24 Chapter 23 (1/2)

Gillian, Frank and Alex reach the bottom of the stairs just to be greeted by another door.

”Is this some kind of a joke?... I mean, I knew we are being spied on, but I didn't want to play a quest to get the keys...” Alex says.

Gillian walks forward, placing her hand on the handle, she pushes it down, opening the door.

”Unlock, eh?”.

She is the first to enter with both Frank and Alex following behind her. There is mist around them from the low temperature within the area they have just entered.

” Why would anyone want to freeze a place up?” Alex asks.

”To prevent the spreading of any sorts of microorganisms, like the viruses, I would assume, ” Gillian replies.

”It smells like death in here...” Alex adds.

They all continue walking forward, through the long corridor and they suddenly come across a room and it's door wide open.

”The control room...” Alex reads out, pointing the light at the sign beside the door.

”There has to be something in here...” Gillian says before heading inside.

They walk and see a table in front of them, a table with three torches. Frank takes one of them and so does Gillian, turning the torch on.

”Thank you, Lord we don't have to search for batteries...” Alex says with relief.

”Okay... we need to find any clues of some sort...” Gillian says.

”Holy shit...” Franks voice can be heard.

”What?” Both Gillian and Alex walk to him.

Frank points his torch towards a huge board, so many buttons covered in frost.

He wipes a few.

”Deactivate... Deice... Test... Flood... Freeze...”.

He presses the 'Deice' button but nothing happens.

Gillian looks around the board before noticing a keyhole.

”We need to find a key to turn this thing on, ” she says, pointing to a red circle close to the right side of the board.

”But just where can we find the key?” Frank questions.

Alex begins to walk to the back of the room and around, she shines her touch all around the room, trying to spot anything strange, or possibly out of place. She even shines the ceiling to see if one of the tiles was out of place.

”There are no ceiling tiles here, it's all cemented...” She tells herself.

Gillian was soon to catch up to her.

”What are we looking for?”.

”Anything... odd, I guess?...” Alex replies.

”Like... that...?” Gillian asks as she points the light to four lockers which are all closed. But one of them has a lock.

”Here we fucking go again...” Alex mutters under her breath.

Gillian walks in front of her as she steps in front of the first locker, without a lock.

She pulls on it, but nothing happens. She tries again, still nothing. Now with all of her mighty force, she manages to open up the locker.

Gillian and Alex freeze when they see a crate filled with files.

”Bingo...” Gillian mutters.

Both Alex and Gillian pull out the crate, placing it down on the big table in the middle of the room.

Frank walks over to them, looking at what they have found.

”Files... Files... Files...” Alex mutters as she places them all into her bag.

Frank looks through all the stuff and suddenly comes across a key.

”What did you find?” Gillian asks him, looking at what is in his hand.

”Looks like some sort of a key...” he replies. Upon closer inspection, he sees what the tag on the key says, in rough handwriting. ”Control panel...”.

He looks over to the control panel before making his way to it.

”Let's hope that this works...”. He looks for the keyhole, once he finds it, he inserts the key before twisting it. Suddenly...

BUZZ.