by E S Richards
“Alpha team departs at 0500h.”
“What are we doing about interference?”
“Same protocol as last week. In hard. No survivors.”
“And the scouts?”
“Report should be in within the hour.”
“Roger that. Keep me posted.”
“Of course, General.”
Zahyra remained still as she listened to what sounded like the inner workings of a military operation. She winced when she heard the term ‘no survivors’ and dreaded to think what scenario they were discussing. She heard a door close then and the sound of one person sitting down and sighing to himself. Her curiosity burning her up inside, Zahyra steadily moved even closer to the end of the vent.
Sitting in a chair alone she saw a man in the safe haven’s typical grey uniform. His armband was a dark red colour with silver dots on it. Zahyra racked her brain to think of where she’d seen a band with silver dots before and then remembered the old man in the glass rooms on her first day. He’d sat with his head buried in his hands as Zahyra was marched for her scanning with Asher and Cain.
From the end of the conversation she’d overheard Zahyra deemed that this man was the General, therefore those silver dots could mean he was the leader of that band. Leader of the soldiers, she deciphered, meaning the man with silver dots on his black armband had been the head scientist. She wondered why she hadn’t encountered him yet during her T128 trial.
She watched the man for a while as he palmed through some papers on his desk. Then, with a lot more to discover, Zahyra began to edge backwards away from the room. It was difficult work meandering through the vents backwards, especially as she struggled to be silent with the General not far from her position, but as she came to the sharp corner Zahyra knew she was in the right place. Once she had straightened up her body and was facing the right direction again she slid the paper out of her waistband and made a note of where she had been. Shaking her wrist for light and writing at the same time added something else to her list of difficulties but gritting her teeth she made it through.
If her suspicions were correct then the next turning of the ventilation shaft should start to angle downwards to the lower levels. She almost let out a cry of relief when it did and shuffled into position to start her descent. Moving down was not easy face first. She had to use her arms to brace herself against the side of the shaft to stop from sliding; her biceps began to ache with the strain almost immediately, her day of physical fitness tasks not helping to relieve her muscles.
Zahyra used large amount of guesswork to determine when to stop descending and turn left for the correct corridor, her first attempt leading her into another area of sleeping quarters. Once she’d retraced her route however she was eventually met with the end of a vent that peered down into the glass-walled room.
Sweat was dripping off Zahyra by this point and she took a moment to stop and compose herself. She wished she’d brought some water with her, but with no bottle or anything to carry it in she’d been left wanting. The glass room – which Zahyra was now calling the experimentation lab – looked empty beneath her, but she wasn’t taking any chances. Slowly she moved along the length of the lab, checking through each vent for anyone below her. Reaching the end she took a deep breath, withdrew the fork from her waistband and began working on the screws.
It was even harder from inside the vent. The screw faces looked out into the room so Zahyra had very little of the metal to try and turn. A combination of that, the darkness and her increasingly panicked state of mind meant it took almost half an hour for her to remove the cover. She latched her fingers around it just in time, saving the metal sheet from falling noisily to the floor. It was after nine now and she was certain no one would still be in the lab, but that didn’t stop her holding her breath as she lowered the vent cover and stuck her head out into the room.
The emergency lights gave the area a strange orange glow, but thankfully the flickering lights were the only things moving inside.
Zahyra dangled her upper half out into the room, straining as the side of the vent cut into her thighs. As soon as she was low enough she dropped the vent cover to the ground with a clatter and held her breath once more as she waited to see if anyone had heard. A long minute passed before she swallowed, un-braced her legs and let her body fall haphazardly forward towards the ground.
Once she was crouched low in the experimentation lab Zahyra took in her surroundings. The machine she’d ran on earlier that day was still tucked away in the corner and she recognised some other things from the afternoon as well.
Unfortunately most of the technology was still a mystery to her but she moved towards one of the screens anyway. She’d watched Professor Welbeck use it that day and had a rough idea of how it worked. Finding a small button on the side she clicked it and the screen sprung brightly to life.
Nothing happened for a moment, just a white screen with numbers counting up from zero. Once they reached one hundred however a page appeared, asking for a ‘log in number’. Zahyra swore under her breath and looked around frantically for a solution. She began pulling open drawers and cupboards, searching for anything with information written down.
Trainee M. Kumar came to her rescue, in the form of a discarded piece of paper that had slipped down the side of one of the cabinets, their ID number clearly printed across the top of the page. Zahyra crossed her fingers and entered the number, praying it would be the same as a log in number. The screen flickered once more and then the words ‘Clearance Level Three’ appeared on the screen before subsiding and revealing a complicated picture of what Zahyra assumed to be files and formulas.
The clearance level didn’t give her much hope but she began scanning the tiny words underneath the files for anything that looked like it would contain details about what the safe haven was trying to weaponize. The first however many she opened contained a series of complicated numbers and words she didn’t understand. She was almost giving up hope when she spotted a file named ‘New-Wave’ right in the corner of the screen.
