by Richard Dusk
"Garrett, did you see that? Everything's falling apart in here," Jillian watched the cargo truck buried under rubble.
"This is one of six entrances we administered when all of them operated with no damages. But another one collapsed last night, and now we have only two that are safe enough to be used," said the soldier sitting on a front passenger seat. "This one serves as maintenance access and for emergency cases. When we crossed the last door, we passed a side shaft leading to the outer metal framework holding and protecting Nest floating in the water capsule. It may seem to you that it's falling apart, but it's the strongest one in here. If any problems arise, this is the way that will lead you out."
"You're talking about the base like it won't be here for more than two days. What happened here?" said Garret.
The soldier turned and leaned to him over the seat. Tall the same as Garrett but more muscular. His semi-long light brown hair reaching the jaw was parted in the middle, and the satin gray eyes, penetrating Garrett's soul, made him look dangerous.
"I bet you went through yesterday's night quake the same as we did. We measured combined magnitude ten down here, which had a devastating impact on the framework's structure. The doctor said today that waves came from two sides and collided together right here. We happened to be in the epicenter where it struck with the greatest power. Everything you see around is a minor problem for us. Who cares about lights and air jets? We've lost more than half of lower levels, and only one of the upper ones remained. The chaos that arose took us hours until people calmed down. You couldn't choose a better time to arrive than now," said soldier ironically, looking inquisitively at Garrett's face, searching for some trait.
"What? How could they lose half of the base? You said it's indestructible," said Jillian to Garrett, but he didn't listen to her.
"What waves are you talking about? I remember they designed this facility to withstand earthquakes with magnitude twelve," Garrett willed to hear every detail the soldier could tell him.
The plan to find shelter in this place began to crumble away. The weakened structure is an unresolvable obstacle that may send them back out again with all other people they've never seen before.
"They did. I can't explain this as well as the doctor, but she said that this is some kind of unknown, high-energy waves rather than mechanical ones, and earthquakes are only an accompanying effect. They appear irregularly, spread across the Earth, and cause everything you've seen out there. Our teams made numerous attempts to stop these, but they didn't find a feasible way yet. When they noticed first disappears, scientists constructed a shield to protect Nest against them to suppress the effects immediately. It worked as a counterparty to minimize the strength of waves striking us. Its success was vital to continue keeping this place in one piece. Can you imagine what would happen if suspension joints simply disappeared? Nest would tear off from the framework and sink to the bottom. We dived in capsule and mounted coils there to generate a suppression field. They worked perfectly, but one of them broke off yesterday, and because of that, some walls ripped away or disappeared. Water flooded everything within seconds. We can withstand worse quakes than magnitude ten, but we can't do anything to protect this place when the shield is damaged."
"Unknown high-energy waves?" said Garrett with a troubled face. He has never heard about anything that could cause appearing and disappearing of objects. Maybe somewhere in the universe such force exists, but certainly not on this planet. It sounded like random teleportation to him. "So, you know what's causing this?"
"Yes, we know what the source is and where to find it. But we don't know much about the waves. You'll have to discuss this with the doctor."
"I certainly will," said Garrett. "How long will this place hold in one piece?"
"The structure is stable, but nothing's for sure. We'll fix what we can, but it may hold in place just until another wave comes."
The jeep stopped at the end of the tunnel, in front of the last blast door.
"We're here," he said to them, while the other one walked to open the door.
Garrett helped Jillian to climb on his back, and they all walked through the door to a circular space with safety railing around a wide hole in the middle of the floor. Two-way mirrors covered half of the wall on the left side, reflecting the group walking inside. Jillian wondered if there is someone behind, watching them. On the right side, Garrett examined three roll-up gates with symbols of weapons, hazardous materials, and some that he has never seen before. He walked to the middle of the room to check the core of the hole in the floor and leaned on the railing. An illuminated, deep cargo elevator shaft isolated with a transparent hard glass coming from the floor, revealed below his feet. He glanced to the depth, guessing at least three-hundred feet to the bottom, and saw in the weak reflection that he looks sicker than ever before. A shut opening above him rattled, and rail stuck out, heading to connect with the bottom one. It jammed in the middle of its way and moved neither up nor down. The soldier spoke to somebody via his radio, and they had to wait until he finished. Something went wrong.
"We'll use the stairs. This one's out of order," said soldier when the red beacon began flashing on the ceiling above the shaft. "Need any help?" he looked at Garrett, who shook the head, and soldiers led the group to countless stairs.
They walked down several levels when Jillian noticed that Garrett's legs turned wobbly.
"How much farther is it?" she said, hearing Garrett breathe heavily. She wanted to tell him she can walk on her own, but he wouldn't let her anyway.
"We're almost there. We've received an order to take you to doctor Whitkis. It's not a standard procedure, but we're fighting for every minute here. I don't think he is good for anything."
They turned into a narrow corridor lighted by blue lights in the floor. When he opened the door, they found themselves in storage with long rows of silver-gray racks.
"I thought this place would be way bigger," Jillian glanced around the hall with flickering lights.
