“What is this junk?” Karen said as she brushed away the layers of dust from the closest lump. It was bigger than her fist. She rubbed at it some more, and turned it over. “No it cannot be?” Her voice was stricken. She dropped the lump to the floor where it knocked up dust as it bobbled out into the center of the room where it lay like an upside down bowl.
The lump was the front half of a small human skull. It was missing any soft tissue and had been obscured by a thick covering of dust. The back half had been cut precisely. The dust had initially hidden where the eye sockets and nose hole had been. Looking at the other lumps in the line, the three adventurers realized that they all looked uniformly similar. A line of small human skulls.
“Those are children’s heads,” Paul said in disgust.
“Maybe this is an autopsy room? They might have had a medical crisis,” Jamie said with a catch in her voice. She turned and continued to work on some controls.
“Serving trays? Forks, knives, and spoons? No medical equipment? And, oh sure, it just happens to be next to a dining area?” Paul mocked. He walked over to some bins near the countertop. “The back half of the skulls are down in here. They are empty too.”
“Plague. Yes, that could be. Yeah, this was an emergency triage area. Or they did autopsies here,” Karen said, but her voice did not carry any conviction. “During some major medical crisis, they would use whatever places were available. Right? Or an alternative morgue? Store the dead in here while studying them to find out why they died?”
“I do not think so,” Paul answered as he looked into another bin. He reached in and with his gloved hand he removed a long bone. “This place is far more grotesque than any morgue or trauma center. There are teeth marks on this bone; it looks like a child’s femur. Those are definitely teeth marks.” He examined several others and found they all had the same signs of chewing on them.
“That cannot be correct,” Karen answered, her voice quaking. “It has to be something else.”
“I have patched into a monitor. I think I can get a playback. It is tricky with their main reactor down. I am trying an interface between the fusion pack and the lufi power, so here goes,” Jamie said. She brushed away the dust from a monitor screen which was on the wall.
A dimly lit green screen appeared with four sentences on it. The first said ‘Security’ the next ‘Personnel’ then ‘Auxiliary’ and finally ‘Status’ in white letters.
“Security first,” Jamie pushed the screen.
The three watched in horror as the monitor displayed a recorded film from a camera which was located in the corner of that same room.
After a few moments, in which they stood in shock, Paul commented, “I have it all recorded. No one would believe us without seeing that.” He was checking the playback on the equipment around his belt.
The scene played on the monitor and then ended. It started up again and played through its grisly revelation. It kept looping until Jamie pushed the monitor and it went back to the green display with white lettering.
Karen just stood and physically shook.
Jamie pushed on ‘Personnel’ but nothing happened. Then she tapped the other places on the screen and finally got a floor plan to show. It was a basic design with simple labeling of areas. Nothing else showed on the monitor.
“Come on, I have an idea of the layout. I think I know where the main power couplings are,” Jamie said and she unhooked the fusion pack. The area’s lights continued but were dimmer. “The lufi batteries will last a while.” Most of the illumination was from the fusion pack lights. But the images of the film they had seen would not dim from their minds. Jamie walked out the back door which swung open easily. “I still need to find out why this dome failed.”
Paul watched her go. He turned to Karen who was still visibly shaking. “We better keep up with her. She is likely to just burst into somewhere and get hurt.” He put his hand on Karen’s shoulder, and gave her a bit of a nudge toward the door.
“That was hideous. Repulsive. Why children?” Karen muttered numbly.
“Karen, she may get out of range before she realizes it. You know how impulsive Jamie can be,” Paul again nudged Karen. She finally started walking forward in a distracted manner.
The corridor outside was shrouded in dust and dimness, which the lights only partially overcame. Jamie’s footprints in the dust were easier to follow than looking ahead as the dust floated in the poisoned air.
“Jamie, slow down. We are coming,” Paul snapped as he realized how far ahead she had gotten.
“I have found a main power connection, and some maintenance gauges and screens. If I can jump the fusion pack’s energy into it, this section of the dome might also be powered for a while,” Jamie replied. Her voice was crackly and distant.
The lights overhead flickered and sputtered. Then they shut down. A second time they sputtered and then remained on in a dim glow that did somewhat lighten up the halls. Jamie was at the far end next to a door which was twisted off its hinges.
Karen walked in silence toward Jamie. Paul guided her as she walked. “Jamie, we have seen enough. Whatever breached the dome here does not matter. We need to leave now.” He motioned toward Karen, but Jamie did not see.
“Not yet,” Jamie responded. “I found an engineering schematic. There is what they label a ‘Computer Center’ one level down, and that will be where we find some answers.”
Paul reached over and grabbed Jamie’s shoulder. “We need to leave now.”