Her heart stopped. New-Wave mutant was what Heather had referred to Asher as when he’d been ranked a Gen 6. How could there be information on it here when Heather had acted like it was something entirely new to her. With her heart in her throat, Zahyra opened the file.
A document flew open onto the screen similar to many of the others she’d looked at. Equations and formulas filled the top half of it, containing numbers and figures that Zahyra couldn’t understand. She desperately scanned the page for any words or phases. Anything she could even slightly recognise. To her dismay over half of the text was blacked out and impossible to read. She closed the file and re-opened it, only to be met with the same issue. Cursing she realised it had to be related to the clearance level of whoever’s account she’d logged into. If only she had access to Professor Welbeck’s details, she would surely have the information she needed.
Disappointment washed over Zahyra as she accepted her search for answers had only resulted in more questions. What did the safe haven have to do with Gen 6 mutants and why had Heather acted like she wasn’t aware of them? If there was any information about what her brother was in this lab Zahyra promised herself she would find it.
A small glimmer of hope tore through her at the thought of Asher still being in the facility somewhere. She almost leapt back into the ventilation shafts to search for him, but knew in the end that would be foolish.
Checking her timekeep however Zahyra admitted she should return back to her room. She wasn’t aware of ever being checked on in the night, but didn’t want to leave it to chance if she ever was. She’d already been gone for almost three hours and she had no way of knowing whether that was already too late.
Climbing back into the vent proved difficult. Zahyra didn’t want to move any of the chairs in the lab underneath it, as that would surely give away that someone had been there. She threw the vent opening up first and winced as it smashed into one of the sides. Screwing that
back on would be almost impossible she knew, especially as she would have to turn herself around in the tiny space to do so.
Somehow though, through sheer determination mixed with fear of being discovered she managed to do it and was soon crawling back through the vent in the direction she had come from. Two wrong turns and a very close run in with someone walking below Zahyra tumbled through the end of her vent into her bathroom. She immediately ran into the main room to check she was alone before returning to affix the vent cover back on the wall.
Assessing herself in the mirror she was covered in grime and sweat. Her hair was flattened down onto her scalp in a greasy fashion and her clothes were clinging to her body. With the adrenaline seeping out of her body she threw the dirty clothes into a corner and stepped into the shower.
As the warm water ran over her body she pondered what she had discovered that night. On the one hand it was brilliant that she now had a way to creep around the facility at night, and if she could ascertain what more of the rooms held in the daytime she could check them out further at night. On the other hand all she’d really returned to her room with were more questions.
What was the General sending his alpha team out for? And why had they been ordered to not leave any survivors? Where were they even going and why?
Her questions about Asher and the New-Wave of mutants puzzled her even more than this. And in thinking about what she’d discovered in the experimentation lab Zahyra kicked herself remembering what Heather and Professor Welbeck had said about the T128 trial earlier that day. She hadn’t found anything about what Heather and Professor Welbeck had spoken about that day or what they had meant by weaponizing it and that had been her main reason for going back down there in the first place.
Now she knew more than ever that she had to get some answers tomorrow. She was due back in the lab after breakfast and that was at least where Zahyra believed the answers to be. First: find out more information about Asher and Gen 6 mutants. Second: find out more information about T128 and what they were trying to weaponize.
The mountain of things she was yet to discover weighed down on Zahyra while she dried herself off and climbed into bed. The soft blankets cocooned around her as she wrestled with the problems in her head. Soon enough however, the comfort won out and Zahyra drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Chapter 6
Zahyra’s determination was sealed as she once again followed Heather down the stairs towards the experimentation lab. She dragged her feet slightly, tiredness still coursing through her body from her adventures the night before. She wasn’t going to let anything stop her today though, knowing that the safe haven stored information about what her brother was had planted a firm seed of hope inside her. Nothing was going to get in her way of finding out the truth.
Like the morning before Heather and Zahyra arrived before Professor Welbeck and Zahyra was left alone in the waiting room until the professor came down from breakfast. If yesterday was anything to go by she had about ten minutes alone before the second day of her T128 trials began, and she had to make use of every spare second.
The door to the room was completely opaque, but Zahyra assumed Heather would be waiting just on the other side. Moving fast, and praying for good luck Zahyra began quietly pulling out drawers and opening cabinets, searching for anything with Professor Welbeck’s identification number on it.
She knew without the appropriate clearance level the information she found would be useless. Unfortunately however, the professor kept her affairs in a much neater order than the trainee’s information she’d found the night before. There was only one drawer that Zahyra could not open, and naturally she assumed this would be where the information was.
Looking at her timekeep Zahyra knew her time was nearly up and reluctantly moved over to one of the chairs in the room to wait. As much as she needed this information she was well aware that if anyone even suspected her, the level of scrutiny she was already under would be increased. Moments later Professor Welbeck entered the room and Zahyra was resigned to continue her search at a later time.
