white paint; and on a wall directly parallel to the hole they entered through, was a set of double wide elevator doors with the letters UNSAB - 1 stenciled in black paint. The musty smell was even worse down there and made it slightly difficult to breath, and the air was heavy and laden with humidity to the point of being sticky. It obviously hadn’t been circulated in a LONG time.
Ricky, the jackhammer operator, became awed. “Whoa, this like some sort of bunker! I mean, this is place looks crazy!”
Jean, the new girl, unhooked herself from the crane cable. She had a heavy southern twang to her voice, which reminded Navus of his third wife. He didn’t like her already. “Yeah…maybe. I think its part of the old university.”
Navus shushed the two and spoke in a harsh whisper. “Look around and listen for anything. There could be bandits down here. If you find something valuable, tell me right then.” The two nodded hesitantly and began to scan the room in separate directions with their flash lights. Navus started toward the elevator doors as quietly as he could when a handful of dust and rocks came falling down the hole they entered from, followed by a loud crash on the metal deck as if something heavy had fallen.
Navus sighed, already frustrated about the possibility of what had fallen, but didn’t turn around to look. “That better not have been one of my tools that you good for nothing assholes just dropped!” He whispered to himself.
The two glanced toward Navus curiously, right when the muffled sound of a door slamming in the distance rang out through the metal halls. The crew froze and pointed the flash lights in the direction the sound came. No movement, no nothing…all the doors were still securely shut. That sound HAD come from inside the building though. There was no doubt about that.
Navus slowly drew his pistol as a precaution. There was no other sound to be heard, except loud and continuous breathing by his two workers. The crew turned to Navus to see if he was going to respond to it, and noticed the pistol. Ricky crinkled his brow oddly and whispered. “I didn’t know you had a gun.”
“I’m a fucking salvage operator. Of course I do!” Navus responded back harshly. How the hell would the kid find that weird? Was this his first job? Well maybe…but he shouldn’t ask stupid questions!
Navus turned back toward the elevator doors and began to turn the emergency release handle until he heard the lock disengage; then step by step, opened the door until he could just barely see into the room on the other side. It was a large cargo elevator, with an ancient digital control panel nestled on the elevator platform next to the door jamb; the kind of thing you’d see in an old 20th century action film. Navus carefully opened the door the rest of the way and tip toed inside; his light shining down through the lattice deck of the elevator, and into the seemingly bottomless shaft below.
Jean slipped into the elevator, and almost instantly ran her hand over the digital control panel, bringing it and the entire elevator system back to life. The panel lights all flashed on, the shaft sequentially lit up until reaching the very depths of the pit, and the elevator motor hummed with power. Jean covered her mouth and turned to Navus with apologetic eyes.
Navus didn’t even acknowledge her; he brushed past her and began to look over the control panel intently. Ricky continued to scan around the room with his flash light, anxious and on high alert. He brought his light to chest level, and slowly turned from one side of the room to the other. The room seemed clear, but…oh shit. Ricky brought the light back to the corner where the sound had come from, was he seeing things?
No…he HAD seen something, and it looked just like a human silhouette. Ricky backed up into the elevator, pale as a ghost, and continued to shine the light in the same spot. Jean, seeing him in obvious distress, turned and began to scan the room with her own flash light. Ricky swallowed hard and whispered. “Mr. Navus….Navus!”
Navus exhaled loudly and whispered. “WHAT?”
“I just saw someone…I saw them and then they disappeared!”
Navus immediately brought his flash light up and did a quick scan of the room…nothing in any of the corners, and unless they were in the floor, there was nobody. “Are you sure?”
“Yes…I think…”
“Don’t tell me ‘you think’! Tell me yes or no! Did you see someone?”
Ricky swallowed hard. “Yes, I saw someone.”
There was a loud rumbled topside, followed by the light from the entrance hole being smothered in a cloud of rock and dust. What the fuck is this? Navus rushed over and waited a second until the dust was clear; the hole was now plugged with huge chunks of concrete and rock. “YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES! YOU OPEN THIS BACK UP RIGHT NOW! This isn’t funny!”
