Origins (The Wasteland Chronicles, #2)

by Kyle West

  This hadn’t been a Bunker. It had been an entire underground city.

  “Home sweet home,” Makara said.

  In front of us was a red stain on the rock floor, the remains of someone’s grisly death years ago. The body was gone.

  “Labs are this way,” Samuel said.

  We followed Samuel across the massive chamber, but I couldn’t keep from looking up. It must have taken an army of thousands of turned creatures to bring down a place like this. That army must have been controlled, somehow. I wondered what could be powerful and intelligent enough to do that. I didn’t want to think of the answer.

  Samuel went through a large opening into a wide corridor. The corridor sloped downward. The echoes of our footsteps were painfully loud. Anyone or anything would hear us coming from a mile away.

  A bullet whizzed past my head, forcing me to the ground. Falling to the ground had become an ingrained habit of mine.

  “They’re right ahead of us,” Samuel said.

  I looked ahead. Both Harland and Drake were kneeling behind a railing that served as a barricade. They were right in front of the vault door marked “Lab Levels.”

  “Damn it, they’re guarding the entrance!” Samuel said.

  “Because they can’t get in,” Makara said. “That thing is locked tight.”

  “If they want me to open it again, they have another think coming,” I said.

  “I don’t think anyone could open that, other than with brute force,” Samuel said.

  “Well,” Makara said, “let’s take care of these guys, first.

  “Wait,” I said. “Something’s wrong. They’re not doing anything.”

  Silence. Then an explosion rocked the entire tunnel. It shook the ceiling, the walls, and the floor. Rock cracked and fell from the ceiling, threatening to bury us alive.

  We all ran forward under a hail of bullets. They were forcing us out of the tunnel, out of cover, right into their sights.

  A bullet nicked my boot and, lucky for me, it didn’t hit anything. But with a few more seconds of this, one of us would be dead. Maybe all of us.

  I fell to the ground behind a rock that had crashed against the floor. Everyone else took their places beside me as the tunnel behind continued to collapse on itself.

  I looked into the dark tunnel we had just run out of. Rocks buried the entire thing. That’s when I noticed there were only four of us.

  Lisa was gone.

  “Lisa?” Makara shouted.

  “I don’t think she made it,” I said.

  Makara shook her head in denial. Her eyes watered as her face turned red.

  Samuel grabbed her shoulder. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Lisa!” Makara screamed.

  She stood up and ran back to the tunnel. More bullets filled the air, threatening to end her life.

  I jumped from cover, and landed on her, bringing her to the ground.

  She turned around, and was so pissed that she actually bit me. Tears were in her eyes as she fought back. I pulled her back to the rock. She went limp.

  “She’s gone,” I said. “I’m not letting you die, too.”

  “We have to stay alive,” Samuel said.

  Even if we got out of this one alive, we were stuck. The tunnel behind us had collapsed, and there was an inaccessible vault door in front. We were trapped in here, along with the two idiots who cut off the only escape.

  Makara reached into her pack. Tears in her eyes, she held a grenade.

  “This might work,” she said. “As soon as it goes off, charge the bastards and finish the job.”

  She pulled the plug, waited a second, and lobbed it overhand. She closed her eyes, waiting for the boom.

  Nothing happened. It was a dud.

  No one said anything. It was as if everyone had given up.

  “Nice try,” Harland said. “Just open the door, like last time. We’ll spare your lives.”

  “I’m not opening that damn thing for you,” I yelled. “You just killed one of our own.”

  “Those Black Files are ours,” Harland said. “This is the sovereign territory of the Empire, and anything in it belongs to us.”

  “You’ll have to kill us first,” I said.

  “We’re working on that,” Harland said. “Serves you right for Kris earlier.”

  “That was no one’s fault, and you damn well know it,” Samuel yelled.

  Harland didn’t respond to that. It was another moment before he spoke.

  “It seems we have reached an impasse. One of us is going to have to back down. Those Black Files are not going to be yours.”

  “We need them,” Samuel said. “With that info we can find out how to stop the Blights. Maybe even the xenovirus. You have no idea what you’re doing by taking those files back to the Empire.”

