The Awakening

by Kurt Petrey

  Chloe spoke up. “Since they've investigated the entire floor, I've been able to remap the area. Let me see if I can send you the new data.” A small bubble displayed a data request over Chloe's display, and Joshua approved the request. The three dimensional map to Joshua’s left was suddenly overlaid with Chloe's data, showing all the access panels as well as a more defined layout of the destruction throughout their level.

  “Joshua,” Ian said. “Are you seeing this?

  Joshua looked through Ian's display. "What are we looking at?"

  “Do you see how this part of the structure fell this way but over here it fell that way? Also, see this area?” He walked to the center of an open area where the floor was scorched. “I could be wrong, but it looks like something exploded from this point. This is the second place I've found like this."

  “Do you think this is an immediate danger?” Joshua asked.

  The display shook left to right. "No, but I can tell you something is really…off here."

  “Okay. We'll come back to it later.” Joshua's eyes passed over all the movement on his display, and he noticed the dot connected to Simmons was approaching the last place where he'd seen Nikolai. “Can you head towards Simmons and Nikolai? It looks like Nikolai might have found a way down.”

  He selected a button that read Broadcast, then he addressed the entire group. "Simmons is getting close to the access panel. Let's see how far the access panel goes. Chloe, do you have any idea why I can't see Nikolai’s display?"

  "No. Everything I'm seeing is telling me that we should be able to see through his display. Maybe he turned it off somehow, or it is damaged? I'll see if I can work that out for you.”

  “Thanks, Chloe,” Joshua said. “Simmons, wait for the rest of the guys to reach you before you step through the opening down there. Let me know if you can see Nikolai at all when you get there.”

  “Okay,” Simmons replied.

  Joshua watched the other five dots draw closer to the access panel, then Simmons finally reached it and looked down. He started crawling down, getting closer to the bottom floor. His signal degraded as he went, as if the signal was weakening the farther he was from the others. Once he reached the bottom, he looked around, showing everyone what he was seeing. The opening was mostly caved in, but it was big enough that he could barely crawl through.

  “Simmons, don't step through that opening. Wait for Ian and the other guys to reach you. They should be at the access panel soon.”

  The display dot crept closer to the opening, and Joshua imagined Simmons poking his head through the opening. Just as he did, the video stream stopped.

  "Ian, it looks like Simmons went through the opening just like Nikolai,” Joshua said. “You need to hurry up and get to them." Ian's display sped up as he ran, and he reached the access panel just as another man named Robbie got there. They both started crawling down the ladder.

  "Simmons! Can you hear me?" Ian shouted. "I'm coming down. Hold up."

  The only sound coming through Ian's display was the tapping of feet and hands on the ladder rungs. Just as they reached the bottom level, Simon's video display started streaming again. He was sitting a little past the opening, looking around.

  "Hey, I'm here, still waiting for you. I heard a noise and thought it might be Nikolai, but when I called out to him he didn’t answer."

  A moment later, two more shoulder harnesses reached the access panel and started climbing down. Ian reached Simmons at the opening.

  "I'm going to step through and take a look around the corner," Simmons said.

  “I’m coming with you,” Ian told him, then he turned to Robbie. “You stay here and wait for the rest of the guys, okay?”

  Robbie remained where he was, and Ian’s feed showed him stepping out and looking around the corner. In that moment, Nikolai's video stream turned on.

  “Nikolai!” Joshua exclaimed. “Are you okay? Talk to me.”

  Nikolai wasn't moving. From his stream, it looked like he was lying on his side. The video showed the floor and some crumpled rock.

  Joshua tapped on the display again. "Can you hear me? Nod your head if you can hear me."

  The display did not move at all, and Joshua didn't hear a sound. He listened hard, but he felt weak, helpless. He had to move on, get Ian and his crew to the robot in time so he could save the lives of everyone, both awake and sleeping.

  Then a faint sound came through Nikolai's display, but he still didn't move. A second later, Joshua heard a louder noise, much closer than before. It came from Nikolai's immediate left. That's when a cloud of dust passed in front of the display, lifting from the dirty floor. Joshua checked his display, looking for Simmons and Ian, but they were nowhere near Nikolai.

  That meant someone else was there.

  Joshua switched to Ian's display and spoke quietly. "Listen, Ian. You need to be careful down there. Wait for the other guys to get there before you explore further.”

  “What's happening?”

  “Someone else is down there. I think someone hurt Nikolai." Joshua watched through Ian's display as Ian lifted a hand to stop Simmons from moving forward. Simmons stopped immediately and turned to face Ian. "Hold on a moment,” Ian said. “Joshua saw something. We need to wait for the other guys.”

  Soon the men were all entering the opening at the bottom of the ladder. In the second the last guy stepped through the opening, all the video feeds turned off. Panicked, Joshua swiped through each of the feeds, trying to reconnect—with no success.

  “Ian! Simmons! Are you there? Talk to me! Can anyone hear me?”

  That was when he noticed Chloe's video feed, the only one still working. She was coming out of the area where the shoulder harnesses were being held.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  Chloe's breath sounded labored, and from the map he could see she was running towards the access panel. “I think I know why the video feeds just cut out,” she told him. “Can you please activate these two harnesses?”