"If you want to see a giant one, go peek into food and supplies storage beneath us. There are sufficient food and water reserves for all people inside the base to cover at least seven years period. This one we used mainly for shipping and receiving. I'm not gonna tell you what kind of things passed through our hands in here because neither of you would believe me," he led them through the hall.
They passed by racks with wooden crates, wrapped boxes, and loaded pallets on the left side followed by complete sets of soldier gear and then by weapon cabinets filled with light and heavy ones. Garrett also noticed rocket launchers with large gray metal boxes full of ammunition. At the end of the hall stood iron containers, lift trucks, six jeeps with mounted heavy machine guns, and two 18-wheel trucks with an eye-catching Diamond logo on the trailers. Soldiers led them out of storage into another corridor with rails in the ground disappearing in a curve ahead.
"This way," he stopped and waved once in front of the metal doors. Soon after that, an elevator opened, and they all got in.
"What these mean?" Jillian looked at four letters - B, E, H, P.
"Names of research departments. Bio, Extraterrestrial, Human, and Physics. Now we are here and going to P9," he pressed a symbol on a smart mirror.
Scheme of the facility got alive and showed their position in the complex structure together with a long list of all floors - forty above and sixty below them; however, the flooded ones flashed with red. "It's one of the physics research division floors. There are labs and other stuff," a bit bored he pressed the icon of their destination. "You will meet with the doctor there."
"Thank you, sergeant…" began Garrett and reached for his hand.
"Kaiden. The rank's major," he shook Garrett's hand. "And this is Pace - our specialist," he said about the black-haired shorter colleague who stood sideways to them, paying no attention to the discussion.
Elevator doors opened, and they entered a white, shiny corridor with glass walls. As they walked around, people in room
s stopped working and looked through the glass at two tramps, where one carried the other one, accompanied by an armed escort. Everyone looked up and down these strange individuals who came down here. They walked all the way to the last door. Another soldier stood in front of it, guarding the place. Kaiden saluted him and opened the door.
"Enjoy," he smirked and let them in, to the man standing in front of a device resembling a miniature version of a linear collider, groping for something in his white coat.
"Doctor, I believe you've already heard that ex-colleague has returned," said Kaiden.
The doctor turned around, and glowing with happiness he put candy in the mouth. He looked like a person who didn't belong to this place. His dense, mid-long cornsilk hair stood up straight above his forehead. It looked like he used them to wipe his sticky, sugary fingers. Round glasses with the thickest rim ever seen sat on his crooked nose. Garrett noticed stains of chocolate around his lab coat pockets.
"Welcome! Welcome! You are most welcome!" he walked with spread out arms and hugged Garrett. "I'm Doctor Whitkis."
Garrett smelled synthetic apple scent coming from his flushed face.
"It's an honor to meet the master and his apprentice," he cheered and hugged Jillian as well. She felt his mustache in her ear and sharp pain in the back. When he released her, she grabbed Garrett around the neck, catching the breath.
"The pleasure is ours, doctor. I'm Garrett Dawn and this-"
"Oh, don't worry. They've already told me who you are," he tapped his shoulder, and his round belly touched Garrett. "Doctor Garrett and Johnathan."
"It's Jillian," she corrected him and took off her cap.
"That's even better," exulted Whitkis and clapped his hands.
"Right," said Garrett astonished. "Is Doctor Hikls somewhere around? I expected to meet him here."
"Hikls?" Whitkis froze as if he saw a ghost and then grinned again. "Who's that, my boy? Who's that? Who's that?" he repeated and walked around the room to find any hint. "Hah, I don't know. And neither do you! You've obviously lost your marbles. But we'll work something out," he drove them out of the room with gloves. "You smell of possum. Go to the shower and come later. There is a lot of work to be done. Tomorrow is today, and we had to be prepared for it yesterday," he said keenly and shut the door in their faces.
They stood there for a while, processing the man in the room who began sniffing his lab coat.
"That was-"
"Excellent comedy," finished Jillian for Garrett.
"Eh, major? Is there anybody in charge here, who is more, let's say, competent?" said Garrett. He turned to Whitkis, who searched for candy fallen under his desk. He looked like the last person capable of collaboration.
"Hmm," Kaiden watched him, lost in thoughts. "Yes, of course. I hope you didn't think he's running this place. Whitkis is the former leader of the physics division, and as you can see, he can't offer us any help. We brought you here right away in the hope that your presence could trigger something inside him, even if he knew you only from a file. Every second counts now, and he could be the key to resolve the problems we have, but apparently, his mind is gone for good. Doctor Rosefield is in charge of the entire facility. She ordered us to get you to her after this try with Whitkis. So now we'll take you right to her."
"Rosefield? Sarah Victoria Rosefield? She's still here?"
"Who's that?" said Jillian.
"She supervised research related to Ocrosir across all the projects," said Garrett. There was no one other who he would like to see more right now.
"Yes, that's her," Kaiden called the elevator.
They went just one floor up. The moment the door opened, a woman rushed inside.
"Jeepers," she bumped into Garrett. "I was just going down to meet you."