  “I don’t understand,” Anna said. “Aren’t the files digital? Why can’t we both have them?”

  “The Empire doesn’t want anyone privy to that info,” Harland said.

  “Well, you can’t get in there unless we open the door,” I said. “You need us, and you’re not getting anywhere without us. And guess what? We’re not helping you. If you had joined up with us like we had planned, we wouldn’t be dealing with any of this, and our friend wouldn’t be dead.”

  “I’m tired of this,” Makara said. “They die.”

  “No,” I said. “You’ll get yourself killed.”

  Makara sighed. “I don’t care. Someone has to attack them. There’s four of us and two of them. No one’s getting out of here alive, so we have to make a move at some point.”

  A loud shot rang out in the room. It came from the rubble in the tunnel. I heard Drake scream from behind the barricade.

  “Lisa,” I said. “She’s alive!”

  Another shot fired. It zinged off the metal. I heard Harland curse from the direction of the door.

  “Now!” Samuel said.

  We all followed Samuel’s lead as he ducked from behind the boulder and charged for the door. Harland was still in shock at being sniped at, so he didn’t react fast enough. As he was raising his gun, Samuel, Makara, and I all shot him. He gave a raspy groan as his eyes widened. He fell to his knees, right beside Drake, who had a bullet in his forehead.

  We all turned around. Lisa was not in sight. We ran to the tunnel and saw her.

  She was lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. A sharp rock had gashed into her from above.

  Makara ran and knelt beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  “Lisa...Lisa, you hear me?”

  “Yeah. I’m here. I’m alright.”

  She was not alright. She was battered and bruised all over, and her blue eyes were shut in pain. Her rifle was cradled in her arms.

  “Lisa...”

  Samuel took a shirt from his pack and placed it on a nasty gash on Lisa’s abdomen. She hissed in pain as pressure was applied. Too much blood was pouring out.

  “Don’t bother,” she said. “I don’t have long. The old man was right.”

  “What do you mean?” Makara asked. “You can’t die. I need you.”

  Lisa smiled. “He said there would be a time where I thought I was done. He said that was when I had to try harder, or everyone else would die. I tried, Makara. I got strength from I don’t know where to finish the job and crawl out of those rocks. I have no strength. I can’t go on.”

  Her voice was raspy. Makara shook her head fiercely.

  “No. You’re wrong. You still have to try. You can’t give up.”

  Samuel’s face was pale. Lisa looked at Makara, tears in her eyes.

  “Take my gun,” she said. “Don’t leave it here with me, in this place.”

  Makara shook her head again. “No. You’re not going to die. Quit saying that.”

  “The old man was right. I did my part. Finish...”

  “Lisa, no...”

  Lisa’s haunting blue eyes stared upward. She did not complete her sentence. She relaxed against the hard grou
nd, her wavy brown hair fanned and matted to the floor from her blood.

  Makara’s shoulders shook. Her face was a mixture of anger and devastation. She still held Lisa’s lifeless hand. It looked as if she would never let it go.

  No one said a word. No one knew how Makara would react. I just stared at Lisa, tears in my eyes.

  Finally, Makara stood, her face hardening. She grabbed the sniper rifle. No one knew what she was going to do with it.

  “Makara.”

  She turned to face me. Her face was harder than the rock of the walls. She didn’t say anything. She strapped the rifle to her back.

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  She looked at Lisa one last time. For a minute, it seemed her composure would break. Her lips quivered before they stilled. She knelt down one last time, and closed Lisa’s eyes, her hand shaking.

  We watched as she walked to the vault door. She ignored the bodies of Harland and Drake, not even minding their blood. Her boots made a sticky sound as she stood before the door.

  “This is Makara Neth, citizen of Bunker One. Open.”

  The doors did not respond. Makara stood, her arms flexing. The doors stayed shut, immovable as mountains.

  “It’s no good,” Samuel said. “We don’t have clearance. None of us do.”

  Makara pounded on the door. “Cornelius Ashton, I know you’re in there. I know you didn’t die. You need to open this door. Now.”