“How are you feeling today?” Professor Welbeck asked Zahyra with a smile.
“Not bad,” Zahyra replied frankly, “ just a little bit sore.”
“That’s to be expected after the exercises from yesterday,” the professor nodded. “More of the same today though I’m afraid.”
Zahyra said nothing and climbed to her feet to follow the professor. The tiny amount of trust she had carried for the woman yesterday had all completely faded after overhearing her conversation with Heather. Zahyra reminded herself how she couldn’t lose track of that goal either.
Whatever the safe haven was planning to weaponize it couldn’t be good. The last thing the outside world needed was more destruction, especially when communities were finally beginning to form and feel safe. For the most part, at least.
“Professor?” Zahyra asked as she was led into a different section of the glass room. They were at the opposite end to the vent Zahyra had climbed through last night which she was thankful for, she didn’t want the professor hanging around near there if something had gone wrong with her reattaching the cover.
Professor Welbeck turned slightly as she was walking and raised her eyebrows to Zahyra, indicating for her to speak in a fashion similar to Heather.
“I was wondering if you made any progress finding my mother?”
The professor stopped and turned to face Zahyra. She had given her a description of her mother yesterday afternoon, before she overheard the conversation about them weaponizing T128. Now that she knew that, combined with the information that could possibly relate to Asher, Zahyra desperately wanted someone she could confine in. Without Cain by her side as she had become so accustomed to Zahyra felt more alone than she had done before meeting him. From the professor’s reaction however, Zahyra already knew what was coming.
“I’m sorry Zahyra,” she started, Zahyra’s eyes dropping to the floor in response. “I searched the database but couldn’t find any sign of her. No one of that name or description has arrived in the last few weeks. In fact aside from your… group, we’ve only had one other person, a young man, find us in the last four months. I’m sorry.”
Zahyra said nothing. Her eyes trained on the floor as she tried to stop tears from spilling down her cheeks. She had known it was very unlikely her mother would make it to the safe haven alone, but she hadn’t wanted to completely give up hope. There was of course a chance she was still out there somewhere, but something inside Zahyra told her in that moment that her mother was gone.
The professor dragged a chair over to where Zahyra was standing, leaning slightly against one of the tables.
“I’ll give you a moment,” she said quietly, before moving off to one of the screens in the room.
Zahyra let her legs give way beneath her and fell down into the chair. She refused to allow herself to cry in front of Professor Welbeck, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t feel sad. The sense of loneliness hit hard in that moment. She was motherless. Fatherless. Brotherless. And she had lost Cain. Now more than ever Zahyra had to find a way out of the safe haven.
She refused to take long to mourn the loss of her mother. She wasn’t going to do it in public at least. She was too proud and in a way she had already been prepared for the loss. Instead Zahyra rose quietly from the chair and moved to stand behind Professor Welbeck. She was scrolling through information on one of the screens. It looked like the results from Zahyra’s tests yesterday and she almost opened her mouth to ask when she noticed the professor’s ID card slotted into the side of the screen.
Zahyra hadn’t noticed anywhere to insert a card when she was using the screen last night, but then she hadn’t had a card so hadn’t needed to look for anywhere to put one. If she could just get her hands on the professor’s card then that would surely be the key for finding more information.
She took a loud step forward, transfixed by the desire to access that card when Professo
r Welbeck turned around, startled to see Zahyra standing so close to her. She fumbled and Zahyra quickly spoke to avert the tension.
“Are those my results?” Zahyra stammered. “From yesterday?”
The professor shot Zahyra a suspicious glare then returned her focus to the screen, closing one of the files.
“Yes. I’m just trying to decide what to start you on today because of them,” she paused. “I think physical.”
Zahyra groaned internally. She had been hoping for a more relaxed day today to give her chance for more investigating. It didn’t seem like that would be the case.
“Yes I think it would be helpful,” the professor continued, “to see how your body reacts to certain stimuli. Heat, water, pressure…”
Professor Welbeck moved away from Zahyra for a second and unlocked a cabinet underneath one of the tables. She withdrew a small box, opening it to shake out two tiny, round capsules, no bigger than Zahyra’s thumbnail. She placed the box back in the cabinet, locked it and walked towards Zahyra again, holding the capsules out in the palm of her hand.
“Take these.”
Zahyra stared from the capsules to Professor Welbeck and back to the capsules.
“What are they?”
“Nothing dangerous. They’ll just help me monitor your internal organs more closely and other things going on in your body. They emit a tiny electrical signal that I can connect to through this screen. It’s all standard practise here.”
Zahyra’s brow furrowed as she contemplated the capsules. She wasn’t really in any position to refuse to take them but she still had her suspicions. Number one: if they were standard practise why were they kept locked in a cabinet. Number two: she had no idea what they would actually do to her body, or if anything Professor Welbeck had said about them was true. Zahyra shifted her weight to her back foot and took up a defensive stance, refusing to meet the professor’s eyes.