She looked the same age as he, with dark blond hair twisted into a bun and fringe covering half of her forehead. The pointy nose and cheekbones set off her blue eyes behind black-rimmed glasses. White lab coat she wore looked incomparably cleaner than Whitkis's and matched the color of her pearl earrings. She gave a long look at Garrett, exploring every part of his face.
"Is that really you?" she said with a trace of surprise and pity in her voice.
Garrett sadly smiled at her. Standing face-to-face with somebody he used to see nearly every day felt strange after all this time.
"They've told me you two wandered at the gates, so I let you in right away. You must be Jillian, right? I'm Doctor Rosefield - please call me Sarah," she said, and Jillian nodded to her.
Sarah looked like she wanted to say many things to them, but there remained just a strange, mysterious smile. The elevator stopped, and the number showed their floor.
"I will take it from here. Thank you, Kaiden," said Sarah, and they got out, leaving soldiers inside.
She led them down the empty corridor with a narrow orange line on the wall. White lights switched on in front of them and switched off behind. Screens hanging on grey walls showed various information about weather, temperature, building status, company slogans, and pictures of animals in virgin nature.
"Garrett, I'm sorry I rushed you to Whitkis, but I'm desperate. You are the last person I expected ever to see, and I still can't believe you've returned. Apparently, your life is bonded with this place no matter what happens. It must be a miracle you survived out there, and it left almost no marks on you. Your guardian angel couldn't take a break for a minute; otherwise, you wouldn't be walking-"
"This world left on me worse marks than you could ever imagine, no offense. But that's a different story. I need you to find any capable doctor you have around. Jillian is seriously hurt. She fell off the tower, and I'm afraid that there might be some internal injuries or something worse, which I hope aren't. She had her lower back cut open. It's sewed, but it surely isn't enough."
"I was asking myself why you are carrying her," she walked behind Garrett. Sarah uncovered Jillian's back and exposed the swollen, inflamed wound. "Yes, we have some capable people and equipment for treating any trauma that occurs. This wound looks bad already, but she can be healed in no time. Jillian, how do you feel?"
"Both better and worse than two days ago."
Sarah didn't seem to care very much about her back and did this only as a formality to keep a friendly mood in the conversation.
"Which way, Sarah?" Garrett looked around, searching for the infirmary.
"Stop for a second," Sarah calmed him. "I'll take her there right away, don't worry, but I must ask you to take a disinfectant shower and rest. You may be a disease carrier, or you may have ectoparasites. Currently, your presence here in the state like this is against all sanitary and health regulations, but I'm willing to suffer this for now. I didn't lead you here by accident. Behind this door is your room. There's a sack for hazardous material, so put everything inside. Clothes, bags, and all you have will be destroyed. Take both of these cards. I'm not sure if your biometric data are still in the system, but this is the easiest way. These allow you to access all the premises you may need to use. I hope you still remember this place," she handed cards to nodding Garrett.
He reached to take them, but his weak grip let the cards fall on the ground. Garrett looked at his hand and didn't understand - this has never happened before.
"I'm sorry, Sarah, but last week drained remaining bits of energy I had. I'm barely standing on my feet with open eyes."
"I understand. Don't worry," she picked up the cards from the ground and slid them into his breast pocket.
"Hey, let me down. I'll manage to walk here. But hold my arm."
Although Jillian expected she won't be able to do this alone, she wanted to make it easier for Garrett. He kneeled down to let her try, and the rope fell on the ground. She stood on her own, weighing her ability to walk independently.
"So?" said Garrett after she made a step, holding his arm and leaning against the wall.
"To my surprise, I can walk with no help," she lied and released his arm.
"We c
an call someone to help you take off your clothes and clean you," said Sarah.
"No, no, don't call anybody. I can do this alone," she refused, but her knees buckled, and Garrett had to catch her.
"Okay, that's enough," he held her, feeling she could hardly stand. "You're going straight for the check-up. I don't need you to break your knees. Which way, Sarah?"
"As I've said, I'll take her there," she grabbed Jillian by the arm. "Garrett, I don't know how to put this, but..." she looked all around the place, avoiding his eyes.
"Whatever it is, you can tell me."
"Well, it's utterly unfair to hurry you, but you are the salvation that came at the eleventh hour. I need your help. I've got serious matters to discuss with you that can't wait much more. I know it will sound crazy, and you'll hate me for this, but every second counts now. There's everything you'll need inside. New clothes and new shoes. Rest of the equipment you'll receive later," she said disconcerted. "Take a day-long sleep if you need it. Also, do eat the gel in the tube. I don't fancy to find you dead in the bed because of the calorie depletion. Meet me in the canteen when you wake up. It's four floors up, and there's always a bit to eat."
"What is it? What do you need? We can talk right away."
"No, not now. I don't have much time currently and need to think it through. I'm saying this just to make you aware. For now, please be my guest and make yourself comfortable. Also, do you need a doctor? I forgot to ask, and you didn't say anything."
"Yes, but it can wait a few hours. I don't have many fresh wounds, and the shower would be perfect now. We'll speak later, as you proposed. Thank you," Garrett turned around to enter the room.