An orange glow stick went skidding across the floor toward the elevator, between Navus and his workers. The crew all pointed flash lights in its direction…nothing, there was no one. Navus froze as the hair on the back of his neck stood up, then he raised his weapon and slowly back up toward the elevator platform. “Both of you, get on the elevator! Now!” Ricky backed all the way into the corner guard rail and kept his flashlight scanning nonstop while trying not to hyperventilate. Jean just stood motionless in the middle, eyes darting rapidly.
Navus attempted to type something into the control panel, but the entire system was in French or something like that. He knew some of the words from school long ago, but he just-
A second glow stick went skidding toward the elevator from the opposite side of the room. Navus quickly typed in a random sequence and hit what he thought was enter. A metal gate dropped down in front of the doorway, the two elevator doors shut and locked themselves, and the elevator began to slowly descend.
Ricky slid down the guard rail into a sitting position and laid his head in both hands. His voice now quivering with fear. “Oh man, there’s no way! There’s no way I got stuck in some spooky…haunted fucking bunker! I don’t want to die doing this shitty job!” Jean sat down next to him and placed a comforting arm around him. “We’ll get out of this and be just fine… Don’t you worry.” Though Jean didn’t exactly believe it herself at the moment…
Navus returned to looking over the control panel, scrolling through options, and trying to make any sort of sense of its commands. The elevator began to pick up speed in its descent, passing by seven…eight…and then stopped on nine. The elevator doors rolled opened loudly into a room which appeared to be a computer mainframe still under construction. The walls and isles were lined with huge outdated computers and other scientific equipment from the mid-21st century. The equipment all seemed to be unused, and simply wasn’t turned on.
The elevator lights suddenly all turned off, and the emergency lights flipped on. Fuck, he must have been running the thing on battery power.
Ricky and Jean both rushed over and huddled next to Navus. “The lights all shut off!”
Navus hushed them. “Shh! I noticed! Keep your voice down! We need to find an electrical reset switch or fuse panel. Split up and go find it!”
Navus made his way toward a door that appeared to be a closet of some kind, he opened up the door and sure as shit there was a breaker panel buried under a heap of boxes. He started to clear boxes out when he heard the muffled cheering of a large number of people coming from the room next to him. Navus brought his flash light up and began to carefully walk over to the next door, which was glowing orange around the door frame. Ricky started to speak a little more loudly than was safe. “What? What are you doing?”
“Shhh!” Navus glared at him, then began to slowly open the door. The other side of the room was filled with mistreated office furniture surrounding a large glass encased fire in the center, along with about fifty bald and pale skinned men and women, all with the image of a laughing skull with a bar code beneath it on the backs of their heads. The room smelled of a combination of burnt foods and sweaty, dirty gym attire…
A very fat male figure, whose cloths were almost busting at the seams, suddenly appeared in front of the door smoking a cigarette but thankfully was facing the other direction. Navus froze and had to cover his nose as the smells had just become worse. Another tall but skinny figure walked in toward a podium in the center of the room, this one wore a black uniform with huge silver skulls on each collar, and his skin was the palest of them all. The entire crowd of maybe thirty or so snapped to attention as he spoke a language Navus couldn’t begin to make out. Every few seconds the man in the black uniform would scream something out and the whole crowd would begin cheering and chanting loudly.
Yup. Time to leave. Navus carefully closed the door and snuck back over to the circuit breakers; clearing the last few boxes out of the way very carefully. Navus opened the panel…and all of the breakers were tripped and none of them were labeled. Well shit, wasn’t that nice…
Jean and Ricky walked over and stood next to him. “Did you find it?”
Navus held his hand up to his mouth and motioned to be quiet. “Don’t touch anything! I’m going to take a look at the elevator.” Almost as soon as Navus left, Ricky moved into the breaker box and began to look over it. “I can turn this all back on, no problem.”
Jean whispered a protest. “No! He said not to touch anything!”
Ricky smiled somewhat deviously, positioned his hand across the entire panel, and flipped all of them on simultaneously. The entire room lit back up, with many of the old light bulbs bursting as the power returned. The mainframe powered back on, as well as the elevator, and an alarm began to sound with a flashing red light as some of the equipment began to malfunction.
Jean stared at Ricky in absolute astonishment. He really just did that…? Navus ran over absolutely livid and whispered loudly. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!”
Ricky smiled and shrugged indifferently. “I fixed it!”
