The path to the isolated room was surprisingly easy to navigate. Yuxia pushed the air vent gate out, appearing from the side of the room. Her eyes widened with joy at the array of canned food in front of her. They could last a small group for at least two years, not to mention just the two of them. Henrik opened up their bags and began furiously sweeping the contents of the shelves.
Yuxia inspected the ground intently as questions started to pop up in her head. The entire room was made of the same material as her suit. But why? What purpose did it serve if this was merely a simple storage room?
“Erm Miss? Our bag is full. We can come by next month again.” Henrik walked up to Yuxia, looking curiously at what she was knocking against.
“Hang on, kid.” Yuxia pressed against a different coloured square shaped tile on the floor. “I want to check something- WOAH!”
A small section of the floor separated itself from the rest of the room and started sinking quickly. It carried its two occupants into some sort of elevator, fitting snugly into a hole in the ground as the ceiling closed above them. The elevator began descending despite having no buttons, rattling the two occupants slightly. Henrik clung onto Yuxia’s leg, shaking in fear.
“Stay behind me, boy.” Yuxia faced the lift doors with her crossbow. Countermeasures to hundreds of possible scenarios flashed through her mind like a training simulation. She breathed deliberately to calm herself, not noticing the slight trembling in her hands.
The lift stopped descending.
The doors opened silently to an empty hallway. Her vision turned a dull red as she scanned through the walls. All clear again. Strange. How deep underground are we exactly? Yuxia tried taking a step but Henrik held on tightly to her leg, preventing her from moving forward.
“There might be zombies, let’s go back please.” He shook his head violently.
“How?” Yuxia gestured around them. “Do you see any floor buttons? This is just a metal box now; we need to move forward if we want to go back home. Besides, I can see through the walls; there are no zombies nearby.”
Henrik let go of her reluctantly. She took the bag of food from him and walked into the hallway. The floor squeaked with every step they took as the two of them walked through the uncomfortably clean room. The boy looked in awe at the surrounding machines, fear quickly giving way to curiosity.
Yuxia switched off her infrared vision as well and began examining an array of broken control panels. She fiddled with some buttons in a half-assed attempt to bring the monitor back to life. It did not stir, but a boot shaped dent caught her attention instead. She ran her fingers along the surface and furrowed her eyebrows; the amount of force generated to dent titanium in a single blow must have been astounding.
Only an enhanced would’ve been able to kick so hard. What is this place?
“Hey Miss, what’s this? It looks so cool!” Henrik’s voice echoed from far away, snapping her back to the present.
Yuxia walked briskly, following the sound of his voice out of the maze of a hallway. She looked in awe at a huge machine crackling with red coloured electricity, stretching up all the way past the ceiling. It seemed to be insulated by a thick layer of glass, but Yuxia pulled Henrik away from the machine anyway.
“Have you seen red coloured lightning before, Miss? I haven’t!” Henrik piped.
Yuxia sighed. “First of all, stop calling me Miss; makes me sound like a school teacher. My name is Yuxia; you can also call me Red Clover if you want. And secondly, no I don’t think red electricity is natural. We don’t know what that thing can do to us, so let’s stay away and focus on finding our exit.”
“Aww…” Henrik pouted. He fidgeted with a panel beside the machine restlessly as Yuxia continued looking around the place. A slightly darker coloured panel caught her eye; it was easy to notice when the rest of the room was made of sleek spotless metal. She pushed it slightly and a door slid open, revealing yet another room. Bingo. Whoever designed this lab must be a fan of adventure movies.
Yuxia carefully inspected the place, making sure not to touch anything else that might potentially trigger a giant rolling ball. It looked like a normal researcher’s living quarters; furnished with a simple bed, a restroom area, and a messy table filled with multiple hologram devices. A lot like her own home, in fact. She spotted an air vent and smiled in relief. Finally, a way out.
A hardback paper book caught her eye and Yuxia picked it up, looking at it curiously. It was written by hand; something that was definitely not a popular option in the 22nd century, especially when there were much better alternatives like neural typing or even the old fashioned ‘speech to text’. Why handwritten? Unless the author really wanted to keep it safe from cyber thieves…
Yuxia flipped to the first page and almost dropped the journal in shock.
‘Written by Firdaus Ibrahim.’
A loud cracking sound of static jolted Yuxia back to her senses. She sprinted out, looking around desperately for Henrik. Yuxia heaved a sigh of relief as the boy scurried towards her. A large hologram was projecting from the panel beside the strange machine.
“If you are watching this recording, this must mean that I’m dead by now.”
Evidently not. Yuxia thought grudgingly as she looked up at Firdaus’ enlarged face. He looked no different, though his voice sounded more desperate, more humane. There was no trace of the grating dry quality she was so used to hearing.
“The machine you’re looking at right now is the source of the catastrophe that has befallen our world. The government has messed with something we should not have. And my brother… My brother has joined their madness. On behalf of the human race, I apologise for our folly-”
A loud explosion shook the recording and deafening gunshots were heard, clipping the audio. Firdaus turned his head back desperately and grabbed the camera, shaking it slightly.
“Damn it all, I’m too late. Whoever you are, if you’re still alive out there, I beseech you! Do not destroy any of the source machines or this world will be doomed forever!”
The audio was starting to break up.
“Di… rupt the… ncy! You have to dis… the reso… fre… of the machines! It’s the only way to turn the world back to normal! Please, we’re counting on y-”
Another blast rang out once again and the recording cut off.
Yuxia stood rooted to the ground in shock, trying to make sense of what she just saw. She could have sworn Firdaus sounded like he was trying to save humanity. Why was he hellbent on destroying the world now? This made no sense.
“Miss Red Clover…? Yuxia!” Henrik shook Yuxia awake. He looked at her with puppy eyes, pulling her pinky finger. “I’m sorry for touching the panel; I promise I won’t do it again.”
Yuxia’s heart fluttered at the boy’s incredibly adorable demeanour, but there was no way in hell she’d let it show in front of him.
“You don’t have to apologise to me; I’m not your mom,” she said in a voice dry enough to rival that of Firdaus. “I found an air vent. That should be our ticket out of here-”
“Initiating evacuation of the building. Taking down thermanite shields…” a soothing female robotic voice announced from the ceiling speakers as a small rumble vibrated the place slightly. Yuxia’s eyes widened with realisation. If there are thermanite shields here, then…
Henrik looked around frantically, but Yuxia quickly picked him up and ran into the small room. She yanked the air vent cover out and shoved him inside.
“Wha-what’s happening?” Henrik asked frantically, crawling further into the vent. Yuxia turned on her infrared vision and looked around again. Damn you and your blasted message protocol, Firdaus…
“We’re surrounded by zombies; the shields were the only thing stopping them from detecting our presence. The message playback must have triggered them to be taken down,” she said urgently, crawling into the air vent and covering it up behind her. “Keep going until we find the exit!”
The boy nodded and began crawling as fast as he could. Yuxia followed close behind, using her infrared vision to guide him. Henrik flinched and whimpered at the loud banging echoing around them as zombies slammed their bodies against the walls just outside the vent.
Light was pouring in through the slits of a grille ahead of them. Henrik increased his pace, but Yuxia held him back and shook her head.
“Switch places with me. There’s one outside,” she whispered, struggling to take out her miniature crossbow in the cramped space. “Once I take it down, get out of the vent and follow me closely.” Yuxia wriggled forward, making space for Henrik to move back. She aimed her crossbow at the rotting feet and breathed deeply, visualising her next moves.
Let’s roll.
