Part 2 (1/2)
Chapter Two.
A military redoubt was a boring place. There was little in the way of decoration or personality, only a cold professionalism. These hidden installations varied in size, from the ma.s.sive maze of pa.s.sages and rooms located behind the stone-faced facade of Mount Rushmore, known as the Anthill, to this tiny little hive of less than a dozen or so labs, dormitories and control rooms.
No matter the size or the complexity, there was a predictable uniformity that cried to the rafters of calm, plodding, rubber-stamped government bureaucracy.
Checking each of the rooms was quick and effortless, and no time was wasted in search of food or supplies since they had examined all the redoubt had to offer during their earlier stay.
”Gunmetal gray.” Mildred Wyeth sighed. ”There's no place like home.”
”Familiar is good,” J. B. Dix replied. ”I like familiar.”
”You would, John,” she retorted.
”What? You want change?” the Armorer asked in disbelief. ”h.e.l.l, Millie, every time we walk into one of these redoubts, we end up jumping to another part of Deathlands. Only good thing about this mode of transportation is that it's quicker than riding in a wag, and a h.e.l.l of a lot safer than walking or trying to ride a motor bike.”
”All I'm saying is, would it have killed whoever came up with the design of these lairs to consult a decorator?” Mildred asked. ”Some different colors of paint? A pair of frilly curtains? h.e.l.l, I'd even take throw pillows and doilies just to break up the monotony.”
Mildred's comments were directed at the sameness of the redoubt's walls. For all of its many uses in security, vanadium wasn't a reflective or attractive metal. The genetic installation's underground level was constructed of smooth alloy wall plates, which absorbed the faint light given off by the fluorescent light strips overhead.
J.B. looked exasperated. ”I'm going to check on Ryan and Krysty. After all we've been through, Ryan's probably forgotten the combination to close the sec door.” He was referring to the treatment the friends had received from Pharaoh Akhnaton in the city of Aten, and the arduous journey across the Barrens to this redoubt. At the back of their minds was the possibility that the gateway wouldn't workas it hadn't days earlier when they had attempted to jump out of there.
J.B. stomped off, only to quickly return with the missing pair. No words were spoken as Ryan made his way past, the others falling in behind him. The low-wattage lighting conspired with the vanadium walls to create a mult.i.tude of faint shadows, skittering pieces of dark against the light as the group made its way down the hallway.
Now that all had been reunited, the order of their descent back into the lair was a traditional, predetermined one, a secure wedge of seven friends who had grown to rely on one another despite the brief internal squabbles that might occasionally erupt. Tempers sometimes flared, but when the time arrived, they stuck together firmly as a family to survive the harshness of the world they were forced to call home.
Ryan turned to face the group after they had determined the redoubt was secure.
”Fill up the canteens,” the dark-haired man said. ”Might be a while before we get another chance. Every one take a good long drink, but not too much. Our trip isn't over yet, and I don't want to have anybody puking up water if it can be avoided.”
His young son, Dean, collected the canteens and left to start filling them in the tiny kitchen.
After their thirsts had been quenched, there was nothing left to be said.
Taking up the triple-red-alert positions again, all gathered and waited, standing before the only door they hadn't yet entered. They knew what was inside from the last time, and none of them relished going back through for a return visit. The door was different from the others in the redoubt in both shape and design, its surface bearing a disk sheathed in silvery metal surrounded by three concentric collars of thick steel.
Another keypad was on the wall, and next to it was a laminated sign bearing red letters Biohazard Beyond This Point! Entry Forbidden To Personnel Not Wearing Anticontaminant Clothing!
”Oops,” Ryan said mildly. ”Any of you remember to pack a pair of anticontaminant coveralls?”
The mock query went unacknowledged. Their fears of a rogue biological agent having been loosed inside the room they were about to enter had been debated last time. Mildred had felt sure the combination of the pa.s.sage of time and the lack of obvious damage in the redoubt would indicate their safety against being infected with any killer microorganisms.
”Guess not,” Ryan murmured, answering his own rhetorical query. ”Looks like we're going in dressed as we are.”
He reached out and pressed in the familiar sequence to open the door. Ryan was standing to one side, his blaster held at the ready, braced against his lean right hip. The other companions were arrayed behind him, their own weapons held tight in readiness to pour a vicious drumming of full-metal-jacketed death into anyoneanythinghostile that might be waiting inside.
Following the hiss of pneumatics and internal machinery, the metal door rolled slowly to the left, disappearing into a open slot to allow entrance.