  “Don't go, Chloe. There's something else down there.”

  "We have to get to that robot,” she reminded him. “We all die if we don't. I have to do this.”

  Joshua saw her reach the opening to the access panel, where she left one harness then climbed down the ladder. Once she reached the bottom, everyone's feed turned back on again. She hung the second harness on one of the bottom rungs of the ladder, facing the opening, and Joshua began to understand that she'd figured out there was some sort of connection between the devices. The signal wasn't able to reach all the way up to the top level unless there was a device available to transfer the data through the opening.

  She turned and stepped into the bottom level. His mouth opened when he realized what she was doing.

  “No, Chloe. Don't go there,” he begged. “Come back up here. It's dangerous down there."

  She ignored Joshua's plea and stepped into the bottom level.

  Chapter 10

  Chloe

  When Chloe stepped into the stone hallway, she felt like she'd entered a completely new environment. The only thing that was similar to the top level was the floor, and her footsteps echoed through the hallway.

  “Hello?”

  She kept her voice low, unsure if she wanted to get an answer or not. She'd seen Nikolai's display, pulled up his vitals, and she'd seen the truth: he no longer had a heartbeat. She couldn't hear anyone else, and for the first time she realized she could be the only one alive down there. Stupid, she thought. What am I doing? She pulled up her handheld display and requested Joshua send her the map and streams. After a moment the map downloaded.

  She studied the map, finding out where the guys were relative to Nikolai. Fortunately, they were not going in his direction. Fixing their position, she began to walk towards them. The next room she entered looked like it might be a shortcut to where everyone was.

  “Joshua,” she whispered, “do you know where the refinery is? Have we located the robot yet?”

&nbs
p; Joshua didn’t reply for a moment. “Chloe,” he said, “you really need to come back. Something very dangerous is down there. I think it killed Nikolai.”

  Chloe was so tired of people telling her what she could or couldn't do. “Look,” she said, “I’m down here, and I’m not planning to go back up until I know we are going to live. You're just going to have to face that, okay?”

  There was a long pause. “Okay.” Another long pause. “Wait a minute while I coordinate with everyone.”

  Either Joshua was angry with her, or he was busy working with Ian, because she didn't hear from him for a while. As she waited for him to get back to her, she started walking toward Nikolai then stopped when she discovered another set of options on her harness. Curious, she reached over and activated the second part of the harness, which prompted her handheld device to start beeping. She synced the two devices, then she saw she could select streams on her own, without Joshua’s approval. She selected Nikolai’s feed and was rewarded not only with his screen appearing on the glass in front of her eye, but with a light shining in front of her. This was odd, because she hadn't executed a light mode. It did help her see, though.

  She had just started to walk towards where Nikolai was, when his feed started to move. She froze, then she selected communications with Nikolai’s feed.

  “Nikolai, is that you? Are you alive?”

  There was no response, but his feed moved again. As she watched, he moved in what seemed like an odd direction, as if he was crawling backwards with his head facing upwards. She wondered if his sensors could be damaged, then gasped when she figured it out. Nikolai wasn't crawling, he was being dragged.

  She tapped Joshua’s name on the display. “Joshua, are you seeing Nikolai’s feed?”

  “Yeah. I've told everyone else to back away. Whatever is down there has Nikolai, and until we learn more about whatever it is, we need to get out.”

  Chloe understood, and obviously she had no desire to end up like Nikolai, but she also knew time was running out. They had to get the refinery up and running right now or they’d all die. The way she saw it, she had two choices: stay down here and maybe die by whatever killed Nikolai, or go back up and definitely die from the polluted air or whatever it was the system had deemed to be unlivable for humans.

  “Tell me,” she said. “Where's the robot?”

  Joshua took a long second before he replied. “I don’t know. All the system says is that it's at the the refinery near collection shaft three. I’m working on getting definitions of each of the rooms and what their purposes are, but I haven’t been able to figure anything more than that.”

  She fought the urge to think of Nikolai, of his body being dragged through the rubble to some unknown destination … She had no time for that. She needed to get to the robot, fix whatever problem was there, then get out of this place in one piece. Preferably alive.

  She turned her head, and the light illuminated the area before her, making her immediately aware of two specific things. First, the feed of Nikolai being dragged had happened in the moment her light had turned on. Second, that meant the light could possibly get her killed. What if Nikolai's attacker wasn't alone? What if there was more than just one guy? She immediately spun so she faced a wall, making sure the light didn't shine down the hallway. Now she knew why the light was shining: to project Nikolai’s feed onto the wall in front of her so her vision wouldn't be blocked from the display in front her eye. But now that she stood so close to the wall, she couldn’t see anything down the hallway beyond that which was illuminated by the few dim lights along the floor and walls.

  After fiddling with the options on the harness, she was able to disable the light. Everything went dark, and she stood still, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the difference. That's when she heard a tapping sound, even louder than her thundering heartbeat. Intrigued and terrified all at once, she pulled up the map and saw an opening ahead. She started walking, but the map wouldn't get updated until she reached it. Hopefully it was a way to the refinery, but if it wasn't, at least she could hide there while whatever was making that sound went away. Maybe she wouldn’t be noticed.