  Anna and I looked at each other. Cornelius Ashton, author of the Black Files...was he still alive?

  “Cornelius?” Anna whispered.

  “Dr. Cornelius Ashton,” I said. “But he’s dead. He’s not here...”

  “Someone’s here,” Samuel said, almost in a growl. “Someone has the lights on. Someone cleaned up all the bodies.”

  Makara was screaming. “Open this goddamn door or I’m going to...”

  The vault door hissed, creaking open inch by inch. The lab within was dark. Makara continued standing in front of the door, not seeming to care that her voice command had actually worked.

  She turned to us. “Come on.”

  She walked into the darkness of the labs. We rushed to join her.

  Lisa’s body was still. It seemed so wrong to leave her here, but we had no other choice.

  The Black Files awaited us. But to Makara, they would never be worth the price.

  Chapter 20

  We entered the main part of the lab. Hundreds of computers, powered off, sat in long lines in the middle of the room. Chairs still sat in front of most of them. Unlike the rest of the bunker, this part was clean. No one had been in here since it had been evacuated. Or someone had been in here and had been keeping things tidy.

  Against the far wall was a large screen. As soon as we entered the room, a computerized female voice spoke.

  “Powering on.”

  In a flash, the fluorescent lights powered on, temporarily blinding me. The computers in their long lines snapped on one by one, filling the room with an iridescent glow. Large machines against the walls – probably more computers – powered on with low hums. The entire lab was starting up. I wondered where the power source was, and how it was still running after all these years. Maybe it had been designed to do so.

  Samuel walked to the big screen, and stood at a terminal before it.

  Of the doctor, there was no sign. The lab looked as empty as it probably had for the past twelve years.

  “He’s not here,” I said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Samuel said. “The Files are ours.”

  The computer was already on, ready to go. All Samuel had to do was do a search for the Black Files. He would have them in seconds.

  Samuel typed “Black Files” into the computer’s search bar. Instantly, a link appeared: Black Files, The. Dr. Cornelius Ashton. Compiled Xenobiological Research, 2042-2048, property of the Government of the United States of America. CLASSIFIED. Security Clearance Omega.

  “Security Clearance Omega?” I asked.

  “It means the U.S. does not want us accessing these files,” Samuel said. “But I’ll try.”

  Makara watched, not speaking. Anna stood nearby with katana in hand.

  “I’ll try my log-in credentials from Bunker 114. Maybe that will be good enough.”

  Samuel logged in. The computer paused for a moment, as if thinking. It flashed its message across the screen: Access granted. Welcome, Assistant Chief Scientist, Samuel Neth.

  “Assistant Chief Scientist,” Anna said. “Sounds serious.”

  “That was not my station,” Samuel said. “Someone’s updated this to recognize my name. Or maybe the computers at Bunker 114 recorded the deaths of the scientists there, so it automatically gives me clearance to these files.”

  “Congrats on your promotion,” I said.

  Makara remained silent, her face like stone.

  They were on the screen: the Black Files we had all been waiting for.

  “They are only eighty pages long,” Samuel said, with a frown. “I was expecting more. Much more.”

  “You sound disappointed,” I said.

  Samuel shrugged. “Just not what I expected at all. Then again, a lot can sometimes be said with a little, but that’s typically not the case with research papers.”

  “Read it,” Anna said. “This is what we’re here for. Let’s see how to beat this thing.”

  Samuel sighed. “Alright. Reading.”

  Samuel scanned the pages furiously. He showed no reaction as we waited. Occasionally, he mouthed something to himself. At the end of ten minutes his face darkened.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  Samuel held up a hand. As he read, his expression became more and more disturbed.

  “What’s going on?” Anna asked.

  “Did you finish reading?” I asked.

  Samuel nodded. “Yeah. You’re not going to believe where the xenovirus came from. Well, maybe you will, because I suspected it all along. But you will definitely not know why it’s here.”

  “Well,” Makara said. “We have time. Tell us what you found out.”

  ***

  “As I suspected,” Samuel said, “the xenovirus is not of Earth origin. Looking at the flora and fauna it creates should be enough indication of that.”