The room that was now revealed was dim. Ryan could make out dark blocks of shapes inside the immediate threshold. He exhaled a deep breath and stepped into the chamber. This motion caused an automatic lighting system to kick in the moment his presence was noted. A sickly greenish fluorescent bank of overhead lights illuminated the complete contents of the cluttered twenty-yard-long room.
Ryan strode quickly through, his eye noting the tables loaded with pristine gla.s.s tubes and beakers, silent gauges and softly humming comp terminals. His blaster stayed in his right hand, c.o.c.ked and ready, as he headed for the door on the other side of the biolaboratory.
”Hope no bugs have gotten out since last time,” J.B. muttered as he followed Ryan inside.
”Now, that's a cheery thought,” Krysty Wroth retorted.
”Doubtful,” Mildred said, her own dark eyes scanning the hidden genetics laboratory. ”If so, there's not a d.a.m.n thing we can do about it now.”
”I feel a most distinct tickle in my nostrils,” Doc Tanner began. ”Do you think perhaps?”
”No. Like I told you the last time, any virus that might be loose in here was most likely designed to attack through the skin. Your nose is itching from desert sand or your own weak nerves,” Mildred snapped, her voice slightly hollow in the chamber. ”And if you're going to sneeze, use your handkerchief! You're probably carrying around a more dangerous disease than we'd ever find creeping around in here.”
”Don't get your germs on me,” Dean said, scooting past Doc with Jak Lauren close behind.
”Me, either,” Jak added.
Doc made a brief show of taking out his stained swallow's-eye kerchief and putting the rag to his face in time to catch the spray as he unleashed a terrific sneeze. Everyone turned back to glare as he gave a weak smile, folded the now damp kerchief into a square packet of cloth and placed it in a rear pocket of his trousers.
”Apologies, friends. But there is no stopping a sneeze once it begins,” Doc said. ”One might as well hold back a howling tornado or stop a crus.h.i.+ng tidal wave.”
”Or stifle the verbosity blowing out of an overeducated windbag,” Mildred added.
Ryan stood waiting at the door on the other side of the lab. This silver door was a twin for the first one, with the same configuration and security keypad. Ryan waited for Doc to compose himself and keyed in the entry code, commanding the door to roll aside and allow access to the last stop on their tour.
They stepped into a foyer that led to a small anteroom containing nothing but a utilitarian metal table and two steel-and-cloth office chairs. Several fluorescent light strips gave off a feeble glow. Another vanadium-alloy-plated corridor led to a large modem room, filled with an array of more elaborate comp consoles and readout monitor screens than seen in the lab.
Some of the comp screens were dark, but others glowed in tones of amber and blue, with lines of strange symbols mixed together with letters and numbers in incomprehensible codes. Oversize comp banks as tall as a man lined one wall, and on the other was a sharply cut series of brown panels of armagla.s.s.
None of the group seemed surprised or impressed by the control room they were now standing in. All of them had seen this kind of setup before.
”There's the mat-trans chamber,” Mildred said, pointing at the armagla.s.s and stating the obvious. The walls of the gateway chamber she was pointing to were a rusty brown shade.
”The color of runny c.r.a.p,” J.B. muttered. ”From a frightened man”
”What is that supposed to mean?” Ryan snapped back. ”Want to go back and visit in Aten again? Play some Blood Stomper with the Pharaoh? Maybe dig him out from under that ruin of a pyramid so we can continue our friendly chat?”
”h.e.l.l, no,” the taciturn Armorer grunted. ”Making an observation, that's all.”
”I don't give a s.h.i.+t what color this thing is. It's our ticket out of this mess, unless Nefron's still got the controls frozen. If that's the case, we're all going to have to figure out how to survive a trek clear across the Barrens. I guess we can all take turns pus.h.i.+ng the chariot!” Ryan said, continuing to mine the vein of sarcasm J.B. had inadvertently opened up.
”Didn't say anything about that. You did,” J.B. replied.
”Drop it, lover. Please,” Krysty said, lightly touching his arm. ”We're all on edge. Don't need to start carving one another up.”
Still, the notion of being a coward rankled Ryan. J.B. was rightwhat were the gateways really, but the ultimate escape route? Maybe it was the easy way out if the d.a.m.n thing worked this timebut after all they'd been through, Ryan really didn't care.
One by one, each of the party stepped into the chamber and sat on the floor. Ryan waited patiently until everyone was inside and accounted for before stepping into the room himself. He turned back and stared at the door of the low-ceilinged chamber. Once closed, the advanced matter-transfer unit should automatically begin to power up and then they would be free, their very atoms reduced to mere components and shot out screaming into the void to be rea.s.sembled in another place.
Hopefully a better place than this.