She shrugged his hand off her shoulder. “This will only take a few minutes. Relax, we have seen the worst already,” Jamie said and turned and walked toward the door with the sign over it that said, ‘Stairwell 3’ in dull illuminated letters.
“At least stay with us. No sense rushing ahead like that again,” Paul said with contempt in his voice.
“I am just doing the mission. Somebody has to,” Jamie barked back.
Paul reluctantly said to Karen, “I am here with you. We can just walk down there, get the information and get out. Can you do that?”
Karen weakly nodded her head.
Jamie saw the nod and walked away toward the stairs.
“I said stay with us,” Paul reiterated as Jamie was pulling ahead.
Jamie ignored him, opened the door, and only then stopped.
Paul thought she was finally cooperating with him, but when he guided Karen to the doorway, he realized that was not what had happened. Beyond the doorway was the landing for the stairs. On that landing was a body. Unlike the bones in the kitchen, this body still had flesh on it. The flesh was very dried out, but it was there, along with blonde hair. A uniform was on the body with the words ‘Police Staff’ embroidered on the front pocket of the shirt. The pants were shredded, the legs badly broken in multiple places. Jutting up from the corpse’s abdomen was a stun baton. The baton was embedded deep into the body, with only the last third showing outwardly. One hand of the corpse was resting near the baton; the other was stretched out and handcuffed to a pipe on the wall.
“Someone did that?” Karen screamed. “That is not an accident! Not an accident!”
“Get yourself under control. He has been dead a long time,” Jamie said but then immediately regretted saying it. For Karen did not respond well to the rebuke.
“Under control? You want control? They were eating children! How dare you tell me to get under control! You tell me to get under control?” Karen wailed. “There is no control here! This place is the worst!”
“Karen, we will just leave now,” Paul tried to sooth, but Karen was hysterical.
“There is no threat here,” Jamie said. “It happened long ago. Get yourself together.”
“Why? Why? Together? Control? I have been to three other domes. All three dead! Those were failures of the equipment. But here? Children? These people killed each other! They ate children!” Karen’s voice was filled with anguish. “Is that our future? Will we in Dome 17 turn on each other? On the children? Are we all goi
ng to die like that!” She pointed at the police officer’s body. “Or like on that film? What use is any of this?”
“No, we are better than this place,” Paul said. “We will just leave now…”
“And go where? Back to Dome 17 and wait for the radiation? Just one system failure away from a flood of toxins? Just waiting to die. Or the craziness will come and we kill each other? No way. Not me!” Karen turned and rushed away mumbling, “No, not me. I quit! No, no, no!”
“Go get her. I will get the information,” Jamie said and she jumped over the body and headed down the dim stairs.
“Jamie wait! Help me with Karen,” Paul pleaded.
“She will settle down, just stay with her. I will be back soon,” Jamie replied curtly. She was out of sight. Through the communication system, Paul heard Jamie gasp and she then said, “What ever happens, do not let her come down here!” Her voice was static filled.
Paul turned and quickly followed after Karen.
“Karen?” Paul said as he followed her footsteps away from the direction they had come. The footprints looked like Karen was running erratically.
“Jamie I am not sure where she is going. Please come back and help me,” Paul said. “I need your help!”
“I am …. Computer Centre. The…. ruin … rible and dis… and wic… hum… ed There is a sys….. as the history of Dom……. I am download…… y gear. I will be …… as the down ….. is finished. We ne……. rmation. …..tay with Karen,” Jamie replied but she was nearly out of range and her words were broken and garbled.
“Jamie? I cannot understand. Please come and help me now!” Paul yelled.
“…. si…ion….h…. las….” Jamie was out of range.
“Jamie! I need you here!” Paul implored. “Jamie! Jamie!”
There was no answer.
Paul ran ahead through the dust-filled air under the wavering dim lights. He dimly saw Karen throw her fusion pack down and the light shown upward through the dust as she turned into a different room.
Paul raced past the fallen fusion pack and into the room where Karen had fled. It was an apartment much like the ones back in Dome 17: a single room with toileting area in one corner, and some shelves and a bed along another side. Karen was standing looking at the bed.
“Karen? I want to help. You have gone the wrong way. I will lead us back to the vehicle so we can go home,” Paul said gently.
“Home? There is no home,” Karen said. “Not anymore. No more.” She pointed at the bed.
On the bed was a stuffed child’s toy. It once had been furry and white with a purple shaggy mane. Now it was covered in dust and was tainted a dull tan color. There was no human body. No blood. No bones. Nothing else about the former occupant of this apartment. Just the single dust covered toy. Somehow that was more frightening than anything else they had seen.
“We are all going to die,” Karen said in a quiet voice. “That is why we are checking out the other domes. They know. They know! We are all going to die and be all alone with nothing. They know. I am sure they know.”
“Karen, come back with me. We will leave this horrid place,” Paul implored her.