  “It was inside Ragnarok, wasn’t it?” I asked.

  Samuel nodded. “Yes. That’s the only way it could have come. In the Old World, NASA did experiments on how long bacteria and viruses could last in the vacuum of space. In some cases, it might be years or longer. The xenovirus was inside Ragnarok, and the rock protected it from the cold vacuum of space. That’s not all, though.”

  “What else is there?”

  Samuel sighed. “A lot.”

  He paused a moment, as if collecting his thoughts. I had a feeling we were about to get a huge dose of information.

  “Are you familiar with the Guardian Missions?” Samuel asked.

  It sounded familiar, but it was a moment before the memory returned to me.

  “There were three,” I said. “They were the world’s attempt to stop Ragnarok from destroying Earth. All of them failed.”

  “That’s right,” Samuel said. “Each Guardian Mission had a name, also the name of the ship launched. The first, called the Archangel, was launched in 2024. It reached Ragnarok after a flight of six months. The story is that something went wrong with the landing gear, which caused the ship to crash.”

  “Okay,” I said. “So what really happened?”

  “There’s only a few paragraphs of it in here,” Samuel said. “But apparently it was something else. The ship landed fine. They were even able to install the rockets on the surface. But they were attacked.”

  We looked at each other.

  “Wait,” Makara said. “I can understand viruses and microbes surviving. But attacked? Anything capable of harming a person couldn’t withstand space. It’s impossible.”

  “Whatever it was, it wasn’t built like we are. There are pictures, even. On
e of the astronauts managed to get a photo but it didn’t turn out well. You can only see a worm-like creature.”

  We crowded around the computer. Indeed, there was a picture of something, probably living.

  “Creepy,” Makara said.

  “Looks like a crawler,” I said. “The shot is blurry.”

  “Information about the attack was held back in order to prevent panic. Another mission was planned, with more people. This one was called Reckoning.”

  “I always did think that name sounded funny,” I said.

  “They sent soldiers with this one, along with the crew. They had guns. Only this mission never made it to the asteroid in the first place. The story was that it was lost en route, and that one appears to be true, if what I read here is correct. Perhaps hit by a stray piece of rock or debris, or something wrong with the engine or hull.”

  “No reckoning, then.”

  “No,” Samuel said. “There was the last mission in 2028. The one that appeared to succeed, but didn’t. The Messiah mission.”

  We all waited for Samuel to go on.

  “Messiah made it to Ragnarok, and landed without a hitch. The rockets were attached to Ragnarok. Like the Archangel mission, it seemed to work. When the crawlers or whatever they were came, they were driven back. Eventually, the astronauts were overwhelmed – but not before the rockets began to go off, doing their job in pushing Ragnarok off course.”

  “Why didn’t it work?”

  “Because the rockets needed a full week to do their job effectively. The astronauts did all they could – but they fell, one by one, to endless waves of attackers. Whatever was on the asteroid, it had planned on being able to defend it.”

  “Defend it?” Anna asked. “Why? Did it want to attack us?”

  Samuel nodded. “Yes. After this mission failed, the government said that they thought the mission was a success, but for reasons unknown, it didn’t work. From the Files, we know why. Ragnarok was pushed off course, but not by much. Not by enough.”

  A horrible dread twisted my gut. I knew all this happened thirty years ago, but it was hard not to imagine how everyone must have felt as these missions failed, one by one.

  “The Bunker Program began immediately in 2020, the beginning of what came to be called the Dark Decade. Ragnarok was to hit Earth on December 3, 2030 – Dark Day. The Bunkers were never meant to be a reality. They were only a fail-safe. The government believed that if Ragnarok did impact Earth, they needed enough people underground to come up and rebuild once it was all over. The key to this was making well-trained soldiers of all underground U.S. citizens. The Bunkers altogether, assuming no losses, had enough space to hold close to 60,000 people. Given they were all well-trained, that’s still a sizeable force for an army. But as we all know, that wasn’t to last. The world became much darker than anyone expected. Things broke down. As far as we know, there are only two Bunkers. Maybe even they are gone.”