Heather left Chris to go track Evan down. She remembered hearing something about the craftsman's room so she decided that would be a fair place to start. The craftsman's room was at the end of the main corridor right before the main hallway. The inside of this room was designed to look like a cozy little workshop, except it wasn't little. There was a wide variety of tools hanging on the back wall. Against the left wall were the large tools the stood on their own. The place looked like a small hardware store.
Heather found Evan at the table saw cutting away pieces of Nicole's door. On the ground next to him were two strips that were three feet long, four inches wide, and an inch and a half high.
"Can you get one more strip from that door?" Heather asked, walking up behind Evan.
Evan jumped away from the table saw. He sat on the ground against the wall, clutching his chest.
"Don't you dare do that again!" Evan said, breathing heavily.
"And to think you wanted to marry me," Heather joked.
"Hey! I don't wish to be reminded," Evan sighed. "Anyways I never said I wanted to marry you. That was Chris and Francis pulling my leg."
"Now where would they have gotten that idea from?" Heather asked.
"I don't know."
"I'll tell you," Heather said. "In the past two days you have made it very obvious that you were had interest in me. I trust you enough to let you in on a little secret." Heather's voice became serious. "Now Chris and I, we're not actually married. Not yet anyway. We're not married, not engaged, not even dating."
"Then why do you sleep with him. Why do you cling to him constantly," Evan interrupted.
"To escape the past," Heather said. "That reminds me. I came here to ask if you could make an extra sword for me. I'm going to participate in Chris's class.
"I guess, but only because it's you," Evan replied.
"Well, I better be getting back to work," Heather said as she left the room. "Good talk."
The rest of the day pasted by. Half of the field have been sown and Evan had finished one of the swords, which received Chris's approval.
...
Chris woke up earlier than usual. He tried to crawl over Heather, but his immobilizer got caught in the sheets and he ended up falling out of the bed.
"What the hell are you doing so early?" Heather asked in a half-asleep voice.
"I already told you this. I have escort Jackson up to the surface," Chris replied in a firm voice.
"Oh yeah that's right."
"You can go back to bed. You don't need to get up for another hour," Chris said, but by the time he finished she was already asleep again.
Chris got himself dressed. He grew frustrated with the immobilizer. It became caught on everything it came in touch with, and on top of that Chris found it extremely difficult to move without bending his leg. Without hesitation he ripped the Velcro holding the immobilizer together off and took the whole thing off of his leg. Chris tried walking around. His leg was a little stiff, but it quickly began to feel normal. He picked up his sword and left.
Chris walked to the cafeteria and ate the food provided then waited. Jackson entered the room shortly after Chris finished eating. Chris studied his body thoroughly. He noticed Jackson was carried two knives, one on each of his legs.
"You're not planning on using those knives, are you?" Chris asked.
"Huh, I keep them with me in case of emergency," Jackson replied. "Did you think I would say that I would stab you. Now that would be stupid."
"Yeah," Chris said lowering his head.
Jackson finished eating and left with Chris for the stairs. Chris was first to enter the stairwell. He looked up at the seemingly endless flights of stairs. "Well here goes nothing," He thought to himself as he began his ascension.
After five minutes of walking, Chris was starting to feel pain in his leg and was out of breath.
"I still can't get my head around that old fart appointing you to the head of law enforcement," Jackson said.
"Well, he also appointed you to leave this place and put you in charge of our future outside of the bunker," Chris countered.
"Fair point, and you did choose to keep me alive when you had every right to kill me. I respect you for that, but don't think for one second that we're friends, got that?" Jackson said.
Chris nodded and began walking again. Ten minutes later, they arrived at the top of the stairwell. Jackson opened the door that led to the hallway. A rush of cold air came through the door. Chris immediately got goosebumps on his arms. The top floor of the bunker was thirty degrees colder than the main level.
Jackson and Chris walked to the end of the hallway where to last storage room was and opened the door. Inside were two rows of suits with each row having six suits. The suits were black in color and closely resembled a light-weight space suit, complete with an airtight helmet with a lamp attach to the top. Inside the helmet was a radio communication system and a drinking hose. The back of the suit had two air tank attachments with two holders on the legs for small backup tanks. Along with the suits there was a station in the corner of the room that served as a place to refill air tanks.
Chris helped Jackson put on his suit since it was somewhat difficult to put it one for the first time. The process of putting the suit on and making sure everything was connected took around ten minutes. Chris was ready to walk out of the room and back down the stairs when Jackson called out to him.
"Hey Chris, aren't you going to put your suit on and come out?" Jackson asked.
"I wasn't planning on it. I also assumed you didn't want me with," Chris replied.
"You're not wrong about me not wanting you to come with. Despite that, I cannot ignore the curiosity in your eyes. Get a suit on a come out for a few minutes, plus the suit helps to keep warm," Jackson replied.
Jackson helped Chris into his suit although Chris didn't need the help.
"Just out of curiosity," Chris said. "What is your main objective for your expedition today?"
"I want to test the mobility and the duration of the suit and tanks," Jackson replied.
Jackson Walked to the door and turned the lock. He stepped back to the keypad that was thirty feet behind the door and entered a code. The door slowly opened accompanied by the awful sound of metal and concrete grinding together. Chris was expecting to be blinded by the light of the new world but was disappointed to discover that the world was no longer bright, but a dark and colorless field of nothingness.