Karen reached up and quickly unhooked her goggles and ripped them from her head, breaking the RAM containment. Her long curly blonde hair was freed and it waved about her neck as she pulled hood, mask, and hat off as well. Her large brown eyes were dripping with tears as she stared at the child’s toy.
“No!” Paul yelled in shock and surprise. He jumped toward her, but it was too late.
Karen sat down on the bed and cuddled up with the toy. Dust fell from the stuffed toy as she clutched it to her breast. Her face was a ghastly gray color and her lips were already dark blue from the toxins in the air. She hugged the toy and fell back onto the bed. Dust came floating up as her body struck.
“Karen, no!” Paul repeated as he grabbed her face mask, goggles, and hood.
Karen was dead before he could even try to get the equipment back on her. As Paul looked down on her lifeless body, he saw she was smiling ever so faintly, and the soft and cuddly toy was held tightly in her arms. Her cheek was resting against the top of the furry toy. The grinning mouth of the toy echoed the look on Karen’s dead face.
Paul knelt down and cried. “May you have peace,” he finally murmured. With gloved hands he tried to close her eyes, but they were too swollen to close. “Good bye my dear friend.”
He reached over and unhooked the equipment belt which encircled Karen’s waist. The sealed recorders and tech gear was important, and Paul wanted people to know what had happened to Karen. He strapped that around his own waist, and with a final look at Karen, he he reached out his gloved hand and caressed her face. He departed the room.
Picking up her fallen fusion pack, Paul back-tracked the footprints in the dust. He soon found the stairway with the dead police officer. He had said nothing on the way back. Squatting down and looking carefully at the footprints he could tell if Jamie had come back. He did not really care if she did or not and seriously considered just leaving without her. But instead he tried to contact her.
“Jamie? Are you in range? I am at the top of the stairs,” Paul asked in a somber way.
“Yes,” Jamie replied, but it sounded weak and far away. “I downloaded the information. I got locked in the computer center down here. The blast door was too hard to kick through, so I found an alternative route out. I came up a ladder and through a vent system. I got the records we need!”
“Terrific,” Paul sarcastically said. “Karen got something too.”
“What did you find Karen?” Jamie asked.
“She will not answer. She is dead,” Paul said.
“What? Why did you let that happen?” Jamie snapped.
“Me? You accuse me?” Paul replied. “I was here. I at least tried to help her. I was not running off.”
“I am almost on the main level. Stay where you are, and I will find you,” Jamie ordered. “Do not go down those stairs!”
“Why would anyone? That is for sure. Sorry, but I am not waiting here. I am leaving. I am heading for the fusion truck. If I get there before you, I am leaving,” Paul said. “Just like you left Karen when she was out of it.”
“Paul, we already lost one person on this mission. Calm down and we will both get back together,” Jamie said.
“I do not care one way or the other,” Paul replied. “But I am leaving as soon as I get to the vehicle. No question about that.” Paul’s mind was not as determined as his words. He pictured Gretchen waiting back in Dome 17, but the images of Karen dying were hard to block from his thoughts.
Paul slowly walked back toward the food preparation area with its horrors. He glanced into the rooms to the sides as he walked, but none of them offered anything to distract his mind from Karen’s death. He was about to enter the horror filled room, when he veered past that door. He just could not face seeing the lumps, the bones, and the monitor screen which had displayed the film of such brutality. He walked on looking for another way into the dining room.
His fusion pack light showed a partially open door, and he pushed it gently the rest of the way open. It was a service hallway which ran parallel to the food preparation area. It was littered with papers and other assorted items but he was able to see another door at the end which he hoped would open to the dining room. He stepped around the debris, but was not moving at a fast rate. He wondered why he even went forward. 'Gretchen' echoed the answer in his mind. He glanced down and saw clothing sticking out from under some debris, but he did not look close enough to tell what it was. He did not care.
The door opened to the dining room, and Paul used it to shove some of the things on the floor out of the way. As Paul was pulling the door open, the overhead lighting, such as it had been, was extinguished. There was still some residual lighting coming in from the transparent permalloy, but that tan light cast only added to the sorrow Paul felt. He walked past overturned chairs and tables, and an unturned cart where som
e trays had been stacked. He did not look closely at what had been on them. He did not want to know.
“Paul! I am almost there. I just entered the dining room,” Jamie yelled though the communication system. “Do not leave without me.”
Paul turned his head and could see the light from Jamie’s fusion pack as she sprinted toward him. He slowed down and waited for her to catch up. He was not sure why, or if he would really have left without her.
“You did not bring Karen’s body?” Jamie asked in surprise.
“She looked too comfortable,” Paul replied.
“We must go back and get it,” Jamie said.
“No need. She is at peace,” Paul said flatly.
The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle Page 2