  On the other hand, maybe she was a fool for coming down here and thinking she could save everyone.

  She stopped moving and held her breath, but she could still hear the tapping. It wasn't too far away, but it wasn't getting louder. Sounded like it might even be going in another direction. Relieved, she let out a long, silent breath and got back on track, thinking about what Joshua had said about the robot. He'd said it was near the collection shaft in the refinery. That meant she needed to get a clear idea of the boundaries of this level. As she walked closer to the opening, she pulled up the map again and studied it. Based on the data currently collected, she was able to make out that the level was probably a large cross with a curving hallway connecting the ends to make a circle. In the center there was a room, which she assumed was the refinery. The extensions from that room were most likely the shafts. The ladder that they had climbed down on entered into one of those shafts.

  She stepped through the opening and discovered it wasn’t a room after all, but another long hallway. The map updated, showing the hallway connected one extension to the other, making a smaller circle within the larger circle. If Chloe could get to the large room in the center, she might find out which shaft was Collection Shaft Three. The center room logically would be the refinery.

  The tapping sound came from the main hallway, so she didn't want to go that way. Instead, she decided to go down this shaft and turn to the refinery from the next extension over. She climbed in carefully, taking in the fact that it was different from the main shaft. This one was filled with broken rock, and it didn’t have the same lit floor. All she had was the light from her suit to help illuminate the dark. It took a while for her to get to the next extension. She stumbled and scratched herself on the sharp rocks which slowed her down. Once she arrived, she turned left and headed towards the refinery, but she was confronted by more rubble. This time it was piled all the way to the ceiling, suggesting the shaft had collapsed at some point. She wasn't about to turn around and go back, so with no other options, she started to climb the hill, pulling away the rocks at the top to see if she could get through.

  Chapter 11

  Joshua

  Joshua's entire body shook with exhaustion. When had he become so weak? He desperately needed rest. If only someone else could make this station work. If only he could sleep—just for a moment. But that was out of the question. According to the time left on the display, if they didn't get the robot online fast, they’d all be dead in less than three hours.

  Chloe’s dot had disappeared once she'd stepped into the secondary shaft, and he hadn’t heard from her since. He selected her name from the display that read no signal.

  “Chloe, can you hear me? Say something!” he demanded, haunted by thoughts of her lying dead somewhere. “Come on, Chloe. Give me something. Say something!”

  Chloe didn’t respond, and Joshua felt a sinking feeling in his heart. Maybe her device was malfunctioning, he tried to convince himself. Or maybe she was just in a bad area, like before. Maybe one of the harnesses was out of reach, so it wouldn't connect to hers and get the data to him. Yes. That has to be it. Anything to push away the idea of her being dead. Like Nikolai.

  He switched the feed to Ian. “Ian, you need to head towards Chloe. I haven't heard from her in a while, and I think she's in trouble. Head towards the center of the level where you are, and take a right. From what I can tell, if you go fifty feet into the shaft then take a right, you'll find her. That's where she was headed when I lost her feed.”

  “Okay.”

  Joshua watched the men walk through the shaft then into the large circular room at the center. Through Ian’s visor he could tell this was the refinery. At its center, the dome must have been a hundred feet tall, with a column reaching all the way up from the stone floor. Machinery was all around the area. The lighting was dim, m
aking it difficult to identify all the structures, but through their visors Joshua could clearly see four shafts.

  “Check each shaft and see if you can find robot 236,” he said, starting to get excited.

  Ian nodded then motioned to the others, telling them to check each of the shafts. Then he headed toward the shaft where Joshua had said Chloe should be.

  “Can you hear her?” he asked, afraid of the answer. “Is she saying anything?”

  Ian shook his head, and once he reached the shaft they both realized why. It was filled with fallen rock. The shaft must have caved in.

  “Wait,” Ian said. “I think I can hear her on the other side.” He moved to the mountain of rubble and started pulling away some of the rocks. “Yea! She’s here.”

  Soon the rest of the guys had run over to help, and Joshua wished he could be there as well. Then he remembered that even if he had been there, he'd be no help. He was struggling just to stand up at the moment. The only way he could help would be to stay awake and focused. He had to concentrate on what was going on down there. Focus, Joshua. Focus. He started chanting in his head, repeating it over and over, but he could feel his consciousness slipping. Stay awake just a little longer. Come on, Joshua. Focus.

  But it wasn't enough. Moments later, he lost the battle and surrendered to the darkness.

  Chapter 12

  Chloe

  A large rock shifted under Chloe's foot, causing her to drop another rock. It tumbled twenty feet to the floor of the shaft, and the noise it made echoed through the hallway. When it finally stopped echoing, she paused to listen but didn't hear anything. Not even the clicking sound from before. Eventually she turned back to moving away the rocks, but she needed to be more careful. She did not want to see whatever was making that sound. It was difficult to breathe and she wondered to herself if it was because of the dust in the area or if it was the system reaching critical levels.