The fat cigarette smoking male walked in, curiously responding to the sudden burst of electrical life the floor had just received…until seeing the three people staring back at him from the maintenance closet. Both parties froze, staring at each other in surprise for what seemed like an eternity. Ricky took off running to the elevator and Navus drew his pistol and fired wildly at the fat militant, who took a bullet to the chest and fell down writhing in pain.
Ricky yelled out to his crew. “COME ON! LET’S GO!”
Navus turned and shoved Jean in the shoulder hard, bringing her out of her frozen trance of fear. Both rushed onto the elevator, just as a dozen angry militants ran out of the doors and began to fire their odd assortment of weapons wildly at the elevator. The doors shut a moment later and the elevator began to descend. They made it…
Jean whimpered. “Mr. Navus?”
Navus moved over to the control panel and shoved Ricky out of the way. “Fuck off kid! This is all your fault!”
Jean cried out loudly. “Navus!”
Navus turned and growled. “WHAT?!”
Jean was laying propped up against the back wall, bleeding out of her chest profusely from a wound dangerously near her heart. Navus sighed at her as if in disappointment. “God Damnit! Why didn’t you fucking hide or something?”
Jean coughed and struggled to breath. “…asshole.”
Navus dug around in his pockets for bio-seal…nothing. He took off his jacket and tossed it at Ricky. “Put that on her!” Then continued to dig around for anything…finding his father’s old gold embroidered handkerchief…nope not giving her that. He looked over and noticed she was wearing a scarf; he rushed over and tore it off he neck, then shoved it onto her chest wound, grabbing Ricky’s hands at the same time. “Hold this on her tightly.”
The elevator began to decelerate rapidly and the shaft lights all shut off completely; the militants must have shut the breakers down. Navus stood up to check their position; they were near the very bottom of the shaft, just about two floors up from the last set of door. Jean began to cough up small amounts of blood, and Ricky began to hyperventilate again. “I’m not a soldier, I didn’t sign up for this shit! I need to get out of here! I need to get out!”
Navus rushed over and punched him in the face. “Stop your bullshit! We’re stuck here until I figure something out…so just be fucking quiet and hold that cloth on her wound!” Ricky stared at Navus blankly, then kneeled down to put pressure on Jean’s wound.
Navus looked around with his flash light for a way out; there was a ladder off to the front-right side of the elevator shaft, just close enough to grab onto without leaving the elevator platform completely. “Ricky, shine your light over here!”
Ricky turned confused. “But, I’m taking care of-”
“Do it with your other hand, fucktard! Shine your damn flash light!”
Ricky reluctantly pointed his light over to th
e corner and illuminated the ladder. Navus immediately climbed up and over the guard rail, reached for the nearest rung, and slowly began to climb downward. The flashlights light at this point didn’t do all that much to help, and the ladder soon vanished into the darkness, forcing Navus to feel around with his feet for the next rung.
Navus slowly lowered himself onto what he assumed would be another rung, but his grip slipped off of the ladder all together, sending him into a free fall. He reached frantically for the rungs and managed to grab one a moment later, slamming painfully into the side of the ladder, hand writhing in pain from the sudden deceleration it had forced. Navus secured his arms and legs around the ladder, and collected himself. It felt like his arm was almost ripped from its socket…not to mention the horrible writing pain in his hand.
Up on the elevator, Ricky shined the light through the grated deck, trying to find any sign of Navus below. A moment later he shut off the light all together, filling the room with total darkness and an eerie silence. Navus controlled his breathing and slowly began to lower himself again, careful not to put strain on his now very painful and probably broken right hand. He felt a solid platform below him, and double checked with his other foot. He had reached the bottom…and had avoided a crushing death by only about five feet.
Navus dropped off the ladder and began scanning the elevator door up and down. This set of doors was different…they almost looked like an airlock on a starship…only these had obviously been forced open at some point due to the plasma scarring around the center. The hydraulics were totally broken and the door was already ajar, just wide enough for a single person to squeeze through.
Navus climbed up the small concrete lip in the elevator trench, and carefully slid his way into the room on the other side. He drew his flashlight and froze, listening for any sound of danger. There was nothing at all…the silence in there was almost deafening. This particular room was just a single long tunnel leading to another airlock about 20 yards down the hall. The entire hall was made of glassy metal, and the floor made of glass tiles. It almost reminded him of a clean room on one of those big science ships. It was eerie and cold…very cold. He could see his breath pretty clearly.
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